Private The search for answers [Zeptepi Zambrano]

[Darth Ahriman]

Accusing Zeptepi Zambrano of being weak was not what Valen was attempting to do, and it was already well obvious that she had trained him to be an exceptional killer, granting him power that she herself had come to possess through both the Sith Order and the Nightsisters of Dathomir. Disputing the result of her training was also not his intention.

"What is your purpose in life then, aside from furthering your Father's ambitions?" Valen asked, not out of scrutiny but sheer curiosity and the desire to know how to, and perhaps form his own ambitions or purpose beyond his need for vengeance against those who had wronged him.

As far as their training and fighting against one another went, Valen had not truly attempted to take Zeptepi's life. He did not have the desire to kill her; For if he had, he would not have come so far nor grown so strong as he was today. Not only that, but she had become a presence in his life that he had learned to depend upon. The only one in his life that he had ever experienced such reliability. He did not need to comment on the nature of their relationship, however. At least, not at the present moment.

"Newly wed?".

"I bet you want to lighten the little lady's load, running the household?".

Valen had been about to respond with a harsher dismissal to those who had interrupted the pair when Zeptepi spoke up first in response with a select set of words that he recognized to be more than mere casual talk. His jaw visibly tightened while the man looked over their would-be entourage, resigning to allow them to play their game. These were clearly people working under Zeptepi's influence and thus he restrained himself from ruining their evening.

Stepping up onto the bus, Zeza would lead the way while Valen would begrudgingly follow closely behind her towards their designated seating. As they took their place, his eyes would return to the woman at his side, silent for the time being as he listened to her encouragement spoken not aloud but instead transferred telepathically.

"We cannot be compared to the weak by example. There is no sense of normality where we are concerned..." He spoke quietly, soon glancing at the other occupants on the bus. "I would not know where to begin trying to assume such a life".

 

[Zeptepi Zambrano]

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Valen Arenais

He had asked her if she ever understood her purpose in life. She knew it only as what her elders determined for her, 'to excel in ability, at all cost.' It wasn't until recently, she began truly hoping for direction beyond her obligations. "Hasn't there ever been a time in your life when you just didn't feel the Darkside of the Force guiding what you're supposed to do?" she asked him. She hoped that maybe that'll happen after they are done here. "Maybe someday you will give me just an hour where you shed your armor, your tough exterior, sit down, relax, and have a drink with me. Maybe we could discover our purpose in life together," she teased. She never truly tried to kill him; surely that has to account for some sort of positive gesture between them.

Nothing about their lives could compare to the common non-force-sensitive folk, but all lifestyles did manage to flourish. Even her Mother managed to raise her daughters, and still stock the most vast apothēkē in the galaxy. Valen did speak the truth when he said Zeza zipped through life upon the coattails of her Father. While the bus went through the town and she held tight onto Valen's elbow, locked hand in hand to give a show for the people that they appear to be legitimate newlyweds, she mulled over his statement. For that moment she grew quiet and she looked inward, her visage pensive.

Her life had been from the pages of some manual. Her Mother had ever hailed her Father as likened to a god, yet began to believe in a supreme being; someone ordered the energy into existence, and it wasn't the Sith or the Jedi, or any physical being known in existence. Someone designed Physics. Someone orchestrated all the Sciences to order in the first place. With all the intricacies of potions brewing alone, it only proves that the witch compounds what already is available for use, she does not creates the Magick, but simply frees it. With how her Father is laid up, he may have mastered death, but he does not sweep the galaxy and order death to take others while excluding him.

"I've been having dreams for a while now. In it, my Mother dies for my Father," she said finally. The conversation between the other riders left little chance their conversation would be overheard. "In my dream, I want to understand why she would sacrifice herself like that. I want to understand why she would choose to leave me, while he is the one who is supposed to be her god. I used to believe that he was, until he fell too sick to heal himself. Really he is just very much bigger than me. I could never do the things he does. Why wouldn't my Mother choose to exalt herself with her own magick? If her abilities would sustain him, wouldn't that make her the stronger one?" Zeza believes her dream might come true. She believes that her Mother would simply end up forgotten, and Zeza would be alone in the universe…a second class citizen in her home, never the apple of his eye. Then there is Valen, until he might decide its time to go on his own as well. Maybe her advances towards him is just her warped idea for one last chance at normalcy. "I have family. But all in all, they think I have less aptitude to be great, because my blood is impure. I only recently realized that. My Mother used to protect me from it. Because of that though, I used to think my Mother was lesser because she never went to dinners or parties, she always labored over the brew instead. She taught me directly. While they gathered, she worked. I used to think little of her because she didn't mingle. I thought she was less-than amazing, like my Father's blood in me makes me a greater creature. I'm not free-riding on my Father's heels, Valen, I'm under them. I've zero chance of being noticed, even if I too were to offer my life as my Mother had in my dream."

Zeza had been pondering what might happen if she did leave Malsheem to make her own way. It became clear that the Sith would not ever come together as she once believed. The Dark Lords continuously fight over jurisdiction. Their squabble is not any different than that of the existing Jedi Grandmasters. They too are so focussed on their differences, they do not even challenge one another to a tournament to establish who will become hailed across the galaxy as the supreme leader. For this oversight, the galaxy shall never be brought under Sith rule. There are more Dark Lords in number than there are Jedi Grandmasters.



The bus stopped and the underworld agents handed out brochures as the couples stepped off the transport steps. They were led into a showroom of droid maids and droid nannies, mechanics, doctors, pilots all droids. The sales people were ready to receive the buyers and began their routine sales pitch. Zeza stepped apart from the crowd and in a low voice she asked the nearest lingering representative, "You got something more…lifelike we might see?" her wording exactly as their investigators instructed she speak.

She noticed one from among the crowd watching everyone intently as she spoke. "Jedi, Valen?" she warned Telepathically to Valen. "Likely, and alone?" she wondered. There would be others wanting to receive information on when and where to buy slaves, who also know the right thing to ask the representatives. Anyone who didn't would be shown the droids. The Jedi would just love to learn the code and be told the inside information, and to blow the operation wide open…before Valen can complete his Mission!!

Zeza turned her back on the snooping Jedi, and crowded out his line of sight, standing between the representative and the Jedi who hoped to read the representative's lips while he spoke.
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[Darth Ahriman]

"All of my life" Valen replied without hesitation. He had not come into true ownership of power until falling in under the tutelage of Zeptepi Zambrano and even then, the Dark Side of the Force was not his leader, but he was the one in leadership over the dark and destructive power that he now held such maniacal sway over.

"You won't find that here among others" He stated coldly, his gaze upon those sharing their transport with them; "It would need to be somewhere isolated. Void of others. Perhaps you would be the first, but I could not demean myself to become vulnerable in the presence of anyone else" he explained as though this were a normal sentiment, as though it were natural for him to be so tightly wound, concealing himself from weakness and personal attachments; the latter being something he still found uncertain and disconcerting to consider.

"Do you believe these to be visions of the future?" He asked in response to Zeza's sharing of her dreams. This was something personal that she had chosen to share with him, something of herself that she had offered not as a reward for his efforts or any feat of training but purely of her own volition without anything to gain from his awareness. It was something he had not anticipated and therefore found her admission to be significant, valuable within their time spent together, a ground they had not tried upon until now.

"If you feel they have no faith in you, why serve them so" Valen soon spoke up once more, this time in response to her exclusion from the House Zambrano; It simply did not make sense to serve something with loyalty and unwavering strength when there was less than nothing to gain from it. Why fight for those that would not only dismiss your presence but go the distance to make you doubt your own power in the Galaxy.

"Why not leave them and create your own legacy rather than trying to breathe life into a dying man"; Valen had never spoken this way about their Emperor in the past, yet with the prospect of Zeptepi's feelings out on the table, so to speak, it seemed plainly obvious that they could achieve more on their own than being under the heel of another. "If you are under the heel of another, then so am I" He added, turning back to look to Zeptepi with a flicker of defiance radiating beneath the crimson glow of corruption within his eyes. She would know in that moment that he had no ambition of following someone else at the expense of his own progress in life.

He would follow alongside Zeptepi Zambrano once their transport had come to a gradual halt, moving further into the city where they would investigate the potential slaving ring, that which acted as a front for the public to go about their daily business entirely oblivious to the fact that this group had been maliciously abducting and slaving out their own kind.

"Jedi, Valen?
Likely, and alone?".
​

When he felt Zeptepi's words reach him, his eyes darted from one to the next person, looking about the crowded streets until he felt certain he had spied the individual in question. "Doubtful. They would not be foolish enough to try to compromise an operation of this sort without backup. They are not as defiant as the Sith" Valen reached out to convey his thoughts to that of his former Master, now his...-What was she to him now. A friend? An accomplice or something entirely else...Something more?

Valen had to shake the distraction from his mind and concentrate on the present. He could feel the weight of his lightsaber buried in disguise beneath his apparel, yet they were not yet far enough in their mission to cause an uproar without risking the loss of their lead upon the Disciples of Typhojem, the treacherous zealots that they had come to decimate.

 

[Zeptepi Zambrano]

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Valen Arenais

Inwardly she was quite satisfied by his offered response. He gave her a glimmer of hope, that she might have a tender moment with him. She always felt he needed help breaking open his outer shell. Something had to stir inside of him other than what he revealed, even if he isn't aware of it. Part of her chosen method is the influence of her family life; her Mother and Father both from different worlds, hold family in such high regards. Better to choose her own mate than the dreaded idea of having her family help her meet eligible Sith, or worse, promise her in marriage to bridge rival organizations. But also, Zeptepi long felt Valen did not know how to handle any emotion outside of what was fed to him through the Darkside of the Force. He never broke. She wanted to be there when he does, so she can help him discover how to gather himself back together, rather than experience strong emotions while with anyone else. Lord forbid, he face off an adversary such as the Jedi, whom she had been told are very capable of stirring heavy emotion in one, enough to disconnect them from the Darkside altogether. She would enjoy her time with him, but it would not be without its purpose to further his evolution as a Sith, perhaps also her own. She wondered if he understood just how much a necessity is what she offered. She couldn't imagine it would merit either of them much if proposed by anyone else.

On the topic of family, Zeza could not imagine life without her Mother's guidance. Her other Moms were very learned indeed, but they truly could not love her the same as if she were their own. She would always be forced to wear the stigma of being born to a concubine. She had been told her Mother's reasoning behind her choice to accept the offer to become such; Zeza understood and she respected her Mother's choice although she knew her Mother to be a devout misandrist. She often wondered what her Mother would have replied if the offer were ever made to make her legitimate. A proposal was never offered, and thus the young Samshij-Zambrano was forced to conceal a jealousy of her pure-blood sisters. She did indeed find it a difficult struggle at times. She loves her sisters very much; it's the adults who ruin their relationship by insisting on segregating them in numerous ways onboard Malsheem.

Regarding her dream, she could not know if it was prophetic. She took a deep breath when Valen had asked her about that specifically. "I don't know. That's never happened to me before. But I guess…maybe the with the severity of the situation on Malsheem, that would be traumatic enough a future event to cause a first time. I know that my Mother would die for my Father. Everybody would die for my Father. Only, I wonder why should he need anyone to? What would such sacrifice gain?" She certainly hopes her dream is not prophetic!

"If you feel they have no faith in you, why serve them so? Why not leave them and create your own legacy rather than trying to breathe life into a dying man? If you are under the heel of another, then so am I!" he said in response to the intimate things she had spoken about her position in her family.

Zeza felt badly for having said anything at all. These were whispers better left among the shadows…things that could draw some very negative repercussions. Above all else, it is HERESY!! She had never considered leading her own life away from Malsheem. Why should any of this both her now? Does it truly? While there is so much to merit from being a Zambrano?

"Valen, I've never travelled outside the protections of His Empire. Even those who we brought along with us on this mission, they are loyal to Him over myself. What could possibly be gained by going rogue?" She would need time to process the option he had suggested. Perhaps should her dream come true that Mother should die for her Father sometime far, far, far in the future, Zeza would experience just the motivation to think about following her own path. For the moment however, she would continue to reap the benefit of the protections provided through her Father's name as she had for all her life. In reality, Zeza had honestly not lived as freely as had Valen. Her experiences being on her own and making a way for herself were limited. She truly had no awareness of this fact, and how it actually hinders her progress as a Sith. What a shock she shall suffer, the moment she realizes how unusual was her upbringing! She sensed his utter distaste for her evaluation about being under her Father's heel and the insult it suggested. "Valen, please don't think little of me for what I have said to you just now. Sometimes I suffer in these parts. They are not steeped in the proper energy and it takes its toll on my mood."



Inside the showroom, Zeza felt ill-at-ease. She contemplated how they might throw off the suspicions of the Jedi, short of severing his head. "The Jedi are tricky bastards," she relayed to Valen. "Many master the art of concealing their force signature," she told him through Telepathy. This Jedi might not know the current proper code to speak which would get him invited to attend the actual slave auction. He might be fishing for it. Zeza would remain vigilant of him, in case he tried his well-known art of persuasion on the racketeers.​

 

[Darth Ahriman]

The nearby Jedi posed too great a risk to their operation to be allowed to pick up on their presence, Valen decided then and there as Zeptepi Zambrano voices her discontent with the situation; Where he would usually have gone on the immediate attack, he instead turned in front of Zeptepi placing both of his hands upon her hips and staring down into her eyes as one might denote two loves sharing a heart felt moment.

"The Empire has been dissolved of its glory, I owe nothing to any but you yourself" He spoke quietly as the members of the crowd passed them by in the midst of the public clearing, passersby's going about their daily business within the market district, while the entrance to the underground slave quarter remained just beyond them, and they standing between it and the Jedi who'd been identified so far.

"The likelihood that any family I once had, shared my fate and has either been sold off into the farthest reaches of the Galaxy or since been killed. I have no obligations of loyalty beyond the teachings and the confidence you have shown me. Not only that but because I choose to stand with you. Not your father, or anyone else" he informed her, his words gradually turning personal as he elaborated on his preference to remain at her side, and that it went beyond mere duty. That his loyalty to her was more important than that of his former emperor.

"If your father is still truly meant to rule then his strength will return and those who deny him will perish. This is the way of the Sith. However, if he fails then others will assume his place...-Perhaps the one to replace him might be one of his own daughters" Valen smirked, there within his dark gaze, the embers of corruption burning ablaze with aspiration driven by the notion of her rise.

His gaze would shift, however, turning to avoid what would likely be a judgemental eye from Zeptepi for saying such things, but instead to check on the nearby Jedi who appeared to be slowly distancing himself from the area. 'They don't have anything. Yet' he thought to himself.

"Go now, talk to your contact..." Valen ushered her with an encouraging push against her left side in the direction of what he presumed to be the undercover slave drivers; "Get what information we need so that we can finally shed this cloud of lies and I can remove these Jedi from sharing the same air we breathe".

 

[Zeptepi Zambrano]

​

Valen Arenais

Valen stepped in close to her unexpectedly. He spoke quickly, leaving Zeza to mouth 'Wait. What?' as a seldom seem look of surprise stole her expression. She had never doubted Valen's loyalty. She remembered his struggle when the Empire disassembled. He stayed by her Father's side, by her side. Zeza herself had recently begun wondering if the Empire truly had plotted deception and a surprise comeback, as she had continuously declared they would. Now today, she wondered how her Father allowed himself to fall ill in the first place, that was the news from her Mother. Yet deep inside Zeza trusted the promise of her Mother that everything will be alright.

What Valen spouted off immediately touched her heart. He placed her on a pedestal above the Emperor. She certainly hadn't expected to hear such things; she never had a clue. Such thoughts had never crossed her mind, but she certainly doubts herself powerful enough to usurp anyone! She stood and tilted her head before shaking her head as a smirk arched across her cheek, imagining the gall. He implied Zeza worthy of liken exaltation. Valen clearly never met Joselyn. Zeza nor anyone else has any chance, unless a long lineage suffer death; and even Dad has mastered that. All in all, could he possibly comprehend just how deeply such talk endeared him further to her?

"We are here for you, darlin. There is a possibility they live. This is your evolution. In your success I too shall be exalted," she told him. Who knows, maybe his lineage survives somewhere. Why shouldn't there be someone? In her own experience however, Zeza was learning that family isn't easy. It requires effort. Did Valen know Zeza even has Jedi in her bloodline? She wondered what he would think about that! She had never met them, and isn't sure how she would greet them if she ever did.

She could feel the Jedi someplace hidden in the gathering patrons, subtly setting the flow of the Force into precise order to satisfy his secretive malevolent intentions. The Light of the Force made her feel slightly nauseated, but not too terribly. She vowed she would not permit any Jedi to get between Valen and his objective. Zeza stepped aside, turning her back on the crowd, while the servant sales representative handed her a pamphlet. On the front cover in fine print she noted a commlink number. "Just call this?" she asked, and the sales representative to the underground black market leaned in closely and pointed to two specific words in the entire block of type. Zeza memorized them. She took the pamphlet and folded it immediately. Those two words would help her decipher the text into code. It would tell her where to be and when she could make contact. She and Valen were on their way about a scavenger hunt to earn their destination. She turned towards Valen, before taking a closer look at the droids. She studied them for markings to spot their origin.
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[Darth Ahriman]

"So you shall" Valen agreed with Zeptepi Zambrano , knowing full well that it was her training and connecting him to Pom Stych Tivé which had elevated his status within the Sith Order, empowering him to become more than the previously weak and pathetic slave and construct designed for someone else's purpose. "I will not forget where I started, nor you who have enabled me. You will reap all the rewards that I sow" he informed her, seeking to embed the knowledge in her mind that she too would forever be recognized by his side, in darkness and in power above all else.

Motioning for her to continue, and in turn, watching closely as she interacted with the storeman who acted as a front for the underground slave trading across Arcadia-N-30, Valen could not help but smirk to himself as he thought about their success right under the nose of the Order of the Silver Jedi. Soon enough they would be tracking down these remnant cultists responsible for his initial enslavement, hopefully also linking Valen to his true origins, be they alive or dead. He would have answers regardless, and they would all die a very painful death.

In a way, they were doing the Jedi's job in seeking to destroy some of the businesses connected to the underground slave market, yet the greater economy surrounding the cultists was none of his concern, and they could try to take their vengeance against him if they truly sought it. Not until he had found his own thirst for revenge sated, however.

"Tell me you have something of worth to us" Valen spoke once more, under his breath as they rejoined one another and began to return to the motion of the crowded streets, slowly making their way elsewhere while he sought confirmation from Zeza that they were headed in the right direction.

 

[Zeptepi Zambrano]

@Valen Arenais

Zeza walked slowly with Valen through the crowd. "To decode this…we need…to buy…a damn droid," she relayed through gritted teeth. "The droid's programming…has to be…activated…by those bastards…in there." The expression on her face and her eyes read, 'B!TZ, yes I did just say that; and you sure did hear me right!' "You know I wanted to bore right into his gray matter." She stopped to face Valen, looking serious. "We have credits enough. Just I didn't know we would have to lug one of those annoying, non-sentient, overly-postulating…things around with us. And what if it hears something we say to each other?" If their presence was to be given up to authorities before the right moment, all could be lost.

She stood looking at Valen. Shot straight out from the doors of the showroom appeared a pesky, aged, slow-assed, only half operational looking, life-size, humanoid in form, droid…but…on wheels. A tiny activation key was turned inside a small hole in its chest. "Follow me," it said in its terrible metallic voice to Zeza and Valen as it whizzed passed the two Sith, its form rattling as it passed overtop a small patch of raised gravel. Zeza looked sternly at Valen, a genuine frown formed upon her lips. "I CAN'T WAIT TILL ITS TIME TO KILL THESE PEOPLE!" she said Telepathically. Realizing her mistake, she suddenly forced her lips to curl into a smile, but there would be no saving her mood. Her feigned smile looked awkward, faked, and absolutely out of place with the dark energy roiling behind her eyes.

Her silent emotional display caught the attention of the nearby jedi who remained in the shadows, observing everyone with suspicion.

"I guess we walk," she said, attempting to recover her error with the pep of their newlywed state. She rounded upon her tip-toes and landed a soft peck upon the tip of his nose, before swiftly turning to follow the droid down its open air trail. Along the way it stopped here and there, demanding the two make specific purchases of what could only be perceived as random, non-connected items. Everything, however was meant to represent a clue to the future slave auction attendees. Zeza bought a bag to hold everything. She could not make heads or tails out of any of it. "Maybe there is a clue in the brochure." And there would be, the code she read on the droids manufactured housing, and particular words which aligned down the text of the flier, specifics regarding the items the droid demanded they bought, it ALL is clues leading to when and where the slave auction would be held.

After a bit of tracking through town, the droid suddenly came to a central charging station and powered down. "WHAT?" Zeza cried out in disbelief. "Okay. Let's figure this out," she said to Valen, sitting at a nearby cafe table.
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