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[Darth Daiara]

His sacrifice was not lost on her. She took it with that wide-eyed silence, the moment so fragile one wrong breath made her feel like it would crack.

She barely dared to breath. Not even when he sat back for her to try. No jedi would find them down here. She had called out for protection against those that would harm her, and it was here in the deepest depths of the mountain that she had found it.

Goosebumps riddled her skin.

She gingerly placed her kyber into the fixed encasing and closed her eyes. The force surged around her, neutral and warm as the saber lifted from the ground. Piece by piece it fit together, until the last screw twisted into place and the shattered blade was restored. She opened her eyes, grinning as she pulled it form the air.

A satisfying snap hiss cut between them, basking them both in its yellow glow.

The grin turned Zaavik's way, pleased. Cocky. "Better than an 8 year old?"

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Yellow, huh? Couldn't say he'd seen that too often. A raised brow met her overweening beam toward him. It broke into a smile, then a chuckle as she tried to one-up his youthful efforts. "Not quite," he teased.

His left foot found itself to the ground, and he lifted himself up from a knee to upright. "We can argue about it later," he jested. Twice in a row? "We should get to stepping right now, though."

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia stood with him and stretched the blood back into her limbs. Whoa. Talk about tunnel vision, how had she not felt that rock in her knee??

"Wait," she protested, glancing around. "What about the others? We've come all this way, shouldn't we take some back with us?"

Ah. There were her roots shinning through.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Zaavik whirled. Very clearly not enthused by the question, but he humored it anyway.

"And do what with them, exactly?"

Were black markets the next bastion of Anti-Imperial activism? Probably not.

 

[Darth Daiara]

She killed her saber, bouncing her hilt in her palm. She stood a little straighter for it , his souring tone putting her on edge.

“I dunno. Sell them? Use them? We went through all this effort, you said these are rare ,” she rationalized.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

"Use them for what? We've already got two sabers, and you won't see me drafting the plans for a Death Star."

Turning back around, he began to walk back toward the fork. The less time they spent lingering the better. "Listen, I know of every black market SIA does shy of anything galactic west. I still wouldn't begin to know how to find a buyer. Plus, you look more like something they'd want to sell than a proprietor."

There was always a sick bastard or several out to snatch and sell young women.

"It's too risky. Let's just take this win and get out, okay?"

 

[Darth Daiara]

Her expression caught and bled cold. His careless words were a slap across her face, but they were all she needed to awake from the small dream this cave was. All at once she remembered who she was, what she was, and the past she was fighting to escape.

She clipped her saber onto her belt and shoulder chucked past him.

Fine.

She walked with him in silence back up the tunnels, no longer focus on how deep they were or how cool it was to find a hidden pocket no one had ever discovered before. She was grumpy. Why did he have to say that to her? Why was it so true. It was a good moment and she was frustrated to see it crashed. Truth be told it had all been borrowed time anyway.

She wasn't suppose to be down here.

This upbringing wasn't hers.

She hated the jedi with every fiber of her being, so ... why did that bother her? She was a bundle of frustration, not looking where she was going as she pushed her way on through.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Zaavik scoffed as soon as she bumped him. Brow furrowed and his lips sneered. Upset about not getting her way again? Obviously, he didn't ask out loud, nor did he make some pointed remark. He felt it better to take the fact she wasn't arguing at face value and just focus on making their escape.

"Zaavik?"

A chill like daggers shot down his spine. The cold made him freeze over in his tracks all at once. He neck turned like fighting the stiff stone of being a sculpture. "Utriha? Uh- Hey." You gotta be fething kidding me. He hadn't seen the Lethan Twi'lek since Tribunal Station. This was probably the least pleasant coincidence of his life.

"What are you doing this far down?" she asked suspiciously.

"I'm-" he held that consonant to stall. A wide gesture came over Aradia. "Congratulating my Padawan on a passed trial." A furtive elbow to the ribs attempted to goad Aradia into playing along.

"The caves are restricted right now on account of The Maw threat. How'd you get in here?"

"Maw?" Zaavik had been gone long enough that that name was alien to him.

"When did you get back, anyway? I heard you were missing-"

"I'm authorized to be in here," he suddenly snapped firmly. An otherworldy quality came over his voice as he waved a hand in front of him.

Uthira blinked several times. "You must be authorized to be down here," she conceded. Her mind had been successfully touched.

"You'll forget you ever saw us."

"I'll-" She struggled, wincing as she tried to form more words. "-forget I ever saw you."

"Good," he replied. He indicated toward the exit with a nod of his head now toward Aradia. "Lets get out of here."

He turned quickly, nearly to begin a sprint before something froze him again: "Zaavik Dagoth."

Chit.

"Did you just touch my mind?"

Chit.

"Uh- It's Perl now, actually." he corrected wryly.

A blue saber ignited from the Lethan's hand. "You're both under arrest."

CHIT.

Zaavik reached back, pulled the stun blaster out of his waist, and pointed it forward to fire two shots. All thre motions came at ludicrous speed. The first shot deflected from a saber blade, but the second made purchase and stunned the Knight, sending her onto her back. Zaavik ducked as his deflected bolt went just shy of his left cheek and slammed into an infantile crystal cluster on the ceiling.

"Ah chit, ah chit, we gotta delta. Fast."

In the haphazard fleeing, he dropped his blaster.

 

[Darth Daiara]

It happened too fast for Aradia to be more than a bystander. At first she had fallen silent, trusting his ability to navigate them out. His shot rang out before she could do more than reach for her own hilt.

If they shoot, I'm shooting back.

Looks like she didn't have to. She ran with him, stopping long enough to shove her foot into the girl's temple. Unconsciousness was the only real way to stall a jedi. Her heart slammed in her chest as they pressed up the winding slopes.

Did he still want her to keep her energy to herself? She had a feeling she might need it.

"Chit," she cursed, breathing heavily as they found themselves back at the familiar fork. She bent over, winded without force aided endurance to bolster her steps. Which way again?

"Left." She huffed, her memory sparking as she took off for it. Wordless steps brought her under the crevasse they had fallen in through. No doubt by now another jedi would have felt the disturbance they had caused down below. She cast a panicked glance over their shoulders.

"Lift me," she ordered, self-conscious of drawing anymore attention their way.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

The air was suddenly heavier than steel. This place was a vergence, and the Force was not pleased. If Ashla in her boundless infinity was disappointed with him, she'd just have to join the club.

"Lift me."

A breath of protest flooded into his chest. Do what? It exhaled without a word in a sighing acceptance. He dropped to a knee, laced his fingers together and held them front to make a step. As soon as her foot came down he lifted and rose from his knees until he felt her begin to crawl into the crevice on her own.

Voices rang through the caverns as he waited for her to finish crawling her way in. Zaavik reached for his blaster only to feel its absence. "Oh no," he muttered to himself. Frantic patting around his pants and jacket found nothing. "You're kidding me," he muttered again.

The voices grew closer. No time.

"Hey!" he shout-whispered toward the ceiling. "Catch me," he ordered. Sharing her reluctance to use the force lest they be caught was common sense. He bent his knees and popped upward, leaping as far as he could naturally manage while throwing his hand up toward the crevice egress.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Not enough time!

She reached her hand out, her fingers encircling his wrists and embedding in. His weight dragged her forward. She spread out her legs and braced herself against the crevice. Everything screamed in protest.

"Are you made of stone?" She gritted. She pressed her palm into the snow and pulled, but it wasn't enough. She was simply too small to dead lift him with one hand. Her nostrils flared in frustrated.

She let the force seep into her muscles and yanked him just as the voices cut closer. Their bodied collided in a pile of elbows. She hissed in pain, biting back words as the voices rang clear.

"You see anything?"

"...Nothing here."

Her heart thudded in her chest. Adrenaline burned through her veins.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

The apex of foreign joints jabbed tender flesh as Zaavik was crumpled into the crevice. Teeth gritted together, closed lips muffling a throaty grunt of pain. He nearly cursed her for being clumsy, but the voices reaching his ears made him understand at once.

He was silent, although a scream was boiling in this throat. The tunnel was far too claustrophobic for the two of them. Though he could hardly see, he could feel distinct points of bodily contact between her and himself. Too close, way too close, but he had to remain quiet. He didn't so much as twitch, laying as still as a corpse, although he might as well have been a bomb priming to level the place.

When the voices became urgent and further into the caves, he exploded. Zaavik emanated a hushed sound of panicked disgust, like someone waking up to their murderer standing over them. He thrashed, flailed, writhed his way through the crevice like a worm. As soon as his face hit the cold air, he gasped for air in spite of the thousand-pound weight that was suddenly lingering on his chest.

A few feet out of the tunnel, and he was hands-and-knees in the snow desperate for air.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia heaved for breath of her own, hurt burn catching building up her throat. Only once the voices passed did she dare to finish pulling herself out the last few feet. She gave a frantic pat at her belt line, then relaxed as she found her new saber there. A few feet kneeled Zaavik, having a fit.

She gave him a look, her brow raising. That wasn't nearly as bad as Bastion.


"We're fine. They aren't onto us." It was half reassuring, half scoffing. They didn't have time to waste. She picked herself out of the chilly snow and started to tredge past him. The storm was still going strong. It would cover their tracks for them.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

They would be. He'd realized too late that he dropped something just as incriminating as the testimony Utriha would give once she came to. "Damn it," he muttered as he forced himself to his feet, skin still crawling with aberration.

A raised forearm shielded his eyes from oncoming snow as he trudged forward and caught up to Aradia. Coughs from heavy breaths caused his pace to falter. After another small fit he'd catch up once again as the made their retreat toward the ship.

He needed a shower. A long, cold, quiet shower.

 

[Darth Daiara]

The ship was quiet and calm and most importantly-- empty. A quick scan of the systems proved the only jedi on it was the one she let in. Aradia let out a tense breath and shucked her jacket off. Water had seeped into her shredded shoes. it was just another thing on a list of supplies she knew they needed.

First things first, she left for the cockpit. They sooner they were out of here, the better. She didn't want to be around when the jedi woke up.

Hyperspace flowed around them. It was comforting, in a way. Travel had always represented a chance for control, or change. Her cloths had dried out. Here in the ship she could use the force all she wanted. The little... trick he had her preform in the cave kept running through her mind. In her hands was her new crystal. Her thumb rubbed thoughtlessly over the warmed surface, her thoughts troubled.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

The comfort of a warm ship wrang the uneasiness out of him like a wet rag. He forewent the shower he felt like he desperately needed. The delusion of phantasmal soot layer over his skin had eased to an uncomfortable echo in the back of his mind. Changing out of wet clothes, he left his jacket out to dry and resigned himself to a tight-fitting longsleeve and jeans. Boots were left beside the engines to dry, forcing him to lounge in mismatched socks.

He shuffled toward the cockpit with leisurely, feet dragging steps. Metal fingers pulled the tie out of his hair as he threw himself into the co-pilots seat and huffed a long sigh of relief. Even over an hor later, he was still astonished that she'd managed to find a kyber with no difficulties of rejection. It served to validate the conviction he held about her not being lost despite the dark title of Sith.

"That went a lot better than I expected," he remarked in jest. They made it out with little more than a single incident, so it absolutely could have been worse. Zaavik had expected more of a chase, and certainly more of a fight. "Really something isn't, it?" he asked in regard to the crystal. "Makes the synthetics look like toys."

 

[Darth Daiara]

"Mm," came a half-hearted answer, the girl barely seeming to pay attention as he sat down and cracked a joke. It was only after silence hit her that she realized he might be waiting for more of a reply. She blinked her, back tracking as she tried to recall what he had said.

"Really something isn't, it?" he asked in regard to the crystal. "Makes the synthetics look like toys."

"Hm? Oh. Yeah," she agreed, looking down to the Kyber singing softly inside her hand. The soft yellow glow had not shifted again, leaving her to think that this would now be the color of her blade. She was right. Her brows pulled in, some of her confusion finding its way to words.

"I thought it would be red. Does it not know what I am?"

 

[Zaavik Perl]

"I thought it would be red. Does it not know what I am?"

Zaavik shook his head. "Red isn't a natural kyber color." She couldn't know any better, having only seen synthetics before. The young Perl was well aware that a method existed that could make a genuine crystal into a distinct shade of crimson. It was a method which he wouldn't dare illuminate to her. "It knows what's inside you, regardless of what you say you are," he added. Sounded like something from a cheesy holodrama, but it was the truth nonetheless.

"I'm uh-" He hesitated, scratching the back of his head as his eyes fled to the floor between them. "-sorry we had to go through all the trouble." There was an irony in apologizing to a Sith for anything, and it certainly didn't fly over his head. He winced involuntarily at the realization. "I won't break this one though, I swear," he joked with a muted grin.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia's lips twitched in a wry grin, a glance spared his way. His previous words only let it stretch so far, her troubled thoughts redoubling.

"Zaavik..." she started, her tone unwilling and filled with warning. She sat forward, her elbows hitting her knees as made eye contact with him. " I am a sith," she stated carefully, not allowing him to look away.

"I chose to be a sith, I want to be sith. Yes, its dangerous. But I'm controlling it. That's what our skill looks like. We're not evil. And this crystal--" she bounced it in her hand, showing off the light it had chosen when harmonizing with her energy.

"This crystal doesn't think I'm a jedi. It just gets it." She hoped, pulling the explanation out of her butt. She needed it to be true, because otherwise, she had a lot to be confused about.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

"That's not what I was getting at." He sunk into the seat and swiveled it slowly to face her. "You remember what I said about intent?" The question was likely more important than he was letting on. "We can call ourselves whatever and have our particular view of the Force, but I'm starting to think it doesn't make much of a difference."

He held an odd expression as he let the statement hang for a moment. "You say Sith aren't evil, and maybe it isn't Sith specifically, but I think every ounce of historical precedent speaks to why they're associated with evil." Nearly every oppressive Empire in significant galactic history had ties to Sith or at the very least the dark side. The correlation was clear to Zaavik, even if certain observations challenged it. "I know evil. I've met a lot of reprehensible people. I was raised by the evilest group of people I have ever seen or heard of."

"But you aren't evil. Kaalia isn't evil either, I don't think. What separates our respective titles, or former titles, isn't Passion versus Peace or Knowledge versus Strength, it's intent. I know you've got a lot of pent-up anger over Kyber Dark. You've got vengeance on your mind, but it doesn't start or end there, does it?" Whether or not was rhetorical depended entirely on her willingness to give an answer.

"I can't deny what either side of the force does to a person, and what proclivities it pulls them toward, but you- You're selfless. Sure, you can act pretty fething selfish sometimes, but that doesn't detract from your good intentions. I'd be an idiot to think you were just doing this for you, because I don't think you are. That's what matters. That's why that rock hasn't rejected you."

Words ended with a steady exhale. That was a lot to say all at once, and Zaavik wasn't generally smart enough to weave such a philosophy on anything. Some things were just too clear, one could suppose.

"You're alright, is what I'm saying." A smirk began to manifest. "For a Sith," he teased.