The Dark Academy on Korriban

There was a small gathering about a small set up for those stationed out here could be up to date on the news. Imperials, applicants... there were people. It all mostly turned to gray as she heard the words.

Three days prior Kristal Serasai had passed within inches of the man who had just killed her father, labeling him a traitor for all of history. Having had no time to contact her father, having never spoke since she had arrived at the academy. They had their tasks before them and a Serasai knew they had to do what they had to do. Now she regretted it, never would she be able to ask her father directly.

Walking off to a point of the camp where she could be alone, she pulled over a chair and sat. Leaning back fully into it and just closed her eyes.

It wouldn't do for her to appear as weak as she felt right now.

“Hey… you seen the news?” Thorne says a fresh lightsaber on her hip.

"I've heard," she responded to the unfamiliar voice. Opening her eyes to find an unfamiliar Zabrak, or perhaps they met somewhere in passing once? It was a bit hard to recall at the moment.

“That’s your father right?” she says crossing her arms.

Kristal pushed herself to her feet. This wasn't something she would discuss seated, no she needed to appear from a position of strength. Especially now.

"Was."

Kristal corrected with that strength she was trying to muster. However, it was easier to push him away when he was alive. Now it just seemed to hurt her when she tried.

“That’s… damn.”

“So are you a traitor too? I mean, that’s what some students are saying anyways,” she says calmly.

"Do I appear a traitor?"

There it was, that crisp Imperial cool.

“Way I hear it, you stood up to Overseer Thaine and killed a Jedi, she’s a bloody pris. If you’re a traitor, I’ll deal,” she says with a shrug.

“I respect strength, and you’re about as strong as they come.”

Kristal shook her head, amused. This had gone a different way than she honestly expected but better.

With a reserved smirk, "You've a more sensible approach than most. For that, you have my thanks."

“Name is Thorne, not that you asked. I already know yours, everyone does. I came here to be the best but… well I know my limits. I will be Sith and I will serve, but it’s folks like you that will be remembered,” she says honestly.

"Thorne," Kristal repeats, "The extent of a life is not determined here. You have many more years left to make your mark, make it a good one."

After that, Kristal took a slight moment feeling something more should be said but she just shook her head, and almost laughed a little.

"I will be honest with you Thorne, I do not know how to respond to a statement like yours. I might be remembered as a great warrior, or the daughter of a traitor. Or, as much potential for either I may yet be forgotten entirely."

“You killed a Jedi before you even had a lightsaber right? If that’s not a sign of future greatness, I am not sure what is,” she says with a wicked grin.

“Well that’s true. I guess the future is just that, the future.”

"I wasn't alone as the chattering insisted," Kristal admitted, "it was close, but on my own I doubt I would have made it out alive. Though I can attest the Jedi is dead by a mundane blade and this is their lightsaber."

Having no qualms of it, due it it's disrepair and still rather oneness due to the failure earlier. Kristal unclipped the junked piece of what used to be a working lightsaber from her belt. Showing it to Thorne. Kristal bore no pride from the act, in fact the lightsaber seemed to be more like a weight to her. One that was far greater than it's physical weight.

“I guess you’re making a new one?” she asks.

"Yes," she answers with that cool Imperial tone first. "However it is not so simple as moving about parts, the more I can save of this saber the better. Forgive me if this sounds antiquated but I am attempting to keep as much of it's identity intact as possible."

"It is an arduous process."

“Tell me about it, been at this thing all day. The droids and instructors make it look easy, it was not. I saw your friend, the Torsin kid, he lost his father too right? I hear Darth Baras took pity on him and made him his apprentice,” Thorne says.

“I guess that’s one way to move up.”

Oblivious to the latest news concerning a specific father, Layne wandered the outer edges of the camp; deep in thought as she digested the day's events and revelations. Eventually, she'd stumble upon the pair of aspirants and stopped; considering whether to avoid them or ignore them. Instead she settled on something else, her eyes falling on Kristal and giving her a nod.

"Serasai," she said.

It was like Layne was acknowledging her. Which was weird, because Layne was a rabid dog that just bit and barked at people, as far as some rumors were concerned.

"Things are seldom as simple as they seem," she said melding her response to both statements into one.



"Hoshin," Kristal returned.

There was a warriors respect there. Keeping to that code of honor that her family had built for themselves. One that Kristal had always taken more to heart than some other Serasai of the past. Layne had earned it.

"S'going on?" she looked between Kristal and the Zabrak.

Kristal, with that cool Imperial demeanor, turned a bit to include Layne.

"Speaking of recent events," she offered in response.

"Specifically?"

So much had happened, after all. And there was so much that Layne was unaware of.

"More senseless death," she opens up as the idea.

"Arden Serasai, my father, has been killed by the Emperor's Wrath for the apparent betrayal of Aramis Torsin. Condemned a Traitor."

Kristal was a bit wary there, after saying that as Thorne had been so generous to warn her. There was one thing clear as Kristal spoke, as she laid out the 'facts' there was that hint in her tone she still didn't believe them. Perhaps now, that her father was gone, it was even harder to believe he could have been the man they said he was.

Thorne glances to Layne to see her reaction.

She didn't really know how to react to that. Layne's parents had been dead a long time; and nobody ever taught her much about empathy or the right words to use in these type of situations. So she just stayed quiet for a while until she realized people were expecting a response.

"That's..." she looked for words that were both appropiate and lacking in any overt sentimentality. "...pretty intense."

Another response she didn't quite expect. It almost inspired a smirk but her mood was too solid to allow that.

"Intense, how simply put," she said, amused by it's simplicity. "They are the facts I must deal with, and I will. Now I must see to what is in front of me. There are enemies much closer, ones I will need to deal with first."

Kristal spoke with that strength, the one that inspired. Getting caught up on his death was not something her father would want, whether the stories being told were true or not. A Serasai moved forward. One problem at a time.