Private Blackout | Zaavik

[Auteme]

B L A C K O U T
Zaavik Perl ​

The Yuuzhan Vong had always scared her.

No, she’d never actually met a Yuuzhan Vong, and no, it wasn’t right for her to be afraid of a sentient and complex culture. They’d been instrumental in rebuilding much of the galaxy in the time after the original One Sith. Entire planets had been recreated, species revived, wildlife restored. But whenever Auteme read the records of the Yuuzhan Vong war she couldn’t help but recoil when the faces of their warriors appeared on the page.

As with all things she’d sought to understand it further. Knowledge was what could hold back fear. If something could be understood, it could be viewed as an asset, an equal, a friend, even. In a galaxy filled with aliens, what was one more? All creatures had their differences. Just like the Yuuzhan Vong, there were many belligerent and dominating cultures in the galaxy. Sith, Mandalorians, humans -- yet still it was difficult to see past that chitinous armor, noseless face, and brutal history. They had proven themselves better than what they had been when they had first come to the galaxy but so many, including her, had become stuck on the past. She tried to keep learning but there was still that inkling of doubt and fear that gnawed at her.

It was fear that she felt when the call came in for her and Zaavik to step in to support Metellos’ law enforcement.

A single Yuuzhan Vong warrior had been enough to tear through a dozen police officers, three of whom had died from their injuries. None of their weapons were enough to break through the warrior’s armor. He was skilled, dangerous, insane. And now it was Auteme’s responsibility to bring him in.

“He went this way,” Officer Blais stated. They stopped at a lightless alleyway, barely wide enough for the two padawans to stand side-by-side. The ground was damp from last night’s rain. Moss crawled up the walls, rising in volume the further down the alley they went. Somewhere down there was the Yuuzhan Vong warrior and the boy he’d kidnapped.

“We’re setting up a perimeter in the Undercity, but there are lots of ways to get through that we might miss. That place is a mess.” Blais grunted. “Anyways, good luck.”

“Thank you.” Auteme watched Blais leave, then turned to Zaavik. “Are you ready for this?”

Honestly the Zeltron was a mystery to her. She’d peered into his mind when he’d been in a coma after Foerost, but that wasn’t really a way to start a relationship with anyone. Aside from his probably traumatic youth, Auteme didn’t know a thing about Zaavik. That was bad. Shouldn’t she be friends with all the Jedi?

All that thinking was mostly distraction from the task at hand. She was afraid. This was a scary situation; she had every right to be afraid. Normally she would’ve pleaded for someone else to do this instead of her, but today there was no one else closer than the two of them. There was no one else. She had to do this.

“I… I’m kind of freaking out,” she admitted. “Let’s just stick together, alright? I’ll be right behind you, supporting you and stuff. I’m not a great fighter.”

Her eyes were drawn to the dark corridor that they faced. Even though she was afraid, the Force kept telling her that she needed to be there. This Vong was evil, a creature beyond reason and the Force. It needed to be destroyed.

That sentiment scared her more than anything.

With a deep breath, Auteme took her first steps into the alleyway.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

BLACKOUT SABBATH
SHADOW

​

Yuuzhan Vong?

Yeah, sure, he'd heard of them. Given their historical significance, they were rather ubiquitous. Though, aside from the bare minimum, Zaavik didn't know much of anything about them. They were ugly, dangerous, savages from what he'd gathered. For anything more nuanced, he wasn't exactly informed. He'd rely on Auteme for that kind of thing on this 'assignment'. She was the book smart type, but Zaavik, while far from an imbecile, was not. What he lacked in retained knowledge, he made up for with clever capability and practical skills.

Auteme definitely knew way more about him than he of her. She'd delved into his brain, ignoring all risks involved, for the sake of fishing him out of his comatic slumber. They were Jedi, so selflessness was no surprise. Though, taking the risk to damage one's psyche forever isn't something anyone should have taken lightly. Still, for a complete stranger she, Ryv, and Allyson took the risk. He didn't doubt the other two ever would have, but Auteme had been a stranger.

“Are you ready for this?” ​

"As I'll ever be, I guess," Zaavik replied with clear uncertainty. Reaching down, a metallic hiss followed his hand up his torso as he zipped up the black, leathery jacket that embraced tightly around his body. Slightly too small, but the apparel wasn't originally his. With Allyson Locke totally MIA, he found himself clinging to her presence through material means. Part of him thought it pathetic, but he still couldn't help it.

“I… I’m kind of freaking out. Let’s just stick together, alright? I’ll be right behind you, supporting you and stuff. I’m not a great fighter.”​

"Relaaax," Zaavik vocalized reassuringly, a half-smile crawled across his face. His voice feigned a complete carelessness for the sake of facilitating the reassurance. "I'll do my best to track this thing, but I really dunno anything about it, yeah? I'll be your sword, but I need you to be my brain," With a tilt of his head, Zaavik gestured down the alleyway as he took his first step. "Just stick close, and try to be as quiet as you can. Whispers." Zaavik's footfalls made no audible sound as be began to creep down the alleyway. A shadow on the walls, he might as well not been there at all.

 

[Auteme]

Zaavik Perl
​

"You should have your own brain," she whispered. "I mean, it's arguably the most important organ. It's how we're sentient. Though, I suppose the most literally vital would be the heart and lungs. Or the spleen. Everyone forgets about the spleen. And the stomach."

Pause.

"Small intestine."

Pause.

"Pancreas."

Oh jeez, she was nervous-nerding again.

Should she have been more confident? This was a dangerous situation; she'd be a fool not to recognize that. Even so, one could not be brave without fear.

Yet it wasn't the fear of the Vong that welled up inside her. She was afraid of them, of course, but it was worse that she felt the stilling of the Force as they crept further down the alley. It was a deathly silence; and a cold that gripped her heart yet steeled her nerves. The Force told her that something needed to be done. Something that it never asked her to do.

She stayed a half step behind Zaavik as they moved forward. When the darkness encroached too far, she raised a hand, summoning a light to illuminate their surroundings. The moss on the ground became thicker, wetter; it squelched with every step she made as they went. Zaavik seemed immune to such sounds. His skills training under a Shadow showed.

A pang of fear alerted her. "Up ahead," she said.

She took a few more steps forward before stopping, kneeling at a crossroads. Hidden among the vines was a small stuffed toy; a loth cat, and a cute one at that. It must've been the boy's. Perhaps he'd dropped it while the warrior had fled with his captive. The moss showed no sign of their passing, at least to her.

"I had something just like this," she said, brushing off some of the dirt on the loth cat. She smiled to herself. "I remember when I was eight I talked for a half hour to my mentor about how it was anatomically incorrect. The legs aren't long enough, I said, and how that would hurt its chances in the wild and how it was a sign of how domestication can change a species."

She glanced at their surroundings. "I guess even in the most modern places, nature can come back." The Vong must've had a hand in it, but still, nature returned to Metellos's undercity.

Auteme looked to Zaavik. She was relaxed; for some reason she believed they wouldn't be attacked here. "Did you have anything like that? As a kid, I mean. Silly stories. I can't be the only one with embarrassing stories," she joked.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

"I didn't mean literally," Zaavik whispered as he crept forward. "You really are freaking out, huh?" He snorted quietly as more vital organs were listed, feet deftly avoiding stepping on any of the lingering alley trash that would sound of his steps much louder than the mossy squelching. "Just relax," he echoed reassuringly. "Gonna need you to focus if we're to figure this out."

Perhaps it would have been wise to share Auteme's reluctance, as the Vong were no joke. Still, Zaavik felt confident, rejecting any notion of fear lest it devolves into something worse. Was it blind courage? Probably. They wouldn't have been sent here if the Order didn't think they could handle it, and Zaavik was never one to doubt himself.

"Up ahead." ​

Zaavik had felt it too. The small intuitive twinge that drew her to the small object. He pulled one shoulder in to allow her to pass by. Shadow training kicking in, Zaavik began to scan their surroundings, taking in every detail he could notice. A single glance to the toy as Auteme began to speak, and then it was back to the dogged absorption. His drifting gaze didn't make it seem so, but he was listening. Although a few small bits of the recollection probably didn't stick.

Zaavik snickered. "You're such a nerd," he jabbed playfully at the conclusion of her story. Still, even in his sentiment he continued to look for signs and tells within the environment. Though, the moss and vines didn't show much of their hand. Rapid growth likely covering and mending most things he'd have normally been able to read.

"Did you have anything like that? As a kid, I mean. I can't be the only one with embarrassing stories." ​

The scanning with his eyes stopped suddenly, slowly creeping back to acknowledge Auteme's inquiry. "Uh-" he hesitated, his mind involuntarily pilfering for something similar in the mental archive of his childhood. Most if was blocked out involuntarily, coming in as a vague blur denied any solidifying purchase. "Yeah, sure," he answered dismissively without divulging anything specifically. Applicable stories existed, but sifting through the mud just to find them wasn't the kind of stress that he needed at the moment.

"Let me see that?" he requested, brushing the topic aside, and reaching a hand out for the child's toy. It probably seemed rude to be so dismissive, Zaavik hated doing that, especially to someone who basically saved his life. He doubted Auteme wanted to see him all watery-eyed over unfortunate circumstances when calling his past to mind, and Zaavik wasn't here to guzzle his own tears, either. A topic best sidestepped, even if it didn't seem too friendly.

His vermillion fingers scooped the toy from her grasp. Staring down at it for a moment, he focused and let the force pull his attention around. Whatever was being conveyed, it was horribly vague and indistinct. "There's-" he paused, squinting. A few steps around, and he was still peering every direction searchingly. A mixture of force intuition, and his own efforts to find some kind of sign. "Something we're missing here."

Auteme ​

 

[Auteme]

Zaavik Perl
​

He was right, there was something missing. Her mind felt focused yet clouded; the drive to bring down this Yuuzhan Vong was distracting her from clues and rational thoughts. She closed her eyes and tried to ground herself. What was she missing? Be present. She found the flow of the Force, how the current flowed across the mossy walls like water over river stones. Like a river it pulled her attention towards the end; tried to force her to look forward at the destination. The Yuuzhan Vong warrior was ahead. So was the child.

No. Look to the sides. Feel the flow... yet why did it feel so odd? She opened her eyes and stared at the wall until the evidence staring her in the face became clear. She suddenly felt stupid for missing it yet intelligent for having figured it out.

The padawan reached forward, taking hold of a clump of the fuzzy green growth and pulling it off to inspect it. It appeared that the wall behind it was being almost eaten by the moss. "What if it isn't a warrior?"

She glanced to Zaavik.

"I mean, not originally. This moss -- I don't think it's native to Metellos, especially since it's been easily thousands of years since it was urbanized. The way it feels, and how it's eating the wall," she said, touching the cool metal behind the moss, "I think it's Vongformed. A product of the Shaper caste."

She looked down the alley once more. "I can still feel the boy that was kidnapped. If it were a Yuuzhan Vong warrior... it's been, what, an hour? A warrior probably would've sacrificed him by now, or at least inflicted some pain on him, but all I sense is fear.

"I think the Shaper might be trying to Shape the boy."

She dropped the moss. "We should probably get going."

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Zaavik grimaced. Shaper? This was the first he'd heard of such a thing. Some research probably would have been prudent, but he figured Auteme knew likely more than was necessary. He didn't ask though, 'shape the boy' sounded ominous enough that he got the point of urgency, even if he didn't really understand the context. "Right, let's move," he agreed with a nod.

Verdant plasma hissed forth from a metal cylinder. With slow strokes, curtains of moss were sundered as they moved through the alleyways. The resurgent vegetation grew thicker by the meter until the only light through the dim waning came from Zaavik's blade. Deftly, he stepped over a dilapidated pile of moss-covered scrap before ducking a branch with a low strafe.

Zaavik rose slowly to stand up straight. His features narrowed as an initially indescribable inclination rose in his gut. "You feel that?" he asked. Slowly his neck craned from one side to the other as his eyes tried to pinpoint the source of the feeling. A door forced ajar by an overgrown sprawl of vines stuck out. Slowly he approached, deactivating his saber as he poked his head inside.

No lights, pitch black. The feeling did get stronger by the door, though. Zaavik looked back to Auteme, putting one finger over his lips before gesturing inside with a side-nod of his head. From here it was all feeling. That box, that stray pipe sticking out, and those stairs. He couldn't see them, but he more or less knew where they were so long as he focused.

Something echoed through the darkness. A nondescript clanging sound. Movement. "You hear that?" he whispered.

 

[Auteme]

Zaavik Perl
​

She followed in silence. Though her steps were just as careful as his she found her eyes fixed on the blazing blade. She'd never even held a lightsaber before, but she understood the appeal -- outside of, you know, the violence part. A lightsaber was a comforting thing to be near; the warmth and light was a constant companion for a Jedi.

A warmth that drew so easily that it was forget a saber on one's belt was as powerful as a saber in one's hand. It was easy to forget. Still, when they'd pushed far enough and he deactivated his saber she felt a cool breeze without the heat of the plasma. Without its light her eyes struggled to readjust. She followed along anyways, but she felt distracted, almost.

It was apparent how much quieter his steps were, so she slowed down in an attempt to be as silent as possible. There was something -- movement -- down the hall, but she focused on herself. She was light on her feet, right? Zaavik might be a shadow but walking was always the same. She just put one foot in front of the other. Right, left, right-

Clang.

She froze. Her heart stopped. Her eyes had adjusted just enough for her to make out the shape of what she'd bumped into; a loose metal bar of some kind. It rolled to a stop by Zaavik's foot. "Sorry," she squeaked like a mouse. The silence hung heavy for a long few moments.

The silence.

There was no movement.

Until there was.

And it was coming towards them.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Auteme
​

Zaavik's heart skipped a beat. He could feel it coming, too. A vision flashed through his mind; the image of a serpentine object striking out at him. A sudden screech and flash of green light filled the building as he ignited his saber. A wild swing deflected the coming strike of an amphistaff, the object from his precognitive warning. Another strike came as the weapon switched to a seemingly unnatural rigidity.

The two struggled against one another's strength as their weapons locked together. The Vong's alien features illuminated by the saber's radiance. So this was a Yuuzhan Vong? "Greto fich," Zaavik hissed unconsciously in his native Zeltronian. Something that roughly translated into Galatic Basic as 'ugly bastard'. They looked even worse in person than they did in the holo-depictions.

The amphistaff began to curl around the lightsaber. Zaavik yanked, freeing the plasmatic blade with a horrible hiss. He leaned back to thrust a foot forward, catching the Vong on the chin and sending it back a few paces in a surprised stumble. Zaavik held his saber hilt to the side and flicked the second switch to send the secondary blade screaming from out the other side.

He spun it around in a small, droning flourish.

"Auteme, find the kid. I'll keep this thing's attention. Just- uh- scream if you need me."

 

[Auteme]

Zaavik Perl
​

There was a difference between learning about something and experiencing it. Qualia -- the subjective instances of conscious experience. Auteme, of course, adored the idea and discussion around the very thought of consciousness. It was incredible to think that they had colonized the stars and built wonders beyond counting but still had a miniscule knowledge of what made a thing feel like a thing or look like a thing or taste like a thing or smell like a thing or sound like a thing. The very thing that was contained within her skull was the greatest mystery, the very same thing that pondered that mystery in the free hours of her days.

She believed that there was indeed something beyond, either a science that had yet to be discovered or a thing beyond science that allowed a person to experience. After all, if thousands of years of research had yet to understand even the human brain, there must have been something beyond. For Auteme she believed it to be the Force -- despite 'quantifying' it through the midi-chlorians, no one understood the means by which such microscopic organisms could create effects such as telekinesis or telepathy.

That day seemed to discard her theory. There she was, frozen in fear as the shadowy form of the Shaper charged towards them, and she felt nothing in the Force.

It was something that she simply could not experience through it. This creature, this person, untouched by the Force and so reviled by it that it roared at her to fill the void in the man with the Force. Blast it with light, push it around, break its shell such that the life may pour back in; for the Yuuzhan Vong had forsaken their souls to evil gods to become death.

But she could see it, just barely. She could hear its coming. And she could feel the fear rising in her gut.

Zaavik stopped it; engaging with his saber he seemed to surprise it with a kick to the chin. She didn't know if he could beat it. She didn't know anything about fighting. She just needed to help.

He gave her a way to help.

Auteme seized on his words, moving around the other padawan. That was right -- they were there to get the boy. Saving him came first. She started forward, started to run-

Crack.

The amphistaff lashed out and knocked her aside. All she could think about was how she didn't know anything about fighting. She should've stayed further away. The Yuuzhan Vong, for its part, didn't finish the job just yet -- its eyes stayed on Zaavik, awaiting a warrior's challenge.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Auteme
​

Zaaviks feet braced, spreading shoulder length. His knees bent slightly; he was ready. Auteme darted past him. Just before he could move in to cover her, a fluid feeling assaulted his mind. "Aut-!" CRACK. Too late.

The padawan winced, then grimaced. He turned to the Vong, matching the creature's ugly expression with a snarl of his own. He advanced forward, viridescent blades emanating from either side of the elongated a hit. A barrage of attacks from the left, the right, left, right, left again. Each of them hissing against the amphistaff as the Vong stepped back, yielding to Zaaviks attack.

Several dozens of attacks met with parries later, the Vong and the Padawan locked up, weapon against weapon in a test of strength. "Auteme!" Zaavik shouted laboriously as he pushed against the Vong with all the strength he could muster. At first, the Padawan had the upper hand in the struggle of brawn, but the Vong was strong. Inhumanly so. Fitting.

The padawan bent back beneath the Vong's push. Lower, and lower, his legs and back torqued even more. Zaavik hissed even more in Zeltronm, coaxing an alien utterance from the Vong. The back of Zaavik's head was practical to the floor now. His feet flat on the ground, his body had bent backwards into a contortionist-level limbo. Any less limber, and he might have broke his spine.

Zaavik let himself fall back, causing the Vong to push against nothing. They fell together. The Padawan kicked one foot up, pushing the Vong to fly forward and flip onto its back. His legs came up, bending in before kicking out to shoot him off the ground in a kip-up. "Auteme, you gotta move!" There wasn't any time to help her. The Vong was already on its feet as well.

The clashing of weapons started again.