Returned

[Asharad Graush]

The Red Veil // First Order // Hyperspace

After the blockade and the First Order's boundaries pressed further into the Alliance's boundaries of Space, the Supreme Commander's taskforce had broken off from the main fleet and tractor beamed the remaining vessels of the Red Fleet, so graciously delivered into his hands by [member="Lily Kuhn"], when she had surrendered. Their crews were spared, though many found themselves being transported to multiple blacksites, trapped and would likely never be heard from again, that is, unless the Supreme Commander decided on freeing them.

Unlikely.

"Reversion in ten."

Graush tuned out the countdown from his mind, a few days had passed since the Alliance had retreated from the starship graveyard that had become the L-49 Blockade.

Since then, his redheaded guest had found herself in solitary, the only person she encountered was the droid that delivered the food to her room. Spacious enough to not be claustrophobic, but whatever had adorned the walls were torn down to the bare walls.

While the countdown occurred, the armoured titan that was Graush came out of the Command Throne on the Bridge.

Time's up.

There were more souls on board than necessary, the acquired vessel was still in testing, being integrated with Imperial systems. The jump they were just coming out of was another test. This final jump should've taken them to above Dosuun, he realized. Armoured legs carrying him down the corridor, when he arrived to where he needed to be. The Captain's chambers, his crew had determined.

When the automatic door cycled open before him, the first words that passed his lips were, "Ready yourself."

 

[Ellie Mors]

How had she ended up in solitary?

That was the question she'd asked herself since the moment she'd been shut in the room. She supposed it must've been some kind of protocol, to treat her like the enemy until she'd been shown to be otherwise, but she couldn't help but get an uneasy feeling in her gut every time the automatic doors slid open to reveal a droid with a meal plate and nobody else. In any case, Lily was content with the quiet. It was her fault that a man that could have survived was dead - dead because she had watched the Sith lord that imprisoned her lose a robotic arm and had been just as afraid of watching him die as she was sick of seeing soldiers throw themselves on a fire for her. 'Whatever.' She thought, dismissing her concerns with some degree of irritation - 'Let him keep me in here like a prisoner, it's no different than having my every move watched back home.'

Trading one cell for another, only this one made no attempt to hide her status as a prisoner. On the other hand, at the very least, her parents wouldn't be out searching for her and there wouldn't be a private army and bounty hunters out to get her - she thought maybe A'sharad would have appreciated that, saving him that trouble of an infuriated father, but he'd locked her in her own room all the same. He was a hard man to read, always had been, and, though it was a quirk she sometimes liked about him, it made making him happy far more difficult than it should have been. What was actually frustrating, however, was whether or not she actually was his prisoner of war or not. She hadn't been interrogated, though she supposed he could have been waiting to let some bureaucrat or lower ranked official handle that, and there had not been a single question posed to her regarding the ship itself - something she, at the very least, had expected.

She was sitting at the edge of her cot when the door opened, the man of the hour himself arriving to give her the word of their arrival. She'd felt his presence approaching before he'd actually opened the door, a sign that her sensory abilities as an acolyte were returning after she'd gone long enough without burying her sensitivity to the force beneath a mountain of pills, but it still didn't change the expression of surprise on her face when the door opened. "I don't suppose we'll get a chance to talk." She said, sounding a little more than bitter, but she got up to make herself presentable nonetheless.

"Would it help if I said that I'm sorry?"

[member="Asharad Graush"]

 

[Asharad Graush]

Uncertainty.

He wasn't sure what to expect when he had passed through that threshold. Warmth? Definitely not. She had been trapped in this room for days, since the Blockade, and now he was bringing her to he home of the Order. The closest thing he could approximate as to being home anyway. For him, he was at his most comfortable on the battlefield, slaying, knee deep in enemies and allies alike. It was a want that he knew would soon come to him.

War renewed.

She almost sounded resigned.

She wasn't a fighter, not like him. Didn't have the drive to fight. Not as hard as he did. She wasn't...

Ruthless.

Weak.

His head tilted. When they had first been together, and the times following that when she had been within the First Order, never parting his side, the Force hadn't permeated around her as it had now. It was... A new part of her that he had never known existed. The energy shield of the helmet clouded his features, but those once golden orbs were now crimson.

"I imagine you have a lot to say." Came his response, his colossal form stepping out of her way as he walked out of the room and waited for her in the corridor.

"When we land."

And then he was off.

As they traversed the halls, she would see the crimson faces of the Purebloods that worked on the vessel. All Sith. The potential for the Force rolled off of them all in waves. Thousands of what would've been considered a previously extinct species. A planet full of them existed, but it was largely ignored by the Galaxy in the Unknown Regions. But through Graush, they were returned.

​

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The Daisya Infiltrator tore through the clouds, above the structure below them.

As its repulsors kicked in as it lowered to a landing pad within the walls surrounding the establishment, A'sharad's helmet had since been taken off his head, hooked to his belt as he walked. Turning to look upon [member="Lily Kuhn"], it had been the first time she had seen his entire face since they had parted ways in the Core.

"It's quiet here."

 

[Ellie Mors]

She looked over at him, taking in his armored figure with little more than a disinterested gaze, and narrowed her eyes with a scowl as she caught herself ogling him. If there was a way to change clothes in an angry calm, Lily had mastered it - tossing the top she'd been wearing to the wastebin, certain that A'sharad would've been even more insufferable if she wore anything that could have associated her with the life she'd just left behind. There was a clear air of irritation about her, in the way she forced herself into her pants and the way she scoffed at his stating the obvious. Realizing he wasn't going to let her get ready at her own pace, despite the suddenness of their departure, she slid her feet into the shoes at her bedside and rushed into the hall behind him, the only belonging she carried with her being a stick of lip gloss that she was hastily adhering to herself with practiced expertise - no mirror necessary after having more or less memorized the contours and shape of her lips.

His answer - to speak when they'd land - was met with a hard roll of her eyes and the clicking sound of the container of lip gloss closing. She wanted to make a comment, a retort, with some affectionate sarcastic flair, but she forced herself to stay quiet and keep her mouth firmly shut.

If he wanted silence she'd let him have it.

-

In all honesty she wasn't sure what to expect when the clouds gave way to the green beneath them. It wasn't that she expected wherever A'sharad was staying to be as industrial as the First Order appeared to be from the outside, but the sheer beauty of the world beneath them was certainly not something she'd suspected a Sith Lord to live in. Her own mother had preferred the whites and grays of Prakith and the browns and beiges of Teta over the quaint greenery they were approaching. She peered out of the viewport, as consumed with the view as she had been the first time she could remember going vacationing as a family in her youth. There had been traces of a smile when she glanced towards A'sharad briefly - quickly making a double take as she realized he'd removed his helmet.

"It's quiet here."

'Breath you idiot.'

She blinked with a sharp intake of air, nodding in agreement as she realized he'd said something. There'd been a conscious effort to remind herself that, up until maybe fifteen seconds ago, she was extremely unhappy with him.

Not that reminding herself helped any.

"It's lovely." She remarked in agreement. She hesitated a moment, wanting to say something, but decided to try to hold it in as she followed him out. Not more than a minute went by and she already had something else to say.

"So.. you're.." Lily started to say, her voice quickly trailing off as she turned her head away and stared hard at the ground. "Are you okay?" It wasn't necessarily her intention to change the way the conversation would have started, but she had suddenly remembered that moment where she'd regrettably stood in his way. On her part, she had turned her gaze back to him, and particularly to where she recalled his prosthetic limb being with something of a concerned look on her face. "You scared me." She added, though the context had been vague - whether she was referring to how he'd taken the brunt of a sonic blaster up his hand and into his arm or how sadistically he'd treated was certainly not elaborated on. She did seem concerned about his arm, though, so perhaps the Tetan was a little more concerned with his well-being than she was upset over his behavior.

The momentary flick of her eyes towards his face, however, did show another sort of concern entirely.

"Though I'm starting to wonder if that matters to you." Lily noted quietly. She wasn't trying to be dramatic, in spite of how histrionic she had been, but was genuinely concerned about his behavior - and honestly rightfully so, all things considered.

She fell silent after that comment, however, and opted not to push the issue.

[member="Asharad Graush"]

 

[Asharad Graush]

Turning to his redheaded companion after he descended the ramp of the ship, he continued to look upon her, even as he remained silent as she asked her questions. For a moment, the Sith Lord looked away, clenching his left hand, only to find the hydrastaff on his waist coiling itself up around his left arm.

Tilting his head, the stub that was his right hand rose up to brush against one of the heads of the staff.

"Most trusted companion," he breathed out in a soft whisper as he swept his gaze back around to [member="Lily Kuhn"].

The crimson orbs, befitting the stature of him as a Lord of the Sith fixated upon her now as he answered. "The estate was only completed after you returned to the Alliance," he said. Right after the stint of her living with him in the First Order. Although the variety of locations they had stayed in was limited, that being military bases close to borders with their at the time enemy, he had figured she had learned the Imperials were not the monsters that the Galaxy would make them seem.

Instead he had seen her off while the Alliance snuck up the Ison Corridor and attempted to assault the core worlds of the Order.

Were it not for the quick wits of the Navy trapping Alliance reinforcements in the Corridor, Bespin and the planets linked to it likely would've been lost.

"I'm fine," he said, in a reassuring voice as he glanced down to the stump that was his right arm. Though he imagined that wasn't what she was speaking of. At least, not entirely. There was another look to the five headed abomination upon his arm, the five heads extending out to Lily before he crouched to the stone pathway, a stone ledge separating path from the grass.

There was silence between them for some time as she made her last statement. Nodding his head slowly, a thoughtful look across his features, he started saying, "Traveling in secret from here, to the Core to see you... So many times." Of course he wasn't afraid of being caught, he was a senior officer most of the time, he also owned a stealth vessel. It was easy to avoid both Imperial and Alliance scanners. "Of course you matter to me," he said softly. For a moment, it almost seemed as if his face tightened, "The only thing that matters to me." Twitching faintly at the words. Emotions that were not aggressive in nature, ones that didn't fuel the Dark Side weren't ones that he explored, but the Empress was capable of stirring something that he had never felt before, and there was a apart of him that was afraid of giving it strength.

It would become a weakness, he knew, and upon his last trip into the Core, he turned away.

He let her go.

What he did do however was made sure she remained safe. Stalking, in a way, through Intelligence Services, but, that wasn't a thing she needed to learn of.

Growling, he shook his head as he untangled himself from the staff's grasp, allowing it to slither off and into the grass surrounding the compound. From an enormous ship that had been ridiculously claustrophobic, the castle appeared almost empty, yet, full of... Life.

Rising up to his feet, he looked up to her after his admittance, and said, "Will you stay on Dosuun with me?" His head tilted, "Until I claim Koros Major for you..."

 

[Ellie Mors]

She glanced away, out to the grass that swayed freely with the wind, and tried to think of other things. It was hard, of course - he had spoken of that as though she'd just casually walked away - and the effort was at least somewhat visible on her face, even if only with the slight reddened tinge of her cheeks and ears. It was so much harder now than before, and she found herself mute, strained, when he spoke of their quiet meetings in secret - memories that were as lovely, coming from his mouth, as they were painful - and she turned her gaze back to him, smiling in spite of everything. In the moment that passed between that brief reminisce and the admission that followed, there was a part of herself that struggled to prepare for a retort that never came - she found herself realizing she had been clenching her mouth shut, just as tense as the air between them, and only noticed it as she felt her jaw slacken and her lips part slightly.

'Oh.'

It was a singular thought, the first of many to come to mind. So caught up in the moment, she was blindsided by the confession that followed. Her eyes went wide, she could feel her heart race. There was guilt, enough to drown the Tetan in and much more to spare, as the realization of what he meant washed over her. Though her gaze was leashed on him, she was still reeling from the admission. It wasn't until his frustration rang out that she moved toward him. There was a struggle in him, a conflict palpable even to her, and if it was anything like the kind of uncertainty she'd felt when she'd first felt the murmurs of love in her heart, then there was nothing better she could offer him than her support. "I am never leaving you again." She said quietly, arms snaking around him to give him an embrace that she felt he needed as much as she did. Her voice nearly broke as she stressed her intent, but she knew it needed to be said. Teta or not, it didn't matter - her heart was his, now and forever. The only hurt she still felt was the guilt for running away in the first place and, despite barely finding the strength in her to turn her thoughts into words, she breathed out the words as though a heavy weight was being removed from her shoulders.

"I am so sorry."

[member=Asharad Graush]

 

[Asharad Graush]

Shaking his head, his hand ran through his hair as he freed the mess of hair. Always a mess, it had almost never been in a kept fashion. When she moved towards him, his crimson orbs were wary, unsure of what was about to occur. He didn't rely on his emotions to determine what he could sense from her, it was... Unwise to trust his emotions in an emotionally vulnerable position. He had learned that much from his father in his training.

When she spoke however, his eyes blinked shut for a moment as his jaw tensed. Before they opened again, he felt her arm snaking around him, and he could only feel warmth.

His left arm wrapping around her shoulder and holding her against him, he said, "Think of it no more," and his full lips pressed against her forehead briefly as they embraced each other.

"You'll be safe here, when I'm gone," he said softly, breaking the embrace as he guided her down the path to the compound. "The war with the Alliance is only just restarting." Even as they walked, he thought of the multitude of targets that were lined up against the First Order's border. He sought to press the attack while he could, but the presence of the Supreme Leader on the battlefield forced him into a secondary position... One that forced him to follow, rather than lead. "I'm sure they would just as likely attempt to capture and trial you for leaving." He said.

It wasn't difficult to guess that he had only recently gotten her back, and he wouldn't be bringing her to the front lines with him. Going back and forth would be a nuisance, but... Necessary. At least for now. The road to Koros Major was long, and with a new part of her existence opening up to him... He sought to use it to the fullest.

[member="Lily Kuhn"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

She ignored the uncertainty that had lingered just beneath the surface, the uncertainty that had touched them both, and let the momentary embrace cut through the tension. "Mmhm." She mumbled behind shut lips, smiling as his lips pressed against her head. These were the moments she lived for, yearned for. Forget royalty, forget it all - the comfort he gave her was more than anything she'd ever asked for. Even his assurance, which doubled as a warning of his impending absence, wasn't enough to bring her down. This was a feeling she thought that she wasn't going to get back, to know he was going to come back for her and make this a regular - a permanent - part of her life was almost like a dream to her.

"I understand." Lily said in response, agreeing with a slight nod of her head at his observation on this rekindled war.

She reached for his hand with her own, pushing thoughts of the Alliance out of her head. They had used her as a foothold in the core when they'd taken Coruscant, she had no reason to dwell on what they thought of her. "Just call me and let me know you're alright when you're away for a long time." She said. Lily had spent much of their first run together watching for news of him on the holonet, the man that stood before her was known for a reputation that far exceeded that of anyone else she'd known. Sure, she'd worry when he was gone - wonder, sometimes, if she'd hear from him again - but that was simply how things were. Someone always died in war, and despite her confidence and trust in his strength there would always be that concern there.

"...Thank you." Lily added, quietly.

[member="Asharad Graush"]