Private My Heart is a Hollow Plain

[Onrai]

"Yes, I'm sure she will." Vanessa's voice responded as she appeared holding the data core the entirety of Ayreon's personality profile was stored in. The storage chip she had placed a copy of his memories on was nowhere to be seen. She handed it to Inanna as the woman would slink away. "His body is currently sitting there, an empty husk with no memory in it. I'm going to give it to AMCO when I inevitably receive a message from him asking what happened here. That said, I also need some sign the shapeshifter has been dealt with as well, which means I need either a body or some remnants of one."

She looked at Tahiri. "You're damn right you're going to be fined. Hell, the Imperial government will more than likely liquidate your assets and seize ninety percent of the resulting credits thanks to your boldness in assisting in a conspiracy against a Sith Lord. I certainly hope you're ready for a change of lifestyle - though you aren't going to suffer any sort of actual issue." She moved on to Bithia.

"What... What exactly even are you?" She asked. "You have the Force resistance of a Yuuzhan Vong, and those monitors didn't even scratch you. Some kind of alchemical experiment?"

Her attention shifted to Nimdok and Miri. "I'm guessing you're a Shi'ido. The talisman was an interesting touch, however now I have to provide the real Vandiir a body or some semblance thereof." She sighed. "What do you propose?"

Looking back where Inanna last was, she sent her a message telepathically. Grab your things. We're going with on a quick excursion to Malachor. With Miri.

Now was the time to act and help the smol with her powers.

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Onrai

Inanna lingered in the shadows just beyond the holding area, cradling the computer core in her arms and listening to the conversation going on between Vanessa and Nimdok.

"I'm guessing you're a Shi'ido. The talisman was an interesting touch, however now I have to provide the real Vandiir a body or some semblance thereof. What do you propose?"

Where others who found themselves in this situation, being asked by a Sith Lord to provide a fake body in place of their own, would’ve been disturbed at the bluntness of her request, Nimdok took it in stride. He raised an eyebrow at her and smirked before replying, “I propose what you originally suggested yesterday: an amicable agreement between all parties.”

Leaning toward Vanessa as much as he could despite the barrier between them, Nimdok turned up the persuasive charms of his carefully modulated baritone voice. “You’ve already dealt with the HRD who masterminded the operation—the one who convinced the rest of us that Inanna was in danger and had to be rescued. Now all you have left are a bunch of bewildered, saddened, and annoyed small-timers who were taken advantage of by a rogue droid and driven to commit a criminal act out of fear for the life and emotional well-being of their friend. We are as much the victims here as you are, Triumvir. The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but there is still time for us to turn back… especially if you allow us to personally apologize to Councilor Vandiir. Or rather, let Inanna explain to him what happened, that it was all a big misunderstanding, and it can be easily resolved by a pardon.”

Inanna froze upon receiving the telepathic message from Vanessa. A trip to Malachor V, with only the three of them? Surely she wouldn’t separate the child from her father like that...

“Psst,” came a voice from a cell at the end of the block, near where Inanna was standing. “Did you forget about me?”

Hal Yomin stood inside, his clothes even more rumpled than usual. Inanna’s face darkened in a blush of embarrassment. She had forgotten about him. “No, of course not. How could I forget you?”

“Well, with Ayreon gone, there’s nothing to tie me to the rest of these weirdos,” he said. “I’m willing to bet even the Triumvir has forgotten I’m here.”

Inanna’s brow furrowed. “How much did you know about the plot?”

“Feth all,” Hal replied. “I found out about it yesterday morning. Ayreon came into my room and said to pack up all the important documents and get ready to blow this popsicle stand. And yet I was the one who almost got killed for it.”

“I wonder if I could convince Vanessa to let you go,” Inanna mused aloud. “I’d send you out to get Ayreon a new body.”

“Already? You really want all this happening all over again?”

Inanna clutched the computer core tighter to her chest. “I want Ayreon back as soon as possible. Just like I want you free to keep working, doing what you do best, and I want Nimdok and Miri and all the others to be let go. I won’t allow anyone else to get hurt on my behalf.”

Hal shrugged. “Suit yourself.” The Zeltron gave her a rare small smile. “And whatever is bothering you, you better speak up about it now. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

She blinked at him before remembering that he was an empath. Turning, she looked at Vanessa, still standing outside Nimdok’s cell, and struggled to send her a telepathic response.

If you can’t let Nimdok come with Miri, then bring Bithia along. She is the girl’s mother. At least one of her parents should be present in case anything comes up.

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa pondered for a bit. "I'm not sure if that will be suitable for him, however. That said, I suppose I could simply take the bodies of your bodyguards, have them reduced to protoplasmic goo, and pass it off to him as the impersonator." She said. "That will give me the opportunity to send you as far away as I possibly can. I then have physical remains, the stolen yacht, the shell of the droid who was responsible for masterminding everything, and the talisman the impersonator used to complete their mimicry." She replied, still agitated at the mess that had been generated. "Once we are back, all of you sans Inanna are to leave this station and never return without permission." She replied to him. "I would hope this has shown you Sith can in fact be both merciful and... willing to assist." She looked at Miri.

Looking over at the Zeltron, she attempted to sense any deception. Finding none, she shrugged. "I will let you go to continue arranging Inanna's book work while we are gone." She said, such a barrier soon emptying. "Your belongings are still in the room where you were originally at previously." She said, before looking over at Inanna. "Really? You're saying you can't take care of Miri should something come up? As is I have the limitless resources of the Sith Empire behind me and copious knowledge of the Dark Side of the Force. Additionally I have invested a tremendous amount of effort into not doing what Messala has done to her previously, and am actively seeking to fix it." She said. "You've had faith in me to teach you this long. Have faith in yourself, and in me."

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Onrai

Once Hal was freed, Inanna passed the computer core on to him. He carried it out of the holding block.

She hadn’t slept at all last night, but not for the reasons one might have expected. Restless and tormented, she had whiled away the darkness pouring over books, schematics, and the parts she had scavenged these last few months until she had completed that which she had prepared for but didn’t have the strength or the will to do until now.

The lightsaber she had promised to make, powered by a Firkrann crystal, its silvery blade almost white, had come into being in the early hours of the morning. Exhaustion hung like a cloud over her mind, obscuring all but her foremost thoughts. She took advantage of the fogginess, using it to hide this last secret from her master.

Part of her knew it was virtually impossible to pull it off. Vanessa would sense it the moment she moved to act. But her window of opportunity was closing rapidly, and if she didn’t try it now, she would never reach this level of courage again.

She had both her lightwhip, with its metal tassels coiled, and her newly constructed lightsaber hidden away inside her body. But she didn’t think about this as she strolled toward Vanessa. Her thoughts were of Miri’s well-being, wholly focused on sending a telepathic message—something she found difficult on a good day, but in her current state of sleepless exhaustion, doubly so.

I am not her mother or her father. Miri would be most comfortable with them. She knows me, but only barely. I couldn’t comfort her the way her parents could. Given what you intend to put her through, I would say she needs their support now more than ever—

And just like that, she struck. The lightsaber hilt was in her left hand in the blink of an eye, the silver blade igniting as she swung upward, intending to slice cleanly through her body. If she succeeded in cutting Vanessa in half, she would then have proceeded to free her friends, using the electrical energies of the blade to destroy the controls on the barriers of each holding cell. Her lightwhip was in her right hand, ready to lash out against any guards who might come to try and stop them.

Inanna was, to be frank, tired of it all.

 

[Onrai]

Upon hearing the sound of a lightsaber activate, Vanessa immediately leapt backwards, the blade missing her by millimeters as she gathered her footing. It was the lust for life Vanessa had, combined with her ever-present paranoia that had just saved her from a partially-expected moment of treason.

The door leading out of the holding cells slammed shut, not because of any security lockdown, but because ofVanessa exerting her Dark Side powers- and such showed. The door was so slammed that Vanessa would have to cut it open once the situation was resolved. The Darkwhip became alive not just with one tendril, but with nine, each of which in concert with the barbed tassels Vanessa lashed towards her by now former apprentice with all the hate and anger in her heart that had until this point only simmered in it. Inanna would feel it, as Vanessa was making no attempt to contain it and focus it - such was how much anger and hatred she felt right now.

“I... did... EVERYTHING I could to help you!” She screamed at Inanna as a flurry of lashes from the whip seemed to come from every direction, tassels and tendrils of pure Dark Side energy flying as though they had a mind of their own in an attempt to pierce Inanna’s defenses. “I offered you my hand even after you ADMITTED to supporting this treachery against me, and you shook it! YOU SHOOK IT! And now you’ve attempted to do exactly what it was my last great apprentice did!” The hate in her words was greater than the hate she had ever spat from her lips at anyone in the decades she had existed.

“I offered you training!” A lash. “I offered you a chance to make something of yourself! A chance to be free from alcoholism!” Another two lashes. “I even offered to help you and your little coterie deal with the one responsible for fething up her, as no one deserves to suffer that!” She pointed to Miri with her free hand.

“I will still at least be kind to them, because they didn’t attempt to use a surrender as a means of treachery, but you... You have done something I can never show you kindness for.” She said. With a pause in the battle, Vanessa attempted something she had tried before, only with double the hatred - she attempted to dominate the mind of her apprentice, to exploit the woman’s greatest vulnerability once again and end this before it went haywire.

outside, one of the three guards escorting Hal back to his room immediately turned away upon hearing the door slam. He attempted to open the door only to find it damaged, and soon called for a maintenance team to either jack the door up or cut through it in order to access the room Vanessa was in. Multiple Oppressor-15 Dark Troopers gathered on the other side as the engineer attempted to slide the jack underneath the door.

Inanna Harth