Private A Flash in the Dark

[Iris Arani]

Her mind swam with a mix of fear and pain. Mostly pain. The chunk missing from her arm, the blood seeping from the wound. She clung it to her chest, doing her best not to whimper or cry. She was a Jedi. Even though she was just a padawan, she had to be strong, right? Still, the girl sniffled. It hurt. Kai Bamarri started to tend to it at least, pulling her mind from that blur of pain. Right. She was safe. Right?

Confused and dazed, she lifted her gaze towards him, then to Valery Noble . The telepathic voice cut through the static numbness of the pain at least. These people were.. Already dead? "Cruel.." The words were muttered as her gaze fell to the tending of her wound. Soon enough it'd be patched. Still sore, still painful, but no longer bleeding out. Her gaze stayed on the bandages.

".. There is no ignorance, only knowledge." She muttered the line of the code. Iris turned her gaze up towards her master, then to the flailing zombie bound by.. Whatever Kai had wrapped them in. "You said not to assume. .. We need to try and save them. Until we know for sure. .. That's what it means to be Jedi, right?" She wasn't sure what she was saying, but she couldn't ignore what she saw from Kai.

Her gaze fell on him, nodding. "We will try."

 

[Kai Bamarri]

So the zombies were created through necromancy. That explained their mindlessness and emaciated, rotting appearance. They were only husks reanimated by the Force, puppets wielded by a corrupt master.

<Then they are not Sithspawn,> Kai said, tying a bacta-soaked bandage around Iris’ arm. <They’re undead.>

He wondered if such distinctions mattered to either of his companions. They certainly did to him, if only because he needed to distance himself from the idea that he was anything like them. These slobbering, flesh-hungry creatures whom the Jedi Master deemed unredeemable.

Iris continued to protest, arguing that they needed to try and save them. Kai shook his head. <She’s right. The undead are just reanimated corpses. The people have already died, and their bodies are being used as tools. Even if we did undo whatever was done to them, they’d still be dead—the same as if we were to cut them down.>

Rising to his feet, he glanced at Valery. <If we do encounter anything that you haven’t seen before, I trust that you’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.>

He heard more screams and shouts and sounds of violence coming from the next block over. Yet another battle awaited. But with Iris injured, they might have to take a detour.

Iris Arani Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

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Location: Coruscant | Lower Levels​

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Tag: Iris Arani Kai Bamarri ​

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Valery's expression softened as she looked at the girl, who was clearly struggling. She stepped closer and placed a hand on Iris' shoulder while she looked down into her eyes. "I'm not assuming, Iris," Valery said calmly, knowing her words earlier were not easy to accept. To give up on anybody was just not in Iris' nature.​

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She then looked at Kai, who made a comment about them not being Sithspawn. In her eyes, they were - simply for the fact it was the corrupted alchemical bonds of the Dark Side that allowed them to stand and kill. But in her mind, she did make a distinction between what could be redeemed, and what could not.​

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These undead could not be saved.​

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<T> "I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but we must also remain cautious. Don't allow your desire to save them result in more unnecessary deaths. You must still protect yourself, and the other people out in the street. They rely on us as much as the Sithspawn we can save do."​

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Valery said this more for Iris to hear than Kai, who had shown willingness to take them out when they would otherwise be able to kill or severely harm someone. But one thing was for certain - if it came down to it, she was not going to allow the Sithspawn in the streets of Coruscant to kill more civilians, her Padawan or Kai. ​

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She then heard the sounds coming from the distance as well, and briefly looked over in that direction.​

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<T> "More trouble up ahead. Iris, can you keep going? If we push past this block, there will be an evacuation point. If you can't, we'll figure something out." she said, clearly worried but also focused - her mind was making every calculation necessary to ensure her Padawan's safety. ​

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[Iris Arani]

Undead? Unable to be saved?

Iris's gaze fell to the bandage, filled with conflicting emotions. She.. Hated this. The girl blinked. Was it the pain that pushed her to that thought? She gripped her patched arm as Kai Bamarri finished. It still hurt. But her mind wasn't foggy anymore. More screams sounded off in the distance. More people needed help. But doubt still lingered. "I- .. I want to save everyone."

That was the core of it. She stood after a moment, hugging her wounded arm to her chest. It didn't matter if they couldn't, she would still try.

"I can keep going." She turned her gaze towards Valery Noble , giving her master a simple nod. ".. And I'll protect myself."

 

[Kai Bamarri]

Iris agreed to keep going. They had one more wave to push through before they reached the evac. Kai led the way down the street and around the corner, where all the noise was coming from.

They were immediately faced with a warzone. A much larger and more varied group of Sithspawn was present here, along with a motley crew of armed civilians and their salvaged combat droids. The makeshift militia gunned down charging zombies and other abominations from vantage points high up in surviving buildings. The air reeked of burning carbon.

Some of the Sithspawn were hiding behind bits of rubble. They seemed to be craftier than the bestial monsters and mindless ghouls, or at least smart enough to take cover from the hail of blaster fire. That spark of apparent intelligence was enough to raise Kai’s hopes.

At least, until a giant floating orb emerged from behind cover and killed several civilians just by looking at them.

Stunned, Kai stared at the Sithspawn. Floating eye stalks wriggled around its fleshy sphere of a body. Some of them peered at him. He felt an intense hatred in their gaze, a look that could kill.

<You’re sentient!> he tried to reason with the Sithspawn. Perhaps it was under the control of another Sith, one that could command its mind and force it to do its bidding. <You don’t have to do this!>

By now the orb had turned to face him. One enormous violet eye lay at the center of its mass, and below it a massive mouth ringed with dagger-like teeth. The lips curled into a smile, and it laughed.

The eyestalk tendrils suddenly jerked forward. Kai raised his lightsaber instinctively, but multiple blasts of lightning were flung his way, and he couldn’t block all of them. One hit the mark. His limbs locked up, his flesh bubbling visibly as the electrical current passed through him, until he fell backwards in a heap. Smoke trailed from his clothes as he crawled into cover, his body having lost its human shape. In its place was something with two arms and two legs and a head, but hairless and devoid of features. The lightning had reduced Kai to his true form.

Clearly, this was a far more serious threat than expected.

Iris Arani Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

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Location: Coruscant | Lower Levels​

Valery: Appearance​

Outfit: Factory Link​

Lightsabers: Link​

Ship: Factory link​

Tag: Iris Arani Kai Bamarri ​

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Following after Kai, Valery stepped into the warzone where people had armed and prepared themselves to fight against whatever the Maw had unleashed against them. It showed their strength and unity, as people came together to protect each other, but it also showed the desperation, as those who were supposed to protect them weren't here to do so. ​

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They were now, but Coruscant was simply too massive, and they couldn't help everybody.​

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But what was almost more surprising was seeing the intelligence in some of the Sithspawn that were using cover and clever tactics to fight the civilians. Valery had encountered countless kinds of Sithspawn, but most of them were twisted perversions of creatures that weren't sentient. These Sithspawn down here showed signs that could potentially persuade her into not striking them down immediately. Something that wasn't common for a Jedi Shadow.​

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Turning to Iris and Kai, Valery began to plan​

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<T> "We can clear a path down the right flank and-"​

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She stopped as Kai had also taken note of the Sithspawn, but he was far quicker to act and moved ahead of the other two Jedi to attempt to reason with it. But his words were met with a wicked laugh, and Valery could feel the darkness rise in the beast as it channeled its attack.​

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<T>"Kai!"​

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With great speed, Valery moved to get in between but it was too late, and a beam of electricity struck the young Padawan. She watched him hit the ground with widened eyes and immediately ignited her blade. Looking around, she spotted some debris and flung it towards the floating eyeball with great speed in an attempt to distract it.​

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"Iris, we need to cover him!"​

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But after calling for her Padawan's assistance, her eyes turned back to Kai, only to see something that hardly resembled the man she had spoken to earlier. ​

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What the... she thought as she looked between Kai Bamarri and the Sithspawn that had reduced him to his true form. She hadn't quite seen anything like this before, so she stood ready in her guard, extremely cautious.​

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"Iris, stand with me."​

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<T> "Kai, can you hear me?"​

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[Iris Arani]

They were fighting.

Iris blinked as they neared the war zone. This was.. So many people fighting, all at once. People against Sithspawn. Zombies. The flashes of colors were all so dull and grey. These people were fighting desperately to survive, a grim determination. Her wounded arm had been put into a sling for the time being. Getting a chunk of flesh ripped off had ruined some of the tendons. For now, it needed to stay still to heal.

Hopefully it would.

With only one arm and the bare minimum of experience she kept back behind Valery Noble and Kai Bamarri . She'd listen to them. Their direction and plan, whatever they had.

Then lights snuffed out.

Streaks of black ripped through the dull colors she saw. People.. Died. Gone in an instant. The feral Sithspawn cats, the zombies, nothing was like this. People who gave off colors just a second before were gone, a black void left where they had stood. The world around her dimmed. Fear gripped at her heart. Fear for the others still fighting. For her master, Kai. Herself. Was this what it felt to be afraid for her life?

<T>"Kai!"

The telepathy cut right through the emotions clouding her mind. She blinked, turning her gaze around to try and find him. He was there, hiding. Had he been hurt?

"Iris, we need to cover him!"

Cover him? Iris barely could fight with both her hands intact. Defend herself. What could she do..? Oh. With an idea in mind she rushed forward. Sprinted as fast as she could to where Kai was hiding. A blot of black caught her attention and she dived, narrowly missing a bolt of lightning in the process. Was that what the dark spots were..? The Darkside being used? No time to think on it.

The one hand she could use reached for the pack Kai had, digging around for bacta, bandages, medkits, whatever she could get to start bandaging him up. Soon as she found a bacta patch she'd start to press it against one of his more visible wounds. She didn't hesitate either. There wasn't a single moment that she even paused to observe his true form. For her, his colors never changed, so why would it matter?

"Hold still, okay?" Not that her hands weren't trembling. The darkness just on the other side of the makeshift cover Kai had crawled to still filled her full of fear. The padawan was horrified, but she wanted to help more than she was scared.

 

[Kai Bamarri]

<T> "Kai, can you hear me?"

Kai was curled up on the ground, his body seizing with uncontrollable spasms.

Iris would not see any specific wounds. There was nothing to bandage. The ionization that results from being struck by lightning leaves no visible trace. The main casualty is the nervous system, and by extension the muscles it directs.

What Kai really needed was to spend some time in a bacta tank—or at the very least, a few days left alone in a safe place where he could regenerate in peace. But in a combat situation such as this, that wasn’t an option.

Unable to communicate telepathically in his current state, Kai tried to move. His arm flopped awkwardly, spindly fingers curled. How he had managed to crawl into cover like this was miraculous, given how poor his motor control was now.

Straining, he tried again, this time vaguely gesturing to the vial of green stim in the medpack.

Meanwhile, the sentient orb Sithspawn was gearing up to attack the Jedi again. Laughing, it projected a suppression field around itself—then charged forward, its jaw unhinging as it attempted to devour its foes whole.

Iris Arani Valery Noble​

 

[Iris Arani]

Whatever happened seemed to really hurt Kai Bamarri . Was that what it was to get hit by lighting? She kept quiet, not wanting to ask. Not wanting to know. It was.. Horrifying. No, focus. The stim? He barely seemed able to point it out, but she swiftly reached out to take it. It was a needle, so.. She waited for some kind of confirmation before injecting the being with the green liquid to.. Help? She hoped it would help.

Then.. Everything went blank.

For Iris, the dark side of the Force brought black. Still a color, but consuming all others. Blotting out the other colors like it was consuming them. But the suppression the beastly Sithspawn put out.. It was unlike anything she'd experienced before. Color was just gone. She saw nothing. Her eyes widened as she saw nothing for the first time. No color. She could still see the world around her, but..

It was blank. Fear. Fear filled her eyes as she looked around, desperately trying to find any source of color. Nothing. She huddled onto herself. This was wrong. This was broken. She couldn't hide her fear anymore.

 

[Valery Noble]

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Location: Coruscant | Lower Levels​

Valery: Appearance​

Outfit: Factory Link​

Lightsabers: Link​

Ship: Factory link​

Tag: Iris Arani Kai Bamarri ​

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This was getting out of hand.​

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Whilst fighting zombies and other creations of the Dark Side, she had watched as Kai was struck by a bolt of lightning coming from a rather peculiar-looking creature. He had fallen over and changed into something she had never seen before, but she still felt his presence as she looked at him. Earlier, she had made a promise to help those they believed could be helped, and she was going to honor that promise. ​

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Kai was not dying on her watch.​

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What made things worse was to see her Padawan rush in to help him, to feel her fear echo through the Force. As Iris' Master, she was responsible for her safety, and feeling this shock and horror through the bond shared between Master and Padawan was awful, and forced the woman into action.​

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With blinding speed, she finally positioned herself between the strange creature and the two Padawans. She felt its suppression field attempting to block her connection as well, but it was met with fiery focus and willpower, as the Force began to strongly flow through her, augmenting the body and mind.​

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"Iris, keep tending to Kai. I'm breaking us through to the evac point." the woman said with a serious tone as she watched the floating eyeball stare at her angrily. It seemed to certainly not appreciate her powering through its attempts to block her use of the Force.​

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The tendrils around it then began to move again, preparing for an attack, but Valery had no intentions of allowing it to strike first. Her fiery orange gaze narrowed, her expression fierce as she sent a powerful wave of Telekinetic towards it with an outstretched arm. She blasted the creature back into the remains of a parked vehicle and quickly chased after it while her twin lightsabers ignited.​

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Time to end this, the woman thought as she moved in a pattern to avoid it striking at her. Due to the speed and pattern, the two blades made her appear like a purple bolt coursing through the air before transitioning into a destructive whirlwind near the creature.​

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She was going to end it as quickly as she could, but she was ready to remove all its appendages if necessary.​

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[Kai Bamarri]

The sting of the injection gave way to a burst of renewed energy. Kai swiftly regained control as his body stabilized. He staggered to his feet, lightsaber hilt in hand, but it was apparent he was in no condition to fight.

Meanwhile, the Tyrant Orb, sensing it was having little effect on Valery, had abandoned the attempt at suppression. Its appendages lobbed blasts of Force lightning at her with increasing desperation, trying to fend her off...

Iris Arani Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

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Location: Coruscant | Lower Levels​

Valery: Appearance​

Outfit: Factory Link​

Lightsabers: Link​

Ship: Factory link​

Tag: Iris Arani Kai Bamarri ​

​

After cutting away two of its appendages, Valery felt a sudden surge in Dark Side energy within the creature. It was preparing an attack of some kind so, in response, the Jedi Master jumped back and braced herself, lightsabers drawn and her mind focused. But fairly quickly, she realized a better option, as it became clear that it channeled the same attack it turned against Kai.​

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Rather than using her blades to attempt to block it, she disengaged her two lightsabers and extended her arms towards the creature. Within the palms of her hands, blue funnels formed and it seemed as if a small layer of similar blue energy manifested around her body. With this use of Tutaminis, she was ready in time to meet the surges of lightning that were fired her way.​

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As they connected, she siphoned them into her body, and quickly felt the power of the attacks surging through her, empowering her even more. She immediately began to channel every bit of energy she absorbed, and the moment his attack ended, her fiery gaze settled on her target.​

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From the same hands she used to defend herself, now an incredibly powerful wave of Force Light was directed out towards the creature, followed by another, and another. Each blast was fueled by its own energy combined with the Jedi Master's and began to wither away the corruption and alongside it the creature itself.​

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But to finish it all, Valery waited until it was so severely weakened that it could barely defend itself. The twin lightsabers ignited again and with a final flash of speed, she moved straight for the eye in the center and thrust her blades deep into the creature. She felt it spasm and twitch, but after a moment, it finally collapsed to the floor.​

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The woman let out a deep sigh and looked over her shoulder, towards the two Padawans.​

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"Iris, Kai - are you both okay? We need to get out of here."​

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[Iris Arani]

Neither of them were in a condition to fight. Iris was just full of fear. There was nothing. No color, no life. Then it was back. The sudden rush of color returning was overwhelming. No longer suppressed the padawan gripped at the side of her head. Too much color. Too much fear. She was in no position to stop Kai Bamarri from standing up or to help Valery Noble deal with the orb creature.

But the orb creature was taken down. The sudden absence of the oppressive dark was a relief at least. Iris slowly lifted her gaze, glancing first to Kai, then to her master. They needed to leave. Yeah. They needed to leave.

"O.. Okay.."

 

[Kai Bamarri]

A staggering Kai gave Valery a thumbs up.

Iris Arani Valery Noble​