*She could feel the slow healing working and she could afford to lean over against the wall. She breathed in deeply, looking around the room before she began to speak, frankly of something she had not spoken of in years upon years.*

"The hard choices are what make me a Sith. Pain cleanses you like a flame. It burns off the superficial and scars over the raw. I knew what it was to lose love. I had it walk out on me. I had it die on me. I knew that I could deal with walking out. What I could not deal with was the situation where my choice is kill you or become the pawn of another.

I have killed, I have maimed, lied, stolen and caused strife. I did it because I believe in an eye for an eye. I believe that no one, no one has a right to tell me what I can do with the life I have been given. So my choices lead me to a life where I have the power and the skills to live the life I choose to. I take power where I can so that the system changes.

I want my children to know a galaxy where they are not robbed of their right to have recompense for that which was taken from them. They have lost their parents to the autonomy of what society deems is right. Right and wrong are not absolutes.

Peace isn't a lie. It's a matter of perception. Always has been. What you call peace, I call a prison. What I call peace, you call anarchy. People die either way, and I am happy to be the instrument of change and justice. To your cause, my death is justified. Necessary. To my cause, my death is just another example of why your justice is lopsided."

*She pulled a small silver flask, from her belt and unscrewed the cap. Taking a long pull on it, she let the aged Whyren's Reserve burn down her throat as she savored the taste.*

"You can't free me just because we once loved each other. I cannot continue to wage a losing war on this planet. So here's what will happen. My troops are waiting outside this building. I will walk out of here, and tell them you were a deep cover informant. I will tell them that the resistance is much better organized than we knew and that they have Jedi involvement. I will pull off the planet and concede defeat. You will tell the rebels you crippled the leadership. Both sides are satisfied and I spend the next month in a tank. You get to walk away, knowing that you were able to end the fight without a death on your hands and you finally know what I sacrificed to give you."

*She offered him the flask, as she looked him in the eyes, her dark chocolate browns looking morose and tired. She weighed the silence for a moment before she spoke again.*

"I am getting tired, and old. Time is collecting the price for my power. These injuries will never heal properly and I will carry them to the grave. My time to inflict my will on the galaxy is coming to an end. I cannot fight a Jedi, I cannot waylay a planet. My power is waning. Do not worry about the death of a Sith. You cannot save me from this. This is the cost of your life and I was glad to pay it."

~ " You talk of revolution and regime changes as if you weren't the iron fist of oppression ..."

Jago was ... confused. Sin's views seemed wildly erratic, almost hypocritical in a sense. He tried to understand, to declare that there was no ignorance, only knowledge, but even then her methods, her justifications ...

There were none. Not for what she had done, not for how she behaved.

" An eye for an eye ... And what did most of the people here ever do to you, personally? What did this city do? You speak of your children when I have been in the mud out there, burying mothers and fathers. What about them? Where's their recompense? This city, Choal, it's been dying under you to hear most people speak of it. Yet, they don't fear death anymore. They're not scared of dying, Gaysa, you've got thousands, millions of people who are terrified of much worse things. You've cowed them for no reason other than to have them recognize your superiority and now, when they decide that they are no longer your pawns, you claw at them as viciously as you claim they did you ..? That is your justice? There's no change, Gaysa, no revolution! It's just a cycle of never-ending violence, the oppressed becoming the new oppressors! An eye for an eye will eventually blind the entire Galaxy ..."

He may had been young and naive in many cases, but in this he felt his own conviction, the merit and worth of his words. He was not speaking as some ignoramus, unwise to the ways of the universe. This was the speech of a man who had seen it all, who was just as scarred on the inside but refused to let it show. A man who did not run from his fear or let it conquer him but, rather, accepted it. Embraced it, letting his shortcomings grow into his strengths.

It was as she spoke of her own escape and what he would do that he slowly pushed away the offered flask, staring at her incredulously.

" You just get done telling of how no one can tell you what to do or not do, and then you force me to accept circumstances ..? Are you serious right now ..?"

He stood, tense. He really had been lured into a trap, now completely surrounded from how she put it. At this point, she had no reason to lie, either. He cursed his own inability to simply act when it came to Sin, realizing that the scene she had wrote out needed quite a bit of editing for the director's cut.

" No. I'm sorry, I am so sorry," he admitted, the pain evident in his eyes as he slowly drew his saber, his hand wanting so badly to not make that motion.

" But I can't let you go. You're right. You're absolutely right, I owe my life to you. You gave to me just as much as you hurt me. I can't kill you. But you can't sit here and tell me you're not a threat. Look what you did here, take off this veil of past pain of yours and look, Gaysa: in these few weeks, you have shattered millions of lives. Shattered. I doubt if even half of these people will ever recover, and most of them never even raised a hand to defend themselves against what you ordered."

" Don't tell me your power is waning. Don't tell me you cannot fight. You had barely but to say a few words to instigate a genocide here, and you'll sit there and tell me that is not power? If you leave here, if I let you go, I fail a thousand star systems that you might wind up on and do the same thing again."

" No, these people here don't fear death. But they fear you, Gaysa."

The lightsaber blazed to life once more, Jago's knuckles turning white as he gripped the brass hilt. Duty before Emotion. As much as it killed him.

" But you're going to have to do better than fear with me, because I'm already scared. I'm scared of what you're capable of, what you've done. And I really am sorry ... But I can't let you go. And you won't let me just take you."

He sighed. Prepared himself. He knew what was about to happen, what he was committing himself to. While his heart was wavering, his resolve stood firm.

" Come on, then," he asked of her in sorrowful acceptance, his voice flat, lifeless.

" Call your men in. Let's finish this."~

"Well I am also clinically insane. It all makes sense to me."

*She dragged her eyes lazily from the hilt on the floor to the look in his eyes. Truth was that she couldn't fight with the broken ribs, nor did she want to. Gaysa was so deliciously close to breaking through and taking control. It might be easier to just let him take her. She took another long pull off the whiskey flask and shook her head. Nothing about this didn't stink.

She knew the twins. They would be no match for Jago. Her troopers wouldn't be much good either. What if he wasn't the only Jedi here? This could get sideways really quick. Too risky at the moment. She had pressed what she thought was an advantage at Lianna and it cost her De'nia, Demarus, Nitt and Max. No this time, she would not gamble as much or show her hand yet.

She screwed the cap back on the flask and put it back on her belt as she reached out to her apprentices.*

<< It's a trap! Repeat, it's a Jedi ambush! Get back to headquarters and execute evac orders, Red Alpha 2. Find Gorja. Go now! >>

*She put stress and urgency into her thoughts so that the twins would get feeling of a captured person from her. Using the Force, she picked the saber hilt from the floor, letting it float before him, emitter pointed at her.*

"I'm not going to fight, my men will not come in. In fact right now, the twins will be leading them back to base. Jabiim will be evac'ed of my forces in less than an hour. I surrender. I have 10 broken ribs and you have my saber. I grow tired of this planet and tired of the disappointment in your face. I don't care where you take me. I'm a monster and a sad, lonely woman locked in her own head. "

*She stood up shakily and offered her hands to be restrained.*

~ He sighed.

This ... sucked. There was no other way to put it. Love and War ... it seemed they were one in the same. If he could not have one, the other was right behind to take its place. Yet, there he was, spouting Jedi ideals as if it didn't completely burn him up inside. How did he even live with himself, demanding balance where there was none?

Slowly, Jago's hands closed around her own, his eyes closing for a brief moment.

" I said you had the face of someone I once loved ..."

Bright blues matched her own gaze, a sad, sad smile playing along his lips.

" But it seems that was a long time ago, on a planet far, far away ..."

With heavy movements, he pulled a pair of force cuffs off of his belt, slowly activating them upon her wrists. His fingers seemed to fight against him. His muscles tightened uncomfortably, resisting the motions.

His lightsaber was clipped to his belt, gently nodding to the door. It almost seemed like if he could, he'd simply free her and tell her to run, to run as fast as she could and never stop. Escape to the edges of the stars, where the space between galaxies could hide all.

No Emotion ...

The Jedi Code demanded far too much, sometimes.

He stole one more look at her, remembering a smile from a decade ago, bringing a small touch of warmth to his face.

" We'll always have Coruscant ..."~

*She could have spoken, she could have agreed. Instead stony silence stretched out between them as she felt him lock her into the cuffs. This planet was a waste of time and there were bigger things in the universe that she could be doing. She just had to figure out how she was going to get out of this one. The Jedi would not be so moved by her presence as Jago was.

She looked up at him, exhaustion and a tinge of relief colored her eyes a darker shade as they faded to brown. They say the guilty are always more relaxed when they are caught and her captor would not just execute her in cold blood. He wasn't her. No, the murderous youth of his was a thing of the past. Much as she was to him.*

"So what now? Where will you take me?"

*She needed to plan, needed to figure out if he would turn her over to the Jabiimi for trial or if her crimes afforded her a larger venue and a trip to Coruscant. She was hoping for Corscuant. Better chances for escape that way.*

~ Jago guided Sin to the door, knowing he had to get to the spaceport and get Sinistra out before the people of Jabiim saw her, came to know who she was. They'd fall upon her, murder her in a vengeful fury. Even after everything, he couldn't allow that to happen.

" I'm taking you to the Jedi Council," he told her, all the fight and passion gone from his voice. There was no joy in this, nothing to take pride in. Nothing.

" You'll be judged for your crimes against sentients. I'll have to make my report of what I've seen here on Jabiim, and you'll recount everything else you told me here. When all is set and done, the Council will enact their sentencing, and then most likely hand you back over to Jabiim for the people here to carry out what they see as proper."

The city streets were quiet. Cold. The sound of silence ... It echoed.

" The Jedi do not believe in killing our prisoners," he told her, " But there have been exceptions. Those considered too dangerous ... We take measures to see that they can't harm anyone again."

He sighed.

" I'm not sure what will happen to you. That's for the others to decide. After I deliver my intel, I'm staying out of this. They'll probably ask me to, anyway. I can't be trusted in this."

A pause.

" Either way, you're my responsibility now. Our responsibility. I'll not let anything happen to you until we're before the Council."

His words seemed to develop ice, eyes narrowing behind her. He hated this, what he was forced to do.

" But don't test me. Don't try and trick me. Don't try and use me. You are too dangerous, and if you force my hand, I will regret what will happen. But I'll still do it."

Even he wasn't sure if he really meant that.~

"Im sure you will. You speak with such conviction, how else can I take it but that you are of course, as serious as a heart attack. I'll go along like a good girl. Or as good as one like me can be."

*She walked out of the building into the rain, the white noise of the storms drowning out the sound of the tactical retreat from her headquarters. She couldn't see the ship departing through the grey but she knew it was pointless to look as well. They would be up in orbit before long and hopefully, they could follow her. Jago was behind her, watching for an ambush, keeping her body between him and any potential attacker. She looked up and down the street, but there was no sign of a ship nearby.*

"I will be glad to be rid of this rain. I look forward to nice hot shower on your ship. Oh but I don't know where I am going. Perhaps you should lead. Maybe you'd like to put me on a leash, I think you once enjoyed that kind of thing."

*She had not turned to face him, merely turned her head to deliver the passive aggressive barbs at him. She felt like being catty. There was something stuffy and superior about him that seemed to chap her choobies. This wasn't the boy she remembered watching in the security footage from the apartment from all those years ago. She had watched hours of him and Gaysa eating, sleeping, drinking and screwing all over everything in sight. There was something about watching him feed her treats and wear her bathrobe that refused to let her take him seriously at the moment. All she needed was to buy some time for the twins to get in orbit, then they would be able to turn the tide on him.*

~ Jago let Sinistra rant on, barely paying attention to a word she said. It was all just useless drivel by now; angry words by an angered woman. He should've expected it, really: break-ups were always messy.

His steps were hurried, pushing along the stormy streets, fearing he would be hunted down and torn to shreds by the hounds at any moment. Jago pulled his prisoner along roughly, always with an eye out for patrols, for the populace, for anyone: at the moment, Choal was not safe. Not for him, not for her. These muddy alleyways might very well have been their end if he made a wrong turn.

Why was he still trying to protect her? Out of a sense of commitment to a memory ..? His honor and duty as a Jedi? He couldn't rightly tell. All he knew was that, for some reason, at that moment, he needed to get her off Jabiim and in front of the Jedi Council, as quickly as he could. The rain, thankfully, covered up their tracks as he ran towards a large, abandoned warehouse. He wasted no time in quickly drawing his saber, slicing through the lock, and shouldering the door open.

Inside was the roost for his starship, hidden away during the civil war. Military strategy had taught him that often the surprise hidden in plain sight was often the most inconspicuous. In a flash he had boarded the ship, an old Nova Courier, put Sinistra into the co-pilot's chair with her hands cuffed behind her, crossing the seat in back so as to restrict her as much as possible, and then climbed into his own seat.

He was silent the entire way. What more was there that needed to be said? He had loved her and she tried to kill him. But, even then, there was something so ... wrong about it. Gaysa lived, inside Sinistra. Trapped. Fed on, like Sinistra was some ... parasite.

He wondered, was there a way to save her? To erase Sinistra and simply leave Gaysa behind ...?

He shook the thought from his head as he engaged the reactor to his ship, pumped up his deflector screens, retracted the landing gear and turned on the repulsors.

" Hang on," was all he advised as the ship nosed upwards, the shields shoving their way through the thin and broken roof, the ship shuddering a bit from the minor collision. In just a few seconds more, it was gone, rocketing up through the brown skies of Jabiim, tearing through clouds and rain and thunder, reaching its way to the stars and beyond.~