Seven Days

[Hal Terrano]

'If you don't have the time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?'​

Prakith

Restless nights were common.

It was often while laying in bed that one delved through their own thoughts and more importantly their own memories. Some went to bed with fond smiles upon their faces, thinking of their loved ones and others were left tossing and turning, every embarrassment, every mistake, every enemy weighing heavily upon their chest.

Hal Terrano, for all of his lack of humanity was no exception to this. Sleep didn't come easily, sleep hadn't come easily for years now. Punctuated by deep, dark circles engraved around his eyes it was a miracle that the man could even fully function now.

Yet he did. Monotonous. Suffering in silence. Structure remained, the schedule of his day never budged, it was the last refuge of a man that was all but broken and forgotten.

Too much of a coward to end it all he remained.

However during daily studies certain words and phrases caught his eyes. Certain stories grabbed his attention, two that occurred quite close together in time, in fact. Revan and Meetra Surik. It created an idea in his mind, and one that didn't simple shift and dissolve after a few days. It persisted, and lead to further leads, more study.

Purpose came, but still not sleep.

Lira. Manaan. Snap. Pain. Honey. Vrag. Snap! Honey. Honey. Honey.

Hal had taken to training during the night, pushing his body to the limits to physically exhaust his body into sleep. It wasn't a peaceful morning jog, it was sprinting, it was hard, heavy, footfalls slamming onto the ground beneath him as if each step was closer to salvation. Organised and regimented exercises became rigorous physical limit pushing. In the end he would be sweating, his limbs would ache, his body almost as broken as his mind.

Sleep then came.

Then study continued in the morning.

Desperate hope fuelled a fire of last resort. In what was a rather uncharacteristic move, his duties as an Archivist were placed in the back seat to be replaced by further investigation and soon after that the beginnings of a plan.

The last resort.

 

[Hal Terrano]

It was entirely possible, of course.

Nothing so completely illogical would have surfaced in his mind even with a distinct lack of sleep. This sort of thing had been done before, in fact, on a more mundane level it was happening right as he ventured into the beginning of preparations. Of course, circumstances of the Force made it slightly more difficult, he would need assistance.

However, before even that he needed a clear view of a plan.

First it would need to be planned out, everything would need to be considered. Absolutely everything. At least meticulous detailing was Terrano's forte. Upon parchment every possible parameter was documented, everything that would have been needed or perhaps overlooked. He intentionally avoided leaving any kind of data-trail by writing his notes in the physical, it only made sense.

A few points of interest, or rather difficulty came into view. These would have to be dealt with individually, as logic would dictate. This wasn not a plan that could be placed into action in haste, not without mistakes. There was no swift process here.

The Force.

To those who wielded it the Force was another sense. For both Jedi and Sith, experiencing the loss of such was akin to being crippled. It was the most extreme measure, but possibly the most viable.

Retaining such power would be too difficult to work around. It wouldn't fit, it would poke holes into a story, and lead to questions and it was of the utmost importance that there were absolutely no questions. He sat at a desk within the Prakith library frowning at the parchment, drawing out potential paths that kept coming to dead ends. There was only one solution.

The extreme measure.

 

[Hal Terrano]

A month had passed.

Exploring all avenues for his issues with the Force had lead to dead end, after dead end, after dead end. Frustration existed, but it also stood side-by-side with determination. He couldn't live with it, it had the possibility to unravel everything. Hal had also considered alchemy, it was entirely possible to have jewellery or a trinket crafted with the sole intent of cutting one's connection to the Force while it was worn.

However, there would be no guarantee that he would not remove such an item from his possession in the aftermath. Too risky.

Full severance was the only option, an action of serious consequence but the whole plan was naught but. So that lead to a new question. How? He was more than aware of the ability of Force Sever, and had in his time poured over every account of the ability. It branched off into other paths, darker paths that regarded Sith Magic but Terrano knew that lacked fluency in the Dark Side to perform such.

Beyond using Force Sever upon himself, the results of which weren't very well documented it was another issue that might have required outside help. Which, of course, presented new difficulties. The Sith weren't an option here, obviously nor were the Jedi.

Were there other outside sources available? Was it possible to do by his own hand?