Hoth: Blood and Ice

Having been woken up and annoyingly (albeit very helpfully - she appreciated the work on the ship) woken up, she decided her day would be better spent starting now with getting some slightly warm food and maybe a not entirely cold caf. Exciting. The food was at least a step up from rations.

Having gotten said items, she sat down at a table and slowly ate, a thoughtful expression on her face as she went through her data pad of information.

Layne was lost in thought. She had killed them for a brief while with the act of killing, itself; but now her emotions were back, swirling about dangerously inside her. Determination, Guilt, Pride, Anger, Hate. Sorry. Not sorry. Her fault. *Their* fault. It was the time for it, like almost every waking moment had been since the night they came here. Turmoil and conflict as she embarked upon what she knew in the darkest parts of her heart she *had* to do.

But before she could do any of those things, she'd need *food*.

Callous murder worked up an appetite after all.

And if she was going to deal with the Jedi in the way she'd planned to do, she could hardly do that on an empty stomach.

So, she found herself over to the kitchen. Apparently someone how had gotten it up and running. She gathered up what she could on a plate, and sat down; a clump of black armor-clad hate putting food in her mouth with no sense of table manners.

It was quite the sight.

Aphrs attention did, eventually, get pulled away from the datapad. Something sounded odd, felt off. She peered up to see a woman in armour doing their impression of a black hole. She tilted her head, curious. Even if the end of the world was coming, this was pretty extreme.

"Good food huh?" the pink Twi'lek said, leaning on her hand. She wasn't being serious of course, the food was not good, but someone seemed to like it

"Sure," she said, putting another handful of food in her mouth as she glared at the little twi'lek.

She wasn't necessarily *trying* to scare her; but between her inherently intimidating way of carrying herself, and the emotions she was trying to work through these past few days, it was not hard to imagine her like a...

...what was it grandma had called her?..

...an angry Tu'kata.

The little Twi'lek in turn kept an amused expression.

"I don't know cpr so if you choke you won't finish your great mission. Sad that."

She went back to looking at her datapad, making a few notes as she bit into a small spoonful of food, shaking her head.

"...You just punch someone in the chest real hard a few times. Might be hard for someone like you, though, yes."

Sarcasm.

"You should eat more."

Aphr laughed.

"I'll take the food and punching advice. It's easy to get focused on the bigger picture and forget you still need to eat right" there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice as well.

"Yes..." she said, thoughtfully, "...yes, that's true."

Well, in her case she hadn't forgotten at all. All that bigger picture thinking, and she was still here stuffing her face. Courtesy of a childhood spent fighting for scraps of food, she supposed. Grabbing food whenever it came your way and wolfing it down without hesitation was pretty much a primal instinct now.

It was practically a miracle she hadn't gotten fat the way Baras had. Her constant need to move and be active probably had something to do with *that*. Or the fact that she never did wallow in the luxury of eating. Food was food. Sustenance. Protein. Energy. Nothing more, nothing less.

"...the bigger picture."

Her gaze idly moved to the datapad Aphr was working over. As if the gaze itself could add a question mark that hadn't been present in her words.

If Layne could read the datapad from the short distance, she'd notice notes that seemed to be scattered but some words that seemed to be titles or parts may stand out in it all; Eternal Empire, children, stars, war, empty throne.

Aphr on her part was adding a few extra notes under the section titled children.

As the day'd progress, Layne would find herself getting frustrated by how many people seemed to know all about the things she suffered so much to learn. Right now, that frustration hadn't yet been honed into the knife's edge it would be. But it was still most certainly present.

"You're well informed," she said, her features darkening slightly; to whatever extent they could darken more than they already had, "...of the things that brought us here."

"Hmm?"

Aphr looked up, then realised where the angry woman was looking. she flicked back up on the datapad to the top again, being glad she hadn't gone down too far.

"...Ah, I see. I get visions a lot and I just note down what I see, then cross refence for meanings in the visions. They started not long after the weird vibrations through the Force" she shrugged "almost everyone seems to be trying to find something."

Whatever remained of the Jedi in her might say it isn't healthy to make everything about yourself. So ask about others for a change. Whereas the Sith in her did so simply to shut the Jedi up.

"And what is it you are trying to find?"

"The answer" Aphr said with a grin "and the question I guess. When I get visions as vivid as these I pay attention, as they've not failed to happen in my lifetime so far. Can't intercept if you don't know what you're intercepting. In this case the question seems to be 'who causes the great war' and 'how can the Force be in perfect balance' and the answers are...forming."

She leaned on her hand, looking at Layne.

"I'd share more, but I don't know who you are and what you're after. Other than I don't remember you from the Imperial delegation and you enjoy a Sith ritual."

She raised a proverbial; not literal; eyebrow at that.

"Layne Hoshin," she said.

The name would either mean something to her or not. Certainly the name had reverberated through the empire at one point; as that supposedly belonging to a terrorist. But the man making that declaration had been Darth Baras. He had been beyond convincing to the masses, but not everyone trusted him to ever speak the truth.

But that was a *long* time ago. And Aphr looked too young to have known or cared.

"I know a thing or two about these things myself. But I have heard nothing of the Force being in perfect balance."

Hers certainly wasn't.

There was a thoughtful look at that. It sounded kinda familiar.

"Hmm..."

The Twi'lek eventually shrugged and smiled again.

"Could have sworn I heard your name at some point but can't pinpoint where. I try to stay out of the attention sphere so I don't get to hear the best gossip at times. I'm Aphr Ahaya, and yeah...Force being in perfect balance. Sounds impossible right? Except it followed many visions, with stars in the sky. One of the brightest light, one of the deepest dark, and one in flux. I've narrowed it down further and the Force being perfect balance? It's not the Force, it's those stars. Or should I say those people. Two of them at least, the third seems very unstable."

"The Empire," she said. "That is where you heard it. My name. Where I heard yours too, I think. The last one, at least, if I remember correctly. And I have been remembering a lot from those days. Or perhaps it is mere coincidence."

There are no coincidences in the Force.

"Three lights..."

One in flux. The need to feel special. Her *pride*, twisted by everything going on, had Layne wonder if perhaps that was meant to be her. The light, the dark, and something in flux. It was easy to find parallels to such symbolism in her own life. The dark star might be Luth, the light one Sylvain, or flipped around if she could help Luth that way and Sylvain had more darkness than she knew. The unstable one, well.. Layne was quite unstable now, wasn't she? But then, she had embraced the darkness now. Temporarily she had hoped, but perhaps *she* was the star of deepest dark?

Or more likely this was all just her arrogant pride talking. The lights were obviously the Emperor's children. She *knew* that. The empty throne made it obvious.

"They are his children, I suspect."

"I know where you'll have heard my last name, although my sister prefers to go under a different name now" Aphr said with a chuckle. There was a small nod to Layne though at her second part.

"They are the children of the Emperor. The question is however which Emperor isn't it? I think here is where the confusion lies" she scrolled down a bit, and pointed to the word Zakuul "there is a different empire, one in the unknown regions. They cause the great war. A different Emperor, from what I can see. Although there may be a link."

Sister. Yes. That made sense. The Force did like to build connections, and then draw on them when it had the need.

"They are one and the same," she said, certain of that much at least. She trusted the Force, and she trusted Sylvain to have shared the truth of what he had seen. She even trusted Spindral; despite the madness through which he imparted the truth. And she trusted that some of the other pieces shared by others since, were all part of the whole. And accurate, to the extent the Force allowed.

She knew nothing of this 'Zakuul', but apparently it was the name of his other empire. His 'eternal' empire.

"It seems he deceived the Sith empire that he ruled, by having *another* Empire out there. An 'Eternal' Empire. A contingency plan, perhaps. He had many contingencies."

"Has many contingency plans, I guess I should say."

"Impressive that he managed to run two Empires a quite large distance apart without anyone on either side knowing or questioning it if that's the case" Aphr commented, adding that little note to the datapad "even more so as this Eternal Empire seems to be somewhat balanced between light and dark, would mean he was accepting of the light side of the force too. The 'balance' in the force refers to two of the children I believe, one light one dark. Twins, or at least they seem to be twins as they are identical. Of course it's not like he didn't know deceit" there was a shrug "nor do I want to question it. Stranger things do happen of course."

"He hadn't let his presence be known to the Sith Empire in a long time. He spoke through his Voice, who spoke to the Dark Council on rare occasions when necessary."

At least until Layne helped Baras get rid of the Voice so he could usurp that position for himself.

"His return to the Empire was seen to be a rather big deal, as I recall."

Her features darkened somewhat again after that part. "But make no mistake, he is not accepting of the Light. If this other empire of his is accepting of the light and dark both, it's only because he has some plan that necessitates it, not because he himself holds to it..."

Given her own recent journey... she could only imagine.

"...The higher one rises, the further one falls. Perhaps he's simply set it all up like that. I'm sure you can imagine ways in which someone like him might inspire and grow darkness in others."

"I don't doubt that for a second, which is why I've hesitated to immediately accept a link. The Force can't be perfected if it's a trick" Aphr circled one part with her finger, Force Perfected? "even if such an idea still sounds completely impossible to me. However as I heard in one vision the Future is not a river, it is the ocean in which we drown if we are not prepared. It could just be one of many eventualities. I do know that this Eternal Empire, or Zakuul, intended to...what was the wording..take us under their banner? It was their destiny."

And this doesn't fit Senya's comments of how the people loved their Emperor...but he did change...

There was a thoughtful expression again and she went back through the datapad again to another part which seemed to refer to the childrens birth.

"...How long ago did the Emperor stop making his presence known? Are we talking 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? More?"

There were a lot of different threads to potentiall pull on in that. Things she hadn't heard before; which yes, still annoyed her. But it was the question that she focused on.

"I can't say, not precisely. If you're asking about the general distance between him and the empire I suggested? I wouldn't know. For *actual* absence though. To the point where even the Voice did not speak for him anymore? Well, I know he was absent thirtheen years ago, though it had likely been some time already before that."

She suspected it had happened sometime *before* Baras sent her to the Voice's sanctum, or he probably wouldn't have dared risk embarking on that plan, but she had no way of knowing that was actually the case.

"An absence which lasted... maybe three years? I'm not exact on the dates but it shouldn't be hard to pinpoint. I do not believe there was a single force sensitive in the Empire or Republic who didn't feel his return, even if most had no idea what it was. I'm sure you felt it too back then. In the Republic they called it the night of dark nightmares, though I think it had a different name in the Empire. That is when he returned."

*something* pinged in her memories. Some half-forgotten thing that may or may not turn out to be important.

"..."

She looked like she was about to add more, only to think better of it. Like she wanted to keep one more secret for herself, to feel special about. She did like to feel special. Special, like being one of only four people in the whole galaxy who knows the secret. At least, at one point; because who knows how many other people knew by now. Damn it.

"..." she decided to say it anyway, whether it was five people who'd know now or five million. This girl clearly had some theory she was trying to work out, and who knows, maybe this might help.

"...only a handful of people know this, but, something had changed in him when he returned. Something had *weakened* him."

That had a curious expression on the Twi'leks face.

"Hmm...then some pieces do fit. A little at least. Very few likely know this also, but from what I have learnt this Emperor in Zakuul had started to change after his children were born, the daughter especially. He became more cold, more distant. Before then he was a revered and beloved ruler, so something had to have changed. If the timelines start lining up, and if the Emperor we know was dividing his time...or his energies...it's still a very slim possibility but perhaps he took the place of the other Emperor. Or something else. There's still too many missing pieces, I need to know more about the Zakuul Emperor."

"I don't know that that's it. If it was only thirteen years ago that he went absent, then it would imply these children are only that old themselves. Something tells me that is not the case. Though, as I said, I don't know how long before then he had already been absent."

"I was thinking more on taking a more permanent residence within Zakuul so he can actively train all three children, but it wouldn't account for before then I agree. So how..." Aphr frowned "perhaps I should focus my vision more on that. Not that I expect anything looking forward. If I could just unlock this one last piece every other answer would be in place I just know it..."

She shook her head and looked to Layne.

"You sounded absolutely certain of these two Emperors being the same, what have you seen?"