Confrontation Point - COMPLETE

[Spark Finn]

Tython
Fortress of the Dragon, the voice of the Dark Lord

She paused outside the freshly minted gates. There was no need to knock or ring a bell, her presence was like a beacon of pulsing light, heralding her arrival. He would know she was here. He might even sense the subtle change within her and perhaps some undertones of trepidation.

When she was lost in the Nether and cut off from the force, even before she was found by Khaleel, she saw a vision of a dragon with glowing, orange eyes. It wasn't until she saw Darth Carach at the trial that she put two and two together and it wasn't until she felt the brush of his presence on her mind when she joined the sith in taking Tython that she was able to confirm it. The dragon was Carach. Not in a literal sense, of course.

She just hoped she was ready to face him. Face the dragon. Face her dragon.


[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Tython 04:39PM
The Lair of the Dragon
[member="Spark Finn"]

The Dragon in question had just finished construction the latest in a long line of projects, a fortress and facility suspended above the Chasm itself. It was here that the Voice of the Dark Lord oversaw new developments when it came to the Force- the eternal storms raging deep beneath the citadel resonated with the air of power within the construct itself.

She would be admitted, not because she was his apprentice, not because he wished revenge, but simply because Carach was intrigued. Why was it that his former protégé had left his protection and now… suddenly returned? Through the hallways lined by Royal Guards she would be led to his inner sanctum, it was not a throne room or a clinic office.

It was a hexagonal-shaped room, intricate markings marred the floors, walls and even the plafond. In the middle of it Carach, Voice of the Dark Lord, Sith Lord and apparently Spark’s personal Dragon.

Neat.

His legs were crossed and he seemed to be meditating. The guards would leave her there.

A hum came from her old Master.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Darth Carach"]

His hum was like hearing the stirring rumblings of a beast awaking from a long slumber. Converse-clad feet felt the boil of the force storms below, just as she had in the abandoned Jedi temple. There was no guarantee of safety here.

Intelligent gray-blue eyes pierced through the protective glass frames perched on her nose. Her focus wasn't on the guards, nor at the shapes in the room just off the tips of her toes. Her complete focus was on the rumbling sith.

"Lord Carach."

She hadn't seen him in years, mostly from events outside of her control. And yet he didn't move or speak the first word. He remained unnervingly passive.

But she held her ground. Her voice no longer squeaked as much as it used to. Her unassuming shoulders didn't flinch away. She matched his eerie calm with her own, besides the slightly quickened thrumming of the heart beneath her chest.

"I have a question to ask you."

--EDIT (I think your interest on this thread is gone, so I'm closing it out. Feel free to PM me if you wanna rp)--

After what felt like two weeks, she finally shifted on her feet. She knew that he knew what she wanted to ask. It was clear she wouldn't get the closure she was looking for. Perhaps a non-response was closure enough. Without another breath, word, or blink of an eye, she turned and left Darth Carach, leaving her dragon and the sith behind.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Spark Finn"]

It was a mistake to assume that a lack of visible stimula meant an inherent passiveness to the situation, the hum of power kept growing, slow shards of influence increasing all around the Sith Lord and then finally she spoke. A question was worming through her mind, corrupting and influencing her in ways that she wasn’t even aware of.

Doubt was the poison of minds, my dear. I thought I had taught you better than that. But it was not a phrase directed at her, instead it was a phrase that he kept within himself. A sigh finally then came forth from his lips and the hum stopped, briefly.

A window of opportunity, open air for words to be filled.

‘Pose it and I shall answer.’ the Sith Lord finally replied, the soft baritone reaching through the room and almost physically stroking her ears. His voice was exactly the same as she would remember it, no technovirus or mindfrakkery had been influencing the exact pitch and tone of that voice.

His true power was to sound reasonable, courteous and above all amiable even in the worst situations possible.

It would be that same chocolate stroke that would keep her from walking out of the room, ah… the impatience of the young.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Darth Carach"]

She hesitated in the threshold. Thoughts of ignoring the sith lord and continuing on picked at the edges of her mind. She could do it, just a few more steps. She didn't have to turn around. Maybe it was the familiar hum in his voice, a power she didn't quite understand, or a choice of her own freewill that would be riddled with regret because instead of taking another step, her body quarter-turned back to the meditating dragon. The technopath lingered there, stuck between a farewell to her past and a leap into her future.

Blond-haired head swiveled to get a clear view of those glowing, magma eyes.

"I know what you did. I know about the technovirus." She paused. Fingers came and pressed against the frame of the door. Her pale-frame leaned more into the quarter-turn to face off more squarely with Lord Carach. Instead of lingering on the why, she posed another question, "Did you think I would never find out?"

A dangerous question.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Spark Finn"]

A blink, as if the Sith Lord did not quite understand what she was talking about. No, not about the technovirus, he wasn’t pretending as if he didn’t know. Because he did know, the problem was her assumption that it was a secret he was keeping from her.

Carach tilted his head, slowly. Smooth and lazy movements of a predator sizing up a prey? Or a Master studying a student with some disappointment that she wasn’t getting the lesson he was trying to instill upon?

Both? Whatever he was, a man, a Sith Lord, a teacher or a father, a Dragon and a Monster. He would always be Sith.

‘What makes you think I was keeping it a secret?’

A smooth reply given.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Darth Carach"]

The way he sized her up made her insides grow colder than McFrank's Internet Cafe Shop on Hoth. There was a day in the recent past that she would've trembled and stuttered. Her voice would've pitched to a much higher octave. But her shoulders squared, pale-digits tracing the door-frame down until her fingers gripped the structure below her hip.

"You never told me," she stated boldly, at least as boldly as her petite-frame allowed. Still, for Spark Finn it was frakkin' bold. "You could've told me instead of having me find out through..."

For the first time, her voice sounded uncertain. Her lips sealed as did her mind.

"What reason would I have to ever trust you again?"

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Spark Finn"]

‘My dear.’ the voice continued patiently, ever the teacher who was trying to make a pupil understand the complicated affairs of the world. Was it only restricted to her? This patience? Would Carach have accepted such a question or attitude from Qun? Perhaps, but then again, their relationship had always been different, another dynamic.

My legacy?

‘There was a war going on, still going on.’ a scratch of the chin, then a shrug. ‘Did you never stop to wonder why it was that your many wounds healed so quickly? That you could shrug off so many hurts without even flinching? How resilient you had become in under a week?’

The technovirus was not that good at hiding itself.

Amber eyes studied. ‘What reason you? When have I ever lied to you, Lady Finn.’

‘Had you asked, I would have told you. But the truth of the matter was that neither you or me had the time nor the leisure to discuss these matters, we had more important matters to attend to.’

All so reasonable.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"You're doing it right now!" Face flushed with emotion from the rare outburst, her pale-skin bursting into the hues of sunset. She felt a part of her sway toward his reason because he was speaking reason. But there was a tick at the back of her mind. Something that wasn't there when she fully had the virus. It reminded her of those headaches she got when she was made to question Lord Carach's intentions, when she was with...

"You're giving me half truths. You're giving me the good but not the bad. It did something else beyond healing. It made me compliant to you. I never questioned your intentions but when I did, it was painful. Physically painful. What would you do if you found out I didn't have it anymore? But that almost doesn't matter."

Jaw set. Palms curled into fists at her sides. The room with Carach seemed alluring, warm. Everything about it made her want to drop her defenses. Everything about the dragon made her want to do the same. With sheer mental will, she shook it off.

"My real purpose in coming here wasn't to confront you, though that has certainly been worked in. No, my lord. It was to say goodbye."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Spark Finn"]

A shrug followed.

‘You were here at your own will, and you were free to leave whenever it was your wish.’

His eyes closed again.

‘Goodbye, my old apprentice. For what it's worth, it was a pleasure teaching you.’

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Darth Carach"]

That was it? No fight. No words of anger. Nothing?

Fingers slowly uncurled. The tension in her shoulders eased.

Okay.

Was this a trap? Were things really going to be this easy? Could her master just let his pebble go?

Grey-blue eyes widened as a puzzled expression crossed her face. She opened her lips as if to say something. Closed them. Then opened them again. Then closed them.

She gave a nod of her chin, fingertips brushing against the black-frames of her glasses. She had no more words to say. Without dwelling on her fears of this being a trap, she turned and began to walk out the way she came.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Spark Finn"]

'Don't forget to give our dearest Qun my regards, Spark.'

The Voice rang out one last time, before finally resettling himself into his meditation. There wouldn't be anyone keeping her from leaving the fortress, what would have been the point of that?