~|Day 1, 18:47 - 19:00 GST|~
~| Aboard the Kaggath, Camera: Zanna and Jayda|~
Jayda’s steps were heavy and quick, her foot pulling back to bring her closer to the camera room. Her mind was fixed on the conversation that occurred earlier, between herself and Nazca, and namely realizing how terrible it would’ve been if another Sith knew about its existence. Sish’s venomous words slithered their way into her worry causing her pace to increase, her paranoia growing with each step. She wasn’t about to become some Sith’s pawn before she could gain her revenge.
Coming to the door, it came open causing the zabrak to look and come face to face with a familiar redden face. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion when seeing Zanna within the security room, her gaze shifted to the console and couldn’t help wondering. Casually, Jayda strolled into with the lithe of a feline predator weighing up her prey. She didn’t immediately reply to the surprised greet but instead, digested its earnest nature and counting mentally the occupants within the room. Only about three currently busy individuals ranging from looking over the videos to storing them, ensuring the cell interactions went over smoothly, leaving them as the only two not busy.
“Could ask the same question about you.” Jayda said, eerily calm and cold.
Her arms pulled behind her, falling out of Zanna’s sight while she twisted about in an almost stalking way. “I honestly thought you would be seeking a way to gain the Darth’s favor, not lurking within the security room.”
Zanna resisted the urge to immediately go on the defensive keeping her body language and expression casual and relaxed, despite the disturbing feeling she was being hunted. She had made the mistake of underestimating the Zabrak once before she wouldn’t do it again.
“I did try to meet the Darth at first, but I was informed that the Darth was regrettably occupied. So my petition will have to wait. On my way back I heard of how two Jedi had nearly escaped from Jakali’s grasp, the fool got careless and nearly shot. Seeing an opportunity to study the prisoners and what at least two of them can do, I came over here to ‘lurk’ as you say. The video was enlightening. A human boy appeared to have some degree in Mechu Deru, and was protective of the Twi’lek. More so than one expects with the Jedi. Something we can use.” She calmly, watching Jayda as she moved.
Zanna’s eyes focused on the other sith’s neck, noticing the relatively fresh looking claw marks and minor cuts around her throat. She looked down at the rest of Jayda’s body, seeing the rest of her injuries. “Another ‘lesson’ I suppose? I do hope you didn’t throw away that jar.”
Jayda's eyes hardened. Her head subtly movement, giving away her intentions, as she studied the Sith openly. Each path up and down absorbed the tiniest detail to memory. then compared it to their first interaction together. It wasn't easy. She knew so little about the Sith race and their movements that her impressions could've been dead wrong, but something was certainly off. Zanna's weakness was combat. In Jayda's mind, the woman should've been nervous and unsettled being trapped in this room. Even more clearly seen because Jayda knew her own body language showed aggression towards the other apprentice, signaling possible attack.
It gnawed at Jayda's mind where there was lacking response to her own attempts to draw the advantage. Her ears caught Zanna's words, though they were casted away briefly, while she kept her eyes fixed on Zanna's distance to the door. Part of her begging for something to happen. Her focus, for a moment, was broken when Zanna mentioned her scars. It was all it took, causing the zabrak to break away in habit. Carefully she lied her way past the observation. “It's safe and he doesn't know anything. Either way, none of his lessons have killed me yet. He'd failed to break me. Now nothing he does will ever change that fact. I'm too stubborn because I'm more willing to die on my feet than live on my knees. It's a fact he will never forgot.”
There was a bitterness in her tone over the thought.
Slowly, she turned her head back to face Zanna and lightly stepped forward. Her hand reached out to hover a single, pointed nail underneath the Sith's chin. Her other hand already twitched for a reason to flicker out her light saber and engage the woman, proving if her light saber skills were really as bad as she claimed. “I've heard nothing about a near escape. If it happened recently, how is that word spread so fast to only your ears? The only way you would know was if it happened while you were watching the cameras of the interrogations.”
Zanna raised an eyebrow as Jayda openly studied her body language, likely looking for any sort of lie.
You learn quickly, don’t you? I’ll have to move fast to ensure you don’t become a threat. “Just because none of his lessons have killed you doesn’t mean that someone else might capitalize on it.” She countered, storing away the last comments. They were something to note and plan for.
Zanna tensed as the Zabrak placed a claw underneath her chin, and she took a pointed step backwards. The Zabrak was getting too comfortable. “Just because you’re inexperienced enough to not listen to the right sources, doesn’t mean I am. Soldier’s talk. One of their brethren died, accidentally killed by the human jedi. I didn’t hear how, simply that ‘Lansil died when the Jedi tried to escape.’ followed by a curse at the Sith responsible, mentioning his robot arm.The rest I found out by watching the video.” Zanna stared at Jayda’s continued aggressive stance, then sighed.
“What are you going to do? Attack me for watching a camera video of jakali’s failure and getting ready to leave as you walk in, in front of” Zanna’s head turned to count the other occupants, “three witnesses? Don’t be that rash or I will remind you of why we agreed to train each other. “ Suddenly, the Red Sith’s eyes gleamed with interest. “Why
are you here, and why suddenly so worried about what I’ve watched? Is there something you don’t want others to see? Should I go and watch the rest of the torture room videos?”
Jayda noted the subtle, uncharacteristic tightness spreading through the Sith’s body. The apprentice’s feet took a step back momentarily causing a small, predatory smile to cross her lips at the reaction. It wasn’t because the woman feared her, but because Zanna’s body language finally matched up with her knowledge and the signals she was getting, noting that the woman was unsettled by her aggression. Her smile faded almost the same time it appeared. At the step back, her hand retracted back to her side where fell limply and at Zanna’s sigh, she relaxed. She leaned back upon the console again, Jayda’s figure tilted away to give the sith some breathing room after getting what she wanted, her mind stashing away the mention of conversing with a guard over what happened. It would be something to check into when the fellow apprentice leaves.
“No, I don’t . If I did, I wouldn’t have been so blunt about my body language or acknowledged you were even leaving.” Jayda stated, calmly, her tone relaxed again. She knew the sith would’ve caught the phrasing and slowly realize what she did was intentional, but she left the reasons of why out purposely.“Instead I would’ve killed you later and ended the problem, without wasting my breath.”
She pushed off the console at Zanna’s spark in her eyes, her teeth flickered out to bare them instinctively. “Sadly, a few lessons did stick within my memory. One of them was learning from my mistakes quickly or I wasn’t going to get strong enough to kill him. So I will never make a mistake the same way twice. He punished me and I want to know why, namely what tell I gave and how I can be more aware next time to stop it. A secondary reason is to prevent others from using it against me. Though to be honest, I could merely discover if our mutual acquaintance's recordings were the only log you pulled up easily…”
Zanna stared at Jayda in confusion for a moment as she did an abrupt 180 and relaxed. Slowly she allowed herself to relax as well while she listened to Jayda, immediately picking up on the wording.
She keeps surprising me. Apprentice isn’t like the master, it seems. Useful, but also dangerous. Then she smiled and gave a light laugh. “My my, you’re better at this than we all thought you were. Well played, whatever you wanted to get from it. Killing me wouldn’t have been as easy as you think, even if you did attempt it while I was in your bedroom.” Zanna didn’t need to look at the others in the room to know they were listening, and would make the assumptions she wanted from that comment. The other Sith would pick up on it, eventually. “ I like living just as much as you do.”
Jayda showed little to no altering of her expression when Zanna let out an impressed laugh. Her eyes merely tightened up and her weight leaned back farther, still eyeing the woman before her in a predatory way. She knew what the Sith was doing as a spark of hatred wafted through her. It spiked and ceased, being bottled back like many in the past for better use. Though how to accomplish it was a much greater challenge, one she refused any to teach her… yet.
“Then you shouldn’t be among the Sith.” Jayda stated bluntly, not bothering to correct any assumptions toward the rumors Zanna started. It would only serve to make things worse and Sish already knew something was occurring between them. “As for being good at this game, if you weren’t sloppy then it wouldn’t have mattered.”
She felt minor satisfaction knowing that it was still easy to draw out the Zabraks irritation.
That at least, she hadn’t misjudged on. Zanna smiled despite her carefully smothered fury.
Insolent little impure bitch.. “Sloppy about what?” She asked, “You got too close and I stepped back. You showed continuous aggression and I reminded you why attacking would be a bad idea.” Zanna shrugged. “If you’re fine with someone being that aggressive in your personal space, that’s your own decision. I prefer to have distance.”
“Naturally.” Jayda merely commented. Her tone was clear she didn’t believe the woman, but said nothing farther.
Zanna smiled again, adding one more bit to the rumor she was starting, just to be safe. “Well, I do like being close sometimes. As you well know.” Her tone was heavy with implications, just in case anyone listening wasn’t smart enough to understand.
“I’m sure Jakali will in time since he’s more your speed and tastes. A Zabrak’s… a little too rough for for someone of a petite nature. Rather not have you die when your bones broke during the act.” Jayda stated, her tone subtly snarling and warning Zanna to shut down the conversation. Her body had already pulled upward into upright stance once more to show she was through playing these little rumor games.
Zanna’s eyes were wide with surprise and her tone had innocent confusion in it. “But that’s not what you did a few hou-Oh.” She glanced at the others in the room, one of whom she was saw quickly glancing back to their screens. The red sith looked embarrassed and coughed, changing the subject.
Just a lovers quarrel...she doesn’t want people to know, I’m too innocent to know that. Zanna acknowledged the truth behind Jayda’s words about cameras, but kept to the lie anyway. The truth wouldn’t help her yet. “Back to your original question… you could bring up recently viewed videos, yes. But you have no idea who viewed them, and assuming I saw this ‘lesson’ of yours and plan to use it against you is not only false, but foolish. Though I am now very curious as to what about that ‘lesson’ makes you so worried.” Zanna took a few steps towards the terminal she had left, looking back at the Zabrak. “Shall we watch it together, and see what happened?”
“Preferably not, taking a beating from Sish is bad enough without an audience.” Jayda replied, her own body moved to block the sith and open the path to the exit. This little game was getting no way and while she learned more than she needed, it was dragging on for too long. Namely as she wanted to check something in Zanna’s absence. “Besides, you might want to get to the Jedi before Sish tears them to rags and you have nothing to work with. Unless you rather learn after the fact when it’s too late?”
“Very well.” Zanna said, stopping as the Zabrak cut her path off. She could only hope that the Zabrak didn’t find out that she had seen the long conversation in Ul’Zabrak, much less that she had a copy on her. Zanna nodded once as Jayda suggested she leave. There was no use in staying and the other Sith, as infuriating as she was, spoke the truth. “I’ll see you at our training session then. When is that, by the way?”
“Tomorrow, I have to make sure to acquire some swords first.” Jayda answered in a neutral tone. Watching the woman, her smug face dropped from her face and sank into dismay for a moment. It made the zabrak’s anger fade for the time to see the realization she could easily be killed during a training session dawn on the woman as she turned on heel, then left the room. Softly, Jayda spoke more to herself, not caring if the those within the room heard or not. “I would’ve ignored you… had you never made it known you existed.”
Letting the words hang on the room’s silence, she made her way to the terminal to check on several logs from the outside security camera and history to disrupting her blunder with the Jedi. It would take several minutes causing her to idly browse the feeds for something interesting which she would download, saving for a time later.
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