Private Necessary Sacrifice

[Zahari Kaan]

Location: Naboo, makeshift holding cell
Tag: Cerys Dyn

Zahari's stomach growled.

She'd been laying in this sad excuse for a bed the past few days, a couple of which she'd gone without food. Zahari wasn't used to going without food, not for a long time. Mother and Father, for all their shortcomings, had seen to it that she lived quite well back home, and in Kainite space before that. Her master, however, had prepared her for the worst things in life and death and all things in between. She would survive this, she had to.

Mostly because she put herself in this situation.

Maybe it wasn't her idea to be captured, but the hunger strike certainly was. A bizarre tantrum of sorts, a last ditch effort to get what she wanted out of her republic guards. That was the interesting thing about Jedi, they were bound by rules and oddities like "morals" and felt even stranger things like "pity" and sometimes even empathy, and she was counting on it.

She had a plan, and it involved Cerys Dyn , that fellow Togruta who'd been her guard for more days than she could count. However, she'd been replaced by some smug new zabrak that Zahari was not a fan of, not by a mile.

So she'd stopped eating the food that Skathe Mazikeen brought her, and informed the jedi that she would not accept a single scrap until Cerys brought it to her herself.

She sat up just far enough to sip the water they'd brought her last night, though as the stale but cool liquid entered her empty stomach, it just made the pain worse.

If nothing else, the young sith had plenty of suffering to meditate on.

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[Cerys Dyn]

Her feet fell hard as she stomped down the hall from the elevator. Cery was not happy in the slightest. This was giving into the the demands of a prisoner. Who cares if she didn't eat? Were they going to give her anything she wanted if she simply starved herself? Why not just let her go?

Still, the administration had insisted. They had requested Cerys at least attempt to talk the prisoner into eating. She had guarded the woman for many days, but had not talked to her much after the first day, preferring rather to station herself in the guard house. Still, the woman had just sat there staring at the camera much of the time. It was like she could see Cerys. Sometimes the young Padawan could have sworn the the Sith was in the room with her. It had been unnerving.

Memory of the unshakeable discomfort Kaan had caused saw Cerys' pace slow. She could feel her hands growing clammy. This was not something she particularly wanted to do. That was probably the real reason that she was upset about coming here. The prisoner unnerved her. And she hated that she had become the prisoner's focus.

Her pace slowed to a quiet approach as she neared the blue shimmering barrier. Cerys took a deep breath and slowly walked into view. A chill ran up her spine when she saw the prisoner. For a time, she just stood, looking. Not really knowing how to start the conversation. Eventually she decided to project confidence.

Her arms crossed over her chest and she leaned back slightly.

"You will eat now?" She said, trying to sound in control.

| TAG: Zahari Kaan |

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[Zahari Kaan]

Tag: Cerys Dyn

Zahari slowly stirred, rolling over just enough to see that Cerys had come.

Her little red eyes widened just a little, the light catching that moisture around them as she stared up at the togruta jedi.

"You will eat now?" She said, trying to sound in control.

"...maybe..."

When she stepped out of the bed, her legs shook ever so slightly, and she wrapped herself in the blanket almost like a cloak as she stood, wandering towards the barrier. The smug grin that had plagued Cerys many days before was gone, even that proud tilt her chin had since lowered and confident, almost unbothered steps, had slowed.

"Will you stay awhile, if I do...?" she asked weakly, almost pleadingly.

"Look, Cerys, to be perfectly honest with you... this?" Zahari gestured vaguely at her cell.

"This sucks."

"It isn't just an escape from that awful academy anymore. It hasn't been for a long time."

"I don't even know why I'm still here, I'm not even—" she flinched at her own words "—I'm not an important sith."

"So please, just ask your questions. That's how this works, right? I answer them, and eventually I get to leave?"

Zahari winced at the pain in her stomach, nearly stumbling into the barrier, catching herself on the stone doorway, and leaned tiredly against it.

"So please, tell me I didn't do this for nothing?"

"I want to go home..."

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[Cerys Dyn]

Cerys left out a puff of air. How was it possible that she actually felt sympathy for this Sith? She quickly reminded herself that the power was in Zahari's hands to get released. She just had to spill whatever beans she had.

"If you give us actionable intelligence, there is no further reason to hold you any longer," Cerys offered with a shrug.

She settled into a parade rest stance, and tilted her head to look over the Sith before her. She had questions for her beyond the intelligence requests. But they were of a more personal nature, and unlikely to provide any real help for Cerys.

"You were found to be in possession of information pertaining to the Unblessed's actions in the Netherworld. We simply want to know where you got it, and how to unlock the information on the dataspike," Cerys said dryly, "it is the same thing I asked you last time I saw you, and it is still what I want an answer to."

Her head tilted the other way, eyes narrowing.

"Now eat your food. Answer the question. And I will see about getting you out of here."

The universe would be better off if she stayed there though.

| TAG: Zahari Kaan

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[Zahari Kaan]

Tag: Cerys Dyn

Zahari looked skeptical.

Why wouldn't she? The young togruta had grown up in the empire all her life, where the weak were sent to labor camps, to say nothing of what her own parents would've done in Cerys' shoes.

"Hrm."

Still she took the food, grumbling or not. The talking didn't come till later, not until she'd finished the first few ravenous bites, and only when the pain began to subside did she look to Cerys from the corner of her eye, realizing how undignified she must have appeared in that moment. Eventually she slowed down, taking smaller, proper bites, more becoming of a "lady" such as she, a daughter of the Kaan family.

Finally, she answered.

"...I'm gonna hold you to this, you know..."

The story she told was a thing of accident and tragedy more than in intel, but she hoped it would be enough. Zahari herself had little interest or even stake in whatever these "unblessed" were doing, really it was her master who'd encountered them. A mysterious sith, described more like an otherworldly goddess named "Keres", who spoke to Zahari through cultists who claimed to see her in dreams. Zahari had never even met her, if she spoke the truth. She was herself just a cultist, left to rot in a cell by her own god. The cult which went by many names and variations fought with these Unblessed it seemed, and claimed this dataspike in the aftermath. No one was quite sure what was on it, just that their goddess, rumored to be from the Netherworld herself, may have use for it.

Zahari had hoped to bring it herself, to earn the favor of Keres.

"—That's all I know for sure. I was on my way to Coruscant where most of her cults are, in the underworld you see. My parents don't think Echnos is safe for me anymore, so I figured that was the next best place to link up with her followers."

"Someone who's prayers she'd answer."

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[Cerys Dyn]

She found it interesting that the Sith mentioned her parents. Were they some wicked Sith Lords or something? Cerys was curious, but there was no reason to pry. Instead, she would just complete her mission and be going.

Cerys glanced down at her comms device and noted the signal from her master, Brandyn Sal-Soren. They had the confession on recording and he was going to take the evidence to the proper people. Cerys smiled initially, a mission accomplished. The smile quickly faded when she saw the message that Brandyn sent next.

"Stay with the prisoner until a replacement can be sent."​

Her shoulders slumped. Her hand brushed firmly across her face and she paused to glare at the Sith through her fingers. Cerys had the time. How unfortunate.

"You said your parents did not think that Echnos was safe for you," Cerys said, arms now crossed and stance more annoyed than anything else, "aren't your parents Sith as well? Why should they fear? Do you come from a long...line of Sith?"

| TAG: Zahari Kaan |

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[Zahari Kaan]

Tag: Cerys Dyn

Her red eyes lit with curiosity as Cerys smiled.

Zahari could not recall a single time she'd seen her fellow Togruta do so, and for reasons beyond her comprehension, it was a welcome change. Maybe it just broke up the endless monotony, or perhaps deep down the faintest sign of the jedi lowering her ever rigid guard delighted the little schemer.

Her dark lips twitched with the first symptoms of an yet unseen expression that was quickly dashed as the jedi turned to glare down at her sitting captor, who quickly glanced away for a moment at the cold, dark cell instead.

"You said your parents did not think that Echnos was safe for you," Cerys said, arms now crossed and stance more annoyed than anything else, "aren't your parents Sith as well? Why should they fear? Do you come from a long...line of Sith?"

Thin white brow-markings raised just a little.

Just as the mention of this sith's parents was odd to the jedi, Zahari had not expected Cerys to ask nor care. Perhaps she didn't, and merely wished for more context, anything republic intelligence could add to her dossier.

She'd have to keep it brief then.

"Oh."

"I'm the only force sensitive in the bloodline. Being a non-sensitive in the empire is uh... it's grim. My parents are better off than most, handling finances and business connections for some of the noble families, but that still paints a target on our backs."

Zahari shrugged and leaned back against the stonework, crossing her arms. She sat there like this for a time, thinking about everything that had led her and the Kaan family to this moment.

"My father was really proud of me, actually."

It was brief, but she managed a faint smile of her own, even if something darker took it all away.

"So my parents sent me to the academy on Jutrand where I became an acolyte for a few years, then the Kainites ordered them to Echnos to support the new governor there, Darth Anathemous. 'course if you saw the broadcast then you know she led a coup and temporarily exiled all Kainites from her city. Even Kainite citizens."

She sighed wistfully.

"Mother wanted me transferred to Kor'ethyr Academy on Korriban, in case Anathemous ever decided to purge the city. Coruscant was just a pitstop, one last errand before I left."

"Your people got to me first."

She smiled bitterly.

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[Cerys Dyn]

Despite her own instincts, Cerys found herself somewhat intrigued. Perhaps it was just the need for an education. They did say it was good to know your enemy. The way Zahari spoke about her parents sounded almost like she appreciated them. This was so far removed from the view of the Sith she had maintained all these years.

The Sith that killed Cerys' master was not one she could picture missing his family. Nor the Sith she had met on various worlds ruling in their own despotic kingdoms. The fact that Zahari seemed to care about her family, at least on the surface, led to a whole raft of extra questions.

"I will be the first to admit that the vagaries of internal Sith politics are nearly entirely lost on me. I find it hard to understand their motivations a lot of the time," she said. Her tongue thoughtfully pushed against the inside of her lower lip. If she were honest, she did not understand the motivations of most Jedi. That did not need to be said though.

"So you are a Kainite, then?" Cerys said, almost as a silence filler.

She shifted her weight, hand resting on her other hip. Her eyes narrowed as she found her way to the question she really wanted to ask. "What motivates you to be a Sith? You sound like you come from a family that cares about you...you...could decide to take a different path?"

Turning a Sith to the light would be another feather in her cap that she could present to the council in order to circumvent Brandyn's persistent roadblock to promotion. She did not think it would be an easy task, but all such ventures started with a question, right? It couldn't possibly hurt to try.

| TAG: @Zahari Kaan|

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[Zahari Kaan]

Tag: Cerys Dyn

"It always boils down to power and control, but every sith has their own reason to want it."

Zahari shrugged in response to sith politics. She could explain the complex internal factionalism of course, the difference between Kainites, Tsis'kaar, Eternalists, Wanosa, Yalara and so much more, but it'd be lost on the Jedi and she'd given her enough for one day. Better to drag it out awhile longer, save it for the next time she got bored sitting alone in the dark.

"So you are a Kainite, then?" Cerys said, almost as a silence filler.

"I'm whatever keeps me alive." she answered flatly.

Her eyes narrowed as she found her way to the question she really wanted to ask. "What motivates you to be a Sith? You sound like you come from a family that cares about you...you...could decide to take a different path?"

"What, become a Jedi? ya know you're funny when you wanna be." Zahari chuckled.

Grinned, even. It was probably the funniest thing Cerys had ever said to her, and it was good to see her lighten up, tell a joke for once.

But then she looked up at her, and her smile dropped.

"Oh. you're serious, aren't you."

"Look, Cerys, I..." she scratched her montral.

Becoming a jedi, especially one so rigid and emotionless as her, that was not a fate Zahari saw for herself. However... perhaps there was an opportunity here. It would be easier to complete her mission if she had the jedi's trust...

Still, she'd have to play hard to play hard to get if she wanted to sell this.

"Sith are taught to feel, and very intensely at that. We indulge ourselves, all of ourselves, unburdened by self restraint."

"Well, not all sith, but point being-"

The sith sighed, unsure how to explain her justification to a jedi of all people.

"I don't think I'm really monk material...?"

"...and my family," she paused.

Not to consider how she might sell a lie, nor to hide all but the most necessary from the Jedi. It was a genuine pause accompanied by a nervous glance away, eyes narrowing at her own regret.

"I'm the first sith in the Kaan family. I'm supposed to be the thing that carries us into greatness, prosperity even."

"You ask what motivates me to become sith?"

She turned to her jedi captor with an unusually sincere conviction.

"The pit is always spiked, Cerys. There's only one way to go:"

"...Up..."​

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[Cerys Dyn]

For just a moment, Cerys stepped back, offended that Zahari would think she was joking. She was sincere in her desires, even if her motivation was not purely altruistic. Though, the Sith quickly realised that Cerys was not joking. She meant it.

The change in the Sith's reaction made Cerys feel a little frustrated, but she did not let it show. If there was anything Cerys knew to do it was be stubborn.

The blue Togruta's spiel about the Sith was classic cookie character Sith rhetoric. Only, Zahari laced it with another genuine emotion that Cerys felt pulled in slightly by the young woman's explanation. When she paused on the subject of her family, it hit a nerve that the Jedi tried desperately to bury.

"I know what it is like...to want to help your family," she said with a warmth that surprised even her. It quickly evaporated when she realised that she was about to confide in a damn Sith. She wouldn't speak of the things on the tip of her tongue with a Jedi she trusted, let alone a lying, stinky Sith.

Her posture reset to a more professional stance, hands behind her back. She cleared her throat to brush any unwelcome memory fragments away.

"If. If you were to follow the path of the Jedi. I would...commit to bringing your family to safety," Cerys said. She spoke in a way that indicated her idea was forming as she spoke.

"Then you need not worry about the pit that they might be in. We could even set them up on Naboo. Many of the refugees we took in have decided to stay. They will become citizens soon. You do not have to fear what may happen to your family. Surely, it is worth considering?"

There was no way that Brandyn or the council would condone such a mission, unless Cerys had done the ground work to bring her fellow Togruta to the light.

"If you would commit to Jedi training...I could speak to the authorities and have your incarceration be changed to a more lenient house arrest scenario. Depending on behaviour your area in which you could move could be expanded."

She spoke with the confidence of someone that could actually pull this off. Internally though, she did not think that it was likely. Trying was always an option, despite what her late Master used to say.

"I even know a Jedi that might be willing to take you on as an apprentice in time. Lorn Reingard is a fine Jedi. A warrior. A good man. And he believes in second chances," she said with a determined authority in her tone. There was no way she was asking Brandyn. She needed to do anything she could to keep this little side project from her master, if she wanted to get promoted faster.

| TAG: Zahari Kaan |

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