Sin vs. Adi

[Sinistra]

Just outside the capital city on Honoghr, with the RDMC just visible in the background, our combatants find themselves in a wide open stone courtyard 100 meters square, edged with raised stone beds for shrubbery and flowers. The ground stones are flat and even, and well laid so that the surface is smooth as glass.

The sun is out, the temperature is fair and winds are calm.

[member="Adi"]

 

[Adi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8PrTzLaLHc

Honoghr, without Ice, Eya, Lukas, the stresses, the battles, the wounds..Without even Adi himself.. Here, all seemed as if the Matangos had never existed, and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

It felt good to be home.

He took a deep breath of the warm, humid air, and felt the sun on his face. A genuine smile crossed his face...a rare commodity in recent times, and he let the warmth of the rays striking his skin took him back to a time before the wars, before the Jedi, even before Ice, Eya, and Lukas.

Before the scars of his life took their toll.

He had strolled through the streets of Nystao earlier in the day, even taking the time to stop in at the Bubble and Squeak Cantina for a glass of Noghri wine. No one paid him any mind, no one bothered him, no one stopping him to ask why he left Honoghr in the first place. It was really nice, truth be told. Fame had its perks, but it had just as many things that detracted from its luster. Here, he was just another bloke passing through the city.

There were other differences as well. Nystao wasn't nearly as large or as bustling, and the RDMC was located on the outskirts due to this. The sprawl of the city had not yet completely consumed the hospital complex...not to mention the Colosseum of Fallen Angels was missing. In its place, a stone courtyard with stone beds filled with plants and flowers...even one or two containing a wild-growing form of Endorian Endo.

Damn...that stuff grew -anywhere-, didn't it?

Plopping down on the edge of one of the planters, he considered staying here for a while...he could get used to this...

 

[Sinistra]

...but not for too long. There was someone else stalking Nystao on this afternoon, and her gaze strayed towards the RDMC every once in a while as she wandered through the crowds. Once a lifetime ago, she might have looked the other way, or cut him some slack because she was Banrion and he was married to her stepdaughter. Things were not so blissfully simple anymore.

The former emperor blended into the crowds well enough, her fallen empire had been relegated to the realms of history and myth. That suited her just fine. However, she had made deals to safeguard the heirs of the Iron Fists and now, even in the midst of obscurity, she could not chance the lives of her children to satisfy a human weakness. It was after her arrival that she learned they were gone. Vanished into the greater universe for good, their names changed and their faces foreign to her.

It hurt. As a mother, even an awful one like her, she ached to know where they were and how they were learning and growing. She would have to hunt them and considering the litany of crimes she carried with her, there were few systems that would welcome a visit from her.

The courtyard offered a distraction from her sorrow and rage at her shortsightedness. It took half a second before she recognized the face of her former son in law. The silver bladed saber hilt dropped into her right hand as she stopped, her sulfuric eyes locked on the Arkanian.

She was dressed in silver grey, purple and black, the cut of her robes in the style of a House of Kuat paired with her knee high black boots.

"I should have known you'd be skulking around here."

 

[Adi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QlOJiGFPBM

That voice....Nah, couldn't be....

Adi turned, and looked, and sure enough, there stood the former queen of the Iron Fists herself, Lord Sinistra. Of all people to stroll into this garden, she was probably last on the list. He was glad he had the silver hilt of Iniquitous' saber stashed on his belt...but he kept it there, even though she pulled her weapon. If she got frisky, though, Adi was poorly prepared...A black t-shirt and cargo pants for armor, his gray-on-white Air Force Ones, and only the one lightsaber.

Damn...he really didn't wanna scuff these shoes yet...they were literally just out of the box.

"I do pop up in the most unlikely of places, don't I? What brings you here, =Lady Sinistra=?"

He had blurted it out before he even thought about it...and it was dripping with snark. He knew it was pretty much a death sentence to anyone that called her by 'Lady'. Yet, his mouth decided to engage before his brain was in gear. Now, she was probably going to rip him into shreds, and use his skull as a chamber pot. No, there was no 'probably' about it...she was going to eviscerate him.

...Sonuvabitch. He would really miss the whole 'being alive' thing, too....Too bad it was about to rapidly de-evolve into 'being very, very dead'.....

 

[Sinistra]

Outwardly, there was no change in her demeanor or expression, nothing to betray the violently affirmative decision that she made. Oh yes, he would bleed for this but would it be a better use of her talents to dispatch him here in this picturesque courtyard or to incapacitate him and introduce him to her very unique talents in torture and interrogation? Perhaps he knew where her children were, perhaps she could put him to the table to find out. If he didn't, well then, practicing one's craft did lead to perfection.

"There are no ladies here, unless that's your way of asking me to castrate you. The way you've been wearing your hair lately, I'm more than happy to help you transition."

She clucked the inside of her cheek, narrowing her eyes at the fallen Jedi knight, all the while preparing herself to go on the offense. The Sith Lord felt the Force curl around her, eager to her touch while she noted that he had not drawn his blade. Fool.

She moved with a burst of force speed so smoothly, one might have believed that it was just like breathing for her as she went to her right (his left), her left hand extended to him and an arc of crimson lightning burst forth at him.

 

[Adi]

"Well, if you aren't a lady, how did =YOUR= transition go? Did it take a long time, or is there some kind of force ability that speeds it up?

...did it hurt??"

There....There it was....That underlying, seething hatred that Adi was looking for. Outwardly, Sinistra appeared as she always did...calm, cool, collected. But underneath? The Arkanian knew that he had touched a nerve. He was hoping to draw her into attacking, and when her tongue clicked? Well, he knew damn well something was coming...and indeed, it did.

Adi felt the enrobing energy of the force wrap his one-time mother-in-law in a twisting, vining bastardization of its pure power. Adi, too, immersed himself in the force, dropping deep into its endless tides. When she blasted off into a blur of motion, his eyes locked onto her. While she was using force speed for movement, he was using it to see her. This was an oft-overlooked aspect of the power that few utilized properly. One did not need to be in motion to use speed, and in this instance, Adi was glad he didn't have to.

When Sinistra dropped past his left side, she fired off a burst of crimson-hued lightning. As she raised her hand to launch the power, Adieumus brought up his own left, and reflected the shocking projections away from his body in no particular direction. He wasn't trying to send it back to her, but he most certainly didn't want her present....

Presents from Sinistra tended to hurt, and cause bodily harm.

He kept his eyes on her, turning just enough to keep his front facing her. He really didn't want her to get behind him...lightsabers tended to pop through backs when she was in that position with someone she wasn't fond of. Still, he kept his hands off his weapon...he did not want to have to use it yet. Even though she was trying to most likely kill him, he still had too much respect for her to have to do the same, unless there was no other choice.

Besides, who would be there to run the Sith Empire when it found its resurgence if he took her out?

 

[Sinistra]

Her lightning arced away from him, no tell-tale thrwoosh of a blade singing to life to deflect it or to defend himself. He just deflected it. Such a Jedi thing to do. Had she not been committed to pressing an attack, she might have time to be properly disgusted by his refusal to engage her. Maybe she would have huffed out a groan, rolled her eyes. The world will never know.

The lady jokes. Always with the lady jokes. As if she had not heard them or that Sith were unable to transcend being baited into an attack by a verbal sling, but most considered Sith to be no better than petulant children who were incapable of controlling their emotions.

It was never the lady comment that bothered her. It was the subtle and overt misogyny that she endured every moment of her path to being a Sith Lord. It was the idea that the only way she could possible show her strength and gain power was on her back. It was the idea that she could not be a capable general or a fierce opponent in a fight because she was a she. It was the notion that she was something to be protected rather than feared. Sith Lords did not sleep their way to power or shy from a battle. They earned it in blood and sacrifice. To call her lady smacked in the face of every step she had taken to carve her own place in the galaxy.

She closed the distance, her senses keened to him and her eyes on him, watching for a sign of where his movements would take him. Her left hand faced palm out just in front of her chest, while her right brought her silver blade towards the center of his mass in an upwards angle, from a point roughly even with his outer thigh towards his navel.

 

[Adi]

She was so damn aggressive....Maybe the 'lady' comments weren't effective in the way he thought they would be. He was used to the 'Angry Sith smash!' type of anger. No, this was seething hatred. There was intent to kill in her every move, and if he wasn't careful, he would end up on the bad side of dead.

She was facing him, saber in her right hand, left palm facing out toward him. He waited, trying to be patient now, and allowing her to strike. He didn't have to wait too long before the saber snapped out toward him. His own left hand came out to match her movement, shooting downward toward the silver sliver slashing at his sternum from below. Again, his training in force deflection came into play. He attempted to throw his left hand toward the blade, using the force to keep the searing hot weapon from slicing through it, driving it down and to the right before it landed. However, he was quick to get the appendage clear of the blade, as not to tempt fate. Reflect was only effective for quick bursts against a lightsaber. As with most everything else, the weapon was able to break through with enough contact unless a lot of concentration was put into the power....concentration and energy that Adieumus was quite certain he would need later on. Instead, he pressed a counterattack with his right hand, throwing a hard half-fist driving punch toward Sin's open left palm. If it landed, he would try to slam her own hand into her chest, and knock the wind out of her.

Sinistra was not a woman to be trifled with. Sure, he was hoping to get her dander up a bit...but this was already shaping up to be far more than what Adieumus had bargained for. She was after something...and damned if he knew what it was. She was surely not in the mood for meaningful conversation at the moment, either...

He would just have to keep himself alive long enough to get her to calm down a bit.....