Private Had I Known You Were Listening...

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri had little time to formulate a response before he took another hit in the gut, followed by another one to his face that sent him over the edge of the table and sprawled out on top of it. He gritted his teeth to silence himself from making any audible sounds of pain, slowly sitting up with a fair amount of effort. He glared at Alina Tremiru , one of the lenses on his mask now cracked and a visible dent on the side that she had hit. That wasn't part of the plan.

In truth though, the new bruises and damage paled in comparison to what she had said.

"So you admit it." Alisteri decided to throw the plan to the wind as he clambered his way off of the table, fists clenched and shaking with rage. "You abandoned me! You abandoned the Sith!" Were it not for her power suppressing his own, he'd have started flinging things around with the Force. "You know what? I was right after all! You being here means nothing, it proves nothing!"

The punches, the threat, the insults, finally he had lost his cool. "The Alina I loved did die in the war. You're just a fething ghost with her face!" Finally he threw his own punch, aiming for her face in retaliation.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina blinked. In all the time she'd known Darth Strosius he'd never lashed out in anger. It was infuriating, how calm he'd always kept himself. Resigned to weakness. But the fist slammed into her face, staggering her back. Blood trickled from her nose as she reached up. Touch the blood. Her blood. Stared at it. Then anger. It rose all over again. That's what pushed him this far? The fact she'd abandoned him was what it took to break that pathetic shell he clung to?

She wasn't sure who she was angrier at, but it didn't matter. "Fuck you!" Bare knuckle brawl or one sided beat down, it didn't matter to her any more. The trembling rage she had translated to her fists as she swung them with reckless abandon. Even her dead zone fluctuated, disappearing at times only to flood the room again, then cling to her shoulders. She was unfocused, wild. Just letting every part of her hate and rage out.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri's own surprise at his boldness stopped him for a moment, after his fist had already made contact, and he glanced at the blood now trickling down her face. And then it him. He had just punched Alina Tremiru . Oh chit. If there was only one area that he could never best her at in any of their sparring matches, and in truth there was more than one really, it was hand to hand combat. The moment of clarity and surprise was quickly replaced by the familiar adrenaline rush of combat as she started swinging right back at him.

While he did his best to block or dodge every blow that came his way, he simply couldn't get away from them all and grit his teeth with each hit he took. "You hit like a Jedi!" He growled and went on the offensive, throwing a couple low punches and trying to force her back so that he could have more room to maneuver. Being nearly pinned against a waist high desk wasn't going to be good for him if this went on.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Shut up!" His insults, the fact he was fighting back. She hated it. The pain in her gut as she stumbled back from one of his blows. She hated it. If he'd been more like this, at any point in their time together, would she have stayed? She hated that thought more than anything else. Alina focused that hate. Was she Sith? Did it matter? Right now, no. Nothing mattered. The dead zone grew again as she focused all of that hate on Darth Strosius .

"You hide behind that stupid mask so you can keep pretending to be Sith!" Her anger traveled to her fists. He could heal. That was the only thought that mattered. She wouldn't kill him. So she threw another punch, this one with all her unnatural might. All to shatter the mask she so loathed.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Against his better judgement, a small smirk crept onto his face at her remark. There was something oddly satisfying at seeing Alina Tremiru break her composure. It almost felt like a sort of catharsis from her earlier threats and insults, especially when she had admitted to leaving him behind. That thought, as well as her stumbling back, pushed him forward after her with more aggressive and higher strikes. At this point it didn't matter if he would win or not in his mind, he had a point to prove.

Who exactly he was proving it to was up for debate.

Right as he was about to retort and slam a fist into her gut again, her own punch connected right with the center of his mask and sent him flying back into the wall of the room behind him. He coughed, idly noting that he was missing a tooth and his nose was broken, as he sat up. Alisteri felt his now destroyed mask, both the lenses having been cracked and the entire front having a large cracked seam now running across it, and ripped it from his face with a feral growl. "And you just keep aiming for more and more, never satisfied with yourself or anyone else around you!" Out of sheer rage he threw the mask at her and leapt up after it to try and catch her off-guard.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"All I wanted was a normal life!" Oh. She blinked, surprised at her own words. The mask caught her before she could think about what she'd said. A sharp pain in her nose. Broken? Probably. It'd heal on it's own soon enough, but like that Darth Strosius was on her. She stumbled back a step, off balance. Distracted. Angry still, but now she wasn't sure at what. She swung a fist around, trying to catch Alisteri in the gut again, to force him back. Away.

 

[Darth Strosius]

The moment of pause for Alina Tremiru was exactly what he needed. Even if he wrongly attributed said moment entirely to his excellent mask throwing abilities. He didn't pull anything back as he hit, doing his best to try and knock her off her feet. Unfortunately his own wild swinging meant he was left right open for another strike to his gut, said punch easily knocking him back. Thankfully though he did manage to land on his feet this time. Alisteri was panting slightly from the fight but managed a small, if a bit wheezed, chuckle and a shake of his head. "There is no 'normal life' for us Alina. This ship, this cult, we have about as normal a life as you can get from someone in our position. As long as we have enemies, conflict is our normality."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

She didn't follow after him, not this time. She just stood there, seeming to despair about where her thoughts went. Then her fists tightened. Without a further word she turned from Darth Strosius , walking to the door she'd come through. She couldn't stay here any longer. She didn't want to think about this any more. Running was easier. Yeah, running. She could do that.

 

[Darth Strosius]

A small sigh of relief escaped him as she turned away from him, wincing slightly as new bruises finally began making themselves known in addition to his broken nose. It was of no matter in the end though, it would all heal. He didn't bother to try and stop Alina Tremiru from leaving, he knew better by now and he had already said his piece anyway, and instead he plucked his mask from the floor and examined it. Alisteri already knew it was probably unsalvageable. "For what it's worth Alina," He spoke as he tossed it onto his desk, "I am still very glad to see you alive."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina paused in the doorway, hand gripping at the metal door. Part of her just wanted to break it off. But she denied that, for now. She'd already acted too much on emotion. Before she left, she spoke though. One last thing to say to Darth Strosius before she hopefully never came back to this life again. "You, too."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Against his better judgement and the finality of her tone, Alisteri smirked at her response. He didn't know, couldn't know, if he would ever see Alina Tremiru again after today. And yet he still felt some sort of strange assurance. Perhaps it was merely a mixture of pride and optimism, a rare combination for him, but he was confident that she had listened to him. Regardless she knew exactly where he stood now, and he knew that she could find him again if she ever had the desire. Next time he would be ready.