Of the Same Mind

[Gerwald Lechner]

Something was not right. For the sake of battle Gerwald had allowed another into his mind, and it had been too easy, too comfortable. Sure he knew how to project his thoughts through telepathy, Gerwald even knew how to protect his own mind. She had entered all too easy. The barrier designed to protect his mind would have been too weak had she decided to attack his mind outright. This bothered Gerwald. The wolf was unsettled within him as was the man. Whatever was going on Gerwald needed to do something about it.

There was only one person that Gerwald knew to reach out to.

His thumbs flew across the personal datapad he had grown accustomed to using since leaving Stewjon. The request was pretty simple.

To: [member="Naedira Darcrath"]​

From: Gerwald Lechner​

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I cannot stop thinking about the battle mind we shared. It was easy and more comfortable than it should have been. My mental shields need to be strengthened, but I also would like to learn how you did that. I willbe at the training grounds this afternoon if you are free.

With that, Gerwald sent the message.

His hair was tied up into a sloppy man-bun as it usually was for his workouts. Whether the woman met him or not, Gerwald intended to train. His pants were loose and baggy, black with the exception of a thin white stripe running down the seam of the leg. His shirt was a simple gray tank top which left his arms exposed and easily cooling from the amount of heat his body was putting off. Gerwald was an active sort while he waited. It kept his mind from wondering and settling on the what if’s of life.

When Gerwald felt her presence, he stood from a set of pushups he had been doing. His eyes met hers and he nodded with a smile.

“I’m glad you decided to come. It’s good to see you again.”

 

[Naedira Darcrath]

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It was dark.​

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Naedira couldn’t see anything in the vast nothingness. It was a quiet place. An empty place. She walked in the void as long as she dared. Liquid sloshed up around her bare ankles, freezing cold, though she barely seemed to notice. There was something pull. Calling. A voice, a presence, and if she listened closely enough—a heartbeat. She reached up and ran delicate fingers through her hair.​

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The endless well of night was so thick she felt like she might drown. There weren’t even any stars to light the way. No moon. No anything. Just, negative space.​

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She breathed. It ached. “I can’t reach you.”​

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Can’t find you…Need you…Miss you.​

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All sentiments that were wrapped up into something else. Too personal to think, let alone, say out loud. She walked until her legs grew tired. Until her eyelids felt heavy, and her bones, felt brittle and weak. When it came time to rest, when it became unavoidable, she felt herself slipping. Down to the floor. Down to the water. Through the water—until it passed right over her head.​

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Panic. No air. She could swim all she wanted but she never broke the surface. She couldn’t even see to know which way was up or down. The bitter cold left her growing stiff. Her movements came slower. A rush of water ran all around, suddenly filling her ears, as her lungs took in precious oxygen they had been denied. She looked up when she realized that arms held her, pulling her free from a watery grave, and a flash of silver-green—​

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____________________​

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Naedira shot up in bed as her data pad rang so shrilly that she almost threw it across the room. She coughed, hard, like her lungs really had been full and her eyes began to water. The Knight lay on her side for a moment whilst she tried to relearn how to breathe. She was scarcely awake, but something, left her feeling completely unsettled. “Just a nightmare...”, she murmured to herself, almost flinching, at the sound of her own voice. It was so loud. So, so loud.

She brought her hand up to bring her data-pad to her, half asleep, and bleary from some wretchedly confusing dream. The Knight had been having them more often than not. Ever since Aiden had disappeared to take care of some sort of emergency. At first, she’d steeled herself against the absence. It was only temporary. It was proving difficult to keep pretending every day that everything was exactly as it should be. It wasn’t.

The auburn-haired woman slowly sifted through her messages and paused when a familiar name crossed her screen. The dark-eyed female tilted her head slowly. Was he referring to the mind meld from the mission where they’d followed Knight Antares to a zombie-filled lake? Naedira paused as she rolled the invitation around in her mind. Training? Yes, she could do that.

It would take her mind off of her inability to sleep.

The Knight tossed back her covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed, only to freeze, when her bare feet come into contact with something wet. She looked down.

With no obvious source, there was a half inch of water all over her bedroom floor.

Naedira’s eyes narrowed.

When she arrived at the Training Facility at the Citadel she was already ready to get down to business. Her hair was pulled up in a tight, braided bun, and she wore a set of standard black training gear. Over her shoulder lay a duffel bag with a change of clothing, plus, a few personal odds and ends. She had the afternoon free, thankfully, or Mr. Lechner would have been spending the day alone.

She entered the training area without announcing herself. Gerwald was a particular sort, who would probably smell her, before he felt her. She tossed her bag on a bench and yanked a water bottle free. Hilariously enough, even with her dream, she’d felt dehydrated and tired all day. It didn’t make sense. Eight hours of sleep was more than enough. Why did it feel like she hadn’t slept at all?

Her fellow Knight smiled, and on reflex, she smiled back. It lightened the shadows in her expression and let something lovely shine through. It wasn’t his fault she was in such a cross mood with everything around her. “It’s good to see you too Mr. Lechner.”

“Now—Are you’re looking for assistance against specific mentalist attacks? Or are you simply trying to bolster your own shields?”

It was a valid question. It let her know where to start.

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Every push up was a release of some kind of frustration. In truth Gerwald was ticking time bomb waiting to explode. He was doing his best to not take it out on his sister Alwine, but they were not always on the best terms especially when he was not always forth coming. Gerwald could feel the fire raging inside him as he thought about the entire situation. He was alone in his rage, and the only thing that would hold him back was his training.

Why had he made the choices he had? Why had he hurt everyone he ever claimed to love? What was the person he chose rarely around? Gerwald was avoiding certain things, or as Alwine put it, Gerwald was running away. That needed to stop. He needed to make right what he could, but he needed people to take responsability for their part. This was where he was most at piece, training and killing. He needed time as a wolf later, but for now it was time to train.

@Nardira Darcrath has been correct in her assumption. Gerwald had smelled her before he sensed her, but it was so natural he didn’t dwell on it anymore. Learning to rely on the force was something he needed to do more often. Alwine was progressing further in the force than he had, and that also made Gerwald upset. That was his own fault however.

He shook his head at her question.

“Specific, no,” Gerwald said. “My barriers wouldn’t have been able to stop you had you wanted to bombard my mind. I also want to know how you formed that battle meld. I can still feel it sometimes... when I focus on the memory...”

It was an admission that he didn’t know that he should have made, or if it was normal. Gerwald shrugged as he tightened the bun on top of his head. There was no real reason to, but it seemed to be some tick of his. Whether he was aware of it or not was up for debate, but it was.

“I’m behind where I should be by now. That needs to change.”

 

[Naedira Darcrath]

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[member="Gerwald Lechner"]​

Chocolate eyes flickered over the wolf with a careful sense of disinterest. She didn’t want to seem like she was prying, but, there was something unspoken that lingered just beneath the surface. He looked much the same as the last time she had seen him. Tanned skin, growing beard, and long, long hair. If he had grown up in her household on Naboo her father would have shaved his head instantly. These days, though, Naedira didn’t mind it. In the vaguest sense, it reminded her of someone she had come to care for deeply.

“Most people have trouble stopping me.”

It was a blunt response, though, not untrue. When she’d brushed her mind against that of the man before her, she had done so, in the least jarring way possible. Most people tried to barrel through mental barriers like a bantha in a china shop. It hurt them and the person they were attempting to manipulate. Naedira moved slowly. She changed little things, removed hesitations, one tiny layer at a time—until her subject broke before her like an egg. “It’s curious that you can still feel it, but, I can show you how it’s done if you wish.”

Naedira rest her hands on the curve of her hips for a moment and dark eyes ran over his features again. His statements were clear, matter-of-fact, which she actually liked, but it was not what she remembered from Gerwald. The Knight stepped forward and leaned close, perhaps a little too close, whilst her eyes flickered over his. What was she missing?

“You’re angry.”

As he could smell everything she was, down to the perfume on her skin, or the body-wash from her shower—she could taste the darker emotions that plagued him. Hate, fear, anger. As lovely as Naedira Darcrath was it should not be forgotten that she was, in fact, a Sith. “The Force comes to us when we are most open to it. What you feel, right now, you should try to channel it. It is more valuable than you think it is.”

“Through passion we find strength.”

The soft-spoken woman pulled back and sat down on the training mat. Her legs folded beneath her, elegantly, and she patted the floor in front of her. “Sit with me.”

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Blunt. Gerwald liked it. There were too many people that would dance around an issue just to spare someone’s feelings. Alwine was not that way, and the only person whose blunt nature irritated him. Part of his anger was because Alwine refused to be anything but. He seemed to catch her off guard at his comment about being able to feel her presence in his mind, however, Gerwald could have explained it better.

He shook his head.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean that I can still feel it as though it lingers. When I concentrate I can recall the memory of it, and the sensation is attached to it. Whether it is simply a memory, or something risidual that I do not understand is beyond me. I’ve never been an expert in these magics and arts.”

Even referencing the Force as magic was telling of the small amount of training he had. There was no over arching philosophy that Gerwald had learned in regards to how the Force worked or existed. He just knew that he could do things others could not, and that he could be stronger. This area of training was one that he had never explored. While most looked at his size and tested his skill in combat or the more physical aspects of using the Force, Gerwald wanted to expand on his ability in the quieter and more subtle arts. His size dictated certain assumptions that would make others underestimate him. This was a weapon he needed to use.

She searched him. Gerwald followed her eyes as they surveyed his physique. There was something different about them, a shadow or cloud that had been missing when they last met. He was not the only one who was different. While Gerwald was not drawn to the dark emotions as she was, Gerwald could smell something different in her natural scent. Her mood had shifted something in her, but Gerwald had no name for what it was.

“Yes,” he stated bluntly.

Never before had anyone told him to channel his feelings. His anger was raw and surrounded much of his world. While most of it was directed at himself there was more. Gerwald was angry with Alwine for constantly pressing the issue of Katrine. He was angry with Scherezade for being selfish enough to essentially end her own life. His anger even bled over into the absences he experienced with Katrine despite their worlds being different. The root of it all, however, was directed at the woman who had lied to him his whole life. She had known their were others of their species, she had raised them to live in fear of extinction. She was controlling, manipulative, and she had devastated his life, and the lives of his siblings until the day she had been killed. Gerwald was angry at his mother. He was angry because he knew he had the capacity to be like her.

How is was this anger, and passion, supposed to make him strong?

Gerwald sat and faced Nardira, crossing his legs as he did so. His palms were set on his knees as his blue gaze washed over her, curious as to what she was up to. He was reminded in that moment of the simple beauty she possessed but pushed the thought aside for the lesson at hand.

“Yet my entire life I was taught that the one who fights angry is the one who will lose... I do not think I understand you at all. People have shown me things, but no one has explained anything...”

| [member="Naedira Darcrath"] |​