Private The Long Dark

[Vesta]

Planet Aruza

There was no rhyme or reason for her arrival, no explanation given to the people of Aruza for why death had come knocking on its door. Despite the calculated and weighted decisions of the more imperial of her cause, Vesta Zambrano - Darth Mori - did not share their enjoyment for resource wars and subjugation. The Aruzans had done nothing wrong from a neurotypical point of view, they were largely pacifistic and a peaceful people, but, from the perspective of someone who was so extreme in their views shaped by the Sith code, that was, in and of itself, an issue. Rule of the powerful, survival of the fittest, there were a number of ways one could describe the general notion of Sith way of life but all of them shared the idea that inaction led to stagnation, and stagnation to weakness. Weakness, of course, was a trait that an individual simply could not possess - or, if they did, then it would be justification for their inevitable death.

The small transport that she'd taken to the planet's capital city, a mostly thriving metropolis, ushered in that very same inevitability.

Aruza was meant to be the first city she'd toy with in this sadistic way, a trial of sorts to prepare her for the first world of many that would meet similar, but far more extreme, fates. Stepping out into pavement, her small transport blocking the low-altitude traffic of speeders and the like, Darth Mori was like a figure out of a nightmare - pauldrons emblazoned with screaming skulls, a red lightsaber that cut through the warm glow of the evening sunset, and a haunting presence in the force that acted more as an echo of the deaths she'd caused than of an individual person's existence. The society she had dropped herself into abhorred violence, murder had nearly ceased to exist on the planet and the necessity for armed police elements had all but vanished. As she lifted a gauntlet-covered hand towards an air speeder that hung just meters away, waiting for her to get out of their way, she knew that they would've regretted their decision to live such quaint lives. The mere closing of her fist crushed the vehicle mid-air, immediately sending the traffic stuck on either side of her and the city at large into a panic.

The Sith had come.

The Maw was here.

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Within a couple of hours, the silence of the peaceful city gradually turned to darkness, leaving the scene for more venturesome and unusual character.
Everywhere, weeping women ran around, looking for their children in their last hope. In many places, electrical wires were killing local races to death because of their
weak immune defences and full confidence in a brighter future. The city's transport networks were turned into a chaotic bumping of one "ball" against another ball, while
this damaging the old houses where, at that late evening hour, young couples were settling on an armchair and in each other's arms reading a novel or passionately indulging in love.
And in the midst of the fiery apocalypse that took everyone by surprise was Neryn, who was returning from the suburbs with a basket where she was carrying strange fruits.
She tried to contain the shock and used the energy to make her stride, which resulted in a quick five minute run to the centre of town.

"I can't believe that out of all possible cases this has happened..."

The girl said to herself and just sensing the sigh from the entity, rather quickly found the Sith and headed in his direction with an absolute determination that was
phenomenal for a person who came from a wealthy family. Eventually she saw her target and began to make her way along the path helping the wounded and healing their wounds with her power very quickly.
Thus Neryn rather quickly reached the Sith and with all her might shouted waving her hand

"Let the locals leave in peace, without casualties. I want to talk to you!"

The girl was determined only to negotiate peacefully with the hope of reducing the damage this Sith had done to the local ecosystem and the technosphere too.

Darth Mori

 

[Vesta]

To destroy everything was merely a means to an end, one of several chapters in the long ending of the current status quo presiding over the galaxy. One person or ten quintillion - a death was equal to the rest, in her mind it didn't matter how many oceans she would have to fill with the blood of the people she killed or how stained she'd be with their blood on her hands. The price she was willing to pay for destroying this decrepit string of stars and the very fabric of time and space was far greater than something as insignificant as her conscience. She could hear the whistling sound of air escaping panicked lips as their screams were swallowed up inside of them, dead by manner of force drain before they could even realize that their fate had been sealed the moment the Sith had stepped out into the city street.

Winds screamed between buildings, sweeping air speeders and low-hanging transports into both each other and down to the ground by force with torrential force, electricity arced from an outstretched hand and up into exposed grid systems to shut the city off from the outside world and galaxy beyond it. Power fell as its people did. She had wondered if she could accomplish far less than this without significant attempts to stop her, curious on how much it took to drive pacifists to the brink of forsaking their comfortable beliefs - it took total anarchy, absolutely apocalyptic destruction, for anyone to actually reach out to make her stop. There were a few last-minute collision attempts but they were dispatched with relative ease.

She turned her head, however, at the arrival of someone who was certain not an Aruzan, so much was obvious by the lack of blue pigment in their skin. Where Vesta, Mori, was an unending wave of death and despair this woman was entirely the opposite - providing health, healing, and invigoration to those she had not yet drained of all their remaining vigor. "Who are you?" Was her only answer, though she ceased her assault on the city on nearly all fronts - the storm overhead something that would require a direct intervention that she was, more or less, unwilling to provide. She could hear out one ant before she burned the rest - it wouldn't matter, however, as the planet at large wasn't her target, merely the population of the city for the purposes of her test.

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

It was as if Neryn was an element opposed to the one she called herself Sith, but in the same way she was outside this division. She was not interested in politics, war or anything to do with
with the activities of various factions and large organisations, she was interested in preserving the lives of the locals, which she was able to do in one form or another until she met the one who started this mindless devastation.

"I am Naivia Neryn. I do not belong to the Jedi or the Sith. I know this is going to sound stupid, but I think the city is already destroyed by your power almost to the ground, and those I'm trying to help should be given a chance to survive and start a new life somewhere else."

The girl stepped closer revealing that she had only food and a couple of medical supplies with her and nothing else, though there was quite a strong force emanating from her.
She tried to be careful that any movement wouldn't play havoc with her and she wouldn't be reduced to dust like all the other living and non-living objects around her which is why she waited carefully for a reaction from the Sith to see if she could continue speaking or if she would have to defend herself
from possibly strong attacks from a girl who in the depths of her mind still seemed warm and kind.

Darth Mori

 

[Vesta]

Stupid?

In all of her days she had never met anyone who had tried to reason with her in a way that was putting the lives of the people she was after above their own, or at least above the futile struggle between dark and light. Jedi everywhere had been quick to either try to put her down or to urge her to walk over to the light - as if anyone who was in the middle of committing murder on any scale was ready to make such a massive change. No, it wasn't stupid, or at least not quite as much as the others had been in the past, but it was a significantly more difficult road to take if her goal was to save anyone.

"Usually I'm met by a lightsaber, a gun, or some pointless preaching. I'm not really sure what to say."

The Sith wasn't quite so much stunned as she was impressed. "I don't quite disagree with your perspective, but I think it is irrelevant. Many people who deserve to die still live, why should I care what it is that these people deserve?" She said. It was probably a foregone conclusion that Vesta was going to disagree with her, however the fact of the matter was still that something as mundane as a simple request had put the Shi'ido's assault on the city on hold. Amber, sith, eyes looked Naivia Neryn up and down, attempting to decide whether or not the woman was even a threat. It was usually violence that was created from whatever it was that Vesta did in situations like this because of the subconscious fear of what the woman could do if they tried to approach her any other way, the exceptions to this usually belonged to one of two camps: the exceptionally powerful, the sort of people who were relative to her in either skill or raw potential with the force, and the incredibly naïve or ignorant.

The cautious hesitation she had been met with by the stranger told her she was certainly not naïve, though she supposed that was a sign that she wasn't someone who posed much of a threat to her either - though the fact that she didn't recognize her meant the woman may merely not know enough about Vesta to act more or less relaxed than she currently was. She shrugged, deciding on a whim to play a different game with the woman than the one she had previously been ready to engage in. "Actually, no, I'll give these people the second chance you want for them." Vesta said slowly, coming up with what to say as she spoke. "In return you and I will chat, if I decide you're worth leaving alone then you and them both will live - if you aren't then I'll kill you and the entire planet's population instead."

She flashed a winning smile, though inside she wasn't sure if she even wanted to spend more time on the latter possibility - silently deciding that she'd cut her losses in wasted time by arbitrarily letting the woman go and sparing the rest.

"How does that sound?"

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn had a habit of listening to the opinions of others to the end and therefore only a question already demanded an immediate reaction on her part and to some extent a thoughtful reaction she also calmly replied with a confidence rather unconvincing for a girl who had no weapons on herself nor even armor capable of protecting her from blasters in a pinch,
all because her force was enough to save her own body and life in case the threat was the Sith Lord who now stood before her. She smiled politely , thus trying to convey the idea that she was able to recognise the game in such suggestions, which she didn't mind taking part in, and afterwards replied
"With pleasure! And what would you like to talk about? About us or about art, literature, philosophy? I can openly talk about anything, even if it's very high-fantasy like theme and has nothing to do with the state of affairs in which you and I currently find ourselves. It's not a matter of me dying and them being alive, it's a matter of you not putting yourself in too much danger either, even if
even if you're a sith and you see it as part of your journey. I don't share the view that the good should live and the bad die, everyone has a chance to prove themselves, to reform and renew their souls. That is why I am so calm, I feel safe now, knowing that you too are a sentient being and understand the meaning of my words and desires."

Neryn then cautiously crouched down on the muddy blocks from the remains of the buildings ruins and calmly took out a couple of light packets of chips and handed them to the girl

"These are fruit crisps, would you like some? Don't worry, I've got enough for myself. I was used to surviving amongst similar events when I was a kid. But everyone has their own dark truth and the truth of why we became who we became."

Darth Mori

 

[Vesta]

Almost as soon as she had asked the woman for her input she had regretted it. She wasn't sure if it was the sudden rambling, the fast pacing of her thoughts spewed out as words, or if it was the strange, almost condescending, naïveté that she was then exposed to in a strange turn of praise. 'Whether I understand her is completely.. oh whatever, this was going to be a waste of time anyways.' She thought to herself, swallowing as her winning smile faded into a grimace. With the procurement of something she assumed were sweets, fruit crisps, she suppressed the urge to groan but accepted what she could only describe as an offering without any further signs of displeasure on her part.

"I would have rather we just talked about something less trivial, perhaps why you're so keen to involve yourself in these kinds of things or what makes you so incapable of running off like several of the people who have died."

She seemed like she had more to say but instead paused to think about whether giving such a wide range of conversation topics to someone who had, earlier, given her a word salad was the best course of action and hastily decided after-the-fact that it wasn't in her best interests to leave things so open-ended. "But really I'd like to know more about you, about who you are and what." Vesta said, trying to sound like that had always been the flow of conversation she had intended to have rather than improvisation. "You don't seem much like a Jedi.. and you clearly are no Sith, but you certainly don't act like anyone who doesn't have the sort of background that either of those would have given you, either."

"In simple words, I find you, or at least the idea of someone like you, interesting. Maybe it's me acting on a whim, or maybe it's honest curiosity in how you didn't die like every other cretin around me just a few minutes ago, but I'd like to know more before I decide on whether or not I'm going to just leave this backwater planet."

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"Ah, that's it. Are you interested in how I'm still alive? I was out of town when you started this fun so it didn't get to me, and plus I have enough force to stand up to all this art, and if you can keep yourself safe, why not help the rest of us. Yes, I have my own views on life, but I'm happy to help and destroy both. It all depends on the specificity of the problem and the phenomenon, and from there we can talk about something more serious. The more so that you leave this planet in any case, you simply will not kill me, and you are not going to stay with me and help to return everything back to the way it was before. Such are my views on life, unusual, but with a logic inherent only in it. I hope I'm not scaring you with my emotional notes, I'm just pleased that you're listening to me. That's the way things are at the moment. Do you enjoy communicating with me? "

Neryn asked with interest

Darth Mori

 

[Vesta]

It took her a minute or two to fully digest what it was that Naivia Neryn was saying, she could feel the confused expression creeping onto her face, but in the end she arrived at what she hoped was the point that the woman was making or trying to make. "So you're eccentric." She said matter-of-factly. In some way she felt that she could relate, at least in the way she arrived at the decisions she made most of the time, but she never let that, or any facet of her, be the defining characteristic of her personality - maybe she was just less eccentric in that regard, or less anything than her, but it at least covered the curiosity she had well enough. There had been a question posed to her, however, and it was one she had nearly forgotten to answer while mulling over the word salad she'd been given.

"No."

It was a simple answer, perhaps overly so, but it was the most direct answer she could have given while remaining as blunt as she preferred to be. "I don't quite like other people." Vesta explained, her expression contorting into discomfort, or perhaps disdain, as she seemed to imagine a scenario with her socializing. "You aren't like me, you don't know me and I don't know you, so we don't have enough in common to really have the kinds of moments I do enjoy." She continued, thinking back to the sort of conversations she might've had with Quinn Varanin several years ago - what felt like a lifetime ago at this point. She shrugged, glancing off into the distance with as much of a wistful stare as she could afford to give, and then considered the individual that seemed strangely unperturbed by her - not bothered by her existence or by her actions, a strange duality that few had been willing to tolerate in tandem.

"But.. I don't hate it, I suppose."

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"Other people...I don't know to be honest, probably in some crazy situation I'd save your life too if I could. Why? I don't know. I just feel good that my actions might lead to something, maybe someone will suffer, someone will cry, someone will be happy, but the very fact of contributing is such an amazing thing for me in this life.
Hey, I know that what I'm about to say might hurt or make you uncomfortable, given that we barely know each other and we don't know if we're going in that direction, but I try to let you know that, as ridiculous as it sounds, you're completely safe. I'd even say total!
Well not counting all kinds of insects, and so we can even talk about the size of different dresses, I'm here by the way love white colour with blue butterflies is the favorite. Knee-length, so I'm just saying. My favourite colour is orange and yellow, like night fire. What else I can tell you, I love to play the piano, especially when I was a kid, all day long I could do it. Dancing, too.
I like to dance too, alone or with someone. That's the way it is, sorry if I sound clingy, I'm used to being open, even if it sometimes leads to me being beaten or hurt both spiritually and physically."

Neryn became silent and stared gazes into Mori's eyes as if memorising her in her memory

Darth Mori

 

[Vesta]

She blinked, twice.

If she could sum up the other woman in one word it would be easy - they were as close to opposites as a pair could be by any stretch of the imagination. Where Vesta had been content in leaving what they knew of each other where it was, she seemed more than determined not to. "I.. wasn't expecting that." She admitted, clearly taken aback. For a moment she wondered if maybe she'd misinterpreted the meaning behind her interest and taken it in a completely different direction than was intended. "But what I said still stands, whether or not I know of you is entirely different from knowing you. Not that I am that invested in that, either, but I suppose now I know a little bit more than I anticipated." She added.

Shrugging, Vesta turned away and gestured towards the destruction beside them.

"This is who I am." She said simply. "I have purpose, meaning, and I find it in what it is that I do, in who I do it for. Everyone I have ever met seems to have some motivation behind the things they do, something that is intrinsically relative to what they want, a selfish center of sorts."

She paused, looking back at Naivia Neryn with a puzzled look.

"I suppose except for you, which is what I thought was curious. Figured maybe I'd entertain you and see if my assumption of people was right and there was something hidden there, some reason you had for acting in the way you do - but I guess I was wrong." Vesta explained, sitting herself down on a piece of fallen duracrete. "You're strange, someone who wants to do things because it is right, and, in a galaxy that is full of people who want to pretend the things they do are right because they benefit themselves, that is rather interesting."

"It means that the galaxy I want to replace this one with is possible."

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn listened intently to Mori in the posture of a completely calm, at-home person. She tried to understand how Mori planned to change the galaxy and to what extent she was confident in her abilities. After the girl finished her monologue, Neryn replied

"Do I understand you correctly that even though you relate to everything around you, you have a certain model of galaxy structure in your head that is radically different from the galaxy that exists here and now? If so, I'd be interested to hear you out, unless of course you have important business and next assignments to fly. It's just that life flies and all the time something is wanted from you, you owe something. I don't like it, I'll be honest. I don't have a picture of the galaxy for people, but like I said earlier, I do as I see fit. Maybe it will help generations in the future to enjoy life and taste the fruits I planted in the past, or maybe it's the other way around. In any case, you should know that you don't waste a second talking to me, again, my point. Even if you fly away, I will still stay to help and build the city again, as I have things to do outside the city. Gathering fruit and everything else, not only for the local biology lectures but also for the market. It's a bit more work now, but I don't blame you, not one bit. You can help me out and we can discuss something. The city's destroyed anyway, as scary as it is. Another episode and I've decided to take a stand like this. I'm not recommending anything to you. But I'd appreciate it if you'd stay with me a little while longer. I enjoy talking to you, Mori "

Darth Mori

 

[Vesta]

She shrugged, not entirely certain herself on what it was that she wanted - she didn't have any idea of what the little things would look like, just the big picture that remained hanging at the back of her mind. She had spoken so, as Naivia Neryn continued, she listened. Contrary to what many others likely thought of her, narrow-minded and presumptuous as they tended to be, challenging her own perspective of the galaxy, of others, was considerably more important in structuring her own beliefs than any petty pursuit for power. Naivete though it might be, Naivia still acted in a manner not quite so far removed from what she wanted all others to behave in the idealized future she held in her mind.

The problem, however, was that nobody else could be trusted to act in the way she did.

It wouldn't matter if she seized power over the stars, didn't matter if she destroyed every last vestige of civilization and made her own ruling class to oversee it all - once she was gone there would be nothing to stop the cycle from starting again. "Under different circumstances we might have been friends, I must admit." She replied, standing up from the debris she had been sitting on. "But I am not looking to change the ways things are, the way people are, because I know how pointless that would be; I cannot force someone to be as blameless as someone like you, it isn't in me to play the part of a hopeless tyrant."

She gestured to the ruins around them, a sweeping hand clearing away the debris like a slate wiped clean. "This, this is what I want to do to this wretched, failed, galaxy." Mori said. There was a bitterness to her words, like personal experience had colored her thoughts. "The people here, everywhere, aren't worthy of a second chance - they've had so many. I, we.. the Brotherhood of the Maw intends to destroy this hellscape and clear away the remains, to lift up a new galaxy, a new reality, from its ashes."

"I desire one without the monsters that made my goal a necessity, a better one."

She paused, her stare somber, a wistful sigh followed before she continued.

"Filled with people like you so that people like me never come to exist again."

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn listened carefully to Mori and then stood up and walked over to her and bent down and kissed her hand and then stepped back a few meters and sat down again quietly continuing her speech

"This is in solidarity and my personal sympathy, don't ask me what I might like about the character and your mission, but the value of any organism and intelligent creator is something personal and also public, each in their own way. The lights wandering the galaxy have always caught my attention, you could even say finding and communicating with them was one of the main goals of my early life, as it was awesome to just stand around and gabble all day about everything in the world. I always try to make friends as it gives a certain assurance that I have been heard, my thoughts and my warnings. I exist autonomously in this world at this stage and honestly, I wish the same for you. Sounds selfish yes, silly perhaps, childish of course, but regardless of that, Mori , you have a unique role in history that no one and no one else can ever replace, you are wonderful in your own way. I will always be glad to hear your voice and your opinion, I wonder what's in your heart that really hurts, not so, nonsense, but even it says something worthwhile about you and your plans. Don't worry, I won't even follow you, do what you want and don't look backback. I believe in you"

Darth Mori