Part 5.
Guest Quarters: Jedi Enclave.
The figure, clothed in a simple white medical robe, lay silently on the bed. Unmoving, she exhibited all the signs of being in a coma. The only movement in the darkened room was the rise and fall of the young Cathar Jedi asleep in a chair opposite the bed. The curtains were drawn back and the moon shone into the room, bathing the two figures in a silvery light. It would have been by this light, that someone in the room would have seen the bed-ridden figure lurch suddenly and start to shake.
Her eyes slid open and stared at the moon outside the window. With a sigh, the Twi'lek shifted slightly under the sheets, her head struggling to slide up from the pillow.
Groaning, she raised a trembling hand to her forehead and glanced slowly around the room. She seemed safe for now, wherever she was. The bed was comfortable and warm, the room was quiet and no alarming sounds came from the open window.
She glanced at the figure slumped slightly in the chair opposite her and stared. The young girl was covered in fur... bizarre. Still, she seemed unthreatening, asleep in the chair, her fingers curled tightly against the fabric, her chest rising and falling slowly. No, there was no threat there.
The Twi'lek sighed and fell back onto the pillows. She was weak, she felt as though someone had beaten her to within an inch of her life. Sighing quietly, she gazed once more at the figure on the chair.
"How did I get here?" She wondered, her face creasing in the dark. "I... I remember... pain, lots of pain." Her hand reached up to touch her left arm; the one she knew had long ago been broken. Now, there was no pain, no broken bones. How? "What happened... to me?"
She sat up suddenly, her body wavering as tired muscles tried to respond and her eyes were wide in the darkness. "Who am I...!?"
She ran her tongue over her lips and tried to stem the growing panic growing inside her. Looking around, she spied a tiny mirror on the bedside table and picked it up. Slowly she raised it to her face, and as her lips trembled, flicked it up to stare at the image it showed.
The face that stared back was pale, and drawn for some reason. She tilted her head to the left and right, a beautiful face she thought, but... it had seen unpleasant times. She stared at the purple skin, the dark lips and pale p eyes... Who was she? The tattoo's meant something, she knew that... but what? Something bad, she knew that much. The ones that covered her face made her feel shame. The others, they filled her with... regret. Why?
"I... I don't know who you are..." she whispered, touching the glass slowly. "What happened to us?"
"Yuthura...." A quiet, exotically accented, voice murmured and she looked over to the furry young woman in the chair. Her lips were dawn slightly in a faint smile and she sighed, obviously dreaming about something.
"Yuthura...." the Twi'lek whispered, raising a hand to touch her face once more. "Yuthura.... That, that's my name!"
A sudden thumping pain ripped into her and she fell back on the covers of the bed, her mouth open in a silent scream. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and the hand that had gripped the mirror let it fall onto the bedcover's as her fingers furled into a claw. Her head was on fire, a terrible ripping fire! Jerking on the bed, she felt her legs writhe, her breath come in shuddering gasps and her entire body flail in agony as the pain rammed itself like liquid down her spine.
"What... what's happening to me?" She managed to think, before a sudden slashing pain trailed across her shoulders and back... again and again and again. Her vision clouded and suddenly she felt the pain rip across her mind like fire.
"Dance for me my little slave girl!" Omeesh laughed, his hands gently picking through the various delicacies on the platter in front of him. The huge Hutt nodded to the guard and he raised his energy whip once more. "I never told you to stop dancing for me..."
Yuthura groaned. She lay chained by her neck to a sense pole, her body covered in sweat, emphasising the tattoos of property, skill and level of sexual ability. Her feet, naked, had been ripped and burned by the various heat plates that the Hutt had installed beneath each sense pole, to keep the dancers spinning as much as possible. The sense poles themselves were chilled to ice, so that the dancers would always fumble as the freezing metal ravaged their hands. She was exhausted; having been dancing for ten hours as the Hutt had consumed each lavish platter of food in front of her. It was torture, total and utter torture for her.
Omeesh watched her struggle to stand and nodded to the guard once more, his stumpy hand waving at him. The guard grinned and raising his lash brought it down on her back once more. Another streak of burning flesh joined the others, some half-healed, on her back. Yuthura fell to her knees once more, as Omeesh ripped another scream from her.
"Dance for me!" Omeesh whispered, popping another of the delicacies into his huge mouth. His slimy tongue slid out of his mouth and ran lightly across his lips. "Unless you wish to indulge in... other activities?"
Yuthura felt her insides lurch, the memory of the last visit to her Masters bedchamber still raw in her mind, as were the cuff marks on her ankles and wrists. Shaking, she staggered to her feet and forced her exhausted thigh muscles around the sense pole once more.
"Good, good... for that inconveniencing break, you shall receive fifty lashes." He watched her pause on the pole and then spin round it, her Lekku flying around her. "Now, show me how good you can be."
In the dark of the room, Yuthura's body writhed, drenched in sweat and a whimper escaped her lips. "Someone save me, please. Force, kill me... I beg of you." Another spike of pain, and....
"Yuthura, my love, you must do as he says..." Kara bathed her raw and scalded feet gently in the water that she'd pulled from the filthy slave quarters taps. "If you don't, he'll kill you...or worse."
"I know, but I couldn't dance anymore." Yuthura gazed at her lover, a human female she'd met about a year ago, with a weary sigh. "He picks on me, I don't know why."
"Because you are beautiful, skilled and exotically coloured for one of your species." Kara smiled slightly at her, before returning her attention to her feet. "I fear you will always be picked upon. Please, do as he says..."
"One day, I will escape," Yuthura glanced around the bare cell of her room, the filth and slime coating the walls and the threadbare mattress she slept on. "One day, you and I can live somewhere much better than this."
"Shhh, please." Kara glanced around the room and looked at her with a glimmer of fear. "What we do is punishable by death. Slaves cannot find security in each other's arms, especially two females."
"Unless that slug is watching," Yuthura growled. "If I ever get a chance, I will kill him!"
"Please, Yuthura... be silent!" Kara raised a hand to Yuthura's dark purple lips and softly pressed a finger against them. "I don't want to lose you!"
Yuthura raised her own hand to the finger and curled her hand around it. She'd never been interested in any of the guard's offers of 'companionship' unless they offered her food, or the smuggled in Kolto needles, in exchange. Even then, she'd felt it was a chore. When Kara had arrived, and had been hit on by the Gammorean guard, Yuthura had been amazed when she'd screamed abuse at it. It had been only her interference, her knowledge that he owed her for a past ride that had stopped Kara being raped.
The woman had thanked her, and Yuthura had found herself finding a growing interest. Now they were lovers, had been for months, and despite their terrible life, Yuthura had found something to keep her living, something to live for.
"I love you Kara, you know that."
Yuthura clutched at her skull and growled, drool flowing down her chin, as the agony, almost like red-hot needles, ran across her brain. She lurched as another memory hit her, felt tears stream down her face.
"No, oh Force no!"
"Damn you Omeesh!" Yuthura screamed at her Master as the guard roughly threw her onto the floor in front of him. She raised her head to see the Hutt grinning at her. Her face was a mass of bruises and blood. Some trickled down her chin and she wiped it away. Her body had been flayed, her back thighs and stomach covered in hundreds of red hot, painful scars.
The guard kicked her and she fell into a kneeling position. Yuthura shivered, she knew what happened to Slaves that betrayed him, especially Twi'lek. The ones that she had seen had lost their Lekku. The precious limbs sliced from them with an ordinary blade, no anaesthetic. Then, Omeesh usually had them tortured to death.
"What do you want from me you slug!"
"Ah, Yuthura... my favourite little dance girl. I do apologise for what they have done to you... Well, no I don't actually. Your screams were lovely to hear. Almost as lovely as your illegal lover's."
"What? Kara?" Yuthura shivered and stared at his gloating, slug face. "What... what have you done to her."
"Well, I was waiting for you to come here." Omeesh smiled at her and waved his hand at one of the guards. Slowly, watching her face, he sipped at the large goblet of drink next to his arm. "Could I interest you in something to eat, while we wait? I do so enjoy your company..."
"Kara, what have you done to her..." She stared at him and he smiled. "No, please."
"Yuthura..." A voice croaked from across the room. Yuthura turned and screamed in horror, feeling tears run along the side of her face. "My love... I... I'm so sorry."
Kara lay strapped to a repulsor equipped frame. Her body had been beaten to a pulp, her limbs broken. She stared at Yuthura with bloody eyes, and her face was full of suffering. Yuthura stared at her and then turned to Omeesh in horror.
"Why?"
"Because I want to keep you my little slave pet. She on the other hand has no skills I deem really essential." Omeesh stared at her and then shrugged. "I'm going to give you a choice Yuthura...."
He waved his hand nonchalantly and two guards appeared on either side of her. Both carried shock sticks which they jabbed into her sides simultaneously. Yuthura felt the energy buzz through her insides and she fell with a groan onto the cold hard floor.
"Tsk, Drik? A little encouragement, so that she pays attention to me please?"
The guard nodded and Yuthura managed to raise her head weakly as he walked across to Kara's prone form. With a whisper, Drik drew a small edged blade and slowly began to trail it across Kara's neck, a grin on his face. Finally, he pushed slightly too hard and a thin sliver of blood ran down Kara's already bruised and bleeding flesh.
Yuthura gazed at Kara's suffering eyes, willing her to live, and turned to Omeesh. His piggy eyes gazed at her with longing and amusement and she felt her stomach roll with anger... "I HATE you!!"
"Now, don't be so hasty Yuthura," Omeesh cautioned, a scream of agony coming from Kara as Drik slapped her savagely across the face. "If you come willingly with me and submit to my bedchamber, and promise to never do anything like this again, then I will have Kara killed quickly and with minimal pain. If you resist me, then I will have every inch of skin flayed from her and have kolto administered to keep her alive for as long as possible."
Yuthura sobbed and collapsed, but her soul burned. "I HATE YOU!!"
"Make your choice, little slave dancer. Choose." Omeesh began to laugh and Yuthura stared up at him with hatred, total hatred. When the guards next to him began to laugh as well, she growled, a thin bead of spittle trailed down her chin and she stood. Her eyes were dark and she felt something sit up and beg inside her soul.
"Use me, little one. I give you the power to hurt them, kill them... do it NOW!"
She snarled and fixed her stare on the Hutts laughing eyes. Omeesh felt his amusement fade at her expression and he stared at her in sudden unease. She growled. "I will NEVER submit to YOU AGAIN!"
She reached for the begging side of her and felt something hammer itself into her mind. Her vision shifted, a blur of red and blue tinged the edge of her perception and she gasped at the change. She could feel each and every guard, feel Omeesh, his sudden suspicion, fear... Kara, her pain and suffering. It tore at her, fed the thing that had awoken in her breast and she felt a sudden knowledge slip into her.
"Reach out, my little Twi'lek of vengeance. Feel their life-force, draw on it and feed on it... make their strength yours!"
Reaching out, she wound threads of power between the guards, wrapped them around their hearts and souls until she was satisfied. Finally, she looked up and smiled at Omeesh.
"You cannot stop me, even if you think you can. Did you ever think that sooner or later justice would visit you?" She suggested. "These guards you have are an annoyance, nothing more. You and I Omeesh, we have unfinished business!"
She felt a sense of power flow through her. The guards all stopped laughing simultaneously and then began to shake. Omeesh glanced around and she tasted his sudden terror as they all collapsed as one, blood fountaining from their eyes, mouths and noses. They lay dying, and the various other people who bowed and scraped ran screaming from the throne room, leaving the Hutt all alone. His terrified eyes swivelled back to her and she grinned at him.
"Wait, I can offer you anything!" He began, but she cut him off with an unhinged laugh.
"I hate you Omeesh, and you will pay for what you've done to me, the slaves and Kara." She grinned and Omeesh let out a strangled cry as the blade from one of the dead guards shot from his belt and flew into her expecting hands. "As you can see, my gods will it!"
"You were nothing without me!" Omeesh screamed in terror as she advanced and jumped lightly onto his throne. "I gave you food, a place to sleep!"
"Tortured me, made me learn as many sexual practices as you wanted, tattooed me like a beast, denied me everything!" She flipped the blade onto his body, and the part of her that had killed the guards begged her to strike. "You've taken my freedom, and now you've taken the one thing I love!"
"I'll give you anything, Slave Mistress status!" Omeesh's deep voice gurgled as her blade tip drew a tiny bread across his neck. "Forget Kara, you can sleep with all my slaves! What is it you want from me? What do you want me to do?"
"Die?" she suggested and, with a snarl, leapt onto his body. He screamed, his fingers reaching for the controls to activate the slaves suppression collars, devices that would kill them all by neural scrambling, but Yuthura swung the blade and cleaved his arm off in a fountain of green blood.
Clutching the stump, Omeesh cried out as she walked up his huge bloated body and held the blade above her with a grin. His blood had coated her face, her arms, her entire body and she smiled at him crazily. With a final laugh, Yuthura slid the blade under his throat and held it there as realisation slipped into his piggy eyes.
"Goodbye, Master!" She snarled and dragged it across his throat. Blood sprayed across the room, coating everything and Yuthura in a slick green fluid and she laughed uncontrollably. His death rattle filled the room and eventually the Hutt lay still. She stood over his body, letting the blood drip form her vibroblade, basking in the death and destruction she'd wrought on the creature that had made her life a pit of torture for so long.
"Yuthura..." Kara's faint voice echoed in the sudden silence and Yuthura glanced up to see her lover staring at her. "Please, come back to me..."
Yuthura shuddered, realising what she'd done... although how remained a mystery. She staggered off the dead Hutt's body and fell onto the floor, exhaustion suddenly filling her. Finally, she reached the dying human female and unclamped her from the floating frame.
Kara's body fell gently into her arms. The blood from her wounds spilling down the Twi'lek's skin in a steady flow.
"Yuthura, my love... wha, what was that?" She managed, blood trickling down her chin. "I... I want you to resist whatever it was you tapped into then. For my sake."
"Kara..." Yuthura felt tears flow down her chin and she hugged her lover close. "I... I promise I'll try. We have to get out of here, the guards will soon come running when the others run past them, screaming."
"You can escape my love," Kara smiled, only to wince and close her eyes. "As for me, Omeesh has lost after all, I'm dying."
"No!" Yuthura moaned, burying her head in her lover's lap. "You, you can't!"
"I can," Kara whispered. "That is the way of life. My life is over, yours is only beginning."
A sudden thumping made them both glance over to the huge doors. Quickly, Yuthura ran across to the dead form of Omeesh and slapped the lockdown key on his chair. The vast bolts slammed into place, but even they were a temporary measure.
"Yuthura, run away from here. Run away... find somewhere to live. Enjoy life! Please, try to forget what happened here, settle down with someone and be happy."
"I... I," Yuthura stared at Kara with a look of despair. "Please, don't leave me. I... I promise I'll try and live, try and forget what happened to me, but I will never forget you!"
"That's all I ask... that, and find someone to replace me." Kara smiled at the look of horror that passed over the Yuthura's face. "Look for peace Yuthura, peace and fulfilment." Kara coughed and she smiled at her. "One more thing, get me the gun from that guard over there."
Yuthura sobbed and shook her head. "No.... please."
"Get it for me..." Kara urged, and Yuthura crawled over to the gun belt and picked it up. Handing it to her, Yuthura stared at her. "Now, walk away from here... go, before any of the guards work out what's happened."
"No...."
"Go!" Kara moaned and, gasping at her broken arm forced the gun to point at her head. She smiled faintly at Yuthura and licked her lips. "See you in the afterlife, my love... live well. Now, go!"
Yuthura shuddered and stood, tears pouring down her face. She turned slowly and walked towards the exit of the throne room, her fingers gripping the stolen blade tightly. The echo of a single laser bolt ran around the throne room. She let out a cry of agony, knowing that the woman, who had kept her sane through all of Omeesh's cruel tortures, had herself succumbed. Never looking back, she ran from the throne room.
Yuthura shuddered as great wrenching gasps yanked themselves from her lungs. She felt the hot wet tears streaming down her face at the memory of her past. So much pain! She had been a victim of the worst kind... cruel, intentional and deliberate pain.
Then, she'd helped contribute to it. She had chosen the Sith, betrayed Kara's last request, forgot her memory, and sought power for herself. Oh, she had fooled herself into thinking it was for the slaves, to free them. But when the Sith had taken prisoners to work on the ruins, she'd turned a blind eye. She had been no better than Omeesh, letting her students kill the innocent prisoners.
Then, then she had met Lashowe in the bar and it had been all too easy for her to lure the young woman to her bed, with promises of power and an admission into the academy. She had tentatively wondered if she'd found someone who she could love once more, a strange notion for a Sith. But she found out the truth all too quickly. Her mind burned once more.
"Lashowe... what do you think you're doing?" Yuthura stared at the woman she had taken to her bed in annoyance. "Tell me, before I kill you!"
"It's quite simple Master Yuthura," Lashowe, her blond hair matted with sweat from the previous nights indulgence, grinned at her. "I have sliced my way into your private data files. I tell you, Master Uthar would be most interested in what they have to say..."
"You, you broke into my private files?" Yuthura growled at her and Lashowe took a step backwards. "Why?"
"Because, I have been talking to Master Uthar, Master Yuthura. He thinks you want him dead... imagine my surprise when I found your diary. It's full of dreams of power I'm sure he would find collaborating. If I do this, I'm guaranteed a place at the academy, a chance to become a true Sith."
"I... I thought we..." Yuthura cursed her weakness as Lashow grinned and laughed at her.
"Yes I know, shame really. I'm not fond of what we did at all, but it gained me access to your private files, so I consider it worth what I paid."
"Paid?" Yuthura wished her voice wouldn't sound so strained. "You... you did this just to gain prestige?"
"Oh yes," Lashowe smirked at her. "Now, the question is, what will you give me as a counter to Master Uthar's offer of a Sith medallion and a chance to become a Sith?"
Yuthura stared at her. If she killed her, Uthar would see that as confirmation that Lashow had found proof of her desire to run the academy. That, she could not allow. However, nor could she let the damn woman run around with her personal thoughts. With a sigh, she stared at the young Sith wannabe and cracked her knuckles.
"Very well, I will not only give you a Medallion right now, but I will also give you the details of a Sith holocron I found while sifting the ruins... That should give you masses of prestige, and its location is simple to find. It is in the belly of a simple beast, even you should be able to kill it."
"Very well," Lashowe grinned and held out a pad. "Download the details and I will erase your personal data from my pad."
"Very well," She walked across to the main console and tapped at it intently, but her fingers paused as she asked the one question that part of her, buried deeply, burned to know. "Tell me, did it really mean nothing?"
"Yes," Lashowe laughed at her. "Nothing at all. In fact, I found it quite repulsive to tell you the truth. Still, it got me what I wished."
Yuthura felt the hatred bubble up and she snarled. Once the little bitch had got what she wanted, a Sith medallion, She would have to find a way to have her killed. If she did it herself, then Master Uthar would kill her, as Lashowe was obviously his favoured student. But she couldn't let this little Sith bitch have her way when she was Academy master!
No, no.... she would go to the Cantina for a few hours a day until the time limit for new Students ended. She would remain there for as long as it took to find her prospect. Brute force would be useless, she needed a Jedi or force sensitive prospect as cunning as Lashowe. Once she found one, the promise to help him or her become a Sith would lure them into her confidence. She would use them to kill Lashowe, suggest that they ask her for help.
"Master Ban?" The little bitch's smarmy voice intruded and Yuthura pressed the last few buttons. "Would you mind hurrying a little? I wish to wash your filthy touch from my skin."
Turning, Yuthura handed her the data pad with a growl and she watched as the young woman took it, checked the data and nodded.
"Very well, here." She handed her the Datapad with her private entries. "Good bye, Yuthura."
With a Snarl, she watched her go... no one betrayed her, no one!
"I used that man, Revan, to kill her... deliberately set her up! Yuthura felt bile lurch up into her throat and she clasped her hand over her lips. "Oh god, what kind of a monster was I!?"
"I would suggest Lashowe, she is far too trusting." The whisper of her past haunted her, memories of her terrible, foolish choices. "Well done, my prospect for the year... Lashowe was far to cunning."
Lashowe had been too young to die, she had needed Revan's help, not her... not a foolish, murdering Twi'lek. If Revan had seen that she was beyond help, then maybe the young girl would still be alive, maybe the anger that she carried could have been purged, healed... something. Instead she'd pushed a Jedi to murder one so young, all due to her lust for power.
She slid off the bed, her legs buckling under her from the strain. She had to get away, she had no right to be with he Jedi, none! Wavering on her unsteady legs, Yuthura glanced around for her clothes, anything. The furry woman slumbered on, her chest rising slowly and Yuthura steadied herself... she had to stay quiet.
Turning, Yuthura spied a half-closed door, the light from the moon highlighting what looked like Jedi robes. Those would do. Slowly, Yuthura relaxed her grip on the bed, and took a wobbly step forwards, or tried to. Her legs failed to respond, her mind still trying to work out the right connections to perform something as complicated as walking.
"I can never share power with one such as you... I... I'm sorry." Another memory slammed into her, the image of herself betraying the man who had done everything she'd wanted, and also tried to help her. With a cry of pain, as her temple spiked with agony, she fell on the floor in a heap and bile slipped into her mouth.
"I was a murderer." She crawled towards the refresher, bumping the seat as she did so. "Murderer, slaver, evil..."
She reached the bowl, slid the seat up and vomited as hard as possible at the memories of what she had become. Unable to help herself, she gripped the stem as her stomach heaved and heaved at the images that ran through her mind. Each one was terrible to her now. The dreams of power and lust that had corrupted her now taunted her, at the weakness she showed. She shivered, realising how far she had fallen that the darkside had sunk its claws into her this far. She would never be rid of its whisper, she knew that now... and it scared her. Her fingers clutched the side of the bowl tightly and she felt tears stream down her face.
"I don't deserve the chance to live again." She whispered at the murky image of her face reflected by the metal lid. Her reflection stared back at her, unforgiving and she knew the look was aimed at her very soul. "I betrayed everything I believed in, betrayed Kara, betrayed the Jedi and, and I betrayed myself."
As she clung miserably to the refresher, Yuthura felt a bubble of ironic laughter well up inside her. She laughed at the sight of herself, battered, pale, ashamed. Handed to a Sith slaver vessel like a piece of meat, handed to a slavery bar. The slave, who became a Jedi, turned to the darkness, turned her back on its dark whisper and became a slave once more. Her life, nothing more than one circle, that took her back to the start.
"Yuthura Ban, the great Sith Master! Now, just plain Yuthura Ban, ex slave, ex Jedi, ex Sith and betrayer to all." Her reflection stared at her, unrelenting in its scorn. "By the Force, what have I done?"
"You cannot change the past." A sudden furry voice purred into her ear, and strong hands slid around her arms to pull her up. "But, you turned to the light path once more. Redemption can be had."
Yuthura stared into the gently smiling face of the young fur coated woman who had been asleep in the chair opposite her. She was familiar in some way, but Yuthura found her memories skittered around like broken glass when she tried to focus on her face.
"Who are you?" She asked and the Cathar, that was it, she was a Cathar, looked concerned for a second. "I... I have to ask, you seem familiar."
"First, do you know who you are?" She asked gently and Yuthura sighed in annoyance. Juhani decided to try and help, she prompted her. "Your mind was badly damaged by the Sith in revenge for your decision to turn back to the light. When we found you, well, you had lost any sense of who you were. So, do you remember who you are?"
"I was a prisoner of the Sith?" Yuthura frowned, ignoring Juhani's question and she felt more memories slip from the recesses of her healed mind. They slipped into place with only a slight painful stab and she looked up in horror at the Cathar. "The Enclave, the attack! Did she escape? I... I tried to help her!"
"Shhh," Juhani closed her eyes quickly, blocking out he terrible empty feeling that the image brought her. However, she knew that Yuthura saw her pain, though she didn't know why. "First, the name. What is your name?"
"Yuthura Ban, Juh... Juhani?" She smiled suddenly as the Cathar's face linked to a name and more details surfaced and clicked into place. "Your name is Juhani. You were with Revan on Korriban, and, and I saw you afterwards? When... when I was in pain?"
"Yes," Juhani sighed in relief, it seemed that Yuthura would be okay after all. "My name is Juhani. I rescued you from the slavery bar they had you in, on Almaina. That was how you lost your mind, they decided to use you as a tool for practice in the Force."
"So, I owe you my life." Yuthura sighed and held out her hand, ignoring the faint tremor of exhaustion. "For what little it's worth, my life is yours."
"No, I will not take that pledge." Juhani felt part of her rip, and she sighed. "Belaya, the woman you tried to save, was killed after you gave everything to let her escape. I have pledged to assist you until you are fully healed once more."
"She, she died?" Yuthura sighed and felt a bitterness enter her. A sudden thought struck her and she gazed at Juhani in surprise. "You two were close?"
"She was once a... she was very close to me, very." Juhani sighed and pulled Yuthura back into he main bedroom. "Now, You need rest. The healers told me that the recall of your life would be painful to you. I see they did not lie. You need rest, and I will stay here in case you need anything."
"Wait, please..." Yuthura felt her slow and stare at her. The Cathar's face was attractive in a strange way. To her surprise, she felt another memory trickle into her. "The furry one! I called you the furry one?"
Juhani blushed and, a few seconds later, Yuthura's purple skin deepened ever so slightly. "Yes, while you were mentally damaged, that was your name for me. I presume as I am covered in fur as you can see."
"Yes, I see, it is hard to miss." Yuthura coughed and for a second realised how clingy the Medical robe was on her skin. She trembled slightly as she realised how intently she felt Juhani's soft furry hands around her waist and shoulders. "I... I should get some rest I suppose."
She slid back into the soft grip of the covers of her bed and watched as Juhani crept lithely to the chair in the moonlight and sank into it. As Yuthura lay back, she felt a sudden need to say something. It would have once been a weak thing to say, indeed, she felt her lingering Sith memories balk at the idea. But, she was adamant; it had to be said.
"Juhani?" She asked tentatively. "I... I just wanted to say. Well, thank you for saving my life. I suppose I owe Revan as well, but for now... you are my saviour, I will never forget that."
"No thanks is necessary," Juhani muttered, her face blushing deeply in the moonlight. "I would have done this regardless... no one deserves to be a slave, no one. But, I owe you thanks as well. You tried to save Belaya, and for that I thank you in turn."
"I did what I could..." Yuthura murmured, exhaustion rapidly overtaking her and making her voice drop into a mumble. "Wasn't enough."
"You tried and that means so much to me and I am sure the Force itself. Redemption is something you deserve," Juhani gazed at her as Yuthura's eyes closed slowly, gazed at her intently. "I shall never forget that."
She watched as Yuthura's form shivered slightly and then stilled, peace thrumming into her aura. The Twi'lek's purple skin glowed in the moonlight and Juhani stepped on the sudden lurch of her heart, stilled the loving whisper of her soul. She was a friend, nothing more... could not be anything more.
"Yes, sleep," She muttered, trying to get comfortable once more on the chair, her eyes never leaving Yuthura's face. "I shall watch over you, for as long as you need me."