Theirs Not To Reason Why

[Darth Kraves]

The adrenaline of combat encouraged Kraves more and more. Although serious and calm, he liked to fight. Now there were only two more droids to be destroyed. The boy asked him very low, which Kraves preferred between the two. He looked quickly at the situation with some caution. Kraves then pointed to one of the droids, one that was in slightly better condition than the other, and therefore could be a greater threat.

"I'll get one," he'd say as he pointed to the droid. "Let's be quick." Kraves then with his saber in hand, moved toward the droids quickly and discreetly. "I'll be the main distraction and create an opening, then you act."

Kraves then headed toward the droids, to face them directly, confident that the boy would know how to act. Kraves reached out to the two droids silently, surprising them from the front, his saber in hand and ready to act. Both droids quickly prepared to shoot, and Kraves, with his reflection, used the Force to knock down one of the droids on the ground while the other aimed to shoot.

[member="Thesh"]

 

[Lief]

With the choice made, Thesh was quick to move just as Kraves was, though he lingered behind ever so slightly in order to allow the acolyte to enact his plan.

When the man faced the droids and drew their attention, Thesh stepped around him and swung his sword toward the fallen droid; his free hand reached out, and a sudden pulse through the Force could be felt as he pressed down against the droid with that metaphysical energy, keeping it from being able to effectively rise as he pummeled the electroblade down toward it.

It lifted its blaster-arm and shot a bolt or two in the boy's direction, one of them searing through his left arm and causing the Force to waver. The other missed its mark, and soon the metal construct was met with the full brunt of the boy's electroblade which cut through the outer shell and buried itself deep into the inner mechanisms, specifically its droid brain.

After getting such a good look at similar droids back on Kruskan, he'd hoped to land his blow in the correct spot, and from the way the droid seemed to splutter then power down he knew that he had done exactly that.

Of course, the pain in his arm was almost overwhelming and before he could celebrate the victory he sank to his knees and sucked in as much air as he could, clutching the burn which had torn at a little bit of flesh.

[member="Darth Kraves"]

 

[Darth Kraves]

After the boy acted and attacked the fallen droid, the other immediately opened fire in the direction of Kraves. He deflected the shots of the droid with his saber back into it, hitting the droid with two of its own shots, knocking the droid down.

"Are you okay kid?" Kraves asked as he approached, clearly seeing the wound on the boy's arm. While he was with his guard down, the droid before knocked down by Kraves but still active, he raised his arm towards him, firing a shot that struck his leg. Kraves gave a small cry of pain, then raised his saber in anger, toward the droid, giving the final blow.

Kraves's anger was greater than his pain. Kraves knew that both he and the boy had been hurt by sheer imprudence. He knelt thoughtfully as he pressed the wound on his left leg with his hand, clearly feeling a lot of pain.

[member="Thesh"]

 

[Lief]

"Look out!" Thesh exclaimed, though clearly not quick enough to the draw as Kraves found himself shot in the leg by the wayward droid.

Soon enough there was silence in the room; no more whirring of droids or heavy footsteps, in fact all he could hear was heavy breathing from the both of them as they nursed their wounds. It seemed as though getting shot in the arm was becoming a thing for Thesh, he'd suffered the same only on the opposing arm on Kruskan, and was grateful that so far he hadn't been struck directly in the chest. That? Well... That he wasn't so sure he'd be able to come back from.

"I'm okay," he said, drawing upon the pain in order to fuel himself. The rush of both that and the adrenaline had him back on his feet in no time, and slowly he released his grasp of the arm and leaned down to take up his fallen electroblade.

There were obvious tears in his eyes, but he did his best to ignore it and make it so that Kraves didn't notice. "C-Come on," he stammered, before halting. His companion had been shot in the leg... "Wait, are you okay? Can you walk?"

[member="Darth Kraves"]

 

[Darth Kraves]

After that little battle with the droids, Kraves could not deny that he had been excited, though his leg injury caused gigantic pain. Kraves had suffered worse injuries before and knew to turn around. His pain turned to anger and his anger gave him power. However he was more worried about the boy.

"Yes, I can still walk.And what about you?" Kraves stood, still pressing the wound on his leg with one hand. "We need to be more cautious next time, kid. You want a few minutes to rest?"

Kraves asked, wondering the answer, after all, even if he did not speak, he also wanted a few minutes rest for his leg. "Now I understand why you do not like this place." Despite the injury and the situation, Kraves spoke with a small smile on his face.

[member="Thesh"]

 

[Lief]

Though Thesh did not need to rest, he realized that Kraves likely did. Yet he didn't want to make the man have to confess as much, knowing he'd likely just try and pretend like everything was okay, so instead he gave a small nod of his head.

"I'll be okay, but we can rest for a moment."

Shifting back down into a seated position he let out a long breath of hot air, and ran a hand through his hair. The burning had begun to subside slightly, but when he tried to move his left arm he could feel the pain all over again, and there was tension which made it difficult to lift his arm too high. That would not be helpful, at all.

"The droids always unnerved me," he confessed, glancing over to one of their lifeless husks crumpled against the ground, "Always felt like someone was in there, watching us."

He fell silent, and listened... For something. Anything. But honestly the rest of the compound remained quiet.

"I don't hear or sense anything else," he told the man, "There was never any organic workforce here aside from the slaves" - had he even told Kraves about the fact they'd been slaves? oh well, he couldn't take that back now, even if he hadn't - "so unless there are some powered down droids further in, we may have an easier time going forward. There's two places what you're looking for might be, the archives, and his personal chambers... One is on this floor, the other is on the upper. Where do you want to start?"

[member="Darth Kraves"]

 

[Darth Kraves]

Kraves was pleased that he could rest for a moment. The pain in his leg was gigantic but he would take it. In a few moments he was ready to go on despite the great pain he felt. "Maybe we'd better look at the files first, it would make sense if that was there. If we do not find anything, let's go to the chambers." Kraves stood up ready to go. He knew they needed to be more attentive now, though they did not feel any other presence at the moment. He hoped they were right.

"Come on boy," Kraves was saying as he started walking. In spite of everything Kraves could not help but be a little apprehensive. He did not like the idea of ​​being taken by surprise.

"Is there any chance of anything else here boy?"

[member="Thesh"]

 

[Lief]

"Okay, this way..."

Thesh had the place mapped out in his mind; just a short walk through the entry way would lead them to a much larger foyer with stairs and the promise of a turbolift to one side. Across the way was the entrance to the archives, the blast doors which had often locked its contents from the slaves' view were open wide, a sign that perhaps the place had been hastily vacated.

It was, of course, toward this opening that Thesh led Kraves.

"I don't think so, perhaps another droid somewhere, or a wild animal. Nothing we can't handle."

Even so he kept his senses trained on their environment, watching for any changes. Once they passed over the threshold of the archives, they were met with the sight of countless ancient tomes, datacards, holobooks, and the like. All stacked on shelves, some datacrons were held on pedestals.

"If it's here," he said, glancing around the room, "It will be on one of those pedestals..."

They had been on lockdown, but with the facilities power being out such measures were no longer in place.

[member="Darth Kraves"]

 

[Darth Kraves]

After walking more and entering the library they began to look for the holocron. The place was full of documents and information, holobooks, among others. That encouraged Kraves, the idea of ​​gaining knowledge.

He imagined that much of what was there would not serve him much, but if he sought it correctly, there should be some useful knowledge, unknown to him there. However there was no time at the time for this, they should continue the quest for the Sith holocron. Perhaps after finding the holocron, or even on another occasion, it would be worth going back there to take a look at the documents and writings. He figured the kid would not want to waste time with it either. Maybe he would not come back the other day.

"If the holocron is here, on any of these pedestals, we'll know. Just focus and we can detect them with the Force"

Kraves immediately closed his eyes and concentrated, entering into a kind of meditative state, holocron with the Force. In a few moments he began to feel something. It was not clear if the holocron was exactly in that room or on what pedestal, though, it was close, very close. Maybe the boy could detect it.

[member="Thesh"]

 

[Lief]

Contrary to what Kraves might have believed, Thesh was very much interested in the contents of the Archives.

As they made their way through the room his gaze lingered over as much of it as he could, the shelves lined with books and tomes and datarons. He yearned to learn, to expand his mind more than he already had begun to at the hand of [member="Darth Maliphant"] and as such it wasn't until the man spoke that he tore his attention away from the untapped knowledge on offer and focused instead on the task at hand.

"Do you think," he began, as he stepped over to the pedestals and began to feel through the Force, "That when we're done, we could maybe... Make use of some of these? Feels a shame to waste them." It certainly didn't seem as though anyone was going to be coming back for them. The whole place was in ruin.

For a moment then Thesh halted in place. He could sense... something strange, something different from the rest of the rooms contents. Darker, foreboding, it called to him like a whispered voice on the breeze, a haunting memory of the past, and in that moment he allowed the Force to lead him. To show him the way. Past the shelves and the pedestals, to a door he had not even noticed at the back of the room.

When he tried to open it he found it resisted his attempts, and so he was forced to take more drastic measures. He placed his hand against the cool durasteel, and then he focused. After a few moments the air seemed to hum, becoming heavy, and then a sudden blast of telekinetic power jumped from his palm and ricocheted through the door, throwing it open and revealing the much smaller room beyond.

Inside was a mismatch of unique texts, old artifacts, and - at the heart of it all - a holocron.

[member="Darth Kraves"]

 

[Darth Kraves]

Kraves noticed the boy's interest in the documents and contents of the place. "We'll have time after finding the holocron. Let's look for what's helpful and take with us. It's always good to see young people thirsty for knowledge." Kraves felt a different energy now, stronger. It was the holocron, he called them, yet it seemed that the boy could feel it better. Kraves watched the boy follow the back of the room, toward a closed door. He stopped in front of the door for a few seconds until he used the force to open it. Behind the door, a smaller room with artifacts, texts and the long-awaited award, the Sith Holocron. Kraves hobbled to the door, into the room, perplexed.

"We're going to have enough to take to the ship beyond the holocron boy."

Kraves was heading toward the center of the room as he spoke in the direction of his grand prize. He could feel the energy of the artifact, the dark side of the force calling. "Ancient knowledge awaits us."

Kraves then extended his right hand, picking up the great artifact, already imagining the ancient knowledge contained there.

[member="Thesh"]

 

[Lief]

Excitement flashed across the boy's features when the promise to look for important texts was made.

Of course, it was increased tenfold when he realized he'd found the holocron. Thesh did not step forward to grasp it, truth be told he did not know what wonders it contained, yet he also had no real desire to find out. Holocrons could be tricky things, he'd seen first hand back in the days when this ruin was his jail cell, when artifacts such as the ones before them had come cursed, and the slaves had been the ones they'd been tested out on. No, it was definitely the tomes in the room they'd just come from which he wanted.

When Kraves moved to pick up the holocron the boy hastily reached out to grab his arm and pull it away before he could touch the knowledge-filled device.

"It might be wise... Not to touch it. At least, until you're sure it will do you no harm. Many of the items in this room were cursed by their creators."

His gaze fell to what looked to be a pendant of sorts, upon a leather necklace, and a genuine shiver ran up his spine. That was one thing he'd be more than happy to see locked within this abandoned facility for the rest of forever. Releasing the man's arm, Thesh took a step back and then exited the restricted area, leaving Kraves to his business. Whether he chose to heed the boys warning on not remained to be seen, but given that they were both able to use the Force he could not see a reason why he'd opt to touch it and risk the excruciating pain or risk of death.

Instead the boy wandered through the bookcases, picking up whichever aged tomes seemed to gain his interest. Leather bound grimoires heavy and stained with time. What wonders would they hold?

[member="Darth Kraves"]