Family Happens [The Bitch, EE8, Closed]

[Aphr Ahaya]

"Capturing an Ackley" she replied equally quietly

[Moyr Ahaya]

"Bantha balls, I fought that acklay, dear, what in galaxy led you to think that trying to capture it was a good idea?" Moyr was frowning deeply. "It almost killed Baes and a Mandalorian mercenary, and I survived only because I managed to hurt its brain and distract it. A pity you hadn't talked with me before engaging in that."

[Aphr Ahaya]

"Galen and Zeno are both experienced hunters, and I've never seen an Ackley before, so I trusted that they would know what to do and I could offer some assistance...which I couldn't" she sighed "I was useless."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"I will have a talk with Zeno." There was a storm in her voice. "Men are idiots. Trusting them is the last thing you should be doing."

[Aphr Ahaya]

"Zeno almost died, please don't be hard on him" Aphr leaned back and looked at Moyr "I feel terrible as it is doing nothing to help as he was dragged away."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"And what training did you exactly have to help in that? You shouldn't have legitimised it by your presence in the first place." Moyr looked sternly.

[Aphr Ahaya]

Aphr flinched back a little, looking down. "None. I shouldn't have been there" she replied quietly.

[Moyr Ahaya]

"You know this now. I think the key issue is the same: you've followed someone else's judgement rather than your own. When to engage, when to withdraw, when to bide your time. Which was perfectly within reach for you, you know your capabilities. Learning to rely on yourself is your biggest challenge. These years in cultivating of slavish mindset have left a mark... You don't need guides or protectors, dear, if you trust yourself. When I was fighting the acklay, I was the only one standing in the end. Baes is alive because I trusted myself. And I was strong because of it. When other links of the chain broke, mine held." She sighed. "This was the first lesson of Korriban. We had to get from the spaceport to the academy on foot, through the desert, alone. I got lost. I was almost eaten by beasts and enslaved by lunatics, over a few hours. But I survived all this. And I had never felt more alive in my life than when I made it."

[Aphr Ahaya]

Aphr winces as she tried to imagine what Moyr faced. She shook her head. "I don't know how you could face that...it sounds..." she closed her eyes again "Moyr...I'm not as strong as you. I'm not. You say I was following, but I wasn't. I wanted to help, and I wanted to be able to help them in the fight. But I couldn't."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"You are right: you don't know it. You can't know such things before they happen." Moyr frowned. "Because it was one of Zhorrid's great ideas to give you a sabre without teaching you how to use it." She gripped Aphr's shoulders. "I realise it feels right to do some self-loathing after a failure, but it won't get you into an enlightened spot. Take it for what it was: a painful lesson."

[Aphr Ahaya]

"Painful lessons that almost lead to Zenos death" Aphr sighed "that saber...I don't like the influence it has. When I hold it, it feels...wrong. I don't understand how."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"Zeno will be fine. He's a danger junkie. Its his lifestyle to run on the line between life and death, otherwise he doesn't feel truly alive. Don't take responsibility for failures which are not yours. He's a trained Sith warrior and a lord at that, you're not even an apprentice. He probably did that also to impress you so he could sleep with you. He has had no luck with me. Really, dear, guilting yourself for his follies is not the smartest thing to do. And you're a smart girl, I believe in you." She gestured toward the lightsabre, taking a swig of whiskey. "May I?"

[Aphr Ahaya]

Aphr frowned. She hadn't thought Zeno the type to hunt a thrill to impress a girl, espcially as this was for someone else and she had invited him. She held back a comment though, only nodding before she unclipped her saber and offered it to Moyr.

[Moyr Ahaya]

Moyr stood, ignited it and tried to get the feeling of it, then performed some swings. "Very light."

[Aphr Ahaya]

"I think it's designed for accuracy instead of outright damage?" Aphr said, uncertain. And very much not looking at the saber which resonated darkside from it

[Moyr Ahaya]

"Which is not a bad thing in itself..." For Moyr, everything was alright with the sabre. She noticed Aphr's behaviour in the peripheral, the moment she should have been watching. Pressing her lips together not to sigh audibly, she killed the ray and put it back before Aphr.

"There's more to your mood, isn't it?" She asked after sitting down, her heart turning heavy.

[Aphr Ahaya]

Aphr turned back, holding back a small pout at the mood comment. "What do you mean? I just...don't like looking at it."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"I mean you're reacting badly to the Dark Side. Someone must have been pulling you away... Galen? Baesal? Both?" Moyr frowned.

[Aphr Ahaya]

"I don't think anyone needs to be pulling me away after what happened with Zhorrid" Aphr pointed out "however...there is something I want to talk to you about."

She paused, thinking how to word it.

"I found what was pulling me to Nal Hutta yesterday. It was with these people who used to be Jedi. I...I found our great great great grandmother, Vayana Ahaya."

[Moyr Ahaya]

You found... who?!"

Moyr's jaw dropped. Probably the only case where it had ever dropped. Her face expressed confusion and disbelief until she slapped it, repeatedly, to regain some semblance of composure and focus.

"Please... go on."

[Aphr Ahaya]

"Vayana Ahaya. Jedi Master Vayana Ahaya" Aphr repeated "she said our family has always been conflicted between the light and dark for generations. Even further back than Grandmother 'witch'. She has been reaching out to me because she can't reach you."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"She couldn't? You know, Aphr, I just want to call it bullshit. I'll explain it to you in a moment. Just tell me how she has reached out. Holocron? Force Vision? Intermediaries? Let me guess, Black Witches?" Moyr clenched her jaw, and the tips of her lekku were rattling.

[Aphr Ahaya]

"I don't know how she called out. I don't even know how she called out to me" Aphr started to frown "she's been dead a long time. She said 'through the Force'" there was a shrug "maybe it is only along the light side that you can hear?"

[Moyr Ahaya]

"Darling, I had been born Force-sensitive, and I had been a smuggler for five years, visiting this system on regular basis before I was captured and ferried to Korriban to become Sith early this standard rotation. She could have called out on numerous occasions, I would have answered the call. But no, she didn't dare or care, whoever she is." Moyr fumed.

"Probably because I am too independent-minded to have ever got caught on her Jedi bullshit. But now she caught an opportunity, to drive a wedge between you and me, portray me as the lost one, the evil one, the witch for whom there is no hope... this is so fucking old!" She took the whiskey glass and threw it against the wall with force that shattered it to pieces. As she was barely withholding her anger, breathing heavily, T3 rolled in to clean the glass up.

[Aphr Ahaya]

Aphr flinched, and back away from Moyr slightly, as she started to get angry. "You're putting words in my mouth. I've never said anything like that. I even told her I wouldn't abandon you. I only said she tried to reach out, I don't know why she couldn't reach you, or if she tried, and you're getting angry over assumptions."

She hooked her saber back onto the back of her utility belt quickly, out of the way, even thought she knew Moyr had a bigger and nastier one if she wanted to attack. She had put a small bit of distance between them though.