Private Suppression Scholar

[Laertia Io]

Wearing: Morpheus Chitin

Armed with: SynthBreaker

Objective: Initiate general force studies class


Laertia stared at the gift Clan Li-Ves had sent her.

It was in a Glasteel display, Silvery and Ornate. She knew the Phrik by its sheen: Enough Assassins had blocked her sabers with it over the years. Most of what money she had stored or saved went to medical treatments, ship upkeep. Cortosis Weave Durasteel was what she had managed to afford in most cases for Armor. Never Phrik.

Laertia was not used to such resources, even amongst the Marksmen, there had been an upper ceiling on the budget and what they could afford to field. Most of their best equipment had been stolen from the enemy. The really valueble stuff had always been sold to pay for more practical matters.

Getting a full suit of Phrik was, to say the least, not a normal day for Laertia. It even looked knightly, like something out of a museum. Laertia picked up the datapad containing its technical properties and her eyes widened.

Whoever this Nine Lives her new Sister Westenra served was, she was brilliant. Laertia knew she wasn't a military scientist: There was too much Artisan in their approach.

And not just brilliant in the scientific sense: Westenra pledging herself as Laertia's adopted sister provided an actual incentive for Laertia to stay and remain loyal: She suspected they knew how immense Laertia's desire for a stable family was. How much Westenra pledging herself in that manner would utterly melt Laertia's heart, make her disregard any risk in being associated with such a secretive Royal House as long as she got one of the aspects of a family she had always craved: a Sister.

She wasn't here currently. Neither was her Android caretaker, who for nearly 007 years had served as a mother in all but name for the brain damaged knight. Both had their own assignments. Hers was one she had not attempted in a long time.

She was going to teach a class on one of her bread and butter abilities...Force Resistance

The Force had always had a strange sense of humor with her. She could not use it to run or jump, but she could use it for near instant traversal. She could not use it to directly attack in most cases, but she could force her attackers to slow down. She was both highly resistant to The Force and able to suppress it in others. Her strength could Force a Wookiee to their knees. In other words, the perfect kind of Force Adept to kill other Force Adepts, as The Light Side Sith Lord Darth Themis had altered her at birth to be. Laertia felt ill knowing what had been done to her.

Of the many revelations she had experienced, the knowledge that one of her idols, Moya De Lifte, A famed Jedi Master from The Gulag Plague, was actually the Sith in question, had been among the most disturbing. It had upended every assumption she had ever had about life, and even about Moya.

Had the Scaled Scholar deliberately left Moya for her to inherit? Laertia did not believe in coincidence. For the first time, though she deeply loved the Android like a parent, she found herself once more privately wary. Privately wondering.

But it did no good to dwell. Until The Amalgam was slain, This did not end. Her past would not end.

Laertia delicately opened the case, clad in the black bodyglove she wore and hit a release switch under the armored collar.

The armor parted open and Laertia glimpsed high quality machinery before sliding into it. The Armor sealed and Laertia felt a pleasant vibration in her brain as the armor hud system activated, processing the environment.

She was not at risk of Migraines in this armor at all. It had been years since she had been this combat capable.

Laertia moved around. It was almost effortless. No pain. No risk of pain. She almost cried out of joy.

Laertia, to say the least, was enthusiastic about teaching a class as she left her Dynamic Class Freighter for the large training chamber in the Silver Rest. The Ornate, silvery, yet oddly somber and sinister looking armor drew stares as she clanked into the building, completely headache free.

Once inside she spotted a number of students were there already.

Now came the hard part. Her Speech Impediment. It had always embarrassed the hell out of her. But she would bear it for the sake of teaching.

"Umm...Hi! Myy naymez Io. Laertia Io."

(Clip of Bond Theme Plays)

"Iy'llz bee yorr teechurr on Foyce Suppreshunn Tuhdayz. Dhis artt iz uzed tuh pruhvent othuh Adeptz frumz uzingz dheir powah. Anny Kwesschunz?" Laertia asked, her happy, enthusiastic voice at odds with her armor look. It was a very strange juxtaposition.

Laertia was red faced from embarrassment at speaking. Most of her enemies never took her serious once they heard her speak. It had been a source of frustration her whole life and there were days where Laertia would give up the Force forever for just one day of speaking normal.

But she wasn't here to be normal. Neither were the students.

Caden Evesa

 

[Caden Evesa]

He wasn't really paying much attention.

His mind was still on Takodana, still with Okkeus Dainlei and the lesson on Force Light. His mind was still on the adventure that he had been on with Okkeus. The Jedi Knight wasn't much older than himself, but he was incredibly knowledgeable and Caden had felt oddly comfortable around him.

The return to the Silver Rest hadn't been awful.

Obviously the masters of the Order had questioned where he had been, but they understood when he had explained. In many ways, he assumed they were proud of him for going out of his way to learn a new skill. At least that was what he had hoped.

He had been assigned a different class to normal.

He wasn't sure if it was a punishment or a reward for his actions. It was a group of people he didn't know with a lecturer he hadn't ever once met. It was, in many ways, a form of hell for him. He hated new people more than anything, a touch of anxiety.

The lecturer herself was interesting. He couldn't figure out why she had turned up to teach a class in a full suit of armor, as if she was waiting for an attack. The voice as well, just another confusing thing that he couldn't ever figure out.

He felt almost bad for her.

Instead he waited, the class all looked around. No-one seemed entirely sure of what to do or say. Instead everyone, including Caden just watched. All he could do was watch and study, learn. He wanted to learn the skill she was teaching, he just wasn't sure if she'd be a good teacher.

He did hope, however.

Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

"Master Io..." a padawan asked, a nautolan. "How can one Adept actively suppress the connection of another? Wouldn't they cut themselves off in the very act?"

"Itz morr a menntalz attackz. Yorr mindz ovuhwhellmz dherez untyllz dhey'vez beennz connvynnced dhey've beenz cutz offz. But parttz ovz itz iz intuhfeerinz wyth dhere immputz-outputz sygnullz ov duh nurrvuss sysstemmz. Cannz I havvz a vollunnteerz?"

Laertia mentally facepalmed. She wasn't at one of her magic shows. Silly. They'd probably make fun of her for weeks behind her back now."

She kept going. One Knight in the back volunteered, a stout Zabrak man with ashen skin and brown robes.

"What shall I do, Master Io?"

Laertia laid her own lightsaber on the floor, directing him to follow her about ten meters back. Her variant of the ability was strange. It worked only in a radius.

"Noww lyftz itz wyth tellykuhneesuss annd floatz itz ovuh tooz yooz."

Laertia winced as she heard faint snickers from some of the padawans in the back. She knew instinctively it was because of the voice.

As the Knight tried to do so, Laertia focused, generating a field around her that instantly sent the knight off balance, struggling to focus and lift, but it was next to impossible, and after thirty seconds he gave up, completely exhausted. The Padawans started to look at her differently.

"Itt ruhquirez grayte conncenntrayshunn, but itz caypuhbullz ov rennduhhrenz evunz duh mostt daynjuhruss Adeptt momuntaruhlee vullnurrabulz." She elaborated.

One padawan who had been watching the proceedings in the back asked a question.

"Master Io. How did you learn it?"

Laertia blinked, the somber visage of her helmet hiding how her face froze.


The young street thief in the black spiky jacket ran from the Hutt Bounty Hunters dispatched to retrieve the gemstone she had stolen, teleporting short distances to confuse their aim. She had not fully mastered the ability yet. In fact, she was still only at the level of talented amatuer despite having had the gift sense childhood, not quite understanding how she could 'slip' from one spot to another instantaneously. The Hutt was dead. Not her fault really. Dumb bastard had tried to use a grenade indoors like he was in a fething FPS. The Bounty Hunters were just posthumous spite. He was a crimelord. No one would care.

Laertia teleported between blaster fire, until a stray shot caught her in the thigh and she tumbled to the ground, the gemstone falling out of her grasp.

One of the Bounty Hunters, a Nautolan man, reached their hand out and the gem flew into his grasp. He started to choke Laertia with his mind, telekinetically lifting her by the neck until her toes dangled above the dirty street. The other thug took aim...

Laertia blinked and a trash bin nearby teleported above his arm, knocking his aim off and surprising the ine Force choking her, causing him to lose his concentration and she dropped to the ground, getting out her knife, coughing. She had no idea what the hell he had done but she was 'not' giving him a chance to do it. He was either dying in the next few seconds or its she who would be dead. Using the last of her strength, she teleported above him, catching him by surprise as she drove the knife into his skull, using his body as a shield to block the shots fired by her remaining opponent, before flinging a playing card styled throwing knife hidden up her sleeve into his brain with maximum force. He collapsed, dead.

Laertia picked up the gemstone, looked at the two dead people she had made getting it, cleaned her prints off it and dropped the stone in self disgust, retrieving her weapons and cleaning them off in the running water from a drainage pipe. There went dinner.

Shoving her hands into her pockets, Laertia quickly teleported away from the scene, walking, trying to clear her head after killing two people, and finding a strange old gothic structure of black brick she had not noticed before whenever she had teleported through the dark sublevels of Nar-Shaddaa. Looking to be in a hiding spot and be alone, Laertia went in...

It was pitch black. It felt larger on the inside than the out. Laertia turned on the flashlight but it didn't work, and when she turned behind her the entrance was gone. It was pitch black. She was very scared now.

A soft white light shown behind her and Laertia turned to face a large circle of green grass, surrounded by stone pillars. Flowers grew on the pillars as a light from an unknown source shown above. Brightly glowing butterflies flew about lazily as she approached, only to start flying in almost a tornado like pattern, as the tombstone pale girl approached in confusion.

"F--fuhgyves meez, anncheeunt speeritz, I diddintz meenz tuh duhfylez holee growndz." Laertia said, getting on her knees in supplication, knowing on instinct whatever was in here could destroy her without effort.

"Do not be frightened, Noble Warrior. Approach." she heard the voice of whatever the butterflies actually were say in her skull.

Laertia cautiously stepped forward.

"But...but I'mm nottz a warreeorrz. Orr nobuhlz. I jusst gott donnez guttingz twoo peopullz whoze bosss I stolez frommz." Laertia said truthfully. "Allz ov dhatz wuz cawzed byy myy greedz."

"That which you stole had been stolen many times before, and the men you killed were long overdue for a reckoning. Approach." the butterfly voices commanded.

The girl approached hesitantly.

"You cast down the wicked today, but you were nearly killed by the evil within one of them. We offer you a gift now, to correct this problem in the future."

Laertia was no fool, having been subjected to this scenario more than once. The Spirits had a disturbing knack for taking an interest in her affairs, ever since she was little.

"I'mmz a kyllerz. A muhrduhrurrz. I'mm no morr worrthee ov yorr gyft dhan I amm worrthee ov speekinz too yooz."

"That you even admit that at all instead of accepting our gift immediately makes you more worthy than you will ever understand. Step into the Light, child."

Laertia stepped onto the grass, staring into the source of the light above. She didn't know it at the time, but it was the ancient symbol of the Ashla. When she encountered it again, later, as a Jedi, the revelation of what it stood for was extremely disturbing to her. It shown in infinite brilliance and the girl cowered in fear at it before the butterflies flew around her, somehow calming her as they flew around her, making her float slowly upward to the brilliant light above, arms spread out... (WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?: 90 XP)

Present day...

Laertia snapped out of the memory a quarter second after the question left the Padawan's lips.

"Ohh! It'z...itz nott dhat immporrtaynt. Don'tz worriez abboutz itz..." Laertia said quickly, blocking those memories out like she always did. She didn't remember how she had gotten back onto the street afterward.

"Wudz annywunnz lyke tuh gyvez itz a tryy?" Laertia asked politely.

Caden Evesa

 

[Caden Evesa]

He sat and watched.

Not the most interesting lesson, at one point even the lecturer seemed to zone out. He was almost worried until she seemed to snap back to reality. He decided not to question it, he figured not questioning would be the best thing he could do.

The skill itself seemed exceptionally useful.

He admitted that it seemed difficult, he wasn't the best at concentrating. This was one of those skills that seemed like it required extreme amounts of concentration to be the most effective. He was already aware this would be a struggle for him to learn.

"I'll try"

Well, now he hated himself.

Why, on what planet, did his brain think it was a good idea to nominate himself. He hated being the center of attention, and now he had to demonstrate a force power he had never even heard of, and had only ever seen in action once.

Well, he was scared.

"How do I do this?"

Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

Caden Evesa volunteered and Laertia felt his hesitance and discomfort. There would be plenty of that on the job.

His cageyness, his hesitance, reminded her of her own when meeting Ursula. Laertia shut the memory out, not wanting to dredge down Memory Lane any more than she already had.

She felt that he was scared. She did her best to try and put him at ease.

"Itz purrfektlee natrullz nott tuh getz itz ryte duh foyst tymez..." she assured him, fighting her embarrassment at her speech impediment, which had been present sense she was little. More than one jaw had been dislocated over making fun of it. Laertia had matured enough not to do that anymore, but her voice was still a source of constant shame and humiliation.

"Jusst reechez outz too duh Knyte..." she spoke, pointing to the Zabrak Jedi who had been thwarted by her earlier.

"Fyndz his Force Sygnaachurr...and thenn floodz itz wyth noisez. Tinkz ov yoursellfz az a Huumann Chaff Grenaadez...but dooz yor levulz bestt tuh nott letz himmz summonnz dhis cann..." she spoke, placing the can between Caden and the Knight. It was to be a spiritual tug of war between the two.

 

[Caden Evesa]

Someone had once told him to imagine the force as a bubble.

Everything had this bubble, and if your bubble overlapped with another bubble you could sense that object. Or, for example, you could sense anything that fell within your bubble. It was a really weird way to think about it, but for Caden it worked.

The Jedi Zabrak in front of him had a bubble.

Not physically, obviously. Yet, in Caden's head, there was a bubble. He began to imagine himself filling this bubble, making it harder for any force energy to come through. He began to imagine himself blocking this bubble from expanding.

At the same time, almost instinctively he was reaching out physically. Anyone in the room could feel the force energy Caden was expending in trying to stop the Zabrak from using the force. For a while it was working, and as hard as the Zabrak tried, there was nothing he could do.

Then he managed to break through, and Caden had failed.

Yet he didn't failure stop him. He pulled himself together, watched as everything was set back up and he tried. He tried again, and again, and again, until on the forth attempt he finally managed to withhold the Zabrak Jedi for long enough that he could walk forward and grab the can.

He knew he would struggle to use the force to suppress the Zabrak and use the force to pull the can towards him, so he opted to use his physical body instead. Someone had once taught him a good Jedi was one who looked at every problem and found an out of the box solution.

His fingers closed around the can.

He was exhausted, having exerted himself as much as he had, yet he was certainly proud.

Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia watched as Caden Evesa struggled to suppress the other Jedi before finally succeeding. She smiled under her helm's somber, yet stern feminine visage as he walked forward and grabbed the can.

At the end of the day, a Jedi actually had to use their hands to make a true difference.

"Well donnez, Paddawann. Att duh enndz ov duh dayyz, duh Foyce cannz onnlee carriez yooz so farr. I havvz annuthuh tesst. Itz wun thyngz tuh suppress. Itz a diffrunt thyngz tuh ruhsizt beeingz suppressedz. Tryy tuh ruhsizt myy attemmptz tuh suppress yooz fer az lonngz az pozzibul."

Laertia concentrated, creating a radius around her once more that attempted to jam all Force Use. She didn't go full strength, as she didn't want Caden to hurt himself trying to fight off the attempt to suppress his connection to the Force. She went only a tenth of her full strength, to see how he did. The better he did, the more pressure she would place on the attempt, trying to ascertain his current upper limits, so he would know what he had to surpass in the future. But he had surprised her with how well he had held off a full blown Knight...

 

[Caden Evesa]

Resisting suppression.

Right, okay. Sure. He could do that. Right?

He looked at the Jedi teacher and run his hand through his hair, fear across his face. He had always been taught to never truly doubt his abilities in the force but he was absolutely doubting himself. He was doubting if he had the ability to resist a Jedi Master.

She felt him reach out in the force.

He imagined two bubbles, her bubble attempting to stop his growing. He was pushing out against her, and for a while he succeeded. He did well for a while and it did work, he was still using a gentle force pull on the can. Eventually however she managed to overpower him and best him.

She was impressive.

He smiled, and swept the sweat from his head. The force was a physical exertion, as much as a mental one. No-one had ever told him how much of a workout truly using the force was. It was exhausting and tiring and it started to ache the more he pushed.

Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

"Dhatz wuzz vewy gud, Paddawan..." Laertia said Caden Evesa , cringing inwardly at having to speak in front of so many.

"Yooz gotz a ruhzillientz mynd to lasst az lonng az yoo diddz whilez styllz beeingz a buhginnur." Laertia added, sincerely impressed.

Laertia tried to think of something to add as an additional challenge. Decided her next lesson would go hand in hand with the first.

"Itt iz wun thyngz tuh suhpresss duh Foyce, itz anuuthuh tuh tryz annd ruhziszt itz effektz."

Laertia looked at the knight that had volunteered to help.

"Uze a Foyce Pussh onnz meez. A stronnggz wun."

The Zabrak Knight nodded and concentrated sending a hard push her way, a blue aura enveloped Laertia and she only skidded back a meter or so...anyone else would have been flung violently backward into a wall.

"Foyce Ruhsisztannce iz an ancienttz skyllz, daytingz bacck att leasst too duh Gweat Syth Warr. Itt protecz a Adeptt frumm mosst ov duh reelee harrmful effekts of Foyce Powahz, but nott kompleetleez...Padawan, I wudd lyke yooz tuh tryyz shrowdyngz yorrsellfz wyth duh Foyce...anndz onlee duh Foyce. Duh knyte hellpyngz meez wyll gradualleez inkreese duh strenngth ov duh pushh hee uzes on yooz untyll yorr duhfense faylez. Butz yoo musst keepz duh duhfense uppz az lonngz az yoo cannz. Whenn yoo arr readdee, buhginz."

 

[Caden Evesa]

He could just about understand her.

He had thought it before through the lesson, but he quite genuinely felt sorry for her. She obviously didn't ask to be born with such a speech issue, she was obviously embarrassed by it. Caden wished there was just a magic fix all button but he knew he couldn't.

The skill she wanted to teach seemed super useful however. He had learnt basic suppression from her, now he was going to learn how to resist force powers being used against him. It seemed seriously useful to be able to resist basic force powers being used against him.

He was partnered with a Padawan who used a very decently powerful force push against him.

Caden attempted to imagine his bubbles and stop the force radiating from the Padawan. He didn't have much time to react, and by the time he had even started to resist the growth of the Padawan's bubble he was thrown back against the wall and it hurt, a lot.

He shook it off.

And tried again. And failed again. And tried again, and failed again. It took him until the fifth attempt to resist the power just enough to not be thrown back against the wall. He would be bruised and beaten in the morning but by the fifth attempt he had managed to resist just enough to only get shoved back a little bit.

Ouch, he was hurting, but happy he had done it.