The Dark Academy on Korriban

She tried to calm herself earlier today but...she had a choice to make and wanted to speak about it.

She was not far from the camp but just enough to look at the stars.

"What's this sneaking out about?"

Moyr had followed her in the shadows from the camp and now decided to reveal herself.

''Oh!'' she gave her friend feint smile

''I just wanted to sort one or two thoughts''

She then raised an eyebrow, curious

''Are you spying on me now? I did not take you for the voyeur type.''

"I was worried, but simple leave me alone would do. Baes."

Moyr scoffed, then took a step back.

''No...no...its okay. I'm sorry''

She gave a sigh

''Please come sit with me''

Moyr approached wordlessly, looking at Baes at an angle. She tossed away loose things from the other stone and sat cross-legged, fingers laced over her knee.

There was heavy silence for a time then Baesal decided to break it

''May I ask you a few questions? They could become somewhat personnal''

Moyr was a patient girl and had weathered the long silence with just minor shifts to her position.

"You may. Though I want to know the purpose of this quiz, Baes."

''I guess you can say I have stumbled upon an opportunity...I just want to make my mind about what I'll do about it''

She sat all bundled up her face slightly above her knees

''What are your thoughts about of the Empire?''

"Unspecified, really. I am uncomfortable with too much state authority imposing itself on me, regardless of ideological colours."

She paused.

"But I do believe that the greatest obstacle to personal liberty, especially mine, is not the existence of evil regimes, but the deluded belief in the existence of good ones. I loathe the Republic, Baes. I loathe the Senate. I loathe all those fat pigs on Coruscant who spell high ideals and just causes in the morning and order Twi'lek girls from the Hutts for their private rape toys in the evening. I wouldn't mind seeing their corrupt world burn."

''Is that what happened to you?'' she ask looking at Moyr with empathy ''If so I am sorry to hear that, I did not know.''

This complicate things...but I can't fault her

''I understand the feeling however...but its aimed at different targets''

She shakes her head

''Would you leave the Empire if an opportunity was given? Not to join the Rebublic but to be your own girl?''

Moyr neither nodded nor shook her head, but a moment of silence that followed could be telling.

"I am my own girl. I follow the Sith Code, Baes. There is not a single world about the Empire in the Sith Code."

Moyr started to grow suspicious about those questions. Was Baes sent to test her loyalty? Still, she wouldn't lie.

"So in the long run I don't exclude any option. I have plans though that could put me close to the core of Imperial activity."

Then, she sighed.

"I've known the kind of independence you ask about. I enjoyed it as a smuggler. Hence I know its many flaws. It's a low equilibrium, freedom without real power, freedom to live a life of a rat... I suppose I could, but given where I am now it doesn't look terribly appealing."

''Logical in light of your contacts'' she simply said before looking to the skies

''But the Empire's citizen also believe that its the only good regime...and they are not allowed to contest that fact"

She unbundled and rested her back on a tree

''I come from the Republic you see, my life there was not paradise but we still made a decent living...well until the Empire came.''

She frowns remembering

''What would you think of me if I told you that I am tempted to leave this place?''

"I would keep my thoughts and feelings to myself, Baes. Which means I would not report you, and I would lie to anyone asking in order to protect you."

She sighed, then looked away before a hint of sadness in her eyes could be gleaned.

"Because I believe you have the right to do as you please as long as you have what it takes to do so. If you want me to persuade you out of your escape plan, I won't do it. I believe in freedom too much to try to woo my best friend away from something she sees as her path."

A pause.

"If."

''If'' she repeated

She did not look away but her eyes were certainly getting watery

''Would I have been offered offered this choice two months ago...I would have not thought twice about it''

She swallowed, trying to calm herself before continuing

''But even if you told me, back on Sadow's rage, that you did not believe in friendship...I cannot help but consider you as a close one.''

She passed a hand over her face swiping a burgeoning tear

''And I don't want to leave you behind or desert you...I guess that makes me a poor excuse of a Sith does it not?''

"We're different people that we were two months ago, Baes."

Moyr quickly crossed the distance and leaned against the Togruta from behind, laying the side of her face somewhere between the montrals, letting their lekku bond by interlacing.

"And I believe I've just used the f-word as well. Your Sithness or lack thereof is my tertiary consideration when I think of you. But what I said back then was because of accounting for a moment like this. Funny it's you, not me, who might just walk away from our little entente."

She squeezed Baes' lekku with hers.

"Another ironic thing is that leaving our bond behind would be a very Sith thing to do."

Baesal smiled her hand tentatively searched for Moyr's has their lekku intertwined

''It would...but I don't want to.'' her words seemed heavy but somehow showed a hint of resolve

''And I won't...in appearence maybe, but not really'' she found the searched hand and squeezed ''It occured to me over the last few days that the entente would not last forever as it is now. Once finished on Korriban we are very unlikely to serve the same Lord or Darth...and that might very well pit us against one another: Such is the nature of Sith politics and I do not expect it will preserve us. Even if we were to serve under the same Master, our bond would still be in danger. After all what Sith would allow his two apprentices to stand too strongly together?''

She took a breath before continuing

''But if we play both sides of the war...we might endure''

Moyr didn't respond to that for a longer moment. The movements of her fingers within Baes' grip could indicate intensive thinking.

Then, she responded by reminding her friend a refrain she had already heard. Quietly, sadly.

"Weren't we like a pair of thieves
With tumbled locks and broken codes
You can not take that from me
My small reprieves, your heart of gold

Weren't we like a battlefield
Locked inside a holy war
Your love and my due diligence
The only thing worth fighting for"

Baesal was silent

''If you tell me you want me to stay, I will''

She closes her eyes

''I hate the Empire, I think there is no future for it...but I'm ready to stand with you until everything else falls apart.''

"No, Baes. That would be like enslaving you, I'd hate myself for it."

She unplaited the lekku and raised her head to shake it.

"Do what you must. Don't tell me much, preferably nothing else. The less I know the less may be drawn out of me."

Baesal turned to her friend and searched for her eyes

''What is freedom? The living makes bonds with each other and to shatter them all would leave one utterly alone.''

a pause

''Freedom might just be the ability to choose the ones we wish to protect and fight for''

"Staying would mean truly embracing the Dark Side or dying, Baes. Do you think how long your ambiguity could go under the radar?"

Moyr said darkly.

That shut Baes off...she was right of course

''If I stay, I'll become a problem for you.'' she realised with a grim expression

Her body trembled and her jaws clenched in an anger, an anger born out of being powerless. Tears truly coming to her eyes

''The choice as already been made then...''

But she was not defeated no, not yet. Uncharacteristic of her usual demeanor, she fully turned towards Moyr and embraced her

She spoke then, her voice was the same but somehow carried an impression of newfound strength ''But I'll tell you this, here, now and forever: I am you friend and I'll remain so no matter the roads we'll walk. You have my number, keep it. If you need help, call. I'll be there for you.''

"Same, darling."

Moyr reciprocated the emotion and the dedication through the embrace, though she couldn't cry.

"Nurture new allies. Zash will try to get each of us. I have an odd feeling our paths will cross again because of her."

''Our paths will cross again despite her and everything else''

She smiles at her

''I'll also bring new toys at our next playdate''