though shadow may flee from light

[Seki Otara]

The Nebulon-B was a silent colossus in the black void, its many corridors and chambers echoing emptiness with the finality of a mausoleum. With the crew either dead or still in stasis, there were only the five of them to fill a structure of that size, which made all that open space feel curiously claustrophobic. For Seki, it wasn't a problem. She relished any distance she could place between herself and the others, particularly since the Jedi's attack on her. The sooner she could find either her personal effects, the sooner she would feel much better about being stuck on a doomed ship with several Jedi out for her blood. They likely saw the attack on Ossus and the subsequent long nap as a fault of the Sith (which it was) and therefore Seki's doing (which it wasn't.) Corbin, at least, certainly had. It was with a certain huff of finality that Seki allowed herself to dispense with that line of thinking. Placing the blame didn't change the fact that they were all trapped here now. They would all be dying the same painful starving death, whether Jedi or Sith or neither... Unless Corbin could take her head off first.

With renewed vigor at that unpleasant thought, Seki continued her path along the corridors, turning each section along her way upside-down to find any potential hiding places. She was practically standing on her head at that point, peering under every surface that wasn't flush with the floor, tearing panels from the walls in case they hid some secret compartment, and utterly destroying anything large enough to hold within it a blaster and a saber. Now and again she would crouch, digging carefully through debris or the belongings of those who had called this frigate home. There was a method to her madness. Inside her mind was an incomplete image of the ship, and that map shrank with each room and corridor she passed without finding the booty she sought. When her path brought her to the armory, she didn't hesitate to force her way in just as she had done before. Immediately upon entering she began to rummage around.

 

[Corbin Jorkul]

"I don't know why I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to try and find a weapon. We're awake now, Seki. You'll find stabbing us in our beds to be quite a bit more difficult." Unlike before, his voice remains calm while still holding that condescending tone. Standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, Corbin towered over the tiny Sith and poured as much command as he could into the Force around them. Intimidation, it seemed, was foremost on his mind.

"I bet you're looking for your lightsaber, aren't you?" Stepping in, the Jedi casually wills the door to shut behind him, and the Force obliges his request. Closing with a hiss, it's just Corbin and Seki alone in the armory...and he's none too happy about it.

 

[Seki Otara]

The Force was a part of Seki, as it was a part of any who could wield it as such. With the remnants of the stasis chamber's paralytic still working its way out of her system, the Sith was having difficulty with certain things. Her fingertips still had no sensation in them, as did the inside of her right forearm. The Force was there, of course, but it was also numb like she'd had the circulation cut off for a long while. For this reason, she felt Corbin's presence only an instant before he made it known. Her instinct was to spin in place and strike first before he had the chance to leap on her again, but she tamped it down deep and slowly turned on the spot. She wouldn't expose her back to him, but she also wouldn't reveal her fear.

And there was fear. He was a fully fledged Jedi Knight, older than her and more skilled, better trained. Always before she had been able to defend herself against him, but it was always close, and she always barely escaped. Now she was unarmed. So was he, but there was no doubt in her mind of who held the upper hand.

"Of course I'm looking for my lightsaber. Are you pleased I haven't found it? Come to finish the job?" Seki gestured to her neck as she spoke, indicating the red-orange bruises on her throat, shaped perfectly like his hands. Despite her flippant tone, the girl heard her blood rushing in her ears, felt her pulse in her fingertips. Fear, the likes of which she usually only experienced at Roz's hands, wondering if he was planning on strengthening her power or outright murdering her. "I'm not stupid to look for a weapon, Jorkul. I'd be stupid to spend another second in your presence without one."

 

[Corbin Jorkul]

With a roll of his eyes, Corbin steps further into the armory and follows the wall away from her, his back turned. It was a monumentally bad idea, but Corbin knew what he'd done was wrong. He'd come to do one thing, and one thing only: Tie up a loose end. "I'm sorry for hurting you. It wasn't right, now that I have hindsight and all. I thought we were still back at Ossus; thought we were still in the war." Turning back to her, he raises his arms in a shrug, then gestures towards her as if he's just given her a gift. "There. I'm sorry."

Idly, he eyes level on her neck and he mentally winces, recoiling from the product of his own anger. Turning back around, his palm lies flat against a panel that whirs and clicks beneath him. The panel lights up, and a door opens next to him, then slides down to the floor as it reveals several weapons holders on a rack. Plucking an item off the shelf, he gazes at it warily...before tossing the lightsaber hilt to the Sith behind him. "We locked it up with the rest of our things, just in case we were boarded by scavengers."

 

[Seki Otara]

Without the war as a backdrop, Seki's actions and mannerisms formed a pattern of behavior that ran counter to the way she presented herself. Her abnormally large eyes tracked every movement Corbin made, snapping her gaze from his face to his hand any time he so much as twitched a finger. Without the war as a backdrop, Corbin's decisions also painted a picture of him, and thus far it had been precisely the picture she'd already had of the young Jedi.

And then he apologized. For hurting her.

Confusion was too gentle of a word, and it didn't properly capture the way she felt like she'd had her knees knocked out from under her, but Seki wasn't good with words, so 'confusion' would have to suffice. It was confusion that widened her eyes, confusion that caused her head to tilt in a particularly animalistic fashion, and confusion that kept her sharp tongue silent even after he spoke. When he came toward her, she moved quickly and decisively out of his path, but when it became clear that he was moving past her rather than toward her she hung back and began to make subtle movements toward the door, in case she had to get out of his line of sight quickly. Her eyes never left him.

"Why are you saying this? You've tried to kill me a hundred times before, just like I tried to kill you. I'm only your enemy when you have generals telling you who to hate?" Despite the harsh nature of her word choice, the questions sounded sincere. It would explain why the other Jedi seemed not to hate her the way Corbin did. But that curiosity was quickly forgotten when he opened a rack of weapons and reached in to grab one. Seki was already on the move, settling into a defensive position at the door and holding both of her hands palms-out. She had no weapon, and he did. The Force was the only thing protecting her. He made no move to strike, though, only tossed the weapon in his hand to her. Her own saber, unharmed as far as she could tell. On instinct, she ignited it with a sharp crack and a soothing hum, and in the emergency lighting of the ship it colored her orange skin a bloody red. A few moments passed while she admired it, and then she stepped backward and raised the blade to point directly at Corbin's throat.

"What is this? Do you think that giving me my weapon means that I will be grateful to you? Do you think that saying you are sorry means that I owe you something? Whatever it is, it won't work. You can't ply me with your mind games, with your Jedi trickery. I am not stupid, Corbin Jorkul. A man, especially a Jedi, does not try to a kill a woman accidentally. You knew where we were. You knew who I was. You weren't mistaken, you were full of rage, and it made you better. I could show you how. I could make you strong. But next time you attack me unprovoked, you had better kill me, because I won't make your mistakes. I won't leave a dangerous enemy alive to try again another day."

 

[Corbin Jorkul]

"So then attack me and get it over with. It's not my fault you have an infatuation with me, you know," the Jedi says over his shoulder, having since turned away again and grabbing a clean pair of pants from a uniform storage tray. Looking over to the Sith, Corbin grabs another pair of clothing and tosses them to her, nodding to her current outfit. "That's been laying around for over seven centuries in your filth. At least these were clean...if a little dusty. Put them on, somewhere private this time, if you please."

Flicking the pants over his shoulder, Corbin starts for the exit to the room. He'd tried his best to be make amends. In typical Sith fashion, she rebuked him, insulted him...even tried to turn him like she always did. He was better than that, though. "Everyone gets angry, my dear. Some of us are just better at handling it."

 

[Seki Otara]

The saber remained on him for an instant longer, and then powered off. Seki herself stared at the back of Corbin's head with a deep furrow between her brows and a deeper frown on her lips. Infatuation? She was no more infatuated with him than he was with her. Before she could protest his accusation, however, Seki found herself catching a uniform tossed her way, more on instinct than anything else. His words took a moment to catch up with her, primarily because she was still caught on the suggestion that she had some sort of infatuation. Infatuation! The moment passed, however, and she glanced down at the clean clothing in her hands and the lightsaber that he had done nothing to defend himself against, her frown only growing deeper — deep enough that she felt a need to bow her head simply to keep up with it. But when she heard him approaching, moving toward the door, the young Sith sidestepped in front of the exit to stop him and having to tilt her head back just to make eye contact..

"Why are you doing this? Giving me things," she clarified, holding up the hilt and the fabric. Her eyes lingered on him as her thoughts drifted back to his words from earlier, the ones that had set her off. Seki spoke again, but now her voice was as small as she was. "If someone does something bad to another person and then they say they're sorry... What's the other person supposed to do?"

 

[Corbin Jorkul]

"Typically? Either accept it or don't. 'I accept your apology,' all that," he says as she steps in front of him, coming to a stop and rolling his eyes rather comically. She had to make even an apology some sort of process, because of course it's the most Seki thing to do. Crossing his arms, Corbin leans in to stare in Seki's eyes as he replies. "I don't want to be stabbed, that's why. We're all stuck on this ship, you're dirty, I don't want to smell everyone on this ship, the list goes on. Pick a reason."

Corbin starts to move again, aiming to step around her and into the hallway.

 

[Seki Otara]

His answers only seemed to confuse her further, and Seki's frown deepened with each word. This wasn't her wheelhouse. She was far better suited to dealing with Jorkul when they were fighting one another, not talking. Battle Corbin was different from Conversation Corbin, and Seki was having difficulty reconciling the two in her mind. He started to pass and she reached out to grab his elbow and stop him. "That doesn't make sense. Why give a person a weapon if you don't want to be stabbed?"