Chapter 13
AN: Here's another update for you all. This chapter is more Triz centric, it focuses on her and we have a small but nice moment between her and Shmi. As always feel free to leave a review, guys.
Messorem Dust: Thanks man, yeah I have been putting more effort into writing fight scenes. Vader and Anakin and two halves of the same coin just as Acina and Shmi are currently. Honestly, I'm planning to expand the Zygerrian arch but at a later date, once Shmi gets more power and becomes more of a player of the game, the Zygerrian queen vs a dark lady of the Sith is set for the future. Yeah, her way of dealing with it is dark but it is still better than bottling it in for years and constantly being told to ignore the pain, not to mention she is helping people.
Shmi walked through the halls of the ship as it flew through hyperspace toward their next location. After some back and forth between herself and Acina, they opted to leave Columex for the time being, they had without a doubt attracted some outside attention. Of course that is not to say that they left before moping up the last few stragglers of the Zygerrian slaving operation that were spread around the planet, just some weak scavenger teams. Shmi had entertained the idea of continuing their pursuit of the slavers off world but Acina brought those notions to an end, saying that fighting an isolated operation was one thing, and potentially fighting the rest of Zygeria was another. A foolish, ill-thought, suicidal, and downright imbecilic thing to quote the ghostly Sith. After discussing their options, the Sith master and apprentice agreed to make their way toward the planet of Yavin, more specifically its moon of Yavin 4. By what Acina told her about the moon, it was a place more attuned to the force than most so it was a perfect place to train, not to mention that it was a bit more isolated than their last choice, so they should not get into any trouble. Unfortunately knowing their luck, they will probably end up finding an army of hungry rancors or something similar waiting for them. But before they are to arrive at the jungle moon they are going to make a quick stop at Arda. There was a space station there where they will refuel and pick up a few necessities.
The journey to the station would take some time so Shmi walked around the ship thinking about how to pass the time. She could go back to fixing that old droid or do some training with the combat droid. As she went passed the doors that lead to Trizs room, the doors weren't fully closed, probably due to a glitch or something. Triz had spent some time with her training before eating and going to bed to rest.
"Another thing to fix," Shmi thought. She was about to continue on her way but then a whimpering noise made her stop suddenly. She looked back at the door uncertain as the noise continued. On one hand, she didn't want to pray into the kid's business even if she was supposed to be her mentor. Shmi did not want to overstep her bounds considering this was all new to both of them still but on the other hand, Shmi could not help but feel pity for the teen, the zabrak was still a child and what she had been forced to go through does not simply go away with time, it scares a person for life.
Shmi took a few steps towards the ajar door and looked inside the room. There on the bed was Triz, covered by a blanket and curled up in a ball. Her eyes were closed but Shmi could see tears running down her cheeks. The feeling of pity only deepened at the sight. Shmi let out a sigh and opened the door, letting herself in. She moved carefully and slowly so as not to wake up the girl and once she reached the bed she sat down at the edge, looking at the teen's grief-stricken face. Something came over Shmi, she didn't know what but it felt familiar and then as if she had done it a thousand times before she began to sing silently, it was a lullaby.
Mirrorbright, shines the moon, its glow as soft as an ember
When the moon is mirrorbright, take this time to remember
Those you have loved but are gone
Those who kept you so safe and warm
The mirrorbright moon lets you see
Those who have ceased to be
Mirrorbright shines the moon, as fires die to their embers
Those you loved are with you still—
The moon will help you remember...
As she sang softly she gazed at the face of the teen, her hand moving on its own, and started to stroke the girl's hair. The soft singing and the familiar feeling of her hair being stroked slowly made the girl relax, the bad dreams she was having slowly went away, replaced by a warm memory of her childhood. Eventually, the tears stopped and Triz continued to sleep soundly, the nightmares gone for now. Shmi stopped her singing and her hand moved away from the teen's head. She didn't know from where she knew the lullaby, someone must have thought it to her in her past, if only she could remember. She continued to look at Triz, there was a strangely familiar feeling gripping her heart, she didn't know how but she felt as if she had done this before, she obviously knew what to do to alleviate the child's stress. Once again she was left with more questions about her past and no answers. Shmi let out a sigh and carefully got up from the bed, making her way out of the girl's room towards her own.
"Someday, my memories will come back," she said to herself wistfully as she walked through the hallway, her thoughts fixed on the girl she had picked up from Selucami.
The ghostly Sith's thoughts were also fixed on the girl but for different reasons. In the sith empire there were no real rules when it came to the age of an individual but more often than not sith preferred not to train children in the way of the dark side, mostly because it was much more advantageous and practical to find an apprentice who had already been corrupted and threatened through the traumas and hardships of life, someone who would have a stronger connection to the dark side due to the things they had experienced instead of just being taught from a young age. Sith power is built on anger and suffering, which are both paths to the Dark Side. Thus, the perfect Sith apprentice is someone who already hates. This explains why so many Sith have come from the Jedis own ranks, former Jedi who have experienced a craving for more power, a need for revenge, or a fear of loss.
That is not to say that there weren't any cases of younglings being trained. Within the Sith Empire many powerful Sith lords who had children either personally trained their offspring or had teachers guiding them from a very young age until they reached the time when they would be considered worthy of being an apprentice. Darth Jadus usually comes to mind, he had trained his own daughter after all. That girl sure had a magnificent singing voice, shame Jadus made her sing until she could not sing anymore, ever. A miserable little brat she proved to be in the end, allowing the Imperial Intelligence to almost fall and still demanding respect from the Dark Council when she had done nothing to earn it, only taking the seat due to her dead father's influence. Marr made a sound decision to replace her. Acina had always personally looked down upon many of the children from noble Sith families due to their attitude. Just because their families have some semblance of power they believe that power belongs to them and not whoever is the head of the family. True power is earned not given. Power is not given to those who blindly thirst for it, it is given to those who are willing to lower themselves to pick it up.
There were pros and cons to both ways of training, the main advantage of training children was the loyalty one could inspire in them if the master was not an incompetent fool. Triz checks all the necessary boxes from both sides, she is young, impressionable, naive, and willing to please while she has also already suffered enough in her short life to feel the calling of the Dark Side. A perfect material for an apprentice. All pieces will fall into place with time, if Acina is anything, she is patient.
Triz woke up after several hours of sleep and went out of her room towards the ship's main area. She sat down in one of the chairs in front of the table as she rubbed her still-sleepy eyes. At first real sleep avoided her like many times before. Ever since she watched her parents die in front of her, every time she closed her eyes that scene would repeat itself in her mind. That was what was happening this time as well, that is until she heard a gentle voice singing and a tender hand moving the locks of her hair. For a brief moment, she dared hope that it was all a bad dream and that her parents were still alive, the nightmare went away, and sleep's warm embrace overtook her, she had finally managed to relax. That small shred of hope evaporated once she opened her eyes and her sight fell on the gray wall of the ship. Disappointment and anger rose in her belly but then she remembered where she was and who she was with aboard the ship. She opted to get out of bed and find something to eat.
"Someones finally up, sleep well?" Triz heard the voice of her mentor coming from behind her. She finished rubbing her eyes and turned her gaze towards Shmi.
"Well enough," Triz replied with a shrug. A strange looked crossover Shmis face, the sight of which caught Trizs interest but she opted not to act upon it.
"That's good to hear," Shmi replied. "We will be arriving at the Arda soon, once we land at the space station orbiting it, I will have the ship refueled and go grab the things we need from the merchants at the station."
"What about me? Can I come with?" Triz practically jumped from her seat, her body shivering with excitement. "Please!"
Shmi sighed and shook her head. "Sorry, little one but you can't, you know that someone has to stay to watch the ship while I'm gone."
Trizs excited expression fell, now turned into a frown. "The droids can do that, can't they?"
As if to answer Trizs question R4 who was standing behind Shmi immediately bolted out of the room, not wanting to be brought into this conversation. The combat droid on the other hand just looked at Trizs and then at Shmi before following his astromech counterpart.
"Seriously?" Triz said through greeted teeth. She looked back at Shmi. "Please, please take me with you," Triz pleaded.
Shmi crossed her arms and gave the girl a hard look. "Triz, I already made up my mind. There will be plenty of far better things to see than a dusty old station. I will just quickly grab the things we need and be back within an hour at most."
Triz stared at Shmi for a moment until a hurt expression crosser her features. "You don't trust me even after I helped you at the palace."
The accusation made Shmi's stern expression falter. "Triz that's not it..."
"Then what?" Triz half shouted, their eyes locking.
"There is no point in you leaving the ship, you have training to do and I trust you more than I trust R4, you at least will put up a fight if someone tries to come aboard unannounced," Shmi said, trying to reassure the teen. Shmi could feel the disappointment radiating from the girl and then sadness.
The truth of the matter was that Trizs wanting to go with Shmi had less to do with seeing the actual station and more to do with staying close to the older woman. Yes, Shmi had left Triz alone on the ship before, well not completely alone the droids were there after all but the teen did not like when Shmi left. They might not have spent that much time together but Triz could not help but feel safer when she was around her mentor, the dark memories of the traumatic events she was forced to undergo subsiding when Shmi was near. Shmi was not Trizs mother, Shmi will never replace her mother but Shmi was someone who at least cared about her, Triz was smart enough to see that. During the times when she was left alone on the ship, the teen did her best to stay focused, to not give in to fear and dark thoughts in the back of her mind. With more time she spent with her new mentor, the harder it got to just that. She knew it was stupid, she knew it made her look weak but she could not help it, she was afraid to lose anyone else.
"Seeing that we are getting nowhere like this, lest make a deal then," Shmi spoke which got the teen's attention.
"A deal?" the zabrak asked puzzled.
"Yes, a deal. If you manage to make sure nothing is taken from the ship then you will get to pick the next place we visit after Yavin and we will go there together," Shmi answered. Trizs eyes went wide with surprise.
"Really?" Triz asked.
"Yes, but only if nothing is taken from the ship while I'm gone. Got it?"
"Yes master," Triz replied enthusiastically. She wasn't stupid, she knew that this was Shmi's way of keeping her on the ship but a chance at choosing their next destination was too good of an opportunity to pass up. She had managed to deal with her fear before, she will just do it again.
"Good," Shmi said nodding. "But remember if anything is taken from the ship you will be on cleaning duty for the rest of your time here and that includes everything, including the droids."
"Understood," Triz replied, her earlier expression of worry replaced by a small grin. This won't be hard at all, all she had to do was sit around and stay on the ship. Who would be dumb enough to try and steal from a ship like theirs?
The ship landed at the docking bay of the station orbiting the world of Arda. Looking through the cockpit window one would see how old the station looked but it was still functional and had people working and living there. The ship's ramp lowered itself onto the metal floor of the docking bay with Shmi standing at the edge of the exit.
"Remember our deal," Shmi replied giving Triz one last look before leaving the ship's cargo bay.
"Yes master, I won't disappoint," Triz replied firmly. Shmi just smiled and left the ship in the teen's hands.
"You think it wise leave the ship in the hands of a child on a random station filled with various questionable individuals?" Acina asked her apprentice as they made their way toward the group of maintenance droids to tell them to refuel the ship.
"When you put it like that it does sound like a bad idea but I trust Triz, it's not the first time we left her alone on the ship. Besides we won't be gone long and the droids are with her, everything will be just as we left it," Shmi replied.
"One thing I learned over the years is to always expect the best and be ready for the worse, usually things turn out to be in the latter category," Acina replied, remembering the times when things did not turn out the way she hoped.
"We will be back quickly, it's not like she will manage to get the entire station to turn on us and start hunting us," Shmi said.
"Don't jinx us, my dear, please, our luck so far has yet to see an improvement when it comes to unexpected situations," Acina begged her apprentice.
"Fine, fine, have it your way, but Triz will be alright and nothing will happen to the ship or its cargo," Shmi said trying to reassure her ghostly master.
The young zabrak acolyte sat in the cargo bay, legs crossed and eyes closed, focusing on her meditation as Shmi had entrusted her before. She was trying to connect herself more to the force. She could feel it, it was there, always present around her, like a feeling in the back of her mind, and as time passed and she focused more its presents became stronger, easier to detect and feel. Triz used her emotions just like she had been taught, her anger, fear, love, all of it, to better her connection to the force. It was a slow process, well Shmi did say she had made decent progress since they first met but it was still far from what Triz wanted to achieve, to her the process felt slower than it actually was. She wanted to be able to learn faster, to become stronger faster, to be more powerful, to be more like Shmi. As her meditation continued a dark feeling gripped her heart and the memory of the time as the pirate's captive came back to her mind, the memory of one of them beating her due to failing to listen. The memory broke her out of her meditation, her eyes opening suddenly, and her breathing quickened.
"They are dead," she told herself. "They can't hurt you anymore. No one will hurt you anymore."
Her mind regained its focus after a brief moment of silence and respite. She decided it was best to take a break from the meditation for now. Shmi had not been gone long, half an hour at most, that's how long Triz had been meditating. She entered the main hold of the ship, took a canteen of water resting on the table, and sat down on the chair, taking a large sip from the bottle. Once finished she placed the canteen back on the table and stared at it, her mind beginning to wonder. She didn't know how long she remained within the confines of her own mind but she knew it must have not been long, R4 breaking her from her thoughts when he entered the room.
"What do you want you little traitor?" She asked the droid while glaring dagger at it. The droid whizzed and made several other binary sounds which made Triz jump from her seat. "What do you mean someone on the ship? Is Shmi back?" The droid again replied in binary giving a negative answer to the girl. "Where are they?" she demanded and the droid responded by leaving the room, Triz following close behind.
They arrived at the starboard cargo hold quickly, Trizs eyes darted from crate to crate, from one wall to the other looking for the intruder, her heart racing.
"Seriously, I just left the hold minutes earlier, why was this happening now?" she thought to herself.
She stealthily moved across the cargo bay, well as stealthily as she could, sharp eyes looking for the person who wasn't supposed to be there. They could not be allowed to leave the ship with anything, much less with something as precious as one of the Sith relics. Turning around a group of containers she caught the intruder.
"YOU! You aren't supposed to be here!" she shouted and immediately caught the interloper's attention. As they turned around to face Triz, she was who the intruder was, it was not a thug or skilled crook but a short rodian boy probably no older than ten. His face was adorned with an expression of shock at being caught red-handed. What drew Triz's attention away from his face was the object she was holding in his hands. It was one of the pyramid-shaped holocrons. "Hey! Give that back!"
The rodian boy looked at the holocron before looking back up to Triz and started running towards her. She tried to catch him by grabbing him but the small kid slid underneath her, passed under her legs, and darted towards the opened exit ramp. Triz could only look as the kid sped away with holocron.
"Krif, Shmi is going to kill me," Triz said to herself before looking at the astromech droid. "Stay and guard the ship and raise the ramp."
She could not, would not call Shmi just to tell her she messed up one simple task she had been given, much less tell her that a small kid had whisked away with what is without a doubt one of the most important things on the ship.
Triz ran out of the ship and frantically looked around for the little thief until she spotted the kid running away. She immediately darted towards him. "Stop! Get back here!"
She ran out of the hanger bay and onto the main hallway leading outside of the bay towards the inner parts of the station. There were a few people and droids walking through the hallway, the kid darting passed them. Triz frowned as she proceeded to follow the culprit, almost knocking down a person or two in the process.
"Hey! Watch it!" a human man shouted as he avoided the kid and teen chasing each other.
"Get back here thief!" Triz shouted as the rodian continued to run, looking back every so often only to be met by the same sight of an angry-looking Zabrak chasing him. He tried losing her several times by turning left or right but failed every time, she just kept coming after him. He stopped at a cross-section and after a quick look around turned left, the doors slamming shut after him. He was afraid of getting caught, the zabrak had been relentless in her pursuit of him. Triz reached the impasse and looked from left to right before her eyes settled on the large door to her left. She swore she had seen the kind go that way, so she continued to follow. The doors opened automatically as she approached them and allowed to see where the thief had gone. It was a large open section of the station that was filled with stalls and vendors selling various things, from food and drink to mechanical parts, and there were plenty of customers. The station sure seemed livelier than she had expected.
Triz walked through the crowd looking around for the small rodian and the red holocron, accidentally bumping into a woman.
"Watch it, kid," the woman scolded her.
"Sorry," Triz replied quickly before returning to her task. "Where are you, you little son of Hutt?"
She continued to look around, passing various people from all corners of the galaxy. Usually, she would be ecstatic to see new people and 'places but now was not the time for that. She needed to get back the holocron as fast as possible. Triz knew how important a holocron was, they were irreplaceable depositories of knowledge that are centuries if now millennia old. What would she do if she is forced to tell Shmi that she had lost it? She can picture the disappointment in her mentor's eyes. Would she even want Triz as her student if she finds out she let a damn kind steal one of the most important Sith artifacts in the galaxy?
"Of course not," she thought to herself. "That's not just an accident, that's a catastrophe of epic proportions. She would probably just jug me at the first planet she can and leave me there….I can't let that happen. I can't fail." As she continued to frantically search around she finally came up with a better idea. "If I can't see it maybe I can sense it. A holocron has a force signature after all."
She stopped dead in her tracks, closed her eyes, and began to focus, to call upon the force. For a moment nothing happened, she could not feel a thing until she felt a small pull in a certain direction. Triz opened her eyes and began making her way toward the source of the disturbance. Then after some more trudging through the crowd, she saw the little rodian looking back before entering one of the side doors. She quickly began to follow again. After reaching the doors she tapped on the control panel and opened them, proceeding to walk along the now narrow corridor. She carefully followed the little thief for a while, making sure she made as little noise as possible. Her shadowing was brought to an end when the kind turned a corner. The Sith acolyte peaked from behind the wall. The kid was met by two guards, one a scruffy-looking human and the other twilek, they both had blasters.
"Krif! What do I do now? I'm getting in way over my head, this is something Shmi should deal with," the Zabrak thought nervously. "No, no, don't think like that. You are being trained to be a sith, to use the force and to fight. If you can't fight your own battles then what good are you? I don't have a weapon on me, so I need to find a way to get passed those guards unnoticed."
Triz took several steps back and took a look around before her eyes finally caught a potential solution to her problem, a maintenance hatch below the floor. It was covered by a metal grid, so all she needs is to pull it up. She grabbed the upper part of the grid and pulled upwards, pulling with all her straight. At first, the old grid refused to move, until after a third and heartiest attempt she finally managed to pull the grid up but not without making any noise.
"What was that?" she heard one of the guards say. Panicking she quickly slid into the maintenance hatch and pulled the grid back into place, just in time for the guards to walk over it. She watched with trepidation as the two stood over her hiding place.
"It's nothing, the damned station is so old its creaking. I'm honestly starting to think it's just going to start falling apart one day," the second guard said. The other guard huffed.
"Yeah, I honestly wish we would just leave this place for some tropical planet or something..."
The two guards made their way back to their post outside of the door while Triz with a sigh of relief proceeded to make her way through the narrow maintenance shaft passed the guarded doors and towards where the kid went. After some crawling through dust and old pipes, she finally managed to reach the place where the rodian went. Looking through another grid she saw that the place beneath her was some kind of a maintenance/engine room. Down below she saw half a dozen more guards, a dozen or so kids of various species and a fat, short, pink-skinned alien Triz had never seen before. The pink alien looked expediently at the group of children.
"And what have you brought me today, any treasures or just normal trinkets?" the alien asked in a sickly sweet voice but Triz could sense malice behind it. The kids must have known too by the uncertain looks they exchanged before one kid, the rodian kid who stole the holocron stepped forward.
"I got you this mister Jirad," the boy said presenting the pyramid-shaped object to the pink alien.
The pink alien raised an eyebrow at the object presented to him. "And that is?"
"I-I don't know but whatever it is the person I took it from really wanted it back," the boy said fearfully.
Jirad took a step toward the boy. "You were followed?" he asked, anger beginning to show in his tone.
"N-No, I lost her at the market," the boy said fearfully. Jirad eyed the rodian boy with his yellow eyes.
"Did you now?" Jirad asked and took the strange object from the boy's hands. "If someone wanted it back that badly then it must be worth something," he added and passed it to one of the guards. Triz hastily lifted the grid and moved it just enough to put her hand through. As the group of thieves and thugs continued to interact, Triz focused and used the force to call the holocron to herself.
The pyramid-shaped object started to shake within the guard's hand and he noticed it, only for his eyes to go wide once the object shot into the air and flew away. The man's shock caught the attention of the others present, their heads shot up to see the red object being grabbed by a hand sticking out from the vent.
"Yes!" Triz shouted with excitement as she grabbed the holocron, a large grin on her face.
"W-W-What?" Jirad stuttered with shock. "Thief!"
"Oh, time to get out of here," Triz said to herself as she pulled her hand up and proceeded to make her way away from the scene and back to the safety of the ship. She opted not to come out the same way she got in but to find her way to the market. After some searching and maneuvering, she managed to find her way back to the station's market. She did her best to blend into the crowd. Just as she thought that she managed to evade her pursuers she saw them coming from the other side of the market area. The kid had seen her and had probably told the pink guy and his thugs what she looks like. Searching around, there was no good place to hide but she did see something that could potentially be a solution to her problem. One of the vendors was selling clothes, but what caught Triz's eye was the dark brown cloak that hung from the stall. She quickly approached the vendor, took the cloak, and hastily offered what credits she had before putting the cloak and bolting away. Just as she was nearing her pursuers she turned away and pretended to look at a fruit stand. She held her breath as they passed her. For a split second, she thought they might figure her out but it seems the Force was on her side. They just went passed her and once they were a safe distance away she continued to make her way back to the ship with all haste.
She got there without any further issues and once she reached it she called R4 to drop the ramp. As soon as she entered the cargo bay she put the holocron back to where it was before and sighed in relief. The teen leaned against one of the creates and sat down.
"That was close," she said, closing her eyes.
"What was close?" the voice of Shmi was heard asking. Trizs eyes shot open and she bolted upwards, her gaze fixated on her mentor. Shmi was just making her way up the ramp, carrying some supplies when she heard Triz say something.
"Nothing! Nothing!" Triz uttered hastily. "Everything is fine, everything is on the ship, just as you said. Nothing happened whatsoever." Shmi raised an eyebrow at the girl's strange behavior. An uncomfortable silence filled the room for a moment until Triz moved towards Shmi and started taking some of the supplies away from her.
"Let me help you with those." Triz took most of the things Shmi had brought and proceeded to take them further into the ship. Shmi continued to look at the teen with a questioning gaze until she redirected it to the two droids standing at the side.
"Alright you two, who's gonna tell me what I missed," Shmi said and with no surprise, R4 pipped up first.