Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Dalon Provincial Academy
5.5 APC
With bright, pristine morning light shining on the Academy's sprawling campus, Major Aurin Jax made his way through the vibrant, fragrant central gardens, watching classes of students being led to their daily activities by their professors around the grand entrance. The groups of children ranged in age from four to well into their teens, and seeing the formal deep navy blue uniforms parading past him reminded him of his own years spent there as a young boy himself. He hadn't been back since his graduation, but know that his daughter Tavyna was enrolled in an advanced early education program there, he had an excuse to visit.
It wasn't long before he crossed paths with someone he knew, and as one of his former teachers spotted him in the front entryway, he instantly felt thirteen again.
"Professor Del," Jax greeted the slight old woman warmly with a polite nod. Paelonia Delesdemier was probably one of the few faculty members he had studied under who still remained on staff at Academy, but she had left the most important, lasting impression on him as he prepared to enter the Royal Forces Academy the year following his classes with her. She wore her long, graying hair swept up in the same tight bun he remembered, neatly braided and bound atop her head without drawing attention away from her soft facial features and gentle blue eyes. Of course, the years had etched elegant wrinkles around her eyes, but her smile was still pleasant and genuine as the first day he had stepped into her classroom.
"Major Jax!" she returned a respectful bow to him. "To what does the Academy owe the honor of a visit from the High Commander's Security Chief?"
Jax laughed lightly, shaking his head. "This is strictly a personal visit, Professor. I know you're around mostly older students, but my two-year-old daughter Tavyna has been here for a few weeks now."
"She is such a sweetheart," Paelonia beamed with an even broader smile. "I hear about her almost every day from my daughter-in-law Cotaal. She's one of Tavy's instructors, and she is quite captivated by your little lady."
Smiling, Jax gave a relieved sigh. "I'm glad she's made such a good impression. I was...a little hesitant to send her here so early, but I knew she would be in good hands."
"Well, I am certainly counting the days until I have another Jax in my classroom, Major. It would be a privilege."
He hesitated the slightest bit, remembering the impact she had on him at the tender age of thirteen... "Just promise me you won't steer her in the same direction you sent me?"
A tight smile of pride spread across Paelonia's face. "I promise nothing but uncovering any aptitudes she may possess. Where that leads is up to her. Are you...unhappy with what you have become?"
"No, of course not," Jax answered hastily, and he meant it. His career with the Royal Guard had taken him far, and he never would have guessed he'd have ended up personally serving the High Commander and the Rys'tihn Royal Family as he had. His service to the Crown had also granted him a chance encounter with the woman who would become his wife, and his beautiful girl Tavyna meant more to him than he could describe. With that thought, he smiled again. "I only want what every father wants: the best for my little Tavy."
Paelonia nodded gracefully, understanding his meaning. "You know very well that she will get that here." Something slightly behind him caught her attention, and her smile broadened as she watched. "And there they go, off to their morning playtime."
Jax turned around to see a number of young instructors busily keeping more than a dozen toddlers occupied on their way toward a small building just beside the central gardens. Most of them hadn't even cleared the main entryway, but only interested in playing with their friends about them, the children were in no hurry to cooperate. The instructors continued their gentle encouragement, seemingly accustomed to and undeterred by their slow pace, and as they all finally appeared on the landing, Jax spotted Tavyna involved with a tight knit of other children, making him smile. Without noticing her father standing nearby, she conversed with them giddily, and he wasn't surprised to spot Dirani Rys'tihn among the group. Dirani's pure white hair easily differentiated her from all the other wobbly, bobbing heads in the class, and he was glad to see the two of them appear to be so close already.
"Would you like a tour of the grounds, Major?" Paelonia's genial offer interrupted his thoughts. "Quite a few things have changed since you last walked these halls."
Jax had just returned to face his old professor when he noticed the familiar hum of an approaching ship behind him...only he was quickly beginning to realize that it was flying far too low already, and it was coming in at an unusually high speed, much, much too fast for a landing...
He whirled back around and had no time to process what he saw. The fuselage of some unknown ship crashed just beside him, blasting apart with fierce, concussive force against the doors of the Academy's main entrance, and he felt nothing more.
Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Dalon Medical Center
Startled out of sleep with a lurching jolt, Rech struggled to breathe for several agonizing seconds. The sensation that had jarred him from his brief meditation was so odd...akin to being jabbed deep in the very fabric of one's own consciousness, and he had felt it only once before. It was as disorienting as he remembered, and he even had to force his mind to process where he was, though he hadn't gone anywhere for days.
"Rech," Jedi Master Amina Kanomin's soft voice addressed him gently beside him, "you've still another six hours before you're to return to your shift. Go back to sleep, please."
Masters Kanomin and Rylka had been his constant companions for four tender weeks already, rotating through healing duties with him to treat Mand's ailing and frail body. The medical center room had become home to them, too, and though he refused to accept their aid, originally determined to do it all himself, he had finally given in and admitted that he needed their help if he was going to keep his promise to Mand. The two Masters had shown him that it could be done, but only if he opened himself to them and trusted them with Mand's care completely. That had taken some time, but well into an established routine by now, he was even more disturbed by the call that had woken him up with such alarm.
Slowly sitting up on his cot on the floor of Mand's room, he had to allow his eyes time to adjust to the dim light, still seeing a bright, penetrating flash in his mind. Once he could, he stood, taking up Mand's hand at her side as he looked her over. She remained deep in a coma of sorts, her systems all reduced to a fleeting hibernation state except for what the twins required of her. Nothing was out of the ordinary; all the monitors remained silent, and Mand's current healer, Master Kanomin, was only concerned at the moment with him.
"...Rech?"
"I felt something," he managed to speak roughly, suddenly finding his throat dry and coarse. "I think Mand tried to contact me."
Confused, Master Kanomin furrowed her brows as she, too, turned to Mand, watching her a moment for signs of anything unusual. When nothing else came, and as his mind became fully alert without any lingering traces of sleep, he sighed, delicately reaching the Force to her, determining her condition for himself. Still, everything remained in place, even her highly guarded consciousness that he didn't dare disturb. She was expending so much energy keeping herself in such a state that he only tended to her physical needs, which could all be done without delving into her mind and distracting her. If her consciousness was still locked up deep within her...then where had that call come from just moments before?
"She's the only one who's ever tried to reach me quite like that," Rech continued, idly thinking aloud. "The first time, I thought it was...a mistake, or an accident. But it was her way of trying to find me...after I had severed our connection on Coruscant years ago." He gave her hand the gentlest squeeze, shielding her from a sudden spike of emotion he was unable to contain. "She's still...locked in right now, though. I don't understand. Why would she need me so urgently if nothing's wrong?"
Master Kanomin frowned apologetically, unable to answer, either. "The girls are alright?"
He nodded as he placed his hand lightly atop Mand's swollen stomach, carefully wrapping the twin girls in the warmth of the Force and his presence for a few lengthy minutes as he stood with Master Kanomin in silence. Only after hearing her rustling on the cot on the other side of the room, Rech remembered that Master Rylka would be stirring for her shift soon. She seemed to sense the mood of the room without speaking, and the Lethan Twi'lek Jedi Master stood from her humble bed, her sharp hazel eyes studying them all.
"Rech felt a message from Mand," Master Kanomin explained simply, and Master Rylka nodded, weighing her words with consideration as she always did.
"Was there any specific meaning with the message?"
Rech and Master Kanomin exchanged glances. "None that we can tell yet," he answered her.
Again, Master Rylka looked contemplative, and as she began to speak once more, a nurse stepped into the room from the hallway, looking distressed but reticent for intruding.
"I apologize for the interruption," the nurse began timidly, "but...we need your help, Masters Jedi, immediately."
Rech felt his stomach turn to ice before the nurse even continued, already certain that her urgency couldn't be the fault of anything benign.
"What's happened?"
The nurse swallowed to tame the shakiness in her voice. "There was an accident at the Provincial Academy... We don't have many details, other than the fact that there are already dozens of wounded on their way to us...mostly children."
Both Jedi Masters looked to each other simultaneously and appeared to communicate silently before Master Kanomin turned to Rech, softening her sweet, Coruscanti voice.
"Rech, you're the least well rested of the three of us at this moment. Mand has been very stable these past few days, and she should remain so while we're gone. We need to help these children as quickly as we can."
Stunned but at least able to nod his response, Rech held more tightly to Mand's hand as the Master Healers swiftly left with the nurse for the main floor where the injured would be pouring in. As horrible of a tragedy as it sounded, he at least could take small comfort knowing that whatever had happened, Cordira hadn't been harmed in it.
Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Dalon Provincial Academy
The flurry of activity amidst a backdrop of smoldering wreckage and chaotic screams was all too fresh a memory, momentarily placing Elena on the steps of the Dalon Palace, reduced to mountains of rubble more than five years ago. Were it not for her intense drive to find her daughter Dirani somewhere on the scene, she would have locked up in agonizing flashbacks of that terrible day...but she knew Dirani was gravely wounded, which focused her thoughts; the fragile toddler was quickly running out of time.
She had nearly collapsed when she felt Dirani's injuries, and spotting a plume of thick, black smoke rising over the horizon from the Academy's grounds had confirmed her fears. She left the company of King Verojec and a number of his advisers without explaining much, but little was required to be said once the others saw what she already knew. With four Edgepoints struggling to keep up with her as she left the shuttle before it had even landed and sprinted toward the site, she couldn't totally make sense of what she was seeing.
More than twenty small bodies lay motionless about on the ground, all seemingly blasted back from one central source which looked to be the burning, crashed ship against the main entrance. A handful of Academy instructors, though in a daze themselves, were caring for the young wounded, vainly attempting to comfort them or even crudely treat them. Medics were still arriving from the closest satellite clinic, and the Royal Guard response was also landing on the Academy's front lawn nearby, dispersing to secure the area under General Erro's direction. Continuing into the fray, she had almost passed over a man sitting on the ground cradling a bundled, unresponsive child...when she noticed it was the fine uniform jacket of a high ranking Royal Guard that the child was wrapped in, and she easily recognized it.
"...Major? Major Jax!"
As she hastily knelt beside him, she wasn't expecting to find him injured, as well. His exposed skin was sliced and singed, and the largest laceration, jagged and enmeshed with his hairline, was still spilling blood down his face, but he was only concerned with the girl in his arms she realized was his daughter Tavyna. He didn't even acknowledge Elena beside him until she gripped his shoulder, searching his eyes as he slowly looked up at her.
She could hardly breathe. "...you were here? When this happened?"
His expression was blank with shock, and she wasn't even sure he understood or heard her until he finally nodded. His entire body was trembling with injuries she couldn't even see, but he still only worried for his daughter as he gripped one of her tiny legs, covering it tightly with his jacket that was heavily darkened with blood... The girl was missing one of her feet.
"Tavy," he struggled to speak, "...she won't wake."
Desperate to control her own emotions, Elena turned back to the Edgepoints who had followed her and stood behind her, locking her eyes open to withhold any tears from them. "Gray, Cal, stay with him. You make sure that they both get to the med center now."
"Yes, m'lady," the two echoed in tandem, moving quickly to execute her order. Elena couldn't bring herself to say anything else to Jax without breaking down, though, so she gently placed her own shaky hand against his cheek, wordlessly expressing her support before she stood from him and returned to the rest of the remaining chaos.
More victims were being tended to on site before being moved, and those too far gone were being covered with sheets to be transported to the city morgue later. Any other mother might have felt the heart-crushing gravity of the scene, but Elena had the Force to steel her nerves, heighten her senses...
"M'lady," Swip began cautiously, keeping up just behind her as they surveyed the wounded, "...maybe she's already been taken to the medical center?"
But she shook her head firmly. "No. Dirani's still here." Distracted by all the motion swirling about her, she stopped and closed her eyes to extend her feelings into the area, following the faintest trace of her daughter's presence. It had already weakened so much, but if she could just find her, she could save her, even at the last possible second...
"There."
Looking up in the direction her extended finger had pointed, she saw a separated, large section of the wrecked ship laying against the exterior wall of a nearby building, still smoldering. The warped durasteel had been blasted to its current resting place, lengthwise but caving in a portion of the building's supports on either side of it. Dirani had to be somewhere...underneath the debris?
As quickly as her legs would move in her terror, she crossed the littered central gardens to reach it, hearing Swip and Leikam keeping close on her heels. Though they both began inspecting it for proper leverage points, it was far too large a structure for any two or even five humans to move - only she could.
"Keep back," she instructed them both intensely, raising her hand again, "but be ready to pull her out when I say."
Getting nods from them both, she closed her eyes once more and took in a deep breath, working quickly to wrap an invisible grip around the wreckage. It was much, much heavier than she anticipated, forcing her to reach deeper within herself, further into her reserves of strength. She could feel the durasteel crimping and deforming as she heard it moan and creak under the strain of her efforts. Sparks even flew up from its mangled parts and damaged circuits, but she wrenched her hold defiantly, determined to make it bend to her will through the Force. It would move and lift away from Dirani safely, she demanded, her brows creased together in earnest concentration...just a bit more...
"Now!"
Her eyes sprung open as she watched Swip, already on his knees under the levitating wreckage, quickly and carefully scoop Dirani's tiny body into his arms. He rocked back onto his feet and stood in one fluid motion, sweeping her away from the danger as Leikam stepped with him, both looking over the wounded girl worriedly. Before Elena could take Dirani from them, though, she slowly lowered the debris back down to the ground, gradually easing her hold of it to make sure it rested evenly and wouldn't roll or cause more damage. With the difficult exertion, her legs felt weak underneath her, but she willed herself forward, meeting Swip as he delicately cradled Dirani.
"She's still breathing, m'lady," he informed her, albeit without much hope in his voice, and she soon saw why. As she released a breath she had been holding, her own bones fiercely ached to their cores as she looked over Dirani's obvious fractures, amazed that someone so small could have endured so many grievous injuries. She remained unconscious, which was one tender mercy for which Elena could be thankful while surrounded by such devastation. Her eyes again blurred with building tears, and she couldn't hold them back as Swip began gently transferring the girl to her, making sure to support her head and broken limbs as she moved. With one hand she smoothed Dirani's hair, dirtied from its normal pure white shimmer, and with what focus she could muster, she called on the Force to begin healing, weaving her wounds together...
"Elena!"
Koril's voice behind her was mildly startling, as she hadn't expected him to travel to the site himself yet. Someone else on his staff must have contacted him; she had been too focused on finding Dirani to stop earlier. Had he defied his advisers' likely orders to wait until the area had been secured in order to find his daughter, as she had?
She turned around to face him with her cheeks tear-stained and their seemingly lifeless girl in her arms, and understandably, she watched as the color drained from his face in his heartbreak. Her voice wouldn't work fast enough to stall his pain.
"Still alive," she managed between weak sobs, but seeing a medic rushing toward them, she knew that their duties would soon separate them. Koril would have to stay as Paneau's High Commander to oversee the aftermath...but Elena would have to leave the site not as a Jedi, but as a mother.
"...I have to go with her."
With one arm wrapped around Elena's shoulders protectively, Koril reached his free hand up to Dirani's face in her arms, brushing her hair from her closed eyes with the gentlest touch. A noticeable grimace rolled over his face as he realized that she was right, his emotional distress plainly evident in his expression as he met Elena's gaze. He nodded with obvious effort, torn with the burden of his duty that would keep him from being at his daughter's side for the time being. Taking in and releasing a shaky breath, he looked up to the two Edgepoints still standing beside them, hardening his exterior for his official front he'd be returning to in moments.
"You two will stay with them until I'm done here."
Swip and Leikam nodded dutifully. "Yes, High Commander."
As the medic began assessing Dirani in Elena's hold, Koril turned to leave, but not before he gave one last order.
"Take my shuttle. It'll get you to the medical center faster."