Private Through Ash and Smoke

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily felt the shift in his gaze, like she'd just been slid under a microscope. For someone who made a point of passing under the radar and not being noticed, it made her feel exposed and uncomfortable. She folded her arms over her chest, eyes dropping away from his face briefly, swallowing nervously before forcing herself to look up and meet it.

"I am a telepath. I can hear people's surface thoughts without having to reach for them. Normally I shut them out, but I'm pretty sure the force storm that ripped over the planet was fed by a phobis device or something similar. I've felt one before, the Order used it on Echnos when the Alliance attacked them. It amplifies and feeds fears. For someone trained its hard to resist, for ordinary people? Its impossible."

She looked away again, reliving the moment the world had plunged into darkness, when the press of a thousand screaming minds shattered her barrier. "I couldn't keep them out." she said quietly. "Haven't been able to shut them out since. I've never had to build defences with so much noise...so I figured If I had one thing to focus on..."

Lily trailed off, bringing her knees up to her chest and peering over them at him, suddenly not the brazen woman who definitely poked things she shouldn't, but the scared girl that the undercity of Coruscant had spat out.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Telepath. That much he'd already suspected, but the rest of it made him still. A Phobis device. He knew who had torn the sky open, knew whose hand had shaped that storm. Quinn. But a device? Amplifying fear? Feeding on it? That was new. And if Quinn had access to something like that... Ace filed the thought away. Later.

He listened as she explained what it did. Amplifies and feeds fears. For the trained, hard to resist. For everyone else… impossible. His gaze lowered slightly, considering that. It reframed the storm. It reframed the chaos above. It reframed the entire siege. Not just power. Manipulation.

When she admitted she couldn't keep them out, that she hadn't been able to shut the voices out since - the bravado fell away from her in a way that was almost physical. Knees to chest. Peering over them. Smaller. Vulnerable.

Ace stood in silence for a moment. Then he slid his glove back over the prosthetic, sealing it with a quiet press at the wrist.

He didn't say anything. Instead, he crossed the small distance between them and crouched slightly, bringing himself closer to her level. He reached out, not gently, not tenderly, but deliberately, and placed his hand over hers.

Not comfort. Contact. He'd only ever done this twice before. Once on Teth, with Zaiya. Then, as recent as a few hours ago with Arris, that one was a colossal backfire.

He still didn't fully understand what it was, what it meant. Only that when he stopped trying to force the Force into a weapon, and let it move through him instead, something else happened.

Ace closed his eyes. He didn't push. or try to silence the storm inside her. Instead, he reached for the part of himself that wasn't sharpened steel or discipline or fury. The part anchored in bonds. In people. In the threads that tied him to others... those he would burn the galaxy for.

He let that move outward, not as power but steadiness. A quiet current threading through the contact of their hands. Not blocking the noise in her mind, but dampening its sharpest edges. Giving it somewhere to bleed off. Not erasing the screaming traffic, just… lowering the volume enough that it wasn't a blade against bone.

He stayed there, present, acting as a conduit rather than a shield. If the Force was balance, like she suggested… then maybe this was what it looked like. Weight shared.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily tensed when he moved towards her, the reaction instinctive, her eyes tracking him as her lowered himself to her level and reached out settling his hand over hers. She blinked in surprise. "What are you...oh..." She sucked in a small breath as something of him shifted through the connection. Lily closed her eyes, likening the sensation to the same feeling of warmth that spread through you when you had a hot drink on a cold day.

Warmth, comfort and relief from the pressure that rested at the back of her skull, the angry buzz quieting to a lazy hum as she opened herself to it, opened herself to him. There only one person in her entire life that she had opened like that for, a hundred year old whipid who had become the closest thing to a Father that she had.

Velok Brokentusk had told her he was a monster, and he had been before she'd met him. There were things in his past that had horrified her, but it didn't stop her helping him. It didn't stop her finding Nagai to remove his curse. It didn't stop her choosing him as family.

There was something dark in Acier, twisted in a way that sharpened edges and forced him into something cold and detached, but that was not who he was, it was simply what circumstance demanded of him. She took the gift he offered, quietly reinforcing the walls she'd built, letting the light that flowed between them highlight the cracks, till there was only quiet.

Lily moved her other hand over his, tears blurring her vision as she opened her eyes. Not born from sorrow, but from relief and gratitude. She blinked hard against them, squeezing his hand. "So much for not making a connection, huh?" she teased, lightly.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

The tremor in her Thread shifted, having been a frantic vibration, sharp and irregular, now steadied. The noise didn't vanish, but it changed timbre. Less panic and fracture, more calmer. Like a string pulled taut and finally tuned, humming instead of snapping.

Then her other hand moved over his. Ace tensed, eyes lifting at the same time he felt the shift. He caught the shine in her vision before she blinked against it.

He pulled his hand away too quickly, almost aggressively, and rose to his feet in the same motion, distance re-established before the moment could settle into something else.

"I needed you up and running." He said evenly in response to her tease.

He turned and stepped away from the cot, putting a few paces between them, scanning the alcove again as if it required sudden reassessment.

"Can you walk now?"

His tone was practical and measured, back to task. While he waited for her answer, his gaze dropped, briefly, to his palm. There was no residual glow, no visible sign of what had just passed between them. Just fabric and skin, Ace flexed his fingers once, as if testing them.

Pragmatism, he told himself. Nothing more. She'd been compromised, so he stabilized the situation. That was it. No softness. No… anything else. Ace lifted his head again, expression blank, already looking toward the exit as though the moment had never happened.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily drew in a sharp breath when he ripped his hand away, severing the connection and the warmth that had been there moments before suddenly vanished sealed back behind hard edges and an expressionless mask. For a moment Lily said nothing mouth slightly open in surprise as the sting of his retreat settled. It shouldn't have stung, she shouldn't have cared, but if there was one great weakness Lily had, it was caring too deep for broken people.

She closed her mouth, surprise settling into something darker, anger rising as she watched him look anywhere but at her, glancing at his hand ready to move for the exit.

"I can." she answered coldly. "But I'm not going to."

She lowered her knees, ankles crossing as she stretched on the cot, making a show of getting comfortable. "I've been pretty tolerant, letting use me as a balance to offset your ledger of blood, but if you're gonna act like a schutta, then I'm good. I can find my own way out."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Irritation sparked fast this time. After everything. After the storm, the purge, the undercity, the stabilizing her mind so she wouldn't drown in the noise. It felt juvenile. Like a child digging her heels in because her feelings were bruised.

Ace had been fighting since before the sky split open. He'd bled for the Covenant's victory. He'd crossed blade and blaster with Arris. He'd prowled streets slick with smoke and ash. His side burned. His arm still hummed wrong beneath the plating. His mind felt like it had been sanded down to raw edges. And now this.

He didn't argue, didn't negotiate, didn't even rise to her words. He simply turned back toward her and closed the distance in three strides. Before she could protest again, his hand clamped around her arm, not cruel but not careful either, and in one clean motion he hoisted her up and over his shoulder.

Normally it would have been effortless. Tonight it wasn't. His muscles protested, ribs flared, even his vision dimmed at the edges for half a second. The only thing keeping her balanced there was sheer refusal to give in. Stubbornness welded to willpower. He adjusted her weight with a sharp exhale and started toward the exit.

"We don't have time for this."

There was no heat or aggression. Just final. He was done with today, and he wasn't going to let Lily risk capture over pettiness. Boots carried them toward the hatch, whatever sting she felt from him pulling away, it didn't outrank survival. Not tonight.

He'd get her off-world. Whether she liked it or not.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily couldn't untangle her legs quick enough to escape him, his hand clamping over her arm and hauling not just upright but over his damn shoulder.

"Put me down!" she snapped, one hand bracing on his back as she tried to upright herself. His shoulder was sharp and painful against the bruises that marred her torso. Her other hand scrambled for a handhold on the walls, nails snagged on sharp panels finding purchase on nothing until her fingers caught a rusted pipe.

It was a desperate attempt at a contest of strength she was never going to win. Her fingers slipped the moment he took another step.

A noise of frustration escaped her as she twisted and squirmed in his grip, each movement only serving to add an extra layer of pain, but she'd be damned if she was going to relent.

Lily did the only thing she could, the one thing he had told her not to do. Her mind slammed against his, no longer soft or exploratory as it had been before, but sharp and invasive, like fingers trying to make a hole where there shouldn't be one.

She wasn't looking to take anything from him, instead she pulled on the voices that hammered incessantly against her own barriers and moulded them into one loud demand.

PUT. ME. DOWN.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't react to the twisting, the nails scraping metal, he didn't answer the demand. He just kept walking.

Then her mind hit him, a full on collision. His shield, already thin to begin with, built from discipline more than training, folded instantly. There was no elegant resistance. No layered defense. Just a door ripped off its hinges.

The noise poured in. Not one voice. Hundreds.

--Where is he--where is he--he said he'd come back--​

--don't let me die don't let me die don't let me die--

--I'll be better, I'll be better, I'll--

--run--
​

--it's too late--
​

--don't let them take her--

--I can't breathe--
--why won't it stop--​

Static. Fear. Rage. Confusion. And through it all, Lily's command detonated at the center of it all. Ace staggered, grip faltering, he dropped her as he fell to his knees. He hit the ground hard enough to jar his spine.

A sharp sound tore out of him, raw and involuntary. His hands clamped to his head like he could physically hold his skull together. The undercity wasn't dim anymore. It was blinding. Thoughts layered over thoughts.

His jaw clenched so tight it hurt and his vision flickered at the edges. Ace had just steadied her, just opened himself... and she had taken that connection and turned it into a weapon.

Rage ignited. The Dark side surged up fast and hungry, coiling through the fracture in his focus. The ground beneath them spiderwebbed with thin cracks. Dust lifted from the floor in trembling spirals. The rusted crate skidded violently into the wall. The pipe she'd grabbed earlier ripped free with a shriek of metal.

He lifted one shaking hand and the Force obeyed. He wrenched her backward and slammed into the wall behind her, held there by invisible pressure.

"STOP!"

The word tore out of him, no restraint, no composure. It reverberated through the alcove, heavy with something darker than anger. His eyes were no longer calm. They burned.

For a second, one second, he considered it. The simplest solution: End the threat. End the noise. End her. The pressure around her tightened... then it faltered.

His jaw trembled. Even now, after everything he had done, after willingly standing beside monsters. He couldn't do it. Not to someone he still perceived as innocent.

The Force released her and the violent hum in the alcove died down to a trembling quiet. Ace bent forward, hands returning to his head, breathing ragged, trying to force the voices back behind something... anything... resembling control.

He didn't look at her. He just stayed there, hunched, fractured, furious.

And exposed.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

The tiny space tipped on its axis as she was dropped, slamming it the wall on the way down. she scrambled away finding her way to her knees feeling the shift in the force around him, his rage searing across her own mind through the connection she'd ripped wide open. Force slammed into her, driving her into the duracrete wall, weakened ribs cracking under the pressure.

Fear widened her eyes, memory flickering before her eyes before she could stop it unintentionally adding to the noise that had dropped him.

Red eyes set against a pale face framed with dark hair, Darth Malum of House Marr standing over her while she lay broken, his face contorted with rage at this insipid creature that had dared to try and escape...it melted morphing into the masked visage of Darth Strosius standing over her instilling lessons as his medics treated wound he had inflicted.

Lily choked back a sob, feeling the moment the intent shifted, the contemplation, the realisation of how easy it would be to break her, to end her life. Not for the first time, Lily questioned whether turning away from her family was the right thing, if she had caved and simply accepted her lineage and become the sith they all wanted her to be...would she have been so weak?

Then it passed, and the pressure lifted and she crumpled to the floor. Every breath hurt, the sobs hurt even more, like they were going to rip her chest open. She forced herself upright, crawling towards him. "I'm sorry." She reached for his hands that clutched his head. "I'm so sorry." she whispered again, tears streaming down her face. Closing her eyes, she reached for the hole she'd ripped open, slowly threading it shut, extending her mental barriers over him and pushing back the noise.

I didn't mean to...I'm so sorry.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace stayed on his knees, hands clamped to his skull as if he could physically press the noise back inside.

The memories wouldn't stop. Red eyes against a pale face framed with dark hair. A man looming over her. Rage twisted into something cold and superior. The wordless humiliation of being small beneath someone else's power.

Then it shifted. Now, there was a mask, clinical and detached, standing over her while medics worked on wounds he had inflicted himself. Lessons taught through pain. Correction through breaking.

Ace didn't know their names. Didn't know who they were. But he understood the feeling. Authority. Domination. Ownership.

The images looped again. And again. His jaw tightened, his breath hitched. He didn't hear her sobbing, or register the scrape of her moving closer. But he felt the warmth... her hands over his. And with it, something changed.

The roar thinned, like a storm rolling away from the center of a city. The screaming thoughts dulled to a distant ringing. The images fractured, then dimmed.

He was left with a high, persistent whine in the back of his mind. Like tinnitus. Ace lowered his hands slowly and placed his palms flat against the cold duracrete. Head hanging.

He breathed in, then out.vControl returning in thin, deliberate layers. Then he finally heard her voice, she hadn't meant to, she was sorry. Ace didn't look up.

"Thank you..."

The words were quiet, rough, scraped raw.

"Sorry..."

There was no elaboration, but it was there. An apology for the Force slam, for the wall, for the pressure that had cracked ribs. Silence settled between them again. Ace stayed there a moment longer, breathing steady now, the ringing fading to something tolerable.

Then he lifted his head and only then did he see it; the tear tracks, the red in her eyes. He studied her for a few moments and his voice, when it came, was lower.

"Why are you… crying?"

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily lowered her hands, one clutching at her side while she tried to steady herself, fear and panic ebbing away. When he apologised she shook her head. "It's fine..." she whispered.

It wasn't fine. Not even a little bit. But Lily's fears were not his fault, they had been cultivated by her family, twisted into place by the Sith. Her retaliation, her attack had been born out of anger and that scared her more than the split second he'd considered killing her.

When he asked why she was crying she lifted her eyes slowly to meet his. The answer wasn't simple. How did you explain to somone you'd only just met, that you were doing your best to fight against dark roots, that a legacy beyond even her own comprehension ran through her veins.

She opened her mouth, closed it again and wiped her face looking away. "It doesn't matter." She said softly, sniffing she looked around, at anywhere but him. "We should go, we've made enough noise for people to get curious. And curious is the last thing you want down here."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace watched her look away, saw the deflection, the dismissal, the quiet swallow of something heavier than she was willing to say. He chose not to press, he didn't have the tools for that conversation. Not tonight. Not like this.

"Yeah." He agreed simply when she said they should move.

He pushed himself to his feet, slower than he would've liked, rubbing his temples once as if he could smooth the last ringing out of his skull. The tinnitus lingered faintly, but manageable.

He turned toward the hatch.

"Where do we need to go to get to the hangar with your ship?"

They didn't get far. Near the exit, Ace stopped abruptly. Outside were voices. Low. Male. Irritated. He stilled, listening, but not just with his ears. In the Force, their presence flickered. Dark aligned. Uneven. Ambitious, but small. Weaker than him. Other Acolytes.

He looked to Lily and raised a single finger to his lips. Outside, the murmurs sharpened.

"…I'm telling you, something flared down here."

"Could be residual from the storm."

"No. That wasn't storm bleed. That was contact."

There was a brief stretch of silence between them.

"You think it's one of the Elites?"

"Don't know. Didn't feel disciplined enough."

One scoffed.

"Orders were clear. Clear out the remaining Imps. Anyone still breathing in white plastoid is dead."

"And if it's not Imps?"

"Then we sort it out."

Ace unclipped his lightsaber with deliberate calm, then he grabbed Lily, not violently but convincingly. One arm wrapped tight around her shoulders, yanking her close and slightly in front of him like a restrained prisoner. His grip was firm enough to sell it.

"Play along." He breathed low enough only she could hear.

Then he stepped out. Three acolytes stood in the alley, black and crimson robes dirtied from the siege. Lightsabers clipped but not ignited. Young. Eager. They straightened immediately when they saw him.

"…Moonbound."

Recognition flickered across their faces. Respect mixed with something like calculation. Ace's expression didn't change, it was cold and controlled.

"This stray tried to run." He said evenly, tightening his grip slightly for emphasis. "Found her topside. Untrained. Undisciplined."

One of the acolytes leaned forward, eyes narrowing at Lily.

"She doesn't look Imperial."

"She's not." Ace replied without hesitation. "Force-sensitive. Raw. She panicked during the storm."

Another acolyte tilted his head. "You're claiming her?"

"I'm returning her to the Academy." Ace said smoothly. "If she survives instruction, she'll be useful."

There was another brief silence, the acolytes weighed it. Then one of them gave a short nod.

"Orders were to clear Imperials."

"And she's not Imperial." Ace finished calmly.

The acolytes stepped aside.

"Good hunting, Moonbound."

Ace didn't nod, nor did he thank them. He simply began walking, Lily still in his grasp until they'd put enough distance between themselves and the acolytes to safely disappear into the undercity arteries once more.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Everything protested as she got to her feet, the brief scrap seemed to have accentuated everything, every bruise burned. She steadied herself against the wall for a moment, digging into the drive to survive, shoving the pain and discomfort aside before pushing herself off. The voices made her head snap up, reaching instinctively to hear thoughts without pressing against defences.

A sharp gasp left her lips, muscles tensing as Acier grabbed her, the silver cylinder of his lightsaber suddenly in hand. she shot a scowl at him, but did as he asked as he pushed them out into the alley. She didn't have to put on much of a show, when her gaze flicked over them, over their lightsabers and acolyte robes before skimming across their minds, her fear was real.

They were not like Acier, their intent and hunger for death and the power killing made them feel made her recoil, stepping back into Acier before he pushed her forward, she shifted her gaze down, keeping her mind hovering over them waiting for a shift in their desire to let them pass without interference.

As they pulled further away she eased away from their thoughts, letting them fade away with the rest. Quiet stretched between them as she led them through back streets and alleyways heading towards the hanger, one arm wrapped across herself, hand holding her side, as if doing so would stop every breath hurting.

"Acier," she said quietly, breaking the heavy silence that weighed between them, her head turning to look at him as they walked. "Why are you helping me?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Relief didn't show on his face, but it registered all the same. On a normal day, three acolytes wouldn't have concerned him. He could have dismantled them. But right now, he was still ringing from the psychic rupture. His ribs burned. His arm wasn't fully stable. And he'd survived Arris Windrun only hours earlier. He wasn't in any condition to fight three hungry acolytes and shield Lily at the same time.

He let her take the lead through the backstreets. Ace watched her carefully as they moved, the way her arm stayed wrapped around her side. The way her breaths were shallow. He knew why, and a small twinge pressed somewhere behind his ribs. He shoved it down.

Silence walked with them. Then... his name. His eyes shifted to her immediately, he didn't answer the question that followed right away. They walked another few paces.

Then, finally:

"You should be free."

The words came simple. Unadorned.

"You should have the chance to be who you want to be. Go where you want to. Without someone forcing you into something you don't want to be."

On the surface, it sounded like he meant the Covenant. Like he meant power structures and Sith politics. But the words were older than that.

They belonged to a boy staring up at twin moons over Bonadan, wondering who his parents were. Why they'd left him. To not wake up every day fighting simply to survive. Dreaming of being more than just a street rat.

It even echoed in who he was months ago, the teenager who wished to not have prophecy hanging over his head like a blade.

Maybe he saw that same fracture in her. That same fight against roots that ran too deep. Silence settled again after he spoke and after a moment, he broke it himself.

"How far now?"

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

His reply was quiet, carrying something more than a simple wish for her freedom. Was it longing? Did he want the same thing for himself? She resisted the urge to dig, to reach for his mind for the answers, turning her eyes from him to watch the path ahead, her brow furrowed. It still didn't make sense. the little pieces of him she was getting didn't quite slot together. She was missing something, something vital that sat in the middle of all of it.

"One more block," she answered his question "Then we have to-"

She stopped head head whipping round looking past him, her hand grabbing his sleeve to make him stop. The threads of the acolytes they had left behind crept across the edge of her senses. "They're following us." The words came out in a whisper, she reached for their minds skirting without invading, snatching thoughts where they wouldn't notice.

We can take him, then maybe Windrun will notice us.

Three on one, hardly fair but who said winning had to be fair.​

The girl is a prize, I'll keep her for myself. The others can get fucked.​

If they led them to the hangar, others would get caught in the mess that was about to unfold and if she had to feel another light snuffed out by the darkness that now held Coruscant she might just snap and she wasn't sure she wanted to meet that version of herself just yet. Lily swallowed, her jaw set, there was one way she could put distance between them, make it hard for them to follow the trail...

"Fight, or run?" she asked Acier.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace stopped the instant Lily did. His eyes shifted to her first, reading the tension in her posture, the way her jaw had set. He felt it too. Three signatures. Familiar. Dark. Uneven. Getting closer. He could taste their intent in the Force... sharp and hungry, ambition bleeding into recklessness.

A slow breath left him. It curled into something closer to an annoyed growl. Of course. His gaze flicked toward the direction of the hangar. One block. So close he could almost feel the open sky above it. Then back to Lily. Fight or run.

He unclipped his lightsaber and ignited it in the same motion. Blue light snapped to life with a clean, controlled hiss.

"Both."

Before she could argue, the Force moved but not violently this time. Just enough to propel her forward a few steps toward the hangar path, steadying her rather than throwing her.

"Go." His voice was calm. Commanding. "I'll handle them. You need to leave."

Three acolytes. On any other day, it would've been a formality. Tonight, it would hurt. But three dead acolytes meant no witnesses. No one to question why Moonbound had been in the undercity with a stray. No one to follow Lily. No loose threads.

He planted his feet. Exhaustion clawed at him. His ribs throbbed. His prosthetic hummed faintly under the glove. The mental tinnitus still whispered at the back of his skull. But he didn't care, stubbornness settled into his bones like iron.

The acolytes rounded the corner and they saw him immediately, lightsaber already drawn. They didn't speak, they knew what was about to happen. Crimson snapped to life in answer. Three blades. Three hungry signatures.

Ace moved first in a straight line surge through the narrowest angle between them, forcing them to adjust or collide, blue light carving toward the nearest throat before the others could settle their footing... and the alley erupted into motion.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily stumbled with the gentle nudge he'd given her in the force. "Acier..." She took half a step forward as the force around him shifted, its edge hardened into something dangerous, the blue blade illuminating his face. She didn't for one second think he was incapable, but she had seen the graze on his side, the repairs he'd had to make on his arm, hell she'd done a number on his mind. He was going into a three on one fight at a disadvantage.

She drew in a breath as they rounded the corner her eyes shifting to them as she took an involuntary step back, shifting herself slightly behind Acier as crimson blades snapped to life. Lily had no weapon, the lightsaber her cousin had given her was lost in the rubble and she'd left her quarterstaff on the ship. She was also not the greatest of combatants, which made her a liability.

And liabilities got you killed.

She swallowed the lump in her throat as he launched forward and turned on her heel to run as the sounds of clashing sabers cracked the air. If she could make it back to her ship, she could arm herself, she could help him. Fear shifted to determination driving her forward, until something seized her, force wrapping itself around her and throwing her into the building wall, her head cracked against brick and the floor rushed up to meet her.

Grass tickled her bare legs, the scent of honeysuckle carried on a warm breeze that shifted her hair. She sat opposite a tall pale Nagai whose grey eyes always felt like they were boring through Lily, rather than looking at her.

"Telepathy has a number of applications , it is not just about listening to other peoples thoughts or communicating silently, you have the ability to influence their minds in a as many ways as your imagination can create, your only limit, is how much one mind can take." Sonere spoke softly.

"What do you mean?" Lily frowned

"There are things worse than death, Lily. Press to hard against a mind and you can break it and leave a person little more than a shell. That is why it is important for you to manage that temper of yours. Now, shall we try again?"

Lily drew in a sharp breath, pain lanced up her side, her head throbbed as the scent of ozone, smoke and ash filled her nose again. she pressed herself upright, hand coming to her head where it had connected with the wall fingers coming away slick with red. She blinked the blur from her eyes, turning her head to see the fight, the blur of red and blue.

Anger bloomed in her chest, rippling out from her. She was done running. She clawed herself to her feet, mental fingers reaching for the nearest acolyte, driving through cracks in instinctive barriers that fell as his focus was on Acier. She wasn't seeking to disorient, she was seeking to incapacitate. Noise flooded his mind as she did the same as she had with Acier, using the press of voices around them to drown him.

He peeled away from Acier, screaming, clutching at his head as Lily dove deeper.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Blue and crimson collided in a violent hiss of light as he shifted immediately into Shien, his grip reversing, blade angled to catch and redirect rather than overpower. The alley was too narrow for flourish.

One strike came high. He rolled his wrist, caught it, redirected. Another slashed low. He pivoted, ribs protesting as he twisted, countering with a short, brutal riposte meant to maim rather than impress. The third pressed from his blind side, forcing him to step back into cramped brick and duracrete.

He was slower than he should've been. His side burned, prosthetic lagged half a fraction behind his intent, the tinnitus in his skull pulsed with each impact, throwing off his sense of rhythm. Shien was built for redirection, for turning aggression back upon its source but it required precision... and his precision was slipping.

A blade grazed close enough to kiss fabric near his shoulder. He answered with a hard, efficient backhand strike that drove the attacker off balance but didn't finish him. He couldn't.

Then, a scream split the alley. One of the acolytes staggered back, crimson blade jerking wildly as his free hand flew to his skull. He peeled away from the formation. Ace didn't hesitate. He jumped back, boots scraping stone, creating space between himself and the remaining two.


"What's wrong with you?!" One of them barked at their unraveling comrade.

The answer was obvious. Lily. Ace didn't look at her, already feeling the disturbance, a targeted needle driven into a fault line. He surged forward without hesitation. The screaming acolyte's defense was nonexistent. His lightsaber flashed once, and the sound cut off mid cry as the blade passed through flesh.

He didn't watch the body fall, he was already turning into the next engagement. The closest acolyte met him with a furious overhead strike, rage replacing uncertainty. Ace caught it cross-body, impact jarring through his arms. He twisted, stepped inside the guard, blade angling for a disabling strike, but was blocked. The alley shrieked with crossing lightsabers.

Behind him, the third acolyte stopped looking at his fallen ally, gaze shifting past Ace. To Lily. Realization flickered across his face, and he broke formation.

He lunged for her. Ace saw it. He tried to disengage, shifting his weight to peel off and intercept, but the acolyte in front of him anticipated it, pressing hard, blade driving at Ace's midsection in a savage thrust meant to anchor him in place. Ace had no choice but to defend, while the third acolyte closed the distance to Lily.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

The acolytes' mind flared, pain rippling through it as Acier's blade carved through him. Lily recoiled her stomach twisting as she yanked herself free of it watching the body fall. She took a breath, steadying herself as her eyes lifted, meeting that of another, whose realisation shifted into rage.

Shit.

She pushed off the wall, hand extending to call the fallen acolytes saber to her palm as she set her feet, trying to ignore the way the dark side pulsed within the saber, making her feel sick. She didn't have time to doubt or reflect as she thumbed the activation switch, red light washing over her face as she barely brought it up in time to turn aside a downward strike meant to cleave her in two.

His fist followed, slamming into her face, splitting the skin on her cheek and throwing her off balance, his crimson blade crackling as it split the air with a vicious upwards swing. Space folded around Lily and she disappeared. His saber carved through open space where she'd been a second before, his eyes widened with surprise. She reappeared behind him, lightsaber sweeping low, scoring a line across the back of his knees, bringing him down. The scream of pain ruptured from his lips silenced with a reverse cut through his neck.

His body slumped, head rolling away as Lily took a step back breathing hard. The lightsaber retracted with a hiss and she looked down at it for a moment as if entranced bu the whisper of the dark side within before horror replaced anger and she dropped it like she'd been burnt backing from it and the body till her back pressed against the alley wall, trembling.

She'd had no choice. He'd given her no choice. It was survival.

Velok's voice rumbled through her mind.

Sometimes, Lily-named-for-a-plant, killing is your only option.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace held the remaining acolyte in place. The alley had narrowed into a tunnel of motion and light, the hum of lightsabers vibrating around them. The acolyte fought like someone with something to prove: angry, aggressive, leaning into every strike with reckless weight. Ace met it, blending Shien counters with Makashi footwork.

The acolyte slashed hard across his midsection. Ace turned his wrist and caught the blow, sliding it away from his ribs before answering with a tight counter that forced the other man back a step. Pain flared along Ace's side when he shifted his footing, his breath tightening, but he pushed through it.

Another strike came immediately, high and vicious, Ace saw the angle and raised his blade upward to meet it, catching the overhand blow just before it could split his guard. For a half-second the two lightsabers locked above his head.

Then Ace dropped his blade, the motion was sudden and precise. Blue light slipped downward across the acolyte's guard and carved cleanly through his abdomen in a short, brutal cut. The acolyte's body jerked as the strike landed, but his lightsaber still came down.

Ace leaned back sharply, spine arching just enough for the descending crimson blade to scream through empty air inches from his chest. The acolyte's momentum carried him forward and Ace stepped aside. The man collapsed to his knees first, then pitched forward onto the ground.

For a moment the only sound was the low hum of Ace's lightsaber and his own breathing. The fight had burned what little energy he had left. Then he extinguished his blade, vanishing with a sharp hiss.

Ace turned, eyes immediately finding the second body in the alley, the one Lily had left behind. His head severed and the Force still carried the fading echo of the kill. Then he saw her, against the alley wall, trembling.

He approached slowly. His expression didn't soften and there was no rush of comfort in his posture. If anything, there was a measured stillness to him, like he was studying the aftermath.

He stopped a few feet away. "Are you alright?"

Ace's gaze drifted past her briefly, returning to the body of the acolyte she had killed. Then his eyes returned to her.

"You did good."

Lily Rhodes ​