Private Uh, I'm Sorry

[Alina Tremiru]

When was the last time she'd been on a water world? Alina wasn't entirely sure, but Iskalon was as beautiful as she expected. She actually quite enjoyed swimming, despite what her pale appearance might suggest. Becoming a Sangnir hadn't robbed her of enjoying sunlight, but she could no longer tan. Deathly pale, she certainly looked to be the type to stay indoors at all times. It was her first trip off world since she left the Sith, though. And it wasn't a vacation. The Vampiress walked through the crowds, sunglasses covering her glowing eyes. She wore startlingly common clothing. Jeans, a blue tank top. Fitting the idea of a tourist through and through.

The only thing that might be out of place was the lightsaber she kept on her hip. She didn't want to flaunt it, but she had been attacked in the past. Last thing she wanted was to be attacked again, but she wasn't going to go off world without some kind of weapon. Well, not that she needed it. At least before. Now? She frowned, glancing to her fist. She was strong, far stronger than a normal person. But the power she held as a Sith was a distant memory.

Abandoning that path had it's cost. It's why she was here. Quinn Varanin was fighting against the Sith. Alina hadn't realized it at first, but once she did, she couldn't keep hiding. There was only one she could think to turn to, though. And hopefully he was still willing to help. She stepped towards the bench she'd relayed in the message, nervously glancing around.

"Please show up.."

Felix Aquila

 

[Felix Aquila]

S U R V I V E​

Tag: Alina Tremiru
Equipment:

• - Light-saber
• - Personal Shield

All Felix had recieved was a note indicating that someone wanted to meet, and that they didn't want to fight. How was he supposed to handle information like that? He was busy, the Obsidian Lord had been embroiled with war on two sides of the Galaxy now, his mind swam with the possibilities of which of those enemies may have reached out to him. It could have been Blade Ice, the mysterious man from the blasted planet of the Maw, or it could have been any number of the Ashlin Crusade after he fed information to the Mandalorians who opposed them. Typically, claiming that a person doesn't want to fight, usually means someone should be ready for one just in case.

He never expected it to be Alina...

Felix approached the location with caution, seeing someone waiting at the bench in which they were supposed to meet, it took a moment for him to remember the face and features of the person, wearing very much clothing that was the antithesis to the attire they had worn on their other meetings. A semi romantic encounter at a ball that turned near fatal after Felix had discovered the Empire of blood that she had created with her myriad thralls, to the second ball in which he had met Quinn.

He could still remember the feeling of her lips on his... still remember her screams of despair at the loss of Morii and her infinite declarations of love. It was difficult to reconcile the two actions. There was something there, of that there was no doubt, something the boy hoped would grow one day as the Echani occupied his mind more and more often, especially at his darker moments. She was comforting. But as Felix recognized the woman standing there in the opening, muttering something under her breath, he could feel something not unlike fury well up within him.

Alina would notice the world around her begin to lose its colour, as though a Sepia filter were slowly being enacted upon the world itself as there would be a spark off to one side, a solitary line drawing itself from the spark to her chest like the laser pointer of a sniper rifle. A deadly golden thread which was the universal language of something which couldn't possibly be a good thing. Within moments, a literal beam of sunlight would follow the path of the golden thread like that of a magnifying glass, concentrated to the point that it could melt rock, turn sand to glass, weld steel and veritably ignore the human body.

Moving from the shadows, revealed, Felix would draw his blade, pointing it in the direction of the damnable creature. He didn't expect his blast to kill the woman, though he'd hardly shed a tear. But if it wounded or crippled her, so much the better.

"The hell are you doing here Tremiru!? You've got about ten seconds before you're ash!"

He meant it too, the last time she'd taken him by surprise, he wasn't going to allow that to happen again. Alina would be able to see the growth Felix had been through by the look on his face. He'd grown a lot, tempered by trail after trial after trial since the last time the two of them had seen one another. His features were harder, almost more angled, his body toned more practically rather than for show his long coat showed cuffs of both his house and the Knights Obsidian, but were more ornate as his rank had increased to that of Lord.

It was obvious, this wasn't the same Felix...



​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

She didn't notice. How could she notice? Alina could not feel the Force like others. And she wasn't here to fight, much like her letter said. While she was prepared to be attacked, it never crossed her mind just how lethal Felix Aquila was going to be. The world dimmed, but her sunglasses already had the world an odd color. What was happening didn't cross her mind until she saw it. More, felt it. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth as a hole burned through the center of her chest.

Disbelief filled her mind as she lowered her gaze to the wound. Her blue shirt was charred. Smoldering. The edges alone were still burning. No. Genuine fear flooded her mind as her hands raised, as if they could do something about the burned hole in her chest. Any other type of wound she could recover from easily. But a burn? Her body convulsed as she fell forward from her seat, landing on the ground in a heap of herself. She coughed on impact, blood splattering the ground.

This was it? Her vision already grew hazy as Felix Aquila came into view. Oh. Right. She almost laughed. His offer to help her came before their fight. When she almost killed him. He.. Sunlight. Alina smiled weakly, though her expression was the farthest from happy it could be. This was her punishment. She wanted to be the monster to keep all others in line, and lashed out at those who dared to try and show her another way. And now she was going to die by the hand of one such person she'd scorned.

"Quinn.. I.." I'm sorry. All she'd wanted was to help Quinn Varanin . Make her happy. Protect her. Her last thought before she fell unconscious was a simple wish just for the Echani to be happy. Then everything went black.

 

[Felix Aquila]

R E V E N G E​

Tag: Alina Tremiru
Equipment:

• - Light-saber
• - Personal Shield

There was no twisting evasion, no enhanced speed that blurred the woman into action as she leaped to a side, no power that welled at her fingers to absorb the incoming attack. Just a golden beam of light which penetrated unobstructed through the chest of the waiting woman, leaving a hole a few inches wide straight through the center of her chest in a perfect cylinder. A look of shock, fear, realization and sadness flitted by her eyes as Felix approached watching her crumple and fade with passing moments. The panic almost mirroring with perfect irony his own when she had turned the tables on him almost a year ago.

The sight of Alina and the memories she conjured spurred him to generate a second blast, one at this range he was sure he could angle widely enough to erase the Sith Monster from the face of the galaxy. 'One less Monster...' He said to himself, reasoning and bargaining his warring mind as he would stand over her unconscious form. Felix could remember how helpless he was under her grip after she had told him to leave the estate. He'd been trying to help, trying to save people back then... but... the feelings that were swarming his mind now weren't so pure. This was something akin to payback, and she deserved every moment the sword of Damocles hung over her head.

He'd also seen how Quinn looked at her at the ball, he was certain that there was something between them, although it had never been confirmed to him one way or another. He was certain, at least for the mean time that Veranin's heart only belonged to the monstrosity of absorbed souls and dark side power that had attempted to cast her aside on Rhand. Anyone in the periphery of that was only temporary, that was, until the reality of that permanence dawned on Quinn... and that assumed Mori was gone for good. But Alina potentially stood in the way after that conclusion was finally met. Stood in the way of his potential happiness... Feelings he didn't even know he was capable of.

'Let the past die... Kill it if you have to...'

Those words had echoed on Rhand as they now did in his head, what Mori had attempted to act on when she turned on her former lover, yet they echoed through the force that day to the whole battlefield. The extent hat monster was willing to transform herself to be done with the past as it stood as an obstacle to the future. It was a phrase, an echo that had resounded over Rhand and the Maw as they erased the port from existence with many members of the Knights Obsidian and the CIS soldiers that fought on the beach-head.

Felix wasn't sure how long he stood there with the blast channeled, Alinas life or unlife in the force fading away moment by moment. All the while the heat from the gathered energy in his gauntleted palm began to scathe the skin of the woman by being in its mere vicinity, the grass wilted, the air became humid and wavey, death loomed.

But what struck the face of Alina wasn't a blast of light powerful enough to reduce her to carbon, but blood which touched down into her open mouth and lips. The Sanguine healed from blood, from life threatening wounds, a taste of his should be enough to begin recovering the worst of the burn so that her natural healing could kick in with the rest. He'd made himself an expert on the species after they met. 'What the feth am i doing?' He couldn't help but think, but, like a bolt of guilt he realized there was no way, with all he had been raised to do. There was no way he could simply execute a defenseless person. Felix was a Noble Duelist, raised on form and rules of conflict, doing this... would be murder, and he'd never be able to wash the blood off his hands... or his conscience, as his palm bled into the bindings he would wrap it in, and wait.

Then there was the fact, that, monstrous as she was, she didn't kill him that day either. Alina had the chance to back on that horrible planet, crossing this line would make him worse, or at least more ruthless a monster than she was then. And Felix was no monster. . . He'd thought for a while, but memories of being blasted with concentrated light on Korriban by a member of the Crusade answered a host of questions he'd asked himself but was frightened to know the answer to... He felt nothing from the wave. He wasn't a dark or evil person. But still the implications of saving Alina, the risks for the future, the chances of failure in future pursuits weighed on his soul. But in the end, he was glad he didn't succumb to the temptation. 'If i can't win her over right... i don't deserve her.' That sentiment, stood ironclad.

Felix would haul Alina up to be sitting on the bench, watching as her body healed, taking a couple of steps away from her after searching her for weapons, thoroughly, which he would confiscate in the mean time. If and when she finally came around, be it in minutes, hours or even taking them well into the night, Felix would be sitting by a nearby tree.

"So... Why am I here Alina...?"

He'd say, words still as sharp as blades, Golden eyes cut with red and fiery orange fissures like volcanic steel never wavering from her for a moment.
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

It was dark. Was that all death was? Eternal darkness? Seemed oddly fitting, given the life she lived. Weightlessly floating amid the cold abyss she willingly threw herself into. No, wait. It wasn't weightless. .. Nor was it cold? Confusion settled in her mind as something warm dripped on her lips. She wasn't aware enough, but there was something going on.

Death was weird.

Only, it wasn't death. She shot right up when the wound healed enough. Panic and pain flooded her mind as she opened her glowing eyes to stare around in disbelief. No, she was still alive. Had to be, right? Death wouldn't hurt this much. She reached up to touch the still raw wound on her chest. Sure enough, blood had her healing. In a day, or a proper feeding, there wouldn't even be a mark that she'd been nearly killed. Her eyes narrowed. Yeah, this was the monster she'd chosen to become.

But who..?

Oh. Her gaze lifted as Felix Aquila started to speak. He was the one who blasted a hole in her. A mix of emotions flooded her mind. Firstly, anger. She said she didn't want to fight, but he shot her anyway? Anger was fleeting, though. She remembered the state she had left him in. Broken and bloody on the ground. Her gaze lowered as she crossed her arms over her chest. Hugging the still visibly healing wound and blocking it from sight.

"The offer you made, before.." She trailed off. The Vampiress was certain such memories were still fresh in the Noble's mind. Otherwise, why else burn a hole in her? Nearly kill her? Ironically, it was her past as a Sith that kept her so calm now. "I want to fight the Sith. Help people. Be something more than what I thought I had to be." Why, she left unsaid. Quinn Varanin had already told Alina about the kiss she shared with the man before her. Jealousy would do neither of them any good. She couldn't be the blood sucking parasite she was and believe herself worthy of Quinn's affection. It was a simple mindset, but the Echani princess was the only light she saw in the dark of the Sith.

"I.. Know what I did to you. I'm sorry." Her fingers dug into her arms. Just as he had changed, so too did Alina. The power, posture. Air of arrogance and pride, all of it was gone. She was just a broken woman paying for her actions. She took a breath as she stood. There wasn't even a hint, asides from the wound, that she'd been hurt.

"I'm joining the Obsidians. You were the first to truly try and help me. If I never met you, I probably still would be Sith. If I want to move forward, I want to set things right. Or at least, try."

 

[Felix Aquila]

S U R V I V E​

Tag: Alina Tremiru
Equipment:

• - Light-saber
• - Personal Shield

As she spoke, he'd listen, her tone was different than the last time they had met, that proud imperiousness seemed to have all but vanished. It was like before, when they were speaking honestly, cinders of something that resembled goodness within the woman who had once said she wanted to be the greatest amongst the monsters in order to save those who were innocent among them. Felix had disagreed with the method, but had thought that the intention there was noble...

That was before he realized what she was?

Her apology hit him harder than he expected it might have, a lump caught in his throat preventing an immediate reply, there were a lot of things that he had processed was going to occur here today. Felix had assumed that she may have had some task for him. The Sith Empire had fallen, scattered to the astral winds licking their wounds before their inevitable resurfacing, she could have wanted someone saved or some other mission. He couldn't help but wonder if this was all just an act, a tactic to survive the coming storm. Seeking shelter under the biggest, sturdiest rock she could find while most of the Galaxy united against the Sith, forming massive pacts to ensure their annihilation.

Felix didn't agree with them, they had larger concerns, and the Sith Empire had wanted to unite against the larger threat that was the Brynadul for some time. However, he was one person, albeit sick of cycles of persecution and hate. But Alina was a tad different. If Alina had spoken words like these at the top of the rise overlooking the city in that park, he would have all but taken her hand and kissed her. Now, he watched her with skorn and distrust, the same words he had longed to hear that day were like an poison that incited anger and frustration. Once Stung.

"Oh? But what about your lavish empire? The people you enslaved, addicted to your blood and promises of immortality? The CIS would never accept someone who does what you do, it goes ag- ... its against everything we believe in. You are a Sith, why should I believe you?" Even he felt the bite back from those words, almost choking on them considering what had happened to his brother at Rhand. Felix would take a deep breath, looking to his hand as he would draw a circle with a finger in the air, a golden halo of evening sunlight, holding the pinks and oranges of the fading sun floating in the air before him.

Felix was standoffish and guarded as she stood, protecting himself as well as others as he seemed to take the position of a gatekeeper to the order he had pledged to. He was an Obsidian Lord after all, there weren't many of their ranks and he was certain that Gerwald would listen to him if he voiced his concerns or objections to the indoctrination of a new member.

"How can you prove to me that you're not just running from what came for the Sith? Came for you. How can you expect me to accept a blind apology when you yourself admitted to yourself wanting... no... needing to turn yourself into the biggest monster there was in order to lead the Sith. Because you almost killed me for those convictions once..."

That anger was once again beginning to well up, flashes to her hand around his throat fleeting through his mind like a distraction. He'd had waking nightmares of being choked, drained of all vitality for months after that affair. To date he was sensitive around creatures and people touching or being near his neck. Yet he remained seated, about twenty feet away from her under the shade of a solitary tree, hyper-vigilant to her movements like an animal staring down a predator with that preternatural blinkless focus.
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"I am not a Sith." Just for a moment, it was back. The grim determination, the refusal to be told what she was or what she'd do. It's what made her such a powerful Sith, once. What gave her the strength to stand up to her mother and free herself from a life as a slave to her mother's ambitions. Ironic that she traded one set of shackles with another by serving the Empire. Still, she cleared her throat, pulling back the near glare she had started to give Felix Aquila in her denial.

He was right to question her though. After the fall of the Empire, how many Sith fled to the various powers at play to hide from retribution? Alina took a breath, deep and slow. "If I was fleeing, I could just of stayed in Quinn's castle. The occasional bounty hunter would eventually forget I existed. I'm here to face those I've wronged. I'm here to make right by you, and everyone else I wronged." The Vampiress slowly ran her fingers over the still fading wound, closing her eyes all over again.

She was a child then. A young girl who's future was to be sold off as some bride to one of her mother's allies. No sense of freedom, save for throwing herself off the deep end of drugs and debauchery. It was a terrible path forward, but the only one she saw. How stupid she was.

"I.. Don't know how to apologize. But I wronged you. All in a selfish anger. Tell me what I can do. You didn't kill me, so there must be something I can do."

 

[Felix Aquila]

F O R G I V E​

Tag: Alina Tremiru
Equipment:

• - Light-saber
• - Personal Shield

Solemnity, a soothing deep blue like that of the night sky would wash over his eyes as he would do little more than sit and listen to the admissions of guilt that streamed from Alinas lips as he would in turn watch the wound which he had caused on her chest slowly fade away with time. The mentioning of Quinn Varanin pulled at his heartstrings, but, it didn't distract him from the moment he and Alina were sharing. They'd gotten close over the course of that evening, very close, Felix had always found himself attracted to people in positions of power, and he had seen something in Alina that was... different.

Its interesting to think that there were a handful of small moments where there was a choice, a decision, or some action that could determine the drastic change of course for your entire natural life. Not getting Alina to leave with him that night... was one of them. He might have ended up with her, instead of longing for the comfort of an Echani princess. The regret that Felix could not convince her well enough that night, was going to be something the Obsidian Lord would regret for the rest of his life...

In the end, he believed her, the anger she had when he called her a Sith, Felix was deliberately baiting her to action in the same way he had before, worse even. Her reaction, her restraint told him more than he could have gained by her words alone. She was trying, and she was trying hard. Felix would keep quiet for a couple of moments before beginning to talk.

"I don't plan to forgive you for what you did, not with your words alone. But... I do believe you want to change.... I believed the same thing back then too. But i guess you weren't ready for it yet." Felix would reminisce. "You'll find a way to apologize one day, and when you find the words, I'll listen... Look, if you want to join the Knights Obsidian..."

He'd sigh, 'what the hell am i doing?' musing to himself as he would think of a better way around this entire mess. Conflicting thoughts and feelings felt like his chest was trying to rip itself into three different directions. "I'll put a recommendation into Gerwald for you... to join the Lotus sect, like me. If you truly want to uphold the ideals of protecting others, saving people, and not fall into the moral pits of your old life, Lotus will be your best bet. Its what they do, and they can also prevent you from slipping back. Anything else, and I'll see as you just trying to hold onto your past self... But as for what you can do for me..."

He would have a hard think, and a smile would cross his lips. "I don't suppose leaving Quinn alone is on the table, is it?" He'd joke... or was it? She had asked for anything, and it was what he truly wanted. But, again he could feel that the request was just another underhanded tact to supplant his competition. It was a cheat... and he had learned over the course of this interaction, that he was above that. The Rylothian wanted to scream. "Just... don't disappoint me again... ... ..."

He all but breathed the line, the weight of the world upon it as he exhaled the words, defeated in a sense, his masks breaking down as he would lean his head back against the tree with a light smack, allowing him to look up at the sky. 'I've had enough disappointment.' was what his tone actions screamed, clearer than crystal duraglass. A vacuous distant expression of his face as he attempted to calculate what happened now. The ball was in Alinas court, he would recommend her to Clan Lotus, and life would go on.

Focusing on the future was all he could do to distract from this feeling...

'...My heart hurts.'​

​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"No." Alina had been silent for the most part, listening to what Felix Aquila had to say. Trying to be humble. She didn't know what the Lotus was, but she had a feeling it didn't use the Dark from how the man spoke of it. If that's what he thought was best, she'd follow. And yet, the moment he mentioned Quinn Varanin her whole form stiffened. There was no hesitation in her voice as she shook her head.

That was the one thing she wouldn't ever agree to, short of the Echani Princess asking the Vampiress herself.

".. I'll try not to disappoint."

 

[Felix Aquila]

F O R G I V E​

Tag: Alina Tremiru
Equipment:

• - Light-saber
• - Personal Shield

He figured as much, chuckling a little at the answer. He knew it was coming, there was no way around it. But as she shored up her response to his speech he would simply continue to sit up against the tree, craning his head upward to the sky and sighing audibly, something was building up as he thought of her. "What a mess... " Pulling himself up from the tree he'd dust off his trousers and begin making his way over to her. Keeping a couple of steps away so that he wasn't transgressing into her personal space, and, he wanted her to come, in some way, to meet him halfway as he would extend out a hand.

"Look, I know the road for you might be hard, and, well, i have some things i need to improve on too. But i remain hopeful for us. So, its a truce then?"

The red in his eyes with his heightened conflicting emotions was all consuming, as visions of fragmented futures flashed by. Sights of the woman who shed met on that battlefield, lips moving, but no sound. Only a potential future... coming to blows or perhaps something more. Felix thought about telling Alina in that moment, but instead his expression softened that little more, listening to what she had to say and simply ending with.

"Good luck~"


​