Zero Sum

[Matsu Xiangu]

[SIZE=18pt]Bespin - Cloud City[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt]Early Evening[/SIZE]

and you never get away, you never get to take the easy way​

and all of this is a consequence brought on by our own hand,​

if you believe in that sort of thing.​

and did you ever really find, when you closed your eyes, ​

any place that was still and at peace?​

​

She couldn’t believe she’d never been to Bespin. In truth it had never held too much allure. It wasn’t geared to the visitor without business engagements - none of Coruscant’s nightlife or Naboo’s destinations. But it was beautiful, and that much she could appreciate. And nowadays it wasn’t in some faction’s sphere of influence. Even though she’d long since left behind the One Sith, it paid to be cautious where her reputation was concerned. A planet on which she had no immediate enemies was a good choice if she was looking to unwind, explore a little.

When she was younger, just starting out in the galaxy, she’d just...explored. She’d left her home planet on a random transport and let it take her wherever its destination might have been. It happened to be Utapau, and from there she’d hopped another transport. And another. She spent a few days on each planet, exploring and snooping in places she shouldn’t. It had given her a remarkable ability to read other people. They never noticed a small little Atrisian with no seeming goal in mind. Of course, she’d been nobody then.

Somehow, after returning from what she just called the Other Place, her life had become much the same. No longer part of the Sith, she drifted. What she’d seen out there had changed her - some monster, the demiurge’s will. (In the Other Place they’d named her Nous. The one who gave voice to the creator of worlds.) This galaxy was too small, its squabbles petty. So she rode wherever the tide took her.

The light was just shifting as she veered in to what looked like some sort of warehouse facility - it was dark, quiet save for the low, monotone hum of some machinery running the place. The occasional hiss of steam being let off drifted from somewhere distant. She wasn’t supposed to be there, but that had always been the fun part.

[member="Aaralyn Rekali-Gyndar"]​

 

[The End Narrator]

“They say the sins of the past will eventually find out where you are.”

“They say that there is a soul amongst the living to which your fate is forever intertwined to dance with – a dance that could be one of grace or disaster. “

“They say that the Force guides you, for each of us has a destiny to which we must fulfill.”

She chuckled softly and looked away from the holorecorder, wind blowing her dark caramel colored hair across her face. A familiar presence came to pass through the Force – a presence she had not felt since Manaan. Her violet orbs would turn back to face the holorecorder, smiling gently - the wisps of hair continued to flow across her face wildly.

“They say a lot of things – should they be right; you’ll find what I can teach – where it all began.” A finger would deactivate the holo-recording and she’d set the cube down gently beside the door that led to the inner bowels of Cloud City. Aaralyn didn’t hide her presence, she showed no fear in the presence of darkness that encompassed the individual that was near. She knew her – almost like she knew [member="Kiskla Grayson"]. One could say like a sister in battle – blood shed on the same field, each taking something from the other. Unfortunately for Matsu, she took only blood from Aaralyn – the Sword of the Jedi on the other hand took her arm.
Rumor came to pass that her sweet daughter had encountered the wicked Sith on Endor and returned the blade that once pierced her body – that nearly took her very existence from this plane in which we resided, but that wouldn’t matter. Aaralyn would ensure that Matsu wouldn’t have a chance to use it again – Matsu would renounce the dark side or be destroyed. It was that simple – the woman who had become her greatest adversary would meet her maker.

One way or another.

The door hissed open to allow Aaralyn passage, and pass through she would. The sound of her boots clicking against the durasteel would echo in between the hissing of steam and sounds of pressurized vacuum. The warehouse was a bit more than that – it was a carbonite freezing center, processing materials meant for long hauls to the Deep Core and Outer Rim respectively. Aaralyn would offer Matsu an additional choice, should she choose not to renounce the dark and return to the light – the carbon freezing chamber.

A cruel punishment?

Not for someone of her caliber, nothing was too cruel.

Her voice would boom through the chamber – imposing as much as it could be, intent on surprising [member="Matsu Xiangu"].

“No matter where you run – I will find you.”

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

It had been a very long time since she’d felt the presence that overwhelmed the space around her.

Aaralyn.

Funny, to think of an enemy by her first name. Wasn’t it easier to dehumanize, to call them by a family name that made them seem something distant? But that was impossible. Too much violence, the shared intimacy of blood spilled, something taken. Matsu had walked away from that day on the winning side in totality - Manaan under Sith control. But she’d been missing an arm, her opponent’s demise unconfirmed.

But she’d not walked away empty-handed.

Her philosophy - her belief that pain, suffering, loss were the keys to power - had found its core strength that day. She was better than she’d ever been.

She and the Jedi Master had shared battlefields in the interim. She’d felt her on Kashyyyk, her cloying battle meditation a headache for Matsu. But they’d not met face-to-face since that last moment, both screaming in agony and determination, grappling on the bridge on Manaan.

The Jedi’s voice rang through the large, open room, but otherwise she was still invisible to the Sith. Matsu couldn’t even discern the metallic tap of footsteps besides her own on the metal walkways. Her eyes narrowed, reaching out with inky, invisible tendrils to seek Aaralyn’s mind.

“Aaralyn,” she called - gentle, silky, the same deep satin voice. Perhaps the only thing not changed. “It’s been a while.” Still moving, amber-black eyes narrowed and watching. “I met your daughter a bit ago. Nice girl.”

[member="Aaralyn Rekali-Gyndar"]​

 

[The End Narrator]

Aaralyn remained unmoved by the compliment that rang from the poisonous lips of Matsu, instead, she continued to pace towards the other woman. She’d find herself at the top of a set of stairs, overlooking where Matsu stood. A hand would rise from her side and somewhere a panel would activate – the sounds of mechanical whirling would echo across the warehouse. Orange glow lamps would flicker and illuminate the area – basking it in a hellish radiance that would cause the eyes of the unprepared to wince.

Yet, the Sword continued to advance. Her steps were methodical and precise; she knew what she had come for.

“Today is the day, that you renounce your ways…” She unclipped her lightsaber from her belt, her right hand gently gripping the hilt loosely. “Or you’ll find yourself in an eternal slumber and adorned on the walls of some foreign place, to be forgotten forever.” Her grip would tighten suddenly as she thumbed the activation switch, the blue-white blade coming to life with a snap-hiss.

“The choice is yours, make it now.”

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She did not fear death.

But the slow decay of anonymity? That was a nightmare. She was Nous. She was the Final Beast. Such threats made rage run, some heady beast, a sickly tar in her bloodstream that fueled something she’d only newly discovered out there.

Amber overtook bottomless irises as she unclipped her lightsaber from her belt, its red blade awakening to match the hum of the Jedi’s. The steam of the machinery around them cast Aaralyn’s blade in a halo, blue glow reflecting off slowly drifting smoke to cast her as - perhaps - Matsu’s salvation. Should she choose to cast off her mantle, to renounce the Dark, this being would show her the Truth.

Or some version of it.

“Even if I wanted to, your people would never accept me,” she hissed, eyes narrowed as she walked towards the bottom of the steps leading to the level Aaralyn stood upon. It wasn’t much higher than Matsu, but enough to force the Atrisian to look up. “Jedi preach forgiveness - repent, and you shall be saved. But none of you would take me as I am. I have devoured the flesh of the living. I have made armies from their dead, aching bones once I was done. I have killed thousands, and I grow stronger with every world I bring to its knees.”

Coming to a stop, she contemplated the ultimatum one more time. “They would welcome me falsely, and then spit on my name when my back was turned. You’re just as bad as I am, Aaralyn. Now come.”

She reached up, concentrating on a lightning-fast telekinetic pull that ripped back the metal footing of the platform on which her rival stood. Lightsaber at the ready, she was prepared to defend herself against whatever Aaralyn had up her sleeve. It was foolish to believe this would be easy, but at the same time, Matsu relished the idea of locking blades with the Jedi Master again.

It had been too long since she’d tasted Jedi blood.

[member="Aaralyn Rekali-Gyndar"]​

 

[The End Narrator]

"You’re just as bad as I am, Aaralyn. Now come.”

Those words were like a lightsaber through the chest, burning through flesh and bone – but they held true. Aaralyn had taken many lives in service of the Jedi Order – she had done her duty as Sword of the Jedi without question, been the burning brand that slayed countless without cause save for the call of righteousness and the Light. For the first time, in a long time atleast, Aaralyn felt a seething angry beneath her veins. Her blood boiled and her eyes narrowed as she stared upon the enemy before her. To think that Matsu would have come easily would have been a fool’s errand and Aaralyn knew the battle ahead would come with many sacrifices.

But was Matsu willing to sacrifice it as much as she was?

So the dance of the light and dark would commence, with Matsu striking first. Aaralyn let out a loud “OOF” as she fell backwards and slammed into the ground behind her – but she didn’t stop there. There was pain, no doubt about it. The sensation of the cold metal impacting her flesh through cloth was something she couldn’t ignore. The very divots that were branded into the grates below now adorned her flesh – and in turn, her blood would begin to stain the white sleeve on her right arm. So, Matsu wanted a souvenir from the fight? That was fine by her. Aaralyn would roll to her side and reach through the Force, allowing the energy that Matsu directed into the pull to be her own weapon against her. Aaralyn would twist and manipulate the very same molecules and speed them up twice as fast and push.

The thick grate would fly twice as fast towards the wayward Sith – with the intent of slamming full into her being and knocking her backwards. Meanwhile, Aaralyn would attempt to roll onto her side and recover.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

That the Jedi wasted none of her time talking and got down to business was something Matsu had appreciated the first time they’d ‘met’, and that hadn’t changed. It was a common point of complaint that both Jedi & Sith loved to hear themselves talk, but the two women circling each other as predators were certainly exceptions to the stereotype.

Much about this place - this time - seemed trivial to her now. She’d seen worlds beyond comprehension populated by what would be called monsters by a less confoundingly warped mind. And yet this moment seemed tangible - the consequence of meeting Aaralyn again proved worthy of Matsu’s intent.

The grate came back at her with twice the speed and she was tempted to blast it to pieces, but it would be expending energy that she could not afford to waste. Neither woman was in the business of quitting. The expanse of flooring was too large and moving too fast to counter with anything fancy, so instead Matsu looked up to the ceiling covered in tubes and wires leading to the controls for the carbonite chamber and jumped. Grabbing hold of one of the sections of piping zigzagging along the low ceiling, she managed to narrowly avoid the speeding grate. She’d felt it fly past her feet, imagined her bones shattered into thousands of pieces.

The tick-tick-tick of her metal fingers along the piping clipped through the air as she skittered along the pipes, unnatural speed making her appear spider-like. Reaching out, she spread a sense of confusion through the room - a twinge, a split-second questioning that (if she were lucky) would make Aaralyn just confused enough to add to the grotesque element of surprise of Matsu dropping from the ceiling like an unwelcome spider on one’s blankets in the night. She launched herself without ceremony, low to the ground and springing her claws as she swiped for Aaralyn’s legs - ankles or calves, preferably, a dozen things to sever or pop - before pushing off to flip backwards and away on her feet, igniting her lightsaber once more.

[member="Aaralyn Rekali-Gyndar"]​

 

[The End Narrator]

There was chaos and confusion.

But the Force was there – the Light more so than the dark. It was a swirl of dancing and colliding emotions that Aaralyn found herself able to dive into without hesitation. She watched as Matsu skittered across the pipes like a glitterstim spider from Kessel and then lash out from the shadows.

Aaralyn would flip backwards and onto her feet at the last moment – despite the mass confusion that tore through the room like a ripple through time and space. Aaralyn grimaced and growled low in her throat as the burning sensation shred across her leg like a Verpine scattergun. Matsu’s claws tore through the outer layer of her flesh and just above her knee causing her to buckle just briefly. Blood would splatter against the blackened wall of the carbonite chamber and hiss as the warm liquid impacted a coolant line. Aaralyn would lash out with her right hand abruptly, lightsaber in hand – her arcing cut was simple and perfectly horizontal with her chest. The blue plasma blade rippling across the darkness in an effort to catch the elusive form. She’d come from right to left, following the fleeting form of Matsu, intent on cleaving any part of the damned Sith Lord she could or in half if she managed.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]