Jump-off into the Unknown

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Ember Farseer"]

As the bolt hit...something. It was almost as if she could see the invisible wave of energy come her way. Instinct took over and she rocked back on her heels to throw herself behind the large boulder she'd been aiming behind. Sidearm dropped and her thumb hit the switch on her wrist, the energy shield, as she cradled herself into a tight ball.

Rock shattered next to her and over her, sharp shards pinging off the shield, clothing, and nipping into exposed skin. Ears rang. Head shook and she managed to crawl free from the rubble. Ember's voice reached somewhere beyond the ringing veil.

Head turned in his direction as she lay on the cold earth just in time to see him stagger back. A blur of rolling white and green movement caught her attention. Pibs! The droid got its head and was making a beeline for the invisible...thing's side. She could see the spark of the particle, paralysis beam from here.

Stars, she loved that droid.

Picking herself up, she switched on the ion wrist beamer, keeping the energy shield activated on her other wrist. Her other sidearm was toast. Crushed beneath the rocks. Ignoring the small cuts along her arms and legs, she ran. But she didn't run the direction Ember had wanted her to, though she hadn't heard him.

Wouldn't have mattered anyway.

 

[Zef Halo]

Waterfall of sweat broke on his brow from the sudden intense pain of the wound the blade opened. It had went straight through a previous scar he had attained fighting a rancor and its Nightsister master on Dathomir not too long ago. His vision fiddled for a brief moment and so did his balance. Was the Jedi poisoned?

He raised his lightsaber once more ready to fend off the sudden flurry of attacks the thing lunged at him but with every step Ember took backwards and with every hit he deflected, he felt his shape drop significantly. Soresu was his usual form and attrition battles was where he excelled with it but whatever that blade had on it certainly was heavily affecting him. How long before he couldn't withstand the infinite stamina of the monster whose desire to end him grew substantially with every blocked or dodged blade.

In its tunnel vision, the thing had completely ignored the rolling ball of a droid who boldly stung at the monster's side. The being flickered into existence from its invisibility and halted as the beam abruptly stunned him for a brief moment. The thing looked near-Human but nothing like a near-Human he had ever since before. Clothes of outlandish fabric and a curved blade forged within the ethereal itself. The man radiated intense waves of the dark side that burned anyone's Force-enhanced sense abilities. Ember's were nearly gone and the headache of it was increasing.

While Ember was slow to react to the brief open window, perhaps Kinsey who RAN AT THE WRONG DIRECTION might do something more than trip and fall on her face.

Perhaps.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Ember Farseer"]

Breath came in quick huffs as she closed the distance between the foolhardy jedi and her droid. Why wasn't he running? Lips pursed as she picked up on the fatigue in his form from here. Arm raised as she got closer. The beast-man thing froze.

Good job Pibs.

"Get DOWN Ember!" Ion-wrist beamer pumped coming up from an angled position behind Ember. So even if he didn't get down, he most likely wouldn't get in the crossfire. She hoped he wouldn't anyway because she was firing not once, but twice. Three times. Her ability to keep her force signature hidden was becoming harder and harder the closer she got. It's like her concentration was being scrambled. No, burned away. Teeth grit as she kept going closer, determined to get that beast's attention so Ember would have a chance to get clear.

Why would a self-serving spacer do that?

It was a good question.

Perhaps she knew she needed Ember to boost her chances of getting out of this place alive. Perhaps it was because she considered him part of her crew and she kept her own alive - if she could. Perhaps it was something more. Or maybe it was just in her character.

 

[Zef Halo]

The being soaked up the ion shots staggering back meanwhile Ember's condition worsened as he shuffled backwards further from the being. Lingering smoke remained where the heated ion energy hit the being and reverted the hunter into its true form. Invisibility was gone. Only a near-Human looking being with odd, intricate clothing holding an enchanted dagger in its hand.

Its sulfuric eyes turned bloody seeking the source of the bolts before he locked eyes with Kinsey and froze in one place. His frown disappeared replaced by wide eyes and wide open mouth.

"Sister." He spoke with disbelief before shaking off his initial confusion. The grimace returned and sharp teeth shone with eagerness to kill. The near-Human dashed forward unnaturally fast bypassing the Jedi and heading straight to Kinsey with the aim to end her.

Ember closed his eyes shutting off the pain temporarily and expanding his aura over the spacer as a form of a saving grace. She would feel she could do by far much more than she usually could with Ember's boost. He didn't even have the strength to shout and take its attention was gone. The poison was his current fight.

"Kins-..."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Ember Farseer"]

There was a moment when the monster locked eyes with her that was more disturbing than anything else. More disturbing than the raggedy state of Ember's body. Or the being itself. Or when the monster's confusion turned to rage and he rushed toward her.

Sister?

It was as confusing as it was chilling. And as he focused his entire attention on her, Kinsey felt any sort of control she had at concealing her force signature ripped away. In the same moment, she felt a surge of power from Ember. The spacer couldn't help the frown along her lips. The girl had walked away from the force a few years ago for a reason and she was suddenly thrust back into things against her will. Even if Ember was trying to save her life while this being was trying to take it away.

The monster moved fast but so did she. Energy shield came up to meet his dagger. Other arm blocked the fingers of his free hand as he made a grab at her throat. Heel came up and she went to slam it over the top of his foot.

His sharp teeth split into a wild scream, murder burning deep within his sulfuric orbs. Pitching all her weight forward and keep the shield between them, she went to knock him off balance because Pibs had rolled up behind him. It was clear the spacer and the droid had been in many scraps before. They were usually, a well-coordinated team.

 

[Zef Halo]

Ember barely watched as the pain grew with every passing moment, he held on to the Force and with all the willpower he could muster enhanced Kinsey's capabilities. It was the least, or well most, that he could do at this moment. An abrupt 'ping' in the ethereal alerted him of another presence within the Force. In his current situation, had he not been connected with the spacer through the Force, he wouldn't have felt it.

His eyes widened at the sudden epiphany.

Kinsey was Force sensitive.

The Force erupted from her like an eon old volcano waiting for its moment. Yet, the fight for survival wasn't over. Kinsey and, surprisingly, Pibs had him pinned on the ground but the man, just like a rabid beast, tumbled and rolled away with bloodthirst in his eyes.

Maybe this was Ember's chance.

The Jedi Knight focused all final stamina, squeezing it as his life depended on it, to alter the environment around the monster. Immensely speeding corrosion beneath the ground on which the man tumbled, the dirt turned into a hole entrapping him in a ditch similar to that of a grave.

A harmonic and soft whisper through the Force would echo only in Kinsey's mind - Take the dagger.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Ember Farseer"]
The reclusive space-explorer watched with wide-eyed blues as the man-beast was swallowed by the earth. With the connection she shared with Ember, she knew the Jedi was at play. Pibs whistled and warbled, rolling toward the new hole. The being had dropped the dagger in his sudden tumble down.

Kinsey bit down on her lower-lip as Ember's voice echoed in her mind. It was too reminiscent of her time with Sage Bane. Shell shock was real. The girl almost, ALMOST severed the connection Ember had made. But just as quickly, she managed to reel in any reactive feelings for pragmatism.

They needed each other right now. And he might be able to feel her brief, conflicting feelings.

Kinsey lunged for the dagger with force enhanced speed and agility. Force or no force, she'd always had an intrinsic ability to be in the right place at the right time. Find the spaces in crowds. Good thing too cause a second later and HE would've gotten it as he made a force enhanced jump from his grave, teetering on the edge.

Her hand went around the handle while his enclosed around the blade. As his flesh pricked against sharp edges the whole world seemed to shake with his rage. Or pain? Maybe both.

Kinsey instinctively shuffled back as Pibs wheeled forward to deliver a final push at the being.

 

[Zef Halo]

No blood dripped from the outlandish man's hand as he held the sharp blade of the dagger with full strength. No crevice of a wound to be seen opening up from where he held the blade. Nothing but a mental scream through the Force from him that came crashing like a power hammer on both Kinsey and Ember's senses nearly blacking them out and nearly snatching the dagger away from the spacer's hand.

Nearly.

The brave droid, ol' Pibs the hero he is, rolled forward as vigorously as a droid could and slammed itself into the being and its grip of the blade slid off. As if dreaming, Ember saw the sharp toothed hunter disappear into nothingness, pixel by pixel. Along with him the ship reappeared, and the dark clouds above and the chilly wind were replaced by the purest calmness one could experience. Spacers and explorers usually found such calmness only upon uninhabited planets but this was even...more calm.

The Jedi Knight staggered backwards and fell on his backside, his stamina burned out. He barely withheld enough strength to keep the poison from the blade run wildly in his body but he couldn't keep it much longer.

"What..." He began as a thousand questions wanted to roll out of his tongue but cut them off replacing them with a soft smile. "...I knew you were hiding something."

The Force.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Ember Farseer"]

Her legs were trembling. It was the slight nudge on her thigh from Pibs that finally tore her gaze from the empty space where that monster-thing had just occupied. Green-domed head looked up at Kinsey, its red eye tracking as a twittering of sounds left the voicebox. The girl gave a quick, silent nod and turned at Ember's voice, stuffing the mystical dagger into her pack, flicking off her wrist shield.

Right.

The ship was back.

Ember wasn't looking so good.

And she felt....beyond exhausted even with the sudden change in air like a warm spring with that hint of crispness in the air only to be comfortable and refreshing. The spacer with secrets that were no longer her own found herself kneeling at Ember's side in a few, quick strides. "I guess I shouldn't insult your intelligence and pretend like nothing happened," there was the smallest twitch along the corners of her lips set within a grim face as she peered at the man's wound.

Hand dug within her pack, finding one of the few bacta patches she owned. They were expensive. There was no hesitation in using it, though. Kinsey offered it to the jedi.

"Not sure how much this will help." Blues with pinpricks of starbursts flickered down to the wound. "Doesn't look good." She looked beyond Ember. They were closer to that tower than the ship. Maybe there was something in the tower that would help him. She knew her ship didn't have much else. Kriff. She wasn't even sure what happened.

"Remember? Don't die on me because that would be bad for business." This time, the upward twitch of her lips widened. Just briefly.

 

[Zef Halo]

As the horizon lightened as it did before the arrival of the mysterious near-Human seeking to end them, suddenly in a bright flash their vision blackened for only a brief moment numbing senses both organic and inorganic. The darkness disappeared as quick as it came and if someone had flickered the switch of the light on and off the three adventurers reappeared in Kinsey's starship in the cockpit.

Just like that the poison was gone as if it had never existed making them almost think it was all a really, really weird dream.

Almost.

Kinsey would feel the warm from her grip powerful dagger and Pibs would squeak in a surprise as he could even less believe their sudden reappearance. A look at the coordinates would tell them that they were at the right place but the monolith was no more. Nowhere to be scanned, nowhere to be seen on the viewport.

Ember blinked a few times to gather his thoughts and accept the sudden shift of reality before looking back at Kinsey who had been examining his wound a moment ago. Her hand still remained protruded with the bacta patch at him but both would realize it was needless right now.

"Thank you." His Jedi manners came on top of everything else he could've said at that point and somehow found the opportunity to be comical about it all. "I guess business would be alright, but don't ask for a double pay cause of this job." Venturing into the unknown with a crazy spacer did really rub on him.

The Jedi Knight stood up and the smirk on his face was erased. Back to serious Jedi business. He glanced at the controls of the cockpit and then back at Kinsey completely silent tackling the curiosity to ask her more. It was none of his business but the Jedi just couldn't help it.

"You've been trained, haven't you?" Ember asked calmly. He couldn't feel the dark side running through her when she tapped into the ethereal. The Jedi Knight paused and nearly bit his tongue trying to keep to himself what he would voice next. "The galaxy needs more people like you, Kinsey. Now more than ever."

His serious gaze locked with her own crystal blue orbs.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Ember Farseer"]
It was strange. The sudden inhale of recycled air and feeling of hull-plating beneath well worn boots. She and Ember shared a dazed moment. Fingers came up to pinch the bridge of her nose, bacta patch hastily stuffed back into her satchel.

Had to make sure it all wasn't some twisted nightmare.

Though, she'd be lying if she wasn't disappointed in not being able to explore the place a bit more. Couldn't help her nature. She stood, small rips and cuts into flesh showed at the knees of her pants. More hard evidence of their encounter.

Pibs warbled something about only a minute passing on the chrono.

Like a fish out of water, Kinsey turned to Ember, mouth opening, then closing. What the kark had they just LIVED through? Her own questions seemed to fizzle out as she locked eyes with him.

Trained?

"Probably not in the way you're thinking." If he knew all she'd been through? Who was after her? Her recklessness and hard lessons learned? Well. He might not be so chummy.

"How do you know what the galaxy needs, Ember? You have no idea who I was or who I am."

Pibs made a bemoaning whistle and she shot her droid 'a look.' Pibs seemed to think it's owner was too hard on herself. Kinsey wanted her droid to butt out.

"The Alliance thought they knew what the Galaxy needed. Didn't stop the First Order, did it? Lesser men than you have thought they could do more."