Private Purple Plastic Precision Cells

[Glade]

Grey room, comfortable padding along the walls to prevent self-injury. The desk was made of packing foam, the chair soft non-flammable fabric. A force-sensitive holding cell with a secondary force cage around it. High security for sith lords, but it was comfortable. A shelf was cut into the wall for a bed with a single mattress on it, and a small privacy area existed for toiletries and sonic shower with blacked-out screen.

There were worse cells with less in them, this one lacked much but a stack of plastic holobooks to read, a few sets of jigsaws, deck of cards and board games in the corner. Water had been provided, in a plastic cup, a simple meal with fragile plastic fork and knife, dropped through a slot in the wall at mealtimes. If you really looked, there was nothing that could be shaped into a weapon, the fabric couldn’t be set alight, the plastic barely better than paper. All in all it was an effective cell, even the shower's sonic supply was very limited, and that too was a plastic head.

The most important thing about Vanessa's prison was, it was suspended in mid-air by four different tractor beams to fix it, and metal support at the base to hold the weight. Surrounded on all sides by cameras and four rangers around the clock monitoring her from a nearby room, usually with a Jedi Knight there when the temple could spare it. Vanessa could have been anywhere, stunned as she'd been on her arrival to reveal nothing. As it was she was on Kashyyyk, while the Jedi Masters debated what to do with her. Glade was also on Kashyyyk because since past events had brought her back, she half lived on Kei’s ship and Amadis made his family home here, so often spent her days in the forests milling about.

This time when an attendant sent a message to the cell it was a girl in a hoverchair, a very specific girl who knew exactly who she was talking to. Even outside behind a protective wall surrounded by rangers, it might be strange to put her anywhere near sith, but no force abilities worked in this cell, and that purple hoverchair was more than it appeared. It would not only take cunning but also guile and patience from Vanessa to escape her fate today. None of those qualities were in Glade, well except maybe guile from time to time.

Over the comm systems her voice came to the cell. "Heya." She popped her lips not knowing what to say, "So ummm. They kinda want me to interrogate you. See whatcha know. Sound fun?" The start of the strangest interrogation anywhere this side of Hutt space perhaps. There was some whispering from a ranger to stick to the script, and she hushed him, there wasn't a script in existence she was about to stick to. "So..... erm... what were you doing, you know, swishin' around Kintan'"

Tag: Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Glade

“Aw, how sweet...”Vanessa said from within her cage. she smiled as she walked towards the edge of the cell they had put her in. she still had her Force powers, that she was thankful for, but essentially everything aside from the items within her cell were untouchable with the Force thanks to the containment measures that had been put together. Vanessa even now was scheming, determining how best to escape the prison she was in. Perhaps it was her polite demeanor that dissuaded them from collaring or gassing her with ixetal cilona.

“You know, Nat, I thought I wasn’t likely going to run into you again after telling Yusan to back off and let me rebuild your legs. Evidently that didn’t work too well for you.” She sighed, frustrated to see an experiment of hers in such a decrepit shape. “you asked what I was doing on Kintan? Sithy things. I’m guessing the destruction of the antimatter reactor on my shuttle reduced any fragments of the ship’s computers to ashes, hence why you aren’t coming at me with any preexisting information.” She sighed.

“Tell you what - let me out of here, and I’ll help get your legs healed. I wouldn’t ordinarily do this, what with the whole “being on opposing sides” and whatnot, but I’m willing to repair whatever damage has been done to you over the decades, my lovely little experiment.”

 

[Glade]

Glade couldn’t read her. Not inside that cell, her biggest advantage of mental ability was denied to her. So she did what she did best and improvised. “Yeah umm, kinda gonna need more than sithy things,” least a good lie she thought. The Houk ranger nearest Glade gave her mutter, reading his holonewspaper.

So there was pre-existing information to find out.

Glade popped her lips and took a sip of her juice drink. “They got some really nice cake out here. Least it looks like cake.” One of Kei’s creations, improved by Sera so it didn’t look like a giant baked mess. The Order's amateur baking team leaving something to be desired! Not that anyone stuck here guarding the cells minded, the shifts were long and usually uneventful.

An experiment indeed! Hmmmpppph! Take five minutes' time out before i’m talking again. She pouted, taking her time with cake eating. A long five minutes before wiping her fingers clean of cake. Underneath the act, there were conflicting emotions about walking again, deep and twisting ones, which cut like butter knives unable to pierce skin.

“oh sorry, yep, interview.”

There was a certain game being played, and all these diversions were props, much like an artist might do when approaching painting, with glade it all had to be creatively done.

“Sounds all kinda generous. Heal me, be best buddies again.” She teased, “buildin’ bridges, all kindsa good.” Glade tilted her head, rich black hair slanting to one side, the many years of adventure in her voice, not the naive girl from however many years ago. The body language and voice saying she didn’t believe her intentions one bit. “What do you think?” Glade blinked asking the ranger booth, two of which were currently enjoying the bad cake as best they were able.

“Well she does lack credibility.” A human ranger’s perky voice remarked. “Mass murdering sith and all.” the Houk with them just grumbled again, and turned his holonewspaper, trying to keep up with the sports section. "Seem's they think you might get all zzzzzzztttt" She motioned with her fingers as if shooting lightning, considering it might burn her fingers off if she ever actually tried.

Above the cage's anti force using mechanism had been flicked on and off very quickly, to see if Vanessa realized or caught it, in that moment every single fiber of Glade’s mental prowess was heightened to spot if Vanessa had realized, it was a split second and then the cage was back up again. If successful it might be tried later, to see if she could read her. The secondary energy shield was obviously still in place to give the illusion visually that nothing had happened, but visual cues were not the only ones available.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Glade

Vanessa would sigh. “There isn’t much. Sithy things. You know. Alchemical experiments, socializing with other Sith, fighting the Jedi, etcetera. I can’t really go on about my work, of course. Sensitive business.” She shrugged as Glade ate her cake - there wasn’t any feeling one way or another regarding the cake.

Glade’s ceasing of interaction didn’t bother Vanessa at all, but when she indicated a positive response, Vanessa smiled and pressed further on it. “I do offer a lifetime warranty on my work, after all, and you are quite alive right now. If you can disable these barricades, perhaps we can actually do things the right way. I gain nothing by trying to go Bzzzzzzzzt”- she moved her hands as though she was using Force Lightning - “on you or anyone else right now.” She shrugged. “You certainly didn’t think I was enough of a threat to gas or inject suppressants - I recommend talking to the Mandalorians about that.”

Vanessa had in fact noticed, but she gave no indication of it other than her response: “Do that again, please. It feels nice to metaphorically stretch and feel exactly where I am.”

 

[Glade]

No feeling regarding the cake! That was a crime if ever there was one, but a crime for another day.

Their test of releasing the cage’s defense had been a test of Vanessa’s response as much as Glade’s ability to read her. Doors opened and two ranger squads lined up either side of the cage, pointing their rifles at it. Large reptilian Houks among their number which resembled walking weapon platforms with the size of their rotary guns. The Impervium coating on the thick walls of this place may now be apparent, so thick they blocked sound, not by a special material but by their metal width.

“Guessin' we can’t be playin' this game too long.” This had been a bit of a ruse. She wasn’t collared, and no lizards blocking the force crawled around, because a dozen eyes were on the Sith, cameras above her cage now probably visible to her force sense.

Force sense. Because the cage defenses had gone offline, and Vanessa may or may not feel Glade drifting like a breeze toward her mind, floating around, art, pictures, sound. Pleasant actually, distracting. She could resist of course and probably would. It wasn’t a forceful mental attack, it didn’t come from one direction. Glades technique was an unfolding maze from all directions, inside out, multiple dimensions. A light-hearted one, flowery, colorful, the scene of tulips and other wildflowers imposed in a field-stretching forever, or an intricate puzzle box that led to a party, on a boat in the middle of an ocean. Endless paths to another scene to follow.

“Will you harm any Jedi or Ranger in these walls or temple grounds?” One speaker asked. That was a specific question. With the loss of much of her mobility, there was such mental acuity in Glade’s technique that it made her old self look tame. Like a searchlight had illuminated looking for the truth of the answer, only there was no light, just the vivid display to detect or blind the Sith Lord’s attempts to lie.

A second question then from another older Master watching on.

“Why did you want to be captured?” Vanessa had come alone in a shuttle to a Jedi occupied world, some questioned whether it was a facade.

All the while Glade searched her for any trace of deception no matter how small.

“Why should we let a Sith Lord go?” A female Jedi Master quizzed.

A fourth. This time any technique was stopped. It was raw, it was shakey and it was uncertain. “D'do you really m.mean. Y'know?”

There was no search for the truth in the final line. There was an injured spirit. Vanessa would read it as much in Glade if she followed the strands in the force. Because the cost of Glade's technique was a connection to the other's mind. She had accepted this was who she was, the chair, the identity, and was ‘okay’. Healing it felt like a betrayal of why she was in the chair. But also, the desire to fly free was so strong it could have ripped the door of that cage, and blown the walls apart by another tornado. The emotional potential behind that motivation made some sith seem hollow.

In fact, that emotion was inside Vanessa’s cell, wind currents curling and moving, some of the plastic lifted from the desk.

If Vanessa had not sort escape or death at the hands of the ranger squads, the cage’s defenses would go up again, for now, while the Master's considered their next move.
Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Glade

Vanessa would use the extended period of time to, having successfully sensed where the power coupling was for the Force dampening portion of the combination prison, break the power and control lines for that portion of the system. She was still inside the Force Cage, but was at least resolute that she couldn’t have her prodigious abilities inhibited. it was with such that she prepared to answer the questions.

“will I harm any Jedi or Ranger here? Not while I’m here, no. Note that this doesn’t preclude me from coming back with a task force and destroying theTemple from orbit an indeterminate period of time from now - that’s just fair game in war.” She could feel Glade trying to press at her mind, and smiled. “Don’t do that. You want an honest answer, don’t you?” Her own mentalist capabilities would be pushing back against Glade - at least until she stopped. At the least, she would know this one was true.

“Why did I want- what? You think I came here wanting to be captured? No. It’s merely an inconvenience that’s proven to be more beneficial than I thought it would be. See some old experiments...“ She motioned to Glade. “And hopefully heal them too. I might even find some willing concerts while I’m here catching up.” She shrugged. There was potentially more, but it was within the realms of possibility.

“What do you gain from keeping me incarcerated here?” She said. “The linger I’m here, the more of an influence I can be upon you - and that’s not beneficial to your kind, is it, Jedi? Surely you remember the story of Roan Fel, and what happened as the Sith Lord he had captured slowly went from his prisoner to his advisor. It’s an inevitability - unless you think executing me is going to work, and I assure you, it won’t.” An answer that at least seemed true, and did have some historical precedent. “Not to mention holding me long term may not be beneficial.”

as for Glade’s own question, Vanessa spoke plainly and with conviction. “Yes. I meant every word. Let me out of here and give me the resources I ask for, and you will be healed at my hands again. Truthfully it’s hard to bear looking at the state you’re in now - so hard that I quite possibly would have returned from the Unknown Regions to help repair the damage you have experienced.” She sighed. It really was sad to see.

“Any more questions, or are you going to let down this cage so I can get to work?” She said.

 

[Glade]

“She won’t be hurtin’ anyone ‘round the temple.” Glade answered them. “Not sure ‘bout anythin’ else.” Nothing happened outwardly for a minute or two. Patience. It seems the masters were assessing the risk. The Kiffar, however, came out in her hoverchair. The word experiment pressed like those blunt butter knives but her nature was to shrug off labels and judgments. She actually believed Vanessa was sincere, even if she looked at Glade as a project, the Kiffar didn't care. There was determination there.

Some of the rifles pointed at the cage lowered, and there was a whirring noise as one of the cages nearby came into place, locking into place with Venessa’s covering the doorway. A curious turn of events, especially as this one had several crystals that were being studied, formerly netherworld in origin, now they all lay dormant. A surgical and scientific droid worked in tandem to better understand the force dead crystals.

The energy shield had lowered to allow the locking together but Vanessa was getting her wish and more. She might sense through the force, more was here for her than just escape, if she managed what was asked of her next, Glade would owe her everything. The energy cell lowered, Vanessa’s door opened into the second larger cell. Face to face with the Sith Lord. “Not for me,” Glade said, “for my daughter.” The mystery of the netherworld crystals and their effect on her child. Now those crystals hold on the former crew had faded but...

As Glade approached Vanessa may see something the other’s missed because she hid it well with Taiden’s herbs, she was dying. Not a disease, virus or an illness. The netherworld connection that the others removed from themselves, had not worked fully on Glade, because her crystal had been shattered and remade that day on Coruscant so she might walk again.

Cruel fates. “will do anythin’ you ask.” Some of the order’s best healers killed or long retired, she was out of options of healers that worked above and beyond common or more advanced medicine. She was maybe beyond Vanessa’s ability to heal but her daughter wasn’t because her connection to the now force dead crystals was only through her mother. Force dead material inside a force user. ~Kinda too late~ she said in the force to Vanessa, ~but not for my girl.~

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa popped her fingers as she stepped forward, entering the new cage. This one, she sensed, had nothing in the way of protection aside from the metal bars. She would examine rudimentarily the crystals that sat before her - crystals of the dead, evidently. She remembered the Netherworld. It had been decades since she had journeyed there to seek out the corrupted Celestial known as Akala. She still mourned the girl’s loss, as all she had needed was love and attention, but that she had been empowered was more than enough to accomplish what she needed.

“Your daughter wasn’t really part of the bargain.” She said. “Nonetheless we can look at her and see what’s wrong. But for now, I believe there is someone else who needs help.” Coming over to the hoverchair, Vanessa would pat Glade on the head before motioning for her to get on the nearby table so she could be better examined. If she was unable to use the Force to get there herself, Vanessa would levitate her out of the chair and lie her down carefully onto the medical bed in question in the prone position.

“Let’s take a look.” Vanessa recalled when last they were together that a crystal shard was within her body that had the spirit of a Sith Lord in it. She remembered how weak she had been, how the spirit in question had given her and Yusan much trouble when confronting it. Now, assumedly, it was weaker and she was much, much stronger. She would try to sense what exactly the spirit’s presence was that still remained, while also taking a hand and grasping Glade’s left ankle with her hand. “Do you feel that at all?”

Determining the effects of her injuries would help Vanessa find out exactly how best to proceed.

Glade

 

[Glade]

"My daughter is our bargain." She insisted, because her entire world was healing her daughter, she could put no energy on other tasks till that was done. Incredibly reluctant to actually get up anywhere. Glade would refuse initially and delay insisting her daughter should come first, there might be an argument but she would eventually relent and want to pull herself up on the table, stubbornly torn about being levitated. There was a chance that curing her of this would cure her daughter, and she took it.

With the force cage still surrounding all of this and the rangers not far away. It should be noted there were a lot of eyes watching very carefully, and although this second cage was metal and plastic things were monitored even more carefully than before. Glade gripped Vanessa's hand somewhat tightly.

An armorweave suit gave the feeling of form and touch to her legs for Vanessa, but there was no registering at all from Glade. It took her time to say "no," almost distant and detached. While Keth’s spirit was weaker it had several places down her spine as points of contact, the bargain with the netherworld entity that had deactivated these crystals had cleansed a single crystal in each of her friends, leaving Glade with about 10 or so points of contact down her spine still active, that were now entirely force dead. The reworked spine that had saved her legs, cruelly the cause of her illness. Making certain force techniques somewhat difficult and slowly killing her. The crystal material could still be shaped, it was just hard to pinpoint, thankfully Vanessa had put them in there in the first place, and could sense the rest of her body to pinpoint the absences in the force.

Vanessa wasn’t dealing so much with Keth but with the absence of the force and Keth inside the central spine. An abyss of nothingness well reminiscent of the netherworld. The spirit maintaining the void of life inside of her. She was also dealing with a torrent of emotion inside glade, the subtle breeze that had previously been present in the room threatened to pick up. A storm in a bottle, the walls and crystasteel windows rattled, some of the guards outside looked nervous.

"What's going on!" One of the rangers called.

Weaker Keth was, but there was something odd about this mystery, and it had traces back to Taresa Kae , an old Sith assassin’s face, or rather the absence of a face. There was a danger in destroying Keth and a trade-off. However above there was a presence looking on and it only added a deepening pressure to the room, his arrival could come at any time. Things could get out of hand very fast in this small space, perhaps they needed a more open area? One with less twitchy guards, and more room not to be stabbed.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Glade

"I will heal your daughter." Vanessa said. "But first, I'm going to perform a little routine maintenance." She said, looking down. The lack of a response in Glade's legs was, to say the least, worrisome. The deadness in the Force she felt was hard to describe, an empty void that felt it was otherwise completely empty. This was going to be frustrating to pull off, and was certainly going to require a great deal of Force energy on Vanessa's part and a great deal of suffering on the part of Glade.

Vanessa would focus her power on the crystals themselves. As she had made them, so now she attempted to unmake them, to return them from a solid to a liquid state. No longer did they need to reinforce Glade's otherwise healed legs, nor did their corruption need to be able to harm such. She would molecularly break them down into a liquid that would be absorbed by the circulatory system of the woman before her and expelled as waste products. If these were the cause of her issue, it was the most ergonomic solution to fix them.

 

[Glade]

No answer to the rangers below meant one giant Houk head peered in the doorway, a couple of medics joining to assist to help however they could. The Houk came in part because the scream of pain, and also the air currents whipping around the holding area had just thrown three of the rangers against the wall outside, and one now had a minor concussion. The air inside the cell wasn’t as violent but it was moving fast enough to move clothing and knock over glasses or cups around Vanessa.

“She dead?” His low Houk voice rumbled. Glade was out of it, not dead but that amount of pain had shut down her body's ability to feel it, white-hot searing pain to the point you can’t distinguish anything anymore. Glade had blacked out. Probably for the best while Vanessa faced what was to come, and at least the gale outside stopped blowing. Her heartbeat and breathing were stable.

As for unmaking the crystals, Vanessa had shaped the shards that were there, but the crystals fought back. These were ancient things, and the spirit they were connected was 800 years or older. The spirit tried to grip her throat and throw her against the wall, about to upend the table and eviscerate the entire room if this continued. A deep red aura that was full of malice and loathing threatened to burst into this confined room, it was thick like bile.

BUT

There was a little bit of progress, the crystals had started to show damage, and there was something else, trickles of knowledge or connections that Vanessa may see in her mind. All leading back to a shifting mask, or fake front. Taresa Kae ... Hana Kae like a line. She could tap that if she wanted to but it would get increasingly dangerous either way. Keth was metaphorically knocking at the door, unwilling to let ONE OF HIS experiments be taken so easily by another sith.

“Should we move this outside?” The large muscular Houk ranger asked, not completely aware of what was going on, but aware of some of the dangers he was seeing. The walls here were thick, well secured from the outside world but there wasn’t unlimited room here. It was Vanessa’s call if she wanted the thick outer walls as a barrier to this spilling out, or more room outside and potential freedom, which would probably happen either way.

Also. More than one spirit was here, and they were excited to see the result...
Tag: Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Glade

Vanessa sighed as Glade slid into unconsciousness, doing her absolute best to maintain control and continue to break down the crystals - her crystals - into liquid so they could be extruded. She felt the presence of Kesh pushing gently at the barriers of her mind, which only made her more apathetic and strengthened her resolve to appropriately exorcise his last vestiges from her flesh. Her pressure in the Force further exerted on his remnants and that of the other spirit as she loudly chanted, the sorcery flowing from her fingers into the woman's body, aggressively altering her crystalline augments on an alchemical level and further destroying the infestation so that she might function normally. She would remain inside the confines of their cell for now.

After all, the less aftereffects of this, the better.