Athelas

[Velok the Younger]

RAVE MERRILL'S HOME
VARUNDA IX
UNKNOWN REGIONS

Not for the first time, Rave thought about anger. About the grip it held on her, and how hard it was to set up barriers between thought and action. Ideas led to dwelling on an issue, which led to speech, which led to letting anger get a grip on her Force connection. Which led to action of a most inappropriate kind. Best to head that onrushing chain of causality at the pass, as early as possible. That meant not thinking about the fact that Spencer Jacobs, a woman she'd known fairly well in her youth -- much longer ago for Rave than for Jacobs -- had been Vongformed. Subjected to the same tortures and experiments that had once been Rave's stock in trade.

A ship touched down in the nearby forest clearing. Jungle stretched out for miles in most directions, though they weren't too far from a major city. Within walking distance of a Marrow and Illskins, if she ended up needing to get word to @Dissero. An errand for Varanin, maybe, if she proved a distraction; Varanin and Dissero had a connection.

Rave eyed her cybernetic hand, plated with terentatek ivory. A quarter century back, she'd had a shaper hand there. It would have been of more use; shaper hands contained tools to which Yuuzhan Vong biots responded. She had dead tools, many of them nameless, designed to do similar things, but those could only go so far. Frustration was a path to anger. She refused to dwell on it. She would have to either fix Spencer Jacobs or hope that Varanin was still capable of transferring someone else's soul to a new body. Because that was emphatically not a skill that Rave intended to unlock in herself. It had defined her life, ruined it in some ways, though she'd never personally switched bodies -- a long and ugly story. Fear, too, was a path to anger.

As the ship settled, Rave walked out of her simple, cluttered home and leaned against the nearest Tree of Ankarres. The tree's contact calmed her as she watched the hatch opening, and Ashin Varanin pulling out her wife on a medical gurney. Varanin still wore phrik armor and a death's-head helmet, black with Yuuzhan Vong blood from head to toe. A cold, implacable, almost unhinged fury rolled off Varanin; Rave winced at the sensation. Yes, sending her to Dissero would be the best move. The Dark Side clouded everything, and Rave couldn't afford that at this stage.

She'd been a healer once, as a Darksider. She'd known every spell and trick of it. Not a skill she'd learned yet, now that she'd changed.

Suppose that's what you'd call ironic.

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

 

[Allyson Locke]

Anger and Fear lead to the darkside and Spencer lacked the anger, but she could feel it from Ashin as it crashed into her. She didn’t have the strength to continue to fight her empathy. Though her own emotions were something she didn’t want to feel either - the anger was somewhat welcomed, but also threatened her own balance. Everything hurt, she couldn’t control crucitorn either at this point. Whatever had been inside of her growing had stopped, but still poisoned her from being force dead and continued to cut her from the Force.

They were moving and she was on her back, that for the most part was all she knew at this time. She knew anger and that she was moving. Everything that had happened at the prison was a blur, along with the beings that felt somewhere outside of the Force. Her mind tried to recall faces and events that had happened, the only thing she could remember was the smell of the fried flesh from her lightning. Though with that memory came the surge of pain that followed the lightning. She didn’t know what they were, but it was obvious Ashin did - she was curious why that lesson never made it to the table.

They continued to move and she felt something faint, something familiar. Spencer wondered if Ashin had taken her home - not Annaj home, but back to Dathomir. Childhood stories of returning back to the soil of your birth provided some sort of healing in a weird witch way. That way, wasn’t a way Spencer knew or was quite fond of. Barbaric in her opinion, but it's what worked for her mother. A hand reached out and lightly brushed against the Phrik armor Ashin wore, stained with the blood of those that held her captive. Managing only a few words, she questioned, “Where are we?” [member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

Rave met Varanin's glasteel eyes as Spencer asked her question. Though Rave was much smaller and physically older, she did her level best not to back down -- though on what issue, that was anyone's guess. "You're on Varunda Nine, Master Jacobs," said Rave hoarsely. "In my garden. It's Rave Merrill."

She held Varanin's gaze; after a long moment, the armoured woman nodded once. "Spence," said Varanin, voice tinny through the helmet's vocoder, "I'm going to-"

"Visit a shop nearby," said Rave firmly. "Dissero owns it, though not publicly. It has resources I need, and if you haven't already contacted him, this is the quickest way I know. He may not be able to get here in time, but I could use his consultation. Now, Master Jacobs, I'm going to guide you indoors. Lie still, and tell me anything you can bear to contemplate about what was done to you before your wife arrived. Can you do that for me? Descriptions of creatures -- Vong biots -- would be especially helpful."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Ashin was leaving her and her face told the world how she felt about it. She shouldn’t have felt panicked, but she did her heart raced and she was lead inside with Rave. Spence knew that she could trust the woman, but with everything that had happened and with how she felt at this moment she just wanted to have Ashin nearby. Spencer gathered her thoughts and inhaled deeply knowing that it was important for things to happen the way they were happening. People had duties to complete.

All in an effort to save her. A hand found its way to her own face, as Spencer did her best to recall the past few days. It would have been easier to just show Rave what had happened, but the woman knew if she couldn’t control the Force long enough to block out the pain or to manage her empathy; she wouldn’t be able to control the force long enough to show Rave what had happened. For the first time in her life, she had to rely on her human instincts and recollection. There was no Force for her to depend on.

“Biots?” The words were foreign to her as she looked down at her wrist and with the hand on her face touch along the sloppy healing job on the back of her neck. “There was two, one called itself a scientist. Slit my wrist open, then the back of my neck.” Gesturing towards the two incision marks. “Worms or something attached itself to the nerve endings? It wanted me to use the Force so it could measure it.”

Spencer ran her hand along her shoulder feeling the small spikes that had grown while she was using the lightning. In shock, she pulled her hand away quickly and looked at them confused. They were everywhere along her body, “There’s something, I don’t know what any of this is. Rave, I don’t feel the Force like I used to.” A sudden realization came over her as she looked towards the ground. Whatever was going on with her, she was losing her connection to the Force.


[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

Rave looked away as Varanin leaned close and whispered something in Jacobs' ear; a moment later, the bloody, armoured figure was striding away through the trees. Then Rave and Jacobs were inside, the door was shut, and Varanin's oppressively cold aura was beginning to fade. Rave got her patient situated in the cluttered workshop and sat beside her, listening.

"So the Vong are interested in measuring the Force by way of bodily processes. They would take that approach," Rave muttered, turning away to fiddle with the tools on her desk. This was going to get bad. "And it's telling, of course, that they can't simply get that data from their Sith masters, even their masters' minions."

She selected a particular blade and a specific claw and turned back. "You've been implanted with yorik coral seeds, Master Jacobs, or something much like them." Switching from the Force to Vongsense gave her a clearer picture of them. "Master Varanin appears to have stalled their growth; I didn't know she had Vongsense. It's common for the Vong to implant their slaves with these, though they rarely grow this quickly. Eventually the slaves lose their Force connection and die. Unless, of course, someone competent removes them. If you have any skill in crucitorn, the mental discipline side of it, now would be the time to employ it." She touched a certain sharp-edged leaf to Jacobs' neck; sticky sap adhered to the younger woman's skin. The pain would begin to fade. "What you're experiencing is similar to procedures and infectious agents I know well. This may be a variant of the Vongspawn virus, but..." A dry, bleak smile that Jacobs might or might not see. "...I have experience with that as well. Now, let's see what we have here."

Slice, crack -- a lump broke free. As Jacobs reacted, however that might be, Rave tossed the lump into a complex machine ornamented by a stuffed owl.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer listened to Rave speak about the Vong, Ashin had been so quiet on the way from the prison that Spencer never got a name to call them. The Vong, she had heard the name several times and had read upon them from old datacrons. They were force dead, meaning they didn’t react with the Force. This confused Spencer, who was a firm believer that the Forced touched everything and tied all living things together. Knowing that something was capable of being untouched by the Force, made Spencer worry.

“The Sith are fearful of the Vong. If they discover how the Force works, they can possibly create something better at stopping it. Worse, they could create something to synthesis the Force - keeping them force dead and allowing them to bend the Force to their will.” Spencer bit her thumb for a moment remembering that Rave was going to be doing some things to her especially to remove the Coral from her body. The pain started to slip away and Spencer focused her mind on the Crucitorn she had learned. She relied too much on the physical attributes too much and it had been a while since she had done the mental side of it all. Usually her mind was occupied with other abilities to fully commit to Crucitorn.

Taking a deep breath, she centered her mind and focused the pain shifting it to a more pleasurable sensation. Conditioning of the mind was something she had studied since she was a child, it was the only way she could focus on her studies when she was younger - to shift the emotions she was feeling into something else. A smile spread across her face as she remembered [member="Darron Wraith"] and his explanation of a cup. Using the same simple technique taught to padawans, she poured her pain into the cup and let it flow into another cup - preventing herself from fully feeling it. Still some pain leaked through and Spencer tightened her fists and bit her lip to avoid crying out. She did her best to focus on a pleasurable sensation.

“The coral...it...was probably what burned - when I used electricity. I just don’t….know when they put these in me.” [member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

"I've heard shapers speak of those fears," said Rave absently, cutting out another coral polyp from Spencer's collarbone. "Good for you for intuiting them." Rave was focusing on Vongsense, not the Force, but she still picked up a slim echo of Spencer's emotional shift. Not a good sign.

"What burned was called a spineray," she explained. "A Vong sensory biot -- biological machine analogue -- that traces neural pathways. As it maps your thoughts, it discovers which neural pathways are associated with the Force. Then it adds a pain response anytime those pathways are stimulated. It's a means of conditioning you until you can no longer will yourself to use the Force on any terms but theirs. Very old technique; the qahsas about its use date back to the initial invasion. Its effects are easily countered, with the right therapy. If they tied it in with the growth of the yorik coral polyps..." She squinted in concentration and removed another with a sucking pop, then folded the skin back in place. "As for when they put them in, I'm sensing them mainly in your skin and your lungs. I'd imagine there was some sort of airburst. Yorik coral seeds can be quite small. Did you cough, before the torture began? The coral growth portion, anyway." Snick, crack, plop.

 

[Dissero]

In every Marrow & Illskin's shop there was a list. That list contained names of people who were allowed access to even the private stores of any shop, at any given time, no questions asked, no payment needed. It was a very short list.

Rave Merrill was on that list. Ashin Varanin and Spencer Jacobs were also on that list. So when Ashin Varanin walked in the door giving word that she'd been sent by Rave, no questions were asked. When Ashin recited the required materials they were collected and packaged in silence. And when she asked after the shop owner the storekeep revealed to her a crystal ball nestled within the page-gutter of a large, ancient book on a podium in a back storage room.

He told her to place her bare hands upon it and focus her message into it. Wherever he was - store or homestead - it would find him.

Towards the end of the Sanctuary Pipline on the planet of Annaj, Dissero looked up from where he sat behind the counter taking inventory and stock levels. A bright, virulent blue-green glow from the back room pulled him from his seat and from it he sensed the presence of an entity he thought to be at the other end of the galaxy sifting through the dross of his archival collection for Force-knew-what. He strode into the room, squinting at the rays of light forcing their way through the cracks of an antique wooden chest, and reached to pull up the top.

Ashin's face met him in a fractal of icy grey within the crystal ball and for the first time in what felt like years he physically recoiled.

"Feth..." shielding his eyes with his right arm he reached forward to place his left hand over the smooth surface, freezing to the touch, "Ashin?! What's happened?"

Spencer. The word translated by willpower alone, each word that followed growing a frost of the woman's contempt. Taken by the One Sith and tortured. Vongformed. I've brought her to Rave.

"Varunda IX..." he blinked, wincing at the sting of numbness in his fingers he gave a nod of understanding, "I'm on Annaj. I'll get there as fast as I can."

[member="Rave Merrill"]