Private Through Ash and Smoke

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily lifted her eyes from where the lightsaber had fallen as Acier stepped into her line of sight. Steady, assessing the scene in front of him, it was the same lethal calm that he'd dispatched the stormtroopers with. Realisation settled on her then. This was normal for him, the fighting, the killing.

She swallowed, unable to answer his question. Was she okay? His eyes drifted to the body but hers remained on him trying to find a way to settle into calm, but it didn't come.

You did good.

A bitter laugh left her. "Gee, thanks, I always wanted to be praised for murder." She tipped her head back against the wall looking up and blinking hard against tears. She hated it, she hated this place. Even without the sith or imperials looming over it, Coruscant had a way of pulling the worst out of her, because survival demanded it.

"None of this is good, Acier." She said softly, looking at him as she pushed off the wall, wiping her eyes as she moved past him, picking her way around the body, careful not to look down at it. "I should never have come back here."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't react to the bitter laugh. His face stayed exactly as it had been: still, unreadable, and not betraying whatever thoughts moved behind his eyes.

"It was self defence." He said, correcting her. "It was you or him. You did what you had to do."

His gaze lingered on her as she fought the tears back. He noticed it, the way she blinked hard, the tension in her jaw, the effort it took just to keep standing there. He wondered if this had been the first time.

The thought stirred older memories. One he hadn't visited in a long time. Tessk. Ace could still remember the moment clearly; the cramped corridor on Bonadan, the heat of anger in his chest, the shock of seeing the life leave Tessk's eyes. That hadn't been self defence, it had been retribution for what the man had done to someone Ace cared about.

He remembered how it had felt afterward. The horror. The way the memory had clung to him for months like a stain he couldn't wash away. Ace had been greener then. Naive. Afraid of what that moment meant about him.

Now, standing in the alley with two bodies cooling on the stone, he almost found the memory distant. Childish. Because the truth had revealed itself eventually. Anger made him stronger. More effective. More efficient.

Lily moved past him, careful not to look down at the body. Ace remained where he was for a moment longer, silent, giving her space to pull herself back together.

"Yeah." Ace said at last, responding to her quiet regret about coming back.

His tone carried no judgment. Just acknowledgement.

"We do what we can to survive."

When he finally spoke again, his voice was calm.

"We're almost out of this."

He turned and started down the alley toward the hangar, not looking back.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

He allowed her quiet and space to gather herself, but Lily wasn't entirely sure that there was any gathering herself. Could she fold it behind guarded walls and deal with it later? Yes, that she could at least do. The trembling stopped. It wasn't the death that bothered her, she'd killed more than enough Tof raiding parties on Jaibrek, but that had been different, that wasn't just about survival or self defence, that was defence of others and the connection she had with the telepaths their made it seem like it was a burden shared.

But here? Here where there was nothing between her and those final fleeting thoughts, when the anger that rested in the pit of her stomach reared its ugly head and for a fleeting moment there was satisfaction in the kill?

It was too close to everything she wanted to avoid, everything she had left behind when she'd walked from the Order, from her family. The memory of a conversation with a ghost, fluttered through her mind.

I am not a Sith.

You are my heir.​

When Acier caught up with her, his words about survival pulled a sigh from her lips. "Yeah."

A hand reaching up to touch her cheek, feeling for the wound split across it. She was going to have to stitch it. "Calling it survival doesn't make it right, it just makes it easier to set aside the guilt."

She moved them into a main street, eyes scanning both ways before fully stepping out, instinct keeping her close to the streets edge as the path angled upwards taking them out of the lower levels, the hangar coming into view ahead of them, along with a throng of people. Desperate and shouting, with small scuffles breaking out along the crowds edge as people pressed forward trying to get in.

Lily stopped and let out a sigh. "What are the odds that the Covenant have shut it down?" she began to chew the inside of her cheek a combination of nerves and concentration as her eyes scanned the crowd. They weren't getting through their without a fight, and if it was shut down and there were any Covenant guarding it?

"I...have a way to get us in but..." she trailed off biting her lip, worry flickering across her face. It was supposed to be a last resort, she'd not used it since the blackwing virus had nearly killed Iskendyr and his friends. She'd pulled all of them out, and it had fucking hurt.

"Do you trust me?" she asked finally looking at him.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace's eyes tracked the movement of her hand as it rose to her cheek. The split in the skin there was easy to spot now that the adrenaline had drained from the moment. He studied it briefly, expression unchanged.

"'Least you're still alive to feel guilt." He said calmly.

He didn't argue the morality of it any further. They moved out of the alley and onto the main street. Ace let his eyes sweep both directions before stepping fully into the open, instinctively drifting toward the edge of the street where the press of people was thinner. The path angled upward as it climbed out of the lower levels, and the hangar finally came into view ahead.

Along with everyone else trying to reach it. Ace slowed slightly as he took in the scene.

When Lily wondered aloud about the Covenant shutting it down, he answered without much hesitation.

"Probably high."

His gaze lingered on the chaos for another second before shifting sideways to her when she mentioned having a way to get them in. There was a brief pause when she asked if he trusted her.

Ace didn't answer immediately, instead he watched the crowd again, measuring the choke points, the possible guards, the tension in the air. Then he looked back at her.

"I trust you want to get off-world."

Then, after a short pause:

"Why?"

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

It was the best she was going to get and she knew it. Velok always told her she trusted too easily, that she should be more wary, but Acier had given her no reason not to. Okay, so the pain that lanced in her side with every breath was absolutely his handiwork, and there had been a moment where she'd seen him consider killing her, but the important thing was that she started it, and he didn't kill her.

There were three bodies laying in an alley that told her he wanted the absolute opposite. But he had no reason to trust her, not really.

"Just..." she sighed "This might hurt."

She stepped closer and grabbed his hand, letting go of the constraint she held tightly around the dark ball of anger the sat deep inside her. The dark side surged, wrapping tightly around them both it squeezed and the street around them was torn from sight. Pain split across her skull and screamed up her side as they shifted through the rift until her feet found ground again, the crunch of permacrete loud in her ears as the hanger bay settled into existence around them.

Emergency lighting cast a dull glow on the silhouette of the Pilgrim's Rest, the doors sealed shut above her. Lily released Acier stepping back before her knees gave out. She could taste copper on her tongue as she fought to cage the corruption, blood trickling from her nose as her hands wrapped around her middle and she doubled over with a groan of pain.

Acier Moonbound