Private Two Sides of a Coin

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia was starting to see the patterns of it all.

The blips, the wars, the sudden silence ... the ripples, the probes, the testing of waters. Sense wasn't her strongest skill, but it didn't take a Sith Lord to see patterns inside data. The Jedi had shadows too. She didn't know why it hadn't dawned on her until now. Why wouldn't a jedi want to use deception and tricks to get what they want too?

The more she came to understand the people she sought to bring down, the more she realized how similar they all were. It made their hatred for her that much more infuriating. They were hypocrites through and through.

The easiest way to kneecap them was at the source. If she could stop them from infiltrating and collecting data, she could possibly... maybe... stop the next invasion all together.

Chew on that for a moment.

Combining her meager skills with sense and tech led her to her first objective-- an info satellite tower on a border world. It was Empire owned and improperly staffed, nearly cut off from all TSE support. If Aradia wanted to hit somewhere to do the Empire damage, she'd chose it herself. As it stood she hardly cared what happened to government she had once pledged her loyalty too.

Kaalia had been right from the start. There was no point in breaking one chain and instilling another. Moving forward, she served only herself. Today, she wanted to protect this station. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She stopped pacing, running a hand over the collar of her guard uniform.

She looked over her shoulder.


Zaavik Perl

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

The communications bridge was littered with involuntary slumberers. Their strewn out spread-eagles and crumpled fetal-positions gave the otherwise flairless durasteel tiles a macabre sense of character. Zaavik loomed over the unconcious figures, standing tall and awake in front of the primary comms terminal. Communications logs, sender and reciever designations, locationally identifiable data, and encryption keys slowly fed into a datacore he'd rigged into the systems core.

A strike suit clenched uncomfortably around his body, tight fit begetting several awkward movements of adjustment in the pursuit of comfort as he impatiently fidgeted, waiting for the target data to feed into the digital recepticle. Though the suit had been intended originally for use against the Bryn'adul, it had proven invaluable for several purpouses, and was quickly becoming a staple amongst the New Jedi Order's Shadow Contingent.

The absence of his lucky jacket, having been destroyed on Bastion, made him feel curiously bare despite the generous coverage provided by the strike suit. Silly as it may sound, he just couldn't bring himself to simply 'buy a new one'. The sentiment had made that leather worth more to him than any hoity-toity fashion brand could ever justify putting a price one. Even if it was just an old, beat up correllian swooper jacket, it was his.

Now it was probably laying forgotten in a Bastion trash pit.

A groan caught his attention. One of the comms officers was slowly coming to, inching to hands and knees in a daze on Zaavik's immediate left. A flick of his wrist seized a handle through the force and pulled a datacabinet out from the nearest console. A hollow clunk echoed through the small room as metal crashed into skull, followed by a subsequent thud of the unconcious body becoming quickly reacquainted with the tile.

The datacore called out with two quick, dull chimes to indicate the process was complete. Zaavik leaned down and wrapped a hand around the device. With one yank from the datacore's rigged position inside of the communications system's core, vital links were severed, bricking comms for the enitre station in an instant. Time was now of the essence more than before. Eventually, probably in a matter of minutes, or even seconds if he was particularly unlucky, someone would realize comms were down and send someone to investigate.

Zaavik pocketed the datacore and made for the door. Hand across the control panel, he sent a pulse through the force that mimicked the signal for an authorization code. After a brief moment, the security delay passed and the door slid open.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia was there, eyes hard as she blocked Zaavik's exit with her own, thin frame.

"You," she hissed, already prepared for the person that would be on the other side. His presence burned like an inferno in the force, familiar now and all consuming. She was no longer shocked to cross paths with him, again. She was starting to suspect it was not without a reason. The force sung with intention as she stepped forward, meeting the jedi head on.

"You know the drill." No 'what are you doing here', she already knew. Her eyes skimmed the space behind him, pinching in distaste. For once the tables were turned. Maybe he had been the problem from the start.

Had she doomed the empire by not killing him that day? Just how far back did his involvement in these wars go?

Far, she suspected.

She called her saber into her hands, their previous good will dashed by the threat he posed.

"Hand it over," she demanded.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

"You."​

Zaavik's eyes widened as the familiar face came into view along with the accusative tone he'd come to associate with it. He flinched backward slightly, a half step away stopping awkwardly in a sudden grasp of bearing. "Me," he echoed wryly as an uncertain grin scrolled across his lips. His aluminiferous left hand extended halfway forward, palm open pacifistically.

"You know the drill." ​

Uncertainty in his expression faded into derisiveness. "What? No 'what are you doing here'?" he mimicked her higher-pitched timbre with condescending fashion. "Or 'I'll have your head'? Not even a 'Come here often'?" Lips parted to flash his teeth with punchable smugness. "Don't tell me you're getting soft for me already." There was an unusual sharpness to the last statement, the snarker act slowly dropping as he felt a precognitive nudge pull his attention.

The vague premonition finally bore fruit when a moment later she called her saber to her hand. Zaavik mirrored her actions, emerald blade screaming to life with a malicious extension. "You know it's not going to be that easy." He shook his head, violet locks over his face that managed to escape the hair-tie bobbing slightly with the motion. "We've been through this already, we don't have to fight."

His right hand, unencumbered by a weapon like his left, wriggled ever-so-slightly. A phantasmal grasp seized over the sliding door, lying in wait in case things got ugly. "I just bricked every comm on the local network, and a subroutine is slowly wiping all encryption and navigational keys. Might as well be marooned at that point. You put that saber away, let me walk, and I'll reverse it all myself. Deal?"

 

[Darth Daiara]

"This isn't a game, jedi," she shot back, exasperated. "Let go of the door and back up, now." The demand was accompanied by her raising saber. She stepped in, forcing him deeper into the room he had incapacitated. Her blade remained level, a silent threat that respected his space. For now. While she had out done him in their last duel, he had certainly out done her the time before. Neither had reason to be confident in what would happen if they crossed blades again-- it was a fate she did not want to tempt in a moment like this.

Would it be such a bad thing if she did kill him this time? The question pressed in the back of her thoughts, visions of the aftermath of Ziost still fresh in her mind. If his death could prevent another one of that...

Sometimes killing monsters required becoming one yourself. She swallowed hard, gesturing at the frying panel.


"Undo it first," she ordered, making no promises.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

Emerald blade slowly lifted to caress the side of the opposing crimson. He pushed the blades slowly to one side, clearing the space between them. His off-hand rose slowly, displaying the device around his wrist. "I'll undo it as soon as I'm allowed to walk, but no sooner." It would only take him a few button presses to delay, halt, or accelerate the process. It wasn't much, but any leverage was good leverage when threatened by the point of a saber.

"Final offer," he stated flatly. With a flourish, he pulled his blade away, letting hers free, and slid back a few feet to make space. The weapon remained at a lax downward angle at his side, giving his stance an air of insouciance. Despite his defeat on Bastion, he resonated no fear, no doubt, no hesitance.

There is no emotion, there is peace.

"If that doesn't work for you, well-" Plasma hummed, a cyclone of green flashed through the air as it twirled to a point at Aradia. "You know the drill," he echoed mockingly.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Her lips pulled up in a sneer.

Why couldn't he ever take this seriously? It grated her. She didn't even take that tone with her peers, and here he was pinned down by her saber, making light of the situration they were in. I mean, really.

"Fine," she lied, her voice clipped. She batted his saber aside in turn and stepped in, baring him down with all the height she could spare. He hovered near a foot above her. She rose her chin, uncaring.

"But if you make a move out of line I will kill you. We are not friends here, jedi," she spat. "I am done with these games. Fix what you broke, or face the consequences."

The saber twirled through the air, its length held in the meager space between then both, illuminating them with its red, hot heat.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

Zaavik looked down at Aradia, blank-faced, seeming visually and empathically devoid of any emotion. In their place, only a central focus. A ruse, such is the Shadow's art. A shrill fizzle bellowed from his hilt, viridescence disappearing into the hilt. Cerulean optics only broke an insistent eye-contact when they drifted down to the device on his wrist. With every press on the device, small chimes rang weakly in deliberate tempo.

"There," he offered. A small indicator light on the device was now a steady, flashing green rather than doggedly strobing red. "Now, if you don't mind-" His words were choked off by a sudden pop followed by the crackling of electricity throughout the consoles. Just as he'd intended; another ruse. Using the distraction of the abrupt reveal, Zaavik shot one hand out to shove Aradia to the side. Both feet kicked off the ground as he began a force-assisted stride toward the door and out into the corridor.

He barreled through a startled guard in the doorway. A long-winded stagger sent him nearly crashing into the wall. Regaining his footing, darted several feet forward and dropped into a slide, slithering beneath the legs of another guard. One outstretched arm delivered a lariat to the shin, sending the guard face-first into the ground. A tumble repositioned him to his feet, and he disappeared around a corner.

Plans A, B, C, and D were now exhausted. He was playing it all by ear now.

 

[Darth Daiara]

She watched as he worked at his device, her saber slowly lowering as the light flashed green. A bit of tension left her body, a tell-tale signs of trust as she bought the ruse.

They had tried to harm each other before, but they had always been honest about it. It never dawned on her that he would be lying here too. It was an assumption that cost her. She startled at the pop, a rough set of hands pushing her to the side. She fell hard into a console, pain resonating up her shin and forearms. She ignored it all. A curse escaped her as she scrambled after him.

Frustration bubbled in her gut, putting strength into her own strides as she sought to close the distance.

Honestly, it was her fault for expecting anything less than this. She wouldn't make that mistake again. Orange hair flew out around her as she jumped over the fallen guard body. She buffered her own collision into the corner with a pulse of the force, her feet kicking up mid air and parkoring around the bend.

She didn't often get a chance to move like this. It felt good. Her legs surged with inhuman strength as she propelled off the wall, sailing in a low arc towards him.

Her saber snapped to life, descending on him in a vibrant arc.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

Most of the station's layout had been committed to his memory beforehand, but now under duress, it was difficult to recall the turns and avenues. He followed what shreds of the mental image he could recall, using his surroundings as an aid. Engineering, Lodging, Departures, the paths appeared in his head as a vague series of sensations and impressions of direction. Departures was the correct path, given that he was just one escape pod away from freedom.

He felt Aradia's strike coming before her feet left the ground. Both feet pivoted, causing him to slide back to a near-stop. He swept his weapon from his belt, ignited it, and moved backward as he brought the blade up for a guard. Thinking quickly, walked backward as fast as possible, swinging his lightsaber over and over in wide-arcs. Plasma cut into the walls on either side of the corridor, sending hot specks of ashen debris, sparks, and the occasional bit of metal toward his pursuer as he retreated.

Slowing her down even a little might be the difference.

One limb shot backward, infecting a door control with an insistent phantasm, slithering through the circuitry and willing the threshold clear. The very same appendage then came forward, pushing an invisible burst forward to send himself one way, and hopefully Aradia the other. Back-first, he hit the ground and tumbled, spinning on his shoulders to kip-up onto his feet facing the right way.

He ran again, sundering the weapons and hands of a trio of guards in his path. Departures should only be around the corner, if he'd gone the right way, that was.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Her forearms crossed over her face, small slivers of metal imbedding into her skin as she focused on dispersing the sparks of heat and flame he drew up in his path.

She landed lightly, a hiss of frustration curling through her as the force whispered its warning. She barely had time to sheath her saber, the telekinetic pulse slamming into her and taking her light form with it. She lashed out as she went, a wild tendril wrapping around his ankle in an attempt to trip him and stall him out too.

She landed hard, the wind knocked out of her as she pulled herself right back up.

Unrelenting, was the word. Both of them.

She jumped over the trio of disabled guards, their noises of pain ignored. She knew what he was doing now. She knew where he was going. An escape pod door appeared around the bend, its light green and steady overhead.

"No!" A small wall of fire spirted up in his path-- jumpable, but hot.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

And so he had gone the right way. A long corridor, lined with escape pods and their subsequent control panels on either side, with a large threshold to the landing hangar at the end: Departures. He collided shoulder first with a guard, sending the adversary to the ground and causing him to stumble against the sudden shift in momentum. A sudden dive sent him into a roll, ending with him kipping back to his feet and continuing his retreat.

An invisible gust shot out of a hand as he threw it forward. Flames scattered, serpentine licks of heat fluttering over him. He shouted vague explicit lamentations in his native tongue as he brought one hand in front of his face as he jumped awkwardly over the cinders remnants. Zaavik slammed against a pod's control podium, lurching forward over it before forcing himself back. Rapidly, he tapped the emergency activation button over and over in impatience. The overhead alarm buzzed, the green light above the pod flashing to red as the door adjusted and hissed.

Saber raised into a centered guard as he threw his back against the slowly opening pod door.

He just needed a little more time.

Just a few more seconds.

 

[Darth Daiara]

No.

Her legs pumped, driven to move past their limits as the pod door closed in the distance. Five seconds. Four. Three. She arced through the air, her boney frame scraping the metal doors as she slammed into the pod. She collided into his frame, weapons forgone for fists as her momentum brought her down on top of him. The doors hissed closed behind them, the disengage sequence on the screens above their heads.

She ignored it all, her fists twisting into his clothing as she tried to pin him down.

"You liar!" She accused, as if she wasn't set on betraying him all the same. Her first coiled coming down for his jaw.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

The air nearly left his lungs entirely as the fleshy collision toppled him over. Still gripped in his hand, the saber arced beside him wildly as he flailed in surprise. Plasma cut into the wall and through a central control panel that protruded from the interior of the pod. Before he could notice, a fist met his eye with a fleshy thud, sending a flash of white over his vision momentarily. As the pressurized propulsion shot them from the station, now faulty internal compensators saw them battered them around in the cabin with the abrupt acceleration.

In the shakeup, he managed the throw her off from atop him, kipping to his feet shakily. He called his saber back to his hand, reigniting it to point toward Aradia. There was hardly enough space for him to not immediately run her through just by turning it on. Blue eyes stared with a defensive fury down to the length of emerald light toward the opposing blues.

It was then, at that moment, that it all him. The red tint of emergency lights, the quiet chiming of an alarm half-clinging to life, and the sparks still flying sparsely from the control panel. His sabed slumped low with his arm as he stared at the panel in shock. Shock turned to anger quickly, his head shooting back to Aradia. He rebuked her in his native tongue. To her, it was an incomprehensible series of chewy consonants, soft vowels, and trilled rhotics.

"See what you've done!?" he shouted, finally using basic. "You've killed us both!"

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia crouched rattled on the ship floor, pain blossoming from the bruises being thrown about had caused. His saber prevented her from standing, her own lost under a console once the bone-shattering shaking had passed.

"Me?" She hissed, her breath catching in a wheeze. Broken rib? LIkely. She clutched at her side, eyes watering in pained accusation as he finally granted her the space to stand. She pushed past him, going for the sundered console.

"You're the one breaking into things-- put that away." She made no move for her saber in their confined space, his already having done enough. He wasn't going anywhere now-- not without killing them both-- and if he wanted to run her through he would have.

She pressed wildy at buttons, trying to bring the severed console back to life.

"You're the one that cant control your aim-- Feth," she cursed, running her fingers across the burned edge. A spark shot out, she jerked back, quickly realizing their position as well.

She turned on him, eyes wild. "What coordinates did you enter?"

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

Another Zeltronian expletive hissed from between his teeth. The blade recanted back into the hilt with a click of the activator. A displeased expression danced across his features, the anxiety of impending doom manifesting as pointed vexation toward Aradia. "Watch my aim!? You tackled me!" His tongue clicked behind his teeth. "Jorra," idiot, he spat. "Excuse me for not hav-"

"What coordinates did you enter?"​

Zaavik blinked. "Oh, it was a little cold in the station so I thought I'd chart the pod into the sun- None!" A rough sigh came out at he shook his head. "I don't know if you noticed, but I was in a bit of a hurry. Coordinates were supposed to come later, I was more focused on not dying." An exasperated glance surveilled the damaged control panel awash with crimson emergency lights. "So much for that."

He threw himself back into one of the pod's wallbound seats, his head falling into his left hand. "Na che che mya," he lamented, a term of dejection in Zeltron. Galactic Basic's best equivalent was 'for heaven's sake' but not even that was a perfect translation. "Unless you kept a commreciver on you, I'd say that's just about game over."

 

[Darth Daiara]

"I wasn't going to kill you," she snapped back, not giving up on the console just yet. "What good is that-- Seriously? Stop swearing at me." She didn't know Zeltron but it didn't take a genius to smell the swears.

"We're not done for yet, we just gotta-" she winced, lowering herself to her knees and peering at the underneath of the board. Fire shot from her hand, the burst of flame lighting up the shadows. Her brows pulled in.

"..."

She twisted, catching his gaze from the ground.

"Mechu Deru it," she demanded, a bit naively. One might notice her not commenting on having any com devices on hand. Or anything else useful, for that matter.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

"Mechu Deru it?" he echoed condescendingly. "You have no idea how Mechu Deru works, do you?" No one could blame her were that the case. It was rather obscure, even in this day and age. "I can't just magically fix things because 'the Force'. The Force can't make up for everything, especially not where technology is concerned." If she was trying to make a point, she had one: Doing nothing was of no use to either of them here.

He stood abruptly, huffing from his nose. "Move," he insisted sharply, shoving past her with a shoulder. He placed an aluminiferous paw into the opening under the panel. It slithered up, coiling into the center of the lightsaber's path. He was silent for a long moment, eyes darting around at seemingly nothing. Like he was focusing on or looking at something that wasn't there for anyone else but him.

The metallic extremity twisted around, rattling against the inert and damaged circuts. The red light in the interior cut off, leaving them in darkness. A few moments later, a loud click sounded from overhead and the regular phosphorescent lights kicked on. "Don't get your hopes up," Zaavik was quick to utter. "That's just the lights, and nothing else."

He painted a focused scowl. "Tools," he muttered aimlessly. "These things come with a toolbox or what?" he asked. "I still think we're dead in the water, but we might be able to buy time."

 

[Darth Daiara]

Her hopes sparked, the girl expecting more of his skill than he could actually deliver. He usually used them against her to a successful degree. Why couldn't he pull through now?

She scrambled to the storage panel on the wall, her nail bitten fingers tugging it open. MRE's, oxygen kits, flairs- "Aha!" A tiny toolkit. Not enough for any serious repairs, but then again if you needed those you were likely dead. This pod was merely built to buy you time, not live off of.

She handed it off, brows furrowed as she dug back into the cupboard.

"I can't believe you fried the console. Is life support still up?" And if not-- what in here could buy her power for more of it.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara​

"I can't believe you fried the console-"​

"Shut up," Zaavik spat distantly. Determination focused on the likely vain attempt at repair, forcing his rebuke to intonate half-heartedly. He tugged at wires, cut at panels, and pulled inert components from the panel. Reaching back, he removed the handheld holoprojector he had used to reference station layout and other related diagrams pre-mission.

A spark of ingenuity saw him break open the holoprojector's case and wire several wires he'd pulled loose from the console. Welding them on with very delicate use of a fusion cutter, he carefully held it suspended between his fingers. The free hand reached back in, pulling out another wire which he placed in his teeth. When his index finger of the prosthetic that held the holoprojector tapped against the bottom of it, a projection flickered faintly.

He was using his own body to deliver the current of what little energy the pod still had to power the rigged holoprojector. From his mouth, down into his chest, through his arm, then finger, and into the modified device, which now required far more power than its onboard cell could provide. Force only knows what usage of itself he was employing to not be immediately killed by the maneuver.

The finger pressed to the bottom, unmoving. The projection flickered, an incomprehensible strobing of blue light. The hand already deep in the panel twisted, clattering around as it grabbed onto something. There was a click from inside the panel as his shoulder jerked, and suddenly the projection came to life. A very barebones status screen projected as a flat plane in mid-air.

Nearly every system was critical. Whatever the lightsaber had hit likely caused a surge, backfeeding power, and frying systems. Life support operated at ten percent, in essence, only serving to prolong their doom rather than prevent it. Oxygen would last some near seventy standard hours, but heating coils were unstable and the temperature was likely to fluctuate. Navigations were a hopeless cause, as was independent propulsion.

His eyes wandered up to Aradia, a grim look about them as he sought to confirm whether or not she understood what they were looking at.