Private Thanks Again

[Anet Raine]

Anet went from feeling weightless to impossibly heavy the moment Reina set her down. Her neck was too stiff, or maybe too weak, to do anything but stare up at the ceiling, with the blur of Reina's red hair in the corner of her view.

When the woman began to instruct her, she paused in thought. A knee-jerk little instinct wanted her to fight it, or at least say something mean to get Reina off her back. The preemptiveness of her assumption that Anet would consider meditation a Jedi thing bothered her, too, but really, she was fishing for any problem to pick at. Anet hated being instructed. Ironic, given her previous work in academia. She hated it more when it came from someone she felt close to.

Not that she and Reina were close, but their previous tryst provoked those suspicions and misgivings she carried.

Still - this situation was bad, and Anet felt powerless. She strained a deep sigh and tried her best just to breathe. In, and out. Each time her chest rose, she felt a twinge of pain, and each time it fell back, she felt relief. In, and out. Her muscles were sore and weak; it felt as if her entire form was unraveling into individual strings.

The acolyte closed her eyes and listened...

"As you feel the Force flowing back into you, focus it to where you feel the most exhausted. Let it fill the space."

She felt exhausted everywhere, but the qualifier 'most' was at least something to go off of. And so Anet tried, despite the panic and the pain, to investigate the source of her exhaustion. In, and out. She continued to breathe steadily. In, and out. It helped her think. In, and out. She realized it was the obvious thing. Her diaphragm was badly bruised. It wasn't just exhaustion from the Force, as she and Reina first suspected, but she wouldn't have realized without the redhead's help.

Anet snickered until she grimaced and yelped. Then, with another sigh... She opened her eyes again and managed to turn her neck just enough to look up into her eyes. They were pretty.

"I think..." She arrived at a hypothesis. "I think all my muscles froze, or tightened when I--" How did she intend to describe it? "--entered the room..."

What a copout, Anet Raine.

She wheezed. "I think everything is bruised or torn..." Indeed, her pale flesh began to grow a darker blue.

 

[Reina Daival]

Tag: Anet Raine
Location: Coruscant Level 1313

"So it's entirely possible that whatever you did locked up your muscles..."

Biology was not something that Reina was well taught in. Healing was something she struggled with more than most. She could do it to herself more than easily enough, but when it came to other people? Far more difficult. But from the fact that Anet was seemingly start to turn a darker blue, that implied there was some kind of internal bleeding which Reina knew at the very least wasn't good.

"Okay. We can assume that...whatever you did as well, tore apart your molecules...and they've been brought back together wrong? That could explain why you're in the state you are...But how do I help out here?"

It was evidence of Reina's nerves. She was speaking out loud her own thoughts. Anet couldn't die here. She was too useful for Reina. There was a part of the Ersansyr that felt awful at that thought. To just being using Anet for her own gains. But Reina had been manipulated herself, so was it wrong that Reina wanted to return the favour? To finally use people the way she had been used? That didn't matter however as the Ersansyr continued to wrack her brain for some kind of solution.

If they did find the Jedi, there was every chance the Jedi would give the healing. That they'd pity Anet for the position she was in. But would Anet be able to live with that afterwards? More than likely no. It was a case of pride or life. What mattered more to Anet? Taking a quick glance towards the half-Pantoran, it was obvious to Reina at least what choice that the Acolyte would make. She'd rather die than accept health from a proper Jedi...but what was the solution then?

As Anet looked into Reina's eyes she could see the worry that was creeping in. The frustration. The anger as Reina clutched her head, and shut her eyes as tightly as they could, muttering to herself quietly.

"Stupid. Stupid. You can't fix this. You can't help. All you do is kill. Destroy. Kark. Kark. KARK"

Her yellow gaze flickered around the room, trying to find some kind of solution in all of the carnage that had went on. Some kind of first aid kit, a medpac. Anything. She needed some kind of solution!

​

 

[Anet Raine]

Reina Daival

"Yeah..." Anet responded with a wince.

As Reina panicked to find an answer, Anet, from her immobilized position, raised her voice enough to be heard.

"Reina," she was surprisingly collected despite the situation. "I am tougher than I look. If you can carry me back to the Sith Temple, there is someone there who will heal me."

Not just can. Will. Anet was confident that Kirie 's power belonged to her now, and she was sure some hapless acolyte or imperial prisoner would provide the 'fuel' necessary.

"So take us back to the airspeeder, and fly me there."

She wasn't actually certain that she would survive being moved, or not pass on the way, but it was an option. As for the Jedi? Anet wasn't even sure if they were really here at all. Perhaps, killing that acolyte was her mission all along. Even if it wasn't, she was sure the instructors would be just as impressed by that result. The Jedi no longer mattered to her.

"Besides," Anet snickered through the pain. "You'll get what you want up there."

 

[Reina Daival]

Tag: Anet Raine
Location: Coruscant Level 1313

Reina was spiralling. Fast. She had only ever had person die in her arms before. Back when she was part of the Alliance. Even then Reina was helpless when it came to healing. She could heal herself, sure. But applying that to someone else had always been out of her depth. But if she didn't do anything, Anet would die and all of this work would be pointless.

That was when Anet said to move her. And so Reina, who didn't have the best bedside manner, practically lifted Anet up and threw her over Reina's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, before the redhead started to sprint through the corridors. She couldn't let her plans go to kark. This was her attempting to actually do something for once. To plan. To strategise. And if she lets the main core of her plan die, then the entire plan goes with Anet.

And then she practically chucked Anet down into the speeder, making sure the half-Pantoran was buckled in before hopping into the driver's side herself, kicking herself into gear to get back to the Temple, damn the speeder rules. This was something that couldn't take its time. She had to get there as soon as possible.

​

 

[Anet Raine]

Reina Daival

At this point, Anet had grown weak very quickly. Her senses dulled, both physically and in the Force, as delirium set in to override the pain and exhaustion she felt. The half-pantoran ragdolled over the redhead's shoulder, with eyes cast down to a floor that seemed to utterly melt from her perspective.

There was no telling (from her perspective) how long it had taken Reina to deliver Anet into the speederseat. The acolyte didn't even realize the vehicle was moving until it was climbing rapidly through the underworld portal, back up towards the surface, and the Federal District where the Sith Temple stood amidst smoke and ruins.

Slouched in her seat, she saw it on the horizon - not the building itself, but the vergence. The Dark Side shone in its own way. A beacon of untold, overwhelming power, and she needed it.

 

[Reina Daival]

Tag: Anet Raine
Location: Coruscant Level 1313

"Stay awake. Keep talking. I don't care what about. Just say something."

Reina had to keep Anet talking. Keep her awake. That was the most important thing in her mind, as she turned and weaved through the traffic, even as they were honked at. She didn't care. Reina was far more capable with driving than most would have expected for her, but in a way, it did translate to using a ship.

"Give me the contact details for whoever the kark this person who can heal you is. Less time we waste, the better."

She continued to swerve through traffic, pushing the speeder as fast as it could go. Money could buy speed, but it couldn't buy talent as she was pushing herself at the same time. It was hard to stay alert when you were panicking. There were a fair few near misses...and Reina was pretty sure she may have caused a crash or two on her way up to the Temple, but that wasn't something she cared about.

​

 

[Anet Raine]

Reina Daival

Anet's attention was on the vergence and nothing else. The redhead's voice - like hearing familiar words in those few seconds between consciousness and rest.

"Give me the contact details for whoever the kark this person who can heal you is. Less time we waste, the better."

She grimaced. "Bring me to the steps. She will find me." Difficult to say if that is what the acolyte believed, or if delirium had finally caught up with her.

The Sith Temple came into clear view now that they were closer. It was a good thing there wasn't any policy to shoot first and ask questions later. A side benefit of keeping the temple and the nearby spaceport open to prospective acolytes. It also said much about the Covenant's arrogance. A sense that they found themselves either untouchable or - prouder still - welcomed a challenge.

"You'll... get what you want..." And like that, Anet closed her eyes.