There were many emotions, not only from within but also from the man before her. Keiran had always had strong Force Sense abilities, but for whatever reason, her empathy had been particularly strong. As she stood here, all of the feelings she saw in her eyes, she also felt through the Force, as though they were her own emotions. She knew they were not, and after years of training, she had learned to separate those that were her own from those that were not, to maintain control, but still, it wasn’t easy. It certainly wasn’t pleasant, either, but she accepted them, because she knew that she was the cause of them all, so she deserved to feel them all. Even when he shut his mind away, to prevent any connection, she guessed, his emotions could still be felt.<br/><br/>“Agrees is a strong word. But I’m a survivor. I will adapt and thrive wherever I am placed. So, I suppose you aren’t entirely wrong,” she shrugged, keeping her voice level. His arrogant presumptions were a bit irritating to her at present, but she wouldn’t act on them, knowing that he had his reasons, and refusing to make the first move this time. “That’s an awfully presumptuous and narrow-minded statement, anyway,<span style="font-style: italic">old friend</span>,” she pointed out. “You still cling to childish ideas that all things are good or evil, wrong or right, but it’s naïve to believe things are so black and white. There are Jedi who murder, just as there are Sith who do not. Perhaps one is more prone than the other but condemning an entire group of people based on the deeds of some because you believe your cause to be right is a dangerous thing,” she warned.<br/><br/>She quirked a brow curiously at his next words, wondering what it was that he found ironic. She was surprised when he mentioned being the son of two Sith. The last time they’d seen one another, he hadn’t known who his parents were. His next words cut deeply, but she guessed they were meant to. He was lashing out at her, and she couldn’t blame him, exactly. He blamed her, for everything, as far as she could tell. It wasn’t fair, but then, nothing about this, about either of their lives had ever been fair, so why should this be?<br/><br/>She finally drew her hilt when he switched to a dueling stance and she sensed that he would attack. Her white blade sprung to life as she dropped into a defensive stance, blocking his blade before it could reach her. In truth, his lightsaber could never cut her as deeply as his words, but she had no intention of letting him wound her. She felt many emotions bubbling beneath the surface as he continued to speak, to the point that she wanted to scream at him and beat some sense into him since she gathered that talking probably wasn’t going to do much.<br/><br/>“I disagree!” she retorted as she parried another of his attacks, her free hand pushed his back with the Force before she leaped towards him, bring her saber crashing down on his with an overhand strike augmented with the Force to strengthen the blow. “You never failed me because I never wanted you to stop me. It wouldn’t have mattered if you’d told me things might have ended up this way because there are many futures far worse than this one, and if there was even the slightest chance at a better future, I’d have taken it,” she told him as she continued her offensive strikes.<br/><br/>“I might have failed in most of my goals, true enough,” she replied with a grunt, crashing down with another heavy overhanded Djem So strike, this time pressing down with more strength, to keep him in place for a little longer. “But I succeeded in the most important objective. You survived!” she said before leaping backward with a mid-air backflip and landing several feet away. “Perhaps I did fail you, and you changed after all, but it could have been far worse,” she replied as a dark frown marred the visage of her pretty face.<br/><br/>“What is truly ironic is that you claim to be a Jedi and look down on me for where I ended up… yet which one of us attacks and mercilessly slaughters others, hmm? Which of us acts out of vengeance, out of a desire for blood?” she asked with a curious tilt of her head as she blocked one of his blows, her grey-blue eyes staring into his as the two blades sparked and crackled between them. “I wonder… which of us has taken more lives?” she wondered before shrugging. “But I suppose that, and all of your choices, they’re all<span style="font-style: italic">my fault</span>, not yours,” she chuckled mirthlessly.<br/><br/>“I might be a Sith, but at least I own up to my own choices, to who I became. I don’t blame it on someone else!” she said as she finally began to press her assault, switching effortlessly between forms IV, V, and VI with a pattern as unpredictable as the strikes of form VII. “If this is what you became under the tutelage of a Jedi…” she frowned as she dodged one of his strikes and leaped backward. “Well, anyhow, it looks like our time is up,” she noted just before one of their assault transports appeared behind him.<br/><br/>“Until we meet again… Zyan,” she finally spoke his name, an indiscernible expression crossing her face as she did. Moments later, she charged forward, dropping low and sweeping his legs out from under him so that he fell back towards her. Before he could land on her, though, she used the Force to blast him up, where his men could swoop in and snatch him up. She could have simply allowed him to leave, but their reinforcements would arrive any minute, and those she had knocked out before were beginning to rouse. She couldn’t very well allow them to believe she was letting him go, and it was probably easier for him this way, too.<br/><br/>“What are you waiting for?” she asked one of the officers as their reinforcements arrived only moments later. “Go after them!” she commanded the group, knowing full well that it was too late. But then, she didn’t actually<span style="font-style: italic">want</span>them to succeed, so that hardly mattered. “The rest of you, help the wounded, gather up any prisoners, and start cleaning this mess up,” she gestured as she commanded the soldiers. It might not have been her base to command, but no one would dare disobey her, especially with the base commander currently still out of commission.<br/><br/>“Shouldn’t more of us go after them, ma’am?” one of the other officers asked. “No. That would be pointless. It’s unlikely that we will catch up to them, anyway. Throwing more men at them won’t change that. Your assistance is more useful to the men down here,” she explained as patiently as possible, although it was clear that she thought explaining this was a waste of time, as it should have been obvious. “Right. We will get to work right away,” the man saluted her before he began ordering his troops to carry out various tasks.<br/><br/>“Guess that leaves me with giving a report to the Dark Council,” she sighed softly to herself, glancing up towards the sky for a brief moment before she headed back inside the base. On the way back to the command center, she used the Force to wake any soldiers who remained unconscious. She then returned to the place where she had been when this had all started and contacted the Dark Council. She was certain they would grumble about the enemy escaping but considering that the base and most of the soldiers had survived, they could only complain so much. Still, it would be a hassle to listen to them until they figured that much out.