do i F R I G H T E N you ?

“astute.” she remarks wryly, arms folded across her chest as she steps across his path. no helmet covers her face - no need, both in the regard of his blindness and his own knowledge of her face - yellow eyes glinting in the high sunlight. her hair has once again been cropped short, what remains pulled back from her face in a series of braids and buns. “did you really expect otherwise, kanan jarrus?”

“well, you certainly made a mess.” the inquisitor greets, ignoring his pointed words and instead craning to look through helmet-covered eyes behind the sith at the battered remnants of the room he’d seemingly just destroyed, if the still-glowing scorches were an accurate tale. survey taken, the mirialan looks back up at ren, eyes unable to meet his own through visors ( hers and his ), but an approximation made, inquisitive smile tinging hidden lips. “the comms have you this upset?” she purrs through her vocoder, words entirely undisturbed by the wreckage of his display of violence nor the recently-incoming news of the latest yuuzhan-disaster. “with all the praise i’ve heard of your skill, i thought the leader of the knights of ren would have some all powerful solution to our latest quandary all lined up.”

“hand.” she greets, the shortened once-title a substitute and targeted insult at once, a reminder of where and for whom mara had once served; with the emperor’s fall had come hers. “shouldn’t you be begging for skywalkers’?” she retorts, resolving to herself to not let mara get under her skin and then promptly ignoring that resolution. “intel said you’d defected. i didn’t want to believe them, of course - what would have made such talent fall so far?” she clicks her tongue disapprovingly, an exaggerated frown on her lips. “looks like i underestimated the power of newfound freedom. just goes to show some people only reach greatness under the right command.”

“heard?” the words are biting, edged in a cruelty she’d never ( before ) directed to trilla, an anger that seeps so far into her bones she barely knows anymore where it ends and she begins ( if the two could even be separated after all these years ). “i felt it.” she’d been there on hapes, had talked with him just minutes before, discussed his leaving of their ranks and what she and third sister planned ( or, rather, hadn’t planned ) to do with his departure and the dawning of a new year, and with it a new start. he hadn’t been able to take that chance, and she had chosen not to - how things had changed in just seconds, a flash of utter pain then anguish from third sister, ears filled with indistinguishable screams. “i was in attendance with our siblings.” unlike you.

oh, this one was bold - and that intrigued her. boots pivot at his close approach, turning to meet his gaze, staring him down with a mixture of curiosity and threat, himself walking a line between both in her gaze. she didn’t often spare time for better officers, but there was something about this one that signaled something more. hmm - she’d have to inquire about him later, once a name had been given. “pavond, hm?” surely the name had been spoken to her before if they were stationed on this destroyer, but it has clearly made no impact, triggering no memory now. “you’ll have to give me something more than that, captain . . . ?” she lets the silence speak, namelessness of either figure hanging between them.

 “then why, by your logic, would the force choose me, hm?” inquisitive words tumble from her upturned lips, watching his face - and those unseeing eyes - for any sign of emotion or action. him and his apprentice had been so prone to drawing their sabers, and considering their shared history . . . well, she wouldn’t be surprised if he longed to get rid of her for good. a pity for him - she was so fun to be around, after all. “admit it, kanan jarrus. either i’m here for a reason, or the force has no sense of justice.” 

"i had no doubts." that snakelike, all too familiar smile emerges onto her lips at his words, body leaned languidly against the doorway as if they were talking of far more trivial things. "your recent . . . elimination means you'll have more use for me." a pity for him, considering the plans she'd begun to formulate without his annoyingly watchful eye ( distracted, lately, but by what ? ). yellow eyes glint and lips tug upwards, confident nearing arrogance in her tone. "may i applaud you on your rather consistent ability to thin the ranks of sith." she spoke of not only aiya, but the trooper they'd been training, whose rather hushed up departure had not missed her notice. "in the old republic, you'd have been quite the popular man with those skills." she eyes him curiously, amused rather than the fear that she assumed he had been hoping to provoke. "but i'm sure you didn't summon me just to hear compliments." she pauses, clicking her tongue. "or, on a second thought, perhaps you did."