The Light in the Dark
SCOUNDRELS
CHAPTER III: BALANCE POINT
THE VALLEY OF THE JEDI, RUUSAN [some time prior to the Kaggath]
Auteme
| THEME
A cigarette burned bright through the night as Damien sat on the foil of his Eta-2, his elevated position giving him a prime viewing point to the pilgrims entering the valley below. They proceeded inwards with a reverence to the place that was awe-inspiring to see, the echoes of their chorus of voices bellowing from within the confines of its statue-laden walls. He'd arrived upon the eve of the anniversary to a great battle that once happened there. It had left the place barren and lifeless for hundreds, if not thousands of years to come. Yet the force persisted, growing even stronger with time, if you were to ask some of the pilgrims who'd made the journey there since they were but young children themselves.
Damien had not gone there to show reverence. Ruusan had fallen under the sway of the Black Sun, and until his dealings with a certain member of their organization had been finished, it was one of the few places where he didn't have to look over his shoulder for a threat. It had just so happened that the Valley itself was rather alive these past few days. The collective emotion of the pilgrims below had seemingly called to him on his flight overhead, and in a rare moment of letting the force take the wheels, it was the valley where his ship would go. A beacon activated not long after he'd landed, delivering an encrypted signal across the galaxy to a specific individual who he wanted to see.
Life had grown so different in only two years of being apart.
Kyric
was missing, and none of Damien's previous efforts had led to him being any closer to figuring out where his brother had gone. His exile from the Core had cost him everything, it had seemed. The ties he'd pushed and pulled away from had inevitably snapped, sending the rogue on a journey of his own through a galaxy he no longer looked at with excited eyes. His dealings with Black Sun had sapped the vigor out of him over the months since he'd been forced under their employ. Tired eyes persisted where a searing fire and love for life had once claimed. There were plenty who would've given up, who would've accepted their newfound fate and made the best of it. It wasn't as if the underworld didn't have its perks, after all. There was a freedom that came with it, but such freedoms were meaningless when they were given within the confines of a gilded cage. The leverage over his head was too heavy a burden for him to simply forget, and the conspiracies that unraveled since his employment with Black Sun would only confirm that the Core was no longer a safe place for him to be.
Visions through the force clouded his mind over the many restless nights that followed. He called out to
Kyric
with all his might, an outstretched hand reaching through the force to find his lost sibling with all of his might. Nothing worked, and he'd run out of options, yet still he found himself accompanied by his brother in his dreams. The older of the two would tell him it'll be alright, that he could get through this on his own if needed. Stubborn as Damien could be, it was through these moments that his resolve grew stronger. No matter what he was-- he was alive. Damien could feel it down to his bones, and he trusted the force enough to never give up hope, even when the darkness he carried weighed upon him like a burden. Yet the light within him burned bright, even through the dark.
Auteme
worried enough that she too would reach out to him, much like he'd attempted to do with his brother on many occasions. It was her light that helped to balance him out when his burdens grew too heavy to carry, and the wisdom she dispensed would inevitably keep him alive, when all else seemed lost. It was in the wake of the attack on Nar Shadaa that the two would plan to meet. She felt his struggles before he could even physically call her, and despite his insistence to meet her outside of Black Sun's territory, they eventually settled upon meeting on Ruusan. Damien would give
Razmir Tezhyn
a heads-up of him leaving, if only to insist on him keeping his spies at a comfortable distance unless he was looking to get them killed. Whether or not the gangster would hold up to his word, Damien would never find out, but so far he'd sensed nothing off since his arrival. Perched on the wing of his starfighter with a chain of cigarettes entering his hand, eventually a small pile of cigarette butts littered the ground beneath him. He'd tossed the next cigarette butt into the growing pile right before they coalesced into the air, the sudden increase in the winds around him following the landing vector of a familiar vessel next to his own.
Damien smiled softly as he pushed himself off of his father's starfighter, shoving his hands into his pockets whilst he waited for it to finish touching down. It had been a while since he'd been genuinely happy, and he hoped to make the best of it while it lasted.
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