Patch Me Up. (Irajah Ven)

[Dezoti]

​

​

Yet another day on the dusty sandball that was Tatooine. The streets were filled with merchants and mercenaries going about their business, illegal or not. The bars were filled with off duty soldiers and thugs getting their daily dose of liquor. Dancers and musicians did their best to earn their take of the day. And that was the thing about Mos Isley. The scum and the high class could always mingle and get their darker deeds done.

These weren't the only happenings in the city however. In the darker alleyways helpless victims lost their money to the very same thugs who would spend it on the drinks. In the spaceports people went to try and smuggle goods or even themselves off planet and to another. The galaxies largest illegal trade planet.

It also had itself a fighting ring. It was illegal on most worlds, but here it prospered. Sometimes too well. Oh his off days a Zabrak was known to put himself in the arena, taking on people and species of all kinds. And winning. Unfortunately, one day, he ended up winning against the wrong person. Rigged fights were still a thing, and a way for the Hutts to make a lot of money.

Undefeated Zabrak against a nobody? The prize money would have been huge, if the nobody won. So the red skinned man was given an offer. Throw the fight, get a cut of the cash. And he could have used the money. Unfortunately, the nobody, a Rodian, wasn't the strongest fighter they could have picked. The Zabrak threw his first punch with the intention of getting slugged at the same time. This didn't work, as before the bugman could retaliate the fist connected, and knocked him out cold.

Dumbfounded the red man stared at the fallen figure, and laughed. Well, so much for getting paid today. Krest stood in front of the fallen figure, wearing only a pair of slacks as per regulation. His cybernetics were clear, but those weren't illegal. Not in this arena. His blue eyes settled on the figure for a moment before he turned around and walked right out of the ring.

Two steps towards the locker room where he kept his stuff, a Gamorian stepped into view, axe in hand. "<You know what's gonna happen next right? Please don't struggle, I gotta get paid too.>" Even with his axe he was trembling. Some still remembered when the Templars owned this world, and when the red man before him brought a sense of peace to the planet. There was still respect for the ex Templar. And a little bit of fear.

"Alright alright. Just make it look good, aye? I got a reputation to uphold." The Gamorian snorted, and brought the haft down.

The next thing he knew, Krest was waking up on the outskirts of town. He groaned as he sat up, quickly setting a hand to his head. Yeah, he hurt. He could feel the black eye he got. He could also feel his leg. A quick glance down to it confirmed what he didn't want. It was dislocated. Hell, it looked like his whole body was roughed up in some way shape or form.

"Ah.. Kark.. And I left my stuff back there too.."

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

The crash could have been worse. A lot worse. After all, any crash you can walk away from, right? Someone would find the ship and probably use it for scrap. It hadn't been hers anyway and she didn't have any money to fix it. She had no idea how she'd get off of this planet when the time came, but right now, she wasn't really worrying about that at all.

She wasn't really sure what she'd been expecting. Pausing, ankle deep in harsh, roiling sand, she squinted in to the sun. Irajah had only been off of her home planet twice before, and only on short jaunts to other nearby colony worlds, each of them fairly similar to home. Outposts, yes, but verdant and green. She decided on the instant that this world, whatever it was called (Tata something or other, she'd been kind of busy crashing), was decidedly not to her liking.

However, the planet had one thing going for it, and she was incredibly lucky. There were people here. Living people. And she'd crashed within sight of a town. Sort of a town. Ish? If she'd crashed out in the middle of the desert, she probably would have died out there, and that would have been a pretty lousy way to go after all that had happened, she thought wryly. The Force? Maybe. She didn't really know what it could do, what it's limitations were or how far it would act in her best interest, if at all. Her father didn't really like to talk about it beyond what he'd needed to teach her to help her mother. Irajah frowned, faced shadowed. No good to think about that right now.

She was tired. Exhausted already. Everything hurt, some of it in new and interesting ways from the crash. She did a mental inventory of her bruises, making sure that none of them were places the virus could be leaking in to new places, but it seemed contained. Fortunately, she didn't have far to go. She checked what supplies she had been able to salvage. Not much. A pack with food, water (thank goodness), basic medkit, along with some more extensive tools, a few credits. She didn't even have proof that she was a Doctor, let alone of her identity. But then, maybe that was a good thing. She still didn't know what exactly had happened on her homeworld; who had released the virus or why. Or if they knew she was alive. She had to assume she wasn't safe however, not if they had any chance of knowing she was. She had erased all of the files she had recorded, but.... something nagged at her. There were ways they could be recovered. She wasn't naïve. Someone who could engineer a virus like that wouldn't be stopped by deleted files.

Irajah sighed, shading her eyes with her hand. Hiking the pack higher on to her back she started walking.

No, not walking. This was clearly a trudge. She was trudging.

Despite how close the town looked, it still took nearly an hour and a half for the woman to reach the outskirts and if she'd been tired before, she looked positively beaten now. Dark circles rimmed her eyes where they peered out of the extra shirt she had wrapped around her face (no fool she). Purple bruises blossomed on the back of her hands, the stress of the crash and the trek wearing on her, but that was to be expected. She ached and just wanted to sit in the shade of that half wall over there-

But someone was already there. And it didn't actually take a doctor to see he might be in worse shape than she was. Or at least, his was temporary and maybe needed attention.

"Hey," she called out, approaching slowly. She didn't get too close, just in case. She'd worked in the emergency room for too long to approach boldly, in he was on something. "Do you need help?" After all. He obviously wasn't okay.

 

[Dezoti]

Blue eyes traveled over to a figure trudging through the sands. What? Who would be dumb enough to do such a thing? Truthfully, the Zabrak was of the mind that anyone who came to Tatooine knew that the desert was a place to die. A place where unless you had a speeder you never went out. Especially alone. But as she came more and more into view, Krest knew something was amiss.

[member="Irajah Ven"] looked like she just survived a crash.

But when she came over to him to ask how he was doing, he couldn't hold it in. Laughter erupted from his bruised lips as he simply shook his head. The laughter continued for some time as he leaned back, just looking her up and down. She's either a rare kind of crazy, or good natured. "It's not often someone just offers help, especially after what ever it was you went through." A tear was wiped away. "Sorry for the outburst. My names Krest. Before you do any sort of assisting, why don't you tell me your name?"

 

[Kuzo]

[member="Krest"] 's laughter sounded and she stiffened, just staring at him for a moment as his words sunk in. She looked down at herself in confusion, looking back up at him. She didn't laugh along with him. But she did grimace.

She hadn't even thought about it. Some things she just didn't pause for. Seeing someone injured was one of them. And here she was, getting first off laughed at, and second off.... name. Where she had approached him fairly openly, now she looked a little guarded. Just how paranoid was she going to be? How honest could she risk being?

No. That was stupid. There was no chance anyone knew she survived, right? It was ridiculous. If they had, they would have killed her by now. For five months, they'd left her to rot on the surface, surrounded by the dead. She steeled herself, but the series of complicated emotions that had flitted across her face in turn had been plain to read.

"My name's Irajah," she answered, but didn't offer a last name. After all, she'd just gotten a first out of him. "Yeah, today's been kind of rough on me. But unless I'm mistaken, I'm up and walking and you're laying there with a dislocated knee. So of the two of us, I think I got the better end of the bargain. And as far as the first part, I don't know where you're from, but where I come from, people help each other.

She stuck her chin out, just a little, almost daring him to make fun of her again.


"So do you want a hand or not? I have water here. And it may not look like it, but I actually do know what to do about that knee."

 

[Dezoti]

Her lack of laughter and the clear grimace caused the Zabrak's small chuckles to fall silent. Perhaps he had been too forward, laughing at a woman who only wanted to help. What could have happened to her to look as she did, he did not know. Who knew, she could have lost everyone she cared about and survived death itself. He listened to [member="Irajah Ven"] 's words, and stifled down a smile out of respect when she mentioned his sorry state.

A grin did spread across the Templar's face as she stuck out her chin though.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, wasn't the intention. Just trying to bring a smile or two on our depressing situations. But yeah, I'd like some help." With enough time Krest could have popped it back in place, but who knew how long it would have taken? He needed to get back and get his stuff before someone decided to take it for themselves. "And I do appreciate it."

 

[Kuzo]

She stood there, looking at [member="Krest"] for a moment or two before nodding, accepting his apology.

Kneeling was a bit of an affair- everything hurt. Fortunately her own injuries were superficial, especially compared to his, bruising and nothing more serious than that. At least from the crash. She peered in to his face, checking his eyes for a moment, looking for signs of a concussion. If he'd taken a blow to the head, that would take precedence over his knee, otherwise, she could focus on that next.

"Is this a 'Just wait till you see the other guy' kind of moment?" She asked. It wasn't really a joke, but it was a little funny. It was obvious he'd seen the wrong end of a fight. Or if he was the right end, Irajah was really glad the other guy wasn't her patient right now. She didn't have the gear she'd need.

 

[Dezoti]

"The other guy should be fine. This is a.. Misunderstanding." Krest went so far as to even do the air quotes with his fingers. The story was a long one behind that, and he wasn't too sure [member="Irajah Ven"] would be interested in hearing. The man leaned back, setting his hands behind his head as he let out a sigh. Which was promptly interrupted by coughing. He brought his arm up to his mouth, hacking into the limb. Yeah, that hurt.

Not that he'd admit it.

"Well, I suppose we should pop this bad boy back in place, eh?" It was then he let out a chuckle, looking to the sky. This was a crazy day.

 

[Kuzo]

"Misunderstanding," Irajah repeated, nonplussed. She paused, and then-

"I would hate to see what a fight was then."

She paused, waiting just long enough to check and make sure he wasn't coughing blood. After all, internal injuries were no joke (she should know). She didn't nod until she was convinced and then she repositioned herself next to his injured leg.

"I get the feeling this isn't going to be new to you," she said bluntly. "So you know this is going to hurt like hell for a couple seconds and still hurt even after. I'm going to need you to brace yourself against that wall and not fight me when I pop your knee back in to place, okay? I'm going to have to pull it away and then reposition it before I let it return to where it belongs. It will only take a second, but most people's instinct is to lash out or draw back."

She placed one hand above his knee, and the other beneath his calf. From there, she paused, looking up at [member="Krest"] .

"Ready?"

 

[Dezoti]

"The fight was supposed to be rigged with me loosing. My opponent couldn't take a simple punch to the face, and my employers weren't happy. And now, here I am." Well that was the blunt and quick version of the story. He did however offer [member="Irajah Ven"] a nod as she spoke about the procedure. Oh yeah, this was certainly going to hurt. Not his first time, but it wasn't something anyone got use to.

Both hands reached up to the nearby wall, grabbing a hold of a pole. It was the best he could do to prevent any accidental thrashing, but he certainly hoped he had enough self control beaten into him to not lash out at the woman.

"Well, Irajah, ready as I'll ever be."

 

[Kuzo]

Fantastic. The living person she comes across in five months and he's involved in illegal gambling and match fixing.

Awesome.

Inwardly, Irajah sighed but outwardly she just nodded and set her knees against the sand.

"On the count of three. One-"

She actually didn't wait until three. She'd learned the hard way that people tensed up too much right before 'three' but that if she went after one she had a half second where they were still relaxed enough to help with the job. As much as someone in pain could be of course.

Irajah wasn't strong, but she was strong enough for this. With a grunt and a swift pull she shifted his knee back in to position and let the tendons and socket take over from there. Most people's knees *wanted* to be in a certain position, they just needed a little help sometimes.

She looked up at [member="Krest"] , a little sheepish about the 'count of three' thing, but didn't apologize either for it.

"Breath in, slow but deep for a minute and I'll see about those cuts before you try to put any weight on it. You might need someone to lean on to get you back wherever you need to go," she said, handing him her water.

 

[Dezoti]

"One-"

Krest probably should have expected it, but he didn't. Pain ripped through his body as the leg was reset, pain he thought he might have actually gotten use to after all these long years. He didn't, clearly, as tears welled up in his eyes. Yeah, it was enough to make a grown man cry. But not this man. He forced the tears back, making sure not to show anything like that in front of [member="Irajah Ven"] .

He did still have his pride.

A deep breath was taken as he tilted his head up. It was then he tasted blood. Did he bite his lip that hard? A second to inspect, and yeah, he did. Well, at least the worst part was over. Gladly the Templar took the water, swigging down some mostly to wash the blood taste out.

"Y'know, normally I take a girl to dinner before they start resetting my limbs." Bad attempt at humor, but he did go to stand up. If there was at least one thing he did grow use to, it was walking after his knee got reset. Though he did hiss as he point weight on the leg. Not that use to it after all.

"I got some solvent I made a while back. It's stronger than Bacta, and can heal those bumps and bruises you got. Of course, it's with my stuff that I gotta go get. So.. I guess if you want to accompany me I can see what I can do about your wounds."

 

[Kuzo]

She eyed him for a moment, whatever was going on behind her hazel eyes unfathomable before she nodded, slowly.

"You really should have someone with you for a little while on that knee anyway," she commented, though she didn't chide him for getting right up on it. It wasn't hard to guess that this was a repeat injury from the way it had gone back in. And if he kept up with things like rigged fights, it was likely to keep repeating. But she kept the concern to herself. He was an adult that didn't need a lecture. He wasn't even a patient at her hospital. She wasn't going to start here and now with a person she just met.

She also didn't try to argue about the bacta, or whatever his serum was. Better than? Interesting. She wondered just how behind, technologically, her colony world was when it came to medical technology. But she knew it wouldn't work on all of her bruises. That being said, just shucking off the hurts from the crash would be incredibly helpful.

Irajah was concerned, however. Because it would be obvious that some of her bruises wouldn't vanish. How would she explain those away? Was it worth it? As she stood up, she grimaced, the pain from the crash rippling through her.

Yeah, it was probably worth it.

"Where to?" She asked [member="Krest"] .

 

[Dezoti]

"Back to the fighting ring."

He set off in a walk towards the direction, not once thinking about everything he had said. Then it hit him, all at once. Here he was, a bruised and beaten cyborg admitting he fought rigged games. Well, game, but still. And that he was about to go right back to the place that had indirectly caused the harm to his body. Without delay the Zabrak turned back to [member="Irajah Ven"], casually scratching at one of the cuts on his chin.

"Look, uh. This isn't actually a normal thing. No ones going to jump me, and by extension you, as we walk there, and no one there is gonna have a problem with me. Unless their drunk, but with how early," There was a pause as he tried to think on what time it was. He had no idea really. "Odds are there won't be any drunk people picking a fight. Point is, we're safe. I can get you some of the serum I'm talking about no problem, and we can patch you up. Alright?"

It was then that his demeanor changed. Instead of scratching his chin like a simple thug he extended his hand (Not the one that was scratching) out. "Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Krest, last of the Templars and once protector of this planet. I thank you for fixing my knee."

 

[Kuzo]

He'd mistaken her hesitance, but now that he said that-

Well she should have been concerned about that. She actually blinked at him for a moment. It hadn't even occured to her that someone might jump him (and by extention, her). His reassurances actually were less than reassuring, mostly because she hadn't thought about it as a possibility before, and now, suddenly, it was a possibility. Why hadn't that occurred to her? In fairness, she didn't have a lot of experience with illegal (probably?) fighting rings.

All she had on her was a holdout blaster. She wasn't a bad shot with it (she wasn't a great one either to be fair), but she'd had a lot of free time and learning how to shoot had seemed like a good way to spend it. Not that she thought she could take a life or anything (certain specifics aside), but she was pretty sure she'd be okay with shooting someone in the knee if it came right down to it.

"You're welcome," she said with a bit of a chuckle. She felt a little awkward. He was the first person she was talking to in five months, besides a computer screen. Which may have been one of the reasons she didn't just peel off and tell him thanks but no. And she *was* pretty scraped up after all.

Realizing she'd only given him her first name before, she considered for a moment, then sighed to herself before making a decision.

"I'm Doctor Irajah Ven." She didn't volunteer where she was from though. That she played close to her heart for now. Until she knew who had done it and why, she didn't want to risk anyone knowing someone had survived. Her name, however, seemed safe enough.

She paused, tilting her head at [member="Krest"] . "What's a Templar?"

Her homeworld had been fairly isolated, and while she was an excellent Doctor, a lot of the goings on of the galaxy at large, beyond the broad strokes, had simply never really interested her. She'd been busy. It wasn't that she didn't care, just that she'd had other things to do. Now though, knowing as much as she could seemed to matter quite a bit.

 

[Dezoti]

"An old title that no longer has meaning. Think Jedi, but more..." The Zabrak paused, thinking about it. In truth, Jedi and Templars were about as similar as oranges and apples. They're both fruit, but that's it for common ground. "We were guardians of these planets. Basically Jedi, but our code was vastly different. We were allowed to love for example. Hold offices. And most importantly, it was completely voluntary."

There we go, the actual difference. It's why Krest never fully joined a Jedi order after all. "It's not far down the road." Quickly he changed the subject and began walking towards the arena. He figured he could shock [member="Irajah Ven"] with the knowledge he was once a Templar, but all he did was dredge up memories he'd like to forget. Unless Ven had a question or two for him, he would walk in silence, a frown plastered across his red face.

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah listened to him explain, at least in part, what the Templars once did. She of course knew of the Jedi, but only in the most peripheral of ways. They had never really impacted her life. Her father had been one, but all she knew about that was simply that he had left and never spoke of it- until he needed to teach her a single Force technique. Even then, he had little to say, other than that the path of the Jedi had no longer been right for him. A prohibition against love? She wondered idly if it had been love for her mother that had ultimately set Salcom Ven on his path to a out of the way colony world. Not that she could ask him now.

Both Irajah and [member="Krest"] seemed content enough for the moment to walk in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

It wasn't until they reached the arena that she cleared her throat, looking up at the (completely unsavory) building and then over at Krest.

"You're positive no one is going to jump you? Because I'm not going to lie, I'd be useless in a fight."

She smiled, indicating that she was mostly joking. Mostly. Because the last part was true. Irajah would be rubbish help.

 

[Dezoti]

"Shouldn't be, unless someone decides in a moment of stupidity to attack me. I let them hurt me last time. This time, not so much." There was a certain threatening tone to his words, but not enough to be considered venomous. He was right though, at this point no one inside would want to fight him. Krest was still the reigning champ, and that should be intimidating enough, right?

Wrong.

Immediately after the Zabrak and [member="Irajah Ven"] entered the arena the very same Rodian that had been knocked out before. And audible groan escaped the lips of the Templar as he stared the bug man down.

"<You owe me a win, red skin.>"

"I don't have the patience for this. Move."

There was that same threatening tone, but it was ignored as the bug pulled out a blaster. Well, almost did. True to his word Krest had no patience for some sort of stand off. By the time the gun was out to aim where the Templar stood Krest was before the bug man, crushing the barrel within the cybernetic hand. Startled by the sudden movement the Rodian stumbled back, almost quivering.

"Just leave."

He didn't have to say it twice. The coward ran, leaving the pair alone once more. The broken blaster was dropped then, and Krest would lead on towards where his stuff was. His clothing and weaponry were right out in the open, but never disturbed. Advantage of being the champ finally came in use. Without delay he pulled out a vial, tossing it for the Doctor.

"Don't spill it, it's a pain to make." Literally, but Krest wasn't going to go into detail. After securing both his pistol and his sword on his hip, he pulled out a second vial and began to apply the thicker substance to his wounds. Almost immediately the swelling of his bruises went down, and it was noticeable how quick the cuts were beginning to close. Given five or so minutes, he would be completely healed of his lesser wounds. "And it doesn't take much."

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah plucked the bottle out of the air, holding it up to the light. She frowned ever so slightly, turning her eyes to watch him for a moment. The frown deepened slightly. Perhaps not the expected response in this situation. Hazel eyes followed his motions, watching as the serum sped up his healing by- a frankly astounding amount.

"I believe you when you say it's better than bacta," she finally said, but still didn't move to use it.

"But what exactly is it? I've never seen anything like it."

In her line of work, there was no casual usage of strange treatments. And this was certainly gods-cursed strange.

[member="Krest"]

 

[Dezoti]

"Tears. Mine specifically. A little bit of chemical work and they become more like stem cells in a way. It quickly adapts to the flesh its put on and repairs whats broken. Certainly not enough to regrow a limb, but enough for the small bumps and cuts." Blunt, but nothing wrong with that by this point. With the odd way these two met, why bother sugar coating the magic tear solution? Of course, he wouldn't blame [member="Irajah Ven"] if she didn't believe the story. Wasn't a really common one, and if not for his years of bending atoms it probably wouldn't have been believable for himself.

"Well, there's that. Not too sure what happens now."

 

[Kuzo]

Oh yeah. Irajah wasn't sure if she believed him. And even if she *did* the idea of it was deeply disturbing. Safer, honestly, to disbelieve. She didn't want to be rude, in the slightest, but she really wasn't comfortable using something that he was either lying about, or else was actually made from his tears.

Either way, the implications were disturbing.

She held the vial in her hands for a moment, then moved and set it down next to his other things.

"What happens now?" She repeated, then chuckled slightly. "Now you don't go getting in to any more rigged fights, or if you do, hope it's not against opponents with a glass jaw, and I go find a room to rent while I figure out what's next."

She smiled a smile that said We'll both be okay.

[member="Krest"]