Black Heart

[Johnny Diamonds]

"Why do you hide from me?
What has become of my beliefs?
Who'll be the one to set me free?
Why do you hide from me?
Hide from me?!"

The black oblivion of unconsciousness held him in it's grip. His mind wandered within this dark, cold mental state. Thoughts of home, thoughts of those he'd left behind, and those who'd left him like a whisper in the wind. He'd searched for so, so long. He spent every credit he'd come into to gather the information he needed to find her. To find his friend, the only one who had ever shown him compassion and caring other than his own mother. He had made the journey to Coruscant unharmed, but as soon as they had landed, Johnny had been questioned by Sith underlings, and soon enough had been thrown into the prisons with the rest of the common rabble. Yet somehow, they had sensed the light within his soul, the warmth that radiated from his very core. And for him, a special sort of hell awaited. Still, after the first blow to his temple, he'd lost consciousness, only the begin to wake up to something he interpreted as a dream, yet a horrific reality all the same. Bleary-eyed, he saw what looked to be Avalore, but tears rolled down her cheeks, and someone he didn't know was torturing her, at least in his view. Yet, his energy had left him from the beating he'd sustained, black and blue bruises covering his body, a black eyes, and a rather nasty lump on his head. All he could do was muster a weak word or three.

"Ava... don't... lose hope."

With that, he tried to right himself as best he could whilst so disoriented from his previous buttwhipping.


[member="Avalore Eden"] [member="Hal Terrano"] [member="Trenchcoat Man"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Oh Hal, you little blond glimmer of hope.

Avalore wanted to hug the man so tightly his eyes popped out, but she refrained. He'd shook his head and that was all the response she needed to believe him. Hal Terrano didn't lie - lying wasn't a Jedi quality, and if he was anything still of what she remembered, he would hold on to those things. She was glad for it.

"No," came her quiet response, hand resting firmly on his shoulder with a gentle squeeze despite his previous flinch, "no I don't think so, Hal," she tried at a smile, "I'm too damn strange for them to forget, and you're simply unforgettable."

She might not be the size of a planet anymore, but there was only one Avalore Eden and she was sure that counted for something. Also she was pretty sure [member="Ryan Korr"] had a crush on her and that she'd made some sort of impression on [member="Marcello Matteo"] during that big meeting last month. Surely one of them was making some sort of effort to find her and the others, right? Avalore didn't remark that she wasn't even aware Hal had gone missing, but she was also pretty far removed from the central gossip ring of the Council. No one ever really visited Cato Neimoidia, which is exactly what Diana had in mind when she built the temple there.

At least, that was Avalore's take on things.

Still, she'd liked Hal and his stoic Jedi-ness, and had often thought of the next time they'd be stationed together on a mission again.

Now here they were, two blubbering fools in a Sith dungeon on the Sith capital planet commiserating about their woes and only one of them drunk enough for the occasion. Drunk? Hal? She leaned forward to sniff, woah yeah. But still....Hal? "...have you been drinking?"

There was movement in the cell across the hall, a voice too, but Avalore couldn't make it out. She glanced shortly, but whoever that lump on the floor was she couldn't recognize for the distance, the trees, and the darkness. There was also the fact that she knew she was surrounded by murderers, drug lords, rapists, and other criminals. She didn't make any effort to take an interest in them, lest they took an interest in her.

Shudder.

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[J3C0]

Bright yellow eyes flashed open, one half hidden by a soft fluffy pillow. Impassive lips smacked open and closed for a second, cotton mouth being torn asunder by spit glands slowly waking up. The Hand of the Dark Lord slowly raised herself from the cotton sheets that had held her snuggly in her bed, a feeling of something pushing against the back of her head.

Golden eyes flowed across the room scanning for an intruder or any sort.

She looked for an assassin droid, poisonous creatures, or even a man cloaked in the force. She found none of these things, no sign of danger, no threatening agent, nothing. Yet the feeling in the back of her head persisted, a pressure that pushed and prodded against her fiercely, screaming at her that something was wrong. Her dried lips slowly turned into scowl, her eyes fluttering closed for a second as metal and flesh touched.

Mierin rubbed her eyes, and then slowly drew herself up from the bed. From a hook in the corner of the room Mierin pulled a robe, not dissimilar to what her Jedi counterparts wore.

She slipped into the fine cloth and then pulled her lightsaber from the nightstand. The Sith Pureblood was still unsure of what the feeling in the back of her head was, but the pinprick told her there was something dangerous, and one didn't obey the force.

With quick hurried steps Mierin moved into the hallways of the Imperial Palace.

 

[Hal Terrano]

The shoulder squeeze offered more comfort than Avalore would likely ever know, even if the concept of human touch still terrified him to the core.

It wasn't the hardest notion to swallow, that Hal was indeed unforgettable. After all, word travelled and the story of the fourteen year old Padawan that refused to speak for an entire year, simply to test his own will. There was a reputation there, of discipline and tediousness. When paired up for exercises his peers would draw the Terrano straws just to see who would have the displeasure of being his partner for the day.

However as unforgettable as the man was, it would only add salt to the wound when it came to being forgotten. In the world of sense and perfect omni-beings that could never be wronged or fooled, it didn't make sense to self-destruct like this and to delve into thoughts of abandonment.

How many Jedi went missing every month? Too many. People went missing all the time and when sent to the fringes of space and to hives of scum and villainy it was expected for things to go wrong. He wasn't just one special case, but a combination of his own hardcore faith and the manipulations of Nemene and Mierin had lead him down that path of selfish thinking. No doubt about it.

She caught the scent of the cheap whisky, or perhaps brown paint stripper as it might as well have been.

The question was poised, and he finally moved his half-soaked sleeves away from his face. His blue bloodshots stared straight at her, she knew the answer, he knew the answer but he couldn't bear to say it. At the festival they had patrolled together Terrano had been disapproving of the concept of cotton candy, citing that those quantities of sugar rotted the brain and teeth. Never mind the dangers and sin of alcohol.

“Yes,” he finally admitted his voice filled to the brim with anguish, he blinked, a pair of tears pitifully dribbling down his cheeks, “....I failed....I failed...the Order. She...she took...my....”

Chastity?

Dignity?

Virginity?

“...principles..”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Trenchcoat Man]

City Comptroller's Office- Coruscant Upper City

The rats in the walls got this city in their jaws; there is no more firmament

The rats in the walls got this city in their jaws; there is no more firmament.

The rats in the walls…

Benedict stopped for a moment, his written incantation inadvertently reminding him of Smeg’s punk-ass way down below. The King of Filth had not been terribly respectful to the Beggar’s Throne.

"Yuuzhan-Vong bumtoy prick…,” he reflected aloud for more than a few moments, a quiet rage bubbling up the junk in his veins, the paint fumes in his brains igniting with promethean fire. Disappointingly, he only used the inspiration to invent more fat jokes. He returned to the working at hand.

...got this city in their jaws; there is no more firmament.

The words seeped into the structure, tickling like an itch on your brain that you can’t seem to scratch because your damn skull is in the way.
From beyond the wall, clerks, administrators, janitors, worker ants, and drones continued their everyday conversations about window glass and sandwiches and the declining value of OS currency in the galactic market of crybabies and fascists.

Juliet lifted her sandwich. “This is really good,” she said, her cafeteria egg salad spilling out onto her paper plate – Fat karking Smeg’s fat karking second dinner later. “…Anyway, Bernie’s telling me there’s a fortune to be made with all the reconstruction –“

There is no more firmament.

“They’re undressing me,” Cheryl confessed helplessly.

“—What?”

“Help,” she started crying. “They’re ripping my dress off. Oh, gods – I’m on fire!”

“What the hell, Cheryl…Calm down”

“I’m burning! I have to get out of here!”

There is no more firmament.

Cheryl took off out of the room, tearing herself out of her blazer, the spikes of her heels snapping with impact against the ground. She was met by others in the hall, like-minded individuals.

“Do you see it? The sun’s getting bigger! Coruscant is about 10 seconds away from plunging into the sun!”

[member="Smeg"], you fat kark. I’m going to get you.

The Guttermage let the rage burn, Zeltron pheromones of malice and madness dispersing into the ventilation. Emotional contagion, emotional plague. Terror terror terror terror terror terrorterrorterrorterrorterrorterrorterrorterrorterror

“Fat rats! Fat rats, fat plagues! Our days are getting longer, our children’s are getting shorter!”

“WE ARE ALMOST IN THE SUN.”

The rats in the walls got this city in their jaws; there is no more firmament.

“FIVE OUT OF NINE DENTISTS AGREE THAT WE’RE ALL KARKED.”

The rats in the walls go this city in their jaws; there is no more firmament.

The workers were banging on the wall; scratching, leaving fingernails imbedded in the plaster. Blood and teeth, office supplies. Screaming and yowling like animals.

“GET THEM OUT GET THEM OUT GET THEM OUT GET THEM OUT”

It was a play Benedict had seen once, put on by the boy who liked to compose graphic novels in excrement along the walls of Ravenscar. The Guttermage would return to the rec room after his most recent bout of Electroconvulsive therapy to read the stinky, delightful comic strip of 13 turd-sketched people going mad over a series of panels. Six nurses developed PTSD and an orderly actually hung himself.

Those were the karking days, man.

Benedict scrunched lower and lower, working in one final statement to cover the wall in Sharpie marks.

There is no more firmament.

An itch on your brain that you can’t scratch.

There is no more firmament

Mother, please get the drill…

There is no more firmament.

And under the pressure of the sickly sick, the barricade between the dirt and the sky came down.

With an anti-climactic “Cheers,” Benedict flicked his spent cigarette against the ruined ground and stepped out into the hallways amidst the sobbing and the vomiting of Coruscant’s one true patriarch.

King Mob.

 

[Fen]

Gray eyes watched Marcello's expert maneuvering, their stormy depths a contrast to the cloudless sky above. Ryan had never seen a finer pilot. Not one in the whole Order. In another decade perhaps Korr could match him, for now he contented himself with merely admiring his former master's abilities. He tried to ignore the chorus of emotions screaming inside. That was what the Jedi taught, no? To ignore feelings. To become a stone. He'd striven so very hard to become that statuesque ideal. He would never trust the Council, nor would he stand by and let others die for the sake of the whole, but he had come to terms with what his position in the galaxy meant.

Guardians needed to be hard and unbreaking when the waves of darkness swept across and put out all other light. The galaxy needed him to be able to gaze into the eyes of horror and not turn away.

Thus the young Jedi Knight stood resolute, as ramrod straight as a length of iron, while Marcello exited his craft and strode across the beach toward his one-time apprentice. The man was tall with a muscular, broad-shouldered build and long, blonde hair. He strode with an air of confidence toward the padawan he'd betrayed. He'd been a paragon of the Order in Ryan's eyes, once. So had Darron Wraith. Both had fallen. One to death, the other to the Dark.

Korr reached out with his senses toward Marcello, but felt none of the primal volcanic rage of the Dark Side. A taint still lingered, but nothing more... he hoped. His jaw tightened.

"Congratulations on your advancement, Ryan. Well deserved."

How to reply? A thank you seemed so very trite. Emotions reared up, voices rising to a fevered pitch. Korr struggled to put them down, crushing them as one would crush pestilent womprats. The scars on his chest itched. It seemed so long ago that he'd been hurled to the ground by Marcello's blast of lightning. A distant memory of searing pain and loss.

"Marcello," Ryan said, tone even and tinged with a coolness. "I don't sense their touch on you. Perhaps I missed it. I have no wish to believe you could ever be swayed to their side, but I was wrong before." He looked over his shoulder, realized he was looking at nothing, then snorted. "I managed to... borrow a cloaked shuttle. It should be able to get us into Coruscant undetected. Once there, we will attempt to infiltrate the Imperial Palace and rescue the imprisoned Jedi. Masters Michael Sardun and Zaren Bouqi are with me, but I do not think we will be enough."

Those gray eyes stared directly into Marcello's and though they raged with stormclouds they did not flinch away. "I need your help."

[member="Marcello Matteo"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"What? Really?" Avalore whispered almost excitedly. She choked back a muffled scoff-laugh, eyeballed the wilted man and for a moment the cell and the Sith and all of Coruscant was forgotten. For a moment they were back at the festival. She'd found him around back behind the big tent, huddled up amongst cargo boxes where the carnies congregate after hours. For a moment he was just a Jedi-mess, milk spilled all over the floor, and she was just a friend there to towel him up.

She smiled. A proud smile that morphed into something of sympathy and understanding. The first time was always the worst time. Another squeeze on his shoulder and a sharp clang of metal on metal woke her back up to reality.

We have smile failure.

Re-initiating brain sequence. Attention span rebooting in three...two...

Blink.

We are a go, Houston.

"...principles? Hal," Avalore scooted a bit closer, throwing a wary glance over her shoulder to check for guards. They'd been pretty lax on their duties since the supposed Sith had arrived for further interrogation. Apprently word had gotten out that Avalore was a terrible bore. No screaming, no struggling, no torture. Just calm, mundane conversation.

What has the galaxy come to.

"...what are you talking about? Who is she? Do you mean that woman from before?"

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Thankfully Hal lacked the imagination to even for the moment transport them away to a setting of more whimsy or nostalgia. Even if he did, there would be only one location he would bring it to. Four white walls. Bright sterile lights. Cold. Cart, complete with instruments of torture. Never used. She knew from the get go that physical pain wouldn't break a man like Hal Terrano.

I'll take the festival, please.

Another squeeze, this one managing to soothe the shameful sight of a crying Sith a fraction. With her hand came warmth, came comfort even if it was a very foreign comfort to his soul.

Principles. It wasn't likely that he would be reiterating that notion. The word was apt, and at the very least covered up what remaining dignity and discipline he had left within him. Even now he could remember her trying to justify it. This was a good thing. Who did you harm with this? Who was hurt? No one. Not me, and certainly not you. However to a man who spent his existence crafting his self-control and discipline it did hurt. It destroyed.

The mention of the woman from before, Mierin received a shake of the head. The only part that the Sith Pureblood had played was in finding him first.

“...Nemene Talith,” the man responded quietly, eyes flitting downwards towards the ground as if making solid eye contact would be too difficult. A shiver inducing name, especially to those on the path of a healer. She was the former Queen of Rattatak, known for her pursuits in slavery and torture. The monstrous woman made Jedi her game and the reason that healers might have been a little more than familiar was that she liked to let them live.

She let them live. Not all, of course, sometimes she would have gotten over-zealous or bored and went straight for the kill but Nemene Talith played it like a game, leaving it up to the last moment until the heroes arrived to save the day, and then a shallow cut to the throat, leaving the rescuers attending the dying and creating the perfect escape opportunity. She always recorded it. Left footage. It was a taunt, a mockery. Talith found what made each and every one break and then left it out there to be watched, and it would be watched.

Embrace it, Hal.

Of course the healers and empaths remained to try and save the victims from their despair and agony, and sometimes they did, but sometimes, it was simply too much. Suicide.

Take it.

“...we tried to arrest her,” he conceded very slowly, as if each word was a struggle to admit, the more Hal spoke, the more he crumbled into himself. A pitiful excuse for a man. “...but she had guards, she was too strong. Most died on Zygerria, but she...took the rest...took us...”

Crave it.

“...I...I......was there for...months. Nobody....nobody came, nobody... I couldn't...she...”

Let your desires hold you.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"...Nemene Talith..." the name was uttered under her breath as she wracked her mind to recall it. She'd heard it before, certainly - because, you know, Avalore lives on Cato Neimoidia, not under a rock. She hears things, ok? And sometimes when she's feeling sociable she comes out of her little hermit world to join the free peoples of the Republic on missions to festivals or distant sandy planets to pull people out of collapsed Sith Temples.

You hear these things on trips like those.

Nemene Talith.

Wasn't that...?

Her eyes widened a fraction as they returned to Hal, frown deepening, "...Hal."

One of the Top Ten Most Wanted by the Jedi Council for the most diabolical reasons.

Is? Was? Had she been reported dead yet? We don't know, but it doesn't matter. What mattered was Hal and his crestfallen, droopy, tortured soul.

Avalore took that shoulder of his in her firm but gentle grasp and pulled the man to her, wrapping her other arm around his neck in an embrace that tried to be comforting, consoling, understanding, but was also full of fear. Holding him there, she stared at the wall behind him, breath tight in her chest, knuckles white as she pressed her hands into his back. She searched for things to say. Comforting words like those spoken to her by Diana during times of distress.

Be strong, she'd say.

I'm not strong like you were Diana.

Avalore's eyes crinkled with the sting of tears. Couldn't she be strong in times like this? Didn't she have the wherewithal to hold it together? She'd given birth to a healthy baby girl in the middle of a collapsing Temple during a Sith Invasion but she couldn't support a friend in need?

Yes. Yes you can, Avalore. But how? She was a prisoner, she couldn't do anything to help Hal. This was utterly hopeless, but you can't say that to someone like Hal in a time like this. Hal needed the strength he couldn't muster on his own. Sure he was a bit drunk, but booze wasn't what had rusted away the support beams of this once Jedi stronghold.

"...I'm here," she tried real hard not to let her voice crack. Lips drawing thin as she took a deep breath, she willed away the mist in her eyes.

But I am strong enough for Hal.

"are you listening? I'm here now, Hal."

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Like a crying child in need of soothing Hal found himself pulled into an embrace.

At first his body stiffened, a wince of a gasp as such close physical contact with a woman brought back an element of fear and a wanting that he had so desperately tried to reject. However, his time spent between four white walls weren't spent in gentle embraces, in fact there had been nothing gentle about it.

The distraught man caved, relaxing his body and burying his face into her shoulder, his own arms moved in turn, bloody and bruised hands moving around behind Avalore to hug the woman's lower back. The scared emotionally-stunted boy shining true knew nothing past fear and conflict, and that same boy found himself squeezing the prisoner who had so selflessly took it upon herself to comfort him.

She was here. At last somebody was here.

And yet...

He pulled his head backwards, leaving Avalore with one tear stained shoulder to remember this moment by. Hal wanted to stay here, wanted to know he was safe, that he wasn't forgotten, Terrano could have likely stayed in that embrace for a time long past arm cramps. His bloodshot blues stared into her own equally stained browns.

“...but you shouldn't be.”

That's more like it, Hal.

“You...you have to go.”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore looked at the man, ashen-faced and about three seconds from either passing out or puking. Her gut was painful with fear and his words only tightened the knot forming there. Lips growing ever thinner, ever whiter from the strain of maintaining calm, she stared with terror-stricken eyes.

This was it. This was the moment you've been waiting for. Dreaming for. Praying for. This is the moment you take your life back, Avalore.

But suddenly she shook her head, incapable of keeping a tremor from rising, "No," she said, then Avalore did something unexpected.

Avalore Eden leaned forward and kissed [member="Hal Terrano"].

This wasn't just an impish peck on the lips between shy acquaintances with sexual tension, no. This was a weighty kiss between two people who had shared something emotionally intimate that could never be undone. Two friends who might very well be living their last day. It was warm and resolute, with her hands on either side of his neck and his tears smearing her cheeks, but brief. Mere moments passed before she broke from him again, face lingering closer to his now, voice an octave lower.

"we have to go," she said, brown eyes now unwavering and dry, awaiting his acceptance of the fate he'd not signed off to. She wasn't leaving him here, no chance.

 

[Hal Terrano]

No?

Hal might have objected to the sudden statement had Avalore not lunged forward like that.

Maybe there was a future out there where Hal Terrano survived, and grew old. Maybe in that future he had taken to teaching younglings, to ensure that none felt the same isolation that he had growing up in the temple. Perhaps, he had them sat in a circle, young adolescents upon the edge of budding sexual growth and trivialities and maybe just maybe one of the them asked a question:

Master Terrano, what was your first kiss like?

In the Imperial Palace, I was drunk and had just spent the last ten minutes crying onto a prisoner, she took charge and kissed me.

Ooh, ooh! Who was it?

I fail to see how that knowledge will aid your understanding of the Jedi Code, Padawan Nerew.

But that's a future that is only a possibility, only another time, another realm, perhaps even another universe, and so we head back into the present. Where Hal Terrano was receiving his very first kiss.

What surprised him the most wasn't actually the kiss in itself, no, it was the fact that in that moment, in the maelstrom of his usually bottled up emotions and his absolute terror of female intimacy he kissed back. He was frightened, drunk, distraught and a myriad of other things and that only seemed to spur on a certain element of passion within him. Never before seen, perhaps never to be seen again, except that one moment.

That one kiss.

When it was over he looked to her with bleary eyes, her words still sinking in. Avalore was here. The cork was loose, he'd let it all out. Terrano felt lighter. There was an end to the guilt in sight, a chance to break the bonds that drained him each and every day. Don't be afraid, you're not alone, not anymore.

“Then we go.”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Marcello Matteo]

((OOC: Sorry - work has been insane.))

Marcello's glacier-blue gaze remained focused on one of the few Jedi that might actually have the strength of purpose to salvage what little was left of the Order's credibility and effectiveness throughout the galaxy. It was youth like Ryan that were, without a doubt, the future of the galaxy. He just hoped the young man could remain...uncorrupted by the system long enough to have the desired effect. Steeling himself against the emotions existing within his soul, the Rogue Master inhaled deeply before nodding to the young Knight.

In a very definitive, resolute voice, he offered a response. "It will be enough." For a moment, Marcello's gaze drifted out over the waters before settling back on [member="Ryan Korr"]. "There is no other option." For now, the Jedi Master did not address what, precisely, had happened on Teta or in the weeks since. There would be time for such conversations. Right now - their purpose and task was to do what was necessary. Oddly...the Rogue Master had surprisingly little care over Sith attempting to convert Jedi. In this life...everyone had to grow and evolve in their own way. If he hadn't almost surrendered himself to darkness, Marcello was not sure he'd ever have discovered who he really was...and what he wanted out of life.

He did not, however, abide holding individuals against their will. He only hoped their journey did not turn fruitless because the captors had elected to join the Sith. That could be problematic.

 

[Johnny Diamonds]

As Hal and Ava shared intimate thoughts and much more intimate an embrace, Johnny had managed to pull himself up from the concrete of the floor slowly. Sure, he was young, stupid and only cared about finding his best friend, but he wasn't entirely clueless. If left in this damp, dark and foreboding cell any longer, he was sure to die. Something inside him had almost snapped. Maybe it did snap, maybe he was just delusional, he wasn't entirely sure. Nothing made sense to him right now. He was malnourished, and he was most likely dehydrated. Whilst they had a vested interest in Ava, he was a nobody. Fodder for the Sith, to be abused and used, until he died weak, cold and alone. Too many thoughts raged inside his head. Thoughts of home, of being back on Corellia, of simpler times playing with Ava and their schoolyard friends. Of being admonished by his mother for sneaking off in the middle of the night to go exploring with Ava. Yet, all he knew in this cell for the past few weeks was abject misery, degradation, and pain. These were the types of situations that turned lesser Jedi to the Dark Path. The type of thing that broke a man, and made him succumb to his innermost desires for revenge. To cause pain back to those who've harmed him, and to make them suffer. But, for some reason, that spark of innocence within Johnny refused to die out.

He could hear them, they were going to leave, find a way out of this Force-forsaken pit. Well, not without him they weren't. No chance in Mustafar's lava-pits would they walk out of here without Johnny Karking Diamonds in tow. He concentrated upon the Force, letting it fill him from head to toe, letting it overflow within his very core, and let it heal him to the best of Johnny's ability. It wasn't much, but it would sustain him for the time being. Getting to his feet, he made his way to Ava and Hal, and looked Ava dead in the eyes. His voice was broken, he was still coughing up some blood, but the Force was his ally, and through it and sheer determination, the Jedi Padawan would speak.

"It's time to go. The holonet connection in here sucks."

Even in what could be considered his most harrowing and painful experience to date, Johnny Diamonds would not let the Darkness have hold of him, not even just a little bit. His trademark humor was still just as ridiculous as it ever was.

[member="Avalore Eden"], [member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Fen]

(OOC: No worries, my laptop broke so we're even)


"As you say," Korr acknowledge, features frozen as if in carbonite. He continued to stare at Marcello for a moment, before opening his mouth as if to speak, pausing, then stating in an even tone. "We should make haste."

Should he thank him? But no... there was no reason to thank a man for doing what was right. The just do not require gratitude, nor was he sure Marcello had yet earned such an expression. Ryan asked Marcello because he was out of options. Marcello came out of the urging of his conscience... Ryan hoped. He found himself hoping for far too much these days. We are all stumbling through the unknown fog of war the Sith have cast upon us. We trip and fall, but we keep going on, because the only thing we can do is to hope... to hope that we'll make it to the other side.

The young Jedi Knight turned around and began striding toward the shuttle. "Its cloaked, Sardun and Bouqi are inside. I would advise you come aboard here and leave your star fighter. This ship is the only way we'll be able to infiltrate Coruscant's atmosphere."

[member="Marcello Matteo"]

 

[Marcello Matteo]

Marcello replied to [member="Ryan Korr"] by merely gazing skyward as R9 completed a casual ascent to the heavens in the modified N-1T. Allowing his glacier-blue gaze to settle on Ryan once more, the Rogue Master nodded his head. "I figured. Let's get to it." There wasn't...really much more to be said at the moment. Though many thoughts still swirled around Marcello's brain, he knew that this just wasn't...the right time to bring an awful lot of emotion into the situation. There would be time to speak when this was over.

Whether it was in life or in eternity.

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore smiled and for the first time since finding her daughter a solid, compatible family she was happy. Hands at either side of the man's face, she nodded to him and smoothed the tears from beneath his eyes, "There's the Hal I remember."

With a long, deep breath, she recalled her hands and gave a short glance around, crabwalking to the bench that had served as her bed to pull something she'd hidden on its underside: the comm device left behind by Darth Banshee. She hadn't used it, afraid somehow the Sith might pick up the frequency, but if they could just make it above ground and out of the temple then maybe, just maybe, she could get word out to the Jedi.

Crouching, she slunk back over to Hal who was beginning to put himself back together, "One of the Sith that came to speak to me left this behind..." she showed him before stuffing the thing into an inner pocket of her Jedi Robes, "if we can just get outside I can-"

"It's time to go, the holonet connection in here sucks."

This time, Avalore heard the voice and immediately looked up. It had come from the cell across the hall, one that the Guards had visited frequently. One that she'd spent several nights blocking out the sounds of those undersireable visits. A deep frown pulled at her face, hairs raising along the back of her neck. She fought the instinctive response to ignore the voice this time and slowly Avalore stood up, moving closer to the open doorway of her cell. Brown eyes peered at the face hidden behind bars.

Was that...?

No...it couldn't be.

A hand immediately lifted to her mouth to cover the sound of surprise that suddenly left it. Eyes wide with shock, Avalore gaped, "JD? ...Force-" she hissed behind her hand. The Jedi's knees buckled beneath her, overcome by this horrifying realization. All this time it had been little Johnny Diamonds across the way. All this time... she'd had an old companion and never even knew. Grimacing as she realized it had been her old friend from childhood she'd heard being beaten, Avalore had to fight the renewed urge to vomit.

"Oh my..." breath Avalore, breath, "Hal... I know him, it's JD..." not that Hal would know who the heck that was, but it didn't matter.

She swallowed, leaned to look out into the hall to see where the Guards were. There weren't any in sight presently, so she made her move through the open doorway to the cell across the hall and the metal bars that separated her from her old childhood friend. Avalore reached her arms through to him, "JD, Force it was you this whole time? What are you doing here? Hal, we have to take him with us, I can't leave him here."

[member="Hal Terrano"]
[member="Johnny Diamonds"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

The flickering ember of Hal Terrano's spirit had been re-ignited, a steely determination and grit slowly began to return to his being, although like with all matters of emotions it would take time. One couldn't just fall so far and then in one instant return to the heights they stood at before.

There were issues to work through, and it would only be through talking about it that Hal could truly begin to heal. It would be difficult, hopefully he wouldn't cry again but then again, it wasn't likely that he would be drunk either.

No more bottles.

Bloodshot eyes widened at the sight of the comm that Avalore retrieved from underneath her bunk. If they knew that she had that, they would.... “Avalore...how....how did y-”

He too was cut off.

Had Hal Terrano not been in a vulnerable state of emotion he would have responded in only one possible manner: 'Actually, there is no holonet connection down here.' Standard banter from a man who couldn't comprehend the common jest, or turn of phrase. Sorry, Diamonds, that wit is lost on this one.

A crimson spread over the man's features as Avalore found herself reacquainting herself with an old friend. Suddenly the intimate moment hadn't been so much and there was a possible witness to his undignified crumbling.

Oh dear.

He stood, adjusting his standard issue Sith Robes, cogs turning within to think of a method of escape. Back to business. Already soggy sleeves were bought up to wipe the rest of his face as old friends tried to catch up through the bars. She wanted to take him too. He could work with that. His former spark of justice would have commanded him to save every single Jedi in the Temple but not yet, far too soon to summon any of those kind of heroics.

“That's fine,” the man responded as he massaged his now bloody knuckles, temper tantrums will do you no good, you know. “I can get us out of here, but not off of Coruscant.” That's right, us, not all prisoners of the Sith are so obviously bound. “Just don't speak. I can deal with the guards.” Once more he smoothed his robes out, before shooting a stern look to both Avalore and this...JD.

"Are you both ready?"

[member="Johnny Diamonds"], [member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Johnny Diamonds]

[member="Hal Terrano"], [member="Avalore Eden"]


The truly sad part of all this? Johnny didn't give a single kark as to what Hal thought. Not one. Johnny saw one thing, and one thing alone; his best friend in the galaxy since they could both walk. He'd already managed to exit his own cell, mostly due tot he fact that his guards didn't think he'd be able to walk again at this point, let alone ever again. He reached out to Ava's hands as they wrapped around the cell, and grasped them weakly with his own.

"Yeah, Ava. It's me. It's always been me. I've been looking for you, and I swore i'd find you, no matter where it took me."

He smiled weakly, and fell against the cell bars, sliding down them into a crouch. Johnny was in a truly bad way, but somehow the young Jedi kept himself from fading into oblivion. "We... gotta go. I don't think... I'll survive in here... much longer."

Johnny smiled up to Ava, weakly, but still a smile. Such was the soul, the essence of a boy like Johnny. Even in the most dire situations, he still wanted those he cared about to know everything would work out in the end. That was the kind of guy Johnny Diamonds was, and always would be. Snarky? Reckless? Exuberant? Sure. But through it all, a Paragon of Virtue like no other.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Johnny," Avalore fussed at the boy, using her sleeves to wipe grime from his face, her own expression one of horrifically-relieved-elation. In moderation, of course. She stooped by him as he crumpled to the floor, taking a moment to look him over, assess the damages dealt. He was a mess. Of course he was a mess, she'd be a mess too if the guards had visited her so frequently and viciously as him.

Looking back up at Hal she nodded, "I'm ready just...just give me a few seconds - sit still JD," trembling hands lifted to hover over [member="Johnny Diamonds"] face and chest where they began issuing forth the cleansing, energizing, and repairative powers of a Jedi Knight Healer that had been held captive by the Sith for the last month.

It wasn't much, but it was all Avalore could muster for her friend, enough to get him back to his feet. Enough to help dull some of his pain. Enough to get his wits about him to get out of here alive. That was the hope.

"I'll fix you up right as rain when we get home to Cato Neimoidia, JD," Avalore promised when she finished, slumping forward somewhat at the effort, she looked up at Hal, with a faint but warm smile, "you too."

The Healer held out a hand towards Hal to indicate she needed help to stand, and once back on her feet and using Hal to steady herself she offered the same to Johnny should he need it. With a look back to [member="Hal Terrano"] she nodded, gave his hand a firm squeeze and let go, "Lead the way Hal."