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last_kallig) wrote2020-07-12 09:22 am
last_kallig) wrote2020-07-12 09:22 am
AU: Not Milliways continuity: The Foundry -Reprise
Ibani is at a corner booth in Milliways, examining a tactical map of the Kurost sector of the Mid-Rim, specifically the Nanth'ri system.
She's half in, half out of armor, a look worn by many commanders in many worlds and many times. A look that suggests that the Commander was either interrupted en route to sleep or has given up on it entirely.
She has a small stack of holopads set out on the table, listing various groups and their locations, most of them are crossed out. The two on top are for a Major Bessiker and the Sith Hiran Bessiker, his son.
She'd hoped she would never need to enter the Foundry again, but events have conspired against her.
Her stomach sinks as she recalls what she's fairly sure will be Major Bessiker's last message to her or to anyone, that a group of fanatical Jedi had taken the Foundry. She's checked again and again, and there is no one she can send, no one she can spare.
If she can't find an answer here, she'll be going alone into what the data tells her MUST be a trap.
(OOC: dialogue in italics is taken from/adapted from Ibani's canon.)
She's half in, half out of armor, a look worn by many commanders in many worlds and many times. A look that suggests that the Commander was either interrupted en route to sleep or has given up on it entirely.
She has a small stack of holopads set out on the table, listing various groups and their locations, most of them are crossed out. The two on top are for a Major Bessiker and the Sith Hiran Bessiker, his son.
She'd hoped she would never need to enter the Foundry again, but events have conspired against her.
Her stomach sinks as she recalls what she's fairly sure will be Major Bessiker's last message to her or to anyone, that a group of fanatical Jedi had taken the Foundry. She's checked again and again, and there is no one she can send, no one she can spare.
If she can't find an answer here, she'll be going alone into what the data tells her MUST be a trap.
(OOC: dialogue in italics is taken from/adapted from Ibani's canon.)
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Both Jedi immediately turn her way and draw their lightsabers. "Darth Imperious," the Cathar Jedi growls.
"You won't stop us," says the other. "We will defeat you, then wipe the stain of your kind from the galaxy forever!"
Ben will sense another force presence then, another Jedi, coming up stealthily to the actual main entrance to the room. They are young, and the Light shines in them, unlike the others on this station.
"No need to go living down to expectations as genocidal hypocrites, gentlemen," Ibani drawls. "I'm no expert on the Jedi Code, but I do believe murdering billions of innocent children is rather frowned upon."
When the Jedi do not deny Ibani's statement, that cloaked Force presence begins to leak horrified surprise into the Force. This Jedi, at least, is innocent, did not know what horrors were intended to be wrought here.
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He glances once at Ibani, establishes that she can probably handle two Jedi on her own, and if she can't he'll be back anyway, and then he holds a hand up against the door lock.
The door opens with thankfully not enough noise to distract anyone from the very real and imposing presence of Darth Imperious, and Ben steps out into the corridor.
Again, he relaxes his shields, and there he is, kind, compassionate, and utterly trustworthy, a strong contrast to the presences he leaves behind in the control room.
"Tell me," he says quietly, "are you expecting an attack, or is it normal to wander around the Shadows?"
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"I'm sorry, Master. I know I'm not supposed to be in this part of the complex, but I just, I just had a feeling..." Her voice trails off and her eyes dart toward the power and the aggression she can feel in the other room.
"Why didn't they deny it, what she said?" Her voice and her presence in the Force turn uncertain, and there is a desperate hope that this is all a misunderstanding, that her Masters aren't trying to do something horrible.
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"Is she lying?" he asks with the rhetorical tone of a Master talking to his own Padawan. "Would they be telling the truth if they denied it?"
She's strong in the Force: she can reach these conclusions on her own.
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But that begs the question of why the Jedi didn't correct her, doesn't it? "But if it was a mistake, they should have said so."
She swallows hard, draws up her courage. "Please, Master. Can you, can you keep the Sith occupied for a while? Master Ryen, Master Ocera, I'm their Padawan. They might not listen to a Sith, or, or a stranger, but they'll listen to me!"
The Force is full of determination, the drive to do the right thing, to save everyone. To be what a Jedi SHOULD be.
They have to listen to her, surely?
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But his hope for her success is slim.
He nods once.
“You must be prepared for failure,” he advises. “Know that when a heart is lost sometimes the wisest course is your own survival.
“I can hold her off long enough for you to try, but when I say to leave, you listen.”
He places a hand on her shoulder, reassuring and warm.
“Trust in the Force, Young One. Listen to what it tells you.”
Then he steps back, and before he opens the door he increases his presence in the Force. It’s like knocking, in a way.
Eyes on the child’s, he holds his lightsaber, unactivated, in one hand and invites her to come forward, to stand in front of him.
Then he opens the door back into the control center.
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"Ashara!" the Cathar Jedi snaps, concerned. "You should not be here, this foe is beyond you!" Which is an accurate assessment, honestly, if Ibani had any intention of fighting the girl.
Ibani backs up to the far wall, keeping an eye on the enemy human Jedi as she moves away. She sends Ben a sense of questioning, but she trusts whatever his plan is.
"I'm not here to fight, Master Ryen," Ashara replies. Then she steps forward, moving toward Master Ryen, hands raised palm out. "Please don't do this, Master!" she begs. "Even if you win, we will have lost, don't you understand?"
The other Jedi, who must be Master Ocera, moves to keep his position and distance from Ibani the same.
"You're too young to understand, Ashara," Master Ryen replies. "Sometimes we must make terrible sacrifices for the good of the people of the Republic." There is a tinge of sorrow in the Force from him.
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His glance though carries a helpless tolerance. He thinks it’s amusing she even thinks he has a plan to trust in.
The thrust of his attention is on the growing tension between Jedi and Padawan, and his usually genial face develops a deep furrow at Ryan’s words.
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Ibani starts to raise a hand to object to this comparison, but changes her mind. She'll take whatever argument gets them to back down, honestly!
Ashara keeps moving closer. Master Ryen sighs, lowers his lightsaber slightly, then shuts his eyes for a moment. Suddenly the Force is full of a deep well of grief and guilt, a whirlpool of it.
"Damn, I honestly wasn't expecting that to work," Ibani says, beginning to feel hopeful about this after all!
Ashara smiles brightly at Master Ryen, turns to approach Master Ocera, who has never taken his attention off of Ibani.
And that's when it happens. Neither Ashara nor Ibani reached the correct conclusions about what those emotions from Master Ryen meant, you see. It wasn't guilt and grief over what he HAD done, but what he was ABOUT to do.
Master Ryen moves his lightsaber toward Ashara, to give her the same blow, the same quick, clean death that Ben gave Kell Daree earlier.
Ben's the only one in the right position to both see what's happening and react to it in time, IF he's fast enough...
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Where she had been standing a millisecond ago stands an old Jedi hermit, his lightsaber blocking the clean path of her Master’s, his gaze determined, unflinching, locked on the Cathar.
Open as he is to the Force even now there’s no anger.
Just disappointment.no subject
She knows, then, what was supposed to happen. She freezes, and her careful control shatters, flooding the Force with fear, horror, and betrayal.
Master Ryen holds Ben's gaze, equally determined and unflinching. "You'll pay for that, traitor."
Ibani knows what it's like to break and to be on the very edge of breaking. She's been broken before, and if things had gone only slightly differently she would have found her Death on Korriban when she was seeking it. The last thing this poor child needs is any more trauma today. Trauma like feeling her Masters die.
"I will hold them until you return," she promises Ben. So much is unsaid along with that statement, but open to the Force as he is right now, Ben will likely sense it anyway. That Ibani understands how fragile Ashara is right now, that she knows what it's like to be broken, that she wishes she had had someone, ANYONE, in those terrible days after A'Tema's murder to help her put herself back together.
Master Ryen growls as Ibani reaches out with the Force to yank him toward herself. To give Ben space to act with regard to Ashara.
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When the pressure of Ryen’s lightsaber pressing down on Ben’s is relieved, Ben stands. He keeps his back to Ibani, Ryen and Ocera, but the set in his shoulders is clear. He can feel you and you’d be a fool to think a turned back is a target.
He also puts himself between the three of them and a clear route from where the Padawan is just standing up, to the door and the way off this station.
“Come, young one, it’s time to go.”
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Ashara doesn't respond at first, and she's shaking slightly when she finally moves toward Ben.
She's repeating the Jedi Code out loud to herself over and over again, like a mantra, the words running together. It doesn't seem to be helping her calm down, much.
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He reaches out a hand for her again as she nears, places it on her shoulder, and steers her firmly towards the door, his arm around her.
He still doesn’t look at Ibani even on his way out - she’s doing her part by giving them this space.
As the door shuts behind them he continues on down the corridor, but adapts his pace to Ashara's, his presence serene.
“You were right to try,” he says.
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She's still saying the Jedi Code to herself when Ben tells her she was right to try and the word 'peace' sticks in her throat like something barbed and sharp.
Then she starts to sob uncontrollably. She'll be horribly embarrassed later, this is not the sort of thing Jedi should do, but she hurts SO MUCH! (And Un-Jedi like behavior seems to be happening a LOT today on this station)
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"Emotion," he says quietly, "yet peace. Don't be afraid to feel, Ashara."
Then both his hands are on her shoulders, pulling her to him.
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"Emotion, yet peace," she manages eventually. It's not a version that she knows, but it FEELS right, like nothing else has felt today.
She lets go of Ben, eyes red. "I'm crying all over you and I don't even know your name." She flushes at that.
"Where...where do I GO? I've never been away from Master Ocera and Master Ryen."
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"I am Ben Kenobi," he says. "I'm not a Jedi of your Order," which is true, "but I know the corruption that can seep into our hears during times of war." Yes, he definitely knows that.
"Go back to your Order, Ashara, if you think it's safe. But remember who sent you here, and what was planned."
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"I'll remember," she says solemnly. They're near the hanger now. "But I don't know if anyone will believe me. It feels like a nightmare, but I'm already awake."
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The passage way to the hangar is blocked by a heps of charred droid carcasses. Ben stops just before it and looks at Ashara. "Your fellow Barriss has left already - I know he had doubts. If no one believes you, remind him of the Code.
"Now help me," he says, and holds a hand out towards the blockade, fingers spread, palm out. They'll have to move the bodies together.
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She nods when he mentions Barriss. "Having a Knight agree with me would help."
She reaches out with the Force and her hands toward the bodies to clear the doorway.
It takes a little while to clear the way, even with two of them doing the work.
Ashara makes a small gasping noise when she sees the bodies of Kell Daree and Nomar Organa.
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"Ashara, you must be prepared in case they don't believe you. It's going to be a hard thing to hear, and even Jedi can have our minds clouded at times."
For example: this entire mess.
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She knows what has to happen, that they must be stopped, but the thought of their deaths still hurts, even after what they did.
"I feel like I should have known, that things were going rotten," she adds as they reach the fighter. Her hands automatically go to open the cockpit.
"Would you tell the Sith that I'm sorry, for, for all of this?" It's not much, but at least it's an apology from a Jedi?
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"Learn from it," he says and when she's in, he places a hand on his chest over his heart. "Listen to your feelings, Ashara. The Force will be with you, always."
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Ashara starts the starfighter, then waves one final time before she starts to make her way out of the hanger bay.
By the time Ben gets back to the control room, Ashara will be out of range to feel anything that happens here in the Force. Between the two of them, they've bought her that peace.
Ibani's payment is clear when Ben makes it back to the control room. Ibani's armor is covered in deep, nasty, gashes from lightsabers, several of which look like they could have been fatal without the armor. Ibani has been fighting entirely defensively, not even trying to HURT two Jedi Masters who are both very intent on killing her. It was just about the worst possible handicap she could have given herself, in this situation.
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