Private Awakening

[Reina Daival]

Tags: Darth Virelia Valery Noble Colette Everest Vale

Time was strange. Adrift with seconds, minutes, hours and possibly even days just flowing past like the tide yet being ignorant to it all. An empty void of moments past. Moments that could not be remembered. For in this moment, Reina was a still ocean. No tide. No waves. Sterile. Sedentary...That was until a few days ago. Where a few faint ripples seemed to venture forth from her. Aimless ripples sent through the Force, with very little purpose...but purpose there was. It was almost like a heartbeat of the Force being sent out. Badump. Badump. Badump.

In a way, the Force was sent out to those who were the closest to Reina's heart. Those who had gotten past her armour she had put up so long ago. The first to have received the pulse would have been Colette who had been quick on Reina's heels after finding out she had been missing. The redhead's master having travelled to Tatooine and been aided by those Reina had met previously. Who had been informed both by the local populance of Tatooine and Reina's own sister somewhat of the proceeding. All of them giving separate pieces of a puzzle that the Knight had to put together...yet now, there was the faint beacon in the Force. Like a lighthouse attempting to do its best not to run out of power, pulsing through the air.

It had also made its way to someone else who was deeply dear to the redhead. Everest Vale . In fact, it was thanks to the newly-appointed Knight that these ripples were able to be sent. For in combination with Reina's dreams of her life as a Jedi had a moment that had coincided with reality. That of Everest's knighting. Reina could not have been there in person, but the moment had sent a ripple. A ripple that had disturbed the still ocean that had been Reina's being. Her conscienceless that until that day had hid itself behind every small wall it could. But now? That consciousness was awake. It was weak. But it was there. Alive and responsive whilst the rest of Reina was still quiet. Dead to the Galaxy near enough.

And so she continued to float in the vat. Tail gently swishing through the liquid as Reina waited. She didn't know it herself, but that was ultimately what she was doing. Waiting. Slumbering. Until those who cared for her came to her rescue. Something she never believed would have happened to her. For she had been so selfishly jealous of Azurine when people had came to her rescue...Jealous because Reina believed no-one would do the same for her...yet she was about to be in for such a surprise.​

 

[Darth Virelia]

"A very, very, interesting night."

Tags - Reina Daival , Colette , Valery Noble Everest Vale


The doors to the subterranean sanctum whispered open with the lazy grace of something that knew its mistress had returned. Warm, violet light spilled across the threshold, catching on the polished stone floor as Darth Virelia stepped inside, unhurried and smiling faintly to herself.

She rarely smiled without an audience. But tonight… tonight she was in a mood.

Her boots clicked against the floor, the sound crisp in the humid air of the facility. The vats, consoles, and delicate bio-alchemical apparatus waited patiently in the distance, humming like a choir holding its breath. Reina's silhouette floated serene and alien in her tank, tail swaying lazily in the nutrient fluid.

Virelia glanced toward her and smirked. "Soon," she murmured, voice low enough to get swallowed by the room. "But not yet."

She wasn't in a rush. After all, she had the evening to herself before the final phase began. And if she was honest—which she rarely was, even with herself—she needed a moment to… be.

She turned from the tank and made her way toward the guard station tucked near the sealed entrance. Two of her most reliable security personnel stood there, clad in light armor with the lazy alertness of people who knew an intruder would have to be suicidal to even try coming this deep.

"Evening, Lady Virelia," one of them greeted, straightening reflexively.

"At ease," she said, waving a hand in mock sternness. "If I see one more spine pulled so straight I could use it as a ruler, I'll start bringing chalk."

That got the faintest hint of a grin out of the younger one. The older guard—broad-shouldered, face weathered by years of service—hid his smirk less effectively.

Virelia leaned a hip against the counter, folding her arms. "So, gentlemen, tell me—what's the most exciting thing that's happened here in the past week? And if you say 'we changed the coolant in the southern conduits,' I will reassign you to counting grains of sand outside."

The younger guard blinked, clearly running through mental inventory. "Uh… there was that lizard-thing that got into the ventilation?"

The older one nodded gravely. "We caught it before it got into the genetics wing."

Virelia arched an eyebrow. "And here I thought I was the apex predator in this facility. Did it put up much of a fight?"

"It bit Trel," the older guard replied, jerking a thumb at his companion.

"Trel," she said, turning toward him with mock solemnity, "I commend you on your bravery in facing the perilous ventilation lizard. Your name will be etched into the annals of history." She leaned in slightly, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "But probably misspelled."

The boy's ears went pink, but he grinned.

"And you?" she said to the older guard. "Any near-death experiences lately, or are you just living vicariously through Trel's battle scars?"

"Nearly died of boredom," he said without missing a beat.

Virelia chuckled, shaking her head. "You're lucky I like you, or I'd make sure the next shift rotation puts you directly on vent duty. You and the lizards could bond."

She reached over to the small kettle on the corner of the counter, noting it was already steaming. "Is this for me, or do I have to wrestle you for it?"

The older guard slid a mug toward her without hesitation. "Yours, m'lady."

She poured herself a cup, the rich, spiced aroma curling up toward her face. "See, this is why I keep you alive," she said, sipping. "Your tea."

"Noted," the older guard said dryly.

For a few minutes, she let herself stay there—leaning on the counter, trading light jabs about whose turn it was to recalibrate the perimeter sensors, and listening to their complaints about how cafeteria rations had apparently "gotten worse," which she considered a bold claim.

Finally, she set the mug down and straightened. "All right, back to your heroic watch. I'll be in the main chamber."

As she walked back toward the tank, the humor in her expression softened into something quieter, though no less pleased. Tonight, she'd allow herself this ease. Tomorrow, she'd begin the work that would make Reina more than she'd ever been—and that, she thought with a private curl of her lips, would be worth every moment of waiting.

 

[Colette]

Reina Daival Darth Virelia Valery Noble Everest Vale

"Vents, here." Colette muttered as she drew a rectangle on a crude map in the sand. "That's where you're going to get in. Haven't seen much, but from what I have seen you'll have two minutes to get through to the back once the guards are changed." Colette said and drew another circle in the ground. "I'll be going in through here. Get in, get out. All that matters is Reina."

"Got it? Good. See you on the other side."

---

Later…

The perimeter had been breached by now, it had to be. Colette let in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it with a gentle nod. This was it, it was time to set their plans into motion.

Somewhere along the perimeter, Colette assumed, Valery and Everest would have silently made their way across and were making progress into the facility, meaning that something had to be done to keep as many eyes away from them as possible.

Well, few things caught the eyes quite like a lightsaber. The guards called out for her to identify herself, and with that she let out one last deep breath before she flicked the switch on the saber to extend its silver blade.

The response was immediate. Blaster bolts fired off into the quiet evening, abruptly throwing a thick layer of chaos across the field. Colette extended her hand to raise the small one, Trel, off of the ground and smash them into the wall. She provided the same courtesy to the older one before forcing the door open.

Colette might have been furious over what this facility represented but that didn't mean she would forget her principles. The soldiers stayed alive. They would be worse for wear, but they were alive. Unconscious to be the most precise, but taken out of it all nonetheless.

She could feel the moment of surprise fading with each step she took into the compound, and with one final push she swelled up a bright reservoir in the force like a beacon to draw out whoever it was that had captured her apprentice out of hiding.

It was a challenge as much as it was a greeting: I've found you.

 

[Everest Vale]

Outfit: Personal Armour
Equipment: Lightsaber, Bracelet, Earrings, Seer Stone, Wayfinder's Flare, Engagement Ring
Tag: Reina Daival Darth Virelia Colette Valery Noble

Everest crouched low at the base of the vent Colette had marked, breath slow. Even here, beyond the nearest patrol route, the air carried the faint tang of recycled coolant and alchemical residue. It was enough to make her teeth ache.

A flicker in the Force told her the distraction had begun. Colette’s flare of presence, sharp and bright, cut through the compound like a thrown blade. The distant thrum of blaster fire followed, muffled by layers of stone and metal.

She hesitated for only a moment, eye fixed on the vent entrance , and let her thoughts settle on Reina. That fragile thread in the Force pulled at her like a heartbeat she couldn’t ignore. Reina wasn’t just a friend. She was family. A sister. And she was here, trapped in the hands of someone Eve had come to loathe. She never liked the word hate, but Serina Calis had tested that boundary more than anyone. The temptress' uninvited visit to her dorm, back when Eve had been brand new to the Order, had left her in a state she’d never forgotten; upset, unsettled, and unable to shake the feeling of violation. That strange wound had never properly healed, and knowing what Serina had been doing to Reina had only sharpened it into something darker.

But she was a woman now, and a Jedi Knight. Now, in Serina’s own lair, she could finally make things right.

I’m coming, Reina.

The words were silent but sure as she eased the grille loose and set it aside. She glanced to Valery once, letting out a single, slow exhale as her gaze found its resolve. The metal of the vent was cold beneath her palms as she pulled herself in, muscles coiled tight, lightsaber secure at her hip. Every scrape of fabric, every shift of weight was measured against the rhythm of her breathing.

The shaft opened into a shadowed maintenance corridor, dimly lit by a single strip of amber light along the wall. Eve dropped soundlessly to the floor, pausing to listen. Nothing but the low throb of machinery and the distant alarmed voices drawn elsewhere. That was good. She waited there a moment, a hand resting lightly against the wall, sensing Valery’s steady approach through the bond of trust between former master and student.

One more breath, and she began to move, silent, quick, every step taking her deeper into the heart of the facility, toward the guttering thread of light that was Reina.

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

From her vantage point in the shadows, Valery watched as Colette lit her blade and drew the guards into chaos. Blaster fire cut across the perimeter, and for a heartbeat Valery simply stood there, her lips curving into a proud smile.

That was a Noble, alright, and her daughter.

Valery drew a breath and shifted her focus toward the vent where Everest had already slipped inside. With the distraction underway, Valery crossed quickly, her steps quiet to avoid notice as she joined Everest's path. Slipping in behind her, she lowered herself into the vent and let the panel close with barely a sound. The air inside was cold and stale, humming faintly with the machinery beyond, but she pressed forward.

When her boots touched down in the corridor below, she fell in beside Everest, her voice little more than a whisper. "Colette will keep them busy. Now it's our turn. Stay close."

Her hand brushed briefly against her former student's shoulder, steadying and supportive, before she started down the dim passage toward the faint pulse of light that was Reina.

Colette Everest Vale Reina Daival Darth Virelia ​

 

[Reina Daival]

Tags: Darth Virelia Colette Everest Vale Valery Noble

She continued to float in the vat, lost in the safety of her own mind. Adrift and aimless. Reina was oblivious to all that was going on in this precise moment. The sounds of machinery whirring away didn't even reach her ears. The battle going on was one that Reina wouldn't even be able to wrap her head around. Luckily for her, she didn't need to acknowledge it...Not yet at least.

Instead she just floated away, her hair adrift in the liquid. Her tail swaying from side to side reactively without a thought behind it. Though her closed eyes were finally starting to twitch. Her clawed fingers flickering ever so slightly as the Padawan was finally starting to become responsive to the outside world again. The need for her to hide herself inside of her own mind for safety was starting to fade. She was going to be safe. Soon. Reina just had to hold out for a few more moments.

Of course...once she awoke, she'd get to have a good look of new appearance. To see how much she had changed. It was just a matter of asking...Did that mean it had changed who she was?​

 

[Darth Virelia]

"A very, very, interesting night."

Tags - Reina Daival , Colette , Valery Noble Everest Vale


The beacon had been answered.

Virelia felt it the way one feels a storm rolling in over still water—inevitable, swelling, undeniable. The Force trembled in the vaults of her sanctum as she stepped from the inner chamber, the glow of generators behind her fading into silence. Each stride was punctuated by the whisper of silk and the weight of Tyrant's Embrace—her sovereign skin, her perfected chrysalis.

The black mirror of her helm caught the reflections of firelight and alarm sirens as she entered the outer hall. Six eyes burned like violet embers, shifting with subtle, predatory awareness. The cape followed behind her in crimson-edged shadows, a funeral banner carried on her own stride.

And there she was.

Colette.

The silver blade cast its glow into the chamber, hissing against the dark as if it, too, dared to challenge her presence. How long had it been since she had last seen her? Barely even more than a child, still wrapped in the haughty certainties of Padawan pride. A girl who thought the galaxy would bend if she only believed in it hard enough.

Virelia stopped just shy of the blade's edge, her voice low, solemn, resonant from the vocoder hidden in her helm.

"Colette…"

Her head inclined slightly, an acknowledgment. A respect. The way one pays homage to a ghost returned from memory.

"It's been long." She did not sneer. There was no venom in it, only a kind of mournful cadence. "How's Valery, faring well?"

Her taloned hands rested at her sides, not yet lifting. There was no rush to battle.

"You think you've come to save her." The violet eyes pulsed, faintly alive with a heartbeat that wasn't blood. "But Reina has been shattered for longer than you know. And I—" her voice softened, a dangerous hush—"I only gave her what she begged for in silence. A chance to stop hurting."

She took one step forward. A deliberate step. The plates of her boots kissed the stone with the weight of ceremony.

Silence stretched a moment, punctuated by the hum of the lightsaber and the faint drip of condensation from the ceiling. Beneath the monolith of her armor, her expression was unreadable. But her tone, when she spoke again, was heavy. Honest. Almost sad.

"You look at me and see a prison." Her hands finally lifted, slowly, palms spread, the talons of her gauntlets catching the silver glow. "But she… she sleeps without screaming now."

She wasn't talking about Reina.

Another step forward. The cape whispered crimson against the stone.

"I do not expect you to understand," she said softly, her voice thick with something older than scorn. "You are still young enough to think the galaxy can be mended without blood. I was like you, once. But you will learn. Everyone does."

The six violet eyes shifted, glimmering like stars breaking through the void. Her final words carried none of the heat of a threat, but the solemn weight of inevitability.

"If you wish to take her back, you'll have to cut me down. But if you do—" her helm inclined again, respectful, mournful—"you will learn what Valery learned all those years ago."

Virelia stood, immovable, her sovereign's armor breathing faint pulses of violet through its engraved veins, before the words slipped out like the most dreaded whisper.

"I am inevitable."

 

[Colette]

Darth Virelia Valery Noble Reina Daival Everest Vale

There she was in all her purple glory. The mask hadn't had any voice to it in Colette's hunt for this location, but the cadence of the voice modulator pierced through her ears like a worm through an apple: Serina. The one who Colette had chided on a trip, and the very same who Valery Noble had eventually struck down.

The lost lamb spoke and only then, while listening, would it hit Colette how much speaking she was at risk of having to do. She didn't much like words, actions were better, but but she'd most certainly try. When it came to Reina, there was a lot she would do. Call it a matter of pride.

Serina asked how Valery was and Colette lazily raised her shoulders in a shrug.

"It has been." She responded. No reason to drop the kindness just yet. "And she's alright."

For all the intents and purposes of this so-called rescue it was still good to just listen to what Serina had to say. If no-one was beyond redemption then the truths and justifications of a person mattered just as much as the words left unspoken and the deceptions.

And Serina most certainly had no lack of those. All that remained was to figure out which statement fell under which label.

"I'm not striking unless you are." Colette said and raised her arms and spread them wide almost as if to dare her opponent. "It's not my blade. Although I suppose you of all people might recognize it."

It was Reina's after all.

Colette lowered it and shook her head.

"The galaxy isn't broken, Serina." She countered. "That's like— Like calling an ocean broken. The galaxy either is or it isn't, it can't be anything more or less than that. As long as a drop of water still lingers in the ocean, and as long as there is a star to shine in the galaxy, they are both exactly as infinite as they should be."

The 'kid' shook her head with a sigh.

"The people on the other hand..."

"Look, I'm not going to pretend that you care about my thoughts." Colette frowned. "I can see it on you that you're still falling for the lies in your head. You're still willing to buy the lies that you tell yourself, and the ones that those around you feed you. Hell, even those that the force itself wants you to believe."

Colette slowly extended a hand toward Serina, an open hand, an inviting hand.

"But it doesn't have to be this way. If you truly care about Reina, let her go. If you help me, if you come with me, willingly, we can end this tragedy."

 

[Everest Vale]

Outfit: Personal Armour
Equipment: Lightsaber, Bracelet, Earrings, Seer Stone, Wayfinder's Flare, Engagement Ring
Tag: Reina Daival Darth Virelia Colette Valery Noble

The corridor seemed to stretch forever, its walls humming with the low throb of unseen machines. Eve moved in silence beside her former Master, every step deliberate, her senses stretched thin against the dark that pressed in from all sides. The air tasted wrong here, stale and metallic, tinged with something that seemed to cling to her skin like oil. The Dark Side ran thick through the place, suffocating and insidious, and though she tried to push it aside, it lingered in her chest.

Her hand brushed briefly against the wall as she walked, grounding herself, and then Valery’s touch found her shoulder. It gave her the calm she hadn’t realised she needed, loosening the tightness in her chest. Eve drew in a breath, forcing herself forward. Her need to reach Reina, to pull her free, burned brighter than all else — even her loathing of Serina.

Still, she couldn’t keep her thoughts from drifting to the duel raging at the facility’s entrance. Colette was out there, facing Serina alone. The thought made her jaw tighten. She closed her eye and whispered a prayer into the Force, that her sister would be safe, that she’d hold her ground until they could all leave together, safe and unharmed.

The corridors twisted and narrowed, and every shadow seemed to shift at the edge of her vision. But then the path opened into a vast chamber, its size startling after the suffocating tunnels. The air was cooler here, damp, and filled with the hiss and whirr of alchemical apparatus.

At the centre of the room stood a single vat of rippling liquid, lit from beneath with a pale violet glow. Eve’s breath caught in her throat. Her steps faltered.

Inside, suspended and drifting, was something that made her heart clench. For a moment, she thought it was Reina. The face was hers. Eyes closed, hair fanned out in the liquid. But below the waist, the body was not her own. The shape of her legs was gone, replaced by the sleek, alien form of a fin, scaled and glistening in the glow.

Eve’s breath shuddered out of her, and she felt herself trembling, fingers curling into fists at her sides. It was Reina... and it wasn’t. The horror of what Serina had done coiled in her stomach like a blade twisting deeper with every heartbeat.

"R-Reina…" she whispered, voice breaking.

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery froze for only a moment when her eyes fell on the vat. Her breath caught, her stomach twisted, but she forced herself to keep her composure. The sight of Reina suspended in the liquid, altered in such a grotesque way, was enough to make her sick, but there wasn't time to falter.

She drew in a slow breath and stepped closer to Everest, laying a steady hand on her former student's shoulder. "I know," she said softly, "But we cannot stop here. We have to get her out."

Her orange eyes lingered on Reina for another heartbeat, then shifted toward the control panel beside the vat. Valery then quickly crossed the chamber, her expression tightening as she began to study the interface. Fingers moved over the controls, searching for the right sequence.

"We will get her back," Valery said, more to Everest than herself, though the words anchored her resolve as well. Her hand pressed against the panel, initiating the sequence that would begin to release Reina from the prison she had been trapped in.

Colette Everest Vale Darth Virelia Reina Daival ​

 

[Reina Daival]

Tags: Darth Virelia Colette Valery Noble Everest Vale

As the release sequence was initiated, it would start with the fluid draining out from the vat slowly but surely, gently letting Reina lay against the bottom of the glass prison. The fluid squelching and gurgling away as it was brought down through various pipes before the vat opened up, the front flipping up like a sleeping pod causing Reina to near enough flop straight out like a fish.

It was there that Reina could be seen in her full Ersansyr "glory". The tail that was once where her legs were, the alien lights of the laboratory shimmering off the scales of them, the various scales peppered across her body joining in with the slight lightshow as the lights flickered and danced. Even her hands had changed with her nails replaced with sharp claws, purposefully made to rip, tear and shred things apart.

Even her eyes had changed, as they fluttered open. The fluorescent golden eyes staring up towards Valery and Everest in a faint look of confusion and a larger look of just pure exhaustion. The subtle gills on the side of her neck flickering as Reina breathed in fresh air, no longer needing to use her mouth for the act. That didn't stop her from giving a faint smile, indirectly showing off the fangs that laid inside of her mouth now. This had to be some kind of dream for Reina. There was no way she had been getting rescued...and she was still far too groggy to even take in what had happened to her​

 

[Darth Virelia]

"A very, very, interesting night."

Tags - Reina Daival , Colette , Valery Noble Everest Vale


The silver blade's hum filled the chamber like a heartbeat.

Virelia stood at its edge, her sovereign skin of blackened obsidian breathing soft pulses of violet, a monolith framed by crimson-shadowed silk. Six glowing eyes fixed on Colette, unblinking, glimmering with an unreadable awareness that made her helm seem less a mask than a verdict.

The words touched her. She allowed them to. Not because she believed them, but because she respected the attempt. Colette had grown since the last time their paths crossed; She carried herself like someone who knew the cost of conviction.

And still—still she thought herself capable of pulling the galaxy back into place with nothing but sincerity and open hands.

For the first time in what might have been years, Virelia's voice softened. Not the velvet of seduction, not the sharpened silk of corruption, but something rarer: solemnity.

"You remind me of myself," she said, each syllable spilling through her vocoder like a distant echo. "Not the woman you see before you. No. Before that. Before the mask. Before the armor. When I still thought words could catch a falling star before it burned itself out."

Her taloned gauntlet lifted slowly, hovering near her chestplate, tracing the faint glow of the crystalline node embedded there. The runes carved across her armor pulsed once, as if acknowledging her admission.

"I told myself the same lies you speak now. That no one is beyond redemption. That pain could be cured by belief. That the Force would bend if I only gave enough of myself to it. But the galaxy, Colette…" The helm tilted ever so slightly, sorrowful. "The galaxy does not care for your oceans or your poetry. It consumes."

Her head lowered a fraction, as though to acknowledge the bravery of the open hand extended toward her. A hand she remembered from another time—smaller then, trembling, but still reaching. Always reaching.

"You would lead me away from this," Virelia said softly. "You would ask me to betray everything I have built, everything I have become, because you believe there is a sliver of Serina Calis still hiding beneath all this." Her clawed hand swept down the length of her armor, the talons scraping faint sparks across the blackened phrik. "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps there is."

A pause.

A breath.

The faint hum of generators in the deep.

"But Serina Calis was weak. She wanted to be loved, to be accepted, to believe she could belong." Her voice grew quieter, almost tender. "She was destroyed by that dream. I survived it."

The violet eyes brightened, their glow sharpening into something harder, more decisive.

"You ask me to let Reina go because you believe it would be mercy." A slow shake of her helm. "But mercy is not what she wants. She wanted an end to pain. I gave it to her. You would tear her from that peace because you think your light is kinder than my dark. And perhaps you believe that."

Virelia's cape stirred as if from a breath of wind, though the air in the chamber had stilled. Her gauntlets flexed, talons catching the glow of the saber.

"I do not hate you, Colette," she said, and it was true. "I pity you. Because one day you will see that the Force does not care. It will take what it wants, and in that I will break you, remake you, until you no longer recognize yourself. And when that day comes… you will love me for it."

Her hand lowered, fingers spreading apart. The air thickened, carrying with it a pressure that was neither heat nor weight but something older—disease given will, entropy given form. The very breath in the chamber grew heavy, tainted, wrong.

"But I cannot let you take her."

Her final words were a whisper, intimate and mournful, like a widow's apology.

"Forgive me."

And with that, the first threads of Force Plague curled outward from her talons, invisible but unmistakable, seeping into the air like smoke that knew no fire. The solemnity in her tone did not fade—it deepened, as if she grieved even as she raised her hand against the child she once knew.

 

[Colette]

Darth Virelia

"But I cannot let you take her. Forgive me."

The blade thrummed for a moment as it swept into position and Colette entered a proper stance. Her hand had been rejected, more lies had been spoken. If pity was what Serina would throw at Colette then she would most likely not be surprised to notice that she got the same thing back in the form of a slow headshake.

The air grew thicker in those moments. Throat thickened, the air convulsing as it surrounded Colette. She looked at Serina, peered into the six little holes that tried to block the mirrors of her soul. Pity was a funny thing in how closely it was attached to disappointment and anger.

"I see." Colette said and let out a sigh.

The strike was fast, or at least as fast as one could muster when the force itself wanted to slow you down. It was a violent reach for the midriff, a means to strike as much ground as possible to carve apart the skin beneath the armor until it would clear out by the shoulder.

"I don't want Serina back, I want you. The person you are now to come with me." Colette continued their talk. "The galaxy consumes, the force consumes, everything that lives consumes. It's the curse of being alive. I'm not struggling against it, I am living with it."

The follow-through on the strike was a mere mirror of the former. Another cross-section from the other side from the waist to the shoulder. What she needed was to break Virelia's concentration before the nausea and uneasiness could take hold.

"My light, your dark. Two sides of a coin. You think you can win against the impossible, you struggle against it like someone stuck in a riptide, swimming straight to shore, drowning in your own lies; your comfortable excuses."

 

[Everest Vale]

Outfit: Personal Armour
Equipment: Lightsaber, Bracelet, Earrings, Seer Stone, Wayfinder's Flare, Engagement Ring
Tag: Reina Daival Darth Virelia Colette Valery Noble

Eve could barely breathe. The draining fluid revealed what Serina had done piece by piece, scales glimmering under the sickly light, a sleek fin where once there had been legs, claws and gills marking her body as something altered, something stolen.

Her stomach turned, and for a heartbeat she wanted to look away, but she didn't, she couldn't. Because beneath it all, through the horror, she still felt the spark that was Reina, her sister.

When the vat hissed open and Reina slipped forward, she stepped forward, arms steady, lowering her with practiced care. Her hand rose almost without thought, brushing damp strands of hair from Reina's face. Her voice came out low, almost breaking.

"H-Hey," she whispered, so soft it was for Reina alone. "It's me. It's Eve."

Slipping her other arm beneath her, Eve drew on the Force, letting it pour through her muscles until she felt steady. Carefully, slowly, she lifted Reina into her arms and pulled her close. The weight settled against her, a reminder of the strength she carried now, not only her own, but born of love and the vow she would not leave her behind.

She glanced up to Valery, silver eye shimmering with the grief and fury that churned beneath her calm. Her throat was too tight for words, so she only nodded, silent but resolute.