Another warning for accidental outing of a trans person here.
The Darkness in the base is still roiling around her as she makes her way out. It's quite aggravating, mostly because it makes it quite difficult for her to get an idea as to where the rest of the Jedi were. Hopefully, all five of them had managed to extract themselves when Bite had sent the comm that they'd found Wolffe and his team, but there was always the chance that they'd run into some droid trouble.
Or any number of other issues. She wouldn't be entirely surprised if one of them had managed to stumble on a hidden Sith Temple under the processing facility. Somewhat surprised, yes, but not entirely.
It would probably be a good idea to check in with them, honestly. They'd been avoiding using comms too much because of the interference the shielding in the facility had- which was another interesting thing that Jocasta was curious about, the place didn't seem like it had much shielding and the comms did work, just not necessarily very well because it partly depended on where you were standing- but in this case checking in with the teams to try and make sure that they'd gotten to the Seeker safely would be good.
And also warning them about Ventress. While she'll argue her right to offer mercy until she goes blue, it's true that it could potentially be dangerous to her friends…
Sighing, Jocasta reaches for her comm.
"Plo."
"Jo!" Her ankai'a says warmly, and something in her heart relaxes at the sound of his voice. "Are you well?"
"Mostly, yes." She sighs again, stopping where she is; if this location has good enough connection to talk, she'll stay here until her conversation's done. "We encountered Ventress…"
"Imik said." He sounds concerned. "Did she harm you?"
"No, not at all. Her skills were… somewhat lacking…"
"That's surprising, given what I've heard of her other exploits."
"Compared to Cin, or even Yan?" Jocasta laughs, surprising herself with how bitter it is. "For someone younger and not used to the style, certainly."
"...Come home, Jo." Plo says gently. "I and my team are on the Seeker now, as are those others from your team. We're just waiting on you and Master Thy's team, and then we will leave."
"That sounds good." She nods. "Is Wolffe's team alright? The medic, Inci I think her name was? She seemed concerned."
"...They are all well." He tells her, after a moment's startled pause. "Incident is the medic on this team, and I can understand why she was concerned, but they're all settled into the room Imik set up for them as a temporary medbay, and Lip is quite happily fretting over all of them while raiding your supplies."
"Good." Jocasta relaxes slightly, shaking her head. "I'll make my way back to you as fast as possible. I'd like to get back to our base."
"We'll be waiting."
The call disconnects, and Jocasta inhales slowly. Whatever her thoughts are now, the situation is in the past. The only thing to do is move forward, and explain herself when asked.
The area around the Seeker is almost suspiciously quiet. Sure, it's placed out of the way, but Jocasta had half expected some droids to have managed to follow one of their teams back to it.
Though it's good that that hasn't happened.
"Jo." Plo says warmly, appearing on the ramp as she walks closer. Boost is just behind him, and she gives him a smile before falling into Plo's arms.
"Plo." She returns, basking for a moment in the comfort before pushing back slightly and looking at Boost. "I'm surprised that you're not hovering over Wolffe, foh paqor."
She can feel the impression of a blush even through his helmet, and Plo's chest rumbles with a laugh. "Oh, he was, ankai'a. Lip kicked him out for getting in the way."
"Poor you." She chuckles as well. "Will they let us in, do you think?"
"Hopefully, but they spent quite a bit of time swearing, so it's possible that they'll want us out of the way." Plo shrugs, tusks twisting as he looks down at her. "Ankai'a, are you alright? You feel… unsettled."
Jocasta sighs. "I could do with meditating." She confesses. "Or else perhaps just talking through things. But I am unharmed."
"That's good." Boost says quietly. "I was worried, ahran. General Plo said you seemed upset, and since we left you with Ventress..."
"I am well, Boost, I promise." She reaches out, letting him take her hand. "I'll let Medic Lip take a look at me if it would help calm you, but Ventress didn't touch me."
"Come and talk with me, Jo." Plo requests, stepping back and to her side to draw her into the ship. "Our squads are… rather pressed together, right now, and it will get worse when Master Thy arrives with hers, but we can find a place to speak."
"Imik might let us borrow the cockpit, though they'd probably be grumpy about it because then they can't take off quickly." Jocasta offers up. "But it's not really a secret, what happened will be quite obvious eventually…"
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to work through things in private."
The Seeker is a fairly small ship, despite having room for five beings. It's not a Shadow transport, not precisely; those ones are usually more run down, or rarely much more expensive and luxurious, depending on what role the Shadow is playing. This sort of craft would only really be used if the team in question was acting as semi-well-off nobodies, which also only really works when the group could pull off being a family unit realistically. So despite some of the more interesting design specifications, there wasn't a lot of room space; three bunk rooms, the cockpit, the cargo bay, and a small lounge area.
Reaching out with the Force, Jocasta can tell that Imik has set up the cargo bay as a temporary medbay, moving things around with the Force to allow it. Most of the troopers are in the lounge or one of the bunk rooms, one of them has Clicker in it, alone, and the other is free for now. Imik themselves is in the cockpit, as expected.
She leads the way to the free bunk room- it's her's and Thy's, though Imik has apparently also cleared the packs out of the way- locking the door behind them to signal for privacy, and then sinks to the ground. Plo follows, and Boost hovers awkwardly for a moment before sitting with them at her gesture, taking off his helmet as he does.
Then she fills them in on her duel.
Both of them are silent for a while by the time it ends.
"I understand why you did that." Plo says, finally. "I am… uncertain if I like it, or if I agree. But I do understand."
She sags, a little. "Thank you." She glances at Boost, who shrugs, looking uncomfortable.
"I really don't like it, ahran." He admits. "She really hurt Wolffe and the others, and… well, we already know she doesn't care at all about clones, and none of the other General's have been able to make her stop, so…"
Jocasta lifts her arm again, inviting, and after a moment he shifts over to lean against her side.
"I know, and perhaps she won't stop." Jocasta agrees. "Perhaps, just like with every other Jedi that she's fought since this war started, she'll just move forward and continue being a brutal Sith. But mercy is the way of the Jedi, so I had to offer." She casts a glance around furtively, then lowers her voice- she doubts anyone is listening in to what's going on, but this still isn't something she really ought to be speaking about openly. "Though a Valehnan would agree; mercy is only good when the person given it is willing to take it."
"A Valehnan?" Boost asks, blinking.
"It's not something you'll learn in any Dai Bendu primer, because as far as most Jedi know, they don't exist." She says. "They're the sort of thing that only comes up in ancient history, for most Jedi. Nowadays they're not something you'd hear about."
"Like Jedi black ops?" Boost raises an eyebrow, and Plo hisses lowly.
"So the records say, yes." He tilts his head slightly at her, and she shrugs. It's not like she's actually said anything that could tie her to such a non-existent group, aside from her being an Archivist who's studied those old things once.
Plo knows because he's a Council Master and her ankai'a, and because occasionally a Search is a good excuse for a Jedi to end up somewhere they're not technically supposed to be. More than a few people have hitched lifts from Plo because they happened to need to go somewhere a little off the records.
"Huh, cool. I didn't know the Jedi had anything like that."
"It's mostly recorded in old pieces, from the Sith-Jedi wars." Plo tells him. "Back when it was most important."
"They used to advocate for mercy once." Jocasta adds. "Which is what I've done. Ventress deserves mercy; once. If she continues on this path, either because she didn't take the chance to think, or because she thought about it but decided not to try, then there will be no more mercy found here."
"Do you really think you'll see her again?"
"The Force does what it wills." She shrugs. "Perhaps I will, but it will only be because she has changed and is trying to make amends. Perhaps I won't. Perhaps I will on another battlefield, or perhaps I won't. Only time will tell."
"She still might hurt other people."
"Yes. That is the chance I've chosen to take, offering mercy." Jocasta sighs. "I assure you, this wasn't a decision made lightly. But it is the one I made, and that can't be changed now."
They sit in silence a little while longer, which Jocasta appreciates; it gives her more time to get her thoughts in order, go over what was stirred up- both by the duel and the recitation- and also make plans for the future.
"Should we go and check in on the troopers?" Plo offers, eventually. "If Lip will let us in, of course."
Jocasta gives Boost a look, seeing him brighten, and chuckles. "Yes, I believe that would be good. Though… perhaps we shouldn't mention Ventress' fate for a while. Wolffe would likely recover better without that knowledge."
"If he asks?"
"Say that I handled it, and we can figure things out fully another time."
She eases her way to her feet, letting Boost clutch at her hand again and following Plo over to the makeshift medbay.
Lip does let them into their medbay, but only after thoroughly warning them about causing any of their patients stress. They don't seem to care at all that she and Plo are Jedi, or that Plo is their General, they just want to make sure their patients get better.
Jocasta approves. And sort of wants to introduce them to Vokara, just to see the look on the Master Healer's face.
Plo looks at her, tusks twitching in a grin, clearly catching the end of that thought. Lip gives both of them a hard look- Jocasta's impressed, her sabbac face is excellent and Plo is hard to read for people who've known him for years- before finally letting them in.
...Jocasta has absolutely no idea where those folding cots came from. She didn't even know that they had any.
It's probably Imik's fault.
"General Plo, Madame Jocasta!" Wolffe perks up, from where he's sitting- closest to the door, she notes, her heart aching at the fact that the Commander felt the need to be on the defensive even among his siblings. Along the same wall and behind him are Gritt and Incident, and the two she still doesn't know the names of are on the opposite side.
Still behind Wolffe's position, though.
"Agisti, foh paqor." Jocasta and Plo both greet, glancing at each other with amused grins at their synchronisation. Boost just smiles widely, nodding to the other troopers before heading over to Wolffe's side.
"Well, children, I suppose." Jocasta adds, extending her gaze to the rest of them. "I hope you're doing better?"
The other troopers seem rather stunned- oh, dear, perhaps Plo hasn't quite gotten all of his troopers adjusted to his adoption tendencies yet- but Wolffe just chuckles, settling down a bit and letting Boost sit next to him.
"Lip seemed happy enough, at least. He wasn't bitching quite as hard at the end as he was at the start." He shrugs. "Good to be out of there, too."
"I'll bet." Plo says dryly, both of them settling together so that all five of the troopers can see them easily.
"What's going on, General?" Wolffe asks, eye flicking nervously between them.
"We're waiting on Master Thy's team at the moment, and then we'll be moving back to meet with the rest of the battalion at the other processing facility." Plo tells them, making a little calm down gesture with both his hands and his tusks. "From there, we'll be finishing clean up before reporting in and moving on. I'm not certain what Jo will be doing…?"
"We came here following the Will of the Force." She says serenely, keeping a blank face for a moment. "We will leave whenever the Force tells us to."
Plo pokes her in the side, making her squeak in a manner that she'll deny to anyone else, then snicker. "Fine, fine! We were scheduled to be here for a tenday, working on standard assumptions of 'weird thing to investigate', and we'll probably do another group meditation, but if it turns out we were sent here for just this then we'll be returning to the Temple and writing up a report that no-one's likely to read."
"Really?"
"Surprisingly few people actually care to read Archivist reports, unless there's a note at the front yelling about Sith Temples or something."
"Why?" Boost gasps. "You all do such interesting things!"
Jocasta laughs. "Thank you, my dear. We think so as well, but there aren't many people who actually share that outlook on life. I wish there was, maybe then we'd have less foolish Jedi Masters misunderstanding the Codes and philosophy and all the rest."
She contemplates that for a moment, then shakes her head and looks around. "Anyway, more important things. Obviously I know you, Wolffe, you introduced Incident- Plo tells me that's your name, dear?" Incident nods, slowly. "Good, good, I'd hate to get that wrong- and she introduced Gritt earlier, but I don't believe I've heard either of your names." She gestures at the two on the other side of the room, then pauses. "Actually, wait; Incident, Wolffe referred to you with female pronouns, is that your preference publicly?"
"I- um- pardon?" Incident says weakly, sounding confused. The general emotional miasma of the room, which had spiked into worry-fear-recrimination-distress when Jocasta had referred to Incident as female, shifts more towards confusion as well, though still concerned, and she gives Plo a look.
Plo's tusks are tilted in amusement-concern-confusion.
"...Ah." Jocasta realises. She slips out of her seat next to them and bows lowly in an apology. "My most sincere apologies, Incident. I didn't mean to out you in such a way. I assumed that Wolffe's use of your preferred pronouns so openly meant that this was a public thing, and I apologise for causing you discomfort."
They all still seem rather confused, getting more so the longer Jocasta holds her bow, keeping her eyes on the floor.
"It's… fine, General? Um, Madame?" Incident fumbles. "I mean, I don't- um."
Jocasta straightens slowly, in time to see them give Wolffe a fairly desperate look. The Commander chuckles, reaching out to Jocasta.
"Incident's public among the rest of the troopers, but we don't call her out around the natborns." He explains, once Jocasta's taken his hand. "General Plo didn't know either, though."
"I see."
"And sorry as well, Inci." Wolffe grimaces, looking back and over properly. "Should've thought more before I spoke."
"You were hurt." They say, shrugging their uninjured shoulder. "It's alright."
"We'll stick with the Jedi standard, then, until you say otherwise." Plo promises. All of them- Wolffe and Boost included- raise their eyebrows.
"Jedi standard?" Gritt asks, pushing themself a little more upright.
"Standard Jedi practise when dealing with pronouns is neutral when possible." Jocasta explains. "Partly because Dai Bendu pronoun practises are… rather different," Wolffe and Boost both wince, having had experience with that, "But also because the Jedi Order as a whole is made up of an incredible number of individuals, many of whom come from cultures with different gender and sex divisions than Humans, as well as ones that simply don't follow such practises at all."
"It's rather easier to simply use they and them in Basic than it is to negotiate the ins and outs of things on assumption." Plo agrees. "At least until you know their particular pronoun set, in which case you would use that."
"There's other options than just he and she?" One of the still unknown other troopers asks, sounding fascinated. Jocasta pegs them as another like Boost, who'd find learning things to be the best use of time they could think of.
Plo hisses slightly in a sigh. "I'll arrange for an information write up to be distributed among the troops." He promises. "My apologies, I was unaware that you were unaware of this."
"No real harm done, General." Wolffe asserts, to general nodding.
"Anyway, diversion aside; your names, if that's alright?" Jocasta returns, gesturing to them again. The two of them swap looks and shrug.
"Spitter, Sir." The one with the injured ribs says.
"Comet." The other, who'd been fascinated by the previous conversation, tags on. "Nice to meet you, General."
"Still Madame or Master." Jocasta corrects dryly. "But a pleasure to meet both of you as well."
"Right, sorry, Madame." Comet corrects immediately. "Can you tell us more about Jedi culture stuff?"
"If that's alright, of course." Spitter adds, in the tones of someone well used to needing to cover up for their sibling's tendency to speak before they think.
Jocasta chuckles again. "Of course it's alright." She says. "I have no problems with teaching any of you that might be interested about whatever you'd like."
"Perhaps you should get another Padawan, Jo." Plo says teasingly. "Given how much you enjoy teaching."
"I'm far too old for such things now." She argues. Plo laughs.
"You've got another fifty years in you at least, and if I'm still young enough to keep up with a Padawan then you are." He counters.
She shoves him. "Don't you think we have rather enough to be getting on with, without adding another child to the mix?" She says archly. "Besides, Ser Maybe After The War…"
Plo raises his hands him surrender, tusks tilting. "Fine, fine, you win! A suggestion, that's all."
"Besides, I do plenty of teaching with my Archive staff."
"How come, Madame Jocasta?"
She turns an arched eyebrow on Boost instead. "Back to formalities, are we?"
He flushes, and shrugs. "Wasn't sure…"
"I certainly don't have a problem with it, and I'm not in your chain of command in any way."
"Ok, ahran." Boost corrects, seeming to cheer up a little. "You do a lot of teaching in the Archives, then?"
"Naturally. And not just for my staff, either. The Archives runs a lot of things for the crèchlings, and while as Head of the Archives I don't participate in all of them, I've done my own fair share. And there's always Initiates and Padawans to help with homework."
Abruptly, Thy and Kiili's Force signatures start approaching the ship at speed, accompanied by the eight troopers that made up their squad.
"Oh, dear." She murmurs, raising a hand to halt Boost's next question where it starts. "Do hold on a moment, I think I need to go deal with this…"
"Is something wrong, Madame Jocasta?" Wolffe straightens, looking for all the Galaxy like he's prepared to climb out of the cot if she says there is. Thankfully, for both her sanity and Medic Lip's, Plo puts a hand on his arm.
"Not… necessarily wrong?" She winces. "Just Thy and Kiili. At speed."
Jocasta heads over to the door of the cargo bay, pulling it open as Plo pokes curiosity-concern-interest at her. At the same time, the Force signatures of the group arrive at the ship.
"In in in!" Thy's voice calls sharply, over the sounds of several troopers running. "Imik get moving it's time to go!"
"What in the stars did you do?!" Clicker calls, apparently having come out of his chosen room.
Kiili giggles, amusement-entertainment-glee rippling like a wave.
"Oh dear." Jocasta murmurs again. She glances back over her shoulder, well aware of the grin fixed on her face stiffly, and gestures. "I'll be right back. Hopefully. Assuming nothing is on fire again."
She knows that giggle. She doesn't work with Kiili often but everyone knows that giggle.
The children still look rather concerned as she leaves, heading straight for the lounge area as Imik starts closing up the ship and preparing to leave.
"What did you do." She asks, flat and calm, as she steps out of the hall.
Kiili turns to her, grin audible.
Some of the troopers are carrying bags.
Thy looks immensely smug.
Thy is also carrying something; in this case, what appears to be the upper and lower halves of some kind of droid. The distinction is important, since they aren't connected.
"What did you do." She asks again, more firmly.
"Found the Commander's armour!" Thy grins. "And the rest of their squad's as well. Figured they might want it back."
Jocasta blinks, irritation fading. "Oh. Thank you, I think they'll all appreciate that." From what she understands, getting new armour is a pain, as is needing to repaint it again, plus armour is somewhat special to their troopers. Not needing to go through all those tasks on top of their recovery will likely be helpful.
"We got lucky, sir." One of the troopers- she doesn't recognise this one, either- puts in, gesturing at their armour-carrying siblings. "Stumbled over some kind of armoury on our way through, which was handy. Don't know rightly why they were keeping our armour in there too, but…" They shrug. "Worked out in the end."
"Indeed." She smiles gratefully at the eight of them, then turns back to Thy and fixes her with a glare. "Explain."
"Armoury was pretty well defended." Thy says. "So Kiili and I had to do some defending ourselves."
"The droid, Thy."
"Isn't it great?!" Kiili giggles again. "Corporal Canvas over there said it's a tactical droid, so it's definitely gonna be fun…"
Jocasta covers her face and sighs. "Force save us…"
"It'll help, sure!" Kiili beams, completely missing the point. "I'll start breaking into this once we're back and settled, might even take it back to the Archives and see what the rest of my wonderful friends in the tech department can do with it…"
Jocasta is pretty sure if the droid wasn't in Thy's arms and well out of easy reach he'd be stroking its head.
"I changed my mind." She sighs again. "Kiili, you can have Sinker, I'll help persuade Plo and Wolffe. There's less chance of you corrupting him, he's pre-corrupted already and that way I won't have to deal with kriffing two of you in my Archives. And I'm writing up a petition to bar Oppo from having any more Padawans because this is all his fault, I'm certain of it…"
"Awww, c'mon, Master, I'm not that bad!" He continues to beam. "And a Padawan would be fun!"
"Yes, but at what cost." She shakes her head and firmly turns away. "Thank you for the armour, I'm sure Wolffe and the others will be very pleased. Don't do anything stupid."
"Yes Madame!"
Jo's may have a lot to talk to her Mind Healer about once she's back on Coruscant...
Also minor random headcanon moment, but I could sort of see Spitter and Comet as batchmates here- Spitter is unfortunately used to needing to keep Comet's curiosity from getting him in trouble.
Dai Bendu
Ankai'a- darling, heartsong, soulmate
Foh paqor- my child
Ahran- parent
Valehnan- Jedi Shadow (literally 'mastery of physical darkness' or 'mastery of being unseen')
Agisti, foh paqor- hello, my child