Where is she!

[GhostOfProtocol]

The Ebon Hawk flew over Commenor, banking slowly to the left towards the spaceport closer to the home of [member="Lady Kay"], queen of Commenor. She'd dropped off the radar while Kei had been with his cousin, he'd tried to contact her and got nothing back, so it was time to check it out once and for all. It was time to see why she was silent, she rarely dropped off the grid. The ship banked left sharper, settling to a hover aboard a platform. It lowered, touching down, the ship coming to a "gentle" halt on the floor below.

Kei Garnik stepped from the ship. He knew roughly the location of the home of the queen, he just had to find it. He began walking, strolling quickly, he wanted to find the house. He walked until he reached what looked like the house in question, the amount of guards gave it away, now he just had to hope they would play nice, they would just part for him.

"I'm here to see the queen"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay was housed in the old Presidential Palace that had now been renamed as the Royal Palace. The guards looked to [member="Kei Garnik"] , his identity being confirmed through the facial recognition in their huds. He was one of the Queen's old friends. They were automatically deemed clearance until she told them otherwise. So they parted for him. Two others led him to the Throne Room to wait.

It took ten minutes for Kay to arrive, all adorned in a black gown laced with silver embroidery. Her hair was done up in a bun, with silver lacework and jewels decorating her hair. She looked to Kei with yellow speckles in her eyes, yet there was no hint of recognition there. She had no idea of who he was.

"You wish to see me?"

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

Kei glared at the queen slowly. Something was off, the force was attacking him, begging him to recognize that something was wrong, something didn't fit. He shook it off, continued to watch the queen as he smiled slowly. She sounded bitter, but he could easily put it down to stress. She was busy, she was the queen, the amount of work she had to do was probably insane, he had always known politics was stressful, being the queen must of been so much worse, so much more work, so much more effort applied to do anything and make anything work.

"M'lady"

He hated the formal greeting, but everyone greeted the queen formally. Everyone.

"You went silent, it is always unlike you to just vanish on your friends. I figured confirmation you were alive would be useful, I worried you'd pulled one of your old stunts and got yourself killed and i'd have to come and collect you from Dromund-Kaas again"

He smiled lightly.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

She raised a brow and then furrowed them as she searched her memories, trying to find something on him that she would remember. There was nothing but the occasional messages that she had read on her datapad. Yet that wasn't much for her to go on. Why didn't her old self keep a journal?? It would have made things so much easier.

"Didn't you hear? I was kidnapped and tortured for a long time. No one came to my rescue. No one tried hard enough to find me. I had to work for my freedom and my reward was the Crown."

Now her tone turned to one filled with sarcasm and a bit of bite. "I am so sorry that I couldn't reply to your messages during my captivity."

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

He shook his head. He wasn't surprised Lady Kay had been kept in captivity, it was just such a her thing to do. It was so Lady Kay to get caught and held captive, caught and held ransom. He assumed it was by the Hutt Cartel, they had a list of reasons to kidnap the queen, a list of reasons to hold her prisoner for money or for goods or for freedom or whatever else they wanted. Yet, something was seriously off, he couldn't ignore the force on this one.

"Had I of known I would of readied the old crew to come to your rescue. I'm afraid no-one informs me of anything and as such I am left to struggle and pick up news months and even years after it happens, I tend to fall out of the news"

He shook his head.

"Who took you, the cartel?"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay just gave [member="Kei Garnik"] a smirk as he laid out his excuses. To her that's all that they were. Though she didn't expect everyone to know of her wereabouts at all times, she did expect help when she needed it most. Maybe her old self wasn't important anymore, but now she had the power that she needed.

She shook her head a little in response to his question. "No. A Sith Lord took me. He is responsible for my rebirth."

(Sorry for the delay. Didn't have much access due to the attack on the site)

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

"Rebirth?"

He mentally slapped himself. It explained everything. A "Sith Lord" took her, was responsible for her "rebirth". Everything made sense, the warnings through the force made sense now. Whatever this Sith Lord had done to his friend had twisted her beyond her former self, stopped her showing the emotion of her former self. She wasn't [member="Lady Kay"] anymore. She was a new, dark creature, who had been fed lies to survive her captivity.

The backpack on his back dropped to the floor, Kei's hand reaching out slowly, the metal hilt on his weapon being pulled through the fabric of the bag with the force. He felt the cold metal touch his fingers, yet he kept the weapon powered off. He didn't want to hurt her but he had to be ready, his next words would change the atmosphere in the room, and if she turned on him then he had to have a way to defend himself against her.

"You have become one of them. I felt it the moment you entered this room and you have just confirmed everything I needed to hear. You have confirmed your arrest warrent m'lady. You are conspiring with those who MURDERED your husband, I know the story well. You allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now, until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."

He stared at her, all look of friendship gone from his face. He was cold, numb with shock but focused.

"I will not be responsible for your arrest, not this time. I warn you now, Sith, if you try and harm any of the undeserving Jedi, then I will find you"

His eyes locked on her the entire time, spitting the word Sith.

"The force warned me something was wrong. I couldn't believe you did it, but now I have to"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay's eyes narrowed slightly as [member="Kei Garnik"] took out his weapon. Her eyes narrowed further when he spoke of her late husband and the circumstances surrounding his death. "Arrest warrent? For what? Conspiring? You need to get your facts straight. I've not done anything to justify your threats. You would lose in a trial..."

Then he threatened her again. Kay stepped forward towards him, though she made no move for her own saber, she didn't even access the Force. "And what of those that do deserve it? You come into my home and threaten me with no provocation. Who is the real villain here, hmm? By rights I should have you arrested. So I'm going to give you this chance. Leave quickly or you'll find yourself tailed wherever you go. The Galaxy doesn't take kindly to those that threaten and attack innocent people just because of what they are."

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

He offered her a light grin softly. She was right, he would loose in a trial, but the Silver Jedi wouldn't offer her a fair trial anyway. She was a Sith, even if she wouldn't admit it to his person. He felt sorry for her, her mind had been twisted and she'd been made into one of those who killed her husband, she had joined them willingly and he had basically admitted it, she just wouldn't say it as it was.

"None of them deserve it, none of them deserve to die. The real villian is you, you believe that some people deserve to die"

His fingers closed around the cool metal shaft in his hand, even if he made no move to ignite the lightsaber, it still made him feel at ease, less worried about his current situation, less worried about what she would do, how she would react.

"They executed your husband Kay! They tried to kill you so many times! Why side with them!"

"Why!"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

"I mentioned nothing about killing people. You spoke of harming, that's not killing. I spoke of arresting. That's not killing either. It seems as though you have the killer instinct far more than I could have." Besides, in some cases death was a release, not a punishment.

Kay clenched her jaw and stepped back a little as he brought up the subject of her late husband again. During some of her torture sessions, she had those memories played out for her on a constant loop as they were heavily emotional for her. "My husband was no Jedi. He was a Darksider! He was killed because I was too stubborn and weak to let them have him. They were going to kill me but turned the tables on us. Don't you even think for one moment that it was an easy choice! Don't you dare..." She wasn't weak anymore. But no one understood what she went through. Only one was close, and he now worked as one of her Ministers. Yet asQueen, she could only reveal so much.

[member="Kei Garnik"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

He was twisting her emotions, her feelings. He wanted her to snap, to break and to show him exactly what she could do. He wanted her to give him evidence of her fall, he could give her to the Silver Jedi and they could try and redeem her from that. He offered a weak grin, deliberating slightly to decide his next line. He wanted something that would actually make her snap, make her realise what she was, what she had become.

"Don't I dare what? Tell you the truth? They killed your husband and now you've sided with them like they never did anything. I was your friend Kay, they tried to kill me as well as all your other friends, they tried to kill you! Why do you just side with them after everything they've done to you, after all the pain they've caused you. I thought you were alright, and now I know that you were this Sith Lord. That's why you always hid your force signature, so we wouldn't sense it"

He could fabricate his evidence if he needed to.

"You make me sick"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Kei Garnik"] might have thought that his words would anger her into attacking him. But instead, she just laughed. Not an evil cackle either, but a laugh of amusement. He was grasping at straws and she knew it. Kay had the upper hand here.

"You speak as though the Jedi and others would never harm a soul. They are killers too with hatred towards others that act on different emotions. I had allies in the past that were Darksiders. They helped me to free slaves on many occassions. Just being a Force user and serving in the Republic government nearly got me executed even though I had never used my gifts against anyone. There are more non Force users out there than there are Force users. If I were you, I'd be more worried about them. When it comes to people like us, they have no moral compass."

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

He closed his eyes. He didn't doubt she had been friends with Sith Lords before he turn, but even she had to realise that they were evil. They could twist your mind easy enough, make you into a slave and make you into a weapon that could be used against those you once called friends. He only had to bring up the One Sith as an example of what the Sith could do and how much damage they could do. It was all he needed as evidence.

"I have no worry and concern about those non Force Users, they don't think like us, the force users do"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay raised a brow. [member="Kei Garnik"] had no worry or concern over those that had no access to the Force? That wasn't good.

She started to pace around him now, her hands folded behind her. "No concern for the very people that populate most of the Galaxy? Do you believe yourself to be above them? That they are nothing but mere insects for you to step on or brush aside? That doesn't sound very Jedi-like to me. If I care more than you do, then perhaps you are a Sith Lord too. You just don't know it yet..."

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

He offered her a weak grin, she had misunderstood him. He worried and showed concern over the safety of non force users, he'd beat himself up over the Korriban incident. What he actually meant was that he was a better warrior, they could do less damage to him than force users and he knew that, the force warned him when guns were involved, inhanced his reflexes, it didn't work force users tried it, and he sighed.

"For a politician you don't read between the lines. I meant, of course, in the way of the warrier. Something you have never been of course, a good warrior. I always worried it would be your downfall, not being able to defend yourself. While a non force user might overpower you, most force users wouldn't even flinch when faced with one, the force would protect a regular force user, something you've never been. Always using the force to hide, that was always why you used the force wasn't it? To hide?"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay stopped. She didn't look at [member="Kei Garnik"] nor anything in particular. Instead she just let her hands drop to her sides and clenched her jaw.

"I know what you're doing, so stop it now. You are wanting to fight me so badly, it's starting to consume you. If you know what's good for you, you'll leave." She left him there and walked to her throne, taking her seat. This was her home and she was not going to let him have the upper hand.

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

Spoiler

I made you a promise, did I not?

"I'm going. However, remember these next few words. Your friends will be here soon, they will want their Kay back. Don't force them away like you have me, allow them to help you. Allow them to help you to find yourself again. The old senator, president. Not this, whatever you are now. Whatever you are now isn't Kay"

He turned slowly on his heels, allowing the lightsaber behind his back to fall to the floor as he left. She would keep it, he knew she would. He would return to collect it when she was back to Kay, he would need to return to collect it when he returned. He took one last look over his shoulder, sighing as he allowed himself to be escorted from the palace slowly. She had changed and she wasn't Kay, not anymore.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay clenched her jaw at [member="Kei Garnik"] 's words. He was doing his best to make her lash out in anger, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

Friends will come? They already had. But it didn't matter as she had no memories of them anyways. The old Kay was dead, or rather hidden away so deeply that it might never come out.

After he left she got out of her throne and approached his lightsaber. Why he left it, she didn't know. Should she toss it away? No. It could prove useful later. Her fingers held the device gingerly as she walked around to the back of the throne. There was a small compartment that was hidden there. Kay opened it and slipped the lightsaber inside, glancing at her other little treasures in there before closing it.

With that matter over, she retreated to her chambers. Time to get back to work.