Private Had I Known You Were Listening...

[Darth Strosius]

Alina Tremiru 's question seemed to confuse him, with him idly tilting his head as if he thought she was joking at first. "Criminals. Murderers. Slavers. Drug kingpins. Despots and tyrants, you name it." Alisteri shifted in his seat slightly and let out a small sigh before shrugging. "I don't see it as playing god, I'm offering the weak and downtrodden a chance to become stronger. I'm not some monster or a madman making an army Alina."

He pulled the lightsaber off of his belt and held it up for her to see. "This right here? It can't be everywhere at once, it can't protect all my people all the time. Nor can I. The only way to ensure their safety is to offer them the chance and ability to defend themselves. It's up to them how they go about it, I merely wish to offer options."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"That's how it starts." Alina muttered bitterly under her breath. Her hand came up, stroking over the bridge of her nose. She'd calmed, some. Darth Strosius was the leader of a cult, she shouldn't be this surprised at his mindset. Especially after years of being on the run. "But.. Fine. I can't imagine how difficult it's been to stay alive with this many people depending on you."

 

[Darth Strosius]

He didn't respond to that remark, but his silence and the thoughtful expression seemed to reflect some manner of agreement. Alisteri wasn't one to believe himself above corruption or evil of course. He knew that without being careful he could easily slip into the typical Sith stereotype, Alina Tremiru had a right to be worried. One had to be careful in the ways of the dark. "Some of the days are harder than others. Such is life." He shrugged nonchalantly and gestured to her. "But enough about me, I'm curious about you. What happened during the fall and afterwards?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"I was gone before the fall. Hiding away in Quinn's castle. Well, her sisters I think. Regardless, I've spent a lot of time just hiding away. Recently I decided to find the Acolytes that were abandoned by the Empire and their masters and helped them to find a new life away from the Sith and Jedi. Till I got caught and imprisoned on Coruscant. Only to escape. Well no, a.. Jedi? Or at least she was one, broke me out. Learned I'm technically Sithspawn. Left, and now.. Here."

Alina shrugged her shoulders as she leaned back in her seat. It was easier to talk about what happened as if it didn't matter. Did it at the end of the day? She'd been stagnant. Unchanging. Would she ever change?

"All in all, nothing really happened."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

He cocked his head to the side as he listened, his gaze narrowing for a moment in a mixture of confusion and slight frustration. All in all it was a bit to take in and think on. For the most part Alina Tremiru had apparently, in his eyes anyway, just hiding and relaxing in some castle only to come out and dissuade surviving Acolytes from the Sith. Compared to the daily struggle and constant need for discretion he and his cult had been through, it was almost insulting. Were it anyone other than Alina, he might have even been angry at her for such things.

But then again, A small voice in the back of his mind chimed in, is she really still Alina with all she's done? The inaction and then downright treason?

"I...I'm sorry I'm confused." Alisteri spoke as if he almost couldn't believe what she was saying. "You've just been hiding away, safe and sound until you decided to steer Acolytes away from the Sith? And then you were helped by a Jedi?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Hiding from the assassins that continued to find me regardless." Threats to her life were nothing new. But every single person that had come after her did so because she was Sith. Had been Sith. Her eyes narrowed some, focused more on the mast Darth Strosius wore. She'd learned a lot over the years. How to read a heartbeat to tell how someone was feeling. A shame neither of them had heartbeats anymore.

All she had was an expressionless mask and posture to tell her what might be going through his mind.

"I was helped by a Sithspawn who wanted to be Jedi. Who couldn't be Jedi. Sithspawn that didn't want to be anything like what they were made to be." The golden eyes narrowed further.

"And of course I did. Look at the life you live. They rotted away in the ruins of their master's temples, estates. Children who didn't know any other path. I gave them freedom. Choice to become something more than some Lord's abandoned slave."

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Assassins?" The frustration was replaced by concern for a brief moment as he muttered the word under his breath. Alisteri, being an Acolyte, had failed to make any real enemies in his time thus far. General threats and search parties were always a concern sure, but specific assassins weren't anything he had encountered. Yet anyway. The mention of a Jedi-wannabe Sithspawn confused him even further. Why in the world would anyone want to be a Jedi? This Sithspawn must have a touch of insanity.

What Alina Tremiru said next however, erased the concern and confusion only to replace it with something more...aggressive. "What?"

He sounded almost offended. "The life I live? What's wrong with what I've done? The only reason my cult and I, or any of those other Acolytes that you apparently turned away from the Sith, are struggling is because of rampaging Jedi!" Not to mention the New Imperials, but that went unsaid. "Hopping from world to world, having your very faith be declared public enemy number one simply because some tyrants abused their power is not our fault! We had to pick up the pieces and move on to survive at all!" The Acolyte paused for a moment as he noticed his words starting to pick up a tempo and becoming angry.

A moment of calming himself, before he spoke again. "Not all of us had the luxury of hiding away in a castle Alina. Yet you clearly moved on nonetheless."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"The Sith only bring ruin and death! That's their goal, their purpose. Only selfish aspirations for power while those too weak to stop them worship them as gods. They're not gods. They're selfish warmongers! They were children Ali. No Sith was going to save them from the enemies the Empire made. Is this even a life here? Pretending to be the chosen ones and hoping not to get squashed by their enemies or even those who are supposed to be their allies?"

It was her turn to get angry, but she didn't bother calming herself down. Years living like this, like a cult was the only way forward. She gritted her teeth, glared Darth Strosius . "I can kill everyone here myself. That's how truly helpless they are. You only showed them how to grovel, but then again that's all you've ever settled for, hasn't it been?"

 

[Darth Strosius]

At first Alisteri said nothing as she ranted, but his hands began curling fists and he radiated a cold and sedated fury with each word she spoke. Evidently Alina Tremiru had joined in with the classic Sith stereotype after all, something that he himself had given her far more credit for. It was misplaced faith it seemed. And then she insulted him further and he felt his eye twitch. "Settled for groveling? Is that what you think of me? Of these people?" He did his best to keep his tone level and calm.

He failed to do that however. "Perhaps if you knew the meaning of the word 'settle' then that would be accurate. Yet in all the time I've known you, nothing was ever good enough!" As he spoke he started counting on his fingers, as if listing off each point. "Living under your mother wasn't good enough, even without her actively in your life, so you killed her. Being an Acolyte or a Knight wasn't good enough, so you went on to gather more and more power even as the war turned against us. And of course let's not forget that you were the one that determined cybernetic prosthetics weren't good enough replacements for your arms. So then you go off hunting a myth just for a chance to regrow your arms!"

Subtly, black smoke began seeping out from the crate he sat on as more and more wrath slowly infected his voice. "Then to top it all off, when the war finally started to end the Empire, you weren't content to go down as a Sith! You ran and turned against all that you were! Because being a loser wasn't good enough for you!" He paused, pulling back slightly and muttering the last part in a quiet voice. "...I wasn't good enough for you either, was I?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"What am I supposed to think of you? We're both immortal! Far more powerful than any other Acolyte in just our bodies alone after we changed. But you, who could even use the Force, didn't ever aspire to be anything more. You were weak and pathetic then, and you're still settling for that!" She stood, baring her fangs. Flexing her fingers. Aggression, rage. They were there, clear in her eyes.

Though hurt soon filled her eyes instead. Alina stayed glaring at Darth Strosius , her fists tightening in her anger. "You never would've left with me. You're just another cultist, too blind in your faith to realize how karked everything about this is."

 

[Darth Strosius]

His gaze narrowed and his fingers dug into his palms as he willed himself to sit still and not stand up in defiance. Alisteri saw no reason to get in the way of her response, she was far stronger than him after all. That had been true even before the fall, and he doubted that she had softened up too much even if she had spent the years in relative safety.

Alina Tremiru then looked hurt and he did his best to maintain his composure at the sight. Had she had worn such an expression years ago, he would have rushed to comfort her by any means possible. "Perhaps you shouldn't have left at all." Those were better years. "Talking like that, you've become just another simple minded fool that only wishes to wear the title of Sith to appear threatening and when its convenient!"

Alisteri did not stand, but instead pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Talk down to me all you like Alina, lecture me on any moral quandary you think you've bested me at, but we both know you can't hide what you are, who you are. Darth Sanguis."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Don't you dare use that name." Anger grew and grew. She hated everything Darth Strosius was saying. Every word felt like a knife in her gut. Her doubts, her fears, all laid out and used as a weapon against her. Even the name she took for herself when she tried to play Lord of the Sith. That hate translated into the Force, or lack there of. Around her the Force ceased to flow, the bubble she'd spent so long learning how to weaponize spreading throughout the room.

"You don't get it! The real Lords are monsters. They kill billions with a wave of their hand! They can't be killed or beaten. I tried! For so long I thought if I was strong enough I could control them. Make the Sith better. But that's not what the Sith are! They have no humanity. Real Sith are nothing like you or your cult. You'll die, just like everyone else did if you stay here. Like I would have, like how Quinn almost did just for my sake!"

 

[Darth Strosius]

It was still odd to hear Alina Tremiru snap at him. He could feel her anger and her power wash over him without her even speaking another word. The dark wisps of smoke leaking from the crate were erased before they were even noticed, and Alisteri himself winced as he felt his own connection to the Force wither and fade. She hadn't neglected that ability at all it seemed. Good.

He listened quietly as he simmered down, almost forced to do so by the clear reminder of their power gap, and gave a moment before he responded. "You see that is the problem Alina. You're not wrong." Finally he stood and attempted to appear cordial despite the gnawing ache that the lack of the Force left in his mind. "The Lords of the Sith are, for the most part, little more than a bunch of selfish and power hungry murderers given too much power. But you still don't see what I see. You allow the Sith to be defined by the most powerful, as if you could even call them Sith at that point, much like every other ignorant enemy of the Sith."

He once again gestured to the ship around them, and then at the pair of them. "But us? My cult, myself, and even you prove that to be wrong. You pulled yourself up from nothing but a tool and became a Darth worthy of the title. I went from property to guardian and spread the ways of the Sith to the common people everywhere I went. We are the true Sith Alina! Not Carnifex! Not the fething Worm! Not Vulcanus, or the Maw, or any other despot!"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"The Sith are defined by the most powerful! They break their own chains while chaining any weaker than them." Darth Strosius stood and she stepped forward, practically yelling in his face at this point. Everything he was saying, it was all still the Cult. Blind belief. "Open your damn eyes Ali! You are nothing without power. If a real threat found you, if any of those Sith found you, you'd be slaughtered. Why don't you even hunger for more power? Why don't you want to get stronger? You can't protect them if you can't stand up against those people yourself! Overpower them, outsmart them, do whatever it takes but have some damn pride in yourself if you're going to say you're Sith!"

 

[Darth Strosius]

Standing still and upright to appear confident all the while trying not to wince in the face of an angered Alina Tremiru was far from an easy task. Especially without the Force to rely on for support. He could only hope that she didn't notice any slack in his brave face. "Do you think I'm complacent Alina? I haven't exactly settled down and declared myself fully developed now have I? My avenues for expansion and power are very very limited in case you haven't noticed. The luxury of open libraries and sparring matches have long since abandoned me."

He steeled himself and returned her gaze, his yellow eyes having dimmed yet still holding a fire within. "But I have no need to rush any progress Alina. I have an advantage over all of my enemies. I have time. Age no longer touches me, while they play the game of years I can play one of centuries if need be! No one will care what some little Acolyte is up to when they have real rivals to worry about. You're the only Lord that's bothered appearing on my doorstep thus far Alina, the only one that cares what I get up to in this ship."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

He was right. Alina couldn't even hide that in her expression as her eyes dimmed. So long as he kept his head down, their immortality, they could wait for eons for the right moment and take the Sith for themselves. For himself. Darth Strosius , this cult, too minor to be a problem. And if the real threats left, what would happen then? No, kark thinking like that. Anger and rage renewed in her eyes.

There was no hesitation as she swung her fist for his throat. Fuck him for being right. Fuck him for not giving up. Fuck him for not accepting she didn't want this life for either of them. "I am not a fucking Lord!"

 

[Darth Strosius]

He had expected a violent reaction, more yelling and maybe a threat or two. The punch had been a complete surprise however. A pained gasp left him as Alina Tremiru 's fist made contact with his throat, sending him reeling back and nearly toppling over were it not for the desk behind him. He clutched the desk with one hand and rubbed the new bruise on his throat with the other, another pained gasp and a small cough escaping him as he took a few moments to recover.

An idle thought on if she could punch his head clean off ran through his mind unwarranted. He didn't intend on finding out. "All that power and potential, all that you were, the authority that you had achieved," Alisteri muttered in a raspy voice as he finally looked back at her. "And yet you have the gall to label me weak? Given what you gave up? What you ran from?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"I ran away from nothing! I ran towards a better future. Real freedom, love, happiness!" The rage only built. Despite what she was running towards, she couldn't reach it. In all these years she'd never felt truly happy or free. Just a pet that leeched off it's owner, hidden from the world. Still hated, still hunted. She'd seen someone who did make a life for themselves after leaving the Sith. A senator, with a family.

A happy life that she could never get.

"You are weak." It was petty. All this hate and anger was about herself. The futility of the choice she'd made, but it was easier to lash out at Darth Strosius . Hate him instead of hating herself. She stepped forward, closing the distance between them as she let her influence spread farther. "You say you're fine because nothing that could hurt you or this little family you made would pay attention. But I'm here, aren't I?" She lifted a leg, kicking out for his chest.

"Why don't I open your eyes to how futile you are!? You didn't change everyone, did you? You remember that hunger, when we first changed? How little everything else mattered?" This was more than petty. It was wrong. But it was easier. She grinned a hysterical grin, her fangs on full display.

"If those new 'blessed' got hurt enough, how many of their brethren do you think they'd eat before they realized what they were doing? How much is a persons life worth? Just a finger would cause them to go insane? An arm? Both arms? You have time bombs all throughout your little family. I'll set them all off!"

 

[Darth Strosius]

He opened his mouth to point out that Alina Tremiru had returned emptyhanded from such a quest, from what he could tell anyway, but decided against it. She might actually rip his head off for that one. Keeping ones mouth shut at the right time was integral to staying alive whilst in the presence of any Sith, especially an angry one. And a supernaturally strong angry one at that.

Alisteri fixed her with a glare as she stepped closer, about to utter a retort before her kick siphoned all of the wind from his lungs. A pained groan left him as he doubled over in pain, against his better judgement. Gritting his teeth and trying to stifle another noise of pain, He looked back up at her as she kept speaking. That fething grin.

The threat caused his eyes to widen slightly, idly recalling the small handful of his Sangnir that had already went rogue in the past. There had certainly been a rough 'learning' period for his Sangnir, one that had resulted in far more bodies than he was comfortable with. It took a moment for him to think up a reply, his arms still clutched around his abdomen as he tried to straighten up his stance.

"Then do it Alina." The hissed tone was a blend of pain and anger, but something about it was almost teasing. "Prove me wrong. Go ahead and show me that all 'real' Sith are monsters after all."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

He had to say it again. Call her Sith, again. The grin faded as a much colder expression took it's place. How many times had she told him she wasn't Sith? Her glowing eyes narrowed. "I threaten to kill all those you want to protect, and you bate me to do it? All these people who rely on you to keep them safe from threats, after all you preached, and you'd gamble them and their safety rather than try to fight?"

Alina lifted a fist, swinging it for his gut. "No matter how hopeless or overpowered I was, I never stopped clawing my way forward." Another punch, this time for his face. She didn't hold back. He'd heal. They always healed. "I could never trust you to watch my back. That's why I left you behind." Not the truth, but she didn't care. She'd beat him into unconsciousness if he didn't get it.

"You don't get time! Not when you're hunted!"