Every Choice Has A Consequence

[Tmoxin Temi]

Location: Officer's Club, Pols Anaxes
Time: Evening

Tmoxin Temi was back on Anaxes after finally being released from her operation at the Cosmina Academy on Crina where the Imperial Inquisition had swiftly sacked the school and rounded up all of the practitioners, delivering them to the Citadel Inquisitorius. This particular Officer's Club close to the Anaxes Citadel had become somewhat of a favorite haunt of hers. She particularly enjoyed hearing the war stories from current and retired high-ranking officers. And even when some elderly Grand Admiral would flirt with her, laugh at her jokes, put his gnarled hand on her knee, she didn't really mind. What harm did it do to oblige a man in his twilight years with womanly charms? It was more un-Hapan of her than anything else, but she would be lying if she told herself she didn't like the attention.

The Commander ordered another Corellian whiskey, her third, and was feeling a little tipsy. She was on leave for a few days and was grateful to be back upon Anaxes as it had a pleasant climate, unlike her garrison on the desert of Lok. She had spent her time looking for real estate in Sirpar Hills and riding keffis from an exclusive stable in the same location. Everything on Anaxes is so civilized, she thought. Such a graceful and elegant existence here... it almost made her want to retire. Almost.

Like the dedicated men and woman around her she relished the heat of battle, the triumph of victory and the exaltation of crushing your enemies. Not to mention the conquest itself. This feeling was like a spice, something she didn't think she could even give up if she wanted to.

She sat back down next to General Vior and said, "Now where were we? Ah yes, you said when I came back you would tell me about about that skirmish on Kailion."

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

There were things you simply did not do, it went against the established order and everything that went with it, it was that established order which made the One Sith ticking as neatly as it did. Everyone knew their place, everyone knew their worth and everyone simply knew what they could expect, which all resulted into simple and utter efficiency which would put most order nations to shame.

One of the things that a man shouldn’t never do, even as a Sith Lord, was wander into the Officer’s Club on Anaxes while not being an Imperial.

And if Carach was anything these days, with those flashing amber eyes, tall posture and broad shoulders, with the dashing robes and wild hair? It was not an Imperial, more like the Voice of the Dark Lord and foremost authority in the Sith Empire.

Not exactly the biggest friend of the Imperial movement either, but that wasn’t entirely his choice. It is not that like he could do anything about it that his job description these days was to pop up like a bogeyman and point of layman’s mistakes.

You Byss’ed It, was starting to become a running gag these days.

The Sith Lord entered the establishment and it all quieted down immediately, people putting down their glasses, looks being exchanged and some even started to track towards their belts- probably an unveiled gesture for their guns, men liked their guns in complicated situations.

‘Miss Temi.’ his deep voice cut straight through the crap, every movement seized to exist as a spell was woven amongst them. And yet… the Force wasn’t even touched once, it wasn’t a coincidence that Carach was named the Voice of the Dark Lord.

His Voice was his true power, not the Force.

‘A word, perhaps?’

The sheer audacity was almost astonishing.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

There was a palpable tension in the air the minute the Sith Lord stepped foot in the Pols Anaxes Officer’s Club. After all, this lounge was where the cream of the Imperial crop would come to get away from the Sith if they were so aligned. And if not aligned than this visitor was certainly an uninvited guest akin to a party crashing bounty hunter at an exclusively posh and royal wedding. The Commander hadn’t noticed the atmospheric change until she recognized the peculiar look on General Vior’s face. Why it was peculiar was because the entire time she had known the General she had never seen him afraid.

She placed her hands on the table and she turned her head around slowly to take in what the General was seeing. A lone glass fell from the fumbling hands of a server and there was a sudden nervous titter that quickly died down as soon as it had started.

Finally she realized why the room had become so charged with anxiety. Tmoxin knew this dark robed figure well. She hadn’t necessarily been in any specific battle with him as she had with the Wrath of the Dark Lord but she had heard his unmistakable voice before, most recently when herself, Commodore Vaiden and the 182nd Legion had tried to overthrow the government and take control of Byss. For weeks after that thwarted invasion, Tmoxin had literal nightmares of reprisals and executions but no disciplinary action had come of it. Now her heart beat quickly in her chest as terror took over her calm complacency.

But as normal Tmoxin would rather die than show a trace of fear. At the Voice of the Dark Lord’s request to speak with her, she merely gave the tall Sith Lord a glare and then slowly drained her whiskey glass, making him wait. Speaking of audacious.

With a smirk and a slightly trembling hand she motioned to the seat between herself and General Vior. “Would you like to sit down with us? Or would you prefer to go somewhere more private?”

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

Carach did not even ponder the request, and instead turned it into a situation developing for his own, because that was what a Sith Lord did. They grabbed audacity and snuffed it out, before it could develop itself into something else, rebellion. So when she took her time, drank her drink and then posed the question- it was earning her points, against or for? Nobody was really sure when it came to the Sith Lord, Carach.

Because what did they really knew about him?

A powerful man, of course. He had fought in every battle the Sith had waged, sinking the city of Ahto and stealing away an army of thousands… merely by asking them. And yet? Not once had their been a bounty made for him, some would have pondered that this might be an insult.

But Carach knew the truth.

They did not know him, and for that they feared him.

The Sith Lord finally smiled, his lips curling into a peculiar representation of amicable and then simply said one single word. One word which this time was laced with the Darkside and every other side that existed in this ‘verse.

It said.

‘Out.’

And just like that, the High and Mighty, the crop of the cream was trying their best to accommodate the Sith in his simple and fair request. It took them a few moments, moments in which the Sith Lord’s gaze never left Tmoxin’s eyes.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

She not only heard the Sith Lord speak the word “out” in his deep baritone, she felt his voice penetrate deep into her soul. And it filled her with such a potent dread, it was almost hard to find legs with which to stand. She broke eye contact and breathed deeply, then nodded and rose with a tight grimace along with the rest of the Officer's Club. Some of the patrons made a hasty exit and others took their time. But they were all headed one way without a doubt. Even the bartender wiped the bar once more and went into the backroom.

“General Vior, good evening,” she said to the General as he finally got up from the table and oh the look on the General’s face just said it all. He gazed at her with a mixture of sympathy and fear as though she were a pitiful lamb not long for the slaughter. This suddenly enraged Tmoxin. She didn’t want anyone’s sympathy! Her actions on Byss had been her own.

Tmoxin wore her normal black Imperial uniform, but her red hair was loose and down around her shoulders, her faced flushed - she had been drinking and carousing after all. She gazed at the Voice of the Dark Lord as she could get a better look at him now that she was standing. He was intensely tall with piercing golden eyes and also confoundingly handsome which didn’t ease her anxiety one bit. But she merely straightened her jacket with an angry snap, motioned to the empty chair that the General vacated and said, “After you."

The Officer's Club was now empty except for the two of them.

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

This was the way of things when it came to the Imperial Movement, they loved their schemes, their petty ploys to grab more power to themselves, attempts to further increase their armies and standing, all in the name of progress they claimed.

But Carach and the other Sith knew the truth of it, they wished to establish true Imperial Order, wipe out the Sith Order and seize power. Oh there were exceptions, of course. Men and women of ambition and a good deal of sense that knew that the Sith could help them achieve whatever they want… for a price, but the majority were grabbers.

They were no shakers and movers though.

When a Sith walked up straight to them, when there was no back to hide and scheme against? They crumbled faster than a salt pillar and that was the part that made Carach sigh. If you could not walk the walk, don’t talk it either, it only makes you look like a fool.

The Voice of the Dark Lord wandered over to the Captain, but opted not to take the seat. Instead he pushed it away and leaned against the counter, distance between them had almost dissipated in the air and it was bordering the unseemingly.

Carach did not seem to care.

“Tmoxin Temi.” the Sith Lord addressed her with her full name, the curl in his lips did not disappear and stayed in its place. “Ambitious, capable, intelligent. And yet you sided with the losing side, why is that?”

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

For all intensive purposes, Tmoxin had done some rather nefarious things recently and somehow had avoided detection or punishment. In fact, when she really thought about it, she was often surprised that she wasn't already wasting away in solitary confinement in a remote prison in the Outer Rim. Some days she chalked it up her survival skills. Other days, the Commander brushed it off as pure luck. But she knew one day that her actions would catch up with her. The odds to continue this string of misdeeds without reprisal were against her, and like the roll of the dice, a seven would come up eventually.

He declined the seat by pushing it away and it toppled over under his rough hand.

As the Sith Lord drew closer, she touched her neck instinctively as though she could almost feel the brush of the Force there beginning to put pressure on her trachea. She briefly acknowledged his flattery until he got to the point of why he was there in this Anaxes Officer's Club seeking her company. She bit her lower lip nervously, but otherwise her face was a mask of anger. The Voice of the Dark Lord was so near in proximity, she was worried he could hear her heart beating out of her chest.

With a sneer she said, "I don't know what you are driving at, frankly, and if I've done something wrong... where is your proof, my Lord?"

The way she said "my Lord" was thorny, seeped in venom and outright disrespect.

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

That would earn her a chuckle, soft rumbling vibrations moving around the air and settling itself into her ears, it was clear that the Sith Lord didn’t take her poison seriously. Instead those amber eyes bored right into her eyes, looking into them and beyond, a blink and he was staring into her soul itself and seeing everything she had done, was doing and would do.

The curl in his lips pronounced itself even more, as he would whisper to her. But the whisper came not from his mouth and instead slipped through the cracks and made her entire mind purr at the softest of touches.

Passionate, tender and she would slowly melt through her knees… until the message settled itself into her mind and she knew what he said.

‘Why would I need proof?’ the Sith Lord purred in her mind.

And that was the end of it, because he did not need no proof. As a Sith Lord, as the Voice of the Dark Lord and one of his favorites? He was so far above her that he could end her right there and then without ever facing any appraisal for it.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

As the Sith Lord's eyes remained locked on hers, she would begin to feel the strangest sensation. It was as though he were inside her mind sifting through her memories like a deck of cards until he found the worst of her transgressions, pulled them out slowly one by one, and then set them all out on display, judging her harshly along with the rest of the galaxy. Her stomach roiled at this extreme violation of her inner most thoughts.

Then he heard his deep voice rumbling again, not aloud but inside her head. This time it didn't feel so much like a violation but a lover's touch. Which for some reason filled her with a deep shame and confusion that he could fluctuate so easily between abuse and seduction and her body just responded uncontrollably. Her stomach fluttered and her legs felt as though they would give way.

Hold it together you, stupid weak-willed woman, she thought. This absolute fury towards herself spurred her on to make yet another rebellious statement to this extremely dangerous man.

" I suppose you think yourself above the laws of this galaxy, but I am innocent until proven guilty," she said.

"So again I ask you again, where is your proof?"

It was not a question but a demand.

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

The Sith Lord leaned in, his cheek and beard brushing her skin and he whispered into her ear. She wouldn’t be able to move away or resist listening to that voice, the one tool that he had honed into his real weapon. Above the Force and above his Forcesaber, it was his voice that had won him all those battles before.

Talk, conversation, be reasonable and expect reasonableness back. Simple matters.

“If you tell me…” the whisper would carry, as his lips brushed her ear. “I will protect you. If you do not? I will extract it from your mind and then kill you slowly.”

And then his mind would press against her, and she would know the truth in his words. That if she came clean to him right there and then, that he would shelter her from the fury the Dark Lord would unleash and that if she denied him?

She would experience agony like no other mortal has ever experienced.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

At the near skin to skin contact, Tmoxin's legs nearly crumbled. With his warm breath in her ear, the Sith Lord's voice was hypnotic and had her affixed to her spot, as though he were the competent snake charmer and she, a female cobra.

And suddenly, he offered her a sweet release from her struggle to maintain the facade that she hadn't done anything wrong, that she wasn't an absolute traitor. And though his shelter was far from a safe haven, did Commander Temi really have a choice now? With her sheer treachery she had made a pact with the devil and signed it in her own blood.

You would be digging your own grave if you didn't take him up on this offer, she thought. She knew she was fighting a losing battle with her defiance. It wouldn't take long for him to either break her defenses down as he threatened or just kill her, disposing of her like trash and hunting down whoever he sought to remove as a threat.

But perhaps a more apt metaphor for the Voice of the Dark Lord and the Commander was that they were both cobras in this delicate and fatal dance. After all, male cobras would battle with rival males until all of them were killed off and then when the male cobra was done his copulation with the female, he would often times slaughter her and eat her too. And Darth Carath with his predatory and threatening presence
made her feel almost assuredly that he would do the same to her.


But there was no more to be done or said. "I accept protection," she said. softly. Her face was finally drained of its anger and Tmoxin appeared resigned.

"And I will tell you what you need to know."

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

Carach smiled and withdrew himself to give her some personal space, his hand raised itself up and in it a paper appeared with a pen on top of it. Some men and women would have been curious about it, some would have been in awe and maybe slightly confused, how did he do that? And to them the Sith Lord would just shrug and give another smile.

The way of the arcane was a strange one.

Paper and pen laid down, he would indicate it and ask her to write down all the names, locations and operations. She would tell him everything she knew, write down all the names and clean herself from this filth through service.

At the end of it Carach nodded, folding down the paper and making it disappear.

“Commander Temi, you have been reassigned.” the Sith Lord finally said. “You and the Blood Monarchs are now under my personal command. You will get the appropriate paperwork soon.”

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

There it was done.

All that she had worked towards, all that she had made for herself, the blood and sweat of building up her own platoons and her own garrison, training her troops with bare hands sometimes and kissing the rear end of every higher ranking officer who came within ten feet of her. Gone just like that.

It’s what the Sith excelled at after all. Snuffing out lives like a wind to a match.

Annihilation and relentless pain.

This is what Tmoxin Temi had inherited. All of her own accord.

And the most painful part of being caught in this net was that the life she was building with Commodore Vaiden… just crumbled around her. And the agony was too acute to dwell upon or else she may ask Darth Carach to end her life then and there. She could not speak to the Commodore again at least not of her own volition. First of all, she was too ashamed that her choices had dwindled down to this moment, and again the thought of him wondering where she was and seeking to find her again, it was something she could not process. She also wanted to protect him as much as she could. She could almost laugh at the irony because most of the time Tmoxin was trying to save her own skin. And here she was trying to protect someone else’s that she indeed loved. And as much as she had compromised his safety, the Commander had no doubt in her mind that she would be the one to ultimately pay the price over and over.

Tmoxin didn’t care to make conversation with this strange new employer as it were. She didn’t know if she would even be allowed to gather her private belongings after all or if she needed to stay at the heel of Darth Carach now.

But talk to him she must in order to know exactly what was expected. Her deep brown eyes looked into his piercing amber ones, but her face was now impassive. “May I be granted permission to finish out my leave on Anaxes?” she asked. “I have a day left.”

Was she a flight risk? Quite possibly, but the Voice of the Dark Lord would have to decide that for himself.

[member="Darth Carach"]