TIME DISPLACED
Tara sat on the edge of the medical bed with a heavy blanket around her shoulders. She had her knees up and was resting her chin on them as she tried to calm the fury that her mind was in. Her eyes stung with the remnants of blindness that was resultant of carbonite freezing and her chest hurt as she concentrated on getting her lungs to breathe in oxygen. Her body was weak and she could feel it and it only made sense that it came from the carbonite.
She tried to figure out what was going on. The last thing she could recall herself doing was… she couldn't remember. She reached up and massaged her temples before she felt her hair. It was thick and partially matted and she groaned. She rubbed her face and tired to think, tried to calm herself, tried to do… something.
"What the kriff is going on?" she asked aloud. No one was there to hear her or answer her.
No one was there… Tara had trouble believing that this was the case. When she came out of the carbonite she heard those around her mumbling how something as old as that block couldn't possibly have a living entity within it. Tara didn't know how old "old" was but she automatically didn't like the connotations of the murmurs and comments as they whisked her away to the infirmary and there she sit while she waits. Her clothes were taken away and she was given medical robes to wear in the meantime. Her weapons were taken as well as her datapad and anything else she had on her person at the time.
She didn't have much, now that she thought more about it. In fact, she didn't have a datapad at all. She remembered waking up previously in a room with her hands bound in electronic cuffs. Her headset was removed, her blaster was confiscated and her datapad was taken but for whatever unknown reason she was allowed to keep her lightsaber. Crazy logic but later on she was glad she had it.
The recall of the bright, blinding light and energy of a push of destructive power made her head hurt and Tara went back to massaging her forehead and pushing on different pressure points on her skull to relieve the pain and the pressure. She gave her neck a few quick snaps to the left and right and that helped to loosen her shoulders some but there was still that nagging irritation at the base of her skull. She opened her eyes again and squinted through the blur as best she could. That would take a while before it went away just because of the nature of the side effect.
Tara put her feet down on the floor and went to stand up. Bad idea – she immediately lost her balance and she wobbled and fell to the ground. Without the blanket around her it could have hurt more than it had and she contented herself to just laying there. Somewhere in the back of her mind Nathrrya would probably tell her at this point to quit being dramatic. Tara has to smile at the thought of the redhead but then she frowned. Where was Nathrrya?
She had to figure this out. She stayed where she was and tried to force herself to remember something beyond the bright light. She pulled images from her mind, digging deeper and deeper into her memory regardless of what was blocking it. It was the Eternal Throne, and a Force user not designated Sith nor Jedi. He was royalty, acknowledged as a prince by those that were escorting them to the Emperor.
The Emperor. Valkorion had taken a new host, had a new body and a new name. Tara would forever know him as Vitiate and bits and pieces of her knowledge of the Sith Emperor came back to her. She served him faithfully, blindly almost, and had it not been for Nathrrya she would never have broken the control that the Emperor had on her life.
"You were the extension of my wrath, K'natara."
The woman opened her eyes and even in the blur she could make out the outline of another figure in the room with her. She sat up from the floor and pulled herself to her feet. Still wobbly she used the bed to lean against and give her support. She turned and even though she couldn't see, she was sure he could see the disdain on her face.
"To hell with you," she said. "You abandoned your empire and left it in shambles, with nothing but power plays and betrayal."
"As has always been the way of the Sith. It would only have been a matter of time before my Eternal Throne took over both the Sith and Republic. You were vital to that transition, yet you raised your blade to me."
"You killed millions!" she screamed, the anger building. "You destroyed Ziost! You sacrificed the life force of all those helpless people and that is not gaining the support of the multitude of the empire that you say you built. I don't care what your plans were, it needed to end."
"Not all those souls were innocent and my empire gave rise to the best warriors of your generation," Valkorion said. He began to walk around the room, his hands clasped behind his back in a regal manner. The more Tara observed she opened herself to the Force and that's when she felt it.
"You're dying," she said. "You're actually dying this time."
"The galaxy in which you find yourself is not the one I had envisioned. It's gone so far beyond the control and whims of the many that it, too, will eventually die. Feel the energy around you, K'natara. Sense the imbalance within the Force and you will understand more."
She reserved herself at first but did as she was told. It wasn't hard to feel the imbalance that he mentioned and she frowned. There was more to what he was telling her. "What have you done, Valkorion?"
"I have sustained you within your carbonite prison to allow you to survive its effects for nearly three thousand years—"
"Three thousand!?" Tara felt lightheaded. "Wh-what are you talking about?"
"You were going to die had I not," he continued, seemingly ignoring her question. "I have given you my life in the hopes that you could do something significant."
"You're not making any kriffing sense, you shriveled old idiot."
Valkorion smirked and chuckled at the lame attempt to insult him. Tara was still reeling from the news of time span and the yet undetermined meaning this held for the woman. The emperor turned to Tara and walked up to her. She felt him approach and tried to move away but she stopped when she found herself cornered. She cursed herself and the effects of the carbonite on her eyes. The emperor reached his hand up and covered her eyes briefly and then stepped back.
Tara was confused. "Why did you do that?" She blinked her eyes a few times and looked around her. She saw clearer than she ever had before, and she was a healthy young woman. She took in the medical room she was in, the color of the grey floor, the empty bacta tank in the far corner, the bed with the messy sheets, even the box sitting on the table near the bed that she didn't notice before. She looked back and the ghostly image of the emperor. "You're not going to give me any more help or answers, are you?"
"What would be the fun in that?"
Slowly Valkorion began to disappear from Tara's view and with his weakening Force signature she felt her own strengthening and she took a deep breath. Now alone – completely – in the medical room she had a moment to herself to considers what little Valkorion had told her and how unhelpful he was. She growled in minor frustration.
"Old habits die hard," she told herself. Tara moved over to the table to see what the box was and found within it a number of her personal effects. One by one she pulled out bags of clothing – her leather pants, her tunic and breastplate, her overcoat and her boots. All of it was custom made and gifted to her by Nathrrya for no other reason than she wanted to. Another bag pulled from the bottom held what remained of her lightsaber and Tara's mood disintegrated. It would take her weeks to build a new one and she frowned deeper when she didn't find her kyber crystal.
"Damn it… Nathrrya what do I do?" Tara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She let it out with a laugh when she realized that what Nathrrya would do and what she would do are two completely different things. If anything Nathrrya's actions would keep her alive a lot longer than Tara's, but Tara liked her ways better. She opened her eyes and settled herself.
"Sorry Nat, I'm gonna cause some trouble. You'll be so proud of me."
