I woke from another vision, my black hair matted to my forehead. I threw the covers off me and let the cold air hug my body. I looked at my alarm clock. About five thirty. I got up and rubbed my eyes. My vision had seemed so real. Almost like I could feel everything happening. I could feel the night air, smell the damp soil, hear the animals quietly making noises and see every detail of the vision.
I hated thinking about visions. It required too much patience and clarity, days of meditating. Unless the vision is initially clear, its something I thoroughly disliked to experience. I looked around my room, the medium sized quarters looked the same each day. My bed was accompanied by a single dresser with no drawers. To the left of the room, my wardrobe and refresher, to the left, the door that led into my office.
I decided to jump into the refresher. The water helped wash away the perspiration and refresh my mind. Once I was finished, I dressed into my black tunic, and layered on some armor, my usual outfit for the day. My hair was being cooperative, and I was able to braid around the back of my head into a spiral.
Despite having a relaxing shower and a smooth day ahead, my mind was still clouded and rattled anxiously. I hated that feeling. That feeling of grogginess that hung over me, no matter how awake I felt. It made me feel less aware of my surroundings, like my senses had been dulled down to nothing.
Well, there was something that helped to clear my mind.
The sensation of having the Force run through me in the heat of combat.
Since my next mission debrief wasn't until later, I could probably squeeze in a bit of training. I left my quarters and made for the detention level. What a wonderful place for me. It was wonderful because it was where hundreds of prisoners were kept, wasting space day after day until we finally offloaded them on our next stop. It made me feel good to cull off the useless vessels that contributed nothing to this ship.
I strode through the corridors, head held high, something I had learnt was necessary in this environment. Every officer bowed their head in respect as I passed them. They never used to do that. I was glad I had picked up on how to survive both in the real world and the social one.
But I had to admit, I loved the way I could make someone so nervous and so scared. It was like my power demanded to be known, that the seeds that had been planted so long had finally grown into strong trees, worthy of recognition. In a way, I believed I had earned the respect so many gave me.
Finally, I reached the detention level. Just as heavily guarded as always, I walked up to the administration desk.
The guard on duty gave me a curious half smile. I returned it and looked to the administration woman.
"Lord Kyra, it's a pleasure to see you again." She greeted neutrally.
"Likewise." I said in false kindness. "Have you any prisoners that have displayed the requirements I asked for?"
She typed for a moment and clicked a few things on her screen. "There's a few that may interest you. Shall I have Commander Kline accompany you?"
"Very well." I nod once and turn back to the guard.
He continues to give me a mischievous look.
"At your service, my Lord." He says with a slight bow.
"Come now, Commander Kline, enough of the formalities. What the kark is an ISB agent doing in the detention blocks?" I ask with a smirk.
Hash Kline was one of a handful of other officers that served alongside me. We had been undertaking missions for years and were regarded as an elite black ops task force, so to find him here of all places was strange.
"Just following my protocol. I go where command sends me." Replied Hash, purposely being vague.
I laughed. Over the years it had changed. It went from a genuine heartfelt noise, to a sound that resembled a demon trying to deceive an angel. It made people uncomfortable at how something as simple as my laugh could affect them. "Right. Quit the stalling, let's go see these inmates. And while you're at it, you can tell me what got you sent on guard duty."
He chuckles. "Whatever you say." He complies, and I follow him down the cold looking corridors.
"So spit it out." I tell him, my voice not demanding, but expectant.
"Well, before I explain, just know most of this wasn't my fault." He says in advance, his signature mischief laced into his tone.
"Oh here we go." I mumble and prepare myself for a story.
"So, you know how I was stationed on Corellia to look into suspicious data corruption?" He starts and I give him an 'mm-hm' to keep going. "Well I found traces of credits leading back to the Black Sun syndicate, and they originated from Sonnell Macarvey."
I raised my eyebrows. "Sonnell Macarvey? The Prime Minister?"
Hash nodded. "The one and only. So I of course confronted him about it-"
"Of course you did." I rolled my eyes and murmured.
"And he denied it all." He continued. "In fact he threatened to put my head on a spike if I ever told a soul about anything I found. Which is completely contradictory to him supposedly having nothing to do with it, but I think he's too dumb to realize that. I mean, if you're gonna do business with a crime syndicate and leave a trace how smart can you be?"
"So what did you do?" I asked out of consideration for his story, for I already knew what he would've done.
"Well, I played into his ego and acted like I was genuinely afraid of him and that wasn't too hard to pull off since he's quite the gullible little fellow. Then I gathered evidence of the credit trace to find out just what he was paying the Black Sun to do. Turns out he was using them to cover up hundreds of thousands of credits worth of spice trade, and in the process he was creating small bumps in the shipment data. He not only paid off the Black Sun to cover up the spice trade but to smooth over the data." Hash pauses to gauge my reaction. "Trouble for him is the Black Sun isn't what it used to be, so their hackers didn't do quite the good enough job. When the shipment data returned back to the Empire, they found suspicious doctoring of the units and the rest is history."
I chuckle. "Right, so what about all that got you here?"
He points his finger in the air, to emphasize his making a point. "I told the higher ups what I had found and they agreed they would take him in. But they assumed I was in on the whole ordeal too. This was only because I had done most of the researching myself, so they told me it looked suspicious, like I had been trying to cover my bosses tracks and when it failed, I cut my loses and ran."
"But?" I encourage him.
"But, with a little extra explaining and a guilty confession from Mr. Macarvey, I was reprimanded for lack of communication with my superiors and given five rotations of detention black duty." He finished.
"This is why I wanted to go on that mission too." I tell him.
He laughed. "You would've made the whole thing overkill. Besides, you may be a top ranked official but you're no ISB agent."
I shrug. "Suppose you're right. Guess you learnt your lesson. Don't try and be a hero."
He gave me a dry laugh. "Preaching to the choir, Kyra."
We walked along one more narrow passage before stopping at a cell.
"This it?" I ask.
"Yep. This one just came in off Malastare along with three others." Said Hash.
I looked in through the sliding peep hole to see a scrawny looking male, about twenty two years old.
I shook my head and shut the peep hole.
"Come on, you know me. Preferably someone with a little more...agility." I said.
Hash nodded and lead me a few more cells down. I opened the peep hole to have a look. A hooded man sat in the center of the room. I focused for a moment. I closed my eyes to feel the Force. It was strong with him.
I opened my eyes and smiled.
"Jedi." I said.
"You are certain?" Hash asked with surprise.
"Positive," I turned back to Hash, "bring him up."
He nodded once. "Yes, my lord." Said Hash with a smirk and mock salute.
I squint my eyes at him and shake my head, stifling a laugh.
"Oh," I added before I walked away, completely. "return his weapon to him."
I walked from the cells and back into the elevator. I clicked the button for the appropriate level and let it carry me to my destination. My personal sparring room was where I carried out all my fights. It was closely placed to my quarters so that my movements weren't disruptive to the function of the ship.
When I arrived, I headed straight down the corridor, just past my office door, and into my sparring room. The area inside was filled with weights and a massive amount of space used to practice with holograms of people when I couldn't find a suitable warm body. The very middle of the room was a matted area for fights. So far, I had won every single fight. I always found it too easy to practice with most of the prisoners we had, as they were mostly smugglers and didn't possess great fighting skill.
I waited in the corner of the room, where the shadows concealed me until I heard the sound of the gym doors opening. I could feel the Jedi's presence. He couldn't feel mine, for I had masked my signature. I felt Hash's dim Force signature as he shoved the man into the room and closed the door.
A few moments went by as the Jedi observed the room. I could sense him tense while scanning the room. Even though I had masked my signature, even a well trained mind could know I was here.
"Is anybody in here?" Called out the Jedi, his voice tight.
I decided to stop toying with him and walked out from the corner. He drew out his lightsaber, but didn't light it.
"Nobody but I." I answered with a sly smile, turning on my lightsaber. It hummed and glowed it's fierce red that I had grown to love.
"Who are you?" He asked again, tensing his stance and igniting his own saber, the brilliant blue snuffing the darkness surrounding him away.
"Darth Kyra, and you are?" I asked with fake courtesy. I did not care what this fool called himself.
"I am Jedi Knight Tobias." He announced with pride.
"A Jedi...such a rare find these days." I say out loud, boredom in my voice. "Well, Tobias, I would like you to fight me. If you win, you can go free. If I win, well, I win." I whispered the last words and begun the fight.
I jumped toward him with whizzing speed and smashed my lightsaber against his. His face was clear now in the light of the half blue, half red, slightly purple light. He had wide brown eyes, a low set brow bone and a small nose. His lips were plump and chapped, and he carried black stubble across his jaw. His features were honest, with slightly rounded cheeks and a soft jawline.
A Jedi face.
I pushed him away from me with fury. I felt my body activate its reserves of the dark side, and I soaked it in, allowing it to fuel my connection to the Force.
"You're a dark side wielder." He says, his eyes narrowing.
"Well, you're quite perceptive aren't you?" I say sarcastically and twirl my body towards him, my speed and agility allowing me to cut his shoulder before he could deflect.
He cried out in pain and smacked my saber away with his own. But I pursued.
Tobias favored his overhead attacks to a ridiculous degree and had little combat training, but he was resourceful and knew where to look for gaps in my own fighting techniques.
As I targeted his limbs, he would target my torso, and vice versa. It was a game of cat and mouse, not as energetic as I was hoping and quite simplistic.
As he charges at me yet again, I send a wave of the Force his way, and send him flying into the wall behind him. He slumps down and grunts from his injuries. He scans the floor for his lightsaber.
"You've fought well, Tobias." I complimented, for he had. Albeit it was a small and easy fight, it was something not many other people could withstand.
He growled, grabbing his saber and scrambled back to his feet. I knew it was coming, so when he charged at me and attempted to use one of my own techniques against me, I was able to evade it easily, and stab him through the chest.
I tusked. "If you had fought with your anger from the very beginning, you would've have stood a chance."
His face squirmed in disbelief as his features slowly gave up on forming pain, or anger, or anything. The light that left his eyes as I removed my lightsaber was one I had seen many times, and one that made me feel more powerful.
Just as I finished, I sensed a rare presence. I turned to see him standing him the door way of the sparring room. Lord Vader.
The dark lord was clad in black as usual, with his cape swirling around him like a storm. The rhythmic in and out breathing that emitted from his respirator was not as bone chilling as
"Master." I greeted, withdrawing my lightsaber and dropping to a respectful knee.
"Rise, Lord Kyra." He commands and I obey.
"What brings you to my sparring chamber, Master?" I ask him.
"I have come to appraise your progress and deliver your new mission." He reveals.
"Of course, your criticism holds great value. I assume this mission is off the books then?" I raise a curious eyebrow.
He nodded once. "Yes. This will be a separate mission for you and you alone. You will only involve your squadron if I deem it necessary."
"Of course, master. Is this a preliminary for the debrief later?" If it was, then this was strange. He would normally only take these sort of precautions if the mission had something do with the Force or with the Sith.
"Of a sort. More will be explained later." He says and leaves with haste.
I was left slightly frozen from his abrupt departure, but eventually my body caught up to the events that transpired, and I blinked a few times to process.
After about five minutes, I started to leave, when I caught sight of myself in one of the training mirrors.
My few strands of my black hair had come loose from my updo, and framed my angular face. My amour shone like fresh, black tar. I looked taller than usual with my black boots on. My tunic, wrapped tightly around my curves gave me the frightful look of a demon.
Then there were my bright, yellow, glowing eyes. That was the feature that was truly terrifying.
That was the feature of a Sith.