The Dark Academy on Korriban

Zeno stands in the rain amidst his destruction, staring at the sky. It was still there, all of it. The bodies, the felled trees and his rage. And he had nowhere to direct it in this moment. He had called Shaisha not too long after the conversation. He needed someone who might understand him in this moment. He knew she got him on some things... but he was reaching in the dark with this one.

The call had been unexpected, but Shaisha wasn't one to leave a guy hanging.

Moving unseen in the jungles, thanks to her new armor, her quiet steps eventually brought her to the site of... destruction? What in the blazes happened here?

Seeing Zeno, she could feel the tension in the air, even without having to reach out through the Force. "... Zeno?" her voice was quiet and cautious.

"Barely," he says staring at the sky still. "Barely..."

Shaisha pushes the hood on her cloak back, letting the rain begin to form droplets on her dark red locks as she approaches closer. One hand reaches out for Zeno, while the other touches the hilt of her shoto.

"What happened here?"

There is a radiating warmth when her hand touches him. It's hard to see, but there is blood on his hands but not anywhere else on him. When he feels her closer to him he slowly looks down, the change in his eyes becoming apparent, embracing darkness being the obvious source. It was not uncommon for humans to have such changes even if it was rarer among the sith. And his eyes had always had a more human appearance to them... not so much anymore. They're far darker.

"Anger. And it won't leave me. I don't know how to explain it because I don't think I was fully conscious for it all. But the conversation, I remember." His voice is practically dripping with pain.

His change was noticeable, and it made her feel conflicted. She saw the touch of the Dark Side on him, how he embraced it, but also the suffering he was going through to have brought him there.

Her arm moves around his body to pull herself closer to him, and her hand leaves her lightsaber hilt.

"I'm here, Zeno. You don't have to remember it, if you don't want to."

His body doesn't respond, not pushing her away or embracing.

"I can't forget it," he says. "The pain will remind me of it."

"I've told you before... I care for you. That is true and will be true until one of us should betray the other, something I would not want. But love..."

"... Love will only hurt you," she murmurs soothingly. Even she knew better than to ask the details now that the wound was fresh and sore. "We know this."

"It cannot stop a sith from feeling it. To try would be weakness," he says. "I convinced myself that I had to let it in. That the jedi were fools for denying it. And I was right... to a point."

She nods and embraces him tightly.

"Unlike the Jedi, we draw strength from our emotions. Peace is a lie, there is passion. Even the emotions that hurt us, as they set us to the trial. Every Sith experience love, betrayal, loss, pain..."

He remains still and sneers, not at Shaisha, but at the world. "Who better than me? Because some half-assed sith wannabe acolyte gives a trinket to a dead king? Because his family acts as loyal servants... toadies? Choosing mandated loyalty and sentiment over power and strength?" His breathing grows heavier and she can see that rage building. "Would you make that choice? I would never."

I have no idea what you're talking about, was her thoughts, but she knew better than to say them to someone in Zeno's situation.

It went against her nature, but she didn't want to see Zeno slip into some uncontrollable state of rage.

"Zeno... slow your breath. Breathe in, and let it go."

"There is no letting it go. I want his head. I want to burn his eyes from their sockets with my sabers while he breathes. I want her to watch and understand the mistake she made so she never repeats it," he says. "Everything else was right... except for that." His breathing doesn't slow but it stops speeding up.

"Let it be her mistake, and not yours," she says harshly. "She chooses mediocrity and slaves, then she doesn't deserve to learn that lesson."

"It is her mistake. That is precisely why I can barely hold my rage in check. She helped to open me up to new ways of understanding the dark side. Showed me the power that can be found on the proper path. I promised myself to that path knowing that we could grow stronger together... and still. She choses that weak seed over me!"

"Who in this academy has proven themselves more worthy of the title of sith thus far? As you said earlier, half of them are jokes." Suddenly his arms are around her torso and in an embrace as he lifts her from the ground. "Who but me?"

She wanted to tell him to put her down this instance, but she decided against it.

Instead, she took advantage of the added height he gave her, and slapped him hard across the face.

"Get over it! If she chose that weakling, then she is weak, and she would have made you weaker," she glared hard at him. "Maybe she already has made you weaker."

He glares at her with violent intent, and the rage continues to build. His hold on her strengthens slightly and she can feel a tremble in his arms. "Strike me again..."

It was really unclear if that was a demand or a threat. Maybe both?

Knowing Zeno as she did, the it could easily be a threat or a demand. Or both.

Rather than to strike his face, she grasps her gloved hand for his throat. "You'll put me down. Now."

He lets her choke him for a good number of seconds staring into her eyes before he slowly starts lowering her. His nose stops flaring, and the trembling stops. His arms loosen and she can feel him set her on the ground gently. He releases her and grabs both of her wrists, moving the free one to join the one she was choking him with, tightening both of their holds. He could feel himself getting light headed and saw his peripheral fade to black.

When it seems that his consciouscness is slipping, filling his grip on her also slipping, she releases her hold on him, then strikes him again, hard.

Whatever has really happened to him, it has made him weak, she reflects with some sadness.

When she releases him, he coughs a bit, and then is slapped again.

"Do it again," he says. "And again."

"Tell me how weak I've allowed her to make me."

"Idiot," she sneers. "Why are you considered stronger than me when you've allowed this to break you down and snivel for punishement like a slave?!" she growls in frustration as she seizes him by his shirt and shakes him.

"This isn't the Zeno I know. This isn't a Deathwright."

"I told you when you got here..." he says looking up. "He's barely here."

"I called you. Like you said. Help me find him."

Damnit, why did he have to appeal to her sense of honor. And why had she given her word...

Guess I care more than I like to admit.

She breathes in deeply, taking a momen to compose herself and find her own inner equilibrium. "Come..." she kneels down and gestures for him to come closer. "... Touch me, reach out with your mind."

I am failing. Knock it the fuck off. Get out of your this. You are a sith. You will be the master of your fate. Use the rage and focus it. Stop getting lost in it.

He looks at her kneeling. This is wrong. You have a beast... "...inside you. But you aren't a beast. Do not crawl on your belly." He moves to stand. He looks at her through narrowed eyes, reaching out to touch her mind.

Taking a step closer, the rage is still there.