Private Force of Nature

[Laertia Io]

Wearing: Chitin of Darth Xiphos

Armed with: Momentary Discomfort

Objective: Set up underground House Io outpost at Hoth.


Xiphos rested in her bed in her main quarters aboard her massive Warship, The Leviathan of Sev Tok. She was alone, save for the crew aboard. The Artificial Mind installed on the ship ran most things.

Her quarters, slightly larger than that of the average crew, but just as Utilitarian were it not for photos of her family placed about.

It had been days since her sons and daughters had cleared out a First Order Outpost at Hoth. The inhabitants had fought brutally to the very end but they had been overwhelmed, and Xiphos had acquired another piece of the Map to Khemost.

She was so close she could taste it. The Lost Treasure World of The Sith would soon be hers...

The Alarm hit and Xiphos got out of bed tiredly, exercised, showered her pale, scarred body, and then put on a black, utilitarian body glove and slipped into her dark blue living Armor and then made her way through the ships passages to her personal hangar.

Along the way, she spotted some of the Organic House Io Citizens doing repairs on a blown out power junction. They spotted her and stood at attention as soon as she appeared.

"Greetings, Matriarch!" one of them said.

"Greetings..." Xiphos said politely. Organic Citizens were circulated in and off the ship, partly to learn how to work together, since many came from various backgrounds and social strata, partly to get hands on experience working with and learning how to fix cutting edge technology, and lastly, to learn the ins and outs of House Io's culture from the Model 1's, first of her children.

House Io had a very different mindset from most.

"Citizen, I see you are carrying a fusion torch." Xiphos said. "If you wanted to kill someone with that device in close quarters, display how you would do it. Try it on me."

The Citizen raised an eyebrow, and then activated the Fusion Torch, ducked low and went for her joint at the top of her thigh to try and disable her, then drive the torch flare up ward.

Xiphos caught the action, neatly side stepped it, then, gently but firmly got his arm around his back, gripping his wrist at a specific point to drop the torch.

"Hmmm, good attempt, but ducking was unnecessary. A straight forward attack to my chest or face would have better served you. Best to aim center mass in close quarters, , especially since the armor makes me a larger target. If you must go low, attacking my leg would have been a far better strategy."

She released him, having not hurt him.

"The next time I see you, attack me without warning, use any common tool you can think of."

"Yes! Thank you, Matriarch!" he said.

"Continue..." she replied.

Xiphos headed to her personal Micro-Warship, The Shadow Bride, and once she was in the cockpit, she lifted off from the deck, to go to the zone being cleared out by the Model 2's, who were busy digging deeper and deeper, adding structural supports to the tunnels they made as they did.

Not even as she neared the surface did she pick up the traces of Naivia Neryn , because she was too far away. In any case, despite being well armed, she wasn't looking for a fight, only to oversee the operation

My sons... she called out using her Technopathy as she finally landed. So good to finally be amongst you...

Xiphos stepped off the ship, Lightsaber Spear in hand and headed to the entrance of the excavation, where tools and monitoring equipment were being ferried in.

"Anything strange?" She asked the Nuetralizer Model 2 at the entrance.

"Nothing so far! Why?"

"Got an odd feeling. Keep an eye out..."

"You bet, Mom!" The hulking, skeletal machine replied enthusiastically, saluting.

Xiphos headed into the entrance to survey the work being done...

 

[Naivia Neryn]

[]

"A world devoid of a warm heart cannot live and grow for too long.."

Neryn whispered softly, causing hot steam to arise before her.
The girl was wearing a warm, darkish cloak with designs of ancient civilizations on it. It helped her control the circulation of blood and heat throughout her body.

Around her were ice sculptures of nature in all shapes and sizes. Snow-white fields like a blanket hugged the planet on all sides, hiding its deepest secrets from the view of intelligent beings.
The girl could feel the movement of the slabs beneath her feet... The changing directions of the wind... It was as if her body had become one with the planet's ecosystem...

Arriving here in a Barloz-class Freighter as a solitary tourist, Neryn soon got used to the cold and chilling winds that roamed the expanse of Hoth. Everything felt too familiar to her... As if she'd been here a long time ago... But not as a person... Not as an organism... but as an element... Like a ruler... As some organised part of the chaos of the universe...

Her warm hands touched the small hills, the stones, the statues. She quietly walked the earth, listening with her inner spirit to every little source of thoughts, feelings, visions, nightmares... And with it, she felt a voice deep within her.

She had been acquainted with it for years, and knowing this, she could never understand the full essence of the thoughts that this being transmitted directly to her brain.

"The cold was once and probably will become a haven for my soul... My spiritual body... "

Singing fire said...

The girl only smiled sweetly and as soon as a shadow was near her, she sought to reassure him and added with a cute giggle
"Even ancient manifestations of power like you sometimes want to rest! "
And continued walking with the hood covering the top of her head...

A strange aura could be felt coming from her with every fibre of ones body for hundreds of miles away... There was no room for anger... no humility... no power... no simplicity... There was something extraterrestrial, at it's core connected to the stars, time and Force itself... Something primordial.
Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

Every Model 2 was using their massive strength to clear out any debris created from their digging into the snow. It was a large enough tunnel that Xiphos could move about freely in it even when the towering Model 2's were working carefully. Organic Citizens of House Io installed the structural supports, wearing the House's Stock Environmental Bastion Suit, dark blue or green Armor with a built in rebreather and hooded duster.

They were storing stolen treasure from the Fallen tenth Sith Empire. Weapons, contraband from storehouses on abandoned Sith planets. Lots of First Order Weaponry had been recently seized also, due to their own collapse.

Xiphos had once been a Jedi Shadow. She had broken with the Jedi Order over her deep belief that a Genocidal Race of monsters known as the Bryn'adul were a greater threat than the Sith Empire which had been crumbling from a devastating Civil War. Rather than assist the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance, she had instead joined forces with the Sith, particularly her homicidally insane Witch Mentor (At least, what she had believed to be her mentor) who she had once sworn to kill, and later roped in her one time rival, a former Jedi Shadow turned Bounty Hunter suffering from a degenerative form of Schizophrenia. They had fought to sabotage the Jedi's efforts to destroy the Sith in Laertia's desperate attempt to force the Major powers to focus on The Bryn'adul.

It hadn't exactly worked out. The Empire toppled. The Bryn'adul had been crushed, but only after uncountable billions lay dead.

But Xiphos had fully established House Io, in spite of everything. Made up of her own Droid Soldiers, the Nuetralizers and refugees from destroyed worlds who believed as Xiphos did: that the Order left those people to die at the hands of the Bryn'adul to settle their feud with the Sith. They were more sore and vengeful about it than even she was.

Xiphos had assisted when possible--she was a lead-from-the-front sort. She had telekinetically lifted debris for particularly tricky areas.

She spotted one of her newest creations, a General Purpose Nuetralizer Model 1 busily itemizing or categorizing what pieces of gear went where, wearing a dark blue armorweave catsuit. She spotted Xiphos.

"Creator! You're here! I-I'm Rebecca, The Quarter Master. We took the loot seized from Zakuul and stored it in the deepest chamber that was coated with reflec as you requested and we're nearly done offloading the DC Rifles..." Rebecca said excitedly. Xiphos, clad in her terrifying dark blue living armor, nodded.

"You inspected the rifles personally?" Xiphos asked.

"Oh yes, all are in working condition. The LE series was separated from the bunch as usual. The Model 3's can't seem to get enough of those..." Rebecca answered. "We also found something. Some kind of Statue...buried in the ice."

"Feth my life..." Xiphos swore. "Did it do anything funny? Make your teeth tingle?"

"Nothing like that. Here, it's best I show you. Follow me please."

Xiphos followed Rebecca down an ice tunnel into a freshly hollowed out storage room coated in Reflec, a scan proof material.

Xiphos however stopped. The Force Presence she sensed was massive. Terrifying in strength. What was that?

"Creator?" Rebecca asked innocently.

"N-nothing...young one... nothing..." Xiphos said, shaken before going to examine the statue.

It was the size of and shape of a human arm grasping a massive, glowing green Kyber shining with the Force. Xiphos, curious, reached out to touch it.

(Cutaway of J Jonah Jameson laughing uncontrollably)

The instant she did, she felt a charge travel through her body, and down to the floor.

A portal opened up beneath her, and she yelled, tumbling through it.

"Creator!" Rebecca said in a panic leaping after her.

They both fell over a ten meters and Xiphos grabbed Rebecca, hugging her close to shield her from the sudden impact.

The armor impacted on the stones, and Xiphos was stunned, but otherwise unharmed.

"Are you alright, young one?" Xiphos asked helping Rebecca up before herself.

"I'm fine creator. What happened?"

"I was a dumbass... that's what happened. Damn thing teleported us..." Xiphos muttered before she noticed Naivia Neryn a dozen meters. She froze realizing in her was that strange, Ancient presence.

"Hey, uh, excuse me? Where are we?" Xiphos called out. "Are we still on Hoth?"

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"You know, for as long as I can remember before I met you, I always felt like the galaxy had been explored to my heart's content...So many lost nights,
so many languid days and hours I spent all alone in front of an open book filled with the knowledge of the past."

A warm approving voice was heard in response
"That sets you apart from most mortals. Some are at once drawn to know everything not by the mind but by the touch. Some are at once want to be intellectually and spiritually independent.
I have seen billions if not trillions of endless unique destinies in the history of creation... And where did they all end up? They turned into precious dust - the soul of the cosmos... the consciousness
of the cosmos... the form of all things... that's what they became after so much loss and triumph... And you sought through knowledge to embrace the entire horizon... And I'm glad that you didn't
succeed and you were able to realize it Nerin..."

The girl's heart beat more joyfully in response and increasing her stride a little, she continued her speech while her sugar white hair fluttered in the wind...

"The galaxy was many times bigger... larger... and simpler at the same time... Among some 400 billion star systems known to us I found myself in the one where I met my first guide to reality. And it was you, you weren't afraid to teach me, you didn't laugh at my ridiculous views on culture and life.
You gave me a chance to become a person with inner peace and for that I am grateful."

The girl held in one hand a small necklace on which were printed the names of the family she came from

"But in between, you still long for the past...Even though your wisdom and knowledge made you a scientific sun you remained in the flesh and blood of the past like any other human being...
Perhaps I can never separate you from all mortals and help you to love the whole world...as I love it. But as long as your heart and soul accept
an inveterate old man like me! Though it is ridiculous to say so. Then I will help and protect you."

"Just let's not blow up entire planetary systems, okay? Mr Romantic."

The girl laughed sweetly, enjoying the almost surreal silence and music of the time in which this planet was formed...
The girl could see not only into the past, but also feel the sparks of the future... Filled with the hope of a better life... As always.

It was at that moment she felt the sound of the landing. She glanced around cautiously and saw a group of people lying in the cold snow.
Her first impulse was to walk over and help them up, but when she heard the question the girl hesitantly stepped forward and replied

"Y-yes of course it's Hoth! Can I help you? You look a little shocked."

"Right away you run to help...can't you see who's in front of you?"
The creature asked in his head.
"I don't care about your mental reflections! If they need help, I will do it" Neryn replied in her mind
Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

"Oh, uh, that would be well appreciated..." Xiphos said, while Rebecca stared at Naivia Neryn in curiosity. What was such a lifeform doing out here in such inhospitable wastes?

Xiphos...hesitantly...walked up to her. There was no reason to think the woman in front of her had been the cause of what happened, but Xiphos hadn't survived four major factions hunting her by being incautious.

"My name is Io. Laertia Io."

(Clip of Bond Theme Plays)

Rebecca was just unnatural enough to hear the OOC (Out of Character) music, craning her head about in confusion before refocusing on the strange woman. Laertia heard it also, for entirely different reasons due to mental instability, but pretended not to.

"Me and my associate had a funny thing happen to us, touching a Force Relic--"

"Creator, you touched the Force Relic..." Rebecca pointed out helpfully.

"Yes, Rebecca, I touched the Force Relic, and you leapt after me once I fell through..." Xiphos said rolling her eyes under her helmet. "That's how we ended up here...

Xiphos kept her movement and posture as non threatening as possible, Rebecca silently followed Xiphos's lead.

"We have been dumped far from where we were initially..." Xiphos explained. Rebecca was fiddling with her comlink but wasn't getting a signal.

"I don't suppose you might have an idea of where we are exactly, on Both at the moment. May I ask your name? What brought you out here to these snowy wastes?"

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn smiled sweetly in response and replied
"Very pleased to meet you Laertia Io ! My name is Naivia Neryn!
I would say that your ship is indeed quite far away,
about 1,000 kilometres to the east. I travel through the galaxy by the will of the force
and on a personal mission to discover this reality. "I'm a loner, shall we say, but a loner
with meaning!"

The girl was utterly relaxed and was not at all frightened neither by the sight of the still alien
or the strangeness of the situation that was unfolding before her eyes.

"Neryn, should I support your actions now or not? I can't tell if you are irrational or if you are acting according to some
distant to me rules of helping logic in times of emergency or abnormal situations!"

Neryn remained silent and added a few more sentences

"The nearest abandoned village is 12 kilometres away, I can help you get there and give you water and good and keep you warm."

The heart of the girl wanted to find a way, through simple human actions, to help a group of interesting life-forms who by a stupid mistake had found themselves in forgotten huge desert on the surface of Hoth.

 

[Laertia Io]

"Ah, a loner, you say...but with meaning..." Xiphos said, stepping forward a little more confidently.

"Your offer is generous, stranger..." Xiphos said. "There is interference with my com-link. This village might be in a clear airspace."

"I don't need water, but thank you very much for your offer of it..." Rebecca said earnestly. "I'm...a type of HRD (Human Replica Droid) that's made for weather like this. My creator's armor also has vast protection against the elements, though even she gets hungry."

Xiphos sensed no deception from either part of Naivia Neryn .

She was relieved. She worked with psychopaths, murderers of every stripe, and other forms of insanity so often she feared she was going nose blind to it. It was actually a relief to run into someone super powerful like this who didn't want them dead. Someone who was reasonable...

"We would both be glad to have your company as we trek through these snowy wastes..." Xiphos said. "And when my friends find me, we shall remember the aid you rendered. I never forget those I owe favors to." Xiphos said sincerely.

She began walking with Naivia, following her lead. Rebecca followed soon after, armed only with a deadly Ion Relic Pistol, a standard side arm for her Droid Line. This one was played in green chrome, with white pearl grips that displayed a green shield with a black helm at the center.

"You say you have found purpose..." Xiphos said to make conversation as she walked. "May I ask what set you on your journey? Did it bring you...peace?"

Peace seemed a foreign concept to her these days. There were times she felt trapped by her choices. Trapped in a deadly crucible the universe had concocted specifically for her.

She missed having been a simple failed stage Magician doing cheap tricks with cards and rabbits at children's birthday parties. Missed her rabbits. Missed her older, happier life, before the Jedi forced her to choose between keeping that life or her principles. She had chosen her convictions without batting an eye. She wondered if she would still do the same, if she could go back.

She missed genuinely being Laertia Io. But her rage at what the Order had done always won out over her nostalgia in the end...

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn was glad that Laertia Io was not frightened, not angry and reacted calmly in general to her question.

The girl walked rather slowly, all the while listening to the thousands of different sounds, hisses, howls filled with specific information that the girl was taking
and reversed to chart a faster and safer path to the old village.

"Yes of course...Perhaps we should start a little before the journey itself. I come from the most influential House of Naivians of the planet Brentaal IV. I was born
as an unofficial child between the Head of the Family, my father Naivius Sage, and the President of the Brentaal IV Planetary Academy of Sciences, my mother Saisheera Vage.
My dad had many companies and trades ranging from transporting precious metals and building medium to large spaceships to
building implants, private droids to protect the wealthy and science labs where research was done for the good of House Naivia. My brothers...
and sisters treated me harshly, beat me, laughed at my anti-sociality and generally tried to make me feel like an outsider in their family.
I spent my childhood and teenage years alone, hidden from my family and with the help of servants in the arms of deep knowledge.
I tried to understand how the world works, what it is made of, why we live and so on. I learned a lot: from Philosophy, Fine Arts, History, Architecture and
Literature to Economics, Sociology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy and Military Science and much more."

The girl was silent for a moment, trying to be more precise...

"But no matter how genius I was, the family feared that I would become the next head and so they made sure I lost all privileges and ties with them.
I ended up on the street... surrounded by reality. The kind of harsh reality I had only read about in books and at most imagined in my dreams.

The girl sighed emotionally, swallowing the lump in her throat and added

"For now on, I won't say anything about the horrors I have gone through... to get to where I started on my real path. I had already travelled around many systems and found myself in a mysterious place,
I can't remember the name now, where absolutely every atom, molecule, cell, quark spoke to me of the terrible catastrophe that had occurred there, everything was filled with
such a chilling energy that I would have ended my life there if not for the will of the Force... I can't exactly explain it to you. But on that mysterious planet
I found the meaning of life. A being who made space and time itself ready to tear and twist into unknown forms was lonely like me
and needed a friend and support. I became his friend, and in return he promised to teach me to love and understand the Force in all its forms of manifestations.
And now I travel the galaxy, with him, and learn the ways of the Force."

 

[Laertia Io]

Naivia Neryn 's answer struck a deep chord with Xiphos. So...she knew what it was like to live on the street also. Except she had had a family who had utterly rejected her, made her miserable.

Xiphos, who needed her family like dying people in the desert need water, found Neryn's suffering in this regard absolutely ghastly.

Her well read nature was also intriguing...the young woman was built for success, yet had been dealt a rotten hand at first...only to find a meaning in the Force that Xiphos couldn't any longer.

Naivia's story struck such a chord with her as she walked that Xiphos began recounting her own history.

"My parents were Jedi. A Sith named Darth Phyre was hunting them to get to me when I was still only a baby..." Xiphos began. "They used some sort of magic on the ship I was inside of, caused it to make a slow hyperspace jump hundreds of years into the future that deposited me in this era more than thirty years prior."

"I ended up having to survive on the streets of Nar Shaddaa as a child, until I was recruited by what I thought was a Jedi Shadow. I...I..."

I loved her, came the terrible thought in the back of her mind.

"I later found out she wasn't a Jedi. She thought she was but she was a lie, constructed by something evil hiding inside of her that was actually in control. A Sith Witch from the same cult founded by the one that murdered my parents."

That was only part of it. Everything else after that got even crazier.

"A lot of bad stuff happened afterward..." Xiphos said. "Too much bad stuff..."

Rebecca seemed enchanted by the snowy landscape, gazing about in wonder as her light brown hair was rustled by the wind...

As they walked, something seemed to move beneath the snow behind them...

Rebecca heard the sound, turning, but spotted nothing.

"Something the matter, young one?" Xiphos asked.

"No..." Rebecca said after a moment, though she clutched her pistol a little tighter as she walked.

A dozen somethings began to move, displacing the snow as they followed the trio...but quietly...

 

[Naivia Neryn]

In response Nerin silently took the girl's hand and with her eyes closed said...

"Breathe easy...It's alright... "

Neryn's hand was warm, thousands of soothing, clear feelings flowed through it...they were devoid of pain, despair, loss, cruelty...as if the girl was completely clean of sins...

"I.. I can hurt you a lot now and no words will ever heal what is said... This cold, I can fill it with meaning... The emptiness is one of my greatest fears..So Please... Don't let go of my hand... "

Neryn could feel with her body the blood, the experiences, the pulses of Laertia Io body and a little of Xiphos' thoughts.

She could see many things and was capable of many things, but she did not speak of them and never used them.

"Your heart needs silence, peace, love, happiness. I will do what I can, but you will be left to decide how to respond to deeds."

At this point Neryn tried to gently let go of the girl's hand, hoping that she wouldn't get hurt Neryn or worse herself at such a moment.

"It pisses me off sometimes that you can sense the future, the past and more. But you almost never use it. Why is that? "

"Everyone finds love through loss. That's why."
Whispered back to the creature and started walking a little faster.

 

[Laertia Io]

Naivia Neryn 's hand took hold of the hand of Xiphos, before she really realized it.

Poor girl...she believed Xiphos was salvageable.

Xiphos appreciated the sentiment, because she could tell it was genuine. Her old self, Laertia, hadn't met a lot of people this friendly and well meaning. Laertia had only really been able to trust the Android Caretaker she had acquired after the incident that gave her Brain Damage...out side of this living armor she was at high risk for crippling migraines and phantom pains from her cybernetic left arm.

Neryn said to her that what she needed were things like Peace and Love and Happiness. Xiphos would have liked all that too, but it just wasn't possible with her burdens. Tried to share some of her spirit too and for a moment, Xiphos was ashamed of what she knew the girl and it's Ancient Spirit might see in her mind--the betrayal of the Jedi over her personal beliefs, the deadly battles with the Galactic Alliance and New Imperial Order (She had successfully helped prevent them from conquering Ziost twice), the numerous killings of Jedi, the unhealthy attraction she harbored towards her own psychopathic monster of a Mentor The Amalgam --

Really, Xiphos had had an interesting and messed up past few years. She was even on the verge of getting married.

When the girl tried to let go, Xiphos held on for a few moments, careful not to hurt her by accident.

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, honest..." Xiphos said with genuine sincerity. "But my life has too many burdens at the moment to embrace what you suggest. I have too many enemies, and I am hunted by too many people, and I have my own people to lead, and if they are to survive beyond me... however much I might want to...I cannot afford to be truly nice..."

Xiphos let go of her hand finally and continued forward.

"But I do appreciate it, the attempt to help me. You're too nice to be a Jedi. Stay an outsider to them. You'll be happier..."

Xiphos had wished she had followed her own advice after retiring originally.

It was only a little while more to the abandoned village. Xiphos continued to walk in silence, preferring her new acquaintance to do the talking...

A few hours later.

There was something suspicious of this abandoned village. Xiphos heard no birds, and it was utterly still...

"Rebecca, please check these ruins for signs of danger..." Xiphos requested.

"At once, Creator..." Rebecca said, going ahead of them. As she checked for danger Xiphos turned to Naivia.

"When my friends find us, we'd be happy to spare you a ship in case you need somewhere warm to rest your head, Naivia."

 

[Naivia Neryn]

The girl silently felt the pulses emanating from Xiphos' body, they were filled with a whole palette of different snippets of memories...the girl's body sensations and many other details that Neryn could notice and carefully study them.

Suddenly glowing tears flowed from her eyes.
They were unusual, falling on the cold snow they disappeared in an instant like sparks in the night sky or comets flying away the horizon...

She laughed a little and said

"Those burns... Apart from the pain they can tickle.
I've never felt it or thought much about it... But even where you feel empty, there are glimpses through the cracks of consciousness. Only it won't be saving you or going back to your past. I will give you a part of yourself that is always searching, at time doubts, fears. Self as a little girl. It's probably not clear yet, but everything comes with experience! And that will come too! "

The girl looked up at the sky, which was beginning to darken, and continued on her way, talking about her various journeys through amazing worlds and her equally amazing partner...

A couple of hours later...

Neryn sat in silence surrounded by ancient buildings that still had the smell of the quiet life of the parishioners and the warmth of mothers' hugs and fathers' loving gazes...

She stoked the fire and looked around quietly, trying to calm down and stop worrying about Xiphos, whose memories were still appearing in her mind...

"Thank you very much... Although I could have found my own way... After all, this is all my new home..."

Neryn was quiet for a moment and then asked
"I have a unique suggestion... Would you like to talk to my partner? I'm sure he can help with problems less emotionally than I can."
Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

"You wish this Icy Place as your home?" Xiphos asked.

Xiphos looked around. It was so isolated...so...lonely.

They warmed themselves by a Fireplace in an abandoned home. Rebecca, being House Io's equivalent of a Protocol Droid (Even their freaking Protocol Droids were lethal!) set and kept the fire going. She had scavenged old equipment in the meantime also. Xiphos made sure to sit close to Rebecca so she wouldn't feel Isolated.

At the suggestion Naivia Neryn made about talking to her other, Xiphos was hesitant.

"Respectfully, Naivia...I think even your friend would be hard pressed to help me with my problems. There are some things even vast amounts of personal power cannot fix..."

Before she could truly decline however she sensed immense danger.

Rebecca stood up, hearing them.

"They're outside..." Rebecca said.

Xiphos clutched her silver Lightsaber Spear.

She rose. She saw a blur of white robes before she caught the swarms of flung Shurikens with telekinesis, bringing the weapons inside rather than discarding them.

More Shurikens began to rip through the structure at such speed that Xiphos was now forced to constantly deflect. Rebecca instinctively moved in front of Naivia to block her, from getting hit, getting loads of Shurikens to her chest and face. Because Rebecca was no mere HRD, but the latest in one of the most advanced line of droids in the Galaxy, she was in no danger of actually dying from these...but she bled electric blue blood as she turned into a pincushion trying to protect Naivia...

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"Listen...I've been thinking of something...Do you remember you and I being in complete symbiosis a couple of times?"
Asked in a quick and slightly nervous voice in Neryn's head

"I get your idea. Figured if using my power and your 'wisdom' we could stop the conflict. I don't know about that, but if you're willing to protect and accept
Xiphos for who she is. Then I'm willing to help you. Since apparently you can do without the lectures sometimes. Really?"

Neryn crunched her cervical vertebrae a little in response and said with a sweet smile

"It's been a while since I've had a good move!"

Neryn silently took off her cloak, exposing a white and blue dress with fiery endings and reaching up with her hands to it she calmly walked over to Xiphos and putting her hand on her shoulder said

"My partner accepts you for who you are. And I agree with him, now let me try to settle this."

At that moment, white as snowflakes and north star hair began to gradually exude a powerful power and after a couple of moments her hair half started to burn...
Half of her body was covered in a whirlwind of fire and other strange ancient signs of different colourrs and one eye lit up in three colours at once: Emerald, Purple and Gold...

Her aura took on a completely different, more peaceful and transendent character. She did not have any weapons with her, but she calmly began to walk out of the building
with complete calm and frantic manoeuvring to not get hit by shuriken and other means of attack and stepping out into the snow, which incidentally, because of the heat that the Singing Fire was giving off, almost the whole village was
stripped of its blanket of snow and was now bare in the ice and ancient dark earth.

"I ask that you cease your occupation. I respect your lives and your aspirations. I respect your heart and your souls. I respect all the pain you have suffered and I ask in return
understanding and mutual respect for my loves ones and her personal robot. I can erase her and yours memories about what happened and much more. But I want you to stop attacking someone else's life.
Because by taking one life from nature, nature will take your lives in return. Fortunately or unfortunately, everything in the universe is one and interconnected. Please understand and forgive me."

The girl bowed and her body heated up even more, causing the weapon flying at her to melt...

But that fire was more than just an aura emanating from entity, it was her own will, her own determination and love .

She was trully in state of symbiosis , Neryn and Singing Fire as one...

Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

What was attacking her was not something human. They sprang from the snow, their robes blending into it, wearing the masks of Demons. They seemed to have limitless amounts of Shurikens, and the speed with which they were tossed was astonishing, even though they all melted before even reaching her.

Naivia Neryn would here a sinister set of voices in her skull.

Such Purity. But it will not save you little one. Your flesh will make for an excellent sacrifice.

They began chanting something unholy under their breath as they tossed Shuriken after Shuriken after her, and the deadly throwing stars were encased in red flames, no longer melting from Singing Fire's power.

Xiphos, having Force Teleported out of the house, a still damaged but healing Rebecca following who still looked heavily disfigured at the moment, suspended some of the throwing stars with Telekinesis, but she couldn't stop all of them, and yelled for Naivia to dodge the ones still coming for her, not sure if she could handle the effects of the now enchanted weaponry. They also whispered hidious spells to try and Dampen the power of Naivia and Singing Fire...

Naivia had enough power that she might win, but Xiphos had fought such types as these before. Hell, she worked with these types often. They weren't big on peace or kindness. Naivia was too nice for her own good, but Xiphos wanted to give her the respect of trying to solve the problem her way. If it didn't, then there was always Xiphos's option...

Rip and Tear, until it is Done.

("BFG Division" by Mick Gordon Plays)

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"As you can see... Your way is not too familiar to them... "Why don't you give me full control of the situation...? "

"Another fanatic... You want my body to overheat from your abnormal flame. А! Maybe you want another repeat of what happened on that planet! When you turned the whole planet into a dwarf star! No thanks! Don't forget, like these lovely creatures said, I'm made of meat and blood, not waves of cosmic force... I'll have to do something forbidden. I hope I will survive... "

The fire on the girl's body and hair began to cool, but her other eye also lit up with the three colours of space.

In Xiphos' mind at that moment Neryn's voice rang out
"It's dangerous for my life, but please don't touch me for a moment... If this works out... It's like they will forget about everything to do with us"

The girl let a pair of enchanted shurekens strike her body...At that moment she felt an immense pain and raising her hands in two opposite directions began to channel streams of pain into her hands , and from her hands into the edges of the village... Surrounding the whole village with this energy of pain...
So that space and time began to flow many times slower...
It was very difficult for the girl's body... But her mind, guided by the singing fire, had already begun to draw special symbols in the mental space... This space was outlined with lines of pain, within which were particles of the force entity...
All those beings who were in and around the village were open to the ancient symbols... Their subconscious mind read the commands of the symbols... which the girl drew in her head...
A sense of warmth... Cold... Pain... was completely gone... She was in a trance...Alone...Misdraw the mental boundaries of the symbols and she could lose control of the passage of time in that area... And then something terrible would happen...

When the figures were finally all ready the girl used the rest of the negative power inside to create an energetic orb that channeled across the mental field through each of the creatures...

It disconnected their minds for a while, letting them loose consciousness , erasing not only the memory in their heads but space inside village.to by completely deleting. any information and matter related to her, the robot and Xiphos. Replacing it with not real living memories and giving them a reason to move on when they came to their senses...

In an instant, time and space began to flow normally... All the shurikens disappeared... There was no trace of the scars... It was as if the fight had never happened...
The girl collapsed abruptly on the remains of the snow, breathing heavily... Dizzy, a little nauseous...

"I... I... Did..It.. God... I'm alive... "

Tears streamed from her eyes, which returned to their former fiery colour..
She was crying out of happiness..

She saved three lives+1.. Who was hugging. Her soul with happiness..
Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

Xiphos had seen some impressive, deadly stuff, but this was rare. That entity inside of her was powerful...it was a miracle it wasn't some Demon from Chaos, and that it's host wasn't some bloodthirsty psychopath. It could have killed them all. It was at the Level of The Bendu, maybe even a little past that.

If she could destroy... could she restore?!

There were a lot of worlds completely ravaged by the Bryn'adul, terraformed into something only they could live on.

If the girl's friend could be enlisted to help undo that damage...it might save a lot of lives.

She was too nice to be a House Io Citizen, however...maybe a tertiary ally? They could provide her protection, a place to hide...and then she could go and use her power to something truly beneficial...saving lives.

Xiphos, much as she still believed it necessary, was haunted by what she had done at Rhand.

Xiphos scooped her up.

"Rebecca...let's get her near the fire and out of this cold..."

Ten minutes later...

They kept Naivia Neryn close to the set up fire, with a pillow beneath her head. Rebecca had been preparing an emergency ration kit she had discovered in the basement...and had found an old Energy Shield in the process, clipping it to the weakened Naivia's forearm in case unforseen danger struck, handing her a bottle of water from the kit to keep her strength up. Xiphos had slipped out of her armor, deciding to risk the migraine. A snow pale woman with midnight hair and a scarred face but still incredibly beautiful sat in a meditative position across from her.

"Naivia...your friend, Singing Fire...he ever try and heal a planet?" Xiphos asked.

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn spent the next ten minutes in a state of flight over the abyss.
As this was the second time in her life, many of her body organs and the blood that oxygenated them had not yet been able to
fully adapt to the new friend that the girl had made and with whom she was now united in body and soul.

Sweat ran down her pale face, but her hands were warm. Singing Fire warmed the girl as best he could so that she would not fall ill or God forbid
lose consciousness from such a sudden release of a dangerous amount of energy for a mortal.

She breathed softly, silently surveying everything that was going on with her fiery eyes...Everything was so blurry, there was Rebecca...And there was Xiphos...
Different circles around their faces while she couldn't see everything exactly...But the girl was glad that she had been able to save their lives.

Her heart gradually began to beat naturally and her nervous and other systems recovered rather quickly.

Soon the pain, nausea, vomiting and blurred sense of space was gone. Her skin returned a healthy milky colour and the girl was left to just lie there and not move particularly.
She looked at Xiphos and surprised that she hadn't seen her full beauty silently stared into the filled
scratches and cuts on Xiphos' pale face for a couple of minutes.
"You're so mystical and beautiful...True Queen of the Night".. she said without thinking
Then she smiled a little and again remembering that she had been asked a question answered...

"Mmm...That little demon? Haha... Well I personally know that he turned an entire planet into a dwarf star because of loneliness, but to cure the opposite..."

At that moment the girl raised her hand and placed it on Xiphos knee, as if creating some sort of physical channel between them.

"Don't be afraid...He's going to tell you everything himself now."

A very pleasant voice sounded in Laertia Io head, it was both affectionately masculine but with notes of a not-so-happy past.

"I'm sorry for speaking so unformally in your head. Thank you very much for being with Rebecca by Neryn's side temprorary, even by chance.
She's very lonely and maybe you can't see it, but she needs protection, love, understanding and acceptance...She doesn't realize that. But that's for you to decide.
About the planets... If you mean bringing back the ecosystem, the atmosphere and everything related to the process of evolution, then yes I can do it, only in view of the fact that
my capabilities are severely limited by Neryn, although she is still a fine representative of your race, at most I can bring small cities and small sections of the planet back
to a healthy form. It's far less dangerous than what Neryn's done now. She's literally pushed time and space back a little and then brought it back to the present with some changes to the matter"

 

[Laertia Io]

A small section of city is better than nothing Xiphos said, not missing a beat. Singing Fire, I'm going to level with you: The Galaxy needs your help. The Bryn'adul slaughtered billions before they were stopped, with the Jedi barely doing anything about it except to focus on The Sith. Hundreds of worlds were forcibly terraformed.

The Organization I am head of, House Io, swore to destroy The Bryn'adul and any other serious threat to the Galaxy by any means necessary, regardless of who it inconvenienced. I made many enemies, and committed more than a few dozen atrocities myself. But at the end of the day, my goal has not wavered.

But it is not enough to defeat the Bryn'adul. Their horrors must also be undone. I have the will, but creating the means to reverse Terraform is still slow research on my end. Others have developed it, but footholds must be established 'now'.

If you would help in this regard, I would ask nothing else of you. My feuds are my own, to be settled on my own, and I will not lower myself by asking a being of such power to assist in my squabbles. But those worlds could use your help. I would provide you and Naivia shelter and resources and protection...all you would need do is travel the Galaxy and fix what you can...

Xiphos leaned back.

What do you say?

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"Hmm...The final decision will not be mine, but Neryn's. But for my part, I am willing to help both you and your plans. The only thing is, I don't plan to go to war with Bryn'adul, I don't want to put Neryn in danger and you, you seem to start forming connection to her.
Terraforming technology is a pretty simple thing and I may be able to fix the key problems, but i will return planets to their natural state on my own. And just between you and me,
there's something Neryn likes about you. If you have any more questions about knowing the power, you can just hug , touch arm or do any physical contact with Neryn's body and I can communicate with you."

Whereupon the voice fell silent in Xiphos head and returned to Neryn saying

"Decide...Do Xiphos and Rebecca and I help the fallen planets recover or do we continue with our lonely existence?"

Neryn listened and looking at Xiphos silently sat down, though she still had difficulty moving and without words she hugged Xiphos and hung on her neck a ...
Her body was very light, like a morning flower petal... Her hands were still trembling a little after the exertion, but overall she looked happy.

She whispered softly in Xiphos' ear

"I want to be with you..."

And she smiled sweetly as she looked into her eyes a few centimetres away.

Her fiery eyes were capturing this moment with all their might.

Laertia Io