OOM: AU Child! Ibani

[last_kallig]

The last few months have been even harder than usual, after the death of her mother figure. Perhaps grief made her weaker, more vulnerable to sickness, because she knows she's dangerously ill. She hadn't meant to wind up here, wherever here is, but it has shown up in the nick of time.

Ibani shivers against one of the walls of Milliways, her body wracked with fever and hunger both. She's somewhere between seven and ten, clothed in fabric with far too many holes in it, and wearing a slave shock collar around her neck. Her bones stand out too sharply against her skin, and her eyes are fever bright and darting around the room.

She's not sure if this is some dying hallucination, if she's gone mad, or if she truly HAS wound up somewhere utterly strange. Whatever this is, instinct and her body DEMAND food, fuel to fight the sickness that is killing her. Untrained in the Force, she's grasping on instinct for any energy it can give her.

Maybe, maybe if she gets close enough to one of the tables she can steal some food without anyone noticing. Yes, yes that's a good plan

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[last_kallig]

As her fever lowers and her mind clears, she senses what he's doing, stares at him in awe and wonder.

"You glow," she says, voice soft. "Like me. I'm, I'm not a freak."

[27_53]

"You are not a freak," he mutters quietly. "And yes, I do glow."

Or at least, he does something of the sort. They are not the same, him and this child, but there is something 'extra' about both of their energies that is similar enough. If she describes it as 'glowing', then he will work with it to ease any worries or fears she might have.

"Name is Skellig," he adds after another moment of allowing his energy to work through her, lifting his gaze to hers. "My name," he corrects himself. "Is Skellig."

[last_kallig]

"Thank you, Skellig," she says, smiling softly, shy. "I have a name too, even if no one uses it anymore. I'm Ibani." There's a touch of stubbornness, of defiance in her energy.

[27_53]

Skellig can sense the flare of the defiance and the stubborn streak - and he admires it. She still looks awful, even if the fever has abated, and that damned collar is still whining with that high-pitched sound he had been ignoring.

"Ibani," he says softly. "I am glad to meet you."

He nods towards her, towards her neck.

"Who put that on you?"

[last_kallig]

"I'm glad to meet you too," she chirps.

Ibani frowns in concentration as she ponders his question. "Don't know," she says, sagging a little. "First thing I can remember is years ago, when I was littler, and I already had the collar on then. Maybe whoever owned me before put it on?"

She shrugs, matter of fact. "The guards have never taken it off, even when I was being marked for the property tax." Property tax, because she's not legally a PERSON.

[27_53]

That was not the type of answer that Skellig was expecting to hear from a child - and given the way that she is so nonchalant with her answer, so matter of fact in her reply - this has been her reality for as long as she can remember.

And he does not like that reality.

Urging his own inner-self to stay relaxed, he nods gently.

"It looks tight," he says. He does not make a move to touch it - because he does not like the energy he gets from it, even with it just being a metal object. "What is needed to take it off?"

[last_kallig]

"Is," she replies. "But you have to have a key to get them off, or they explode."

She shudders, closes her eyes against a remembered mental image. "Saw it, once, don't want you to get hurt."

On the other hand, Bar might be able to supply a key...

[27_53]

"I am very hard to injure," Skellig says flatly, keeping his tone neutral. "And there is no violence in the Bar, so it will not explode. I even suspect that she may be able to help us."

He places a hand on her knee (she is SO skinny, it breaks his heart and infuriates him all at once) as reassurance.

"I will go ask Her," he says. "If she has a Key. But she has all sorts of other things. Is there anything you might want? Anything at all?"

[last_kallig]

"Taza's head was all over the wall," she says in a strangled whisper, swallows hard. "No mind to care about rules."

Ibani blinks in confusion at his question. "Want? I, no one has ever asked that before," she stammers. "More of the drink, please?"

[27_53]

"More of the drink," he nods. "That I know she has. I will be right back."

Nobody is bothering the booth while they are sitting under the table - it could be in part to the RESERVED sign that has been placed on top of it, easily translated in whatever language to whoever might look at it. It could also just be because Bar has Ways and Means to take care of things, including two of her 'lost' children who have turned a table into a fort.

Skellig scrambles out from beneath the counter, and true to his word, he is only gone a few moments. When he comes back, he has another bottle of the drink, a Key in hand, as well as another bag that Bar has given him - there are some sort of wipes, cleaning solution, a few others things that he paid little attention to.

He settles in next to her again, and cracks the lid on this bottle of the drink, hands it over to her. He REALLY wants to get that collar off of her, and Bar said the key would work (along with some other things she informed him of regarding it, which only worked to anger him, he has pushed that down before returning to their 'fort') but the juice is more important.

[last_kallig]

"Thank you," she chirps happily. She's so THIRSTY. (She lost a lot of fluid, electrolytes, with the fever, and her body is trying to make up for that.)

She doesn't ask about the key, it seems entirely too much to hope for even in a near death hallucination. (Which this MUST be, obviously, because she feels better and even kolto doesn't work that quickly.)

[27_53]

He allows her to drink for a moment, before he speaks again.

"Bar said that once I take the collar off, I am to bring it to her, and she will get rid of it for us," he says, as he reaches into the small bag and fishes out the key. "And then she gave me some other things that would help you get cleaned up. Which we cannot do here, but I keep a room here that we could go to after, if that would be okay with you?"

He is purposefully allowing her to make choices, have control - if he feels it is getting to be too much, he will lead her (respectfully, of course) in decision making, but for now she seems to be managing well enough. "Just tell me when you are ready for me to unlock it?"

[last_kallig]

She blinks in surprise. "Oh, um, you could take it off now."

She laughs a little, reaches out to pat his hand. "You are a very nice near death hallucination," she informs him, smiling. She's not distressed at that the fact that she believes she's dying, that this isn't "real".

[27_53]

With the fever gone, she should not still be as delirious as she is currently acting - this puzzles him slightly, but his focus doesn't linger on that for long. His attention is on the collar, getting that off of her.

"It should be simple...Bar told me how to turn it."

He carefully examines the slot where the key fits, and mutters something in another tongue under his breath (a ward, to protect against any errant injury should something go wrong, which it won't because Bar promised the key would work just fine) as he unlocks it. And then works to loosen it from her skin, where it is...stuck?

[last_kallig]

When he realizes she's not delirious at all, it's likely to break his heart.

There is a brief spike of pain as the skin sticks stubbornly to the collar. The macerated skin WOULD tear, if not for his ward. There are puss filled blisters under it, their infection what weakened her so much that the OTHER illness took hold.

[27_53]

Carefully, so very gingerly, he lifts the collar away (Bar warned him that there were actual explosives in it, and not to drop it) from her skin and there is a legitimate surge of anger that rises in his chest - as well as a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, when he sees the blisters and the infection.

Someone - it is hard to even use the thought someone in this moment - did this to her.

"I am sorry," he says quickly, in response for the pain he has caused her - the collar he sets aside, across from them (it will have to wait there for just a moment, she needs his attention now). "I will fix it."

He places his palm against her jawline (she is so fragile) gently and works to give her relief from that burning and stinging, as well as send Light to take away the infection, soothe the wounds. Now that he can see these, he can get a better sense as to why she felt so ill. Her skin will need to be washed and these tended properly, but that he will have to do back in his room.

[last_kallig]

The relief of the pain is startling, in a good way. "It's okay, I know you didn't mean to hurt me," she reassures him.

There is wonder as he soothes the wounds, eases the burning and the stinging. "This can't be real, but I want it to be," she confesses. "You're like a hero in a story, a Jedi, and heroes don't rescue something like me."

"I must be hallucinating. I've seen people do that with fevers, before they die." Ibani has seen, has felt, quite a lot of people die.

[27_53]

"You are not dying," he says softly - there's a hint of a sarcastic tone in his voice, faint. "Or hallucinating. You were, when you first crept under this table, but I have stopped that."

Facts are facts.

He is momentarily satisfied with the level of healing he has worked on her, so he rifles through the bag that Bar gave to him - there is a packet that contains...some kind of bandage? He is not quite sure - it is damp when he opens it, smells slightly medicinal (in a good way) and is rolled up. "She told me to wrap this over where the collar sits, it will help with the skin," he says, leaning over to do just that, carefully. "And we are to leave it on until after you have had a bath. Then I have another one to replace it with."

[last_kallig]

"But if you're real, why would you help me?" she asks, confused. That's just...not How Things Work, in her life experience.

"You have Power, and I'm a tool bought cheap to be used up and thrown away." She flushes in shame.

[27_53]

To his credit - and only because he does not want HER to think that she has upset him in any way - Skellig manages somehow to keep the growl and anger out of his tone once he speaks again. He shakes his head.

"That may be what you were told before, but that no longer holds true, Ibani. You have found yourself here for a reason, and now that you are under my care, I will let no harm come to you."

He smiles slightly, extending his senses to cast a slightly wider 'net' around the booth they currently occupy, scanning subconsciously for threats.

"And if anyone would like to argue that, I will be happy to explain to them how things work now, little one. You are safe here."

[last_kallig]

"Oh." She doesn't know how to react to that, not really. Her emotions, her thoughts, are a flood, a whirlwind. She scoots closer to Skellig, leaning into him. "Thank you, Skellig," she says, voice quiet.

"I can't, I can't repay you. But I can show you a secret." She fishes for something hidden in the pocket of the rags she's wearing. "Something they'll never have, now." There's a thread of vicious satisfaction in those last words.

[27_53]

Carefully, he wraps one arm around her shoulders (they are so boney and thin and he remembers a time when his own arms and legs felt this way, remembers how he felt inside, Death would be a mercy...) as she leans into him.

"You are welcome," he says.

With his free hand - the one that is not wrapped around her - he plucks an errant spring roll (they are cool now, but still good) from the carton and takes a bite as she digs through her pocket. The smell of the filth and grime of what she is wearing (he can hardly call it clothes) does not even bother him as he eats.

"What is it?"

[last_kallig]

"We were digging for crystals, special ones. I could hear them singing, but no one else could. I found one that was different, sang a different song."

Ibani doesn't know it, but she found the first Kyber crystal on Illum. The crystal is about the size of her thumb, violet in color, and when she touches it....

Skellig might or might not hear the Kyber song, as it involves the Force. But he will feel the LIGHT, the utter JOY, radiating from the crystal as Ibani touches it and the crystal glows. It was waiting for Ibani, with the patience only stone can have, and its JOY at having found her is entirely untouched by the Dark.

[27_53]

The crystal is...oddly sentient? Skellig cocks his head curiously as the waves of Light energy, happiness and joy radiate off of the glowing stone. He does not hear the Kyber song, but Ibani clearly does - and he can see the pleasure it brings to her to have it in her hands.

Quite interesting.

"It is safe here now," Skellig says. "Safe with you. You have done a good job, protected it well."

[last_kallig]

Kyber crystals are quite sentient, although their perspective obviously differs vastly from that of other lifeforms!

"It was, it was waiting for me," she explains. "I just KNOW it was."

Ibani glances at him, glances at the remaining food. Can she have some more?

"The other crystals liked me, but they weren't FOR me."