Private MediSin

[Nida Heavenshield]

The Halls of Healing had quicky become Nida's second home. While most despised the scent of antiseptic and sterile surroundings, Nida reveled in them. It was here where the healer could focus and make herself useful.

Force, it had been ages since she'd felt useful.

Coming to Coruscant had filled her with trepidation, especially so considering her history as a Sith and felon. To her surprise, the Jedi had been nothing but welcoming—though given their forgiving nature and her repentance, perhaps it wasn't that surprising at all. More than a few Alliance officials were skeptical, still.

Wiping the sweat from her brow with the cuff of her sleeve, Nida glanced at the wall-mounted display. Bay 23 flashed at the top of a list of rooms—someone had been newly admitted, and she'd just finished stabilizing a torn carotid. The Padawan had been involved in an unfortunate accident with a malfunctioning training droid, but he was fortunately that he'd been transported to the Halls in short order.

He almost didn't make it. The tiny Zeltron had to literally climb on top of him in the gurney and stem the flow of blood with her hands. They were moving him into isolation now, and if he survived the night he'd pull through.

"Go." One of the nurses said, shooing the Jedi away with a flip of her hand. She'd seen Nida looking at the monitor and knew where her head was going. "We'll take him back ourselves. You tend to the next one."

Nodding her thanks, Nida quickly shuffled to room 23 and pulled back the curtain. In the chaos of the emergency ward, she had forgotten to discard and replace her disposable lab coat. As a result, whoever was sitting in the bed waiting for treatment would be treated to the sight of a demure young woman, clothed in scrubs, covered neck to shin in fresh blood.

"I apologize for the wait."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"Bold," an accident-involved Padawan remarked instinctively. "I think all the blood may be a little too much for some, but whatever works for you." Corin sat there, absent his top layers, though removed in order to ascertain better access to the sustained wounds that rippled across his frame - several shards of metallic shrapnel protruded from the side of his forearm and bicep, even if relatively small in number, as a similar fate befell the side of his torso. Primarily superficial damage, or so the impression from his carefree demeanour could inform someone.

The foot of his bed contained a holopad that housed all the relevant information. Just another droid mishap, yet this one detonated and filled the Padawan with it's parts. To Nida, the most stand out feature may very well be that or rather the sole contact displayed across his street as well as the relation. DAGON KAZE, MASTER.

"I said I could fix it up myself, but you know how those instructors can be." He stiffly shrugged, "Covering their bases, and all."

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

Bold?

Nida regarded the topless young man with a curious gaze. No, not like that. She was a soon-to-be married woman after all.

Nida had never done a bold thing in her life. All the blood? What was he…?

Oh.

Oh.

"Oh!" Nida squeaked, professional demeanor broken by a flood of embarrassment and the flush of her cheeks. But who could tell under, y'know, all of that blood. She hurriedly tore off her soiled apron and discarded it in a nearby hazard bin, then made for the sink and started washing her hands like her life depended on it.

"I am so sorry that you had to see that. I've just come from a trauma case. There have been an uptick in accidents with the new training droids." Drying her now clean hands and face, she appraised the Padawan- now identified as Corin Trenor thanks to his chart— with a clinical eye. "Though, perhaps you are already aware. First hand experience?" She swiped through the datapad, noting the brevity of detail surrounding his visit. One thing did stand out, Dagon Kaze's student? She'd only met the man once and already couldn't escape him.

Donning a new disposable gown and a pair of gloves, she approached her patient's bedside. "I apologize for earlier; my name is Nida. I am the healer who will be caring for you today."

I wouldn't blame him if he'd requested someone else.

If he had no objections, she’d begin by gently palpitating around the debris embedded along his arm, and eventually torso. "Let me know if anything hurts too much." His wounds were likely superficial, but she would have to be sure before removing the shards here by hand. If any were too deep, he'd have to go to surgery. Reaching for an ultrasound probe, she fiddled with the buttons on the machine.

"What exactly happened to you, Corin?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

Corin nodded with a smile, no matter how faint, as the predicament allowed for the sudden rise of some humour in the Padawan. Of them all, it should hardly come as a surprise to learn it was Corin that befell this fate. "First hand experience." He confirmed with the start of a soft chuckle, one that turned into a sudden suck-hiss from the pain it caused across his torso, like a ripple that stemmed from each individual piece that found itself jolted by the movement.

His impacted arm remained stiff, held in place as if made from marble and turned into a statue. Yet his other, made all the accompanying gestures. "I hit the droid and..." his uninjured arm waved off from what seemed to be an explosion that Corin mouthed the sound effect of, "It blew up. Littered me."

For all that happened, the Padawan remained in good spirits. Relatively, at least.

"Nida, right?" He leaned inquisitively with near-narrowed eyes, "Have we met before? You look familiar."

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

Nida nodded empathetically, moving the ultrasound probe along Corin's arm. A grainy, black and white image appeared on the monitor, shifting as she carefully moved her way down his arm.

"That seems to be happening a lot lately. I wonder if it had anything to do with the new software update they've recently put out."

As they spoke, the engineering department was holding a frantic holocall with the droid's manufacturer.

At the mention of her being familiar, Nida shrank back and kept her eyes glued to the screen. The wand was moving over Corin's torso now with the greatest concentration.

Had he recognized her as an opponent when she'd been involved with the Sith? Her trial? Or something less nefarious, having seen her around in the halls?

"No." She stated quietly. "I don't think so."

She hoped so.

"Perhaps you know my sister- Yula?"

By the Force, she hoped that was the connection he was trying to make. Did Corin even know about Yula? She had no idea how private Dagon's life was in regard to his Padawans.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

Corin may have been too young for that, Nida could have conceded, either too young to experience it or too young to even remember. Hordes of new information flooded those of his age daily, allowed him to drown it, become consumed by it. Faces and names were often the first to be lost. Yet his eyes narrowed slightly, all with the faintest of head tilts, as if he started to remember. Corin had seen his share of battlefields against the Sith.

In any case, all suspicion and thoughts were set aside at the mention of a name: Yula.

His eyes widened with realisation, "That's it."

"I kind of live in her apartment, because of Dagon. All that." He said with an odd grin, "Small galaxy, huh?"

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

Nida's chest fell with a slow exhale. So it was Yula who linked them together. She smiled.

"Small indeed." Small galaxy, smaller apartment. The ultrasound probe was placed back into its holder and Nida pushed the machine away. "The good news is that your injuries are superficial. We won't need to put you under or bring you into surgery. The bad news is that I'll have to debride your wounds by hand. It'll hurt, but I can offer you some topical anesthetic, or something heavier if the pain becomes too much."

She set about preparing a numbing agent, part of her expecting him to decline any manner of pain intervention. Young men often did.

"Is Yula treating you well?" For the time she'd been around in the Perl home, Yula had taken surprisingly good care of her younger sisters. She was still Yula though, temper and all.

With a faint smile, Nida had to wonder if anything changed over the years. For better or for worse.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"Oh, no. It's..." His hand waved over a mid-preparation Nida dismissively, "It's fine. Save it for someone else."

The arrogance and bravado of youth. Corin liked to think of himself as real tough and whether that was the case or the boy was just had more stubbornness of sense, it was hard to tell. But often times had Corin found himself at a fault because of it either way.

"She is," Corin replied warmly, a momentary distraction from the concept of a hand seeing to the removal of metallic debris embedded in his flesh. "Her and I don't spend a lot of time together but when we do, it's nice. Jedi business and all that." He neglected to mention an odd obsession with masked violence consumed him most nights, the key factor in what separated him from others; not only Yula.

It would have brought on a frown if Corin cared to think twice on what was this self-made life mission.

"I would've met your other sister a while back now. Kyra? She stopped by, maybe you should too sometime if it's been a while?"

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

At Corin's behest, Nida shifted from preparing the anesthetic to retrieving the necessary tools for extraction. With her back turned to the Padawan, he wouldn't be able to see the way she'd arched her eyebrows in surprise. It had been years since Yula and Nida had been truly close, but her elder sister had always been a wild thing. Nida had been shocked to learn that she'd left the outer rim to return to the core, even going so far as to settle on Denon with a Jedi and house his students.

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.

Nida returned to Corin's bedside and began to pick the shards of metal from his arm with slow, methodical movements.

"You've met Kyra as well?" If she and Yula had been someone distant, Nida and Kyra had been close. Her younger sister had taken Nida's betrayal the hardest, and for good reason. Even after her return, their relationship had been quite sour. Only recently had they begun to heal.

The forceps retreated, only to drop a piece of metal into the tray at Nida's side. Furrowing her brows, she went for one that was rather large, yet still mostly embedded under skin at a strange angle.

"I haven't visited Yula's home since she was based on Terminus. Is she still building those…interesting droids?"

If she recalled, there was one who's primary function was to eliminate waste that had a tendency to vomit a slurry of garbage at anyone it deemed threatening.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

Sometimes, Corin was his own worst enemy. No one let him suffer quite like himself.

His frame tensed, muscles contract and air hissed between clenched teeth. It was a dull ache before, now a sharp string as Nida wrestled to remove the shards of metal embedded into his skin. He thought he could be used to it by now, become stronger for it, as if pain was something someone could simply transcend beyond. He was wrong, often times stupid. Too arrogant.

"Yeah," he said with soured features but he never let it stop him. "She stopped by a while back, said she was in the neighbourhood. Just me there at the time, though."

It was weird. That's what he remembered of it. Caught him with one foot out the door, forced to stay inside in the absence of either Dagon and Yula.

But at the mention of Yula and her droids, a flash of memories played behind his eyes. In his mind. Of all the mishaps, of all the successes. Yet the former remained the most memorable of the two to the test dummy of a would-be brother. Of the unintended additional force a droid's hold could apply, to the explosions he narrowly avoided, and of course the spewing of said garbage. Felt like a week to be rid of the smell.

Corin switched to a head-covering helmet to further his efforts on Denon. It provided better protection against the crooks and lowlifes, all with better tech that Yula could cram into it over the type of eye mask Dagon preferred. The younger one could claim it was solely for that, no more and no less, but part of him was certain he was a little tired of having what was essentially the mechanical offspring of genius junk hoarder detonating in his face.

"She builds all kinds of things these days. From droids to other equipment, comes in handy for us as Jedi too. Dagon and I, that is." He sounded almost proud of Yula and what she had achieved, "Do you end up using any of her gear? I imagine it's deemed unsafe for medical use, honestly."

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

Nida pressed a piece of layered gauze soaked in antiseptic against the fresh wound, and with it she imparted a cooling sensation that penetrated Corin's skin. It would help to blunt the sharp edges of pain, at least.

She wore a fond smile throughout, seemingly pleased by her sister's progress. "I haven't used anything she's built recently, no. When we were children, she used to take apart anything mechanical in our home. Much to our mother's displeasure." Nida laughed softly, working another, smaller piece of shrapnel from Corin's bicep. A perfectly fine toaster had exploded under her elder sister’s ministrations.

"She did construct her own cybernetic eye, as I understand. A replacement for the one she’d lost in a duel against our…" Soft voice fading, Nida's brow creased gently at the thought of Zaavik. They hadn't been particularly close, but Yula had encountered him during the invasion of Krayiss, and their fallen cousin had taken her eye.

"Do you have any siblings, Corin?" Quickly switching gears, Nida's demeanor brightened once more.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

Dense as Corin often was, he knew when not to pry. His smile had matched her own, soft and faint, between the hisses and winces and the sudden cold sensation that tore into his arm and beyond. Until Nida had allowed her own to slip off and be replaced by what seemed to be focus, maybe a ploy to hide something. Even if, not exactly his business though Corin was nothing if not overly curious at the best of times.

He held his tongue, for now at least.

"None that I know of," he answered rather dryly, "But I wouldn't be all that surprised if I did."

Corin paused, "Denon, y'know."

People from that wastrel of a star system had a certain stigma about them.

 

[Corin Trenor]

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

Nida hummed as she worked, though not particularly in agreement. Denon did have a stigma, and she was still trying to figure out what had drawn her sister to set up her life there. Yula had always been drawn to the outlier.

"How did you come to work with the Jedi?"

Straining to remember Dagon's face, she figured that Corin bore some resemblance to his Master. Too old to be his son though, and fortunately that brief thought flickered away before she could become flustered.

"It's common to be inducted as a youngling, but many orders seem to offer admission at any age. I was…thirteen? Fourteen? My mother insisted that it be my choice."

Nida moved on to his chest now, leaning over Corin as she worked a particularly stubborn piece of shrapnel from muscle. "I was fortunate in that way." Her family had connections. Perhaps those helped to ease her back with the Jedi sooner rather than later.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

He bore no blood relation to either Kaze or Perl, even with the odd resemblance to the former. Too not-pink to share Zeltron DNA, either. Maybe Corin would be better off if he was though, there was nature and nurture but often times does the Padawan wonder how much of his nature betrays his nurture; if there wasn't too much of the latter that cemented who he was before the Jedi came along. Maybe he wouldn't be such a-

His thoughts, intrusive or otherwise, found themselves interrupted. An unintended hiss escaped him with the pull of metal tugging at his skin, entrenched in flesh and crimson. He could almost taste the iron. For the best, Corin would have thought if he could do much else beyond clench his jaw and tense his body. It certainly wouldn't have made it any easier.

"I was a kid, maybe ten?" He sounded unsure, "The Jedi must have wanted to right some wrongs, or maybe it was just guilt. Came by our little neighbourhood, tested the kids that didn't book it at the first sign of an authority figure. I was just one of the lucky ones with an inkling of potential, I guess."

Bit of survivor's guilt.

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

The stubborn sliver of metal had barely even hit the try before Nida pressed a piece of medicated gauze to Corin's chest. "Sorry." A vaguely sheepish smile came with her apology. "That one was embedded a bit further than the others."

She pulled the fabric away to check the bleeding- it was slow, but red still oozed from the wound.

"I've always found origin stories to be interesting. Because of my family's history, I knew from a young age." The Force has never been a mystery for her given that she'd grown up with not only the knowledge of its existence, but also in a household with former Jedi. It was simply a part of life. Nida worked quickly as she spoke, disinfecting and dressing Corin's injury with quick, practiced movements. She waved the ultrasound probe over his arm and torso again, finding confirmation that all of the metal bits had been removed.

"Do you join Dagon in his work on Denon? As far as I’m aware, there is no dedicated Jedi temple there.”

If you didn’t count Yula’s apartment, to which she affectionately referred to as The Fething Jedi Temple of Denon.

Her hands never stopped moving, now set on bandaging the remaining small wounds scattered across Corin's upper half.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

His work on Denon.

Corin almost leapt out of his skin. Yula had known, of course, but whether that extended to Nida... Corin was never too sure. It was better to be safe than it was to be sorry, the Padawan conceded, and rushed in with another answer. One that made more sense than a costumed freak offering senseless beatings like they were candy.

"There's not, no. So the Jedi Watchmen work comes out of Yula's apartment for the most part. Myself, Dagon, Jem. Just all cooped up in there, sometimes I think Yula is a little more than over it." He smiled wearily, "I know I would be."

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

When he tensed, Nida sent a cursory glance to Corin's face before flickering back to her work. In the moment, she was unable to determine if the nerve she'd hit was physical or emotional.

Four people crammed into a one bedroom apartment didn't sound ideal. Their unit was technically two stories, but the bottom floor had been gutted for Yula's workshop. The whole thing reeked of tibanna. "Yula grew up in a busy home." She mirrored his smile, tired and knowing. "Aside from siblings, we had a revolving door of aunts, uncles, and cousins in varying degrees of relation at our house."

She couldn't speak for her sister, of course. Yula had the quickest temper of the Perl children and did not hesitate to make her displeasure known.

"She used to cook for us, when our mother worked late. Nothing too fancy, but I tend to look back on those meals fondly."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

The fumes sometimes seeped through the floorboards. Over the years, Corin had become accustomed to the smell of singed gasses and the sound of a welding tool in the late hours of the night; such events forged a rather sound sleeper of a boy on the cusp of manhood. The explosive mishaps, however, never failed to substitute well for an alarm. He could later laugh about it when the immediate threat of a disastrous death was off the table.

"I've heard some stories about the famed Perl household," the Padawan remarked sarcastically as a vaguely knowing smile graced his lips. "Your grandfather was some big time smuggler back in the day, right? Zef Halo?" His brow creased with a sparked curiosity.

He dismissed the thought with a soft shake of his head, "But Yula sometimes cooks for us, too. It's like a family there, a sort of... dysfunctional or odd functioning one at times. But it's a family all the same."

Nida Heavenshield

 

[Nida Heavenshield]

At the mention of Zef, a tired chuckle passed though Nida's lips. Zef's history with the Perls was complicated; he'd abandoned a pregnant woman to raise his child. Zef and Joza had reconciled when his daughter was a teenager, at least.

"Yes, he was. Yula looked up to him quite a lot. If I remember correctly, she stole away to the Outer Rim when she was 14 in an attempt to be like Zef. He was also a Mandalorian War Marshal; allegedly, that did not mesh well with my mother being a Jedi."

Nida's head shook softly while wrapping another layer of gauze around Corin's tender arm. "No family is perfect. I'm glad that you've all found each other." Glancing up to him, she smiled vaguely, genuinely. Not just for his sake, but for Yula's. "Truly."

Corin Trenor