It's a....

[Jacen Voidstalker]

A stiff breeze ran through the canals of Abregada-rae Spaceport. It tussled his hair and flapped his robes as he stood tall at the back of the gently bobbing narrow boat. Jacen watched the beggars at the edge of the water as they held out bowls at the passengers traversing the narrow canals.

The Jedi Master sighed. There was much poverty in the port these days. The worlds all around the edges of Sith space were in disarray. Many fled, fearing that theirs could be the next target of vong forming. It had to stop, but Voidstalker couldn't help one homeless creature at a time.

The gondola slowed and gently turned towards the edge of the water. The Jedi Master winced at the harsh scraping sound that heralded the end of the journey. He lightly stepped down, enjoying the sensation of solid, unmoving ground beneath his feet. Passing over a few credit chits her turned and looked up at the tower block. It loomed over them ominously, casting a long shadow. This was his least favourite part of his job as an investigator. It wasn't the grim visage presented by the building that sent a shiver up his spine, it was what he knew he had to face inside. Steeling himself for what was to come he walked through the entrance. The police officer that passed him on the way suggested he was in the right place.



His foot felt heavy as it came down on the other side of the threshold. It was always difficult entering these places. He paused for a moment, as if an unseen force kept him at bay. Jacen pushed on and stepped all the way inside. The change in atmosphere was tangible. Death hung over this place.

A number of drones floated around, occasionally pausing and closing on an object. The gently shimmering fields showed they were hard at work with their scanners, cataloguing and recording.

What immediately drew his attention was the long dark stain that stretched across the carpets. Three dead, that's what he'd been told. Two of them owned the apartment. Both worked in a profession of ill repute. But as much as it seemed unfair, Jacen wasn't here because of them. He was here because the man sprawled across the floor, neck sliced open from ear to ear, was a prominent politician and a staunch supporter of the Alliance.

[member="Nyte Ignis"]

 

[Nyte Ignis]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

He might have felt a strange sensation as he walked the streets, entering the large apartment where two nobodies lay dead, slit open with a single blade slice. across their throats. If Jacen looked closer at the politician, he would notice deeper wounds than the finishing neck slice.

She took her time, the street walkers were collateral damage control only, the politician was a means to an end. A grim end at that too.

Nyte stayed in the shadows, staying near invisible in the Force, she was focused on him, her solid black eyes staring into him, through him. She almost giggled as he inspected the body, discovering the small knife wounds in his stomach and legs with a note attached to his robes as she climbed back through the ceiling.

She let go of her Force suppression and allowed him to feel it for the first time since Coruscant...

Voidstalker,
You are here to investigate these deaths, well only one death will matter to you. I am waiting for you, watching you. You will track me, as I have been tracking you. I will not harm you if you do not harm me. ~Knight Ignis

With that she was gone again, sliding through the masses of shady dealers and merchants as she made her way to Le Yer, mingling through the crowds.

She pushed the cowl back from her head, the dark tattoos that covered her face and arms and stomach would make her relatively easy and she did mean what she said, no harm would come to him if he did not try to harm her first.

The newly promoted Sith Knight leaned against a railing near the Triple Nova Casino, it was loud here, she could lose herself here. Her lips thinned slightly as she watched the ocean ebb and tide, her black eyes staring into the vast void of the water. Yes, here she could find answers...

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nyte Ignis"]


His heavy robes dropped to the floor where he stood. Jacen wasn’t one for stopping to think when there was action to be taken. Wasting no time he drew the Force around him as he leaned in to the charge. Paying no heed for his safety, the Jedi Master launched himself through the window.

The concrete slab cracked as he came back down to the ground, the force bolstering his resilience. He pushed himself back up from his knees and headed off into the crowd, following the scent of her Force presence. He caught a glimpse of how cowl through the crowd as he was forced to bodily shove a merchant to the ground.

His head turned back and forth as he tried to push his way through. Whenever he caught sight of her she seemed to be gliding through the mass of bodies effortless, whilst he had to fight for every step. He kept going, nearly knocked off his feet by a wookie that attempted to apologise profusely.

Back on his feet he started to turn on the spot. As he looked through the gaps that opened in the crowd he couldn't see her. The presence he had been following received.

“Feth,” he grumbled.




A trembling hand reached for his robes. Grimy from the human detritus he had left them in, he rolled them up under one arm rather than wear them. His broad chest heaved from the exertion of chasing the Sith and the coming back to the apartment.

“Why exactly, master Jedi, did you break the window of my crime scene?” the inspector asked.

“The perpetrator was still here,” Jacen replied.

“Why would they still be here?” the twilek asked incredulously.

Jacen dropped down onto his haunches, reaching for the note. “Given that's my name I'm assuming because she was waiting for me.”

“You can't take that, don't contaminate the evidence further.”

“I'm going to take this note,” Jacen said quietly.

“You going to take that note,” came the distant response.

As an investigator, he'd seen it prudent to try and work on psychometry. It was a difficult art to master. Most of the time he still struggled to get a reading, unless the object was tied to his own past. His fingertips brushed against the paper.

One hand loosely held a knife, its blade slick with blood that caught the artificial light. Pitch black eyes above the thin, wicked smile looked down on the body as the other hand affixed the note to the chest that was still gushing blood.

“I'm going to need a few things Inspector. I'm afraid you have a sith assassin in the city. Deadly, beautiful and able to invade the mind, ” Jacen said. Ignis. He tested the sound of the name in his mind, tried to connect it to the Force presence he had felt, to those dark eyes. “You and your men are going to leave the case alone. I'll find her today, she'll either kill me and leave or I'll have her in chains.”

“You seem confident you'll find her,” the inspector replied, not looking convinced.

“Of course, she wants to be found,” Jacen replied with a sad smile.

“Why?”

“Probably… because I left her and her partner for dead in the ruins of a temple.”



Jacen was in plain clothes when we found her in the city of Le Yer. He wore a simple shirt under a leather jacket. At the same time he put no effort in hiding his Force presence or the saber that hung from his belt. With his back to the casino he approached. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, his eyes darted to either side looking for the other Sith. This was a trap, but he had no choice. If he hadn't come she would simple have continued the spree.

“Well?” he asked as he placed his hands on the railing and stood a few metres down from her.

 

[Nyte Ignis]

Nyte felt him approaching, sensed his uneasiness and she shook her head slightly as she turned her head. Her hand went downwards to her robe as she pulled it off. The dagger hung at her belt and the soft gleam of a newly created curved hilt lightsaber but otherwise she was unarmed. She set the robe on the railing and turned to him.

"Jacen Voidstalker, newly promoted, congratulations yes?"

She allowed a faint smile as she turned herself back towards the sea, "You should know, that politician, Xavier? He was not a supporter of the Jedi. He sold Jedi and Sith secrets to both. The man was scum... The other two, I..."

She looked to him again, her black eyes staring into his own, slow turmoil built within her, "I wanted to talk to you. This casino is loud though."

She moved towards him, leaving the robe there as she held her hands up in a gesture of cooperation. "Take me to your ship, we will discuss this further. I have no intention of harming you, not like this, not here. Do you understand?"

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nyte Ignis"]


“No, I don’t,” Jacen replied stoically. “But we’ll go to my ship,” he added with a slow nod. With his right hand he gestured for her to go first, or at least walk beside him. He wasn’t about to turn his back on her.

The spaceport never slept. Even at this time it would be busy. At the same time it was far less crowded than this casino and getting away from the population centre seemed a sensible move. Regardless of his control, if he had to bring her down it was going to be a hard fight unless he did it quickly. He doubted she would have the same qualms about collateral damage.

Not like this…not here…he pondered on those words. He only had two other items on his person he could use against her, but he had seen how quickly she could move. There had been pain in those eyes. There often was. Back on Coruscant she had put herself at great risk to keep the zabrak safe. Loyalty like that was not typical for the Sith. The investigator’s mind started to churn through theories. There was always a story behind every killer. Carrying out murder without being threatened wasn’t natural to the psyche. So what was her story? How had she ended up a Sith Acolyte? Often it was simply misfortune. Being born Force Sensitive in the wrong place at the wrong time led to being initiated, indoctrinated. The dark side was the path of least resistance, enticing and corrupting and she was only young. There was still hope. Her voice had trailed off when discussing her victims. That could be a clue, or a deliberate ruse.

“Why?” he asked as they walked away from the crowd. Often when you left empty space, the other party would fill it with words. In his mind he started to reinforce his barriers. It could all yet be a ploy to subvert his mind. If there was one philosophy Jacen struck to, it was that he could never be confident that his wit was up to the task of unravelling Sith plots.

 

[Nyte Ignis]

As they walked together she was in her own thoughts. Her mind swirled as to why she was walking with a Jedi. Unlike her Sith brothers and sisters, Nyte had no natural hatred towards Jedi. She never planned on killing them.

As they reached the gondola she gripped his shoulder to steady herself, stepping in and then moved, uneasily to the middle. She hated these things, the Force was so much easier to control.

As they reached closer, she studied him, her arms crossing over herself as they walked. She had left a robe on the railing because it was too heavy and now she missed it being on the colder side of the spaceport.

She wrinkled her brows together as he spoke, " 'Why' what?"

As they reached the port she turned to face him, staring up at him. Within a year after joining under Darth Ferus, she had been promoted to a Knight. She was the same girl that he faced on Coruscant, just new mastery of the Force and a lightsaber.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nyte Ignis"]

His head snapped towards her as she placed a hand on his shoulder. His gaze locked onto her, an intensity in his brown eyes. The fingers of his right hand, calloused from years of saber practise, twitched reflexively. It had moved to within inches of his saber and held there. As she stepped past him onto the gondola, he had to force those fingers to relax again. Calm down, the Force will warn you before she tries anything, he chastised himself. Still, given the handiwork he had witnessed and how she had tried to gut him at their last meeting, he didn't think it was a massive stretch of the imagination to have expected the cold kiss of that dagger across his throat when she'd laid a hand on him. It took him a few moments of steady breathing and internal focus to drain the adrenaline from his system before his hands could start to shake.

Jacen observed the curious creature very closely as she turned to face him, looking for some clue on her intentions. "Why?" he echoed. "Why all of this?" he asked as he turned his head to the side and looked at her from the corner of his eyes. His hands came out, palms forward, the gesture encompassing everything. "Why the assassination? Why the note? Why are we having this conversation?" His expression remained fairly neutral, but a curious expression tried to break out.

 

[Nyte Ignis]

She considered his words as she studied him back as he claimed his hands. A grin came to her lips, this Jedi Master seemed distressed by... Talking? She chuckled and turned away, "Where is your ship?"

She pulled through the Force, taking his signature and then followed it easily towards his ship. "I have told you why I killed the politician, he was a traitor to Sith and Jedi and he had to be stopped. The women... One refused to be a silent witness so I had to kill her. There was no joy in their dark lives."

She sighed deeply and shook her head once nore, the copper hair was getting long, she would soon have to take care of that as it fell to her shoulders freely. She blinked and then looked up, "Would you rather be not talking? I have no wish to hurt you here Jacen I swear that to you. Trust me, I could have attacked you in the apartment if I wanted you dead. You still live."

Her hand brushed against the ship, and she looked to him expectantly, "What else do you want to know? Let's get your questions finished first."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nyte Ignis"]

First. That suggests a plan for something second. “You stayed at the scene, left a note so I could follow you. Yet at the same time you decided to leave no witnesses,” he reiterated. There was no question in his tone, but he purposefully mulled the predicament over out loud.

“Talking is fine,” he admitted. “Love a bit of sparkling conversation myself,” he added with wry humour. And I like to ask questions, he added to himself. “We wouldn’t be talking if you didn’t want to. You could have been off world hours ago. I still want to know why. Are you looking for a way out?” he asked. Maybe there was something to that pained expression. His focus remained half on the Sith, half on their surroundings. He still expected another one of her kind to show up and make the ambush. If that was the case he wasn't going to lay down easily, but would fight to the bitter last.

 

[Nyte Ignis]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The young Sith Knight looked to him and shrugged her shoulder, "I don't know why I called upon you. At first, I wanted to stalk you, to kill you. Your cheap play on Coruscant left me bitterly angry. And then, when I killed the women in the apartment, it made me bitterly angry at myself. They had no joy in their miserable lives, being forced to perform like that. Maybe they reminded me too much of myself?"

She shook her head and dismissed her train of thoughts, as if telling her tragic tale would accomplish anything here.

"Tell me, what is the difference between a Sith and a Jedi? My father was a Sith, a slaver, a fighter, and then I killed him for the crimes that he committed, I protected the galaxy, am I Jedi then? I killed the politician for being a traitor, am I Sith? How can someone so battle hardened be a Jedi anymore? And someone so young as I am be a Sith?"

Her black eyes stared up at him as she sat down in the confines of his ship, a way out? Out of what, what did he have to offer?

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nyte Ignis"]

"Oh, I'm going to show you the difference," he replied sincerely. "Not today, but soon. When the One Sith start to lose the war."

Hazel eyes followed her movements closely. A trained investigator he was quite skilled at getting a read off someone. Nothing yet suggested betrayal. That didn't mean it wasn't because of his own shortcomings, rather than her honesty. There was just a tiny flicker of a smile: pride as the 'cheap play' he'd used. Eyes left her as he absently looked around the interior of the ship.

"We've been losing this war. The Jedi rally around other and give everything to look out for those who can't defend themselves. When you see the Sith start to lose, you run. They won't look out for each other. They'll turn on each other. Scrambling, fighting tooth and nail for whatever scraps they can claim from their crumbling Empire. The Dark Lord is all that holds such a selfish group together.

"Jedi gain power to defend those that don't. Sith gather it for their own needs. The difference really is simple."