Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

There were plenty of beautiful locations on Alderaan. The one Kat had chosen for this meeting and had given coordinates to, was a to a place that let the viewer look up at the architecture that stood high up among the mountains.

Her thranta was tethered nearby with a long leash, allowing the creature to move around comfortably as Kat waited.

Layne showed up at the indicated time. She was back in her regular battle-appropiate garb, since that was just what she felt most comfortable in. You never knew what was around the corner, after all. Not that she expected a fellow Jedi to do anything of concern in that regard, but she *had* been a little confused at the request to meet. Curiosity drove her to actually be on time; though she had taken care to try and notice any possible tails she might've had, along with anyone lurking nearby the actual meeting spot.

Katarzyna on the other hand was dressed in her usual garb of sturdy Jedi-styled clothes, seemingly having no ill intentions towards Layne or just feeling that much at peace out here in the wilderness.

As she saw Layne, she rose from the rock she had been sitting on, bowing to her. "Thank you for coming to meet with me, fellow Knight. Especially all the way out here, but... with the way things are, I feel safer talking out here than at the Spring Palace." Kat kept her voice soft and welcoming. "How are you today?"

She nodded in greeting. "Fine, I suppose. Bit lacking in anything of substance to do at the moment, but otherwise fine."

While Layne could meditate like the best of them... even though it wasn't a competition... she definitely wasn't the sort to be able to sit still for very long. She could do it for meditation purposes because there was often the promise of a pay-off when she was out of other options... but beyond that she needed to busy herself with *important stuff* or she was liable to start getting frustrated.

She nodded, and then reached for her own datapad that had been tucked into the backside-pouch on her belt. A few presses, and she held it out to Layne to see. It showed a picture of the Sith known as the Emperor's Wrath, Lord Scourge.

"Lord Zeno told me you know more about this man." There was no accusation in her voice. Rather, she sounded hopeful. "He said it's the Emperor's Wrath... someone I thought was only mostly a story, to be honest."

"I know him, yes," she said, then followed up with a shrug. "Met him on Korriban first. It's how I got my old nickname I suppose. Met up with him again on Bankor, and then a while after that... on Yavin IV. Can I assume this isn't just idle curiosity?"

"It's not."

A moment of silence hung over her as she closed the image, turned off the datapad, and put it away.

"He was on Coruscant. During the attack. For reasons I don't know, he saved my life there, by attacking Imperial troops that were surrounding me." Kat sighed. "I've been trying to seek answers since, to understand why."

She seemed to be confused by that, and frowned in silence for a few moments.

"Was it just you? Do you know if he came *with* the Imperial forces, or if he arrived separately?"

"It was just me, as far as I know. But... I don't know." Kat shook her head.

"I wasn't at the temple when the Sith attacked. Rather, I was near the galactic market district. I spent time directing civilians to shelters... I had held off Imperial forces long enough for the last of them to get away, when I was becoming surrounded. Then he appeared, and I thought he was probably the commander of these troops. But to my surprise he attacked them, cutting down their officer first. Seeing no way but to trust in the Force that moment, I joined in the fight then to take out the Imperial soldiers. Once the threat was gone, he commanded me to go. More troops were probably on their way or nearby, so I did as he said and didn't stick around."

"The Emperor's Wrath... from what I know, he's supposed to be immortal. Which I do not in fact doubt. Near as I can tell he served the emperor for centuries, and it was the Emperor who rewarded him with immortality. But..."

She considered for a moment.

"...On Korriban, when I was a student... Darth Zash, or Lord Zash at the time, enacted a ritual, to strengthen her power. I wasn't there for the ritual itself, but I got a first-hand report from the person who was used as the 'fuel' for this ritual. He was sacrificed, drained of his power to add it to hers. In the process, he became a Wound in the Force. Not a Dark Side vergence or anything like that, but an actual tear in the Force. For him, it was an existence somewhere half-way between life and death. Pure and constant agony. Later, after I joined the Jedi, I became aware that the Emperor was planning a similar ritual. Just on a much larger scale. He'd already done this to an entire *planet* before. This time, he was going to feed upon *all* life in the galaxy. That's why I went to Bankor. Not to fight in the war there, but because I knew there was a secret abandoned laboratory of his there, related to his research on this ritual."

There was a pause, letting the other Jedi process, before she continued.

"I got Baesal, Tethys, and Lunda Mae involved. And we went there... only to find out that the Wrath had beat us there by minutes. Turned out that he too was interested in opposing the Emperor's plans. But he wasn't interested in joining forces with us. Not yet anyway. We go in, things happened... we got some intel out of there. We learned of the planned attack on Coruscant. And it later turned out that Darth Zash had manipulated us and got her own research off of the lab's systems."

And another pause, to let it all sink in.

"After Bankor, well... I still had powerful allies in the Empire. I continued to pursue leads. And eventually, I went to Yavin IV. Where I, the Massassi Queen, Darth Zash, and the Emperor's Wrath, learned the emperor was uniquely vulnerable. And there were things underway in the Empire to oppose him. Obviously... I couldn't be there for that in person. I supported their efforts as best I could. And... people... killed the Emperor. And because of the efforts of our little conspiracy... he *stayed* dead. As far as I know, anyway. That's how it's supposed to have gone down. The Queen perished, and with her gone, I've had no real way of getting into contact with either Zash; who I *don't* really want to talk to anyway; or the Wrath. He never struck me as fundamentally loyal to the Empire though. And..."

Something clicked.

"...huh."

She thought it over some more.

"I just remembered. When we were talking to the Wrath. On Bankor. Baesal shared her vision with him. About the Jedi and Sith crumbling. About the new empress ruling ruins. About some new threat coming to destroy the Empire and Republic. And... about the Star Cabal hunting all Force users. And all he said in response was... 'good'. At the time, it just sounded like a, I don't know... badass way to end the conversation I guess. Or like he just wanted things to end... just not in the way the Emperor wanted. But... I don't know."

Kat listened... and sat down as Layne continued. Wooboi, this was a lot to take in. And she listened further.

Afterwards, she was silent for a moment as she was absorbing it all. "Maybe a 'badass' way to end a conversation, as you said, or maybe he thought it was good that you were aware of it. I don't know... I don't think he'd agree with killing all Jedi and Sith, only to turn around and save a single Jedi on Coruscant."

She sighed heavily, trying to make sense of it all. She didn't have answers, only more questions. "Thank you. For telling me and trusting me with this information. Not many Jedi would want to admit to having connections in the Sith Empire, let alone someone who probably would want to put as much distance between themself and the Empire."

She shrugged. "It's not like it's a secret or anything. I mean, grandma was a secret I guess. But I told the council eventually. And *everybody* else knows I used to be a Sith. Anyway, the Wrath... my guess is that he's I don't know... trying to create some balance maybe. I don't know if the Emperor's death changed him. My *hope* would be that he's renounced the Empire and the Sith and is trying to make amends. But... well... I suppose he wouldn't just stick around after that to get arrested and throw in a Republic jail for the rest of his immortal life. If not full amends then... maybe making sure he's doing at least *some* good. I don't know. It'd be great if we could find him and ask."

"It would be. It is... hard to imagine what someone immortal must think of everything," Surely it meant a very different point of view than most. "Maybe something to worry about in the less immediate future perhaps? I've only recently started to look into this myself, to get some answers, as I don't think I've seen the last of him."

Kat gave a small nod of thanks to Layne. "Again, thank you. Is there anything I can assist you with in return?"

She weirdly wouldn't mind running into the Wrath again. Hell, who knows, maybe he'd even say hello this time. But anyway...

"Not unless you either one, have something for me to *do* because I'm getting anxious or two... I guess... know how to get a teenager to start liking instead of resenting you... or both. Preferably both of those things."

"Hmmmm..." Kat thought about it for a moment. She wasn't sure if she could ask Layne to interact with a House of Assassins again.

"I am guessing this is about your padawan? May I ask, how long you known Tyche, and how did you meet?"

Layne of course could be asked to do that; in fact she was sort of still interacting with them... but also sort of in a clandestine way and... well, anyway.

"She's been my padawan for... maybe just about two months? Maybe not even. The council more or less decided on it. Guess based on our shared past?"

She sighed. "Tyche's a former slave like me. Grew up like that. Not quite like Kessel, but still... Hutt-owned factory labor type slavery. She was in a batch of slaves sold to the Empire a few years ago, during the war. I've... well, ever since Nar Shaddaa and Daz, I've... managed a network of ex-slaves and liberators and..."

The knight made a 'yadda yadda yadda whatever' gesture.

"...and they captured the transport she was on right after it entered Imperial space. We actually arranged for them to end up on Delaya, but it turned out she was Force Sensitive, so she ended up with the Jedi instead."

"Ah, I see." Kat nodded, considering the pairing.

"From my experience, when the Council assigns such pairs, it's usually done out of the interest in helping you both grow. The relationship between master and padawan is a special one, and a lot of the burden on doing the teaching is on the master, but the relationship is supposed to go both ways; there are things that Tyche can teach you too in return." She offered a gentle smile to Layne. "Tyche is not you, and that's alright. Have you asked her if she wants to be a Jedi? Or what she wants to do?"

"Well, not that specifically," she said, considering. "I did do the whole, 'she doesn't have to be me' thing. I mean, she's angry. A lot. And she doesn't want to be. Which is great. Took me a lot longer to figure that out. But. Well. Anyway. We had a talk. And. I guess she thinks I like fighting. Being violent. I tried to explain that's not what it's about but... you know how when a teen says 'okay' when you ask them if they believe you, and they obviously don't? Right?"

She thinks about it.

"She wants to help people. And she wants to stop feeling angry all the time."

She thinks about it.

"...If only there was a Gerald around."

"Hm, lots of things you can do, to focus more on nurturing that she wants to help people. There's been a soup kitchen of sorts going on here a lot of the days, arranged by princess Jameela. It's... not at all like on Coruscant or other worlds where you're serving downtrodden people who barely have anything, but it's part of the Alderaanian custom of encouraging humbleness with the nobles." Kat tilted her head slightly as she spoke. "In fact, maybe you could speak with princess Jameela if there is any kind of charity work she might want some help with that you and Tyche could assist her with. The princess is very interested in such work, so it can't hurt."

A small shrug. "Let her spend some time with Daz or Yil? They're padawans too, so they could give her some feeling of having friends who are in similar positions. Let her have some time to figure herself out, considering all she's been through."

The mention of the name Gerald caused a little bit of confusion with her. "... Gerald?"

Layne did *not* look enthused about the soup thing or interacting with the nobility. As for spending time with Daz... that was... she wasn't *opposed* to it... but also it was *Daz*. And she kind of just assumed that the two would hang out on their own anyway if they were so inclined. They were a little bit too old for her to be setting up 'playdates' for them. Anyway, it all just seemed so...

...mundane.

Fortunately, the conversation moved back toward the non-mundane.

"Oh. Yeah. Gerald was the victim I mentioned. The sacrifice for Darth Zash's ritual. The Force Wound. Helping him pass on and closing the wound... that was like... the first time in my life that I ever just... *didn't* feel angry about everything."

She looked up in thought for a moment. "Also how I lost ghost-dad and got the armor I had re-fitted for Tyche."