Is the Darkness Really Scary?

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

A goal. For all the fun Allya had been having recently, she hadn't forgotten her goals. Her small, ugly fighter was landed in a nondescript Coruscanti space port. The damage done was still being repaired, but, life was a weird thing. People always bounced back from devastation. It gave her hope in the Galaxy, and frankly helped fuel her own beliefs on the nature of the force and life. And it was these beliefs, these goals that brought her to this planet.

Rumors were of a sale of Jedi and Sith artifacts on Coruscant. Holocrons, artifacts, and the like. History about to be lost to the highest bidder if something wasn't done fast. Despite being a Sith she had great respect for the Jedi, it was one of their order that had saved her, made her who she was today. Taught her to temper her emotions and control them, to become a knight that defended, rather than a creature lusting for power for the sake of power. It was Jedi that taught her to love herself, to stand before the darkness and her people, that it was okay to be a Sith, it was okay to be a Mandalorian, it was okay to be her. She had never forgotten.

She would keep his history safe. She would recover her own History, she would learn from it. And when a time, where a solid Jedi order, had been restored, she would return the holocrons and artifacts to their true home. Perhaps the temple on Monastery would be a good place for them?

All these thoughts ran through her mind, as she flew her speeder through the still crowded skies of Coruscant. It had been some time since the destruction, and the people were nothing if not resilient. Buildings were rebuilt, construction projects were everywhere. Dressed fully in her Mandalorian Beskar'garm, the purple cloak wrapped around her, armed to the teeth, and every bit the scary Sith she actually was, the girl finally pulled up to the spot, parking the air speeder off to the side. Hopping out, and locking the Zoro-2 behind her. She was in a lower part of the city, that hadn't been totally devistated by the star destroyers coming out of the ground. Bright neon lights illuminated the area, and a bright shop sign stated “Mandu's Emporium and General Goods”. Many civilians lined the street around the shop.

She was short, but to all watching her the Mandalorian Sith was imposing, and fear inducing. Entering the shop, she slapped her hand on the counter. “Mand'u. I'm here for what you promised me.” Her voice was filtered, only a bit resembling the young 15 year she old she actually was. "Ah! My Lady, welcome, welcome. Let Mand'u get it for you!" He was so happy to see her. It would save him a lot of hassle.

Mand'u, a rodian brought out a large crate, and opened it. Inside were many Jedi Artifacts, and holocrons. Records, lightsabers of fallen warriors and so much more. It was a treasure trove. “Your first order....and your second.” He brought out, a smaller case, even through its protected case, the dark side radiated from it. Opening it, Vexia smiled in her helmet. Oh how she had looked for this. A Sith Holocron, another teacher, to expand her knowledge of the dark side. Oh it was beautiful. “Your funds are already transferred Mand'u. Including a bonus....remember, to call me if you find anything more.” Taking the crate and the lined cased, she used the force to easily lift them with telekinesis to her sides. Extreme joy was her emotion right now, and she used it to flood her body with the emotion and through it, the force.

[member="Jerek Zenduu"]

 

[Jerek Zenduu]

It had been the shining jewel of the galaxy. Once. Now Coruscant stood alone, turning inward against the galaxy which had so wounded it, refusing even the hand of the New Republic. As Jerek walked its streets, he could see the scars left by the Sith upon the world, and the fading reminders of what it had been under the Alliance. He moved quickly to avoid dwelling on it, pulling the hooded cloak over his padawan robes higher, concealing not only his face from others but also the surroundings from himself.

The Rodian's shop was in a nicer area, or at least one that was cleaner. More beings roamed casually here, lacking the scared or haunted looks of those in other parts of the city. The bright lights illuminated the signs and sidewalks, making the teen feel exposed even in his nondescript brown cloak, pulling it tighter over the light blue tabbard underneath. At least, his mind reasoned, he wasn't wearing a bright purple cloak with similar colored armor, if anything screamed look at me! it was a getup like that. He grinned and shook his head as he took another passing look at the purple figure as it walked by him in the crowd, before turning to enter the shop.

"What do you mean, you already sold it?" the padawan found his voice rising in heat, perhaps anger as well, a short while later. It had taken a conversation and a little mental pressure to get the Rodian named Mand'u to admit to the situation. The Jedi artifacts he had once possessed were already gone, sold to a buyer who had picked them up mere minutes before him. "Tell me who!"

Jerek stormed out of the Rodian's shop a few moments later, his cloak hood bobbing behind him on his back. He scanned the crowd again, looking for the purple figure he had passed before. How could he have missed that? Flaunting their appearance like that, it had practically begged for a second look. Had he learned nothing from his mission with Damian? A fisted hand pounded at his clothed thigh as he moved quickly, almost running now in pursuit of the thief in purple armor, still not knowing where he was going.

And then the boy spotted him, the holder of plundered Jedi history. Stood in his purple armor next to a parked speeder, he was holding two cases from the Rodian's shop. No, not holding, the cases were floating in the air near him. A Dark Jedi? A Sith? If the Jedi had sent him to retrieve the artifacts —once stored in the temple the Alliance had built for the Jedi on Coruscant, now helpfully recovered by associates of Mand'u— whoever stood before him could only be an enemy. And if they were a Force user, this just became a very dangerous pickup mission.

He could feel nothing from the figure through the Force, but he felt everything from the contents of the cases. One reeked of the dark side, and the other surely contained the Jedi artifacts, and possibly a holocron or two. He wasn't about to let those priceless pieces of Jedi history just run away. "You know, Coruscant law still prohibits the buying and selling of Jedi relics." Sure, Jerek didn't really know if that was true or not, but the Alliance law had forbid it, so he was just hoping the Coruscanti officials still had that on the books. Even if only in spirit. "What do you say you hand over the Jedi artifacts and I won't call the authorities?"

[member="Allya Vi'Dreya"]​

 

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

Loading the two objects into her speeder, she heard the familiar voice. No....please no. Once they had been loaded up, she finally turns to look at the one who was speaking to her and her heart sunk. That cute, silly Jedi boy she had met and flirted with on Chandrilla. He had been so sweet and made her smile a lot. Please, don't do this Jerek. You don't understand. Please, back away. Her visor picked up the signatures of the snipers, and spies that were converging to take what was hers, and follow and pick her off. She had swindled them all out of the spoils, on many occasions in the last week. If she wasn't careful, he would be dragged into this too. I won't hurt you Jerek, I can't, but I will protect you, even if you don't understand. I swear this. Its okay to hate me. Thank you for making me smile. But this is all I can do to repay you.

Voice comes out of the mask filter, while it may be familiar to him, it would sound significantly different enough he wouldn't put the two together. “Boy, have you looked around? Coruscant doesn't care. The remaining security forces have a lot of greater things to worry about. Besides, its only illegal if you don't have the proper paperwork, and I do. Besides, even if I gave you this one, it wouldn't change the fact I have dozens more just like it. Leave, before you get yourself hurt.” Internally she winced, and cried out. Oh she didn't want to do this to him. But, she had to make it clear he wasn't with her, that he wasn't involved.

And she had to make sure those listening believed she had many more. It would keep them from attacking until later....until she was safely away from this precious boy. Turning, she slide into the cockpit, and quickly closed the doors, and let the engines whine. “I'm sorry Jerek, so sorry.” She whispered softly under her breath.

Wasting no time, she attempted to take off in her speeder, to get as much distance between herself and the young man as she possibly could. To keep all eyes on her, and her alone. It was okay if she died for her beliefs. But she would be damned before she let someone like him take the fall because she hadn't been careful enough.

[member="Jerek Zenduu"]

 

[Jerek Zenduu]

The armored figure's rebuke didn't faze Jerek. He —no, she? the figure's body seemed to hint at a woman— was clad in armor, but Jerek was clad in the Force, and instinctively he drew it around him in preparation. For what, he didn't know, but the demand to leave seemed to carry an implicit threat behind it. His hand moved to the lightsaber at his waist, hesitating just before it drew back his cloak to reveal it.

She moved.

He moved.

The shot hit at the place Jerek had been standing just before he heard it ring out, and the boy rolled with his momentum to bring himself to a crouch a few steps away. He hadn't even sensed the snipers until he'd felt the shot, his connection to the Force alerting him moments before he would have been killed. There was no time for him to celebrate, however. He looked up in time to see the armored woman's Koro-2 speeder rise into the air and take off, its whine quickly fading in the noise of the Coruscanti street.

Chit.

Jerek sprang to his feet, turning back onto the street in the direction of the speeder, finding himself within a sparse crowd that nonetheless required him to weave and dodge out of the way to maintain his course. He could still see the speeder ahead, moving off quickly, and he drew into the Force to add speed to his run. Not only in an attempt to catch the thief's speeder, but to avoid any further sniper shots or other opponents. Clearly, the padawan wasn't the only one after the Jedi relics.

It was quickly becoming obvious that his Force-imbued speed would not be enough. The thief's speeder was moving too fast, and receding from view. With every passing second, Jerek could feel the objects of his Order's history slipping away, and his heart wrenched at the thought. He tried to ignore it, pushing the raw emotion into his determination, but neither sheer determination nor Force Speed alone could overcome the physical limitations of being Human and not machine.

Chit. Chit. Chit.

He slowed as the speeder passed beyond his vision, there being little point in keeping up any longer. Jerek could still sense the Jedi relics, surely there was a holocron among them or the feeling would not be as strong, but it was fading and would quickly be gone completely. He glanced around, the passersby who had taken notice at someone running in a walking-paced crowd were turning away now, going back about their business. Everyone seemed to have somewhere to be, and the padawan slipped into that style of behavior. He even left his hood down, its normal concealing nature seemed like it would draw even more attention, and the best security here was simply obscurity.

Obscure was the nature of the speeder park that appeared at the edge of the street. He suppressed the urge to increase his speed as he drifted his way across the crowd towards the lot, the sensation of the holocrons nearly gone now. As he reached the lot, Jerek blanched at the choices, a dozen or so speeder bikes were nestled in a row in one corner of the lot, guarded by a few obvious swoopgang members. Those were not the sort of beings he wanted to tangle with at the moment, no matter how tempting those speeder bikes were for their raw speed and power. And in that moment of decision, the boy lost any feeling of the Jedi relics he had been following.

Chit. Chit. Chit. Chit. Chit.

A few utility trucks made up the rest of the lot, with a lone open-air taxicab waiting at a stand inside the lot. Jerek sucked in air, unsatisfied with the choice he made, but he headed towards the taxi anyway. Maybe he still had a chance, maybe not. Hopping into the taxi's front seat, he turned to the driver. "I need this taxi, citizen. Jedi business."

Did Jedi business still work on Coruscant?

In any case, Jerek didn't give the driver time to respond. Thrusting out his hand, the padawan gave the taxi's driver a shove through the Force, launching him out the side of the vehicle and onto the paved speeder lot below. He grabbed the controls quickly, switching the airspeeder out of idle and into gear before the driver could scramble back inside. Then he was airborne, and in pursuit of the Jedi relics in the last place he had sensed them, hoping he could catch up in time.

Chit.

[member="Allya Vi'Dreya"]​

 

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

She moved her body at the last moment, so the bolt hit behind her, as she climbed into the speeder, like it was nothing. Allya knew she had to get far away from the sweet Jedi boy as she could. As the speeder traveled fast down the busy Coruscant skyways, she dove herself between oncoming crowds of speeders, trying to hide in the constant stream. Faster. Already, she could feel the speeder bikes coming to chase her.

Good, come get me. Leave him alone. Forget he ever existed. Flipping a switch, she urged her craft ever onward, and ever faster. Weaving through the crowded skies, she kept up the relentless pace, trying to lose the bikers. However, she knew this was a temporary solution, to many innocents were at risk if she did this. Pushing forward on the stick to her side a bit, the craft slowed just enough, to allow the two speeder bikes to catch up. They couldn't resist the temptation. On either side of her, the speeder bikes tried to herd her toward where they wanted, by giving her little space.

Inside her helmet, the Sith just smirked, and with a powerful burst of the force going in both directions from her body, the two speeder bikers fell off to the dark depths below. Keeping her eyes on the skies, the girl slowed down, while grabbing both bikes with the force. It was a bit harder, but she forced them to stay with her, so they wouldn't go out of control and crash into the construction areas. Have to find a place to put them. Think.

There, it was a shorter building, with a flat top. Moving down, she let the bikes fall into it, slowing them down hard before they hit, so while they would crumple up on the impact, the damage to the structure would be very minimal. Once her “escort” had been taken care of, she rejoined the flow of traffic, slowed down her speed, and at a much more leisurely pace headed towards the space port and her waiting ship. Jerek was left behind, and she hoped he would be okay. She hated herself for the mean words, he worked so hard, and was such a good boy. But, this was to preserve the Jedi, the relics would be more safe on Monastery compared to anywhere else in the galaxy. And he would be kept away from the people trying to kill her. She was Sith, this was normal.

Her mind simply concentrated on flying now, keeping to her lane, disappearing into the traffic, so as to not cause any more trouble for herself, as she entered the much more entertainment district. She would soon be on her ship.

[member="Jerek Zenduu"]

 

[Jerek Zenduu]

Jerek struggled with the controls of the taxi for a few minutes as it flew in a sluggish manner, trying to find a way to push it faster. The taxi speeder had plenty of bells and whistles, but they were focused on passenger accommodations. It figured he would pick the one craft that was built for comfort instead of speed, at this rate even walking could have been faster.

No, that wasn't the case, the boy knew as he sped along, urging the speeder higher to take it out of the lower street zones. Traffic above was moving faster, so perhaps the taxi's automated systems would kick it into higher gear to better flow with the rest of the vessels in the crowded sky. That seemed to be the answer Jerek was looking for, and as he changed lanes higher and higher, the taxi speeder soon responded by giving him greater authority over its velocity.

Still, the question remained, where did the thief go?

Despite his troubles with the craft's speed, the controls were fairly easy for the padawan, allowing him to maneuver without much thought about it. He simply did. The simplicity of the task allowed him to step into the technique he had recently been taught, clearing his mind to let the Force guide his movements instead. Though he could no longer actively sense the holocrons, it seemed something was urging him toward the entertainment district, a desire he willingly obeyed.

As time passed, Jerek resisted the urge to involve himself directly, to change lanes or direction. If this was where the Force was taking him, then he needed to let it play out. As logical and deliberate as he tried to be, trusting the Force alone was his trial, a point that many a master had held in contention over the course of his training. He preferred to use, not to be used, to him the Force was just another tool. The idea of letting the tool take over, to act consciously for him, it was like swimming upstream. Yet if ever there was a time to let himself truly trust in it, it was a time like this.

And it was times like these when Jerek begrudgingly accepted that he should have listened to his training masters more often. The feeling of the Jedi relics had re-entered his range a while ago, and now it was getting stronger. The boy used scanned the sky with his eyes, and there, just almost out of sight, was the thief's speeder. And, luckily for him, a new lane of faster traffic in the skies above.

"I got you now!" Jerek's words and smirk were for him alone, but pretty soon, he'd be able to share them with the thief again. Just as soon as he caught up to her and forced her to give up the stolen relics. Proper paperwork be blasted, a Sith with Jedi artifacts was still a thief no matter how much they rationalized it.

[member="Allya Vi'Dreya"]​

 

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

Theme


The familiar sensation, he had caught up to her. It was so bright, filled with confusion, uncertainty, anger, pride. The light was strong in him, but god where his emotions so conflicted, and strong. It was so easy to feel, and so tempting to feed from. Gah he was cute, attractive, fun to hang out with, and just this dogged persistence, it was a nice trait. However, he didn't understand, he was in danger, and she was going to save him, save the Jedi artifacts, study her sith holocron and be the hero today. He just needed to BACK OFF.

Her speeder literally began a nose dive through the crowd of other air speeders, heading down towards the ground. Jerek would easily be able to see the tendrils of dark side energy extending from her craft, as she began to influence the area outside of her suit. She was pushing, pulling and manipulating the space around her speeder, along with using the force to find a path through the sheer number of speeders in the sky.

Spinning down, she manages to get through the cloud of air speeders in one piece, and expertly pushes forward, driving into a congested construction zone. Massive cranes were everywhere, empty shells of buildings, Above, the speeders would quickly recover from the “turbulence” and everything went back to normal in the skies. Pushing on the stick, and down on one of the rudder peddles, she began to zig zag through the cranes, spinning her craft to narrowly miss cables, and smaller craft carrying construction droids.

Finally, flying into the shell of a building under construction. She had to slow down a bit, and it was difficult getting through the sea of metal beams, but her craft managed to stay in one piece. A silent hope was that he would just give up, and leave her alone now. Let her face the danger awaiting her, to protect him, just fly home. But she knew he wouldn't. Those emotions didn't lie, and her heart skipped a beat feeling that intensity. So much passion inside him. Well, he would have to keep up with her, if he wanted them. Sith and Mandalorian always believed the strongest and most worthy would come out on top, and she was damned well going to prove that was her. As many complicated emotions boiled inside her, she fed on them, expanding the range of her telekinesis, appearing to Jerek like lengthening the tendril length. If he got to close, and she would simply snatch his craft and crack it like an egg. However, under the mask was a smile. She had to admit, she enjoyed being chased by him, and it was some time before she had to really put this much effort into flying.

[member="Jerek Zenduu"]