What's Seen in the Dark

[Rolth Wygraant]

"Utapau."

Talk of dark old days. Wygraant's eyes drifted to the fire, thinking back on a time he'd dwelled on more than once.

"General Skywalker had been recalled to Coruscant. The Em...the Chancellor often called him on special assignment. Our fleet grouped with General Kenobi and his invasion force. Everything went exceedingly well, until it didn't."

He thought of the pandemonium aboard ship. The clone officers had been given the order direct from the Chancellory. Non-clone officers found out a bit more slowly.

"By the time the shooting had stopped, we'd heard about the coup attempt. Heard everything. It took a while to sink in."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Mmm."

She digested the information, her broken gaze moving from him to the flames. There was a strange, after-the-fact layer of understanding that she felt gained, listening to him speak of that fateful day and the terrible edict that'd sent her world crashing down around her.

"I was at the Temple when Anakin came."

The stillness of her voice was in sharp contrast to the fire's crackling sounds. It consumed the canvas pieces as easily as Skywalker and the Clones had murdered so many innocents.

She blinked, then looked at him once more.

What was there to say now? This set of circumstances; of finding herself in the company of an Imperial captain who had lived through the same years as she had, yet from such a different perspective... It was not enough to absolve him in her eyes, but she was at least willing to afford him the very same chance at survival as her. In this moment, they were the same.

A sizzle of cooking meat, a lazy tendril of scented smoke reaching her nostrils, and the Lupine bit her lower lip before sending her eye back to the cooking meat.

It was nearly done.

[Rolth Wygraant]

A bit of mercy was found in another tin pulled from the box. It was caf. The Captain worked the seal open, smelling within. The familiar roasty aromas were almost there, but there was no denying the age. For want of a stimulant but lacking a cup, Wygraant opted for expediency by placing a pinch of instant grounds in his mouth.

"As we say, Captain s'Ilancy. No-true-Jedi. I'd very much like to say General Skywalker wasn't capable of the rumors. He was a respected leader, and we all looked up to him. But I've had a lot of time to think about the trust placed in those with powers I can never comprehend. It leaves room for doubt, let's put it plainly."

Wygraant leaned against the earthen wall of the burrow, drawing his legs close to his body as he used his helmet to prop an arm up.

"I'm getting tired. I need to stay awake."

He gestured to the gash at the side of his head.

"Concussion, you see. Best that we continue to get to know each other I suppose."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Still in silence, she looked over the upward licking fingers of her fire at him. There was a measured look in her eye, and she inhaled, then exhaled through her nose. Again she blinked, this time a bit more slowly. Not out of tiredness, but more a studious nature. Shifting a bit, she let her gaze move to the wound on his temple. It was with a slight amount of annoyance that she noted the similarities of the wound's that'd rendered each of them unconscious at the beginnings of their ordeal.

"Hmph."

She returned to inspecting the food, and with a quick motion she reached in, pulling out a small portion of sizzling, mostly done meat. With her offhand she pulled two upper mine casings toward her. A small portion was deposited on each 'plate', and without ceremony the Lupine carefully slid one of them to the side while pulling the second onto her leg.

"Eat."

But, his request for conversation was not completely ignored, and s'Il fell back on very old habits. She could still remember playing the game with the Rebel Commandos during her time spent hopping from on place to another.

Two fingers plucked a measure of banshee meat up, popping it into her mouth before chewing thoughtfully.

And when she finally spoke, her voice was a shade quieter. It was almost gentle, even.

"Back during the Malastare invasion we used to play a game."

She'd moved on from the Clone Wars, settling into the slightly more recent events of the Alliance during its' fledgling years against the Empire.

"Nothing complicated, just something to pass the time."

Another bite, and shortly after she swallowed.

"I name a planet I've been to, then you do the same. Only, the one you say has to begin with the last letter of mine."

It was a simple enough timewaster, and would hopefully turn things away from the current line of discussion. Sharing memories of unfortunate times with someone on the other side of the divide was alarming in its' own right, and she wasn't so sure that she wanted to continue down that particular trend.

She reached a finger up to deftly pick out a thin string of clawmeat from her teeth.

"I'll start."

A brief moment of thought.

"Hoth."

[Rolth Wygraant]

Wygraant wasn't hungry. He was in the midst of intense nausea, no doubt related to the nasty knock on the head he'd taken. Still, he was at least a good sport about taking the offered food, even if he could only manage a bite or two. He set his offering aside as the Jedi began something of an old tradition among spacefarers. Her first mention was telling. No one went to Hoth on purpose. Bad circumstances led you there. He wondered if she was one of the Echo base rebels that he'd helped to rout during his service in Death Squadron.

After a moment of thinking, Captain Wygraant offered his counter.

"Hypori."

It had been shortly after the Clone Wars and the beginnings of the purges. Rumors of separatist holdouts attempting to restart their deactivated droid foundries. With little to stop them, the newly-christened Imperial Navy began an orbital bombardment that lasted for two days. He hadn't set foot on the planet. By the time he'd left, there probably were few places on the world safe to do so.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Hypori was a world she remembered well enough. Long ago, Captain Fordo had told her much of that disastrous mission. She remembered hearing down the ferrovine that the Empire had slagged the planet into practically nothing but glass.

She kept her gaze level with Wygraant's, taking a moment to study his features and the particular pallid hue he seemed to bravely fight against. She knew that look. But for now, she would allow him his stubborn pride, her own mind starting to tick through the myriad of worlds that she'd been to until she found the one.

"Iego."

It'd been during the onset of the Purge, when she and Zem had fled to whatever furthest planet they could get to. And Iego had fit that role well. They'd not stayed long; only long enough to breath and rest for a few days. But, the time had been much needed, as both Jedi were in a terrible spiral of fleeing the Empire's iron fist.

[Rolth Wygraant]

That one was easy. How many Ordnance Regional Depot worlds had he traveled to? All of them perhaps?

Wygraant leaned back slightly, a shaky breath exhaled as he worked to maintain the integrity of his stomach.

"Ord Cestus."

Unlike the previous mention, there was no great story here. It was after the planet had been brought under regime change by General Kenobi. Just another stop and refuel point to further the campaign in the outer rim.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There was a bevy of world's she'd been to to choose from, but one in particular stood out in her memories.

"Sesid."

No great adventure or disaster from her time there, in all actuality. But it was the nuances of her time on the water world that always arrested her and - at times - caused her to fall still in contemplation. Novgorod had just finished a relief mission for one of the Rebel cells there, and Dan, true to his word, pulled every imaginable string that he could to stay as long as possible. They were so fresh off the mission to Baroonda, and the ridiculousness that'd placed them both in the employ of Okar the Fabulous. She'd been glad for the break, despite that always looming threat of the Empire hanging over them. And the most confounding thing of it all, it was the first (and only) time that she'd seen Dan Thrule drink himself to the bottom of a mortar tube.

[Rolth Wygraant]

"Don't suppose any fighting was done there." He commented with a nod of approval.

A bit of a pause, and he rose an eyebrow.

"Does the Death Star count?"

A decidely short stay. His squadron had arrived as Lord Vader transferred a prisoner to the station. A joint commands meeting was called to prioritize action plans for Vader's squadron, as he was transferring temporarily to the station. To his embarrassment, he'd briefly gotten lost on the way to the meeting.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She made a face at that.

"It shouldn't count," she groused, "but I'll allow it."

The Lupine settled herself a little bit more, and popping the last of her meat into her mouth, wiped her hands on a bit of cloth canvas that she'd made sure to keep from the fire. Leaning to the side, she pulled her hastily packed ruck close.

"Raydonia."

Again, it'd been another mission for the crew of Novgorod. Unfortunately it'd entailed a bit more than what had initially been supposed. While remote, the Emprie had still kept a small listening post and garrison there. It took a week, but they'd managed to drive off the Imperials and even hold their own against the arrival of reinforcements. It'd been an ugly mess, all told. Dage and Kori both had been nearly killed. Even to this day, Samus refused to talk of it.

[Rolth Wygraant]

"Ansion."

It was the first planet mentioned he'd traveled while not under official duty. He was still a cadet at CPI, though his travels to Ansion were just one leg on a much needed journey to mid-semester break. He didn't stay long, as there was a lot of unrest on the backwater world. When he'd returned to Coruscant, he learned that the Chancellor had dispatched Jedi to settle the affair.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There was a strange inflection that colored her voice, then. It took far too little time to give him her counter; she wasn't about to be beaten at her own game.

"Nal Hutta."

As much as Dage did not talk of Raydonia, s'Il often actively refused to even think of what'd happened on Nal Hutta.

[Rolth Wygraant]

Wygraant made a face.

"Disgusting place."

Not from his own experiences, mind you. One did not have to cross paths with the homeworld of the Hutts in order to smell it, as it were.

"Alzoc."

The system, at least. Alzoc III was the only planet of note there, and even that was being generous. Barely sentient aliens who were only good for manual labor conscription. He'd traveled there briefly to escort a shipment of materials to the, ahem, undisclosed location in the Endor system. All in all, an unpleasant journey.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She only nodded at his appraisal of the Hutt homeworld while undoing the clasps on her ruck, one hand dipping in to search for something unseen.

"Cathar."

So many memories were attached to that single planet. It was where she'd chosen to live in her self-imposed exile. The place that her ancestors, her House, had chosen as their own tomb. It was there that she'd called home for so long. She had given birth to Teagan there, and where she'd first crossed paths with Sanis Prent and Cirrsseeto. Sometimes she dearly wished to have those days back.

[Rolth Wygraant]

He'd heard of it, mainly in history books. The Mandalorians had made an example of the planet and it's people. It took thousands of years for them to recover from the brink of extinction.

Feeling drowsy, Rolth blinked heavily as he reached for the tin of caf grounds once again.

"Rumigaar."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her wandering hand froze, her breath catching in her throat as he uttered that one word. Staring across the fire at him, the Lupine fell deathly silent as she watched him put another pinch of caf grounds into his mouth.

Not many people had reason to go that for out, least of all to a planet as desolate as Rumigaar. One didn't go unless they were running from something, or chasing something. Her eyes slowly narrowed in suddenly painful memory. She could still see the anguished look of Tam Jeneel as he Fell, then turned his blade on himself in some desperate attempt to save his soul. She could feel hurt in her chest as if that terrible black monster had pounded her down all over again, his strength overpowering. She watched in her mind's eye as Zem took the burning strike that sent him reeling.

Her breath came back, quiet and deep as she continued to lock her gaze with Wygraant's.

In an instant this little game had become something else. Something unexpectedly unpleasant.

And when she spoke, it was in a whisper. Not to repeat him, despite the next word that escaped her lips.

"Rumigaar."

[Rolth Wygraant]

Rousing from the cusp of sleep, Rolth took in a sharp breath through the nose, sitting up slightly.

"You know of it?"

Surprising, considering how utterly backwater the place was. He himself was surprised he'd even remembered the name.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her jaw clenched, as she very nearly willed him to remain in the waking world. She blinked furiously for a moment before squeezing her eyes shut and bowing her head.

Her quiet words traveled the distance between the two Captains.

"I was with a group of Jedi who'd managed to escape the initial wave of the Purge. We went to Rumigaar, thinking that we would be safe for at least a short amount of time."

A brief silence, before she once more opened her eyes, this time staring into the fire.

"We were wrong."

[Rolth Wygraant]

How small the galaxy could be at times. So that was why she knew of a desolate place like Rumigaar. They had been there at the same time.

"Our agents had placed a homing tracker in the ship of a Jedi fugitive, if I remember. That lead us to Rumigaar. From there, Lord Vader insisted on taking a shuttle with only a single squad of troops to assist."

Wygraant looked at the Jedi with a slightly new light.

"You were on the ship that escaped."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"I was."

Conceded in a voice weighed down by old wounds.

What else could she say in the face of it all? What had started as a game to keep him awake had swiftly transformed into a dredging of years-old hurt. She had healed, the scar tissue coarse, but it did not make the surprise of it any easier to weather. And in some ways, it felt as though she'd been dragged raw over that terrible day and the deaths that she'd witnessed. The hulking, towering obelisk that was Darth Vader. The look of complete anguish in Tam's eyes.

Lost in a reeling whirlwind, trying to shut out the events that she thought she'd so successfully tucked away...

A blink, and her gaze shifted upward. She stared at him with a hollow expression. A ghostly, blue eye met him.