Retreat to Fight Another Day

[Arisu Lei]

"That's why it took so long for me to get here. Not like i couldn't have made my way here myself, but a Master at my side would have made it easier. Unless I came to snoop, which I could do." Ari said with a smirk. "I do wonder if that's why we're in the state of things now, because there ARE Terrans and other human-ish races that have these abilities as well and no one to shepherd them and train them or they ignore it because of age. Granted if you said you wanted to learn how to the same martial arts I do, I'd say 'come back to me 15 years ago' but one of my old sensei's told me and I'll never forget it. Age and ability do not cancel each other out. A lack of age doesn't mean more ability or less or a greater age the same. The teacher comes when the student is ready." she rolled her eyes. "He liked writing for fortune cookies... but it IS true. Neither of us are children like some of the others and yet... we can hold our own. The dark side of the Iljuna does still tempt us from time to time... like Nicholas, I rather prefer the title of 'grey', something in between, a balance if you will. I'm no angel, I have done a lot of very messy, very bad things in the name of duty and some in the name of passion."

[Rebecca Talon]

Rebecca picked up a violet crystal that had been haphazardly placed back on a ledge. Someone had obviously looked at it an rejected it. "It is interesting that you should say that," Rebecca began tossing the crystal to Arisu. "Violet is the mark of a powerful Jase'dasis. Someone who uses powers from both the light side and the dark side. A Jase who walks the fine line between both disciplines. It takes an incredibly strong will to tap into the dark side and bend it to your will and not yourself fall to its allure. This may be heresy to say, but I don't believe the dark side is nessicaraly evil, and neither is the light side inherently good. It's what you do with it, that makes all the difference."

[Arisu Lei]

"I never quite bought into that whole binary, good or bad no middle ground. Look at binary coding, Ones aren't bad nor are zeros good, they're both needed and not even in equal numbers." Arisu said as she took the crystal and closed her eyes. "Oh this is a good one... I think it'll do nicely." she put it into her hip pocket and looked at Becca. "So do you think we'll be able to stop an infinite number of enemies as infinitely twisted as Dominus and Bellatrix? Or are we looking at total and utter destruction?"

[Rebecca Talon]

She hesitated, and thought for a second. "We have to," she said thoughtfully. "If not it won't matter. Dominus can't risk taking us alive. We are threat to him even unarmed. He'll have fun with our families, before killing them, and our friends shall be his slaves. That is an outcome we cannot allow to happen. I don't care about myself. I'm an old woman. Lived two good lifetimes worth now. I now keep on for my family."

[Arisu Lei]

"I've always known I was expendable... I don't have anyone in my life that's really dependent on me. No children. No lover." Arisu said and sighed. "Sure there've been a few I've loved but no ring. No kids. The order is pretty much all I really have, sure Decker made me a part of her new SHIELD and mother keeps trying to get me to help her out, but... my heart isn't in that as much as it used to be. Plus... I'm seeing where her influence corrupted Julie. Even me. We got a lot of our bad sides from her. You do know we had a brother, a little younger than Julie. Pushed even harder than us girls, and that's saying a lot, killed himself on a mission. Mother didn't shed a tear. Didn't really blame her training on it. Just 'that's what happens to a spy' and left it at that. We didn't fear death, if it happened, it happened. Nothing we did wrong, just the way things are.'."

[Rebecca Talon]

"Your sister..." Rebecca hesitated. "She and I.... Well, to put it bluntly got along like gasoline and matches. What Nick saw in her I'll never know, but what happened to her. Well, I'm sorry. She deserved better than that."

[Arisu Lei]

"I'm not entirely upset... I mean she killed our father or at least let him get killed. I forgave her but I didn't absolve her. Alternate personality in her head or not she was still a manipulative bitch for most of her life." Ari chuckled. "Nick and our family knew each other when they were still in high school and he was kinda awkward and nerdy. The enhancements gave him a lot of confidence and actually made him kinda hot in more ways than one. Julie pussy whipped him, hot little Asian girl, into nerds and was his first... Nancy and you didn't really stand a chance. She had him wrapped around her finger before he put a ring on it. I suspect the only reason they got back together so often were the kids and that was a tactical move on her part. Nick would do anything for his kids. Part of the reason why I tried to make a pass at him. He was a good father, even when he was young. BUT he needed someone that matched him intellectually and wasn't a danger junkie. We're danger junkies, like it or not Becca. There's something to be done, we're suited and booted and ready to go."

[Rebecca Talon]

Rebecca sighed, "I wouldn't say I'm a danger junkie. I was perfectly happy making terrible paintings in Colorado when the Dominion war started. Then I make captain, and then Admirals McKenna and T'ver made me an Admiral. Felt rather rude just to up and leave them. Even if I did end up in a Cardassian P.OW. camp during the C.O.B.R.A war. Then the Pythus Sector blows up and sends the Erebus twenty years into the future. I come out, everything I know has changed, my entire family is dead except for Aimee. I didn't know what else to do so I just stayed in. Every time I try to get out, some danger comes along and drags me back in kicking and screaming. Do you think I want any of this? You're a nutter if you do. Duty demands it, and I do it. I must protect my family and friends."

[Arisu Lei]

"I always did wonder the full the story why you disappeared for so long." Arisu said and chuckled lightly. "So maybe less Danger Junkie and more Danger Magnet. Either way, you're a woman of action and that's why I like you. Still... the quiet life doesn't suit you or you would still be in New Honolulu under an alias and raising your kids." she cocked her head slightly. "If the quiet life suited me I would have stayed in San Diego or that mansion in Brentwood Cali. If the quiet life suited Julie, she would have stayed an Admiral's wife and only appeared for banquets and official functions. Opened the martial arts academy she always talked about. Julie DID have a nicer side she rarely let others see, we saw it more than you did. Nick managed to cut through her crap and brought out a softer, more tender side. She was a seductress but she was seduced too." Ari looked around the caverns. "There have been times when I've felt her, when I'm thinking about her, wondering what I could have done to save her. Then I keep hearing in my head 'I got what I deserved, there was nothing you could have done.' not sure if it was her or my own dark twisted brain trying to make sense of it."

[Rebecca Talon]

"Danger magnet... yeah... that's me all right. You think the quiet life doesn't suit me, but you've never seen me living that life. But you're definitely right about one thing. I am a woman of action. Maybe even a bit of a control freak. I don't like sitting on the sidelines letting someone else do all the work. The Starfleet admiralty and I had more than one scrape-up. I needed to be on a ship in the middle of things, and they wanted me behind a desk in San Francisco. I told them the Erebus was my flagship and that was that. My dad taught me to never ask someone to do a job you'd never do yourself. As far as hearing your sister..." She shrugged and looked around. "With the ijulna anything is possible. The old stories talk about ancient masters coming back from the dead to advise and help the living."