Tell me about the rabbits

[NightSister]

Continued from Fortune favours the bold​

Set before A song of ice and fire​

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[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS5Eb2q27OU[/media]​

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Ow.

When Aria came to, her body still tingled painfully, and she lay in a crumpled heap by a wall. She'd be surprised if she even still resembled a living body; her breathing was ragged, and - oh feth, was her rib cracked? Aria gingerly tried to lift herself upright against the wall, grunting as something chafed, and placed a hand to her ribcage - something was definitely cracked. Fantastic.

Exactly how long she'd been out, Aria wasn't certain, but it had been long enough for Darth Vitium to make herself scarce. Why the Sith who had caused Aria's predicament had left her alive where it would've been the easiest thing in the world just to finish her off was a mystery to her. For now though, she would simply accept that she was alive, though admittedly not in the best condition. Thanks to the accursed Sith, Aria was not only stinging from having been struck down by a stupidly strong torrent of Force-Lightning, but had somehow ended up bruised and with some sort of bone breakage that she couldn't quite pinpoint.

Stupid her. This was the work of Darth Vitium, but it was her fault, really; it was her panic that had caught the Sith's attention, her failure to keep her guard up that had led to the attack, and her total and utter weakness that had rendered her unconscious and resembling a corpse. Oh Force, she'd look a mess. So much for a holiday.

Now, she had to get back. It was both a degrading and unlikely possibility that somebody would happen upon the girl and come to her rescue, so Aria wouldn't bother hoping. Her starship was perhaps another five or ten minutes from here; could she get up, walk back, and fly the distance back to Voss - in her condition? Well, no harm in trying. Aria put her feet flat on the ground and tried - unsuccessfully - to get up. Ow. She flexed a hand, testing to see if it still worked, and then tried to channel the Force into making the pain less noticeable. At some point, she'd really need to learn proper healing - this pain suppression trick could only do so much. In this case, very little in fact, but she grumbled to herself that it had done the trick and hauled herself to her feet. Ow, ow, ow.

A further seven minutes, thirty-two seconds and a lot more muttered grumbling later, Aria reached the shipyard where she had parked the craft. Her limp earned her a few funny looks, but none curious enough to go over and investigate, so she boarded the ship and lowered herself into the pilot's seat. Ow. Of all positions to be the most painful, of course it would prove to be sitting down. Fine then; Aria contorted her body into the least painful position she could find and then reached over to the radio system on the control deck, fiddling about until she reached the correct comms system.

"Hi Connor," she panted, her voice sarcastically bright, "Remember that time when I said I could be too nosy?"

She laughed in spite of herself, and regretted it instantly. A broken leg would've been so much easier to deal with. A broken left arm would've been even better. That was an amusing way of thinking. Ow.

"Ugh - I might've been nosy at the wrong time, and... well, my rib's cracked and I'm stuck in Balmorra. Can you come and get me?"

Transferring her coordinates, Aria limboed over to a built-in sofa and shuffled into a lying position. Now she would wait.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

28...29...

The chime came and broke his concentration. 29 sit ups. That was all. Letting his body crumple down on the floor of his quarters, Connor Harrison sighed, kicking himself over to the table by his bunk and opened the com.

It was Aria Vale. And she was masking pain. He listened, frowned, smiled a little, and then sighed.

Before he had time to question what the hell she was doing in the Core on her own, she was gone. He sat on the edge of the bunk and checked her coordinates which linked her to a ship. So she was safe, for now. Licking his lips slowly in thought, he tapped the com on his chin before chucking it to the side of the bed and getting up to get dressed.

Throwing his navy tunic on over his vest - not before a quick wipe over with a hand towel - he tied his three brown belts tight and rolled up his sleeves. Scooping up the com, he left his chambers for the main hangar in the Silver Jedi temple.

All the way walking through, he was thinking was possible reason she would have for going into a region that, on the face of it, was still a strong rock for Sith to grow under. Reaching his ship, activating the engine and loading ramp with a flick on his com, now fixed to his wrist, Connor stepped up and signalled to the Rangers to clear him when the skies were empty.

Moments later, he got the nod and he was able to take off, still thinking. Still very curious.

- - - - - - - - - -

Aria Vale's Coordinates
Balmorra, Core Worlds​

The Perleman Trade Route took him to where he needed to be without hesitation or delay, and he followed the coordinates to the stranded Knight. At least she had faith to call for him.

It took a few moments to find a suitable landing spot, and the whole place was rather tranquil, but in the same token it was deceptive and felt dangerous. What was she doing here?

Stepping out to see Aria's ship in the yard, he walked casually across, glancing around for any signs of trouble of fuss. There was none. But it still felt dank...and he couldn't put his finger on why. Reaching her craft, Connor found it inviting him in, and he stepped up and under tentatively, greeted by a Knight lounging across a sofa holding her abdomen.

"What did I tell you." He walked towards her slowly and crouched down with a sigh. "Now what the hell are you doing here?"

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Some time passed, and Aria found herself talking under her breath about what she would do once her rib healed in order to stay awake. It would be beyond embarrassing if she had fallen asleep if and when Connor arrived - not to mention that waking up would renew the pain all over again - and so she muttered streams of slightly nonsensical motivation as something to focus on. It made sense to her, in all fairness.

Then she heard footsteps, and risked raising her head slightly to see Connor approach looking bemused. She must really look a mess. Aria almost got up to try and spot her reflection in a window, then was jolted as her ribs chafed and lay back down.

"I went on holiday." She'd been about to say hello, but it seemed they were past such things, so she got straight to the point with mild sarcasm in her voice. "Because, y'know, it gets tiring training all day? And Balmorra seemed as good a place as any, so that's what I'm doing here. As for this," she gestured to her predicament, "um...that's a long story, actually." Aria paused as she searched her mind for the best place to begin.

"Have you heard of Darth Vitium?" Aria rolled her head over to try and gage his reaction better, then winced at the awkward positioning. "Or the Voice of the Dark Lord of the One Sith, I think she said." She half scoffed. "She was dead. She's not anymore. I saw her on the street and I recognised her sabers from somewhere, and I guess she realised that I'd realised that she was...uh...meant to be dead. Don't think she was too happy about it."

That was putting it lightly. Her current predicament said as much.

"She pulled her saber on me, then tried to chat to me, then electrocuted me. I guess I offended her or something."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor had a wry smile on his face as he walked to her and knelt, taking her in, giving her a once over. It surprised him how much she had blossomed from that meak and unsure girl months ago wanting to be a Shadow. Umms and ahhhs about a future she wasn't sure about - now she was grasping it with both hands. To a point.

But the smile fell a little at her question and his eye narrowed, looking away in thought for a second as she spoke. And then, there, his blood boiled a little. She had been attacked. Aria Vale, under Connor's guidance, had been attacked. This was becoming too much now. He had warned her - warned himself. His knuckles shone white with bone as he squeezed tight to stop himself punching the floor.

"Vitium," he muttered, racking his brain."I...I can't recall...I don't know."

He remembered something...not the name. A tomb. A voice. He shook his head, and relaised he was stroking Aria's hair gently back from her brow. He stopped.

"Sorry."

Leaning over a little, he continued

"Can you tell me more? What did she do? What did she say? Can you remove your top?" Her face was unreadable. "Let me take a look."

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Aria readied herself to be belittled for going off on her own - she'd been about to insist that she was an adult and that bumping into resurrected Sith Lords wasn't the sort of thing that happened every day - instead mild surprise showed on her face as Connor completely skipped over that part to apologize for not knowing who Vitium was. That was even more surprising, but he almost looked upset and Aria was enjoying being fathered, so she made a small 'okay' sound and turned her thoughts to his question. There would be other ways to investigate her foe.

"Oh, you know," she replied. "The Jedi are weak, the Dark side is powerful. Sith stuff. Oh! And something about, um, a Corvus Raaf. Who's she? Vitium said she was a Jedi, so you'll know her, right?"

At the request, she blushed but complied, carefully lifting her top to show an angry red patch at one side of her ribcage where she'd hit the wall, along with several small marks from the lightning - Aria made a face at how wounded she looked. She hadn't even realised she'd been thrown backwards - she supposed it would've been after she lost consciousness. Damned Sith Lord.

"I think Vitium said she was Grandmaster," Aria offered, trying to be helpful. "She wanted to know if she was still alive. It was like the first or second thing she asked me, actually."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Aria held her top up for inspection, but Connor wasn't looking. He was looking into the past and not at the present at the mention of Corvus Raaf. A face and name that never left him, from seeing her last in the strange city that seemed trapped in a festive loop, the invite to her home on Tatooine was the last thing she had said to Connor before she vanished from the galaxy and his life.

And it all came flooding back. His head continued once more to stroke Aria's hair as he came back to reality.

"Corvus Raaf was Grandmaster of the Republic Jedi Order, and my closest friend for a time. It was on Prakith where we went to retrieve a Sith holocron. Inside a tomb where the holocron was, Darth Vitium - Silara - was also there. We fought, and she tried to tempt me to the Dark Side, and played a vicious, nasty game that shook us both to the core. I literally had to drag Corvus away to spare her life. We lost the holocron. She seemed to have a vendetta against Corvus, and I never saw Silara again after that."

Inspecting the swollen raw mark where the rib was broken, Connor gently placed his hand atop and started to fuse the Force through to aid the healing process, to help accelerate the bone re-forming and stop any internal bleeding. His eyes glanced across the skin, noting the other marks and wounds.

"I loved Corvus very much, but in the end I lost her to another, and then I lost her altogether," he said softly as he worked his healing, hand shifting now and then.

He looked at Aria.

"She vanished without trace over a year or so ago. Some say she's dead, others alive. I think she's alive. Somewhere. Out there."

The heart was heavy at the mention of her and the only ray of light who had nearly given him the chance to be something wonderful and fight for something positive, but it had all been taken away. And now with the return of Silara, that bitter hunt for Corvus Raaf had led to Aria being hurt. If Silara wanted Connor to embrace the Dark Side, she wouldn't know what hit her if she pushed again.

"What else did she ask you? And don't worry, I'll get to why the hell you went to the Core on your own without telling me later."

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Aria's eyes widened at Connor's reaction to the name Corvus Raaf; it seemed he had less trouble recalling now. So he did know Darth Vitium - in fact, the woman he described perfectly matched the one she'd encountered - or Silara, as he'd called her. So that was her name. It fit surprisingly well, and Aria liked being able to put a name to the face instead of simply the woman's Sith title - it made her less enemy, more human. That was nice. Aria would think of Darth Vitium as Silara from now, so she could feel less under threat.

She flinched at the first touch on her torso, then breathed out as it began to heal, giving a small nod of thanks. It sort of stung, but in a good way; in a way that promised the pain would come to an end.

"Um." She'd been about to say something about how Connor had claimed moments ago to not know who Silara was, but at the question, she quickly thought back to the encounter, trying to bring to mind the less extraordinary moments, the ones that held actual conversation. "She wanted my name, what order I belonged to and why. I tried not to answer, but...well, you can guess. I was as vague as possible, though."

She almost grinned at the next bit.

"I wasn't worrying." She put one hand on the edge of the sofa, trying to shift into a more comfortable position to look at him. "I've been here before, you know. That time against the One Sith." Ooh, that had been fun. Fun in the more dangerous sense of the word, but still very fun.

"So, vendetta against Corvus? Did she ever say what happened after the thing on Prakith? It sounded like finding her was her first priority, so..."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

His hand stopped her moving too fast.

"Slowly, slowly...this needs to be checked out and fixed with real care. Don't push it."

Helping her, he listened, continuing to kneel before Aria as she spoke. When it came to his reply, he exhaled and rubbed his jaw in thought.

"I don't know what happened after, Corvus never said. I only knew her by the name Silara, not Vitium. I know she was near obsessed with Corvus for some reason, and she certainly tried to get her claws into me and safe to say I was tempted, but I had someone to fight for and protect that day." He turned and sat on the edge of the sofa and linked his hands. "If she knows where you belong, and dare I say if she knows who you're attached to - me - then her hunt for Corvus may continue. Except we have the upperhand, so we will be ready."

With a smile, he looked at her. Strong, tough and a smart-ass at the worst of times. He felt, somehow, somewhere along the path, he had done her proud.

"Why were you there, Aria? What were you after. You know the Core is crawling with Sith. You should have told me. I'd have been there with you."

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Nodding, Aria was still again as she listened.

"I didn't tell her about you," she promised. "Though at one point she got in my head - to communicate, not to read my mind, at least I don't think - either way, it's possible that she'll know. Sorry about that."

That prospect hadn't occurred to Aria. Connor was high up among the ranks of the Order, enough so that it made sense that somebody such as Silara would know of him by more than reputation; but it hadn't crossed her mind that through training under him, all his enmities would extend to her. Not that she really cared - being a Jedi was a dangerous job, and she couldn't expect to go through her career without making enemies more powerful than she - she had no intention of ceasing to train under Connor simply to avoid making a few more.

"I wasn't 'after' anything," she insisted, and it was the truth. "It seemed like a good enough place to go for a few days away. It's not like it's such a dangerous planet. Before Silara showed up, it was pretty boring, actually. I didn't ask you to come because the point was to relax and train peacefully, and - well, I say this in the most well-meaning way possible, but..." she grinned ruefully. "You're really not that good at peaceful."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

With a small smirk, he glanced at her with knowing eyes - she was probably right. No, she was certainly right. He always found a way to take the 'peace' out of a peaceful situation, probably why it left him alone more often than not

"Fair point. And it's happened to me before. You go somewhere looking for a break, but the curse of being a Jedi strikes and you always find danger when you least expect it."

He placed a hand on hers and indicated to the cockpit across the way.

"I'm happy to take us out of here if you're ready to go, and get you some water and a comfy place to rest up. Just say the word."

Standing, Connor walked through to check the ship out, taking in what the set-up was, before mooching back in, rubbing his hands together. He knelt again and applied a bit of pressure to her abdomen, noting when she gasped or twitched in pain. Checking for internal injuries.

"Excuse me....now you should be ok if you rest up and get a scan. And don't worry about Silara. From what I remember she was just another Sith with a blind view about galactic conquest and black magic, and if she comes knocking, then you're more a priority to me than the Order. They can take care of themselves, but as for you - broken ribs or not - you're my pain in the neck now so get used to having me on your tail like an annoying mynock."

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

"Huh." Aria held her breath as Connor inspected her rib again. She'd been expecting a slightly...grumpier response. He must've been having a good morning. "When's it happened to you?"

Was that pushing it? Maybe she was pushing it. It was hardly unreasonable to be curious after he'd left it wide open, but Connor had always had his idiosyncrasies. Oh, never mind. Worst came to worst, she could plead injured and in shock.*

"If you wouldn't mind, yes. Wait - how long will I need to rest up?" Aria made a face. She didn't like the idea of being stuck in bed with a cracked rib for any longer than perhaps a day or two. Well, she'd have wanted it normally, but when such a state invalidity was forced upon her it became less appealing to have to stay still for that long.It wasn't like it was a major injury, after all. In fact, it hardly looked worse than if she'd simply bruised it. It hurt like a schutta, but that wasn't the point. Oh Force, would she be stuck levitating books and glasses until she was fully mobile? Ugh.

"Okay. Oh - Connor?" Aria kept her tone light, trying not to make her words sound out of place. "Silara what?"

That couldn't possibly be a suspicious question. Could it?

[member="Connor Harrison"]

Spoiler

*

 

[Connor Harrison]

Before he got up, at her request he just looked at her with a knowing expression.

"I don't know her full name. And I warn you, if you go looking for her, you'll come away with a great deal more pain than when you went, so I hope you're ready for that. I know you won't tell me when you go, because you know I would want to be there, but she must not be under-estimated. She will do anything to get what she needs. And I mean anything."

He sighed and brushed his hands down before standing.

"And it's happened to me many times - I've been involved in conflicts with the First Order, the Sith and crime lords all when I've gone somewhere and people either want to take hit at the Jedi, try to get a bounty or simply attack those who they assume are a common enemy. It goes with the job I guess, like a sign over your head or a calling from your aura; Jedi Knight here - come one, come all and give it your best shot."

With a little wink he walked through to the cockpit and busied himself for a while; starting up the ship, locking down the external holds and doors and plotting in a course for home where she could at least rest and be fixed up.

"A few days at the most," he called back, "and I advise you to use it as healing time because if you don't, the bone won't set and you'll end up doing more damage in the long run. And I assume you want to be in fighting shape when you go looking for revenge."

Facing out, he smiled a little - it was a dangerous route, the one strewn with conflict, and it would make her or break her. Or he'd lose her completely. It was something he'd have to risk for her to see what resided inside her fighting spirit.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

"I didn't say that!" Aria replied, perhaps a little too quickly. "Revenge is not the Jedi way, remember? It's only a cracked rib, it'll heal in a week tops. And she could've killed me, besides."

If she had, what would you have done? The question that poked at her mind seemed odd, but it hadn't escaped her how quickly Connor had jumped to the conclusion that she would seek revenge. Maybe he simply knew her too well, or maybe it was what he'd have done in the same situation. Was it what Aria had planned to do when she'd asked? Damn it, she really shouldn't be getting so caught up over things like this. Back to the situation at hand.

"Fine. Healing time it is." She wasn't even trying to hide the frustration in her voice. Perhaps it wasn't Jedi-like, but Aria just liked to be active. Whether that meant jogging or training or sparring - or indeed, facing off against resurrected Sith Lords - it went against Aria's nature to not be doing something, provided she had the energy: a single day without being on her feet would be enough to bring her up to maximum restlessness. But fine, if it was absolutely necessary Aria would confine herself to the utter boredom that was healing time. And then, the moment her rib had set, she would get up and run ten laps around the Voss Temple to expel all excess energy. Already she was looking forward to it.

"Full speed ahead, then."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

With a nod, Connor resigned to the fact she was a law unto herself. Just like he was. He gave her a smile.

"Full speed, ma'am."

He let the nav-computer assist in lifting them up and out from the shipyard, and from there it was straight on up and out of the atmosphere with breakneck speed that would feel like a slow crawl in the ship. The ride would be smooth and without difficulty.

"Aria," he said louder to be heard, turning his head slightly, "just remember there are two sorts of Sith. One wants to kill you, the other to understand you. Silara will be the first. She has a bitter history with the Jedi and so don't let her get the better of you. You decide what you are - not her."

Rubbing his chin, he felt a dark time lay ahead for the Knight, but he would stay beneath to catch her if she fell and make sure she stayed on the right path. The true path. Salvation.

[member="Aria Vale"]