They'll fight, most likely. To see who gets to inherit his stuff. That's why I can't stick around - I can beat him, if I'm careful, but I can't beat them too. (She doesn't seem to have considered how his help might change that.)

does having someone hiding you buy us any time?

Yeah, definitely. She doesn't outright smile, but her mouth does twitch a little; good thing her master's not watching. Still not the best idea to try to stay, I think, but. Where she was anticipating a mad dash, and to not really have time to evacuate the other prisoners, now it seems plausible that they really will have time to get everyone out, at least if they're lucky.

hope it works, then.

I bet it will.

She settles in on the steps leading up to what can only really be described as her master's throne, and the afternoon's holocalls begin. She remembers some of the callers, even has stories about a few, but not as many as she knows she should know, but doesn't.

He listens, when she has stories.

And he seethes when there are spots missing, things that were taken that were hers.

Yeah. Well, that happens, when you aren't the strongest person around. There's only one thing to do about it, and she's working on that.

It's not fair.

(None of the pieces taken out of them belonged to someone else. You can have everything in the world removed from you but your body and your mind and that's where it has to stop.)

She loves him.

(That's not how it works, with Sith; not how it works at all. You get to have what you can take, and what you can defend, without any kind of limit like that. And... it hurts less, knowing that it's nothing personal, taking it as just something like physics, as inevitable as getting shocked if you touch a live wire, but... there's something good in not, too, in saying this hurts and it shouldn't happen and calling that the important part.)

He's not good at doing this, usually, for himself.

But in a place like this, when the whole world is people hurting each other...it's impossible for him not to see it.

Yeah.

Well, they're working on it.

They are.

That’s something to hold onto.

Yeah, it is.

She tracks the time by keeping an eye on her coprentices: the duo take a break midafternoon, to take a walk around the compound and then briefly spar; the kid works on computerized lessons until an hour before dinnertime, then meditates and goes to work on lightsaber forms. She's getting tired, by then; even just sitting is exhausting, when you have to be on guard every moment of it.

He tries to be her lookout, as much as he can.

They'll get better. Teamwork takes practice. (She loves him.)

Evening comes eventually, and her master returns her to her suite.

He's ended up cross-legged on his bed, eyes shut.

is every day like this?

She flops onto hers, not bothering with the blanket for the moment. More or less, yeah.

...i guess it makes planning easier.

Yeah, as far as that goes.

...how much do you... know, about Sith? Like philosophy and stuff?

not a lot, outside what i know from you. all most people really know about sith is “aaaaauagh run away”, far as i know.

Amused: Yeah.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

she repeats, having explained earlier what it means. That's us. That's how Sith work.

He nods.

seems like that should be more about fighting the shitty galaxy than each other.

Yeah. That's... we're bad at giving things up, bad at compromising, most of us. It's a weakness, and weakness is dangerous. So is trust. Makes it hard to work together.

sounds pretty awful.