Faction Knock, Knock!

[Colette]

In the end D’qar made sense, its name was nearly ironic. The deep forests provided a good cover from above. The presence of several trained Jedi made it safe from ground threats. The architecture seemed to mix a bit into the surrounding terrain too which would have made it a bit more difficult to seek out on foot had Colette not known just about what to look for.

She had been told not to follow here. Or perhaps more accurately the order had been to not try and find out where they had gone which, ironically, was already moot when issued. Acier meant well, wanted to protect the Lorn, and in a sense so did Colette.

Well, not really, she wanted him out of the driver’s seat along with Ala at this point, but that was a topic for some other time.

Eyeing a set of wandering Jedi she figured there was no point in delaying the rather inevitable any further. She pushed through the brush and emerged behind them and continued to walk through the campus seemingly unnoticed, at least for now. She took a deep breath and marveled at the atmosphere. She straightened her clean green robe, gently brushed against the bruises on her waist from Lorn's rage-filled little bender into TJO territory.

“... Oh chit.” A voice of a younger man mumbled in panic as he noticed who she was. “That’s the quartermaster.”
“Our quartermaster?” His friend asked, confused.
“No!”
“Chit!”

They made a break for someone more official. Colette continued to walk, at this point mainly to see how deep into so-called ‘enemy’ territory she could get.

 

[Briana Sal-Soren]

Briana was only recently clued in about the kerfuffle that'd gone down with Lorn and Acier, after the two of them returned to D’Qar looking decidedly worse for wear — with a known Sith in tow.

Acier was one thing. Whatever darkness dogged his steps, they'd spoken enough for her to know he was struggling and trying to be better, that he needed guidance and direction — not a prison cell. But this other woman, this Sith, was a different story; based on everything she knew, that piece of schutta was exactly where she belonged, and should have stayed there. This was needlessly reckless, dangerous even by her own standards, and went far beyond anything she would have ever considered.

Briana staked her reputation on his cause, her future happiness, and followed him here, while actively persuading others to do the same. If Lorn was truly losing control, the fallout wouldn't just ruin him, it would destroy what they were trying to do here, and stain every Jedi who'd chosen to stand beside him. At this point, without knowing where his head was at, if anyone decided to take Ala up on her offer to abandon the Vanguard and return to the Order, Briana wasn't sure that she would even try to stop them.

The only reason she hadn't already kicked his door in and demanded to know what the hell he'd been thinking, was due to the state of him looking like he'd been dragged behind a speeder for miles. She could afford to let him heal up a bit first, before ripping him a new one.

She sighed, pinching the bridge between her brows where a headache had been forming all morning, crossing halfway between the central compound and the new supply barracks when two Jedi came sprinting around the bend. They had the wide-eyed, frantic look of men who'd stumbled into a disaster and were looking for a higher rank to dump it on.

“Sal-Soren!”

“Woahhh, slow down.” Briana held her hands up and took a few steps back to avoid them crashing into her, glancing between their flushed faces. “What's going on?”

“The quartermaster.”

Briana raised a brow and tilted her head, staring flatly at him.

“She’s here,” the other gasped out. “The Order’s quartermaster. She just casually walked through the perimeter.”

Looking past their shoulders, Briana followed their trail. There, moving through the trees, was a familiar figure in green, walking up the path with the absolute confidence of someone who didn't give a damn if they were trespassing.

“Should we find Lorn?”

“No.” She bit, the answer came more sharply than intended. She clasped them on the shoulder, softening herself and her demeanor with a controlled breath. “I’ll handle it for now." Word would reach him soon enough, at any rate. Something like this didn't ever stay quiet for long.

The two nodded and stepped aside, allowing her to pass. Her pace was nonchalant and steady until she reached the other woman in the middle. Her head tilted, "Colette, how can I help?" She seemed unbothered, mostly. "Actually, wait." she held out a single finger, "First, let me welcome you, being the first Council member to see this place and all. It isn't the prettiest to look at, but it gets the job done."

She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one side. "To what do we owe the honor?"

TAG: Colette
Honorable Mentions: Lorn Reingard , Acier Moonbound , Her , Ala Quin

​

 

[Kitt Solo]

Briana Sal-Soren Lorn Reingard Acier Moonbound Colette Ala Quin Her

Kitt had a rough night. D'qar was fiiiiiiiiiine. She guessed. It just wasn't...Theed. There were no clubs. No bars. No concerts. Nowhere that sold decent Corellian whiskey.

And after all that chit with the 'highly important' prisoner breakout, she deserved a day off. So, she'd found the one spot that had sun amongst the canopy of trees that were, yes, strategically there blah-blah-blah. She'd commandeered a lawn chair from her ship. And a crate that had her feet stretched out and kicked up on oh-so-casually.

A salvaged canopy panel sat on her lap, reflecting that precious circle of sun back up to her torso, neck, and face. A swimsuit top and some frayed jeanshorts she'd cut herself lightsaber style. A face that had some shades half slid down the bridge of her nose. Earbuds playing some of her favorite tunes. Loud enough for others to know what she was listening to as they walked by.

The kids knew better than to bother her when she was like this.

Chestnut brow arched in curiosity as she saw the whispers among the other Vanguard. She felt the shifting emotions before she saw those who caused it. And thank the whiskey gods above because a Sal-Soren arrived to take care of things. The music continued as Kitt shifted that canopy panel, one hand reaching for the tropical drink with one of those little umbrellas in it.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: D'Qar

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

A few days had passed since Shiraya's Sanctuary, and Ace had spent most of them avoiding Lorn. He didn't know what to say. He knew he needed to say something. What happened couldn't simply be ignored, especially after Ace had been the one forced to step between Lorn and Her. But every time he tried to work out exactly what that conversation looked like, his thoughts became tangled.

Because Ace wasn't exactly impartial. Some small, ugly part of him still resented Aurelian for forcing them into that situation in the first place. The King had dangled D'Qar over their heads and sent them after Her from the safety of some polished office on Naboo, leaving everyone else to deal with the consequences. Ace knew that didn't excuse what happened. He knew Lorn's choices were his own. Didn't mean he had to like the man who'd helped set the board.

And Ace was still trying to untangle his own feelings about the breakout. About Ala, Colette, and standing there watching Lorn become something Ace recognized far too easily.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one. D'Qar felt different. Nobody had said it directly to him, but they didn't need to. Conversations changed when Lorn's name came up. People exchanged looks they hadn't before. Faith had been shaken.

Ace wanted absolutely nothing to do with that conversation. He wasn't interested in picking sides again, so he'd kept mostly to himself.

Which was how he'd ended up sitting alone at the edge of the training field, AKA the clearing just beyond the main compound. But for once, Ace wasn't training, or repairing something. That alone probably qualified as concerning.

He sat in the grass with his arms resting loosely over raised knees, dark eyes following the clouds as they drifted overhead. Tic was somewhere nearby, probably investigating something that piqued his curiosity.

Ace's eyes shifted from the sky when he heard voices carrying faintly through the trees. Nothing immediately felt alarming, but there was enough movement that something had clearly happened.

Then he felt it. Not a disturbance in the Force, more of a blip. Like something appearing suddenly on sonar that hadn't been there a moment before. Familiar enough that his attention sharpened before he'd consciously identified why.

Ace pushed himself to his feet and headed toward the compound. As he got closer, he noticed people weren't scrambling for weapons, ruling out an attack. Mostly they were whispering. A few people passed him moving quickly in the opposite direction, and Ace caught enough fragments to realize someone had arrived.

He stepped around one of the prefabricated structures and finally found the source. Briana stood farther down the path. With Colette. Ace stopped dead, and for a second his expression went completely blank.

"I don't need to follow you, Acier."

At the time, he'd barely registered what she'd meant.

But how? Nobody should have known where they'd gone. Relocating here had been the entire point. D'Qar wasn't somewhere people were supposed to simply stumble across because they took the wrong hyperspace lane.

Had it been Aurelian?

Of course that was where his mind went. The King had known enough to hold D'Qar over their heads once already. Why not make Ace's life complicated yet again?

Colette | Briana Sal-Soren | Kitt Solo​

 

[Colette]

Briana Sal-Soren Kitt Solo Acier Moonbound

It was ironic in a sense that D'qar nearly had all that Colette wished of a Jedi enclave and yet she was technically supposed to be opposed to them. Where some of the Order would cast them out, she never truly saw them as a different Order. After all, they came from the Order and with enough time that was exactly where they would end up again in some form or the other.

As expected there was a ripple of alarm flooding through the force that spread across the campus before it settled into uneasiness. Colette had let the healers spare the bacta and simply eased some of the pain enough so that she could walk again. After which it was straight for the hangars. A few days in hyperspace, and well…

"Sal-Soren." Colette bowed in greeting and respect. "Thank you."

Her eyes wandered to the people around for a moment. A few of the younger ones seemed a bit more wary than the others, but that was natural. Ala's message had been loud and clear. Too loud, and too clear almost. Regrettably, another decision Colette didn't agree with but could understand.

She gave vague tilt of her head, a nod to the side and a raise of her brows as if Briana would most likely be able to tell why she was here and that Colette recognized that the question was more a sign of respect than anything.

"I spent a considerable amount of time trying to triangulate this place with what few resources I had." She admitted and put her hands on her hips. "Fuel costs, time spent in transit between resource deliveries and such. All to-" Her eyes set on Acier as he approached. "Find this place by myself."

"None of the council knows I am here, or that I was doing this. At least not that I am aware." She glanced back at Briana and then the others. "Given the, uhh… Tensions I figured it was a good idea to let this one fly under the radar until it became a problem. I know some of my fellow councilors are a bit more, let's say, decisive when it comes to the goings-on around here."

"I'd rather not risk a repeat of the events of the last few days if I can help it."

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Kitt Solo
Colette | Briana Sal-Soren | Acier Moonbound | Her​

Pain shot up Lorn's leg with every heavy step, but he refused the offer of a shoulder or a cane. Embarrassment and a stubborn refusal to be seen as broken kept him moving on his own. The past few days had been spent nursing injuries and trying to find a sliver of peace in the wilderness beyond the perimeter. The camp needed distance from him, and he certainly needed space from them.

A shifting tension in the Force pulled him back toward the central grounds early that morning. Walking through the prefabricated structures brought a wave of silent judgment. Whispers hushed as he passed, and Vanguard members exchanged uneasy looks. The faith he had built was fracturing, tested by the reckless choices and the dark presence he had dragged back with him.

His limp brought him alongside Kitt, who was lounging on a makeshift setup in a rare patch of sunlight. She looked completely removed from the rising panic around them, dark glasses perched on her nose and a drink in hand. Stopping beside her chair, Lorn leaned slightly to take the pressure off his bad leg and turned his head toward her.

"I'm glad you are enjoying your holiday," he murmured under his breath.

She was an old friend, one of the very few left who would give him a straight answer without filtering it through reverence or fear. She had pulled his life out of the fire twice now, a debt that weighed heavily on him while everything else fell apart.

Lorn adjusted his posture, wincing slightly as his gaze drifted toward the commotion down the path where Briana, Acier, and Colette were gathered. He was surprised, he had told her to stay away, but here she was.

"What is the word around camp?"

 

[Vornak]

Colette Briana Sal-Soren

Vornak stood tall in the middle of the cleared training ground, all four arms folded across his broad chest. His blue scales were marked with lighter patterns that caught the light filtering down through the canopy. The training session had been going on a long time. He pushed the two jedi before him to their limits but he was running out of patience.

The black crest on his head and the red-and-blue striped covering over the lower half of his face gave him a permanent look of severe displeasure.

He rarely raised his voice. He rarely needed to. He had the advantage of being able to gesticulate with two hands whilst the others demonstrated technique.

"Again," he repeated. "If you hesitate in a real fight, you die. If you look at me for praise, that counts as hesitation."

He was not one for motivational speeches.

A shift in the air and a sudden scatter of movement near the compound drew his attention.

Vornak dismissed the training pair with a curt tilt of his head.

"Enough for now. Practice what I showed you Or don’t. Your choice."

He left the clearing at a steady pace. His heavy clawed feet were almost silent on the packed earth. The four-armed Besalisk moved through the prefabricated structures and trees towards where he sensed the commotion.

Vornak came to a stop a short distance away. Briana Sal-Soren was talking to Colette. He took the time to fold one pair of muscled arms across his chest and then the other pair. The besalisk made a colourful, but remarkable imposing, figure.

Whatever the fuss was, it had interrupted good training.

 

[Briana Sal-Soren]

Briana's eyes followed Colette’s across the path, landing on Acier just in time to catch the color drain from him. She raised a questioning brow, before glancing back to the other woman. Whatever he’d expected to find when he rounded that corner, it certainly hadn't been her, and the stark alarm in his posture and his presence through the Force, was enough to make Briana wonder just how much of a mess they were in.

“I guess that means we’ll be needing to change up some of those routes, then.” Briana said wryly, followed by a one-note laugh. The smile faded almost instantly as she slid her hands into the pockets of her dark jumpsuit, trying to decide if she felt more concerned or impressed.

For months, she’d kept Vizion completely in the dark, denying herself even the briefest of conversations with him. Given his sharp tracking abilities, she knew it wouldn't take much of a slip-up for him to deduce their coordinates and feel duty-bound to report his findings back to the Council. But the distance almost seemed a moot point, what with Colette uncovering where they were through sheer persistence and a considerable show of resourcefulness. Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised, given who's daughter she was.

"I'd rather not risk a repeat of the events of the last few days if I can help it."

"Indeed, I don't think any of us want that." Not that she knew what those events were, outside of the very broad strokes of the matter, and the final outcome. But, as her dad used to say...fake it until you make it. With so many eyes on them, and more gathering by the moment, including the man of the hour himself — Lorn, Briana didn't want to appear as uninformed as she felt. "But if you’re not here to lead any of us off to a cell, and I'm assuming you’re not here to join the Vanguard, then what brings you to our doorstep?”

DIRECT TAG: Colette

EVERYONE ELSE: Kitt Solo , Lorn Reingard , Acier Moonbound , Vornak

​

 

[Her]

---

---

"Look sharp, team. We have a Sith inbound. I highly recommend taking nothing for granted. Disbelieve half of what they say and discount the rest. Even the 'truth' is only being offered to serve an end they desire."
-- Ala Quin warning the other members of the Jedi Council in ' Summon Your Council, I Have Secrets ' .

---

Tags: Colette | Briana Sal-Soren | Kitt Solo | Acier Moonbound | Lorn Reingard | Vornak |

---

I don't sleep. All I do is dream.

The sound of whirring, overhanging fans and the passing shadows of Coruscanti traffic loomed over the children at work in a garden made up of all types of fauna that had been discovered by the Jedi as they traversed the galaxy in search of knowledge and discovery.

It is a time of peace.

At least it used to be.

Before the Sith.

We used to be something more.

Her opened their eyes, stirring suddenly from unconsciousness, to lay crimson red upon the cold surroundings of a hangar bay. At least it used to be one from what she could tell. The Vanguard seem to have converted the space into a makeshift prison as they deliberated on what to do about the alleged Sith Lord in their midst. Her felt the uncomfortable tightness of the Force Collar that had been tied around her neck. They had fastened the collar to the bars that were holding Her up in a standing position. Other trappings kept the arms and legs bound to the surface. She couldn't move an inch. A faint sizzle in the air warned Her that the bars surrounding her had some sort of electrical current. Only an artificial light hanging above her head served as the source of illumination in this cold, bleak space.

These new captors were not taking anything for granted this time.

In the only short few minutes of consciousness Her came to an understanding. Ala had been kind back in the sanctuary. Staring at the same four walls had been tiresome and boring. Terribly so. But at least she had been able to move. To make requests to talk with the other Jedi who lived close-by. There had even been a couple of times where Her had been permitted to walk around the courtyard and to enjoy the tranquil surroundings of the Jedi's home albeit under armed guard and supervision of the Grandmaster herself as Ala tried to reach the fallen Jedi trapped within the enigma of the Sith. These Vanguard were not like their peers from Shiraya's Sanctuary. That kindness had been a weakness and they could no longer afford to be weak when it came to this Dark Lord of the Sith.

The fresh scar on Ala's back was proof enough that they should never, ever underestimate Her again.

As Her studied the environment it became increasingly clear that there was no-way to escape. The only way that she was going to walk out of this latest form of confinement would be if Reingard or Moonbound let her go. It also became clearer to Her that the former Sword of Shiraya had resources at his disposal to keep her confined like this. Her recognised the faint but familiar smell of fuel that lingered in the air. That meant that both of them had ships. She briefly remembered passing in and out of consciousness aboard one of them. Her quietly guessed that she was no longer on Naboo. She wondered why Lorn and Acier had taken Her out of the sanctuary to bring her here.

There is a smell of ozone burning in the air. Smoke billowing around them. Yellow lights sizzling in the hot breeze as columns cascaded and fell into the dirt of a ruined courtyard. Rominaria dying all around. At the feet of a killer laid prone the body that had once been inhabited by a kind, thoughtful soul who had only ever wanted the best for them. It was an awful sound which assaulted the senses. Screaming. Roaring. A bloodthirsty unadulterated screech pitched through as a man sprung up to kill a murderer. Pain. Terrible pain, and blood that could be tasted in her teeth.

Ala Quin was dead.

Her remembered as their memories came to the fore and served as distraction from these new confines. She recalled the moment when she had killed the Jedi Grandmaster and felt her eyelids close to immerse herself in the moment. Before Reingard had risen to strike her down. At last Her was free from the only person who had made her feel weak. Those thoughtful, kind eyes would no longer see past mystery and the lies that she inhabited. It had been a moment of vindication. A sign that the Dark Side of the Force served her now; and yet the beast within did not taste victory. There was something solemn in these feelings she felt. As if Her were missing something that remained out of focus, on the edges of the picture, blurred and could not yet be reached. Alas, it was hard to think in these conditions as the collar severed Her from their connection with the Force. She felt nauseated. Unfocused...

...and vulnerable.

---

 

[Kitt Solo]

Lorn Reingard
Her Colette Briana Sal-Soren Acier Moonbound

"Kress above, Lo," A nickname she'd had to explain that he didn't get a choice in because that was the point of nicknames. Kitt popped one earbud free. "Don't sneak up on a girl like that."

He hadn't.

The rogue master could sense his familiar brooding presence clicks away. Always. A sip of her cocktail as her eyes flickered up to Lorn and then back to the gathering over yonder beneath those shaded lenses. "I am 90% sure the chick from the Sanctuary is not about to go murder-hobo on everyone so that's a positive."

Honestly?

This was better than any reality-holo she'd been watching lately.

"You've got good people. They're handling it." She didn't have to point that out about Sal-Soren. Or the kid that looked up to Lorn so much, Acier. Or even Vornak . Kitt was convinced he was competing with Lorn to see who could be the most grim and morose. There may have been a very small - smol - side wager going on between her and a few other students.

"I can see the weight of the entire 'verse you keep shouldering is catching up to you, old man." They were the same age. "Why has your stubborn arse not seen a healer by now?" Tipping her sunglasses further down her nose so those verdant green eyes could connect with his own. A pointed, silent look.

A pause, then.

"You gonna keep that punk sith locked up forever? She's gettin' restless."

 

[Allyson Locke]

//: Her //:
//: Attire //:

Allyson had remained quiet for most of her time. She didn't want the others to look her way or assume the worst. There were two reasons she was here, and one was down the hallway of the makeshift prison. It was interesting to see something that had been so powerful once, tucked away quietly like a child's mistake. There were too many what-ifs when it came to Her or Ella Nova, or whatever name she had come up for herself at this point.

Hands tucked in the pockets of the old rogue squadron jacket, her footsteps light, never echoing down the silent corridor. The aftermath of years of espionage and shadow training. It was all ingrained in the old Shadow's bones, even after years of claiming she was retired.

No one ever retired; no one ever earned peace in their line of work.

Voices echoed nearby, but Allyson paid them no mind as she came up toward where they were holding the evil Dark Lord of the Sith. There was a history there, one that Allyson had found herself curious about. During one of the wars, they all eventually bled together when she had come across this woman. No questions ever asked, but she had attacked and chased.

Why would a Dark Lord run? She seemed more like a frightened child than a breaker of worlds. How different all the Sith Allyson had come across had been.

Looking towards the cell, Allyson remained quiet. Would she beg to be released? Or would she worry that the execution had come early? Allyson, by all means, would rather the latter be true. She would not hesitate to strike, to tear the woman's life from her corpse, but that wasn't her job.

She hadn't been ordered to.

Yet.

"Looks like you're in a bit of a conundrum," Allyson smirked as she stepped closer, out of whatever dimmed Shadow that lingered in the wannabe prison.

"Caged bird or muzzled dog?" She asked, her head tilting slightly, trying to fully assess the reasoning for this woman to be locked up by the Vanguard. From what she understood, their hatred for the Sith burned deep; they split their Order to be freed from the shackles of peace. Allyson shook her head; she still needed to make sense of everything first before drawing a conclusion.

"How bored are you, Ella Nova?"

 

[Her]

---

Tag: Allyson Locke

---

"Looks like you're in a bit of a conundrum..."

Running through hallways, in a tower, surrounded by the march of the dead. Being chased. Hunted down by someone that she knew but couldn't quite remember how. Death creeping up on her.

Her lowered their sombre, red eyes down from the pedestal that she was attached to. It was a slab of duracrete erected in the middle and held up by a foundation which had been hastily built from leftover parts. Only the cage itself was your standard Jedi tech designed to incarcerate Force-sensitives. You could see why then that the Jedi Shadow thought that Her was in trouble. A conundrum, as it were.

"Caged bird or muzzled dog?"

Tilting her head to the left Her looked down at Locke as if she were summing her up for a fight.

"How bored are you, Ella Nova?"

"If you continue to talk to me like that I am going to take your other eye," Her admitted to Allyson.

She wasn't done yet.

"You blind sleemo."

As Her studied Allyson she noted that the eye-patch was gone. But a good replica didn't make for the real thing, and there were times at night, when the Dark Lord used to traverse between the Mid-systems to the former Imperial occupied territories in the Outer Rim, that her shoulder ached inexplicably and the pain would not stop no-matter what she did. So the idea of hurting Allyson back, in retaliation for Brosi, was an alluring prospect even after all this time since the first Imperial incursions in the Thandon Star Cluster.

---

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: D'Qar

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace closed the rest of the distance without announcing himself, falling into place beside Briana. He didn't interrupt. For the moment, he simply listened.

He felt some responsibility to be part of... whatever this was. Colette being here traced back to Shiraya's Sanctuary, and if she had crossed half the galaxy because of what happened afterward, then disappearing back into the trees didn't feel right.

Besides, he'd caught enough of her explanation on the approach to understand how she'd found them. So it hadn't been Aurelian. Some of the tension left Ace's shoulders at that realization, though not nearly as much as he'd expected. Because the alternative wasn't exactly comforting.

Fuel costs. Travel times. Resource deliveries. Ace's brow furrowed slightly. Colette had pieced together D'Qar's location by herself, apparently with whatever limited resources she'd had available. No Council investigation. No Republic intelligence operation. No Aurelian quietly handing over coordinates.

That was worse in a different way. The Vanguard had gone through considerable effort to disappear and make sure neither the Republic nor the Sith could follow the trail back here. Yet Colette had managed to do exactly that simply by paying enough attention. If she could, someone else could.

His eyes shifted briefly toward Briana when Colette confirmed that none of the Council knew she'd come. That, at least, was something. More than something, really. She'd discovered where they were and deliberately kept that information to herself. After everything at Shiraya's Sanctuary, Ace wasn't going to overlook what that meant.

"But if you’re not here to lead any of us off to a cell, and I'm assuming you’re not here to join the Vanguard, then what brings you to our doorstep?”

Briana beat him to the obvious question. Ace remained quiet as she spoke, eyes returning to Colette. If Briana hadn't been standing there, he'd have asked much the same thing. Colette wasn't here to arrest anyone. Apparently, she wasn't here to join them either. Which left one fairly important question.

Why was she here?

Ace glanced around at the people beginning to gather. Vornak had joined them now. Others lingered nearby, some doing a poor job of pretending they weren't listening. After the last few days, the camp hardly needed another rumor spreading before anyone involved had finished speaking.

He looked back to Colette and Briana. "This a conversation we want to have in the open?"

Colette | Briana Sal-Soren | Vornak​

 

[Allyson Locke]

//: Her //:

"Didn't the Jedi teach you manners?"

The insult was a class act. Allyson sighed softly and huffed a breathless laugh.

"You wound me." Allyson quipped back. A hand covered her heart as she feigned pain from the woman's words.

She was quite lively despite her situation, and Allyson couldn't help but admire a bit of that bite. Still, she was curious about the caged bird, wondering how much longer she would allow herself to remain here.

Sith were careful creatures; she had been around enough to understand their way. Her master was even more so one time — but Allyson could understand that nature more than anyone.

A mischievous little smirk spread across the Corellian's lips as she stepped once more closer to the slab of stone that held the Sith Lord bound.

"I'd love to see you try, you're more than welcome to." The Corellian shrugged as she looked back around; the cybernetic that had replaced her lost eye recorded and snapped images in the vicinity, even of the woman's hauntingly graceful face.

"Here I would have thought you'd be trying to convince me to let you out, set you free."

Allyson mused as she paced slightly, waiting to see whether this imprisonment was truly holding the Sith or if she was just buying time on the stone slab. To be honest, she could see a reason to want to stay. Here she was a spectacle, the center of attention; the thought made the Corellian laugh a little.

"Anyways, if you're going to make threats, then you should act on them; if not, maybe you can answer a few questions." Allyson stepped back, eyes watching now the bound Sith.

"Why are they keeping you? Or are you here because you want to be?"

 

[Colette]

Briana Sal-Soren / Acier Moonbound / Lorn Reingard / Kitt Solo / Vornak

Colette offered a small shrug. They could change the routes all they wanted, but at this point the rabbit's ears were partly out of the hat. Not that Colette would pull any further unless she had to. Mostly because, as Briana was right to question her over:

"I don't believe a leader necessarily speaks for all that follow." Colette said and looked to Lorn as he approached but kept his distance. He might have told her to stay out, but there was a small problem with that order: she didn't care what he wanted anymore.

Her attention set back on Briana.

"Way I see it there is a world where the Vanguard and the Order become one again, or close to it." She said and once again began to look at the others. "At the end of the day we both want the same thing for different reasons with different methods."

Except only one of their methods had already led to stagnation and eventual division, and the other was whatever the Vanguard was doing. Colette would never admit that though. Her seeming indecision was — or rather, had — already validated the need for a Vanguard.

"I am here because when I am assaulted by a fellow Jedi, I am not going to tuck my tail between my legs and lick my wounds until I feel better about myself. I want to see who follows him. I want to see how they feel about it, and then try to understand what led him to make such a foolish decision."

She turned to Ace with a thoughtful frown. "We can talk about this somewhere else or we can talk about it right here, openly. Given the circumstances that led to the creation of the Vanguard I'd argue that perhaps naked transparency would do a lot more than whispers behind closed doors."

"And then after that, of course, question is whether or not I will be allowed to return or not." She waved her hand at the mention. "Burn that bridge when we get there, I figure."