Jaded Bird

[Jairus Starvald]

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E I R A P E C H A L​

​

It was night time on Eira Pechal.

The Praxeum sleeping.

The air quiet.

There was peace everywhere, except in the eyes of the men standing just inside the forest line. Watching. Studying. Observing. They scrutinized the outlines of the workshop some distance away. Gauging its intent. It was always difficult to break the sanctity of peace with your own action.

Sardun knew this better than most.

He had known war... intimately. Death, too. It had only been the intervention of one that kept him from it. Bethany Kismet had been an anchor for him.

Then she was ripped away from him.

And just as Michael believed he was alone in this Galaxy again? She returned.... or an exhale of hers. A pouring of breath brushing past the armor and against his heart. It promised. Suggested. It was enough for Sardun to leave Tython behind. To travel after this bond, so thin, fragile and only take a handful of his people with him.

But even a handful was enough to put those at Tython at risk.

Fragile peace there too.

It couldn't... wouldn't be helped. "Surround the building, stay quiet." Sardun murmured, voice muffled as the audio-feed was disabled for fear of static.

Stealth was theirs for now.

All hell would break loose in a moment or two, but for now? Silence.

[member="Harper Kade"]

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

It was night time on Eira Pechal.

The Praxeum sleeping.

The air quiet.

There was peace everywhere... except in the heart of one Harper Kade.

The Horizon Foundation's workshop was a bit out from the rest of the settlement. That had been deliberate at the time- so that any work noises, building at odd times, wouldn't disturb anyone else. It had been done out of respect for the rest of the Praxeum. But now it served a different purpose, one Harper certain hadn't anticipated.

After she had been cleared to leave the medical wing, she had moved into one of the spare rooms there. At first it had been because she wanted to be left alone- farther from the others. It had been necessary. After what had happened the last thing she had needed were errant emotions she couldn't filter out. The constant pity in particular had been suffocating.

It didn't help that there were others, hurting as much or worse than she. Anais, Ember, Alden..... the four of them had started this with such high hopes. Then, shattered, each of them in different ways. The Praxeum had continued, other faces, other hands lifting up to take the reins. It was good- Harper knew it. But it had happened while she was too hurt to do anything, and as the days went by and she still didn't have the ability to step back up into her role from before....

Things had marched on without her.

Over the last few months she had grown more withdrawn. Alden.... did his best. But there was too much and it had taken its toll on him as well.

She knew she could have leaned on him more. Asked him to help her more. All she would have had to do was go to him and ask him to hold her to help push away the nightmares.

She never had. They had gotten closer, but there was a place she hadn't crossed. He'd made it clear what he wanted and she.... she just didn't know. Not right now.

Tonight found her like most nights did. Awake far too late into the night. Working on a project in the workshop. Something to build, something with her hands. Hand. Her left arm had never healed properly. Without bacta and an unwillingness to replace it with a cybernetic, the healing had been slow. Even with physical therapy, she still couldn't close that hand completely into a fist, let alone anything close to full strength returning. By the end of the day every joint in it ached, and if she'd rolled up her sleeve at that point she could have seen the swelling. She didn't. Didn't need to.

As if on cue, her fingers spasmed- the welding pen she'd been working with dropped with a clatter to the floor. Grimacing, she pushed the chair back, leaning over with a groan to pick it up. Or try to. In the end she switched to her right hand, the pain in her fingers combined with the tremor that marked working it too hard making the motion impossible. With a frown she settled back on stool. Putting the tool down, she rubbed her left palm absently with her right thumb.

It felt like such a long path.

The one thing she'd gotten better at, the one thing she had been practicing diligently.... was her ability to block out her empathy. It was necessary she'd realized, needed. She'd worked with the holocron that was currently on the small wooden table beside the cot she slept on. Worked on it with the remnant of Bethany Kismet.

That, combined with the pain and fatigue, meant she had no warning of what came next.

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

There are ways to approach an ambush.

This had to be one of them, no?

Sardun could not smell the scent of corruption in the air. The Praxeum seemed to still operate as it had according to the rumors - quietly, diligently, trying very hard not to make a fuss in a Galaxy that was increasingly more hostile to their presence. It was disappointing. But Michael had learned the taste of disappointment many times across his years living his life.

It never truly stopped stinging.

"Now."

His hand, gauntleted into a golden claw, rose up and.... pushed towards the door.

There had been a time that Michael Sardun wouldn't have been able to do this. The shattering of wood, rending the material into its very essence before it collapsed inwards of the room. He had to bend a bit to get through the door even then. Others of his breaching the building from other angles. His mind swept across the building again, reveling in the power.

It was now that Harper could feel him.

His presence suddenly unfolding as the Force was channeled.

Like a sun suddenly winking into existence.

Pure Light...... not a speck of darkness, right?

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

Her eyes burned- that wretched sand itch that told her she'd been awake for far too long. Absently, she reached up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her right hand before running it back through her hair with a sigh. She should try to sleep and yet....

She knew what waited for her there.

Harper sighed, starting to clean up the workbench. Metal scraps, the tools. No matter how tired she was, how much that arm hurt, she always put everything to rights before calling it for the night.

Every day she worked. Worked until she was so tired she couldn't keep up any longer. Just so that when she laid herself down on that cot she'd have the best chance of falling right into sleep instead of lying awake dreading it. It didn't change the nightmares, but at least it got on with them.

And then the silence exploded and for a moment Harper wasn't sure if she had already fallen asleep at the bench.

She knew she was awake however because in her dreams she always froze.

Whirling around, her right hand closing on the closest thing to her- the welding pen- she brought it around. She didn't know who or what let alone the why. The Sith finally? Had [member="Darth Carnifex"] finally come? The welder came on and she brandished it without a second thought. Golden armor filled her view and she started to shout. It wasn't a scream, but there was fear there. Would anyone even be able to hear her from here? Probably not. But she had to try.

Darting in the only open direction she could see, she kept yelling.

"PRAXEUM WE'RE UNDER ATTACK."

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

Buzzing.

Annoying voice.

His hand rose up, clenched, into a fist.

It would constrict her throat and cut off any noise she wanted to make in that moment. The moments trickled by and eventually everything settled down. Behind her, away from her in the other room, she'd hear the noises of things being ransacked. Explored. Sardun's helmet shifted, taking in the corridor they were in and the wider room behind her.

Then-

Noticed her again.

His fist unclenched and she would drop down on the ground again. "I do not smell the Dark on you. You will tell me where you are keeping her, after that I will find out why you are helping them."

Voice almost serene, detached, echoing across the corridor towards her in a song.

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

Harper struggled- but there was nothing to hold onto, no hand to grip to try to force the fingers from around her neck. The iron hold on her was through the Force and with what little training she had there was nothing she could do to break it. Pain shot through her, pulsing from her ruined arm, stabbing through the rest of her and making her feel physically ill, nausea radiating far beyond her core in a sensation she didn't even have a name for.

Time flowed strangely. Experience flashing from being unaware of anything but the pain, to a distance. As if she were only watching this instead of experiencing it. The disassociate moments grew longer and longer, but they had not yet taken over enough for her mind to do what it had to do. To save herself, even if she couldn't save her body.

"I don't know where they are now," she sobbed. "They travel please."

It was true, but not the entire truth. She held back a name, a planet. It wasn't just her friends that she protected now, but the people there as well. She had to.

All it took was a heartbeat and Harper was back on Bastion.

Back then she hadn't caved right away. He had hurt her first, the marks still on her body. He had held her in the air and tortured her until her body and will had broken. The difference there was that he had done nothing to try to muffle her screams.

Here, Harper hung in the air, gasping and struggling. Hard enough to cut off her yelling was hard enough to cut off breath. It was only a minute, but that was an eternity when you couldn't breath. The rapid staccato of her heart, the flashing back to Bastion, only made it worse.

When he let her go, she dropped to the floor. Her left leg, less damaged than her arm had been but still not at full strength, buckled, and she went down hard to her knees. Shoulders shaking as she drew in a deep, shuddering breath, she looked up at him. Tears- she didn't know exactly when they had started, when the flash back had?- tracked down her face. She could feel him now, the conscious blocking she'd been doing of her empathy shattered in that moment as well.

A hollow tree, filled with light.

Not the Sith.

So why did it feel so similar?

"Wh-who?" She managed. Genuine confusion in her voice and on her face. "There's n-no one here but me." Her voice was tight, fighting back tears. Too much. Too similar.

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

Years ago.

Decades.

Michael Sardun had been an empath. Connections had come easy to him. He understood people, they understood him and everything had been easy. Perhaps it was that ease of life- of success that came from natural ability, rather than hard-won battles... that made the shattering of him so easy in return. He had been captured, turned, broken apart and rearranged to fit the musical tones of the Queen.

Long after he had escaped that prison (of his own mind, his own body) he could still hear her music in his ears.

Later... he had recovered.

Somewhat.

Returned to the roots of the Jedi and found Bethany Kismet. She had been his anchor. Now....... now Sardun felt empty and full at the same time. Looking down upon the girl the echoes told him what she felt. Horror. Pain. Fear. These were emotions that were understandable. Or... had been. Now it only filled him with annoyance, already his hand was pushing against him.

Swat her away, she is wasting your time, on purpose perhaps.

Then the echo called back.

It said- once upon a time you cared.

"Young girl, I can feel her even now, calling out to me. She is here..... hidden." Yet. Yet. Yet Sardun sensed no deceit from her. This could not be so. "What have you done with Bethany? Tell me. You have nothing to fear from the Light, as long as you do not hide in the Dark."

He stepped in.

Closer.

The rays of the sun brushing against the skin of her mind.

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

She pushed herself up, off of the floor. She could feel the tremor in her left arm, but forced herself through it. Whatever was going to happen here, she wasn't going to meet it on her knees. Her teeth gritted together, grinding, much like the sensation in her knee as she started to rise. She made it halfway up before having to stop.

Then came that question.

Harper looked up again, incredulous.

"Bethany..... Kismet? She's been dead for centuries she's not here-"

Then she stopped, blinking.

"Do you mean her holocron?"

She felt that light shifting over her. Oddly enough, it did little to comfort. Too bright, too harsh. Not the gentle flame she'd known from Alden and Ember. From the holocron.

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

It was the unyielding flame of the Sun.

Indiscriminate, fierce, detached. Did the Sun care when its rays burned what it touched? No... it simply was and through its existence shined its light against the shadows. It was beautiful. It was terrible. The symphony of a pitch not meant for man.

As Sardun looked down on her there was a memory.

Fleeting. "Either you are an accomplished liar... or you know nothing." Michael was unsure which option was worse. But before he could get into it, something she said pulled his attention.

"Holocron?"

Brows furrowed behind the plate of his helmet.

"Show me. Show me what you speak of." That same light buffeted her now. Pushing her up with the raise of his gauntlet.

It touched her presence.

Somehow.. it knew her fear. It judged her for it.

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

As soon as she felt the grip of the Force upon her again she reacted.

This time pushing back. Lashing out.

"Don't touch me," she snarled, breathing heavily. "I can get up myself."

She felt the sensation ease, and she pushed herself up the rest of the way. She wasn't about to explain to him her response or why it was so strong here. She didn't owe him anything. Didn't care if he understood.

She started toward the back and then paused. Turning right back around and staring up at him. Face set.

"I was given this holocron to take care of it." She said, and if she was glaring up at him perhaps that could be understood. "Assuming your men haven't broken it from all the throwing things around I was hearing, I have to know who I'm showing it to."

Stubborn. Exhausted, still shaking from the flashback. But she wasn't moving another inch until she knew who she was dealing with. It wasn't the Sith, but it wasn't the Jedi as she knew them. Not the Silvers, not the Praxeum. Sometime else completely.

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

Her anger amused him.

The strength of her counter blast enough to make him take a step back. Otherwise he might have dropped on his arse from the surprise.

"Not completely cowed and broken by your fear. Lead on, lion cub." She was still the embodiment of everything wrong with the Jedi Order. Weak, fragile, easily cowed. Scared of the Light. The fact that he, himself, had been broken and shattered at the hands of the Sith didn't rise up in his mind. It was on other affairs, other matters.

Bethany awaited.

They walked and then.... more stalling, more pauses.

His gauntlet moved up. Almost as if he was, once more, moving to take hold of her. Except. Instead it went for his helmet. Locks disengaging. Noticeable hiss as the vacuum seals unlocked.

It was given over to one of his attendants.

Gray eyes studied her now.

"My name is Michael Sardun. Jedi Master." None of his other titles (past or present were offered here). He wasn't here to measure accomplishments. "You stand between me and the woman I have sworn my life to, lion cub, my patience only stretches so thin."

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

The name was familiar though it took her a moment to place it. Growing up in a farming community on Dellalt, she hadn't much cared about the events that had happened when she'd been a toddler. But when it did register who was standing in front of her, Harper frowned.

Hero of the Republic. Of the Silver Jedi.

She pointed at him, right hand jabbing up at his chest.

"Where were YOU, huh?" Real fury. "When the Silvers abandoned their charge. Nice timing showing back up six months later and busting down MY door."

She didn't say anything else, just whirled around, stalking toward her room. Well, limping a little which likely ruined some of the effect. She paused in the doorway, frown deepening. They'd overturned the cot and the table, which led her uncomfortably back to her knees, carefully setting the later to right, hoping-

Hands reached out to scoop up the holocron.

"Your men could have broken this," she said quietly.

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

He had missed so much.

Stuck.

Tortured, experimented on, over and over again. He hadn't been there for the Galaxy. When it needed him the most, while all around everyone else was failing them. But that was Sardun had returned. Make things right.

To be there.

The bulwark against the Dark. To destroy them, root them out, ensure the corruption would be gone not just for this cycle. But every cycle. "Stuck inside a Sith Lord's box and being tortured for the most part." Sardun responded dryly as he stopped in stride in the middle of her room.

Another glance across.

Then. The Holocron.

That tug? It became a *pull* towards him. His eyes widened and hand already reached out. If Harper had believed his hold over her to be all consuming?

Trying to pull against him now to tug back at the holocron would put things into perspective.

"Bethany?" Sardun murmured softly. Expression *softer* now. Still hard, chiseled granite, but softer. The holocron rested carefully between the tips of his gauntlet. Like claws, they looked. The artefact itself seemed vulnerable within.

"Give us the room."

The Companions did not second guess them. As one they marched out. Leaving Sardun, the holocron and.... the girl.

He did not activate it yet.

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

"Yeah, well," she said, voice a little distant. "Who wasn't."

Cupping it carefully, she shifted. It was awkward and difficult to rise without using her hand to support her, but she managed. The holocron wasn't just a repository. It was a part of her history. A legacy of her family that she understood better now than when she had first received it. She looked up, about to say something, then stopped.

The look on his face surprised her. Even more, the way he said her name.

Then she felt the tug.

Fingers curled around the holocron reflexively. She didn't let it go at first. She didn't know him, didn't trust him. His reputation? She didn't care about that, only what she'd seen so far. And Harper was not impressed.

But it only took a moment to realize as both of their hold's tightened on the crystalline lattice, that if she did not let go he would break it. Perhaps not on purpose but he would. She could feel the way the glass shifted against her skin that he could not. The choice was let him have it or let him break it.

Her fingers opened, the ones on the left hand still crooked. She would not break it to keep it from someone.

A certain unease trickled through her when he ordered his men from the room. But his attention was all for the small object in his hand now.

"It's old," she said quietly. "Please be careful with it."

Did he mean to keep it? Her jaw set slightly. "If you push, just there," she pointed.

A click. At first it had looked like a flower bud, but now it opened, spreading out into a flower that Harper realized for the first time she didn't know. She'd never asked.

The holocron had never been difficult to activate. Indeed the whole point, Harper understood was that anyone could. There were deeper mysteries that the keeper had to choose to share, but the basics of healing, of the force, were open to anyone with true intentions and curiosity.

A tiny, dark haired figure appeared above the glass confection.

"Greetings. My name is Bethany Kismet."

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

He wavered there.

The light retreating for a singular moments allowing those around him to breathe. From a raging sun to smoldering embers, in need of oxygen to survive..... and then she spoke.

"Greetings. My name is Bethany Kismet."

Her words were as warm as ever. Feeling. Filled with empathy in a way that Sardun didn't experience anymore. But... they didn't have the hint of recognition. It was truly just a holographic representation of a different Kismet, a Bethany that had never met him. Couldn't have. "I failed you." Sardun murmured as he leaned in, his brow almost touching the edge of the shining blue figure. "I never got to tell you that I loved you." Brows furrowed there as he tried to coax any life out of her.

Just by the force of his will.

"I am sorry. Can you please repeat the question?"

Nothing.

"I am sorry I couldn't bring your body with me, Bethany. Forgive me." "I am sorry. Can you-"

With a shift Sardun turned off the holocron. The figure hovering above slowly dissipating and retreating back into the crevices of the device. It was stuck between his claws for a moment. Two. Three. Then it slowly hovered back towards Harper.

"She is really gone then." Not to Harper, to himself.

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

Harper was silent through the whole thing. But there was a clear 'wait hold the karking phone' expression on her face.

She felt like an intruder in her own house, as she watched the interaction. There were ways to open up a more personal, easy version of the holocron keeper, certain conversation patterns. It wasn't all just rote recordings. But that wasn't what he was looking for, what he wanted, and that was clear.

For a moment as he held it after deactivating it, Harper shifted on her feet. She wasn't sure if he was going to hand it back or try to pocket it. Her jaw set. No matter who he was, how he thought he knew her (how could he? She had died eight hundred years ago), she wasn't going to let him take it. It had been left in her care.

And it was the last connection she had to her family.

The tension in her shoulders eased slightly as he floated it back. Reaching out with both hands, she cupped it gently, closing her thumbs over it like a tiny seedling. In a way, that's what it was like.

"She would, you know," she said quietly. "Forgive you I mean. For whatever you think you did. She's.... like that."

Harper only knew her from the holocron, but she'd spent a lot of time with it, especially lately.

"Um." She paused, biting her lower lip. Normally she didn't hesitate to blurt out whatever was on her mind but this was a little different from any 'normally.'

"She died hundreds of years ago," she finally said. "How could you have known her?"

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

A nod followed.

"She really was like that." Sardun responded wryly.

Just like that it was over. Hope gone. The tugging was still there, but now the Jedi knew that it had been nothing more than the Holocron. Still holding an imprint of her essence after all these centuries. Easy to ignore with that knowledge. It was easy then... to just stand there. Eyes unseeing, wondering just what else there was to do. Hoping that the Force would give him a hint.

About to leave when-

A blink. Blink.

Then another nod. "Bethany Kismet was too important to the Force to die all those centuries ago. She merged with the essence of Zonama Sekot, the living planet, and woke up from her slumber a few years ago. When the Galaxy had need of her." Brows furrowed into a frown. "I found her. Swore myself to her. Together we tried to create a new Order, not based in violence."

Eyes met.

"It was a failure in the end. And I had to watch her die, when she sacrificed herself to rescue me."

After that his attention went to the room. The destruction. Pained expression there, mildly. "I apologize for the damage. I will pay for it. My men and me will restore what we broke."

A third nod.

Then he moved to leave the room.

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

Harper's mouth opened then closed again with a snap. That.... sounded more like something out of a story book than real life. But then, she would have counted all of what had happened to her since leaving Delallt the same way before all of this. The additional jarring of hearing him say he loved her..... it wasn't platonic love. Not the way he said it.

"Aren't..... don't the Jedi teach non-attachment," she said, frowning.

It had in truth been no small part of her choices when it came to Alden. Needing to not be distracted she'd said. Well. It had been at least part of her stated reasons. If she were being honest with herself that wasn't even the lion's share.

Alden was willing to ignore that part of tradition. He'd been clear. Also on his opinions about it. Harper had been more resistant.... particularly after Bastion. As if those traditions could be used to prop up a flagging faith.

She eyeballed him when he offered to pay for the damages.

"Praxeum is poor, so to be honest it's the least you could do," she said bluntly. "You could have asked, you know. The door was unlocked, by the way."

[member="Michael Sardun"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harper Kade"]

A snort followed.

"The Jedi teach a lot of things. Most of it leads to failure." A glance over his shoulder. "That non-attachment leads to suppression of emotion. That leads to festering. Doubt. Fear. Anger. Pain.... suffering. You don't teach a six year old to hold their emotions inside of themselves. You teach them how to deal with them. How not to throw a temper after every little thing."

Sardun shrugged.

Didn't even realize at first he had entered into teacher-role without much thought. It had come natural to him at one point.

"Not that dissimilar here." He pushed through the door, before ordering his men to get to work. They didn't question him. Didn't even hesitate. From one moment to the next they had turned from killers to carpenters.

Natural transition by the looks of it.

"I do not play guessing games with the dark. The last time I felt her was in the clutches of the Sith. I was not going to risk my men by knocking."

 

[Mariel Dawnrider]

She hadn't really considered that. Why not? She should have. She knew that, probably better than anyone. So why was it so easy to use as an excuse now? She didn't poke at it heavily, not in this moment. Too much else going on.

Harper snorted and moved to cross her arms over her chest. A reflexive motion. But there was a hitch to it, one elbow not going where it was supposed to, and the whole thing ended up looking awkward.

"If there was a shred of the dark side here for you to sense and confuse, I'd eat my shoe."

She frowned, watching them get to work.

"You expect them to finish this in a night? Cause I don't know about you, but my habit is building things, not breaking them. And this is why."

Glancing sidelong at him.

"Because what you break in a minute can take days to repair."

An axiom? No, just simple sense. Harper was being entirely literal here. The fact that it could be viewed as an aphorism was coincidental in this moment.

[member="Michael Sardun"]