A Jedi in Exile: Lost to The Galaxy
The dark clouds of Bespin were a welcome sight to Wes every morning, from her standard Cloud City apartment she watched the vapour trails of crimson Cloud Cars as they soared over overhead, the Twi'lek folded her legs and kept her posture upright as Rutian blue eyelids shut over her narrow sapphire pupils.
Being on one of the higher tier levels of the apartment complex, Wes was granted a view of the amber sunrise and all the busyness of assortment of small transport zooming into and out of the clouded orbit.
After several twists and contortions of her bare arms and legs, Wes let herself rest with a deep breath, swiping sweat from her naked lekku and sighing as she felt her apartment rock lightly as a particularly big space cruiser passed overhead, she assumed a Star Destroyer and kept her composure as it's almighty shadow consumed what light leaked onto her box-like balcony.
A Star Destroyer did pass overhead, being one of the more docile worlds, Wes rarely saw one of the Empire's most iconic star-ships on Bespin, the world was so quiet but to hear the rumble of ion engines sparked goosebumps that rushed up her arms. She cast that sensation aside and chose to return to the warmth of her apartment.
The orange tint of the bulb that hung from the centre of her longe gave her little sense of warmth. She felt cold under it's reach and so stepped into her bathroom, the metal door sliding aside as the shined surface of her sink came into view, cramped between that and the worn down wall was her shower.
Stripping off and stepping under the running showerhead, she was reminded of what cold really felt like as several rogue squirts of water ran cold against the blue skin of her lekku, earning a dissatisfied groaned from her before she banged her opened palm against the shower controls, it wheezing in response before continuing to churn out streams of warmer water.
After the grime and sweat slid down her figure with the water into the small drain beneath her, she stepped out, wrapping a towel around herself as she stepped out, reaching over her table and tapping a button on the side of her holoprojector.
A translucent blue image blurred from the centre of the disk, eventually warping into large hologram of the Bespin weather and several crawls of Galactic Basic rotated around the planet's miniature, as she had expected, clear skies with the usual hot weather all world round. She tapped the button and the image collapsed before unravelled her towel and wiped over the nape of her neck as she stepped carefully into her room.
She brushed through the assortment of clothes hanging from open metal locker that the apartment manager claimed to be a wardrobe, she plucked out a simple grey tunic and dropped the soaked towel at her feet, stepping on it to dry her feet while she pulled herself into her clothes.
After tightening the brown leather of her headpiece to her head, Wes slung a bag over her shoulder, the weathered strap digging into her shoulder as she began to pile her tools inside of it.
She quickly stepped out of her apartment and walked the bright smooth corridors of the complex, quickly walking down the long corridor of her floor and set the turbolift to descend to the ground floor.
Once there she began to weave through the crowds of Cloud City, not stopping to mind others, her shoulder collided with others as she made her way towards one of the turbolifts marked apart from others due to a plaque above the door that read "Maintenance." That took her into the deeper bowls of the floating city.
When she exited the lift the smooth, gleaming walls and fresh atmosphere of upper Cloud City had been replaced with darken reds and bursts of steams from piping that ran along the maintenance shaft until she got to the end of the corridor there was nothing but the claustrophobia of the nearby leaking pipes and exposed wiring.
The main collection chamber was better, a place better suited for the usual Ugnaughts. The chamber was split into two circles, the outer ring functioned as a observation catwalk that allowed for a overhead view of the inner ring that was positioned tightly around a tall transparent glass canister. Those on the inner ring watched as thick browning gas clouded the canister.
Wes took to the one of nearby beams that acted as both a support and a pipe that channelled any excess out of the system. She crouched next to the beam and carefully began to click open the metal clasps on it's spine, revealing a internal tubing that was already layered in gel that seemed to be doing a decent job in holding in any Tibanna gas should the piping get any noticeable tearing.
Reaching back into her bag, she fished out a canister of foam sealant and began to press her finger into the trigger atop the silver can, letting a spray of grey cover a faint tear almost out of sight and nearly completely masked by the shadows of the beam's interior shaft.
Her shifts consisted of maintaining the overflow tubes and it didn't take long to have any visible tears covered and sorted, the overseer didn't need much convincing, so long as the gas collection was in the positives he was happy with most the work done by the Twi'lek, of course Wes rarely got away without a remark from the flirtatious official, she had estimated he was in his late 40s due to his greying hair and sagging neck, she took the suggestive remarks and did nothing about them, choosing to leave every shift with her dignity and credits in hand.
Taking the turbolift back up to ground level, Wes had the long ascent to notice how the hot the collection chamber had been and how her jumpsuit clung to her inner garments and the rising stink of sweat made her want to get home quicker.
Usually she would stop at one of Cloud City's cantinas and enjoy herself some Nerf Nuggets but the thought of another second in those sweat ridden clothes made her rethink the remainder of her day.
When the turbolift stopped on the ground floor she rushed through illuminated corridors and hallways until she got to her apartment, the crowded lifts were bearable although the hot weather seemed to have affected most of the people in her complex as the aroma of the lift indicated.
Something Wes had grown accustomed to was the short half days, it made her work days bearable but made her miss the long days of Coruscant… before the dark times.
The ding of the elevator's speak stopped dreadful turbolift music playing and allowed her to slip out of the crowded lift. She looked across the railings and out into the darkening skies, smiling faintly at how peaceful everything felt, the warm glow against her skin, the light breeze against her lekku, the easy day at work… it all just felt… natural.
Stopping in front of her door, she pressed a thumb to the scanner pad level with where a door handle would have existed, the door slide open quickly, revealing her darken room and a discarded case at the foot of door…
"Whose there?" Wes called out, stepping into the dark room and promptly switching the lights on, seeing the rest of her room searched through, her heart sank seeing her holoprojector dismantled and in pieces across her seemingly untouched table. She looked towards her room and saw what little light that escaped through the open door vanish.
Grabbing what remained of her metal chair, Wes slowly moved towards the bedroom door, leaning back with it as she saw the door begin to slide open.
She was met with the sound of a blaster discharging against her, a numbing sensation ripped through her muscles, forcing her to drop the chair as she was crashed back onto the ground. Wes' eyes across her attacker, spotting a tanned face through the tight wraps of black cloth coiled around the attacker's hooded head but it was only a second as the figure removed their cloak, revealing an armoured torso and a well-worn jetpack, any more details were lost as her attacker bolted out of the apartment.
The stun began to wear off, years of practising and mediation playing off finally as the paralysis ended the moment she could flex her fingers into fists. Jumping to her feet, Wes eagerly rushed out after her jetpack wearing attacker.
Wes spotted him fleeing across the railed second floor, she took a deep breath and began to focus herself, running after him and begin to gain on him even as she had to weave in and out of crowds.
He must have known she was gaining as he quickly vaulted the railings, Wes watched as his jetpack spurted into life, two small exhausts spitting jets of fire, just enough for him to begin ascending.
What he didn't expect was to feel a weight on his legs, a invisible kind that anchored him in the middle of the air… He turned his head back and spotted the source, the outstretched hand of the very person he had robbed.
What looked like a simple action of a force user took what seemed like her entire focus, eyes screwed shut as the very digits of her fingers began to flex inwards and shake with tension. Wes felt a heavy weight on her chest, pressing her heart and forcing it to rattle in her chest like her life depended on it, the thought of pulling the attacker towards her sent a heavy, nauseous sensation through Wes' body, the stress was growing too much.
But it would be worth it, the attacker was slowly floating towards the balcony again and would soon be within a distance to subdue, forgetting about the other residents of the block as she focused on those few feet left to move the attacker across…
CLICK
The unmistakable sound of a primed thermal detonator made her heave, the hot panic of a nearby explosion made her open her eyes, the grip on him loosening as the attacker seemed nearly capable of escaping her grasp, seeing the blinking red in his grip made her pale, her focus shifting entirely on the explosive, watching it leave the man's hand as it soared across the Bespinian air towards the nearby crowd of watchers.
The pressure in her chest vanished as she felt as if was the tension between the attacker and her force pull. Of course she heard the wheezing thrusters grow distant as her eyes narrowed around the detonator, her outstretched hand reached for the detonator instead, witnessing the outer shell of grey shrapeal splinter and expand as red flames began to erupt from beneath in some horrific slow motion.
Clenching her fist tightly and channelling the thought of containing the explosion through herself, imagining herself physically clasping the explosion and carefully moulding it between her palms until it was nothing…
Her eyes had shut and no sounds could penetrate her trance like focus, for a moment she felt as if her years dedication and training had not saved herself and others from the fierce explosion, slowly opening her eyes she saw the slow retreat of the detonator as all the tiny shards of metal swirled back into the orb of raging red…
She looked to her right and saw the crowd of people backing up, she had saved them, and the relief betrayed her focus, resulting in a minor bang as the red puffed into the air harmless just like before…
When she rose, she was met by silence, Wes dismissed the attention and quickly stepped back into her apartment, pressing her thumb to the pad to seal the door behind her before anyone could get to her.
Such a show of force had weakened her, she stumbled towards the bathroom and the pressure inverted, relieving her of what blue milk she had drank and making a sharp pain spark across her mind, years of absence in The Force had amounted to this, the kind of power she had borrowed from it had been used in years.
The strain she was used to, years ago she would have been capable of doing a force push with little to no pain but after so much pain, so much agony, all the effort to rid herself of a connection to the force, she didn't want to come to rely upon it again but sometimes her emotions brought it all to the surface, a raw power that lacked the control she used to know….
After another shower, Wes sat herself on her bed, the small mattress one of the few things she thought had been left untouched, however as she laid down she felt the assortment of pillows out of shape, she didn't expect them to be perfect due to the rough handling the rest of the place had seen but noticed the distance between wall and bed…
Sitting up she noticed the mattress had definitely been moved from it's usual place... Wes sat up and flipped the thin mattress up, looking over the small compartment specifically designed for concealment… the small box that slowed into the compartment had been cracked open, reaching in and hoping to feel the cold metal that had been crafted a long time ago in a place far away, instead she found nothing…
It was gone… her lightsaber was gone…
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