Private Broken Mirrors

[Romi Jade]

U N I D E N T I F I E D P L A N E T
WEIRD COORDINATES

"Girls...anything on the sensing?" She lurched her head forward to a pair of identically appearing women of lithe frames -- The Cortana Jade -- These were students of hers at the Praxeum. These were a pair of twins, linked in the force, that she'd be mentoring.

In a two-toned voice, the Two-in-One barked in unison "No."

"Alright." With her saber tucked in her off-hand, she swung her body around.

Pahk!

Romi smacked the surface of the terminal that rushed the doors through its machine sequence, and slide them open. She called her saber to life expecting the storehouse to be heavy with resistance, she was shocked to see just the opposite; it was empty, and full of nothing but space encasing a series of tubes along the back wall. The slime that glew cut through the red lighting in shades of blue-greens.

She belted her saber and grew loose, "Hold up for a sec, stay back here." The blonded floated inside in caution, but full of curiosity.

She punched the next keypad after several feet in. This storehouse....that belonged to Taeli...was empty?...

But it wasn't, thanks to her next discovery.

In what appeared to be a medical lab was a tube...and there was a body floating.

"Wha..." And she'd have the strangest deja vu.

S. Jade

 

[Jaded]

*messy into discovery thread to find jade's voice and story



Subject 142 looked serene as she floated submerged in bacta. Eyes closed, hair splayed, she was the spitting image of jedi standing before her. Permeable liquid surged through her lungs as she gasped awake, sustained but contained by the tube around her. She hated it.

Her fist banged against the glass, the vitals monitor spiking as she strugg- their eyes locked. Her lips parted, bubbles escaping as she stared. As prepared as she thought she was for this inevitable moment, she was wrong.

The heart rate set off erratically, like humming bird wings against a cage. The fist uncurled and... gingerly... pressed against the glass.

 

[Romi Jade]

The jagged lines all pointed to her, a natural intuition. Like almost looking into a mirror that displayed nothing but ones youth. But, of course Romi knew better…it hadn’t all set in just yet — she was in a trance at this point.

The sound of the world becoming real again rang in her ears louder than any sound. She’d snap back to her senses when the girl drew life.

They interlocked eyes…

Romi kicked the monitor but jamming the control for the Tube to eject its fluid freeing up air.

“What the hell did Taeli do?”

S. Jade

 

[Jem Fossk]

.

 

[Jem Fossk]

.

 

[Jaded]

And here came the worse part.

Subject 142 keeled over, coughing harshly as the breathable liquid was exchanged for air. It was like ripping away an internal band aid, or waxing your nether regions. She coughed against the burn as the tube emptied, then retracted. The plasma dripped off her damp skin. She was wearing barely anything. She resisted the urge to shiver and propped herself up. Her muscles quivered from the stasis, leaving her vulnerable and bare. She drew her limbs in and looked up.

"You," she breathed, her voice hoarse. All the orders and all of her training, and Subject 142 could only think to do one thing.

Her fist slammed for Romi's nose.

 

[Romi Jade]

As much as she was confused, Romi wasn't going to let the girl seemingly choke?.. right in front of her...that was against everything she knew.

Plus this was her only clue at clearing some of the confusion up.

"Me?" She followed, then she felt nothing but pain well up in her nose. Before she realized anything, she was stumbling back gripping her nose. She countered the pain by gripping with her own strength in an exhale of what could be compared to an animal noise.

Ughhur!

"What the hell!" She whipped her head back, and fought through the daze. "Hey!" she settled on the girl, "What's your problem!? I just saved you—

S. Jade

 

[Jaded]

"Saved me," she echoed bitterly.

Subject 142 pulled herself out of the cell, her legs weak and feeble from her confinement. She felt a tick of irritation for the her state, which could only be the result of prolonged stasis. Taeli had said to trust in the plan, but she couldn't think the woman had meant to leave her under for so long. It took more than a few options off the table.

Her eyes fell down to Romi's hilt in a tell-tale tick.

"You left us, you left me, what kind of mother leaves their child? You 'itch!" The force surged, a box flying into Romi's side to knock her down. Subject 142 went for her leg sweep and tried to pin her down, her coordination slowly returning. She didn't need to hurt the woman, only startle her enough to sell the tale.

Guilt usually made people forgive all sorts of things.

 

[Romi Jade]

Her face sunk - mother?

“What’re yo-“ — THUD

She was thrown off her feet, and hadn’t even seen the box launched at her; she felt it though.

She was fast.

Surprised more than she could properly defend herself, there was a pit in her stomach when she was finally coming to the realization…

Lost in this girls face…

Romi thrusted her hips upward to throw 142 forward and loose, before wiggling her way northward and from underneath.

She rolled clear before negligently waving her hand to telekinetically throw the girl back. Romi hadn’t thought it through, it wasn’t coordinated or powerful; it was merely a shove.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I can’t have-“

S. Jade

 

[Jaded]

The force ripped at Romi's leg, yanking it out from under her.

"How did you find me?" She demanded, scrambling back up from where she had been thrown. She charged at her, her fist round housing to cuff Romi on the side of the head, while at the same time her other hand reached to steal the saber at the belt.

Distract, reflect, engage.

"Why now?" Mother. Clone base. One was enough to invoke emotion, and that was the one she used again. "Mother."

The force tugged the saber towards her awaiting hand.

Romi Jade

 

[Romi Jade]

THUD

She hit the ground, her behind colliding with the duracrete before she scrambled to her feet. "I-" she went to respond before cutting into the trajectory of the girls swing, stopping her fist short with her forearm.

However, she felt the deft tug at her belt; suddenly it felt lighter -- her saber was gone. "Im not--your mothe-"

Speedy like Romi...

She backpedalled, and threw her hands up, "Ok look....maybe the whole gestation thing has got you in a bit of a daze, but Taeli left you here for whatever reason--I can help you..."

A beat.

"That's what she does...she uses people for weird experiments and abandons them."

S. Jade

 

[Jaded]

The saber hissed open, the red hue illuminating the space between them. Subject 142 held it with a steady hand, her own affiliation singing subtly through the force.

Darkness.

"I'm not an experiment," she snapped, her nostrils flaring in pain.

Subject 142 would never let her emotions get into an assignment like this, but she wasn't being Subject 142 here. She was being Jade. Jade was a lost experiment, without a sense of self or ground to stand on.

Everything Jade knew was a lie.

Jade was scared.

"She- she wouldn't do that to me, she wouldn'-- You're the one that abandoned me. She said- You're the one-" The tip of the saber quivered, seemingly overcome by the emotions of her words. The heat would sear at Romi's neck, a centimeter away from a quiver causing pain.

Romi Jade

 

[Romi Jade]

"Ok, experiment wasn't the right word. I apologize."

She could visibly read the distress. It was't just physical though, it was on the outskirts of the air...somewhere mixed in with the tension.

But this was becoming too much -- chaotic.

"Are you sure...?" She asked, raising her hands as the searing edge of her own blade drew closer.

"Are you absolutely positive that she didn't abandon you...where is she then? What would you have done if you'd waken up in that tube and I wasn't here."

A beat.

She took note of the quivering.

S. Jade

 

[Jaded]

She was, but Jade... Jade wasn't.

"I..."

She looked once over her shoulder, at the tube that had held for-- she caught a glance of her reflection in a bit of metal, her cheeks unusually sullen and-- she gasped, realizing the growth that occurred while she was under. A little taller, a little leaner, and all baby fat stripped from the sculpted edge of her jaw.

The saber dropped from her fingers. She could only hope the action didn't appear as mechanical as it felt. It wasn't hard to fabric her shock, it was only hard to let it disrupt the rest of her. It felt wrong.

"No. No. ...What year is it?" She asked, her voice tight as she touched the unfamiliar planes of her face.

Romi Jade

 

[Romi Jade]

Her face screwed up in curiosity.

Visibly it seemed as though Jade let her guard down, but honestly she was expecting the worst -- she did want to help, but she was always prepared for things to go completely in a new direction.

"It's 874..." Her face shot over to the tube, following 142. For some reason she assumed she could see whatever she was seeing...seemed like this conflict went deeper than just confusion.

"What is it?"

S. Jade

 

[Jaded]

Her muscles crumbled out from under her, her knees stinging as they slapped into concrete and drove pebbles into her skin. Her body began to shake and break out into a cold sweat. There were procedures for coming out of commas and she had ignored them all.

"It was. Suppose to be. One. Week," she jittered, cold to the touch as her pupils dilated. "I need a hospital." She tried to stand, grabbing at the broken edge of the tube that had sustained her.

"I'm going into shock."