She entered the estate swiftly and silently, like a subtle leak, seeping through the unwatched cracks. Despite this being her highest profiled bounty yet, and her still being very green in a hundred and one ways, she felt confident as she passed through the halls like a soft breeze. Still, she could have just as easily been proceeding with a blindfold over her eyes, the way she neglected her connection to the Force. That was how she managed to not even notice when she walked right into the trap.
"I must confess," her old master began, seated in the middle of the darkened room, exactly two thirds of her body illuminated by the rhombus of orange light passing through the large, wall devouring window. "I am heartbroken. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted you to prove me wrong. Yet, here you are."
"Master Ingri," she spoke with a gasp, her hand going straight for her blaster.
"You still call me master, even after all that has happened?" Ingri never turned her head, though she did take down her hood. Her hair was completely grey now, and her advanced age was apparent, though the huntress did not naïvely see these things as an accurate assessment of her prowess. In fact, the odds were in favor of her being much more powerful than she remembered. "Or is that just an old habit?"
"Where is Senator Durga? I'm not leaving this planet without him."
"Amalya," Ingri continued. "Answer my question. Am I still Master Ingri in your eyes?"
"That's not my... Amalya is gone. But I still have enough respect for you to-"
"If you still hold even a quantum of respect for me, then you will turn around, and leave this place," she said, her voice demanding, almost more compelling even than one of her mind tricks. "What are you calling yourself now? Aegneous?"
"I can't do that, Master," Aegneous said. "It's not about the money. It's not about the prestige. Senator Durga is a vile creature. Every second that passes, someone on his planet is born into slavery, and another dies, deep inside the mine shaft where he has spent almost every waking moment of his life. All to line his own pockets with credits."
"And so, you would become a murderer," Ingri asked. "You would use everything the Order, everything I taught you to become one of them?"
"I am nothing like him!"
"We are Jedi. Peacekeepers. The moment we begin to decide who can and cannot rule, we become tyrants," she said. "Let the people free themselves."
"Master, he has brought the Force out of balance. Surely you can sense that, if I can," Aegneous replied.
"As have you. Would that justify me murdering you?" Finally, she turned her head back a ways, aiming a glacial blue iris in her old student's direction. "Perhaps you are not wrong about the Senator, but I don't recall you being the self-righteous type. In fact, I saw you as quite the opposite."
"The frightened larva that you knew back then is no more. She was afraid to stand up for a cause. For what she believed in. Against the corrupt, against-"
"Tell me," Ingrid cut her off. "Do you really believe any of those things?"
"Of course I do-"
"I sense something quite different," she said. "Something that disturbs me."
"Do tell."
"You fight because you enjoy it." Aegneous entered the room at this, removing her hand from her blaster. "Combat was the environment that created you, and foolishly, when the Order took you in, we simply fed you more violence."
"You taught me to defend myself and others," Aegneous said.
"While in class, you would count the minutes until sparring practice. You always had such a quick temper; quicker even than your wit. I still remember the face of elation you made when we finally gave you permission to craft your own lightsaber."
"Which you then took from me," she said.
"You know exactly why we did that."
"Is it as simple as choosing the wrong colored crystal? Or were you afraid?" Ingri turned her entire body around this time, still seated, legs crossed.
"I was afraid, yes. For the other Padawans. When you presented a red saber before the group, you marked yourself as a target to them. You marked yourself as the other."
"I don't need a lightsaber to harm others. I think the past 4 years have proven that," Aegneous said, a hint of pride in her voice.
"Spoken like a true Sith," Ingri said. "You've destroyed the rest of my old padwans, systematically. Zhorbo will never walk again, Kinash's mind has been shattered, and Darshae is still in emotional pain."
"I heard that she became a knight, since I've been away. I wish the best for her."
"Jedi should not have such attachments as what you and she had, and when you left, you scarred her such that the dark side will always hound her."
"It's been 4 years," Aegneous spoke.
"You were the only person she ever loved, and most likely the only one she ever will. The past 4 years, I have done nothing but extinguish fires that you started." Finally, Ingri stood to her feet. "Which is why I am here tonight. To prevent you from starting another one; a larger one far beyond your own control that will consume you."
"I will ask you again, where is the senator?"
"I see..." With a wistful sigh, Ingri opened her outer robe a bit, and retrieved a lightsaber from her belt. "It is the destiny of a Sith to destroy their master. I suppose I knew this day would come."
"I am no closer to being a Sith lord than I am a Jedi. You know my heart, Master. I don't want to hurt you."
"Then leave," Ingri said. "I will even return your weapon to you." She held the saber out for Aegneous to take, and the huntress examined it for a long moment. "There is a better way. There is always a better way." Aegneous took the lightsaber back, bouncing it in her palm a few times, just to remind herself of its familiar weight.
"I can't do that, Master. Now, tell me where the senator has gone."
"I have sent him into hiding. For me to tell you where he is would be to defy that entire purpose." She retrieved her own lightsaber from her belt as well. With the sound of the atmosphere shearing around the sudden intrusion of heat and light, energy waves rumbling the air around it, the green blade of her lightsaber extended, slowly. "If what I feel from you right now is fear, then you are correct in feeling it."
Aegneous took a step back, her hand on the door frame, considering fleeing. Her mark was not here anyway, and she had no desire to harm her old master. Then, she realized that she would never complete the contract with Ingri still in her way. Left with little other choice, she ignited her deep red blade, adopting the Djem So form. Her ruby saber circled over her head once as if she were tracing a dark halo. She spotted a tear rolling down Ingri's cheek, a tear which moistened her own eyes just by watching it.
The master raised her hand, aiming her fingertips towards Aegneous' face. Despite her best efforts, the Force began to dominate her mind and her senses. Ingri split into three copies of herself in her vision. The two on the sides dashed forward, each swinging their sabers towards her, in opposing directions. She backpedalled a step, catching both blades against her own, with a vicious crackle of energy. She repelled them both, and held her saber out in front of herself, to plan her counterattack. Only then did she even notice that the third clone had moved from her field of vision. This one attacked from behind her; she felt the heat approaching her back just in time to pirouette and parry the strike away from her body. The first two copies vanished into thin air, as the illusion ended, and their blades clashed a few more times.
Blow for blow, Ingri toyed with her as their dance led them through the manor, never truly taking the offensive. She could have ended her old student a dozen times in the short moments that they had since the beginning of the duel, but she held back. She felt the dark side in her, sure, but she knew that there was something still redeemable inside of her, separating her from the other Sith lords. Though her passion may have been misguided and skewed due to her relationship with war and violence, she still felt the compulsion to defend others. This night was not to be the end of her journey.
Once again, illusions clouded Aegneous' judgment as the hallway filled with clones of Ingri. Fed up with the trickery, she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Enough!" A shockwave passed through the hall in both directions, knocking down the decor and making the walls themselves bend and buckle. The copies all vanished at once, and the real Ingri was sent hurtling back down the hall. She landed on her back, using the momentum to roll backwards onto her feet. Aegneous redoubled, going to tag her in the shoulder before she could really regain her footing. Gracefully, Ingri parried the saber away, and pivoted over to deliver a swift elbow to Aegneous' throat.
Rendered incapacitated for just a short moment while her windpipe struggled to reopen, Ingri channeled the force to toss her student all the way down the hall, into the foyer. She walked after her at a leisurely pace as she entered Ataru, waiting to see if she would get to her feet or just stay down.
"I will not be denied, Master," Aegneous snarled. She quickly reached out with her mind, lifting a vase with the Force, which she used as a missile. Ingri easily redirected the vase with her own Force control, sending it crashing into the wall behind her. Aegneous repeated the process with a second vase, and then a third. Finally, once Ingri crossed the threshold into the foyer, Aegneous shoved her hand forward in her master's direction.
Thin, orange arcs of electricity leapt from her fingertips, though Ingri quickly and instinctively absorbed the bolts with her lightsaber. "Well that's new," she remarked. While she was somewhat distracted, Aegneous clambered to her feet. She tried to fire another round of bolts, but instead of absorbing it into her lightsaber, this time Ingri allowed it to gather in her palm, crackling around her hand like an electric glove. She drew her elbow back, and pushed her arm forward as hard as she could, turning her palm on its side, which redirected the lightning back at Aegneous in a wide, bright wave of magnetic repulsion. She took the blast to the chest, and yet again went flying. This time, she broke through the door, landing with a sickening thump.
The red lightsaber went unconscious, returning to its dark silence as Aegneous lay there on the ground. Ingri stood over her, examining the damage she may have caused her. With the tip of her own lightsaber hovering over her student's throat, she gave her one final command. "Go home, Amalya."
"...Alright. Help me up," she answered, reaching her hand up. With a warm smile, Ingri went to take her hand. Suddenly, the huntress snapped her hand shut, and grunted. A loud crack came from the ceiling above them. Polished stone rained down from above, forcing Ingri to retreat. Aegneous propelled herself away from the spot with the Force and as she landed, she tossed a smoke grenade down. As the rest of the ceiling crumbled under the weight of the furniture above, the room went dark, and smoky, illuminated only by Ingri's saber.
"I hope you understand that it will be harder for me to avoid your vitals, now that I can't see," she commented, scanning the shadows closely. A round from a blaster roared through the haze, which Ingri reflected back to the source. The beam ripped through her sleeve, and burned the flesh beneath. She screamed in the dark, in pain, taking cover behind a column. "End this. Now. While you still live."
"You will not treat me like a child," she shouted, applying a sterilized epoxy to the wound.
"You have given in to your anger, but it will only lead to your destruction. You need to end th-" A second blaster round tore through the smoke, and again, Ingri reflected it back to the source. Aegneous was prepared this time, as her saber snarled to life. She parried the beam back to Ingri, and just like that, the two entered a volley, deflecting the beam back and forth, in a dizzying flurry of light and heat. Aegneous' saber, which was a bit longer than Ingri's, shredded the stone floor beneath them into molten shards. Ingri began to backpedal, with assured, graceful steps on her toes, spinning and parrying, extending the range the beam had to travel with every step. With one last flourish, she directed the beam to its final destination, streaking just past the huntress' face, into the pillar behind her. She took her eyes off Ingri for just a moment.
With a growl to rival a krayt dragon, Aegneous raised one of the red hot shards of stone with the Force, and launched it at Ingri. Her master's face devolved into one of terror; the face of one looking death in the eyes. It was in that moment that Aegneous realized what she had done. She tried to grab the stone again, but her mastery of the Force was nowhere near that astute. The stone continued.
It passed through her chest, as harmlessly as it might through a hologram, and as it clattered on the ground behind her in the hallway, Aegneous saw it for the illusion it was, as it evaporated from view. She only managed to turn her head slightly to the left, catching a flash of green just out of periphery. An intense heat, followed by a cold, more frigid than the sharpest chill imaginable, originated in her spine. She noticed herself sinking deeper into the dark of the room, the smoke engulfing her quickly, until she fell flat to the floor. Her legs stopped responding; she immediately cursed her master for removing them.
"They're still there," she informed her, as her lightsaber finally quieted. The room went dark again, save for the red glow of the other saber. "I severed your spinal cord."
"You... No, you couldn't- I couldn't-" she panicked, as she tried pushing herself to her feet, only succeeding in pulling herself forward a few feet. She refused to let go of her saber, and thus put her weight onto the knuckles of her right hand, along with her left palm. Her knuckles pressed down right on top of the broiling hot stone floor, and she screamed out again as the heat cooked her hand through to the bone. Still, she persisted. She had to stand, or she would die. Ingri, out of a cruel sense of mercy, kicked her over onto her back, to prevent her from harming herself further.
"If you ever walk again," she began. "Turn away from this path."
"I will never forgive you," Aegneous spat through grit teeth.
"If that is what it takes for you to sit and think about your actions, then I am willing to accept that unforgiveness."
"Don't pretend to care for me!"
"I will look into this senator. And if he is breaking the law, then he will come to justice," she said. "That is the best I can do." With that, she left her apprentice there in the dark, her blood red saber her only companion.
"T5," Aegneous spoke into her communicator after a moment. She finally extinguished her saber. "Help me." The droid beeped in reply, piloting her vehicle into the port of the mansion. It wheeled in, and she pulled herself half on top of it, letting it drag her out of the building. She pulled herself into the vehicle, and the faithful droid set course for the closest medical center.
All of her credits; every single one from every job she had ever taken, and then some on top of that. That is what it took to pay for the cybernetic vertebrae which rejoined her legs to her mind. While she bounced between kolto baths and intense, daily physical therapy, the loan hunters came for her ship. T5-063, her droid, could only hide the craft in so many places before the debt collectors came for it. And she had no idea that it was missing until the droid rolled into her hospital room one evening. There was no one around who could speak droid; he had actually been by several times prior, but he was always turned away. On this particular day, he had a bit of help.
She was a bit of a giant by the standards of humans on other planets; she was Mandalorian, though one who rejected the ways of her warlike culture to become a Jedi. The calm, centered aura that a knight or consular usually projects upon entering a room hung loosely over her intimidating presence, much like the flowing beige robe that hung over her shoulders. They both had dark skin, but she had Aegneous beat by a few shades. The would be Sith sensed her presence when she arrived at the hospital, but during the time it took for her to find her room, she didn't prepare anything to say to her other than a distant look out of the window.
"Amalya," she greeted her, aiming her words at the side of her head. "Is it really you?"
"Darshae," she replied, crossing her arms. Her right hand was still tightly bandaged, but the disfigurement was still clearly visible through the wrappings. Essentially nothing but charred muscle and bone lay beneath. It baffled the doctors how she could still move it; how it hadn't fallen to pieces yet. They didn't understand the power of the dark side. She held her hand back from death through the Force, yet the universe willed it to its death. That left it in a state of permanent dying, a persistent burning sensation in it at all times.
"I heard about... Master Ingri told me-"
"She sent you to check up on me? Tell her I'm walking again," she seethed like a threat.
"No, she told me not to come. That you were dangerous."
"So why did you?"
"You're stranded on this planet, and in debt."
"Stranded? No, no, I've got a ship and-" T5 took this opportunity to interject with a series of beeps. "Blast."
"In debt by a lot. People know your worth as a hunter, and now slavers are out to come collect." Aegneous looked back to Darshae, sitting up. "So, let's get you out of here."
"The physical therapy isn't done yet. I can barely walk."
"We'll have to finish on a different planet. You can't stay here."
"I'm sure I can hide out here another month or so. The money I've paid for all this... I'd hate to just run out on it."
"I don't think you understand my urgency. Amalya, they're looking for you now. We've got hours at best."
"How do you know?"
"I saw your name on a bounty notice a week ago. And I've been tracking some slavers."
"Alright. Where's your ship?"
"Don't have one. I came here with a smuggler who's currently rotting in jail."
"Let's steal his ship, and get-"
"Amalya!"
"Fine. We'll break him out of prison. Help me up."
She was underselling her mobility slightly, out of exhaustion. She was not at her best, but she could get around without trouble. The lights flickered momentarily, and the entire facility rocked from the force of an explosion.
"Hours," Aegneous repeated as a question, voice dripping with sarcasm. She hobbled over to her pack, and rummaged through it. "We'll be better off not going out there with our lightsabers. Can you use a vibrosword?"
"Why? Because I'm a Mandalorian, you assume I know how to use every weapon in the galaxy," she asked, crossing her arms.
"What? No, I just-"
"Because I can. Hand it here."
"They're teaching humor at the academy now," she said, hiding a grin. She held the hilt out to her companion. "I'll be more careful next time." She took the blade like a long lost limb, holding it down by her side. "Let's go out the window. We can slip by them that way."
"These slavers aren't leaving empty handed. We can't just leave them to do what they want," Darshae replied, stepping towards the door. It hissed itself into an opening, and without waiting, she stepped through.
"This is none of our concern," Aegneous replied, as she moved towards the window. She laid her bandaged hand against the glass, and with a controlled pulse of the Force, shattered the window. Her droid rolled over obediently, firing a gas powered winch into the solid stone above. He wheeled out onto nothing, rappelling down to the docking bay. Aegneous grabbed onto the thick cord, preparing to drop down, when Darshae stopped her.
"None of your concern, sure. But it is my concern, and you need me to get off of this planet." Aegneous looked down at the skylanes, vehicles all speeding in one of four directions, and the inky darkness of the city below. She could vanish again, keep her head down, and escape the slavers easily. Darshae was a liability. She had absolutely 0 ability to keep a low profile, a trait that she usually admired. She saw the slavers' craft, hovering outside. It was decently sized; there had to have been at least a dozen of them, each one causing Darshae's chances of surviving this alone to decay exponentially. She told herself six times that she didn't care, and before the seventh, she joined her old companion's side.
"If we're captured, you're the one they're going to sell," Aegneous muttered, gesturing to her disfigured hand. "I sure hope your cooking has improved in the past four years." She spoke into her communicator. "T5, we're going to take the long way down. Sit tight." A mercenary rounded the corner, alone. His helmet covered his visage, but his body language showed surprise, and more importantly, fear. He lifted his blaster up about 15 degrees from his hip before the Force dragged him down the hall. Aegneous pulled him to their feet, levelling her own blaster at his face.
"How many," Darshae asked. His head whipped back and forth between the two, unsure of where to aim his panic. "You'll want to be quick about your answer, boy. She's impatient."
"There's 9 of us- I mean 8," he stuttered.
"Exactly," Aegneous chimed in, as she pressed the tip of the barrel against his forehead.
"Wait," Darshae said. "He surrendered."
"He's a slaver."
"I'm only a mercenary, I swear," he said as he made a pleading face that he didn't realize wasn't visible through the helmet.
"You sure were eager to get up here first," Aegneous said. "And you were going to shoot us first."
"Let's take him with us. Maybe we can avoid bloodshed with a hostage." She dragged him from the floor with her free hand around his collar. Three more mercenaries rounded the corner; Aegneous took the first shot out of reflex. The charge burned through his overcoat and seared through his shoulder. The other two returned fire, and both women separated, sidestepping into opened doorways on either side of the hall. "That's not how hostages work, Amalya!"
"They'll shoot him to get to me. One less person to split the pay with," Aegneous shouted back. "But if you want to kidnap this man anyway, I won't stop you." Plasma burns turned the decaying paint to chips of ash, as the mercenaries fired on the walls, to pin them down.
"We need to break through before the rest show up," Darshae shouted, still holding the mercenary by his collar, the sword pressed to his throat.
"I wanted to go out the damned window!" At that, Aegneous went to her belt to retrieve a fragmentation grenade.
"Are you insane? You can't set off an explosion like that in a medical center," Darshae scolded. Aegneous rolled her eyes, but put the grenade back on her belt. "Stay behind me." Moving quickly, she snatched the mercenary's helmet from his head, and proceeded to ram her forearm into his face, knocking him unconscious. He slid to the floor against the door frame, and she stepped around him, sword in both hands. They all focused fire on her as she rushed them, but through the Force, she diverted the beams around herself, as if they were flies rushing towards a storm.
The first one lost most of his arm, in a deft, upward slash of her blade, the hand still gripping onto the pistol. Before he could even finish his first scream, Darshae took the blade from its elevated position and made another vertical slash, down across the other's chest. It was deep enough for him to fall over in shock, but not enough to be fatal. "Down to five," she remarked, looking back to Aegneous. She advanced with her slight limp, swearing at the weakness she was projecting.
They made it to the stairwell, descending steadily like sand in an hourglass. A red beam ripped through the air between their heads, exploding onto the wall beside them. They halted, and fled back from the rails, as more blasts followed behind it. Venturing a quick glance, Darshae counted two of them, several floors below. The other three burst into the stairwell, a few flights up, and they scampered down to close in on them. "Get on my back," she said.
"What? No! Don't be-"
"Get on my back! Don't argue," she snapped. Aegneous swallowed back her pride and climbed onto the larger woman's back. With only a second glance below to check her trajectory, she leaped over the railing, sailing through the air, held aloft for a moment longer by the Force. The two mercenaries were too startled to continue shooting; an armed Mandalorian was flying directly for them, with a long robe blotting out the light from above. The one on the right dove to the side first, leaving his partner where they stood. This drew his focus at just the wrong moment, because as he looked back to the women, his face met with a heavy knee and calf, forcing him to the ground. The force of all of the weight cracked his helmet in the back, as his head bounced on the tile, and he went unconscious. The other one tried scrambling forward; he had tossed his blaster on accident when he dove away, and now he was defenseless. As he reached for it, a blaster bolt vaporized most of the mass of his hand. He screamed in the same timbre as his handless partner a few floors above.
"Through here," Aegneous spoke, as she climbed down off of her back. The door opened for them, and they ran into the hallway, a safe distance away from the doorway. "I'm willing to bet they aren't professionally trained. They're all going to take the door at once. We blast them as soon as they come through."
"Put that gun away, Amalya," Darshae said. "Just let me handle this." Aegneous bit her lip, but nodded, as she dropped her gun back onto her belt. Darshae stood directly in front of her companion, centering herself, reaching out to feel the Force around her. As promised, the three mercenaries all rushed into the corridor at one time, weapons raised. Before they could bark any demands, or even fire, Darshae thrusted her hands forward, in a feat of supreme effort. All three of them were suddenly lifted from their feet, and forced back into the stairwell. The first two hit the railing behind them with enough force to bend it; the third simply went flying over them, the railing clipping his legs and causing him to backflip rapidly in the air. He landed on the level below them, his back breaking over the railing.
"Two Jedi," a voice from behind them asked. It chuckled darkly, as the women turned. "Women at that. Looks like people are just lining up for Jeroth's harem today." They sized him up; the man was clad from head to toe in heavy, sturdy looking armor, and to add to that, he had an intimidating exo-suit around the armor, with a heavy blaster attached to one arm. "That's right. I know what you are. Go on. Try to use your Force powers against me." Accepting the challenge, Darshae attempted to lift the entire machine from the ground, but the moment he lifted, the exo-suit propelled its metal talons into the ground. It sent fissures through the floor, and eventually the hallway crumbled beneath them all. They dropped like stones, lost in the rubble onto the floor beneath them. The machine's talons punctured this floor as well, and split it open from the weight. They fell through the next three floors, one after another, until the machine withdrew its talons.
From the ground, Aegneous stretched the fingertips of her charred hand, calling forth bright orange bolts of electricity. All of the bolts converged onto a tall metal pole on the man's backpack. "Don't make me laugh," he jeered, as his suit swallowed the electricity. The barrel of his blaster glowed a bright red, as the bolt's power was repurposed. Instinctively, both women drew their lightsabers, though Darshae was a step faster than her companion. Aegneous held up her saber, ready to deflect, but the blaster released the charge as a wave of magnetic force. It launched both women back down the hall, over the piles of concrete and rebar. Darshae screamed in pain.
A crimson length of rebar protruded from just beneath her left shoulder, and upon seeing this, Aegneous checked herself for any similar injuries. "You've done it now," she seethed, as she pushed herself to her feet. Her eyes glowed a brilliant golden for a brief moment, as a cloud of aimless, directionless dust surrounded her. She locked eyes with her target for just a moment. Darshae bit back the pain long enough to reach out for Aegneous.
"Control yourself," she pleaded. "Please!" The slaver scoffed.
"I thought you would be tougher," he said, aiming his blaster at Aegneous. Without another word she sprinted down the hall, roaring. He smirked impatiently, as he charged up another burst of magnetism, but before he could do so, she gripped the barrel with the Force and crushed it. The blaster backfired violently, shattering the adjacent wall into shards of stone and dust, and stripping the armor and flesh from his arm. As his exo-suit tipped over onto its side, he bellowed a string of alien swears. Aegneous' eyes glowed more intensely this time, as she stood over the slaver, preparing to strike a deathblow with her saber. Behind her, in the room which had been opened up by the explosion, a rodian rolled out of bed, his gown and bandages aflame from the explosion. He patted at them desperately, only to realize that they grew more intense, from seemingly supernatural influence. In fact, the entire atmosphere around the Jedi had grown broiling hot, and oppressive. A dark, violent resonance echoed from deep within his ears, as if he were being smothered and drowned at the same time.
"Please stop," he begged, understanding intuitively that this woman was the source of his pain. Aegneous whipped her head around to the rodian; his agony snapped her out of it. She scrambled into the room to help the man extinguish the flames. Back on the other end of the hall, T5 had found Darshae, and assisted in pulling her from the metal spike.
"Amalya, what... What have you done," she asked as she reached the end of the hall. The slaver was still seething in pain; the heat from the explosion had more or less sealed him inside of his armor. Aegneous stood up from the rodian, tossing his charred blanket onto the floor on top of him. Whatever his injuries were, he had even more now. And it was her fault.
Master Ingri, though her entire life was steeped in political intrigue, and she was a valuable asset to people running the Old Republic, she detested Coruscant with all of her being. She was excellent at disguising this sentiment, but all of the masters on the council at the time, and any number of the Jedi that she spent time with on a regular basis knew this intuitively. When she decided to take padawans, it would not have been a stretch to assume that she did it in order to relocate to the rolling plains of Dantooine. Suffice it to say her even being present on the planet meant that someone important would owe her a favor in the future.
She sat in the archives after hours, meditating quietly, while she waited for the Jedi she was supposed to meet. She felt their approach, but acted surprised when they rounded the corner to see her. A zabrak knight in an olive robe approached; behind him was a young girl, still a child, hiding behind the tail of his robe.
"Oh, Master Vesona. You're here," she spoke, her voice like a bubbling fountain. "How can I help you?"
"This is who I was telling you about," Vesona spoke up. "Master Iokude has unfortunately... turned this one away."
"Did she say why," Ingri asked, looking around Vesona at the child.
"She did. To her face, in fact. It did not go well, to say the least." The child looked down at the tile, out of shame.
"What did she say to you, child," Ingri asked, holding out her hand for her. She approached her billowy white robe with a cautious curiosity, like watching the vapor ascend from the bottom of a waterfall.
"She said that the Dark Side was too strong in me. That if she trained me, I would turn around and destroy her," the child explained.
"That's unbelievable. Why would she say that?"
"We got into a fight," she said, mumbling. She finally made it to Ingri's side. She was still a child, and it was very late at night. She only needed 15 seconds of inaction to nod off, especially with the gentle woman's aura. Ingri asked one last question before she could.
"What's your name? Where are you from?"
"I'm Amalya Endac. I'm from Wayland," she said, taking a seat. Ingri put her arm around the child.
"Yes, of course, Vesona. I would be honored to take this one," she said, a smile growing. In her mind, it was this corrupt city that was poisoning her. Dantooine would be better, she thought, as she hugged her.
Aegneous jolted awake, whipping out her blaster from its spot beneath her pillow. She pressed the muzzle up against the intruder to her room, which had shifted the weight of her mattress.
"If that was charged, we'd be getting sucked out into space right now," Darshae commented, not at all phased by the outburst. Aegneous sighed heavily, and began panting, as she set her blaster back down. She was sweating, and already short of breath for some reason. "Did I interrupt a bad dream or a really good one?" The hunter smirked, and fell back onto the bed.
"These days, I can't tell the difference," she said, looking up at the low ceiling. "What was your friend's name again? Keema? If it was him, I would have actually pulled the trigger."
"Then we'd be short one pilot," Darshae replied.
"But we would still have one pilot left," she reasoned, folding her hands behind her head. "And we wouldn't have to share a bunk."
"Are you complaining?"
"Normally, I wouldn't, but you're a big girl. Every time you turn in, I'm forced to roll over to your side."
"You could always sleep less," Darshae said, giggling, as she brought her feet up on the mattress. "Life is hard on the Crate."
"It should be a crime to name a ship the Crate. I thought you were saying Krayt; I expected something a lot...bigger."
"That's the idea," Darshae said, leaning up on one elbow, looking down at her.
"What is it," Aegneous asked. "You're a full fledged knight now. You shouldn't go having those ideas, yeah?"
"You're assuming a lot," she said, closing her eyes. They had to share one lengthy pillow; sleeping face to face was an old skill for them. "Though sometimes I wonder." Aegneous watched her lips move, but only registered what was said afterwards.
"About what?"
"About what would have happened if we..." She opened her eyes again, something of a frown on her face. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"Shay. You can still talk to me about anything," Aegneous assured her.
"I haven't heard that name in 4 years. Lia."
"It's... It's strange. Like hearing a foreign language again after a long time." Darshae closed her eyes to continue.
"I shouldn't have given you that ultimatum. I shouldn't have made you choose between us or becoming a consular like you wanted."
"Someone would have given us that ultimatum. And for good reason, too. Hearing it from you just made me take it seriously. If it came from anyone else, I would have rebelled against-"
"But you ended up with neither, and I feel guilty for that." Aegneous twisted her face into a mildly insulted expression.
"I chose to leave the Order. It wasn't meant for me. It was never meant for me. You know that more than anyone."
"And look what that choice has cost you," Darshae replied, opening her eyes again.
"Last I checked, we were both on this awful junk ship together."
"You're right. We are. But... just... Back at the medical center. You almost killed an innocent man just from being too close to you. I'm afraid that I'll lose you to the Dark Side completely, one of these days. Becoming a knight was a dream come true for me, but if I could go back, I would trade it all in a second and leave the order together with you."
"I never asked for your pity. I chose this, Shay." Aegneous looked down at the bandage covering Darshae's shoulder, and blinked back a singular tear. "Be with me now."
"You know I can't do that..."
"Yes you can. Yes you absolutely can," Aegneous said, suddenly sliding both of her arms around her companion's waist. "Be with me, Shay. Just like it used to be."
"Please don't," Darshae pleaded. "Don't make me reject you like this. You know I can't possibly agree to what you're asking."
"If you can tell me that you don't want to be with me, then I'll stop, but I don't think you can do that." Darshae was quiet for a thick moment. "See? I swear, we can make this work. You can tell the council whatever you want. You really think they're going to che-"
"I'm beginning to understand why Ingri said you were dangerous," Darshae said, cutting her off. "You're an unstable chemical compound. You... You make everyone, and everything around you react, and you don't care about the consequences."
"What are you saying?"
"I can't live by my emotions. They cloud judgment. But that's all you are, and I would never ask you to change that about yourself."
"You're afraid to feel. All of you Jedi," Aegneous said, seething. Her grip tightened around the back of Darshae's tunic. "You're afraid that if you let yourself feel anything, it will lead to pain. But you don't even know what pain is."
"Don't tell me that! When you left, you broke me. Lia, you broke me. My heart, my spirit. My mind. Don't tell me I don't know what pain is." Without saying another word, Aegneous took her charred hand, and forced it up against the base of her spine. A tiny current of electricity passed through her palm, electrifying her nervous system, causing a searing pain in the middle of her back.
"That is pain," Aegneous said. Darshae grit her teeth, but didn't ask her to relent. She stared back into her eyes. "Master Ingri destroyed my body. My ability to walk. To run. And now she's set you against me. This is what pain looks like, Shay."
"Share it with me," she groaned, into her companion's ear. "Please. I need to know." At that, Aegneous realized what she was doing. She released her grip, horrified at herself, and turned her back on Darshae. The larger woman simply embraced her from behind, wordlessly.
"It burns. Constantly. Even in my dreams."
"I can sense it in you," Darshae said, holding her more tightly. "I can't be with you how you want me to be. But I can't leave you either."
"I know... I shouldn't have brought it up." She folded her arms in, nestling against Darshae. "Thank you."