Private Distraught At The Sight Of Her Missing Infant (Vera)

[Darth Carnifex]

Coruscant, Night​

The ship passed through the illuminated night air, slipping past traffic control like a shadow. It wasn't the first time it had managed to bypass Alliance security measures on their capital, but this would be by far it's most important trespass. The tower was tall, rising out from Coruscant's cityscape like a monolith, its peak affording a commanding view of the distant horizon. A few others were situated nearby, but this one was the largest. The penthouse at its pinnacle was dark save for a few external lights, primarily those meant to warn passing vessels of its presence.

A shadow fell across the exposed veranda, the darkened ship lingering just beyond its borders. It edged closer, light spilling out as a ramp underslung from beneath its body and gently touched down upon the polished marble stairs. There was a figure, lingering at the top of the ramp, hood drawn over their face. They swept their gaze from side to side, surveying the veranda before them. Then, with purposeful steps, they descended the ramp and dropped down onto the smooth marble. Walking forward, they moved under the overhang where many couches and leisurely furniture had been arranged. Ahead was a set of locked doors, which opened as the robed figure waved a single hand in their direction.

Inside was picturesque, the epitome of a family home; albeit still carrying the tumultuous signs of recent occupation. Things had not yet been fully arranged, some remained in boxes pushed to the corners. Some of the walls were bare, others had decorations and tapestries. A holographic picture was perched on a hall-stand, displaying a loving mother, a dutiful father, and an innocent young girl. The figure reached out a gloved hand towards the hologram, but stopped short of actually touching it. The picture suddenly rattled and flew across the hall, smashing into the wall and breaking apart with a sizzle of electricity.

Dark eyes looked away from the destruction, looking further down the hall. The figure could sense the life-forces of four slumbering deeply, but there were others in adjacent chambers that began to stir; alerted by the sudden commotion. One passed through a doorway, looking first to the smashed picture, and then slowly looking to the looming shadow that now towered above her. The scream that began to rise up in her throat found its path obstructed, as an invisible hand clamped down hard enough to collapse her windpipe in the blink of an eye. She collapsed to the ground, a wheezy exhalation of air escaping through her mouth alongside a faint trail of blood.

The figure walked over the body without a second glance, the Dark Side surrounding them as they moved to kill again.

Kahlil Noble | Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Darth Carnifex

"It's gonna be okay, I promise," Vera told her crying siblings, as she carefully took them out of their cribs. She hadn't even alerted the temporary babysitter her parents had arranged in a hurry. Mom and Dad had been summoned to what she suspected to be very dangerous. But through a vision, she had also seen the danger coming for herself. A tall man, dark as night in her vague vision, and his presence so evil that she could barely breathe.

She had to protect her siblings. She was the big sister now.

Without the babysitters noticing, Vera snuck them out of their room and brought them to her mother's X-wing. She had seen her parents fly often enough to figure out the controls to turn on the auto-pilot, so with the babies on board and the canopy closed, she sent the X-wing away on a random path over Coruscant. Nobody was going to find them except mom and dad, to who she quickly sent a message.

<Mommy, daddy? The bad man is here. The babies are safe. Please come home.> There was no time to say more, as she needed to get back inside.

By the time Vera made it back into her room, she felt a shift in the Force, followed soon by the shattering of glass and the cries of a woman drawing in her last breaths. Vera felt herself tremble but remembered some wise words from lessons her father and mother had given her.

Be calm, Little Star.

It's going to be okay, sweetie. Just stay calm.

Slowly, she slipped out of her room and into the hallway, her multi-colored eyes first finding the body of the babysitter, before she stared up at Carnifex. "I'm not scared of you," she told him defiantly, but with teary eyes and trembling lips. She was afraid, but she knew that mom and dad were coming home soon.

...
Inside the Bastion, Valery was panicking and trembling — they had just returned from a high-priority target to receive a message from her daughter that she had hoped to never hear. He was here, and she feared that it was already too late. Through the family bond, she felt that Vera was still out there and unharmed, but how much time before something bad would happen>

"I've already locked down the path Vera sent the triplets on," Valery said while Kahlil was bringing them in fast to get home and hopefully still find a way to bring Vera back.

"Once we get Vera, we'll go after them." She didn't like the idea of not immediately going after the babies, but they had only one ship now and Vera was the one in danger.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

He had come.

Kahlil should've known it was a matter of time now. The more Vera saw, the stronger she got with her visions, the more likely his father would want her. She was Zambrano. She was family. Even if he renounced the name, there was little doubt Carnifex wouldn't consider Vera still his. And her power of foresight was one of the few things he knew Carnifex would want. The end of the war, the birth of the triplets, the time of peace they did have, he should've figured his father would make his move.

And now there was nothing he could do to stop it. His bond with Valery let him leap across the galaxy to save her. He couldn't do the same for his daughter. His knee bounced as his knuckles whitened on the lightsaber in his hand.

"I've already asked some of the Order to go to the triplets." It didn't matter who. Amani Serys , Jasper Kai'el , Rhemti Totriddiam , Capris Halcyon . They all knew Vera, they knew their family. Someone would safeguard the triplets.

".. Hurry."

Valery Noble | Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The shadow, the monster of her visions, looked down at the small child. This child, who stood so defiantly against the shadow, was familiar to Him. Though they had never met before, not in any meaningful sense, He seemed familiar to her; a connection she'd not realized was there calling out to her. It came not from beyond, but from within, something in her very blood reacting to the shadow's presence. Much like how she might feel in the presence of her own father.

"Brave child though you may be, you are not above fear." The voice which emanated from the darkness was cold and deep, primordial. It echoed through Vera, a deep chill creeping up her spine. Then the figure knelt down on one knee, hooded face nearing as though to get a better look at her. A pair of eyes burned bright in the darkness, staring directly into Vera, through her even. Those that fell under this gaze experienced a sensation as though they were being laid bare before a spotlight, that nothing they knew or were was secret.

Then the shadow's hands raised, and gripped the hem of His hood. Drawing it back, Vera would be confronted with the face of Darth Carnifex, Dark Lord of the Sith. The shadowy miasma around the Dark Lord dissipated with this action, the lights in the hall flickering on as if of their own volition. This face too would be familiar, for elements of it were reflected in the face of her father. But rather than silvery hair, a mane of black locks cascaded down from His head, a beard of similar black hair covering His cheeks and chin. A tattoo, inked in red, was centered on His forehead; the crest of the Sith Order.

"I know what you have done," rumbled the Dark Lord, "So long as you cooperate, I will not pursue your siblings. Continue to heed my instructions, and you will be returned to your mother and father unharmed as well." The edges of the Dark Lord's mouth curled in a smile, though it was forced and false. He then extended a hand, intending for young Vera to take it. "You need not have fear of me, Vera. We are family, you and I."

Kahlil Noble | Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Darth Carnifex

Vera took a visible step back when the Dark Lord crouched down and lowered his hood. She had seen the man before, in other visions and nightmares, yet it never got easier. She could feel a kind of bond to him, not nearly as strong as the one with her parents, but it still felt familiar. But also dark and almost painful.

Still, the little Noble would not allow herself to be controlled by her fear. Mom and dad wouldn't. Mom and dad were coming for her.

"Nuh uh," she told him defiantly as a result. "I'm not helping you and it's already too late. They are safe," she said, her lips trembling as emotions were starting to get overwhelming. Through the Force, she could see familiar faces closing in on her siblings. Even if he tried, he'd never get them now.

That was what mattered the most to her. Mom and dad had told her she was the big sister now, and that meant being nice and protecting them. She had even made a pinkie promise with Thurion Heavenshield about it.

Then Carni extended his hand with a promise to return her unharmed, and she looked at it. A frown settled on her face, which turned into a cry when he called her family. "No! You are not family!" She cried out loud, now with tears flowing down her cheek.

"M-mommy and daddy w-will come!"

...

Valery shot an appreciative look at her husband, who had already made sure that the triplets would be secured. Without having to worry about them, for now, she could turn her focus to flying, which was fast and dangerous now. She weaved through rows of vehicles and around buildings, just to get home as quickly as she could.

Police were on her tail already, but they weren't catching her. An intensity burned in Valery's eyes that only very few other things have ever sparked in her life.

"Get ready to move, I'm taking us down fast," she told him, as she brought the Bastion down into an immensely fast and rough landing. The ramp was immediately lowered as heavy strain had deformed the landing gear, but Kahlil was allowed to be the first to step outside.

Valery would be right behind him.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Kahlil nodded once as he moved to the back, right towards the ramp. He barely even waited for the ramp to lower to leap out. He practically threw himself out the opening, landing in a mad dash to get inside. He didn't even pause by the body of the unfortunate sitter who'd been killed. There was only person he was here to find now. In his haste, however, he couldn't feel her. He couldn't feel much at all.

Just fear and anger.

"Vera! Vera where are you!?"

Valery Noble | Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Unfortunately for you, it will be too late."

With outstretched hand, the Dark Lord of the Sith induced Vera into a deep slumber. He caught her before she could fall to the floor, cradling the small child in His mighty arms as He rose to stand. Turning back towards the way He'd come, the Dark Lord slowly stepped out onto the veranda. The lights in the hall blinked out one by one as He passed. His ship remained docked at its edge, the ramp extended down towards the floor. In a single bound, the Dark Lord leapt from the veranda onto the ramp, disappearing inside with His prized captive.

Figures began to move out from the ship in the Dark Lord's wake, a squad of robotic bodies stepping down onto the veranda and disappearing into the apartment. There they would wait in darkness and silence, all routines shut down to conserve power and to mask their energy emissions. The Dark Lord's ship turned, ramp slipping back into place, before it flew away and up towards the sky. It left Coruscant's atmosphere, and disappeared into hyperspace.

Not long after, the Bastion exited hyperspace and began a rapid descent into Coruscant's atmosphere. The ship made landfall at the veranda with exceptional haste, the ramp lowering and Jedi Master Kahlil Noble bounding out from inside. He was the first inside, the first to discover the corpse of the sitter, and the first to discover that the entire apartment was devoid of life. No Vera, no Dark Lord, nothing.

Except for the red photoreceptors that began to light up in the adjacent room, roused from sleep mode by the presence of organic beings. They moved in unison, servos whirring silently as they moved into position for an ambush. The first struck by pivoting around the wall, electro-staff crackling as it swiped for Kahlil's head. A few others smashed through the wall behind him, seeking to encircle the Jedi Master and cut off Valery from coming to her husband's aid. Glossy reflec-camofibre coated their duranium-beskar armor plating, making them hard to discern in the darkness of the hall.

What was unmistakable, however, was the recording being repeatedly played from their vocabulators.

"I'm not scared of you."

Kahlil Noble | Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Darth Carnifex

"Vera! Vera where are you!?"

His voice sent shivers down her spine, especially because there was no response. No little star running out to meet her parents with outstretched arms and big smiles. No Mommy! or Daddy! and no long embrace to enjoy the fact that the whole family was home together. The pain, the fear, and the anger it sparked in her matched that of her husband, so as he charged inside, she was quick to follow behind him.

The metal hilt of her lightsaber had already slipped into her hand, ready to be used against the threat she felt lurking in the shadows. Droids perhaps lacked a true presence in the Force, but whenever one posed a threat, the Force would always be there to warn her.

Love, they're here.

Her words echoed instantly through her bond, and as several droids burst through the walls to get behind Kahlil, Valery appeared. Without raising an arm or moving a muscle, she tapped into the Force. Her fiery eyes burning bright, turned to the machines as she froze their bodies with immense Telekinetic pressure. They were, however, too durable to easily shatter just with a crushing grip.

So for the first time in quite a while, she looked beyond their exteriors and traced the pathways of the Force through the materials used to create them. Even in Beskar, she could easily find imperfections, shatterpoints, and with all of her strength, she poured the Force through these cracks to tear them apart.

But as the lights in their eyes flickered into nothingness, the voice of her little girl kept echoing through her mind.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Love, they're here.

"I'm not scared of you."

For the first time in a long, long time, Kahlil found himself frozen. He could hear the walls crumble around him. Faintly hear the warnings of the Force about the sudden danger he was in. He could even see the droid as it ripped through his home and brought it's weapon for his head. But he didn't move. Vera had been taken. It was always a fear, that's what it meant to be them and their family. The Sword, and now the Shield, there would always be a target on them and their children.

But for it to be Carnifex who took her, his mind was only filled with the worst possible outcome.

It was Valery who stopped the attack. Valery who defeated the droids. He turned his head, slowly, to look at his wife. Tears leaked down his cheeks as his voice broke.

"He took her."

Valery Noble | Darth Carnifex

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Darth Carnifex

He had frozen.

Despite her immeasurable pain, Valery couldn't also lose him. Not again. She had lost so many people she loved and had felt the pain of losing him, and now Vera was taken as well. All at once, Valery's presence erupted like wildfire, lashing out at the droids, seizing them and tearing them apart like the few who had been behind her husband.

It wasn't even a fight.

Tears formed in her eyes and ran down her cheeks when she watched Kahlil turn to face her, and without wasting a second, she ran toward him and pulled him into an embrace. A hand settled at the back of his head, gently pulling it down onto her shoulder while she cried against him as well.

Their little star. Taken.

"We're getting her back," she said, her voice cracking up but somehow still determined. "Nobody takes our little star."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

As the Crestfallen traveled through hyperspace, information ascertained by the commando droids was being relayed to the vessel from each of their neural processors. In this way, they analyzed each of the Nobles' dispositions and fighting force. Conclusively, they determined that when subjected to the intense trauma of losing a child, Kahlil Noble responded with acute despondency, and Valery Noble with heightened aggression. Both were taken by sorrow, but they reacted to it in polar opposite ways.

Darth Carnifex watched the feed from the droids replayed on a loop, pausing the footage and rewatching certain segments again. The droids had been top-of-the-line, very expensive to procure. The instruments inside of them that allowed this feed to be captured at all were likewise expensive and difficult to replace. Nonetheless, the Dark Lord believed their destruction was a suitable trade-off. Vera Noble was sleeping deeply in a private chamber elsewhere on the vessel, watched over by a nanny droid.

The end of the footage rolled on, one of the droid's processors survived long enough before shorting out to capture the pair falling into each other's arms. Audio sensors, finely tuned, picked up what they said.

"We're getting her back. Nobody takes our little star."

Static engulfs the footage, the image frozen to a slightly distorted picture of Kahlil and Valery embraced. Carnifex looked at this image for some time before shutting off the recorder.

"I'm counting on it," spoke Carnifex to the darkness around Him.

Kahlil Noble | Valery Noble ​

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Kahlil said nothing. Turned his gaze to the various droids around. They were destroyed, broken and defeated by Valery. He fell into her embrace, wrapped his arms around her as tight as he could. All to hide his face, his expression. Having her here was more than enough to calm his mind. She was right. They'd find Vera. When he was calm, he could still feel her. Safe, for now. They would find her.

"I've no doubt he's watching." He kept his voice low, whispering into her shoulder. Paranoia was at an all time high now. Carnifex was always watching.

"Let's go find the triplets. Then get Vera."

Valery Noble | Darth Carnifex

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Darth Carnifex

Valery's hand shifted down from the top of his head to his cheek, and no matter how tight his hold was on her, she returned the embrace with her free arm wrapping around him. It wasn't often that he needed her comfort, but right now they both needed each other. Only together, as long as they remained calm, could they find their little star.

"He is, so let's bring the triplets to Amani and Alicio. I'm sure they'll let us stay there too." After this, she wasn't ever coming back to this apartment. They'd need to move again, but her first priority was bringing back her little girl.

Pulling back from the embrace, Valery took her husband's hands, squeezed them, and looked him in the eyes, "She's a tough kid. We're going to get her back and everything will be alright." This was a promise like the one they had made to each other on Exegol. There was no breaking it.

She had to hold onto the hope that they would not break it.