Chapter Zero - Crash Landing
A young girl with long pink hair sat upon her bed and curled herself up into a ball, hugging herself as tightly as she could while the tears flowed freely from her eyes. Normally, she'd never compromise her dignity and work herself up into such a state, but to say this had been a bad day would have been a gross understatement of the highest order. She was broken, and she finally knew it to be true. There weren't anymore illusions, she was a failure, and she had finally snapped.
She reviewed the events of the day in her mind and it only made her feel worse. Louise was called into the headmaster's office, there she was received by his secretary who gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. This wasn't her first visit, and Miss Longueville was always nice to her whenever she was in. To Louise it was the only good part of being in that office. She was then before the headmaster where he sat with the deputy headmaster and she was informed that she was on her final warning. She knew it was coming, it was a long time coming. The pair were convinced that she had no magical aptitude and while her academics were beyond superb, her application of those academics to her magic was a complete and utter failure. Between this, and the relentless mocking of her peers, Louise felt her heart shatter, she was also informed that her family would be billed for damages to the classroom she had destroyed that day during a failed attempt at alchemy. Both the heads of the academy took no pleasure in their actions, and Louise knew it, but their hands were tied, students and staff had been injured in the explosion she caused, property was damaged, and reparations had to be made. To further compound her failure, she was taunted and insulted for her failures by almost every student she passed by on her way back to her room.
Louise turned over in her bed and looked out the window to the sky, then her attention was drawn to the window itself, it seemed so inviting, she knew she was high enough in the dormitory tower, nobody would be outside at the moment, all she had to do was go through it and all her troubles would be over. She imagined what could be waiting for her after, even her worst visions seemed preferable to where she was now, alone and humiliated. The next thing she knew she'd opened the window and started looking at the ground, again it looked so inviting to her, the pattern the wind blew in the grass looked to her like open arms, inviting her into their comforting embrace. She climbed onto the ledge and took in the view where her thoughts continued to drift through her life. Would anyone really care that she was gone? None of her fellow students she was sure, but others? She considered some of the staff she'd made friends with, she felt she was a burden to them more than a friend, they simply took pity on her, she didn't want pity.
The door to her room swung open and in came a young raven haired maid with a large basket of freshly washed clothing to be returned to the room's occupant, she closed the door behind her and entered the room, only the first thing she saw was said room's occupant standing in her window, when Louise turned to look at her, the look on the young noble's face left no doubt about her intentions.
"Louise! Please come down from there! Whatever it is, we can talk about it like we always do!"
Louise couldn't meet her eyes and turned her head back to the grassy field below her. "I can't go on like this Siesta. I just can't. Between the bullies, my family, the nightmares… I don't want to live like this anymore!" Louise clenched her fists and steeled herself. "I'm so sorry..."
Siesta knew what she was about to do it, she discarded the laundry basket and was already running towards Louise the moment she looked away from her. Louise took one step out of the window before she was not so gently pulled back in by the maid. The two fell back onto the bed and the maid kept a tight grip on Louise, hugging her from behind as tightly as she could, "No! I won't let you! I won't! I won't lose my only friend in the world!" she yelled as loud as she could to make sure it got through her friend's thick head and selective hearing.
"Siesta, you have parents, and a lot of brothers and sisters, who love and look up to you. You have friends everywhere. You work hard and you're respected. All I ever do is make you clean up after me because I'm a lazy slob and I don't even show you proper appreciation for it! What kind of friend does that?" Louise spoke with a bitter broken voice.
Siesta laughed a little between her sobs before offering her retort, "I don't clean and wash for you because you make me, or because it's my job, I do it because I love you! You're my friend, my only one! You're the only one I can trust with anything! Who else can I read trashy books with? Who else can I can confide my worries, dreams, hopes, fears, desires and not be judged? Nobody but you!"
Louise placed her hands on Siesta's and relaxed against her as she was held. "Everyone judges me, everyone calls me a failure, I ruin everything I touch, I can't even use magic, what kind of life could I have if I fail here Siesta? An arranged marriage to a man who'll never be around unless he wants to come breed with me and then leave me to take care of the children? What kind of miserable life would that be? I'd only waste that life imagining things that could have been."
Siesta hugged her tighter, "At least you'd never be alone. You'll bring me with you. We'll stay up late reading stupid books. If you have children we'll stay up late reading them silly stories, we'll teach them to make fun of all the plot holes and stupid characters. We'll play games with them. It'll be fun, I'll make sure of that!"
Louise couldn't help it once she imagined the scenario described to her, touched by her friend's loyalty she smiled, then laughed, then broke into a sob, "I don't deserve a friend like you!"
Siesta sighed and continued to hold her doing her utmost to project an aura of calm "You probably don't, but you're stuck with me, forever and always!"
Louise slipped her hand under one of Siesta's and gave it a tight squeeze, "Forever and always." she repeated.
The two lay together in companionable silence for the night. Whatever work Siesta had that still needed to be done was ignored in favor of tending to her best friend. Louise drifted in and out of a fitful and restless sleep and Siesta did her best to offer her friend any measure of security she could muster.
That morning Louise gently slipped out of Siesta's grip and stood up to go sit at her dresser. The sun was already up and the day had probably already started, she'd end up late, but she was committed.
"So what are you going to do now Louise?" asked Siesta as she sat up in the bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes.
Louise took a breath to gather her wits, "Well. I still have one last chance to turn things around. Today's the day of the Summoning Ritual. So I'm going to summon a familiar. That's the only way I can prove once and for all that I belong in this school." she stated matter of factly.
Siesta nodded, "Then I think I'll have a look around and prepare some cute bedding for the adorable familiar you're going to summon!" she replied with a playful tone and warm smile.
Louise gasped at herself in the mirror as she took a brush to her hair, she was a mess, her pink hair cascaded in all the wrong directions and her mascara left streaks running down her eyes from the tears. "My familiar won't be adorable Siesta, it'll be fearsome! It'll put everyone in their places. Just you wait and see! The first thing I'll have it do is eat whatever Guiche and Kirche summon!"
Siesta sat up in the bed and smiled at Louise through her reflection in the mirror. "That's my girl! Now let's get you cleaned up so you can meet your familiar with all your graceful beauty and noble dignity," she said as she stood up and got a washcloth to clean off Louise's face.
When she finally made it to the yard where the ritual was taking place, she had to walk through and around her fellow students who were all busy getting acquainted with their familiars, or simply doting upon them, but once they each noticed Louise and the grim look of determination upon her face, few could comfortably meet her gaze and quickly looked away at anything else their eyes could catch. Louise in turn felt green with envy at the various creatures her classmates had summoned to their sides, owls, wolves, and a couple manticores which really drew her envy. There was even a gryphon and a dragon! Then there was her bully and family rival who'd summoned a red fire salamander, while petting the creature smugly she took a moment to taunt Louise,
"You're late Zero! Time to get expelled," she said to her with a laugh.
"Yeah don't even let her try! She'll kill us all with another explosion!" came another voice.
Louise flinched at the cutting words but kept walking, resolved to ignore them the best she could, most students kept their mouths shut and had the decency to feel uncomfortable at the situation unfolding, however, a select few of her regular bullies kept taunting her until she stood before Professor Colbert, the deputy headmaster held up his staff to the students and demanded silence before addressing Louise.
"I'm afraid you're too late Miss Valliere. We've just finished here and I can't let you proceed now," said Colbert with a sad tone of voice.
Louise looked up at the professor's eyes and stared into them deeply. As he looked back into her's he saw the extreme depths of sadness, desperation, and determination.
"With respect, I didn't ask for permission. I'm doing this. I won't let my life be worthless, I won't give up without a fight," she stated forcefully.
Colbert flinched at her tone and then regarded her for a long moment. That tone reminded him of a time long past. He knew from the start that being her mother's daughter she probably wouldn't take no for an answer. The Professor took his time to consider what was at stake for her; being expelled from school would effectively be the end of life as she knew it. Her family would at best marry her off to the first potential suitor to come along. At worst disown her. Then she would lose her status as a noble. Colbert nodded to her and stepped aside while gesturing to where she should stand to perform the summoning.
"That's not fair! She disrespects all of us by being late and now we have to watch her cause another loud explosion," yelled the buxom redhead.
Colbert glared into her eyes and gestured with his staff, a look only a hardened soldier could give, he wasn't so much looking at her as he was looking through her. She was nothing to him, and in that moment she knew it, and it excited her. She bit her index finger and looked away with a blush.
Colbert turned to Louise and addressed her, "You may begin Miss Valliere. Good luck."
Louise pulled her wand out from inside her sleeve, she hesitated a long moment drawing irritated sighs from the gathered students. She took a deep breath, her emotions taking full control of her body and soul. She didn't know why she was doing the spell this way but it just felt right. She held her wand up at the sky and looked up desperately, and then at the top of her lungs with her voice hoarse and cracking, yelled her spell, drawing all attention to her, she was yelling at the universe itself and she wasn't taking no for an answer, several cringed in fear, others face palmed in embarrassment at their classmate, and most looked away again getting ready to seek shelter from what they were sure was going to be an epic backfire. At first, there was a faint glow emanating from the tip of her wand, and then it expanded rapidly until she was surrounded by magic, a pentagram appeared under her feet and the magic came forth from the circle joining at her wand, her pupils then seemed to vanish and her eyes, to Professor Colbert's horror, became as the abyss. When she began to speak it was loud, pleading, and desperate...
"My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe, my divine, beautiful, wise, and powerful servant, heed my call! I wish from the very bottom of my heart! Appear and set me free from this living hell!"
When the spell completed a beam of energy shot out of her wand and into the sky where it vanished. Everyone looked around but didn't see anything summoned. Many of the students erupted into laughter. "Not even an explosion! After such an impassioned speech and flashy spell? Another zero for Louise!" there wasn't even time for Louise to figure out what she would say in response, or even consider her failure for the universe was answering on her behalf as the crowd was thoroughly silenced and forced to the ground by what sounded like her biggest explosion to date. It was a powerful earth and ear shattering sonic boom from the sky that blew out all the windows from the towers around them. The few that could looked up and saw something that vaguely resembled an arrow head split down the middle with a ball in between the two halves falling from the sky, the air around it exploded in fire and all were awe struck, unable to comprehend what they were looking at.
Calista's eyes were so focused on her damage alerts while activating back up systems that she hadn't yet realized what was happening, then out of the corner of her eye she saw nothing but green out of her cockpit, her eyes widened, she yelled a few choice words as her fighter's proximity warnings blared deafeningly all around her, added to that was the panicked nonsensical scream of her droid companion. Through whatever means, be it the Force acting on her will, luck, or her own reflexes, her hand was suddenly back on her throttle, she pulled it back all the way and squeezed a button on it so tightly that it was nearly crushed under the strain, the fighter's retro thrusters kicked in and she felt her ribs crack against the seat restraints but it saved her from planting face first into the ground. Through, this only delayed the inevitable, gravity was indifferent to her plight, and no matter how hard she tried to negotiate with it, she simply didn't have an advantageous bargaining position. Her control thrusters were still mostly shorted, so she couldn't slow her descent further, and inevitably, gravity had its way with her, everything went black.
In the courtyard, the students had scattered to a safe distance from the impact site. Though not nearly as badly damaged as it could have been, the Bloodmark fighter had one of its wings torn off and lay helpless on the ground. Louise and Professor Colbert cautiously walked up to the strange flying machine as the dust began to settle when the front section of the Bloodmark's cockpit popped off, the two suddenly stepped back with Colbert holding a hand out to Louise to keep her behind him, his staff gripped hard in his other hand ready for trouble.
"I summoned this thing?" asked Louise with confusion.
"Looks like you broke it through. Whatever it was," answered a voice from behind her.
She turned around and glared at the newcomer. "Shut up Kirche! This isn't the time!"
Kirche, the tall busty redhead smirked down at the shorter pink haired girl, "Really? I can't think of a better time."
Colbert turned to the redhead and glared at her causing her to shrink back a few steps. "She's right Miss Zerbst. You need to stay back until I-"
Colbert was interrupted by a rapid series of very loud beeps, whistles, and chirps, it sounded like whatever was making the noise was in a state of panic. The group turned back to the fighter and saw the little black and red Astromech droid trying to get their attention.
"Is that suppose to be my familiar?!"
Louise was horrified at the possibility, this felt so wrong in so many ways. Kirche's laughter at her misfortune didn't help alleviate her tension at all.
Colbert meanwhile was carefully approaching the fighter and saw why the little thing was in such a state of panic. What exactly this thing was that was trying to get his attention was a question which would have to wait because sitting in the pilot's seat was a young woman in black robes who was unconscious. She had angelic white hair which was being drenched with blood from a wound on the top of her head. "Miss Zerbst, help me here!"
It took Colbert almost half a minute before he could figure out how to unfasten the seat restraints. Then with Kirche's assistance managed to get the young woman out of the cockpit and lay her out on the grass. Colbert checked to make sure she had a pulse and was still breathing.
"She's unconscious. Miss Valliere, please finish the summoning ritual, it might be what's needed to bring her out of her present state."
Louise blinked at the man. "But Professor? She's hurt, she needs a healer not a contract! Besides, I can't make her into a lowly familiar she a human being! It'd be like making her my slave! Are we sure she's my- I mean- I don't know if-"
"Miss Valliere, whatever is summoned, is your familiar. It is divine law, and it is absolute! If you don't complete the ritual she could die and I'll be forced to expel you from this institute. Now hurry up!"
Louise gulped and nodded before taking Colbert's place beside the young woman on the ground, she knelt down and held up her wand, "Please forgive me…" she preambled before starting the contract ritual, "My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere. Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make her my familiar."
She then lowered herself to seal the contract with a kiss to her lips. It took a few moments of worrying that this woman was in fact not summoned as a familiar, but sure enough when her body started to heat up, and smoke began to rise from inside her left glove, all doubt was erased. The robed woman's eyes shot open and she let out an ear piercing scream of agony while clutching her left hand protectively before she passed out once again.
Colbert checked the woman's vital signs and noted that she was indeed alive and stable. Meanwhile, the astromech droid that was staying back while its master was receiving aid let out a series of panicked chirps.
"She's fine," came a voice to the Droid. "Do not worry," it added.
Kirche looked up from the woman to the droid, and then to her blue haired best friend who stood beside it with a hand on its head. "You can understand it Tabitha?"
Tabitha shook her head. "Emotions" was her only response.
Kirche looked between the unconscious robed woman and the droid, "I see, it was worried about her. But what is that thing anyway?"
Colbert then looked at the droid and then at Kirche to answer, "It appears to be some kind of golem, probably assisting this person in the operation of the flying machine they arrived in. That would be my guess based on the evidence."
Louise pondered that information before speaking, "If she has a golem with her, could that mean she's a mage?"
Colbert scratched his head, "Well, she's wearing dark robes, shes got body armor on under those robes like a Mage Knight. That metal bar attached to her belt could be a wand of some sort. It's possible. But we'll have to wait until she wakes to get real answers. All we can do is speculate. For now, we should probably get her into Miss Valliere's room to rest."
Louise and Siesta bandaged the girl's head as best they could, getting the academy healers to work on a familiar, even a human one, wasn't possible for them. Once they had her on the bed they decided to change the sleeping girl's clothes. Figuring out the advanced technology that made up the locking systems on her body armor was no small challenge. To the two young women, everything about this person was entirely alien, the fabrics that made up her dark robes were unlike anything they'd ever felt, they looked heavy and coarse, but were feather light, the same went for her armor, the metal should have weighed more than the girl's could carry judging by the amount of metal in the construction, but Siesta could easily hold the entire pile. Once she was naked on the bed they quickly redressed her in a nightgown Louise volunteered and then tucked her in under the blankets.
Neither of the two wanted to even hint at what they'd just seen. The young girl didn't look much older than them, and she was only a little bit taller than Louise, she had long hair that was as white as snow and her skin was pale enough to almost make her hair blend perfectly. All things considered she was a beautiful young woman. She seemed perfectly harmless in the state she was in now. However judging from the armor, the many dents, chips, burns, and scratches littering its construction, it was armor that saw use in war.
Then there were the many, many, unspeakably horrible looking scars all over her body, her left shoulder had a horrific burn on both sides of it that looks like she'd been stabbed with a red hot metal bar, she had a particularly large and ugly scar going across her chest between her small breasts that looked like her chest had once been cut open through to her ribcage. Her sides had several stab wounds that seemed to be inflicted by small knives, there were also patches of scars all over her that looked like she'd been once been set on fire. Add to all of that, she was covered in fresh bruises, probably from the impact of her crash. Neither Louise, nor Siesta would speak of it with one another, they both simply knew that she'd had a very hard life full of pain and misery.
Siesta suddenly giggled which drew ire from Louise. "What about this situation could possibly be funny?" asked the the pinkette.
"Nothing. I just imagined you would have summoned a dog, or a cat, or something else cute and fuzzy. Instead you get her. I just doesn't fit with my image of you," Siesta answered playfully.
Louise thought about it, and then her face turned solemn. "I've never heard of anyone having a human as a familiar before. Just stories like the one we read last month about the girl who summoned that perverted familiar. And of course, the Founder Brimir had a human familiar. But, in real life?"
Siesta giggled again trying to relieve the tension but failed and took a deep breath, "Well. It could have been funny to have a pervy familiar. You need the comic relief in your life. But I do see why you're worried. It's like having a slave or something I suppose. But look on the bright side, at least she won't pee on the carpets."
Louise looked at Siesta and wondered how she managed to say that with a straight face, and then burst into a laugh. "You should be worried too! She could be an even bigger slob than me," said a mirthful Louise.
"Touché!" replied Siesta with a hearty laugh.
Meanwhile, Calista had come back to consciousness, but didn't move to reveal that she was awake to the other occupants of the room. She listened carefully to the conversation, trying to gather information to assess her situation. Louise looked at Siesta after the laughing subsided and asked something about a bed. The other girl said something about making arrangements in the morning. Calista blanked them out, no longer interested in their mundane conversation. Instead she turned her attention inwards in a form of meditation to check in on herself and assess her body's condition. She slowly expanded her awareness from her feet, to her arms, and then to her chest, she noted pain her extremities, and tightness in her chest making it difficult to breath. She began to recall her most recent memories, fighter combat, a disturbance in the Force, and then suddenly being face to face with the surface of a planet. She knew this wasn't the same planet she was fighting over before, Denon was a city world, there were no sounds of a bustling city coming from the outside and it was too cold for a climate controlled environment, all she could hear was a conversation between the two girls sharing her room about some trashy novel. Then she remembered a very brief moment of pain, it was the most intense pain she'd felt in a very long time, she remember her body being on fire, and the the pain seemed to flow from her body and into her left hand making it feel as if it were dipped in molten carbonite, and then, she was here.
Louise and Siesta were still making casual conversation when suddenly Louise held her hands over her chest with a look of panic in her eyes, every breath she took was causing pain in her ribs.
"Louise? What's wrong?!" Siesta was instantly at her side with concern.
"I don't know. Every time I breath, my chest hurts. Now my head! I don't understand this, " she stated fearfully.
Siesta started checking her friend for any signs of injuries but found none. "You don't seem to be injured. Maybe you just need to rest a little. You've had a big day you know."
Louise nodded to her, "Maybe some tea?"
Siesta smiled, "Sure, I wouldn't mind some too."
Siesta left the room and Louise tried to take a deep breath but the pain was too much and she coughed. As quickly as the pain came on, it began to subside.
"That's very interesting," Calista thought to herself, "She's feeling the same pain I'm feeling."
Through the Force, Calista looked inward, and found herself connected to this girl in the room, the source wasn't too difficult to discern once she followed the connection to its source and back again. Whatever happened to her left hand may have some additional problems. She felt a power emanating from it, she couldn't understand the nature of this power, but she was now aware of it, and it had a very strong connection to this girl. "What's happening here?" she wondered to herself. The longer she let her awareness focus on this power source within her, the more entranced by it she was becoming, it was intoxicating, beautiful, soothing...
Calista let her awareness drift away from it quickly. She'd need to explore that under better circumstances to understand it properly. But for the moment there were just too many questions gathering, and Calista had too little information to process what was happening. She decided for the moment that it would be best to try and shield this girl from the pain she was feeling from the bond and stop the charade. She sat up in the bed, opened her eyes and stared at Louise for well over a minute before Louise turned around and met her gaze. Louise was frozen at the sight, the woman's eyes were like blood and sulfur. It filled her with nothing short of pure dread. The two sat and stared each other down in silence before Calista decided she'd be the one to break the ice. She drew upon the power of the Force to make herself understandable to the girl before her who clearly wasn't speaking Basic before.
"My name is Calista. Who might you be?"
Louise was petrified and unmoving, the woman's voice was completely devoid of all emotion, but unlike Tabitha who came off as being bored when she spoke, this woman had an accent that was alien but also refined and highly dignified. It was a voice combined with an aura that commanded fear.
Louise suddenly felt cold and held herself protectively "Why do I feel like I'm about to die," she asked with a near panic stricken voice.
"Maybe you are," said Calista with a flat tone. "How did I get here? This isn't where I was before," she asked with the same stoic tone.
Louise held herself in fear at the sight of Calista, who then gave a long sigh of irritation before closing her eyes and focusing her mind to mask her Force presence, Louise felt calmer almost instantly. "Will you answer me now?"
Louise took a deep breath and felt herself relax for the first time that day, "What did you just do?" asked Louise.
"I used the Force to conceal the aura of my power."
Louise blinked at her, "The Force?"
Calista gave a low growl in irritation, "I'm asking the questions here. Answer me!" she stated more forcefully.
Louise shuddered at her tone of voice, even with the oppressive aura of the Dark Side gone for now, she was still on edge before this woman. "You're in the Tristain Academy of Magic."
Calista nodded, her eyes still closed, much to Louise's relief. "And where is that located?"
Louise seemed surprised, "In Tristain?"
Calista grumbled to herself in irritation, "I've never heard of a planet called Tristain before. Where is it located?"
Louise raised a quizzical eyebrow, "What do you mean? Tristain is a country, one of a few on the continent of Halkeginia."
Calista was getting irritated, every answer only raised more questions.
It was at this time that Siesta returned and gave a slight bow to the awakened Calista. "Hello there, it's good to see your finally awake." she said before going over to the table and setting down a tea set. "Would you like some tea?"
Calista sighed to herself, "Why not, I'm only getting more irritated by the lack of answers I'm getting here."
Siesta watched the woman get out of bed with curiosity, her eyes were closed, but she was standing up, walking, and then sitting down at the table, all as if she could see through her eyelids. She filed that away as something to ask about later.
"Well, if it's worth anything, my father always says that to get the right answers, you have to first ask the right questions," said Siesta.
Calista nodded to her, "Your father is a wise man."
Siesta nodded back, "I like to think so. Now then, how can we clear things up for you?"
Calista received a filled tea cup from Siesta and held it in her hands while it cooled. "I'm trying to figure out where I am, and how I got here. I'm clearly nowhere near where I was before."
Siesta filled her own tea cup after giving one to Louise and then asked a question to Calista. "Where is your homeland then? Maybe that will help us puzzle things out?"
"The Sith Empire," she answered.
"I've, never actually heard of it. Have you Louise?"
"No, I haven't. Is it on the other continent?" asked Louise.
"The Empire spans more than half the Galaxy. Surely you must have heard of it?"
"Galaxy? What's that," they both asked in unison.
Calista covered her face in her palm. "This is what I mean. Everything just raises more questions. Alright, let's move onto the how. How did I get here?"
Louise and Siesta looked at each other. Louise then looked back to Calista and asked "What's the last thing you remember?"
"I was in combat. Above the planet Denon. Then I felt a disturbance in the Force and as I was flying back towards my comrades I got shot from behind. I remember speaking to one of my comrades and then I started trying to fix something, then when I looked back up, I saw the ground, and then, then I blacked out and woke up here. It all happened so fast it was one instant to the next and everything's just blurred together and confusing. It's so frustrating."
"Alright. I'll, uh, try to explain," said Louise timidly.
Calista sat back to listen, Siesta reached over and gently nudged Louise's shoulder with her hand to encourage her to get on with it, Louise nodded. "Well, you see. I summoned you here. With magic."
Calista waited for a moment before giving her a serious expression, Louise just knew that she had to choose her words carefully and started to explain nervously, "Ummm, you see, there's this ritual we conduct here every year, for the second year students, it's a rite of passage for a mage, to summon a familiar. Usually it's suppose to be some kind of animal. But for some reason, I got you. I don't know why, it's never happened before."
Calista nodded, "Not in real life anyway."
Louise and Siesta looked at each other and then at Calsita, "How long were you awake?" asked a surprised Louise.
Calista looked around the room and suddenly stood up, "Where's my Droid?!"
Louise and Siesta looked at each other and then to the Sith. "What?" they both asked.
"My Astromech Droid! What have you done with it," she asked again with anger in her voice.
"I don't know what your talking about," yelled Louise.
Calista looked around the room again and spotted her robe, she used the Force to pull it to her hand and put it on in a hurry to cover up her lack of decent clothing and made for the door.
"Where are you going," asked a shocked Louise.
"To find my friend," she answered on her way through the door and then took off running down the hall.
Siesta and Louise tried to follow, but Calista was impossibly fast, they looked down the hall to see a literal blur of black round the corner and vanish from sight.
"I've never seen anyone move so fast," remarked Siesta.
"We have to follow her," said Louise as she ran down the hall as fast as her legs could carry her, Siesta not far behind.
Calista exited the dormitory tower and kept running, her instincts guiding her to her fighter, the first place she thought to look for her companion. Sure enough, the Astromech droid was there, standing sentry over the remains of the Bloodmark fighter. Calista came to a halt just in front of the Droid which was beeping and chirping ecstatically to see her. Calista fell to her knees before the little Droid and gave it a hug.
"X2 = Happy to see Calista / / Calista = Unharmed?"
The petite Sith planted a kiss on the Droid's head before kneeling down so she was level with the Droid's 'eye' and smiled at it. "I'm fine Extwo. Are you alright? Did these primitives try to harm you?"
The Droid chirped happily "X2 = Sustained minor damage in crash / / Repairs = Complete / / All systems = Operational / / X2 = Ready to serve"
Calista nodded and sighed in relief, "I'm so glad. If I lost you, I don't know what I'd do."
X2-C3 gave a few beeps and chirps in an even tone, "Calista = Purchase new Astromech / / X2 = Expendable"
Calista shook her head and glared at the droid in fury before she started tearfully scolding it loud enough to be heard across the academy grounds; "Never! You are not expendable to me! Don't you dare ever suggest such a thing you stupid droid! Not after all we've been through together! Can't you ever just once value your own life as much as I do?!"
Louise and Siesta arrived in time to hear her yelling at the Droid and heard its response...
"Dwoooooo"
Siesta turned to Louise and gave her a very stern look, Louise felt only an inch tall under her gaze. "I can relate to what's she saying. Can you?"
Calista smiled at the droid, "It's alright, I forgive you Extwo. So what's the status of our fighter?"
The Droid started beeping, whistling, chirping, and bobbing its body around while spinning on its wheels, it seemed excited, or frustrated, the girls couldn't tell which.
"You can understand that thing?" asked Louise.
Calista turned around and glared angrily at the two, "What are you doing here? Haven't you caused me enough trouble?"
The Droid rolled around Calista and extended something from the top of its head which pointed at Louise and Siesta menacingly, "X2 = Blast useless organics?"
"No Extwo. Just focus on repairing the fighter. Your priority is getting the electronics operational. I'll figure out how to re-attach the wing later." Calista stood up and walked towards Louise and Siesta while the Droid turned around and headed back for the Bloodmark.
"Was that what you were asking about? What is it exactly? A golem?" asked Louise.
Calista sighed and tried to figure out how to answer her question, "You said you summoned me here to be your familiar, right?"
Louise nodded.
"A familiar is some kind of companion that's suppose to help you with various things right?"
Louise nodded again.
"Well, you could say that little Droid is my familiar. If anyone messes with him, I will kill them horribly. I hope that's clear?"
Louise and Siesta gulped and nodded.
"Now, let us discuss our immediate future," said Calista with a tone of seriousness. Before walking away with the two girls, Calista turned to watch her droid work and smiled contently.
Six years ago
A young Sith Acolyte, barely thirteen years old, was laying on the stone floor of a dark cave on the planet Korriban. She had long white hair and bright blue eyes, her skin tone was fair, but healthy in stark contrast to the woman she would eventually become. She pushed herself up off the floor to see three of her fellow acolytes attempting to smash an Imperial Astromech Droid.
"If it won't come with us willingly, we'll bring it back to the Overseer in pieces! No way I'm letting that Echani schutta claim my prize!"
The droid was screaming helplessly, its primary weapon had been smashed and it was defenseless, it would already be over if these acolytes had anything more than training swords, but it wouldn't be much longer, the Droid fell over on its side, the mechanical screams reached Calista's ears and made her cringe in fear, the Droid was crying, even though it was nothing more than a programmed response to its situation, she knew the fear and helplessness it felt was genuine, even if the pain it was expressing wasn't. Its chassis was coming apart at the seams and it was about to die.
Even though she knew it couldn't really die since it wasn't alive to begin with she couldn't stand the idea of it being destroyed. That Droid had done its best to protect her from the beasts within the cave, it guided her around to her objectives. Without its help she would have to return to the academy in disgrace, if she returned at all. Those three Acolytes, all they did was wait in ambush while Calista did all the work and now they were going to crush her companion and steal its data for themselves, unacceptable! Even if it was just a Droid, she owed it her life.
"No! I won't let you!"
Calista pushed herself to her feet and unleashed a small storm of Force Lightning on one of the boys, sending him flying back into the wall of the cave before the other two could charge her. She then used the Force to push another of them away. Meanwhile the third who was their leader came up to her and attempted to swing his blade down over her head. Calista raised her own training sword to deflect the blow and used the Force to push the boy away from her.
"Maybe you're not as weak as I thought you were. So much the better," he said as he raised his sword in a Makashi salute before assuming his ready stance.
Calista raised her sword above her head in a one handed high guard with her blade held horizontally and off to the side, her feet spaced out and her body was held half twisted with her free hand sweeping across and down. Her overall stance was awkward at best, pathetically amateurish at worst. She glared at the boy in front of her with hatred before blanking her expression.
The boy laughed at her incredulously, "Are you serious Calista? The ferocity form? Where did you even learn that? You can't possibly believe that you're going to defeat the top ranked Makashi student with a half baked attempt at Form Seven combat!"
While the boy was talking down to her, Calista was on the move, she was holding nothing back and held him on the defensive with an attack sequence that seemed to flow like liquid from one attack to the next, her Force assisted speed seemed to outmatch her opponents and he could do nothing but block and deflect, there was no opening for him to counter attack without being struck with a lethal blow.
"Such passion, such hatred, such fury! Just for a droid," he asked her with rage.
"Stop talking! You're already dead! Just shut up and lie down," she yelled.
Calista then paid for letting herself get distracted. He saw his opening, and he took it. It was a rock, a little harmless rock on the floor that Calista stepped on. For a split second she had to adjust her balance to execute her next attack. It was all he needed to lock weapons with her and get a moment to take the offensive. He pushed back on her, his strength was vastly superior to the little girl half his size, he pushed her back, her foot still on the stone, and she feel backwards and slammed her head into the ground. She was dizzy, her body failed her, and now she would pay the ultimate price for her mistake, she was about to die. She closed her eyes and braced herself.
When her eyes shut, something happened to her, she could still see, but it wasn't sight like that granted by her eyes, it was perception through the Force, where time, space, distance, color, texture, were all meaningless. She felt her conscious mind begin to slip away and her body acted as if it were being dominated by the will of the Force itself. Her sword hand came up to deflect the incoming attack. She then rolled backwards and sprang up onto her feet. With her eyes still closed she rushed at the boy and resumed her offensive. Her every move guided by the Force, she was like a cornered animal lashing out on pure instinct with a fury that could only be brought on by being secure in the knowledge that one's life or death would be determined by who was the better predator in this battle. It was her first taste of what it truly meant to live by the sword. The feeling of power rushed through her, washing her clean of the feelings of hopelessness and despair she had just experienced, it was like a rebirth. The little girl wouldn't be oppressed anymore, she could fight back.
It was over in seconds, the boy was completely dominated, he was disarmed, and then his head split open and his brains spilled out of his skull.
Calista fell to her knees, she dropped her sword and looked at her hands. That feeling of being empowered faded as quickly as it came when she realized she'd just taken a life. Even though none of it got on her, she could see blood on her hands. The two other boys were frozen in terror at the sight of what Calista had done to their alpha male. One of them, the victim of her Force lightning, gathered his sword and charged at Calista while she was still in a state of shock. He was about to bring the sword crashing down on her head when he was knocked to the side by the Astromech Droid which managed to right itself and took off to intercept him with its leg mounted rockets, with a hidden arm from the front of its body, it shocked the boy into unconsciousness with an electrical blast. Calista then jumped to her feet and rushed the third boy, she wouldn't even give him a chance to try and attack them again. He was frozen in terror and didn't even realize it when she split his head open with her training sword. He was killed instantly and his blood splattered all over her.
Calista walked towards the Astromech and stared at it with a joyful smile, "You saved my life. Thank you."
The Droid beeped and chirped at her as if it were the most mundane and obvious thing in the world, "Pretty Acolyte = Saved X2 first / / X2 = Happy to return favor + Be friends!"
Calista looked down at the floor away from the droid, "Nobody wants to be my friend. I'm the weakest student here. I'm sure they sent me here because they knew I'd die. If it wasn't for you, I would have."
The Droid screamed, beeped, and chirped at her aggressively, "X2 = Wants to be Pretty Acolyte's friend! / / Pretty Acolyte = Stuck with X2 forever!"
Calista smiled and fell to her knees in front of the droid and gave it a hug, mostly for herself rather than the Droid's benefit, it couldn't feel it anyway.
"My name is Calista. I'm happy to meet you Extwo."
The Droid beeped happily, "X2 + Calista = Best friends forever!"
Calista couldn't contain herself, she wept as she hugged the droid, "I've never had a friend before. Thank you."
A/N:
6/6/2015: Corrected mechanical errors as suggested by reviewers.
8/12/2015: Another editing pass done on typos and made minor dialogue additions to bring this chapter more in line with later chapters.