The Knights' reactions varied, from relief about Sahrsa having her wits about her, to shock about the memory loss, and worry about how to proceed further. They all agreed to help out, keeping her company during mealtime and, in Dot and Shadow's cases, also to sleep in the same room as her.
Sometime during the night, the optical receptors were confirmed to be on their way to the closest station nearby and Daze flew out to get them. Karina made an early start to instal them, having already updated Flock's processing capabilities and software the evening before.
Before breakfast, Kylo and Rey went to pick up Flock from Karina's workshop. The little droid zoomed up to them.
"I am a smarter droid now, Miss," it gushed at Rey. "I can see your heartbeat."
"That's great, Flock," Rey answered.
Kylo could feel her sadness though as she looked down at the little droid whose changed receptors made it look completely different.
"Are you ready to help Sahrsa?" Kylo asked Flock, giving Rey a moment.
"Yes, Mr. Too-Tall, sir!"
Karina snickered, then threw him an apologetic look before turning towards Rey.
"I made it so we can switch his receptors back to the original ones after this upgrade is no longer needed."
Rey nodded and gave a small smile.
"Come on," Kylo said. "Let's head to the med bay. Thank you, Karina. Go sleep if you need it."
Kylo put his hand at the small of Rey's back and guided her out of the shop, lightly brushing his thumb up and down her spine. She sent a small wave of gratitude over their bond.
When they stepped into the hallway and Ember—who'd volunteered to be the first to have a meal with Sahrsa and stick with her throughout the first day—drew up an eyebrow as she looked down at Flock, Kylo sent her a mind-control thought to stay silent, knowing full-well Ember would pick up on it. She did, indeed, throw him a glance, but she kept quiet and that was all Kylo had wanted.
The walk to the med bay was quiet, not counting Flock's incessant chattering. When they arrived, the Guard at the door nodded that they were allowed in. They found Sahrsa in her full Knight's armour standing stock-still next to the bed. Flock immediately zoomed up to her, stopping and tilting backwards to look at her face.
"You look scary," he said. "You definitely need help."
Sahrsa looked down at the droid, a slightly perplexed look on her face.
"It's a menace," Ember commented. "But it's going to be a useful one."
"Why is the droid here?" Reor asked, coming in from a side room.
Kylo first wanted to ignore him and ask Sahrsa how she was doing, then thought better of it and turned to Reor anyway.
"How are things going?" he asked.
"The effects of the chip make the situation a bit touch-and-go, I'm afraid," he answered. "Sometimes she can answer, sometimes not. Because of it, I have no idea if she's experiencing any discomfort. Purely medically speaking, her wound is healing well and her reflexes are all working properly."
"Sahrsa of Ren," Kylo commanded. "Are you experiencing a headache?"
"Sir," she answered, thumping her fist against her chest, voice flat. "Yes, sir."
"Ask how strong it is on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst," Reor said.
"Didn't you already give Reor control while in the med bay?" Phasma asked.
"She doesn't remember that command," Kylo answered before asking Sahrsa Reor's question.
"A four, sir," Sahrsa answered.
"On a Knight's scale," Ember added. "Which is probably a few points more compared to even a Trooper."
Reor nodded. "I'll get some pain medication."
"Any other discomforts?" Kylo demanded. "Pain in your wound?"
"No discomforts or pain, sir."
"Should we give her the command to answer Reor again?" Rey asked.
"I think the less we trigger that echo of the chip, the better."
Rey hummed her agreement and, after Sahrsa had taken her pain medication, Kylo explained the situation.
"For today, both Ember and Flock will accompany you," he said to Sahrsa, "so you can get used to the Base without getting lost. Hux has prepared a room for you near the staff's quarters. We have different groups at this facility and are currently trying to minimise interaction between them. Hopefully, in time, they'll converge into one, big group.
"Apart from the group of Knights that are chipped, like you were, there's another group of Knights on this base, Ember being one of them. Three of them are women and will, one at a time, sleep in the same room as you and keep you company in the evening and in the morning. If you so wish, you can ask them whatever question comes to mind. The others will also keep you company during mealtimes.
"Starting tomorrow, only Flock will be accompanying you during the day. He's been upgraded with medical software so he will notice when something is distressing you. He will know when to get help.
"We are putting these precautions in place because we have no idea how the remnants of that chip will influence you and we want to make sure you are alright at all times." Kylo turned to Reor. "How about check-ups?" he asked.
"Please come in before breakfast, after lunch and dinner, and before you go to bed," Reor said.
"As he said," Kylo stated.
"Yes, sir," Sahrsa answered.
"Flock, you got that too?" Rey asked.
"I have remembered it all, Miss," Flock proudly exclaimed.
"Good," Kylo said. "Then let's all head for breakfast." A thought occurred to him and he turned to Rey. "Do the Force Trainees know not to use the Force in the mess?"
"I repeated yesterday that they are not to use the Force outside of training and added that there will be another Knight at their mealtimes who doesn't know about the Force yet. It should be okay."
Nodding, Kylo led the way out of the med bay. Behind him, he could hear Flock firing questions at Sahrsa, already having to say 'No need for an answer!' once in what little time they went in the same direction. Kylo was starting to feel slightly sorry for both Sahrsa and Ember if the little droid was going to keep going like that the entire day.
A week went by in which the Knights took their turn accompanying Sahrsa to mealtimes and they even trained with her a few times. Kylo gathered them all in his office at the end of the week to discuss how things were going. Not wanting to be overbearing, Rey and he had mostly stayed out of the way, settling for short reports from the Knights.
"It's confusing," Dot said, for once the first to speak. "Sometimes she seems fine, sometimes she once again resembles those Base Knights."
"I see little logic in it," Rogue agreed.
"Sometimes it's worse than the Base Knights," Ember added, somber.
"How so?" Kylo asked.
"At least the Base Knights take care of their personal hygiene," she said. "One evening, Flock gave the distress signal. It turned out Sahrsa needed to be told she was allowed to go to the toilet."
"That bad?" Rey exclaimed.
Dot nodded. "She once struggled to ask me if she was allowed to shower."
"And there are days where such things aren't a problem?"
"She actually asked questions once after a training session," Burman said. "I was so happy for her, but then she shut down again."
"Any sign of improvement?" Kylo asked.
The Knights all shook their heads.
"Reor said it's impossible for him to figure out," Ember said, "because it changes so often. Whatever imagery he makes, it will always be a snapshot of her state at that moment. It won't show the process that makes her change."
"I think it's like a half-broken cable," Shadow started. "You know, like one that makes the lights flicker. Or that causes a button to sometimes work, sometimes not, sometimes only if you press it hard enough. It works, but it doesn't, and if you shake the cable a bit, it changes."
"The change is unknown but needed," Quicksilver said.
Rogue turned to look at him. "But there's no logic to it."
"That we've found," Daze muttered.
As the Knights started comparing notes, Kylo regarded Rey who was giving him a contemplative look.
"What is it?" he asked.
"The Force can heal, right?" Rey asked. "Theoretically, at least?"
Silence fell over the Knights as they all looked at Kylo and Rey.
"It's happened before, yes," Kylo answered. "But it's very rare."
"We could heal her with the Force?" Shadow asked.
Kylo shook his head. "Even if we start researching it, there's no guarantee any of us could actually do it."
"But could she heal herself?" Rey asked.
Everybody gazed at her, uncomprehending.
"There needs to be balance," Rey said. "You thought the Force would be happy to see the chip go."
"And you think it would take care of the chip's remnants?" Kylo asked.
"It's worth a try?"
"It might be detrimental," Ember protested. "What if she can't take the news of once more being allowed to use the Force? It was a blow to us all."
Burman shook his head. "As long as the chip influences her, she's in no position to give proper consent. We'll never know if she took it as a command or feels like she has no other choice. She might not even be able to answer."
"What if she hates us for it afterwards?" Shadow asked, sounding very upset by the prospect.
"Can she get much worse than this?" Rogue asked.
"We could give her more time," Burman insisted.
"Awareness of flaws is a burden," Quicksilver added.
Rey looked at him. "Do we know how much her current situation bothers her?"
"She cried once," Shadow whispered. "I pretended not to notice."
The Knights all reacted shocked. Kylo was no different. Crying had been trained out of him at the very beginning. The punishments when it did happen when he was still young were things he'd rather never again think about.
Silence fell over the entire group as they all contemplated the situation.
"How certain are we that the Force will help her?" Ember asked.
"Not at all," Kylo admitted. "It's a theory only."
"What if she mentally stays the same but has the Force?" Rogue asked. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Kylo thought about it for a long time, but could come up with no answer. "I don't know," he admitted. "I don't believe the chip has any code concerning the Force so I guess she'd be like any untrained Force user? It's when she gets distressed because the remnants are holding her back that accidental Force use may happen."
"Suicide," Daze gravelly said. "The Force is death to her. She might commit suicide. Telling her it's okay might not be enough if the chip's influence is controlling her at that moment."
Burman cursed, shocking everybody. They weren't even aware he knew curse words.
"I second that," Rogue dryly added.
"We should wait," Burman insisted again.
"We should consider the Base Knights too," Kylo said.
"I do not think we should compromise Sahrsa just to know whether or not we can move ahead with the others," Burman vehemently exclaimed. "Sir," he tacked on.
"Wait," Quicksilver said.
"Wait," Shadow agreed as well.
Rogue and Dot nodded.
"It's only been a week," Ember said.
Kylo sighed and glanced at Rey.
"We could do some extra research in the meantime," Rey said. "See if we can find some basis for our theory."
"Three more weeks," Kylo allowed. "Then we will see if there's been improvement and reassess whether or not we reconnect her to the Force."
"Yes, sir," they all agreed before each going their way.
"You want to research?" Kylo half-asked, half-complained to Rey.
She grinned at him. "I'm already an honorary member of a research team," she quipped.
"Mechanical research. Not paperwork." Kylo groaned. "More paperwork."
"Oh, come on," she laughed, poking him. "You enjoy gathering what you've learned from reconnecting the Knights. That was my idea as well, you know."
Kylo mock-glared at her and she laughed again.
"You know what? I think I'll go check on that mechanical research," she teased, moving around his desk. "I'll send Derek in for your paperwork."
Kylo threw a light Force-jab her way but she nimbly danced out of its trajectory, laughing as she flitted out of his office and sticking out her tongue right before the door closed.