Wake Up

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Loneliness was not something he generally felt.

Soliael in his lifetime had spent decades apart from anyone else, seventy of which had been in a prison cell in the Pit. After that lifetime of isolation lack of people hardly got to him, even in a massive fortress like this. He smiled slightly, and followed after her towards the staircase.

“I would never describe myself as lonely.” He said with a smile, not commenting on the cleaning duties.

The creatures that he had made to maintain this place were secretive and serpentine in their movements. They rarely appeared and when they did they were rather...creepy, even to Soliael. She would meet them eventually if she stayed, but right now he would avoid bringing them up, mostly because of their odd appearance.

“Though.” He paused for a moment as he lead her over towards the stairs. “You're welcome to keep me company for as long as you wish.”

 

[Kira Talith]

One slipper would take its first step down the stairwell, the large cloak flowing behind her like a dark living train of fur. Her small hand would lightly hold onto the railing as she would glance up.

"Perhaps as Neth the Keeper, no." she'd say, "But we are drawn to companionship--- one way or another. " she didn't mean it in a relationship sense at all. The desire to have another presence fill the silence certainly is there, what with being social creatures.

"Well... unless you're a Hutt." she'd toss over her shoulder, slowly making her way down the steps. "Then they do pretty well by themselves."

“You're welcome to keep me company for as long as you wish.”

Another slow pause, and she'd turn to look up at him. "Sure I won't run off with the silver?" she said, more as a a redirection because she honestly couldn't answer him at the moment. She met him twice, even if he'd shown her the courtesy he had thus far. She didn't know quite what to make of him, as he was unlike any Sith, Jedi, or Protectorate Forcer she'd ever met.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

He stopped at the top of the stairs as she made her way down. “I spent seventy years within The Pit.” The prison was quite famous, he'd be surprised if she hadn't heard of it. “Isolated, alone in a cell for most of that time. The first few years were quite lonely, but after the voices came it was easier.”

The smile on his face told of the grand joke he was telling, or he hoped, otherwise he'd just outed himself as a madman.

After that he followed after her, taking slow deliberate steps to follow close behind her. She was still pretty weak, and he wanted to ensure that she would not fall and hurt herself. These stairs were carved from pure granite, beautiful grains of gold and silver glittering through them, ornately designed to look as though the very earth had formed them, instead of mortal hands.

“Silver?” He echoed her. “I would've thought you a gold kind of girl.”

 

[Kira Talith]

The Pit? That made her pause. Was he serious? It took a second to read him. Oh yeah. He was serious. Quite serious.

"Why?" she'd ask with a bit of wariness, although that quickly turned into a snort of amusement at the joke. The way he was cheesing it certainly made that clear.

"If that's the case then bring Sparky out to play, he seems like chipper fellow." she'd make a reference to multiple personalities, and clearly, "Although one would wonder why he slips his comm frequency to random Jedi Knights in the middle of a battlefield."

Her bangs would tickle her eyes again, and another hot puff of air would blow them away.

"And if he keeps several sheets of filmsi with it in his pocket just in case."

She didn't answer the question about gold. To be frank, she rarely ever had the chance to really take the time to appreciate it or be exposed to it. Fancy smancy luxuries didn't just come around the corner for an orphan slave turned child worker on Kuat. Nor for a Jedi. She'd had the same holey boots for a good five years before he'd sliced the tip of her left boot clean off!

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“Murder. This was nearly eight decades ago, before government began to form and begin to control things again. I was traveling in Wild Space, an area that has never been known for its laws. I stumbled into a village, apparently some of the men used one of the Inns to kill and rob victims, usually, sleeping men made easy targets apparently.” He took another step down and found himself even with her, looking down at her. “I was not.”

Again, he spoke the truth.

The men had tried to murder him, and in response he had killed them all. Of course the local authorities had found that rather disagreeable given that he had murdered their fellow villagers. Not being capable of using the force at the time Soliael had simply been overwhelmed by numbers.

He had never been one for wanton murder, not unless someone wronged him.

“Well...” He said in reply to her other statement. “When you see a beautiful woman, you have to take advantage don't you?”

He winked, then walked down the steps ahead of her.

 

[Kira Talith]

Truth.

There was nothing in his body language to suggest he was lying. To a degree, you remind her of her own past. He wasn't the only one who had Resorted to murder in self defense.

There was a record on Kuat Who would find her guilty of that

Insert a snort, "I was fully planning on taking you to the nearest Republic detention cell, you know." she told him, "Under my custody." as if suggesting that handing her his comm frequency was a rather silly thing to do - and she knew silly.

"If you'd only just stayed still," that was a laugh in it of itself, considering she'd paralyzed him for a brief time in a tangle of arms and legs.

Really, she hadn't been the most threatening presence. Compared to the republic solider who had then decided to lose his marbles and start shooting at them both!

"We'd have had this conversation earlier." her eyes would follow him as he'd advance ahead of her, following suit. The compliment would remain that, a compliment. One that granted would prompt an odd look at his direction along with a questioning arch of a brow. Her hand would come up to rub her nose again, and she would take stock of her appearance. Hair was a mess with that 'just got up after who knows how long of coma face,' wearing a fur cloak that would make her appear like a youngling was playing dress up with her dad's clothes, and if she looked anyway she felt, well... then she would really start wondering just what sort of voices were dancing around in his head.

"And sugar cookies."

The decent down the stairs would continue, until finally she'd beheld a vast grand hall. Enormous columns of intricately carved stone, glinting with streaks of copper, aurdium, and silver. Highly polished floors and heavy drapes and banners that would hang from the vaulted ceilings.

Here came the awe. Then she said what would likely be the silliest thing ever said about this grand hall.

"...this would be a great place for hide and seek."

Clearly, she had her priorities straight.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

He chuckled. Soliael never thought about that aspect. His mother and he had played similar games with the animals on Onderon when he was a child, albeit those had involved dangerous Nexu, deadly Boma's and incredibly frightening Drexl, but the games were just about the same, the same general concept anyway.

The Grand hall itself seemed to stretch on for miles and miles, carved directly into the the mountain itself and running through half of the mountains it had been designed to be as confusing, big, and simply as grand as possible. The vastness of it was hard to comprehend, and the huge ornate columns seemed to add to that effect. The room was designed as a battle ground. There were a few hidden staircases, places that one could get to the next level or leave the fortress, but the only other obvious exit was at the very end of the hall.

It was here as a buffer between the top floor of the fortress and any intruder that would get inside.

That and it would make a great ball room.

“You should see the temple in Exocra.” Soliael said with a grin. That structure was even bigger than this and spanned almost the entire city, cutting it into portions to make room for the ten Grand Halls of the gods. Something the people utterly adored.

“I'll find you an oven.” Soliael said calling back to her earlier statements. “And we'll see about those cookies.”

 

[Kira Talith]

Kira would listen with half an ear, a rare sense of excitement starting to rush through her veins.

“You should see the temple in Exocra.”

So this would either be a really great idea. Or a really bad one.

“I'll find you an oven.”

Probably shouldn't do it. She wasn't feeling up to snuff and would burn a heck of a lot of energy. Not to mention, burn the use of the Force that her body likely couldn't take. Don't do it Kira.

But she never was one to take things so seriously, and his parting grin begged to be trumped. There came the whisper of his cloak to the floor.

“And we'll see about those cookies.” he'd call back to her, but where she had one stood at the foot of the stairwell would be naught but empty air. By all intents and purposes, Kira had up and disappeared.

But once she had an idea stuck in her head, it was really hard to not simply just do it. She'd might be a bit more somber, a bit more cautious, but that innate sense of mischievousness would still be there.

Besides... no one would believe that an imp of a Jedi Master would attempt to play a mentalist hide and seek in Neth the Keeper's stronghold fortress.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

As soon as he heard the fall of the cloak Soliael spun around. He had not expected her to go running about, had not expected her to get rid of the heavy fur. It was still rather cold in the great hall, and to be honest her running off hadn't even crossed his mind. By the time he saw the garment on the floor however it was already too late, Kira had gone running off somewhere, and her intent was clear in the first second.

Hide and Seek.

When he had played this game with his mother it had usually been him doing the hiding, and his mothers various creatures the seeking. He had never been much for sensing the presence of other beings, Jedi or Sith.

Still, if she wanted to play this game, then he would play.

Though that didn't mean he wouldn't cheat.

Black specs flashed across his eyes, tiny residual somethings that obscured his vision for a few moments as he stepped away from the cloak and began to walk into a random location. He passed through an archway formed by two of the massive columns, and suddenly disappeared. In an instant he stepped out from beneath another archway, his eyes searching directly in front of his and around them before quickly stepping again to once again disappear into thin air.

Who knew that the ancient knowledge of the Aing-Tii would come in handy in a game of hide and seek.

 

[Kira Talith]

Okay, alright. So this might have not been the best idea ever. TOO LATE ALREADY COMMITTED!! Right.. Right!

Well, she hadn't really considered how cold the place would be. That cloak had been pretty warm, once it dropped -- Yeahh, talk about a perk me up. I mean, I'm only in the bowels of some stone fortress with no real heating to speak with during the middle of some kind of winter.

Sigh... this was the sort of seat in your pants gimmicks that would often land her in trouble.

Master Cord and Master Galloway had both taught Kira methods of infiltration that included being able to conceal herself in the Force through illusions. Only that what had normally been a cake walk was clearly not so easy when recuperating from ills. She'd go rushing from one pillar to the next, her back pressing against the stone and feeling the cold seep through the fabric of her blouse to the skin. Okay, I can do this. Cold just keeps me alert!

Alright... where are you? She'd muse, as she would carefully start to peek round one pillar and found... nothing. She'd frown. Where did he go?

Nibbling on her lower lip, she'd dart to the next pillar, using as much of the grand halls shadows as she could. There were roles to play, the hunter and the hunted.

Question was, who would she be at the end?

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael warped around the Grand Hall over and over again.

It was easy for him. Soliael was for all intense and purposes one of the most powerful force users in the galaxy. Both his mother and father had in their own respects been incredibly powerful force users, and with both of their genetics going into him, Soliael had ended up with a nearly unlimited stamina in the use of the force, a thing that came in handy with hide and seek apparently.

His path around the Grand Hall took him all around, moving quickly in short fast blinks where his eyes scanned the surroundings and his ears perked up for signs of movement. He smirked slightly when he heard the padding of feet one time, his eyes darting in the correct direction.

Soliael blinked out of existence one more time, then reappeared again, two columns over from where Kira stood.

His head shifted and turned, searching for her for a moment before once again blinking into thin air. An odd thing really if one were to observe it. One moment Sol was standing there, the next the area where he had been seemed to blur and shift, and then he was gone.

He was enjoying this game.

 

[Kira Talith]

There was this slight popping sound. Kinda like when one presses their lips together and then suddenly makes a popping sound. Her head would turn sharply towards that direction.

Oh boy, here came a swish of manipulation in the Force, straining to keep herself invisible. If he was nearby, she had to get moving. Gosh he was fast!

Quietly, she'd peek round the pillar, her eyes locking upon the direction where the sound came. That's when she saw him. Ah-hah! Found--

Whoa whoa whoa, hold the banthas, what was THAT?!

He just... was there one second and then gone the next in a blur and shift.

Okaaaaaaaay..... hide and seek kicked up a notch. Okay, she could handle this. Maybe. The cold was starting to cling to her, but she would shrug it off. She wasn't at her peak, so she wouldn't move as fast. Nor would she be able to sustain her cloak for long.

Well, tactics might prevail. As soon as he disappeared, she went running right to where he'd been last. Odds are he wouldn't come right back here anytime soon.

Pressing herself against the shadow of the pillar, she reappeared with hitched breath. Already her heart was pumping in excitement and adrenaline, and that was warming her enough to ignore the chill of the air.

She'll need a distraction... now was there anything around her she could throw...

What she'd do for a pebble!

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

He reappeared almost exactly where Kira had been standing seconds ago, his lips still turned into a smile.

This time when he popped up his eyes were closed. He no longer looked for her visually, he had given up on that. He simply listened for the pitter patter of tiny feet. With the force flowing through him he could very well hear the sound of a mouse crawling, perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was very close to that.

He listened carefully, falling into an almost nostalgic trance.

Soliael remembered hiding in the forests of Onderon, running in the jungles of Dxun, diving over cliffs and swimming in river to elude his hunting mothers. It hadn't been a game, not truly, survival training was far more accurate, but he remembered it calmly, and he remembered why he had most often been found. Noise. He had always made far too much noise.

He heard something, a hint, and smirked.

Another blink and Soliael was gone.

 

[Kira Talith]

There came the distant sound of a slipper bouncing across the floor about three pillars from where Kira stood. She was now sans one slipper, thankfully, it was the one where she still had her big toe. The need for balance and all.

Trade off was, well... a VERY cold floor. Brr!

Her eyes would dart from right to left, using that bit of distraction to move towards the opposite end of the grand hall. The pads of her feet would be as silent as she could make them, she wasn't an investigator for nothing. Granted, she wasn't at her best, and the game, while entertaining and certainly a fantastic method to keep darker thoughts at bay, was starting to wear on her.

Her breathing was already spiking, and the energy consumption from constantly moving along with the use of the Force to hide herself on and off in illusions was starting to show its strain. A thin sheen of sweat would start to form over her skin, but she wasn't about to stop yet.

Tenacity.

She had it in spades!

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael appeared where the slipper had fallen. A slight hint of concern shot across his face as he picked up the shoe. The ground here was cold, it was quite literally bedrock and the floor was not at all heated. Kira was still recovering, and the cold would likely be setting in soon. Still, at least this game would keep her mind off of whatever darkness had been haunting her.

He had seen it.

Small flashes of emotion, tiny breaks of her smile, attempts to change the subject.

The False God was no Lorrdian, no great study of emotion and facial expression, but he could see pain when it happened. He could see something was sticking with Kira, sticking to her very soul. Examining the slipper, Soliael closed his eyes again, letting the shot fall into one of his larger pockets. He listened again, then breathed in slightly.

Soliael began to fall into the hunt, began to drop into his natural state. His Garhoon side took over, and his fangs extended ever so slightly as he looked for her.

He caught a scent.

Another beat of the heart and he was gone again.

 

[Kira Talith]

Tick tock goes the clock, the Keeper and the Jedi.

Okay, maybe she was starting to be a little bit delusional if she was resorting to mental youngling jingles. The Force would was down her like water, her body reappearing as she would plaster herself against a far wall. End of the hall with a heck of a lot of alcoves it seemed, she'd mull to herself as she would carefully attempt to stay in the shadows.

In the far reaches of her mind, a thought would cross that the rest of the younglings would have a blast here. She could even hear their distant giggles, the pitter patter of feet weaving between the pillars to stay hidden. Having fun. Retaining that innocence of the galaxy just a bit longer, if only for an hour of play.

Her chest would rise and fall sharply, head dipping back against the polished stone of an alcove she'd found. Okay... so maybe this wasn't the best of ideas.

Pushing a bit too much there Blue, as nine toes would wiggle. Ain't as young as I once was. Her eyes would dart, searching. This was a lot easier when her opponent were kids -- not a would be God.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

How he traveled in the blink of an eye seemed an impossibility, exactly what he did was difficult to explain. A trick that the Aing-tii used on a massive scale. They could transport entire ships, whole vessels, perhaps even entire planets. Soliael had gone to Aing-Tii and learned from the monks, learned how to do their little trick. It was not an easy thing, requiting vast reserved amount of power and intense concentration.

Not Viable for use in combat.

For this however, for this it was perfectly fine.

He had slipped into a primal state, moved into something else. His Garhoon heritage had come to him in full, and he had begun to hunt Kira. Not with the intention of hurting her of course, that was ridiculous, but catching her was only half a game now. With the scent in his nose, and the noise of her heavy breaths, Soliael found her.

Another blink, and Soliael appeared behind the tiny blond woman. “Boo.”

The word was said with a feint glow in his eyes.

 

[Kira Talith]

First came the start. She jumped.

Then came her exclamation. "How in the freakin --"

Finally she'd turn to face him.

And what blood was left on her face would promptly drain away. Oh, it wasn't whatever sort of feral nature he would be showing of his Garhoon heritage.

No it was the bright orange eyes with that glow. With her feeling lightheaded at her growing exhaustion, it came back. It all came back.

Back went slamming against the wall, and she half near tripped in an effort to get away. Gone was the giddiness. The mischief. The lighthearted banter. It would feel as if the pit of her stomach sank, and her heart would thunder in her ears. Hands came up defensively, and a cerulean glow would start to grow, the crackle of energy rising, fingers trembling.

Through all that, one word would fall from her lips, coated in sickening twisted revulsion and edged in fear.

Just one.

'Nememe."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

His eyesbrows raised, the glow from his eyes dissipated, and surprise broke his face. He didn't quite understand what was going on at first. Her body language screamed of unease, her face tore with fear, her eyes bulged with absolute terror. In an instant her entire demeanor changed from what it had been seconds ago, she seemed to shirk and shrink away from him. Falling backwards, the pillar caught her, hands coming up with bright sparks of glowing energy.

Then he heard it.

“Nemene.”

Everything suddenly came crashing into place.

He understood. Everything that Kira had gone through, her reactions to certain things, the scars, everything. It fit perfectly, sliding into reality and thought like a mesh. Soliaels mind began to race, making connection after connection. Events, timing. When Kira had gone missing, his sisters movements in the outer rim, her bragging to him about a Jedi Master. Nemenes death, Kira's relocation.

Things moved quickly, and suddenly Soliael snapped back into reality. His eyes darted to Kira, and immediately his hands shot up in the same defensive stance that he held. “I won't hurt you.”

He was pure control.

On the inside rage filled him. Anger at his sister, anger at his own foolishness, but on the outside, on the every level that he could control Soliael exhibited calm like never before. He exerted it, pushed it, forced his unconscious mind to remain with that same air of calm he had been holding all this time.

“I promise.” Genuine, calm, soothing, his hands slowly moving to interlock with her own.

 

[Kira Talith]

The scene would be instantly carved into memory: Kira flat against the wall, her hands summoning the Force to defend herself, crackling charges of electricity sparking from the tips of her trembling fingers towards Soliael's own. Her spine had turned to ice, and she was shaking so badly she was almost hyperventilating.

Through the haze of fight vs flight, she heard his voice. That was the only forewarning she had before the crash of his focused calm came at her like a permacrete house. It would cocoon her, slip into her mind, warming her from the inside out. Those first few seconds were critical, as she couldn't help but unconsciously shrink back at his approach.

I won't hurt you.

Her body began to relax a little. "S-Sparky?" her voice quavered like hell, eyes blinking furiously as if to wipe away what manner of demons lay therein. Seconds would tick and then she'd feel his fingers slip against her own, and she held fast, latched onto a tight grip as arcs of electricity would go charging between them both as she struggled to regain control of herself and her bearings. Force knew that in her state, each arc would sting like hell, as her mind was still fighting a battle it had been conditioned to relive over and over for months due to that cyberneticchip.

As strong as she was, she didn't want to go back. She never wanted to go back. Not again.

Not again.

"I... I..." her throat would clog, and moisture would collect in her eyes as she'd start to slide down the wall to the floor.

".. Sorry." was all she could utter in a devastated whisper. "I'm sorry."