Private So What Are You Doing, Exactly?

[Alina Tremiru]

"I could just be saving you for a meal." Just how casually it was said almost made it a joke. But Alina wasn't joking around. The Sangnir glanced towards the other woman, flashing a fanged grin only for a moment. Sometimes, monsters were real. "Though, freeing others from the Force.. It's an interesting outlook on the whole thing. Most Sith fear what I can do. Jedi, too, for that matter. The idea it could be permanent, robbing that which makes them unique. Powerful. You really hate the Force, don't you?"

Alize

 

[Alize]

Alize could not tell if the woman was joking or not. The Sith had a tendency to say ominous things casually. Either way, she chose not to react to the comment.

Would you not feel the same way if it were the reason you were separated from the family you had left? Alize wanted to ask in response but stopped. She could not reveal her weakness.

"Maybe I would been more fond of it if the Jedi had found me first," she frowned. "But there is no changing the past. From my point of view, the Force blinds people with greed, robs children of their childhood, causes needless wars. As much as it gives, it takes more."

Alize looked out the window, beneath them was a small city, busy and full of life. Watching the scene below she wondered: how many of the people who lived there could use the Force? And of those people, who could afford the price wielding the Force demands? It seemed that you became a target for violence as long as you had a connection to it.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Is it the power that brings war, or war that brings power?" Alina mulled over the question for herself. She'd never had power, but fought the war regardless. Through it, she gained some semblance of skill. Strength. Her power to remove others from the Force was born from the constant war she'd fought in during the Empire's reign. But was war the only reason it existed?

Too many what ifs. She shrugged off the line of thought, instead turning her attention to the people below.

One would have to be her dinner, at some point.

"Jedi do preach about a oneness with the Force. Surrendering yourself to it. But I don't think you'd do that anyway, would you?"

Alize

 

[Alize]

"Perhaps both. Who could say which was the catalyst for the other?" Alize replied with a shrug.

Living beings tended to be greedy. They often took more than what they needed and when they see someone with more, envy takes hold of their hearts. How many wars have been started over something stupid? Like a woman? Or because someone with power got their panties in a twist over getting called Poopy McPoopface?

"Those with power start wars and those without die for it," she mumbled. She had seen those who had been abducted with her get greedy and fight for the Sith in hopes of receiving accolades and and rewards that would grant them more power. But what did they actually get in the end? Not even a proper burial.

While she lived by being average, avoiding the pursuit of power, they rot in a mass grave. Forgotten as the flora consumed their decomposing bodies and concealed the grave. Their lives were not even a footnote in history.

Alize sighed.

"Never," she shook her head. "From my understanding, little is known about the Force and I cannot trust what is yet mostly unknown. But I do know myself, my strengths, my weaknesses. Thus, I think it better to trust in my abilities separate from the Force."

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Then, for all our differences, we're quite alike."

Opposites. One born with a connection to the Force but a want to sever it. The other born with the ability to sever it but no ability to feel it. Same coin, perhaps? Alina chuckled to herself before motioning for the droid pilot she had to start the landing sequence. "What do you want, Alize. Not the Sith drabble you expect me to want to hear. The truth. Perhaps it's something I can help with. Or I kill you, depending. But what do you want to loose?"

Alize

 

[Alize]

"Alike but different," she muttered in agreement.

Alize glanced out the window as she pondered the question the Sith woman had been posed to her.

What did she want?

To escape the grasp of the Sith? To find her sister? To live peacefully with her sister?

No.

What she desired was something much simpler.

"Freedom," she whispered. She desired freedom.

As a child, her Master had clipped her wings, trapping her, robbing her of the ability to fly. Escape was impossible unless through death - either her's or his, for the threads of their fates had become intertwined through their Force connection.

"A foolish desire, I know," she admitted. "But it is one I cannot give up."

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"You realize being a Sith is all about freedom, right? Breaking your chains to be the person you want to be." And chaining others in the process. Alina, once, hated that idea. Even now she still did. But sometimes, for the common folk, it was better for them. Chains were their armor, where they had no power to defend themselves otherwise. She let out a sigh as she stood once the ship landed, letting her eyes stay closed as she walked past Alize, towards the ramp.

"So fight. Break your chains and take the power you need to rise above it all for yourself. And let nothing get in your way. Sitting in a field of grass will only make it that much harder on yourself."

Alize

 

[Alize]

If it were only that easy.

Power came at a cost for those who took the path of the Sith. A cost she was unwilling to pay. When she reunited with her younger sister, she wanted to look like herself, not some sulfuric yellow eyed fiend with her visage marred by broken capillaries. That would probably scare her sister.

Alize followed the Sith and walked in the direction of the cantina.

"It is difficult to match the power the Force offers when you choose to evade it." She knew if she were to fight, she could not fight her Master in direct combat. She would have to be cautious about it. Let herself be engulfed by the shadows and re-emerged to slit her Master's throat.

"Fortunately for me, there are many paths to it." Alize did not elaborate. She held her cards close to her chest.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"You're starting to just sound vain. Do you worry about looking like a monster?" Alina spoke of it like a joke, flashing a grin. Unaware she'd hit right on the mark and just passing by the other woman to exit her ship. A small, rundown space port. The Sith let out a sigh. She used to hide in places like these. They were easy to find a person or two to feed off of. Already she could feel the red thirst calling, in the back of her mind.

She'd have to eat soon.

"Which way are we going?"

Alize

 

[Alize]

Monster.

Alize flinched at the sound of the word.

"I am a woman after all. It's perfectly normal to want to look attractive," she spoke with a casual tone and walked ahead.

The city was busy with people going about their daily lives. Civilians push against one another as they headed towards their destinations while hawkers lined the street advertising their wares, fighting to be the loudest.

"Blue milk! 2 credits a cup!"

"Wookie hide, it'll keep you warm in the cold! 500 credits!"

"Speeder parts for sale! Whatever you need, we have!"

Alize took a quick glance at the faces of the young women as she waded through the crowds in search of the cantina. Any other time she would have hoped to find her sister, but not now. Nevertheless, she continued to search the sea of faces out of habit.

"Over there!" Alize pointed at a plain looking building a couple hundred meters down the road from the spaceport. This was only her second visit to this cantina so it took her a little time to recall its location.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Are you suggesting I don't?" Alina perked a brow, but it was hard to tell if she was even serious about the question. She wasn't. There was a confidence, deserving or not, that she held even as she walked. Her gaze drifted lazily through the crowd, remembering faces, voices. Heartbeats. Scanning for the appropriate meal for the evening. No one would be killed, of course.

That'd only pull the wrong sort of attention her way.

And again her brow perked as Alize called out. What, was this the second time she'd been to the place or something? She acted like she was surprised she remembered where it was. .. Ahh, no, that'd make sense. A suitable place to eat with a stranger, a Sith no less, without being one of her regular spots. Alina nodded once to her own thoughts. She should try and find the same the next time she might end up with someone too close to home. Not that she had a home.

"Is this.. It?" She looked incredibly unimpressed. "You're starting to look more and more like a Jedi with your tastes."

Alize

 

[Alize]

Alize dared not answer. She felt like she had begun to dig a hole and had no intention of making it any deeper lest it become her grave.

Although she was not fond of crowded places, this was a welcome reprieve from the company of the Sith woman. While they had found common ground in their shared desire for the destruction of the Force, that woman was still a Sith. A blight like herself and anyone who embarked upon this path whether by choice or by coercion.

"Jedi taste?" Alize raised an eyebrow. She did not see what was so Jedi like about a noisy, poorly lit cantina filled with billowing clouds of smoke. Well, at least there wasn't live music this time. Last time she was here she left with a mind splitting headache to go.

With a cold expression in her face, Alize walked towards an empty booth. When she was last here, she had been accosted by some criminals and she had little intention of experiencing a repeat of that incident.

Sticky.

She recoiled in disgust and pulled her hand back.

The table was sticky.

Another reason she disliked cantinas.

Alize dared not wonder what the remnants of liquid she had touched was as she wiped her fingers on a fold of her dress then sat down in the booth. Experience had taught her to take the side that had a view of the entrance.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina just stared at the state of the bar. Disapproval was clear in her eyes. Her childhood had been spent bouncing from bar to bar to drink and party away the fear and anguish of her life. But now that she was older, well. She didn't like remembering that time.

Or rather, didn't like remembering that she couldn't remember the black out drunk she'd been.

But she didn't hesitate to sit. Beside Alize. Having a view of the entrance was just common sense. And, well. It'd keep the Sith from trying to bolt if things got messy, She could practically feel the eyes on them. Annoying.

"Jedi aren't exactly known to be.. They tend to go to the trashiest places in my experience." Alina shrugged her shoulders before glancing back towards the elf beside her. "You come here often?"

Alize

 

[Alize]

Alize instinctively recoiled when the Sith sat next to her, trapping her and closing off the most convenient path of escape. The muscles in her legs tensed, she was ready to spring up and out of her seat at a moment's notice. Being in such close proximity with a Sith was enough to make her skin crawl.

No.

She loosened the tension in her legs. She could not show weakness. That was how she lived, no - survived - up until now. The words to live and to survive had two different meanings. She had not lived a day since her kidnapping. Each day was a struggle, a battle for survival. That was why she had clung so desperately to the hope of finding and reuniting with her sister. Hope, false or otherwise, gave her the strength to endure.

"No." Alize was honest in her answer. There was no way she could pretend she was a regular.

"But it was the closest place I knew of where we could dine," she lied. There was somewhere closer and more suited to her taste but if given the choice, Alize did not want to expose vulnerable people to the Sith. They had already created enough victims in their path of destruction. No one else needed to suffer.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Uh huh. Just a short ship ride away from that grassy field you didn't have a ship for." Yeah Alina wasn't buying it, but she wasn't going to press the lie. If Alize wanted to make this meeting built atop a foundation of lies, who was she to stop her?

"So, what's your plan? A Sith needs a plan if they're going to make something of themselves, or leave. Kill your master and run? Kill your master and take over?"

Alize

 

[Alize]

Run. Alize mouthed the word. She dared not vocalize her intentions.

Despite having endured a little over a decade under the tutelage of her Master, she still feared him. Feared what more he could take from her. Feared the monstrosity he wanted to mould her into.

"But even if he were gone, would escape even be possible? You mentioned being hunted. The same may happen to me as well."

She had remembered the woman's words from earlier.

Normality was all she wanted but now, it seemed out of reach. Reality was cruel. Aside from carrying out her orders, Alize had never sought to inflict pain on or terrorise others. Evil was never her intent. So why did others paint her as a villain? Her desire was simple, she just wanted to survive.

"Even though you had escaped, you chose to return... Tell me, is there truly a way to escape the path of a Sith? Or are we bound to it by others as well?"

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"The Force itself hates me, and I don't blame it. I'm little more than an experiment my mother created to control the Force. Sithspawn, if you could call me that. A failed experiment. Any attempt at a normal life doesn't work when the taint of the Dark lingers around you." She shrugged her shoulders as she leaned onto the table. Resting her chin in her palm as her faintly glowing eyes watched her companion.

"It doesn't help I need to drink blood to survive and stay sane, though that has nothing to do with the Sith so much as what I became. The Sith are my only option to true freedom. From the Force that burns me with the Light. From the galaxy that marks me as a monster. You don't have that taint. You aren't reviled as a monster. Your master is the only thing that keeps you here, yes? Kill them, be forgotten, live your life." It sounded like a dream, one that Alina wanted for herself. But even as she spoke about it she didn't seem like she even believed in it.

"And live that life in fear that you weren't forgotten."

Alize

 

[Alize]

Alize listened to the woman's words in shock and fell silent.

It had not occurred to her that there was a fate as cruel or crueller than her own. Although everything had been taken from her, it seemed she still had a chance to escape and live the peaceful life she had fantasised about, however, this was not even a possibility for the woman beside her.

Alize sighed, her eventual reply was a simple one.

"I see."

She did not know how to react. Should she offer comforting words or should she acknowledge what was shared with her through a simple comment? Of this she was unsure. This was something her Master had not taught her.

As uncertainty filled her heart, instinct took over. Alize turned towards the Sith, her arms outstretched with the intent of giving the woman a hug. It was a simple gesture that conveyed more than words are able to.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina wasn't throwing a pity party. This fact of her life had already brought her so much pain and heartbreak. She moved on. Owned it. Owned herself. Her plans, her goals, they were all based around what she'd accepted. 'I see'. It was a simple answer and a simple end to the topic, and the Sangnir was perfectly fine with that. What she didn't expect was to be offered a hug.

The Sith stared in silence, surprise obvious. Then, started to laugh. A lighthearted giggle as she held her stomach. "You are a terrible Sith, you know that? I literally came here to kill you if you posed a threat to my ambitions and now you're offering a hug?"

She wiped away a tear that had formed. Despite her teasing, she wasn't trying to be mean. If anything, this was a welcome relief from the constant zealotry she normally dealt with when interacting with other Sith.

"What am I going to do with you? I fear if I leave you alone you'll just get yourself killed now."

Alize

 

[Alize]

"I know."

Her expression softened and a small smile spread across her lips as she pulled back.

It comforted Alize to be called a terrible Sith. It meant that she had remained on the correct path. A path that deviated ever so slightly from a proper Sith's. Though this made little difference in the eyes of others, her small acts of rebellion were something she held dear. It meant she had not allowed herself to be fully consumed by the darkness that tainted her.

"I have survived until now. I will not get myself killed nor is it my intent."

A gentle warmth spread in Alize's chest.

She was surprised by the woman's concern. Despite her yellow eyes that indicated the corruption had taken hold, she was different from most of the Sith Alize had met so far.

Words expressing concern for her wellbeing were a distant memory, a relic from happier times.

"What about you?"

She inquired. She had started to grow curious about the woman.

"Will you continue to seek the destruction of the Force? Is there really no other way for you to find freedom?"

Alina Tremiru