Vernza-Torrah

[Aidan Darkfire]

Joran Hale strode down the exit ramp of the public shuttle, casually waiting in line with the rest of the tourists to be processed through the Vernza-Torrah arrivals. The flight itself was rather dull, and one particular male Devaronian had a foul odor, but otherwise there were no problems for Joran. At least, Joran Hale was the name Aidan had assumed after he'd managed to slice the name onto the guest list of an all-expenses-paid tour group consisting of lottery winners from Corellia. Corellia, of course, was where he listed on his leave paperwork, but it wasn't exactly the final destination he wanted his superiors to explicitly know about. In fact, if they found out Aidan had gone to Vernza-Torrah, especially because he'd received a comm from Sandy inviting his assistance, they wouldn't exactly be pleased. Granted, Aidan wasn't exactly pleased over how he'd been relegated to light duty for the past few months, which prompted the excursion in the first place, so as far as he cared if they did find out they could just be mad about it.

 

What he hadn't expected in all of that was for surging tourism to be a perfectly plausible cover for why an otherwise nameless face might be travelling to Vernza-Torrah, nor had he expected the contest he'd added himself to the winner's list of to be so easy to slice. He knew a few coding tricks from back in his spacer days, but Aidan was far from the actual title of hacker. Still, the fact that he essentially got a free pleasure cruise as well as the fact that he'd be meeting up with his lover again soon had him not really questioning his fate. This was a trip he'd earned, both from his time in the war and his time spent practicing monotony courtesy of his superiors, and nobody was going to take that from him.

 

As he was leaving the spaceport on the hotel speeder, he felt a very familiar feeling, one he hadn't felt in too long. For a moment, he took it in, like basking in warm sunbeams after living in a cave for a year. He reached out as well, touching her thoughts with his own. She'd be able to find him, of course, but it was far easier (and more amusing) to simply message her the hotel's location via address and a room number...and not give her any other information. He was a tad excited to surprise her, and even though he knew she'd come here to work and investigate, in this case Aidan was pretty sure they could mesh work and play together. Either way, Aidan was determined to get some action.

[Aidan Darkfire]

The soft knock caught him off guard, as Aidan hadn't even sensed her approach. Instead, the door he thought was closed swung open on its archaic "rustic" hinges, revealing the young man bent over and shuffling through the large duffel he'd packed. Of note was half of his armor on the nearby bed, clearly removed so he could retrieve something else from the large bag, but its presence clearly told Sandy he didn't just intend to distract her the whole time they were on Vernza-Torrah. However, the self-chilling wine bottle on the dining table said he was here to let loose a bit. Technically the wine was just complimentary from the contest he'd sliced, but he'd had plenty opportunity to put it back away.

 

"Aw, damn, I was just about to set up the candles, I just cant-...FIND them." It took about the exact time for the last words to leave his mouth before he realized it didn't matter. Sandy clearly saw that emotion play across his face as his whole demeanor relaxed, letting go of the minor stress and allowing a genuine if slightly awkward smile.

 

"Uhhm...hi. I missed you. I didn't, uhh...I don't think I planned this well."

[Aidan Darkfire]

"Well..."

Aidan mildly blushed, but she knew his face well enough by now that he might as well have been waving an enormous flag in front of her.

 

"They didn't exactly let me come...maybe you should leave out my name in the mission report? Or maybe put me down as Jorus Hale or Jorren Hale, whatever name I put on the list of winners for that transport company's contest, let me see..." He walked over to the duffel and checked the tag he'd attached to it. "Yep, Joran Hale. Plus guest." He looked back up at her with a grin but was met with a disapproving look.

 

"Aww, come on, you don't think I'd come meet you here, this 'Pleasure Planet' as they put it in their brochure, without planning a little R&R? I mean, we've kind of earned it, right?"

 

No dice. Aidan moved back to the bed, sitting and sulking next to her as he muttered.

 

"Well I could definitely use it...and it's not like it's really hurting anyone, anyways..."

 

He gave a sigh, coming to terms with the truth.

"I'm sorry. I just...really missed you. I think they're trying to separate us by putting me on boring backwater assignments, even though I'm told it's for my mental health and wellbeing. I mean, it's a lot nicer than constant warfare, but now I just...I don't know. I miss it, I guess. The action. Any action. I was yanked from one extreme to the other with nobody really checking on how it was affecting me, just assuming they knew best. I mean, it might be standard operating procedures for a military, but it really wears on a guy, you know?"

[Aidan Darkfire]

Well, spast. Even if he did wind up in her report, though, his leadership might not see it, even if the two did share reports and intelligence openly. That line of thinking was quickly shoved aside as her lips met his, and his world started to melt away. These were the concerns of tomorrow, and he would face them like an adult when the time came, but now?

 

"I love you too."

 

Nothing else mattered.

 

---------

 

Aidan woke first the next morning, finding it hard to stay asleep. He was incredibly joyous to just be near Sandy again, much less being able to share any amount of intimate time with her. For a while, he watched her sleep, watched her back slowly rise and fall as she breathed, and simply took her in. He knew he was lucky to have someone care about him like she did, but she also seemed to be the only one able to melt his stress away by her sheer presence and personality. She was his anchor in the storm that their lives were, and while he wasn't sure where he'd be had they never met he'd absolutely not change things if he was given the choice. Just being around her still felt very surreal to him.

After a bit, he rose, took a quick sonic shower in the room's refresher, and put on a pot of coffine. He'd let the aroma wake her gently, if she even wished to be woken at all.

[Aidan Darkfire]

The mug of coffine almost fell from his hands as he turned to be greeted by the sight of her summoning her lightsaber as waves of terror rolled off of her. Aidan had to take a step back and brace himself on the counter behind him as he went a bit weak in the knees from her emotional outburst flooding his senses. Almost as violently as it began, it ended, she deactivated the lightsaber and slumped back forward into the bed. He took a half moment to right himself and test his footing before he walked over to her, reaching out mentally as he went to help soothe her in any way he could.

Before he was within lightsaber range he stopped, calling out to mostly to alert her to his physical presence, as she probably assumed he was either still asleep or had forgotten completely her bearings, as she seemed to not notice him in the small kitchen alcove. "Hey, I'm here, I've got some coffine if you'd like, but they only had powdered creamer."
 

He paused for the briefest of moments, knowing what he really needed to do, and it was an easy decision to make considering how much he cared for her wellbeing.

"Do...you want to talk about it?"

[Aidan Darkfire]

Oh. Well then.

 

Aidan took her by the shoulder and sat her on the bed, wrapping the blanket around her before sitting down next to her. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry that happened to you." She could hear the regret in his voice at the apology, as if he was pained over not having been present. He struggled with words for a moment before giving up, nothing could really speak to a personal tragedy like that. After a moment, however, he got an idea and decided to change tack.

 

"So when I was first learning to make use of the Force under the Knights, I'd gone on several...well, I guess the only way to put it is a frenzied rage. I'm not sure what specifically happened, but I do know it was because I wasn't tapping into the Force correctly. I was allowing my emotions to control me, and it was resulting in these blackout episodes where I mercilessly slaughtered my enemies on the battlefield. I never gave them the chance to surrender, instead viciously and rapidly cutting them down as fast as I could."

 

He took a sip of his own coff, bracing himself to finally admit the truth to someone. If anyone had to hear it, he wanted it to be her, and if he couldn't help her in her misery at least he could show her he had his own.

 

"I can never really remember what happened, even if I try. I blocked the memories out so hard that I did something to myself, like scar tissue in the mind's eye. But the memories are still there, all of them, in vivid detail, and...I know this because sometimes I still dream about them. About a month ago one of the faces I saw was a young Trandoshan. He couldn't have been much more than an adolescent of his species, and he...he was terrified as I cut through him. He was terrified when I approached. And when I left, his corpse still had a look of shock and horror. He shouldn't have even been in that slaver camp, anyone's guess why he was there. And he...was only armed with a connector wrench."

Aidan stopped, letting it hang in the air a long moment before continuing.

 

"I can still see his face from my dream. I wasn't going to tell anyone, I mean you can't really change the past, you can only change who you are in the future. Eventually I'd probably let myself forget his face and it would simply be another story lost to time. But...you deserve to know. At the least, I know that it sucks to live with something like that."

 

He wanted to ask her about how strongly he'd felt her emotions and thoughts, but there would be time for that later. Right now, he was more worried for her wellbeing. He put an arm around her, pressing up against the blanket around her so he could hold her close.

"I love you. I just want you to be okay."

[Aidan Darkfire]

"I..."

He immediately trailed off, the guilt over having essentially been radio silent welling up strongly inside him. Aidan's emotions were an open book to her, and subtly stronger than normal.

"I'm sorry. I kind of got bogged down in myself, I guess, and when I realized I hadn't spoken with you after a bit, I just...shut down."

Aidan let out a nervous half-chuckle, but the truth was he felt like he was walking on broken glass.

 

"I didn't really expect to be talking about that with you, but I suppose I should have. I didn't want to face you for the longest time because I felt awful that I hadn't, and it became a vicious cycle. You sending me that comm was the straw that broke the dewback's back, and I knew I had to break free from myself. I never wanted to hurt you with my silence."

 

What a pair they made. This day was shaping up to be a bad day, and Aidan knew full well that they needed to get away from this.

"Hey." He gave her a little squeeze as he held her, his tone lightening up, though she could tell it was a bit forced. "Hey, we should go get some breakfast or something. I think the hotel breakfasts are comped by those contest winnings, but seeing as they don't have an actual restaurant in the hotel and it's probably going to be bad, I'm fine with going somewhere else. I had enough powdered eggs at Ossus to last a lifetime."

[Aidan Darkfire]

His eYebrow shot up at her suggestion, clearly catching Aidan by surprise. It was the last thing he was thinking of, but suddenly it clicked and made sense. Who cared about their pasts When misery loves suffering? And Aidan was certainly ready to love on some suffering right about now. It didn't matter to him how fast her Emotional 180 turned, what mattered more was that she was better. Well, that and a butt that could bring low empires, but Aidan didn't come to the planet of pleasure to question good fortune.

 

Maybe he could find a good restaurant for them to get some lunch.

 

---------

The Corellian cuisine restaurant Aidan had chose sounded good on their advertisement, but the grizzled and greasy-looking Duros behind the kitchen window didn't give Aidan a lot of confidence, nor did the menus. 

"I don't know...I might try the soup. I'm a bit skeptical of this place, but supposedly the locals love it. Anything look good to you?"

[Aidan Darkfire]

Concern flashed across Aidan's face as she dropped his hand, and he felt it too, uneasiness. Wait. No. Why did he feel uneasy? Nevermind.

"I mean, I can make you feel better if you like..." Aidan took her hand and trailed a sensual finger up her scarred wrists, wounds of an old battle with herself, the battleground torn asunder, corpses in the trenches, smoke, burning flesh, wailing- 

 

"STOP!"

 

He found himself with his hands to his head, fingers dug into his scalp as if he were trying to tear something free. This was ƃuoɹʍ. No it wasn't. Relax, get a hold of yourself, you're making a scene. Look at her, you're scaring her, she's practically got tears in her yellow eyes. Wait. Green. Green eyes. He loved those eyes, he could get lost in them. Lost forever, drifting away until the rot took him and made him nothingness incarnate, a mouth into the void of the abyss, the look returned, he-who-was, fuel for the passions of the universe. Wai- Relax. Focus. She is your light, your beacon, your 𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 for existence. Worship her.

 

"I think...I think you're right...why...maybe you should punish mm- ...Nno..."

It's about now that you're going to start panicking. Fight it. It just makes it worse. Just 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐗 and enjoy yourself. You've earned it.

[Aidan Darkfire]

Look, think about it this way: you don't have to worry about anything ever again. It's even better, because you get to drown in your pleasures until those stresses just melt away. Soon you'll see, it's simply all for the best. And all you have to do is worship her, every curve, every...mmm! every dimple, every baby smooth hair on her naked bӨdy, waiting therǝ just ʄor you. Shє's ყouʀ liϝe, ʏσur ɛ۷ɛrყthinᎶ, y๏ยг ɮɛǟ¢ðภռn...ᘺᗩ|ㄒ ...

 

 

It was death. It was worse than death. This was a pain he had never felt before, a deep pain of the worst kind of wound, and it was killing him a thousand times over every nanosecond. He was ripped apart and put back together and ripped apart by the woman he loved, the woman who he would have burned worlds for, the woman who ripped herself out of him so violently his very soul felt like it was imploding. His senses burned, raw and numb, no longer safely and comfortably reliant on hers but thrust into the cold abyss without second thought. This was the opposite of love; the very worst act she could have ever perpetrated on him.

 

And after a second, it passed, the haze rising from his mind, the Force rushing to him as he summoned it, revitalizing his senses just like he learned in combat training with the Knights. Whatever just happened was dangerous. Beyond dangerous. He had been bonded to her, but something happened, something used that against them, and so she had been forced to do the one thing that could have saved them both. He quickly began suppressing his heightened emotions using the mental pattern techniques Hunan had shown him, but there was fresh, raw scar tissue in the back of his mind, as likely as there was in hers. What a pair they made, twisted and broken. Now they needed to take things seriously however; there would be time to discuss what she had done later.

 

"Yeah. Something is very wrong here. And until we figure out what, this should probably be an operation instead of a vacation."

 

His voice was a bit lower than she was used to hearing, and even though he tried he couldn't hide the pain in his voice, even cracking at the last word.

"Damn lunch. We should get going."

Edited July 25, 2021 by Aidan Darkfire

[Aidan Darkfire]

Kriff. Just look at them. How could I have been so blind? They were everywhere, distorted versions of people he'd walked past moments before, but this was their truth. Gaunt, skin hanging, bloodshot eyes, only one purpose on their broken minds that some kept whispering at staccato intervals: "pleasure..."

 

"This isn't a tourist spot, this is a damned feeding ground."

He instinctively reached for his waist before realizing his lightsaber was still back in the duffel in his room. His armor, all his gear, he was wearing civilian clothes but he may as well have been practically naked for all the protection they'd offer against a serious threat. He would have even chuckled at the irony of feeling naked if the threat they faced wasn't so immense.

"PFASK! My saber, my armor. EVERYTHING is back at the room. We need to move, now, and we don't know if whatever is out there has noticed us yet."

Mildly panicked but trained soldier eyes scanned their surroundings for makeshift weapons, defensible positions, and avenues of attack. Very quickly, however, a painful headache erupted from him focusing too wildly and intensely on it. Far too much, too quickly considering what he'd just been through...right now there was only one reasonable solution left, and it relied heavily on Sandy.

 

"You should take point. Right now I can try to concentrate on protecting you, but I'm getting a nasty migraine when trying to mentally structure a plan. And honestly I don't know if I did it to myself because of what just happened or if it's something out there doing it to me, but I wouldn't put it past this place."

Part of him wanted to reach out to her, to reassure her...but a larger part of him held that back, the violent emotional pain still vivid and fresh in his mind. He'd never felt so alone in her presence, and fought hard to not think about that fact.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Aidan Darkfire

[Aidan Darkfire]

For the moment, they didn't seem to be in immediate danger. The passers-by, grotesque as they were, clearly were more interested in whatever they were seeing rather than Aidan and Sandy. His stomach churned, reminding him he still hadn't eaten, but also reacting to a low-level stench nearby. A few feet later and a quick glance down an alley identified the source: a bloated humanoid corpse. No obvious wounds he could really tell from a glance, but it looked as if they had simply dropped from exhaustion. They definitely did not want to end up like that.

 

Aidan kept subtle watch on their rear as they continued back to the hotel, but a thought caused him to call up to Sandy, keeping his voice low and conversational so as to not draw attention.

 

"This is utterly insane, Sandy, how could something like this have escaped the notice of the Jedi?"

Strangely enough, Aidan couldn't explicitly feel the telltale notes of the Dark Side, meaning this was either something unconnected to the Force, or whoever was behind this could mask their presence and influence on an unprecedented scale.

 

"What the kriff could be powerful enough to do all this?"

[Aidan Darkfire]

He didn't respond. He was sorry as well, but dwelling on it would only choke their needed forward momentum right now. He focused on putting on his armor, pouring his attention to its well-worn fit and securing it to himself. Briefly his thoughts flashed back to the many times he'd done this before he was sent into a warzone, but this time was slightly different. For some reason, he felt like he'd already lost. 

 

Finishing after several minutes, Aidan flicked his lightsaber on and off to test its functionality as a last measure before clipping it on his belt. When Sandy returned he was wearing his full armor to include the helmet, something he usually never wore. Now it was just another small sign of the insecurity cracks running through their lives.

 

At the very least though, he was ready. He didn't need a shower, he needed to put whatever had just screwed with them in the ground, and it was the perfect mindset for him to tackle whatever came their way at this point.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Aidan Darkfire

[Aidan Darkfire]

He silently nodded acceptance though his gaze , hand still on the hilt at his waist, tracing the fingerholds. Anxiety was killing Aidan, but he didn't let it overwhelm him. Bits and pieces of his training had been coming back to him as he'd been donning his armor, realizing just how much was pertinent to their situation. Aidan thought he knew the dark side, but the truth was he was far out of his depth. He stood, heading for the door when suddenly common sense got a hold of him.

 

"Wait...where do we even start? This is going to take forever, and it's not like we can conveniently just insert a montage or a jump cut to-"

 

---------------------A few hours later-------------------------

 

Searching their immediate area had revealed nothing. Everywhere they had visited previously, the spaceport, the hotel, the restaurant, all contained the afflicted but no apparent cause for their condition. It was a shot in the dark though, one Aidan shouldn't have expected to pay off. He eyed some of the "food" in front of one of the grotesque tourists at the restaurant they again found themselves in, noting meat and what appeared to be spots of rot, but otherwise Aidan couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be in the first place...or for that matter what it had been.

 

"Well, that idea was bust."

He let the thought hang in the air for a moment before his curiosity finally got the better of him.

 

"What's being served here? I mean, you know, where's the food coming from?"

[Aidan Darkfire]

"I mean, yeah...in hindsight I guess it was a bad bet that the temple was too obvious, as it wouldn't really matter for anyone else who came here, they'd be lulled under the sway of this place just like we were. It's almost like..."

 

He hadn't actually given the temple much thought since he'd come to this planet. It was just kind of...there. Of course it was the main tourist attraction, but that's also why he'd ignored it for the most part: it seemed perfectly innocent. Now he gazed at the large ornate structure, eyeing the stairs closely with disdain.

 

"...Like it's trying to...sidetrack us."

And stairs. Why was it always stairs? He could fly halfway across the galaxy faster than the speed of light, but there was never a turbolift when you needed one groundside. Sometimes he marveled at how technologically backwards the galaxy was. It was so crazy how...

 

...wait. The temple. They needed to get to the temple. Aidan's eyes narrowed and he unclipped his saber from his belt.

 

"Okay. Let's do this."

[Aidan Darkfire]

The hint of a grin tugged at the corners of Aidan's mouth, but he was oblivious to it. Deep down the levity was a welcome respite, but it didn't really completely cover the fact that they still had a rather large obstacle in front of them, not the stairs but the malevolent entity likely waiting at the top.

 

"Just keep an eye out, no telling if there are traps, even though my gut says there aren't. Not like they'd really be needed."

 

Tapping into the Force granted relief, but it was temporary. For whatever reason, he struggled to channel the light side more than normal, as if pulling on it through thick mud. He wasn't sure if it was exhaustion or something else, but nonetheless he fought to stay alert and combat-ready. He had no real plan to beat Sandy to the top, and even lagged behind a bit intentionally as they went so she wouldn't go too fast, but Aidan wasn't exactly slow either.

 

As they neared the top, he could feel his muscles ache even though he had blocked off the pain through the Force. He knew he should have felt much better than this, much more refreshed and ready for action, but this would have to do. If it didn't, he was dead. They were dead. And Aidan wasn't about to let that trauma happen to Sandy again, no matter how much he was hurt from their severed bond.

[Aidan Darkfire]

He can feel it.

 

Calling.

 

Aidan moved faster than he could think, propelled by both muscle memory and instinct. A projectile shattered against his pauldron, spraying splinters outward in blooming ricochet trajectories. The Force felt...strange, delaying its answer to his summons, but he was still decisive enough in the moment that he had succeeded in the immediate short term goal. He was a bulwark as much as he was a weapon, and in the immediate moment Sandy would have her moment to recover.

 

He briefly glanced over the blood she'd spit to the ground, sparking emotional pain to blindly shoot through him only to be met with numb resolve. Sandy was a Jedi Master, and she could take care of herself. It was a foreign sensation to him, this numbness between them, but it was necessary for professionals to accomplish their missions sometimes, wasn't it? He didn't have much time to contemplate that thought as he caught two more crude arrows on his armor, deflecting one and breaking the other. They had trained for this. It was do or die.

 

Would you save him? ...even from himself?

 

How much are you really willing to sacrifice, Jedi...

Edited September 1, 2021 by Aidan Darkfire

[Aidan Darkfire]

Sandy caught an arrow before it impacted Aidan's wristguards, prompting the Knight to use the opening to unhook his saber hilt from his belt and ignite both silver blades on his staff saber in a flourish. At this point Aidan had identified at least three sources the arrows were originating from, but this wasn't it. This wasn't the complete picture, something was still eluding them. Very quickly it would become impossible to continue their assault without injuring the zombified tourists, and though it didn't look like they would be able to recover, Aidan didn't want to assume. However, this mission very easily was in the realm of acceptable casualties, and they would still be very lucky if the tourists weren't already unrecoverable casualties.

 

As Aidan went to make his decision, in the split second after he'd begun moving he heard Sandy's voice, and plainly saw as she telekinetically cleared a path through the hedonists...leaving one exposed. Someone who was dressed. Someone feeding from all this. Very quickly Aidan put the situation together and shot forward, aiming a decisive bisecting cut at the green-skinned alien. Aidan knew this opening gambit was unlikely to work if their opponent was skilled in the Force, which they obviously were. However, it would provide them with critical battlefield information as any counterattack would be intercepted by Sandy's protective barriers. He was putting his trust and faith in her, when hours ago she had injured him in the worst way possible.

 

Part of him knew he had no other choice. The other part just wanted to roll the dice and see what happened. Something inside of him was awakening, a subconscious connection that had existed for a while but was just now being strengthened by the strong sensations pouring through the Force. As he neared his opponent, Aidan smiled slightly without giving it a second thought. 

[Aidan Darkfire]

The question caught Aidan off guard immediately. The stone knife whizzed past his face, drawing a hairline cut up his cheek that slowly began to bleed. Instinctively he began reaching toward his face to squeeze the wound to flush it of any poisons that may have been deposited, but in that moment his conscious mind was razor focused on the words uttered by the green-skinned man. The accusation that he somehow enjoyed this, a concept contrary to everything he'd learned from the Knights, stabbed at him in a way no physical weapon could. Deep down in the quiet recesses of his mind the answer stayed, locked behind chains and bars of denial, but he knew it full well.

 

yes.

 

In the very next moment Aidan's senses returned to their present situation as his Force senses practically screamed a warning for the volley of arrows freshly launched towards Sandy. However, she was in the middle of harnessing her own use of the Force to bind and hamstring their opponent, likely seeing it as an early way to decisively end the confrontation. Sandy was either ignorant of or apathetic to the incoming projectiles, and Aidan knew that he could instead save her from the arrows with the risk of them not getting another opportunity to end the Dark side practitioner. His training told him that the Dark sider wasn't likely suited to close combat, and that it was still a fairly safe bet to save Sandy, but then there was the pain she'd so willingly put him through. How much did he really care anymore about saving her from a little of the same pain? After all, she was a Jedi Master, she likely knew the arrows were coming, and was prepared. This wasn't about causing her pain, it was about trust. Trust in her call. 

 

or are you just lying to yourself again?

 

But he'd already made his decision. He turned to the Falleen, bringing his saber to bear with the full leverage the longer staff saber hilt afforded and delivering rote precision in his strike to decapitate. His blade had no room for anything less than his full focus.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Aidan Darkfire

[Aidan Darkfire]

The severed head tumbled across the floor like an oblong melon rolling down a hill. A great invisible curtain began to draw itself back from their minds, and while Aidan could still sense the taint of the darkness, its influence quickly began to wear off. For a brief moment he held the follow through stance in anticipation of the next threat, but one never came. He deactivated his lightsaber and slowly stood to survey the scene immediately around them.

 

He stopped when his eyes hit Sandy. She was bloody, battered, and broken, and Aidan had nearly forgotten she was there in the heat of it all. Still, she stood defiantly above the devastation surrounding them. “Aidan?” Her face still looked like partial hamburger with the arrow wound. Aidan had survived without much wear and tear, but that was also due to Sandy taking the large brunt of the attacks and creating a hole in the dark sider's defenses for him to attack.

 

He mustered a weak smile for her. "I think it's over." His gaze returned to the rest of the listless bodies and quietly he wondered if they would also return to how they once were or if it was simply too late for them. "For now." After a long moment his stomach sank a bit, in the back of his mind he knew that with no threat to unite them, they would now need to face each other and what had happened, and Aidan wasn't quite sure if he was ready for that yet.

 

"We should, uh, get some bacta on that," he awkwardly gestured to her face. But there was another meaning to his words that went unspoken: I'm not sure if I'm ready to make myself vulnerable again.

"But after that, let's get off this god-forsaken rock."

[Aidan Darkfire]

As Sandy pointed to the decapitated corpse, Aidan also replied to the cloaked newcomer. "They're dead." The Imperial Knight took a moment to look the trooper up and down as he noticed the armor, though Aidan didn't see any readily-visible insignia. He didn't feel any hostile intent from the trooper even though the trooper had claimed as much, but this was a poorly timed chance encounter, and he was still mildly wary.

"If you know anything about the Jedi, you know they don't attack unprovoked. You have nothing to fear from us as long as you hold no malice towards us."

Aidan took a quick glance behind where the trooper had come from, expecting to see the rest of his platoon or even a scouting element, but this trooper was alone with no comm pack, and no specialized gear. Something felt weird.

"What's your operating number and unit, trooper? Better question - where is your unit?"

[Aidan Darkfire]

((Just a friendly heads-up, we do try to avoid posting multiple times in a row, next time I recommend editing the post, with the exception being if someone has already replied to it because then you'd just make a new post. Also, hi! I know Delta (Sandy) has been talking with you, but I wanted to say hi and that I appreciate someone wanting to drop in on one of my stories, it hasn't happened in quite a while and it's always fun. ^.^ ))

 

Aidan blinked. Then he blinked again. Was this trooper serious? First he said he works alone, which at the least he'd have a handler giving him missions, and now he's after some handheld weapon with as much power as the Death Star? And if he did support the Sith, why was he wearing stormtrooper armor and not the standard Sith Trooper combat gear? Were the Sith really that financially desperate that they clad their soldiers in military surplus armor? It made sense for the few Imperial units that still existed under the Rebellion, after all they already had their armor, but the Sith? Things didn't add up.

"I, uh...I think someone had a joke on you, friend. The power that would require demands at the least a capital ship reactor just to pull the trigger. There's just no way such a device could even exist in a handheld size."

 

The Imperial Knight reached out with his senses, still not feeling any threats nearby despite his reinvigorated connection to the light side after the death of the Sith. Even if he did turn out to be their enemy, at the moment he meant them no harm, and Aidan wasn't about to jump to conclusions without the full picture. Still, Aidan's lightsaber hilt remained in his hand.

 

"Well, since we mean each other no harm, I suppose introductions are in order. I'm Aidan, operating number IKD-074, this is Sandy, she's with the Jedi."

Aidan gave his operating number, identifying himself as an officer with the first part of his callsign being three letters. He didn't mention that he was with the Imperial Knights instead of the Sith, nor did he mention that Sandy was a Jedi or what her rank was, though her Jedi robes and both of their lightsabers gave it away to those who knew what to look for. He'd let the trooper make his own assumptions there unless he was pressed on it, not like it would matter that much.

"What do you plan to do now? Still look for this device?"

Edited September 13, 2021 by Aidan Darkfire

[Aidan Darkfire]

Everything Aidan had cared to say, Sandy had said for him. He wasn't quite sure about giving the man a ride, especially after the mention of how he was supposed to be shooting them on sight. Instead he silently let the situation play out, observing.

[Aidan Darkfire]

Aidan kept his mouth shut. Even though he relaxed a bit, the entire situation seemed rather absurd to him, but not impossible. He couldn't quite make heads or tails of it, but he hoped it wouldn't matter much if he ignored it for the most part. That, and he wasn't incredibly inclined to discuss galactic politics with someone who was practically a complete stranger.

 

Part of him wanted to reach out through the Force and share his concerns with Sandy, but frankly the trooper was also providing a valuable service for him right now in that Aidan and Sandy didn't need to hash the freshly scarred rift between them.

 

And so, he remained silent.