Private Thawed

[Arris Windrun]

Arris offered a sympathetic chuckle at her joke.

"I'm no Koda Fett if that's what you're asking. I'll turn in a bounty or two... take the odd job."

Her neck craned to watch Triaso find the bed, which was dusty but otherwise entirely unused. She turned her attention back to her 'armory' on the other side and began to reorganize her weapons.

Maybe it was boredom talking, but Arris decided to reveal a little bit about herself.

"I work for Mauve du Vain."

She let the name linger as if she expected the Jedi to know exactly who that was.

"Met her at the Galactic Kaggath - was supposed to go all the way, but she had more snake in her than I thought."

There was more than a hint of resentment in her voice, and it even carried in the Force. Despite her otherwise casual demeanor, Arris was, deep down, an angry and resentful woman. Those were only the surface feelings she carried from the Kaggath. The rest? It was in there, a deep wound, a reservoir of power for her to draw from, and unresolved trauma.

"How about you? Which Jedi Order do you belong to? Better for me to know now, just so I know the chances of them knocking down my door."

Triaso Latain

 

[Triaso Latain]

None of the names Arris mentioned meant anything to the ill-dressed woman, but she made note of them nonetheless. Even if she didn't know these people directly, the weight that the cyborg put on the names gave her the impression that they were important.

Sounded like the other woman pretty much just did whatever paid the bills, which made sense with how the two had been... Introduced. Something Triaso might have to do herself, considering she had no credits to speak of. The word Kaggath sparked a tiny bit of recognition from Triaso, though she wasn't sure why. Wasn't that a sith thing?

"Aren't Kaggaths sith things?" She asked, her voice free from judgement. Even if they were, this woman had spared her life, given her clothes, and provided a place to stay, at least for tonight. As far as Triaso was concerned, Arris had good in her, even if she was a sith.

She ruminated on the question of her order for a moment, trying to remember herself. Did she have an order that would be coming for her? The idea that she belonged somewhere and that people were looking for her was comforting in theory, but by the way Triaso's subconscious shied away from the idea she doubted that it applied to her, "I don't remember if I have an order... Even if I do, I doubt they were looking for me."

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

"Aren't Kaggaths sith things?"

Arris laughed. "Well... yeah, apparently, but I meant the Galactic Kaggath on Ruusan. You know... The galaxy's greatest death sport? It was all over the HoloNet."

Her enthusiasm trailed off when it became clear that Triaso was more confused or out of touch than she expected.

"I don't remember if I have an order... Even if I do, I doubt they were looking for me."

"Sheesh... Maybe next time don't end up frozen."

It was a half-serious remark. Arris did wonder how it happened in the first place, but she was beginning to suspect the Jedi had a lot less to say than one might hope.

Just who exactly did I sell to you, Jerec?

She let out a sympathetic sigh. "Get some shut-eye and we'll talk more when you're awake. If you need a sedative, let me know."

 

[Triaso Latain]

None of what Arris said really made sense to Triaso. Aside from the suggestion to not get frozen again, which caused the jedi to roll her eyes.

"Noted. Cya in the morning."

Triaso didn't bother to cover herself up. She was too tired to put in the effort. It didn't matter; she was asleep before long anyways.

When she woke from her dreamless sleep, she blinked her eyes a couple times to test her vision. It still wasn't back fully, and she could still barely see, but at the least there were shapes and muted colors, which was better than nothing. Her muscles were still screaming at her, and moving caused the girl to groan in pain and exhaustion. It was better than yesterday, but only marginally.

Frankly, she was surprised that she had survived the night.

Pushing herself up to a sitting position, she looked around for her companion, "Arris?" She called out, unsure how long she'd been out.

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

The cyborg had stepped out of the place when Triaso finally dozed off. She figured the woman would be out of it for quite a while, given her current state. Turns out her hunch was correct, as nearly 17 standard hours had passed.

There was no immediate response, however, when Triaso called her name. Perhaps she had to ask a second or third time until the apartment door slid open and in walked the cyborg herself.

"Oh, hey, you're awake."

She had a small assortment of items in one arm and used the other to clear off some space on one of the tables. A jug of drinkable water and an assortment of high-energy snacks. The sort of thing Arris always needed after a big fight.

"How's your eyesight?" She questioned. "I brought some water and something to eat.

"You'll need it... I saw one of the cousins snooping around the market. Now Narsh is a big place, good to lay low, even if you're being hunted, but...

"I figure you probably wanna get as far away from here as possible, yeah? Where are you from, anyway?"

Triaso Latain

 

[Triaso Latain]

When the initial call hadn't returned a response, Triaso reached out in the force to try to discern the location of other living beings nearby, but she really only succeeded in worsening her budding headache. Letting out another groan, she stood, did some reluctant but very tender stretches, and turned to face Arris when she returned. Details were missing, but at least Triaso could put a hair color to the name. It wasn't much, but it was all she could definitively identify.

"Still piss poor. At least I can see some colors now, but any direct light blinds me."

It was truthful, at the least. She turned to watch Arris put the goods down on the table, unsure of herself. She knew she'd need food and water, but she was concerned about keeping whatever she might eat down.

Deciding to put that problem on the backburner for now, she shrugged, "I don't remember. Even if I did, I don't really know if going back is an option. What year is it, Arris? Anytime I try to remember something from my past it feels like ancient history. For all I know, it is. Anywhere would be better than here."

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

If the Jedi managed to gather anything in the Force, it was likely misery and fear from the tenants. It was not a building inhabited by the fortunate.

Still piss poor. At least I can see some colors now, but any direct light blinds me."

"That seems good," Arris remarked. "Sounds like your blindness is temporary, then?"

She smirked as she mused. "I do have an eye guy if you need replacements, though."

Her amusement faded when the conversation turned a little more serious. The Jedi asked 'What year is it?' like something straight out of a holoflick. She knew immediately - or at least gathered - this woman feared she was frozen for a long, long time. Her ridge furrowed and she sighed.

"Um..." It took her a second to realign. "I mean it's 902... err, 903?"

Of course, Arris hadn't considered the fact that dating systems changed over time. The question was then, 900 years after what?

"Well, you gotta go somewhere, yeah? C'mon, didn't you like... ever have a dream destination or whatever?"

 

[Triaso Latain]

"I hope it's temporary. I'd prefer to keep my own eyes before I resort to implants."

Triaso didn't know much about them, but from what she remembered implants were usually not as good as the real thing, and they usually hampered someone's ability with the force. She was about to respond when Arris's date hit her like a sack of bricks.

"Nine- Nine HUNDRED?" Triaso's eyes went wide, her shoulders tensing up on reflex, "I've been frozen for at least 850 years. Is the second great galactic war still happening? Surely not, right? I guess that would've been 850 years ago now..."

Reaching a hand up to her head, Triaso tries to quell the rising panic she was feeling. If Arris was being truthful, which she had no reason not to be, then everyone she had known before was likely long dead. Even most of the longer-lived species of the galaxy didn't live that long.

"I-I don't... Arris, nobody is going to come for me. Nobody came in over 850 years."

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

Second great what?

The question waited on her tongue until a natural pause, after Triaso seemed to have exhausted speech for the moment. In a small way, Arris felt for the woman, certainly on the part of no one coming for her.

"Second great galactic war?" She repeated the mouthful as if trying to ground herself. "I mean, the Galactic Empire has invaded the Core and ousted the Alliance from power on Coruscant... But..."

The cyborg made a point to rub her brow, despite lacking the ability to experience natural headaches anymore.

"I'm sorry - are you saying you are a survivor from the purge?"

Arris had recently brushed up on some history at the behest of her master. As she understood it, a Sith Lord once nearly wiped the Jedi out, though she hadn't quite grasped the motives behind such perpetual war. Even Kattada was just a job for her.

Arris grabbed a chair and sat quite queerly, with her posture slouched as she leaned towards the Jedi.

"Listen... I wouldn't be surprised if it was difficult for anyone to track you down. A slab of carbonite is easy to hide in this galaxy."

Triaso Latain

 

[Triaso Latain]

Purge? What purge?

"What Alliance? What about the Republic?"

None of what Arris was saying made sense to the woman out of time. Triaso's hands started trembling as she looked up towards the cyborg, her eyes refusing to focus on the herald of her woes. Even if the fundamental misunderstanding of the dates wasn't complicating things, hearing that the capital of her old allegiance had been taken over by the enemy was a lot to take in. Her gaze wavered, looking down at her hands as she tried and failed to stop their shaking.

"The... The Purge. What happened there?"

Triaso didn't want to hear the answer, but she felt that she had to. If Jedi were public enemy number one, she wanted to know how secretive she'd have to be. Whatever world she lived in now, it was very clearly much different than the one she didn't remember.

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

"What Alliance? What about the Republic?"

Republic? Arris leaned back in the chair and stirred her memory.

"I assume you don't mean Naboo... In which case, the Republic was gone before I was born, about half a century ago.

"I grew up in Alliance space myself, on Talus, but uh... politics really ain't my thing, sorry."

Her eyes drifted down to the Jedi's shaking hands, then back up to the woman's face. Either her eyesight had gotten worse again, or she was avoiding eye contact. Arris frowned a little.

"The... The Purge. What happened there?"

A part of her wondered if answering this question was a stupid idea, but Arris knew she'd want to know if that were her trembling. Sometimes it was better to eat the pain early than let it linger in the domain of what ifs.

"I only know what I've learned, but, apparently, the Jedi Order launched a coup on the Galactic Senate and were hunted down as a result... But that's ancient history. As far as I'm aware, there are two Jedi Orders and a number of independent enclaves."

After all, she recently hit one of them in a raid, though her tone of voice and delivery betrayed that.

Unfortunately, propaganda had a way of becoming historical record over time. What did or did not happen during the purge is hazy at best, and it was unlikely that anyone alive knew the full story. Arris, least of all.

 

[Triaso Latain]

What was Naboo?

She ignored that question for now, her mind struggling to grasp onto anything Arris said. It just didn't make sense. Why would the Jedi betray the republic and try to take over the senate? Senators were their closest allies, aside from republic troopers themselves. None of it made sense.

"I don't understand. The Republic is - was - our ally. We wouldn't have tried to take over the senate."

She let out a frustrated grunt, a hand forcing her hair out of her face.

"Nine kriffin' hundred ATC..."

Triaso wanted to punch something. Her shoulders were wound tight like a spring, waiting to erupt and expend what little energy was held in them. She was trying to keep her emotions in check, but each new revelation was a haymaker aimed straight at her psyche. Part of her started to expect that with all of the absurdity thrown at her that this had to be some sort of purgatory.

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

"I don't understand. The Republic is - was - our ally. We wouldn't have tried to take over the senate."

Arris offered a lazy shrug. "Like I said, politics ain't my thing. Besides, the only Jedi I knew personally hated the Order and hated galactic politics.

"Maybe they were more like him and got fed up?"

Right about then, she could recall too many jokes about how corrupt a senator is. As far as she was concerned, anything was better than them, so maybe those Jedi had the right idea of it. Not that she made discourse of it - after all, politics wasn't her thing.

"Uh, Ay Tee what now?"

The Talusian wasn't quite sure what to make of it. At first, she wondered if it was about a droid or something, before her brain managed to click some pieces into place.

"Oh... Oh! No - No... Standard years begin after the Battle of Yavin."

 

[Triaso Latain]

"What? No they didn't. They started after the treaty of Coruscant. ATC. After Treaty of Coruscant. There was a battle against Revanite forces on Yavin, but that wasn't significant enough for there to be a change in dates."

Kriff. If the cyborg didn't recognize ATC, she might be even further removed from her old reality than she thought. It was an unpleasant thought that she didn't want to acknowledge, but there was a part of her mind that sunk into that hunch and couldn't escape it. Triaso let out a slightly anguished groan, her dominant left hand repeatedly rushing through her hair and slicking it back. It was the only thing she could think to do at the moment to keep her body's restless tendencies held in check.

"You're a cyborg right? Use- Use your cyborg brain or an implant or something to tell me how long ago 15 ATC was."

The Keshian's smoldering gaze looked to the blonde, pinning her with a look. She wasn't looking at the woman herself, but the idea of the woman. The closest thing to a friend she could muster. A blonde blur that had saved her from certain death and was threatening her psyche with nothing but the truth.

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

"Yeah... Everything you just said made zero sense to me."

Arris unknowingly confirmed the woman's suspicions regarding the whole treaty thing. The woman's next question caught her sideways, and the cyborg burst out with laughter.

"Oh man! Sorry, um," she collected herself with a lingering smirk. "Yeah, uh, that isn't how it works."

A metal finger tapped against her own skull. "My implant increases acuity and information processing, but no receiver. A slicer could brick me otherwise."

Even her commlink was a separate implant because of it. If that were somehow compromised, the cyborg could isolate the device itself with mechu deru.

The amusement drained from her face, and Arris stopped to accept the Jedi's examination.

Her voice went quiet, serious. "Your eyes getting any better?"

Triaso Latain

 

[Triaso Latain]

Triaso's leg started to rustle up and down, the Keshian having a hard time staying still sitting on the bed as she remained faced towards Arris.

"No, damn it. My eyes aren't better. Answer me! How long ago was 15 ATC? Use the holonet, a datapad, something."

She ran her hand through her hair again, trying to ignore the migraine that was slowly putting more pressure behind her eyes. Pain and soreness had become a constant for the woman, so it wasn't particularly hard to do.

"Look- I'm sorry to be pushy, but I need to know. I need to know how fucked I am."

The Keshian's nose flared as she took in a particularly long breath, her hands reaching down to grip whatever bedsheets were available. She had a feeling that she'd need to ground herself if Arris was going to follow up on her request.

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris sighed, stood up, and walked over to a table where she had more than a few datapads lying around. She did as the woman asked and searched around the net for it. As soon as she found an answer, though, her mood sank - hell, it could be felt through the Force.

When the cyborg turned around, however, her face revealed nothing. Not that it mattered if Triaso's eyes weren't any better.

She took a few slow steps forward and leaned against the chair while her eyes glanced down at the viewscreen again.

"About five thousand years ago... give or take a couple centuries."

Cold as she might be at times, Arris could only imagine the Jedi needed some space to process that and said nothing to follow it up.

Triaso Latain

 

[Triaso Latain]

The Jedi stared at the woman as she stood up, following the blonde person-shaped blob as she walked over to a table and retrieved something. Even as unattuned as she was to the Force after her extended stay, she could feel Arris's emotion ripple in it as if the force was trying to warn her. Despite the force acting as a brick breaking the surface tension of a particularly long fall into water and cushioning the blow, Triaso couldn't contain the sheer despair she felt as she heard the number. Five thousand years was a long time.

"FUCK!" Was all she managed, her voice loud and guttural with the despair that had worked its way into it.

Her vision, already poor, began to narrow, the blurry shapes of everything around her fading to darkness that assaulted every edge of her view. She pushed herself to her feet in defiance, her legs wobbling as she struggled to stay standing. Both hands rushed to her face, trying to hold her head still as she looked up towards the ceiling of the apartment and yelled wordlessly, an unmistakable wave of emotion able to be felt within the force as the walls themselves started to shake. It wasn't enough to seriously damage anything, but any open containers would see their contents wiggling and rippling within, the screws and bolts that held everything together rattling in their casing as the Jedi let out her emotional outburst. She turned, slamming her fist into the bed.

"Damnit! FUCK!"

She didn't show any signs of calming down.

Arris Windrun

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris did not wince or shake at the woman's outburst. She knew in her own way what it was like to have the whole galaxy pulled out from under you, and felt the Jedi deserved her outburst.

However, she was beginning to echo in the Force, which was liable to draw unwanted attention - that much the Sith apprentice knew.

The cyborg waved her hand and manipulated the Force to sweep the Jedi's fight and cause a fall...

Triaso needed some grounding, lest she be consumed by the overwhelming pain. It was the same sort of 'knock out' Arris needed to get over the anguish she experienced during the Galactic Kaggath.

Triaso Latain

 

[Triaso Latain]

With a wave of Arris's hand, the jedi fell to her knees, face planting into the bed as she tumbled off of her feet. Triaso didn't have much fight in her in her state to begin with, and recent revelations certainly weren't helping matters. She stayed down, the force calming as she tried to collect herself. Falling was enough to bring Triaso's wits back to her, the physical sensations a proverbial splash of cold water that brought her to her senses.

"Fuck." She simply stated, turning her attention back to Arris, and spinning to sit on the ground, legs straight out in front of her, "I shouldn't be alive. Five thousand years."

It was a number that beggared belief, Triaso's mind struggling to comprehend it. She was so overwhelmed that she didn't even register that Arris had used the force.

"What am I even supposed to do, Arris? Anything I used to be involved in is gone. The Republic doesn't exist anymore; the Jedi are fractioned and splintered into so many enclaves..."

She trailed off, bringing her knees up against herself and curling into a ball for the second time since Arris had met her.

Arris Windrun