Ask Seize the Means

[Nakoa Singh]

The janitor's face tilted in a very Nakoa-like way, an eyebrow raised bemusedly. "You've been by me for years," he stated with a twinge of confusion in his voice. Translation issue, maybe? Despite how poetic he could be from time to time, Galactic Basic wasn't his first language. Then he shrugged, leaning forward slightly as his own face and features revealed themselves through shadow.

"If I call, will you answer?" the Wrean asked with a grin beneath playful eyes. "Like a beacon?" Hopefully she got the general idea. Whether she did or not, Nakoa checked to make sure his cloak-jacket pockets were empty before slipping it off and grabbing a janitor's jumpsuit from a wall locker to slip overtop his clothes and belt. "No doubt you will. I trust you." Whether that was about figuring something out or answering a 'call' wasn't something he made clear.

After he fully looked the part of a generic serviceman, he listened at the closet door, ensuring it was clear, before opening it and slipping through. Once his check was done he reached back in to grab and bucket and mop, then trudged down the hall after the passed-by Dark presence with the energy of a man worn down by service to the Absolute.

His path would take them through halls and several flights of stairs. No one would paid him attention, save for the odd disparaging comment.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Communication issues were something that plagued every level of society in every profession since the dawn of communication. It seemed the two of them weren't immune to it even if they were better than most.

For her part, Arla took it all in stride. She'd had things go wrong for her on jobs before, she'd nearly died, but she'd always managed to come out the other side in fine shape. Her efficacy had always been enhanced by Nakoa's presence, and she liked to think that went the other way as well.

Good hunting, she said simply as he left.

This now left her to pick her own path behind him, which would be less difficult than doing it with someone else but more difficult than doing it when she wasn't on a time crunch.

She let the Shadow flow through her, using the Ears of the Chiroptix to begin navigating the area. As a part-Sephi, her capacity for this was only increased, and she could practically navigate while blind.

Her progress, however, was slower than Nakoa's, having to pick her way through the buildings. Her power penetrated the minds of those around her, sensing when they were nervous, when they saw something, when they thought they heard something... when they returned to their normal routines. Most of them were completely oblivious to just how near death was.

Fortunately, picking through the base wasn't incredibly hard with their multiple layers of distraction.

Somewhere, though, she still sensed a presence of power. She nearly pulled aside in an attempt to look for them, but instead decided to simply press on after Nakoa's trail.

For his part, Nakoa would find that his path was unimpeded for a time until he reached a set of blast doors that were closed. No guards stood outside, but to his left at a T intersection, a pair of guards was perhaps thirty yards down the way, talking among themselves and standing guard at a separate door.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

The big blast doors drew Nakoa's attention as he approached. How could they not, really? But then, they weren't guarded and he didn't really have the spare time to ponder the possibilities. To his right down the intersection was- nothing. To the left, a pair of guards guards before a door. His nostrils flared.

Close? Hard to tell. He had a bad feeling. For once he ignored it and turned to walk toward the guards, shambling along as a tired janitor did. Maybe Arla really was rubbing off on him. Maybe it was just too loud for him to listen. Whatever it was, he found himself snuck around the corner, unnoticed thus far.

The Wrean inhaled, reaching subtly through Shadow. He exhaled, flicking a finger. The ghost of a sound vaguely rumbled down the hall away from the guards. "What was that?" "Let's check it out." Both wandered away from the door and out of sight down yet another junction hall as Nakoa slipped forward to the door. It slid open at his urging and the very harmless janitor stepped through.

Now Nakoa found himself in yet another hallway, more compact than the previous and leading only to a slightly more open space and an unmarked door. That was odd. The Absolute and Civilized loved labeling their doors. Nakoa crept forward, wary and yet drawn to it, although there didn't appear to be any guards on this side.

Even from a distance, Arla could feel the prickling sense of imminent danger in this hunt. Not that it was likely to stop either of them.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla crept on, heading toward where Nakoa was doing his skulking. She felt the darkness here drawing closer, but had it noticed her? Was it on the hunt for her or simply a coincidence? It was difficult to tell, but that just meant that she needed to be all the more careful. The uncertainty almost made it worse in many ways.

She stopped, the faint sounds of footsteps around the corner ahead and the growing sense of darkness that they brought with them caused her to involuntarily brace. Her hand snatched the lightsaber off of her belt just as a figure came around the corner.

He was tall and undeniably pulsed with the Force, but it seemed that Arla had caught him off guard. Not that Force-users were ever nearly as off-guard as others.

She leapt at him, saber bursting to life in a mix of green and black as she swung the blade, nearly bisecting him with the opening strike. To his credit, he was quick and managed to leap backwards, a vibroblade materializing in his hand before she thrust out her own left hand and sent him careening back into the wall hard enough that it almost knocked the wind out of him altogether. The fight was on, it seemed.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Nakoa reached for the door, fingertips brushing against the surface. His head tilted as he reached out with his senses beyond the material barrier, eyes closing in focus. Whispers of authority, paranoia, arrogance, fear. He opened his eyes and checked the door. Sealed. His palm came up, the Force subtly rumbling through the air as the lock itself rotated and clicked toward unlocking. The tricks one learns from the ISB, huh?

His hand slipped into the jumpsuit for his lightsaber as the door slid open. There at a table was a small collection of officers and staff, with a couple of guards directly on the other side of the table. It was certainly not all the officers, but it was a start. Singh strode into the room, sunset orange blade igniting to cut the guard down. The officers panicked. They'd never fought a Jedi before and certainly hadn't expected one to show up.

They didn't last long, a few seconds of panicked blasterfire from pistols and a lot of screams muffled by the closed door. Nakoa was in the middle of making sure they were all dead when he felt a tingling of danger up his spine, head whipping back to the door. Nothing there, but there was a presence, a fight, somewhere near...

Arla?

Nakoa bound back out the door.

---
​

As Arla observed, the tall man was quick. Not just in reaction but in how the Force answered his call, rapidly recovering from being flung back. Below thick, dark hair, dark eyes bored into Arla, a vibroblade scar through one eyebrow. His smirk was equally cruel as the Dark Side burned to life within him, eyes glowing malicious yellow. This one was clearly experienced, although not like the Trench Hopper.

This one was Sith. Foot-long vibroblade in the man's left hand, the right twitched and called a black metal cylinder into his grasp, jacket flipping open to reveal an array of smaller vibroknives around his belt. In Sirius' right hand, a blood-red blade snap-hissed to life while he darted back toward Arla.

He was on guard now against the Force and closing in, vibroblade remaining near his chest while his lightsaber snapped low toward Arla's left hip.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla had long ago left behind her fear of facing another Sith. She had learned to fight with her saber, and while she still may not have been a true duelist, she was potent enough with the Shadow that she didn't have to be an expert.

She backed up, her focus now entirely on the Shadow flowing through her. Her senses were heightened to a level that few in the galaxy could understand. She wasn't just herself, she was everything around her. She was the floor of the hallway and its every nook and groove, she was herself, she was the man trying to kill her. She was Dathomir, she was New Absolon, she was Death.

Her saber swung around to block the Sith's blade and her left hand twisted into an unusual shape as she formed a Sign with her free hand. She whipped her hand around and out of the air around them, a half dozen ice spikes flung directly at the man's head and chest.

Catching them all was unlikely, and even if he did, it gave her an opening to reposition, stepping back further to stay out of range of his vibroblade should he choose to strike with it.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Corpses were made of the door guards who'd returned to their post, the resulting bodies tossed through the doorway in case someone came by out of sheer habit. Boots carried him down the hallway back the way he came, concealing the saber again and making sure the janitorial disguise was still in place. Arla couldn't have been far behind. She was always reliable, and the Dark called to Singh.

---
​

The Sith before Arla might not have her sheer power, but he had at least a decade of combat experience on her. Although he wasn't a duelist either, precisely. Sirius was a trained killer like his master before him.

As Arla drew focus away from the clash of blades to summon ice, Sirius leaned left and pulled his saber away from Arla's, swinging his left leg leftward and diagonally forward. His sudden change in direction slipped most of the spikes, which flew through the space he'd just been occupying, save one that disintegrated against his lightsaber.

His right foot then stepped forward again to follow Arla's retreat, saber angled upward as if to swing but not yet following through. The vibroblade remained in front of his torso.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

The man in front of Arla had skills, of that there was no doubt. He was older than her, and had likely survived his fair share of the war between Empire and FWA, Sith and Empire, and probably others as well.

Arla continued to fall back. Plenty of Sith saw retreat as a weakness, but Arla didn't give two kriffs what they thought. If you won, then who cared how you did it? Arla had pride in victory, not in anything else.

Perhaps surprisingly, Arla continued to just fall back, batting away whatever strikes came from her opponent without actually launching any of her own. She wasn't a Soresu fighter, but the mentality almost gave that impression. She continued doing this until she reached the far end of the wall, and then she simply vanished.

In a puff of green she was suddenly at the other end of the hall, her saber put away and both hands free now to channel all the power of her Signs. And this was what she did. Before she even carried a lightsaber, she used her Signs in combat.

Her arms swung and as she completed it, she thrust both arms outward, pure green flame licked the walls of the hall all the way down to the other end, threatening to consume the Sith in an inferno with little means of escape. Almost as if she had lured him back there and into a trap.

If he blocked the flames themselves, the fire would begin to eat up his oxygen, the heat scalding his skin even through whatever barrier he conjured.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Sirius pressed forward, trying different angles, combinations, the differing swing speeds. The woman he faced was resilient and defended well, parrying quickly and blocking well while preventing a bind. It'd be frustrating if he wasn't so patient. She was retreating herself right into a trap.

As Arla approached the wall, the Force gathered in Sirius' left hand. Shadows approached from left and right down the T-section they found themselves near the end of. Suddenly, Sirius launched the buzzing vibroblade from close range, spinning on its axis. From Arla's left and right, black-cloaked figures darted in to launch the same, trapping her in a sneak-

She vanished. A flash of emerald flame, the screeching of Force-bound blades against the durasteel wall, clattering against the floor. Where-!?

Acid-green light touched him first, then the pressure wave of sirocco heat as he whipped around to defend himself, as the acolytes did the same. He couldn't have guessed she'd move that far, that quickly. These mercenaries weren't the ordinary sort, then.

"Fuck."

A wave of flame crashed over Sirius and his acolytes to wash them all away. When it cleared, only blackened bone and metal remained.

At least until Nakoa skid to a stop around the corner near Arla. His gaze traveled from Arla, wreathed in green, to the corpses down the hall, then back to Arla. In his left hand was a vaguely mask-shaped thing of shadow and blood magic, past its time and disintegrating on its own by this point. The right shoved a code cylinder into his belt. "Missed your fight." Yup, that was his concern. He hadn't doubted she'd win, he just wanted to catch it happening.

Nakoa smiled. Nothing like the false charm he offered others to get what he wanted, or the fanged grins full of mischief. It was warm, brilliant and beautiful as the first rays of morning sun, dimples in his cheeks and the slightest crinkle at the edges of his eyes. "A shame."

Then it was gone, expression largely returning to his usual. He offered Arla the code cylinder like he hadn't just made the face he'd made. "Few officers dead. We should get to the gate. Gunship's leaving by now." Nakoa took this time to get himself out of the awful Janitor jumpsuit. It barely even fit.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla let all of her desire pour into the Shadow. It wasn't rage or hate that fueled her, it was an insatiable desire for victory. It became the green, scorching flame that licked the skin from his bones... their bones.

She didn't relent until she felt the dead, emptiness of the end of the hall, the life energy leaking out from what was left of her prey. It felt intoxicating in a way that was impossible to put into words.

She didn't turn to look at Nakoa as he approached. She knew his presence well enough to know it was him without needing to use her eyes.

Did you find any of the leaders? she asked, finally turning to look at them after having evaluated the smoking husks for a moment. The scent of burning flesh filled the air, but it was never a smell that had particularly bothered her.

She saw his smile and the corner of her mouth pulled up slightly. The fact that he brought good news only increased that feeling of gladness.

Good work. I knew you'd get the job done, she said. In hindsight I should have kept them alive for the bounties, she said, looking back at the very dead Sith at the other end of the hall.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Nakoa Singh]

"Naturally and likewise," he replied midway through disdainfully kicking off the jumpsuit. A quick double-check of his belt confirmed everything was still in place. Amber-golds glanced over at the impromptu crematorium subjects at the other end of the hall. "Hm?" A pause, eyes flicking up to the right as he went through a list in his head. "Sith?" he asked bemusedly.

Nakoa couldn't tell, given... well, the state of them. Even Sirius' lightsaber was scorched to hell. He scowled. "No report of known Sith here." Luckily, a bunch of Sith showing up on a holonet broadcast, plus the two of them having previously been part of the Sith Empire, meant Apex had a leg-up in the names and faces department when it came to Sith.

He stared at the corpses a moment longer, pulling what was left of the Sith's lightsaber to himself before turning to walk down a different hallway. "What'd they look like?" Nakoa asked, examining the weapon. It was in decent shape, actually, just covered in corpse-ash.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Yes, she nodded as he asked about the Sith. If they were known to be here, they wouldn't be very good at their jobs, she said. Sith were still a reviled group in the galaxy, and that meant most people would kill or turn them over at an opportunity to either Jedi, Empire, or perhaps even someone else.

Arla shrugged as he asked what the Sith looked like. I only got a good look at one of them. Short, dark hair. Good looking, mid thirties maybe, she said. It wasn't much to go on.

Not anyone I recognized, but the Order's a big place. Not new, though, she added. He fought with too much experience to have been an acolyte or even a fresh champion.

We shouldn't linger, she said as Nakoa pulled the saber to his hand. For a moment, she eyed the weapon he had pulled up, but didn't say anything as she started to head back out. They may have killed the officers, but this was still a dangerous place, and their troops were still in combat.

We should make ourselves a back door before we go and check in with Artax, she said.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Nakoa gave Arla a dryly amused look. "Haven't known many who were." He'd heard what happened in that Kashyyyk village while he was in orbit. No further comment was needed. There was a vague shrug at her description of the now-toasted man. "Oh well. No competition."

The dead man's lightsaber was lightly brushed off and then offered over to Arla. He didn't recognize the fairly plain design and it wasn't like he had access to Imperial lightsaber records in the first place. He'd just wanted to look at it; it was Arla's prize. Plus, kyber was worth something on its own.

"Agreed. Low on the flank?" he suggested, thumbing a direction. Easier than trying to get people in through the front. Internal security was probably real focused on the top ends of the fortress right now, and would be until they noticed a few people lower down were dead. This meant Arla and Nakoa needed to find stairs or a lift.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

She thought about that statement for a moment. The Sith hadn't always been so incompetent, although Arla hadn't heard anything in the whispers recently of the Sith acting the fools. Perhaps Vahliri had come into her new role after all. Arla didn't know, and couldn't help but think how long it had been since she'd seen her old friend. So many old friends gone. Altair who had helped lead the attack on Dathomir. Vahiliri who she hadn't seen since she decided to leave the Sith. Wodan who was dead and gone. It made her appreciate still having Nakoa by her side to take on the galaxy. It made the galaxy a less lonely place when she had a friend by her side.

Although she hadn't asked for it directly, she didn't reject the lightsaber when it was offered to her. A prize to keep or to sell as the case may turn out.

I appreciate you having my back, she said, somewhat out of the blue and without further elaboration offered.

Their trip through the base was smoother after that. Too much chaos in the ranks meant the battle was ripe for the taking.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Nakoa blinked and glanced at Arla. They'd known each other for years now, and that sort of comment from Arla was rare. Borderline nonexistent, even. The corners of his lips rose into an easy, lopsided grin. "Glad to. And you mine." And that was that. For the rest of their travel he looked pensive, obviously considering something but not speaking to it.

They found a stairwell shortly after- unused at the moment since the lifts were working- and they'd come out on the ground floor and make their to one of the flanks. Here was where the main warehouses were, heavily armored from outside attack and too low to the ground for artillery fire. Typical stuff.

There'd been guards in front of the door, of course, but a couple of ordinary soldiers was barely a speedbump. "You know," Nakoa began as Arla, who had the code cylinder, unlocked the door. The lock spun around, verifying the cylinder. "I could do more than watch your back." The door clicked and slid open and he moved first into the darkness, making sure it was clear.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla pressed onward along with Nakoa, heading lower down into the facility and toward the exterior, descending to the stairs which popped open. That was when Nakoa said something that Arla hadn't been expecting.

What do you mean? she asked. Although she thought she knew, the suddenness of the statement made her second guess if he meant what she thought he meant. They had been friends for a long time, and yet she had never made any attempt to sleep with him. Why was that? She didn't really know, but perhaps it was simply lay in the fact that it had never felt... correct. She had considered it before, of course, but never acted. They had flirted from time to time, but that was all. Perhaps that was her answer.

Even as they spoke, she descended to the lowest basement levels and pulled out her lightsaber, carving a small gash in the inner lock of the door to leave it pressed open for their troops to come.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

He followed along, keeping his eyes open for things like warehouse droids or workers. There were a few loaders on the upper levels, but the Apex pair slipped by them with hilarious ease. Loaders weren't known for their keen perception.

"I mean courting," Nakoa answered after a moment, once they were down in the basement away from anything that could hear. He must've thought about this already since he didn't take time to think about Arla's question, although he still wasn't sure if he had the right word in Basic. For the Wrean, sleeping with someone even mildly interesting was emotionally easy and all in good fun. He'd also wondered why he hadn't made a more obvious move besides flirtation, and even that was usually less overt than normal. Time provided answers.

Waving open the now 'unlocked' door and once again slipping through before Arla, he looked around and found only- well, industry. They were outside again. He pulled the comm from his belt, the other hand forming a claw to grasp the air. From it blue-teal energy bent as he called his cloak-jacket back to his hand, yanking it from nowhere and beginning to slip it on.

"Artax, sitrep?" A short, barking reply succinctly answered Nakoa's request. His side of things was going fairly well, considering. As always there were injuries and scrapped droids, but damn if the Kaleesh sharpshooters hadn't learned to use those cheap droids as cover by now. Nakoa quickly got moving toward the city. They'd have to get far enough away from the fortress for someone to pick them up.

Nakoa's eyebrows lowered. "This is bad timing, isn't it?"

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

So she had not misinterpreted what he meant. She supposed it was logical, but logic wasn't really what drove this part of her life. She heard him check in with Artax moments later, and heard the Kaleesh Captain's reply.

They were out in the daylight again, and she started hoofing it to get away from the base and into the clear where they could be picked up again.

It was surprising timing, she said. They did tend to be workaholics, didn't they? When weren't they out on a job, it seemed.

She was silent for a moment, pondering the question. Not just pondering it as it pertained to her, but as it pertained to him as well. She had never seen or heard him mention much of anything involving women, and even the two of them had barely even brushed the surface of that question.

Are you asking me that because you feel it's logical or because it's what your heart wants? she finally asked. She knew he wouldn't answer right away. She knew him well enough to know he would consider the answer, and she spoke up again before he answered.

We've known each other for years, and our courting would be logical... she said ...however, if it were meant to be and the fires of passion overtook us, don't you think it would have happened? she asked. It was a simple question that was at the heart of everything. Nakoa was a friend, business partner, confidant, but the two hadn't been more than that. Neither of them had ever pushed things in that direction, and perhaps there was a reason for it.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Nakoa chuckled dryly at his own expense. Timing for this sort of thing had never been his strong suit. That's part of why he'd considered things so long.

Arla asked a very relevant question, one born from familiarity with the Wrean which, of course, he considered. She even elaborated further before he could answer. He considered those words too as they ran toward the city, past war-blasted trees and broken things, slipping into the sideroads between buildings and shattered glass.

But she underestimated him. Arla possibly didn't realize, but he'd been thinking about this for some time. Still, he chose his words as they ran, and only spoke again once they'd stopped at a pickup spot to wait for the called speeder.

Amber-golds turned to look at her, all sense of breeziness gone. Nakoa let himself take in the smooth lines of her face, a pointed chin that led up to curving cheekbones. Long ears curved back and down, sharp as knives gilded in golden rings. He beheld silver eyes, cool but with that spark of the fierce and untamed behind, brighter than true metal. It wasn't just her back he'd been watching, and not for purely physical reasons.

He remembered every time he'd hoped to see her smile again. Feeling uncharacteristically awkward when she bandaged an injury that would've healed on its own in a few hours, and he burst into peals of unchecked laughter when he couldn't think of what to say. But they were friends, confidants, trusted. Who was he to risk ruining it all? So he waited, perhaps hoping something would just... happen.

Nakoa smiled again, much like before. "There's no logic in what I want," he answered, shaking his head and letting the smile fade to something milder. His eyes were focused. "Only in not asking sooner." A hand waved left through the air, like turning a page. "I was drawn to you on Natth. Acting on it felt unwise. You were hidden." The Sith were in chaos at the time, and he hadn't known they'd be colleagues rather than rivals just yet. And as Dathomiri, Arla kept herself guarded. "We found each other on strange worlds. Spoke over books and philosophy. I missed you when we parted."

"When I returned from Wrea," a pause. "You grieved, and you wanted support. I don't want you to think I'm interested in your heritage or position." Nakoa stepped forward, no more than an arm's length apart. There were hints of silver painted along his neck that he tried to control. "Or that it's only physical. I've been cautious, and I'm exhausted of it." Notes of nerves, anticipation, a betrayal by his Firrerreon blood.

Logic and self-control were vital, trained skills for him. But Nakoa was more emotional than was ever shown on his face. It didn't mean it wasn't there. "I drown my passion for fear of its answer," he added, followed by a heavy sigh. Nakoa's amber-gold unwaveringly met Arla's silver. There was a spark there just beneath the surface, the same sort that flared to life when throwing himself into a fight, or when he talked endlessly about the things that interested him most.

"I ask you, Arla, because my heart needs to know the answer."

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

It seemed that in keeping with her history, Arla had gravely misread the situation, and now she feared hurting someone who she cared about as a result. They finally reached their extraction zone, and Arla's heart was already pounding from the run. It didn't help when he started moving toward her or when he spoke of what he had felt for her all this time but never said anything of.

She'd be lying if she said she'd never thought about it, but that was all she had ever done. She had a history of being direct and going straight after what she wanted, and the fact that she had never moved in such a way with him was probably her answer.

And yet, even as she thought of the answer, it seemed to stick in her throat. Looking at him, the person who had stood by her through so much, she didn't want to hurt him. He was closer to her than most by a long margin, and she knew that whatever she said was not going to be what he hoped to hear.

The words "I am unsure" nearly came out of her mouth, but that would have been perhaps the worst thing she could say. She couldn't leave him in a location of limbo. So she decided to simply be honest with him.

Nakoa, you have been a good friend to me and someone I can rely on through... a great deal, she said, thinking back to their time on Dathomir when he had been there for her after the deaths.

But I am not sure that my feelings for you are in that way, she admitted. She had no interest in hurting him, but she also couldn't lie.

I am sorry, she said. And what more could she say? There was no rhyme or reason to it, it simply... was.