Private Ready or Not

[Lily Rhodes]

Did he really believe that Lily cared about the politics, about the order? This wasnt about security or whatever bantha chit he was talking about, this was about right and wrong. If children were used as pawns that did it give you the right to use them as pawns in return.

Hell, for Lily, this wasn't even about that this was about proving to herself that she was not powerless. This was about righting the wrongs of her inaction and if there was a slim hope in among all of it that she could prove to Iskemdyr that she wasn't what his grandmother said she was...

He moved with such speed, her eyes widening in surprise as she brought the quarterstaff up to meet the crackling crimson blade, her technique was shoddy at best but if it kept her alive?

The lightsabe spat as it connected with phrik, Lily seemed almost surprised she'd caught it but not before she saw the crackle of energycomingfrom his other hand.

The force folded around her with a rwps8nding crack and she teleported the lightning stirking the wall behind where she had been as she reappeared behind him, swinging the staff for the back of his knees.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

One moment the arcs leaping from his fingertips seemed on an inevitable course to shocking the intruder before him and the next moment she had seemingly vanished as the lightning impacted the glass behind her. "Oh he taught you that trick-" As he spun around to try and figure out just how far she had gotten, a sudden strike to the back of his knees had him stumble and mutter out a curse through hissed breath.

Had he not turned at all then he would have been forced to the ground but thankfully they mostly hit the side rather than the rear when the quarterstaff impacted. Not nearly enough to actually wound him of course but more than enough to put him off his balance for a precious second. And piss him off in the process as well.

With a growl he lashed out in pure reflex, swinging around with is free hand in a rather wild punch before following up with a wide slash across her front. "Should've brought something more lethal, you're a poor assassin with a blunt instrument!" At least that confirmed that she indeed wasn't sent by Malum, he would have expected a Shikkar not a staff.

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

The punch, wild as it was, caught Lily square across her face, teeth tore into flesh of her cheek, spilling a copper tang across her tongue and rattling her skull. She barely had a chance to bring the staff back up to protect herself from the slash that would have opened her chest, her grip almost fumbling with the force of it.

Within she was battling, fighting between the little girl who grew up in the undercity who knew running was always the smarter option for survival...and the young woman, who was sick of running, sick of sticking her head in the sand and being so powerless. How many people had she seen die because of her inaction? How many friends that hadn't been able to run fast enough to keep up?

"I'm not an assassin." She snapped "I don't kill people."

She spat a mouthful of blood at his face, aiming for the visor of his mask, twisting the saber away from her and bringing the staff for a strike at his face.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Then you're a fool."

He pressed his lightsaber against the staff as lightning crackled between his fingertips once more, seemingly readying himself to pull the exact same maneuver that he had attempted just a few moments before. Until a sudden blockage on his visor sent the shot of lightning just barely past her and instead impacting the door.

Darth Strosius moved his hand up to wipe away the blood coating his visor and free his vision, but he did still notice the feeling of his pressure against the staff leaving and heard the sound of it moving through the air. His hand quickly twisted and grasped the staff right before it could hit his mask, his grip tight enough that the phrik groaned slightly as he wrenched it away.

"Malum should've taught you better. Those blessed with the Force need no eyes to see." His lightsaber flipped around in his hand as he brought it up, attempting to slam the pommel right into the side of her head as he pushed the quarterstaff away in tandem. "But the foolish are always blind."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily felt the heat of the lightning pass her head, so close that she could smell the acrid stench of singed hair. Too close, she felt panic rise in her chest, as the little girl began to win her internal battle as his fist closed around her staff before it could make connection, surprised at his speed and ability to simply know that it was coming.

Run.

The cold cylinder of his lightsaber connected with her temple and for a moment the world went black as she hit the deck, the staff wrench from her hands. Blinking stars from her vision she scrambled back on the floor till she hit the wall, fumbling with the other cylinder clipped at her belt.

Trembling hands levelled the emiiter of the lightsaber Malum had given her at her foe, igniting it with snap hiss. She was more likely to hurt herself than him, but she wasn't about to just give up, even if the room seemed to be spinning slightly, and she couldn't quite shift the stars out of her vision.

"Go to hell."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

With his assailant on the ground and her weapon tossed aside his free hand once more returned to his mask and wiped off the blood with little haste or concern. He doubted that she would be able to stand up for a good few seconds, let alone retrieve her quarterstaff and take another swing at him, before he had cleared his vision. He glanced at her as she scrambled away, trapping the staff with his foot and kicking away as he moved after her.

The only thing that stopped his advance was the sight of something in her hands, his suspicions quickly confirmed as the lightsaber ignited and kept him at arms length. For now at least. "Bold to reach for a staff instead of this to begin with, but clearly that didn't pay off for you now did it?"

His crimson blade suddenly lashed out from his side, attempting to bat aside hers if only to prove that he could. If only to prove how the momentum had yet to shift even with a more deadly weapon in her grasp. "So Malum clearly didn't send you and you aren't here to kill me, so why are you here hm?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily hated everything about this. The fact that she had even drawn the saber out on the first place, the fact that it quivered unsteadybin her hand, the fact that it was the colour and symbol of a sith, something she most definitely wasn't. The fact that Strosius masked visage stood over her, only holding back because he didn't need to press the advantage.

He had already won.

It wasn't like that was ever not going to be the case, she should have run. She had everything she needed to find Iskendyr's cousins but this newfound and ridiculous need to prove to herself that...that what? She was just as useless as she had always been?

Seizing the hilt with both hands was the only thing that stopped the lightsaber from going flying from her hands, though she flinched when the blades did connect, the noise sending shivers down her spine and making her grit her teeth. It felt wrong in her hands.

She deactivated it and tossed it aside, wiping her hands on her trousers in what could only be seen as disgust. What was the point? She glared up at him, at his question and his mockerybif her choice of weapon.

"I came to find out where you hid the grand children you kidnapped. Something I should have done when I first found out you had them."

She propped herself upright against the wall, bringing a hand theat trembled with adrenaline up to where he had struck her, her fingers coming away slick with blood.

"Are you going to kill me?"

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

He couldn't help but quirk up an eyebrow in surprise as she simply threw away the lightsaber, and only a moment after so desperately clutching onto it when he struck it too. So quick to abandon her last means of defense aside from her bare hands and abilities. How very peculiar indeed, and slightly frustrating given that he had just started enjoying himself.

He had a half a mind to throw her lightsaber back at her and demand that she pick it up and die on her feet like a proper Sith should.

"Going so far and doing so much for a bunch of brats that mean nothing to you, you really are Malum's kin." Darth Strosius sounded almost disappointed as his lightsaber lowered from where it had been leveled at her throat before, the crimson blade extinguishing with a flick of his wrist as it returned to his belt. "I have yet to decide on your fate in truth, for I still do not know the reason you're here."

A finger was quickly raised as if to silence any immediate response, making the masked man appear more like a shunning teacher than a Sith Lord for a moment. "And don't bother with any sort of drivel about 'morality' or 'because they're children' when we both know that's a lie. Not even Jedi are foolish enough to infiltrate a military station on the eve of war just to get some clues to the whereabouts of four strangers." The disgust and disdain in his words was evident as he spoke in a manner that left little room for argument.

"Yet here I find an amateur Acolyte sneaking into my chambers seeking to do just that, and without the decency to go for a killing blow when discovered and put at risk of capture. So do please enlighten me, girl." The Lord Inquisitor loomed over her then, the only light source in the room seeming to be from the glowing red edges of his mask which only served to show her reflection in his visor. "Why are you here?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily gave him a cold smile. "Some amateur i must be to be make to make it into the so called Lord Inquisitors office unimpeded. Should really look at your security, a Jedi might find it a walk in the park." She replied sarcastically.

Super smart Lily, piss the guy off even more. She pushed herself a little further up, her eyes flicking to the quarterstaff a few feet behind him. "I'm not an acolyte." She got her legs underneath her, standing rising up off the floor, hating the way he loomed over her, still leaning on the wall for support as the room span. She closed her eyes and swallowed against the urge to throw up.

Opening them again she levelled her brown eyes gaze upon him as she opened her mind to the minds of the crew, their thoughts a steady hum in her mind, reaching further until it became a buzz, loud and incomprehensible to someone who wasn't used to such a sound.

"I'm here," she began, trailing the edges of his own mind seeking cracks in his defences, Iskey's expression drifted across her mind again, the hurt... followed by disgust and disappointment.

"Someone who now sees me as an enemy, because of you." As the last word left her lips, the cacophony of voices in her head she channelled to him, a tidal wave of telepathic noise as she dove passed him, seeking the quarterstaff once more.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

The masked man clicked his tongue at the snide remark but actually nodded in agreement with it, despite his reservations. That anyone had been able to slip onto Bailiff Station at all was an issue, but to make it all the way to his office without detection was an insult by his security staff and systems. There would indeed be hell to pay once he had finished his business with this interloper.

"You wield a lightsaber and the blessings of the Dark Side, but neither with mastery or even familiarity." Darth Strosius stated rather 'matter-of-factly' much like one would when correcting someone else. As though she was in need of lecturing. "That, combined with your affiliation with a Lord of Sith in Malum and House Marr, makes you an Acolyte of the Sith. Official or not matters little."

As expected he had let his guard down once she had been disarmed, not only having sheathed his own weapon but also seemingly more intent on probing her mind than defending his own. A subtle weakness but one that a careful opponent could nonetheless exploit once found.

Found it was, and exploited it was.

The sudden assault of what was essentially mental white noise hammered his senses and made him shake his head, taking a step back as he briefly touched his masked visage to try and soothe the newly acquired headache that came with it. He heard the intruder move before he saw her, his eyes snapping open once more as she dove past him and reached for the quarterstaff.

"Enough." With a growl that betrayed his lack of patience one of his arms suddenly shot down to grasp her by the ankle, attempting to drag her back and throw her against the wall with enough force to tear an airlock door off of its hinges.

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

She was desperately close, her fingers brushing the end of the quarterstaff as his hand closee around her ankle, his words rattling in her ears.

She was not a Sith.

She was not an acolyte.

Lily gasped as she was yanked away from the staff, slamming into the wall with such force the air was forced from her lungs, her back screaming in protest as a memory flickered across her kind of the day she'd met her cousin, the day he'd broken her back. Fear flickered across her face, followed by pain as she crumpled to the floor of his office, tears blurring her vision as she fought to catch her breath.

"Fuck you." She choked, pushing herself to her hands and knees, a sharp pain in her chest as she managed to draw a full breath told her a rib was at least cracked if not broken. She wasn't going to stay there, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of talking down to her.

With great effort and a groan of pain, using the wall for support she pushed herself to her feet and leant against it.

"I'm not afraid of you." She told him levelling her brown eyes the face hidden behind the mask. "I've spent my whole life dealing with jerks that like to het off on stepping on people the deem weaker than them. The samething happens to all of them. Someone will cut you down...they'll take everything you have and you'll be forced to bow beneath their boot or die."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

The masked man clicked his tongue and took a moment to roll his shoulders as the intruder slammed into the wall and attempted to recompose herself, his fingers flexing with a brief crackle of lightning dancing between them. This girl might have been amusing at first but she was starting to wear on his patience. That she thought she could simply waltz right into his station, his office even, assault him and get away with it was nothing short of brash foolishness on her part. She had to have been part Marr somewhere along the line.

"Charming." Darth Strosius dryly remarked as he watched her push herself up from the ground, his gaze careful and calculating behind the reflective visor. "I do hope that you know that was your fault, yes? I was more than content to just let you grovel as you were, but you had to try and fly. Consider your wings clipped in return."

He idly raised an eyebrow at her declaration, his head cocking to the side as though in confusion. "I'm sorry, you think that I would stoop so low as to enjoy such a thing?" He scoffed, then laughed, both harsh sounds that held more bite than humor. "You've been spending time among nobility yet you have the audacity to label me cruel? I'm almost impressed. Clearly you've been more misinformed and mislead than I initially assumed, so allow me to enlighten you child."

The Lord Inquisitor stalked forwards slowly, one step carefully laid before the next as he loomed over the intruder once more. "You're not weak because you lack power or skill. Those can fail even the most adept with them. Even an insect can slay a giant in the right circumstances." He stopped just short of her and clasped his arms behind his back, leaning forward slightly as if to exemplify the roles of insect and giant in this instance. "You're weak because you lack conviction."

Each syllable was spoken in a whisper yet with so much intent that it seemed louder than anything else he had spouted thus far. Her expression was reflected perfectly in his visor as he continued, his gaze affixed to her eyes. "You came here with hardly any idea of what it is you sought or why you did it. Do tell me child, let us say that you leave this station with the information you've gathered. Let's say to reconnect with this person that sees you as an enemy because of me, for whatever reason that may be, what then? What would you do? Stage a rescue? Inform Malum or Lady Raaf?"

His head suddenly cocked to the side once more, so quick that a sound akin to a snap echoed in the otherwise silent room as the mandibles of his mask impacted his chestplate. "What. Would. You. Do?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Breathing hurt and she blinked hard against the tears that threatened. She would not cry in front og him, she would not give him that satisfaction. They both knew she had lost, that the information she had gained she wasn't going to be leaving with…If she would be leaving at all.

She found herself pressing her back harder against the wall as he advanced, his words cutting through her to strike chord after chord. She had always hated nobility, between them and the Jedi that had waltzed around during the childhood she suffered, they that had the power to do something, and yet did nothing.

Yet she had allowed Malum to lure her in, allowed him to make her believe in the goodness of her lost family, despite all their faults.

Despite the truth that they had abandoned her at birth.

She couldn't take her eyes off his masked visage as he closed the distance, each word making her feel smaller and smaller as he disected her, picked apart her grandplan…her grandplan that had seen her as far as here. Truth be told, she hadn't expected to get this far, but she wasn't about to admit that.

"Whatever it takes." she replied in a whisper. "Whatever it would have taken to see them freed. Tell Lady Raaf, tell Admiral Yvarro…" she swallowed, the idea of facing Fiolette filled her with icy dread, to have the woman smile because she knew she had been right all along. "Launch a rescue myself if I had to."

She wanted to look away, to escape the eyeless gaze from his mask but she was frozen to the spot. "What does it matter?"

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"It matters because you haven't answered the only question that does. But we'll circle around to that, so you get the information and launch a rescue either personally or with assistance yes?" Her answer was far from satisfying, it was exactly what he had expected and yet it still somehow disappointed it. It only proved just how deep she had gotten herself with no real method of extraction or plan for the future. That she had managed to slip into his office at all with such a frazzled mind was nothing short of a miracle.

"So you mount a rescue and let's say you manage it. You retrieve the little Raaf brats and return them to their grandmothers without issue, perhaps even managing to slay me or capture me in the process. As if you could." Darth Strosius couldn't help but snicker at that prospect. Many had attempted to claim his head and thus far all had failed, and not even a Dark Lord of the Sith could succeed it seemed.

"Now what? What did you go through so much effort and strife for hm?" Now it was time to get the real answer he sought, one way or another. "Is it some reward that you seek? To gain material or prestige from being the one to bring about the end to my scheme? What could possibly be worth it child? What do you gain?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily felt like a child. Every question, every outline of her plan if she could even call it a plan, seemed obsurd . It was an act of desperation. All of this was. A desperate need to not only prove to Fiolette that she was not the who she believed she was...but also to get Iskey back.

She felt a lump in her throat, burning as tears prickled at her eyes. She swallowed, blinking furiously.

What did she gain?

"A future."

Her answer was barely above a whisper.

"One that I chose, not one shoved under my nose because some noble pricks dumped me on the steps of an orphanage and then felt guilty enough to welcome me back with open arms."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"And there it is."

The masked man finally pulled back, chuckling to himself as he did so, and ceased his looming posture to instead stand up straight in a far more presentable manner. "See, was that so hard to admit?" With a hint of amusement to his words he glanced away from the intruder for a moment to tap on the side of his helmet. :"I need a medical team routed my office at their earliest convenience, with a stretcher.":

As his hand fell back to his side he looked back down at the young woman and clicked his tongue. "Let me tell you something that those of noble birth can never understand, child. Future, destiny, call it whatever you'd like, it doesn't come from the admission or allowance of others. It can only come from the forging of the self. The choosing of your own path and undertaking the arduous journey that it causes you." His chiding tone had subsided somewhat, still firm and unforgiving but oddly gentle given the circumstances.

"But, and I must stress this before you get any further ideas rolling about in that little head of yours," Within an instant any warmth or neutrality in the air was replaced by a brutal chill, his expressionless visor darkened and angled so that no reflection could be seen. "To go against me is to court death itself. There is no future as my foe, for I am one that shall bring about the future of the Sith. A future that you can either be part of, or cast aside with the rest of the problems and cancers that plague our Order."

Finally, after a few tense moments, his stare let up and he turned his back on the intruder. His hands clasped behind his back once more as he strode over to his desk and turned on his terminal, clearly looking to see what all she had gotten into. "The powers that be would tell you that you're too weak to be Sith, your family would tell you that you are Sith by blood, but I will tell you the truth. You're Sith because you've lived hard. Because unlike most you know what it's like to be at the bottom of the food chain of the universe." He paused, looking back up at her. "And you'll do whatever it takes to keep yourself from sliding back down that chain. Won't you?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily was silent, turning his words over in her head. She had come from nothing, clawed her way out of Coruscant's undercity and vowed never return. Fate had had her cross paths with Velok Brokentusk, who had helped her procure a ship. She went from planet hopping as a stowaway, to having her own home, a home that could take her wherever she wanted. It had been a simple lifestyle. Pick up jobs, and explore.

Malum had complicated everything. Discovering she was a Marr complicated everything. But going back was never an option. Suddenly she never had to worry about where her bext meal was coming from, or how long it would be until she could find enough fuel for her next journey. But it came with strings attached...with quiet expectations.

The tension in her shoulders eased as he walked away, the adrenaline wearing of as her legs began to struggle with the weight of holding her up. She let herself sink back to the floor. "I don't care about this stupid Order. I don't want to be a part of it. I don't want to be a sith."

She blinked, a tears escaping her to be rapidly wiped away. "But you're right. I won't ever go back."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Then find something you do wish to be part of and quit prancing about Sith space." It wasn't harsh like one might expect of an insult but it certainly wasn't gentle in any sense of the word. It was blunt and direct, simple and straightforward in a way that lacked any deeper meanings or nuance. Quite the abrupt change from his usual remarks. "You made your way here all by yourself with no help at all, surely you can find your way back out and into the wider galaxy to pursue something you do want to do."

Darth Strosius tapped away at the terminal some more, seemingly only to cover up what it was that she had unveiled, before shutting off the display and stepping back with a subtle air of satisfaction. He knew that he should have encrypted his logs in Ur-Kittat to begin with, no matter what his communications officers protests were. One problem solved at a time he supposed.

"As it stands you are an Acolyte of the Sith Order whether you like it or not, so I'd suggest that you either become comfortable playing that role or find another one better suited to you. The Sith do not take kindly to failures in their ranks and your connection with House Marr can only do so much if you make a habit of infiltrating space stations and stealing information." He looked as though he was about to say something else but tilted his head to the side suddenly, as though listening for something.

With a wave of his hand the door to his office opened and a moment later a small team of medics rushed in, frantically looking around for their High Priest before he caught their attention and gestured towards the intruder. "Blunt force trauma, center mass. Do what you can before she must be moved to the medical bay." They approached the collapsed woman as the masked man fixed her with another stare, one that warned against attempting to resist treatment. Doctors could very easily become executioners after all.

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily could find her way back out into the galaxy, that had been her exact intention after this escapade, after securing her future she wanted to travel again, to try and work out who she was and where she belonged. Barely a year had passed since she'd met Malum, since she'd discovered the truth of her heritage.

Yet in that time she had come no closer to finding herself. Did the stars offer her that answer? She wasn;t sure she would find out. She knew that as soon as her cousin discovered the trouble she'd gotten herself into, he wasn't going to let her out of his sight. He saw her as someone that needed protecting, he'd been reluctant to let her go in the first place.

Her eyes drifted to the lightsaber she'd cast aside. The weapon had felt wrong in her hand, but was that because of her aversion to sabres, or simply because it wasn't hers?

Was she truly a sith?

She watched him tap away at the terminal, the data stick still tucked up her sleeve. She wasn't sure how much of it she'd been able to download before he'd caught her. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to take it now, everything he'd said seemed to turn her whole perspective on its head. Everything she thought she knew, everything she believed about herself and her own direction was just…ash.

She eyed the medics warily as they arrived and descended on her, one drawing a yelp of pain from her as he pressed his hands against her ribs before muttering something about 'broken'. "Yeah no chit." she retorted sharply her face twisting in pain as they continues to poke and prod her to assess the damage.

She forced her attention back to Darth Strosius . "Why do you care about this Order?"

 

[Darth Strosius]

The medics seemed unphased by her sharp remark, busying themselves with their duty and starting to administer treatment once their inspection was done. Given the circumstances said treatment mostly consisted of some quick Bacta and painkiller injections as well as the application of a cooling pad to try and soothe their patient. A dip in a Bacta Tank would be the only real treatment aside from rest and painkillers, information that the lead medic quickly relayed to the Sith and the intruder alike, which would obviously necessitate a trip to the med-bay.

Nothing that surprised Darth Strosius really, given the struggle that had caused such injuries. The cause of which the medics noticeably never asked for nor even seemed to consider. When she questioned the masked man further as they finished up the injections, they seemed to already know the answer to where her injuries had come from anyway.

"Because I know what it's like to be nothing."

The remark got the medics to pause for a moment, a few casting a glance at their High Priest in surprise but a quick shift of his visor towards them was more than enough to get them back to work. "I've been nobody before, no purpose or plan to pursue, no method of pursuit even if I did have one. I was nothing for a long time. And I hated every moment of it." The discarded lightsaber rose up from the floor, pulled into the waiting gloved hands of the Sith Lord as he idly inspected it. "Once I was freed of that wretched existence I knew that I was never going to let myself be imprisoned in such a manner ever again. Not by any power in the galaxy or beyond. But as you well know, we are far from the only ones to be subjected to such treatment. Such injustice."

The medics parted as Darth Strosius approached the intruder once more, kneeling down to somewhat allow her to peer into his visor as they prepared a stretcher for transport. "This galaxy is so full of torment and tyranny child. To the brim with scum and villainy the likes of which drives me to wretch at just the thought of their disgusting kind. Hutts, slavers, Jedi, False-Sith, the list is as endless as the stars. But do you know the one thing that emperors and brigands alike share? No matter the world nor species?"

He held out the lightsaber, the emitter held in his hand and pointed at his chest while the handle and activation switch faced her. "They still bleed. They still die. They still cry and beg for mercy just like anyone else. And this Order has no shortage of those in need of slaying, of cancers that must be excised and tyrants that need to be beheaded. But to cleanse the galaxy of filth and injustice, one needs nothing short of an army. A movement and force which can accomplish such a task."

His head inclined, his visor reflecting her expression as he set the lightsaber in her hand. "And the Sith are the only ones capable of raising such a thing, the only ones willing and able to do what must be done. The only ones that can free the galaxy from the chains of oppression and cruelty. That is why I care, because I know what it is to be uncared for. Because no one should have to experience that fate." He stood and stepped back, allowing the medics to hesitantly load her onto the stretcher.

Lily Rhodes