The Cross Fox(Arcanix)

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"Some certain individuals, who shall remain nameless for now as I'll be dealing with them, tricked me into saying Alex was a my business partner," she said, a sour note in her voice. "To protect myself, and keep Alex safe, I staged a kidnapping of her and made sure she would survive whatever would happen after it. The Wrath wanted to place her on trial, so I took her to Coruscant, but I first explained everything and your fiancee agreed to the plan. They sentenced her into the Nether, but not before Hel took control of her body. Alex got shunted out early, so she is currently waiting for us to get her a new body to transfer her soul into."

And breathe. Corvus was right, this really did run in the family.

"She's going to be waiting for us near the rift that is still active on Csilla, but we need to get her the body first, and luckily, Hel is now completely separated from her because of my colleagues, and Alex probably got rid of her once and for all."

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen's glare held for a moment, examining Arcanix while every bit of the force and merchant searching a attention he had poured out to sense for any lies, even a hint of deceit. But as she finished he found none and leaned his head back, letting out a small sigh. "Where's Daeda? I need a new handkerchief." One of his eyes opened and rolled down to stare at Arcanix. "You know, if I see any hint of a tricks, sith politics will be he least of your worries."

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"I don't intend to double-cross you, if I had any intention of that, you'd be in much more dire straits on Coruscant," Taeli replied, sighing at why these people always assumed she was working some angle. "As for Daeda, he probably misinterpreted what he saw, but I haven't seen him since I moved Alex's ship from Utapau to Bilbringi."

Getting up, she said, "I take it you have an available body or something we can clone lying around before we go to Csilla? Also, please try the soup, it's rather good if you don't want to partake of the tea."

 

[Vulpesen]

His eyes remained narrowed on the woman before his head gave a nod of affirmation. "Yes, I do." The zorren people had been almost annihilated by the invading bandit coalition, and such would call for drastic measures to re-stabilize the population. It was a quiet operation, but Vulpesen had set up a deal with some cloners. Hopefully, they would have a product already for Alex's essence to hop into.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"Where to then?" she asked over her shoulder, sitting down at the cockpit controls. "I take you've set up something in secret somewhere? And because you probably don't trust me, you can set the nav computer to delete any coordinates you give me so I don't know the spatial coordinates for any of your little alliance's operations."

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen nodded and stepped forward to the control console. "How else would the Vitae have survived?" His hands continued to type into the nav computer, each number being replaced by another. By the time he was done, he would have finished a force illusion that would set the destination as the center of the maw. Certainly bad news should anyone try following him without permission. Of course, the first clones sent to Veradune would be kept in a vault, but such was easily accessed by the leader of the Tenevi.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"The Maw?!" she asked, her eyes going wide. "Okay, I want to bring her back too, but if we're going to the Maw, I want a waiver signed that says I have permission to kick your ass for eternity if we die and get sucked down a black hole."

She might be fascinated by the area that contained the world of Abeloth, but that didn't mean she wanted to travel there anytime soon. There was a reason that place was so dangerous and so valuable for secret facilities, but still.

"Right, making the jump to lightspeed now and may the Force preserve our souls," she grumbled, throwing the level and watching the stars elongate. They would have a bit of down time so . .. she was rather curious about the man who was trying to marry Alex.

"So care to share anything about yourself? Or do you have any other questions for me about myself?"

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen shrugged and motioned for the controls, sending a message to Ace to grab the hyper drive. of course, he would only be met with a feeling that denoted the idea of absence. "Damn. Can you get that?" Of course, Ace was back at home caring for Valen. After all, someone had to be there to watch over the boy while his parents were in the field and the underworld.


Once the ship would set into hyperspace, he took a seat and looked at her. "Two things I hate. Flying, and tea." It was all he said. A sign that he was calming down from his murderous rage, but still showing he didn't particularly like Taeli. But could you blame him? no matter her reasons, it still stood that his fiance was in hell for the actions of her business partner.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"Look I'm sorry," she said, sensing the brusque-ness as she turned around from the pilot seat. "I'm trying to fix this aren't I? She's my friend and I didn't want to do this. But I have someone I have to protect, I promised someone else I would protect that person . . . at all costs, and I can't do that if I'm imprisoned or dead for supposed treason for working with Alex."

Sighing, she got a cup of Bastion Black tea and sat down at the table, nursing the cup in her hands.

"You hate me for what I did, but would you have done anything different if you were in my shoes? Don't answer, you'll probably say yes and give me a multitude of things you'd do differently. I did the best I could, but you don't really know me at all, so you just see someone willing to give up their friends if need be."

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen listened to her words as he continued to sit in the seat. He didn't look at her, simply listened while his tail hung from his seat without the slightest sway. She was right. He did have another way. And even if caught on the spot, there was one option, he would follow that he knew a sith couldn't understand. Dying for those you love. Still, one thing the sith woman said peaked an interest in him. "Who are they?"

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"My younger sisters," she said, taking a sip of her tea. "My younger sister, I'm not worried about. She's a Jedi Master after all, it's my youngest sister I have to protect. She's so full of hate and anger, she joined the Sith. I took her as an apprentice, gave her a false name, to protect her from enemies of my other sister. So, if I got thrown into jail or died, there would be nothing standing in the way of monsters like Vornskr from taking my youngest sister and twisting her into something, a monster, and that is something I don't want to see her become."

Taking another sip of tea, she continued saying, "I acted out of love for my sisters, not out of vindictiveness towards Alex and I only had so much time and opportunity to move."

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen let out a small sigh once more and lifted his head from the back of the chair. "I disagree with your methods... but I accept your reasons." To be honest, Vulpesen sometimes hated the restrictions of sanity. This was one of those times. Somewhere in the back of his head, a small voice told him that he would forgive this woman. Another more prominent voice said it as well. But for now, she had a lot to do before he could even look her in the eye.
[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"I can understand that," she sighed, taking a long swig of her tea and lowering it. Looking into the murky depths, she continued saying, "I'm not asking for forgiveness for what I did, only one person can do that and she already did. I just wanted to let you know I will do anything I can to protect them. Do you have other questions for me?"

She figured he might, especially since she wasn't acting like a normal Sith, but only he could say. The trip inched along though to wherever they were going if the coordinates to the Maw were fake.

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen nodded to her and reached down to his wrist, starting to tinker a bit with his bracer. "For now, I've learned all I need." With that, he went back to silence, waiting for the ship to arrive at veradune. Did he know everything about [member="Darth Arcanix"]? No. But to him, he motives and priorities were obvious. That's all he needed for now.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

Deciding to be silent now, she would learn more about the man once they rescued Alex from the Nether. Picking up a book she had been reading, she fished around in her satchel for a pair of reading glasses she used when reading a new text because they had an uplink to her datapad so the book's text would be downloaded into a digital form . . . just in case. She still preferred the feel of paper in her hands.

The trip would pass in silence for a few hours unless Vulps said anything, seeing as how Taeli was absorbed by her book and the tales of Lumiya and Vergere.

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen continued to work on his bracer and other pieces of equipment until they finally managed to reach the planet of Veradune. Taking control of the steering, he made his way past the forest canopy to one of the landing sites. "Do not leave my sight." Once the ship was shut down, he got up and made his way to the ramp and then to the main temple.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

"Well, this certainly isn't the Maw, I take we're on the world of Veradune?" she asked, following him closely. "Sorry, I'm sure Alex told you Veles told me about it's existence but not the actual coordinates."

The world was strange and seemed almost . . . empty. She saw a few more of the same species Vulpesen was, but not many. She wondered about that, but figured it would be rude to ask as she followed him into the main temple towards wherever they were going.

 

[Vulpesen]

He nodded and continued waling, his tail swaying lightly behind him. Each stride was long and held a purpose. There was no wasting time. Every moment dawdling was another moment he wasn't with Alexandra. Thus, it wouldn't be long before he reached the temple, with only short pauses should [member="Darth Arcanix"] need a moment to catch up to him. As they passed through the front doors, he would then turn to one of the guards. "Get a grav-pad ready and to the vault. I've got a delivery to make." Vulpesen's usual cheerful tone was gone, something the guard obviously picked up on and not wanting to be fried by the cross valde, he decided to speedily hurry on enacting the order.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Vulpesen"]

Fascinated by everything she was seeing, she was an academic after all and this was a new planet to experience, she kept up with Vulpesen and wondered what he might have down in this vault. Probably something rather large if it required a grav-pad to go down to it. Still, he at least had his men disciplined and ordered. That was always good, especially given current instability across the galaxy.

"So what's down here?" she asked as she followed him to whatever was contained within this vault.

 

[Vulpesen]

"If I told you, what would be the purpose of the high security?" He made it to the vault and knelt before it, waiting for the machine to scan his face, paying special attention this hair. After a small click, Vulpesen would place his hand on a pad and flinch as he felt a small prick. After a moment, a datapad would present itself to which Vulpesen would type in a code. "Now, we simply need to wait."


[member="Darth Arcanix"]