Thinking Alone | Romeo

[Mira Starwind]

Mira sat on the bed in her cabin aboard the starship Ryuk, her golden gaze fixed on the cosmos outside. She watched in awe as the stars twinkled and the planets orbited. She had been staring out the windows of starships almost her whole life, but the sight still amazed her. Mira found a distant supernova on the ship's trek through the galaxy, a barely visible smile coming to her face. It was so hot, she could see the solar flares hundreds of parsecs away. That supernova, and every other one like it, as well as every sun in the galaxy, was her namesake. Starwind. A name chosen by her own mind, picked when she was rescued by [member="Romeo Sin"]. A name signifying her new life with her new master.

Speaking of master, she wondered where the dark Jedi was. He had given her a break from her training, possibly because he had his own matters to attend to. She thought about possibly checking to see what he was doing, but the instinct of fear held her back. Every day, she had to tell herself that she was in a different ship. That she would not be punished for speaking without being spoken to, or leaving her room when told to have free time. Even a year after her freedom, she was still mentally living under the rule of her captors.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

Space was something was getting more used to, mainly because all his forces lived in his fleet, including himself now. He hadn't visited Elcipstica in so long, it was only right to take a trip to go see what had happen. That, and he had business to conduct there. Since [member="Aedan Miles"] no longer kept it up, the people ruled it, and the forces left there watched over them. This was how it should be, but it had to change. Romeo had once again have to come rescue those people. Reports were coming in that Primevil was closing in, and the late King of Shadows knew what this meant. Civilian ships had been added to the Hikage Armada as live ships for them to attend. In fact, he was coming back from a meeting with his second in command, Celty Toligan, about the Space Station he was creating for them, and his forces to live on. He had left his new apprentice to her own devices, a break from training.

@Maya Starwind, though, was a child of little words, and big wisdom, a trait cherished by Romeo, but loathed as well. He understood that this was because of fear, memories of being beaten, and slaved. A half Enchani, half human child, she was perfect for what he wanted in a apprentice, hand picked by himself after consulting the little council of Dark Jedi he was part of. [member="Solan Charr"] said it was time to pick up the mantle once more, and teach the ways of the force. He was right.

Romeo found himself already walking down the hall of the living quarters of the Ryuk, he had left his jacket at the command room, and bore only his black long sleeve that showed off his body's fitness along with pants that were part of his captain's uniform and black boots that seemed to make no noise as he took each step. That was from years of training to be light on his feet.
He found himself at her door, and knocked.
"Mira? It's Romeo."

 

[Mira Starwind]

At the sound of the knocking, Mira shrank back against the wall of her cabin for a brief moment, but upon hearing Romeo's voice, she relaxed. She moved until she was sitting on the edge of the bed, then she got to her feet. She stood perfectly straight, her spine like it was attached to a metal rod. Her chin was up and her hands were clasped together in front of her waist. Her facial expression was as usual; solemn, not showing any emotion. In her mind, she smiled wide at [member="Romeo Sin"]'s voice, jumping up and down excitedly as she thought about more training or simply spending time with her master. But outside her mind, she was still and quiet. "Come in."

 

[The Red of Sinner]

A click of a but to caused the door to slide open, and reveal his apprentice was standing attentive. Romeo sighed, and placed a hand on her head, gently petting her.
"Relax." He spoke softly but with a cold tone. Removing his hand, and walking over to the windows of the room, he watched the stars go by.
"We're about to go into hyperspace. We're going to continue your training on Eclipstica. There's a certain something there I want you go have. A companion if you will." He turned and looked at her. "Till then, I thought we could take a walk."

 

[Mira Starwind]

Mira nodded and would follow him wherever he went in the ship. She would follow him to the ends of the earth and back, but she wouldn't tell him. She didn't think she ever would. She wouldn't say anything, letting him lead her. Her thoughts went to everything else as they walked, the pleasures of not focusing on what to say. The click of their heels on the metallic floor, the beeps and hums of the ship as it sailed. The dark presence of her master next to her. She thought about hyperspace and the jump it would take. She wondered how far away Eclipstica was, but she wouldn't ask. She merely counted their steps as she walked, taking note of the fact that each of [member="Romeo Sin"]'s steps were equal to two of her smaller ones. She sure did a lot of thinking.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]

The soft clanking of the boots among the echoes of other people walking filled the ship with constant noise, and activity. Ryuk was always this lively, with a army, the ship's crew, and various passengers that would come, and go, this was the reason for a new approach to the fleet. "What's on your mind Mira? How do you like it here, does the Ryuk's crew treat you alright?" Romeo asked as they made their way to the hangar, this was where they were heading, mainly cause Romeo was ready to retire to his yacht.

 

[Mira Starwind]

Mira nodded, her eyes darting around to take in the sights of the many crew members performing their duties. However her head remained facing forward, only her eyes moved. "The Ryuk is a very nice ship." She answered, her eyes flicking forward, taking note of where they were going. The hallways over here were unfamiliar to her. She wanted to know where they were going, but fear held her back. On the other ship, if she asked a question, she was punished. She had to yet again remind herself that she was safe here, that no one would hurt her. Yet the thing about fear, especially for a person, was that it never truly went away. "I'm being treated very well. Thank you for your hospitality." At the last note, a small tone of gratitude filled her usually monotone voice. Her mind moved a mile a minute as she kept thinking. She didn't answer his first question. A lot of things were on her mind, but she purposefully didn't mention it. Would [member="Romeo Sin"] punish her for it? Maybe she should have answered after all.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]

The tall man waved off the compliment, and continued walking at a pace of that a man with things to do, and things on his mind. She hadn't answered his first question, he sighed. "The mind wonders too much sometimes, and your's wonders a lot. You have things you are thinking, I could just pry them out, if I wanted. I would rather not." The threat was more of a bluff to see how she would react, as Romeo was always teaching, and testing his students. This was just how he did things. "I built the Ryuk, and his brothers. My old friends commands the rest of them, though, I doubt they put so much attention into them as I do." Suddenly, as they took a turn, Commander Ryes stood attentive, waiting for Romeo to appear.
"My lord, we are about to jump into hyperspace. I also have a message from the council on Eclipstica, they are having the Gundan's, and police forces gather the citizens up that want to be back under your protection. The council has decided to stay on the planet...who is this?" The commander had given a very professional salute, and spoke quickly, but audibly. Romeo's eyebrow arched. "My new apprentice, Mira. Mira, this is Commander Ryes. My second in command when it comes to ground forces. He leads the Drakon Regiment as a whole. Ryes, this is Mira, she is a refugee from our raids on the One Sith back in the day. I suspect you two will be working very close together..so get acquainted with one another."

 

[Mira Starwind]

Under the threat of prying out her thoughts, Mira visibly flinched as she imagined it would be a painful process. Threats meant pain. She didn't say a word, just clenched her fists as she prepared for pain that never came. They turned the corner and a man stood attentive. He began listing off reports after a salute. Then he questioned Mira's identity. Again, she didn't answer, just met his questioning gaze with her stoic one. Under her master's instructions to get acquainted with Commander Ryes, Mira bowed, then straightened up. She found herself mirroring the Commander's professional stance. "The Ryuk is proud to have you leading the Drakon Regiment. You must be very good." Her voice was quiet, but well enunciated so the two men could still hear her.

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]

The soldier nodded as Romeo as his eyes shifted over to the little one next to him. "Nice to meet you ma'am, and thank you, I like to think I get the job done right." He turned around to follow after as Romeo started walking without any notice. "He is one of the best. Anyways, let discuss this movement, Mira. We're moving tens of thousands of people from a planet, to a asteroid field...which reminds me. Are the stations being prepared as we speak?" Romeo stopped, placing a hand on Mira's head, petting her once more. It was more instinct then anything else. "Yes sir, the team's carving them out as we speak, and their already half way done with one. Reports say that one, or two ships maybe able to unload the civilians aboard, but the rest will have to wait." Romeo nodded. "Mira, this group, the Primevil, are a very nasty type of people. When we tried to make contact with them, they opened fire upon us. Their a plague upon this galaxy, as is the One Sith. Tell me, once we remove the citizens wishing to leave the planet, what would you do afterwards?"

 

[Mira Starwind]

Mira followed the men as they continued on their walk, staying closer to her master's right hand side. They began talking about moving people to an asteroid field, which confused the padawan. Why would people want to live there? When Romeo began explaining the Primeval, she began to understand. The Primeval were evil, just like the One Sith. She knew she had been kidnapped and tortured by the One Sith, as Romeo had explained it to her. "The Primeval are currently on the planet we're evacuating the citizens from, correct?" Her voice was very monotone, her face expressionless as she thought of possibilities. If it was not the correct planet, she would stay silent. If her question was correct, and the Primeval were on the planet, she would nod. "Then destroy the planet."

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]

Romeo shook his head, and petted her head. "Wrong, they are indeed surrounding it, but we do not destroy planets...but...we probably should. Ryes?" The Vahla turned his head to look at his commander. "It's extreme, but the kid is right, we take what we can, and leave nothing behind for the Primevil. There are many important information banks in the keep we should take, and wipe." The commander then turned his attention to the apprentice and winked. "Not bad kid. Of course, sir, Vitae will be very angry with you, there will be citizens left behind that will get caught in the bombardment...you have that to consider..." The man leaned against the wall, this was a hard decision. "Celty should be here to make the decision, let's make our way to the second bridge. Anyways, there is an animal we need to get you before do that, we also need to get them onto the ships for reproduction later on Vitae planets.."

 

[Mira Starwind]

Throughout the disagreements, agreements, and praise, Mira stayed quiet. So she had been wrong. The Primeval were not on that planet. She just made a decision to destroy a planet they didn't need to. If she had been in charge and there wasn't anyone to disagree with her, millions of lives would be lost. Did she really want that? She wasn't sure what she wanted, but she was wrong.

Her body tensed as she waited for the abuse to begin. The last bruises she received were over a year ago, and were well past healed by now. She was wrong. She deserved to have the bruises replaced. Her small hands clenched into tiny fists and she stared at the floor. For Force users like her master, her entire aura would change entirely. Her normal aura was calm and stagnant, with no sudden emotional spikes, if there were any emotions at all. But as she clenched her fists, it seemed to send a shockwave to the area around her. A spike of fear shot out from her as her muscles tensed, the spike invisible to everyone but Force users.

She was afraid. She was wrong, she deserved punishment. That's what happened back with the One Sith. Failure in answers or actions led to physical punishment. So she waited. The rest of what her master and the Commander were saying turned to white noise, blurred words she couldn't hear over her own screams of agony in her head. Residual memories from her time with the Sith.

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]

As the two thrown thoughts around like juggling balls around. As they continued moving through the ship, troopers were moving back, and forth, some were patrolling, others were heading to posts, and to return reports. Fear waved through force, and it came from behind Romeo who quickly turned his head in mid sentence.

"Mira, relax. You weren't wrong, you weren't. You opinion was simply asked of you, and you gave it." Romeo took a knee before her. "Take a deep breath in, and then slowly let it out apprentice. Do not let your emotions control you." He took her hand, and gently placed it against his chest as he did this breathing exercise.

"Kid, it's all good. We actually are taking your idea into consideration. You can't just go off that idea though, you have to go through with everyone to make sure it's the ONLY way to go. You should consider all the ways if there are any." The commander spoke as well. She wasnt in trouble at all.

 

[Mira Starwind]

She stared at Romeo without a word as he talked, following his instructions in the breathing exercise. Her hand was placed on his chest and she could feel his heart beat. Strong, steady, calm. Calm. The word repeated in her mind as she nodded, continuing to breath. Her gaze never left Romeo's, even when the Commander spoke up. They were taking her idea into consideration? Why? She didn't think it was that good, it was just the answer she thought her master would want to hear. Slowly, she began to calm down, the levels of fear in her aura diminishing until it was the same, stagnant, emotionless air she always had around her. With a small nod to indicate she was feeling better, she lowered her hand from Romeo's chest.

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]


Taking a deep breath, Romeo closed his eyes, and rubbed his forehead with his right hand. With the left, he held her hand still even though she tried to remove it. "The Primevil can never get a hold of our secrets, and the planet holds most of it in just one place Mira. Maybe we wont destroy the planet, but the keep that holds the library...maybe that should go. So even though, yes, your suggestion was a probably not the right idea, you still contributed to the plan with something we should have done years ago. The people who don't leave will be left to their own demise, that's their choice." He left go of her hand, and then patted her head with a smile. "Looks like you'll have your hands full with this one Sin." A female voice of a mature tone spoke from behind them. Celty had made her own way to them in the time they had to stop to calm Mira. Ryes quickly saluted her. "At ease Commander Ryes. So, this is the new apprentice Sin?" She said with a smirk, not of mocking but of sizing up the little one beside Romeo. "She is indeed. Mira this is Captain Celty Toligon of the Ryuk, my first mate, and second in command when it comes to fleeting. Celty this is Mira Starwind. She was one of many refugees from the One Sith raids."

The captain took a step forward, her uniform fitting her shape to a t, with an elegant walk about her gait. "A pleasure to meet you Mira. I look forward to working beside you. Sin can be rough around the edges sometimes, and can be pretty tough on his student. But it's all for your own good. Remember that." She turned to look at Romeo. "We just jumped into hyperspace. Should take us a few days to get back home. We'll be making a few stops ahead to refuel, and do some recon for Primevil forces. We'll be sending the BlackFires ahead of us for those missions." Ryes, now relaxed moved his hands to the ear of his helmet as if he was listening to something. "Sir, we got a problem on level D...appears we have a stow away. We have the person under custody as we speak."

 

[Mira Starwind]

She stared at Romeo with her emotionless expression as he talked about her plan and how it wasn't the best, but it was still good. That confused Mira slightly, but she didn't comment on it. If her master was pleased, then she shouldn't rebuke him. She was happy that they would be following some of her plan to destroy a keep, and admitted she proposed something they should have done years ago.

An older woman approached them then and more introductions were made. The captain gave Mira advice, and the padawan responded with a courteous bow. "Thank you for your advice, Captain Toligon. I shall follow it wholeheartedly." Then she straightened up as the woman continued on about hyperspace and their future plans. When the report came about the stowaway, Mira stared up at Romeo with a look that screamed 'what do we do?' On the Sith ship, there weren't any stowaways. Why would there be in that horrid place? "A stowaway?" Her mind instantly jumped to the first thing her memory had on people who were bad, as she had the feeling stowaways weren't a good thing. "Are we going to torture them?"

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]

They all three looked at her with a raised brows, as this was something that would have come from Salvor, or maybe even Romeo's daughter, but from this little one, it was surprising. Romeo leaned forward some, and closed his eyes. "Mira, torturing? We dont torture people...unless it's sith...then we probably just kill them. You have much to learn little one." With that a group of Drakons lead by men in black, and red robed and with Dark Hounds ran past them as barked loudly, pulling the soldiers along with them. "Those are Dark Hounds, their able to sense the force in people, and thus we use them to hunt down people. Their very effective, but they must be used by a darksider with more power than them." Romeo stepped forward. "That's why we use Dark Jedi within the Drakons now. Those men that ran by in the robes are Dark Jedi under me, they've all passed their tests to become Dark Jedi Adepts, no longer an initiate but not quite Knights just yet. They are trained in groups, lead by a Dark Jedi Savants, and each group consists of three Adepts and one Savant. These are the Dark Jedi of the Shadow Academy." Romeo took her hand, and continued to guide the group after the men rushing towards the hangars. "It has taken years to get here, and yet....we are not finished."

 

[Mira Starwind]

Yui felt her hand being taken and began to walk. She listened to her master teach her about who the men and creatures were, but she wasn't listening all that well. His words were becoming muffled in her head. What did she care about academies and dogs and men in robes? Unless Romeo was going to start investing more time in the academy than her. Or wanted her to enroll. It would be nice to have classes with other people like her. She could make friends and test her abilities on people who gave her a chance to win.

She was sinking again. There was a dark hole in her chest that deepened whenever she got sad. She thought of it as sinking in a deep pool of sadness. She didn't know why she was feeling sad, and at the same time she did. However, she didn't know what to do to fix her sadness. So she walked, being led by hand to another part of the ship, visions of torture in her mind.

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Mira Starwind"]

Romeo felt the emotions within the girl, but she would have to learn how to harness them, and use them for power. Otherwise she would fail her training. He smiled, and lifted a saber from his back behind his cape. "This will be yours till we build your own. It's standard." Romeo handed it to her. Then continued to walk with her to the cargo hold. It would be some time before they could reach the cargo area so until then he would teach her how to harness the force. "Close your eyes Mira, allow me to guide you to our destination, till then I want you to try and feel my presence wholly. I want to you to be able to recognize in a crowd of a hundred, no a thousand. I want you to be able to feel my presence when I am on a planet, you are but on a ship in orbit."