A Thousand Miles And Poles Apart

[Connor Harrison]

Why did he try so hard. This was another time at extending understanding and a willing to learn a little more, and again it was turned back on him. And by her of all people. She was close to delusional and now acting as if she was in a position of power Connor hadn’t seen before. He HAD seen it before, and he knew how people like her befitted such positions if she kept on her current path.

So be it.

Connor pursed his lips at her flat delivery. He nodded. There was no willing on her part, and he would not reduce himself to near beg again. Others would help him, and it was sad to think he hoped the bridge could be rebuilt between the former Shadow and the Master.

He knew that no matter what she said, by pushing her out and to the edge of nothing, she had discovered everything she was looking for. Maybe it was a sacrifice – lose Aria, to help her gain everything.

There was nothing to say, and so Connor looked at her one last time and turned to walk away.

He brought up his right hand, grimaced and snapped his fingers forward in a swift, sharp and vengeful act.

He looked for her teeth, and her molars, and he had seen them as she talked. So, he found the perfect white pearl of a rear tooth with the Force inside her. The move cracked the enamel, split the nerve and contracted the gum to rip the tooth out.

Connor taught her to play dirty, and he wouldn’t leave without reminding her she was always going to be below him, regardless of words between them that now meant…

…nothing.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

H E A D S T O N E

She could sense the ripples of the Force again.
Not like before - active, not passive.
You!

A hand reached up, calling on her own abilities in the Force to counter his attack, and it took an instant - it was as easy as breathing, it had been for a long time now.

He'd tried to attack her, tried to hurt her - tried and failed to rip her teeth out, just as she'd laughed at him for claiming to be able to do. An apprentice, stripped of his Force-sensitivity - reduced to nothing, he'd said, and still he thought he was above her, still thought he could hurt her.

Never.

"You honestly think," she said as she strode towards him, laughter rolling off her tongue with the words, "that you can fight me? You think you stand a chance?"

Her amusement was contemptuous. Connor had thought himself stronger than Aria, dared to test the theory; and he had failed, because he would never be strong enough to do anything else, to be anything else. It was one thing for him to be the blind fool she took him for - it was another to try and attack her for giving up on him for it.

But his ridiculous attack had failed.
And she'd promised to make him regret it if he failed.

Regardless of whether her words caused Connor to turn to face her, Aria outstretched a hand. She'd only done what she intended to do once before, but somehow she knew she was strong enough to do it again - she felt infinite, standing before a sea of power that she'd only begun to tap into, as though her strength had unfolded before her just so it could completely suffocate Connor's own.

A streak of power shot from her fingertips and it was pure electricity - lightning, crackling as it sliced through the air aiming only for Connor. It'd chase him if he had time to run, and she was certain he wouldn't. Aria had no intention of letting up now, after all. She had a wealth of power at her hands that it had taken that disgust she felt now to realise - she could go all day if she had to.

- [member="Connor Harrison"] -

 

[Connor Harrison]

The little attack had failed. At least she had been aware of everything and not blind to situation itself. However, as he walked, his hand moved to the crossguard hilt at his side. Her words and laughter – her confidence – gave her movement, position and emotion away before she called the Force to her.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood, and he span around with the sharp snap-hiss of the crimson blade before him as the purple streaks of lightning coursed in and around the blade that he focused forward.

The power surged through him and his face lit up with the dark illumination of the lightning and the blade. She could laugh. She could mock, and goad. She needed to remember her place in the grand scheme of things and her over-confidence would be her undoing, maybe as much as Connor’s ego would be his.

From the spark that had never died inside, Connor matched Aria’s Force lightning with his own cascade of dark power rolling up and out of his left hand as his blade held strong in his right.

There would be no submission this time to appeal to a side of Aria Vale that had ceased to be.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

The frustration that she didn't at once outdo him didn't hardly reach the curve of her smile, no trace of fear crept into the roiling amber of her gaze. She was not afraid of Connor - how could she? All the terror he incited was of his own imagining; he was an apprentice relying on the experience of the Connor Harrison who'd been something, and she a knight of the Sith with strength that was her own and vengeance ensnared into her consciousness.

Aria wouldn't fear him - she couldn't.

But apprentice or not, he had the skill with saberplay of Jedi Master Connor Harrison, and evidently it was enough to absorb her arc of electricity. If it'd taken him only a few seconds longer to come to his own defense, if she could've hurt him even for a moment, make him fear her even for an instant, she'd have turned on her heel, satisfied, and walked straight back to her flat without so much as looking back. It was all that would've been necessary; though she would've killed him if there was no other option, Aria truly didn't have enough emotion to spare on him to want him dead. He wasn't worth any effort of hers - but she wanted him to understand she'd always be above him, for the times he'd forced her beneath - and she wanted him to hurt, for the times he'd been the center of her world of hurt - and she wanted him weak, for the times she'd been weak and it had been his fault - and she wanted revenge.

But even without the Force, he was quick, too quick to let her mission end right away.
You were always so stubborn, weren't you?
Energy that brewed darkness trailed towards her at his command. It was lightning of his own, he thinks he can conjure lightning of his own, he thinks he's strong enough - Aria laughed again, amused and mocking. Fingers fluttered, gentle and untroubled as though the attack was of entertainingly little concern, as she summoned a shield that required more willpower than a look at her stance might suggest but not by a long shot. She could (faintly, faintly) sense his command of the force as it collided with the barrier warped from air, but its range expired there at her hand.

She wasn't done yet, though - soon, she was sure, but not yet.

Her fingers curled, and in a split second her control of the force became a grip that closed, vice-like, around Connor's hands on his lightsaber. If he was unable to create a resistance against the pressure, Aria was perfectly confident it could crush his hands around the metal.

And she hoped he'd realised by now that she wouldn't stop until one or the other occurred.

- [member="Connor Harrison"] -​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Grit and stone kicked up around the pair as their powers seemed to clash mid-air, two strong forces billowing out and disrupting everything around them. Connor didn’t have a plan right about now, he was simply lashing out as a build-up of emotion and confusion.

He was in a comfortable position – he didn’t feel overwhelmed or overpowered, and he held his ground.

But then he felt it. That sensation like his bones were being pushed together internally on the hand that gripped the crossguard. He looked to the hilt with a dart of his eyes as he maintained his attack, but felt the pain increase. Connor winced, looking back to her figure, and knew if he didn’t move his hand, the already weakened bones would break.

He let out a frustrated grunt as he let go of the hilt and it dropped to the floor, blade now extinguished and it, at that moment, seemed to buckle in on itself and a small red spark flew out.

Connor stood, his hand trembling, knowing his weakness had been found again. It was more frustrating than embarrassing that he didn’t have the passion or the strength, or confidence, to be what he should have.

Maybe he had been in a comfortable position before, but now, had he just…given up?

He looked across to Aria, still on guard, but knowing there was little else to satisfy her with. This would be a bigger victory for her than a kill – the sight of the former Master reduced to a weak slip-up and disarmament.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

In that moment, everything went still.

Like silence, like peace. Time had slowed to a standstill. Glee had turned to contentment, the quiet satisfaction of knowing her strength, of knowing that he knew her strength. Her grip dropped, and no attack followed. She wasn't afraid he would try to strike back.

And Aria smiled, truly smiled, genuine and almost kind. Golden eyes were soft, expression clear. She hardly moved save for the steady rise and fall of her chest, so perfectly calm it could've easily been a ruse. But a ruse would've meant she planned to keep going, would've meant further intent. For the first time since the day she'd met Connor Harrison, for the first time since that awful, awful day when she'd realised he was anything other than a Master of the Light (like you were someone else. Like I'd never seen you before. I thought you'd changed - foolish. You never change, do you?) - for the first time in eternity she had no further intent, no further investment. She was done. She had come out on top. It was over now, all over.

It was closure, the end.
And in that moment, it was beautiful.

She could have killed him then. Put him in the ground, made sure he couldn't come back and haunt her. It wouldn't have troubled her and Aria dared say she'd have enjoyed killing Connor Harrison, smiled as she murmured goodbye. Guilt became more and more an alien concept with each day - no, she let him live because he didn't merit killing. Death was the price for those she hated and for those who stood in her way. Hating Connor took effort he wasn't worth and calling him an obstacle would've been laughable. He could live another day, chase after the next who would call him a hero. She was done. She didn't care anymore. It was over now, all over.

Aria Vale took a step forwards.

"Leave." Her words were calm, completely level, but he'd be a fool to miss the steel in her voice, the very real threat just below the surface if he only dared try anything else. "Leave now, Harrison, and don't come back. I've let you live because killing you wouldn't be worth the effort." Another step. "Don't think I'll be so kind the next time."

| [member="Connor Harrison"] |​