Private Where The River Flows

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」
​

He'd seen those eyes before, and he thought he'd been rid of them.

Every step tracked a familiar presence, one that he believed he'd thwarted before; the former keeper of the estranged crimson blade that lay tucked in his jacket. Aradia had gotten away, but Zaavik didn't think she'd be shoving her nose back into the core any time soon. A naive notion, truly. He understood what the Sith were, and as such shouldn't have been so self-assured in his efforts.

Zaavik stalked around the snowy temple district. The collective roar of repuslorengines in skylanes beyond soared over the wintry silence of the ground level streets. Frigid air slithered past bright sweater and stygian jacket, assaulting every receptor with an unpleasant glacial bite. In that moment, Zaavik could not think of anything more vexing than the artificial climate. With every step, he hoped the clarivoyant string that he followed would tug him indoors and deliver him from the unwelcoming frost.

His hopes were granted.

A left turn through an automatic door. An auxiliary building of the Jedi Temple. Dark, empty, quiet. Intuition took hold, his legs trekked the path the presence had left. The trail was growing wider. Corridor, door, stairs, corridor, corridor, stop. Before him, the proof of the audacious iniquity stood.

"You again, huh?" She didn't look too pleased about the cold either, or anything for that matter. Perhaps it was a desire to flee the cold that'd trapped her between him and the dead-end beyond. Maybe it was an improvised place to hide. Or, maybe, she had a path in mind the Force didn't permit him to foresee. Zaavik scowled, lip curling with a displeased agitation. "Last time wasn't enough for you to get the picture? You got a deathwish or something?"

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Allyson had blinked twice.

The reality of it ran circles through her mind, elation sitting in her chest. Allyson was alive. Which meant-- which meant maybe she was wrong. Maybe others had survived. Aradia had done as promised. She left the woman to her work, not wanting to jeopardize her mission with any clumsy overlap. She had gotten as far as around the building before another opportunity presented itself.

It wasn't exactly what she had come for, but any amount of intel was better than returning with nothing. Allyson's resurgence changed nothing. It did, however, leave her winging it. She skidded into the dead end, her breath puff around her. Oof. She closed her eyes, reaching out to try and sense a--

"You again, huh?"

She stiffened, her lace-covered shoulders raising to her ears. She knew that voice. Prickles raced down her body. She slowly turned, her hands raised pacifistically.

"Last time wasn't enough for you to get the picture? You got a deathwish or something?"

"Maybe. Killing a party guest is very rude though, don't you think, Jedi." Her eyes were alight with glee as she looked the padawan of Allyson over. He had no idea, did he? "You know some people might consider this stalking."

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

She was so fatalistic. As were the Sith, he supposed, absolutes and all. "Kill you?" Zaavik scoffed as if the notion was ridiculous. Though, his previous words and the hand that rested on his belt only a twitch away from his saber played contrarians. "You aren't a guest, you're an unwelcome nuisance," he rebuked with a pointed glare. Head tilted to the left, jaw moving forward as he pressed his tongue into the back of his teeth.

"You know some people might consider this stalking."

"Oh please," he snarled. "You're the one who moved halfway across the core just to shove your nose in my shit again." Slowly he advanced forward, menacing stride in tow. Clamor of boot on tile was just as distinct as it had been last time. "So, what is it this time? More data slicing? Piss in the punch bowl? Set the conifer on fire? And on lifeday, no less. Low."

Zaavik clicked his tongue with mock-disappointment. Blue irises cut against the dark, unblinking in their dogged insistence for eye contact. The vexing devil wouldn't be slipping away this time. Fire wasn't a wildcard anymore, he felt prepared.

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

"Your shit. You flatter yourself. I'm not here for you." She met his gaze head on. Where the was once fear, confident now danced. He didn't know what she knew. This time, she was prepared too. He stepped towards her. She matched it with a step of her own, willingly closing the gap. She stood in nothing more than a dress, the lace reaching her wrists and and creeping up her neck. Bits of skin poked through, muffled but bare to the brisk chill that crept over them both.

The only weapon on her was a saber, belted on engraved leather that caught over her hips. It was a fair cry different from the muddy brown robes of their last encounter. It left little space to hide.


"So, what is it this time? More data slicing? Piss in the punch bowl? Set the conifer on fire? And on lifeday, no less. Low."

"Or. Maybe," she intoned, sass drawing out her words. "I just like a good dance." Her attention dragged over him, a single brow lifting up as she found her way back to his eyes.

"Nice sweater." Not.

She brushed by him, her palms tingling in anticipation for trouble as she simply... tried to leave.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

Ultramarine followed an opposing approach. A nasal scoff resonated with disgust as if to rebuke her facetiousness. As she drew closer, nostrils flared, lips twitched at the corner. A downward glance of umbrage locked forward eyes still fixed on the spark that passed by.

Viridescent light roared to life with a screech as she brushed past. White-hot emerald hummed inches away from a pale throat, halting the spark unceremoniously. "Thanks," he replied with an equally facetious condescent. Steps were backtracked with the lead of his slowly approaching blade. Zaavik stepped back, and then to the side, blade following the jugular by the point. He squared himself up in front of her, the tip of his plasmatic weapon eagerly awaiting before the throat.

Between him and a dead-end yet again.

"Took you for a lot of things, but not that naive."

There was a terribly loud silence between them. The incessant droning of his saber little more than white nose. Interrogation was due any second, but Zaavik had a particular question in mind. Why she was here, why this building, who sent her, what her plans were; all came second to his first inquiry. "What did Allyson say to you? You knew of her, clearly." Maybe their reconciliation hadn't been as final as either of them thought. Trust once damaged does not simply repair. "Don't bullshit me, either. 'The fuck is going on?"

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia's throat bobbed against the sudden heat bearing down on it, the girl easily led back and controlled by his tender movements. There were several disengages she could do in that moment. She chose to do none of them, her hands raising pacifistically before her. The motion brought her all that much closer to her saber, the device ignored as she felt the alleyway slowly press in on her back. She held his gaze all the while, no longer playing the part of a caught-out padawan.

"Allyson is dead," she answered, each word pronounced precisely. The blistering heat of the saber beat against her, the skin under the lace turning red.

"She died on Bastion, protecting my kind from prosecution. I would say she failed, but I'm still here." And it ate her alive every day. She hid this in the cock of her hip, her arms crossing over her belt. It was a disarming gesture, but it placed her saber against her wrist. Her contempt didn't lessen as she went on to challenge him, her promise to Allyson at the front of her thoughts.

I'll cover you.

"What are you going to do, Jedi? Kill me? Because I came to a party? Last I checked, that was no warcrime." Her fingers twitched. It took every ounce of her to stay rooted. To not flinch. She had promised Allyson her best behavior.


"But if you really want the blood of her apprentice on your hands," she bluffed, her exaggeration amplified by the rise of her chin. She stepped forward into the space the tip of his saber resided, calling his bluff.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

Zaavik's face contorted into a vicious glare. "Foito," he cursed in a concealed whisper in his native Zeltron. "Save me your cryptic Sith nonsense, you sound like a damned gonk." Allyson is dead. What was that supposed to mean? "You're a fool if you think citing the law gives you any leverage. I couldn't give any less of a shit." He doubled down on what she perceived as a bluff. A slow step forward followed another, the only thing between her throat and the tip of his blade being a matched stride opposite him.

"I don't care what Allyson did when SIA sent her over. I don't care what you think it meant. You're going to tell me what the hell you're doing here, and what you talked about at the bar. Why she didn't kill you on the spot is beyond me, but believe me, you won't get lucky twice." Zaavik wasn't sounding very 'Jedi', but then again assassinations weren't very 'Jedi' either. This was probably working wonders for Aradia's preconceived notions.

Maybe his reconciliation with Allyson Locke hadn't been as final as he thought. Trust once damaged could never restore the heights once reached. It would be obvious for anyone with any sense of empathy what a soft spot this was for Zaavik, and especially obvious for one so machiavellian as a Sith. "Regrettably, mercy is quite obviously wasted on you," he continued with a knife-edged intonation. Their last encounter had taught him that much.

"You even twitch the wrong way, I'll snatch the life right out of you. Talk, and you can fuck off with your head on your shoulders. Bhesj; And don't you even think about calling yourself that again." The predatory approach would continue until nothing was left behind the Sith but a wall. Undulating hum of magnetically trapped plasma fiending for the chance to sink forward, sated only momentarily by the subtle twist of the black, sending verdant white light flickering across the walls.

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Oh, yikes. So he had seen that.

She was forced back step by step, until her back brushed the wall and the first dregs fear trickled into the flair of her nose. She knew full well what jedi were capable of. Perhaps she was foolish to think the padawan of Allyson might be a little different. Not for the first time, she bared down a threat to her life.

They stopped surprising her. They no longer overwhelmed her. Now she stood, unshaken, her scanning the planes of her vibrant expression. There was always a way out, she just had to press for it.

"You don't trust her," she noted, her voice soft.

"You should. She's your master. If she let me walk away, don't you think that means something?" There was only one card up her sleeve, and she did not want to pull it. The fury in his expression left little doubt in her mind-- it was now, or possibly never.

The coin was no use to her dead.

She tilted her chin, slow movements showing him how she reached for a slit carved into the leather belt. It was raw, done by a kitchen knife. A little glimmer of metal peaked out. She called it into her palm, then danced it over her fingers for him to see. A Corellian coin. Allyson's father's. She told Aradia it would bring her luck. It had. And maybe it still would.

Aradia raised a singular, copper brow.

"Really. Think about it," she intoned, trying to turn that paranoia into a seed of trust. If Allyson worked both sides, why couldn't she? Maybe he didn't know the woman well after all. Maybe Aradia's stories were real too.

It was all she had, but she held it out for him to see.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

Teeth gritted together with an audible clatter. Ultramarine glanced down at the coin for only long enough to take it in before returning to stare Aradia down. Anger welled up in his throat, and old wound reopening with a reignited festering that urged him to bellow. No cover was ever so deep. Every reassurance began to crumble.

“Things didn’t go as planned, people got too emotionally involved-"​

"The last thing I wanted was for you to get caught in the crossfire again."

"I took them fully knowing the consequences." ​

"I'd do it again every single time. As your Master, it was my job to protect you, and that's exactly what I did."

“You only know part of the story, the part that I wanted you to know.” ​

Lies.

Lips quivered as brow furrowed. "That- that- she-" His grip tightened, the components in his saber groaning beneath the pressure. The dam wouldn't hold much longer; the flood was coming. Saber pulled away winding back for a strike. Even in the storm, Aradia's eyes echoed Bastra's helplessness. Not again. Shoulder and elbow course-corrected last minute, sundering a decorative relief to her left.

"Traitor!"
​

Viridescent death swiped back and forth in a successive wave of unbridled rage. Over and over, the relief was vandalized by the very tool meant to keep the peace. A civilized weapon; yet so destructive. A few panting breaths. A pause. He turned, baring teeth and pointing saber back up as he advanced again.

"Think about it!? Shove it! Is that what this is!? Talk!"

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

His anger surprised even her.

...Perhaps she had miscalculated.

A ripple of energy glistened in the glow of the approaching saber, hinting at defenses that ended up.... untested. She wasted no time, dashing to the side as he let out his fury on the wall. Her objective was get out unnoticed, not kill a jedi mid rage. It did not stop her from calling her saber to her, the blue hue lighting up the air before her as she backpedaled against his advancement. He no longer had her pinned, but even with the distance she had gained between them, she would not give him her back.

Who was the sith now.

"I don't owe you anything," she scoffed, staring down him from the tip of her nose. "You jedi are such hypocrite. You can't break me, and you can't make talk. Your schools are next." A lash of fire sparked between their feet, her signature move, as she turned to run.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

Fool him twice- No. Zaavik was ready for it this time. His advance was halted by the conflagration, a hand came forward and called forth a wave potent enough to snuff the line of dancing reds. Boots cantered against the ground, picking up speed in dogged pursuit. Tearing around a corner, skipping descending stairs with a single leap, managing to slip through a closing door just in time to not be crushed; this wasn't over until he said so.

Passing the building's threshold into the snow, Zaavik slowed to a stop. Frantic glances scanned the aimless snow for Aradia. Nothing. Intuition took over, he ran through an alley, climbed up a dumpster with a hand-assisted vault, and scaled a wall. At the opposite edge of the roof, he scanned over, just catching sight of her ducking into another alley.

He ran across the elevated buildings, hopping from roof to roof. Stepping off a ledge, he fell down to the white sheets below. The force broke his fall, momentum carried through with a roll. There couldn't have been more than a two speeder distance between them now. Boots crunched into the snow with rapid rhythm, unfaltering in their insistent pursuit.

A security droid came around a corner into his path between them. Saber sundered carelessly, clearing it like foliage in the path of an explorer. Intent exerted every muscle in his legs, force facilitating an acceleration beyond the biologically reasonable. Muscles burned, but the chase was second to none.

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia was small, but it left her fast.

Her muscles sang with the aid of the force as she pushed herself through the buildings of the city. Over, under, around and back tracking. She tried hard to shake him but he stuck to her like a shadow. It left her with very little choice. The longer she engaged him in this chase, the more attention she drew.

She heard the droid clatter to the hiss of a saber. The starport opened up in the distance. She flung herself from the edge of a build and let gravity do its worst.

A nudge of the force arced her over the fence.

She landed in a rolling, her dress ripped up both her thighs as she wiped up and tried to through him back with a telekinetic shove. She needed moments-- just an inch of breathing space-- to get on her ship and leave.

She jumped up, her movements agile as she pushed through the darkspace.

Ahead, her ship doors opened, light pouring out. She dived in, jamming on the button to close them.

"D3, take off, now!"

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

The Jedi cut around corners, hopped barricades, and finally slashed through the fence rather than bothering to vault over it. With every passing step, she gained more and more ground on him. A pang of danger assaulted his senses, feet stopped dead, sliding forward on the snow as he brought his hands up to mitigate the force that sought to snuff his pursuit.

Once bearing was regained, he exploded into a sprint once more. Vaulting forward, he managed to slip through the closing bay door, only centimeters from being crushed. The Force shrouded him, rendering the jedi invisble as he slithered into the ship with a fluid motion. He held his breath; not a single sound. Palms extended flat against the wall of the ship.

His focus followed the wires and workings, his focus moving through the ship, past the repulsor engines, and into the core ECU. With a force of will exerted with sudden strain, the power cut entirely. Engines whirred to a stop, and internal lights fell dark. A quiet exhale heralded the opening of his eyes. Every step was slow, soft, quiet.

Stalking through the interior, he crept along to Aradia. A sudden hiss of green malice illuminated the interior void, a single strike, deliberately non-fatal in intent arced downward from an overhand assault.

She wasn't getting away this time. He meant it.

She would talk. He meant it.

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

The hair on the back of her neck rose. She turned, but not quickly enough. Hot pain lashed down her arm, the blade skimming as she move away. The lace of her dress burst open, the smell of burnt fibers and skin permeating her awareness as she fell against the ship's console and slid to the ground.

She screamed, her vision dancing with sparks of white as the pain simply ruled her. Her arm. She clutched it, relieved to find it still attached. This was all undone by the very compromising position she found herself in.

The jedi stood over her, blurred through tear of pain and confusion. She shoved further back against the wall, looking wildly around for the saber that had been slashed from her grip.

In the dark blur of chaos, she saw nothing.

She spat on him instead, racks of pain shivering over her body. Shock.

"You just don't quit. Kill me then. Go on. I don't care anymore-- I DON'T CARE!" She lied to herself, her high pitch scream reverberating off the ships walls.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

A flourish compensated for the backswing, settling the saber once again to an accusative point. Plasma hummed in the relative silence of the ship. A half-step forward came as the end of the blade followed her down, maintaining the malicious aim of the saber's tip. Scowl nearly gave into a grimace when her scream met his ears, face twitching in defiance of the empathetic expression.

Colbat optics remained locked on their opposing likeness. Determined eye contact piercing the tension between them. Lock forward, avoiding even the smallest indecency as fabric split. Not even the saliva that crashed onto his face evoked a blink. Another step forward, his foot felt a cylindrical obstruction beneath his foot. A saber. In this position again, were they? He kicked it to the side, metal clattering against the tile and rolling out of the cockpit chamber.

"You just don't quit. Kill me then. Go on. I don't care anymore-- I DON'T CARE!"

Zaavik suddenly saw the eyes of Ido again, heard the hushed exhale that came with a saber through the heart, seeing the life leave his eyes. Shame. Tension left his posture, facial expression softening, an exhale came with the drooping of soldiers. The lightsaber lowered as aggression momentarily fizzled. Plasma hissed and fizzled back into the hilt as Zaavik wiped the spit from his face.

"No," he refused softly. "It's over. You're not in any place for a refusal anymore, just talk." A defeated undertone gripped his voice. Any demanding quality had given way to near pleading.

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Her eyes tightened as he withdrew the blade, expecting a follow up of blaster or even a fist. All he did was look down at her, both bodies disarmed, and repeated that damn question again.

Just talk.

A noise of deliriousness caught in her nose. She pressed against the wall, keeping herself upright as she arched against the pain. It was nothing, and would be nothing, compared to death. She shuddered, forcing herself to relax and release her muscles. "About what? There's nothing more you want to hear me say, you want me to lie to you? That I don't hate you? That I wasn't here to find a way to harm your kind? Of course I was. Why wouldn't I be?

You are vermin. You kill everything you touch. I have nothing on me that will be of use to you. And there's nothing you can do to make me betray my family. I hate you."

She kicked at his ankle, trying to buy her distance. She had lost her offense, but her defense... The darkside started to coil around her, the sithling cornered and unwilling to go out without a fight.


This all would have gone so much different if Allyson hadn't been there, but she kept to her word. Even at a detriment to herself. Too bad he didn't buy the double agent lie.

She totally made a convincing jedi!

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

Both hands retreated into his jacket pockets. Lightsaber hilt had been returned to the coupling in his belt. "Hate me all you want," he responded flatly. "Our mission is to preserve life. You've seen a lot," didn't take an empath to feel what bubbled up inside her. "-but you can't equate war to what we're about." It was a mission Zaavik had lost sight of more and more by the day. He hadn't asked for this, but then again he'd never asked for anything.

"Just tell me why Allyson let you go. The real reason. I don't trust her, clearly. Do you want to move on to continue your misguided mission to get rid of us another day? Then talk, that's all I want. Then you fly off, I go back to the party, and that's it. I don't derive any pleasure from this, but I'm not in the business of unconditional compromise. You'd do the same thing if you hadn't killed me already, wouldn't you?"

Trying to get through to a Sith was likely a vain effort. His morality had always been too blue and orange for the New Jedi, anyway. If he must push more, he would do what he must, but that didn't mean he wanted to. He never did. She had eyes like his. Angry, afraid, and resonating tortured volumes that only someone such as him could understand. He almost felt bad, but she was still Sith. She was still the enemy.

"It's over. Just concede."

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

She barked a bitter laugh, his words earning an eyeroll. Can't equate them to what they've done? What bullshit was that. "I've done nothing to anyone. I was just an errand girl following up on owed money and taking the fall for others. I was in over my head. And she knew it. Allyson saved me. What reason would she have for killing me?

Coming to a party isn't a crime, you bantha chit. Murdering whole schools though-- yeah. I'm sure you're just so misunderstood."

She lifted herself up, elbows jammed into the console as she cradled the injury that crept from the back of her shoulder to her elbow. Any more force and she would have lost the arm. She was lucky to have turned.

"Leave," she hissed, a small dagger yanked from her upper thigh and clutched in her palm. "Before I stop caring what she thinks, and kill you too."

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT // GALACTIC CITY
After the Galactic Alliance Lifeday Celebration...

「LEAD ME TO MY NEXT INCIDENT」​

Zaavik sighed. "Allyson saved me too," he offered flatly. If Aradia cared that much about what Allyson thought, it must have truly gone as deep as he feared. An unphased stare moved to the glint of the dagger, then indifferently back to her. "I'm sure killing swaths of young acolytes is something you find reprehensible. You would be correct. But do you think the Sith any better? Mandalore, Concord Dawn, Thyferra, Ession, Kintan; you turn your cheek to them? Or do they not teach you about them in that school of yours?"

A disfigured hand brushed violent locks from his face. The burned and mired extremities a grotesque contrast to the pleasant sight of his features. "No amount of vengeance will bring those people back." Hypocritical of Zaavik to declare, ironic, even. Plunging his sword through Jeislan and Bastra hadn't unburned his skin. It hadn't brought back his childhood. It hadn't undone the defiling he'd endured.

The Jedi in him saw the good that still held on in her. But Zaavik was ever at odds with that part of himself. "If you care so little, kill me now." He dropped his hands to his sides, out of his pockets. "You'll be stuck here. Someone else will find you, and you'll spend the rest of your life in a cell. You'll forever feel a void that replaces you will for vengeance. Or, spare me, give me the confirmation I want, I let you go. Then, you can do whatever you want, I don't really care, this isn't about you. Allyson is working with the Sith, isn't she? That's why she let you go?"

Darth Daiara ​

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia pushed off the console, stalking forward. "You're digging for info that doesn't exist. Last anyone heard, Allyson Locke died on Bastion. Period. No amount threats will make me say otherwise, because it's the truth.

Allyson Locke has been gone. She was a pleasant surprise on an otherwise shitty day and we didn't hurt each other because there was no reason to." In that crowded shuttle, she bared him down. Face to face, chest to chest, she had no problem craning up her neck to stare at him with fierce, unwavering orbs.

"Whatever fecked up thing your people did to you to make you this paranoid, get over it. Leave me out of it. Allyson clearly had a choice and she chose you. She is here with you. "

She shoved the coin into his chest, her perceived lies starting to ring like truths. To some degree, she supposed it was. That's what made them so convincing. The woman was never hers. Never anything more than a partner and perhaps a mentor, or friend. Regardless, as she pretended to have a bit of claim, it burned all the more that she didn't.

"-You have nothing to fight for."

She swallowed hard, pulling her hand back for him to take the coin, or let it fall. "Isn't that enough?"