Tumgik
#c: theron shan
hyrohkaah · 8 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
10 notes · View notes
greyias · 2 years
Text
FIC: Chance Encounters - Chapter 11
Title: Chance Encounters Fandom: SWTOR Pairing: Theron Shan/f!Jedi Knight (pre-relationship) Rating: T Genre: Canon Divergent AU. Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn Synopsis: Even the smallest change can have large, unseen ripple effects. When Theron Shan books a voyage on the Esseles, he has no idea how a chance encounter with a Jedi Knight will change the course of his life. A canon divergent alternate universe examining what happens when Theron and the Hero of Tython meet much, much sooner. Author’s Notes and Spoilers: See Chapter 1.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Crossposted to AO3 | Chapter 12
Tumblr media
As the shuttle streaked back towards the Esseles, Theron made a beeline for the emergency medkit in the back. The kit was smaller than he’d expected. Just one good-sized case containing the bare essentials for treating the most common injuries a shipboard crew was likely to incur during its run, and wasn’t really meant to treat any major injuries. But it would have to do.
He set it down on the bench next to Grey. She cracked open an eye and arched one blonde brow ever so slightly.
“Hey,” he said by way of greeting.
“Hello?” She opened the other eye, and now both brows were scrunching together in bemusement. “What have you there?”
“Something for your arm, if you’ll let me.”
There was a moment of hesitation, and for a moment, he thought she might continue the stoic Jedi act from the way her lips pressed together, but finally, she let a long breath out and dipped her head in acknowledgment. He opened the medkit and removed several kolto patches, bandages, and some large scissors.
“Sorry about this,” he said as he took the scissors to the ruined sleeve of her undershirt.
“Do not concern yourself,” she said with an attempt at levity. “I think it is beyond repair at this point.”
“We could get you a cool patch to cover the hole,” he said. “Something snazzy and eye-catching.”
“Is that not more your style?”
She snorted softly at her own joke, but it turned into a hiss as he cut away the cloth and it tugged at some fibers stuck in the wound. At both her wince and a closer inspection of the injury, a lance of guilt stabbed through him as surely as Vokk would have had she not taken the brunt of it. Even though the blow had only been glancing, the wound left behind was not.
The edges of it were charred, and what wasn’t blackened was a deep, angry red of broken blood vessels and torn skin. The kolto patches he gently pressed into place were a far cry from enough. This would need to be properly derided, cleaned, and tended to by an actual doctor.
“Sorry again.” His words came out quieter this time as he gently applied pressure to the patch so it would adhere.
She flinched as the cool sensation of kolto contacted the inflamed skin, but the hiss that had escaped her lips eased into a long sigh as the kolto took effect almost instantaneously, easing the pain.
“Thank you.” It was said quietly, but with a feeling of genuine relief.
“I should be the one thanking you.” He kept his gaze firmly fixed on what he was doing, refusing to meet her eyes as he set about wrapping her arm with a bandage. “This is the absolute least I should do.”
“You do not owe me anything.”
“You’re wrong there.” The firmness in his voice was a counterpoint to the gentleness of his hands as he carefully secured the bandage. “I owe you my life.”
“Theron...”
“And an apology,” he finished, sitting back and finally looking up from his handiwork to meet her gaze so she could read the sincerity in his expression. “We got off on the wrong foot, and that is entirely my fault.”
“It is okay—”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “I was an absolute ass to you right from the start.”
“Not an absolute one,” she said.
The snort of amusement he let out was a little rueful. “Still, I’d like to start over.”
At that, she tilted her head to the side in that quizzical manner of hers, lips quivering as if she was unsure this was a situation to smile. He held out his hand, and after a beat, she hesitantly reached out with her good one and took it into her own.
“My name is Theron.” He gave her hand a firm shake, not dropping her gaze as he added. “Theron Shan.”
The moment his last name left his lips, he could see a look of recognition light up her face as every odd detail she’d noticed over the course of the day suddenly clicked into place. Her mouth parted in an o-shape as those wide blue eyes took in every detail of his face anew, and he presumed, compared it to her mental image of Satele.
For a moment, she it looked like she would almost say something, her mouth opening to form a word. Then it closed almost with a click, throwing a significant lance in Asara’s direction in the cockpit. She let out a quiet breath, as if to expel the temptation to speak her revelation aloud, before giving their joined hands a firm squeeze of acknowledgment.
“It is a pleasure to meet you again, Agent Shan.”
The way she emphasized his title, rather than his last name, was not lost on him. The corner of his mouth quirked up in a faint smile as he inclined his head in response. “Likewise.”
Moments ticked past, silence settling around them as they stayed like that. She didn’t pull her hand away, and seemed almost content to leave it in this clasped state as she looked at him like she was truly seeing him for the first time. He couldn’t help but feel a faint, unfamiliar prickling of embarrassment under the soft, open expression, heat rushing to the tips of his ears.
He gently extricated his hand when he realized that he’d been holding on longer than was strictly necessary for the action and made to pack away the medkit as a cover. A gentle hand on his arm stopped him, and he looked up to see Grey still giving him that odd, soft, yet understanding expression that seemed to cut through every single wall he’d been erecting for the past ten years.
“May I return the favor?” she asked quietly.
It took him a second to realize she was referring to the cut on his temple that was still bleeding sluggishly. “Oh, yeah... I guess.”
The smile she flashed him seemed a little more hesitant than her previous ones, although he didn’t quite understand why. He watched as she struggled with opening a sterile wipe and almost reached out to help, but her stubborn determination won out and she got it open. He couldn’t help the wince as she gently dabbed at the cut.
She flashed him an apologetic glance, and he shook his head lightly at her in response, which hindered more than helped her efforts to clean up his injury.
“Please hold still,” she breathed, but there was no real admonishment in her voice.
“Sorry,” he said. “I guess I’m used to doing it on my own.”
Her lip protruded a little at that statement, and a wistful melancholy seemed to fill her expression before she quickly redirected her attention and reached for a kolto patch. Instead of letting her struggle with it on her own, he opened it up, and offered it out to her. That unfathomable sadness faded back to the softness from before as she accepted the patch and gently placed it onto the cut.
“I appreciate your trust,” she said quietly. “And now is not the right time. I understand that. But, if at some point in the future we happen to meet again, and you wish to discuss it further… it sounds like you have an interesting story to tell.”
He was saved from having to come up with a response to that as the shuttle coasted into the hangar bay of the Esseles. The craft set down with a shuddering thump, and Asara was already on the move, racing down the ramp as it was still lowering and shouting for the bridge be informed to take off immediately.
Theron used the bulkhead to pull himself to his feet just as the larger ship’s engines hummed to life. The decking lurched beneath his feet as they took off, causing him to take a step back and steady himself with a hand against the bulkhead before extending a hand out to Grey. She hesitated for only a moment before she took his hand and allowed him to help her to her feet. 
“You ready to take a long, well-deserved walk to the medbay?”
She shook her head. “I will join you shortly. I have unfinished business with the ambassador and First Officer Haken.”
Theron blew out a breath and had to tamp down on the urge to shake the stubborn woman back off her feet. “You don’t think that can wait until your arm doesn’t fall off?”
“You did a wonderful job with your first aid.” The seriousness faded from her expression as she flashed him a pale imitation of that bright (and he now suspected secretly sarcastic) smile of hers. “So I think I have a few minutes before I spontaneously lose any appendages.”
He got the distinct impression that she was patronizing him. Theron didn’t bother to hide his annoyance as he followed her down the ramp where two astromechs were waiting. Teeseven let out a harsh series of beeps as soon as he took in the state of his Jedi. As soon as Theron stepped up next to her, the little astromech whirled on him and began lecturing him extensively in binary.
“Hey now.” Theron had to raise his voice to be heard over the droid’s fussing. “Things just got a little complicated near the end. No need for the lecture!”
“Teeseven might be a little overprotective,” Grey gave the astromech an affectionate pat with her good hand, “but he means well.”
Theron turned to give M-6 a look, who just gave him a cheerful beep in greeting. “Your concern is touching.”
M-6 swiveled his head and let out a loud, unimpressed whistle to show that the spy still had all of his limbs attached, and that he’d come back bloodied and bruised was par for the course. Grey’s eyes almost sparkled with amusement at the droid’s deadpan assessment, and Theron felt a rush of heat creep up his neck.
“That’s not true,” he insisted with a glare at the droid. “My missions always end flawlessly and without incident.”
M-6 let out a sharp series of beeps that sounded suspiciously like tittering. Great. Now he was being laughed at by an astromech.
Grey’s arched brow and amused pursed lips spoke louder than any words could have, and Theron silently harrumphed to himself. He gave M-6’s domed head a flick and the little astromech let out a loud warble, as if offended by the gesture. Grey shook her head at the antics and turned her attention back to the matter at hand.
“Ambassador, I would like a word,”as she lightly ran to catch up with the other woman boarding the turbolift. While jogging, she had to hold her injured arm close to her chest to keep from jostling it too much. 
Teeseven let out a displeased toot at her lack of concern for her injury. Theron just heaved an exasperated sigh as he made his way to join them, with the two astromechs loyally following in his footsteps. The ambassador shot the group a surprised look as they all crowded around her in the turbolift.
“Looks like the Turbolift Gang is back together again,” he said sarcastically.
“Not exactly a memory I would find myself nostalgic for, nor so soon,” Asara remarked dryly, before turning her attention to Grey. “What is it you’d like to speak to me about in such a hurry? Shouldn’t you be heading to the medical bay?”
“That was my question,” Theron said sourly.
Grey ignored him and turned her full attention to Asara. “Ambassador, there is not an easy way to say this, but before we left, First Officer Haken attempted to bribe the two of us to leave you behind with the Imperials.”
The color drained from Asara’s face. Her jaw clenched and unclenched rapidly. “What? You must be joking.”
“I am afraid I am not.”
“That spineless little—” She cut herself off with a sharp movement, as if censoring her language was a long ingrained habit. “And after everything I did to save this ship!” 
“I mean, you did attempt to flush several members of his crew into the vacuum of space,” Theron pointed out. “I think he might hold a grudge.”
Grey shot him a look that clearly told him he wasn’t helping. “We appreciate all of your assistance in this endeavor, Ambassador.”
“I’m going to assume that you decided against taking Haken up on his little offer,” she said.
“Of course not!” Grey sounded almost as offended at the idea as she had when Haken had first suggested it. Almost. “We would never leave you behind.”
Asara slid a look in Theron’s direction, and he blew out another breath. “Don’t give me that look. I didn’t agree to it either! I mean, that’s almost as bad as suggesting venting someone into the cold vacuum of space.”
“And clearly you’re not going to let me forget that.” Asara let out a long-suffering sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose, as if warding off a headache. 
A sharp elbow jammed into in his side, and Theron slid a look over at the injured Jedi who was giving him a peevish look. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say “what”, which just elicited an exasperated sigh. 
“Regardless,” Grey continued, as if the silent sidebar hadn’t just happened, “I felt it was appropriate that you knew the full facts of the situation.”
“Thank you for your honesty,” Asara said after a long moment, weighing her words. “And for not leaving me behind. I know you didn’t ask for any of this.”
“We were only doing what was right,” Grey said, eyes briefly flicking in Theron’s direction, as if she wasn’t sure she should speak for both of them, especially after the last time this subject had come up within this exact turbolift.
She was still trying to hide the fact that she was bracing her injured arm despite her dogged determination to see this situation to the end, and a small, bitter voice in Theron’s head insisted that he was still right. One day the galaxy would eat her kind, bleeding heart whole and spit out a hollow husk.
Instead of cold certainty settling into his stomach at the thought, it felt like something icy and heavy settling over his heart instead. He didn’t want to win this stupid argument, he realized. He still wasn’t sure that hopeful optimism of hers was the truth, but maybe that wasn’t the point. It wasn’t the galaxy, the Force, or anything intangible that had saved his life. That had all been her.
“You don’t get very far in this galaxy by only looking out for yourself.” Ostensibly, those words should have been for Asara, but Theron was looking at Grey the entire time.
Her uncertain expression softened, eyes brightening and nose crinkling in that almost endearing manner as she struggled to keep her reaction tamped down. It was hard to tell if the flop in his stomach was because of the lift gliding to a stop, or something else entirely. The doors whooshed open to reveal the bridge, and Theron quickly stepped out first, straightening his stained and stinking jacket as a momentary distraction to gather himself.
The massive viewport that covered the entire front of the bridge showed the blue and white streaking of stars of hyperspace. The sight relieved him and eased some of the weight he’d been carrying since the first explosion had buffeted the ship so many hours ago. While all safety was relative, they were out of the immediate danger.
Grey and the two astromechs were quick to join him, but Asara hesitated, lingering behind at the lift. When she made no move to join them, the rest of their group crossed the expanse of the bridge to join Haken near the helm. As they walked, the rest of the bridge crew snapped to attention at the little procession. As someone used to lurking out of sight, having every eye on him was a vaguely unnerving.
A brush of a hand against his arm, so quick it would have gone unnoticed even with the sudden scrutiny they were under, had him glance at the woman at his side. She offered him an understanding smile before she strode ahead into the room, her posture shifting with the movement. Shoulders rolled back, spine straightened, and her stride lengthened seemed to gather the attention of everyone in the room and away from him.
And he couldn’t blame a single one of them for not being able to take their eyes off her. And this time, it seemed she’d employed it solely for his benefit. Just another thing he was grateful for.
“It’s good to see that you made it back,” Haken said at their approach, “although you look much worse for wear. You look like you should be seeing a medic.”
“So I have heard,” Grey said dryly. “Many times.”
Theron covered his mouth, able to stifle a laugh at the very last moment. Maybe it was just the exhaustion catching up to him, but the irritation breaking through that serene Jedi act of hers would never not be funny. 
“Still, we all owe you our lives,” Haken said. “On behalf of the passengers and crew of the Republic transport Esseles, thank you. Both of you.”
“It was an honor to help and protect you all,” Grey said with a slight bow.
Theron couldn’t help the small shake of his head. Some things would never change. “It was better than sitting around waiting to be incinerated.”
As she came up from her bow, she shot Theron a sidelong look of good-natured exasperation, and he returned it with a quirk of his lips.
While none of them had known each other longer than a handful of hours, they had at least reached a state in which Haken could politely ignore their antics and forge on. “Everyone on the ship took up a collection—just a small measure of our gratitude.”
“Please, keep your credits. I’m sure everyone needs them much more.” Grey quickly and almost automatically waved him away in a gesture that was very reminiscent of a scene that Theron had seen played out in dozens of variations in his own youth.
“How about you pick up the dry cleaning tab?” Theron said, indicating their stinking and battle singed attire. “We’ll call it even.”
“That seems like a fair compromise,” Haken agreed.
“I agree.” Asara strode almost too casually over to their group. “Heroes like you are scarce—and the Republic needs as many as they can get.”
Haken’s eyes widened at the sight of her and he shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. “Ambassador Asara, it’s... a relief to see you also made it back safely.”
“Is it?” She folded her arms and pierced him with a withering stare. “I imagine it comes as quite a surprise for you to see me at all.”
“I don’t,” he stuttered in a voice that cracked like a teenager. “I really don’t know what you mean by that. Of course, I’m glad to see you. Why wouldn’t it?”
Eyes wider than a Sullustan, he turned to look to Grey and Theron for help. Theron just crossed his arms in a mirror image to the ambassador, while the Grey dipped her head in acknowledgment.
“I felt it was only appropriate to inform the ambassador about the discussion we had before our departure.”
“Really, Haken, attempting to bribe a Jedi? To leave me on the Grand Moff’s ship?”
“I would never—she must have misunderstood me!”
“Oh no,” Theron put in, “you were pretty clear.”
“Don’t worry, Haken,” Asara said icily. “I’ll be discussing this matter with my friends on Coruscant.”
Haken stiffened. “Then maybe I’ll make a report of my own—maybe your friends would find your actions down in Engineering interesting as well!”
Asara’s eyes narrowed and Haken’s jaw set stubbornly as the tension in the room built. Grey took a step forward, using her good arm to separate the two. All eyes once again turned to her, and she lifted her chin, expression firm.
“I understand that today was a very trying situation for us all,” she said with a deceptive calm.” However, I would like to point out that both of you were short-sighted, but fear dictated your actions — not malice.”
Asara snorted an angry breath as Haken crossed his arms stubbornly and they both met each other’s gaze, neither one softening.
“Forgive me for being blunt, but both of your missteps were rooted in the same desire,” Grey continued. “Self preservation via unwilling sacrifice of others.”
They both shifted uneasily, the hardness in their stances wavering as the words sunk in.
“Every life—and every person on board is important. The only reason we survived today is not the heroism of two individuals in your midst, but through the cooperation and self-sacrifice of many brave souls. Some of whom we could not even bring back with us for a proper burial.”
Grey’s voice was strong and steady, and reached every corner of the bridge with ease. Her words seemed to finally penetrate the stubborn shells of the two rivals, the scorn draining from their faces.
“We cannot afford to let fear divide us,” Grey finished, “especially not when that is exactly what the Empire wants to sow.”
The sharp edges of Haken And Asara’s stubborn pride and indignant anger melted into something softer and more humble. Haken gave Asara a node of respect. After a few moments, she returned it with a tight-lipped smile. Though they were unlikely to become friends, for now, at least, there was a truce.
“I’ve had enough fighting for today,” Haken said after a moment’s reflection. “And we still have a way to go before we reach Coruscant.”
“I agree,” Asara said, nodding her agreement before turning back to them. “But Kilran’s a very proud man. He will not forget that you both humiliated him.”
“I suppose we should probably keep on our guard,” Grey said, but glanced at Theron.
“Being a little paranoid comes with the job.” He gave a half shrug. “What’s one more angry Imperial to add to that list?”
Grey shook her head, though the corners of her mouth quirked up into a ghost of a smile.
“Now,” Theron said, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could use a trip to the medical bay. Maybe they can also reattach this stubborn Jedi’s arm after it falls off.”
Said Jedi fixed him with an unimpressed look. Theron quirked a brow in challenge, Teeseven whistled in agreement, and even M-6 gave a chirp of assent. She glanced between them all and sighed.
“I can see that I am outnumbered.”
“That’s the spirit,” Theron said cheerfully, and ushered her off the bridge with a hand on her good shoulder.
Next Chapter
10 notes · View notes
swtorpadawan · 11 months
Text
Invincible
Author’s Notes: The following story takes place on Yavin during the Shadow of Revan storyline in my Halcyon Legacy. CW for violence, original character deaths, and brief blood and gore. Also – this is a rather long one, folks. My apologies.
Tumblr media
“Dammit! We’re being driven back.”
Theron Shan’s face glowered in consternation as icons representing various Yavin Coalition military units shifted across the holo-map, many of them retreating while a few flickered out entirely.
The Revanite counterattack against the Coalition forces here on Yavin IV had come suddenly, besieging Republic and Imperial troops alike across a wide front. Within minutes, many of their forward positions were isolated if not overwhelmed, while the remaining defensive hardpoints were pinned down, unable to support other troops when they needed it the most. All coordination and communication between the reluctant allies had seemingly gone out the window in the wake of the assault, and the cybernetic communications relay in his ear was being bombarded with requests – pleas, really – for reinforcements, for support, for orders, for any help whatsoever.
Standing around the makeshift conference table at Coalition headquarters, the other members of the ah-hoc ‘leadership council’ – Lana Beniko, Satele Shan and Darth Marr – were likewise intently reviewing holo-transmissions and reports as they came in. Beniko’s expression was one of focused and controlled anger. That was the kind of personal discipline that made her such an effective Sith. Satele (Theron was trying very hard not to think of her as his mother at this moment) watched over the proceedings with a frown of contemplation. Until she saw the necessity to interject herself, she would keep her peace. Marr… well, Theron obviously couldn’t see the expression of the Dark Councilor’s face behind his metal mask, but Marr radiated intensity under normal circumstances. Right at this moment, with all their plans at risk and the campaign itself in doubt, the closest thing the Sith Empire had to an actual leader was positively seething.
None of them had bothered to respond to Theron’s dire assessment of the situation.
The unprecedented Yavin Coalition composed of the Imperial troops commanded by Marr and the Galactic Republic forces led by Satele had successfully invaded the moon known as Yavin IV and – up until just a few minutes ago – had appeared to be on the verge of victory, pushing the remnants of the Order of Revan back until they were almost at the base of the ancient, pyramid-like temples for which Yavin was infamous. Some of the forward Republic recon troops had even reported they’d been facing greater resistance from the indigenous Massassi warriors than they had from the Revanites.
Now the Coalition forces had been caught overextended, with the Revanites driving a wedge between the Republic and Imperial forces. It seemed almost everyone was calling for reinforcements, air support, resupply, orders… the command headquarters couldn’t cope with it all.
“Isolate the problem.” Satele Shan’s voice was carefully measured as she broke her silence. She may have just as well been presenting a logic problem to a group of Jedi younglings in a classroom back on Tython for all the alarm she demonstrated. “Revan is attempting to distract and overwhelm us. Otherwise, his attack would have been much more precise. If we can look past his maneuverings and identify his true strategy, we’ll be able to understand his intentions.”
As if on mental reflex, Theron realized that she was right. He recalled Master Zho teaching him that same technique so long ago in his childhood, and he strongly suspected that Zho had been the one to demonstrate the same stratagem to Satele once upon a time in the Grand Master’s own youth. (Though he had a very hard time imagining Satele ever being a youngling.) Coalition command had been thrown off its game. Junior officers of both factions were scrambling around the conference table with the communications aides urgently relaying messages and reports. Just outside field commanders were yelling for their troops to form up and prepare for deployment as soon as the orders came down. The sound of artillery fire could be heard in the distance…
These factors were all just distractions.  
Theron had always preferred being a field agent over being an analyst. Indeed, he’d been more than a little rankled when Marcus Trant, the Director of the Republic’s Strategic Information Service, had temporarily placed him on desk duty as a punishment for one of his “unsanctioned operations”. (Alright, it had been several “unsanctioned operations”.) But that inclination didn’t make him any less effective at analyzing tactical information. Utilizing his cybernetic implants, he crunched the numbers, trying to make sense out of all the chaos. Finding his center. His sense of calm…
Time seemed to slow down for Theron. As he looked down at the map, he didn’t see soldiers fighting and dying or the Coalition at risk of collapsing. Instead, he saw a clearer picture start to take shape.
After a moment of contemplation, it became obvious to Theron that the Revanites’ numbers were not as impressive as the ferocity of their attack would seem to suggest. Nor was their counter-offensive as broad as it had initially seemed on the map. Yes, the Coalition flanks were being pressured, but only half-heartedly, as if to discourage reinforcement or encirclement of the main thrusts by the Order. The allies still enjoyed a significant overall advantage in force strength by better than a two-to-one margin; maybe even more. But that advantage had been neutralized by the Revanites’ rapid advancement…
“There.” The crisp, Imperial voice interrupted his thought process.
Much to Theron’s chagrin, Lana Beniko, the former chief aide to the Minister of Military Offense of the Sith Empire (and his erstwhile partner for the last few months in exposing the Revanite conspiracy), had found the solution first.
Beniko re-oriented the holo-map, zeroing in on one particularly deep thrust into the Coalition lines. The display flickered as live holo-streaming of the scene quickly followed the three-dimensional image, projected above the map.                      
“This is the tip of their spear.” She explained, as they watched the small group of Revanites effortlessly tear through a platoon of Republic soldiers. The assailants appeared to be cyborgs… led by a single armored Sith Lord. “Their vanguard. It’s the lynchpin to their attack. Their momentum is keeping us hamstrung.”  
Theron immediately recognized the design of the cyborgs from their mission to Rakata Prime months earlier. Infinite Elites. Revanite volunteers surgically enhanced with Rakatan technology in a process developed by Gorima – a sick, twisted Selkath scientist who’d been operating a secret laboratory on Manaan, the same creep who had briefly tormented their ally, Jakarro, the Wookie smuggler. These cyborgs were incredibly powerful, with their advanced, regenerative capabilities allowing them to shrug off most attacks. Revan had intended to build an entire army of the Infinites, using them as his shock troops. They’d proven to be so dangerous that Theron had even wanted Jedi Master Corellan Halcyon, their ally against the conspirators, to terminate the Infinites they’d found on Rakata in their stasis pods out of hand. (Corellan had refused. Typical Jedi nobility. With hindsight, Theron shouldn’t have been surprised.) Regardless, he’d been relieved when their efforts on Manaan and Rakata had resulted in the destruction of the completed Infinite prototypes, as well as the technology required to create more of them.
Apparently, that sense of relief had been premature.
There may have only been a squad of them, but these Infinites were nevertheless hammering through their formations like a juggernaut, the thin end of the Revanite wedge driving into the Coalition lines.  
“Revan must have gotten them off Rakata before we moved in on them.” Theron heard the frustration in his own voice even as he silently called in an air strike via his implant. “He planned this. Keeping them in reserve until now.”
Seconds later, the quartet around the table watched as a squadron of Republic dive-bombers unleashed their payloads upon the advancing squad of Revanites. As the holoprojection flickered to adjust to the smoke and fire, Theron witnessed a Jedi and a Sith leading Coalition commandos into the area. The intelligence agent briefly allowed himself to hope that this strike had finished off the Infinites and would blunt Revan’s entire counter-offensive.
That hope quickly evaporated as he saw the massive Sith Lord who had been leading the Infinites rise to his feet, activating his twin crimson lightsabers. Theron had not initially identified this foe beneath his strange, ornate armor, but now, on closer inspection, he realized that he recognized this mighty Sith Pureblood.
Indeed, nearly everyone in the entire galaxy should have recognized him by now.
“Kael.” Marr hissed behind his mask, the Dark Councilor’s voice was dripping with venom and contempt.
Lord Kael Nosrol Krannus was a towering Pureblooded Sith Warrior of great renown. Over the course of his relatively brief but infamous career, he had led countless operations against the Republic, from crushing the War Trust on Taris to freeing the Dread Masters on Belsavis. Dozens of Jedi and thousands of Republic soldiers and civilians had fallen beneath his blades, including wiping out at least one Strategic Information Service team at a safehouse on Nar Shaddaa. According to the intelligence reports Theron had read, he was wanted for a long series of war crimes and had gained a reputation for brutality even by the standards of the Sith. But it had been on Corellia where his ruthless butchery against his enemies had earned him a new epithet: The Emperor’s Wrath. He had become Vitiate’s chosen, hand-picked to eliminate the Emperor’s enemies both in the Republic and within the Empire. Although the Sith Lord had never formally been named a Darth, anyone would have been foolish to think him any less deadly for that lack of title. Indeed, he had already crushed several of the most powerful Darths in the Empire for apparent disloyalty to the throne, even slaying his old master, Darth Baras. He’d thus cemented his claim as the Emperor’s Wrath before going on to lead Imperial troops on Ilum and beyond.
There had been no reported sightings of Krannus in almost a year, not since he had supposedly broken with the Dark Council and the entire Imperial hierarchy. Locating him had been a priority of the SIS for some time.
Right at this moment, Theron sorely wished that the Emperor’s Wrath had remained missing.
He watched as the Sith Lord stormed through the Coalition commandoes, ignoring multiple blaster shots to his body mere moments after shrugging off the aerial bombardment.
The Coalition Jedi and Sith attempted to divide Krannus’ attention, attacking him from opposite flanks; the Twi’lek Jedi on his right with his lightsaber and the human Sith Lord on his left with Force lightning. For a moment, Theron thought they might have succeeded when the Jedi’s blade caught Lord Kael’s armor squarely on the shoulder while just missing his helmet – a blow that should have all but severed his arm – while the Sith’s lightning blasted at his armored torso.
Impossibly, the massive Pureblood shrugged off these lethal assaults and then, in a single move displaying more agility than should have been possible for a man of his size, simultaneously impaled both of his opponents, one lightsaber sinking into the chest of each.
Just like that, the effort to stop Lord Kael and the Infinites had been snuffed out, the few the surviving commandoes quickly overwhelmed by the Infinites.    
Theron grimaced. Not even Mandalorian beskar should have protected the Sith Lord so completely from the kind of punishment Krannus had taken, and he wasn’t even slowed down.
As a stunned silence settled around the table, Theron remembered that the Coalition had already definitively ruled out any orbital strikes from the fleets above. The main temple held by the Revanites was protected by a force field for one thing, and for another they’d decided that the risk of friendly fire falling on their own forces was too great. (Though Marr, of course, hadn’t been thrilled with that decision, given the stakes in play.) That danger was even greater now with the Infinites driving so far into the Coalition lines. There was nothing else he could think of in the Coalition’s arsenal that could have stopped Krannus.            
“Please magnify on his armor.” The firm, unexpected voice cut through the silence.
It was only then, as he looked up at the speaker, that Theron realized there was a fifth individual watching the display above the holo-table. Jedi Master Corellan Halcyon looked like he had just fought through Hell itself while simultaneously looking resolute enough to invade it for a second time at a moment’s notice. The Jedi’s robes were singed at the edges and his armor was lightly scorched though undamaged. His expression, normally healthy and open, was darker and grimmer than Theron had ever seen before with bags under his eyes and a pallid complexion.
He doesn’t look good. Theron thought to himself. But one could not have told that from his posture or from the clarity of his voice.
This was the champion who had taken down the Emperor’s Voice on Dromund Kaas. Who had spear-headed the raid on Korriban and then mere hours later had liberated the Jedi Temple on Tython. The one person who Theron and Lana had trusted when they’d gone on the run after they’d been framed for killing Darth Arkous and Colonel Rian Darok on Rakata Prime. On Rishi, he’d defeated Nova Blade pirates, Mandalorian bounty hunters and Revanite conspirators in quick succession without seeming to break a sweat, inflicting more damage in a few days than Lana and Theron might have managed in months.
Since the joint task force had arrived on Yavin three days ago, Halcyon had been even more impressive. His reputation alone demanded respect from friend and foe alike. Every time a trouble spot emerged, every time it appeared bad feelings over decades of war might drive a wedge between the reluctant allies, Corellan had personally intervened, acting decisively yet amicably, putting out fires before the leadership council even knew about them and showing a mutual respect that puzzled the Sith, impressed the Imperials and inspired the Jedi and Republic troops to put their differences with their allies aside and behave themselves. If the Hero of Tython – who’d probably fought and killed more Imperials in combat – Sith and otherwise – in his relatively young life than anyone else still breathing (aside, perhaps, from Satele Shan herself) had made no objection to fighting alongside the Empire, hardly anyone else could either, given the circumstances. He hadn’t started this campaign with a reputation as a diplomat, but he definitely seemed to be building one for himself, albeit unintentionally.
His entire demeanor seemed to have changed since coming to Yavin. At first, Theron wanted to think it was just the proximity of so many Sith. Then he wondered if it might have been that their target was Revan, a figure who was almost mythical in the tales of both the Jedi and the Sith. Heck, Corellan, like Theron, had probably grown-up hearing bedtime stories about the legendary fallen Jedi.
But now, Theron was starting to fear that it was the presence of the Sith Emperor here on Yavin. The same tyrant who’d captured Corellan and his crew at his Fortress years before, imprisoning them for months. The same cancer who was, if reports were to be believed, responsible for much of the suffering the galaxy had experienced dating back to the Mandalorian Wars.  
The same enemy who Corellan – and the entire Republic – had hoped had been permanently destroy during the attack on Dromund Kaas.
All this has to have taken its toll. The SIS agent privately suspected. It was rumored that Halcyon hadn’t been sleeping; simply meditating for an hour or two at a time before pressing on with whatever needed to be done. He’d rotated his crewmembers regularly to keep them fresh, then had headed off on another mission. Each time, he’d check in with the temporary command center at the base camp, reporting on details he had observed that might have been missed through the various chains of command.
He also hadn’t shied away from putting his own crew at risk when necessary. Yesterday, he’d designated his loyal astromech droid, Teeseven, to oversee the advance sensor array they’d set up, thus keeping the Coalition’s monitoring system impartial. Later he’d ordered Sergeant Rusk to take temporary command of a company of Republic troops who had lost their commanding officer during the fighting. The veteran Chagrian soldier had quickly whipped that demoralized unit into shape, and even now they were successfully holding one of the critical defensive positions along the Coalition’s lines despite the Revanite assault. And just minutes ago as the attacks had begun, Corellan had assigned his squad medic, Doctor Archiban Kimble – or ‘Doc’ to anyone who asked – to treat wounded Imperial soldiers who’d been cut-off from their recovery camps. The Imperial officer on site had sworn an oath that no harm would come to Doc, and that he would be returned safely to the Jedi Master afterward.      
Satele and Marr had provided the leadership and legitimacy. Theron and Lana had delivered the expertise and intelligence on the Revanites and how they operated. But it had been Halcyon, with the aid of his crew, who had brought a sense of unity to the Coalition.
Theron had worked with Corellan Halcyon off and on for more than two years now, ever since enlisting the Jedi Master in a couple of off-the-book operations to deal with problems the SIS would have preferred to remain under wraps rather than address through “official” channels. He was a bona fide hero. A paragon, even. The best Jedi warrior of his generation. A champion of the Republic and the protector of the free galaxy. Honestly, he was exactly what most Jedi younglings grew up wanting to be. The guy the Republic military put on their recruitment posters.
Since they’d arrived on Yavin, Theron had learned that beneath that surface, Corellan Halcyon also possessed a keen tactical mind. One that understood full well the strategies employed by Sith and Jedi, Empire and Republic.
By now, Halcyon had become extremely effective at combating the Revanites, regardless of which faction they’d previously worked for. Their enemies might all claim to serve Revan, but it had been proven on Rishi and now again on Yavin that they weren’t all ‘one big, happy family’. The Order of Revan desperately needed symbols to rally around; specifically, they needed the symbol of Revan himself.
That was the kind of unifying symbol that Halcyon was providing to the Coalition.
And it was now apparent to Theron that the Jedi Master was proving surprisingly adept at approaching people undetected. Even where it concerned dealing with allies.
Even when dealing with Force users as potent as Darth Marr and Satele Shan.
Theron usually prided himself on maintaining a good sabacc face. After all, he was an SIS agent. That sort  of went with the territory. But he had no doubt he looked startled right at this moment. Lana had also blinked in surprise at the unexpected arrival. Marr’s face was concealed by his mask, but even his head tilted up in surprise as Corellan’s voice cut through the room.
Only Satele seemed nonplussed at the Jedi Master’s sudden appearance, simply accepting it in stride. If the Grand Master was concerned with Corellan’s behavior or physical appearance of late, she had clearly decided not to reveal that in front of the Sith. She nodded in Theron’s direction, who was only now reminded that he was the one at the terminal controls.
The Republic operative swallowed, increasing the magnification on Krannus’ armor as requested. Some of the resolution was a bit hazy – that often happened when transmissions were broadcasting during a battle with portable surveillance equipment – but the distinct pattern across Krannus’ body eventually became clear. The bulbous pieces looked strange to Theron, who was familiar with a great many body armors commonly used throughout the galaxy by soldiers, mercenaries and Force-users.
“I don’t recognize that design.” He admitted.
“Nor do I.” Lana admitted, who looked over towards Marr and Satele, questioningly.
The Jedi Grand Master was once again in silent contemplation, as if the answer to the problem was hiding right in front of her but would only reveal itself in time.  
Officially, Darth Marr was the head of the Sith Empire’s Sphere of Military Strategy and was the second-longest tenured active member of the Dark Council. Unofficially, Marr was effectively running the Empire at this point, having bent the Council to his will. Analysts in the SIS had been taking bets on how long it would be before Marr formally declared himself the new Emperor.
Theron hadn’t taken that action on the bet. Marr knew what had happened to Darth Malgus on Ilum when he’d tried to claim Vitiate’s throne and establish a “New Empire”. Even when it came to Vitiate himself, who’d ruled the Empire for more than a millennium, the facade of invincibility that once came with that position had been shattered. As an institution, the Sith Empire only operated properly when everyone was too frightened of the Emperor to challenge him, or to risk compromising his goals with the internal squabbles. The title of Emperor must have looked much less attractive considering the present political climate, where any Sith who claimed supremacy risked being pulled down and destroyed by his fellows.
Theron suspected that Marr was playing a much different game.
Regardless, he also had to assume that Marr had more practical knowledge than just about anyone else living concerning the multitude of exotic weaponry of the Sith. And he was being silent.
That silence worried Theron intensely. With all the other surprises the Revanites had thrown at them over the last few months, the last thing they needed was mysterious Sith armor that seemingly made one of the most dangerous Sith Lords living invincible.
As he tried to analyze the armor for weaknesses, he could only consider it an effort in futility.
“Honestly, it doesn’t look like armor at all. It looks more like… shells.” He added, grasping for any observations.
With Krannus leading them, the Infinites couldn’t be stopped. With the Infinites leading the Revanite assault and driving a wedge into the Coalition lines, their entire offensive couldn’t be stopped.
Invincible, indeed.
“Orbalisks.” Corellan’s calm, matter-of-fact voice cut through the silence once again.
Theron turned to look over at him again. The Jedi Master was looking down at the projection in what he could only describe as ‘intense detachment’ as the magnification moved out again. In the projection, Lord Kael had Force-leapt onto an attacking Imperial Walker, knocking the towering machine over before eviscerating its driver with his lightsabers for good measure.
Theron was realizing no one else had responded to Corellan yet. He had no idea what an ‘orbalisk’ even was and no one else seemed to be stepping up either. In the absence of any elaboration, Lana took the lead this time, her brow furrowed intently as she addressed the Jedi champion.
“Do you know how we can stop him?”
Corellan Halcyon turned away from the display and towards Lana. The two of them had – along with Theron – developed a surprisingly strong working relationship these last few months. They had made a good team, regardless of their personal, political and ideological differences. (And Lana allowing the Revanites to abduct and torture Theron. That had been a bump in the road.) This question undercut a reversal of roles; usually, it was Corellan relying on Lana and Theron for information, direction or analysis.
But here in this instance on Yavin, the people standing around the table were relying on the young Jedi Master for his knowledgeable insight.
“We can’t.” Corellan answered firmly, gently stressing the first word. “But I will need some help.”
That wasn’t lost on Theron. The Hero of Tython clearly had something specific in mind. Something he intended to personally put into motion.
Corellan had followed Lana and Theron’s lead on Manaan, Rakata and Rishi, and he had likewise acknowledged the authority of Satele and Marr as leaders of the leadership council assembled here on Yavin.
But now, he was calling his own play.
We’ve underestimated him. Theron considered. All of us.
The Hero of Tython raised his arm to chest level, tapping the communicator on his wrist.
“Kira. We’re up. Maneuverer Alderaan-Delta-Three.” He paused, checking his chrono and apparently doing some quick calculations in his head. “Eleven minutes.”
“On it.” a familiar, feminine voice answered. Corellan closed the channel just as quickly.      
Since they’d started working together, Theron had long come to understand that Corellan usually only operated with one of his companions by his side at any given time. He had always assumed there was some method behind his choice; a specific companion for a specific kind of mission. That would make good strategic sense, though the particulars in Corellan’s thought process usually escaped him.
Theron had met Kira Carsen several times. First on that Corellian rescue job almost two years ago, then more recently at Carrick Station before the assault on Korriban. He liked her. Frankly, she was probably the most outgoing Jedi he’d ever met and she was genuinely funny. (Granted, her jokes directed at Theron about being ‘Satele’s kid’ had grated on him, but he could deal with that.) Her combat record was proof that she was fantastic with a lightsaber, too. He’d been rather surprised that he hadn’t seen her working beside Corellan lately. He knew that she’d been by his side earlier on Rishi but when Corellan had first arrived at the safehouse Theron shared with Lana and Jakarro, Rusk had been accompanying him. Later, he’d seen Teeseven and Doc at his side as well. He’d found it curious at the time, idly wondering if the two Jedi were ‘on the outs’ somehow.
Whatever Corellan had in mind – whatever ‘Maneuverer Alderaan-Delta-Three’ even meant – he’d clearly decided he needed Kira with him to execute his plan.
The Jedi turned towards Theron and Lana.
“Set a timer.” He requested. “I need every bomber we can get in the air to hit Kael and the Infinites in exactly ten minutes in successive waves. Then pull them off after 30 seconds.”  
Theron set the timer on reflex, then checked the data. The Infinites had advanced well past the range of the remaining Revanite anti-air flak cannons. At the speed they were moving at now, it would be a tricky target; even fighter-bombers usually weren’t designed to hit a target as small as a single squad. But he could predict their movement speed and relay those coordinates to the pilots.
“We can do that.” Theron offered. “But you just saw that it won’t keep them down for long.”
Corellan looked down at the SIS agent intently. For a second, Theron thought he might have seen a hint of a grim smile on the Jedi’s lips.  
“I don’t need it to keep them down for long.”
Without another word, he turned and headed towards the exit.
“I’m ending this battle.” He spoke as he walked away from the table intently, never breaking stride or even looking back over his shoulder. “Now.”  
Theron blinked as the Jedi Master departed, then turned back and looked at the others.
Lana seemed uncertain. Satele looked concerned but continued to keep her silence. Marr… Marr just continued to watch the passageway where Corellan had exited, as if trying to decide something. Theron now realized that Corellan hadn’t even asked Satele or Marr – the Coalition’s nominal leaders – for approval of his plan.
Without anyone needing to say anything, Theron relayed the orders.
 Kira Carsen was more than ready to go when she’d gotten the call.
Three days of barely seeing any action back on the ship while a massive battle waged around her had admittedly left her antsy.
Corellan would have known that, and she knew he wouldn’t have held her back this long without a good reason.
She’d also barely seen him since they’d arrived on Yavin. He would have known how that would make her feel, too. She knew he wouldn’t do that to her if it could have been helped.
(It also didn’t help that they could both feel the Emperor’s presence here on Yavin. Deep down, she’d always known he hadn’t been completely destroyed on Dromund Kaas. But feeling him this close still put her on edge.)
These were their lives: They meant everything to each other, but the needs of the rest of the galaxy would always come first.
Kira knew that. She understood it. She even accepted it.
That didn’t mean she had to like it.  
Still, she’d been monitoring the situation carefully. Kira had been in enough battles to know that this one was rapidly approaching its climax: the fight between the Revanites and the Coalition would be decided over the next few minutes.  
And in this crucial moment, Corellan Halcyon, the vaunted Hero of Tython, had called her. She’d never admit it to anyone, but that meant something.
(It meant everything.)
Kira didn’t know if she’d ever be a Jedi Master. That goal had once been a driving ambition for her; something to solidify her sense of acceptance within the Order. To give herself that reinforced sense of belonging that she’d been seeking for most of her life. Maybe she’d even have been able to stir things up with some much-needed policy reforms. But the last few years – spent with Corellan and their crew – had eventually led her to reconsider her career goals.
She was happy with who she was. And with where she was in her life.
For example, Kira couldn’t imagine there were many Jedi Knights who could outfight her in a one-on-one lightsaber duel at this point. After all, Kira had been the one who’d struck the killing blow against Darth Nox on Tython, one of the most feared Sith in the galaxy and a particularly infamous member of the Dark Council.
But Corellan was the most driven lightsaber duelist she’d ever met. He was up before dawn most mornings (long before Kira usually rose), sparring with Scourge for an hour before even showering and sitting down for breakfast. Then, if they didn’t have a mission that day to keep him occupied, he’d spar with Kira in the early evening, working them both almost to exhaustion.
He was dedicated.
(And if Kira had ever felt overshadowed by her partner, he’d more than made it up to her during their nights alone together. Lightsaber training wasn’t the only thing he was dedicated to.)
And he did his homework, too. There probably wasn’t a holocron or text on lightsaber combat in the Jedi Archives that he hadn’t borrowed for review at least once.
But as valuable as those had been, they couldn’t begin to compete with the knowledge provided by the individual who lived in their cargo bay.
For someone like Corellan Halcyon, training with someone like Scourge was more valuable than a dozen holocrons. The former Emperor’s Wrath had spent three hundred years hunting and slaying the Emperor’s enemies, effectively becoming a ‘boogey-man’ within the Sith Empire. Kira thought it was ironic that most of those ‘enemies’ had been Scourge’s fellow Sith. (After all, up until these last few years, the Emperor had had little to fear from the Jedi, himself.) He’d taught Corellan dozens of techniques that would aid him in facing and defeating his enemies.
In the years since Dromund Kaas, Corellan’s reputation among the Sith and Imperials had only reached new heights. Even most Mandalorians refused to accept contracts on him anymore; not since his meeting with Xadya on Makeb.  
Kira hadn’t listened to every lesson Scourge had taught Corellan about ancient Sith weapons and rituals, but she’d gotten the gist of what orbalisks were. (And frankly, the things sounded incredibly disgusting to her. As neat a trick as it sounded, invincibility would not be worth having those nasty bugs all over her body and digging into her skin.) According to Scourge, Vitiate had destroyed all known records of the blasted creatures decades ago. Not because he feared they could make a rival Sith powerful enough to face him; Kira’s ‘father’ was apparently far above such physical concerns. No, it was more to discourage any ‘fools with delusions of grandeur’ who managed to master the Dxunian creatures from even attempting such an act.
And Corellan being Corellan, he’d put in more than a little thought into how to counter an enemy employing the parasites should the need ever arise.
Kira supposed she owed the ‘Big Tomato’ a ‘Thank you’ for that kind of help.
The culture of their ship facilitated this kind of thinking. Hundreds of hours of training amongst their crew had led to the creation of dozens of combination maneuvers for various contingencies. Alderaan-Delta-Three was one such combination. With Scourge’s assistance; Kira and Corellan had trained for it in parts, but they’d never actually had the chance to use the whole thing in a real fight.
To Kira, that uncertainty made this job even more exciting.
Also, she’d get to bring her speeder-bike. Things were always more fun when they involved speeder-bikes, in Kira’s opinion. It would be a pity to lose this one; she’d spent months customizing it just the way she liked. Force, it was even purple.
But if this worked, then it would be worth it.
Both for the thrill of the thing, and to win this battle.
The sooner they got off this rock, the sooner she and Corellan could get some alone time together.
 Theron knew that lightsaber enthusiasts and gamblers alike had been debating for years who would win in direct confrontation between the Hero of Tython and the reigning Emperor’s Wrath, and for good reason. The two champions of their respective factions were contemporaries: Corellan Halcyon and Kael Nosrol Krannus were near enough the same age with vaguely similar ‘career tracks’. Both were practitioners of Jar’khai, wielding a single-bladed lightsaber in each hand at once to devastating effect. Both had incredible combat records and a plethora of accomplishments, any one of which would have granted any warrior legendary status in the wider galaxy. Both had seen action at many of the same flashpoints that had defined the current conflict for the last few years.
Taris. Balmorra. Belsavis. However many others.
Frankly, it was a wonder that the two adversaries, these titans of the age, hadn’t met in battle before now.
Between the two of them, four consecutive Sith Lords at the head of the Empire’s Sphere of Military Offense - Vengean, Baras, Arho and most recently Arkous – had met their ends; the first two by Krannus and the latter two at the blades of Halcyon.
(Theron had heard that the entire ministry had recently been placed under Marr’s “temporary” stewardship, since Arkous’ death on Rakata Prime. If Theron had been Marr, who’d spent decades as the head of the Empire’s Sphere of Military Defense, he wouldn’t have been in a hurry to formally claim that position any more than he apparently wanted to claim the title of Emperor.)  
Nor was that the end of the parallels of their journeys. Corellan had reportedly slain Lord Kael’s brother on Belsavis. The Imperial Executor – a fanatically-loyal servant of the Sith Emperor’s will – had attempted to destroy the prison world to further Vitiate’s plans for a ritual that could have destroyed the galaxy.
(Just thinking about that report had boggled Theron’s mind. He was, after all, just a spy. Situations like this still felt like they were way above his pay grade.)
From what Theron had heard, Kael had been – if anything – even more loyal to the Emperor than his brother had been.
But now, seemingly in a complete reversal, the surviving Krannus had taken up with the Order of Revan. Conspirators who fanatically opposed the Emperor’s return to the point where most had turned their backs on everything they’d ever known, to ally with a fallen Jedi who’d gone missing for centuries.
What could have prompted such an astronomical shift in allegiance for the Sith Lord?
And now, after all of that, he was finally facing Corellan Halcyon.
Theron had it on excellent authority that Nar Shaddaa bookmakers had a massive betting pool of several million credits going of what would happen when the two finally met, with odds swinging back and forth between one or the other.
The intelligence operative couldn’t deny that as the fighters began their bombardment of Krannus and his Infinites and the seconds ticked down to whatever Corellan was planning, he felt a surge of adrenaline within him despite the circumstances. As he looked around the table above the holo-map, he could feel that the others were intrigued as well.
There.  
Within seconds of the barrage beginning, an icon representing a speeder bike appeared, tearing across the map, skillfully dodging stray blaster fire along the battlefield. The Coalition had been employing a handful of the machines, mostly for transporting portable equipment and relaying messages and orders that couldn’t be safely transmitted. This, however… this wasn’t one of those efficient, practical, military vehicles. Based on the specs of the data-stream, Theron recognized this one as an Aratech Coral speeder, a high-end civilian bike designed for style and mobility as well as speed.
As the holoprojection focused on the speeder, Theron noted the two figures were mounted in the pilot’s seat, a smaller figure – with short red hair, he noted – driving the vehicle while their companion, larger, wearing Jedi robes and armor, had their arms wrapped around the driver’s waist.
Just before the bike crashed into the Infinites, the two Jedi leapt off.  
The resulting explosion made the holo-display flicker as it knocked Krannus and his squad down yet again. Everything within ten meters of the point of impact was suddenly immersed in flames, the wild grass on the ground briefly catching fire before just as quickly burning out. Theron only now realized the speeder must have been rigged with incendiary explosives. As Corellan and Kira landed unscathed, their lightsabers lashed out at their fallen enemies.
Theron was starting to understand the broad details of their tactical plan. The Infinites were normally all but indestructible; but as Corellan had proven on Manaan, exposing them to extreme flames could briefly leave them vulnerable to direct attacks.
Including attacks made with lightsabers.
As Kira continued to finish off the stunned Infinites, Corellan turned his attention to Lord Kael, who suddenly found himself alone and isolated. The Pureblooded Sith had risen to his feet and now plainly recognized his opponent.
The Jedi Sentinel squared off against the Sith Marauder, with the fate of Yavin, the Order of Revan, and perhaps the whole galaxy on the line.
The Hero of Tython versus the Emperor’s Wrath.
As their blades met, Theron was tempted to ask for popcorn.
 Kira’s lightsaber impaled the last Infinite before it could rise, finally snuffing the last of them out for good.
For a fraction of a second, she wondered who this person had been before their transformation. Did they have a life? Did they have a family? Did they fall for some bill of goods the Order of Revan had sold them to get them to volunteer for this insane procedure?
Would they regret that their lives had come to this?
She was reminded of Agent Galen, who’d worked with Kira and Corellan on Coruscant and later again on Nar Shaddaa during the Desolator Crisis. The SIS agent had been abducted by Lord Sadic, and then horrifically transformed against his will into an Imperial-aligned Power Guard cyborg. Thanks to the Jedi duo, the Republic operative had broken free of the Sith’s control and had found peace with his lot. Kira heard months later that Galen had eventually met his end while serving on an SIS mission, but he did so on his own terms, doing something that mattered to him.
Kira took some comfort from that memory as she steeled herself and turned to join the main event.
The duel before her was incredible.
Kael Nosrol Krannus was using Form VII to deliver ferocious blows from both his sabers without restraint. The powerful Sith Lord was considered by many to be the master of using Juyo with twin lightsabers. Corellan was, for his part, seamlessly alternating between stances: employing Form Three – Soresu – to deflect Krannus’ attacks before switching to the powerful strikes of Form Five – Shien – to press him back; precision and grace one moment, decisive strength in the next.
The Jedi’s approach was slowly starting to frustrate Lord Kael, who – to no one’s surprise – was responding with overwhelming rage. His only rival for the title of ‘mightiest warrior in the galaxy’ had finally engaged him in battle and that challenger had already taken the early advantage by eliminating his supporters. Even as she approached, the Sith roared, battering the Jedi’s defense with powerful blows.
Kira scowled. Even this varp-head was ignoring her.
His mistake. she vowed to herself.
Kira Force-leapt at Krannus, her green double-bladed saber flashing high above the battlefield.
“Eat lightsaber, jerk!” she called out.
Corellan timed it perfectly. As a startled Lord Kael raised his crossed sabers above his head to meet Kira’s attack, the Jedi Master’s own blue lightsabers found an opening, slicing low at the Sith Lord’s ankle.  
Had it not been for the orbalisks, the blow would have cleanly severed Krannus’ foot, and that would have been the end of it.
Instead, the attack (mostly) glanced off the impenetrable armor. Wounded or not, the impact had definitely further enraged the massive Sith Pureblood however, pushing him even further over the edge.
“Shavit!” Krannus screamed in pain, his blades recklessly slashing at Corellan again even as the Jedi effortlessly jumped backwards, a graceful toreador fighting a mighty bull.  
Kira and Corellan hadn’t had time to discuss this part of the plan, but through their Force-bond, she knew they didn’t need to. She felt what he was doing. Kael’s orbalisk armor may have protected his body and even fueled his rage, but even with the Force, his physical and mental stamina had limits. Especially if he were wasting energy with his frustration.
This wasn’t the ‘end game’, of course. That would come later. But Corellan was a savant at lightsaber combat. Where most skilled duelists could, at the most, think a few moves ahead against an opponent of equal skill, it felt to Kira that Corellan could see a dozen moves ahead, even against a Sith as dangerous as the Emperor’s Wrath.
Krannus had the advantage of strength and resiliency. With his orbalisks, he could shrug off nearly any attack.
But as his frustration grew, it would also turn into anger and rage. Those emotions would power a Sith, but it would also lead them to make mistakes. The longer this fight lasted, the more Lord Kael fell back on his instincts. And those instincts had been honed long before he had donned the orbalisk armor. Those instincts were plainly built on the premise of ‘The best defense is a good offense’. (After all, if your enemy was dead, they couldn’t attack you, could they?) Within minutes he was again fighting like someone who was supremely confident in his capability to overwhelm his opponent with his powerful attacks to the point of arrogance, not like someone who rationally knew he couldn’t be wounded and had adjusted his tactics accordingly.
Corellan Halcyon and Kael Nosrol Krannus were equals in nearly every way. But here, their differences shined through for all to see.
Lord Kael had the benefit of his impregnable armor.
Corellan had the benefit of having a plan.
And of having Kira.
 As the duel in the center of the battlefield raged on, so too did the greater battle of Yavin.
Theron knew that there was a perception amongst the general populace of the galaxy that the great clashes between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire were ultimately decided by lightsaber duels between Jedi and Sith.
Historically, Theron knew, that was rarely the case. While there were always exceptions, most major battles were instead decided by planning, logistics and – in Theron’s experience, what with being an SIS agent – superior intelligence.
He was starting to realize that – despite the Hero of Tython’s reputation as being exactly that, a Hero – Corellan Halcyon understood the same thing. Young though he was, at some point during his adventures, Corellan had learned to appreciate the difference between tactical planning and strategic planning:
Good tactics could win you a fight.
Good strategies could win you a war.  
Because regardless of whether he and Kira could beat Krannus, in eliminating the Infinites and halting Lord Kael’s advance, he had already stopped the Revanites’ momentum cold. Their offensive had stalled.
The Coalition lines, buckling mere minutes earlier, were now consolidating and holding firm. Formations had regrouped, communications re-established. The pressure on the flanks faded as the Revanites struggled to hold their gains against superior numbers. The ‘wedge’ into the Coalition lines was now under pressure. Now, it was the Order of Revan troops that were looking overextended.
In that moment, Theron Shan finally began to understand why Halcyon had been so successful throughout his career. Yes, he was brave, skilled and powerful, but now he understood that this was what the Jedi Master had actually done on all those other worlds in his travels.
He didn’t do other people’s jobs for them. Instead, he took on the central problem those people were facing – the one obstacle that was causing the crisis and preventing the people there from doing their jobs – and that freed everyone else up to refocus on what mattered.
He helped people to help themselves. That not only earned him peoples’ gratitude, it also minimized any potential resentment people might have for being ‘rescued’.  
And that’s what he was doing right now for the Coalition commanders.
Even if Corellan and Kira did fail to put down the ‘invincible’ Sith Lord, they had already defeated him. The Revanites were starting to be pushed back by Republic and Imperial forces all along the front. Looking down at a secondary display, Theron noted the icon representing the troops under Sergeant Rusk’s command. They had routed a group of the Order of Revan’s attack droids they’d been fighting and the Chagrian was even now driving his soldiers forward.  
The tide had been turned.
Win or lose the battle, Corellan Halcyon had already won the war.
 How long had they been fighting? Minutes? Hours? It could have been a day for all Kira knew. But the Force was surging within her, firing up her endorphins. She hadn’t felt this powerful since she’d purged Vitiate from her mind back on the Desolator above Tython years before.
Right now, with the adrenaline pumping in her veins, she felt like she could keep fighting like this forever.
And with Corellan at her side, she never questioned what the outcome of this fight would be.
It wasn’t courage, really. It wasn’t even faith, though Force knew she believed in Corellan Halcyon more than she believed in almost anything.
No. This was the confidence of certainty.
In the four years since Kira’s Knighting, Corellan had never taken on a new Padawan, despite numerous offers from the Jedi Council to do so. Nor had Kira accepted any assignments that would have allowed her to begin formally training a Padawan of her own; something she’d always intended to do herself.
Their physical relationship aside, this fight highlighted the reason why. They simply could not do the things they did with anyone else. Certainly not with a padawan.
They frankly would’ve gotten anyone else killed.
At some point, perhaps inevitably, Krannus had shifted his tactics, refocusing his attacks on taking down Kira while simultaneously attempting to hold off Corellan. No doubt he had decided that once he’d dealt with her, he could have turned his full attention on the Jedi Master in a one-on-one engagement with improved odds. Theoretically, it was a sound strategy, eliminating your weaker opponent so you could then focus on the main target. Kira and their crew often used similar tactics against particularly powerful enemies and their followers, allowing Corellan to isolate and defeat the primary threat.
But Lord Kael employing this plan in turn against this particular duo ignored three critical factors:
First, while she couldn’t match Corellan in sheer power or ability, Kira Carsen was still one of the most skilled duelists of her generation of Jedi. One who’d spent a childhood training to be a Sith on Korriban and who’d endured an adolescence just surviving the dangers of Nar Shaddaa and who’d spent nearly every day for the past four years training against the very best the Jedi Order had to offer. As far as she was concerned, she was no one’s “weaker target”.
Second, countless Sith – and far more Imperials – had already attempted this exact same tactic against the pair of Jedi. Thus far, it hadn’t worked out for any of them. Their ‘switches’ – where Corellan and Kira would suddenly change positions during a maneuver – had been the undoing of some of the deadliest Sith in the galaxy, most notably with Kira’s lightsaber spelling the end of Darth Angral on the Desolator and – much more recently – delivering the death blow to Darth Nox during the Empire’s assault on the Temple of Tython.
Third, the bond between Corellan and herself now far surpassed anything she imagined any two Sith – with their inherent distrust of each other – or any two Jedi – with their dogmatic dismissal of attachments – could ever experience. Kira and Corellan fought as one.
This Sith Lord didn’t have a chance.
As his frustration continued to build, Lord Kael let out another roar of rage.
“Schutta!” he cursed, calling upon the dark side as a massive radial Force blast knocked Kira and Corellan back.
Had she been on her own, Kira might – might – have been intimidated by the sheer power behind the blast. Krannus was proving to be even more powerful than Zu’fanda Pampya had been on Tython. More powerful than Darth Malgus had been at Ilum. Perhaps – in sheer power – he was second among the Sith only to Vitiate himself.
But fighting beside Corellan, with his innate combat senses and reassuring presence, she saw the blast it for what it was: a desperation move.
As she regained her balance, Kira found herself smirking in spite of the situation. The attack had been against both Jedi, but the expletive – with its feminine connotation – had unquestionably been directed against her. She’d gotten to him.
So when Lord Kael reached out his fingers and she felt the pressure of a Force choke squeezing her neck, Kira didn’t panic. Her own defensive barrier, having briefly flickered by the Force blast, reasserted itself, resisting the strength of the Sith’s attack. He was still restricting her breathing, but he couldn’t apply enough pressure to strangle her or to snap her neck. With time, perhaps, he could have rendered her unconscious.
But time was something Lord Kael Nosrol Krannus had just run out of.
Corellan Halcyon had risen to his feet.
As Kira glared into the Sith’s golden eyes, she could tell the moment they both sensed what was about to happen. Engaged this closely to Kael, she could feel him start to panic as he desperately used the Force to hurl her towards the oncoming Corellan, clinging to the hope that it would buy him a few more seconds to regroup.
And Kira… Kira simply placed herself in the hands of the Force. And in the hands of Corellan. Instinctively, she turned her body sideways in mid-air, watching in awe as a cerulean blue lightsaber passed above her by mere inches while sensing an identical blade passing below.
It took her mind a second to comprehend what had happened; as Kira’s body had been thrown towards him, Corellan had unleased both of his weapons in a twin-saber throw towards Krannus, one directed above her, the other beneath, no more than a meter apart.
It was an insane move.
Had Kira not turned her body at the precise instant she had, she’d have been sliced apart.
Before she could process that, however, she felt Corellan’s hand catching hers. Rather than pulling her into his arms, she instead felt his own body turning in place. Kira’s feet never touched the ground as her deep blue eyes caught his icy pale blues for a fraction of a second.
That fraction of a second was all Kira needed to understand exactly what Corellan was doing.
Had they been anyone else – any other two Jedi in the galaxy – this entire maneuver would have been insane. They’d have both been killed.
But they weren’t anyone else.
They were Kira Carsen and the Hero of Tython.
They were young. They were in love.
But above all else, they were heroes.
And today, with the eyes of the galaxy upon them, they would prove that claim beyond any doubt.
Spinning in place, Corellan effortlessly redirected Kira’s momentum, releasing her hand and hurling her back towards Krannus.
The Sith Lord had barely fended off the attack of Corellan’s sabers. Turning to see the Jedi Knight hurtling towards him through the air, her green, fluorescent double-bladed lightsaber ignited, even his Force-enhanced reflexes weren’t fast enough to block her attack.
In that instant, as the Emperor’s Wrath looked up at her in shock, Kira felt like a living weapon.
More, she felt like she was his weapon.
It was nothing like what she’d felt like when she been under the Emperor’s control. Back then, she’d felt like she was losing her own sense of identity. Like she was less than a slave.
Here, through her bond with her partner, she felt free.
Because someone like Kael Nosrol Krannus, who’d spent most of his life devotedly serving the worst tyrant the galaxy had ever seen in pursuit of his own personal power, would never understand that to someone like Kira Carsen, moments like this weren’t just worth dying for.
Moments like this were what she lived for.
Kira’s blow caught the inside of Lord Kael’s helmet as he screamed out in pain, dropping one of his lightsabers as he reached his hand up to grasp at the wound. She landed on the other side, turning to see that Corellan had regained his own lightsabers and was now standing alongside her.
Whatever Krannus’ helmet was made of must have been tough; he wouldn’t have survived this long if it wasn’t. But it didn’t protect his entire face.
As his blood spilled across the ground, Kira realized that she’d put out his right eye.
There had been a multitude parallels between Kael Nosrol Krannus and Corellan Halcyon over the years. But how they faced change and adversity were quite different.
Kael had once placed his total faith in Vitiate, the Sith Emperor, the being of ultimate power who had ruled the Empire for more than a millennium convinced that service to that monster was the truest path to power.
When he’d seen that faith shattered, he had thrown himself into the service of Revan, losing all sense of himself in his pursuit of revenge.
Corellan had once placed his total faith in the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic.
When he’d seen things that had challenged that faith, from the Jedi Order’s dogmatic apathy on Voss to the Republic prison on Belsavis to Chancellor Saresh’s “military reforms”, he’d learned from it. He’d grown up. Matured. Evolved. He’d accepted that he could look past the shortcomings of others and find the strength within himself to do the right thing. That our beliefs could evolve without sacrificing the principals that defined us.
Corellan had accepted that he could change without abandoning the things that made him Corellan.
Their choices had now led these two icons of their respective, warring factions to this point here on Yavin at this exact moment.
With his remaining good eye, Lord Kael now glared at Corellan with a burning hatred.
“They call you the Jedi assassin.” He spat blood on the ground between them.
Kira felt a flash of anger at the Sith’s verbal snipe. She wanted to shout back at him that Corellan was the blasted Hero of Tython, and that he had saved the whole blasted galaxy, and that Kael could take his insults and go kriff himself.
Instead, she felt nothing but a cool acceptance from Corellan, who maintained a defensive stance with his lightsabers drawn.
“I would imagine they do.” He acknowledged, a placid expression on his face. “I’ve killed many people in my time, Lord Kael. Sith. Imperials. Criminals. Even a few rogue Jedi here and back on Rakata who joined you in Revan’s service.”
Corellan exhaled.
“I admit, at one point, even I was afraid I was turning into something I wouldn’t recognize.”
Krannus stood stunned, breathing heavily, a trickle of blood trailing down his red cheek from his ruined eye socket. Lightsabers usually cauterized the wounds they caused; this was something else. His body wasn’t responding normally. And whatever response he’d expected from his barb at the Jedi, it hadn’t been a confession.
“But just recently, I met with… with an old friend.” Corellan continued.
Kira knew instinctively that he was speaking of their encounter with the Force-ghost of Orgus Din, his old master, on Rishi. Corellan may have called almost everyone he’d ever met a ‘friend’, but she knew the few who actually got to him.
After all, she knew his story.
She knew everything about him, inside and out.
“That friend helped remind me of who I am and why I do what I do.” The Hero of Tython continued. “That I do have a future, if I can just let go of my fear that it will never come.”
He smiled wistfully.
“The strangest thing happens when we let go of our fears, Lord Kael. We become… well, I believe we become more of ourselves.”
To Kira, that very sentiment said so much about Corellan. Some cynical thinkers – and maybe even Kira herself – would claim that people were defined by their fears. How much suffering had been caused by people fearing their fellow sentient beings? Or for a lack of resources? Or a hundred other fears that seemed to drive everyone’s motivation? Even Kira’s own story had only really begun when she’d fled Korriban in fear of what the Emperor was doing to her.
Right or wrong, Corellan was exactly the kind of person who would think that people could only become the best versions of themselves when they let go of their fears.    
That was one of the things she loved about him.
And he wasn’t finished.
“But that begs the question… with all the sacrifices you’ve made from just by donning that armor, what is it that you’re afraid of?”
Krannus’ good eye blinked once, and Kira found herself smirking as he snarled in anger at the barb. As Corellan raised his lightsabers, Kael’s hand lashed out with a massive blast of Force lightning towards the two Jedi…
 All along the front, the Coalition forces were emerging from their defensive positions, starting to advance. Slowly at first; the Revanites were fanatics and they made their enemies fight for every step. But the loss of their momentum and the carefully coordinated counterattacks ordered by Satele and Marr were having the desired effect: The allies were once again starting to gain ground.
In a few minutes, if Krannus were even still alive, he’d be encircled.
So when Lord Kael’s blast of Force lightning struck Corellan’s crossed sabers, Theron decided that this had to be the end.
As lightning met lightsabers, the seconds started to pass. Roaring again in frustration, Krannus’ added his left hand to the attack, discarding his lightsabers entirely as the holoprojection flickered at the sheer power being unleashed from both hands.
Any second now, Corellan would break the circuit. He would turn the lightning aside and take the fight back to the Sith, even if he couldn’t directly penetrate the armor. Or, perhaps, he’d have Kira lead off with a series of distracting blows, then move in himself for the kill.  
Once that happened, the leadership would order an all-out attack. The Revanites were already starting to buckle. Once Krannus was off the board, everything else would – Force-willing – fall into place.
He watched intently. Any second now…
Theron finally blinked, as the seconds kept ticking by and electrical charge against the sabers continued to build. Only now did he notice the awkward silence around the table.
“Uhm.”
 Kira remembered, some years ago, Corellan discovering that he had no real aptitude for the Tutaminis Force technique beyond the rudimentary level. This was not particularly remarkable; only a small percentage of Jedi – among them Grand Master Satele – were skilled enough in the art of energy absorption to harness the truly impressive effects, like absorbing Force lightning or deflecting a lightsaber blow with their bare hand.
(Kira had heard a rumor once back on Tython that some Jedi and Sith could even use the Force to freeze a discharged blaster bolt in mid-air for several minutes by using only their minds before releasing it with full effect on a target. She’d always assumed that story to have been a crock: no one could ever identify a single individual who’d performed the trick. If Kira herself had seen it, she wasn’t sure that even she would have believed it.)
Still, it was a bit of a surprise that Corellan hadn’t managed to at least become adequately skilled at it. Aside from his old friend Ulannium, he was probably familiar with more Force combat techniques than any other Jedi of their generation.
But learning this one particular feat had always alluded him.
Still, hours upon hours of training with Scourge and Kira were sure to pay dividends eventually. The grumpy old tomato had probably seen more combat between Force-users than anyone else living, aside from maybe the Emperor himself.
But when Corellan had discovered the capability of doing something even Scourge had never seen or heard of before, even the Sith Lord had been impressed. And on that fateful day more than a year ago when the three of them had attempted this move together in a secluded valley on Alderaan, the effects had been, well… shocking.
Despite nearly being electrocuted during the exercise, Scourge hadn’t even been mad. In fact, he was as close to pleased as Kira had ever seen him. Heck, the grumpy old tomato had almost smiled.
The very rage that was powering Kael’s lightning attack was also going to be his downfall. Even with that pool of anger to draw on, sustaining this continuous torrent of lightning would be physically and mentally exhausting. Further, it would blind him to the fact that the charge building against Corellan’s lightsabers was actually growing brighter.
Lightning was supposed to dissipate against lightsabers; Tutaminis or no, it wasn’t supposed to build up.
Through Kira’s Force bond with Corellan, she could feel the moment coming. The Hero of Tython was focusing all his attention on the power building within his crossed sabers. In a sense, it felt like a test of wills between the Jedi and the Sith.
Engaged as he was, there was no possible way that Corellan could redirect that power himself with any kind of precision.
Of course, if Corellan were properly attuned through a Force-bond to someone skillful enough… well.
When the instant arrived, Corellan didn’t need to say anything. He didn’t even need to project anything towards her.
Kira simply knew.
She thrust out her green lightsaber blade, crossing it with Corellan’s weapons at a precise angle that should have been impossible to calculate.
The resulting blast of Force power erupted from the built-up charge, and it launched itself towards Krannus, faster than any of them could process.
The Sith Lord screamed in pain, blasted by electricity of his own making.
It was part of what Scourge had taught them about orbalisks: They were vulnerable to concentrated electricity. They could resist an attacking Sith’s Force lightning adequately enough… but they could not resist the wielder’s own power.
Kira watched as Kael continued to scream, the orbalisks literally burning off his body as the Sith Lord struggled to break free, to no avail.
As the final surge struck him with all the power of a thunderbolt, the Emperor’s Wrath was knocked off his feet for the third and final time this day.
The lightning finally dissipated.
The Sith Lord lay there on the ground motionless.
It sounded to Kira as if nearly the entire battlefield had suddenly gone quiet. She could hear blaster fire somewhere in the distance, but it felt like the planet itself was holding its breath for whatever happened next.
Corellan lowered his lightsabers, deactivating them as he exhaled in exhaustion, barely able to stand.
And yet, the victorious Jedi Master was still standing.
Krannus wasn’t.
Tired though she was from her adrenaline high wearing off, Kira reached out to Corellan through the Force, offering him a gentle caress. His eyes closed for a moment in acceptance and soon, his breathing started to return to normal. She could feel him becoming rejuvenated and felt more than a little satisfaction that she could have this sort of impact on him without even touching him.
He didn’t even look back towards her. But then, he didn’t need to. She could feel his upswelling of appreciation and gratitude as if he had squeezed her hand.
Corellan finally stepped towards the fallen Kael Nosrol Krannus. Kira, acting on reflex, followed at his side, looking down at the beaten Sith.
The smell of cooked flesh was revolting as it reached her nostrils, and she could barely contain the nausea she felt. As they looked down at their fallen foe, Kira could almost imperceptibly observe the Sith’s chest rising and falling; his breaths were ragged and broken.
Krannus was dying. And he clearly knew it.
With his one good eye, the Emperor’s Wrath glared up at the Hero of Tython.
“Finish them, Jedi.” He snarled weakly. “Finish those who have deceived us.”
Kira understood immediately whom he meant, even as Corellan stood in place in stoic silence.
The Emperor.
And Revan.
The galaxy itself had been engulfed over an insane feud that dated back three centuries.
It had to end.
A final sigh escaped Kael’s lips as his head fell back, yellow eyes still open, looking skyward.
The Emperor’s Wrath was gone.
 Back at Coalition headquarters, Theron had been standing by to give the order the moment Lord Kael fell. Before Krannus had even taken his last breath, the Republic agent had already toggled the open channel on his communicator.
“All Coalition forces – this is command.” He announced. “The Revanites are broken. General attack. Again, all troops, general attack. It’s time to finish this.”
Theron fell back in his field chair as the icons started to advance in earnest across the holo-map. If there had been any fight left in the Order, any faith in their leader’s mad plans, it had been spent the moment Krannus had fallen: They were running.
No more strategic planning would be needed. Not for commanding the troops, anyway.
“Whew.” Theron exhaled in relief. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that trick before.”
He beamed, looking up at the others.
All three pairs of Force-sensitive eyes around the table were still locked silently on the projection of Halcyon, Carsen and the body of Krannus.
Lana’s mouth had fallen open in shock for a long moment before she’d quickly composed herself, swallowing before letting out a breath. Satele’s eyes were clearly focused on the projection of Corellan, as if silently scrutinizing him for something only she could see. If she’d appeared concerned for her order’s young champion before, she was definitely rattled, now. Theron had long reasoned that part of the famed ‘Jedi mystique’ involved keeping one’s mouth shut when you didn’t actually have anything to say. Grand master Satele Shan certainly personified that approach. Meanwhile, hidden behind his mask, Marr’s throat made a sound that Theron couldn’t even begin to describe, nor did he think any human mouth should have been able to make.  
Once again, it was Satele who seemed to regain her senses first.
“Deploy the medical teams to recover our wounded.” She ordered, reasserting herself, the very picture of decisive calm. “Alert the fleet in orbit to be on guard for fleeing transport ships. We cannot allow Revan or any of his followers to escape us again.”
Theron, blinking surprise at the reactions of the others, nodded in assent and relayed the instructions.
As the battle of Yavin came to an end, the SIS agent reflected on what he’d seen this day. Lana was certainly highly intelligent and knowledgeable concerning the Force, but it was their mutual superiors who’d captured his attention.
Satele and Marr were two of the most active and accomplished leaders of Jedi and Sith in history. They’d seen countless battles over the decades, fighting endless enemies. Between the two of them, they’d probably opened Force-knew how many holocrons or other ancient texts to expand their respective knowledge of the Force.
Neither of them had even recognized the orbalisk armor that Krannus had been wearing. And certainly neither of them had seen anything like the feat that Corellan Halcyon, at just twenty-seven years of age, had just performed with his former padawan.
Reflecting on that, Theron finally turned his attention back to the live feed of the duel that had just ended.
Halcyon and Carsen had turned their backs to the fallen Sith Lord and were now walking back in the direction of the Coalition lines even as their troops advanced the other way. Their part in the wider campaign was done.
As she followed a step behind and to the right of Corellan, he saw Kira turn and glance over at him, an expression in her eyes that he couldn’t quite interpret through the projection.
Theron was usually a loner by choice. It suited his personality. But just for a moment, he truly envied Corellan Halcyon for having a partner like Kira Carsen.
 Minutes later, now standing just outside of Coalition headquarters, Kira stood across from Corellan.
Right this moment, she wanted so badly to grab him and kiss him. She would have shoved him back against the nearest tree and…
But it wasn’t the place or the time. Even in this moment of relative privacy, there were too many Republic and Imperial officers close by. Anyone could have been watching them.
Meanwhile, Satele, Theron and the Sith were waiting for him.
Revan was still out there, preparing to do Force-knows what. Regardless of whether or not it was really him behind the mask, he needed to be dealt with.
And beyond Revan was the Emperor.
As always, there was never enough time for them. And until they gave it up, there never would be.
Still, in this moment, Corellan had let the mask drop for a bit. The cold front he’d put up for the Sith. For Marr, Beniko and even Krannus. The ‘Hero’ personae he’d put up for Satele, Theron and the Republic. She alone could see the vulnerable man beneath the invincible hero.  
That was enough for her. For now.
The development of Corellan’s “mask” meant she owed Scourge another ‘thank you’. As much as she loved Corellan, she’d been worried the Sith would exploit his blasted heroic nature for their own ends. So along the way, he’d learned to present the face of someone else for when he needed it; someone who could consistently throw his enemies off based on their expectations of what a Jedi even was. Between his Force camouflage and the public demeanor, they didn’t see him.
Kira had heard that Darth Marr claimed that the mask he wore was his face.
Right now, it felt like Corellan’s face was a mask.
On the flip side, he’d probably worried both of the Shans with how he’d been acting the last couple of days in front of the Sith and the Imperials. That would need addressing at some point, Kira knew.
But here, alone with her for this moment, he could allow himself to be vulnerable with her. More than that, he could be himself.
That moment couldn’t last, of course.
“You’ll tell him that its time?” he finally asked her.
I love you. Was what Kira heard.
“Yeah.” she nodded in agreement. “I’ll send ‘Big Red’ in.”
I love you, too. Kira had answered.
Without another word, she turned and left, feeling his gaze following behind her before he, too, took his leave.
 “How did he do that?” Darth Marr nearly growled beneath his mask.
The Coalition forces had turned the victory over the Revanites into a route. But no one could have discerned that based on Marr’s mood in their headquarters.
“How did he even know about orbalisks? They haven’t been seen in the Empire in centuries! I barely recall even reading about them from some forbidden text in my youth!”
“My lord, please.” Lana beseeched her new boss. She’d had the presence of mind to dismiss the support staff so they wouldn’t be around to witness any ‘potentially difficult’ discussions. “I can begin making discreet inquiries once this current situation is concluded.”
Theron didn’t have any explanation that could have placated Marr and decided to himself that a snarky remark would be ill-timed right now. So he and Satele were quietly continuing to coordinate the mop-up effort while Lana attempted to defuse the situation with the frustrated Dark Councilor.
Marr paused, turning to glare down at the younger Sith.
“Talented as you are, Beniko, I doubt even your guile could determine how a young Jedi learned of long-forgotten Sith techniques.” Marr’s voice had leveled, but he couldn’t quite keep the slight hiss from his tone as he addressed his subordinate. Indeed, it was so intimidating, he probably hadn’t even tried. Regardless of how he felt about her right now, Theron didn’t envy Lana having Marr’s attention in the slightest.
Fortunately, they were interrupted before things escalated any further.
“’There is no ignorance, there is knowledge’, Lord Marr.” Halcyon’s voice echoed in the clearing as he approached the table, as he quoted the opening line of the Jedi Code, the same doctrine that Sith Lords so famously rejected with contempt. Clearly, the Jedi Master had overheard the conversation.
Theron found himself surprised that Corellan didn’t sound remotely smug; just coy. Aside from his singed robes, there was little sign he’d just fought the battle of his life. Indeed, if anything, he looked reenergized.  
“You’ve returned.” Satele noted assessing him with a conciliatory nod. “Well done, Master Corellan.”
If she was still concerned with Corellan’s state, and Theron had to believe that she was, she was keeping it well-hidden in her voice behind a shield of formal compassion. Her veneer of calm was as unflappable as always.
Corellan turned to the famed leader of his order and bowed, crossing his arm across his chest in the Jedi salute.
“Master Satele.” He returned the formal greeting, bowing his head. “Thank you for approving the bombardment.” Corellan paused. “I regret there wasn’t time for me to sufficiently explain the plan earlier.”
Theron bit his lip, remembering their previous conversation.
“So we gathered.” The Grand Master assented. Their exchange was entirely civil, but Theron noted that it had not been entirely warm.
“Yes, let me second those congratulations, Master Jedi.” Lana stepped towards Corellan, giving him a surprisingly genuine smile. “It was a remarkable victory.”
She paused as if about to speak further, looking past Corellan towards the entrance.
“Will we be meeting your talented companion?”
Corellan returned her expression. Somehow, though, the smile he gave her didn’t quite reach his tired eyes.
“I’m afraid not, Lana.” He answered. “Knight Carsen was needed elsewhere. But thank you.”
Again, civil words. But delivered more formally than Theron would have expected from a man who was usually so open.
Corellan paused and looked around at the faces around the table.
“What’s our status?”
Theron, undistracted from the drama with Marr, had been ready for that line of inquiry.
“All units report success.” The SIS agent reported. “The weapon has been shut down and all the Revanites have been neutralized.”
He let that sink in, knowing what was coming next.
“Only one more left to deal with.”
Theron didn’t have to announce who that was. Lord Kael Nosrol Krannus had been all but invincible, but in the end, he’d just been a follower. There was no doubt in his mind that Revan had been the one who’d donned Krannus in the orbalisk armor in the first place. They’d be foolish to think their quarry didn’t have more surprises in store for his enemies, even with his army thoroughly beaten.
“Iven told us where Revan might go.” Satele reasoned. “The Emperor’s final sanctuary.”
A moment of silence fell across the table. Defeating the Order of Revan had been one thing. Defeating Revan himself – and possibly the Emperor, as well – was something else altogether.
Marr regarded Halcyon with what Theron could only assume was an appraising look beneath his metal mask. It felt like the Sith Lord was finally regarding the young Jedi Master with new eyes.
“You must realize, Master Halcyon, that if you embraced the dark side of the Force yourself, then no one in the galaxy would be able to stand in your way. Not even Revan.”
His voice felt like a viper slithering up Theron’s arm as he dangled the other, temptingly.
“You would be invincible.”
Satele’s eyes narrowed at the suggestion that her order’s champion could be corrupted in such a manner and even Lana looked downwards and shifted her feet uncomfortably. Theron found himself torn between the practical advantages of a dark-sided Corellan Halcyon and the fear he felt in contemplating the Jedi as a Sith Lord.
But Corellan Halcyon himself merely turned and regarded the towering Dark Councilor in turn. Marr stood at least five inches taller than the Jedi, but they might as well have been at eye level for all that mattered. The thinnest of smiles came to the Jedi’s lips.
“But then who would you find to stop me, Lord Marr?” he asked. “When I became too powerful to be contained and ruled your Empire for my own benefit?”
Theron watched as Marr’s powerful shoulders clenched at the barb. The reminder of what Vitiate, a veritable demigod ruling the Sith Empire for thirteen hundred years, had done was still fresh in everyone’s mind.
Before Marr could respond, the intelligence agent decided to change the subject.
“We could call in help.” Theron offered, eager to break the tension. “Havoc Squad could be here within a day. And Barsen’thor Kaarz reached out to ask if we needed his assistance, as well.”
He considered their other options, glancing towards Lana.
“We could even call in Xadya, the reigning Champion of the Great Hunt, if the Empire wanted to contract some Mandalorian help.”
There was a quiet pause around the table, then Corellan shook his head.
“Not enough time. Whatever Revan is planning with the Emperor, we don’t have a moment to waste.”
Theron just nodded in agreement. He was unsurprised when again no one attempted to contradict Corellan’s assessment of the situation. Glancing sideways at Satele, he could see the reluctant approval in her eyes as well. Her concerns for the young Jedi Master could wait.
“We’ve got speeders prepped.” he promised, turning back to Corellan. “Jakarro is insisting on joining us as well. You won’t be facing him alone.”
Corellan just nodded back to Theron gratefully.
“Then let’s finish this.”
Without another word, he turned and headed back towards the exit, his ruined robes flowing behind him like a hero from some holovid drama.
Theron watched him silently as the others began their preparations.
He wondered if Marr had been wrong in his estimation.
Corellan Halcyon was, by all outward appearances, already invincible.
 Deep within the Temple of Sacrifice, a man behind a metal mask scowled as he witnessed his final roll of the dice come up short.
He’d known that Kael had been a blunt instrument given the state of mind the Sith Lord had been in, all but useless the moment a more refined response was called for. Nevertheless, had played the hand the Force had dealt him.
Now his followers were routed or fleeing. Even his personal guards, the Infinites, had been lost in that last assault.
The Order of Revan was finished.
That was unfortunate, but the cult had served its purpose getting him to this point. He was strong enough to complete his great work on his own no matter what these interlopers threw at him.
They might have been powerful. They might even believe that they were invincible.
But he was Revan.
 TO BE CONTINUED
 Author’s Notes: Full disclosure, a small chunk of the dialogue late in this story is pulled directly from the Shadow of Revan expansion, just before you go to face Revan near the end.
I’ve had this story in my Work-In-Progress writing journal for many years. At one point, I started to actually write a draft of it, then set it aside when the scope of the work started to become clear. It’s by far the longest thing I’ve written. That was two years ago. The final product involved going through many, many drafts, and has been a burden for these last three months.
It was the hardest writing project I’ve ever finished since I started writing fanfiction.
I remember one day thinking to myself ‘The Jedi Knight crew spends all this time together. What do they wind up talking about? What are their common interests?’ So I decided they talk a lot about combat. Rusk is a tactical specialist. Kira is an adrenaline junkie. Scourge is basically an ancient ninja. Doc is a field medic. Teeseven loves lightsabers. Corellan is Corellan. I imagined the group spent a lot of time designing maneuvers the way coaches draw up plays in American football and basketball. For the record, I do remember that when I fleshed out this idea, I had Skillet’s “Invincible” playing in the background. This piece was also partially inspired by the action scenes in the classic Deceived and The Return trailers.
This piece was originally planned as a chapter in a five-part series, with each piece featuring a point-of-view alternating between one of the Jedi Knight companions and one of the prominent NPCs involved in the S.O.R. story. (Lana and Teeseven would have been “paired” together, for example, like Theron and Kira were here.) That project wasn’t coming along, so this story is now a two-parter in that duology, with this chapter being the first. I’m fascinated by the idea of a story being told from the points of view of different characters who have different perspectives on the same scene based on their own understanding and preconceived notions. I touch on that concept for this chapter and I’m thinking I intend to make it even more pronounced in the next.
Writing action scenes is … still challenging for me. But I’m working on it.
We never see them in the actual SWTOR game story, but I head-canon that orbalisks are not commonly used in the “modern” Sith Empire, with even the knowledge of their existence a secret suppressed by the Emperor. By the time of the Shadow of Revan expansion, even knowledgeable Sith like Marr have barely heard of them. (Obviously, certain select individuals – such as a three-hundred year-old Sith Lord – are obviously more familiar.) I was tickled by the head-canon that Marr kept forbidden Sith texts under his pillow as a child. I know that many of you are not fans of Drew Karpyshyn, but I enjoyed his Darth Bane Trilogy. Those of you who have also read it will no doubt be familiar with some of my inspirations for this chapter. I wanted to introduce a special element into this fight and giving orbalisks to Lord Kael seemed to make sense to me.
Speaking of which, Kael Nosrol Krannus is one of my oldest OCs, dating back to when he was simply known as “Nosrol”. (Which sounded too much like one of the orcs from Warcraft for my tastes.) The literal intent of the character was to take (almost) every single dark-side choice available in the Sith Warrior Class and Imperial stories since I so often play light side. Simply put, he’s my token ‘edge-lord’, as terrible a trope as that is. But he was also a hardline Vitiate fanatic, and as such he fit the role here: when you shatter a fanatic’s faith in something, they don’t usually become a better-rounded person with a fresh perspective. They just find something else to be fanatical about. That development is about as interesting as the character gets. Other quick notes on Kael: First, ‘Lord Kael and the Infinites’ sounds like a good name for an 80’s death-metal band. (No, that wasn’t intentional.) Second, the game-play rule that Sith Warriors can’t make Force lightning is dumb. Third, his line of dialogue at the end is a reference to the Obi-Wan / Maul scene from Star Wars: Rebels, one of my favorite moments from that series.
Fun fact, the first reference to Theron in the actual game story comes from Kira Carsen herself, during a post-class story letter. I head-canon that Kira, in contrast to the discreet Corellan, frequently teases Theron about Satele being his mother. (She eventually quits teasing him after she joins the Eternal Alliance, but that comes much later.) Aside from his encounter with Orgus, Corellan didn’t team with Kira for much of the Forged Alliances / Shadow of Revan storyline, primarily because he was concerned about Lana or Satele or possibly even Revan himself putting two and two together concerning their relationship. Obviously, that weighs on my favorite one true pairing. Other notes on Kira: First, @taraum is the reason I have Kira calling Scourge ‘the Big Tomato’ and so on. Years later, I continue to be inspired by her work. Second, I’ve head-cannoned for a while that Kira loves the color purple and would change her lightsaber color to it if it didn’t make the other Jedi look at her suspiciously. (Lookup the story “Apex” on ff.net for my inspiration on that.) Third, SWTOR gameplay is weird. Regardless of the settings, companions often wind up acting like tanks in the fights, drawing the attention of mobs. So I have certainly seen enemies trying to gang up on Kira while I’m playing as Corellan, and they usually pay the price. Fourth, Kira’s Tutaminis rumor was a light dig at the opening scene from The Force Awakens with Kylo Ren. All jokes aside, it wasn’t a terrible film, but I can only look back on it now as a waste of potential knowing what was to come.
Theron’s obliviousness to Kira’s relationship with Corellan is just good, clean fun for me.
Unintentionally, I feel I’ve laid the groundwork for the Eternal Alliance storyline and the choices Lana, Theron and other characters wind up making concerning Corellan Halcyon as the future Outlander and Alliance Commander. On its surface, there aren’t a terrible number of reasons why Lana Beniko would ‘draft’ an Outlander like Corellan, who is probably a bit too idealistic for her tastes. The Corellan she sees here has a ruthless streak in addition to being an inspiring figure. That is the version of Corellan she wants to lead the revolt against Zakuul. (This naturally leads to some misunderstandings later on after she frees him. “Lana Beniko disapproves” indeed!)
I’ve alluded before that in my Legacy, Corellan and his crew met with Theron well before the events in the Forged Alliances story on a couple of “unofficial” missions. That story is even deeper in my WIP folder than this one was and probably will not see the light of day.
The Twi’lek Jedi and human Sith Lord who died fighting Kael are named Pol’fenn and Fen Huang. They are obviously minor supporting players here, but they are featured original characters in my Barith Legacy, where (obviously) they don’t meet their end fighting my favorite evil edge-lord. I might write about that “alternate timeline” legacy some other time.
My characterization of Satele Shan feels very passive in this story and that may draw some deserved criticism. I intend to address that in the next chapter.
I don’t know if any of you caught it, but there was an homage to the classic Dark Phoenix Saga story from the X-Men comics. It was just a bit of narrative text that always stuck with me, and it fit Kira and Corellan.
Stay tuned for “Part Two” of this story, titled Allies and coming… someday. I probably need a break from this series for awhile, but I’ll get to it. Kira won’t really be there, but Scourge and Satele definitely will be.
Thank you, and may the Force be with you.
-          SWTORpadawan
Tagging interested parties: @a-master-procrastinator @abbee-normal @abysskeeper @actualanxiousswampwitch @ainyan @amons-hat-enthusiast @ancha-meadow @anchanted-one @atlanta--airport @beaut-ful-d-saster @blueburds-but-swtor @cassthechaoticmercenary @certified-anakinfucker @chaosandwonder @chokit-pyrus @cinlat @commander-krios @connoissuer-of-fine-vines @cryo-lily @darthsinister66 @depizan @dynlegacy @eorzeashan @freedim @girlstandstill @gmkelz11​ @grandninjamasterren @inventedbyawriter @itstheelvenjedi @jayofolympus @jbnonsensework @justadreaminghufflepuff @karanan @kemendin @kgoblin @khrushchevs-corn-farm @lemonlinelights @lonewolfel @magicallulu7 @boggedfrog @misthios00 @mysterious-cuchulainn-x @nostalgiaaftersimming @rangerslayer-97 @oolathurman @pentacass @princessthriller @rogue-kenobi @sealeneee @shabre-legacy @shadowysthings @shynmighty @space-unicorn-dot @starknstarwars @sullustangin @taina-eny @taraum @the-jedi-knight-enjoyer @the-raven-of-highever @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond @tishinada @velvetsunset @vexa-legacy @vihola​ @wackyart @what-we-fight-for @wilvarin-chan
76 notes · View notes
sullustangin · 2 months
Text
Fluffy February Day 10: Care
SWTOR
Pairing: Theron Shan X Eva Corolastor
Rating: T (for Tarty at the end)
Word count: 1660. (it got legs and ran off with me; I'll probably re-edit this later to include in a larger part of my fic series)
~~
After Action Report:
Submitted by EC, Captain of Virtue’s Thief, Supposed Commander of the Alliance, Fugitive of the Sisterhood of the Three Moons, Goddess of Grandolba VI, Grand Poomba of –
Koth struck that last one out, as well the other honorifics she included thereafter, which got more ridiculous as they went; even if they were true, she was just doing that to annoy Lana.  (He left the goddess thing, because that was just cool.)
Initial reconnaissance and contact communications unremarkable. The Star Fortress over Belsavis, former Republic secret prison planet, did not have any indications of irregularity prior to Mission 3401, parts A, B, C – contact, supply, then sabotage and destruction of defensive bunker in preparation for infiltration and subsequent destruction of local Star Fortress, as detailed in Mission 3401D.
However, it was soon discovered that the Eternal Empire had retained some of the additional defenses when it came to the planetary bunker.  Once the bunker was accessed, all non-Eternal Empire ships in the atmosphere were shot down.  Agent Shan and Pilot Vortena as well as their Alliance shuttle were already planetside, awaiting further contact with Captain Corolastor and Shan’s contact on plant, K’Krohl.
During the barrage, one of the spacecraft shot down from orbit crashed onto the bunker itself, while the Captain was still inside. 
Koth frowned at the description that ensued.  “Eva, this is …sorta boring.”
“The way you tell it, it gets increasingly dramatic, heroic, and superhuman,” she replied to him as she walked up the hallway toward the private room in medbay.
From what Eva had seen through the smoke and a panicking Whiphid flailing his arms next to her, Theron had crouched low and then rose with the debris across his shoulders, before raising it up over his head in in a fit of adrenaline, allowing Eva and K’krohl to escape to a waiting Koth.
Somehow, even with two torn biceps and every ligament, tendon, and muscle in his legs strained or sprained, Theron had made it back to the shuttle under his own power.
He hadn’t made it back off without assistance.  Now he thought he was going to be discharged to his own quarters.  Fat chance, Eva had told the doctor. 
Meanwhile, Koth had already launching into an expansive retelling for the benefit of the nurses and orderlies in the hallway.  “And then he just – rawr!”  Koth tried to approximate the noise Theron had made. 
Theron pretended to be deaf as a stone while he sat in his hospital bed impatiently, waiting for his discharge.  He had his datapad in his hands, on his lap (someone had positioned it specially so he could work and …not move anything vital).  He pointedly ignored Koth and any of “ooh”s and “ahh”s he generated from his audience. 
Theron…had never been a good or willing patient; the scars he chose instead of proper medical aftercare were well-known to her.  He wasn’t going to get away with it this time.  Especially not after the manner in which he’d gotten injured.
Eva finally caught his eye as she leaned against the doorframe.  “Hey.”
“Yoo-oo,” she replied with a wave.  “How are you feeling?” she asked, quietly. 
Theron’s eyes softened at her inquiry, but Koth cut in.  “How do you think he feels, lifting a starship –”
“It was a shuttle.  Just the front end,” Theron protested with an eyeroll, but nothing was going to deter Koth from his dramatic retelling to those gathered in the hallway. 
The doctor on duty came in and exchanged a look with Eva.  “Are you sure he’s going to be that uncooperative?”
“Absolutely.  He has a track record.”
That caused Theron’s expression to go from annoyed to more than slightly concerned at what his secret girlfriend had planned. 
The doctor checked Theron’s vitals and his present disposition.  “Blood pressure is a little high,” she commented. 
Theron shrugged.  “I’ll take a pill for it.   Not like I can switch careers right now.” 
“Yeah, we’re sort of locked in at the moment.” The Togruta swiped through Theron’s chart.  “All right.  No heavy lifting for two weeks, no ambulatory activity without assistance for one week.  Kolto helps a lot, and your job… isn’t supposed to be high impact, but let’s not fool ourselves here.”  The doctor made eye contact with Theron.  “If you can keep your hands off a datapad for three days, that would help.”    She pointedly glared at the tablet in his lap. 
Theron almost reached up to touch the implants on the left side of his head to port the information up, but Eva had been quick to lay hands on his bandaged upper arm – the very muscles that were being knit back together by kolto as they spoke.  “That’s a no go.”
Theron glared furiously at the bandages, but he said nothing other than “I understand,” in a calm tone. 
Eva knew he wasn’t mad at the doctor or her.  He was angry at his traitorous, painfully mortal body.  He usually was, whether these setbacks happened.  It’s why he got back to work as soon as possible; he thought it was his own failing when he couldn’t work.  That’s what he was planning to do right now.
Not this time. 
The doctor handed her datapad over to Eva.  “I commend him to your care.”
“What?” Theron asked, immediately.
Eva pocketed the datapad and motioned for Koth’s audience to come in and start patient transport procedures.  “Since you evidently can’t be trusted to obey doctor’s orders and not work, you’re gonna recover under my direct supervision on Virtue’s Thief.  I’m taking some personal days to make sure my ops manager is back on track.”
He stared at her.  “That’s highly inappropriate.  I should be discharged to my own quarters –”
“But you suck at following doctor’s orders,” Eva reminded him.  “And I’m not letting you add new scars to your collection.  So you’re going to be forced to take a break.” 
“There will be talk on base, and I don’t want – ”
“Theron, the only thing they’re gonna talk about is you not working for once.” 
By that point, Theron’s bed was already hovering out the door toward the docks, rather than to his personal quarters high up in the main building of the base, flanked by multiple medical personnel to make sure he didn’t try to make a break for it anyway.  Eva strolled along side, watching as his expression grew increasingly sullen as he realized his standard “recovery” wasn’t happening.
“And where are you going to sleep?” he asked, sharply. 
Eva smirked.  “I’ve only been captain for nine, ten years now.  I slept in crew quarters for the first sixteen.  I know which bunk creaks.”
“What if –”
“Theron, this whole thing was Lana’s stupid idea anyway.  If she can’t handle it herself for three days, then maybe she shouldn’t have cooked up a galactic revolution to overthrow the Eternal Empire in the first place,” Eva told him gaily. 
Everyone around them knew she was wheedling the strait-laced ops manager; it was a consistent part of their banter since he’d shown up on Odessen.  The Captain would flirt with that durasteel wall, and he’d keep things on track, much to the amusement of Lord Beniko.  He was impervious to her charms….or so they thought.
~~
Eva brought a tray in for supper – stirfry with Kodari rice.  She’d served it up for him on Yavin 4, ages ago. 
Theron was still grumpy, even as he looked with interest at supper.  “I’m an adult.  I don’t need a babysitter.”
“You need someone to take care of you, while you’re injured.”  Eva placed the tray on the nightstand on Theron’s side of the bed.  “And it’s the least I can do for you saving my life –”
“You… you would have found your own way out.  I just got impatient.”  His eyes dropped down toward his lap.  Jedi humility and SIS duty combined to make a neat cover for his feelings.
“Were you just impatient?” Eva asked, teasingly, as she unrolled the flatware from the napkin.  She shook it out with a jerk and tucked into the top of Theron’s shirt. 
“No,” he said quietly.  His hands, resting on his lap twitched.  They wanted to reach for her, but could not.  Should not.  Eva decided to delay dinner.
Carefully, she draped herself in his lap, so that those anxious hands found the way to her with minimal motion, and Theron finally was able to hold her close.  She’d held him on the shuttle, head in her lap, the pain obvious on his face, as Koth flew off like a man possessed…but in the rush to medical, he hadn’t been able to touch her.  Have evidence she was alive and unharmed. 
“I – I didn’t want you to die.  I couldn’t stand it.”  Theron drew in an uneasy breath, and his hands clutched at her, as her arms carefully hugged him around his neck.  “I love you.”
“And the fact that I love you is why you’re here.”  Eva drew back just far enough to look him in the eye.  “Or is this still too close?  Too vulnerable for you?”
There would always be a pause.  That’s just how he was.  But she always did crack open those defenses, slowly but inevitably, like her old omnitool.  Theron shook his head. 
She smiled. 
“Dinner then?” he asked, hopefully.
With a laugh, Eva hauled herself up and got to the business of feeding Theron his dinner; he couldn’t use his arms to do it himself.  “Are you actually going to go sleep in crew quarters?” he asked, halfway through.
Eva paused, fork halfway between them.  “If you want me to,” she replied, honestly.  “Might make it easier for your to sleep and get comfortable.”
He solemnly nodded, then his expression was all mischief.  “You know, not all of my muscles were injured –”
Her laughter cut off the end of his salacious come-on. 
Dessert that evening was very creative. 
12 notes · View notes
fancyfade · 5 months
Note
I got into DC recently and latched onto Talia like a baby duckling. Like even before I fully understood her as a character I was ready to fight for her honor, which is when ran into your blog on her tag.
The Talia brainrot has been really rotting my brain SO you got anything Talia related? Arcs you wish were explored. If you were put in charge of a Talia run what would it be? Outfits you saw, or made up, that you think she would rock? Do you know any other blogs that are normal (as in they know Talia's OG characterization) about Talia? HCs? Your bio says you like Star Wars, so what Star Wars character do you think she would be friends with? (I think she would be friends with Satine Kryze) Who do you think she would despise? Do you think she would be a Jedi? If so what era do you think she would thrive in? What's her favorite Shakespeare play? Do you think she would have a favorite quote from him? (I think it would be Beatrice's "I will eat his heart in the marketplace" from Much Ado. Beatrice's relationship with Hero is so personal to me and I definitely think that's the type of cousin/ older sister Talia would be). Something DC brought up once about Talia, but you think it should be explored more (WHO IS AMALA DC??? WHAT IS HER FRIENDSHIP WITH TALIA TELL ME MORE).
Oh most importantly: How do you deal with comics that completely screw her up? I'm reading Tomasi's Batman and Robin and GOD I barely get through the beginning of Vol 2, and I know there are comics that do worse with her. So I know I can't just drop comics that do a nasty job with her because then I should just quit Batfam comics in general and try some other fam and I have NO idea where to start with that and ugh.
Just anything about Talia.
Also, I know I typed a lot and if you don't want to answer some of them that is 100% fine! Or if you want to answer them in parts across different posts. I just need more with her.
hmmm so talia arcs i would like to see
well probably b/c i am just re-reading lexcorp, but i would like a more satisfying end to president lex stuff and lexcorp talia. I feel like he just kind of grabs the idiot ball, unless I am remembering the end to this saga wrong. like IIRC it was due to him being stupid in batman/superman and not any of the people trying to take him down... which is SUCH a shame b/c a story of talia teaming up with the superman characters and helping them take down lex could be so interesting. like. we saw talia feed calvin carson info to get him to go to the press about lex. we saw clark go undercover* to try to find some dirt on lex after lex covered up his crimes. lois got a lot of dirt on lex he conveniently made disappear about his involvement in OWAW . i want to see this all come together in a satisfying way!!
for star wars, I think Satele Shan (from SWTOR era) interacting with Talia could be very cool! both in I just think both characters are neat, but also for some interesting mother son parallelisms and contrasts. Talia initially wants Damian but then realizes she has to give him up to avoid him being raised in the league and to protect him from his parents possibly dying on him, Satele I don't think we see a ton of reason why she gives up Theron, but in general I viewed her as a character who did not want to be a mother, and she knew that she couldn't be theron's mother while still fulfilling all her obligations to the Jedi and fighting the sith, and that's OK (Fandom hates this). I think seeing them interact and team up to stop a bigger threat could be cool.
Also would be cool: To see Talia interacting with Imperial Agent's crew (again SWTOR :P). Talia in her lexcorp era often feels very much like she'd fit in with the vibes they are going for in that story, which is that no one really trusts anyone completely, or in many cases at all. A lot of her time in Lexcorp she has no allies and has to play all her cards very close to her chest as she's dealing w/ very dangerous people. especially if you go with defector-imperial agent (who defects in chapter 2 to... that guy who's name i forget since it's been a very long time since I played swtor IA. ardun?). B/c my understanding of defector IA (I've never played it b/c Aereinys is too mad to consider it, even tho she also hates the empire at that point) would, being a double agent appearing to work for the empire and having to pull off missions successfully for them to stay useful, routinely work against people who otherwise would be on her side, while working for people she finds morally repugnant.
For Jedi stuff I think Talia would want to be one of those chill nerdy Jedi who meditate and study. But if we go with her in canon plotlines a Jedi Shadow would work well :P
I don't read much shakespeare so I can't say much for what her favorite Shakespeare play would be. if we're going w/ Talia + literature appreciation, I can see her liking Hombre Pequeñito (link) which is admittedly a short poem and not a play but :P
For dealing with comics that completely screw her up: I honestly just write my own headcanon stuff and that's my canon now. It is helped a little by the fact that new 52 created a big break in my mental continuity, b/c they messed up so many characters I care about (Babs, Cass, Jaime), so all of DC from 2011 til now is very much "I do what I want". So there is stuff to re-write but less stuff.
I got my own fanfic (link) for how pre-Morrison Talia can meet Damian, and that's what I hang my mental canons on for them.
I do know that people who are reading Ram V's TEC run say it's got pretty good Talia, I haven't read it yet but hopefully they're getting her back on the right track.
for other blogs that are good about talia u might find some in my talia al ghul tag (link)... there are a lot of good blogs tho. @brucetalias, @immortaldino, @fluffykitty149, and @arellas are often who I think of for the Talia fans!
*for like 1 issue ;_;
7 notes · View notes
imperial-topaz2003 · 10 months
Text
World Building Wednesday: Artek Sefyr
Tumblr media
B A S I C S
• Full name: Artek Orrin Sefyr
• Gender: Male
• Sexuality: Demisexual Panromantic
• Pronouns: He / Him
O T H E R S 
• Family: 
- Father - Orrin Sefyr, ex-Chandrila Defense Force officer, former Senator of Chandrila, currently living in retirement
- Mother - Darya Kadir, Renegade Zakuulan Knight, 'Foreign Merchant', currently MIA
- Husband - Theron Shan, former SIS Operative, Eternal Alliance Spymaster
• Birthplace: Chandrila, Hanna City
• Job: Jedi Master, Hero of Tython, Battlemaster of the Jedi Order (former), Commander of the Eternal Alliance (current)
• Phobias: None (unless there’s one for the Emperor. Valkorphobia?)
• Guilty pleasures: 
M O R A L S 
• Morality alignment?: Neutral Good
• Sins: lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath
• Virtues: chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice
T H I S - O R - T H A T 
• Introverted/extrovert. Artek is not exactly a social butterfly, but generally keeps a casual, friendly, and affable exterior. He likes chatting up and getting to know people, maybe kick back a few drinks with them.
• Organized/disorganized. He's not a complete mess, but his organization skills are pretty lackluster. He definitely relied on T7 to help keep him organized, and later Lana when it came to the Eternal Alliance.
• Close-minded/open-minded. There is a few things he's not gonna change his mind about, but generally, he'll maintain a tolerant and accepting stance.
• Calm/anxious. Depends on his mood and/or the scenario he's facing. Sometimes he's collected and focused, other times, he's quick to anger or paranoia.
• Disagreeable/agreeable. Again, a few strong opinions he's stubborn about, but generally, he's gonna remain open-minded and affable.
• Cautious/reckless. Yeah, he's not as much of a short fuse as he used to be during his padawan days, but even as a Jedi Master, he can be fairly bull-headed or shortsighted.
• Patient/impatient. Again, not as bad, but still noticeably can't keep still for more than five seconds
• Outspoken/reserved. If he has a strong opinion about something, you can bet your ass he's gonna make sure the whole room knows.
• Leader/follower. Once again, scenario dependent, but generally, he does tend to be at the front, leading the charge. However, if the situation needs for him to follow, he's more than willing to buckle down and do so.
• Empathetic/unempathetic. He definitely cares for other people and tries his absolute best to comfort them in times of distress. He's a good person to vent to and a shoulder to cry on, should you need either.
• Optimistic/pessimistic. Sure, he's willing to admit shit sucks at times, but he'd rather do something about it than sit around moping.
• Traditional/modern. Yeah, he respects traditions (namely that of the Jedi or Zakuul), but he is not going to let him impede progress.
• Hard-working/lazy. Generally tries to balance himself in this regard. Artek works hard enough to not be lazy, but he knows when he needs to take some time off for himself. He also has to pull Theron away from his work at times.
R E L A T I O N S H I P S 
• otp: Artek/Theron. Yeah, these two dorks are absolutely in love with eachother. Both of them are dedicated and loyal to their causes, yet they're willing to bend the rules every now and then. It's why they got married.
• ot3: Artek/Theron/Kira. No, it's not official, but Artek did briefly romance Kira in the past, who did joke about all three of them getting together. While he did kinda consider the prospect, he decided to leave the three of them being friends.
• brotp: Artek, Kira, Scourge, and T7. Out of all his friends, Artek has the strongest platonic bond with those three, and would trust them with his life.
• notp: Artek/Valkorion and Artek/Doc. Those were the worse ones I could think up. Might indulge in them in a joking way, but otherwise, I don't wanna think about either
Thought this would be a good way to introduce my newly reconstructed legacy. I'll get working on the other characters soon enough.
No pressure tags - @jbnonsensework @swtorpadawan @dream-of-tanalorr (davidoodles), @magicallulu7
11 notes · View notes
ainyan · 1 year
Note
10. Go tell your partner you love them. Now. Go on. (for Kali/Thancred, and Nikali/Theron/Saganu c:)
Kal'istae bounces to her feet and Thancred comes to his, already grinning in anticipation. The tiny Au Ra launches herself at the gunbreaker, swarming up him and wrapping her arms about his neck and her legs about his waist. He firmly secures her in his embrace and cants his head down to smirk at her. Peering up, she wrinkles her nose, then gives him a big, smacking kiss. "I love you, Thancred Waters," she sighs, and he echoes her, bending his head to rest his forehead against hers. "Damn you, but I do love you."
Miurani'kal'istae eyes the pair, then turns to her own. Theron eyes her back, standing hipshot with a cocky grin and his hands on his hips. "Well?" he wheedles, and she sniffs at him, then turns to the taller Chiss standing slightly behind him. Stepping past her husband, she reaches up to wrap her hand behind Saganu's neck and draw him down for a kiss. He seems caught between pleasure and apology as he bends down.
"I love you," she tells Saganu, smirking at Theron's huffing laugh and kissing the Aristocra once more before finally releasing him. He prudently steps out of reach of the human as his consort finally turns to face her husband. "And you," she says severely, then gives a squeak as Theron's arm snakes out and catches her about the waist, drawing her against him. "Would serve you right if I didn't."
"But you do," he drawls, bending down to catch her mouth in a heated kiss that has even Saganu clearing his throat and looking away after several minutes.
"Yes," Miurani'kal'istae sighs, shaking her head, before wrapping her arms around him and laying her head against his shoulder. "Yes, Theron Shan, I do love you, for my sins."
Theron smirks and presses his lips against her hair. "Of course you do," he murmurs. "And I love you too."
She sighs, but her smile is pleased.
Original Ask Meme
Thank you for the ask!
10 notes · View notes
anchanted-one · 1 year
Note
For the Character Development questions:
4. Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know?
Answering for Vajra Devarath, Jedi Knight. The poor, tortured boy.
In the first corner, we have the slaughter of his tribe by one Darth Bellicose, professional mass murderer of innocents. It was what led to his discovery by Masters Oteg and WenSuul. Due to... certain questionable healing methods by Oteg, it did not haunt him, but it did put him on the path to becoming a Jedi. He was five.
For the second event, we have that time he arrived on his second home, Uphrades, only to see it be destroyed by Angral. He Sensed all his friends and acquaintances in their last, horrible moments. It took him firmly off the pure Light path enough that he was willing to break Angral's psyche with the Force, something he instantly regretted. He was haunted by the ghosts for a long, long time. He fled the Temple, seeking a life of exile. Running away didn't work at all, and within a few months it all became too much for him. He survived his suicide attempt only because Cipher Nine--who saw a parallel of her own final struggle against Jadus--felt sorry for him. Her action saved his life and allowed Jasme Shan (Theron's twin sister) to get him the help he needed, but he fought severe depression for the next decade. It wasn't until Rishi that he finally came to terms with everything that had happened (the time he spent enslaved by the Emperor didn't help). He was sixteen when Uphrades was destroyed. Kira, Jasme, C-9 and the Council know what happened.
What changed? To all outward appearances, he didn't. Inwardly, he started to lose faith in the Jedi teachings. The first thing to go was the belief that the Light/goodness brings victory. He became much more of a realist. He began fighting a lot more ruthlessly, dealing with Sith and Imperial soldiers like they were faceless statues, though he did struggle on worlds like Balmorra, where Balmorrans began fighting for the Empire. Long term, he began to question the Jedi doctrine of not interfering with politics. When Kira talked about running for office, he took her seriously, wondering if there was anything he could do to gain political power in order to stop the war. Instead, he received absolute power rather unexpectedly, having won the Eternal Throne from a resurgent Valkorion. Acina submitted to his rule without complaint, so the Republic did too. Most of the galaxy had favorable view of him, and he used that to his advantage. Which totally is the red flag it sounds like.
For the most part, his reign brought peace and stability to the galaxy after nearly fifty years of war, but he wouldn't have hesitated to crush anyone who challenged his rule, at least without a good reason. By the time he passes on his title to his (and Lana's) apprentice, the Galaxy is in a much better place, but few realize just how close they were to a dystopia.
(I envisioned Vajra, and Arro before him, to be this character who walks on the dangerous and blurry line separating responsible use of power from corruption)
Thanks for the ask, @elveny !
6 notes · View notes
sunderedazem · 1 year
Text
Worldbuilding Wednesday! (on a Saturday!)
Tumblr media Tumblr media
B A S I C S
• Full name: Corrain Gealai
• Gender: Male (transgender)
• Sexuality: Bisexual, Polyamorous 
• Pronouns: He / Him
O T H E R S 
• Family:  - Father - Valkorion/Vitiate/Tenebrae, former Emperor of both the Sith and Zakuulan Empire, Celestial pawn, eventually deceased. - Mother - Iomlan Greine, Zakuulan Scion turned Imperial Ensign (Medic) turned Zakuulan Scion again, living alongside her son and his family on Odessen and Zakuul. - Half-brother - Prince Arcann Tirall, former Emperor of Zakuul, Executive Advisor to the Zakuulan Upper Cabinet and Zakuulan Liaison to the Eternal Alliance. - Half-brother - Prince Thexan Tirall, deceased. - Half-sister - Princess Vaylin Tirall, former Empress of Zakuul, Captain of the Zakuulan Kingsguard. - Spouse(s) - Theron Shan and Lana Beniko, Duke/Duchess of Izax's Spire (by marriage), Intelligence and Operations Advisors to the Eternal Alliance Commander. - Daughter - Crown Princess Imeacht Gealai, Jedi Initiate and Scion trainee (She's five-ish years old in the epilogue)
• Birthplace: Alderaan, Jedi Enclave - Glarus Valley
• Job: Jedi Master, Jedi Battlemaster (former), Eternal Alliance Commander (current), Emperor of the Zakuulan Principate (current), Jedi Council Advisor (informal, current)
• Phobias: Blood/Medicine, needles, literally ANY medical procedure
• Guilty pleasures: SWEETS (he bakes), actually intimidating people
M O R A L S 
• Morality alignment: Neutral Good, with a brief, painful spell of True Neutral
• Sins: lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath
• Virtues: chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice
T H I S - O R - T H A T 
• Introverted/extrovert: He's a classic "ambivert" to be honest - he's not really one or the other, and even as a younger, more nervous Jedi Padawan and Jedi Knight he's always vacillated between loving people and then needing downtime to recharge. He's right in the middle.
• Organized/disorganized: He's...a little scatterbrained, sometimes. Stress and anxiety make it difficult for him to not actively be trying to solve 800 problems at once and that means he has piles of random things cluttered around his room on the Odessen base. T7 tends to help him sort things out every so often.
• Close-minded/open-minded: It's really hard for him to not be open-minded, given his history as a Jedi and then capture and torment on Vitiate's whim. He's far more understanding of people who are forced into making horrific choices due to his time as Lord Lune.
• Calm/anxious: He's never NOT worrying about something or another. There's so much pent-up nervous energy in this man. And it's even worse when there's actively a problem. Like the Sith Empire. Or the Zakuulan Empire. Or the Celestial invasion force- yeah anyway
• Disagreeable/agreeable: He's relatively easy to get along with, and is straightforward enough to leave a social situation he's unhappy with - the only person he make a point of Being A Jerk To on occasion is Lord Scourge.
• Cautious/reckless: Cautious mostly, because he values life above anything else, but when it comes to his OWN life he's incredibly reckless.
• Patient/impatient: This man CANNOT sit still ever and he will do it HIMSELF if he has to wait even five more seconds.
• Outspoken/reserved: He can and WILL publicly shame the entirety of the Senate for being uncharitable greedy assholes and he will also do it with fiery language that smears them. This man will NOT shut up if he sees something he has an Opinion about.
• Leader/follower: He's comfortable following the direction of people he trusts, but he has an authority complex and balks at being told what to do for the most part
• Empathetic/unempathetic: Empathetic to the point of reckless stupidity, sometimes.
• Optimistic/pessimistic: He'd say "realistic." Lana and Theron would say "rose-colored glasses?" - he believes in sentient life being fundamentally capable of cooperation and refuses to see it differently.
• Traditional/modern: He respects old traditions and actively studies them to become a proper Scion of Zakuul, but he refuses to put tradition before progress and the improvement of the galaxy.
• Hard-working/lazy: he's married to Theron and Lana. these three are AWFUL at vacations.
R E L A T I O N S H I P S 
• otp: N/A he's poly and wants two people
• ot3: Lana/Theron/Corrain. They're both very sweet on him and he's very sweet on them. Here's my take on their relationship.
• brotp: Kira & Corrain! the most UnOrthodox Master-Padawan duo ever
• notp: Corrain/Doc, Corrain/Kira - just not my taste, you know.
8 notes · View notes
jupitcrising · 10 months
Note
What’s the lie your character says most often? // What’s a simple daily activity / motion that they mess up often? -- for Theron c:
i'm going to go to bed i said. gonna turn off my laptop and go tuck myself in because i'm a sleepy old man (in my 20s) that goes to bed at 11pm and wakes up at 6am i said. unfortunately for myself and everyone else i am mentally incapable of being normal about theron shan literally ever.
What’s the lie your character says most often?
It is extremely cliche but it's so true: "I'm fine." Theron has to be independent. He has to do everything on his own. He has to be entirely self-sufficient because things go wrong when he relies on others - he's the best guy for the job, he knows what to do, his superiors are out of touch and don't understand the situation the way he does, etc. This changes a lot with time but as a young man he's pretty stubborn and so dedicated to playing the part of the lone wolf that it's comedic at times.
On the emotional side of things, it takes him far longer to open up. Taking other people's opinions? He can do that. Talking about his feelings at all? He'd rather be captured and spend a month in an Imperial torture chamber. It's just so much easier to handle things on his own.
(Except it isn't. It sucks, and he doesn't realize just how bad he wants companionship until it's offered.)
What’s a simple daily activity / motion that they mess up often?
Theron is a creature of habit - if it's something he's doing every single day, he's probably not fucking it up. Rather, I think where he screws up is actually dropping things from his routine on accident - ADHD brain means if he forgets to do a part of his routine one or two times in a row, he just starts to... not do it at all.
He used to meditate every morning, and all it took was a couple days in a row of him waking up too late to have time for it in his schedule for him to drop the habit entirely. He still meditates from time to time, but it doesn't ground him like it used to - his thoughts just spin in circles, over and over, like a dog chasing its tail.
4 notes · View notes
kemendin · 1 year
Note
hello! 7, 8, 10 and 14 for the SWTOR player asks, please :)
7. Which player voice actor is your favorite and your least favorite?
I haven’t played through all of them yet, so of the ones I’ve experienced - male Jedi Knight is probably my fave, I feel like he hits more emotional ups and downs than a lot of the others (and he’s pretty close to what Caspian should actually sound like, so I’m biased.) That said, I adore the accent of the male Sith Warrior as well. Not a fan of the male Sith Inquisitor.
8. Name your top favorite companions (feel free to include reasons why).
S C O U R G E: I could go on for pages about this man and I could listen to his voice for hours. He’s just so layered and complex and he’s seen so much. I love how he’s both unflinchingly ruthless and incredibly open-minded. He makes you THINK and QUESTION and at the same time, he admits at multiple points that he is learning from the Knight as well. And he does NOT get enough credit for his sass and deadpan sense of humour. Theron Shan: He’s witty, he’s reckless, he’s running on five cups of caf at any given point, and he cares so much more than he wants you to know. And despite his casual attitude, he is REALLY good at his job. I think that gets undersold sometimes. Malavai Quinn: Yeah I still don’t know how this one happened. I blame Khel and seeing everything through his lens. Quinn is incredibly intelligent and there’s a lot going on behind his veneer of stiff and proper Imperial officer - he has passions, and he can be quite vicious, but I also like how he consistently disapproves of senseless cruelty.
Honourable mentions to Kira, Lana, Vector, and T7.
10. Favorite love interest?
IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION
Okay but seriously - Scourge. So much Scourge. Cannot even begin to explain the depth and complexity of my feelings about him and Caspian. (I’ll try)
So this is very much coloured by MY PERSONAL INTERPRETATION of their relationship as it progresses, because you can only romance Scourge so late in the game (and as an aside, I am totally happy with that timing. It works for the story, that wait was agonising but absolutely worth it.) Allow me to drop a blurb from my lengthy WIP:
“Are you serious?” Another small, surprised laugh bubbled from Kira’s lips. “Scourge - the Force gave you a vision of this guy centuries before he even existed. You dedicated nearly your entire life to serving your enemy, living under his control, all in the belief that one day, this unknown Jedi in your vision would appear, and you’d join forces with him to bring down the greatest threat the galaxy’s ever known. And that’s exactly what you’ve done. Say what you want, but by anyone else’s standard that sounds pretty damn romantic. If it had been me, I think I’d have fallen for you too.”
Scourge blinked. “You make it sound far more shallow than it is,” he muttered, feeling another swell of heat that rose to stain his face.
“No, it’s not shallow at all. That’s my point.” Kira was watching him earnestly now, not even commenting on his flushed features. “You two were literally brought together by the will of the Force. I mean, a Jedi and a Sith, practically icons of their respective sides, hugely different people with wildly opposing values - you two couldn’t go half a day without an argument, when you first joined up, remember? But you still found a way to put all that aside and become something different altogether. Something more.”
This dichotomy is what’s so compelling to me about Cas/Scourge. There’s the whole ‘enemies to allies to lovers’ thing of course, but even deeper than that, their story is about how they’ve taken the will of the Force, the destiny the Force has crafted for them in joining together to defeat the Emperor, and they’ve made it their own. At the end of the day, they’re not doing this because the Force willed it - they are CHOOSING to be together, CHOOSING to find their common ground and learn and grow together, and that’s more powerful than any destiny.
14. Favorite planet story arc?
I’ll be honest, I’m terrible at remembering the planet stories as opposed to the class stories that take place on them. But on instinct I’ll go with Belsavis. I love the progression of going deeper and deeper into the dangers of the prison and its vaults, exploring not only what the Republic imprisoned here, but what the Rakata left behind. And on a similar Rakata note, Tatooine is great, the slow uncovering of the mystery of what Czerka found beneath the sands is always compelling when I go through it.
8 notes · View notes
darth-bagel · 1 year
Note
3, 4, 8, 10, 19? swtor ask c: you can skip if there's accidentally any repeat q's!
hi hello! thanks for shooting me an ask on this ✨
3. Do you prefer to tank, DPS, or heal?
I like tanking a lot, dps is pretty ok, never healed yet, I did try some of the disciplines on that just to have a feel for it, but never healed more than my companion. But then I mostly just play solo, even harder content if it's still doable. But I either tank-immovable object it or sneak dps with a good healing companion nowadays XD
4. What is your favorite player combat ability?
I already did that one, I'm sure it's a bit lower in my blog :3
8. Name your top favorite companions.
I'm so bad at picking favorites-- but practically the entirety of SI crew, love those guys, especially Nikky. Big fan of Vetter and Quinn, Torian, Vector, Kaliyo-- I like Lana and Theron a lot-- as much as Sylvas is not a fan of Theron, I still am pfjskdfjsdf. Lord Scourge is really fun, Kira, T7, Qyzen, Zenith, Aric, Risha, Bowdaar. I tentatively still enjoy Corso on occasion (mostly because Sylvas just makes everyone confused about their own sexuality so everyone is gay for them.)... honestly it's easier to pick who I don't like nowadays XD This is not coherent in the slightest, I'm sorry.
10. Favorite love interest?
ALL OF THEM. I am joking, but considering I do not care who is romanceable and who is not when I plan things... that's accurate. I don't really like Doc and Cedrax, Corso was fun when I was younger but now he's driving me mad on ladies tho (I will have my fun with him on Sylvas tho owo), and I still didn't see a lot of romances on the side of guys (and probably for the best since the padawan/apprentice with their master isssss a thing in this game)-- but for real, Nikky is great, I also like Quinn's romance (could have been bi tho, fite me Bioware, everyone could have more options on that front), Vette is fckn adorable in hers if you take a specific route-- Vector is so sweet. I love Lana's romance so much too. Also the 15 year old in me could not have been happier when Zenith and Scourge became an option later in game, because those are the ones I was sighing fondly after when I made my Jedi ladies back in the day XD
--So practically all of them. ALSO Hunter. And Cytharat. give us Cytharat back pls
Oh, wait. Love Interests-- @swtorcompanionsgoofin Skaia and @tearlessrain Kalarros and Khatte owo
19. Where can other players most commonly find you in game?
Um, I am mostly setting up camp on Star Forge be it on my main Nox'y (SW, Juggernaut) or on one of the many Sylvas-ish alts (so be it Sylvas/Revas/Tivan'n or Silavth. I have 41 one characters there. It's a lot)-- kinda just doing conquest or grinding Red Reaper or whatever random thing seizes my brain. (Am also on Malgus-- mostly Sylvas or Liz, and on Satele Shan and Tulak Hord just doing the Seasons.) I am nearly everywhere owo
--good god i went on a ramble spree, but thanks again for asking, *this is fun as hell* 🥰
3 notes · View notes
greyias · 1 year
Note
Constellations from the One Word Prompts :D
 If someone's only exposure to the life of a spy came from action-packed, high-octane holodramas, they might have a mistaken impression that it is a life filled with glamour and intrigue, with dangerous liaisons with seductive individuals from the farthest constellations of the galaxy.
These people would be wrong.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Theron grabbed the Wookiee’s hairy foot just before she could clamber into the air vent that he’d been eyeing as part an elaborate fantasy to escape his current hell. “And for the last time, Vrack, you’re not supposed to climb the walls.”
She let out an indignant series of growls in Shyriiwook, but he didn’t care. If he couldn’t leave, the Force be damned if anyone else was. 
He was Theron Shan, intergalactic super spy, founding member of the Alliance, savior of the Republic many times over. And now he’d been reduced to this: incompetent babysitter of what had to be the rowdiest and most ill-behaved group of school children in the entire universe. 
Oh, according to the paperwork, Class 5A-B7 were all star students from Coruscant’s most prestigious primary school who had performed so well on their exams that they’d won a class trip to tour the Gav Daragon, personally helmed by their personal hero, the beautiful, brave, famous Commander of the Eternal Alliance as part of a PR event the Republic was putting on to gin up morale as the war with the Sith Empire ground on. Unfortunately for everyone involved, she had been called away on an urgent mission for the Republic just as the class had been boarding the shuttle for the Gav Daragon. Somehow, in the chaos of the crying children, Theron had been nominated to take her place.
And now chaos reigned.
Theron blamed Jonas Balkar. He didn’t know how exactly, but he was certain his former partner and now the Alliance’s frequent liaison had somehow pulled some nebulous strings to put him in this position.
The teacher, a kindly old Ithorian teacher, had peeled off to take the little Twi’lek boy with a bladder the size of a koja nut to the bathroom. It had to have been the fifth time the kid had to pee, and would have been concerning if Theron didn’t have his hands full trying to keep the remaining dozen children from killing themselves the moment their teacher’s back was turned.
It had started with Klee Khze, the nine-year-old Rodian girl who had apparently stolen a stealth field belt from one of her parents and smuggled it in. She was now using it to pop in and out of sight, sneaking up on her classmates and destealthing in right in their faces in order to make them shriek at the top of their lungs. She would make an excellent SIS agent one day.
At least she was staying with the class. Theron had somehow lost sight of the little Pantoran kid, Dva Shek, and had been trying to not panic as he peeked around the museum’s large exhibits to find where he’d wandered off to, when out of the corner of his eye, the tiny Zabrak child had inconceivably clambered up onto the platform in the center of the room that was three times his tiny size, and was climbing into the cockpit of a shuttle that had been parked on display.
“What are you—” Theron was forced to abandon his hold on Vrack as he raced across the room. “Kerrah, get down from there!”
Like the rest of the pack of brats, Kerrah paid him no heed, and had clambered into the cockpit, her tiny hands nimbly dancing across the controls. Time seemed to move almost in slow motion as the once best operative in the SIS, and now the galaxy’s worst babysitter, leapt high just as the engines from the old shuttle hummed to life and started to slowly rise from the platform. 
Theron heard a different child let out an undignified squeal of fright as he awkwardly half-landed on the still lowered boarding ramp chest-first. Air whooshed out of his lungs as his fingers wrapped around the edge of the boarding ramp and painfully pulled himself the rest of the way onboard. Behind him, another child, it could have been Klee, let out a whoop of delight.
There was no time for him to either catch his breath, nor find any small solace that at least now the children were finding him interesting enough to actually cheer for, as he scrambled to his feet and lurched towards the cockpit. He staggered as the plating beneath his feet shuddered and managed to get into the cockpit just as another panel lit up brightly.
“Kerrah, no!”
The Zabrak shot him a toothy grin, finger hovering over a red button. “Kerrah, yes!”
He tried, he really did, but she was too fast for him, and before he could snatch her hand away from it, she was able to let off a small volley of missiles from the display unit. A small but noticeable explosion echoed throughout the room as the missiles blew a hole in the wall beyond them.
It was a minor miracle that wall just led to the back halls of the museum, and not the vacuum of space.
By the time Theron had got the small shuttle landed and firmly march Kerrah back out to the rest of her classmates, she was still grinning triumphantly. The stunt had apparently impressed Klee, who became visible long enough to give her fellow troublemaker a well-deserved high five, and whatever compliment she was giving Kerrah was being drowned out by the hysterical sobbing of Vell Zud, the timid Bothan boy who was now convinced they were all going to be sucked out into space.
“Mister Theron!” A reedy voice called, somehow pitching their voice higher than Vell’s wails. “Mister Theron, I need some help!”
O what fresh hell is this? Theron thought grimly to himself as he turned to locate the source of the voice, and sadly, was not disappointed with what he saw.
“Ravo,” he yelled as he once again found himself racing back across the expanse of this room of nightmares that was cleverly disguised as a museum, “how the fuck did you get behind that force field?”
Somewhere, a child gasped at the profanity coming from their chaperone.
“I dunno.” The Mikkian shrugged her pink shoulders as she tapped the giant Cormium Crystal next to her. “But the door behind me closed when Kerrah tried to kill us all with that missile.”
“I did not!” The indignant cry came from across the room, barely audible over the terrified keening that hadn’t stopped. “It was an accident!”
Theron pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling a deep breath as he tried to gather the frayed edges of his dwindling patience. “I just need you all to stop doing everything for five seconds so I can think—”
Before he could finish that thought, a loud, whooping cry drowned him out, and as one, the room’s occupants looked up in confusion to see a tiny blue Pantoran dragging a massive dodecahedron glowing metal cube behind him. “Can you believe I just found this datacron in the back halls? It’s super heavy and was really hard to get across that giant chasm — why do they even have giant death pits here? It’s so unsafe! Luckily, I just so happened to have a MGGS and was able to grapple…”
There wasn’t even time to process the absolute insanity of that, before his attention was grabbed by the sound of the lift heralding the arrival of several new figures. From the hulking figure of the museum’s security guard, to the absolutely puzzled expression of the teacher and the student she was escorting, as they took in the rampant destruction that had happened in the fifteen minutes that Theron had been left to watch the kids.
Somewhere behind him, a sharp clang echoed as a piece of twisted metal fell from the wall where it had been hanging precariously after the missile strike. That was the precise moment where he gained an acute understanding of what it must have felt like to be Ngani Zho all of those years ago, having to deal with an equally precocious child.
"Look, there's a good explanation for all of this."
Tumblr media
It was late, much later than she had anticipated, when Grey had managed to find a moment to herself to try to hopefully salvage the situation with the class trip. The shattered and crestfallen looks on all the children’s faces when she’d had to leave had been absolutely heart wrenching. But like clockwork, Theron had swooped in to help, agreeing to take her place. Her hero, always and forever.
As exhausted as she was after rescuing Arn and addressing the crisis on Manaan, and still trying to shove down the dread at what she might find once she reached Elom, Grey still summoned a convincing enough smile into place as she dialed the frequency of Miss Chobbets’s holocomm hoping that maybe a few words from her would help ease any lingering hurt feelings. 
The elderly Ithorian's face shimmered into life over the holo, and she held up two silent fingers to her twin mouths, a wry smile creeping across her features. Without a word, she swiveled the camera to show a view of the school's shuttle, and Grey's own strained smile melted into something far more genuine.
Tucked away in the back of the shuttle was Theron, his head drooped in slumber as an entire gaggle of exhausted schoolchildren snuggled up to him. The little Wookiee let out a loud snore, but the rest of the group didn't seem to rouse.
"I take it they had a good time?" she asked quietly.
"Oh, very much so," Miss Chobbet said quietly.
"I am glad," Grey replied. "Do pass on my apologies to the class again. Perhaps once this situation is dealt with, we could reschedule another trip."
"Oh, that won't be necessary," Miss Chobbet rumbled. "We're all barred from ever returning to the museum, anyway."
"Wait, what?"
"Don't worry, it's not important," the Ithorian continued. "Although would Mister Theron be available to chaperone future trips? The children seem quite taken with him."
As she watched the wavering image of her slumbering husband and his napping charges, hear heart melted just a little more. When faced with a scene like this, how could she argue? "Of course… just promise to take a holo of this for me."
30 notes · View notes
magicrobins · 3 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
79 notes · View notes
oblivionlegacy · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Iokath and Umbara done.
The traitor arc always makes me sad T_T
7 notes · View notes
thebreadtree · 3 years
Text
I am currently playing trough Kotfe/Kotet with all my Characters who aren't my dearest canon IA Outlander Celeina and I realised that only C' can be a good leader for the Alliance because well....You'll see.
My main class story OC's as the Outlander in a nutshell:
Celeina(IA): "Everything is going exactly as planned."
Senya: "But Valkorion just tried to take over your body. How could that have been planned?"
Celeina: "Okay...Everything is mostly going exactly as planned. But we're still having everything under control and that's all that matters."
----------------------------
Eprema(JK): "Everyone has something good inside of them even Valkorion. I'm sure that he and every other being in this galaxy can be good if I just redeem them!"
----------------------------
Rougeon(JC):
*to Theron and other Pubs*
"I love the Republic and the Jedi. And as a Jedi myself I vow to never hurt anybody if it isn't necesarry"
*later that day to Lana*
"So about earlier...I was lying. Kill them all! I need a higher body count. And also when can I become a Sith? I hate the Jedi!"
----------------------------
Ressa(Schmuggler): "So who wants to play Sabaac and then hook up with me?"
Theron: "Commander we have this very urgent meeting in a few minut-"
Ressa: "So it's you for today."
*drags Theron to the Cantina*
----------------------------
Reyhannah(Soldier): "Okay so what's up next? What mission do you have for me Lana?"
Lana: "Honestly I need to discuss our political stragety towards the Empire with you. After all you sided with Acin-...Commander?"
Reyhannah: *has fled the room by the word "political"*
----------------------------
Ki'iry(SW): "Do not question the enlightend one! I am superior to every single thing in the damn universe!"
---------------------------------------
Parena(SI): "Does that require to kill people? If yes then it'd like my cult to do this for me because well you'll see...I don't like to kill people. Well I do it sometimes but I don't need to do it regulary you know? And also: Can someone revive Maar or something? I feel like life would be alot easier if he'd still be around."
----------------------------
Tchin+Tchon(those BH twins only exist together):
Tchin: "So listen up Valkorion. How about you lend me your powers and together we can destroy the galaxy? Or if you don't want to go that far how about just killing everybody except a few people? Does this sound like a plan? Do we have a deal?"
Tchon: "I don't think this is a good idea. How about we give him a flesh form again and then we freeze him in carbonite?"
Tchin: "Nah. Would be good revenge but that's boring. I stick with my plan"
Tchon: "But..."
Tchin: "Don't worry. You and Mako are still alive in my plan."
Tchon: "....I'll think about it."
---------------------------------------
I guess one can tell that only Celeina is made for this job
9 notes · View notes