Private Just In Time For Tea

[Darth Quizitus]

Korriban/Valley of the Dark Lords​

13:02 local time​

The valley of the Dark Lords. To the rest of the galaxy, it was a horrible place. A graveyard for the worst criminals against the Force to rot away in grand tombs. A place that, according to probably everyone in the Galaxy, should be wiped off the map. But for the Sith, it was a sacred place. And for archeologists, a joyride.

Mid was sitting behind a simple table with a tea set in front of him in the entrance of an old tomb. Varpa laid beside him on his back, snoring rather loudly. He sipped the tea from a cup while he waited for a certain someone to arrive. He hadn't seen her in a while and, with both their schedules open for now, they had plenty of time to see each other again. This was also a great time to see how much she's developed since leaving his side. He knew she was dangerous as an assassin, but there was still much to learn about the galaxy that she had to go seek out herself. Besides, with what he wanted to do in the tomb, he needed an extra hand that he could trust. There was an artifact in the tomb that belonged to an ancient Sith, more than 10 000 years ago.

He was patient as he waited for Nuff, though he had to admit that if she didn't hurry up he would finish all the tea. He kept his senses open to see when she would approach...and how she would approach. He liked to evaluate her now and then, see if she could get the drop on him. Granted he wasn't the most alert or paranoid of Sith, but he certainly wasn't easy to surprise.

He sat back and took another sip of the delicious tea as he waited, taking a deep breath and relaxing. The Dark Side was strong in this tomb, however it was far from the most prominent of Sith to have existed. He wouldn't feel too bad to disrupt this guy's tomb at all.

Nuff

 

[Nuff]

Nuff was so excited for this day, it had been too long in her opinion, for them spending time together. The whole trip to Korriban through hyperspace had Nuff giddy with excitement and oh boy was she tough to keep still for just a second by Officer Kevan. "N-no, Nuff stop jumping~ Get back here!" Signed Kevan, trying to get Nuff to stop being way too hyper for seeing her dad when there were more pressing matters to attend for her.

After half an hour of chasing Nuff through the Corvette, Kevan finally managed to get Nuff to calm down and tend to the meeting she had for a later mission after she's been with her father. After the meeting she went back to her personal chamber, to check that she had everything placed and ready for when she would fly down the Korriban. It had been some time since she's been back to the planet and at first, she called it the Orange planet because it was orange in colour, so it reminded her of the fruit orange. It was also before she learned of its a real name or maybe people had said it but being deaf kept her from hearing it.

Coming out of hyperspace, the home planet of the Sith towered in front of the Corvette, which Nuff ran all the way up to the front window, to get the whole view of this planet, pressing her face against the glass a bit. Feeling a couple of pokes on her shoulder, she reluctantly turned around and looked up at Kevan and two soldiers flanking her. "Your shuttle is ready, my lord" signed Kevan, showing his professionalism. "I've told you, you don't need to call me my Lord, I'm just Nuff" signed Nuff back with a sweet smile. "Of course, my lord" Kevan signed, earning a smile and a bit of a headshake from Nuff as she started to walk in the direction of the hanger, followed her Officer, which was flanked by the same two soldiers.

Wearing her usual and official sith uniform, clipping her double-bladed lightsaber by her hip and she was ready to greet Korriban. Entering her personal shuttle along with Officer Kevan, the two soldiers, and a pilot, they left the Corvette and headed for the ground landing a bit away on Nuff's order. Not arguing with a Sith, the pilot followed the order, while Kevan giving Nuff a raised eyebrow.

"I want to test and see if I've gotten rusty in ambushing my dad" explained the Nautolan, adding "wait half an hour and then land closer" in her explanation to Kevan, who just nodded and waited for the shuttle to land. While the Corvette could be seen from the ground, but the shuttle disappeared behind some rocks.

Standing on the ground of Korriban, Nuff inhaled the air, this place had a relaxing aura to it as she closed her eyes, reaching out to the force. It was a technique she had learned from her dad as one of the first lessons and it was a lesson she remembered well. Waving to her officer and the soldiers with a smile, before turning around on her heel and headed in the direction of where Mid was.

Shrouding her affiliation to the force, another lesson she finally got the hang of a few years ago when she was trained to become an assassin. Sneaking along the mountainside, creeping closer and closer, before being directly over him on the tomb's entrance. Just as she was about to make her move she saw him drink... wait was he drinking tea? No, he might drink it all! And just like that, she managed to screw up her position as she accidentally pushed some small pebbles and sand over the edge, causing it to make noise as it rolled down the side behind Mid.

Nuff panicked a bit and just went into action, hoping to get the jump on him, she pulled her lightsaber, igniting the top blade of her double-bladed weapon and swung in an inclined down attack.

Darth Kados

 

[Darth Quizitus]

She would genuinely have had the drop on him if she didn't mess up with the last part. He glanced behind him when he heard the pebbles and reacted as she jumped down. He drew his sith knife to parry her lightsaber while his free right arm wrapped around her body. Still moving, he spun around and seat her on the chair he used before simply stepping back with a smirk. "If you took any longer, I would have drank all the tea." he spoke slowly with accentuated lip movement as she looked at her. He sheathed his blade and opened his arms to hug her.

He held her tightly for several seconds, planting a kiss on top of her head as well. He finally let her go and gestured to the seat he dropped her on. "Please, have a seat." he said to her, making sure she would be able to read his lips.

He decided to switch to sign language as he took a seat across from her. "You almost had me, but those pebbles falling gave you away. Even Varpa didn't hear you." he explained before pouring them both a cup of tea, nodding to his hound that was starting to press his head against Nuff before falling asleep next to her legs. "You are definitely getting better. I didn't hear you coming at all." he signed before dropping some sugar into the cup and taking a sip. He smiled softly before signing again. "I have missed you a lot...Carrying around all those artifacts has become annoying." he joked with a chuckle. He took another sip then sat back with a sigh. "So what have you been up to these days?"

Nuff

 

[Nuff]

While Nuff couldn't hear herself, she did release a small squeak from her lips, even though it was a weak one, when Mid grabbed her. It all happened so fast, that when Mid seated her on the chair he had sat on before, all of her head tails was all over the place. Looking up at her dad, letting her head tails fall back into place, she puffed her lower lip a bit hearing that he would have drunk the last of the tea.

However, when he opened his arms pure happiness showed on her face, prompting her to leap from the chair and let her father hug her. Silently she sighed happy, remembering their usual rituals of a goodnight hug every time she was put to bed. He still gave the best hugs in the galaxy, with her person officer, Kevan at a close second. As he let her, so did she and gave a small, but quick nod after reading his lips. Taking the seat she was given, she crossed her legs in front of her and remembered she dropped her lightsaber a few meters from their little picnic by an ancient tomb of the Sith. Quickly reaching out with the force, her weapon returned without issue to its owner.

Reading his signing, she puffed her cheeks a bit, annoyed with herself, that she messed up her last bit, "I promise I would do better next time daddy!" signed Nuff back giving him the biggest and genuinely toothy grin. Also really happy to see the cuddliest of the cuddliest Tuk’ata as she started to rub and scratch under Varpa's chin and on top of his head. He was such a sleepyhead and Nuff had immediately bonded with the large Tuk'ata ever since she was raised by her father. It was quite a sight to behold, having a small and young girl, not even in her teenage years, cuddling into the Sith Warbeast as if it was a large pet dog.

Hearing praise from her dad about getting better always did put a smile on the girl's face, "I've been training really hard!" Replied Nuff proudly in sign language. "I have missed you too da~ oh hardy har. Only because the age is getting to you, old man" joked Nuff back, and poked her tongue out at Mid. Taking another sip from her really nice tea, just as she remembered it and placed it back down, to reply. "I recently upgraded my lightsaber" signed Nuff, grabbing the hilt from the ground beside her and placed a hand around the middle of each end. Holding up her double-bladed hilt, she clicked two buttons at the same time and in an instant, the long single hilt had changed into two separated hilts.

Looking at her two hilts, smiling happy with the result and if Mid wanted to inspect her lightsaber, she would hand it to him without question. After that, she connected the two parts, forming her staff again as she was more comfortable with that fighting style. While she has been introduced to a lot of the other forms in lightsaber combat, she always fell back to Juyo, Form VII.

Taking another sip of her tea, Nuff placed the cup down again, "I did track down that Rodian pirate who tried to steal my shuttle a few years ago" explained Nuff nonchalant in sign and took a bite of a biscuit from a small plate by her teacup. Taking another sip from her tea to wash down the biscuit, Nuff looked up at her father. "What about you dad? Have you done anything cool?! Uh, have you gotten a bigger ship yet?" Asked the excited Nautolan girl in sign language.

Meanwhile, over their heads, Nuff's shuttle made its way over and landed not far from where the two Sith were enjoying their family picnic. Keeping their distance when Officer Kevan and the two soldiers exited the shuttle, they saluted both, however, their salute for Darth Kados hung a little longer. Though, they didn't interrupt or spoke, unless they were spoken to. While Nuff's personal Officer of her Corvette was like an uncle to her, looking after Nuff when Mid couldn't. He was still an officer and rank below Sith, he knew his rank and was still very much respectful towards Darth Kados.

Nuff snickered silently, seeing Kevan so formal, though she knew why. Her father could basically demote or worse, kill him if he didn't show respect and saluted her dad. She was happy that Kevan hadn't forgotten his rank, she would hate to get into an argument with her father, for killing her friend.

Darth Kados

 

[Darth Quizitus]

Mid chuckled at her comment about his age. "I'd like to see you at two hundred years old." he teased her. She went on to explain her lightsaber, showing off the new modification. He smiled broadly as he opened his hands to take the weapon. He looked it over, split the weapon and then reconnected it. "I see you finally decided to copy me." he spoke with a chuckle as he handed the weapon back to her. "Fine work indeed. That split opens up a few options in a fight." he signed again.

As they drank their tea, she signed what she was up to. Mid raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Rodian. "I would have liked to see how that played out." he signed to her before taking a biscuit as well. He looked up when he saw her hands move, then reached into his robes to produce a Jedi's lightsaber. He placed it on the table and slid it over to her. "While inspecting ruins on Lothal, a Jedi padawan challenged me. You can imagine how that went. In any case, feel free to do with it as you wish. I think as an assassin you can do more with it than I can." he explained to her then topped up his cup of tea.

A few moments later her shuttle landed closer and its officer approached. Mid simply nodded at him and the other crew members. "Officer Kevan. I'm glad to see you're looking out for her." he said rather formally. "My shuttle is just around the corner, feel free to help yourselves to whatever is in the kitchen." he said before focusing on his daughter once again. "I hope he hasn't been giving you trouble. But then again, you can handle it if he did." he signed to her with a smirk. He sat in comfortable silence with Nuff as he enjoyed the tea break with her. When he was done he looked at her again. "I hope you're in the mood for some tomb crawling. Because the tomb behind us apparently has some nice items for us inside. Not to mention some supposed tomes that I'd like to get my hands on." he explained to her before rising from the seat. He ordered Varpa to return to the shuttle then calmly walked up to the entrance. "This lord wasn't all that impressive. It shouldn't be too much of a hassle." he signed before reaching out with the force to start lifting the heavy stone door. He raised his second hand as well and focused all his power to lifting it. Once it opened far enough he motioned for Nuff to enter before following as well.

Sunlight poured into the entrance area, illuminating the dark stone floors and statues inside. Mid drew his lightsaber but didn't immediately ignite it as he slowly walked forward. With a deep breath he shot Nuff a grin before looking around. The open door made inspection a lot easier...

Nuff

 

[Nuff]

It was a lovely picnic they had together as she enjoyed the biscuits and tea. It had been some time since she's drunk the sweet substance and when she had the opportunity to drink a pot of tea, she tended to deny it. Why? Well, because it was her and her father's thing, it just felt weird, as if she would miss out her next bonding time with her father if she drunk it alone. It was a weird fixation, she knew that, but enjoying tea with her dad was one of her founded activities.

She beamed like the sun when Mid praised her modifications to her lightsaber and took it back when he was done inspecting it. "next time I promise to record my hunt" signed Nuff with a sweet smile of her own, dipping a biscuit in her tea, before taking a bite. However, when her dad started to tell about his inspection of ruins on Lothal, the mention of a Jedi, made the young Nautolan stop in what she was doing, placing it cup down on the plate and listened. Nuff always loved hearing tales of all her dad's adventures, she always got so excited and when she was younger, she dreamed of going with him to distant stars on adventures of their own.

Seeing the padawan's lightsaber, her eyes went wide, especially since he gifted her, the lightsaber. Pure happiness spread across the girl's face, almost giddily bouncing on her seat. She held the lightsaber with great care like it was the holy grail of lightsabers her dad had just given her, "thank you thank you thank you!" she kept signing, following up by getting up and dashing around the table, almost knocking the large pure-blood Sith over. Getting back to her seat, Nuff sat down with a deep heartfelt daughterly love for her dad. She thought about redesigning the lightsaber when she got back to her ship but decided to keep it as it was.

While Nuff could hear her shuttle arrive, she did feel the large vibrations in the ground as the ship landed. Looking up, seeing Kevan, she gave him a big grin for a second, before returning her attention to her dad.

"Of course my lord, I take great pride in looking after your apprentice as if she was my own" replied Kevan proudly. Looking in the direction of where Darth Kados mention, he and his soldiers did another salute, "Thank you, my lord," before heading toward Mid's shuttle to get something to eat as well. They did keep a respectful distance to Varpa, knowing full well that it wasn't a creature that took likely to others that weren't its master or Nuff.

"He's been amazing, always supportive of me. Though sometimes he's just a party-pooper, not letting me stay super late up..." signed Nuff with a silent huff, crossing her arms. Though it was gone as fast as it had arrived, "I know, he only wants what best for me" admitted Nuff, clipping her knew lightsaber by her hip.

Looking over her shoulder, finally paying attention to it, she looked back at her dad. "Always!" signed a bit too excited and accidentally messing up the signing, making it sound like she meant "Noways!". Quick as a cat, she got up on her feet and followed her dad, waiting for him to open the tomb.

As she entered, her large black eyes immediately adjusted to the low light by the entrance and saw the path away. Making sure her dad was behind her, she did as Mid, unclipped one of her red sabers without igniting it as they both started to descent into the tomb

Darth Kados

 

[Darth Quizitus]

He was taken by surprise by her reaction to the lightsaber. She hopped up and collided with him, getting a light grunt out of him before he returned the hug. "I'm glad you like it." he signed to her with a smile. He wasn't sure what plans she had for the lightsaber or what uses she had for it, but he knew she'd be able to do more with it than he could. His collection of parts were big enough as it were.

He smirked at her comments on the officer serving under her. "I'm glad he is keeping some rules in place. But don't worry. Once you're out from under my tutelage, you can stay up as late as you like."he signed with a chuckle. It was rather curious to think that Nuff was almost ready to be promoted and go into her own direction in the empire as a Knight. Personally, he wanted to keep her by his side but he knew that wouldn't work out well. Not only wouldn't it be fair to Nuff but it might be dangerous for the both of them. But he kept those thoughts to himself as he took another cookie from the plate and took a sip of tea.

It was time to enter the tomb and Nuff was as enthusiastic as ever. Mid carefully advanced, looking around them to admire the architecture. But as they went deeper into the tomb, the light lessened. He decided to ignite his lightsaber for some light and pressed on. He turned to face her and gestured to his lips to get her attention. "Keep your senses open. We don't know what's in here." he mouthed to her before turning back around and pressing on. Sure enough, something was watching them. Mid felt it and he knew Nuff would too. He was tempted to communicate with her telepathically, but he knew better than to try that. The last time that happened didn't go down so well. So instead he looked to her, tapped the side of his head and gestured with a finger around them to indicate to her to be on the lookout.

But the presence was getting closer. Behind them were a pair of glowing red eyes quietly stalking closer to him and Nuff. The pair of eyes was soon joined by another, then three more. In no time at all half a dozen pairs were following them without a sound. But the presence was growing more and more powerful, not to mention more noticeable...and if Nuff didn't react, they'd pretty soon be right on top of her.

Nuff

 

[Nuff]

Nuff immediately sensed the presence of something lurking, but, whatever it was, their mark in the force made it hard to pinpoint exactly the location for now. In order to make up for her loss of hearing, the girl opened herself to the force and the dark side, letting it alert of to her surroundings.

Like her dad, Nuff ignited one of her red lightsabers that were one part of a double-bladed saber. Unnervingly silent, one of the beasts dropped from the ceiling, claws out and ready to tear the girl into pieces. But Nuff was ready. The moment the beast dropped, the Nautolan's head tails twitched, sending a warning signal instantly, causing Nuff to snap 180 degrees around, slicing the beast into three pieces with deadly accurate precision.

That seemed to do the trick, cause the rest of the beast snarled in furious rage as they dropped and went in for attacks on both Sith. One dropped towards Darth Kados, claws out, while another was charging him from the floor. Nuff backtracked a bit before bending her knees and launched herself in a spinning motion towards the incoming beast at her. However, in midair, she snapped her other lightsaber together forming her double-bladed weapon, completely slicing two tomb beasts into pieces that were on the ceiling and the floor.

Landing again, she just managed to dodge a swipe from another beast, forcing the girl to go on the defensive, dodging attacks after attacks. Reaching out to the force, she commanded it, no moulded it to her bidding and released a strong invisible force, pushing the tomb beast a good couple of meters away from her father and herself.

Looking to her father, she quickly signed, "fight or flight?" as she felt the beast quickly regained themself and ran with great speed towards them for a second round.

Darth Kados

 

[Darth Quizitus]

Nuff reacted just in time, quickly followed by Mid who swung up at the beast jumping at him. In one motion he raised his free hand and wrapped the Force around the one Tuk'ata charging at him from the front, hurling it into a nearby wall with deadly power. His second blade soon jumped to life as well and he gave the saberstaff a violent twirl as he looked around them. He glanced at Nuff as she turned to look at him and gave her a violent smile. It was more than enough for his daughter to understand what he meant.

With another twirl he faced another Tuk'ata charging at him and swung at its head, cleaving into it with no resistance. Usually he'd warn Nuff of their tails, but she knew well enough by now. A stream of fire erupted from his right hand and lit up the room as it coated a few more beasts around them. Pained snarls and other disturbing sounds erupted from them as they ran away or tried to kill the flames. Three more still surrounded them, slowly stalking in a circle as they growled at the two intruders. Mid kept his saberstaff at the ready as he carefully watched them to see what they were doing. They looked to be the only ones left, but they were determined to fight to the very end. They stopped circling and finally pounced at them simultaneously, though they didn't get very far as Mid cleaved one in half and impaled the other. He didn't worry too much about Nuff with the last one coming at her.

With the slaughter done Mid turned to Nuff and gave a light nod. "You alright?" he signed at her as he looked her over. After making sure she was fine, he nodded at the entrance to a deeper part of the tomb. "Come on, let's go." he mouthed to her before turning and leading the way deeper. He kept an eye on the dead beasts around them incase they weren't properly dead. Though as they reached another entryway deeper underground, Mid stopped and held a hand out to signal Nuff to do the same. Ahead the way seemed clear and a few flames even burnt from sconces lining the walls, allowing them to see clearly enough, however Mid didn't move one step forward.

He knelt down and looked around the floor before slowly looking upwards at the walls and ceiling. He extinguished his blades and turned to face Nuff. "Keep an eye out for a switch of some type." he signed to her.

Nuff

 

[Nuff]

Seeing her fathers violent smile, she just nodded determine and faced the next beast that wanted to try their luck. Watching her dad fighting always hyped Nuff up, providing her with new energy for fighting. In the end, ended Kados and Nuff up back to back, facing the last three remaining tomb beasts.

Splitting her saberstaff, Nuff held each end in one hand, waiting for the beasts to strike. When they finally went on the attack, Nuff was ready and launched in the air, fold herself like a ball shape and spun in multiple somersaults, completely slicing the beast into pieces by the feet of the Nautolan girl when she landed again. Standing in a more relaxed position with her arms down her sides, she just smiled sweetly to her dad and nodded, since it was a bit difficult to sign with two lightsabers in her hands.

Connecting the two single hilt back into the saberstaff as Nuff was most comfortable with it like that. Following her father, the girl kept her senses open, commanding it to warn her if there would be a need to avoid any danger.

"Alright dad" signed Nuff back and with a nod, she extinguished the lower blade, but kept the top ignited for extra light and started to check the surroundings. The walls look very much like a typical Sith tomb from long ago, one would almost think they had the same designer of their tombs.

However, she did keep her free hand to herself, as she wasn't about to accidentally lose a hand or trigger something. Having no luck by her side, she turned to face her dad, shrugging her shoulders, "nothing over here" signed the girl, extinguishing her lightsaber fully and clipped it to her belt.

Darth Kados