I don't know how he does it [Abyss]

[NightSister]

A loud rumbling sound announced the departure of the small public starship as Aria sat down in an aisle seat, stimcaf in hand. Upon seeing that nobody wanted to sit by her, she took the opportunity to put her bags on the seat next to her, pulling out her datapad to pass the time. Thank the Force she'd managed to get on one of the emptier ships.

Having had a productive week training on Voss, Aria had decided to reward herself by taking a trip to Lianna for the weekend. As it turned out, she had done hardly anything but remain in the hotel basking in the wonders of room service and good holoscreen channels, but one way or another she was returning to Voss well-rested and even eager to resume normal service the next day.

The trip passed quickly, and the next time Aria looked up from her datapad they had already passed half the stops and the ship was considerably more crowded. Only three more stops, according to the route plastered over the walls.
That was when a loud yell from the cockpit alerted everyone to a massive meteor that had suddenly been hurled into their way and a second later, a loud thump jolted everyone to attention. Aria turned back to her datapad, waiting for the stewards to let them know insistently that they were experiencing minor issues and there'd be a slight delay but no casualties, but no such reassurance came. Then she became aware of the falling sensation, which the window view confirmed as they suddenly lurched downwards. The disorienting sound of fifty-odd people screaming frantically disrupted her thought process as she tried to think up a safe way out of their terrifying downward spiral - and before she knew it there was a loud crash as she lost consciousness.

When Aria woke up, her limbs ached and there was a loud ringing noise in her head, but she could still move. Lifting her upper body and turning her head, she found herself in a soft, marshy field surrounded by limp, lifeless bodies. She scrambled frantically to the nearest person, checking for a pulse and finding none. That was when panic set in, and as she began visibly shaking Aria breathed in and out, lying back down as she tried to make sense of the situation. This had not been what she had in mind for the day.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Public spaceships had always been a good way to mask his movements through the galaxy, as enough money made it easy to get in and out of them without meeting someones curious eyes. Also it gave him time to plan or read when he hadn't to waste his time with piloting a ship himself, and it was obviously less time consuming then stealing another freighter every few planets.

Voss had been his goal. The capital of the silver jedi had many things to offer for Abyss, but his main reason was some ground surveillance. He wasn't an enemy of them, and compared to the alliance they were rather open when it came to darksiders, but with his project slowly taking form he had to be watchful for any group that surrounded his cloud of influence if he wanted to stay alive. While the silvers were known to be tolerant, they were also known to be very strict and relentless when it came to fighting their enemies. Better to be safe than sorry after all.

Since he had gotten on his seat, a strange feeling weighted on his mind, but he couldn't really pinpoint what it meant. It was like a premonition of a premonition, hidden in the fog of the stream of the force. He learned that the force told those sensitive to it many things, and that they could mean anything or nothing. For those like him not very talented in seeing the future it was probably best to just ignore these feelings all together as it was close to impossible to understand them right.

This time it was different. As soon as he heard about the meteor crossing path with the ship, he knew what was coming and he wasn't looking forward to it. The light side offered many ways to protect oneself, but the powers of the darkness were of a more offensive nature for the most part.

His eyelids opened as his body violently pulled air into his lungs. The radiant yellow of his eyes meet the blue sky above him, his nose finding the disgusting smell of burned flesh and death. In he rush he pushed his upper body into a sitting position to get a impression of the situation around him. The dead bodies left him unfazed but the state of the wrecked ship would certainly become a problem. His eyes moved around, trying to spot if anyone else had survived the crash.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

After a few minutes of lying still and breathing, Aria had pulled herself together and was getting to her feet, determined to find something to help her back to Voss. The bodies were spread far and wide across the fields - she could even see a few sunk beneath a swamp, which made her gag and look away - but surely somebody else had gotten the same soft landing as she had? Surely she couldn't be the only one left alive?

First, Aria turned her attention to her pounding head. She didn't feel concussed, but then again what was concussion supposed to feel like? At any rate, she was able to stand and walk around, and that would be enough but she would've preferred not to take the chance. She had taken a lesson in healing before, but had demonstrated no aptitude in the skill, so instead she took a minute to calm the thumping - or at least numb it; it was hard to tell which one it was - with a few waves of Force-energy. Again, she'd live, but wasn't thrilled about the risks. Hopefully she'd get back before any potential risks proved fatal.

Considerably more able to function now, Aria began scanning the land, spinning on her heel as she tried to spot another survivor. She was trying very hard not to look at the corpses littering the marshes. Finally, after a few minutes one of the previously motionless bodies sat up a few yards off.

"Oh, thank the Force," she said to herself, sighing in relief as she forced her legs into a sprint across the field over to the man. "Hi, um, I'm - hey, I know you, don't I?"

Her pace slowed as she recognised the man as a mysterious and devout Sith she'd met when she'd visited the Temple on Malachor. She sensed he was considerably more powerful than he had been when they first met, which she hoped was also true of herself but clearly where they had been of a similar level before, he could defeat her now if he wanted. In that way, it was almost a good thing that they appeared to be the only two people alive for parsecs.

"Alright, well, nevermind that now," Aria thought aloud, turning to face him. "Hi. I don't want to die today, so I don't care who you are, we're stuck on a planet and need to get off." Halfway through her rambling she realised how high-pitched her voice was getting with panic and broke off, taking another second before she continued. "Are you injured?"

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss eyes locked on the figure that moved towards him, but he was still experiencing nausea and his vision was blurry, making it impossible to see clear. Only when he heard her voice he recognised who had crash landed on this world with him, the jedi woman he had meet malachor. The force never failed to surprise him with the path it presented to him.

Slowly he rose to his feet, but while his mind was willing his body was not. With all the strength he had he kept his balance, and only barley managed to stay on his feet without stumbling and falling. His eyes wandered away from the woman, and meet his legs. Before he had been pushed by adrenaline, by the desire to survive no matter the cost, but now as he stood he realized the damage the crash did to his body. His breathing was sharp and violent, pain shooting through his chest every time air moved in and out of his lungs. His legs had been injured even worse. The left one, the one that hadn't partly been replaced by cybernetics was cut open, and he was unable to move any of his toes. The cybernetic right was in better shape but only by a bit, as he figured by the loud noise coming from the hydraulics inside. Still ignoring all the pain he managed to force his expression to be as stoic and emotionless as always.

"It has been a while, has it not ... jedi?"

As he spoke he noticed the change in her aura, compared to the last time they meet. Her power had grown, not as much as his own but still noticeable. Yet that wasn't the interesting part. The last time she had been shrouded in light, a light that seemed diminished, tainted even. Maybe his words had pushed her like he had hoped.

"I have been worse, I have been better. Survival is the only thing that really matters."

He stumbled towards her, and he was well aware that in his state she was the larger threat to him than he to her. Luckily she seemed as disinterested in a fight as himself, but being cautious had saved his live before.

"I agree, we need to find a way to leave this place."

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

"It has," Aria said, bristling - a twitch of her eyebrows indicated that she had been provoked, but she remained otherwise deadpan; "Sith."

He had been just as annoyingly...Sith-like the last time their paths had crossed. Not in the sense that he was one of the half-mad monsters she had had the displeasure of meeting before - in that he had that sense of arrogance she had only ever seen in the way a person far into the depths of the Dark Side. Good to see you haven't changed, Aria thought to herself sarcastically.

As his eyes rested thoughtfully on her, Aria tensed. Their last encounter had involved a faintly aggressive debate on alignments, and though his side of the argument had given her food for thought she was firm in her belief that she was much further from the line between Light and Dark than she had been that day. Maybe it was just the creepy eyes, but Aria felt as though she was being analysed, the Light and Dark in her signature being measured comparatively. What did he see? Aria remembered him as being unusually logical and intellectual in his approach to the ways of the galaxy, even for a Sith - especially for a Sith. It worried her to think that his deductions would not match with her own, but she pushed the thought out of her head. One curious, observational glance could mean a whole number of considerably less ominous things.

Then he tried to write off whatever injuries the fall had inflicted on him as being of no importance, at which Aria scoffed. In that respect, he was the same as all other Sith, which was mildly reassuring but much less mildly irritating; if they weren't sadists, then they were masochists, narcissists or psycopaths, sometimes more than one. Karking Sith.

"Right," she said, disbelief evident in her voice. "Right, survival. We need to find civilization - wait - nevermind, civilization. Unless you have an unbreakable datapad. But first, you do what you like, but I want to be sure I'll make it." Carefully, Aria checked the swollen bump on the back of her head and her sore limbs; a possible mild concussion and potential sprained wrist. Never having gotten the hang of healing, Aria could do little but use a wave of Force-power to somewhat numb the pain.

"Okay, fine. Let's go."

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss eyes wandered over the wreck of the ship, over the corpses and the surrounding area, searching if there was anything worth the be scavenged. They couldn't know how long it would take to get of the planet, and the more resources they had the better their chances would be to actually make it until then.

"We should take a look around if we want to survive. Without Food and medicine we will die sooner or later. Also some utilities, something to create light and warmth besides our sabers would be useful, maybe something to make fire. I will loot the corpses, you can try and look what is left of the ship."

He figured that even with her new found darkness the woman wasn't to keen on searching the corpses of those who died a gruesome death when the ship dropped onto the surface. While he wouldn't enjoy or like the gore either, he had seen it far to many times to still care about it, and other than her he had no empathy for the dead.

With cautious steps he moved forward, making sure to not put to much pressure on his left while walking. Soon he would have to find something to use as a cane, but until then he would manage. On a world like this dead bodies could easily draw the attention of the local fauna, and after all he had seen in his live he wasn't looking forward to meeting it.

"We need to be fast, with every minute we stay the chances that something will come out and attack us rise."

As he talked he dropped to his knees, inspecting a two part corpse that for whatever reason hadn't been completely scrambled over the field. With the professionalism of someone who had done this numerous times he moved his hands over the man, in hopes of finding anything of worth.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

"Loot the corpses?" Aria would have laughed if not for the morbidness of his suggestion. He wasn't serious, was he? He was.
"Oh, he's not kidding! If it's not one thing, it's another." She sighed: what was there to do? "Fine! Loot the corpses! Bloody Sith."

Raising her eyes to the heavens, Aria let out an exasperated noise as he issued another order and went off to search the bodies. Wheeling around, she went to close the few yards of distance between her and the best part of the shipwreck; it irritated her to be complying, but if she was stuck on some barren wasteland of a planet for as long as it was looking to be, she didn't have energy to spare fighting with him over everything. She hardly had energy as it was.

The crashed starship Aria found hadn't suffered as badly as its passengers had; while there were dents and scratches and parts broken off, it was still recognisably a starship and could even be entered through the smashed entrance. Stepping in, Aria dug her heels into the floors to keep from wobbling on the drastically tilted surface and gingerly began to look around. A few bodies that hadn't been scattered upon the crash remained there, causing Aria to put a hand to her mouth and hurriedly use the Force to repress her nausea.
After a bit of searching, Aria found that the radio system in the cockpit, while fairly banged up, could still be able to transmit a weak signal with some tinkering might be able to transmit a weak signal, which might or might not be enough to rescue them. She found a dented apple on the floor that had thankfully been sturdy enough to not be reduced to crumbs like the biscuit Aria was guessing had once been. That was one less thing she'd die of before help came, anyway.

A few minutes later Aria emerged with the apple and an emergency kit and upon seeing the Sith approach, held them up.

"This was all I found that was sort of edible," she announced, "but there might be something in here to start a fire with." Trying to open the case and failing, Aria smacked the green box against a tree trunk and the contents fell out. She picked up an ice pack and held it gratefully against the back of her head, searching through the rest of the contents with the other hand. "Oh, and some of the radio system on board survived. You any good with mechanics and such?"

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss had worked his way through a handful of corpses, choosing those that hadn't been completely ripped apart by the crash. He guessed that his chances of finding something intact would be higher if the corpse was still intact too. His search wasn't overly successful, but he managed to find at least four nutrition bars on them, and some credits, IDs and everything else civilians carried around. It wasn't like he really needed anything but the food, but whoever could get them of planet would certainly want to get payed for it. He made sure to do it while she was out of sight, as he wasn't in the mood to discuss the moral problems she very likely would have with his disrespect for the dead. The jedi simply lacked the pragmatism needed in a cold and dangerous galaxy.

He rose from the ground as she returned, his body slowly adjusting to the pain and injuries. It still was not in a good state but the darkside was very versatile when it came to survival. Healing was a thing that only the light could accomplish without severe consequences, but sustaining ones live with nothing but the passion and desire for survival was buried deep in the nature of the darkness. Some had even gone made because they were clinging to live far beyond death, but as a short term solution it was possible to do without being completely consumed by it. He would have to push her to heal him later on, as she hopefully could as a jedi.

As she showed him what she managed to scavenge, he lifted the nutrient bars in the air so she could see what he found. The second his eyes meet the undamaged apple, his stoic expression showed a hint of surprise. That the small fruit surviving the crash without a scratch was so unlikely that he wasn't able to suppress a small grin over the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"Normally I have people working under me that take care of technical problems. I might have picked up a thing ot two, but certainly not enough to fix it without tools."

While he spoke he could hear sounds from afar, something that sounded a little bit to similar to an animal for his taste. Soon the planet would take what was given to it, and Abyss didn't wanted to be part of it.

"Maybe we can get it out of the ship without damaging it? I do not think it will be save here much longer."

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes - people working under him? Just how powerful did Sith need to feel? - Aria took one of the nutrient bars, offering a small grunt of thanks before biting into it. It was late into the afternoon, and she'd had nothing to eat since breakfast around seven hours ago, so she quickly consumed the small snack and reached a hand for another, but stopped herself as she considered how long they'd potentially be stuck on the planet. She'd survive off what the nutrient bar had given her, at least for now.

"Right. Well, uh, you should probably do something about whatever injuries you have. I can do a little healing, but you're best off doing it the old fashioned way. Or if you insist on being all stoic and macho, these look like painkillers, you can take one when I'm not looking," she said, examining a small pill bottle that had fallen out of the emergency kit. "I doubt there's anything particularly dangerous out there, but if there is then two lightsabers will do more than one. I'll go look at the radio properly, if you think you'll be useful then come."

Crossing the plain again, Aria boarded the wreck and took a look at the radio system installed on board. These were designed to reach people across hyperspace - surely, even when compromised, any transmission it made could reach a neighbouring planet. At any rate, taking it out of the control deck would hardly damage it any more than the crash had done, so after fiddling about for some time the main part of the comms system came out without much trouble. She examined it properly - it was rather banged up, but she might still be able to transmit a distress signal, if a weak one. She would need to keep it with them, however, for the signal to have any use.

Thus, she came out of the ship a while later with some of a radio system along with several electrical parts and tools that had been lying about. Wordlessly, she took off her jacket and laid it on the ground to protect the device from the mud, and placed it down, setting to work. Soon enough a faint SOS signal would reach all comms within a short radius, which would do for now.

"Alright, that's that. If you can do anything to strengthen the signal, then do. It'll get dark in a few hours, so we'll need to find somewhere safer, but I want to start a fire first. Could do with some proper meat." Getting to her feet, Aria snapped some branches off the nearby trees, arranging them into the typical campfire structure before squeezing her eyes shut, creating a layer of protection around her arm before beginning to conjure a flame. A minute or two later, there was a small flame at her fingertips which gave her some level of satisfaction, and she focused intently on it, willing it to grow a bit more before she touched the flame to the branches. A few tries, and a fire began to grow slowly. That was a start, at least.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss just gave her quick nod, and his eyes followed her she made her way back inside the broken ship. She was right, if he wanted to survive he had to treat his wounds sooner or later, as while the darkside could simply sustain his live and keep him somewhat functioning it would do nothing against the physical side of his injuries.

As soon as her figure disappeared inside, he began to look through the contents of the emergency kit, searching for a handful of bandages and tape to keep everything together. Combining both with a thick branch, he formed a makeshift splint around his broken leg, allowing him to move faster and more naturally then before. There wasn't much he could do about his broken rips, but besides the sharp pain in his chest they wouldn't hinder him much. At last his hands moved to the painkillers, examining the small pills. They would certainly come in handy sooner or later, but for now he would do without them. Narcotics of any kind dimmed ones ability to connect and draw from the force, and stopping his pain wasn't enough to pay that price already.

Finished with his self treatment, he rose from the ground, ready to follow her inside the ship, but as he stood on his feet again he could already see her emerge back on the outside. Instead of sitting back on the ground, he extended his left pulling a piece of the ship towards him with the force, one high enough for him to sit rather comfortable on it. Not that he cared much for comfort, it was simply a small exercise to get his mind clear and focused for the task at hand.

Wordlessly he examined the device, taking a close look at everything he understood. He wasn't much of a tinkerer and mechanic, but on a battlefield one had to pick up a handful of tricks when it came to tech. He moved a few parts around, mainly reordering connections and making sure everything was connected properly. The strength the signal gained wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

For the first time in this encounter, Abyss face changed its stoic expression noticeably. The lack of emotions was replaced by simple and honest interest as he observed her attempt to make fire. Pyrokinesis. Maybe there was more to her than he initially thought. Sure it was a ability not aligned to the darkside, yet it wa still an rather obscure and exotic skill for jedi. A art created by the shapers, a sect far outside the morality of sith or jedi. He vividly remember the book he read about them and their famed abilities to manipulate nature itself.

"Did the jedi teach you that? Or have you dabbled in what lives outside of our orders, jedi?"

There was no hostility to his question, only honest interest. While he had read about the skill many times, he never once found a book detailing how to perform it. The story how she learned it was probably an interesting one.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Seeing that Aria had convinced the Sith to do something about his injuries was mildly satisfying, if only to reassure her that there was a human who suffered from the same human ailments as everyone else, hidden somewhere among the many corrupting layers of Darkness. Still, she kept it to herself, more focused on tending to the fire until it could grow without her help. She especially didn't want it going out - though she had developed her skill with pyrokinesis somewhat, it remained a very fiddly skill and her patience at the moment was very limited.

Then he asked about the flames she had created, which were still dancing across her fingertips as she nurtured them to a greater size. Interesting.

"No, sorry to disappoint you," she said absent-mindedly, her tone equally conversational - though this was almost entirely due to her divided attention. "I learnt the basics from one the Jedi Masters in the Order, and I've worked on it since then." Aria was in half a mind to teach him; she definitely wouldn't mind seeing the Sith get worked up trying to conjure fire, though likely he would end up producing flames on his first try simply to irritate her.

The fire had caught now, and the flames crackled as it began to grow, the flickering tones of red and orange fading into the gradually darkening sky. Noticing that he had used a piece of debris as a seat, Aria did the same thing, resting the comms on a chunk of the ship before wrapping the jacket it had been lying on around her shoulders, sitting on another piece. It was getting colder, and it would take a little while before the fire did anything to rectify that.

Well, they might as well pass the time. Aria wasn't in the mood the heated debate which would surely ensue without something else to fill the silence.

"Here, I can teach you," she said brusquely, turning to face the Sith as she zipped her jacket up almost to her jawline. "I don't want to be stuck keeping the fire going all night if I can help it." If they were lucky, their signal would be received before night fell, but the sun was already starting to set and within less than an hour it was likely that they would have to at least set up camp somewhere more protected.

"It's fiddly, but there's not actually much to it." Extending her forearm, Aria would demonstrate alongside her instruction. "You make a shield around the hand you're using - it's good to protect your arm too, but mainly the hand." The barrier she would form around her hand would be invisible without using the Force to assist one's sight, but it was certainly there.
"Then you have to concentrate on the energy around your hand, and make the particles speed up to generate friction. One second - " cutting off her monologue, Aria willed the fire that was on the verge of coming to life not to show her up. It took several moments, but eventually the flame appeared, thank the Force.

"To begin with I had to create the energy in a subconscious state, and release it once I came back to consciousness, but it's down to how much focus it takes for you." Certainly she hoped it would prove difficult for him, though it was likely that any inability on his part could be blamed on her teaching abilities. "I don't know whether using the Dark Side makes it easier, but I'm told it's a similar concept to Force lightning, so it's possible. Give it a try."

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"Ah I almost forgot that the silver jedi are not as dogmatic as their brethren in the Alliance."

A single laugh emerged his lungs, an almost soundless grunt instead of the sound normal humans made when they felt amusement. The sliver jedi, while still bound by the mislead code of the jedi, didn't shared the one sided approach to the force of the more traditional oriented jedi of the alliance. He had even heard that dark siders and sith had found their way in their ranks on very rare occasions. Closely he listened to her expiation of how to conjure fire with the force, coming to a similar conclusion than her. It really resembled the technique the sith and other followers of the dark used to create storms of blue lightning, only different in the details of how the energy was manipulated.

"From an academic perspective, the darkside should allow me to create a flame far simpler than the light, but keeping it controlled and actually shaping it should be more efficient with the light."

He was more talking to himself than to her, his mind already drifting of in his studies of the force. Often he had theorized how and why the different sides of the force enabled highly different abilities, and by now after reading every book and text on this topic he had found a theory he believed fitting. Without waiting for her reaction he spoke again, elaborating his thoughts, uncaring if she listened or had any interest at all in what he way about to say.

"The force itself, the power that flows through everything in this universe, is naturally the lightside. The dark on the other hand is the manipulation of that energy. So creating enegry, enforcing ones will on the world around one is the way of the dark. But interacting with the flow and shaping it is the way of the light. Maybe that is the reason why the shapers do not align with either side."

Abyss eyes closed as he focused on manipulating the particles around him. At first, simply to get a feeling for it, he began to create small electric sparks in his hands, getting his mind ready. He neither meant to threaten nor impress her with this display of the darkside. Finished with his exercise, he focused again, this time altering the way the particles moved. His first attempt ended in nothing but a bit of slight heat in his right. The yellow of his eyes revealed itself, as he stared down in his empty hand. Yet he wasn't really disappointed. The physical side of the force never came naturally to him, he only excelled at the more exotic and spiritual arts of the force. Again he closed his eyes, this time drawing from his deepest passion, from the pure heat of his inner flame. A single spark emerged in his right, only to die down in matter of seconds. It was far from mastery or even talent, but everything had to begin somewhere. With a small but satisfied grin, he looked at the jedi.

"Would your master not be concerned that you share your knowledge with a sith so freely? After all you and your kin do not see us as anything else than mindless violent monsters. Do you not fear that I might burn down a world with the power you just gave me?"

She was the only person on this world he could talk to right now, so he might as well could have a little fun. Playing mindgames with the jedi always was something he found great enjoyment in, as they made a far better opponent than most who roamed the galaxy.

"I feel like I see a theme here for you beloved silver order here jedi. A young jedi woman not unlike you, named Celiana once gave me the opportunity to learn the jedi secrets hidden on ossus and I did not even had to draw my saber once."

Abyss had no idea if she knew the woman he was talking about, but based on the size of the sliver jedi order and the age and rank of the two jedi it was at least possible. Even if not, it could generate mistrust inside her.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Aria rolled her eyes: it seemed even her attempt to pass time productively would end up in an argument. Even the most un-Sith-like of Sith still retained some qualities that Aria could easily go without. Well, if it came down to it there was little to stop her from fighting the Sith - even with her concussion, she could probably win too.

"Sometimes, it matters less how someone uses the Force but what someone uses it for," she explained, doing her best to remain good-humoured about his attempts to provoke her. "Granted, I'm not joining your ranks any time soon, but if I thought you would burn down worlds with this skill do you really think I'd be teaching you it? Have a little respect: I acknowledge that only some Sith are mindless violent monsters, you should recognise that only some Jedi see them as such. Besides," she added, her eyes going to the sparks he was conjuring, "you won't be burning anything for a little while."

The Sith continued and Aria threw her head back; why again had she thought it a good idea to teach him? To relish in his failures for a short period, and then feel irritated again? That would teach her to be petty, she supposed.

"You're playing a dangerous game here, Sith," Aria warned him, eyes narrowed. "It's all fun and games until it's not, and you're the one in a splint. But fine, I'll bite. I know the woman you speak of, and I also know that she acquaints herself with criminals and Darksiders alike, using her skills both as a Jedi and as a thief in ways that the Order is far from approving of but can do little about. Do not group us all in such a way, Sith: not all within the Order call themselves Jedi, and not all who call themselves Jedi are worthy of the term. Our goal as a collective is to improve the galaxy through the Light Side of the Force, and while we do so together then as individuals, as long as our actions do not go against those of the Order, it's up to us how we lead our lives." Almost to prove the threat of provoking her, Aria concentrated on the flame at her forefinger, carefully letting it grow as she continued. "Unlike the Sith, though, wouldn't you say? Oh, to begin with you think you'll be this great all-powerful ruler of the galaxy, and then you realise that to survive your training you have to bend to your Master's will until you are broken, and even when you've completed your training you remain going down the path that was intended for you by another, thinking that because there's a 'Darth' before your name you're controlling your future. You can't deny that it's true, I know how the Sith work just as you seem to know how the Jedi work."

The sun was nearly down, and low growling noises indicated nearby creatures. Aria's eyes went to the surrounding environment; the safest place she could see was the wreckage that had been the starship, but that seemed risky. Still, there would at least be things that could make a safer shelter; it was as good a start as any.

"Right, it's getting dark. The ship might make an okay shelter with work; there probably isn't time to figure out anything else. Nice job with the fire." Ending her statement with a sarcastic inflection, Aria stood, scooping up all they had brought out and heading off, yet again, for the wrecked starship. Where did those painkillers get to?

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"It seems you underestimate me jedi. Sure I do not find pleasure in burning down worlds, but that does not mean I would not do it if necessary. I might not be a simple minded monster, but I have no respect for the the lives of the innocent and helpless."

It was only half of the truth. It wasn't just a hypothetical possibility, in the dieing days of the one sith he had done many unspeakable horrors in the name of the falling empire, and if she would know any of them she would certainly raise her blade against him. After all he had orchestrated roughly one and a half genocides, and at least three large scale civil massacres. He always had wondered if his doings on metellos or csillia had been noticed by outside forces, and he was pleased to know that it hadn't. A single, dark and inhuman laugh left his lungs as the not so subtle threat came out her mouth. He had no intention to cross blades with her, not only because of his injures but also because he enjoyed the conflict of minds far more than those of blades and strength.

"Oh jedi, I know what your order has done on Korriban. I have seen the "light" you brought to the people there. Do not worry, I actually approve that you cleansed our holy grounds from the unworthy."

He knew that the massacre on korriban was the fault of a single jedi, and that the order had since then offered redemption for what they had been responsible for, yet it was a good way to challant her believes. As she followed up with her thoughts on the sith, he laughed once more, amused by how blind she was. She told him that not all jedi were the same, yet she believed that all sith had the same goal.

"Other than most of my kind I do not feel the desire to crown myself to the new emperor of this galaxy. Why should I, what would there be to gain for me in ruling over the weak, or in destroying the jedi? I follow the path of the sith, because I believe in chaos above else, because I am dedicated to the path to my master and the masters of ancient times have set in front of me. Sith and jedi are just two sides of the same coin, light and dark, order and chaos, serenity and passion. Your light would be dim without our darkness to challenge it, and our dark would only be a muddy grey without the contrast to the light. One simply cannot exist without the other."

Wordlessly he followed her inside the ship, ignoring her sarcastic remark. Unlike her it was hard to provoke him if he didn't wanted to, his believes stood strong and unchallenged to him, no matter what one had to say.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

"Holy kriff, if you didn't want to learn fire you could've just said so. You didn't need to make it harder to keep from chopping your arms off."

The temptation to do so was actually exceedingly strong at the moment. Still, even if it wasn't murder, it really didn't align with her code of conduct. There were times when Jedi policy made life so difficult. But she kept that part to herself.

And of course he had to bring up Korriban. Just as all the rest of the Order had done, Aria had defended the Jedi and explained the truth to those who challenged her on her alignment in regards to the bombing, but it grew increasingly more frustrating to have people refuse to understand that though they were partly at fault for not having foreseen or prevented that Charzon schutta from giving the order, the Silver Jedi had not been the ones to bomb Korriban and were not at blame enough to merit the abuse the galaxy had given them for it. Had she had more patience and energy, Aria might have tried explaining all of this to the Sith, but she had neither and so decided to leave it. Help couldn't come soon enough.

Reaching the starship just ahead of the Sith, Aria took another look around. Though there were breakages big enough for an animal of considerable threat to enter, the corpses surrounding the fields would hopefully keep anything that was hungry occupied throughout the night. It made her feel sick to think of, but they were dead now. Nothing else to be done.

"Not any warmer in here," Aria said, mostly to herself. All of the radiators or other heating seemed dented or broken. It seemed rather dangerous to start a fire indoors, but besides taking jackets off the dead bodies - which, no matter how weak she was made to look for it, she would not do - she saw no other way to keep from freezing once the temperature had lowered for the night. For now though, she left it. They would be more likely to die of animal attacks - even more likely of attacking each other, if the Sith didn't pipe down - than they would of hypothermia, so she turned her attention to securing all the entrances from all the hungry creatures she could hear growling somewhere in the distance. That mostly comprised of shoving bits of furniture into gaps to block them with the help of the Force, but it wasn't as if they held any use on a wrecked ship.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

Spoiler

I am SO sorry I took so long. Won't happen again, promise.

 

[Darth Abyss]

While she was occupied by her attempt to secure the inside of this ship, Abyss simply dropped to the ground, his legs crossed and his eyes closed in a meditative stance. He took some time before answering on her thread, choosing his words with precision and patience. This was not the type of situation were picking a fight would do him any good in the end.

"Relax, Aria. I will not provoke you any further, as I have enough cybernetic limps already."

A laugh could be heard, not the dark and inhuman one normally heard from the sith, but one that sounded human, and amused even. The stoic expression in his face was a bit less emotionless then before, showing that there was something human inside him after all. Again he opened his mouth to fill the silence with words.

"You want to know the truth of why I feel the need to behave like this, why I want to force a discussion on you that you clearly object to have?"

Without moving his hands his blade danced in the air, kept there by the force. As the hilt levitated above both their heads, the crimson red blade ignited, spending light and warmth for the cold room. Before she could even say if she cared for what he had to say, he already gave away the answer.

"Most sith are exactly like you would imagine them. Focused only on galactic dominance, only killing the jedi and enslaving the weak, but with minds so dull that they can not comprehend the fine lines drawn in our galaxy by the force. Talking to them is useless, boring even, and their only worth is on a battlefield. The others, the ones that care for more than galactic conquest and violence often share my fate, suffering from the madness that comes with the corrupting power we draw our strength from. Talking to them can be interesting, but they are few, most of them share my views, and some of their minds are simply to far gone. You on the other hand jedi, you are interesting, you can offer me the change of perspective I need to bring order to my thoughts."

For once, it was neither a mindgame nor a lie that came out of his mouth. The jedi had a far deeper spiritual connection to the force than most sith, and their philosophy was opposed to what he as a sith believed in. Talking to her was far less draining and exhausting then a discussion with yet another misguided soul who thought itself sith.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Aria's head whipped around as the Sith spoke again - really? While she was securing their, Abyss wanted to meditate? - but her irritation eased ever so slightly as he asserted that he would abandon his attempts to push the Jedi into a fight. It was a start, anyway: she still couldn't claim to get along with him, but that was to be expected. No matter how unlike the rest of his kind he may be, he remained a Sith and thus, no matter what their actual exchanges were like, it went with out saying that they were adversaries as far as history went, and certainly in the eyes of their respective orders. But so long as they were the only two survivors of a crashed starship, Aria could put that aside at least for now.

Then her body turned fully around as a reflex reaction to the activation of the crimson red saber, and her hand automatically went to the saber at her belt, though she withheld from unclipping it or activating the blade and confined herself to tapping a finger against the hilt, reassuring herself that it was there. At his question, she gave no answer, only a small shrug and a raise of the eyebrows as she waited for his explanation.

He wanted... a change of perspective? To put his thoughts in order? Though Aria couldn't be certain what exactly it was that the Sith hoped to achieve from gaining such a thing, if he what he wanted was her opinion, she would happily pander. There were certainly worse ways to pass time waiting for help.

"You want my perspective?" The disbelief in her voice was clear; she didn't even try and cover it with sarcasm. "You want, what, to know what I have to say about the Dark Side? I've told you my thoughts before. But alright: I don't believe that you are evil, or at least not for being Sith. Your goal is the same as mine, is it not? To improve the galaxy. You have different ideas of what an improved galaxy looks like and of how to achieve it, which is what makes Jedi and Sith enemies by nature." That or half of you are arrogant psychopaths, Aria thought, but she didn't voice that part. "In fact, I think that in different circumstances you could have made an excellent Jedi, but it may be too late for that and I'm not going to try and force my way on you. Unless you're looking for a lifestyle change?" The last part was said with sarcasm, but only some; she didn't like him, but she wouldn't turn away the chance to bring a corrupted soul to the light.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss stayed silent for a moment, the only sound was the constant buzzing from the red lightsaber that slowly rotated above their head. After he collected his thoughts again he spoke once more.

"Sometimes I think about what I would have become if the jedi had found me as a child, yet I have no desire to join your order. I not simply chose the darkness, the darkness called me to follow it. Only if I were to be a fool, I would ignore this path the force has set in front of me."

There was something in what she had said that he had realised many times before. He would have been an excellent jedi if it weren't for his ambitious and obsessive tendencies, but he couldn't really tell if they had been as worse before he ignited the fire of passion inside him, before he allowed the dark side to corrupt him. Many of his traits aligned far more with the jedi teachings than with that of the sith, especially his dedication to the spiritual side of the force, something many of the sith ignored in ther desire for worldly influence.

"And no Aria, other than you and many sith I do not seek the improvement of our galaxy. The force shall free me from the chains of this meaningless reality, and not bind me to the shackles of forming a future for others. My motivations, my passions are my own. That is why I do not see an enemy in you or any other jedi, simply for being a jedi. Most of my kind have forgotten, or never even understood what it really means to be a sith."

He made the decision to use her real name from now on, instead of simply calling her jedi. She probably wasn't aware of it, but only very few earned the right to be called by their names instead of simple and maybe even insulting descriptive terms by Abyss. Names were meaningless after all, and by not using them normally he could represent the lack of respect he had for most of those he meet.

"I do not simply care for what your views on the dark side are, I am interested to understand how the mind of a jedi works. I have read a uncountable amount of books and texts on your order, yet I often fail to understand the why behind your teachings. I might not be interested in becoming a jedi, but only by looking at something from as many perspectives as possible I can really try to understand the bigger picture. Arrogance and ignorance have put greater man than myself in their well deserved graves."

In his opinion, to many sith were blind unable to see what the eyes of jedi could offer, and deaf, unable to listen what the force whispered in their ears. After all they were servants to the force, as much as the jedi.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

How the mind of a Jedi worked? Aria could hardly answer that any better than he, as a devout Sith, could: just as Sith were mistakenly grouped as all the same, the collective Jedi were far more complex than the militant and emotionless defenders of the galaxy they were pictured as. She knew that as well as anyone - even her Master, who she held in higher regard than even the Masters of the Order, had his own complicated perceptions of the Force. But she could at least try to explain.

"The why behind our teachings...well, to really understand you'd have to ask a Master, or at least someone who has been a Jedi longer and better than I have, but I'll do my best. The idea that Jedi insist on repressed emotions at all times isn't as true as it used to be, but we - or at least, I - try to keep my emotions in check more than the rest of the galaxy considers normal because it makes it easier for me to do what I became a Jedi to do - serve the light, make the galaxy better, save lives. At some point, once you've been a Jedi for long enough, being dominated or motivated by emotion is a much scarier notion than it used to be, so you stay away from that line. There are times when you get tired of it or have outbursts of one sort or another, but at least the majority of the time, you get over it and keep going and often you're a better Jedi for it. That's the best explanation I can offer."

In truth, she'd never really thought about it much. Aria just knew that she was a Jedi, that she liked to be a Jedi, that she wanted to remain a Jedi. Nothing had occurred to make her truly desire anything else; even the times she had come close to the Dark it had been a consequence that she feared was inevitable rather than the actual motivation to defect from the Order.

"Your turn," she said thoughtfully after a moment. "How does your mind work? What makes you so certain the Force wants you to remain with the Dark Side? What would you do if you thought that the Force wanted you to switch paths and become a Jedi?" Her tone made it clear that she was as genuinely curious as he had sounded, not trying to attack but to understand.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss listened closely to her explanation, and while she believe that her opinion wasn't worth much on the subject, he definitely saw it otherwise. A master had to spend years to become one, self indoctrinating and moving away from what most people perceived as reality. That wasn't a bad thing in itself, as Abyss himself often delved in the more esoteric and spiritual aspects of the force, but because he did he knew very well how different his way to perceive anything was to most of the galaxy. Someone like her on the other hand, one that had learned and felt as a jedi, but wasn't complete lost in their teachings could give him an answer that even he as a sith could understand.

"How my mind works?"

Again a laugh could be heard, as Abyss tried to put in words what his thoughts represented. A storm of random ideas, or memories and impulses, only loosely tied together when he was able to focus. The chaotic state of his mind was the reason why he could easily learn things, as his mind simply never stopped working in a tremendous tempo, yet it also often kept him from staying calm and controlled, falling back into his obsessive behavior.

"My mind is chaos. Words, ideas, impulses unleashed and uncontrolled. But I guess that was not what you really wanted to know right? You want to understand what makes a more or less reasonable person into a sith? It is so simple, the darkness called for me and I listened. It granted me power in time of great need, it gave me a path, a purpose when I had nothing. It guided me, like the light had guided many jedi, it guided me up until this point."

Her other question was more complex to answer, and something he had often thought about himself. He was dedicated to the way of the sith with all his heart, but simply because he believed that the force had chosen his fate to be one.

"If the force would call me to the light, I would do the same that I did when the darkness called me. No one can resist his fate, and by doing so will only bring pain, suffering and death above oneself. I hope that the force has granted me this path to stay on it until the day I die, but after all I serve the force, above anything else. I hope that answers your question."

[member="Aria Vale"]