When Dark Hearts Meet (Dara Gola)

[Zion Mirtis]

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Ravelin​

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A planet once ruled by the remnants of the old Empire. Now a new home for the forces of the Primeval. Before arriving herself Darth Raven, acting as a representative for the One Sith, had looked into the planet's history. It helped to know any and all places of interest during her visit. The nature of the visit itself was drool but necessary. Only a confirmation of continued alliances with the Sith and the Primeval while keeping access to certain resources that could be shared. As Raven herself would say "droll but needed". It wasn't until all affairs were settled with those she had to meet with that the Sith knight found herself interested in the grand library of Ravelin. A lot of the older histories were stored here, dating back to the time of the Galactic Civil war and possibly further. While there were places like this within the Sith's territory she felt it helped to look into any and all aspects of it. One would never know if the histories written within one tome were different compared to another, especially when based on a sensitive subject such as history. Telling her escorts to await her arrival back on her shuttle the Sith made her way to the library, keeping her hooded robe over her head before finally entering the large dark building. She'd asked to be directed to where she could look into any accounts of the Old Empire, the service droid pointing her in the proper direction. From there she began to stride her way through the halls to find it herself.

[member="Dara Gola"]

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[Dara Gola]

Dara liked to sit in the library, it was quiet and usually she was alone. No one really bothered her unless they needed her, and then she was all business. but having the freedom to do as she wished was a nice luxury, especially on Ravelin. the large library was ancient, and it held many tomes, many of them would be forbidden for her to read as as a Jedi, and even if she were still a sith, her master would have told her to ignore some of them, citing 'simple minded fools wrote those'. This day was different though, she felt another presence in the library with her, a darker presence than she had felt on Ravelin in a long time, but she ignored it. If they were in the library, then they were meant to be. No one left on the planet gave any problems to their new masters.

She felt the presence getting closer and then she say the woman as she entered the main part of the library. the woman was dressed very fancy for a trip to the library, but she turned back to her book once she saw that the dark lady was wandering into the old wing of the building, where the accounts of the Old Empire were kept. she returned to her book and didn't dwell on it any longer, the droids were there to help people find things, not her, nor was she security, whatever the dark lady was doing was her business and her business alone.

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

It had only taken a moment for Darth Raven to find a tome on the accounts of the Imperial Officers who served closely with both Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. A perfect piece of reading material needed. It would help to know how they felt or what they felt while being in the presence of some of the greatest Sith Lords to have ever existed. From there were chances to discover and possible secrets the dark lords had. Darth Raven was an ambitious woman after all, wanting to rise above into the ranks of the greater Sith Lords that she'd known.

With the tome in hand Raven finally lowered her hood, her long dark hair spilling out. She looked around before finding a seat, which was opposite a twi'lek woman already there and reading herself. Quietly she strode over before taking her seat, almost no noise following. She only glanced at the twi'lek before opening the book. Her hands were careful as they thumbed through pages or read through contexts to find where to read next. Her steel blue eyes scanned the words so intently it was clear she was deep into her reading.

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Dara hadn't expected the Dark lady to come back to her part of the library, there were tables and chairs spread out everywhere and yet here she was. Dara could feel her dark aura and it was a bit unsettling to be so close to it. It was the darkness that she had fought off for so long since she had escaped and she was doing her best to avoid using her dark powers all together. She still used them when it was required, there was nothing she wouldn't do if her survival was on the line, but she felt so unclean afterwards.

She looked up as the dark lady was seated, their eyes meeting for just a second, dark blue meeting steel blue, and then she went back to reading her texts. she continued to glance up at the unknown woman from time to time, her body unable to get fully comfortable around the darkness that she felt. It called to her, taunted her to come out and play with it. The darkness that her former master had pushed upon her, that she had wrapped herself in on those cold nights when she was alone. She felt the pull and wanted to get up and run away, but then she would be rude to the woman, and she didn't want to be rude to a guest of the government, the Host lord wouldn't approve of that.

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

In that moment when their eyes had met Darth Raven could feel it. Fear. This twi'lek girl was afraid. Why? Perhaps she just wasn't used to being around powerful influences of the darkside? But that couldn't be it. Raven figured it was because she was with the Primeval that she was being raised and taught by all manner of darker powers. Was she just shy around her? As much as Raven appreciated that she wouldn't think fear would be a first response. Perhaps there was more to it. Her eyes went back to her texts whenever the girl would look to her, but otherwise she would examine her. She noticed one hand was not her own but a basic cyber-hand. An interesting feature.

Noe more interested Raven moved the book aside, resting her hands folded together while leaning forward. Once the twi'lek would look up again she would see those two steel blue eyes looking at her. A small smile, almost an intimidating one, was on Raven's face. Her attention was clearly on her now.

"Hello." she said in a somewhat saunter voice.

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Dara could feel the dark lady's eyes on her, when she was reading she felt them staring at her and when she looked up they were back on her book. It was unsettling for this to be happening and it made Dara wish she had someone else here with her to help her figure this out, maybe someone more social than she was. She heard movement from the lady and she looked up.

the lady across from her had pushed the book she was reading aside and she was now staring directly at her, worse yet was the small smile on her lips, the kind of smile that predators gave to prey before they devoured them. Dara felt the twinge of fear inside of her and then it was gone, she wasn't prey, she would never be prey again, not now, not ever. She allowed the darkness to caress her as she invited it back in, she wouldn't allow this woman, regardless of how powerful she was, to make her afraid again. Shs had been trained to turn her fear into hatred, and that made her powerful, and she could be powerful too if she was pushed.

A single word was all it took for Dara to become confused, there wasn't any malice or menace in that one word, but there was something. Dara sat there for an awkward second, unsure of what to say as she exhaled and let the flowing darkness that she had wrapped herself in fade away. " Um... Hello"

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

The darkside seemed to tense around this twi'lek. Raven could feel it. Odd as it was it meant that she was emotionally conflicted. An interesting sign for one who was trained under the ways of the Primeval. But then, from there, came the idea that she did not join willingly. Perhaps something else was behind this twi'lek's story. But instead of prying into that Raven wished to know her first.

"What are you reading?" she asked, keeping the same tone and look as before. "Anything of real interest?"

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Another question that put Dara on the defensive. Why was this lady so interested in the book she was reading. dfara turned the book over and showed off the spine. " It's a simple book on the history of the planet, I'm curious as to who these people were before they became subjects of the Host Lord." She was trying to figure out what it was about this planet that had interested the host lord so much that it had to be taken.

She felt the lady's eyes boring into her at she continued to stare at her, she was appraising her and yet she spoke so calmly, almost as if she was barely interested. All of it left Dara feeling unsettled and on guard.

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

Her eyebrows cocked with interest at her description of the book, before saying "If it helps, I can give you a quick summary." Before the twi'lek could give an answer she insisted with "This planet used to be the base of the Imperial Remnant. The last remains of the old Empire ruled by the dark lord Sidious. It continues to this day, though obviously not on this planet anymore. I'm surprised your master, or masters, haven't properly taught you this already."

Her tone wasn't mocking or belittling. If anything it was more inquisitive and straightforward. More of Darth Raven trying to help take her attention away from the book and more on her. That may have been her intent without even realizing it.

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Dara tilted her head as she listened, she had once thought of herself as very well read, but that was way back when she was a youngling in the Jedi temples. Before she had been kidnapped and tortured for years on end. Those were dark times where her master would teach her by smashing her will aside and forcing information into her head with his power. She had spent many months trying to unravel the mess that he had left, but he was long gone, dead by her hand. she didn't have a master to teach her anything, she had only the other members of the bleeding sun, and everyone was out for themselves.

" I did not know that, the chapter I was on referred to a time before any of that had happened yet." she placed the book on the table and tilted her head slightly, " I haven't had a master in a long time, it's been just me learning on my own." She hadn't really expected her answer anymore than she had expected the question, but the idea of having a master terrified her, to be at the whim of another being, doing their dirty deeds for them, it was little better than slavery.

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

Another curious look before Raven asked "Really? Then how did you come by...this?" Her hand reached out with one finger extended. It landed on the knuckle of the twi'lek's severed hand before rolling down the fingers. Her eyes were still fixed on hers while her hand seemed to move on it's own, touching against the metal. She cocked her eyebrow but still kept that almost predator smile as she awaited an answer.

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Dara frowned and pulled her hand back, she was very uncomfortable at the moment and wasn't sure how to proceed. " I got it from my last master, he thought it would be a good lesson for me to learn. That my guard was always supposed to be up." Dara was fighting off the feelings she was having right now, that day had been one of the most terrifying of her entire life, she had tried to escape from her tormentor and had been punished by extra lessons and then, when she was exhausted band past the breaking point he had dueled her and cut off her hand.

She looked up again , meeting the other woman's eyes, a slight smile playing across her lips, " He taught me to never let my guard down, and the day he didn't listen to his own teaching, I cut his head off."

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

Raven's own hand recoiled when the twi'lek took hers back. Apparently it was a sensitive issue, especially after she'd heard her story out in the open. When the fact of her hand being cut off as a lesson came up Raven realized that her former master was obviously one of the tougher types. Believing pain was a means of lesson that would be instituted if the student wanted it or not. But when she finished with telling how she'd cut her master's head off with a smile Raven's own reaction was a more bemused look as well.

"Then a poor teacher he was." she commented. "I've learned it's not a matter of forcing the lesson onto the student, but letting them grow into it. That's how you attain real power: by adapting to it."

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Dara saw the slight change in the lady across from her as she told the story, maybe it was the way she told it, or maybe it was the smile she gave as the memory of cutting her old master's head off ran through her mind. Whatever it was, there was a slight difference in her. She saw the way the lady's hand recoiled back as she pulled her own hand back, the bemused look on her face as Dara smiled at her, the first time she had some so thus far.

She tilted her head, not fully understanding the method that was being explained to her. "I don't think I understand. they adapt to it? That sounds like something a Jedi would say."

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

Trying to think of a better wording she said "More of a time essential training. Instead of forcing them to know or learn it you allow the student time to understand it. Although, now that you mention Jedi, would you believe I used to be one?" She leaned back with a more cocky smile before adding "I was. Or at least a padawan. But soon my master found me and showed me the error of the Jedi's teachings. They were too....soft. I realized what I really wanted, and only the Sith could give me that. What of you?" she now asked the twi'lek. "How did you come to be a part of the Primeval?"

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

She heard the words and it took her a second to process them, this woman had been a jedi, just like she had been before things went wrong. " I was a Jedi as well, but I was just getting ready for my padawan trials when i was ambushed and kidnapped. I was sold to a Rogue Sith who trained me to be his tool, the sword in the dark for those that opposed him." She held up her hand and shrugged, " You know how that story ended. I was lost and homeless until the host lord found me, it was then that she gave me a purpose and a home." she didn't finish by saying that she was a loyal servant of the Primeval, she figured that it was implied that she was such.

she looked across the table at the dark lady that was now conversing with her and realized that they had very similar pathes, btu each one had walked ti differently. In another time or place they may have been friends, or rivals.

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

Taking in her story Raven could see how similar things were between them. Another Jedi converted into the darkside, though with the twi'lek it seemed to be by force more than anything else. By the sounds of it she was trained to be an assassin of sorts, which made sense when Raven thought about it. If this master was a brutish type then it would compromise to have one with a more subtle and assassin-like touch to their methods in contrast. An interesting development, one Raven hoped to use in getting closer to the twi'lek girl.

"Then it seems you owe a lot to the Primeval. More than for your old master. Though I'm surprised you've yet to have anyone help you here, when I cans sense a lot of potential in you."

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Dara wasn't sure hoe to take the last comment, she had potential...she knew that she had potential, she knew that back when she was a Jedi and after that when she was finally free of her old master and she had ended up with the sith, but they had too much intrigue for her, she didn't understand the finesse needed for that type of combat, she was an assassin and a killer, those things she knew how to handle, the manipulation and double dealing that were things that she wasn't good at.

" what do you mean, you see my potential? I've had a sith master before, and you know how that turned out." She shrugged, " I've given up training, I just serve now."

[member="Darth Raven"]

 

[Zion Mirtis]

With a more matter-of-fact tone Raven said "You can still learn while serving. That's how real apprentices work among the Sith. The good ones, anyway. But the death of one master does not mean the end of training. You've still much to learn if you hope to become a true threat to anyone as a darkside assassin. I can tell. You're still an apprentice. You've a lot more fines to add to your skills. You need to learn more of the darkside's nature in order to use it for your own. Perhaps....I can help." she finished with a smirk.

[member="Dara Gola"]

 

[Dara Gola]

She sat there, unable to answer, this dark lady had just offered to help her. It was intriguing and terrifying at the same time, she was offering to teach her about the darkside and show her how to become more powerful, but she already served the cause of the Primeval, she wondered how that would affect her ability to learn. The small wink had thrown her off as well, she wasn't sure how to read the lady across from her, but the idea of becoming more powerful was a draw to her, she wanted to not have to fear anymore, she wanted to be strong enough that people would fear her and leave her alone

the words left her mouth before her brain could stop them." What kind of help can you offer?"

[member="Darth Raven"]