The Covenant

[Aela Talith]

Aela stood quietly in the hangar bay of The Rising Tide. It was the ship that Her great Oma had given her on her sixteenth birthday. It was the ship that she had used to explore some of the galaxy, it was the ship she had called half a home, and it was now the ship that would be used for a cause that she truly believed in. For a second she hesitated, watching, looking at all of the people gathered within the hangar bay.

The Rising Tide wasn't a massive ship, it wasn't a star destroyer, but it could easily fit thirty to forty people with no huge problem. As she looked at the crowd, she couldn't help but think thats how many there were.

She bit her lip, looking at Mara for a few seconds before staring back at the crowd. Eventually she let out a loud sight, stepping up onto a small crate that contained food stores, something they would desperately need with all of these people around. She smiled slightly, then shook her head, her throat clearing with a loud, almost obnoxious noise.

“Everyone!” Her tone boomed through the hangar bay, hopefully catching the crowds attention.

There was a lot that she had to say, a lot that she had to go over. A lot of the people in the hangar already knew each other. Some she had been friends with for years, some she had known for only a month, and still others were completely new, having found their way here through word of mouth or the will of the force. Everything was a possibility, and Aela was open to each of them.

She smiled and waited for their attention.

 

[Kail Myn]

Kail was busy going through her bag, it contained various things from datapads to foodstuff which was clearly visible as she tossed it to the floor.

"Where is it." She mumbled to herself in frustration. Her brows furrowed like two angry kath hounds ready to pounce at each other until after she had cleared out all except one item, exactly what she was looking for. Pulled from the emptied bag was a small cylinder with no intricate details or markings of any kind. A seam went completely around suggesting that it was in fact some sort of capsule and indeed it was as she began to unscrew it, revealing the pebble-like contents inside.

They were pills... They reduced stress; her stress. Just as she was about to take one the sudden boom of a voice caught her off guard resulting in all twenty-three of the pills rolling around on the floor.

Stress.​

 

[The Spark]

Despite her loud, obnoxious hammering with the Dredgetime IV Power Hammer - Aela's voice carried and caught the attention of Mira who was underneath the Starfury. It sort've caught her off-guard as she never really heard [member="Aela Talith"] get loud. It had to be big news, which meant that this trudging around and fiddling with things could end - finally, maybe she could join them when she returned from Ilum. Mira quickly pushed out from underneath the modified XJ-IX and jumped off the mechanical sled, grabbing a dirty rag as she walked out from behind her starfighter.

She dropped the hammer down infront of the nose of her fighter with a painstaking thud. She paused for a moment and looked around - 'Good, no one is like staring at me like I'm a rude idiot...totally not intentional.' She then turned her attention back to Aela and began pulling the thick, black, ooze from her fingers. Grease was a pain, especially the kind that came from deep within the engine of a starfighter...didn't easily come off.

She would keep her goggles on, just cause well, she liked them. Beyond that too, she didn't want to look like a dirty fool with clean rims around her eyes and a mucked up face. Nah, just didn't fit her - did it? 'No, focus here and now' She thought as she kept her attention on Aela.

 

[???]

Twenty - three pills went rolling around the floor, only to suddenly come to a stop. The tiny flat discs froze, almost thrumming with energy. The next second, all twenty-three pills would float into the air. They would follow a lazy spiral around [member="Kail Myn"], like tiny hovering trails of color.

Finally, they would whirl into a miniature twister, dropping twenty-two pills back into the small opening of the container.

Save one.

That one would hover in front of the young girl's face like a beckoning candy.

Under the hood of the heavy cloak, behind that breathing mask, a hint of a smirk grew.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aela Talith"] had a unique relationship with leadership, far as Mara could tell. Of the two of them, Aela had a better sense of when something needed to be said, but tended to stumble over the execution. Aela was sort of the opposite of a talker -- though every once in a while, maybe a couple of times a year, she delivered some kind of logical but impassioned lecture. When she got over her inhibitions like that, then she could make her point in a solid way. Still couldn't diplomat worth crap, but she'd pick it up -- and until then, that was what Mara was for.

She gave the Talith heir a minute nod and folded her arms, a motion not without pain. She still wore a cast from elbow to fingertip, and she knew the bandages on her back and side bulged against her flight suit. Her rewards from the Rebel Alliance for doing their job in their territory, on Lameredd. It didn't take much, in this moment or any other, to flash back to that day: flat on her stomach, broken hands behind her head, shot by a ring of Rebels as they tried to take down the terrorist she'd injured.

They'd saved her life after they'd shot her -- them, and [member="Liam Quez"]. So she was told, at any rate. She'd been unconscious by then, as if her central nervous system couldn't process the situation on a fundamental level. She felt strongly that it had been more than syncope, based on the power of the memory. That power was bound up in the gut-deep concept of helplessness.

She'd already been in pain, too much to shield herself with the Force. And as a result, she'd been shot in the back.

She wrenched herself out of the flashback, and forced herself to focus on the here and now.

 

[Liliane]

To belong to something else than a family was a great deal for Lilin. Having been protected from other people for seemingly an eternity had caused her to feel uncertain about her actions and anxious in social situations in which she was in a group of people she had never met. But she comforted herself with the fact that everybody had to have their first time in such things. She guessed absolutely nobody had been born ready for that.

Sitting on a chair, people moving all around her, she was listening to some music before Aela spoke loudly to get attention. Even through her headphones, she was able to hear the girl's shout, which was a little bit strange to hear.

She took the headphones off and looked at her. She was standing there, people were all suddenly looking at her. Lilin couldn't have even imagined what a pain it could have been to talk in front of everybody, perform a speech. She would have been awful at that, but she had trust in Aela. She was a leader -- and even though it was not true, she thought leaders were born to speak.

So instead of sitting in a corner of the room, she stood up, grabber her chair, and took it to more of a middle. She wouldn't want to stay isolated, away form others.

 

[Kaili Talith]

Kaili had never known her sister to be the kind of person that would try to move crowds. A bookworm and a hermit perhaps, but not a leader or a public speaker in the slightest. The last few months of work had of course begun to prove otherwise, but it still felt like one of those weird things to observe after a lifetime of only knowing the quiet and reserved personality of [member="Aela Talith"]. It was like watching a piece of duracreet explode or a flower about to break out. Deep down you expected it to happen at some point, but you had no idea where or when.

She had help from others, of course. A look spread out in a search for [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] who had more often than not been seen with Kaili’s sister. Her eyes set on the blank-staring friend in an arm cask. It still didn’t really seem to blend and it just didn’t seem right. Mara in an arm cask and staring blindly into a void, Kaili had only seen that face when she was considerably younger back when the others had returned from their trip to Geonosis a very long time ago.

Kaili approached her. A hand reached out to place itself on Mara’s shoulder but for all she knew it would just cause pain and she let the idea pass for now.

“You okay, Mara?” Kaili's hands slumped down by her sides as her eyes set on her sister in an effort to keep her focus split between the two. In truth it was mainly set on Mara. She could catch the rerun of what Aela said on the way home later.

 

[Vexen]

Vexen's breaths came quick and shallow. It took all of her limited courage just to keep her feet moving forwards. To be this exposed, to meet so many people, it made her stomach twist and turn. She could actually taste bile at the back of her throat. She wanted to go back to the shadows, make anyone who had seen her forget.

The Defel Wraith had actively communicated with two individuals in her entire life. One of those had abused her for years. She still hid her left paw from Micah. Once Rajik had hit it with a metal pipe and the bones had never re-set properly. It still pained her, and two of her claws sat at odd angles. Every fibre of her being wanted to go back to her small nest in a corner of Micah's ship. To hide in a dark corner. Or perhaps even to rest her head on his lap and let him brush her fur again. She still hadn't quite admitted to herself how much she'd enjoyed that.

In the daylight she appeared as a completely black shadow. Not like a black object that could be seen, but a complete absence of light. If one looked closely, they would see the faint outline of stripes on her form; the small amount of ultraviolet causing a few photons to be emitted. Under bright UV they would have been resplendent shades of green and gold. On her nose rested a new pair of purple glasses that allowed her to go out in the light. That was two things she'd now been given in her whole life: a new brush and a pair of glasses.

This must have been the third or fourth planet Vexen had been to now. She had thought there had just been the one world until she had met Micah. He had tried to explain how many planets there were, but it had been beyond her. She neither read or wrote, could count to fifteen; the decimal system was far outside of her understanding.

Just three weeks. Her life had changed beyond recognition.

 

[Aela Talith]

She let out a deep breath.

Everyone was listening to her now, everyone was waiting to hear her speak. Her lips thinned, and briefly she glanced over towards Mara. She gave the girl a nod. This was the time, this was when everything would come together, when things would fall into place. She smiled slightly to herself, trying to push herself to gain the confidence she needed for this next big step.

Shifting, Aela moved slightly forward on the crate.

“You've all come here for your own reasons.” She looked through the crowd, trying to identify a few and even recognizing some. “But were all here to make a difference.”

Aela bit her lip. “There's dozens, hundreds of planets ruled by the Sith, by the Primeval, by governments and cults that would use and abuse people, that would kill and slaughter just for the fun of it, to meet their own ends. There's people that oppose them. The Republic, the Omega Protectorate...”

She paused for a few seconds.

“But are they enough?” Her words lingered in the air. “Are they doing enough? The Protectorate is stalling...The Republic has failed. The Silver Jedi are stagnant. Everyone seems to be faltering, falling, the Sith and their allies are gaining more and more traction, more and more power.”

“We have to stop them. If no one else will. Then we have to. Some might call us too young. Some might call us foolish, but when the old generation fails, the new has to try.” Were her words inspiring? Maybe, but they got the point across.

 

[The Spark]

Mira chewed her lip for a moment before speaking out, gesturing towards [member="Aela Talith"]. "I have no doubt that we can do it - the question is - how far are we willing to go to get it done?" Even she didn't have an answer for that. Could she kill a Sith? If the moment was there and required it, yes. The burning question was, what happens when they surrender - if they surrender? What happens when the momentum and the tide begins to shift and their ragtag Pack becomes a movement.

Then what? Did Aela have a plan to snuff the fires of hell that the darkness were burning across the Galaxy? Probably, but Mira had no clue. She was always busy and always training, it was possibly she missed something or wasn't paying attention. 'That's what I get for going out on my own...' She thought.

 

[Sabena Shai]

As [member="Kira Talith"]’s Padawan, Sabena had known the Talith children for a while. She wanted to view herself as an older sister-like or cousin-like figure to them and hoped they agreed with this. Sabena had not been informed the purpose of such this meeting. Still, she attended - seemingly curious for herself and in the interests of Kira.

Near the back of the gathering area, Sabena stood by herself. She looked around the room before Aela began to speak. She mentally noted the apparent young age of those that attended - and recognized a few of the Talith children as well. Sabena’s blue eyes snapped to Aela as soon as the young woman bellowed to everyone.

Before Aela got to the meat of her rhetoric, Sabena kept an apparently neutral but inquisitive look upon her face. She seemed to honestly wish to listen to Aela in full. Yet as Aela’s words continued, Sabena’s breath grew heavier. Her eyes widened as her jaw tensed. She began to fidget as she stared at Aela.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Mara flinched, just barely, as Kaili's question caught her halfway between flashback and presence. "I'm fine," she said automatically, then shrugged. Kaili knew her better than pretty much anyone here -- she'd helped teach Kaili, and informally she was still sort of Kaili's mentor in Wardening it up. That, and Kaili was Lorrdian-raised, just like Mara. If there was one person here who could catch her in an obvious lie, it was Kaili.

And I'm fine was absolutely a lie.

"Just a flashback. Little stronger than it should have been. I'll work past -- oh, Aela's starting."

She listened as the oldest Talith kid made her speech. In the silence afterward, Mara stepped up to address the crowd.

"Six years of war against the One Sith," she said, voice tight with pain. "And another five against the Sith before that, and all manner of wars before that, all through history. There'll never be a perfect, total solution; all that matters is that someone keeps trying. And all the people that've been fighting the One Sith and the Sith Empire and all that -- they're either failures or they're worn out from all this war, or they're busy with other things. Some of'em are battening down the hatches and trying to save the seeds of civilization in case the Dark Side keeps winning or the Dark Age comes back. Whether all that's worthy or not, whether it's fair for the tired to step off the edge of the 'verse or not -- not my business. All that matters is that, for the most part, the Dark Side isn't being opposed in any competent way. So that's what we're going to do. What just about everyone else is too tired to do."

Her arm itched beneath her cast; her back itched beneath the bandages. With a deep breath, she focused.

"I don't care where your allegiance lies. Maybe you're doing this for the Republic or Corellia or Donanyd or the Sanctum. Doesn't matter, as long as you commit, right here, right now, and I mean commit. Real intent. Stay the course. Do what we've gotta do, for as long as it takes.

"Oh, and one more thing, because this has been a thing. We've only got one rule: don't do Dark Side things. And that extends to your love lives. I don't care if you're celibate or not, but no dating Darksiders. That kind of thing regularly makes Jedi Masters look like idiots. Doesn't mean you'll get kicked out of what we do here, but be smart. And if that's a deal breaker, what the feth are you doing here anyway? That's all."

 

[Vexen]

A lot of the words being passed across the hangar went straight over Vexen's head. Her vocabulary was exceedingly limited, her speech influenced by urchin street slang, and she had little comprehension of events being discussed. The other children who had lived in the Hidden Places on her herdship had almost their own dialogue. It was a civilisation of its own, with different gangs carving out their own territory in the mazes of vents and maintenance shafts in the bowels of the ancient vessel.

She could still recall how, as a small pup, she'd stayed close to one of the communities and listened to them talk. Early on she'd learned they either ran, or chased her away if she showed herself. One night they'd spoken of the shadow beast. "Car nowt see it," one boy had said over the dying embers of a fire. "Juss teeth inna dark. It ett Gerald. Tore 'im righ' up. Found 'im inna screamers lane. Innards hanging out like. You see ter shadow beast, you run. Git help. One day we'll get it. Catch it. We'll burn it."

It had taken her a while to realise they were talking about her. Vexen couldn't recall how long she'd stayed whimpering alone in her tiny nook until hunger forced her out. She hadn't gone to listen to the urchins chatting again.

If there was one thing she did understand, but had never experienced, it was family. Loyalty was genetic. This was a family thing to Micah. Far as Vexen was concerned, that made it her thing too.

But she would definitely need to ask what a sith was.

 

[Liliane]

Lilin wanted to give a round of applause for these inspiring speeches. She herself may have been highly social as a person, but her skills at delivering a speech were practically the same as sending a potato on the stage. Yet Aela and Mara had smashed it and given the right kind of feeling to the listeners. It was something she had not felt before -- the shallow feeling of being manipulated by one monologue.

But she loved it.

As she eyed the two speakers, she had to admit, they were about the same age as her, nearly everybody in the room was. But they had the spirit even adults barely got to. It was the spirit of fighting, doing good, acting for the good of the galaxy.

Indeed, the One SIth needed an opposing force -- a competent one. And after these speeches, Lilin felt like they were the force.

 

[Kaili Talith]

Kaili could indeed see through a shallow lie. The shrug and the near-instantaneous reply, the fact that Kaili actually knew this woman. It sucked to see Mara in this state but Kaili had little clue what she could actually do to help. The helplessness wasn’t just on her friend’s shoulder, the youngest Talith felt it too as no matter what she did the damages could not be undone and she couldn’t have the memories removed.

Her head slowly shook with a look of worry as Mara took the stage. Kaili was probably just overthinking it, but she could hardly be held at fault for that. After all, it’s what anyone would have felt at the sight of a best friend in that state, right?

Changing her shake into a nod she listened to the two ‘leaders’ of their group speak. Kaili had nothing to add. For now she faded into the background as the others went on about the movement they were starting.

Because it was the start of something big, of that there was no doubt.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Too much latex, leather and whips for my taste anyway.” John would answer with a smirk to the later part of Merrill’s speech, why anyone would be interested in dating a Sith was beyond the Zeltron. They were always so… [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]moody[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px] and, well there wasn’t any other way of describing it then to say that they were really edgy.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]In the way that they seemed to pull lunacies, just to see how people would react. Less Super Villain and more a kid throwing a tantrum, nah none of that for Hunt. If he would ever date a girl, she had to be healthy in the mental state, that drama could be reserved for other folk.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Anyway, sounds all great. I ain’t the strongest, fittest or smartest around, but ya got my blaster and support.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Scratch of the chin.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“‘Bout time someone stepped up and showed the big guys how to do this.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] | [member="Kaili Talith"] | [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] | [member="Vexen"] | [member="Sabena Shai"] | [member="Mira Gyndar"] | [member="Aela Talith"][/SIZE]​

 

[Kail Myn]

Kail probably should've been paying attention to what was being said to the group but instead the blonde girl found herself mesmerized by the parlor trick. Her pills magically floated about the air and dropped back into the capsule that contained them, all but one. It took a moment for the young Jedi to realize the exact nature of what was going on, but not too long and she figured out the trick. Telekinesis, the one power she did not study often and was the opposite of a natural at. When it came to the force Kail was neither an expert nor bad, she just lacked the quality trait of "being good at anything."

Thoughts danced around her mind, would whoever who was toying with her pull the pill back as soon as she reached out or were they being genuinely nice? Two grey-blue pearls glanced back and forth trying to figure out who was behind this; to no avail. One hand swiped outward towards the white pebble in an effort to snatch it outright.

@???

 

[Laura Na'Varro]

"I'm in." Laura Na'Varro piped up from the back, all the anxieties that had plagued her when she was younger effectively gone. The Force and her friends had given her a confidence in herself that facilitated success and growth. She almost radiated with it now, her eager smile showing that she accepted this new challenge with relish. The galaxy was failing ... all the old powers were falling, and the One Sith rampaged outwards from the Core. She wanted to touch the Core now ... carry battle standards to the heart of the One Sith's territory and plant them in the earth of Tython and the cold durasteel of Coruscant. The thought excited her. War excited her. Just like her father had been.

Speaking of her father ... maybe this would be something he'd be interested in.

 

[Liam Quez]

For the first time in my life I had remained quiet. I listened to Aela deliver her speech and a part of me questioned everything. We were still just kids and with what had happened with Ibaris, it makes me worry even more. Speaking of the girl I looked over my shoulder, she should be close and I reached out my hand gesturing a place for her to stand. I had to keep an eye on her, a better eye on her. There was no room for failure a second time around – we were lucky.

The ship seemed pretty big, a lot bigger than the Peregrine. I stood shifting my small pack with snacks for Ibby and I, both of us seemed to have a dangerous sweet tooth and figuring on how uptight the Taliths were I guessed they might not have the best sweets. Looking towards the girl, I nodded towards Aela. “Seems to be some big things going down. You ready Princess?” I finished and looked among the crowd – almost everyone was here and that made me happy. All my friends together and we would be fighting for a cause or something. Of course above all else my focus would be to keep Ibaris safe along with Mira who I quickly spotted. Giving the girl a smile and a small wave, I glanced back towards Ibaris. “I’m excited…”

[member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"] [member="Mira Gyndar"]

 

[Ibaris Varanin]

She stepped up next to him. She'd been watching and listening to those who spoke, and feeling emboldened by their words and this cause. It was something to throw herself into, to grow with. There were things she had sworn she would not allow to happen again. Her hazel eyes swept over to the Mandalorian-born guy beside her in a sidelong glance.

"Ready? I'm the sum of my parents' example. I was ready a long time ago."

How much of that was bravado, and how much of that was honest-to-goodness Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs was an inseparable thing. Recent events may have shaken her some, but only some. If anything, the kidnapping had been a catalyst to force the girl to begin growing up, and she had embraced that with a fervour when reconciliations were through.

"Excited? It's okay if you're scared too, you know," she said, and edging a little closer in a lean, she whispered: "I won't tell anybody if you are."

What were friends for, right?

[member="Liam Quez"]