Private A Taste Of Treason

[Lanik Dawnstar]

Stumbling through the halls, led by a chain attached to the handcuffs that bound his hands was Lanik Dawnstar. Once a bright beacon of hope and an unshakeable faith, now appeared nothing but a hollow husk of his former self. What had once been black hair now gone stark white, no longer was it neatly combed. The snowy hair fell freely around his shoulders, some parts matted and tangled, others thin and frail. Full cheeks had sunken in to form craters in his cheeks. Lips, cracked and caked in dried blood. It appeared as though the man hadn’t bathed in weeks, and in truth he hadn’t. Smelling to the high heavens, rivaling a corpse he simply followed where he was taken.

The sapphire eyes that adorned his skull still carried that same inner determination. Despite everything, he’d been put through, the torment, the suffering. He hadn’t broken, he hadn’t given in. A thick collar had been slapped around the Jedi’s neck, electrostuds apparent on it. The jedi had learned its purpose the first time he’d been unstrapped from the torture table and drug from Voyance’s presence. It was a way to ensure he couldn’t call upon the force. Even then no less than eight legionnaires led the man through the gray halls.

Black rings dominated the bottom of the Jedi’s eyes, and each step saw him nearly collapsing to the ground. He could barely think straight as hunger ate at his very being. A thirst of unimaginable proportions begged to be slaked. Every muscle that he’d managed to retain ached. It was an existence he’d never imagined.

Led to a door one of the officers activated the pad where it slid open admitting them into a chamber that was once more the same uniform gray. “You know the Sith would really benefit from a better interior decorator.” Lanik managed to get out before a fit of coughs caused him to reel over to his knees. Having been stripped bare and now only wearing enough to protect his dignity it was easy to see how much weight the Jedi had loss. His ribcage and spine could be seen through the now thin skin as his body heaved on the floor.

Without mercy or pity two of the sith troopers seized Lanik’s arms hoisting him from the cold durasteel surface and shoving him to the table. Slamming stomach first into it the Jedi simply collapsed upon it. His head resting on the metal, vision blurry he fought the urge to collapse into unconsciousness. Sliding back slowly he collapsed into a nearby chair his head falling back and looking to the ceiling. Each breath labored, eyes bloodshot, he simply stared. Lanik had once wondered what would be a fate worse than death, and he’d be damned if the Sith weren’t trying to introduce him to one.

Irveric Tavlar

 

[Irveric Tavlar]

It was an encounter that was permanently seared into Irveric's mind. His encounter with the Jedi on Kintan. If not for the raw intensity of the scrap but also for the physical marring it placed on his form. His right arm was gone ; replaced with a deep crimson and gunmetal steel artificial limb cold and pragmatic in its design, the Sith engineering offering the General little reprieve in an outward appearance of well molded synthflesh. He would bare this reminder until something much more vital couldn't be so easily replaced.

Only through whispers amongst his subordinates that Tavlar even caught wind that the Jedi who nearly took his life on Kintan was not only identified, but imprisoned by the very same Sith Lady who'd made the commander grind his teeth in mental anguish as she spouted nonsensical orders and rhetoric at him.

As the rest of his army deployed to their newest assignment planetside on Mandalore, Tavlar took a detour. Embarking aboard the Epitaph it wasn't long before he was able to secure a meeting with the Jedi ; even if he was far too late to witness or even prevent the harsh crucible of Sith suffering Voyance had inflicted on the man.

Tavlar yearned to channel the very same anger and emotional fervor of his Sith masters in the face of Lanik once he'd be face to face with him again. Perhaps clobber him to a bloody pulp with the very same durasteel limb that the Jedi made him be fitted with in the first place. However he had no capacity for such a potent and bitter grudge. He could only leave the Jedi's fate to his baseline primal instinct once he peered at the man once more only from a position of absolute dominance ; more than able to offer a gruesome coup de grâce away from the shrieking intensity of battle.

In sharp contrast to the muddied, plasma burned and battered armor plates he wielded on Kintan ; Tavlar donned the drab feldgrau ensemble of an Imperial officer of his station away from the lines of battle. Though still his frigid guise felt the raw marks of battle in the form of blaster burns and shrapnel lacerations.

The blast door to Lanik's cell opened with a metallic hiss, shedding cold artificial light from the outside corridor into the Jedi's cell. It was then that Irveric first glimpsed upon the depths of Darth Voyance's cruelty.

On Kintan ; Tavlar battled with a true warrior. A man well worthy of the station of Knight within his creed. Now...he was nothing. A withered shell rotting in his own despair. Lifeblood lost and honed youthfulness squandered in the wake of imaginable torture. It was then that any intent Tavlar had to impose revenge upon the Jedi sheltered itself into the recesses of his mind. He felt pity more than anything else. Death might've been a reprieve from whatever was done to him.

Despite the dismay at the sight of the Jedi duelist it only reflected in a momentary starkness in his eyes before he settled back into his cornucopia of stoicness.

"You look like you've seen better days, Jedi." Tavlar stated flatly.

Lanik Dawnstar

 

[Lanik Dawnstar]

Eyes closed the Jedi finally had some semblance of peace, no more droids coming and injecting him with just enough chemicals to keep him alive. No Sith lord hovering over his restrained form putting him through forms of suffering that could never be experienced except at the hands of the force. Still sitting in the chair the padawan’s body jerked involuntarily at times. Cold sweat retreated down his forehead, head rocking back and forth before his eyes shot open. A beam of white light blinded them for a second.

Colbalt eyes squinting at the visitor Lanik tried to identify them. The white light of the hall silohuetted their form. A dark shadow fell across their front protecting their identity. Blinking away the blurriness Lanik was welcomed by the sight of a very familiar face. An all too familiar one. Lanik could never, would never forget the soldier on Kintan. A soldier with a devotion to rival even a Jedi or Sith in their ideologies. The soldier had fought to the point where he couldn’t anymore and had even pushed the padawan to lengths he’d never wanted to take.

Sucking in air through his teeth Lanik, felt his heart skip a beat. Of course, he didn’t give in to Voyance, now he was to be tossed to the soldier for them to have their fun with. For them to have their vengeance. Looking to the middle-aged man, Lanik’s head cocked slightly to the side at the soldier’s statement.

Slowly the ghost of a smile found itself on the Jedi’s face. The soldier had a sense of humor, he hadn’t seen that on the battlefield. What Lanik had seen was a man willing to kill another without mercy, without remorse, and in the name of the Sith. There was still no hatred. Eyes taking in the uniform, Lanik noted the man was of higher rank within the hierarchy. Surprisingly high to have been directly on the battlefield.

“You know just the life of a Jedi.” Coughing Lanik’s hand motioned to the other side of the table the motion slow and obviously a challenge. “Before you commence with whatever you’re about to I’d like to offer my apologies. Despite what it may seem from interactions with other Jedi I never seek to cause such damage or wound people so… You left me no choice.”

Catching a glimpse of the sleeve of the General’s arm and realizing that the sleeve wasn’t pinned and instead filled perfectly the Jedi raised a brow following the line of sight to the hand. They’d either already received a cybernetic or reattachment had been possible. Either way it seemed the Sith took better care of their troopers than the Jedi had expected.

Irveric Tavlar

 

[Irveric Tavlar]

The Jedi spoke like he'd already assumed his fate at the hands of the General. That he was to make amends with the ill he'd caused him before what little remained of his essence was snuffed from his mortal body. For many reasons ; perhaps Lanik was fortunate he didn't encounter a Sith that fateful day on Kintan else this parlay might've began far differently.

"I did not, no. Thus you've nothing to apologize for." Tavlar stated flatly to the Jedi ; refusing the gesture. War is war ; in all fairness he can't truly hold ill will to his enemy for maiming him or even wishing him dead.

"Was going to be one of us that made it from that bloodied trench it seemed then." Tavlar remarks, his faint green gaze picking apart each and ever feature of the wretched chamber as he uncrossed his arms, revealing the starkly artifical cybernetic of his hand. Eventually the General's gaze trailed back to the Jedi after giving a brief survey of the putrid 'living' conditions.

"Lanik Dawnstar is the name yes? It's what they identified of you at the very least..." Irveric said ; peculiar to say the man's name allowed when perhaps the two combatants sought to rip all humanity from the other in their eyes in order to vindicate the brutal death either might've inflicted on the other.

"A name of destiny, Lanik Dawnstar. Name of a man who'd look to rearrange the Galaxy all his own...yet perhaps - for better or worse...here you are." Irveric remarks ; his words and cadence pooled with shades of pontification as he begins to pace idly. His presence to the Jedi...dead...nullified ; a seemless gap in the force around him.

"I suppose though ; in your show of mercy you proved a proper student of your creed. Unlike many of the other saber wielding cultists." Irveric remarks. The Jedi, like any other belligerent spoken of on a Galactic scale was the subject of many of the Sith-Imperial General's studies. Ever eager to learn his enemy he'd long memorized the Jedi code just as he did the Sith. Understanding both creeds was only one of many means of comprehending their next moves.

"Only so much mercy to spare among your ilk, however..." It is then that his voice embitters; that he begins to ever shed emotion.

Lanik Dawnstar

 

[Lanik Dawnstar]

It did good for the heart, as well as Lanik’s body that the general did not bear grudge for what had happened on Kintan. It seemed the soldiers had escaped the ideals and violence that the sith bore, if not most at least some had. The general was a credit to the legionnaires. Sitting back in the chair to make himself as comfortable as possible it did not pass Lanik’s notice that the General didn’t take the seat. Also how strangely that now he seemed to be missing in the force, his presence a void.

Odd. The number of beings in the galaxy that so willingly tore themselves of the force had grown in number exponentially. Once upon a time Lanik himself had thought of doing such a thing to himself. It was one thing to be apart of it, it was another to feel the force flowing through you. To feel the energy surging through your being, amplifying your senses, strengthening you, yet as much of a boon as it was it was also to be a curse. The barrage of emotions you found yourself awakened to that did not belong to yourself, the sensations of death as others pass on, the awareness of tragedies that once took place. For every benefit, there was a negative.

The Jedi did not speak while the General did, no need to raise the ire of one without need. A waste of breath and strength it would be, both of which the padawan found himself lacking in present days. Instead, he simply let the general continue on, the soldier’s words much like a politician. Selected carefully, that exuded an arrogance complimented by an intelligence superior to others.

“You speak as if I’m a hero, or that I seek to be one. You are wrong General, I simply seek to bring light to the galaxy. I care not for the war against the Sith, I care not for the reputation that the Jedi have accrued in current years. As a Jedi we do not seek power, prestige, to force others beneath our will. We simply offer a light for them to follow, and protect them from the dangers that the Sith themselves represent. There may be those within my order that have forgotten that, yet I haven’t.”

Icy eyes meeting Tavlar’s emerald ones the Jedi matched their gaze. “There are both Jedi and sentients in the galaxy that have lost their way, even if it was the final thing I do I simply hope to be a guiding light for them till my final moments. To guide them to a brighter horizon.”

Letting the silence hang in the air for a few seconds the Jedi mustered strength enough to lean forward, straightening himself in his seat. A movement to show he still bore some semblance of self-worth and respect. “It occurs to me that you know my name, yet not me yours. Would it be permittable for you to offer such?”

Irveric Tavlar

 

[Irveric Tavlar]

"Unfortunately for you, me and everyone, Dawnstar. You are not the jedi..." Tavlar remarks ; eventually taking the offer of a seat as he sits himself across from the tortured soul. He let him speak, it was the least he could offer him in this moment. A feign to disregard the wretched toll taken on his mortal shell if only for a few moments. As much as he had little patience for the cult ; he respected the warrior spirit of the Jedi. Their piercing lack of a emotion endeared to Tavlar who only ever sought to display identical qualities, at least within the field of battle ; even if this was merely a leadership practice than a personal ritual.

"Irveric Tavlar ; General if you so care to use my rank but in your position I doubt it'd do you much any good by now so call me whichever you care to." Tavlar remarked ; the Jedi equipping the martial pleasantries wouldn't spare him from any further torture, not that Tavlar was an overly prideful man to begin with.

"You tell me the Jedi don't seek power...prestige..." The mere thought drew a rare laugh from Tavlar as he seemed to grow physically uncomfortable once more, his tenure in the chair a short one as he stood back up.

"That is all the Jedi seek, the same as the Sith..." Irveric remarks but he wouldn't leave a scant moment of silence in the air before elaborating.

"Kintan...my men were slaughtered by you Jedi, like limp game. I stared down the face of one, before you encountered me. He had the look of a killer in his eyes all the same as any other, as you did. Whatever your code might say of peace...none of you robed cultists had any hesitation when your sabers cut through my troopers. Each and everyone of them, someone with a family and perhaps even children they've to provide for. Conscripts ; the same as I was.
you think it was ever my choice to join the legions? Once my home fell to the crimson saber I wasn't spared the tithe of manpower. It was only for my body of work before that I was admitted to officer training." Tavlar pauses if only to catch his breath and be sure in his rhetoric before speaking up once more.

"Great many of the Sith's hosts never wanted to go to war. Many of my men wanted no place on Kintan, slaves to this horrible machine and yet...no quarter. None given to them ; abdicate your involvement all you wish I do not care to indict you personally, Lanik Dawnstar. Though perhaps...mercy was given that day - but not to anyone capable of a sliver of the good you seek to instill in the galaxy, Jedi." With a low breath from his nose he shuts his eyes for the briefest of moments before continuing. Irveric clearly had his lot to say of the force for a man expected to stay silent in any topics not concerning the doctrine of military command he was instructed to carry out among the Sith. It isn't until he elaborates on his rhetoric once more that he invokes a deep bitterness in his tone and cadence.

"Not long after he disposed of a section of my troopers like refuse ; your master locked sabers with a Sith you are too familiar with, Darth Voyance. If any jedi were truly good for anyone ; he would've sought to strike her down and slay her where she stood, liberating countless men and women...like you...from her evil. Yet he relented - preached forgiveness and mercy to her...redemption. She left alive because the Jedi want her redeemed in the light - to add another to their cult when they could've easier cut her down and saved you from her evil. Power... each and every generation is yet another spent with the galaxy, the farmers, traders, merchants...protectors held hostage by an endless, pitiful existential war between 'dark' and 'light. Whilst both pray at the altar of 'balance' that their way must be preserved ; protected from the evils of the other to restore 'balance' all they care for is power. To subjugate the galaxy under their cult, abduct the aimless souls afflicted by the curse of force to induct another child neophyte into their inhuman doctrine." Tavlar states, barely skipping a beat in his long winded monologue.

"Peace...serenity...harmony...the Force...all of it a veil of deceit ; manipulation...power. If your creed was so pure and perfect. Nothing would've ever deviated. The Jedi brought upon the Sith and collectively both of these secret societies wrought incalculable suffering on everything in between." Tavlar concludes.

Lanik Dawnstar

 

[Lanik Dawnstar]

With the general taking a seat Lanik turned in the chair to face across the durasteel table and face the officer. Cuffed hands flopping onto the table to relieve some of the stress. Beneath the cuffs it was apparent that much of the skin had been worn away, scabbed over and lingered on the verge of infection. Dried stains of brown and a faint metallic scent signaling what it was.

Knowing that the General was now in a seated position, Lanik was able to let down his guard some. He wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight against the soldier anyways but it was better to be cautious than to end up dead. Now leaning back slightly in the chair, the cold metal against his singed and bruised flesh almost comforting. Anything was comfortable in comparison to the torture chair he’d been strapped to for weeks.

Lanik didn’t need the force to know where the conversation was heading, it was almost an inevitability in the age in which they lived. How the Jedi were no better than the Sith. Each sentence that fell from the General’s mouth was something that the Jedi had heard fall directly from the Sith’s mouths as well yet framed differently. Framed from the perspective of someone who lacked the power and status of the Sith, one who was forced into service yet thrived from it.

The padawan showed no emotion upon his face, no smile, no frown, not even the slightest hint of anger. Yet behind those icy eyes there was nothing but pity, pity for one who didn’t understand what they were saying. They only scratched the surface of what it meant to be a Jedi and had misinterpreted it. Many had over the decades, even those who consider themselves Jedi had done so. That’s why there needed to be a unification, a unification of those who truly understood the light, what it meant to be Jedi. Not those that would use weapons of destruction on not only the enemy but themselves.

As the general came to the end Lanik’s head shook, eyes aimed at the table before rising to meet the soldier’s gaze once more. The white locks of his hair framing his face followed the motion. “The Jedi are not about acquiring power, that is simply the understanding you gained from simply reading a code. The code is not what makes a Jedi, it is the goal, the purpose, the understanding all those make up a Jedi. One can not simply take a mantra at face value and think it describes what the order stands for. You cut yourself off from the force, I can feel it, that void that encircles you. Without a connection, many will never understand. Just like it was impossible for you to feel the death that was believed to be Voyance, that severing of life. Let alone me speaking with Master Morga not even moments after it happened and he saying that he’d slayed her.”

Knowing he was toeing the line between possibly going straight to retribution or even execution Lanik did not falter, he did not shy away nor hold his tongue. Much like a lightsaber he wielded it and brought it to task. “You’d never understand the deaths that were felt on Kintan, of soldier and civilian alike. Many committed by the hands of those same soldiers you commanded. We fight for these worlds so they not suffer the same way others have, facing forced conscription, having rights torn away, forced to kneel before an Empire that cares for only power.”

Stopping and taking a breath Lanik let the air hang silent for a second before what followed. “There is one thing in this galaxy more wicked than the desire to command or to rule, and that is the will to obey. To obey blindly, whether it be out of fear, or out of loyalty is nothing but a path to the dark. I’d rather fight the entirety of the Sith before ordering the deaths of innocents.”

Irveric Tavlar

 

[Irveric Tavlar]

Tavlar could've almost let off a faint laughter were it not for the boiling hatred stoked by the Jedi's final sentiment. The General could very well swear Lanik had let all fear of death melt away and merely sought to make his last few moments living some of defiance. Afterall ; there is only the Force. If Lanik was going to see his death within his tenure here - it would not be Irveric's hand or his behest.

Regardless of his restraint - the Jedi spoke in a condescending veil over rhetoric which did nothing to sway Irveric. Such was their nature ; their creed. They were a cult detached from the struggles of common man. With bitterness and venom coating his words Tavlar started again once more.

"You think any of us had a choice there?! Those people at Kintan had you to protect them ; they could at least feel reassured that your sabers struck true for them, even in defeat. You insult me by assuming that I didn't feel the deaths of those at Kintan. That I don't shudder sleeplessly in my bed at night hearing the screams of women and children beckoning out for mercy." Tavlar stated, eventually pointing a finger toward himself.

"But only so few are blessed with 'destiny' as you are, Lanik. So few are able to be truly free - to be one with the force. Me, my men...your Jedi weren't there for us. You truly expect them to stand up for ideals when they stare death in the eyes at the thought of the defiance of their dark lords? Me and all the others, peasants in a court of gods. Jedi, Sith...neither of you regard them with anything. I'm the only one who was there to protect them! You think I truly cared to extend my service because I felt patriotism or obligation? No - I did it for them." He says, pointing his finger toward the corridor outside of his cell where several sentries stood post.

"But you Jedi don't understand that- you don't live in the same world as we do. You don't understand the love of family nor the gut-wrenching pain of doing what I had to do on Kintan...what choice did I have? Some posture of defiance knowing I'd be executed and the next in line ordered to do the very same. Do tell me that choice is easy - you'll never understand any of this. You and your Jedi cult - you're detached, living in your conclaves with your hands on your knees stacking rocks as the galaxy burns around you. You blessed few perpetuate this duality of death, warring over inhuman virtues."
Tavlar retorts, passion and anger poisoning his tone and cadence as he all but lashes out back at the Jedi. Whatever he said clearly delved disturbingly deep past the General's otherwise frigid stoicness.

"I will not rest easy whilst the tyrants of light and dark rule..." Tavlar states ambiguously.

---

Lanik Dawnstar

 

[Lanik Dawnstar]

The facade of irrevokable calm that the General held faded into nonexistence giving way to the indignant, righteous fury. Lanik’s words had stoked the furnace of a heart that brought a new sense of life to the General. The words of Tavlar were simply the rhetoric of one who never understood the Jedi, who didn’t to seek to understand them. Someone looking for a place to lay the blame. The Jedi were always an obvious scapegoat, yet when one only held the surface understanding of them the words were truly meaningless.

Head tilting slightly to the side listening to the soldier, Lanik simply shook his head. There was little he could say to sway someone from their beliefs, it was Tavlar’s own mind that juxtaposed himself and others in the galaxy against those able to use the force. A Jedi never sought to be over another, that was not their way. While in the present some seemed to have lost their way such as the Imperium and other Jedi who’d taken up places as the head of a world it was not the true way. The times where things were simply light and dark were gone, now more of the galaxy sat in shades of grey, an era that Lanik would see come to an end and bring the Jedi back to the proper side.

“You felt those deaths in the manner as one who grieves, feels guilt, but as a force user we feel far beyond that. We truly feel their final moments, the pain, the fear, sometimes we even feel their entire beings turned to dust.”

Straightening himself in his seat so that he didn’t seem lackadaisical the Jedi offered the General a look of condolence. “You think we don’t understand love? This proves you truly know nothing of the Jedi. We do love, the code is just a mantra, not something to be followed to the strictest terms. There are Jedi with families, we have friends, in fact love is as much a part of us as it is you. We simply do not allow ourselves to grow possessive of it. We grow up alongside one another, train with one another. Are brothers and sisters, we are a family. I’ve seen so many of my siblings in the order die, I never forget their loss. I won’t forget the loss of my entire family on the planet of Mirial. I won’t forget the lives of the innocents I couldn’t save on Kintan. I hold love for them all. We as Jedi truly love other beings in perhaps the purest sense of the word.” The words were delivered calmly, with the elegance of a politician.

Rising to his feet and moving away from the table to the steel bunk bolted to the wall Lanik laid down upon it. Hands crossing over his chest, staring to the lights above. “Many of us simply seek to not allow any other worlds to be forced to suffer the way yours and many others have under the Sith. We do not seek power, yet I can’t force that belief upon you. You’ll think what you want General. Yet before pointing the blame at others be sure to look inwards and see if you’ve truly done all you can.”

Eyes closing, body relaxing against the bunk. “I know my destiny General Tavlar. The force has one for you as well. You can’t hide from it, perhaps its time you embrace it.”

Irveric Tavlar

 

[Irveric Tavlar]

"Oh in that you are correct. We've all a destiny to fulfill, Lanik Dawnstar. I shall see mine come to fruition as I'm sure you will. Such is the nature ; we've tread different paths and from them we shall never reach the same view of the universe before us. I did not seek you out to try and convince you of anything ; nor do I seek to enact revenge. I merely sought to meet the man who was so very close to slaying me on Kintan and nothing more. As warriors both, if the Jedi are anything - they are that. I do not care to hold hate against my combatant - merely to learn." Irveric uttered stoically before he eventually turned to make way to the door. Facing the two precisely closed sheets of durasteel his thoughts stirred for a moment longer before turning back to the Jedi.

"I don't suspect you'll be long in this chamber, Dawnstar ; regardless of what the Twi'lek has planned for you...as it is...I do expect we'll meet again under different circumstances...for better or worse. The force be with you ; for it does nothing for me." Tavlar states, not letting the silence linger for all but a moment before the blast door slid open and he emerged from the Jedi's cell from the darkness and into the sterile fluorescence of the outside corridor.

Turning to a passing officer the General would salute him down before beckoning him over - regarding the man with a hushed tone between them as he spoke.

"Send for some food and water for the Jedi. Inform whoever cares I gave the order." Tavlar regarded, his commanding rank at the very least excusing the Leftenant from any immediate retribution brought their way from Darth Voyance. Regardless - the officer wasn't so keenly ambitious as to resist Irveric's command and set out on obliging it. An act of charity though not one implying the Jedi had done anything in the way of wavering him from his rhetoric. Irveric was ever rigid and unyielding but even still the conversation was a curious one - one that demanded contemplation. Tis perhaps once a generation a Sith-Imperial soldier gets to parlay with a Jedi on controlled grounds.

Destiny. The closing statement from Lanik was perhaps the only one to stick in the General's consciousness. Being one so willingly ripped from the force it was difficult for him to dally in such terms however it was something that felt tangible. Something may very well have guided him onto the path he tread now - starkly independent from his peers in Sith command and not without great reasoning.

---

Lanik Dawnstar