A Chat Over Tea

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli looked down at her desk within the Sith assassin sanctuary, her eyes red and raw from crying so much. She really didn't need this added stress and emotions, not one bit, but Ferus had seen fit to just add more on top by killing Minna. She had no idea why, was it spur of the moment and he lost control, a weapon malfunction with his hidden blade, was it premeditated so he didn't have to share their daughter.

She needed to understand what had caused it, why he felt he had no choice but to kill her.

The tea set she had set began bubbling and hissing as it came to a boil, and getting up with a somewhat lurch, she turned the burner down a bit so it would go back to a low simmer. She had called for Ferus to meet with her and they were going to have a nice pleasant chat about what happened.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Pleasant wasn't the least bit what the Sith Lord expected. It was on the same day, that very same day, that [member="Darth Arcanix"] had asked for him. His hand was still covered in her blood, but his once shaky and hating demeanor had been replaced by apathy. As the leader of the Sith Assassins, he couldn't afford to show real emotion. Of course, he couldn't truly hide it. If one were to look long enough, they could see the overwhelming sadness in his eyes.

His daughter, [member="Asajj"] , would be left in the care of none other than Bar'reth, the Bha'lir tiger. It was an odd choice to leave a baby with, but the tiger was loyal to the Sith, so much so that his child was the tigers own. His mind would drift back to the babe, his mind already figuring out how to raise her well, and how to keep her safe. But to do that, he was going to have to deal with this chat.

Stepping into the room shirtless and shoeless, Ferus only had the hidden blade visible as a weapon. Of course, he had the sabers built into his body, but there had been too much fighting for him. He was sure the woman would scream, maybe even try to kill him, but he would not fight more than to defend himself. Raising a hand as he stepped in, he would utter a single phrase. His own voice was horse, due to his own screaming he had done.

"Yo."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Ferus"]

When he entered, Taeli glanced up and she could see the sadness there, her Lorrdian upbringing giving her valuable insight into body language. She was even more confused and angry than she had been before, if he was so sad about what he did, why do it in the first place?!

"Yo?" she whispered, her eyes shifting back to staring down at her desk. "Yo?! Such a flippant greeting for someone who just killed someone I hold dear and called a friend . . . such a flippant reply to someone you supposedly loved more than anything beyond your daughter . . . such a INADEQUATE RESONSE TO WHY YOU DID WHAT YOU DID?!!"

She was on her feet now, anger and grief pulsing across her Force presence. He might be head of the Sith Assassins, but she was not a technical member. She was quite free to reveal how she felt and the desk in front of her cracked in half from the sheer amount of energy she was radiating. Other things started to shake in place as they were rattled by the waves coming off her as she strode forward.

"I want to know WHY you felt the need to KILL MINNA, to KILL VALTRYX!" she shouted. The tea set was hissing as the water came to a boil and the sound calmed her somewhat, even if every instinct was screaming for her to lash out and pulverize him. Going over to the tea, she poured some of the hot water into two cups, placed tea bags into them and set them on the ruined desk.

"Now why did you do it?" she asked, her every instinct still screaming to kill him.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus kept oddly still. 'Yo' was the only thing he could think of at the time being. Other introductions like "Sorry I killed her" or "Don't freak out" didn't seem to fit. He wasn't intimidated in the slightest as her anger began to shake the room. no. He had done so earlier, and he was quite sure the ship that once belong to Minna no longer existed in one piece. But he was too tired from it to shout back, to make a fuss out of it. So instead, as she calmed, he moved to sit across from her.

"Do you remember what they did to Alex? How they butchered her, tortured her, and sent her into the literal hell? Minna had come for me. Not to kill me, not to return to the Assassins, but to take me away. To have me, her, and our child flee Sith space and go someplace to hide. To live out our days hiding and in peace." A faint smile formed over the face of the Sith Lord. How he actually wanted to go. How he wanted to live in peace with her.

"But the Sith hunted down Alex. They went out of their way to get her. You know this. Minna and myself, we can hide in the Force, but our child can't. The Sith would find us, and they would punish us. They would butcher our child and make us choose who dies first. She had betrayed the order already by throwing in with the Vitae, and my choices were to let her flee with my child and have them both die, to flee with them and all of us die, or I kill her and our child lives on." Twisted as it was, the Sith lord fully believed in his choice. He wouldn't so much as touch the tea in front of him though. [member="Darth Arcanix"] could possibly see the sadness creep over his features. No matter how much his warped mind believed it to be true, his heart deep down knew something was wrong.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Ferus"]

"You . . . idiot," she hissed, her hand flying up, open palm, to slap him across the face. "You karking idiot, you really didn't think that through did you? Never . . . ever try to justify to me that killing your wife, your best friend, was the best course of action in keeping your daughter safe from retirbution for her change of heart. I don't know why she returned to the light, maybe being a mother changed her back, but there are somethings that come before loyalty to a government."

Another slap came up as she continued, her purple eyes almost blazing in anger.

"Ever thought that maybe you could have fled to a world like Nar Shaddaa, where it is nearly impossible to distinguish one Force presence from another, no matter how powerful it is?" she hissed. "Never thought that going somewhere where there is so much life on a planet, you can't sense people. Why do you think the Jedi from Palpatine's purge were so bloody hard to find?!"

A third slap, this one across his bare chest, right over his left heart.

"I lost a friend today, even if she turned back to the light, because of your inability to consider how hard it truly is to track someone down," she said, sweeping back to the broken desk and trying to calm down. "You're sad, but you still did it. Do you know, I went back to my family on Lorrd and when they rejected me because I was Sith, I lost control and they died. I was unable to move for hours, my emotions were all over the place, grief and heartbreak gripped me and I couldn't stop sobbing. Oh, you screamed and yelled and are still grieving even underneath that apathetic shell you're trying to put around you, but don't you DARE TRY AND JUSTIFY THIS BECAUSE YOU FEARED WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IF YOU CHOSE YOUR FAMILY!!! Alex would still be alive if I hadn't been forced into the situation I was because some overzealous CEO wanted to gain favor, and forced me to step my plan up or risk being called a traitor."

She wanted to tear him to pieces right now, but she took several deep breaths and calmed herself.

"What happened to Alex does not justify what you did, and it never will," she said, reaching for her tea and taking a long draught of it.

 

[Darth Ferus]

The slap shocked Ferus. With it his head turned, but he made no move to attack or retaliate. It's not what he wanted to do. His face would slowly turn back to [member="Darth Arcanix"] , only to be slapped again. They didn't hurt, both he and her had been through much more painful things, but the meaning behind them didn't fade away. The third slap did little to the Zabrak at this point, and his blue gaze would begin to harden.

"You betrayed Alexandra because you feared being named a traitor. You killed your own family for lesser reasons. I do not look to justify what I did to the woman -I- love, and I will not hesitate to do it again." What she said in return only made him angrier. Who was she to judge him for not wanting his daughter to be named traitor if she herself would not be willing? Who was she to judge him for killing his wife to protect his child when she killed her own family for not accepting she was Sith?

Slowly red skin became stained black, and the Sith Lord would rise from his seat. Similarly, his voice would rise. "You dare to judge me with some air of superiority when you've done worse? What I did I did for my daughter. And she would have done the same to me. To protect our child I would have made her!" Similar to her shaking of the room, he was beginning to do the same. Anger flowed through him, and as a result his skin would become darker and darker, turning from a vibrant red to a deep dark blood color. "She betrayed the Sith and became marked for death the second she came here as an agent of the Vitae. And deep down, you know that."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Ferus"]

"You think I actually intended and thought through killing my family?!" she yelled, her eyes blazing up again. "I lose control because I lost my family's love! Family is everything and when mine rejected me, I didn't know how to handle it! Could you control your powers and what might happen if that sort of thing happened, but no I'll do one better, I'll just show you!"

She rushed forward and, placing her hand on his temple, she sent a telepathetic message containg the memory of what happened to his mind.

Palpable waves of Force energy starting lashing out around her as she closed her eyes, tears falling thick and fast now. Her world, her support that had been her parents, had crumbled. She wanted to scream, to rage, to cry, to laugh, to . . . it was too much. Too much!

"Too much!!!!" she screamed, the Force energy rocketing out of her and smashing everything in its path. Pieces of china, knick knacks, datapad, and other small objects started flying through the air. Her 'parents' were thrown backwards over the couch and into the wall behind them, yelling in pain from the impact. Taeli couldn't comprehend anything, her entire focus was on the fact her parents had just told her she wasn't their daughter anymore, that they hated her. . .

Another shockwave of Force energy rocketed out from around her, she had no control over the outpouring of energy, she couldn't even say if it was a technique she knew. It was simple raw instinct and power lashing out as she collapsed to her knees. The furniture nearest her exploded into splinters and shredded cushions, the debris rocketing around the room in an almost whirlwind fashion. No control . . . no control at all . . .

"Taeli!" Jakon yelled, straining against the storm that their daughter was radiating. While he hated what she became, and he agreed with his wife, right now his fatherly instinct was kicking in. His daughter was having an emotional collapse right in front of him, because of them and this was far different than last time.

Melarna had never seen a Force User lose control like this, their daughter was incredibly powerful. She was now more concerned than ever, but she couldn't move. The energy exploding out from their daughter was too much to move against.

Hearing her father's voice, the voice of someone who she loved that hated her now, that has cast her aside easily, just made it worse. Another, even stronger, wave exploded out from her and she screamed, "TOO MUCH!!!!" The latest wave of energy blew apart everything around her, huge shards of the floor and walls were now being whirled around, the ceiling cracking as the energies blew everything apart. Melarna and Jakon could only watch as several large shards of permacrete and steel ripped from the walls and headed their way.

It was several minutes later, long painful minutes for Taeli before she was able to regain control of her powers and regain her awareness of her surroundings. Blinking slowly, tears still falling she could see her parents stuck to the wall, shards of debris in their body.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," she sobbed, almost crawling to where her parents, the ones she had known anyways, were now pinned to the wall . . . dead.

"NOOOOOOO!" she yelled, unable to comprehend she had killed them, to even think it. But the proof was there, and as she she sobbed uncontrollably, she rolled into a ball and cried.

"Being called a traitor put my other apprentice, my sister, in danger," she continued, letting her hand fall away. "I will NOT let anything happen to Melori, betraying Alex early protected her from a fate worse than death! And yes, Minna betrayed the Sith by turning back to the Light and joining the Vitae, but you DID NOT NEED TO KILL HER! You could have knocked her unconscious and taken her to Hauntruss for re-education, claiming she was confused by whoever filled her head with what changed her."

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus went silent again as the images were thrust into his head. It wasn't a difficult task for [member="Darth Arcanix"] , bit the intended result was far more complex than she had intended. The Sith Lords new body didn't show it, but years upon years scarred him. Within his mind, Arcanix would see just how long the dark side had plauged his soul. Over a hundred years.

Silent still, the Darth would move back to sit. "Let Hauntress warp her into something unrecognizable.. Into a monster worse than myself. That's your solution?"

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Ferus"]

"No, I'm saying it was an option," she said, distaste clear in her voice. "I don't like many of our colleagues at all, Hauntruss, Vitium, Vornskr, many of the other Lords and Ladies, but if I were put in your shoes and had few options that were good . . . I would have left Ferus. Family is more important and now you'll have to raise a daughter, by yourself, and always avoid the question on her her mother is dead. You have set up a situation that will never be able to be maintained."

She had seen how long he had been steeped in darkness . . . and it was unsettling to her. It had warped his mind to a degree, she could already tell that . . . but for that to be the case for a hundred years . . . it was an eye opener to her about things.