Private What the Empire Touched

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian watched her while she spoke and felt the familiar ache settle in his chest. The question slipped from her lips, he knew the answer before he let himself think it. Will it ever end? Probably not.

Their lives were not built for endings. Naboo did not raise its servants to rest. It taught them to endure, to give, to keep standing when the ground gave way. He had accepted that long ago. Still, the last three weeks were precious to him. A version of life he would carry with him every time duty came knocking.

"No," he said honestly, voice low. "Not for us."

He didn't dress it up. She wouldn't want that. "But that time we took," he added, softer, "I'll keep it. Every time this all tries to grind us down."

He saw the shift in her eyes before she spoke again. The turn from feeling to planning. From hurt to responsibility. It was instinct. It was who she was. And it was exactly why he had held the galaxy at arm's length while she healed.

Aurelian squeezed her hand, firm but gentle. Slow down, he willed her to hear. One thing at a time.

"Dominique is doing her job," he said. "She's holding lines, keeping channels open, managing the fallout. We'll meet when you're ready." He tilted his head slightly. "And we'll meet the Mandalorians when you feel up to it. Not before."

His gaze flicked toward the estate, then back to her. His jaw tightened.

"But first," he said, "we have to deal with what just landed on our doorstep."

There it was. The edge beneath the calm. "He's not well," Aurelian continued. "You feel it. I see it. And I don't trust him. Not around you." He didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to. "I don't care how long you've known him."

He held her gaze now, unwavering. "Those reports from the Core were damning. Whatever he thinks he's doing, whatever he's telling himself, he's standing too close to something ugly."

Aurelian softened then, just a fraction. "Be careful," he said quietly. "For me, if nothing else."

His thumb brushed once over her knuckles, steady, anchoring. "We'll face the rest together. But we don't rush headlong into fire. Not anymore."

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

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Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

Sibylla took another deep breath, her mind going back to Ace. An attendant and a medical droid should be attending to him now, going over his injuries.

But what concerned her more was what he had experienced and how he was handling it. If he was okay -- no, of course he wasn't okay. Just thinking back to how he had nearly used the Force in a way that could have injured Veruna guards was evidence enough.

"I know," Sibylla finally replied, exhaling deeply as she rubbed her hands over her face, the pads of her fingertips grazing the lingering synthflesh that had healed the scars along her cheek. It still appeared a shade brighter pink, and it would be some time before it no longer stood out so starkly against her skin. And while Aurelian had assured her no expense would be spared in locating specialists to minimize the scarring, there was no denying it was there.

"It is why I did not want him to do this. But he is so stubborn," she admitted, worrying her lower lip between her teeth.

"I will need to call Knight Reingard. He is the Jedi assisting Ace with this. It gave me some hope that with his assistance, Ace might be guided in a way I simply cannot." She shook her head faintly. "The Force is a confusing thing to me, but even I know now that the dark side corrupts."

She took another deep breath, bringing her arms to her side. The sound of waves crashing made her think back of the past three weeks. A bit of guilt filled her that while she had been resting, Ace likely had been going through far worse.

Part of her told herself that it wasn't a fair thing to blame herself, that she needed the rest, that she considered those three weeks with Aurelian here to be so closely held into her heart, and very much needed. That she didn't need to feel guilt of that.

But she did regardless. Especially with how he arrived here looking like that.

"And he appears more affected than before... I just wish I knew how to help him better," she said quietly, turning toward him as she gave Aurelian's hand a gentle squeeze.

"…Thank you, for trusting me," she added, her gaze settling on his beloved face. Knowing full well what it was costing him to, understanding that his deep need to control and protect her had only increased a thousandfold. She didn't blame him for it. Nor did she consider him overbearing.

"I will be careful. I promise." She meant it. Her smile softened as she leaned down to cup his face and press a kiss to his forehead.

"We will do this together."

She straightened again, taking another breath as her expression turned thoughtful.

"But we need to have this all properly planned. If nothing else, we need to hear from him directly -- what happened on Coruscant, and what else he has learned. I also need to review the communications he sent me." Her thoughts returned to the coded phrasing Ace had used earlier, unaware that Aurelian had already reviewed them.

"Are you all right to come with me and speak with him?" she asked gently. "I would value your honest perspective on whatever he has to convey, and how we should relay it to Dominique next."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

"--seeing Fatine when I get the time. I made her a utility pendant for Life D--"​

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Tic cut in with a rapid series of chirps and teasing trills, optics swiveling with unmistakable attitude.​

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"Like her? No, that's not--ow! Damn!" He hissed sharply, shoulders jerking as something poked far more aggressively than necessary into his side.​

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"Watch where the hell you're prodding."​

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Ace sat perched on the edge of a stone bench in one of Rainspire's side chambers, shirt discarded somewhere nearby, bare skin mapped in bruises and half-healed damage. Dark purple blooms traced his ribs and shoulder, bandages crisscrossed his torso, and a deep gash curved along his side - angry, red, and only just closed enough to stop bleeding. Ash still stained parts of his skin.​

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An old medical droid hovered at his flank, its casing dulled with age, servos whining as it worked with no hint of sympathy.​

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"This unit will note." It droned, "That fleeing a collapsing structure while already injured is classified as reckless behavior. Continuing combat after sustaining a ballistic graze compounds this classification to egregious."​

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Ace stared ahead. "I didn't ask for a diagnosis."​

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"You are receiving one regardless." The droid replied. "Multiple contusions. Structural strain. Debris-related trauma. Ballistic scoring consistent with a near-miss from a hostile combatant. Your survival rate is statistically irritating."​

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Tona stood a short distance away, arms folded, a cup of water in hand. Warm. Deliberately so. Her gaze moved over Ace once, slow and unimpressed, before settling back on his face.​

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"So..." She said coolly. "This is what passes for competence among Sith these days."​

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Ace turned his head slightly. "Apparently."​

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She lifted a brow. "You arrived in a stolen TIE and nearly brought down half the estate."​

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"Nearly, being the operative word." Ace replied.​

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"And now you're bleeding on ancient stone." Tona said.​

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"It'll give this place some character." He muttered.​

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The droid emitted a displeased tone. "Movement is discouraged."​

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Tona ignored it. "You realize Aurelian considers this a 'breach of hospitality'."​

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Ace's mouth twitched, but there was no humor in it. "He pointed a rifle at me."​

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"He was polite about it."​

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Ace glanced at her, expression flat. "We have different definitions of polite."​

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Tona met his look without flinching. "And apparently you think survival is success."​

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"It's not?" He asked rhetorically, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.​

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Tona's eyes landed on Ace's prosthetic, now exposed bare, as if that alone made her point. The droid jabbed the applicator into his side again, harder this time.​

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Ace hissed. "I'm going to turn you into scrap."​

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Tona watched without comment. "If you intend to stay conscious." She said evenly. "You'll stop antagonizing the only things keeping you that way."​

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Ace leaned back just enough to tolerate the treatment, eyes forward again. "Whatever."​

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Tic chirped once from beside him, subdued now. Tona's gaze flicked to the little droid, then back to Ace.​

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"Trouble seems to follow you." She said. Not accusing. Just stating fact.​

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Ace didn't look at her. "Heard that one before."​

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Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian listened to her, really listened, and felt the familiar pull between instinct and reason tighten in his chest. He sighed. He had hoped, foolishly, that she might let this wait. That she might choose rest over responsibility one more time.

But that was never who she was.

"I'm not leaving you alone in a room with him," he said calmly. Not an argument. A boundary. "If you're asking me to come, you get my honest opinion. About Coruscant. And about your friend."

He paused, eyes softening just enough to take the sting out of it. "And yes. We need to hear what actually happened."

They moved back inside together, stone swallowing the sea air as Rainspire closed around them. Aurelian walked half a step ahead, posture composed, senses sharp. Habit. He catalogued corridors, exits, echoes. When they reached the chamber, he entered first. Ace sat there, stripped of bravado along with his shirt. Bruised, bandaged, held together by stubbornness and an old droid with no bedside manner. Aurelian took it in at a glance. Injuries real. Damage extensive. No immediate threat. Not physically, anyway.

He stepped aside and let Sibylla pass him. She could lead. This was her conversation. Aurelian drifted toward Tona without comment, brushing her shoulder as he stopped beside her. No words passed between them. None were needed. Years of shared judgment, shared messes, shared secrets.

He glanced at her. One brow lifted. Tona met his look, eyes flicking once toward Ace, then back. A barely perceptible nod.

Aurelian groaned under his breath. "Of course," he muttered quietly.

Ace had passed the first test. The unspoken one. The one no one knew they were taking. The one Sibylla herself had survived without ever realizing it. Tona's read was rarely wrong. She saw motives where others saw noise. And apparently, beneath the wreckage and arrogance, she saw something that wasn't rot.

That did not mean Aurelian trusted him. He folded his arms loosely and looked toward Ace at last, expression cool, controlled, eyes sharp with assessment. Inside, the tension didn't ease. It coiled tighter.

Approval wasn't absolution.

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

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Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

Thank Shiraya.

He was coming with her.

For once, Aurelian did not make a show of it, but the simple willingness to stand with her and not force her to choose sides without hearing and investigating everything mattered

"Thank you," she breathed out softly.

And before she could overthink it, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. It was brief and wholly instinctive, her cheek brushing his shoulder, her arms tightening just enough to steady them both. It was a quiet reassurance, an. I'm here. We're still here. Together.

Then she pulled back, smoothing her expression.

It was time.

She asked an attendant to retrieve her comm from their bedroom and fell into step beside Aurelian as they made their way back through Rainspire. When they reached Ace and she saw him sat with Tic beside him, uttering out back and forth like they used to, Sibylla couldn't help how her expression softened thinking if the past. When Ace didn't seem to bleed out literally and figuratively.

He still looked wrecked. Bruised, bandaged, his dark skin pale beneath the grime. But at least now he was seated and being treated, the old medidroid hovering over him, complaining in a tinny voice as it sealed another strip of synthskin into place.

Sibylla blinked.

Wait, where did that droid come from?

That was not the sleek silent units that had tended to her throughout her recovery here. She glanced sideways at Aurelian. Then at Tona.

Sibylla's brows lifted slightly and Tona gave a perfectly neutral shrug. Aurelian, however, appeared suspicious.

Sibylla exhaled through her nose, of course.

TIC meanwhile was mid-lecture, chirping sharply and waving his small arms at Ace in clear disapproval.

Sibylla lowered herself into a seat near him.

"Yes, exactly,"she agreed with TIC, a faint huff of breath escaping her. "He is impossibly stubborn."

The little droid gave an indignant trill of agreement.

But when she looked back at Ace, the humor drained away, worry settling in again. He looked exhausted in a way that ran deeper than bruises.

The attendant arrived then, placing her comm into Sibylla's hand. She accepted it absently, her eyes never leaving Ace's.

There was no room for gentle circling now.

"Alright," she said quietly, her voice steady but no longer soft. "Let us start from the beginning…what happened?"

She drew in a breath.

"Tell us everything."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace noticed Aurelian first. Of course. The man entered ahead of Sibylla, posture composed, eyes already measuring the room like it was a battlefield instead of a sitting chamber. Protective. Assessing. Insert yourself between threat and target. Subtle as a hammer.

Ace was blind to the irony however. If their positions were reversed, if Fatine or Sibylla were walking into a room with an unknown, he would've done the exact same thing. Probably worse.

Sibylla stepped in behind Aurelian, and the tension in Ace's shoulders eased a fraction when he saw her upright, steady. Tic chirped animatedly at her, outraged at Ace's life choices. Ace sighed at the pair's interaction.

The moment lingered just long enough to feel almost normal. But then, of course, it shifted. Sibylla's tone changed. The softness drained out of it. The room followed.

When she asked him what happened, Ace felt it settle over him like armor. The warmth left his face. The looseness in his posture vanished. What replaced it was the version of him the Covenant knew. The one who survived. Professional. Controlled. Cold.

"Empire's gone." His voice was blunt. Clean. "The Covenant--"

He corrected himself without hesitation.

"We wiped them out in a single day."

The word tasted wrong, but he wouldn't deny his involvement. He exhaled slowly through his nose, gaze drifting away from them. A fractured durasteel panel flashed in his memory, his own reflection staring back at him. Eyes burning yellow. The Dark side roaring so loud it drowned out thought.

That had been a slip. A lapse. It would not happen again. He didn't need to give Aurelian ammunition. He didn't need to give Sibylla another thing to worry about while she was still healing. So, he let it lie.

"It was a three-pronged attack." He continued evenly. "A strike team ran a cyberattack to cripple Coruscant's infrastructure. They turned the capital into a blackout zone. Another team, led by Star-Arm, hit the Imperial Palace directly."

His prosthetic hand twitched once, then lifted in a casual, dismissive wave toward the hovering med-droid.

"My team hit the ISB. The goal wasn't conquest. It was destabilization. Break intelligence, scatter command, make it impossible for them to reorganize."

His fingers curled slowly against his thigh.

"Then there was…"

"I don't know if you heard Solipsis where you were, but right now, what's left of the Empire is carrying out purge orders."

He remembered standing before her during their "debrief". The way she'd explained it like it was nothing, despite the waves of shame he felt radiate off of her through the Force.

Ace's fists tightened.

"Windrun sent out a purge order, somehow pretending to be Solipsis himself." He said, voice lowering. "People, cities... worlds...everything."

His eyes flicked up briefly, dark and unreadable.

"They didn't just break the Empire. They erased it. Entire worlds taken off the map to make sure nothing crawls back. Then we swoop in and finish them off."

He could see the faces in his mind. Civilians caught in crossfire. The senselessness of it. The overkill. He remembered telling Arris there were other ways. Cleaner ways.

Rage flickered under his skin again, hot and immediate. He felt it building and forced it down, pinching the bridge of his nose hard enough to leave a mark.

"That's not all..." He dropped his hand slowly. "Windrun took me on as her apprentice, and during our "debrief"... she told me something."

His gaze shifted briefly to Sibylla, then to Aurelian. Not defensive. Not apologetic. Just calculating.

"Something I'm not sure helps us… or makes this whole thing pointless."

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian did not interrupt. He stood beside Tona, arms folded, expression neutral, and listened to every word. The tone shift in Ace was obvious. Gone was the reckless arrival, the sharp edges and provocation. What sat before them now was something colder.

Empire's gone.

Aurelian did not react outwardly, but he felt Sibylla go still. Wiped out in a day. Three-pronged attack. Cyberwarfare. Palace strike. ISB neutralized. It aligned with fragments Republic Intelligence had scraped together, but hearing it from someone who had been inside the machine added weight.

He tracked the details. Infrastructure blackout. Command collapse. Destabilization, not conquest. Then the purge. Impersonation. Solipsis' name used as cover. Aurelian's mind moved quickly, slotting pieces into place. Chaos manufactured on purpose. No loose ends. No rival power structures left standing. Efficient. Brutal. Terrifying.

When Ace mentioned being taken as her apprentice, Aurelian's gaze sharpened almost imperceptibly. Apprentice meant proximity. Influence. Exposure. It also meant vulnerability. He exchanged a brief look with Tona. She had caught it too.

And then, unbidden, a memory surfaced.

A quiet dinner in the garden days ago. Candles guttering in the breeze. Sibylla reliving the events of Corellia.

"I didn't realize the message wasn't encrypted on Corellia," she had admitted, annoyed with herself.

Aurelian had leaned back in his chair, studying her over the rim of his glass. "Then we fix that."

They had talked it through. Not encryption alone. Something simpler. Human.

"If one of us is ever compromised," he had said lightly, though his eyes had not been light at all, "we need a word. Something ordinary. Something that would never raise suspicion."

She had smiled faintly. "Like what?"

He had considered it for a beat, then grinned. "Professional."

She had laughed at that. They had spent weeks teasing each other about being professional while very much not being professional at all. Lingering touches. Looks that lasted too long. Tension disguised as diplomacy.

"If you say it in the wrong place, multiple times, in a public setting." he had added, softer then, "I'll know. I'll know something is off. I'll know to look deeper, to question."

"And I'll know you know," she had replied.

It had felt almost unnecessary at the time. Paranoid, even.

Now it felt prophetic.

Aurelian returned to the present without shifting his posture. He was suddenly, deeply grateful they had had that conversation. Whatever lengths this Covenant were willing to go... if they ever for some reason, captured one of them... They would be prepared.

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

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Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

The Empire's gone.

Sibylla's breath caught, barely perceptible.

We wiped them out in a single day.

And around her, the air in the room seemed to thin.

She felt Aurelian beside her before she looked at him -- the subtle shift in his posture, the way his presence hardened without moving. But her eyes remained on Ace as he detailed the cyberattack, the blackout over Coruscant, the palace strike, the ISB dismantled with surgical brutality.

This was not rebellion -- it was an eraasure. A genocide.

By the time Ace revealed the purge orders, how entire worlds had been taken off the map and the resulting chaos, the color had drained away from her face entirely, placing in stark contrast the darker pink of the scars against her skin. The Dejarik board she had grown up studying in metaphor had been flipped, pieces swept aside with deliberate cruelty.

And to learn that Ace had been in the thick of it, had to live through it... participate in a way that would allow him to remain undercover. It made her heart ache as much as her stomach twist and churn as if the very acid was eating her alive.

And when said Windrun had taken him as her apprentice, something inside Sibylla shifted sharply.

She rose to her feet without realizing, the incessant need to pace and clear her thoughts moving through her. The motion was sudden enough that her chair scraped faintly against the floor. She began to pace, one hand rising to her mouth as her teeth caught her lower lip, gnawing at the tender flish. Her mind was moving too fast now, assembling threads, tracing consequences.

Apprentice. What did that even mean? Now this was not merely an infiltration or proximity, but potentially --

A muscle in her jaw twitched and she spun, her hand falling from her mouth, fingers threading briefly through her hair before she stopped pacing and turned sharply back toward him.

"We need to get in contact with Knight Reingard," she said, trying to maintain a steady voice, but it pitched with urgency. "We cannot have you out there alone anymore."

She shook her head once, stepping closer, her gaze fixing on Ace with unflinching scrutiny.

"And I know you have not left unscathed," she added quietly. "I can tell, Ace. Far more now than the last time we met on Yavin... Do not deny it."

Her throat tightened briefly, but she did not look away.

She drew in a slow breath, then asked the question she dreaded having to ask.

"What was it she told you?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Aurelian was a wall again. Practiced stillness. Measured breathing. No spikes in the room from him, just calculation. Sibylla was the opposite.

Through her Thread, he felt her like a storm front colliding with itself. Shock. Anger. Fear. Strategy. Compassion. All layered and overlapping. It made sense. It was a lot. And when he said apprentice, something inside her shifted. He saw it even if he didn't comment on it. The way she rose without meaning to. The scrape of the chair. The pacing.

His eyes tracked her movement automatically, expression unchanged. When she mentioned contacting Lorn, he glanced aside and gave the smallest nod. She was right, Lorn needed to know. But when she said they couldn't have him out there alone anymore, his gaze snapped back to her.

"Sibylla." He said evenly, no heat, no edge. "Me being alone out there is the point." His voice stayed controlled. "Less risk to the mission. And it keeps you and Lorn out of the thick of it. Keeps you all safe."

It wasn't martyrdom. It was math. When she pressed about him not being unscathed, told him not to deny it, the muscles in his jaw tightened. The air around him seemed to dim by a degree.

"It doesn't matter."

The words were clipped. Final. He didn't elaborate, nor did he want to. Ace exhaled once, steadying himself.

"What she told me…" He began.

For a moment, his eyes were unfocused. Not lost, but somewhere else. Arris' voice echoed in his head.

"Kattada was... A whim - Desevro was a whim. The fight with Solipsis was a whim. Genarius was a job, but we took it on a whim. Chandrila? That shit wasn't planned, not really. Vestra just wanted to prove herself... on a whim." Tapani - Coruscant... Don't you see? If nobody stops us at our impulses, who will stop us once someone figures out how to run this show?"

Ace exhaled.

"She said most of it wasn't strategy. Kattada. Desevro. Chandrila. Even parts of Coruscant. They weren't master plans. They were… impulses. Someone wanted to see if they could. So they did."

His fingers curled against his knee.

"She wasn't bragging. Even she was… disturbed by it. I thought the Covenant was dangerous because it was ambitious. 'Cause it had a vision. Some sort of grand plan." He shook his head faintly. "But they just..." His thoughts drifted to Tapani again "Feel like it."

His gaze flicked between Sibylla and Aurelian.

"Whole systems shattered. Worlds scarred. People erased because no one stopped them when the urge hit. Because the odds were bad and someone wanted to see if they could beat them anyway."

Ace leaned forward slightly, forearms resting against his thighs.

"Right now, they're chaos with power. Imagine what happens when that chaos gets discipline. When someone with patience, and a real plan, takes control."

His eyes hardened. Dark gaze settling intensely on the two politicians, as if almost... pleading for action. For anything.

"Coruscant was a proof of concept. If nobody reins them in..." He finished quietly, "The next one won't be a whim."

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes ​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian didn't move while Ace spoke, but something behind his eyes sharpened. Impulses. Worlds erased on a whim. Capitals blacked out because someone wanted to see if they could. Not ideology. Not conquest. That unsettled him more than strategy would have. He glanced briefly at Sibylla. She was already ten steps ahead.

Chaos with power. Aurelian believed him. That was the problem.

He leaned slightly toward Tona, voice low enough that it wouldn't carry. "Everything we have on this faction. Names, movements, funding streams. And on him." A faint tilt of his head toward Ace. "I want it cross-checked independently."

Tona didn't argue. She never did when his tone went like that. A small nod, then she slipped from the room. Aurelian stepped forward once she was gone, closing some of the distance between himself and Ace, ready to throw his weight behind whatever Sibylla wanted to do.

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