Nar Shaddaa

Zeno was relaxing with his seat back in his scout ship, half asleep with autopilot running things while he hurtled through hyperspace towards Nar Shaddaa. He wasn't half asleep because he was uncomfortable. On the contrary, he felt more comfortable sleeping in the cockpit than he did in a bed. But his dreams were fraught with terrible imagery. He had started having nightmares after Yavin and his near break. But now, after his visit to that dead world, they were different and more intense. Sleep was not an easy thing anymore.

Death's Shadow Squadron was in formation with him in hyperspace, none the wiser about his troubled rest. And he preferred it that way.

It was soon time to get some sleep. The Saarai-kaar was continuing its plotted journey through hyper-space, its mechanic and pilot already alseep. Shaisha, however, was not asleep.

After the latest adventure, she had hurriedly wanted to return to Ziost - it was her home, a place that felt alive, unlike that... place. But here she was, stuck in the void of hyperspace, and even her meditations only made her aware of how empty space felt. Not as hollow or empty as on the dead , but world, but there was so little to feel.

Restlessly, the femme Sith paced back and forth before she finally decided to place the holocall to Zeno.

Damnit, I shouldn't have brought him to that place. He was doing better after Yavin, it seemed, and then I did this to him. She felt her fists tense slightly. The void of space had never been her favorite thing, and that dead world had only made her remember a sensation she would have preferred remained forgotten.

Still, she put on a smile in preparation for when Zeno answered the holo.

Hearing the beep of the holo, he shook out his half sleepy head, and sat his seat upright, hitting the button to connect the call. He had his vac suit on rather than his normal clothing. It was far more comfortable than the armored heavy cloth of his uniform.

"Yes?" he asks quietly, not fully awake to realize who it is.

"Zeno?" Shaisha asked, not immeditately recognizing him in the vac suit.

"...Right, sorry. You were probably resting, no?"

The holo of Shaisha showed her dressed in plain clothing with her black robes draped over her shoulders, the deep red locks of her hair slightly curling around her frame.

"Yeah, but I sleep a lot in hyperspace. Always have, especially in the cockpit," he replies, popping his helmet off. He looked weary. "It's so damn boring without a fight or a mission."

If the femme Sith was weary, she didn't show it.

"Can see why. Having had a go in the Umbral Vanguard once now... can honestly say that cramped spaces like that isn't my kind of thing," she let out a chuckle that betrayed she was weary too.

"... Would've been nice to have you here instead, you know. Bar's pretty well-stocked... guess I'm going to have to make this up to you once we land on Nar Shaddaa, huh?"

"You thought it was cramped? I mean, sure, it's not as roomy as an actual room planet-side, but for a scout ship it's quite comfortable," he says with a shrug. "And I may not have a bar, but I also don't drink while I'm piloting so that's probably for the best," he says with a small smile.

"Probably for the best," she smiled as well.

"... Look, I..." Shaisha sighed a little, then seemed to reconisder what she was about to say. "Have you been getting rest since we last spoke? You seem tired."

"Not really," he says with a shrug. "But that's fine. The understanding of the threat is worth the discomfort in the knowledge." His tone seems to suggest that he understands what she's trying to say and he's okay with it.

Her lips purse thoughtfully for a moment.

"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have made you go through that."

Well, at least I said it now.

"Not after what you've already been through."

"Two completely different things." He shakes his head gently. "And you were caught just as off-guard by that place as I was from what I could tell. There is no way you could have known and I was glad to join you. You have nothing to apologize for. Besides... it also revealed a lot about the effects of that type of activity. Something I really need to be aware of."

"Oh?"

She sat down on the floor before the holo-emitter, wrapping her robes around herself. It wasn't cold, the ship was already warmer than most of its kind as Jitter preferred it hot, but space always made her feel cold.

"Not going anywhere for a while still, so..." she shrugged. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Did you not hear of what transpired with Darth Zash back at Korriban? With Gerald? It's like baby steps compared to what happened on Nathema, but it's still in the same vein." He seems somehow less worried about Zash than he had been before, but who wouldn't be after experiencing that Force wasteland.

"Right... believe I heard about that one, yeah," she nodded, thinking back to it.

"From what I saw... yeah, suppose you could call it something similar. On a much larger scale." She seemed to remember something about Gerald having become something of a wound in the Force too after that ordeal, so it did seem like Zash might be reaching for something similar.

"Not that I'm going to tell your master of what I saw in that vision. And I trust you're not telling her about any of this either. Kriffin' hells, I haven't even told Vowrawn."

"I haven't said anything to anyone. I don't plan on it but I can't guarantee that Zash won't find out. She's resourceful and I wouldn't be surprised if she can or already has pulled it from my mind without me knowing," he replies with a shrug. "You can feel her power when she's near, it rolls off her like a cascade of darkness. It can be overwhelming at times and nobody I've ever met seems to command the force so easily. If you had seen her on Dantooine you would understand just how much power she has."

"She's dangerous but she's also a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the force that I'm fortunate to be able to learn from. It's definitely a double edged blade situation."

"That is the way of the Sith," she said with a small nod. "The pursuit of power and knowledge is dangerous, but overcoming those obstacles makes us worthy of it."

Having never spent much time with Zash, Shaisha couldn't say if she agreed with Zeno's assessement. Her own master was powerful, she knew, but in a different way... and nothing like what she had felt of Vitiate's power when she had broken herself free of his control, or when she had collapsed underneath the vision of the ritual he orchestrated on Nathema.

"... But there are some things that are too dangerous to be allowed to exist. Becoming threats to all of us if left unchecked."

"The problem with things that are too dangerous to be allowed to exist is that they are often too dangerous to deal with." He looks at his display console for a moment to check on how everything is running. "And you know how I am with obstacles, tending to seek them out just to overcome them."

He had no illusions about Zash's power. He did his fair share of damage at the conclave on Dantooine, but Zash... he didn't actually need to be there. The monstrous power she wielded was unlike anything he'd ever seen in person. Nobody that faced her stood a chance. He command of the force was overwhelming. He thinks back to it and pictures the husks of masters and knights that she had created in seconds. It was equally awe inspiring.

His words also reminded her that Zeno was not the kind she could fully trust with the truth of who the real enemy was. It wasn't Zash, who was for the moment just a bigger blip on the radar than a few other Sith Lords. And it wasn't the Republic either, despite the Jedi wanting to hunt her kind to extinction.

"Still haven't learned caution after all these months?" she teased with a small smirk. "Killing Death's Shadow and that Dantooine-job hasn't slowed you down at all. Guess that's your weakness then, charging ahead without thinking it through."

"Well, I'm trying to learn. Not to stop rushing in... but that there are other ways to challenge myself. These peace talks for example," he replies with a shrug. "And the challenge of military leadership. I've been training with Zash and Gyn to try and prepare myself for something I haven't faced before: diplomacy." His eyes feign terror at the idea. "The horror of sitting around and speaking civilly with individuals we are at war with. It offends my sensibilities." A smirk at that. "I'm also going to be contacting other members of the delegation."

His face takes on an easy but serious expression. "In all honesty though, it's something I need to learn if I'm going to be an effective Lord. I have my Deathwright family to back me but that's not enough and I know it. They are a military powerhouse and they command respect but they don't have the political sway a Lord needs."

Shaisha nodded. She had very capable people who believed in her, but the Section IX crew were not a political powerhouse either. Though she, unlike Zeno, had spent a majority of her childhood with a very politically apt noble family, and even if she hadn't taken to it as well as Sylvain, Shaisha understood the rules of sophisticated battlefield.

"You should ask Zash to let you come to Vowrawn's gatherings. Plenty of important people to rub elbows with there. Your predicament is understandable, though... guess I can help out a little. Don't grow up in the Torsin family without learning some of this stuff, you know." She cocked her head a little to the side. "Took a look at the others who are coming to this delegation... a lot of familiar names from Korriban. Feels like a school reunion of some sort."

"I'm not surprised, honestly. We're all still relatively fresh and expendable. If shit goes wrong we can catch the blame and suffer the consequences. If things go right then our masters can tout how great their students are and take credit for training us right. And in the end... they're peace talks. Kind of a bit of a joke for the Sith to be attending. Still not sure how I'm supposed to... do anything. Am I just being sent because of my videos to be an insult?"

"Perhaps," she said, her tone guarded as she seemed to be thinking on the matter. "Or your master wants you to learn to adapt. Being a great fighter is swell and all, but if you can't adapt... or rather, if [i]we[/i] can't adapt, we'll be drifting aimlessly in the void with no rescue."

Shaisha placed her thumb to her lips, teeth touching her nail.

"Peace is unlikely. Reaching a common ground to agree upon is unlikely. However, adapting to this new battlefield, we can come out of it all with the advantages."

"That's the kind of stuff I need to figure out. Most of my life has been much simpler than all of that. Fly, fight, kill and follow orders," he says with a nod. "We'll have to do our best and I'll have to observe and learn from the more experienced negotiators."

Another nod. "Watch Sylvain. Don't know if you two ever got along much back at Korriban, but if you want to learn from a skilled negotiator, he's the best one I can think of. If you want to learn to be a leader, look at Kristal."

"For a noble family, the Deathwrights really aren't the kind to attend social affairs. A pity. But something that is easily rectified. Besides, I should take you to some place nicer after the last trip."

"Yeah, not really. We're very focused on what we're good at and don't really do the social thing. Mother goes to those kinds of events, but they were never really my kind of thing. And my father doesn't usually go to them either despite being a Lord himself."

After a short pause. "Where were you thinking of going?"