Dominion The Truth in Pain | SE Dominion of Ossus

[Ishani Dinn]

Oh, for crying out loud!

She tried to hide her frustration with his non-answers to her questions, but it was there, adding to the tension between them. She wanted to know. She needed to know.

So did the Worm’s spies, probably.

Resigning herself to whispers and implied statements rather than explicit ones, she asked, “Are you okay now?” That was, after all, the most important question. It meant the nightmare she’d had of his execution wasn’t going to come true. She had a feeling that this was never going to end, but if he was at least safe, that would be something.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

His answer, or lack thereof, obviously wasn't what she wanted to hear.​

​

Couldn't really blame her for that. He'd done a terrible job explaining himself. It wasn't even that people could be listening in, if they wanted answers they could wretch them from him. He let out a slight sigh.​

​

"I'll be fine," he assured her, swallowing back some of his own doubt to try and make her feel better. The fact of the matter was he didn't really know how his actions would affect his future. Had no real way of knowing.​

​

"I just... I had to get away for a little while. Clear my head. I should have contacted you sooner, beyond just the package, and for that I apologize. I just didn't want to be found at the time." He cupped her cheek, lifted her head some so she'd look him in the eye. "It wasn't that I didn't want you to find me. Just... I wasn't ready to face the music. Does that make sense?"​

​

A little better an explanation, surely? Something with a touch more weight to it. Sincerity.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“I’ll be fine.”

She watched his throat bob as he swallowed after saying it. Oh great. He was trying to reassure her, but it was pretty obvious he wasn’t sure of his own standing.

“You know, most guys don’t mail their girlfriend a bag of magic sand to show they’re all right,” she said with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood. “I get it. I understand. Just please, for the love of all that’s good and holy, don’t ever do it again.” She doubted he would.

Well, if he wasn’t going to talk about where he’d been these past couple months, she might as well.

“I looked for you. Well, me and Alina and Melydia all did. I’d heard rumors you were attending some sort of Sith university, so I checked all the academies in all the Sith territories. I even… went to Coruscant, to see if you’d been captured.” She didn’t mention the exact circumstances of that little misadventure, but maybe it was a story for another time. “I was afraid I was being watched, so I stopped actively searching... didn't want to risk doing you more harm than good.”

Her expression suddenly crumpled, wet eyes betraying the pain and turmoil she’d been feeling. She took a deep breath and exhaled, fighting to keep it together. Crying now was stupid. “Arcturus, you drive me fething crazy,” she said, grabbing him and kissing him again, this time not so chastely.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"What would you have preferred I sent?" he inquired; it took him a moment to realize what she'd actually said, eyes widened just a touch before narrowing at her. Only the lightest sign of a smirk betrayed the fact that it wasn't a serious kind of narrowing. "Girlfriend, is it?" He waited to see if her cheeks would redden, he did so like it when she blushed, before allowing the smirk to play over his lips fully. If lightening the mood was what she'd been aiming for she'd managed it.​

​

For a moment at least.​

​

He shook his head, a certain sadness entering his gaze as she begged him not to do it again. "It won't happen again." And if it did? Then he'd make sure she knew. He could run away from the rest of the Galaxy if he let her know about it right? Maybe they could run away tog-- No. He couldn't think like that. That was dangerous.​

​

The more she spoke the more somber he and the air between them seemed to become. Guilt eclipsed his expression, as she told him all about how she'd tried to hunt him down herself. "You did all that?" he breathed, with another gulp. He couldn't rightly let her know how right she'd been about the University thing, he wasn't sure how airtight his standing within the Pomojema even was. Coruscant though... That was just mindboggling.​

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"I was there, for a time. Coruscant, I mean. Not with the Jedi though." Well, not with the Jedi Order he should say. It was a Jedi he stayed with, a Jedi and that Jedi's family and friends. A bit insane now that he thought about it. Something he didn't wish to dwell upon. His new orders, his new purpose so to speak, would well and truly slam the door shut on all of that.​

​

The thought of those orders had his jaw set, and a seriousness settled over him. Wait, was she crying? He blinked, no not quite but close. "I'm sorr--" Another kiss, this time she didn't hold back. Once more it softened him of his tense state, thoughts of the tasks which lay in his future drifted away and he succumbed to the moment.​

​

Soon enough they'd have to actually get to work here, they couldn't leave empty handed, but it was easy to forget the task at hand when she was around.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Yes, girlfriend, you goof.” She paused, breaking off the kiss to breathe. Her brow furrowed. “Wait, did you say you were on Coruscant?”

She groaned. So close! Just her luck.

During the kiss, she had more or less tried to climb him like a tree, but now she was beginning to realize that it was kinda weird to be doing this inside the ruins of a recently destroyed temple. Not that they, as completely legitimate Sith, cared about disrespecting dead Jedi. No no no, not at all. It was just, y’know. Dirty. Uncomfortable. Unhygienic. Generally not a good spot to be making out in, among other things. She shimmied off of him.

“... Why are you here?” she asked. “In this place, I mean. You’re pretty far away from the camp…” She knew, because she had to freaking drive all the way here to reach him.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Goof. Psht. Like she could talk.​

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He leaned in and kissed her forehead, then glanced around the room. Truth be told he hadn't had a chance to scope it out much after entering, because he'd become distracted by her. It was a smaller room than the one he'd initially entered into, the one with the various pieces of furniture. There were a few storage cupboards in here, some shelves, and what looked to be the kind of thing he was after.​

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"Yeah, not near the surface though. Big place, didn't realize how big until I was lost within it." Well, only partly lost. And even then only when Starlin left him to his own devices. He reached up and scratched along his jaw when she asked why he was here.​

​

For whatever reason he'd just presumed she'd come for the same thing. Now he realized she must have sensed him and tracked him down. Huh.​

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"I was given orders to find anything of note within the outlying temples. Figured I'd start my search here, away from - well... away from the Graug, really." And other Sith, but that was preferable to the Graug lets be honest. "I think we're supposed to burn the rest, but..." But what? Did he really want to get in further trouble by preserving random Jedi chit? Knowledge that could be utilized by their next generations? Nope. Nope he did not.​

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"I'd rather not destroy knowledge, but an order's an order."​

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There was that seriousness again, it seeped into his tone and his expression before he could really tame it.​

​

He took a few steps into the room, pushed aside a broken shelf with the toe of his boot then reached down to pick up a little flimsiplast book he'd unearthed in doing so.​

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"How do we even know what's of interest and what needs to be burned, though?" He supposed he couldn't really see the Worm Emperor being interested in The Lost Little Bantha Cub, a book he'd first learned to read with when he was first brought to Maliphant. But any unearthed holocrons, or artifacts... Yeah he supposed deep down he did know something of a way to differentiate.​

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Still seemed a shame though.​

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Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“So you were given the same orders as everybody else, myself included, but you just wanted to be alone.” She shrugged. “Well, if you’d like me to leave, I suppose I could…”

It was obviously a joke. She wasn’t going anywhere. Why she was being so jokey now, she wasn’t sure. Maybe because it was too painful otherwise, and she needed humor to cope.

Like the children’s book he found among the wreckage. She shifted her stance uncomfortably at the sight of it, though there was a little silver lining to it, too. Some of the kids that had lived here had survived the invasion.

Stepping as close to him as she could manage, she placed her hand over his (the one that was holding the book) and whispered, “Why did you do it?” Hopefully he would understand what she was asking, given the context.

She wasn’t going to judge him for what he’d done on Ossus, certainly not. In fact, she liked him more knowing that he’d had that in him, even if he’d paid the price for it. It was part of the reason why she’d been so adamant about protecting him while he was still on the run. Still, she was curious. What had possessed him to save Jedi younglings in the middle of a battle?

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Syala Daivik]

Objective III
In the streets
Cato Demora

Darkness had befallen Ossus, stripping the planet of its vitality and leaving her with the taste of ashes on her tongue and a heaviness that settled into her very core. Too many had already died here, and more were suffering still. Pain permeated everything on the planet, and try as she did to block out the agony it rolled in again in waves. It made her incredibly sad both for those suffering and those committing the atrocities, for both needed saving in their own way. None here were truly lost, even those that had already fallen. But that, perhaps, was a trial to undergo another day.

For now, well. As much as she wanted to be a beacon of hope her work was better done quietly and with anonymity while she existed as nothing more than another disparaged citizen of yet another planet ravaged by the Sith. She kept her Force signature suppressed, lightsaber hidden away and robes foregone for attire more typical of the average civilian. Blending in was the easy part, and without the telltale Jedi weapon at her belt there was nothing that caused her to stand out from the others that milled about the streets with nowhere to go.

It was getting people out that was the hard part. There were four other Jedi that had come with her, donning similar attire and journeying into various settlements like this one to find survivors and escort them to safety while simultaneously staying under the nose of the Sith and their ilk that combed the streets hunting them down. This was made more complicated by the fact that the designated landing zone for the shuttles that would bring them all to safety was well outside the city limits, and getting both in and out was yet another hurdle difficult to cross.

She wouldn’t give up hope, though. That was when they truly lost.

Already she had directed two others to safety, quietly pulling them aside and explaining herself, giving hastily explained directions to the safe zone and inviting them to stay with her or leave their own way if they wanted. Staying together made them more conspicuous, but so many of those stranded here were children, and she would rather keep them close by than risk any of them getting caught alone between the patrols that so far had been narrowly avoided. There was strength in numbers, even though it was likely difficult for most of them to believe. They were stronger together.

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"I mean, I could've helped the Graug instead; somehow this seemed preferable." Help them find slaves, no thank you. Not in a hundred billion years. She wasn't wrong though, he had come all this way to be alone, to avoid being spotted. He hadn't been ready for reunions such as this one, had been too afraid his reasoning would be shoddy and friendships would be ended.​

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But she'd found him all the same. Some things were just meant to be.​

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He rolled his eyes some to what she said all the same, enjoying the temporary lapse in seriousness she brought to the table. It was nice to just forget his worries, even if only temporarily, to live as he had lived before first coming to Ossus. To enjoy the company of his fellow Acolytes, and to feel as though his every step and decision wasn't being judged. Carefree. Even if only for a while.​

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When she sided up to him and settled a hand over his and the book he turned his head to look at her as best he could, with the angle it wasn't exactly the easiest. She was smol after all. Her question held his heart in a firm vice, and for a moment he was breathless. He shouldn't answer, they shouldn't have been having this discussion, not here, not now, not so soon after his talking to.​

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The book was released from his grasp, back into the pile below.​

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"I was naïve when I first came here," he finally breathed, "I didn't expect there'd be Younglings on a battlefield... But then," well, it wasn't a battlefield was it? It was a Temple turned battlefield. He let that trail off for a moment, before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter, it isn't going to happen again." With that he stepped further into the room, leaving the regular old books where they lay in search of greater prizes. Something that might actually be of use.​

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He couldn't keep dwelling on what he'd done, he had to get past it and grow. He'd been a fool, he'd made a mistake and chances were he'd be paying for it for many years to come. Who was going to trust him now?​

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Ishani Dinn​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

She could certainly understand why he didn’t want to be involved with the Graug. They were singularly unpleasant even without the slavery and planet-killing. But there was nothing she or Thesh, a pair of alchemy-obsessed acolytes, could do to stop them.

He answered her question, then moved on, clearly hoping she would drop the subject. She didn’t want to—she was as impatient to have answers to everything as she was to get him somewhere safe and warm where they could be truly alone together—but she knew she was pushing it. Even if no one was outside listening, everything was still raw. He needed time.

She followed him, sticking close, as if she couldn’t bear to let him out of her sight again. “I’m glad you did it,” she said, making it clear where she stood, at least. “We don’t need to be monsters. I...”

Her voice trailed off before she could say the rest. She wanted to tell him what she had done, how her feelings toward the Sith had changed. That she wanted to leave, and had only stayed here because of him, to be there when he returned. There was no reluctance now when she met his gaze, no timid darting eyes looking away as there had been when they first met in the forest. No questioning her sincerity. She trusted him completely.

But the words wouldn’t come. She hesitated, then closed her mouth, her eyes lowering, her lower lip trembling faintly. She was too afraid. It was all just a dream anyway.

“I wish I was as brave as you.” Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. Talk about something else. "Have you, uh, spoken to... Maliphant since you got back? Or anyone else?"

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Cato Demora]

Objective III: Hunt the Holdouts

The Frumentarii agent, dressed in full leather trench coat, repeated a summary of the meeting as the First Legion sat and listened. Casualities has thus far been high, as even breaking the fleet and defenses of Ossus had been a pyrrhic victory at best - a defeat, were it not for the Bryn'adul invasion further down the hyperlane. Between the traitors aboard Arthos Vynea 's own ships, the entire endeavor would have been nigh on a failure were it not for the quick thinking of Tython Antilles. The Admiral, while outnumbered and outgunned, had at least managed to hold off the Voss reinforcements until our own fleets were freed up - effectively securing their victory through attrition.

The issue was that attrition wasn't something they could win at long term. Now the command had come down from the Dark Council to begin rounding up the latent Jedi still on the planet, arrest them, and send them off to reeducation camps on Korriban - likely for the express purpose of reinforcing their waning forces. Already had the priest caste and Consul begin massive propaganda campaigns to change the local populations beliefs, which luckily wasn't that difficult since the Jedi were already an occupying force.

Now, freed, they worked hand in hand with the Sith Eternal to help vet their populations for anyone who would be considered a foreign agent. Philosophical differences had quickly turned brother against brother, and the growing unrest in the streets was quickly rising - from the religious zealots of the Eternal, and the immigrants from the Coalition's planets now forced to hide their beliefs, or desparetly seek transportation off world. If only it were so simple.

"So far, causalities are in the thousands. Rough estimates have them at about thirty six thousand - but are rising with the riots in Dela, Orastane, and Elemon. However, with the civil clashes a few have come forward anonymously to report families housing Jedi younglings, knights, and a few masters helping to coordinate smugglers to get them off planet.", the agent said as he pointed to the hologram showing a few red hot spots showing where they were.

"First Legion will be deployed here, here, and here to collect the largest groupings of them. It is required to be on non lethal rounds for the operation - but if necessary a few casuilities are to be accepted upon the Dark Council's orders. Anything higher than 10% of the total group will be considered an operational failure, and you will be reprimanded for such - which is why we called in the best.", the agent reinforced.

"Any questions?", he said as he reached over to grab his imperial cap.

The Legion collectively gave their iconic 'Hooyah' war cry, confirmation they didn't have anything to ask about and would be ready in only a matter of moments. The men grabbed their helmets, and Cato along with them - slinging their rifles on their shoulders, and beginning the short trek to the parked Adonis transports. In only a few minutes, crack downs and raids would take place across the planet - Cato and his team deployed directly to a group Syala Daivik would soon rendezvous with.

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"I thought I was giving them a choice," he said, as she spoke about not being monsters; it was true, they didn't have to be monsters, and had they been ordinary children then his decision would have made a difference. But they weren't. Their fate had already been decided for them. "Turns out I was just making it for them." Or at least strengthening the decision made by another. They were far too young to be part of this fight, yet time and time again children were being snatched from their families, or given up to the cause.​

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It made his blood boil, his cheeks were flushed after he spoke and he was quick to carry on through the Temple. It wasn't something he wanted to linger on, and thankfully she seemed to understand that. She was hesitant, there was more she wanted to say or ask but she didn't. He reached out and took her hand as they came into the next room, and he reached out through the Force to try and sense for anything out of the ordinary. Anything that could be of use.​

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Her question gave him pause though.​

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"Yeah, only Darth Maliphant though," he said, his tone was a little aloof and he didn't expand on it much more than that. He wasn't stupid, he knew that if he had been anyone else his talking to would have been far worse, would have been much more than a talking to, but it had shaken him all the same. He'd been anticipating it, had known it would come in some form, it was why he'd stayed away in truth, he couldn't face him. But he had in the end, and it felt as though years had been stripped from him.​

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Like he was back to square one.​

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In many ways he supposed he was.​

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"And for the record, you are brave," he said, hoping to switch the topic. Besides, what he'd done was stupid. It wasn't brave. Not that he'd bring that up right now, he just wanted the whole thing left well enough alone.​

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The Force swelled up around him and urged him on toward a door in the corner of the room. He might not have noticed it were it not for the Force in truth, it was partially covered by a fallen bookcase. He released her hand and moved toward it, pulling aside the bookcase so that they had a clear way through.​

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"Are you okay?" he finally asked, though his attention was definitely more on the task at hand, "Those idiots been leaving you alone?"​

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Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Making a choice for them? What was that supposed to mean?

“If they had died here, they wouldn’t get any more choices,” she said. The way he was talking about it… she knew he was scared, but he wasn’t just dancing around the subject, trying to avoid talking about it, he was making strange, vague statements that didn’t make much sense to her. Statements that didn’t sound like the Arcturus she knew.

“You saved them so they could live their lives the way they wanted to. Oh, don’t say the Jedi will brainwash them—we’re Sith, Arcturus. We believe in people, in the strength of the individual. The strongest among them will make their own way no matter how they’re raised.”

But he didn’t want to talk about this now, she reminded herself. It could wait, couldn’t it?

"And for the record, you are brave.”

Her cheeks flushed. She wanted to argue with him, to tell him the truth, but it was a compliment, and he was already becoming distracted. He asked her if she was okay.

“I’m fine,” she answered. It sounded like a lie. It was a lie. Every decision she thought she had made while he was gone seemed worthless the moment she saw him again. She was back to square one, her progress erased. She should have been overjoyed, for now she was no longer in conflict about what she should be doing and where she should be—but it wasn’t that simple.

“Things have been pretty boring here without you. I spent a lot of time looking at books. Now you’re back, and we’re looking at more books. But hey, it’s not like anybody is around to oversee us… wouldn’t you rather we went back to the speeder, turned the heat on, and fooled around in the backseat?”

She was smiling with pink cheeks as she said it, but in her eyes there was a look of need. To fully assure herself that this wasn’t a dream, and to begin to cover up what had happened between her and Dagon Kaze when she had gone to Coruscant, however brief and meaningless that had been.

“I missed you.”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"But the Jedi do have them," he argued, though his tone remained level, "They don't have much of a choice, we're all products of our upbringing in some way or another and it takes a good long while to break away from such. They saw their home destroyed by Sith, why wouldn't they join the fight against us now?"​

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With a grunt he shoved the bookcase out of the way and then pushed open the door it was barricading. Inside were a couple of corpses, no doubt the product of the Bryn'adul given that their own attacks were focused on the other side of the planet, old enough that he lifted his arm to cover his nose with his sleeve. The Force pulled him toward them all the same, and clutched within the grasp of one, half covered by his body, was a glowing blue holocron.​

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It wasn't a large entity, smaller than what he knew to be the standard, but it drew his attention all the same. These things were gatekeepered, there was no way they'd be able to get into it. He had a feeling that his Master would know if he even tried. Wasn't worth delving into it, not for Thesh, not anymore. Once upon a time he would have, just because of curiosity alone. But right now... Well...​

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"Maybe this'll be enough to say we did something," he remarked, as he leaned down and pried it away with his free hand. The two bodies on the floor still bothered him, laying there in the open as they were. "I doubt we'll find much else, looks like this is what was worth dying for to them."​

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He'd obviously do a quick search, but beyond that maybe it was best to let the dead burn and these ruins with it. No temptation that way.​

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He returned to his full height, then turned toward her as she suggested they do other things instead.​

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"I missed you too," he breathed, tone quiet but sincere, "And I wish we could, pretend we had no responsibilities, no worries..." He let out a sigh, pocketing the holocron with one hand and reaching out to brush her cheek with the other. "Things will settle soon, there'll be time for us. I'll make time for us." But right now he had much to prove, and he knew that she knew that too. He could see it in her eyes. "I'm glad you found me here, Ishani. And I'm sorry if I'm not the best of company right now."​

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Ishani Dinn​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

She didn’t really know what to say. Her own experience of shedding her upbringing had been difficult enough, requiring her to run away from home, lie to her family, reject most of what she’d been taught. She was still trying to unbind herself from it all even now. There were signs of the same in Arcturus, who in so many ways still thought of himself as Thesh the slave.

The stench of death hit her about a second after she propositioned him. She grimaced, covering her mouth and nose, but the smell was overpowering.

He’d found something, though. A blue holocron. That was a pretty good discovery. Maybe they could get the hell out of here now—

When he turned around and touched her cheek, her first instinct was to grab him and hold him, drag him out of here, run far away. She got as far as grasping the lapels of his jacket, then forced her fingers to unclench, resting her splayed palms against his chest. Don’t be clingy, Ish.

“You’re much better company than any I’ve had lately.” Which was true. Melydia and Alina were cooler than she thought, but they were no Arcturus Thesh. “Bit of a mood killer anyway, finding two dead bodies.”

She turned her attention to the holocron in his hand. “You’re afraid to open it, aren’t you?” Her tone was half-challenge, half-sympathy. “I could try, if you want. I’m not as… set in my ways as you.” Not yet, at least.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"I'm not afraid," he replied, with a thoughtful tone, turning it over within his pocket. It felt strange, almost as though it was pulsing with life. "I just... I have enough to think about at the moment, without potentially adding more unknowns to the list. Does that makes sense?" It probably didn't make sense, she hadn't been in the room when he'd returned to Darth Empyrean she hadn't heard what was said, nor the orders he'd been given. The realizations he'd come to, or the way in which he'd been set back by his actions.​

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Adding more to that would be foolish. So he kept the holocron where it was, even as she expressed an ability to try and get it to work.​

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"Come on, I don't much want to dance with death," he said, eyes briefly slipping to the two dead Jedi. The room they were in was small, he didn't see or sense much else of note. Best they leave them in peace, and seek out anything else that might have been present. "Unless you want a new lightsaber," he said, eyes picking up on the hilts those two Jedi carried. ​

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He was only joking, but as he said the words and they hung there between them he realized it wasn't actually so bad of an idea. There might have been unique parts, and if not well another weapon was another weapon. So he pulled one of them to his free hand with the Force, and left the other for Ish if she wanted it.​

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Then he turned and exited the room.​

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"What did you mean?" he asked, quietly, as he walked across the threshold, "Set in my ways?" Well, truth be told the question he wanted answering was more along the lines of where she saw herself than where she saw him, but he hadn't really worded it in the best of ways. Mostly because he was quoting her. He frowned some in thought.​

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Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Ah. Well, I can respect that.”

She was more than happy to get the hell away from the dead bodies, too. Once she was beyond smelling distance of the grave, she asked, “What are you thinking about?”

She assumed it was something Maliphant had told him, given that he had mentioned a discussion between them, but she didn’t want to pry… okay, she absolutely wanted to pry. Ishani’s opinion of the man had been steadily declining purely based on what she’d heard and learned about him secondhand, even though their interactions with each other had been scarce. In their most prolific encounter, she had told him that she would kill him to avenge Arcturus. Although that had been in a dream, and she really hoped he hadn’t actually heard it.

“Ew,” she responded to his suggestion that she take their lightsabers. “Lightsabers are horrifying enough as it is when they haven’t been sitting in corpse juice for Force knows how long.”

He took one of them, anyway. Boys and their toys.

As he crossed the threshold, she was back to touching him, but trying to make it look like she wasn’t touching him, because they were on a mission, and they needed to be focused, and not distracted. Yeah...

“Set in your ways, as in, leaning too far one way in the Force,” she answered, nuzzling his neck a little. She hadn’t forgotten the look on his face the first time she got a little too intimate with his throat, and while she wasn’t taking it as far this time, she was trying to draw a similar reaction from him, smirking as she did it. “I’ve been told I’m… more neutral, I guess. I haven’t had the chance to take things further. I can learn anything I want, with no limitations except how much work I put into it. So if you're concerned you wouldn't be able to open this because the gatekeeper can smell the Dark on you, or whatever, I might be able to trick them."

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

She really did have a thing against lightsabers, didn't she? He wondered if that was something which could eventually be mitigated... Wondered if it was something she even wanted mitigated. There was nothing wrong with a healthy dose of caution where such was concerned, but he found that learning how to properly wield one helped in avoiding any sort of unwanted damage it might bring. Still he couldn't blame her.​

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The question of what was on his mind still lingered between them, but truth be told he didn't really have much of an answer. There was much he wasn't yet willing to bring to the surface, it wasn't a her thing it was a him thing, but outside of that? "Nothing, really," he said, with a soft frown to accompany it, "Mostly just thinking of ways we can finish up here sooner, but I've got nothing." Once this Temple was done, would they be expected to move on to the next? And then the next?​

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That was a dizzying thought.​

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Truth be told he just wanted to go back home. Back to Korriban, so that things could slowly return to normal.​

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Whatever the feth normal was for Thesh anymore.​

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When she seemed to want some sort of contact with him, while still allowing them to do their temporary tasks, he reached out and took her hand. It was an easy enough action, one that provided them the comfort they needed without being too distracting. Not hindering the job here, nope!​

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"Oh," came his response to her explanation, and he supposed that made sense, "Yeah, you're probably right." Truth be told it was his deep dive into Alchemy and sorcery that had him on the darker side of the spectrum, certainly it wasn't ever his personality which caused it. But he knew that time would only see him fall further down that path. From the sounds of it, Ishani wasn't fully set on this path for herself. That was worrying news in truth, but now wasn't the time to discuss it. No doubt one of these days the topic would be brokered once more.​

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"Don't let the others know that," he said instead, setting aside his own thoughts on it for the time being, "They might see it as some sort of challenge, might feel the need to push you further down this path."​

​

It was selfish of him to want her to delve deeper, he knew that, but if she didn't, if she took the neutral road away from the Sith, then he'd likely lose her somewhere along the way. But what was that saying? Set it free... Yeah, he wouldn't be the reason she was held back.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Tithon Antilles]

In Orbit...

Tithon stood with hands clenched behind his back, his jaw tight as he looked upon the graveyard before him. They had managed to fight off the forces of Gir Quee - but the cost had been immense. Their fleets were crippled, their ships brought to rubble; with what remained serving as the gravemarkers of a thousand men. In the distance, he was sure he could even see a few officers floating through the empty void of space - forcing him to close his eyes and avert his attention to the ground.

"Sir?", Vo asked from behind him. Tithon glanced up to her with his apathetic gaze, offering none of his internal emotion to her.

"Clean up efforts have begun. A necropolis is being opened on Korriban to bury the men when they are collected, and the ships remains will be collected and recycled at Site C8765-A.", she said, glancing to the PDA in her hand.

"For the naval officers -", Tithon interjected, "- give them a burial in space. Give them each a piece of their ship. A man who dies with their ship, should stay with their ship - for as long as they can."

Tithon's voice was solemn, and it brought Vo to a momentary pause. She swallowed, then began to type her fingers across the PDA to change the order.

"Anything else, Sir?", she asked.

"No. Continue the efforts, and see that the Korriban Defense Fleet is quickly rearmed - we must expect a response from the Sith Empire."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani pulled back, forcing herself to resist the urge to physically engulf Arcturus. She was pushing it too far. Feeling a little embarrassed, she tried to hide it with a cough, although it wound up sounding worse than she intended. She’d forgotten about the cold after their reunion began, but now it was reminding her of its presence with a vengeance.

“I guess I should try to find something useful too, huh? Not that there’s much left here…”

Stuffing her free hand into her pocket, she looked around, trying to open herself to the Force and let it guide her. It didn’t really work—her connection was crapping out on her again, probably because of how distracted her thoughts were.

Arcturus seemed a bit concerned by the fact that she was still neutral. Ishani bit her lip. “I mean, it’s… I just got here, you know? You’ve been with the Sith for years, I showed up at the academy only a few months ago. I’ve barely gotten the basics down. Baby steps.”

She was unwilling to tell him the rest of the story. Not only did it seem too dangerous to do so at this moment, she didn’t really know how to explain it to him in a way that wouldn’t be upsetting. He didn’t need to be upset right now.

Still gnawing on her lip, she said, “You know, these big temples—don’t they usually have underground vaults as part of their archives? Places where they keep stolen Sith artifacts and contraband locked up because they’re ‘too dangerous’ to be left out in the open?” They might try to find such a place, assuming it hadn’t already been raided by the Bryn’adul or the Sith forces.

Arcturus Dinn​