Restless Spirits (complete)

[Arabella Darkhold]

Location: Voss

The cell they had placed her in was uncomfortable. She could not complain it was a cell not meant for comfort but for punishment. She had been trying to convince the Jedi of Voss that she was noy a threat to them she should be because they were Jedi but she wasn't.

The sun was streaming through a small window, Bella reached her hand out trying to push her fingers into the golden light, just for a moment to feel the warmth on her skin, she struggled pressing hard against the bars, groaning when she failed.

Backing up she sat down hard on the bed. She had learned some interesting things about Jedi, but she needed more information needed confirmation that the Jedi were common in their thinking, their ways, if....if...it was true all that was said. Then there was hope for her, a hope that she did not have to be this creature she could be more.

Once a day a Jedi would visit but none had been as kind as Audren to her. Even if she did make him talk a lot and push for answers that he willingly gave. He was a good man that much she would say about him.

Who would come today?

Could she convince them when they did come?

But then she was a sith, a dark creature of carnal needs, and temptation. A liar and many other things that were whispered about her. Bella closed her eyes, she fought against this line of thought it would do not good for her and it was the first sign that her condition was beginning to deteriorate.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

Raven hair and ruby lips
sparks fly from her finger tips
Echoed voices in the night
she's a restless spirit on an endless flight
wooo hooo witchy woman, see how
high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman she got
the moon in her eye
She held me spellbound in the night
dancing shadows and firelight
crazy laughter in another
room and she drove herself to madness
with a silver spoon
woo hoo witchy woman see how high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman she got the moon in her eye
Well I know you want a lover,
let me tell your brother, she's been sleeping
in the Devil's bed.
And there's some rumors going round
someone's underground
she can rock you in the nighttime
'til your skin turns red
woo hoo witchy woman
see how high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman
she got the moon in her eye​

 

[Connor Harrison]

All Connor knew was that the Ranger has brought in a Sith Acolyte. He didn’t know names or their intent, but he had opted to interrogate them today and find out where they were from and what they wanted. After the invasion of Dromund Kass by Matsu Xiangu, it didn’t seem a coincidence this Acolyte was in the heart of the Sanctum – just where the Sith wanted to be.

His crimson cowl had to be fixed up, and so did his face – he was lucky to be alive all things considering. He wore his navy blue tunic, the three brown belts and chain across his chest, the lightsaber of the Skywalker heritage firmly at his side. Wearing it, he felt…empowered. Carrying a legacy in his fingertips. It had a new crystal and been cleaned up, but the dinks and dents were left to remind Connor just what the hilt had survived, much like he had.

Activating the doors to lead down into the cells, he walked past the medbay and down the stairs into the larger holding cell – clean, secure and spacious. Inside, the thick protective shield was all that stood between captive and capturer. Inside this particular cell sat a brunette woman.

Connor itched the back of his neck gently and walked through the room slowly to come to the shield and standing before the Sith.

He smiled gently. ”Welcome to Voss. I hope your treatment as been as pleasant as can be expected of my Order.”

Well…it wasn’t HIS Order but he certainly felt he was one of the last remaining foundations of it.

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

The door made little noise as it opened the Jedi were gracing her with their presence this morning early. She watched like a cat backed into a corner her cobalt blue eyes watching every move the Jedi made. She pushed back the dark chocolate locks that hindered her view. She noticed that he tried to smile, an act that did not seem to come easy to him.

She half smiled, "My treatment has been fair perhaps even considered better than what I deserve" Bella stood up moving forward to the edge of her prison to get a closer look at this man. But now the hilt of the lightsaber he carried, that looked similar or patterned after one of her mother's ancestors. She tilted her head trying to look at it closer, "interesting hilt you have for your light saber."

She stepped back, "Since it is a probability that you know my name, perhaps you would be kind enough to share yours with me" In her mind she thought to herself should I introduce myself as Arabella Organa, Princess of Alderaan, daughter of Queen Arianna and the Sith Lord Garith Darkhold. No, it wasn't how she wanted to live her life, she was just Arabella Darkhold, Atrisian Noble.

And she wanted to know from all these Jedi how they lived how they survived without their emotions.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Looking down at the hilt at his side fixed to the brown belts around his blue tunic, Connor nodded.

”You could say that.”

The fact she had noticed it and took interest said more than she had to; he wasn’t going to be the one to open up about the history of this hilt. He met her gaze; her body telling him more that she wasn’t exactly brimming with arrogance or confidence.

”My name is Connor Harrison, I’m a Silver Jedi. And you are Miss Darkhold, right? Or is that just a title you give yourself to hide who you really are.”

Connor always enjoyed mind games, touching upon certain words and suggestions to see what a person was like behind their outer shell.

”Can you tell me how you came to be here in our holding cells, Miss Darkhold?”

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

She could question him more on the hilt but it would raise suspicion and right now well maybe she was, "I bet that hilt if it could speak would have a great many stories to tell" She was trying to find out how old it was, and if it was possible what he possessed, she just did not know.

She looked down for a moment, "I was born Arabella Darkhold, my father is a nobleman of Atrisia Master Jedi Harrison.' She stepped over and offered her hand as was customary, "Pleasure to meet you call me Bella" She had been taught manners she would not lose them simply because she was currently captive.

"You mean this lovely abode filled with darkness that would perhaps entice any ghast or ghost to visit." She smiled again a bit broader, "When Your Order came to Korriban I was there trying to search the area near the Tomb of Adas and got tangled with a terentek." She laughed, "Who well proved to be a lot tougher than myself it left me for dead and one of Your Jedi came upon me. He said that because we were not fighting, and that he had not been the one to injure me that he decided medical help would be offered." Bella stood there watching the Jedi's face there were ways to tell about lies and deceit without the force.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor looked at her hand, and then at her face.

”You may want me to put my hand through a defence shield, but I’d rather not lose the use of it, thank you. However it’s a pleasure to meet you. But,” he raised a finger to her, ”play nice and maybe I’ll let you out for some fresh air.”

He clasped his hands behind his back and remembered the incident on Korriban – a simple excursion and claim on the planet led to a good number of incidents and encounters that continued to rock the Sanctum, even now.

”We aim to provide a top class service to any and all Sith Acolytes who come our way. Sith Lords? We don’t tend to be so lenient. What were your aims on Voss? Who was your Master, and did they know where you had gone after?”

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

She smiled and tilted her head in acquiescence, "very well. oh my reward for being a good girl you say, I'm always good, very good" She gave him her best smile then She looked outside she knew that her growing sarcasm came from the need to be outside she feared however that her mouth would engage before her mind caught on.

She released the breath she had been holding she seemed to do this quite a bit and did not understand why. It was an annoyance that she wanted to stop.

"If I were not hindered by the little creatures you keep here, ghasts and ghosts would be welcome." A skill she had been taught a skill that enabled her to talk to the dead. She had to control her mouth.

"My Master was my father, my aims were only to find something others had over looked. A piece of pottery from the time of Adas, it was said many were found whole within the ground [member="Mythos"] and Ren often talked about the finds coming out of the site."

She looked over again at the Jedi Harrison, for just a moment sadness appeared in her eyes, she frowned and then it was gone, "No one knew where I was going" She didn't say it but she thought it no one cared, there is no one left I am alone. But she wouldn't volunteer that either. She did not know her Alderaan family she met them once, and even then it was awkward and uncomfortable. Another reason why she would not claim the title of Princess, she needed to only be her father's daughter let the snooty of Alderaan keep their titles.

But.

They were family. And Faith seemed open to more, the rest were quiet...very quiet.

She had dropped her gaze during her thoughts not realizing how her face changed perhaps even softened until she looked over to the Jedi.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor just watched her talk, trying to work out the suggestive riddles about the ghosts and ghouls she spoke about. She seemed fragile, but that could also be a nice attempt at trickery. She didn’t seem very powerful in ability, but she seemed to know what to say to stoke emotions.

But Connor wasn’t playing that game again.

”I don’t know how long they intend to keep you here, but you obviously are aware you can’t simply swan off back to your Sith Master, father or not, with any information we have here that you have come across, conveniently being placed in a holding cell.”

He stepped closer.

”What have the others told you. What do they want from you here? And what are you hiding from me.”

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

He was watching her and she was trying harder to hide her emotions, hide her fears, hide the need to feel the sun she couldn't help but look to the door the one that led outside.

When he stepped closer instinctively she stepped back for a moment she remembered Jedi think all Sith are evil, that all Sith need to die even if Audren had said that wasn't true this man, this Jedi made her think otherwise. Was this a twist in teachings? Was this experience? Or had Audren lied to her in hopes of her revealing weaknesses. Odd as it was she knew nothing of the One Sith, she just lived on Atrisia and to be a Sith there was safer than being a sith anywhere.

"I am aware that I cannot be allowed to wonder back as you say, but...can I go outside?" She had to ask, for she felt it inside her that dark bubble that wanted to lash out in anger. "Take all the guards you want, feth I'll even wear one of those creatures...but I need to go outside"

"The others? Which others? The Jedi? What has one of your own order told me?" It was confusing to her and her focus was off.

What was she hiding?

"My weaknesses" she said softly so that no one would hear except maybe him, if he listened close enough.

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor started to pace a little, not as an interrogator, but simply to listen and understand. He always found it hard standing still.

”No, no, you stay here for now until I know you're composed. I simply want to know what my fellow Jedi have told you as to what they want from you, what their schedule is. I don't know anything of what they want, but I can find out."

He turned his head to the left a little to look at her.

”What weakness do you have? Do you struggle with it? With the darkness?"

A slight opening was there to work his way into now.

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

She stood there staring at him he had heard her, and now he asked the question that so far no one had enough information to ask her.

"I need to go outside" she almost pleaded with him her voice hinted at the growing need. God she thought you don't understand.

She began to grab her own hands at the moment she began to wring her hands she would drop them instantly trying to hide her anxiety.

She turned away looking at the wall. "Jedi hate Sith admitting a weakness gives you a way to control me or kill me" She looked back at him. "Jedi think all Sith are agents of evil and lie. I thought jedi could tell lies from the truth. No matter how much truth I say. It becomes a weapon in your hands. Even the Sith would kill me using my frailties and flaws against me"

Bella looked around she would die in this cell that was becoming evident or have a meltdown and have to be locked away.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Not flinching through her growing anxiety, evidently building with her hand movements and erratic body twitches, Connor kept looking at her and didn't respond until she had finished.

”The darkness is consuming you from the inside and you can't see a way out, can you."

A slow and careful statement, and it wasn't a question.

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

"A Jedi knows nothing of darkness, knows nothing of what is" She bit her lip shaking her head, she had almost said what was wrong with her, clenching her teeth she could feel her breathing change, feel that anxious feeling within creeping and crawling till her mouth opened, "I NEED to go OUTSIDE!"

Immediately her hand flew to her mouth she instantly regretted that she had yelled. Feth Feth Feth

She looked over to where the Jedi Master stood, "You don't understand, no one understands. I have to have sunlight, I have to. It's not some attempt to spy on you, feth if it makes you feel better put a blindfold on me I don't need to see, I need to feel it" She took a deep breath backing up further. She just knew he wouldn't understand and now he had a weapon to use against her.

God how much worse could this get!

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Gently, he rolled his tongue across his top teeth and narrowed one eye, trying to work out the puzzle that stood before him. He wasn’t in a rush; that much was clear. Maybe this WAS a form of interrogation after all to get to understand the Sith.

”What you see doesn’t concern me – you won’t get any secrets from what I will show you, and you wouldn’t get far if you tried to run, don’t worry about that, Miss Darkhold.”

Maybe this WAS a form of interrogation after all to get to understand the Sith.

”I’m in no rush, so why don’t you make me understand.”


[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

Arabella took time to pause, to take a breath and come to the realization he had the upper hand at the moment.

She smiled, she always smiled when others wouldn't no matter how powerless she felt. That was the thing though wasn't it she didn't crave power, she never had, she didn't crave rank either like others.

And now he wanted to understand her, maybe as much as she wanted to understand them.

Truth, she had made it a policy never to lie she often didn't divulge anything rather than lie. Bella laughed for a moment, complicated yes so in truth he wanted something from each other.

Bella walked forward to the very edge of where she had determined the shielding to be, her cobalt blue eyes staring at him. All she thought is I must make him understand, he has to see it, maybe even feel it.

"My condition will grow worse" she made sure to keep eye contact in the hopes that he would see she wasn't lying, that even though she bore this title Sith she was more than this title.

"It's called seasonal affective disorder, it comes in many forms, the longer I go without the sun the further into depression I will sink. You want answers, so do I about Jedi and about why there is so much hate." She bit her lip nervous that everything she said would fall upon deaf ears.

"I am an atrisian we hold honor, and our word in high regard. If I were to break my word and bring dishonor to my house you would have every right to ask the head of my house to kill me and he would without hesitation. I will answer all your questions, I'd even do a tea ceremony for you something that is so very sacred among my people to show you my conviction on this. For me, without the sun my answers become more about my misery than about truth, the depression is deep rooted and overwhelming. Do you know what that is like?"

Pleading, she sounding almost as if she were begging, the realization that if Jedi had no emotions no compassion, no connection to anything other than those they deemed worthy than all that she would say now and in the future would mean nothing, and she should have them kill her for all hope would be lost.

She took a breath, tried to find that point within herself that would hold her steady like her father taught her.

"My word as a daughter of the House of Togashi, please take me outside just for a little." She opened her hands in a gesture that showed no weapons something she read in books that showed peaceful intent.


[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor nodded - he did understand more than she knew. He turned on his heel and walked across the front of cell to the wall-mounted control panel. He looked at Arabella and pushed a blue button and then pulled a small black lever. With a quiet whine, the shield that divided prisoner and interrogater vanished back to the cieling. She was free.

He walked back over to her, keeping a small distance.

”Let's go for a walk. Outside the front of the Temple only. You follow me. You try to run, you'll be back in here before you know what hit you.”

With a nod of his head, he motioned for her to follow, hands still behind his back. Then he would take her from the holding cells and through the med-bay and up into the main hub of the Temple. Instead of going through the hangar to the rear, he took her the quickest route through the main corridor to the grand lobby, the large water feature in the center, and the imposing double doors open revealing the Voss sunlight. The two figures stepped out from the Temple onto the top of the wide stairs leading down to the ground. A few Jedi milled around, a scout speeder passed them below and there was a feeling of calm to the planet this time of the day.

”Take in all the air and sun you need.”

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

Arabella smiled, "thank you" she followed diligently keeping her eyes on the floor and yet on his heels to follow him through the corridors that would lead outside to the sun of Voss.

She limped slightly from the injury she couldn't run if she wanted to and she had not told anyone that it hurt she didn't know if they had left it that way, or if there was something wrong she figured it would pass.

When they finally reached outside Bella stood there closing her eyes she turned her face towards the sun. It was so bright, warm, and green. There were scents on the air flowers perhaps, creatures nearby she didn't know she let everything about Voss wash over her cleansing away the dark feelings, the apprehension and her dark thoughts.

Slowly the tension melted away, slowly her shoulders dropped to a more relaxed spot, a more at peace position.

How long she stood there she just didn't know, she felt the passage of time with the changing of the breeze warm caressing her skin and reminding her that she was alive.

"Ok Master Jedi" She smiled brightly her eyes of the deepest blue of any azure sea looked upon him gone were the clouds of doubt and fear. "What can I tell you?" She was gentler now, calmer not the dark creature who lost her temper and could not control her mouth.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor was slightly amused at the girl's reaction to the warmth of the sun. Something so simple that seemed to feed the power of the Force all Jedi and Sith carried, and yet it really seemed to be a life force for her. He smiled at her and looked out across the Sanctum grounds, remembering how it was before the merger.

”Well, Miss Darkhold, you seem to be the most amicable Sith I've come across in years."

Now his curiosity got the better of him.

”How come my hilt was the first thing you noticed about me? The first thing you commented on?"

He'd had the hilt for just a couple of days, but he felt more protective of it than anything; it was the only thing he'd owned that made him feel he finally had a purpose.

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]

 

[Arabella Darkhold]

Arabella thought about how to answer his question she had promised to do so honestly, but in the moments of weakness and desperation she made a promise that could hurt others if she weren't careful. But now how to do both be careful and not break her word to the Jedi standing with her.

She opened her mouth to speak, then stopped she wanted her words chosen carefully, "In the course of our talking there is information that will come out that could damage others." Her blue eyes looked over at him, "If or when you share what I tell you I would ask that you consider some of them for in many matters they are unaware and shouldn't be hurt because of me."

She was willing to take a punishment just not share it with others like her Alderaan family, snooty as they are only she was responsible for her no one else.

"Also, Miss Darkhold is very formal, I've never been the formal type of person it makes me feel odd and old" she laughed, "most either call me Bella, or Arabella, and one or two have called me Bells but I'm not sure I like that one" Muadie called her Bells, and Bellie, oh where was the mad Knight. The problem with living sometimes you survived those you care about most.

She didn't wait for him to agree he wasn't under an obligation to do so he had been compassionate enough to bring her outside he really didn't owe her anything at all. But she would try to protect those she could.

"Anyhow, my father is over 800 years old, and our library at Hyogo has many" she smiled thinking about the library. The tall shelves that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, the many different holos that filled the shelves, and even some pictographs created by artists across the span of her fathers' life. Her favorite place was a chair in the corner near the window of the library she could look out across the gardens, and lose herself in the electronic pages of some novel or historical account. "items from across the galaxy including images"

"There is a set of pictographs of Luke Skywalker, as well as others whose names I can't recall right now as my focus on only on Skywalker, but in these pictographs one shows a very young well, he looks young man holding a light saber and then there is another showing him constructing a new one. I've taken those images and used a magnifier on them to study the details of each image. I don't know what the artist based the images on whether actual or just perceived."

She thought about how she felt staring at those images an ancestor of hers someone who struggled with his own emotions like she did she just kept trying to learn as much as she could about him.

"thing is the first image if I am to assume that it is his first light saber then the image is not of Luke's light saber, but really of Anakin's and not until the reconstruction can anyone say that it is Luke's light saber. The hilt of your weapon carries the very same design that I saw in one of the images." She didn't say which image on purpose, "I actually couldn't believe it bore such a resemblance so I guess the question is did the hilt of your weapon belong to one of the Skywalker's before it found its way to you?"

She bit her lip nervously as the excitement of his answer filled her with expectation the gleam and thirst for knowledge showed in her eyes, her face, and slowly through the tension of her form.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

He nodded at the request for her name. Being formal was something he hated, but he extended her the courtesy none-the-less. The two stood atop the stairs, a few bodies passing around them, but they were not in the way. It seemed she had access to lots of ancient history and documents, which was interesting.

And it seemed to confirm this hilt was the very one and same the Skywalker family had carried through the ages.

He looked down and touched the hilt, fixed to his brown belt – one of them, anyway.

”I was sent it by a friend of a friend – a close friend, mind you. However they didn’t confirm it by name, but…what you say confirms my thoughts. This could be the Skywalker hilt."

Connor looked up and shrugged a little, looking out to the planet.

”Thing is I don’t know for sure, but part of me believes it is. One day I will see my friend and have her view on this, and see what she says and if she can tell me where it came from. Until then, it never leaves my sight and I feel it’s come to me for a reason, and I will enforce that as best I can."

Balance.

That was what he had been entrusted to bring to the Jedi – balance. Because he knew all about how fragile it was.

”I trust in the Force, so if the Force has seen this hilt come to me, then something is obviously happening for that very specific reason, don’t you think?"

[member="Arabella Darkhold"]