Private Redemption

[Kyra Perl]

As they skipped the ship yard and opted for a tight fit in Loske's hanger, Kyra was quickly realizing she wasn't ready to go in. Not cause she wasn't prepared enough, cause damn this suit was cool, but cause she was flat out-dumb scared! This whole week she had been operating one moment at a time. Eat. Sleep. Dress. Hop on a ship. Turn it around. Ask questions. Befriend Loske: One step-- one moment-- everything propelling her to land on this exact doorstep and yet...

She wanted more time. She didn't feel braced. Was there such thing as that? Hardly mattered, those kids needed her help. With the end in sight, it was their faces that kept her moving forward. Like a string in her chest, their memory of those tear stains... the palpable fear... it pulled her forward... Strengthened her. Even if it was dumb strength, she steeled herself with it and chased after Loske's heels.

It was hard to hide the sound of her steps, the sand crunching against the form that couldn't be seen.

"You guys sure are techy in the core," Kyra whispered, awe in her tone. She wiggled her fingers in front of her face as they walked, trying to catch sight of them under the cloaking nanos. She wanted one.

Loske would hear the rapid shuffle of movement, sand kicking up haphazardly as the padawan did something questionable. A trip? Or perhaps a dance. Yes, lets go with that. She danced. Kyra stifled a gasp, moving much more carefully as they crested the hill. Below, the chateu stood glowing with light. Dusk threatened the edges of the sky, the temperature dropping several degrees as they knelt and studied the place they would hit.

Kyra was quiet, but Loske might feel the force abruptly channel through the girl besides her.Her breath moved quick and tight through her, her throat closing in a little on itself as she realized exactly where she'd have to return. "...They're in the cellar," Kyra finally informed her, her voice raw.

Fine. She was fine. They couldn't hurt her here. She had control over this-- she was- One step at a time.

"The side door- just- just there." And while Loske might expect the girl to do her part and move first, the indent in the sand besides her stayed near perfectly still... spare the slight quiver where her hand braced against the crest of the dune.

Loske Treicolt

 

[Loske Treicolt]

"Yeah," she whispered back in agreement. "-That suit has become a staple for sure." It was kind of weird how it could morph and contour so readily to the smaller girl's body. She didn't get much further chance to observe and the silhouette that was Kyra Perl was quickly replaced with nothing but footprints and random noises. For Loske, it was difficult to follow the direction of someone she couldn't see. But the pair managed.

A voice told her where the door was, and she paused, letting the zeltron do the honours. No such gesture was made, and the blonde made a quizzical face. Did she want to take some time or something? They didn't have it. While Kyra was invisible, Loske was very much not, and standing outside a criminal chateau was not her idea of a good time.

"Oookay?" She encouraged. Still nothing. "Are you going to be okay? Remember, you go down and get the kids and I'll..I'll handle the distractions." Optimistically, she tried the handle of the door. It didn't budge. It was locked, obviously. She hmmmm'd in frustration and dropped to a knee, wrapping her fingers around the handle and concentrating. After a few rhythmic inhale-exhales, the girl's ministrations with the mechanics of the lock came to fruition and the door hissed open for the pair.

"Ah hah!" Some of Allyson's lessons about listening to technology were paying off.

Her jubilance was short-lived, and quickly replaced with a silenced sneakiness. She was getting better at proactively reaching out with her senses, rather than just reacting all the time when something bad was about to happen. Loud, belligerent voices were coming from down the hallway and Loske held up a hand to where she thought Kyra would be.

"Which way?" She whispered, not comforted by the number of doors on the walls. As far as she was concerned, anything could pop out from there.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra swallowed hard, the steps that had been so hard to initiate coming a little easier when they placed behind Loske's own. It was a classic freeze moment, one she would recognize later. For now she was grateful to be invisible as she found her footing, a bit of awe spared for Loske's confident nature. How did she do it? The appreciation for the girl's presence only grew as she wordlessly watched her break their way in.

It dawned on her then that this mission would have gone to hell in a hand basket without Loske's aid. She didn't know if she was embarrassed, or appreciative. If anything, this whole ordeal was a sobering slap of reality. Something within her needed to change.

The door slide open, Loske's pleasure sparking her back into the present. "...Okay, you have to teach me that one," she uttered, the moment passing through her. She took a steadying breath, then pushed into the familiar dark hallway. It was Loske's turn to slow, if only she because she didn't know which way was what. Kyra, unfortunately, did know these halls well.

"Shh," she urged, the noises causing her shoulders to raise. Loske would feel her hand be encapsulated by Kyra's own, the gesture familiar as fingers entwined and she led her forward. Super sneak!

The compound felt significantly empty this time around, many of the rooms around them ringing cold and empty-- void of a the many guards and cultist that once occupied them. "I was right, it's just the stragglers," she whispered to Loske as they managed to slip deeper in without encountering a soul. She pulled into an alcove, a dried up blood stain left to brown and fade into the tuscan-esk design. Kyra paid no mind to the old signs of a battle, her breath warm on Loske's shoulder as she squished in and craned around.

"I think we can get to them without them noticing, but it's the out part-" Kyra was confident in her abilities to deflect blaster shots, which she ASSUMED would the result of being caught but the thug guarding them.

But she had also been confident in her ability to get the children the first time around. And in her ability to face off those gangsters. And so many other things that never went to plan. Strange-- being a jedi didn't just naturally make you awesome. Fancy that.

She hesitated, no longer willing to blindly assume success. "This is nothing like the movies," she breathed to the girl, a bit at loss for a plan. Training rooms only got you so far. Guess it was on them to grab the experience.

"You should carry, like, twenty of these suits on you at all times." Loske got tugged as Kyra decided now was the time to head back out. They turned the corner, greeted by a deep set of dimly lit stairs, carved into the sandstone. The strife of the children reached through the air, to her. Kyra knew at once they were on the right path.

Creepy basement much?

 

[Loske Treicolt]

Loske nodded once to affirm that she'd do her best to pass on the knowledge of the lock picking. She'd only just gotten the hang of it, and was kind of surprised herself that it all worked out so according to the...uhm...fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants plan.

The internal rumination of Kyra Perl were lost on the blonde, who was too busy trying to make herself as discreet as Kyra herself. There'd been a very limited briefing, and it was in the confines of the hallway that the kiffar with faux bravado realized how underprepared they really might have been. Kyra'd been squeezed into a suit that she was unfamiliar with, and Loske was...doing this with someone she didn't know. In a world that was completely foreign. There was something heroic about it all. That bolstered her.

She extended her awareness beyond herself, recognizing Kyra for where she was -- though invisible, her imprint on the metaphysical still existed. Loske didn't know her well enough to detect a distinct signature, but the impression was enough. The Force extended from the young Jedi. One hundred and thirteen times a second it reached out; fully aware of the echoes of the dead that had been here and the breath of the living, and the consciousness bound within them. She was aware of what it was feeding back to her, and while her senses were somewhat unrefined data, she was parsing the information to see what was useful versus not. The Force was constantly feeding information of life and death, of history, present and glimpses of the future. The balance in dichotomies. It rooted out a cluster of emotions, some smattered around a room not far from them. There was a level of hostility and Loske was grateful when Kyra looped her hand in hers that they were going away from that direction.

The further they went, the more the walls seemed to close in on them, the architecture foreboding with glints and whispers of what's to come.

Getting out was a concern indeed. However many kids they were about to find increased their liabilities by that same amount. And the responsibility to protect them. Could they simply leave it to chance, hoping that sneaking around would be good enough? Or should she intentionally try and draw the attention away from them?

"I'm starting to think about it, honestly." Loske whispered back to the void, the yanking sensation stretching from her wrist up to her shoulder and she moved forward with quick steps. Steps that only paused at the mouth of a stretch of a poorly lit stairway. "Somehow," she murmured, cocking her head and glancing over her shoulder before giving an easy shrug "I'm not surprised."

She took a step back. "You go first. These kids will know you, and will want to see you before they see another stranger. I'll cover our backs." So as to add additional bolstering to her claim, she pat the hilt that was slipped to her hip. Without much visibility to where Kyra was exactly, she couldn't very well push her --- but if she could see Kyra, she would have put an encouraging amount of pressure to her back to get her to move forward. Take that step she hadn't outside.

Meanwhile, several rooms away, a disagreement among the remaining evildoers was starting to break out. Voices were being raised, and fists were slamming on tables. Nothing beyond the frustrations of their own conversation yet, but a a conflicting storm of emotions a distance away.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Loske would feel a thin paddie braid whack against her cheek as Kyra turned her head sharply, her eyes wide and tense as the sounds of the fighting broke out. "...Right, best move quickly." She took the step on her own.

This was a stupid, stupid plan. It would surprise no one that Kyra pressed into it. Her presence was anything but subtle in the force. To those that listened, Kyra acted like a magnifying glass-- absorbing and reflecting the energies around her. Above all, she rang with cautious confidence. Whether the emotion was her own, or Loske's, or a combination of the two? It hardly mattered. It emanated from her in a small aura.

A twisted force valor, if you will.


It was hard to go down stairs when you couldn't see your own feet, but hitting solid ground had Kyra moving with brisk, intentional steps. The sub level of the house was considerably cooler. The air was damp and foul. Like maybe something was dead. Store rooms had been fashioned with solid doors and locks. The hallway was long, thin, and ill lit. How long did her invisibility last again? Kyra felt her thoughts slip from her as she turned the final corner.

At the end was a single cell-- the metal bars rusted and built into the rough rock wall. The smell was the worst here. Pain echoed through the force, old and new.

Acaadi!

Kyra stopped short, cringing back a step. Don't think. Don't feel. Don't remember. Instincts took over. She grabbed Loske's arm before she could turning the corner and look to see.

"One asleep, guarding the cell. Another probably there." She gestured to a door to their left, overlooking the hallway the cell sat inside. If they were caught, the person inside could easily step out and cut them off. But if Loske stayed at this corner, they would be pinched between the two padawans and Loske could get them from behind while Kyra protected the children. Kyra released Loske's arm, her grip a smidgen too tight.


"Ready?" She breathed.

 

[Loske Treicolt]

Do it for the girls around the world
​

The continuum of the original suggestion that Kyra be responsible for the kids was paramount here. The blonde gave a tight nod to the invisible Zeltron and oriented herself in the direction of the there that had been pointed out. Loske'd provide cover for Kyra to slink in and take care of this mission she'd concocted.

While she spoke, she rubbed her bicep –– the muscle almost gasping in relief when Kyra Perl relinquished her death grip. "Ready. Rip Van Wrinkle is yours. There's a shield on that suit you can activate from the vambraces if things get a little too spicy."

Keeping her voice to hushed whisper, she lifted her wrist where a less-than-obvious commlink was concealed. It connected her right back to S.S. Bruno's main channel. <Frank, be ready out there. We're probably T-minus ten minutes. Keep...everything warm.> She arched a brow, looking at the doorway she was about to encounter. <Engines, cannons...everything.>

In the meantime, she poised herself against the wall with a hand hovering near the holster concealed beneath her jacket where her blade was secured. An invisible tendril extended from herself, searchingly, toward the doorway. It pressed about, seeing if she could counter any attempts to counter it opening with an opposing pressure. Not enough to prevent it from opening entirely. It would be a snap reaction.

Perturbed by something in his dreams, the snoring guard made a sharp inhale –– too sharp to sleep through. He flustered himself awake, and anxiously patted his stomach then chest in surprise with a cough.

In abject horror at the untimeliness of it all, Loske gasped while the door she was covering hissed open. The sealant air depressing as the brawny silhouette marched through.

"Hey –– Gelt, I –––––" The sentiment never carried through to completion. The voice caught off while the speaker was tossed beackwards with an invisible push and the door hissed shut again.

The bleary-eyed guard who was rising from his untimely nap scooted up in his seat, searching for the owner of the voice. Confounded that someone would start to say something and not finish, he rose.

Loske darted forward toward the door while the man on the other side rose to stand and lunge at the control and open it again. He was met with the shoulder of the girl who lunged at him before he could reach his blaster.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Rip Van Wrinkle...?

The question slipped from her mind, instincts picking up where her thoughts would have otherwise overwhelmed and left her frozen. Before there had been the choice to stay in place. Danger had been a distant concept, they could have turned about and left. She was halfway down the hall when she heard the door open. The guard startled awake-- the twisted sneer to his lips ringing a faint bell in her mind as she slammed her fist into it.

Pain launched through her knuckles, her thumb tucked incorrectly. She didn't care. The panicked noises of the children echoed down the hall, the invisible assault continuing as she drew her saber and clunked it right over the man's temple. His sputtering thrashes at the air cut off, blood welling up across a gash as he slumped in place.

Kyra stared for the barest moment, her heart beat pounding in her ear.

The sound of Loske's scuffle behind her jostled her back into action. The key's jumped off the man's body, into her hands as Kyra's clumsily fought against her own invisibility to get the cell door open.

"He-ello?" Squeaked one boy, standing bravely over the others. Kyra glanced up, wishing in that moment she knew how to make herself visible.

"It's okay. It's okay. I'm here to help you. Do you recognize me?" Silly question. The door creaked as it swung wide open, her gaze skimming their faces quickly. Dirty. Tear stained. But alive. She counted six.

"Imma get you out. But you need to stay close to me, you got it?" Chit. "Loooooooooske," she hissed, turning over her shoulder to the girl. "How do you--" She blinked as the blonde disappeared through the spare- room's door, her body flying into thing 2. "Loske?" she repeated, a slight panic to her tone as she ran towards her. A glance was spared on the unconscious guard, the children left to spill out after the body-less voice that had saved them.

Loske Treicolt