Hoth: Blood and Ice

She decided to linger at the verge of visibility,
Waiting for the earliest opportunity.
He was there, that much she knew,
and their business was long overdue.

Crates had been stacked about. The hangar prepped for when the ship fully arrived. There was work to be done with the crash. From behind a stack, the tall form of the Pantoran moved about. His left hand gently resting over the pommel of his hilt, the hand limp.

"It's been a long time." He called out, not tilting his head. Given how she appeared in his visions (past, present, future... the Force brought all together), Durasay was not surprised to feel her presence.

There was a time when a lump would appear in his throat, when his heart would beat faster at just the sight of her.

It had indeed been a long time.

He turned slightly, now facing that edge of visibility. His head tilted uptwards slightly. "Are you here to kill me, Lord Bellious?" There was a sense of peace in his words, as if he had foreseen this moment time and again, but never an ending.

But he had made peace with what dreams may come.

"Tell me, Durasay." The mellowly melodic voice that had once meant more to him, the same as in memories and yet changed in initially indescribable ways, spoke without menace or insistence. More like with melancholic curiosity. The silhouette was there, just at the brink of vision. "Would I have any reason to?"

"If you did, your reasons would be your own." There wasn't any anger, or hatred. Maybe a hint of sadness, clinging to the melancholy her voice added. "That's the problem with the Sith. Clawing at each other for power, that in the end, a lot destrpy themselves... and those they cared about." He looked fully to the silhouette, regarding her.

"I knew you would be here. I've seen you in visions as we got closer to the planet, with such clarity. The Force has made me strong, Moyr."

"I don't doubt it, Durasay." She said without mockery, then took one step forth, the carmine sheen coming into view, if not the features in full. "But is this how you've coped with our separation? Primitivising the memory of me into a generic Sith who metes out violence for generic reasons? Is this who you are now, choosing indifference over insight? I'll repeat: would I have a genuine reason to?"

He shook his head. "What insight do I have? Time and distance. And then you kill your staunch Mandalorian ally, for what?" Durasay looked to her, "Contact was fleeting, and then..." the Pantoran placed his hands upon his waist, shaking his head as he looked down.

"No. You're not some generic lackey. The only reason you'd have is that I left, or you left. For as much clairity into the future, the past is a haze. But I got tired of waiting. Tired of feeling like I was an implement. So if you were here to kill me, you'd have done it quietly. I don't think you'd want to face me, and I really wouldn't want to face you."

Durasay screwed up his courage, and looked at her plainly. "Not out of fear, or anger, or any other reason. Other than neither of us are masochists."

"You have it right in front of you, Durasay. Shae Vizsla died because she was close enough to be used against me." There was an unfeigned hint of remorse in Moyr's voice. She let that sink in, just as she took another step forth, the glow of golden-bronze eyes now real rather than a phantasm of his recollection.

"Neither of us has left. But you may have drifted... Tell me, do you remember me ever trying to leash you?"

"No. It wasn't about control. Isn't about who controls who. Why I drifted... no, why I left," he let her remorse hang in the air, honoring that feeling, and the dignity in it being something real, "I wanted a partnership. And I was left out in the cold. So I sought knowledge on my own."

He was larger than she'd likely remember. The shoulders broader, arms larger. Not the lanky and dextrous pirate on Nar Shaddaa. And there was no skipping of leg day. War and time pushed him to reforge his body into something strong as durasteel.

"You could have trusted me to not be a risk. You never tried to leash me. But you also didn't take my trust to know your burdens could have been laid down."

"It is true I defied your expectations by keeping you at a distance. I made that choice. So you sought knowledge on your own. It seems you have found it as now you are here, claiming you are strong in the Force and manifesting that you don't need a master any more." She had regarded his mature stature before already, so whatever opinions were to be formed on it, they had already been. Herself, she didn't change much, judging by the silhouette. If anything, she was slimmer.

"Now, Durasay, it is for you to decide how much of this would have happened had I not initiated you to the Dark Side." There was no self-aggrandisement in her voice, no credit-seeking. She just seemed to want to know his thoughts on the matter.

He didn't answer the question. Not directly anyway. "In the end, the Force freed me." That alone should say much. The mantra still rung through in his mind, and even with all the time, all the distance, he could still remember the feeling of her hand upon his crown. "I would have thought... hoped... you would have considered my thoughts before making that choice." He relaxed a little bit, then a thought came, one he had often wondered about.

"Years ago, on Bankor. There was a ritual with the local Aznuri people, and their views on the Force. When I partook... there was a moment where I was with you, on a moon orbiting a gas giant system. Temples constructed in a forest." His voice was low, just loud enough for her to hear.

"Were you there. Or was it just a vision. Or did we share a vision?" He met her golden eyes, focus and determination in his.

She smiled bittersweetly at his admission. "Your apprenticeship is over then. You are who I wanted you to be, a man liberated by the Force."

She paused, letting their gazes lock. "I was there. We shared it. I responded to your determination to find me. Do you remember what I told you then?"

She would hate to admit how her treatment of Durasay was mirrored in many ways by how Jadus had been treating her tuition.

He didn't say anything for a moment. "At least we shared that." He was surprised that there wasn't any animosity from either side. And it had been a long time since he had seen her smile.

"I never forgot. That vision... your words, are burned into my mind. And I won't ever forget." He didn't break the gaze, "For what it's worth, I'm glad to see you've survived Sith politics." Another deep breath.

"Though something is coming here. I've seen you in another vision. The Dragon. It doesn't care about old allegiances. Just destruction of everything."

"I remember what you pledged then too. That you'd return a juggernaut to me and break the chains before my eyes... isn't it what has just happened here, Durasay?" The smile lingered for a moment more. It wasn't the right time to discuss how she had survived Sith politics.

"And yet, yes, the Dragon threatens everything." The smile waned. She confirmed what he had seen with a nod.

"It'd feel a bit more... victorious if you had been there for the journey, to then return. But then again, we can't change the decisions either of us made. The chips have landed and the hand has been dealt."

That damned smile. It was like it was fifteen years ago again. He let the thought perish, focusing again on the here and now. "So we stop him. That's all there is to it."

"Yes. Him and his issue he has unleashed on us. We don't know how precisely they will strike, but it is quite certain it is going to be here." The smile would be reserved for later, but she would finally step out fully out of the shadow and approach him where he stood, looking up, her lekku falling to the back as she did so. It was hard to tell whether the glow of her eyes was less fervent or more even than the flickers he had remembered.

He had almost forgotten how much taller he was than she. His head tilted down, looking to her. Age lined his face, the rigors of a life of adventure telling a story with each one. "I'm planning on bringing what I've seen up with Saresh. Can I assume you've already spoken with the head of the Sith mission about what you've seen?"

Durasay tilted his head slightly to the side, reading her expressions. Comparing them to memory.

"It'd be disappointing to see the adversary arrive, and we've all already taken each other out."

"I would appreciate if you occluded me in what you have seen and what you have been told. You can take all the credit. My powers and knowledge shouldn't come to attention of people like Saresh." Moyr averred. "As for Baras, I am a Darth, Durasay. I don't do reporting. I do letting know by proxies. Besides, my revelations are not unique, if thicker in certain details. He should have pulled his weight to know by now."

"Taking credit, being a 'hero', that's never been a motivation. This is about survival, and knowing what's ahead." He found himself somewhat internally disgusted at the insight about Baras.

Whatever legacy he leaves, however he passes on his knowledge, he would make sure to includebthe detail that vast numbers infighting and competing would only destroy themselves.

"But I can leave your name off the topic. But a gesture of goodwill between the two forces might be what I go for." The Pantoran sottened his features for a moment, regarding her again.

"In the interest of laying our cards on the table, I want you to know, my partner, she knows about our history. Everything."

"I see." Her expression froze. She wouldn't speak for a long moment, then took one step back. "So in the end, you betrayed me."

"If you see it as such." The freeze in her expression had shocked him. That there was a crack somewhere. "I trust her explicitly. But I wasn't going to hide things, I wouldn't do that to any partner."

Durasay didn't take a step forward as she pulled back. "Maybe it's dangerous to not hide things from her, or from you, but I'd hope you would know that after everything, I'd rather be truthful than be craven."

"Betrayal is an expression of freedom, Durasay. By justifying it you unnecessarily belittle yourself. It doesn't need justification. I won't accept any. You know I wouldn't have consented. But you made your choice."

Her smile returned, with a sinister note.

"You did what every Sith apprentice had ever done. This brings us to a closure."

"And so it does." The door had indeed been shut. It was surprising, or perhaps time had given space for him to grieve and move on from what may have been. His hands settled at his sides, and the man breathed in deeply. The air felt lighter, things felt... as it should be, all things considered.

"Come what may, the Force will be with you. There's no chains, and nothing that will impede your strength." A hint of sentimentality.

Her voice, now steeled, sharply cut into his sentiment.

"Nor will it impede you, as you have demonstrated. At the conclusion of your apprenticeship, I exercise my right as a Darth to name you lord of the Sith. You have the liberty to choose your own name. Your path through the Force is your own. It is customary to kneel for the last time, and never again."

There were two paths before him. A choice. He watched her as she spoke, thinking over her words, her excercising the right of a Lord to name another. In his mind though, the Sith were just as flawed, just as broken as the Jedi. The Jedi moved slowly, and in his visions, he had seen them moving slower over time, though that would be centuries. But that calcification would ruin them from what they stood for.

The Sith would destroy themselves, because while ostensibly, the strongest and most powerful could survive... the craven and the power hungry would band together to defeat someone stronger, and then turn on each other. Neither were the right path. Not in their current form. The knowledge he had been accumulating, what he would leave behind, they could inform either, but not in how they existed now.

He had seen what someone so devoted to the Sith would do. Lelia had been lost, her talent snuffed out, because of that philosophy, and it made him boil with rage. The rage had cooled in the years since Bankor, but her... he could never forget the potential that had been lost, because of that thought process.

"No." Durasay shook his head. "To have a title, and not believe wholly in what the Sith want, what they are, is an affront. I'm just someone walking a path. My way is my own. I'm sorry, Lord Bellious, but I'm not going to take a title or kneel. Not anymore. Not again."

"So these are the choices you have made. Live with them. Our bond is no more." There was no visible or audible anger as she stepped back, returning into shadows.

/exit unless stopped