Ask Scattered To The Winds

[Emryc Thorne]

He was out of breath already, and his leg was bleeding. The rain began to pour and he ducked into an alley to catch his breath. He commanded the Force, but he didn’t quite master it to where he could completely suppress his signature while injured. He actually used the Force to fling his medpack at someone’s head, and he was very much regretting the move now.

“Kriff,” He hissed as he slumped against the wall, looking down at the open cut on his leg. He knew he would have to turn to very painful means of cauterizing the wound - he had no way to stitch it up.

He could still hear sirens behind him from where Rangers were on the lookout for Sith. Eclipse and his people had failed, and he knew the Dark Lord would demand blood. Many Sith died, and Emryc couldn’t very well go back with his tail between his legs.

He began to catch his breath and tried to sense any other survivors. He needed a quick way off the planet since everyone else had scattered in various directions.

 

[Varek Treth]

Varek hadn't been a part of the attack on the Ranger HQ, but he had been on Coruscant. The waves of darkness radiating out from the place were absolutely unmissable and had drawn the assassin to the point of the conflict. He had tried to keep to the edge in order not to be caught up in the chaos that followed. Rushing in without knowing what was going on could be as devastating for his side as it could be for the enemy.

It didn't look like things had gone particularly to plan. The smoke was rising into the sky and Varek knew that the noose was going to be tightening around this area soon enough. Rangers with Jedi bloodhounds would be hunting Sith down and looking for revenge. Varek didn't fancy being part of that.

He had started to head back to his ship when he bumped - literally - into the other man. The darkness radiated off of him, but even if it hadn't, his miserable shape told Varek that he was part of the attack. And the fact that he was running told him the man wasn't a random civilian.

What happened?! he hissed as he came up to the man. He offered no introduction and no explanation. He wanted to know what in the galaxy had just happened. It looked as if it had been a disaster.

 

[Emryc Thorne]

He felt visceral fear in his guts as he heard the voice. No introductions or explanations were needed, and he wouldn’t ask. Any answer he could offer turned to ash in his mouth. There was no excuse - he had bitten off more than he could chew. He had been so confident that he could go after her of all people.

“Trys was not where our intel pinned her..” That wasn’t an excuse, it was his job to corroborate and verify that intel, “We damaged her home but we were unable to capture her. The rest of my group died and I…” He tried to force his voice not to tremble in the other Sith’s presence, “I ran away.”

He knew there was no way to dress it up any better than that. After a moment, he tilted his head up to look at the man. He only looked more pathetic if he kept looking at his feet.

“I want to fix this,” He said, a bit more firmly, “I can’t go back until I do. Tell me,” He said quietly, his hair matted to his face from the pouring rain, “What must I do?”

Failure was not an option.

 

[Varek Treth]

Varek couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. But then, now that he was closer, he could see that the "man" was actually a kid. Of course he hadn't known what he was doing. Varek proceeded to make all kinds of assumptions but none of them came out of his mouth.

He ran!? This was what was making the Sith look so pathetic in the eyes of the galaxy. First sign of trouble and people just ran off. The Rangers weren't even Force-users and a Sith had just been chased off. Pathetic.

What you should do is tell me why I shouldn't just take your head back for the reward myself, he said. He had half a mind to do just that if it weren't for the fact that drawing a lightsaber right now would draw a lot of unwanted attention. He valued his own life more than he valued punishing this brat.

 

[Emryc Thorne]

He scoffed at the words then, a bitter grin spreading across his thin lips, “You think you’ll get a reward for bringing my pathetic head back?” He shook his head, “At this point it’d be like throwing trash at the Dark Lord’s feet.”

He considered the options for a moment. There wasn’t much he could explain away, and he knew Sith never operated as a charity. If you didn’t prove yourself useful in any way, you mysteriously disappeared or were sent on suicide missions.

“I have this,” Emryc said with a bit of reluctance. He had foolishly thought to keep a reward for himself, but it mattered little when the overall job was completely botched. He reached into the folds of his robes and drew out a saber hilt.

“Belonged to a Jedi,” Emryc left out the part where another Sith disarmed said Jedi and Emryc grabbed the saber as the fighting continued, “Maybe we can take this to someone to do psychometry on it and reveal some clues about them?”

 

[Varek Treth]

Varek looked down at the lightsaber the man held up as a trophy and frowned skeptically. There was no way this welp actually managed to kill a Jedi. Padawan maybe. He supposed that was a possibility.

If you want to make up for this, you'll have to bring back several more of those, he said, motioning to the lightsaber. With that being said, an idea began to form inside of his mind. Either this kid was going to shape up in the fires of battle or die as cannon fodder. If the former, then why not exploit that and if the latter... well, why not exploit that, too.

Come with me, he said and turned to walk off. He didn't slow to account for the other Sith's injuries, but thankfully it wasn't far to the droid-piloted speeder that Varek had waiting for them. Well, specifically it had been for him, but that didn't mean there wasn't room for someone else.

Your combat skills. Are you competent? he asked. He had his doubts, but the kid was a Sith after all. Surely - even as young as he was - he would have been dead before now if he couldn't fight and look out for himself. At least, that had been Varek's experience, and he hoped the same held for this one.

The speeder carried them off to a landing platform where Varek's ship awaited. He went inside still without offering explanation and begun powering the ship up whether the other Sith followed or not. Varek assumed he would because this was probably his only means of getting off world and out of the range of the Sector Ranger investigation.