Wearing/Equipment:
XoXo
Location: Safehouse
Tag:
Brandyn Sal-Soren
|
Baros Sal-Soren
|
Teyla Sal-Soren
He wanted to go alone.
Cybelle could still feel a gentle protest rising in her throat but the resolute expression on Brandyn's face bought her acceptance. She was glad to be back on Naboo. Likewise, she wished the reason weren't so fraught with endless tragedy and sadness. Her home was her home…But it was often the site of deafening ruin. From the disastrous Cataclysm of the Unmaker to the discovery of a deeply dangerous artifact collection in the under dark of the Ee'Everwest Estate—To hunting
Baros Sal-Soren
.
How could anything good come from being here?
She was a Knight that had been trained from an early age to anticipate light on the horizon. No matter the danger or evidence that ran contrary to that belief, Cybelle, tried to keep that teaching close to her chest. Look to the Light. It would provide. The auburn-haired woman could only hope that her Master was correct while she held up a corner of the hall while
Briana Sal-Soren
gave a speech to the locals that had been devastated during a cascade of bad luck. A memorial. They were…
Distracted.
Cybelle was not.
Seconds became minutes. Minutes to a quarter of an hour. To a half. While patience was a virtue that she had been known to exercise into infinity—It had been too long. There was a sudden throbbing pain that began at the base of her skull. It was accompanied by a sense of displacement and the sensation of the world tilting, vertigo, that stopped just as abruptly as it arrived. Her heart skipped. Brandyn. She didn't know what was wrong, not exactly, but it was
something.
A mental apology that would perhaps go unheard would precede her crossing the hall with a speed that would have left a flatscan stunned. These doors, these walls, were not the state-of-the-art bastions that she was used to forcing her way through. They posed little more than a hurdle for anyone capable of using brute force, which, she employed. If something had happened to Brandyn the target of this entire escapade was already aware they weren't alone.
The last time one of them had gone dark while following the Elder Sal-Soren she had been left powerless for weeks. Months. Cybelle couldn't bear the thought of Brandyn going through the same thing. Or worse. Breaking into the office caused the hinges of the door to splinter but the stoic creature merely took stock of the room. Empty, save Brandyn lying on the floor.
Another door, open, to the south end. She frowned. That wasn't on the blueprints.
Soundless footsteps brought her down to the dark-haired man she loved so very, very much. Were it not for the fact that he should have been arresting his father for being involved in a group that was set up to nullify and or kill everyone she knew…Cybelle could have thought him asleep. Boyish features were more prominent when he was lost to dreams, less angled, by collective experiences. Her glove retracted as nanites flipped up her arm in a shimmering mirror and she knelt to touch his face.
Checking temperature, status, and vitals.
But also seeking to soothe him. He wasn't hurt—But he was drugged. That could make for some intensive lucid dreams and there was very little on his mind now that would lend toward a pleasant experience. "I should have come with you.", she admitted her fault, though, Brandyn would likely never hear. She leaned down to press her lips to his forehead before calling in Jedi reinforcements and a medical team. Their operation was already starting to fray at the seams because of personal attachments. She was delaying because…Her heart was on the floor.
He was on the floor because their target was his father.
"…I'll bring him in."
Alive. That, was the important part. Many in her position would have done the exact opposite. Her feelings toward
Baros Sal-Soren
were extremely complicated but her connection to the Force was crystal clear. She would do the
right thing. Even, if others disagreed.
Cybelle drew up and her hand re-encased with protective technology while her senses leapt through the building like dozens of mental fingers crawling through shadows. She knew, what Baros felt like. It was similar to his son and the rest of his children. But, so very different. Through the secret door, down the rabbit hole, she was already late. Late, late for an important date. Brandyn would be safe. The rest of their friends and colleagues would see to it…But she couldn't let Baros get away.
Not again.
There was a flicker of green light while she disappeared down the dark corridor and her form faded from the visible spectrum. The active camouflage that her adopted father had built into her battle robes wasn't complete but it would make her hard to pick up by sight or any other sensor. Her last round with the New Way had taught her not to rely, solely, on the Force or technology. Her Kushiban friend had still died when she should have been safe. Cybelle had been caught when she should have been safe. Against all odds—The New Way prevailed.
She had to be prepared for any eventuality.
Dampeners in her boots made the rhythmic sound of her steps all but nothing. Baros had a head start. That was fine. She would catch him, if only, because she cried tears of gold for his son. No one could defy that level of commitment, nor, would she abide it. The impressions of his path were beleaguered by something. As if he were carrying more than his own weight. Hurriedly, but still far slower than she was. Wouldn't a man of his resources have a better escape plan?
Her head shook reflexively.
When the door to the land speeder began to open and pull upward the dark-haired man would find that it slammed shut. Cybelle would appear from what seemed to be nothing with her hand soundlessly extended. Her hood was down, revealing quiet, caramel eyes and lengths of pin-straight brown hair. There was nothing exceptional bout her. Not in the slightest.
Only, that she stood in his way.
"Hands."
The singular word was obviously meant for the fugitive to keep his limbs where she could see them. The last thing Cybelle wanted was to devolve into any sort of violence, though, that seemed to the be the path for so many. Especially, the New Way. The irony was not lost on her. That…She would rather die than kill. And yet, she was the monster. She was the thing that they were all so frightened of. Enough to form a complex terrorist network and experiment on hapless human beings in the name of equality.
Death, poison, for peace.
Her head tilted while her senses honed in on the one person who had accidentally impacted her life in ways he would never know. Never understand. How could he? She was just the sad infatuated orphan that had been seduced by Force-related dogma and the Jedi. Her teeth ground together for a moment while she banished the thought. It wasn't true. Not completely. No matter what
he thought.
It was unintentional.
Cybelle was searching, mostly, for weapons she couldn't see. Words filtered to the top of her mind that she couldn't quite understand. That didn't belong to her. It was full of disjointed memories and fragments that all led back to something she knew rather well. A hollow. A hole in the world. More specifically, it was a hole is HIS world. Populated by his misguided attempts to do something about an external entity that could one day threaten his family. Filled, by loss. Guilt. Her eyes flickered over Baros Sal-Soren with no small amount of distrust. He had knocked out his own son…
It was twisted.
It was an act of love.
"You are the smartest dumb person I've ever met."
The words fell out of her mouth without thinking while she tried to sort through the data without delving too deeply. She didn't like pulling information from others, nor, abusing her gifts to do so. This was different. Things had been this way ever since Exegol. She could do things effortlessly that the old Cybelle would have struggled with, or, would have been incapable of. One word, one name, kept leaping to the forefront of his thoughts. Many emptions, melted, and poured into one desperate amalgamation that bespoke a sense of urgency that she could only recall once before.
When she thought Brandyn was injured or worse after some shuttle went down.
Slowly, Cybelle nodded her head. Her hand fell away and instead she forced both doors of the vehicle open. His wife was in danger. An innocent person was…In immediate danger. It couldn't wait for due process and justice to be served. She approached and slid into the passenger seat with a grace and wisdom that denied her relatively young age.
"Drive."
"Understand that from this point forward—You are in my custody, Mr. Sal-Soren. I am responsible for you. Protest later."
Cybelle would turn him into the Alliance for a fair trial in response to his involvement in the New Way. He was an extremely flawed, man. But…He did love his family. That was the only thing she could state with any certainty.
Teyla Sal-Soren
did not deserve to suffer their inaction due to red tape that would inevitably ensue. None one did and she highly doubted it would end with her. That kind of experimentation was evil. With evil came power, the dark, and it was seductive. Those in charge wouldn't simply stop with one Force User. Not two, or twenty. They were all in danger. Cybelle…Would never raise orders or duty over the lives of innocent people. Not now, nor ever. She keyed in the information to the same back up that she had called for Brandyn. Her current status and that of her new detainee and charge. No doubt, her superiors would order that she stand down. Bring him in immediately for interrogation. It was an impossibility.
Baros might have had a silver tongue, full of concealed lies, but his mind betrayed him.
The truth always came to light. One only required…
Patience.
John Locke
. 
