The Price of Failure

[General Dan]

The lights were dim in Dan's office aboard the Dauntless, and his desk lit only by the dossier he'd been looking at for the past hour. It was the itemized sum of the life of Zem Vymes, the Jedi Knight turned high value prisoner, now once again free from his grasp.

He'd already sent out summons for Lok to be brought to him. This was not a social call.

Even tempered by his false identity, the outrage of this most recent failure was showing through his yellow-stained eyes. She'd let Vymes live out of some atrophied sentimentality or some false hope that he could be of some use in a way other than him dying.

Now her folly was exposed, and they had very little time to correct this mistake.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

His call had been expected, and it was with a worried expression that the young lieutenant had delivered the order for her to see the General. He knew nothing of the nature of the call, only that the tone in Dan's voice was one that he'd hoped to never hear again.

When Lok s'Ilancy stepped through the doorway, she paused momentarily as it shut behind her. There was no fear in her eye, and despite the dimmed lights and the brooding figure ahead of her, she gave no outward indication of apprehension at what was to come. She had prepared herself well enough, and now it was only a matter of weathering the storm of her Master's anger.

Quiet footsteps brought her to stand before his desk, and squaring her shoulders back, s'Il folded her hands behind her. She would not speak first; no, that much she would allow him.

[General Dan]

At Lok's approach, Dan terminated the holo in front of him, steepling his fingers together.

"What did you think would happen?"

His voice was even and calm.

"With Vymes."

He wanted it from her own mouth.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

For the barest of moments she remained quiet, only looking down at him as she contemplated exactly how to answer. Given her current position, it was necessary to tread lightly.

Her voice, like his, was level and without hint of emotion.

"What sort of answer are you wishing to hear?"

[General Dan]

"You keep a Jedi Knight under lock and key indefinitely for some reason, and against my advice."

His fist slammed on the table.

"I'm all ears, Loklorien s'Ilancy. If you're implying you have more than one answer to that question, I'll take all of them!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She frowned at him, a look of minor disappointment coloring her features. But for his sake she went on.

"From your own mouth you swore to me; he would die by your hand. Each time that I asked you insisted this same thing. And when each opportunity came and went, you did nothing.

"So, I took matters into my own hands and found another use for him."

Her tone became almost flippant then.

"I'm sure he is well on his way to the Wheel by now, if not there already."

[General Dan]

"I'm sure of this as well."

Dan was forced to agree with his apprentice.

"No doubt once the Jedi hear what he has to say, they will take drastic steps to disperse. We will lose our chance to take care of them in a single strike."

His mood darkened.

"What is the Jedi convoy's last known location?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

An idle gesture of her hand was the only response given, and s'Il took the break in his outburst to slowly lower herself to sit in one of the chairs before his desk. She remained stiff however, knowing that it would not be wise to relax her guard just yet.

"Think harder than that, Dan Thrule. You are a wise man.

"Where they are at this moment or even in the near future is nothing to concern yourself over."

She watched his features, reading his expression and gauging what his reactions might be.

"They will come to us."

[General Dan]

Dan gave pause, attempting to see what his apprentice saw in this fiasco.

"A handful, perhaps. If they are aware of the threat, I have no doubt they'll try to destroy us, as will those who they might convince in the Alliance."

He crossed his arms.

"But you have something entirely different in mind, no doubt."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The muscles of her jaw clenched, and as she stared at him her scar seemed to burn; she felt each acute sting as if he'd only just delivered his 'gift' moments before. Whether it was nothing more than a memory pain or something that he was causing himself, she did not care.

Her scowl deepened.

"You do not trust me?"

[General Dan]

"I do, which is why you're here before me, explaining yourself. You're a stranger to failure, which is why I am certain you won't fail me again."

He held his last words in the air as a constant, and what was unsaid was to speak of the terrible consequences if those words proved not to be true.

"Continue."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"I have not failed you."

In her voice was a steely conviction.

"I have done only what you ask of me. You wish for me to brand the Jedi as untrustworthy, to marginalize them and give cause for the Alliance to destroy them.

"I have put into motion just that very thing. When Zem speaks with the Council, what do you think will happen?"

Silence descended upon the two, and s'Il watched with deep intent at the look on his face. Surely he would see and understand, and her next words were low as she prodded him.

"Think hard."

[General Dan]

"You're hoping the Jedi will launch into a pre-emptive strike."

Dan nodded.

"That is certainly possible. If they do, it will make it easier to galvanize the Alliance into acting decisively against our enemies. Of course, we will be striking back against an enemy that is much harder to track down than they are currently. I forsee that the convoy will either disperse, or they will certainly remove any links that remain to the Alliance.

While your expectation is sound, we must also find some way to keep the Jedi convoy from vanishing."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

At any other time she would have offered a thin, joyless smirk. Instead, at this particular moment, s'Il remained stoic, her facade as expressionless as stone.

"The Masters will find themselves at the Gate to Weit-Fällt soon enough, and those who are left will be only the inexperienced and young."

[General Dan]

"Yes, the masters we fight today were the younglings of Palpatine's purge. I won't tolerate the Jedi escaping to the far reaches just to lick their wounds for another generation."

Dan spoke with more edge to his voice.

"I've bided my time for centuries. The Jedi must fall now."

He thought about this.

"Of course, even if some do fall through the cracks, perhaps we have other options."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il let him ponder his own last words in silence, as she hoped that it would ease the simmering anger he held tightly in check.

"I have not failed you," she repeated finally, her voice quiet and reaffirming.

[General Dan]

He scrutinized her, remaining silent for some time, but at last letting his hard expression relax.

"Perhaps you haven't yet. I have a task for you in the meantime that may be useful in giving us contingencies. My agents have reported the possibility of one of Palpatine's secret vaults still remaining intact."

He leaned back in his seat.

"I want you to find this vault, break into it, and return the contents to me."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

This caused her to lean forward a slight bit, her hands gripping the armrests of her chair as her eye took on a stunned, pleading look.

"I am not finished here though," the Lupine protested, "You cannot send me away now, not when we are so close... "

[General Dan]

Dan paused, irritated.

"You're wanting to stay at my side and play bodyguard for when the Jedi finally decide to strike? Noble of you, but I think I will brave the storm well enough."

He paused, curious.

"Unless you had something further?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her previous shock transformed into something new, as if taken to a new plateau of understanding, and in its' place was indignant anger. Anger at his dismissive words; anger at his very trivialization of all her efforts. Efforts that had been taken for his will and desire. Efforts for him.

There was the briefest of moments when she could see, in her mind's eye, the two of them from only a few short months past. She had spoken of coming to new understandings, of becoming a wholly new creature as her growth within the Dark Side progressed; she had also told him that at each of these stages he would have to reclaim her as his until he could do so no longer. It had seemed a notion that he'd savored.

The reality of this new awareness, and of everything that he had driven into her, had ascended to something new.

"I will not be shunted off to some impossible errand, Thrule," she hissed. Still perched at the edge of her seat, the Lupine let her own sickened, yellow gaze match his. By now it was so comforting to let her mask fall - even if it was only partially.

"You will not take my actions as your own, and you will not claim the rewards of my work. Your patience has brought you this far, but I am the one who will place the blade in your hand when you did not take it up for yourself."

Her own fist came down forcefully on the armrest before coming up to point an accusatory finger at him as her next words growled out from behind bared teeth.

"Never forget that."

[General Dan]

All of her sound and fury, and yet Dan waited to get to the heart of the matter.

"I chose you for a purpose, Loklorien s'Ilancy. I have no doubt you have nurtured your position among our enemies to strike at them decisively. So then tell me, how do you plan twist that knife? The time for that strike is now. You are my apprentice, and I have taught you many things, and you've taken my teachings and embraced them."

The General arched an eyebrow.

"So tell me, how will you strike?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She stared at him for long moments, as if to allow her small outburst to settle fully into his mind. Would he truly understand what heights she had just risen to? Her awareness filled his office, spreading outward to wash over her surroundings.

Finally, she spoke, her voice deceptively gentle and soothing, yet with an undercurrent of unmistakeable malevolence.

"You speak of the Jedi dispersing; I will tell you now that even if they do, you will find them. I have placed in your hands the means to find them wherever they go - there is a tracker, hidden aboard Whaladon. When they hide, you will know where... when they run, you will know where they run to."

From an inner pocket of her uniform jacket, s'Il pulled out a small datachip. She held it up.

"The frequency is here."

And without warning she closed her fingers around the chip, once more taking it from his sight.

"But more than that. I have killed for you - younglings, whose lightsabres are now yours as trophies. Of course they are as you say - a prelude to the true intentions of your will. To that end I have taken a man of my own blood who is as much machine as he is beast."

Did her Master know of Vega? s'Il had not explicitly hidden the Van-Derveld Lupine, but she had not outwardly spoken of him either, and Dan himself had never pried.

"This is the man that I have chosen to set upon the masters. To wipe them from existence and send them to the Gate of Souls."

[General Dan]

"Ah yes, Van Derveld."

Dan mulled over her strategy. His agents had informed him of Lok's pet attack dog. It was a liberty he was comfortable with her taking. It clearly wasn't suitable to be an apprentice, and it would be both dangerous and disposable.

"Good."

Of course, her plan still assumed the Jedi would cower in the convoy and not go to ground. It involved much risk and assumption, but it was an asset that could be useful if others dried up.

"I approve. You've acted with foresight of our coming war."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il took in his words with her scowl remaining, and rising to stand the Lupine looked down at him with a cautionary glare. The chip was tossed angrily at him.

"Then do not accuse me of failure."

[General Dan]

He caught the chip, his attention not wavering in the slightest.

"Just see to it this task is done."

He wouldn't abide this tantrum. She would purchase her vindication with success, not recrimination.

"We'll talk later."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Of that I have no doubt."

She looked down at him a moment longer, her feelings and emotions pushing the barriers that she held them so carefully in check with. She had gone past the first barrier of his control, past her notion that the two were meant to coexist within the sphere of power that he had spent so many centuries coveting. Yet, even despite this revelation, and after her outburst, s'Il took pains to quell the swell of resistance and indignant anger that had risen up. If he was not careful he would find himself challenged with increasingly more frequency. Unless her Master reasserted himself once more over this new creature that he had chosen as his own, he would be used and then cast aside.

"Unless there is anything else you wish to accuse me of, I will take my leave."