Chapter Text
Nozomi Toujou could not remember the last time her heart was warm. She remembers the sickly cold feelings that she has, each time an innocent person is killed at her hand, yet she could not seem to feel anything but the cold. She’s forgotten it. As desperate as she gets, the feelings just can’t return to her heart and she is faced with the cold, harsh, pull of the Sith. It was her fate that she fell to this path, and she forced her bitter past from her memory. Except for one particular individual.
Eli Ayase.
A very old friend and lover, someone who had seen her through thick and thin. They even trained under the same Masters in the Jedi Temple, but the elders were frightened by Nozomi’s power. She had a vastly different approach to her studies as a youngling and padawan. The girl always believed in luck, in the study of fortune telling, and the ideals of a foreseer. Eli always denied the elders views on her best friend, and tried to follower her own studies to become a Jedi, while still supporting Nozomi and what she believed in.
Nozomi could remember the troubles she had with the force. She often had nightmares when she was a youngling, which turned out to be visions. When the visions would occur, the girl would lose control of the force, and the atmosphere in the room would change. Things could levitate and crash back to the floor, or people could be thrown back from her. The visions terrified her, but Eli helped her through it. Eli comforted her when she was on the edge of screaming. Eli made her feel safe when she thought it was the end.
When the two became padawans, they were taken by different Jedi Masters, and Nozomi was unsure if she could handle being away from Eli for years on end. She had spoken her thoughts to the council leader, and they refused the request of the girl. They reminded her about attraction and dependence, which for the almost millionth time, she sat through it and accepted it. Her mind might have accepted it, but her heart did not.
The time came when they separated, and it was the hardest thing that Nozomi ever faced. She trained with her Master, fought alongside her Master, and lived with her Master for eleven years. Nozomi heard nothing from Eli and her whereabouts, but she hoped that she would return around the same time that Eli returned to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. It turned out that Eli had actually received guidance and training from the Jedi elders while Nozomi was off training for the trials to become a Jedi Knight.
The two friends completed their training as Padawans and then became Jedi Knights, Eli even fortunate enough to excel her ranks and study among the ranks of the Jedi Masters and council members. A year or two later, both were Jedi Masters.
Nozomi, at this point, still trusted in Eli and even developed feelings for her. She tried to abstain from love as she trained to become a Jedi, but she felt that it was always there. It was before the Jedi Masters were to take in padawan students of their own, and they decided to leave on a mission together. One day, Nozomi confessed her feelings for Eli during a trip across the galaxy, her heart unable to take the lies and deception anymore.
Eli felt touched at the confession, but reminded Nozomi of their oath as Jedis. The words went over Nozomi’s head, and she even got to the point of begging for love in return. Eli returned the love for only a little time, before fleeing from her friend in hope of meditation and guidance from her elders. The reticule and controversy of two Jedis being in love was more than most could handle, but Nozomi didn’t care. She just couldn’t live without Eli, but she ran from her.
Nozomi woke up that next day, her bed missing the person she had given her all to, and she felt like a fool. She felt the cold set in, the anger… the rage, set in. The feelings made her feel… better. The bitter cold replacing the warmth of trust and love, all of the feelings she had come to understand after years of refusing to feel them immediately left her. Rage was all she could feel. It ate away at her faster than she could try to stop it, and soon… it was too late.
Nozomi, being blinded by rage, tracked down the Master she had trained with for years, and murdered them. She accused them of forcing her to hide her feelings, although it was part of the Jedi Law, she couldn’t… No, would not accept their disgusting rule. She realized that she had finally made the first step into the Dark Side, and it made her feel powerful, unstoppable, victorious; things she never knew that could make her this happy.
She was then in pursue of the finding the same people who wanted what she wanted, setting a goal to join them, and finally have better views of herself. On the outer edge of Coruscant, Sith forces found her, instead of her original goal. They told her how her strong ties to the force and her exceptional strength was nothing to fear, and Nozomi felt at peace again. They told her that they were a part of the Galactic Empire, under the guidance of a Chancellor Nozomi had never heard of. As it turned out, the Chancellor was a Sith. It was the one thing Nozomi knew the Jedi were looking for while they dabbled with politics in the Galactic Senate, they were too preoccupied with the Clone Wars.
The Sith lord requested that she eliminate a strange race of people who colonized near Empire bases on a odd planet she had never traveled to, as they were thought to work against them. Nozomi did as she was told, channelling all of her anger and frustration into her strength. The lingering rage from her one night stand only fueled the flames, and she went beserk. The villages were wiped out with only Nozomi and a few soldiers with her. News of a massacre was passed all over the galaxy, and the Sith was feared more as the Sith Master gained strength. The Galactic Empire was so close to their new beginnings.
After the Sith Lord recognized her excellent obedience after she executed the innocent race near their bases, she was bestowed with a new name. A name that finally meant that she met her mark as a Sith Master.
Her name became Darth Arcanius.
She waited for the day when she would encounter Jedi Master Ayase again, just so she could gain her revenge. It was the only unsatisfied emotion left for her. Nozomi foresaw visions of seeing Eli, but they never came true. The day was coming, she could not grasp when though.
--
Sith Master Nozomi Toujou had been having visions for fifteen years.
--
The Chancellor finally got their way shortly after the Clone Wars ended. The Old Republic was over and the New Order was in session. But that was almost ten years ago when they got the beginning they wanted. Arcanius was given a higher title, and became a long-time friend to the new Dictator. The Dark Lord gave guidance to Arcanius, since they still saw specks of light in her heart, questioning quite often why she was still like this. Usually, she didn't have an answer for them. The specks of light gave Nozomi trouble, and she found herself thinking about if Eli had survived the destruction of the Jedi Temples.
It has been years since Nozomi had seen her, and she began to enjoy not having her around. Yet the revenge still burned and bubbled at her heart, or what was left of it, and she exerted her anger on goons of the New Rule. It eventually came to the point where they were losing dozens of workers each month, and she then forced herself into a period of solitude.
She kept her title of Darth Arcanius, although still referred to herself as Nozomi Toujou to others, except her Lord and other Sith Masters, if there were any.
The Sith Master was still expected to guide and monitor troops and other warriors of the Empire, but she lost her patience one too many times. She got a deck of tarot cards for herself, usually flipping through the deck when she was ready to lose herself, and she instead returned with a snarky comeback and a fortune telling. The other soldiers eventually grew used to her antics and manipulative actions, as she used the force as an offensive option than a defensive one. Nozomi came off as rather abrasive, and she had little to no soft corners. She fought for herself, and only herself.
Nozomi was now waltzing around the corridors of an Empire Starship, glancing out the windows at the galaxy or making fun of the troops while giving them fortunes, mostly lying the entire time, but she was having a good time. She ran over dozens of different outcomes that could possibly happen while she was walking around the massive ship, and even humored herself with the absolutely preposterous outcomes. Her brain rattled with different ideas of what she could do if she left the ship right now, but she was too loyal to her Dark Lord.
Plum hair bounced behind her and fell over the deep ebony robes that clothed her, and the fabrics cascaded to the floor, comfortably fitting her. She walked with such determination, that it seemed like nothing bothered her. Occasionally, she stopped to gaze at the stars, and when she did, her mind left her, wishing to dance along with the stars, or even with Eli…
Nozomi stopped herself. She could not be thinking about her could she? It was her fault that Nozomi unleashed her anger, her fault that Nozomi was miserable. Nothing filled up in her heart but rage. The atmosphere started to almost warm up from the anger, and the starship workers noticed it right away. First, the Sith Master’s hair started to rise from their resting place against her robes, and her hands were clenched so tightly, that even a crowbar couldn’t pry them apart. Then she turned to a single worker, her eyes a fiery orange and red, and rose her hand to them.
The worker pulled their hands to their neck, feeling the air being strangled out of their windpipe. Nozomi was choking the innocent starship legate, her eyes wide and a blank expression on her lips as she tightened her hand around the force.
“Cease this nonsense Arcanius. Let them go.” said a captain of some sort, her hands wrapped tightly around a pistol in her hands. The blaster was pointed at Nozomi’s head, and the captain narrowed her eyes. “If you don’t let them go, I’ll be forced to shoot you.”
Nozomi turned her head slowly, stopping to stare at the short one with the gun. She observed for a mere second, before lowering her hand. The worker fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air.
“Take them to a medical bay to recover,” the captain spun her gun before resting it back against her hip. “My name is Tsubasa Kira, I’m the captain of controls on this starship. You may be a Sith Master, but you have no right to attack members on my starcraft. Understood?” Kira’s lips were in a tight frown, and she repositioned the hat upon her head.
Nozomi chuckled, the force returning to her. “That’s quite presumptuous of you to approach a Sith like me, in that manner.” she smiled, folding her hands together. “I’m not surprised you would find me here, but as I could tell, and from what you were thinking,” her eyes trailed up to meet Kira’s.
“You already knew that.”
Kira didn’t return her smile. “I’d prefer if you didn’t look into my thoughts, Arcanius.” she crossed her arms, turning to the window. “I’ll ask you nicely, once more, if you could keep yourself under control on my starship. I would hate to go right to the Lord. You know how they can be, so I hope nothing bad will happen to either of us.”
Nozomi smiled deviously, nodding softly. “Aye, aye, Captain Kira. I’ll return to my confinement, just fetch me when we’ve landed on Lok Mæw.” she said, turning halfway. “I want to be ready for my chat with Queen Yazawa.”
The Sith walked off, closing her eyes as she walked back to her quarters. Her arms folded across her chest, and her mind drew a blank. She ran over a few things that she wanted to discuss with the ungrateful and spoiled queen of Lok Mæw. It had been an awfully long time since Nozomi had been on the lush green planet, the memories of training there as a padawan among the odd animals and crystal blue waters passed through her mind. The memories there were certainly pleasant, but something bubbled inside her that it was going to change.
A strong sense of distrust and anger came to Nozomi from the force, although she could not sense where it was coming from. Her powers were not as powerful as she had hoped. It could have just been the anticipation she felt, since she hasn’t returned to Lok Mæw in years.
Nozomi shut the door to her quarters, sitting legs crossed on what was her bed. She began to meditate, reflecting on all that happened. It did come to her that she had lost control of herself and the force again, but she felt stronger; something that usually did not result from one of her episodes.
After Nozomi would have one of her scenes, she would lock herself in her quarters or another room that gave her complete silence and confinement. Her Lord often advised that she get complete control of the force, so she could become the strongest Sith ever, and she liked the sound of that.
One day it would come to her.