Hidden in the Mountain Store

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

​

Financial District, Coruscant​

Bank of Aargau Financial District Branch​

(858 ABY)​

​

Veika stood atop one of the larger trapezoidal shaped buildings situated in the Financial District, staring down the building's main skylight, situated on the center of the roof, into the high, central chamber of the bank. Inside, she could see a grand carpet leading through many offices and desks, most with some bank official talking to one of Coruscant's more rich citizens. This being the central chamber, only the most important clients of the bank would be here. Important business officials and descendants of some aristocrat or another, fashion models and starship designers, going about their financial business. Veika almost got lost in the spell of it, watching as many dozens and dozens conducted their affairs, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.

Before it could continue, Veika felt a large, scaly and alien hand on her shoulder pull her back lightly. She did not flinch, the alien's presence being know all too well to her. Turning around, she looked to see firstly the Trandoshan who had grabbed her attention, wearing heavy combat gear with some form of large heavy blaster rifle slung over his shoulder.

"Hurry it up, I'm itching to use this thing.", the Trandoshan said, unslinging the rifle and holding it in his right hand. "Patience, big guy.", a woman said, stepping beside him and placing her hand on his gun. "There will be plenty of time for that later, but we just need you on standby just in case."

The Trandoshan relented, throwing his gun back over his shoulder and stepping back. The woman who advised him patience now stepped forward again, towards Veika. She was wearing a dress much the same as she was, but stood a few inches shorter than her, and a pair of holstered blaster pistols were visible on her side. "You all know the plan. The second wave heavies will already be waiting for us in the staff rooms. We just need to go in and make some noise.", she said, taking into her hands a large black toolkit handed to her by the fourth on the roof, a shorter man with a scoped blaster rifle already set up on the rim of the skylight nearby, and a datapad now in his hands.

"Our man says that the building is still up but the camera footage is altered on the screens so the security doesn't know we're here, and their pacers and radios are disabled so they don't know about those ones either.", he said, motioning to the eight or so security guards strewn across the roof in various states of injured, though all seemed to still be alive. "The system he has put in place will shut down the bank's external communications as soon as the alarm is activated, so we just need to begin Phase 2.", he said, the face mask that shadowed his face giving no emotions to see visually, but Veika sensed he was nervous.

Turning and nodding to the woman who had already used the toolkit and it's contents to slice a hole in the glass of the skylight and using a suction bar to remove the glass and place it next to them, she attached a rope and spool and prepared to drop it in. Already, a few in the bank who were looking up at the skylight began to stand up and point or stare. "After you.", Veika said, watching the woman pull up a mask to her face and slide in, her orange hair gusting above her head as she slid down, the dress blowing up to reveal the stealth-combat bodysuit underneath.

Veika followed suit, pulling up a dark face mask to match the dress and sliding down, the same speed blowing her own silver hair up and revealing her own stealth-combat bodysuit, though lacking any blasters like the other woman. By the time she slid down, some security personnel had reached them and three were engaged in a melee with the other woman and three more advanced on Veika, blasters drawn and aimed. Lifting her hand and pushing, the three flew backwards and smacked against surrounding desks and patrons, slamming across furniture and knocking down monitors that sat over the desks, turning and doing the same to the three guards who occupied the woman, although some of the blast hit her and forced her to the floor.

"Sorry about that, you good? We need to get to the vault.", Veika said, motioning to the end of the carpet where a massive vault door was situated, rather obnoxiously. "Let's get this party started, first.", she said as she stood up, withdrawing the two blasters on her hip from their holsters and firing wildly into the air and the roof. For a brief moment, the room was ignited in bright red light as an alarm bell sounded, but it immediately halted, as the lights retracted and the bell stopped abruptly. "Our man did his job.", came the voice from her earpiece.

Landing with a resounding thud down the rope, the Trandoshan stood tall, wielding his blaster rifle in both hands. "I told you to- ugh. Whatever, we need to get this done. Follow us.", she said, withdrawing a radio from her belt underneath the dress and pushing a red button on it and then casting it aside.

At that moment, various doors down the carpet on the opposite side of the vault burst open, armed men in fancier Coruscanti attire rushed in, fourteen in all, and began subduing the masses of bank customers and officials, and entering side offices to drag their occupants out.

Meanwhile, Veika, the Trandoshan and the woman ran towards the vault at the end of the carpet, as two of the 'heavies' ran along side them, before splitting off further along to subdue more crowd ahead, who at this point were no longer running around and instead cowering in offices and underneath desks.

Unknown to any of them and especially Veika, this was not going to end up how anybody predicted.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“What is that?”, a patron nearby had demanded.

Maliphant’s gaze lazily moved to where clients and their representatives pointed - a set of climbing ropes dropped through a large circle cut in the transparisteel of the ceiling. Each of them moved with a timed, expert precision that only showed itself exponentially with every guard that came to stop them.

The man Maliphant spoke to stood from his chair - a conversation about the corporate takeover of the bank, notably that it couldn’t repay the loans he had given them. Of course they couldn’t, but that wasn’t the point now; he simply needed to turn this location into an official IGBC bank. His conversational partner began to panic, and spoke with a hushed impatience -

“Come on, we have to get out of here!”

For a moment, Maliphant considered it. He could have moved to deal with the transgressors, but Coruscant didn’t need to know he, or a Sith Lord at all, was on the planet - and no doubt someone would mention a man who moved with such speed as he would have. Yet - just as he was about to agree, he watched the force push the girl had offered against the guard; and his chances of departure without conflict had faded.

A Jedi robbing a bank?

He watched them from his seat, watched as the alarm went off and ceased, and the vault doors opened without so much as a modicum of effort. They had done well, he thought, and as the vast majority were herded to the ground or ran to a hiding spot - Maliphant remained seated. One of the various members of this robbery approached him and threatened him with a rifle -

“Down on the ground, Epicanthic.”

Maliphant didn’t speak, only stood and pressed a finger to his head - a small thing, gentle and unwavering, but the man quietly lowered his weapon and stood silent. The Sith lord walked by him and began to trail the main group - curious as to the Jedi more than the others. In the end, if they stood in his way to question her -

They’d simply die.

He smiled warmly as he rested his hands on the opposite forearm, and strode through the panicked hall.


[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

The vault door rolled open without so much as a flick of the woman's wrist over the central lock on the bank. The box-like security card seemed to have worked it's magic instantly, acquired through their higher contact through a heist far more complicated and dangerous than this had turned out to be.

Before them stood a quite massive vault, rows and rose of massive cubes covered in lockers, containing the deposited items of only the wealthiest. But that wasn't what they were there for.

Decrypting the locks without their designated deposit codes or the remote approval from Aargau's main office would take far too long, but this whole heist came into fruition with the knowledge that one of the cube's lockers contained nothing but credits and was locked only by the high-access security card from earlier, a security breach existing through some shady corporate deal, loan, laundering, whatever; Veika had no time to worry about the shady business deals on Coruscant, of which there were many, only to profit from it.

"Start loading those carts! T, stand guard, don't want you tearing the goods up.", she spoke, signalling to the carts and walking towards the 3rd cube in the 2nd row, the one they had been informed of. The Trandoshan grunted, or rasped, Veika couldn't quite tell the difference, and stood in the center of the entrance of the vault, his rifle held ready to fire down the corridor.

Veika simply grabbed a hover-cart along with the two of the other heisters, and pulled it behind her, stopping behind the woman, who had already opened up a quarter of the lockers on the cube and revealed their contents: nothing. "Krayt-spit! He said every single one one these lockers would be stacked so heavily with credits that you couldn't even open the damn things without spilling everything out!", the woman yelled, raising her hand to slam the box on the floor, but restraining herself, opening another locker to nothingness. "I'm not sticking around for this. You three have fun, we need to-.", one of the heavies stopped, holding his earpiece tightly for a few seconds before running out of the vault, blaster rifle held from one hand.

"Try the other side, maybe it was only on one of them?", Veika said remaining calm, though inside she was deeply perturbed, and dropped the cart to step to the center row of the vault and look out of it, now suspicious of some backstabbing, some betrayal or another, watching the gangsters who hand entered the vault with them running out. Veika heard something through her own earpiece, the woman and their man on the roof exchanging heated words, but she tuned it out, almost involuntarily, to observe the minor chaos that began developing outside.

As the armed thugs who had previously been keeping the crowd under check began to withdraw, exiting out a separate side way different to that they had entered, so to did that crowd began to retreat themselves, piling out the doors and hallways, running down the carpet opposite the vault, trampling eachother, some stirring guards who previously sat bound or unconscious, who began to redrew their weapons and open fire at the Trandoshan standing in the vault.

'T' in turn ran from the center of the vault back to the desks, hurling a large one on it's side and using it for cover as a minor firefight began between the two sides. More voices in her ear, vitriol about lies and curses about bankers, the panicked words of the woman who had expected to escape filthy rich from this with her cut. But again, she tuned away from this and her eyes focused on what distracted her and what pulled her attention away from the scene around her.

Through the doors of the vault, one of the civilians was walking towards her, rather calmly as well, his arms resting on eachother but not so displaced from the situation that they were crossed. Veika, almost instinctively, began walking towards him as well. Around her, she could feel something like gravity around them, pulling them like two celestial objects towards eachother.

Having left the entrance of the vault, Veika halted, staring inquisitively, moreso worriedly, at the man. Her right hand curled defensively into a fist, though her diplomatic instincts bid her to drift that curled fear behind her back, and instead extend her left hand to a slight angle away from her feet, her palm facing her knee, fingers outstretched, like a cordon line of safety drawn in her head had manifested itself through it.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The many ran around the Sith Lord - yet none seemed to notice him except Veikaterinna; as he had demanded. Gunshots fired in the distance, blasters wreaked havoc on the walls and decor - something he would no doubt have to pay for in time. Right now, it took second fiddle to the Padawan lost in the Lion’s Den, and like a ghost he walked directly past her compatriots; and yet none reacted.

They moved, seemed to avoid him in touch and shot - but they simply didn’t acknowledge he even existed. His eyes faded from the grey he had offered the Banking Chairmen, and before her was the bright golden orbs of a Sith - but a calm, dangerous embers glowed in them as he studied her.

Studied her posture, her body, her expression, and her form.

“Down on your luck?”, he asked quietly, carefully. He took time on every syllable, his eyes dancing over her with each further word.

“If you need money, I could…”he paused.

“... Offer you a loan.”

[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

For a moment, the bravery of Veikaterinna left her. As the man who approached her stalked onward, she stared almost desperately into his eyes, wishing for some kind of strange answer through them, and much to her shock, that wish was granted, as the previously unassuming grey was ignited with the fire of the Sith, golden spark burning out where ash had sat.

It was here her courage departed, as for a moment she saw in them the same eyes which had slaughtered her master and nearly killed her, instead taking her friends and destroying her previous life, the glowing hatred of a Sith warrior in the throes of battle.

Any safety she felt in that moment left too, her hands changing place as her previously curled right hand withdrew from behind her back and found itself placed on a rather long cylindrical object on her thigh, the imprint of it visible through her dress, and her left hand taking the role of the curled, but remained at her side, still visible. Beads of sweat formed all over her body, even a tear began to form in her left eye, her mouth opening slightly as she let in a gasp of oxygen, and she might've drawn blade or collapsed right then had she continued to look at those eyes as she had, but it wasn't to be.

As she focused on the eyes, sensed them, almost felt them with her own, she found something unusual, or at least, different. Though they burned almost just the same, Veika knew the eyes of a Sith warrior all too well, and in this one's she saw something different.

They did not burn with a rage about to explode out of the man's pupils, or bleed with the ferocity of a thousand lightsabers burning to cut down scores of soldiers and civilians alike. They were alight like a roaring fireplace, calm, controlled, the illusion of being completely tamed, though still very dangerous in it's own right. This was a Sith that stood before her, and there was no mistaking that, but a breed of Sith unknown to her, and as a result, more dangerous.

She halted herself from drawing her weapon, though remained in her posture, sweating all the same, but singular tear held at bay, and her mouth shut it's gates, lips pressing together with anticipation. His words confirmed her analysis of him, quiet and careful, knowing and almost mocking, but not lacerating and bellowing.

"You wouldn't want it back- not in credits.", she pushed through her lips, curling them in abatedly. She sounded so childlike, so infantile, felt so unprepared for the situation, and the feeling displayed itself on her face.

For a moment, she broke eye contact, her eyes choosing to dart to the man's choice of shoes of all things, staying for almost a second before regaining her composure and looking back into his eyes, once more pulled into the gravity of the situation.

And she didn't even remember what shoes he was wearing.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“Smart girl.”, he offered as he walked closer.

She was afraid, but more than that she was docile. A dog cowering before an alpha - knowing its only defense was to keep its guard low, protected. Maliphant considered that - and couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or not. He enjoyed the ones with fight in them, but the docile were reliable… Something to rely on to behave.

He closed the distance between them with a methodical walk, each heel sounding a step closer. The noise of his foot falls seemed to mix, then resonate above as the sounds of the fight outside dulled and left them - leaving only silence in his wake. Maliphant’s hair slowly turned its iconic silver, bleaching from the black it had been a moment prior - and when he was close enough to reach her, he stopped.

His gaze washed over her, heated and piercing - he seemed to see through her clothes, her skin, and eventually her soul. An all seeing sight that brought him closer to her than any touch would have -

And yet he slowly brought a hand up to grip her jaw, moving her head side to side with a peculiarity. Perhaps he had something to see in it, perhaps he didn’t - but when he had his fill he spoke, still gripping at her jaw;

“What are you doing here, child?”, he said in a quiet drone, seeming to only half pay attention.

“Its not a place for a Jedi, and you -”, Maliphant inhaled deeply through his nose and looked her in the eyes.

“- smell like a Jedi.”

[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

There was some respite in the remark offered to her by the Sith, and some knowledge as well.

She focused closely as he pondered something for a short second, before approaching her, although this was not the Sith's rush to combat she was used to. He was systematic, the distance between his steps like a fine calculation, paying no attention to the gunfire around them, though neither was Veika. He stopped instantly, just as close as he demanded he needed to be, and it was quite close at that.

Though it truly did not matter how physically close he was, for his molten eyes descended upon her, seeing through her, not to something behind her but rather to something in her, gazing past her person like a facade.

As he raised his hand, Veika remained frozen, unwilling to act despite this brazen assertion of dominance, though her right hand did grasp the lightsaber more closely. His hand landed on her jaw, rotating her head from one side to the next and examining her all the while, though what the Sith saw on her face she didn't know.

As he spoke again, a question this time, Veika asked herself the same thing, knowing she could not give the man an answer any more than she could give herself. He had called her a child at first, and though she might've protested this at first, for to her the man did not look that much older than her, she felt far too much like the child she was addressed as to care.

When those words exited from the Sith and his eyes locked with hers, Veika felt uncomfortably vulnerable in that moment, far from a girl with a man holding her head like chattel, but rather a prisoner or even a victim being mentally tortured by a sadistic Sith who toyed with his pray. She would've pulled her lightsaber from underneath her dress and pressed it to his heart if she knew where his other hand was, though in truth she was far too enthralled by the man's eyes to pay attention to much else, and his hand may very well have been holding his own lightsaber to her heart before the thought had even entered her mind and she wouldn't have noticed.

Instead, Veika simply uncurled her left hand and grasped the wrist of the hand that held her jaw, placing the unusually sharp nail of her thumb against the tendons of his hand;she refrained from pushing it inwards with her nail however, knowing that it would only tighten and intensify his grip.

She waited a few seconds before replying, the sound of her breathing the only thing she heard after the echoes of the mans voice dissipated and the sounds of blasterfire and a man screaming out in agony deafened.

"I'm lost."

It was not much to offer, but it was truthful.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“So you are.”

He let go then, almost out of disgust - and gently reversed the grip she had on his wrist to look at her hand. He used his other hand to trace the lines, worn into them through years of effort - it was a careful movement, and he was quiet while he did it. After a short moment, he let go and motioned a hand outwards, facing up and demanding -

“Your lightsaber, give it to me.”, he said quietly - dangerously. There wasn’t so much a threat in it, as he said it so sure there would be no doubt she would give him what he asked for.

As she pondered it, he would ask a question -

“Where were you before you were lost, child? Wandering, under the guidance of another - perhaps with this…”, he glanced back at the fighting.

“... These malcontents?”

[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

She watched carefully as he studied another part of her body, this time her hand, watching as his fingers explored the lines, focusing on the speed at which he did so.

The demand for her lightsaber stunned Veika for a moment, his outstretched hand and empty palm yearning to feel the weight of her weapon. Her compliance did not come from his voice and certainly not from his begging hand, but from the eyes that had looked back up at her from her hand, threatening perhaps where he did not intend to be - or did.

She pulled away her dress for a moment as her eyes remained warily on the Sith's, not looking away even for a second, and withdrew her lightsaber to hover it above his hand with her own for a moment before the eyes bid her to drop it into his grasp.

A saberstaff, or a 'double-bladed' one as some might say, is what landed in the Sith's hand. It was nothing special besides being a lightsaber, containing two white synthetic crystals after her original crystals and lightsaber itself were destroyed alongside her Master, and the blade was constructed hastily thereafter. The hilt was as plain as the synthetic crystal itself, a simple white metallic piece slid across the emitter system inside, acting as a pommel cap as well, the only piece apart from it being blade emitter's shroud, and mirrored on the other side of the saberstaff.

The activation switch too was nothing special, no unique thumb precision adjusted switch or shard of a relic inserted into the lightsaber, a button that looked like it might've sat better as the button for a door rather than a lightsaber.

Veika was almost ashamed to be seen with it, had it not saved her life twice already since her Master's death.

Feeling naked without it to clasp to for safety, she simply kept her hands at her side, curled into fists, but kept still there, standing like a lectured but obedient child.

His query had brought back the memories of that day, but she was not shaken, the memories already on her mind after the Sith revealed his eyes.

"I served under Jedi Master Uriah Kane of the Silver Jedi Order... I was his padawan, until-."

She halted herself from retelling his death, though it was clear what she implied, as visions of that Sith warrior flashed before her.

"Only one here served with me under Master Kane. She acts like she doesn't know me before his death and she cared little for him regardless."

A short glance away from the man back into the vault, and her earpiece once more alight with arguing and accusations of treachery tossed at eachother as Veika broke from the spell for a moment. She sensed the woman was still in the vault, desperately searching for credits that were long gone.

She returned her stare to the Sith and tore the earpiece from herself and smashed it to the floor, the crack not even loud enough to hear over the sounds of blasterfire, not that she could hear either.

"They mean nothing to me."

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“Oh?”, he said with the first inflection he had cared to offer their entire conversation.

He pulled her hand open once more, rested the lightsaber back in it and took a step back. Alabaster hair flowed from his shoulders in droves, golden eyes travelled slowly from her to the mass around them - and as he did, the sound returned. Triumphant and careless - blasters rang from the walls in a cacophony of war the likes few within had ever heard. There was a rhythmic pattern to it, although subtle - from robbers to security, firing back and forth when they felt themselves safe.

Maliphant was dressed much the same as the civilians, his defining features the only clue he was not one amongst them. A wolf in sheep's clothing, it seemed - and a wolf he was. He glanced back to Veikaterinna, and smiled;

Yet it showed now joy. Teeth bared for the feast, the look of a predatory she knew all too well.

“Nothing is a strong word.”

His words dripped with wraith, emotions he had yet shown came flooding forth as he looked away once more - and the world began to silence once again; but for different reasons. Every person within the building - from woman to child, from security to robber floated slowly to the sky. An ascension made manifest by a demon with an unknown agenda - and did it with quiet ferocity only Vekaterinna could feel -

“If they mean anything to you, stop me.”, he said with a cruel sense of mirth, and the glance of molten golden over his shoulder.

As soon as his words finished, screams erupted from the floating masses - heavy and thick as the room grew red, and smelled deeper of blood and gore. Every person among them was slowly being twisted, limbs first as they watched; and where the senses failed, her own force sensitivity would give her an empathetic glimpse into the torture they felt.

She felt it, just as them - cruel and malignant pains in her body, trailing up nerves and spine like an army marching across her back. His words repeated to her, over and over - louder and louder like the orchestral tune to her suffering -

“Stop me.”

[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

“Stop me.”

For a moment, she couldn't feel the pain she should've been experiencing, as the screams, the shouts and the hollers of this chorus of the damned ascended ever closer to their afterlife, almost symbolically, had drowned out her thoughts, echoing in her skull like the inside of an overloaded vibroblade, a sick humming ready to explode.

“Stop me.”

That lightsaber handed to her again ignited with a dual screech of its own, and a calm humming thereafter, made invisible to the ear by the bloody humming gallery already around her.

“Stop me.”

The pain hit her in an instant, rippling down her spine and grating slowly down her nerves, as if someone had pinched them all tightly and was slowly running along their length, squeezing and crushing them.

“Stop me.”

Her eyes grew squishy, watery and red, her vision warping as the Sith grew very distant though he did not move at all. She started into a sprint, chasing after the mad man who did not take a step but eluded her all the same.

“Stop me.”

Each great leap forward taken in the sprint shattered her legs, inside her thigh she could feel her femur bending and snapping as her limb cycled forward, rebuilding itself as she cycled back only for it to continue again.

“Stop me.”

Veika was there. Though she had run for miles, she finally reached her destination, and that demonic creature stood before her, his words mocking her like ever, ringing in her ears as they bled with the chaos of the situation. At this point, it was no longer about saving them, cry as they may, their screams tearing her flesh asunder as they will, now it was only about survival - though perhaps it always was.

“Stop me.”

Her nails dug into flesh in the back of his neck, and she could feel the blood running under her fingernails, both hers and his, as she pulled the saberstaff back and thrust it towards him.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

With hands raised to the heavens, Maliphant’s power washed over her in droves - threatening to push her back with every step towards him. His presence was magnificent, immeasurable, and all consuming - like a hunger driven to heights unknown from months of fasting. Gripping his throat, he looked back to her - and the golden suns that embodied his sith corruption offered her a final piercing gaze, accompanied by a cruel smile.

The blade found its target, striking through the clothes and piercing the blackened heart of the abomination before her - yet as she did, everything would freeze; the face of all those stricken were contorted and held in eternal damnation, eyes slowly turning to watch her from a thousand directions. There was judgement among them, a jury of her peers passing a guilty verdict -

And the executioner rested a hand on her shoulder, whispering softly in her ear -

“Good girl.”, Maliphant offered as a hand came from behind, winding its way across her chest and resting on her throat. Within it came silence, a snap of the force and all had passed -

She fell to the ground, and kept falling. Endlessly into the abysmal void of her mind - with none but herself to save her, and the ever fading light of her lightsaber in the chasm.


[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

With the blade striking true, she found great respite, as almost like hitting a button, the pain stopped, the noise silenced, the blood of the room almost seemed to seep back into the cracks between the walls - and perhaps it did.

She pulled her hand quickly away from him to witness his wound and see the scale of death she had dealt him, though her fingernails tore out, embedded in the man's neck, sticking out like some sick decoration, and with the renewed pain in her hand, the ringing entered her hearing too. Turning to gaze upon those who she had just ended the screaming of, Veika expected to be relieved to find grateful souls who she had saved the lives of.

But as if she had done them not a service but an evil by not allowing the man to continue their suffering and ending them, the faces she turned to witness hoping for thanks only gave her rebuking looks, sickened and appalled by her. Silently, they passed their sentence, their disapproval almost like renewing life within the monster she swore she could see through the heart of. He moved a bloody hand towards her, bloody with both of their blood, mixing in the cracks of his palm, and placed it on her shoulder, whispering his praise into her ear.

At that moment another hand, remarkably similar to the Sith who stood in front of her moved from behind her back and snatched her throat, a flash of dark as everything went silent, even the deafening ringing in her ears halting. The flash faded as soon as it arrived, and before she could even comprehend it, the floor beneath her faded from the existence, if it truly had in the first place, and she fell as if off a cliff.

Noise returned to her, wind battering her hair, clothes, dress and ears, drowning out any other noise that might've been there, though in truth it was that alone. She fell exponentially faster, the wind tearing at the skin on the back of her head as she continued to stare upwards, watching the old reality fly further and further away. At first, it was like a peeling, feeling as if a surgeon had cut her skin with a precision tool and carefully peeled back her skin to reveal her skull.

The second time was not so generous, much less a surgeon and more a child opening an orange, clumsily crushing thumbs into the brain and squeezing it's juices all around. The wind reached an apex of noise, Veika felt her brain consume and collapse in on itself more and more, until she closed her eyes and awaited her meeting of the ground.

She landed not with a smash or a thud, but with a poof, her head hitting first something soft but contained, and next her body landing on something more firm than her head, but still far more comfortable and unexpected than whatever crushing hard surface she expected.

Her eyes opened, and she found herself staring up at eerie lights in a metal framed room. Starting up and breathing heavy, Veika first grabbed her hand and darted to look at her nails, which she found still attached to herself. Sighing with relief, she quickly started up out of the bed, throwing off covers which were confusingly over her, and stood up to look around.

The room was of adequate size, a single bed with some containers around, some empty and open, some closed and presumably full. Her old clothes were stripped away and she wore only a strangely avant-garde style sleeping gown over normal underwear. She could sense her original clothes in one of the containers nearby, but not her lightsaber, to which she immediately responded to by starting for the door, before the controls rejected her commands.

She instead resigned herself back to the bed, still tired after that ordeal which she still did not even begin to understand, ignoring the covers and instead quickly returning to sleep, albeit hopefully this time with less nightmares or fading traces of unimaginable reality with deathly cliff falls from the mind's eye itself and screaming winds heralding the void.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

She was left alone for a time - a gentle sleep unperturbed but by the constant rumble of engines unseen. The room was utilitarian in design, with almost no true aesthetic to it - seeming as much a prison as it was a room. She had been given all the services she’d need, from a sonic shower to a change of clothes (oddly fitted to her measurements), and a miniature kitchenette that held a few more generic offerings.

Water, common foods, and minor cutlery.

It was almost like an apartment - through the door that refused to open to her touch implied something darker was at work. She was left to these devices for hours before the harsh sound of the door opening gave the smallest shudder through the room; and on the other side of the once closed door was the Sith Lord she had seen only a short time before. He, however, was not the first to enter - rather two black clad Sith entered her room in a near rush.

One was a man, heavy scarring on the side of his face gave the implication he was no stranger to pain; with golden eyes marked with sith corruption and a scowl that seemed just as burned into his flesh as the scars - he was an imposing figure of ill repute. The other was more relaxed, her dark hair in a bun with far less dark sided corruption to her features - though where she may have held beauty, she lacked in emotion; carrying a nearly expressionless monotony of emotional range as she found her way to another corner of the room.

They found their spot at the sides of the small room, and Maliphant entered shortly afterwards -

“I hope you slept well.”, he said as he ran a finger along one of the shelves - checking it for dust before crossing his hands once more.

“Before we continue; what should I call you?”

His brow cocked as he stood in place, waiting for her reply. He’d answer no questions until she had answered his.


[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

Veika acquainted herself to her room as well as she could, sorting through belongings into more agreeable arrangements, showering and changing into a new pair of black clothes - though it wasn't much her style, she was all too happy to be wearing something so well fitting and so strangely new.

She had just finished cleaning up after a meal, mostly vegetables and fruits to keep her constitution high, when the two Sith walked in. She pulled a smaller cutlery knife from the block, holding it in reverse grip as to make the most use of a small weapon, though their positions taken only heralded something greater than them, so she relented from attacking and making her escape for fear of whatever sat waiting in the unknown just outside of her vision.

Then he entered, standing towards the center of the room, though its small size was made clear as he spoke while extending an arm to run a finger along a shelf Veika had adjusted.

"Veika - my true name is much too long.", she said, stabbing the knife back into it's block with a hard swing.

Now leaving the kitchenette and approaching the Sith, she stopped close to him, looking upwards some, though she was nearly his height.

"And you?", she said, crossing her own arms as he had.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Ironic. An acolyte who’s name was too long, and Maliphant himself hardly knew what his name was to truly be. He smirked at that, and maintained it as she showed some semblance of fire in her heart - a far throw from where she had been only a few days before. Either the prolonged stasis had given her energy - or he had misjudged her, if only slightly.

“Maliphant.”, he said with a withheld appreciation. It came well thought out, rolled from his perfect lips with an intricate subtlety -

“Darth Maliphant.”

Maliphant motioned her to find a seat on her bed, and would she decline the woman would approach and force her down with a hand to the shoulder were it necessary. The Sith Lord found a place across from it, and looked towards her with the cold, corrupted golden stare that Sith were known for -

“I understand you and you’re friends robbed a bank I intended to claim. Two escaped - a trandoshan and a woman. I’m sure you must know them…”, he idled as he glanced to his own hand for markings.

“Yet, I did not take them. No - I only sensed the Force in you; so here you are, and yet you live. Do you have an idea as to why that is?”

[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

Maliphant. Darth Maliphant. Now that she knew his name, she had a very strong gut feeling that she would have a hard time unseeing and unhearing it in many things in time to come, though only if she made it out of this with her life.

Though hesitant to take a seat, she sensed one of the Sith take a step to approach her and force her to sit down, and thus took a seat as she was bidden, shooting a quick glare at the woman she sensed move forward as she did.

She raised her head in curiosity as the Sith spoke of his plan to claim the bank she had robbed, though to the Sith it clearly was only a supporting detail, as he continued on about the crew he had mounted the heist with.

"You believe I owe you something. A loan of sorts, as you said in the bank, though not for 'saving' my life by not killing me - you're more complicated than that.", she paused, once more looking over to the two Sith who entered with this Maliphant, before allowing her vision to meet that of the Sith Lord's.

"You pulled me out of a situation a... Force user such as I had no place being a part of, and instead of killing me or leaving me there to languish in obscurity; a fate worse than death to be sure, you 'saved' me by... kidnapping me, I suppose, accelerating my life beyond the pit fall I had allowed myself to enter. Not quite the saving I pictured I would need but... welcome nonetheless.", she paused once more, staring through her shut eyelids for some moments, still viewing Maliphant's Sith Eyes through them with the force, before reopening.

"I somehow doubt that is the answer you wanted or expected, however. You obviously have some plan beyond that."

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The Sith Lord watched her carefully, and his smile faded as she spoke. Jurin did much the same, and glanced to his Master; only to have his Master look back with, forcing Jurin to shrug. Maliphant was mildly disappointed, but not because of Veika; but rather that she had simply guessed his entire intention.

A well reasoned guess, it seemed.

“And here I expected someone more dull.”, he said as he lowered himself to meet eye level with her - a reward for her ingenious response.

“You’re much more - but you do owe me something beyond all of which you have stated; I need the money your ‘friends’ have taken from me.”

The female of the two Sith that were in the room with them stepped forward, far closer than comfort to Veika; and she looked down upon her with a cold and calculated expression, one that showed no emotion. Were she a droid with a metal face, it'd made no difference -

“Your life is mine, so I want you to earn it back by retrieving these goods. Kai-”, he said motioning to the Sith standing over her, “-will assist you in this. She will ensure you don’t…”

Maliphant paused as he considered the word, standing as he did so.

“... Run.”

[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]

 

[Veikaterinna Zeauvannan]

Veika smirked though only slightly, her pleasure centered much more inward than outward, as the Sith acknowledged her analysis of his actions.

"I'm flattered you chose run over escape, I don't think I would've called it escape either.", she said, standing shortly after he did, then turning her head to stare at Kai for a moment, acknowledging her as she would any emotionless drone.

She cracked her knuckles loudly, curling and flexing her fists and rolling her toes around in the slip-ons she had been provided, like some kind of pilot performing routine checks on his weaponry before heading into battle, though the Echani had perfected her own technique of preparation for her body.

"And you can 'keep' my life after I get you your credits back; I truly hope you value it more than the missing spoils of your claimed bank.", she spoke still with noted interest in his earlier remark on the bank, cracking her neck as she did.

[member="Darth Maliphant"]​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“Don’t presume I intend to keep anything. Not yet.”, Maliphant said simply before motioning the other from the room; the man with the scarred face glanced to Veika before turning, offering her no appreciation or departure. Maliphant soon followed, leaving none but the emotionless Kai to watch her -

“Your lightsaber has been destroyed. Consider it a favour.”, she said as he unbuckled a portion of her cloak, and opened it for Veika to see. Inside were a variety of weapons, from pistols to blades - all with a place on her, but she only pulled a single piece from it. A small knife, with what looked to be a barrel in the center, and handed it to Veika -

“This will be your replacement for the time being. Treat it with care, its expensive.”, she said in her ongoing drone.

“Come, we have a starship to catch.”, and with that - she began to wander, away from the room and in one of the two directions the hallway allowed. At the end, there would be the hangars; and before there would be no conversation, only the constant rhythmic sound of footsteps.

When the ship came into site, and various engineers were working on the gunship, Kai turned to Veika and asked a simple question -

“Where would they have gone?”

[member="Veikaterinna Zeauvannan"]