Babysitting Blues (Laina)

[Laina Silvias]

Laina nodded, still not feeling all that confident about this. It wasn't her kind of thing. Training was always something she had hated. Sure, it was needed but she still hated it.

"Okay, working up, I guess sounds good." She sighed, "Never used a bolter. I'm just used to using the skills I have and nothing else. It's always been easier and the tribe was never that fond of technology."

"Ugh, droids. That'll be fun." Oh, the sarcasm was strong with this one.

At Sio's command she took a seat on the floor. Her attention was drawn to the stone, to which she lifted an eyebrow. This seemed a bit of a pointless exercise to her. Still she sighed softly and drew the force within her and focused upon the lightest stone. A little shakily she lifted it from the floor. Her control was hardly perfect but telekinesis wasn't her specialty.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


"It's not about fun, dear. It's about you not getting yourself killed when you go challenge the Matron and her followers. You'll need every tool you can get and right now you're in poor shape," Siobhan said bluntly. While Laina focused on the rock, the Countess turned and walked to the edge of the training room.


"This exercise is dull, but it's basic control and endurance. Now, I want you to keep that rock high in the air, move it and give it a spin...and then throw it at me. As hard and as fast as you can. Channel your anger and your willingness to destroy anyone who hurts Morrigan. Don't think of me as a friend."

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina nodded, "I know. I know it's not. I'm not ... its not ... As much as I get this is needed, necessary. I still hate that it's come to this. And I don't like to think about what all is going to happen before it's over. Especially not the cost. I, these women are my family. The only one I've known as closely, as deeply. I don't like any of it." She sighed, "Needed, I know. And its not like many of the other girls has the backing, respect and power that I do. There's no one else to do this, but me. If I don't step up, I've seen the future for the tribe and bleak is an understatement and then some. They are unlikely to survive through the next generation."

Her attention returned to the rock. And for a long while she was quiet after Siobhan had finished speaking. A part of her taking her time, pondering. There of course was her mixed feelings to contend with. She never liked the idea of unleashing her full powers, especially on those she actually cared for. It tended to get messy and complicated fast. And Empathy always was a queen.

She sighed, quietly. Like it or not, she was going to have to at least attempt to take some action with the stone she held. Walking away wasn't an option, here and now or when she may face the tribe and the matriarch. Focusing her powers again, Laina worked slowly to lift the rock further. Once she'd reached the desired height, the Amazon gave it a push to start it's spin, letting just that simple push do it's work to give the rock some speed, some power to it as it rotated faster.

She then glanced to Sio and her eyes narrowed, focusing the singular thought, of what she'd do to anyone that would harm her girl. Her little daughter, so young, innocent. It didn't take much pondering on that idea until fiery rage burned so clearly in her eyes. No one messed with her girl. With all her might, with all she could muster, Laina hurled the stone towards Siobhan with lethal speeds.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


Thusly, the rock shot through the air with the force of a cruise missile. Siobhan smiled thinly as she felt and saw Laina tap into her power. At the same time, she called upon her power to summon the Force and encase herself in a protective bubble.


She could have theoretically tried to deflect the rock, but that would have missed the point. There was very little time to create the sphere, but she was experienced. Then there was an epic crash when the rock connected with the shield. The transluscent barrier shimmered, the rock shattered upon impact and broke into dozens of tiny fragments.


Siobhan breathed in deeply and stumbled, feeling a sharp pain inside her chest. Without her formidable strength in the Force, the assault would have been lethal. After all, it was so easy to explode or otherwise severely damage internal organs through simple blunt trauma. As it was, the barrier dissipated and she sucked in air after getting knocked on her arse. She raised her hand to wipe sweat from her forehead. There was a smile on her face that could only be described as feral, though she clearly was in pain.


"Good. That's the kind of attitude you need. It all boils down to will. You want to keep your girl safe. You make sure no one messes with her. Not unless they want to get their skull cracked. Now, defend yourself. Summon the most potent barrier you can imagine." Ideally Laina would've picked up a bit on the technique through Siobhan's demonstration before the Countess began tossing two rocks like missiles.

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina felt the pain radiate through the force from Siobhan. A spark of worry did flicker through her mind. She did worry about hurting Siobhan. This sort of training she wasn't used to. But she had caught on to have Siobhan had managed to protect herself.

Her focus was on Sio as she hit the floor. The smile, feral but there. For now though she couldn't worry too much as there was bound to be retaliation soon. "Yeah, I understand." She said as she waited for Siobhan's next move.

Drawing upon the force she worked quickly to summon the strongest barrier she could manage to try and protect her from what was soon to come. A faint shimmer gave hint to the protection she'd formed. However, Laina wasn't a master, just a knight. The first rock slammed into the barrier shattering and fragmenting against it. The second hit harder, and once again fragmented. And some of those hyper-accelerated shards pierced through the barrier. Laina felt one hit her shoulder as she was knocked back a good distance. Siobhan's attacks after all packed a punch.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


Seeing that Laina had been pushed back, Siobhan ceased her onslaught. Rocks that had been in mid-flight suddenly fell to the ground with a loud bang. "That's good for a start. Now I know you understand the basics," Siobhan said, wiping some sweat from her forehead.


"A Force barrier will suffice against most attacks, both conventional and Force." There was also tutaminis, but Siobhan viewed that as less urgent because slugthrowers and swords would probably be more common in Laina's tribe than blasters and lightsabres.


"A Force barrier is like a shield. It can be dented, battered, broken. What matters is maintaining your grip on it, but knowing when to go on the offence. The Force is infinite, your ability to use it is not. After you get struck, you must shore up your defences, but not to the extent of stretching yourself thin."


From out of a compartment stepped a pair of Clone Wars era battle droids. These ones had their vocabulators removed, so they could not chant 'Roger, Roger' all the time. Mostly because it annoyed Siobhan. They had also been given better programming to ensure they weren't mentally retarded like the average TradeFed automaton. One carried a conventional blaster rifle that was set to stun and sting a lot, the another a sonic.


At the same time, several small training remotes were released from hatches and took their position above Laina. They would fire down upon her with stinging laser beams while she dealt with the B-1s. This was not particularly fair, but battle seldom was and splitting your attention was often key to survival. If Laina wanted a weapon, she'd find a Sith sword and a pistol on a table.

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina breathed a sigh of relief when the rest of the rocks dropped to the floor. The woman was panting just a little. Clearly, she wasn't used to much exertion, other than caring for her daughter over the last few months. "Basics, yeah .... Not sure I'd call that good but I'll take it." The amazon replied.

Laina gave a nod, taking the information in, committing it to memory. "Of course." Something she thought she could manage. The woman at least hoped so. Such shields hadn't been something she'd actively worked on or attempted previously.

Now as for droids, the ebony haired amazon had little defenses. She'd never had to deal with them before. Sure she'd seen them. Been around them a little, but never actually gone up against them. That kind of technology was not something the tribe kept around or tested themselves against. What was the point when it would never be on her planet? Or so the thinking went. The thought never crossed their minds that they could be invaded and attacked by an outside source.

It was the remotes that got her first. Laina hadn't expected them. She yelped with one stinging shot hitting her thigh. Her attention had been on the droids. Had being key. At least she did have some telekinetic powers. Though, they weren't the best in the world, they were something. With a frustrated wave of her hand she slammed one of the remotes into the wall, ridding herself of it as she darted for the table to snatch the weapons.

As she moved, she'd drawn back up that same shimmering shield to protect her from further fire while she could assess the situation in some manner. She'd taken both the sword and the blaster. While having not used blasters often, she was capable. The sword was more familiar in her hands.

Already she was feeling the strain of using the force to keep herself safe. Laina wasn't going to be able to use it forever. She moved quickly with the sword and dropped her shield long enough to make quick work of one of the droids. "This, so is not fair." She grumbled. Clearly a little irritated.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


"Battle's not fair. Adaptation is key to survival. Your Matron may break the rules, Outsiders may harm your Tribe," Siobhan said bluntly. Her training methods were not particularly nice, but there was a reason for them. People had to be taken out of their comfort zone and forced to face the unfamiliar.


One remote had been crushed and a droid had been taken out of commission by Laina's blade. However, the remaining remotes spread out and tried to swarm Laina, firing upon her from multiple angles. They concentrated their fire upon her feet and arms. Individually their beams would not do anything other than sting, but getting hit by all of them would still be rather unpleasant.


Meanwhile, the one remaining droid fired its sonic blaster, unleashing an intense AOE sonic blast. Naturally the gun was set only to stun, but the high-pitched wail was very loud and could be disorientating, perhaps even cause unconsciousness in very lucky cases. Sonic weapons were the poor man's ysalamiri and arguably more effective if you knew what you were doing. Force barrier could blunt the damage, but hard sound to the skull was extremely fast.

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina certainly wasn't liking this. Her frustration showing a bit on her face, "I know that." I'm so not ready for this. The Amazon thought to herself. This wasn't how she would have preferred it. Then again, her tribe wasn't kind when it came to training either.

Unfortunately for her, the training wasn't letting up despite the sweat beading on her forehead, and her breathing rapidly increasing as she tried to keep up. It was no easy task, that much was certain. She cried out when the remotes fired and hit their marks.

The sonic weapon was not exactly something she could handle at this point. It's blast slammed into her, and all she could do was cover her ears in an attempt to help ease the pain. The woman fell to her knees temporarily a little out of it. Never in her life had she experienced a weapon like that, and now she found herself a bit out of her depth at how to deal with it now.

"Siobhan!" She shouted, "I can't do this!" Laina was now panting heavily, more than a bit panicked and not really hearing much with what the sonic weapon had done to her ears. They were still ringing horribly.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


It was somewhat amusing that Siobhan and Kaida didn't get on although their training methods were both rather mean. Then again, Taldir considered it a valid teaching method to freeze an untrained acolyte and expect her to free herself! Presumably their dislike boiled down to the fact that two alpha bitches seldom got along.


Regardless, Siobhan heard Laina's cry. For just a moment the Countess was tempted to let the training continue and see how the amazon handled things, but concluded that would just be mean. There was a difference between putting someone through their paces and simple meanness. She'd already proved her point.


"Red," she spoke commandingly. Abruptly the droids ceased firing and stood down. "Timeout. You alright?" Well, gee, Siobhan, probably not. She picked up a bottle of water and levitated it to Laina. The amazon could probably use a drink. "You can do this. You've got the potential to be far more than you believe. You just need to harness it."

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina had stayed put on the ground where she'd collapsed to her knees. Only when the droids ceased fire did she finally look up. She shook her head, looking more than a small bit upset. "No." She finally managed to speak. "I'm not."

She reached out and plucked the water bottle from the air, opening it. After a deep drawn out breath she gulped down a fair amount of the bottle at once. "I don't know, Siobhan. I ... It's not what I'm used to. I've not trained with droids or anything like this. Other people, sure. Not soulless tin cans. Things that I can better predict. And I've done so little since my child was born. She took all my time. There wasn't room to even take a job alone until recently. I'm not acclimated to this level." She said quietly between heavy breaths.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


Siobhan felt a little bad. Not much though. She was a firm proponent of the school of hard of knocks. "Look at it this way: If one day Outsiders come knocking on your doorsteps because for some absurd reason they've decided your people are 'savages' who need to be wiped out or enslaved, you'd want to be prepared, right?"


The question was rhetorical, since the answer was obvious. "Same applies if you run into trouble during your quest to gather your lost sisters. Or the Matron doesn't play by the tribe's rules because her power is more important to her," she patted Laina on the shoulder and planted a kiss on her cheek. She had to admit that Laina's body glistening with sweat was a very sexy sight. "Fancy learning how to blow up stuff with lightning and electricity?"

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina nodded, and sighed as she reached up to rub at her still aching ears and head. Rhetorical though the question was, Laina was going to answer. "I do want to be prepared. I do. Because I know it can happen. I don't want the tribe to have to suffer the fate that others have in the past, other worlds, other peoples. It's just, this is a lot ... All at once. And I understand what your trying to do. It's not the tribes training methods were much kinder or easier. I was just a little more able then, more practiced. And now, I've been away from all of this for too long. On some blissful break with my girl, trying to forget about the tribe, and not worry."

"You're not wrong, and I know it." She sighed again, but managed the smallest hints of a smile at Siobhan's touch, and the kiss against her cheek. That itself, a small comfort, and enough of one to help calm the Amazon down further. "Well, those kind of skills do seem useful, especially under these circumstances."

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


"Then watch and learn," Siobhan said with a smirk and sunk into the Force. Laina would feel a surge of power inside the Countess as she drew upon her aggression, letting the emotions flow through her. Electricity cackled across the open palm of her hand. At its core, Force Lightning was simply electricity harnessed through the power of the Dark Side and used for destructive purposes.


She manipulated the atoms and molecules in the air through the power of the Force, then a bolt of blue-white lightning shot from her fingertips towards the two remote droids, springing from one to the other. The smell of burnt electronics and pieces of circuitry filled the air and tiny shards of metal fell to the floor when the two remotes exploded.

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina smiled a little more brightly. She was starting to feel a little better. Her ears were ringing a little less, and her headache was fading somewhat. So, she remained seated and only watched as Siobhan got up and started to work her magic. The shift in the room, the surge of power was impossible for Laina to miss. Her mind was focused on capturing exactly what Siobhan was doing within the Force so she could attempt to mimic it shortly.

The Amazon jumped slightly, not expecting quite that explosion. A smirk crossed her lips as she slowly rose to her own feet. "Now, that is impressive." She stopped speaking for a moment, thinking about how that might work. "What exactly is the first step with that? Lightning, electricity, it's not something used within the tribe. I don't think anyone knows how or has attempted it before."

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


"At its core, lightning is electricity harnessed through the Force. It requires violent and destructive intent. First you must channel your aggression. Seek out the darkest corners of your mind and let these feelings fill you like a cup. You must glow white-hot, but direct this feeling like a thermic lance," Siobhan explained.


"Then you channel it into electricity. Perceive the atoms and molecules in the air and agitate them with your mind. To visualise it, envisage electricty cackling across the palm of your hand, then unleash it through your fingertips in a concentrated bolt. Be advised, you'll probably experience a bit of an electrical shock the first few times. As you increase in power, you'll be able to unleash sustained bursts of electricity, but stick with one bolt for now."

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina listened carefully looking a little anxious as Siobhan detailed out what was required of her and all she had to do to perform the task. "I think, I got that." She worried about hurting herself, hurting Sio, and getting lost within her rage, and aggression. There was much to fear for a number of reasons. However, she couldn't allow that to prevent her from learning a valuable skill.

For this, she had to close her eyes, and sink down into her own thoughts. It was doubtful she'd have too much success on the first try. But hopefully she'd make some progress. Laina searched her mind, seeking out the darker corners of her mind where angry, and aggression lay hidden. It wasn't memories or ideas she truly wanted to revisit but there wasn't a whole lot of options. Her thoughts drifted to what the tribe had done to her, the matron, her exile, their attempts to chase her, find her, capture her to steal her infant when born, the attempts to steal her child, early moments of cruelty and pain in her life. All of it was so unpleasant but it had the needed effect as rage bubbled to the surface and a palpable shift in the force and in her aura became oh so obvious.

She brought her focus down, searching for the building blocks of life, to work with them, to agitate them. Laina finally opened her hand as she moved her focus to her palm. A crackle an a few visible sparks manifested dancing on her palm for a fraction of a second before the amazon withdrew her hand with a hiss of pain. Tiny barely noticeable marks rose on the surface of her skin on her palm, the first hints of a small minute burn. Both the pain and the electricity had surprised her. She glanced to Sio, feeling a little unsure about this now. It certainly was useful but it was bound to hurt before she gained any mastery of it.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


"Keep at it. Focus. The pain is only temporary. Let it strengthen you. Remember the pain of your training, of losing the man you love, of being chased and hunted for your baby. Pull all of that into the bolt and unleash it," Siobhan spoke, her voice both encouraging and commanding.


To help Laina a bit, she opened her mind to hers, adding a fraction of her own power and focus. The battle droid from earlier was now levelling its sonic blaster at Laina. Unless she blasted it, she'd be on the receiving end of another sonic blast.

 

[Laina Silvias]

Laina frowned, but nodded. It was some small amount of pain, something she could manage now that she was at least somewhat aware of what it felt like and what she could do. Quickly she centered herself within her mind and searched for the pains that brought about her fierce temper.

Once more, her raged was overflowing when she felt Siobhan's power enter her mind and body. Sparks crackled across her hand in a brief first attempt to create the bolt. Laina caught sight of movement noticing the droid leveling it's weapon in her direction. "Feth!" She cried before she finally managed to create the bolt she both wanted and needed and unleashed it upon the machine. The machine which exploded soon after scattering it's pieces across the floor.

Laina breathed a heavy, hard, sigh of relief. Her mind felt strained, aching a good deal at this point. Her body was glistening with sweat, her clothes absolutely soaked. Reaching down, she ran a couple of fingers across her palm where a slightly larger and more sore spot had formed from the lightning. "That fething hurts." She said quietly, allowing herself to calm down a little.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Laina Silvias"]


Boom. The droid exploded into a couple dozen pieces. Siobhan walked over towards Laina. The amazon's body was glistening with sweat and her clothes were drenched. In short, she looked extremely hot and desirable.


Alas, she was also hurting. "Good girl. That's my beautiful warrior amazon," Siobhan spoke. She gently took Laina's hand into hers and kissed the sore spot, before beginning to gently and soothingly massage it. "The pain passes. Couple training sessions later, and it won't hurt or burn you anymore."