The Jagged Fel- later Monday

[notconflicted]

It wasn’t that Sia didn’t get emotional ever, it was that she usually couldn’t, not in public. And when she had just seen her father killed after he turned to the dark side, suddenly leaving her with the job she’d always dreaded having to take, she really couldn’t lose it in front of anyone.

Well, maybe Antares, but there were many reasons she didn’t want to.

She handled things, with help from him and Treis. It was easy to blame Darth Maladi for Roan’s death and say that he had sacrificed himself to rid the galaxy of a Sith threat, because from a certain point of view, it was true. Maladi couldn’t defend herself anymore. Krayt's death had caused a shift in the battle, with Sith soldiers losing it without him controlling them, and their splintering forces had ended up going their separate ways in the middle of everything. Sia did get in touch with Cade to confirm that Krayt really was dead; he was, and his body had been flown into a sun, just to make entirely sure. She’d contacted Stazi and K’krukh, letting them know what had happened and announcing that she would be taking things over from her father.

Most Force sensitives fighting would have felt the deaths of Krayt and Roan. Still, Sia had had to deliver the message to the returning forces that both things were true. And then she excused herself to her quarters, where she could lock herself away for a while and not face anyone except those who she would actually want to see.

She’d taken off her armor, leaving just the black garments underneath, and was sitting on the bed with a datapad, making notes of all of the things she still had to do or find out. Maybe it was just busy work. Eventually, she was sure she’d feel something again, but right now she was just numb. But numb was good. Numb would get her through the day.


[Feels a little weird to not have this family trauma in late summer for once. For those hanging out in the GFFA!]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

Atton hadn't wanted to creep up on Sia too much, not right now - not when she was probably feeling the way she was right now.

So he gave her a couple of hours before he showed up, knocking on the door, casually leaning against the wall.

[notconflicted]

Sia held her breath for a second, instinctively steeling herself to have to be on again, that she was actually going to have to talk. She didn’t even get up, just reached her hand out to hit the door controls from where she was sitting to open it.

It was a relief that it was him, though. She didn’t have to act fine with him. Or at least, not as much. “Hi.”

[suitably_heroic]

"What's up?" Atton said casually, like it was a regular Saturday afternoon or something. He held up a bottle of something Corellian. "Thought you could use a pick me up."

[notconflicted]

“You are by far my favorite person right now,” Sia decided as she got up, kind of surprised at how relieved she was at the casualness. Imperials didn’t do casual really well, especially at times like this.

[suitably_heroic]

Meanwhile 'casual' was just how Atton rolled with major catastrophes. He had to.

"Always happy to hear that," he said, slipping in the door. "You have glasses in here, or are we doing this from the bottle?"

[notconflicted]

“I have glasses,” she said, already going to get them. “The time for the bottle may come when I give up.”

[suitably_heroic]

"That bad, huh?" Atton said, sinking down in a seat. "Well, we'll just keep trying drinks until we find something that makes it go away for a while."

[notconflicted]

“I’m not sure I can articulate how bad it really is,” Sia admitted, sitting across from him and handing him a glass. And then handing him the second, because apparently pouring was his job.

[suitably_heroic]

"Either you'll figure it out, or you won't," Atton said. He poured a glass and handed it to her. "Start here first."

[notconflicted]

“Thank you,” she said, taking the glass and immediately downing about three fourths of it.

And then coughing a little, because she wasn’t used to doing that.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton snorted. "Yeah, that only works in the holos," he said, "Or if you've done it a million times. Gimme that back, I'll refill you."

[notconflicted]

Sia handed over the glass. “I doubt you saw this being how your day was going to go.”

[suitably_heroic]

"Let's just say I had a bad feeling about today and leave it at that," Atton said, refilling her glass.

He didn't fill his own until he'd passed that one over again.

Before Atton

[craftyladyparts]

"Sia?" Jessica checked while knocking on Sia's door. Jessica had been through a hell of a fight on the planet, but her new Spider Squadron was alive and proved themselves under her leadership. Her new vambraces had even saved her neck a couple times. Yes, literally. And after getting her troops back up to the ship and promising to celebrate with them later, she made a stop by where she knew she needed to be. "It's me."

Re: Before Atton

[notconflicted]

There weren't many people Sia wanted to see anymore today, and most of those other people would probably leave her alone anyway, but Jessica was absolutely allowed.

She went over, opened the door, and greeted her with, "Been a long day."

Re: Before Atton

[craftyladyparts]

"I've heard," Jessica said as she went in for a hug. "I'm pretty sure what I've heard doesn't do the actual story justice, of course."

Re: Before Atton

[notconflicted]

"If the actual story makes it out it will be a problem," Sia sighed, hugging her back.

She'd sort of worried about anyone trying to do that, like maybe it might trigger a breakdown she didn't want to have in front of anyone, but no, nothing.

Re: Before Atton

[craftyladyparts]

"That sounds ominous. What happened?" Jessica asked.

Re: Before Atton

[notconflicted]

The good thing was, there were very, very few people that she would ever have to tell about this. It also meant she was still figuring out how to talk about it.

"My father worked with an imprisoned Sith to create a toxin that would kill all life on Coruscant in order to kill off the Sith," she said slowly. "He had to be killed before he did it."

Re: Before Atton

[craftyladyparts]

"Huh." Jessica said, clearly stunned. "While there were a ton of us down there? Thanks for not letting him. I'm sorry about all of that, but I'm also really glad it didn't go the even worse way."

Re: Before Atton

[notconflicted]

"He would have killed all our troops, all our allies, anyone who stood against him, because he wanted Krayt dead more than anything else," Sia sighed, not looking directly at Jessica. Once again, she was stuck cleaning up the messes that came from his terrible decisions. "I couldn't do much. Antares picked a good day to start acting like himself again."

Re: Before Atton

[craftyladyparts]

"And I owe my life to Draco. Awesome," Jessica sighed. It was mostly so she didn't have to focus on the larger issues for a moment, but she still wasn't thrilled with the idea.

The Oz in her system could probably beat a Sith toxin eventually, right?

"Anyway, I'm glad the good guys won up here, too. Do you have the cover story to explain how your father was one of the good guys, too?" Sia mentioned hiding the truth earlier. She assumed that was so the Empire wouldn't hear that the 'True' Emperor was willing to murder an entire planet needlessly. That kind of spoiled public trust.

Re: Before Atton

[notconflicted]

It reeeeeally did.

"Darth Maladi was on board for quite some time," Sia recited. "She was obviously planted there to assassinate my father in all the chaos of battle, he fought bravely, but was avenged by Antares."

Everything about today was messed up.

Re: Before Atton

[craftyladyparts]

"Got it," Jessica said. "Is there anything I can do to help with... well, not the coverup. I'm not great with coverups. But anything else at all?"

Re: Before Atton

[notconflicted]

"Just don't say anything," Sia told her. "I don't know. I've been on autopilot, getting things settled. The memorial will be tomorrow, and I suppose I'll have to be announced there. If you wanted to run interference for me, I wouldn't mind."

Not much had gotten a reaction out of her yet, but people walking around calling her "Empress" might do it, and no.