Private Heading Up High

[Ivan Zhukov]

Valeska Sarnova

He listened quietly as he often did. That is one thing that Valeksa would have grown accustomed to when it came to Ivan. The man did not interrupt and he did not hurry himself through social interaction. Instead Ivan listened, often, and long, to the extent that some people believed him slow or incapable of understanding.

They mistook silence for stupidity.

Her pale cheeks colored slightly as she touched the elevator control panel to summon the car.

He noticed the slight coloring but did not link it back to them. In his mind it had not been that. They had found each other in a situation that had pushed them to the limit.

But the more important part was: they had found each other.

On that day Ivan had decided that Valeska was one of his people. Nothing else mattered anymore after that. He did not consider the fact that Valeska might have more complicated thoughts about it.

"So I suppose I wonder if not wanting to answer every question with a cracked skull or a lightsaber burn means I am not one of you. If you feel that I am not of a kind to you because of it." She stepped into the elevator car when it arrived, waited for Ivan to join. "It doesn't change who I am, you understand. I am curious about your perception only."

"I see." Nodding finally after she finished her own thought. "You are Sith, Valeska." He declared once again without hesitation. And Valeska had an intimate access to his mind, she would know it was genuine.

"Being Sith does not mean destroying everything in your wake or using violence at all times." Ivan continued, perhaps surprising her with that insight.

"To me it simply means accepting that in this Galaxy power is the greatest virtue. And that our works must align towards attaining the highest shape of it so we have ultimate control over ourselves... so nobody can control us."

A flick of his gaze towards her.

"The ways we accomplish it can differ in that case, yes?"

 

[Valeska Sarnova]

​

Valeska supposed she would have felt relieved, somehow.

She didn't.

Still, she didn't let it show. She kept tight control of her emotions as the elevator plummeted towards the sublevels to deal with the power question.

"This is what I thought," she told Ivan, the corner of her mouth tugging up in a half-smile.

Valeska was not concerned, especially, about differing approaches. She didn't have a moral opposition to killing people. She didn't love inflicting trauma on unrelated individuals, much less children, and killing their parents could well do that. But that was a separate question. It was really a matter of utility for her. Killing someone removed them from the board. They could not be an obstacle in the present or in the future.

They could also not be a help. Or a distraction. Or anything but a corpse.

The doors slid open and they found themselves on the maintenance level, where the generators and their maintenance staff were. Valeska gestured toward the door, indicating that Ivan should go first.

Ivan Zhukov​

 

[Ivan Zhukov]

Valeska Sarnova

"This is what I thought," she told Ivan, the corner of her mouth tugging up in a half-smile.

"Good." Ivan said curtly, but not without affection. His shoulder ran along hers. One of the few gentle gestures that could be expected from a cruel giant such as himself. "Do not doubt yourself, Val. The old man wanted that, it is what kept him in power for as long as he was." Division, doubt, making people weak in their resolve and more eager to submit to him.

It would be disastrous if they killed him and after finally being free of his grasp, they'd still have to contend with his influence.

He nodded and went in first, no hesitation.

Ivan was used to being first through the door to absorb any immediate danger. That was simply what he was made to be. The Wall. One that could also fall on their enemies when it was needed.

"We find the manager of the crew." Ivan said quietly to Val as they walked. They got a few curious looks, but this was already several weeks into the nightmare of Sith rule over the Tapani cluster. Dark cloaks, black clothes, sabers clipped to their utility belts... these were no longer oddities. And most of them knew better than to make themselves into a target.

That is what management was for.

"We try your method first, I am curious to see if it will work."