Favors for friends

[Miss Blonde]

The criminal underworld was all about safety. Not safety when it came to wearing the proper protecting gear, but safety of information, locations, and other secrets that could cause a very fragile house of cards to fall apart on itself. So it would hopefully come to no surprise that when a younger member of Clan Varad reached out to the criminal underworld that they would be met with that uptight and necessary need for safety.

At Blonde's workshop the Varad girl was swept for bugs, removed of any personal electronic devices, and had a black sack placed over her head for the ride into the planet's atmosphere. These were the things that kept the game doing and she'd need to accept being vulnerable for a few minutes to get what she wanted.

With the darkness of the sack enveloping her sight the woman would start to hear voices coming through the hood as a door closed behind her.

"And who might we have here today? Is this the Varad girl?" a distorted near mechanical voice asked.

"Yeah boss, [member="Aera Varad"] a representative from Clan Varad." another voice chimed in.

"Take it off." The voice ordered.

Besides the blinding artificial lights of the workshop, the first thing the girl would see is a woman shorter than her looking up at her giving the woman a visual inspection. She wore a dark metal plated gas mask that covered her face and it even conveyed that she took no crap.

"Well look at you, little rule breaker coming to the underworld. You know we broke up right." she said with a bit of a chuckle.

 

[Zef Halo]

Thanks a lot, Isley.

Aera had simply followed the automated voice machine of [member="Isley Verd"] to seek a crime syndicate that would have the capabilities of doing what she wanted to be done. The adventurer knew, as probably the whole galaxy, that the Mandalorian Warmaster was skilled in the Force and she simply assumed that he would know about Force related relics.

Just like the necklace she had found on an uncharted world at the edge of the Tingel Arm.

Isley's directions had led her to being ambushed by a dozen of strong and armored men against which she was able to hold her ground for just a few minutes before being tackled down, restrained and with a black bag on her head. Apparently that was how things were done in the underworld and Aera felt stupid for not anticipating that.

"Some interesting counter-measures you've got here." Aera spat out as she squinted her eyes at the blinding light that produced the female in front of her as nothing more than a short silhouette. "You know why I am here."

Or at least Aera assumed that the woman in front of her knew.

"Where is it ?" The Varad girl asked about the necklace she had brought with her. "And for the love of Kad'Harangir, could you shut that light off, please. I am here for an odd favor rather than threatening the security and integrity of your 'homeland'."

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

When the bag came off the woman quickly began to spout off at the mouth about necklaces, lights, this and that and this and that. It was mildly annoying to say the least, but hey those were mandos. Sully their warrior spirit once and they were all barks and bites towards anything and everything.

"Does she sound like, Five O to you, Orange?" Blonde said with a serious look towards the man behind her.

"Maybe, we should just pop a cap into her just to be safe. You know, protect ze homeland." the man said in mocking accent for the last few words.

But before the joke could proceed further, Miss Blonde shut down the floodlights and the woman was simply standing in the center of decently light workshop where she could gaze outside the windows to see soft white sands and blue ocean for as far as the eyes could see.

"Welcome to my workshop, the necklace is over there and I've taken the liberty of having more crafted." Blonde said with a smile beneath her mask.

"So tell me soldier, what can we provide for you today?" She asked the woman in a professional voice.

[member="Aera Varad"]

 

[Zef Halo]

Before Aera could protest against the stupid jokes made by the woman's male companion, the lights were shut down and it took her a few moments before her eyes could readjust to the dim light and the newly appeared objects around her. A classical workshop. It had a cozy feeling for some reason and reminded her of Jori. He was by far more technical than her and she would almost always find him in such places back at their home. The adventurer was by far more adept and skilled with far more primitive things unlike the tech-savvy Jori.

Well that was quick, Aera thought as a response to the gas mask wearing woman in front of her but never said it.

Whoever this person was, the Mandalorian was almost sure that she had ties with the Warmaster.

"I see." Aera said as she took a glimpse of the beautiful scenery that was visible out of the workshop's window. Her love for nature's beauty was washed away by the reality and her initial purpose of ending up restrained here in the middle of nowhere. "I...I found that necklace in an abandoned...temple or something similar to a temple on Tython. So I took it to someone who might know more about it."

"I felt like replicating it and providing it to my clan as a gift, I guess." Her voice had become quite calmer and lower. She, herself, did not know why she had been motivated to do so. It just felt right. "Perhaps, it also carries a secret. I have no knowledge of the Force but I do know Tython's history. Perhaps it is a relic related to the Force, centuries old by my inspection. Even more"

The Mandalorian was seeking answers, she oddly felt attracted to the necklace and it is from there that stemmed her motivation to have that item replicated into numerous more for her clan.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Blonde had only been half way listening to the kid, she really wasn't all that interesting after all. She was a bit too busy inspecting the necklace that she found, and analyzing every little piece she could of it. It's bronze hue shined off the light above and hummed with some power through the force. It was nice, the imbuement was solid, the threads of force energy bonded to the item was strong, and it's working could be described as subtle but elegant. Whatever ancient Jedi worked this up they knew what they were doing, and they even put in a second sub program of focus. It wasn't beyond what she could do, and she could crank out a few but it was going to a task.

But two things caught Blonde's ear when she was ignoring the kid causing her body to perk slightly and become noticeably rigid . Jedi temple and Tython. It almost made her want to pull her pistol and shove it in the woman's face asking if she was working for Chen, if the man had sent her. But that was impossible, Chen was dead, she saw it with her own eyes. So shoved that thought aside and put her attention back to the necklace.

"Yeah, I can do that. Little stocking stuffer for the kids." Blonde placed the necklace down then sat up on a nearby table.

"What you're looking at here is a class two item. I'd sell it at auction for maybe thirty grand, but that's just me. You've got some force resistance on there along with a sub imbuement of enhancing focus. It's some pretty good stuff. Any special requests before we begin?" Blonde said with a genuine curiosity towards the mando.

[member="Aera Varad"]

 

[Zef Halo]

It seemed that the woman ahead of him was not much paying attention to the words of Aera but more of the necklace that the adventurer had brought with her to this woman. Just for a moment or so, the Mandalorian felt a slight trembling go throughout her body, the source of that feeling was the mysterious before her. What exactly it was, Aera was not capable enough to read and not a moment after that feeling had been gone.

Aera shifted her attention at the scenery that unfolded behind the window of the workshop, her heart desired to be out there and explore. Find out where they were. The relentless spirit to discover something new, to experience something new-

"What you're looking at here is a class two item. I'd sell it at auction for maybe thirty grand, but that's just me. You've got some force resistance on there along with a sub imbuement of enhancing focus. It's some pretty good stuff. Any special requests before we begin?" Aera's thoughts and wishes were interrupted by the criminal woman.

"Yes." The Mandalorian pointed at her own datapad that lied on the table along with the rest of her belongings. "On my datapad, there should be the symbol of my clan. Clan Varad."

A moment of silence followed before Aera nodded with a grimace.

"Thank you."

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Aera Varad"]

"Hand and design over to Orange, I'll take care of the rest. And also prepare yourself for some weirdness." Blonde said as she hopped down from her table and onto the floor.

The woman would turn back around to face the table and grab a remote that was laying on the edge of it. Taking it within her firm grasp she pointed it towards a stereo and pressed a button to activate it. A few sounds clicked and the machine started to blast a thick beat and an MC to match it laying out rhymes to it. The small little Blonde lady bobbed her gas masked head for a few moments as she walked over to where the recreated necklaces were.

Taking the little pieces of bronze she looked over to Aera and would lift a single hand out towards her. Hopefully she could use the force or this was going to get really weird for her.

"You force sensitive?" She asked with a very uncaring voice.

With her other hand filled with little bronze pendants the woman lifted them into the air with her mind and sorted the twenty pieces out one by one until they all hovered in a neat and organized row.

The process was going to be simple- well, at least simple for her. For the new comer she was going to take part in the journey to see ones true self. To gaze into the void where most none force users would never see in their entire life.

 

[Zef Halo]

Aera nodded to the shorter woman's words as she hopped from the table and onto the floor. The Mandalorian observed her actions carefully and with interest, it seemed that the necklace was truly related to the mystical powers of the Force since the criminal lady did not deny that earlier assumption by Aera.

To the sudden turned on music she simply raised an eyebrow for a moment surprised at the eccentricity of the lady before her who not long after finally removed her gas mask and the few features that Aera could capture implied that the lady was a decade or a bit more older than herself.

A hand and a question followed to which the Mandalorian answered hesitantly:

"I don't think I am."

She's been often complimented for her reflexes whether in the cockpit or on the field, some even went to exagerrate that she anticipated things before they could happen. Aera herself believed that all that was due to her hard work and probably a dose of talent. (( She is sensitive but unaware.))

What intrigued her more was not her hesitance over her answer but at the hovering necklaces and the ripple feeling she felt for just a moment.

It was the first time she saw someone using the Force freely in front of her.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

"Well this will be fun then, hold on to your butt." Blonde said as her hand tightened into a fist and in that instance everything changed.

All light had left and everything went black. There was nothing and nobody and Aera could look around and see that. But then slowly everything started to come into view, one by one the room started to fill with shapes that blurred at first and soon came into focus. She was in the workshop but everything was just slightly different, everything was clearer in a way. The girl could see the man who brought her in, but rather than a man in a black suit she'd be able to see him as a grey lighted outline of himself emitting a dull light.

But what stood out from everything was the original necklace she had found on Tython. She could see the power of the force flowing around it, the threads of energy that bonded itself to the object. It was certainly something to look at.

"Beautiful isn't it." A voice rang out and soon what was once Miss Blonde appeared to the woman.

Now dressed in a hot red dress and long styled blonde hair, the woman spoke with an entirely different voice as red and blue energies clashed around her being.

"When you see things through the force, you see them for what they are. What they really are, no masks, no lies, only the truth of what defines someone. So here's the real me. It's as they say, everything is everything. Take a moment to adjust and when you're ready we may begin." Patricia smiled at the girl then would start prepping by laying out the bronze necklaces through the air.
[member="Aera Varad"]

 

[Zef Halo]

The Mandalorian grabbed the free hand of the criminal lady... and nothing happened. Despite the woman's warning, nothing seemed to happen. Aera blinked once, then twice and still nothing happened. At least not until she blinked a third time when darkness remained even after she had opened her eyes. Instinctively, as if in a dream, the adventurer would force blink rapidly in succession until the darkness disappeared, replaced by the workshop.

The workshop indeed but the actual workshop.

It felt eye opening. An odd feeling bothered her within. As if she had just awoken from a blurry dream, as if everything she had heard, seen and touched before was just a dream. Something unreal. The feeling also had a familiar feel to it, it felt just like those risky and life-threatening moments during various battles she had been in, be it in the cockpit or out of it.

The sarcastic bafoon that brought her in earlier with a black bag on her face was nothing more than a silhouette of light that at first startled the young Mandalorian but then the odd feeling engulfed her calming her down, assuring her that this was reality.

It was the mingling of blue and red colors that danced around at the periphery of her vision that took her attention away from inspecting the light that the man seemed to produce. A voice rang out from the woman with a red dress around which blue and red light tangled with each other, a voice completely different from the gas mask wearing woman before.

Yet, Aera just knew that this was her.

The adventurer listened in awe at what the woman before her explained and she suddenly felt overwhelmed. The feeling once again rushed like a riptide within her to cleanse her worries, to cleanse the stress. An urge of determination pumped from her heart and into her veins.

"I am ready." She said with a determined grimace. Questions would come later.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Aera Varad"]

"I sense something in you, child. You have something there, it's not much but it's there. So If it ever matures you'll have a little trick to take home." Patricia said as she walked through ethereal mist at her feet until she stood in front of the necklaces.

"When imbuing an object you need to remove yourself from it, your aura, your essence." Patricia would speak then close her eyes letting herself take control through the force.

The woman would then start the process of shrinking her aura, her presence in the force would wind down as if it were a hunk of clay and she was working it down, molding it and shrinking it until it was next to nothing. The blue and red energies would start to vanish until there was nothing but pure energy around her. No personal touches of power, no unique signature, just a living soul and the force that surrounded it.

"Now that we have removed all personal presences we can take this raw energy and work it without our aura be it light or dark tainting the working. I want you to reach out and grab the energy, hold it within you." Patricia spoke plainly now she was a beacon now, an instrument of the force to craft and shape it as she saw fit.

 

[Zef Halo]

Aera's sight would blur every now and then as if the view of how the workshop was before wanted to push away what she was seeing now. It was annoying for her senses and it felt disconnecting. When the lady before her spoke it seemed to reinforce the connection she had with this dimension and the Mandalorian concentrated her will upon the lady and nothing else.

"I sense something in you, child. You have something there, it's not much but it's there-"

The adventurer did not listen to what the lady spoke after that, she felt the winds of change burst within her, the light of epiphany shine upon her as she came to the realization of what this could mean.

The Force.

Life as it is.

Behind the thousands of facades people would put in front of their personas, the Force obliterated them all. It was simple. It showed everything as it was, no deception. If there was mirror in front of her, Aera would probably startle at what she would see. Her numerous thoughts and questions that showered her mind were washed away as the blue and red energies surrounding the criminal woman before her dispersed and were replaced by a soothing white aura. Aera once again forced her will at the woman, the woman that she was brought to via a black bag on her head and a lot of tackling was now the anchor of her stay in this place.

"Now that we have removed all personal presences we can take this raw energy and work it without our aura be it light or dark tainting the working. I want you to reach out and grab the energy, hold it within you."

"What is this ?" She asked both in awe and in confusion.

Yet before she could hear the answer, Aera's mind shifted from the woman before her towards the energy that she was to grab. She would do it softly, caring rather than aggressively and viciously. It just felt right that way.

One thing materialized in her head and one thing only - the symbol of her clan.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Aera Varad"]

Patricia now being that instrument nodded at the woman and approved of her, she was learning well and she was catching on to the power. Now Miss Blonde had never been one to have raw power like Keira or James, channeling the force into raw bursts of physical force and rage to make them stronger. No, Patricia was a crafter, she was a builder of monuments and structures of power be them tools or weapons. Her true power was her mind and the ability to gift that power to others.

"Gather." the woman let out a single word and soon things changed once more.

All around them the woman would be able to see the ethereal. The arcane energies of the force flow through the ground around their ankles like water running through a river. The force did indeed flow all around them, but Patricia had gathered a collection of energy down bellow their feet to let it cascade and congregate.

"Your image, when I tell you to make it so, do it." the woman closed her eyes and would prepare herself by taking deep breaths, this was going to be the crappy part.

"Form it in your mind, in your heart, in the force. let it be one with you then let it be known to the Galaxy."

 

[Zef Halo]

The outlandish energies twirled and played all around them, dancing to patterns dictated by the imbuer - the criminal lady. This was the Force, there was nothing else it could be. Witnessing the Force and feeling it were too separate things but both were equally staggering.

The criminal lady's mouth opened and Aera barely heard the words coming out of her mouth before things swiftly changed once again as the energies were once again dictated by the commands of the Force using woman before her.

When the woman spoke once again, Aera heard and even felt the seriousness behind what she had said.

"Form it in your mind, in your heart, in the force. Let it be one with you then let it be known to the Galaxy."

From the bottom of her heart and soul she shouted. A silent shout unheard by ears but heard by those touched by the Force.

A white light engulfed her and exploded with highlights of blue and red around her.

Aliit Varad!!

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Aera Varad"]

With the river of energy at her feet the woman lifted her hands and began to gather into her. She had done this once before so doing it again wasn't going to be incredibly difficult. The power of Force Resistance was taught to any force user worth their own weight, and it was something she'd had to perfect with her life living in two personas.

With the wispy energies in her hands she set them forward and started to craft something out of them. Though it was shapeless at first it all slowly began to come in brick by brick. The woman was building a literal castle in front of them, a shield of mental energy that stretched the entire length of the hovering necklaces.

"Force Resistance! You need to be strong in your own mind, you can't let them hurt you when they attack it! You need to be able to fight it push it back! Your mind needs to be a fortress of traps and walls! It's your head, so it's your rules!" the woman yelled to the woman as she continued to rapidly expend energy to form the barrier of resistance.

The woman continue this for a few seconds until the fort was complete and she looked more than a little tired. It wasn't as bad as before but summoning a mental barrier of that size was difficult for someone of her size. When Aera would gaze upon it she'd be able to see its complexity, it's layers of defense and walls that stretched upwards. Turrets and other fixtures of mental imagery that matched that of a highly advanced fortification.

"I need you to focus now, I need you to feel the fort's energy and let your clans symbol lose on it. Let that energy that is Varad into it and claim this as your own. Be the warrior you are and take it." the woman said as she took a deep breath of air.

 

[Zef Halo]

As time passed in this dimension, Aera seemed to get more and more comfortable with what was happening. Her initial awe-stricken mind was replaced with an endless desire to learn. To know more about the Force. The criminal before her continued with acting as a conductor for the energies around them that followed her guidance as if they hypnotized.

"Force Resistance! You need to be strong in your own mind, you can't let them hurt you when they attack it! You need to be able to fight it push it back! Your mind needs to be a fortress of traps and walls! It's your head, so it's your rules!"

This was probably an instruction rather than a motivational speech but it seemed to work both ways quite well. The Mandalorian's spirits were lifted high in the sky and she saw the fortress that the woman was creating through the energies that danced around them.

Can't...

Let...

Them...

Hurt...

You...

Her mind tossed her into rigorous training back on the Demolisher, a vessel that served as one of the few home ships for clan Varad back in the Tamarin sector. Punches thrown, kicks tossed, pain, fall down, stand up again, elbow, pain, blood, hit the ground, stand up again. Pain. A lot of pain. Yet, only physical.

"Come on little girl, you prove me how worthless you are once again?" A voice rang in her head. A familiar voice of a long gone Mandalorian 'drill sergeant.'

She felt a tear roll down her cheek. Was it here and now are back so many years ago.

Pain. A lot of pain. Yet, physical.

Words hurt much more.

Can't...

Let...

Them...

Hurt...

You...

Her mind hurled her down on memory lane once again.

Fingers scratched to the bone, pain, torn clothing, wounds pulsating all over, pain, the desire to succeed, pain, the will to survive and continue, pain. Yet, only physical.

"Help, I'm slipping!!" Aera heard her voice from around. She felt eyes gazing on her, familiar eyes and then a familiar voice that followed them.

"Sorry, Aera, only the first three will be granted status as a scout and sent on the upcoming mission."

"What-"

"I cannot miss the chance. Every man for himself."

"But..but...I helped you.." She felt the tears gathering within her eyes and her grasp loosening. Yet, the pain within her chest was what ate her from within.

She let go.

Free fall.

Weightless.

...

...

...

"Can't let them hurt you, do you understand ?!" Rarely could he be heard talking with such fierce emotion but his voice would forever be known by Aera.

Jori Varad.

"...this race claim it as your own."

"BE THE WARRIOR YOU ARE AND TAKE IT." Jori's voice mixed with that of the woman as Aera returned back to where she was, bustling with energy that wanted to explode.

And it did.

Focus.

She remembered the criminal's words.

Focus.

The exploding blast of energy was slowly but successfully narrowed down into a more precise riptide of ethereal. Moving it around with her mind, the energy would slowly create a fortress.

A broken one, an abandoned one.

To lure them in to her traps.

And traps did she make in abundance fueled by her imagination and her experiences in abandoned places.

She would lure those that desire to enter, feinting weakness only to bring them to their doom.



[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Patricia watched as the child far surpassed her expectations, and she was damn impressed. The woman didn't just summon her own source of energy, she erected her own shield of mental energy. This one was special and she'd need to keep an eye on her. So when the woman reached out to the powers that be and crafted her mental fortress the woman watched as it lay beside her own.

And while hers was certainly better and more robust, the smaller clan Varad fort did something that Patricia wasn't expecting. It started to dissolve into her own, amplifying its power and becoming one. But it didn't stop there, the child's unique energy began to spread into it and take over her own working of force resistance. It was no longer a working of pure force energy, it was one that was uniquely Varad, one that embodied that pain and struggle, that Mandalorian pride that would honor their ancestors and family. It was something that she had never seen before.

But with the power of resistance amplified the woman decided now was as good as any to push that energy into the necklaces. With one hand she dropped her working and held it in place with other, now with her hand's new freedom she began to assemble the threads and bridges to connect the two through the force.

"PUSH!" She yelled as the bridges formed.

Taking her willpower she balled it into her hand and started to shove pieces of Fort Varad into each and every necklace, each one absorbing pieces of the fort in an attempt to keep the power contained inside it.

[member="Aera Varad"]

 

[Zef Halo]

The energies that flowed around them shifted as Aera put her whole will behind the imbuement. Pure, clear energies now had their own signature, a battle-hardened signature of a Mandalorian clan. The energies built together the fort that both were attempting to shape, constructing walls, traps, gates, bricks. All fortified completely with the power of will. The power to resist. Her immersion with the Force was becoming deeper and deeper, it felt great but it also felt suffocating.

"PUSH!"

The criminal woman's words awoke her and she felt slightly losing control of the Force but at least she was pulled back from drowning into the river of the ethereal. Her focus back to her but the stupendous feeling was gone, replaced by fatigue. Yet, she pushed as she was commanded. Aera's knuckles were becoming white, she knew it as she strained herself to push once more together with the woman in front of her.

To stamp Fort Varad upon these necklaces.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Patricia giving one last push shoved the energies of force imbuement into the necklaces and let out a tired sigh afterwards, the process was of course an exhausting one and she did quite enjoy watching herself become better and less tired during the process. But with the energies of the working temporarily put away Patricia would have the kid relax as she finished off the imbuement process herself, she had done enough.

"Relax kid, I got this." Blonde said as she took in a deep breath.

This was going to be a first for her, two enchantments on one item. She was confident that her powers had grown enough to be able to handle it, but just in case she had her obsidian order ring on standby to give her that extra push of force energy as an emergency reserve. She'd make sure the kid got what she wanted and they could continue a healthy business relationship through the future.

Taking one last deep breath the woman lifted her hands and let the force flow through her. Picturing what she wanted in her mind she focused in, and that was exactly what she wanted. Focus. Using the power around her to augment her own focus she let that working shape in her mind then let it flow out through her fingertips and out towards the necklaces.

Straining slightly it didn't take her long to bind the energies together and finish the job of putting said powers into the necklaces.

But now that they were finished the force sight vanished and the two were back in the workshop with Miss Blonde back in her mask and on the floor on her hands and knees taking deep breaths.

[member="Aera Varad"]