Private Minerva

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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The war for Generis was still ongoing by the time the NIV Myrmidon had reentered the Province of Nirauan, depositing the Warlord back onto his world along with his new guest. A shuttle brought them down to the surface, touching upon Luc's private landing pad on the top of the Hand of Thrawn.

It was connected to a decently-sized recreational area, with the location serving as one of the few places one could visit to get away from the chaos ongoing inside. Normally there'd be a handful of people there at all times, but access to the area had been limited in advance of the Warlord's imminent arrival.

The shuttle doors opened, and with it the reason for those new measures would be revealed.

Luc stepped out of the shuttle first, the girl's lightsaber having been confiscated long before their arrival. A pair of Stormtroopers escorted the Sith out of the shuttle, stopping her a few feet in front of the exiled Prince and removing a set of restraints from her wrists. He dismissed the stormtroopers with a nod, unclipping her lightsaber from his belt and toying with it in his hands.

He tossed the Sith's weapon in the air, catching it whilst occasionally spinning it around his hand. "Welcome to Nirauan." Luc smiled, not quite expecting the same energy in return. His eyes trailed across the skyline, satisfied by the sights of the bustling metropolis that surrounded the fortress at the heart of the capitol city.

"I hope you've calmed down a bit. It's a long way from Dromund Kaas."
​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia's pained glare followed the Jedi's every movement, hatred bubbling in the gaze that had set fire to the ship more than once since she had awoken.

It had been inaffective, clearly. As inaffective as an attempt to run on a platform surrounded by guards. She wasn't resigning herself to her fate, she was conserving strength. Or so she told herself as she stood passively before her captor and rubbed blood back to her scarred wrists. It wasn't the first time she had bore shackles. it likely wouldn't be her last.


"You son of a-" she balked, her spite halted for once confusing reveal.

"What?" She craned her neck towards the skyline. The numerous imperial hot spots she had studied ran through her mind, her lips moving as she wordlessly worked through her list. Location after location was ticked off. Her head snapped to him as she came up empty.

"What the feth is in Nirauan?"

 

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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"Nirauan is a planet." He laughed playfully as he spread his arms outwards, grinning from ear to ear as he pivoted in a circle on his heel playfully. He pointed outwards towards the sprawling metropolis surrounding them in the distance, enamored by the fruits of his own labors while also attempting to lighten up the mood. He came to a stop after a revolution or two had passed, bending at the knees until he was seated in a comfortable squat on the ground.

"Pretty sure I already told ya~" Luc continued, softening the grin on his lips as he took off the flayed leather jacket he was wearing and tossed it to the side. Thanks to his newly-acquired guest, yet another piece of his wardrobe would have to be thrown into the trash. "I'm somethin' of a big deal, depending on who you ask. But no matter who you ask, the fact remains that Nirauan is a planet under my domain, and we're currently sitting on top of a massive fortress within the heart of its capital; New Carannia."

He shrugged from his vantage point near the ground, looking up towards the red-haired acolyte with a lax pair of eyes. "Now you should be wholly aware of who I am now, and now you've been made aware of where you are. I think it's about time you told me your name, otherwise it might be hard for me to convince my subordinates that you're my guest, and not my prisoner."
​

 

[Kyra Perl]

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[Darth Daiara]

Aradia scanned the horizon, eyes tense and jerking. For a moment she considered jumping off the platform. A freefall of at least forty seconds would give her more than enough time to find something to break her fall. Maybe she wouldn't even have to. Maybe this time she could manage to manipulate the air currents and break the fall herself.

She hadnt been able to accomplish this in a training room, but that hardly mattered here. She was capable of all sorts of things when under pressure, her training had ensured that.

Her muscles tensed in preparation, just as she caught the gaze of the jedi. His eyes twinkled. His lips quirked. He had read her movements and his muscles did not tense in turn. He knew something.

Something that left him unfazed by an attempt to escape. He was playing with her. There was something up his sleeve.

She concluded all of that in the span of a few seconds. She let out a heavy breath and forced her muscles to relax. "If I'm not a prisionor, let me go." She challenged, feeling him out.

 

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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"And go where?" Luc asked.

It wasn't out of malice that he asked the question, nor did he say it with the snark that he'd given her previously before back on Generis. He was partially curious as to what she'd say, but he'd stated it matter-of-factly enough to hint at the idea that there weren't many options for her in reality.

Luc raised up from his squatting stance, stretching out his arms, then settling them on his hips. "You had two options, back on Generis." He continued, taking a step forwards, peering across to her with a softened pair of eyes.

"Per rules of engagement, I should have killed you, first and foremost." He raised up his index finger as he spoke, pausing to let his words sink in. His middle finger joined the index, forming a peace sign as he continued on. "The alternative was to hand you over to COMPNOR. I imagine they would've wanted to torture you for information. If you were lucky? They'd kill you."

He lowered his hand, letting it fall back to his hip. "If you were unlucky... they would've sent you off to a place where you would've wished you were dead; a place that force-sensitives like ourselves would consider hell." ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia raised her chin, determined to not show him a response to his words. She knew of the places he spoke of. She had tried to infiltrate one once, and had nearly been successful too. She had understood the risk of engaging imperials in combat. She knew how they worked. She knew what they did to their enemies. All her effort to stay under the radar on Generis had proven fruitless now. So much for having it all under control-- she had made a calculated gamble.

She had lost.

She understood the mistakes she had made. She understood how she had ended up captured. What she didn't understand was why she was here and not in a camp. She stepped forward, meeting him head on in his approach.

"And yet, you've decided to keep me for yourself. As what? A war trophy, a play thing? Let me make something very clear to you-" She took another step into him, their chests brushes as she tilted her chin up at him. Her blue hues swirled with fury, her fingers moving unseen beneath their frames as she made moves for his belt.

"I will never submit to you."

She tried to swipe his saber, going for a lethal cut upwards from groin to chin. If she could even get her hands on it at all.

 

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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He cocked an eyebrow towards the girl, watching her with apparent lazy eyes as she met him halfway, reacting in a manner that proved all too predictable after their altercation upon Generis.

Lucien sucked on his teeth, the audible noise coming from the gesture being accompanied by a sudden step backward. His weapon ended up in her grip as she intended, the blade igniting in a flash of brilliant aqua hues. It carved upwards with the force capable of bisecting the Jedi in two if it connected. Perhaps she was used to the control that the dark side provided her against her enemies, but Luc was not one of those unfortunate souls who didn't comprehend its allure.

He understood what it felt like to feel its pull, and he knew the mindset that came from a lack of control over those impulsive emotions that held a warrior back from their full potential. He pivoted on his foot, twisting his body forwards and to the girl's side in one fluid motion. The end result placed him out of the blade's trajectory and standing nonchalantly off to Aradia's side.

A hand gestured in her direction, lingering at his side despite the motion. "..Do you take me for a Sith?" He shot back with a chuckle. "Besides--I'm pretty sure my girlfriend would cave my chest in if she even suspected I was the type to take women as war trophies, playthings, or whatever~"

His palm twisted, closing into a fist. The gesture summoned the force, targeting the black hilt she had previously ripped from his belt. The blade went lifeless in the blink of an eye, deactivated almost as quickly as it came to life. It expanded outwards, engulfing the girl's hands, spreading down her arms until her limbs grew heavy. It was a simple use of telekinesis with the aim of stunting her in place, spreading the influence of the force through her limbs until it enveloped her body as a whole.

Despite how simple it was, one with ill intent could easily transmute the intent to kill with such a basic use of the force. It was a simple task to envelop someone with the force, then utilize that manifestation of telekinesis to quite literally shatter them until they collapsed where they stood. Of course, that wasn't his aim, but the lack of control that she'd experience was all the same still a part of the overall lesson.

"You lack discipline, and possess a severe shortage of temperance in your abilities. You call yourself Sith, but yet you fight like a corrupted Jedi gone mad. Corruption may be rampant within your veins, but you're not so far gone that I'd send a lost girl to die a slow and miserable death."


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[Darth Daiara]

Panic. It flared in her nostrils as she fought against the hold. A part of her had reasoned that his hand up on Generis had all been a fluke. She had maintained control over the situration for so long, perhaps what had gone wrong was something minuscule. Fixable. The concept of being on even ground was quickly dashed, the knight outdoing the apprentice with barely a step taken.

Her struggle went unseen as he locked her limbs. When it came to a battle of wills, she was sure she could win, but she could be as stubborn as she wanted, it did not make her stronger in the force.

She was outmatched by skill, age, and control. She held his gaze, equal parts defiance and terror. She was corrupted, but she was not arrogant. She understood her situration.

"So now what?" She mocked, keeping the terror from her words. "You're going to redeem me?"

 

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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"Redeem you?"

He shook his head in response. A wave of the hand released her from his hold, the lightsaber ejecting from her grasp and floating into his own hand. She was once more free to move her limbs like normal, and Luc stepped backward a few feet to once more squat into a comfortable position.

The lightsaber remained within his hand as he sat there, his eyes softening up a tad and focusing upon the red-haired acolyte in front of him. "I'm not the idealist who believes he can redeem Sith who have no desire of doing so themselves. I'd only be fighting a losing battle since you lack the discipline to think for yourself In the first place."

Luc shrugged at her.

"I'm offering to train you-- to give you somethin' that the Sith are incapable of providing. You'll achieve nothin' but a violent death with how you are now."



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[Kyra Perl]

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[Darth Daiara]

The ground rushed up when his hold released her. She caught herself on the hard tile and glowered, their eyes meeting he lowered himself to her level. "You. Train me." She yanked her robes back onto her shoulder. "You. My Master." Her nostrils flared, the very suggestion sending a wave of indignation through her. Losing Kaalia as her Master was hard enough, but to find herself backed into accepting a jedi as her next?

"I would rather die." Her palms pressed into the ground, corruption enveloping the space in an instant. Kaalia had taught her how to control more than the force. Fire, earth, water, air-- if one listened deep enough, they had energy all their own. His training surpassed hers with the force, but when it came to the elements?

That was her game.

A sharp whistle cut through the air, a sudden wind tearing across the roof top. Aradia dropped herself, laying flat as more than one body was lifted off its feet.

 

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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She was defiant-- not a bad trait for a New Imperial.

He smirked, even when the winds coalesced around his form and threatened to send him into the air. The few Stormtroopers present were unable to resist the manifestation of wind around their bodies, and soon the sight of the fortresses' rooftop was visible to their eyes from below. The force beckoned to Lucien's whim, holding him in place once the girl's abilities were in full swing.

A sigh escaped his lips, accompanied by a smirk. "Your ignorance is astounding."

He rose to his feet, unperturbed by the torrents surround them all. A hand raised to the sky, an open palm facing upwards as his eyes overlooked the Stormtroopers above. The hand clenched into a fist, bringing their near-death falls to an abrupt halt before their bodies had collectively smashed down into the rooftop. Their frantic responses cooled down with the realization that the Warlord had saved their lives, although Lucien's attention hadn't shifted from the girl in front of his eyes.

His opposite hand raised forwards, and through it the force once more manifested into the real, enveloping Aradia entirely into his grasp. The force weighed down upon her body, but this time he pressed upon her even more of the might that he was capable of projecting. The pressure weighed down with an intensity that tripled her previous dance with his abilities. "You're proving my point, you know~"

Luc continued onwards, dropping his hand from the air, releasing the suspended stormtroopers from his grasp. They tumbled onto the rooftop with relative ease, only to receive a jerk of the head from the Warlord to signal their leave.

Another handful of steps brought him closer to the girl. The pressure weighed down even further, pushing her to the limits of what was a non-lethal application of his skill. "If death was what you sought, you should have submitted to that fate long before you ran into me, little girl."

He clenched his hand into a fist rapidly, crossing over the threshold just enough to ensure she understood his words clearly. "You throw your eggs into a basket that you clearly don't understand. I've used nothing but the same ability, and a basic one at that, yet even the corruption you willingly submit yourself to can't bring you to best me at my weakest."

Luc crossed his arms over his chest, ending the wave of telekinetic energy surrounding her with a chuckle. "Yet you claim there's nothing I can teach you, eh? Tsk, tsk; How foolish you are."



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[Darth Daiara]

The wind wisped to a gentle breeze, the gusts cutting off when the force pressed down on her. Her concentration scattered, all her energy going into breathing. Grunts and gasps escaped her as she tried to shove herself up, but the jedi kept his footing even when the storm troopers had flown away.

Tears of exertion pulled from her eyes, those gold flakes glowing as she welcomed it all in. The darkness. The bone-searing fury. It burned through her veins, empowering her muscles as she tried to overcome his power and sit up. It wasn't enough. He was the cat and she the mouse-- in face of everything, she still wasn't enough.

His final squeeze drew a wild scream from her. It masked the sound of ribs snapping. Shards of bones drove home his point, puncturing her organs and leaving her in blood-spitting agony. The pressure released her. His words grew distant as she curled into herself. The wind trick was meant to buy her her freedom, but short of that, she would accept this death. It was better than the alternative.

She tried to sit back up, her arms shaking. The heels of her executioner entered her vision. She looked up, full of spite and that blinding hatred.

"Do it then. Coward. Kill me," She goaded.

 

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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She flirted with death, even as it stared her in the face. To a Sith this might have been a defining moment in breaking her spirit, but to Luc it was nothing more than the final nail in the coffin. It wasn't his goal to break her spirit through pain and threat of force alone. He was no Sith, as he'd made abundantly clear more times than he could count.

Though she once more remained defiant in the face of what stood before her, Luc would appear all the same as he'd been. Carefree, relaxed, apathetic to the situation entirely. It was not in his character to stand above another with the air of infallibility, but to one who remained as defiant in her ignorance, he would make the exception to prove his point.

The force manifestation that ended in the cracking of her ribs had been the outcome he desired, though there was little satisfaction in doing what needed to be done. A girl she was, but a Sith nonetheless, or so she vehemently tried to claim. Her actions warranted the extreme reaction it caused, and so he closed the gap between them while she struggled to regain her lost footing.

Lucien leaned over her fallen body, meeting her eyes halfway with an impassive set of blue orbs. "Tch; Killing you would be too easy." He replied, extending a hand towards her body. He channeled the force through his hand until it assumed a bright green luster all around, then pressed it down upon her skin without further warning. The radiance conducted through his palm, transmuting into her flesh to reach the broken and damaged parts beneath her. Her pain deadened with each passing moment his palm touched her skin, repairing her ribs through the unnatural abilities of the force.

"All done." Luc raised to his feet, standing over Aradia with that same hand extended out to help her to her feet. "I won't kill you; I wouldn't have brought her here if that was my aim. But if you ever again attempt to bring harm to any of my men, or any of the citizens of this planet, I'll deliver you a fate worse than what awaited you had I not rescued you from Generis. That's a promise." ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia shied back from the hand that descended on her, full of spit and venom as she struggled to collect the strength to pull back. By the time it came she understood. Base instincts kept her down, her quaking body relaxing with each wave of relief he transmitted. Her ragged breath resolved. The world gain crystalizing clarity.

She stared up at the hand that hovered over her, her expression unreadable.

A wad of bloody spit hit his shoe.

"We. Are not. Friends." She spoke through her teeth, the moment meeting an impasse as the sithling rejected the hand. She stumbled onto her feet, a hand clutching her healed side. Every movement felt like lifting lead. Their encounter on Generis, the ship, and now here had all but stripped her of the strength to stand.

She had fought back every step of the way, and now her exhausted gaze looked to the edge of the tower's platform. She had made a grave mistake. She knew that. Everything she had planned for herself was now lost behind walls and guards. He took the chains off but she was no less trapped. Her eyes flickered closed, as if the conservation of energy would be all she needed. Because she ran for it.

The edge.

She tried to toss herself off. Something enveloped her-- the wind? Or something more tactile, it was hard to tell. She reached for the power to catch herself but it didn't come. Her eyes didn't open. She crumbled into unconsciousness before she hit the ground.

Still better odds than a deathcamp.

 

[Lucien Dooku]

NEW CARANNIA - NIRAUAN // HAND OF THRAWN
Vibes

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Down the edge of the fortress she went.

It was a fitting end for most Sith, in his opinion, but not one that he'd reserve for the acolyte who found herself under his care. A quick death via her plummet to the surface would not be the future she'd encounter, even if her mind had settled upon being defiant until the end. It was a trait he respected; defiance carried alot of weight with the New Imperials and their ideology, after all.

Yet upon the world of Nirauan, Aradia wouldn't be allowed to seize such a cowardly death to reach an end that he did not feel she deserved. There was much for her to learn-- much that he wanted to impart her before the two would inevitably meet the end of their arrangement.

And so he moved.

Almost within an instant his form blurred, disappearing from where he once stood as he came to a skidding halt on the edge of the fortress's roof. Down the wall he went, following after the falling girl with the intention of reaching her before either of them would meet a splattering end at the bottom. He cut through the air smoothly, ditching the tattered jacket to the winds and narrowing his form to pierce through the skies until he reached closer and closer to his mark.

A hand extended outwards, and with it a manifestation of the force that reached out to the unconscious form in front of his eyes and grasped it between an invisible grip, pulling her closer to the Jedi with each passing second.

She found her way into his arms, and Lucien held onto the girl tightly as they descended towards the ground together. A loud thud would follow his inevitable collision with the surface; dust filled the air, accompanied by a booming gust of wind that emanated from his location. It settled shortly after the collision, revealing to the approaching administrators and soldiers the sight of their Warlord with an unconscious girl held within his arms, knelt within a sizable crater that seemingly came from his fall.

Lucien stepped through them, his eyes focused upon the entrance of the massive fortress behind them. "Prepare a room for my guest, please." He uttered a command into his comms, receiving a reply a few moments later from the officer on the other end. He sighed as the commotion receded with his exit from the scene. "...I'll have to get that hole fixed later." He muttered beneath his breath.

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