Private Lessons Unlearned

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Word traveled fast in the Vergeworks, so not much had changed. By the time he'd crossed Sector 9G, people were already looking. Conversations quieted as he passed, there were some face he recognized, others he didn't. Months ago, that would've meant something to him.

Now he just kept walking. The factories still coughed smoke into Bonadan's sky, speeders still rattled overhead and somebody was still selling questionable meat from the same corner he'd avoided since he was twelve.

But he noticed the smaller things. Different colors painted over old gang markings. New faces standing outside familiar establishments. People who'd once answered to him conspicuously disappearing inside when they saw him.

Thankfully, his empire hadn't survived him. Well, not entirely. Whatever remained had splintered between the people he'd left behind, which made sense. He hadn't appointed a successor or dismantled anything before leaving. He'd just stopped caring.

Back then, he'd expected the High Republic to lock him away for the rest of his life. Or end it. What happened afterward wasn't his problem. Funny how that worked out.

Tic chirped from beside him.

"Yeah, that's the one."

Hard to fucking miss. The Wayward dominated the shipyard ahead, five kilometers of Sith engineering that looked much less impressive than Ace remembered. Sections of external plating had been removed. One auxiliary hangar stood conspicuously empty. Stars knew how much equipment had disappeared from inside.

"Could've been worse."

Tic whistled skeptically.

Ace glanced down. "I left a Covenant dreadnought unattended on Bonadan. I'm surprised they left the engines."

Honestly, he couldn't blame whoever did this. He'd grown up stripping discarded machinery for anything worth selling. The thought almost made him smile.

Then he saw the paint, and stopped.

Bright streaks of pink, green, blue and yellow covered sections of the hull in enormous, badly painted insults.

The silence was broken when Tic chirped. Ace immediately knew the culprit here.

"...Fatine."

Who the fuck else?

Ace stared another moment before rubbing a hand across his face. He wasn't even angry. If anything, considering how he'd ended things, spray paint was probably getting off lightly.

"Come on."

He started toward the boarding ramp. Thyferra had changed everything. Bacta was becoming scarce, worlds were hurting, and somewhere beneath the vandalism and everything Bonadan had managed to steal, there was still value here.

Ace had spent enough of his life destroying things, it was time to see what could still be useful.

Arris Windrun
Mentioned: Fatine von Ascania​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound​

When Arris got word that there was an entire Covenant command ship stranded on Bonadan, she could hardly believe it. Yet there she was, standing on a metal gangplank along the scaffolding that overlooked the hulk.

Albeit quite gutted.

"Well, shit," Arris murmured.

She had to consider what she'd do next. If the Reactor was stable and in place, she could've simply overloaded it - destroying the ship along with several blocks. Of course, that would've caused a major disaster on Bonadan, killing tens of thousands and leaving far more devastated.

Alternatively, she could attempt to restore the vessel to working order and fly it out... But alone? Those things were generally crewed by thousands, and a mechu-deru master she was... even Arris Windrun would be hard-pressed to fly a ship like that alone.

However, something else drew her attention away from the task.

A familiar presence.

"Ace..."

She could feel his arm, just as she had on Jakku. The Sith Lord summoned the Force in her legs and leapt off the gangplank...

...and landed on the duracrete behind him, leaving an impact that stretched along the ground with a spiderweb of cracks.

"Hey - you wouldn't happen to know how a Covenant battlecruiser got impounded, would you?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

His steps slowed as a familiar presence brushed against his senses, distinct enough that recognition followed almost instantly. He hadn't felt Arris when he'd first entered the shipyard. There'd been too much noise here, too much life, and he hadn't exactly arrived expecting to find his former Master lurking around his abandoned dreadnought.

Ace glanced upward just as she launched from the scaffolding overhead.

"...You've gotta be kidding me."

A second later, Arris hit the duracrete behind him hard enough to crack it. Tic startled beside him, hopping backward with an indignant series of chirps.

He sighed through his nose, then turned toward his former Master. For a moment, he simply looked at her. There was a short time when seeing Arris would've earned a very different reaction from him. Somewhere along the way, despite everything, he'd started to believe there might actually be something worth saving in her. She'd become more than the Sith Master he'd once quietly detested.

He'd been wrong before, now maybe he'd been wrong again. He knew about Abregado-rae, and he knew Mercy hadn't acted alone. Arris was a Triumvir.

Whatever warmth he'd eventually found for her was gone from his expression. Arris would've recognized what replaced it, because she'd seen it before. The flat stare. The flat responses. The quiet contempt Ace rarely bothered putting into words. It was how he'd looked at her when he'd first joined the Covenant, back when he'd barely concealed how much he disliked her. Months of history between them, and somehow they'd ended up right back there.

Her question earned little more than a glance back toward the Wayward.

"Usually happens when something goes unclaimed."

Tic chirped again, craning his head between the two of them almost like he knew this reunion already wasn't going particularly well. Ace reached down and gave the BD unit a brief tap against the side of his head. Then he turned away.

His gaze traveled back toward the battered dreadnought and Fatine's brightly colored contribution to the hull. He wasn't here for Arris, and he definitely wasn't interested in reopening that part of his life today. Not with her.

"Go away, Arris."

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
​

"Go away?" Arris pointed at herself in faux indignation. "Really, Ace?"

But she couldn't keep her more human mood going for very long. Her demeanor shifted back to her usual emptiness.

Abregado-rae, and the events after, had really changed her. She was depressing and pathetic on Jakku - still was - but now there was something else... A coldness in the Force. It was sinister, but it was calm. Oddly serene, really. The usual signs of fragility or unbridled anger were nowhere to be felt.

"Well I'm here to take it back."

She looked up at the graffiti.

"Before your next break up gets a chance."

It didn't take an investigation to read those messages and gather what went down. Of course, Arris was entirely ignorant of the who and why. But she knew the signs of a bad breakup when she saw them.

"This is why I don't date." She teased. "That and the fact that no one wants me, of course."

Then, her eyes shifted to the little droid.

"Who's this, my replacement?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Ace carried on walking as Arris went on, apparently having trouble understanding what the words "go" and "away" meant when strung together.

Still, something about her caught his attention. Not enough to make him stop, but enough that his senses lingered. On Jakku, Arris had been practically drowning in conflict. Self-hatred had clung to her so heavily that Ace hadn't needed to dig particularly deep to feel it.

That wasn't there anymore. Something colder had replaced it. Resolve, maybe. No, there was something almost too calm about it. Acceptance. Of what, Ace had no idea, and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

His expression remained unchanged when Arris announced her intention to take the Wayward back. He didn't bother looking at her. After Thyferra, there was no fucking way he was going to stand aside and let the Covenant add a five-kilometer command dreadnought back to its arsenal.

Then she mentioned the breakup, and that finally got him to look over.

"She had her reasons." His response was calm and devoid of anything defensive.

Arris's attention shifted toward Tic next. The BD unit tilted his head when she called him a replacement, seemingly processing the accusation before answering with a rapid string of beeps and whistles. If Arris understood Binary, she'd have gotten the message.

I was here long before you.

"Ignore her." Ace muttered, and Tic chirped innocently.

By then they'd reached the Wayward's boarding ramp. Ace stepped onto it without waiting for Arris, boots carrying him up into the ship he'd once abandoned without any expectation of seeing again.

The interior hadn't fared much better than the hull. Open panels exposed empty housings where components had been stripped away. Loose wiring hung from sections of the walls, and anything portable enough to fetch a decent price had apparently been considered fair game. Ace ran his gaze over the damage as he continued deeper.

"You made your choice on Jakku." His voice remained level. "And I know what all of you did on Abregado."

Ace finally stopped. He turned toward Arris, dark eyes settling on his former Master with that same cold distance she'd known at the beginning of their relationship.

"You really think I'm just gonna sit around and let you take something back that strengthens your fuckin' army?"

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
​

"Well, I see where your little friend got its attitude from." She remarked.

Arris followed after them onto the Wayward. She made quick note of the internal damage. Wasn't surprising at all. Then, Ace brought up Abregado-rae. Her expression remained the same, and even the Force hadn't changed around her.

She stopped when he did.

"You really think you're holding something?" She gestured to the walls of the command ship. "If you know what happened on Abregado-rae, then you probably know we have a ship that's as big as ten of these. And we ain't stopping there."

Really, she didn't expect Ace to be so naive. So him attempting to withhold the Wayward must've been personal, she reckoned, whether or not he recognized that.

"But you're right about one thing, Ace. It is my army. As of a few days ago, I've assumed direct command of the entire Covenant war host... I did say there was good reason for me sticking around, didn't I?"

It was what they had talked about, only so long ago. The idea that they could curb the Covenant's worst instincts and steer it towards a worthier cause.

She decided to let him in on a secret. For old times' sake.

"Our attention is turning away from the Core. We have..." She paused, considering her next words carefully. "Greater and better things lying out West." Though she wouldn't say what exactly.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Ace watched her as she answered, and felt nothing. That alone confirmed what he'd sensed before. There'd been a time when discussing something like Abregado-rae would've pulled something from Arris. Guilt. Shame. Self-loathing. Even if she buried it beneath that usual emptiness of hers, Ace would've felt it somewhere underneath. Now there was nothing, just that same gnawing acceptance.

His eyes narrowed slightly before he rolled them at her point about the Covenant's fleet. Of course he knew they had ships that dwarfed the Wayward. The Sith Order did too. He wasn't stupid enough to believe keeping one dreadnought out of Arris's hands would suddenly tip the balance of a war.

A few months ago, maybe that would've mattered to him. He'd spent so long looking at problems too large for any one person to solve that eventually doing anything at all had started to feel pointless.

He couldn't stop armies or fix the galaxy by himself, but he could deal with what was standing in front of him. And if keeping the Wayward away from the Covenant denied them even some insignificant fraction of what they already had, then that was enough. He wasn't going to stand aside simply because worse things existed somewhere else.

"Always looking at the big picture instead of what's right in front of you."

Ace didn't elaborate. It was as much a rebuttal as it was an observation. For all that felt different about Arris now, apparently some things hadn't changed these past few months. She was still looking toward some greater objective on the horizon.

Ahead of them, Tic had wandered farther into the corridor, the little BD unit's spotlight sweeping across exposed wiring and gutted wall panels as he inspected whatever Bonadan's scavengers had left behind.

Arris's next revelation did little to reassure him. Direct command of the entire Covenant war host. He glanced away, remembering Coruscant. Their conversation about the Covenant and the possibility of keeping its worst instincts in check. Steering it toward something better. He'd believed in some version of that once. Enough that it had become one of the reasons he'd convinced himself remaining with the Covenant was worth it.

The memory made his stomach turn. So no, hearing that Arris had climbed high enough to command the entire war host didn't make him feel any better about her staying.

Then she mentioned the West, and he scoffed.

"You really think I care that you're leaving the Core?" His brow furrowed as he looked at her. "As if you aren't gonna suddenly take your bantha shit out West and ruin lives over there too? Ending one planet. Then the next, right?" He added, slightly echoing Mercy's words.

Ace didn't expect an answer. Arris had already been careful enough not to tell him what exactly was waiting for the Covenant out there, but that didn't stop a chill from running through him. Whatever they'd found beyond the Core, they believed it was worth turning the Covenant's attention toward.

Greater and better things, she'd called them. Coming from Arris, Ace wasn't eager to find out what that meant.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
​

She rolled her eyes at his rebuttal. Big picture. Yeah. Right.

Then he reminded her of something - spoke of words and events he shouldn't have been present for. But she didn't stop to consider how he knew, only that he had hooked on a feeling of hers.

"That won't happen!" She snapped back. If he was wondering if any of the cyborg's passion remained, there it was. "I told her as much, and that's why I took command. Don't you understand?"

Arris paused and changed the direction of her thoughts.

"I was there on Thyferra, Ace." She said. "I dunno exactly what happened... but the Republic was responsible. Wasn't it? I felt the fear - the desperation when I woke up again. Did you? How long until they - until the Jedi choose to fight Darkness with Darkness?"

She stared him down.

"I also heard you and Mercy finally squared off. Was it everything you hoped for?"

Her presence could be felt across the ship now. Slowly, the whole time as they spoke, Arris Windrun stretched out in the Force, connecting across wires and circuits; the walls themselves. Even Acier's droid wouldn't be invulnerable to it... Though the cyborg did seem to ignore Tic. Unlike his arm, however, which she tugged on if only to remind him that a piece of herself was still lodged within.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Apparently he'd managed to puncture that serenity after all. Arris's response came sharp enough that Ace could feel the difference immediately. There was still some passion buried underneath whatever acceptance had settled over her. Unfortunately, what she actually said left a lot to be desired.

"You understand why I'd find that hard to believe, yeah?"

He didn't elaborate. Arris knew what the Covenant was. She knew what had happened on Abregado-rae. Whatever intentions she'd carried into taking command didn't erase everything that had come before it.

Then she mentioned Thyferra, and Ace's eyes drifted away from her for a moment before returning. This again. Was she seriously about to spend another encounter trying to convince him the Jedi were bad?

He nodded when she asked about the Republic's involvement. He'd felt it too. That momentary absence where the Force had simply ceased to exist, followed by the sudden return of everything that had been torn away.

"Save your breath. I'm not part of the Jedi Order, and I don't care what they do to beat you unless innocent people get hurt in the process."

That was his line now. The Jedi weren't his responsibility nor did he serve their Order, and whatever decisions they made belonged to them. He'd help them when it meant protecting people who couldn't defend themselves. He'd fight alongside the Republic when doing so kept ordinary people from being crushed beneath whatever bantha shit the Jedi and Sith had decided to throw at each other next. But he wasn't going to defend either institution simply because one happened to stand opposite the other.

Arris mentioning Mercy brought his thoughts back to the refinery. Ace's tongue briefly pressed against the inside of his cheek as he remembered it. He and Mercy had done a fair amount of damage to each other before it was over. The small bandage still stretched across his nose was evidence enough of that, though Lorn had taken the worst of what happened by far.

Ace folded his arms. "Most of it was just shouting at each other about our beliefs. Left some marks on each other though."

His expression shifted a moment later.

"Streets say Cora did a number on you."

All the while, something had been crawling at the edge of Ace's senses. Arris. Her presence wasn't confined to the woman standing across from him anymore. It stretched outward through the Wayward.

Then his prosthetic moved. A slight tug beneath the glove, subtle enough that anyone else might've missed it. His folded arms loosened as his gaze dropped briefly toward the beskar-plated limb.

He hated that she could still reach into it. That some lingering piece of Arris remained buried deeply enough within its workings that she could remind him of herself whenever she fucking pleased.

Ace looked back at her. "Don't touch me."

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound​

His remark about Cora didn't get a passing reply. All she did was log the name for a later investigation.

Arris let go of his arm as soon as she complained about it.

She remembered something from what felt like a long, long time ago now. "You should go to Kattada," she said. "They have Jedi there who know how to work technology like I do... Only, they don't do so the way that Sith do."

As she thought back further... "That's how I found out about the Enclave, y'know. A friend recommended it." She chuckled dryly.

"It's entirely possible I'd have been a Jedi if I hadn't decided running a score with Mercy was my bigger priority."

But Arris thought back to something he had just said next.

"You do care, by the way," Arris called him out. "What they do to beat us, I mean. I know what kind of person you are, Ace. It doesn't matter how you involve yourself - once you're involved, that shit doesn't leave your mind. You may be chattier these days, but you're still a kid with too much going on in the head. You're bothered by it."

She reached into her pocket to draw a cigarette. They dodged long enough.

"You're not going to approve of what I do anymore."

She lit it.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to make a choice today."

She took a drag.

The lights flickered on as portions of the surrounding ship hummed to life. A blast door closed, blocking Tic's path ahead, and the way forward in general. That left only Arris Windrun and the way out behind her.

"Am I the Sith Covenant?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Ace appreciated, quietly, that Arris released his arm when he told her to. She didn't argue or attempt to do it again. But that appreciation would turn out to be ironic less than two minutes later.

Kattada stirred older memories. The Covenant's first act before there'd even been a Covenant, back when he'd stood opposed to the people who would eventually create it. Still, Arris's suggestion gave him pause. His expression softened into something more contemplative as he considered it. Jedi who understood technology the way Arris did, without dark side baggage. Maybe it was worth looking into.

Then Arris explained how she'd found out about them in the first place. Ace shook his head, a disbelieving laugh escaping through his nose.

"You really can't help yourself, can you?"

Somehow, whenever Arris Windrun arrived at one of those moments where several paths stretched out in front of her, she seemed cosmically predisposed toward picking the absolute worst fucking one. She'd been shown another path and, instead of taking her friend's offer, she'd chosen Mercy and stabbed him in the back.

Then she cycled back to him. Ace rolled his eyes as Arris began explaining what he actually cared about. He was getting tired of this. Mercy had done the same thing. Arris did it constantly. People deciding they understood him well enough to tell him what he thought, what he wanted, what bothered him, then presenting their conclusions as fact. He turned away and started walking again.

"I'm bothered by you using a past version of me as reference."

Arris kept talking behind him, but he didn't bother responding. He heard the faint click of her lighter somewhere behind him, followed shortly by the smell of cigarette smoke.

Then the lights flickered and his pace slowed. Ahead, Tic's spotlight swung around as the BD unit chirped in surprise. Then the blast door slammed shut between them.

Ace stopped. For a moment he simply stared at the durasteel, then turned his head to look back at Arris over his shoulder.

"Unbelievable." His voice remained flat. "You're not going to force me into talking philosophy with you like I'm some kid."

Ace extended his hand toward the blast door and the metal groaned. At first, nothing visibly happened, but then the center of the door buckled inward with a violent shriek as Ace tightened his grip through the Force. The surrounding frame trembled beneath the pressure.

"You were involved in the Covenant's creation."

Another groan rolled through the corridor.

"You help run it with Mercy."

The durasteel warped further, seams beginning to split along the frame as Ace kept pulling.

"You apparently command its army now. In fact, it's your army, according to you."

Sparks spat from the mechanisms overhead as something inside the door finally tore loose.

"And you're involved in the important decisions about the Covenant's future. So you tell me, Arris." His fingers curled. "Are you the Sith Covenant?"

The blast door ripped apart. There was nothing elegant about it. One side tore free from its track before the rest followed, durasteel twisting beneath sheer telekinetic force as Ace wrenched the obstruction open. Sparks showered the corridor, dying against the deck while mangled pieces of the mechanism crashed aside.

Beyond it, Tic's spotlight appeared through the opening.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound​

She continued to smoke as he tore apart a door while answering her question.

"You know. I think a big part of our miscommunication is that you take me too literally." Arris nodded towards the control panel beside the door. "I never locked it. All you had to do was press a button."

She sauntered forward, each step lazier than the last.

"But yes, Ace. I am the Sith Covenant." She and Mercy have been side-by-side running that con from the start. Arris wouldn't deny it. "Right before I arrived, one of our fleets launched an assault on Azbrian. Some farm world near Republic space. I gave the order."

Arris gestured with her cigarette-laden hand while talking.

"And you know... I don't really care about the world. I care that the Republic does. I care that I have the power to make them feel something."

She brought the cigarette to her lips again and took a last drag before it broke apart between her fingers.

"I love that power, Ace. I will throw myself against the Republic until the lesson is learned. I will deal with these Kestrans who've latched onto us to fulfill their need for relevancy in a fight... I will face any and all rivals. Any enemy that decides to pop out of a hole and remind me, 'Oh, Arris, you and yours killed my mother; time to die!" She mocked. "Or, 'Oohhh, Arris! My people were subjugated, conquered unfairly! I will fight for their freedom." She laughed dryly.

Yet the rest of her tone, and the way she carried herself in the Force. Arris was dead serious.

"But I will do it my way... For every Abregado-rae or every Azbrian, I will make sure a world is fed. I will make sure another is left alone. And I will keep the Covenant occupied elsewhere until you and your Jedi shape the fuck up and learn how to hurt us. Can you catch a hint, do I need to spell it out?"

She stopped as close as Ace would allow, and lowered her voice accordingly.

"But Ace... You gotta commit me for what I am. You can complain, whine, accuse. I don't fucking care. If I am the Sith Covenant, and the Sith Covenant is your enemy... Then do your job. Otherwise - get the fuck off my battlecruiser."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Ace didn't bother responding to Arris's comment about miscommunication. He continued down the corridor instead, ushering Tic ahead of him with a small gesture.

When she finally answered the question he'd thrown back at her, there was no reaction either. Ace already knew. Maybe he'd been waiting for Arris to disagree or draw some distinction between herself and everything she'd helped build. Instead, she'd confirmed exactly what her actions had already told him. So he kept walking.

Then she mentioned Azbrian. Ace stopped, head turned slowly, brows narrowing as he looked back at her. A farm world near Republic space. The Covenant had attacked it, and Arris had personally given the order.

Everything she said afterward somehow made it worse. She didn't care about the world. She cared that the Republic did. She enjoyed having the power to hurt something badly enough that someone else would feel it. The Covenant's victims became little more than voices for Arris to mock, people whose dead families and conquered homes were apparently inconveniences she'd already grown tired of hearing about.

There was no room left for speculation. He had been wrong about her. Ace had spent too fucking long trying to find something worth saving beneath everything Arris had done. Talus had convinced him there was. Jakku had made him believe some part of her still understood what the Covenant was turning her into.

Maybe that had always been misplaced sentimentality.

"I really don't have any words for you anymore." Deranged. Sick. Monstrous. None of it seemed worth saying aloud.

His expression contorted into utter bewilderment as Arris explained the balance she'd apparently settled upon. For every world destroyed, another could be fed. For every atrocity one place, somewhere else could be spared. As though any of those people would give a shit about the good she'd done somewhere else. As though mercy performed elsewhere somehow purchased the right to inflict suffering here.

Ace shook his head. Anger was beginning to boil beneath his skin, but he refused to let it decide what happened next. He'd made enough decisions that way. His voice remained controlled when he finally answered, even if something sharper slipped through.

"You understand how fucking stupid that is, right? Your entire mission is complete nonsense."

Then Arris told him to commit. And for once, Ace couldn't argue with her. Throneworld. Jakku. Thyferra. How many times had he stood across from someone he knew was dangerous and allowed caution, history, attachment or some lingering hope that they might change to influence what he did next?

Arris had just told him exactly who she was. She'd given the order to attack Azbrian. She commanded the Covenant's armies. She intended to keep doing this until somebody stopped her. There wasn't anything left to misunderstand.

"Alright."

Ace reached for the lightsaber at his belt and unclipped it. His eyes lowered briefly toward Arris's revolvers before settling on her again.

"You better not miss."

There was no hatred behind the words, or rush of satisfaction at finally having an excuse to fight her. He held no desire to punish her for Abregado-rae, or the Covenant, or everything else between them. Even the anger he'd felt moments earlier remained contained somewhere beneath the decision he'd already made.

This wasn't revenge. It was responsibility. Ace was simply tired of allowing his feelings for people to become excuses for doing nothing when he knew something needed to be done.

His thumb pressed the ignition and blue light erupted through the battered corridor with a familiar snap-hiss. Ahead of him, Tic chirped once. The BD unit didn't need an explanation. He'd seen this enough times to know what came next. His little legs carried him quickly away from the confrontation, disappearing deeper into the Wayward in search of somewhere considerably safer.

Ace didn't look after him. His eyes remained on Arris.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound​

Finally.

She saw it - right there! The way he looked at her. Like she wasn't an enemy... just a mess he needed to clean up. He'd deal with the emotional toll later. It's the one thing she couldn't get from any Jedi. Because how often had they played games? Tested her lightly? Proclaimed demands of surrender? Promised a path to redemption?

"Fuck..." She eyed his lightsaber.

"Guess you're all grown up now."

That was all she needed to see. For the first time in a long time, Arris had an opponent.

There was never a draw. Her guns stayed at her hips. Instead, the cyborg threw herself forward with a burst of Force-fueled speed, reinforcing the already superhuman speed and strength of her cybernetics.

And just before she reached him, Arris jerked to the right and kicked herself off the wall. She threw a downward punch aimed at his shoulder. If it connected, it'd be strong enough to pop the joint from its socket.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Ace watched Arris move. His precognition tightened behind his eyes as the Force warned him of the sudden violence coming his way, and Ace brought his lightsaber around instinctively as Arris launched herself forward.

Then she changed direction. Her foot struck the wall and sent her sideways at an angle his body hadn't committed to defending. Ace saw the adjustment, but seeing it and physically reacting in time were two different things. Arris was already fast without the Force. With it reinforcing her cybernetics, the warning bought him barely enough time to tense before her fist came crashing down.

It struck his shoulder and pain exploded through his entire left side. Ace heard the joint come apart before his brain fully processed what had happened. His shoulder slipped violently from its socket beneath the force of the blow, sending a nauseating bolt of agony from the joint through his chest and neck. His arm immediately became useless weight at his side.

The impact threw him several feet down the corridor, momentum carrying him into an awkward roll before he finally stopped. His lightsaber remained clutched in his hand, blade scraping briefly across the deck before Ace pulled it clear.

For several seconds, there was nothing except pain. Ace forced himself onto one knee, his other hand immediately finding the injured shoulder. Even the smallest movement sent another vicious pulse through it

Arris was strong. He knew that. But strength wasn't what occupied his thoughts. Something she'd told him on Coruscant surfaced instead.

Arris tapped two fingers to the right side of her dome. "I have an implant."

Then Jakku.

"You should've gone for the head,"

Ace's eyes lifted toward his former Master. He understood. Ace staggered toward the nearest wall and braced himself. His hand tightened around his displaced shoulder. Then he slammed it against the durasteel and the joint snapped back into place. Ace's vision flashed white and a strangled breath escaped him as his forehead nearly followed his shoulder into the wall. Relocated didn't mean healed. The joint protested when he tested it, muscles burning around the socket.

Ace straightened. It was functional at least. Then his fingers curled and the Wayward answered with a deep metallic groan. Durasteel panels along the walls around Arris began to buckle. Sections of the ceiling warped downward as invisible pressure seized them.

Ace pulled harder and panels ripped free from the corridor walls and ceiling, but Ace didn't simply tear them loose. The durasteel folded beneath his telekinetic grip, edges bending and twisting into jagged points as he compressed the debris into crude projectiles.

Then his hand snapped forward. They alllaunched toward Arris's head, each from a different angle, forcing the attack from several directions rather than giving her a single line to answer.

And he moved with them, closing the distance behind the flying durasteel, lightsaber held ready at his side. His shoulder screamed with every jolt of his stride, freshly relocated muscles protesting the movement.

Ace entered striking distance while Arris still had the projectiles to contend with. His lightsaber came around immediately afterward, carving through the air as he delivered a powerful diagonal strike toward her upper arm and shoulder intended to split her attention between the blade in front of her and the jagged metal converging around her.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound​

Arris felt her blow connect. It was satisfying, to say the least. All the more so when she watched him roll away from the impact. She grinned when he popped the shoulder back into place.

That's it.

She was loving it.

He was committed.

Her attention turned to the durasteel wall. She remembered how he had ripped the blast door apart. Did he really have the time for--

--but then the panels tore apart quickly, piece by piece, each one sent flying towards her head. Her hands came up quickly. She tucked her head underneath them, face towards the floor. Some snapped against her hands, others cut and dented her arms. Another piece lodged itself deep into her back.

She could only tell Ace's movement from the reflection of his lightsaber off the floor.

Shit!

The blue flash blinded her vision. He was right there, and a second later the blade carved cleanly through her left arm and shoulder. Arris stumbled back, her body twisting against the attack. But she didn't hesitate - because, of course, Arris never did. Before his lightsaber could recoil or enter a new motion, her other arm reached out, and her hand clasped around the plasmic blade.

It was a trick she'd done before. Maybe not to him. But to plenty of Jedi, and each time she learned. Each time she was better at it.

Unfortunate then, for Acier, that she had mastered tutaminis at last. Her hand melted slowly enough that she held on and yanked the weapon with every effort to pull him towards her waiting knee meant to connect with his stomach. But she wouldn't let go. Her grip tightened and compressed greatly with an outpouring of energy - strong enough that a lightsaber would bend and waver as the containment field was overwhelmed and on the verge of evaporating.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Ace was completely dialed in. Whatever anger Arris had managed to pull from him before the fight was gone. So was the satisfaction someone else might've felt when the attack worked. His blade carved cleanly through her left arm and shoulder, but Ace's expression didn't change. There was nothing to celebrate. This was a job. And he needed to finish it.

Ace carried the motion through and immediately redirected, beginning a tight arc toward Arris's head. Not her neck. Not an attempt at decapitation. He aimed for her literal cybernetic skull, toward the place she'd once indicated when telling him about the implant.

Then his lightsaber stopped. Ace froze. For the briefest moment, he couldn't understand what he was looking at. Arris's remaining hand had closed around the blade.

His eyes widened. The plasma distorted within her grip, containment field beginning to waver as energy poured between them. Ace had seen plenty of ridiculous shit involving the Force, but surprise stalled him for just long enough to give Arris what she needed.

She yanked and Ace lurched forward, damaged shoulder protesting violently as his balance shifted. His surprise disappeared the instant he saw her knee coming up to meet him.

The first punch had dislocated his shoulder. A clean knee driven into his abdomen with that same cybernetic strength could do considerably worse than knock the wind out of him. Ribs. Internal organs. Maybe both.

His free hand dropped toward his belt. The purple shoto came free and ignited in one fluid motion, its shorter blade flashing to life between them. Ace drove it downward toward the leg rising to meet him, angling the blade toward the structure of Arris's knee rather than simply slashing across the limb. If he could compromise the joint, all that cybernetic strength wouldn't matter nearly as much if the leg itself couldn't function properly.

He didn't wait to find out whether it worked. The Force gathered around him and then released. A telekinetic repulse erupted outward from his entire body, hammering into the corridor around him with enough force to rattle the already damaged walls. Loose fragments of durasteel scattered away as the expanding wave tore through the space between them.

Ace poured enough strength into the blast to try to knock Arris off balance and, more importantly, force her remaining hand away from his lightsaber before she could finish collapsing its containment field.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound​

The shoto struck her knee, melting the outer casing until it crumbled.

She didn't have enough time to react. A telekinetic wave crashed into her, sending the cyborg flying back until she crashed into a collapsing beam that had loosened when Acier pried panels apart.

Arris stumbled when she rebalanced off of her weakened leg. Without bothering to close the distance, Arris threw a money shot punch, the kind that would be snapped for the morning headlines. She didn't need to close the distance, however. It wasn't about knuckles connecting. From the end of her hand, a powerful burst of energy erupted, launching towards him with the hammering force of a railgun.

"Wooo! Ahahaha!"

The Dark Side trembled in ecstasy. This is the best! Her grin was so big it pushed her cheeks up to her eyes that went wide and wild.

"You've got the right idea, Ace, but you're weak as shit!"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks Shipyard

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

Arris went flying but Ace didn't immediately pursue. His attention dropped to his lightsaber, checking the blade after whatever the fuck she'd done to its containment field. Luckily, It had stabilized.

His eyes lifted again as Arris rebalanced herself on her damaged knee and his precognition flared when she threw the punch. Ace knew better than to assume Arris would throw telekinesis at him lightly. His hand shot downward and a large section of floor paneling tore violently from its housing. He wrenched the slab upright and suspended it several feet ahead of him.

The blast struck. Ace felt the impact through his telekinetic hold. Durasteel buckled inward with a deafening crash as he strained to keep it between them. For half a second, the barrier absorbed the worst of the initial collision. Then it failed.


The panel ripped apart. Ace lost his grip as twisted pieces of durasteel exploded backward. The remaining force drove the debris into him and lifted him completely from his feet.

Ace crashed against the corridor wall. His lightsabers extinguished as he hit the deck, air disappearing from his lungs. His ribs ached beneath torn sections of his tunic and several cuts burned across his face.

Still, he moved. Ace pushed himself onto one knee as Arris's laughter carried through the corridor.

"You've got the right idea, Ace, but you're weak as shit!"

Ace looked at her. His gaze dropped deliberately toward her missing arm, then her damaged knee. His eyes returned to hers and he said nothing. Instead, his palm pressed against the exposed deck.

The floor between them suddenly buckled upward, successive sections of plating violently heaving free in a wave racing toward Arris. Support braces twisted. Conduits erupted through widening gaps as Ace transformed the level corridor beneath her into collapsing, uneven terrain.

He wasn't attacking Arris directly. He was taking away the ground beneath someone already balancing on a compromised leg.

Ace rose with the destruction. Blue and purple blades reignited before he broke into a sprint along the corridor's intact edge, using the upheaval to cover his approach as he closed the distance again.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound​

The metal wobbled and then snapped; the floor cascaded out beneath her, and the hallway itself twisted in rebuke. Arris, for her part, could only tumble towards one side as gravity and the weakness of her leg conspired against her.

She was open.