But Our Roots Remain As One

[Aeron Zambrano]

Coruscant​

Late Afternoon​

Where do you go when you don’t know where to start?

Aeron had never had any particular use for uncertainty. It was a useless emotion, a barrier to production or knowledge on any real scale. Her life thus far had been based on absolute certainty or willing those things without real concreteness in to existence.

The matter of her family was one of them.

Though her birth-mother had minced few words as to the Zambrano’s reputation - and the holonet and word of mouth minced even fewer - Aeron knew little about the personal details of her family’s history or members. However, she knew enough to find herself in the heart of One Sith territory. Coruscant was far removed from the isolation she was used to. She’d stayed in nearly every environment one could imagine, but the ecumenopolis was still dazzling. It had something of a utilitarian aire, one she imagined came with the iron-fist that was Sith rule.

The lights of speeders and assorted vehicles screaming by overhead reflected against eyes upturned to their soaring, brake lights sinking hollow red in empty pools.

She stopped, idly looking over fruit offered by a vendor that seemed largely out of place in a world of duracrete and glass. Plucking an apple up with delicate fingers, she offered a smile to the man who took her credits with haste. He seemed not to want to make contact with her skin in the transfer but she paid it no mind.

Walking down the raised corridor, she moved to the edge and leaned slightly over the wall. A ways off below, an orderly Sith battalion of guardsman marched in file through the streets. She watched them pass, predatory eyes narrowing in observation.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]​

 

[Darth Prazutis]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46u_Ggsub1A[/media]​

Coruscant, Late Afternoon...

The planet now known as Imperial Center was a truly dazzling display off lights, duracrete, and glass all brightly glowing in the blazing suns over its surface. Coruscant was the capital of the One Sith Empire and the center of imperial might, and it was a place that Darth Prazutis, Dark Councilor and Prime Designate of House Zambrano frequented. The Sith Lord was a private man and there was little about the family house out on the holonet. All information was mostly whispers and rumors of unconfirmed horrific atrocities committed by men bearing the name "Zambrano", but most of it was on account of the Imperial Holonet being carefully censored by the government itself. The Sith Intelligence under his directive made an effort to clean it of accurate information, keeping their electronic footprint small. Not many people made an effort to search about information in regards to his his infamous house so vigorously.

Even on the capital of the One Sith still treachery reared its ugly head, enemy operatives, the occasional imperial defector, and leftover rebels from the Civil War lurked in the less savory areas of the galactic capital. This treachery however involved a den imperial defectors. Prazutis could have sent any number of troops, he could have even made a call to the Grand Inquisitor and had it taken care of immediately. But he yearned for battle and blood, too long a time he spent commanding his spynet from the galactic capital rather than out in the field, and the chance to destroy a dark jedi and siphon another precious soul for Daesumnor was too good to ignore. So he immediately set out with a squad of nine from the elite Blackblade Guard and into the streets.

A few minutes passed after the Sith battalion disappeared out of view from the street below, however the sound of marching boots was heard before Aeron could see anything. Immediately below the people on the crowded streets went silent and scattered, even people in the same corridor as her spoke in hushed whispers as the people below scattered from the streets. It was then that the black armored soldiers came into view, infamous soldiers of the Butcher-King they called them. While House Zambrano's rumors were sparse the Blackblades certainly weren't. They were an elite legion renown for being Mandalorian and Jedi killers, feats many standard Sith trooper legions certainly couldn't claim for themselves. Leading them was a man in armor of black-iron. People started shivering as uneasiness passed over the hiding crowds, and the dark side rolled off of him like a powerful fog, tainting everything it touched with its lingering presence.

The squad took place outside of the door of a two story building just below and Prazutis walked up to the door. He thrust his hand out and the force responded with a powerful blast of telekinetic energy, crushing durasteel and blasting the door clear off the hinges and inside. The entire squad began to move in then guns blazing, as the Sith Lord stepped back.

[member="Aeron Zambrano"]

 

[Aeron Zambrano]

At first she thought her littering had prompted the hushed cacophony of whispers and she grew slightly indignant. The planet was far from the cleanest place she’d ever seen, and even then she was being kind. What disturbance would one tossed apple core cause?

But she quickly realized the tidal wave of whispers wasn’t anger, but fear.

Following the gaze of the bravest peering over the railing, she watched as the men - black as night, footfalls echoing off the hushed corridors and off walkways, armor clinking in dreadful unison - strode towards a building Aeron could only assume was full of the condemned. Some part of her was screaming at her to do just as those all around her were, shrink down and watch through the slats of the railing or simply hunker down and wait until it was over. That they were reacting with such panic told Aeron two things: they had seen an event like this enough to know it was something terrible, but not enough for the shock of it to wear off.

Smart on the Sith’s part.

She ignored the part of her that told her to hide (to play dead, eyelids squeezed shut and a sob locked behind closed lips as the predator breathed at the back of her neck) and instead stood stock-still at the edge, pale fingers in a death grip on the short wall in front of her. The street was completely empty save for the company assaulting the building below, its leader standing and watching the work of his people after collapsing the door like so much firewood. Aeron couldn’t stop looking at him. The Dark rolled off him, inky tendrils that at first seemed an unbearable weight before slithering to infect the very air. That was power.

Aeron would not have needed an elaborate imagination to picture what was happening within the building being stormed, the sounds of conflict giving way to frightened agony as the weaker of their prey succumbed to the first wave.

Red hair blowing in the wind framing a ghostly pale face, she seemed a lone sentinel above a massacre.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]​

 

[Darth Prazutis]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epdg2eGNsSc[/media]​

​

The Sith Lord clad in dark armor stood tall while he watched the elite black armored legionnaires charge into the building with zeal, the barbaric butchers killing with ruthless precision. Prazutis carried a large runeblade strung on his back, lightsabers, and blaster pistols at his sides as he quietly observed. A hailstorm of blaster fire tore several defectors right inside to shreds while the team moved through the building methodically checking each and every room. For a time he didn't move from the door as he watched inside. Killing defectors wasn't what brought him out here and the Dark Titan was a patient man, he would wait.

Prazutis could feel the presence in the room to his right where a trooper just breached into, the dark jedi was here. He stepped inside the entry chamber and immediately saw the purple glow of a lightsaber erupt, as the dark jedi brought his blade down on the unsuspecting trooper. The man ran out of the chamber and nearly tripped on himself as he saw the Goliath of Panatha standing silent, his dark gaze upon the young man, even under the helmet the man could feel the burning predatory sulfuric-yellow eyes staring him down, the dark side falling off of him in palpable waves, his presence unsettling the man.

"They sent the butcher-king's mad dog to bring me in? I'm f-flattered." The man said with a cocky tone, his stutter and the slight tremble betraying the facade of self confidence the man was putting up. The man knew very little about the events that led to his lair of defectors being discovered, how one of his own had sold him out with a promise of pardon, and a credit reward. He could have brought the man into the Inquisition, let them take care of him, but that wasn't going to happen.

"No. You won't make it that far.." Immediately he lept forward towards the shocked man, who brought his lightsaber down upon the unarmed Sith Lord. Prazutis activated one of the light shields on his arm letting the blade come down onto it, grabbing the mans wrist with his other hand and forcing his hand away. He tossed the dark jedi across the room and into the wall by the door, where he stumbled out, Prazutis walked back over to the door once more standing like a looming shadow over the man below who stood his ground. "I will not run from you, I will face you dog!" The man said flourishing his lightsaber in the air. Prazutis grinned under his helmet and gripped the handle of Daesumnor, the soul stealing Runeblade. "Good. Daesumnor hungers." He charged at him then moving far faster than someone of his size should be able to.

[member="Aeron Zambrano"]

 

[Aeron Zambrano]

She’d never seen a lightsaber before.

With bated breath she watched as two titans clashed, one decidedly more stolid than the other. Aeron had always felt something dark and terrible open up inside her when someone near her felt some horrid emotion - fear, pain, jealousy, hunger, anger, hate. If she didn’t know better she might even say they gave her sustenance, as if she could place them in her mouth, melt them on her tongue, cut them between sharp teeth, swallow them whole and gain something from it. An Eater.

The two below pumped something volatile into the atmosphere, but the civilians around her were more immediately satisfying. They swarmed in droves around her as they attempted to vacate the area, crawling out of line of sight beneath the rim of the balustrade lining the walkway. Some were crying, some were breathing so heavily their hearts might burst in their chests, and more still were simply silent with most primal motivation: survive. She imagined the One Sith did their utmost to maintain the idealism of the shining jewel of the Galaxy, a propagandic beacon lighting the face of their cruel cause. But even still, some conflicts warranted action above and beyond the call of maintaining their order and each of the creatures fleeing the scene seemed to realize their safety wasn’t guaranteed.

“Miss, you need to move!” came a ragged plea, a man’s hand wrapped around the crook of her elbow as he tugged her to get her moving. His breath was as sour as his fear and she recoiled, pulling her flesh from his. He was trying to ‘save’ her, but he was too weak to save anything - perhaps even himself.

“Miss, pl--” he began before he saw her eyes turn, not from their natural blue to some terrible red-amber, but black.

“Get away from me, or I will throw you to those demons down below and they will clean your remains from beneath their boots as an afterthought.”

Monsters, monsters all around, even in the most deceiving packages. But the man left her alone, his face crumpling as he realized he was not safe no matter how far he ran. They were everywhere, and he cursed the day he ever set foot on the galaxy’s center.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]​