Private Clean House

[Jyoti Nooran]

Back in the front courtyard, Jyoti took a knee, placing a palm against the cracked and scorched stone as she looked at looked around. The mountain complex now resembled more a fortress than a monastery these days. Large open windows and doors now replaced by narrow wrought metal slats and reinforced gateways. Pillboxes bulging out from where other openings used to be. Glasteel shards and barbed wire lined the outer walls. The handiwork of occupants much more militant than the Silvers they followed.

And yet, beyond the surface, the foundations still remained intact. Déjà vu had washed over the Echani as she descended deeper through the carved hallways toward her final destination.

Different as it may be, it was still home.

The Echani fell to both knees as she finally allowed herself to enjoy the moment. The Jedi had returned, a promise had been kept. Her shoulders went slack, as if a massive weight had been removed. There was still much work to be done, like rehabilitating the former prisoners, but for now she would relish the moment.

May you finally know peace.....

Vaeri

 

[Vaeri]

She didn't sense the change in the Temple. The collar at her throat cut out all contact with the force, leaving her empty and bare. Blood ran freely down the finger tips. The rocks she had spent weeks sawing at her collar with laid at her feet, dissolving into dust before her collar did.

They had tried to break her, but there was nothing to give. They could strip her of her freedom, her saber, the force... they could shatter her body and starve her mind, but none of it could take away what she had gained that knighting ceremony.

She was a jedi.

That thought rang through her as the weeks melted by. The clothing she had worn on Borosk soiled. Her body withered without the aid of food. In time, she succumbed to the throws of her mind, and in it she had found the force again.

Or so her mind had told her.

There, the pain could not reach her. There, she could visit lost faces-- bask in the countless futures that would come to pass. The knight sat cross legged in her cell, unresponsive to the sounds that occurred outside of it as she bided her time.

A set of footsteps approached her, soft and light. The door opened... and stayed opened, the small frame approaching her.

Her eyes snapped open, pupils dilating. Her hand flashed out, grabbing the thin wrist of the single guard reaching out for her shoulder. She gave a decisive yank, snapping it. In the dark, it was almost too easy to wrestle the small creature down and wrap her hand around its throat and mouth. The guard thrashed underneath her, scratching furrows into her hands. She did not release, unfeeling as she stared at the open door the foolish man left behind.

 

[Jyoti Nooran]

The person that had come to check on the POW, a Bothan Jedi Healer, could only make pained faces in response to her dislocated shoulder. Wind pipe completely sealed, she couldn't even utter a peep, only managing to use her good arm to claw and pummel against the temple of the gaunt woman wielding inhuman strength.

Whether intentional or not, it was a blood choke, and the Healer was already beginning to black out, each strike growing more feeble in turn. Before slipping into unconsciousness, all she could do was emit a psychic scream of sorts to alert her fellow Jedi.

Within seconds, the pounding of heavy boots could be heard reverberating through the barren stone halls, the frame of cell door filled with the imposing figure of a ripped Duros sporting armored robes. He wasn't one of the medics, but a part of the original strike teams that had retaken the Temple from the Sith.

"Aabrin! Get off her!" he bellowed as he pounced on the woman. "We are not your enemy!"

By this time, another healer and a regular soldier had joined the Duros, the soldier quickly coming around to the other side of the Duros to help him try to pry the woman away from their comrade.

Sadly this wasn't even the first altercation, but certainly the worst.

Once could only guess if these POWs were savages before or after their incarceration in the Sith stronghold.

Vaeri

 

[Vaeri]

The flood of bodies that slipped in snapped her from her death grip. Her aim was to escape, and with the first guard limb under her grip she scrambled to stand.

The first weeks of her confinement she had been determined to not let her own body slip, but as the meals waned and her treatment worsened, it had become clear that strength would be found in a conservation of energy. Her steps were fumbling, but determined as she pulled the saber off the limp healers belt and held it between her and the Duros that had come to his companions aid.

There was wild fire in the gaze that skirted between the group, the man's words reaching her after a very delayed moment.

We're not your enemy.

The blue heat of the saber waivered between them, visible confliction tearing across her features.

Trap. It was-- a trick. It-

Let let out a feral battle cry and tried to slice through him, aiming for nothing more than to reach the door.

Never mind the fact that she had taken a jedi saber off a jedi's body. The games of the sith were twisted.

 

[Jyoti Nooran]

It was tight quarters to say the least, but the veteran Sentinel skidded backwards against the wall, a glowing red line now burning across his otherwise gleaming chestplate - he had only narrowly avoided being bisected. The second healer yelped as he was still at the door, skipping backwards into the larger hallway as the feral woman charged for the cell exit.

Meanwhile, the soldier, forced on his arse by the bucking brunette earlier, quickly unholstered his sidearm and fired at her back as she was about to leave. Not the usual red blaster bolts, but a stream of translucent blue halos designed to stun.

Above, Jyoti was stirred from her kneeling position as she felt a disturbance, a sudden flood of anger, confusion, and desperation emanating from beyond the temple entrance. The actual Jedi dormitory section of the temple wasn't that big - minuscule in comparison to the sprawling campus on Kashyyyk that housed thousands of Jedi - so distressed voices easily carried upwards in the face of a new emergency.

It looked like reflection time was over. The Echani snapped to her feet and rushed back inside to address the new source of trouble.

Vaeri

 

[Vaeri]

The force's warning never reached her, blocked by the collar around her neck. The halo encapsulated her, her back arching in the threshold she had nearly passed through, the saber melting half a beam off as she did so.

There were no words, for she could not talk, but it didn't take an empath to feel the feral terror that sieged her frayed mind.

They had not broken her, but they had not left her untouched either. Her stomach flopped in circles, bracing the sudden bite of punishment for her outlash. This had been it-- the chance she had been biding for. And she didn't make it past the threshold. Beyond the terror was desperation-- grief. She would not go down like this.

Yet she could not make her fingers move. She was powerless.

Grunts pulled from her, the only bit of protest she could manage as the vein in her temple throbbed.

 

[Jyoti Nooran]

The soldier cursed after he saw the woman fall and the lightsaber clatter to the floor leaving a molten mess, blaster arm still raised as he placed two fingers against the downed healer's neck.

After a few seconds, he felt a faint pulse. Somehow she was still alive.

By now, the Duros Sentinel had also recovered, armored cooled but a nasty trail of warped duraplast remained as a momento from the brunette's glancing blow.

More people had gathered outside the cell, forcing Jyoti to slow down and carefully wave between her comrades. Inside, she two limp bodies on the ground, a River soldier on one, and the Duros Jedi on the other, beginning the process of binding the brunette's limps together with zip ties. Stone was still melting.

"What happened here?"

"I don't know." the Duros replied, almost groaning the words as he made sure to bind the woman's ankles tight. "I felt Aabrin panicking, then found this one trying to choke the life out of her. Sgt Tarnet and myself tried to pursue us, but she got hold of Aabrin's lightsaber and tried to flee - I should have been more careful, but I let my emotions get the better of me. If it wasn't for Tarnet stunning her, who knows what else would have happened."

The Echani frowned, her hips as she looked down at the ragged woman now at her feet. "I see..." Her expression softened as she stepped over the brunette and squatted with Tarnet over Aabrin. Jyoti could still feel life stir within the Bothan, but otherwise she appeared unresponsive. "How is she?"

"Knocked out by that chokehold," the sergeant reported. "Looks like her shoulder was almost ripped clear out the socket. The girl barely looks a 40 kilos soaking wet, but she can fething scrap."

Jyoti nodded, stroking the Aabrin on the shoulder. She could only guess that a fight or flight response had been triggered in the POW, and either by adrenaline or the Force, she had gotten the better of three veterans.

Frighting, but also impressive to the Echani in a way. Her race appreciated martial prowess no matter the combatant.

"Get them both out of here upstairs to the medbay, and give our friend a shot of Balo extract to keep her in order."

The fungal extract, made from the the same source as Deathsticks, would serve to chemically suppress the brunette's Force connection without the icky addiction complications that came from use of its more refined narcotic counterpart.

Tarnet picked up Aabrin himself, carefully maneuvering in the now crowded cell for the main courtyard outside.

"Hey, you!" Jyoti barked as she pivoted on her haunches back toward the grunting woman. "We're not your jailers - think about it. Did the Sith ever give you a chance to act out without thrashing you into next week? Did they ever try to give you medical treatment after their abuse?"

She'd try talking a bit of sense into the POW, but the brunette had exactly one chance and one chance only to straighten up before her response escalated.

The leader of Great River wasn't known for being a pushover.

Vaeri

 

[Vaeri]

People gathered. No blows landed across her body. Her eyes jerked wildly about, the only piece of her move as her ankles and wrists were bound. Why? What-

"Hey, you!"

Her crazed gaze locked on Joyti, the pale face filling her vision. The woman was furious, a fact Vaeri did not shy away from her chest heaving with each manic breath. Anticipation tingled tightly in her gut, coiling with dread.

"We're not your jailers - think about it. Did the Sith ever give you a chance to act out without thrashing you into next week? Did they ever try to give you medical treatment after their abuse?"

Pupils dilated, the only piece of Vaeri's stunned body to show her shock. Not.... her jailers. Not- medicine-... The wild grunts slowed, her heavy pants softening to deep breaths. She was overwhelmed, but through cotton that coated her mind, reason reached her.

This was a rescue.

A soft whimper hit her chest, the relieved gasped barely heard. Her eyes squeezes shut, her resistance melting away. Not a trick. Force, don't be a trick.

Was all she could think, hands wrapping around her to lift her up.

 

[Jyoti Nooran]

In a bit of a surprise, Jyoti did receive a response from the woman. Nothing in the way of real words, but Jyoti could see and feel her relax, frustrated grunts now reduced to whimpers of submission.

She felt like she was taming an animal.

...what depravities have caused such regression?

Thoughts drifted to Allyson, who had been subjected to severe torture while imprisoned by the Sith Empire. Even after years of rehabilitation and counseling, the Corellian had never been the same. She shuddered to think what this woman had lost down here, never to be regained.

Her menagerie of broken women was growing.

"Good..." she continued, some of the sterness melting from her voice. "Given the circumstances. We won't hold this against you. Now, we're going to take you upstairs so you can receive proper treatment, and get food in your belly. Any complaints about that?"

Vaeri

 

[Vaeri]

Hold it against her.

Hold it against her.

Hold it-

Oh.

If this was not a trick, then that was not a guard. The cotton that swaddled her mind swallowed that fact whole. Hands swept her up, arms carrying her like a babe. A heated chest plate burned against her skin. It didn't matter, nothing mattered. Life crept back into her stunned body, her lips slowly forming words. Inaudible, she chanted to herself, lead out into the sun for the first time in months.

She was a jedi. She was a jedi. She was.

A.

Jedi.

 

[Jyoti Nooran]

Days Later:

After the former POW's conditions were stabilized aboard the medbay of the parked corvette, most of them were transferred to orbit aboard a GR hospital cruiser that had appeared after the Sith had been run out of the system. Packed with bleeding edge trauma care facilities, the roving sanctuary was the next best thing to the top flight facilities of the Silver Rest itself.

For the moment, Jyoti made the Boram her home, transitioning from military command to humanitarian operations and diplomacy. Dislodging the Sith had been only the first step, now the Jedi had to go behind the mess they had left behind, on top of smoothing over relations between the Voss and Gormak which had only grown more contentious over the years. Throw in the bitter remnants of the Voss League and Confederacy, and you had the perfect mix for a geopolitical powder keg.

There was no happily ever after, just moving from crisis to the next.

She almost missed her Padawan days when she only had to worry about where to point her lightsaber.

In her free time, she liked to visit the bacta chambers, checking in on the progress of the Jedi they have recovered from Voss. The brunette, in particular, had caught her eye. Right now, floating in her tank she was little more than a bag of bones and raw grit, but the Jedi Master saw great potential in her.

She wondered if the Sith had seen it too, and kept around to eventually break to their will. They did take a special glee in desecrating all things the Jedi held dear.

Good thing she had gotten to the woman first.

Vaeri

 

[Vaeri]

The bacta worked its way through her system, reknitting bones and nerve endings alike. As the days passed, the damage the sith had done to her body slowly healed, but it was her mind that struggled.

Sleep did not come easily, and when it did it received a bitter fight.

There was a wild edge to the saved jedi. She did not trust what her eyes showed her. Any returned of the force to her mind resulted in escape attempts, her trust in the setting erratic at best. While pieces of her sanity seemed to have left her, the fire to her spirit had not. She floated conscious in the bacta tank, her sharp gaze speaking volumes as it snapped to and followed every flash of movement that occurred around her.

She missed nothing, biding her time... The mentality she had taken on in the cell sticking with her even today.

They had been nothing but kind to her. The approaching enchani received her sharp attention, her gaze wary as the familiar face took intentional steps closer.

Her body coiled in the water, limbs clenching as if bracing for a fight. Was this moment the game would shatter? Her fear told her so, vitals spiking suddenly in response.

Jyoti Nooran