Private The Least of These Monsters

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Her | Ala Quin | Colette​

The familiar stretch of back corridors bled into shadows, every turn etched into Lorn's memory. He had paced these halls for years, trying to escape his own head, but tonight the layout served a purpose. Breaking Acier out of a Republic prison had worked; a Jedi holding facility wasn't much different, right? They knew the shift rotations, the blind spots, and the door codes. The risk was acceptable, especially for a target like this: a squirmy Sith turned possible Republic informant who held the key to breaching the Blackwall.

The King of Naboo's message to Acier was simple: retrieve the Sith in exchange for not letting the Vanguard's hidden location on D'Qar known. Choice had been an illusion from the start, but Lorn would have taken the gamble regardless.

Rounding the final dark bend, Lorn paused alongside Acier. A young Jedi Knight stood watch near the cell door, blissfully unaware. Lorn reached out through the Force, wrapping a sudden drowsiness around the guard's mind. The boy's eyelids fluttered before he slumped limply against the wall, sliding into a deep sleep.

A quiet nod signaled Acier forward. Inside the holding chamber, a shimmering blue energy field contained their prize. Lorn stepped up to the barrier and unlatched the heavy metal meal hatch at the side of it. Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a heavy anti-Force collar and shoved it through the narrow slot and pushed it shut so Her could take it.

"Put it on," Lorn said.

 

[Her]

---

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Tag: Acier Moonbound | Lorn Reingard | Colette

---

The standing meditation technique was something that all well-trained Jedi knew from the offset. It was simple practice: to stand still, with the arms folded together at the back, near the naval, with your fingers interlocked and head bowed to rest on the spot. For some it was useful in dulling the fervent emotions that come to an individual in the fever of a fight or argument. To others it was a way to clear the mind to help them think quietly in a place where one could enter and where no distractions could make their mark. It was difficult to say how Her was using this meditation technique in the moment. She often kept herself unreadable. Intangible. Enigmatic.

A man, just as lost as the woman on the other side of the cell, finds himself on a path that can only lead to catastrophe and ruination. In his hand he offers the shackle of a collar and also a road to freedom. Indeed, through victory chains can be broken.

"Put it on."

Her lifted their gaze up slowly to rest a crimson gaze upon the shattered Sword of the Jedi turned Vanguard. Red lips parted and ushered a singular response to Lorn's demand:

"No."

---

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Shiraya's Sanctuary

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace didn't like this. He didn't like being blackmailed, and he hated that Aurelian Veruna had managed to corner both him and Lorn. But most of all, he didn't like what they were about to do.

Breaking himself out of prison had been one thing, but breaking another Sith out? He trusted Lorn and he always would. But the first time since joining the Vanguard, doubt quietly wormed its way into his thoughts. These were the same lines he'd crossed, the same compromises he'd convinced himself were necessary. Every one of them had seemed reasonable at the time, and they all carried him deeper into the dark until he could no longer recognize the man he'd become.

Still... it wasn't as though either of them had much of a choice. Fucking Veruna.

Ahead of him, the young Jedi guard sagged against the wall as Lorn's influence gently carried him into sleep. Ace raised an eyebrow despite himself, impressed by the non-lethality of it all. He made a mental note to ask Lorn how to do that.

Tic was on his back, if the escape required slicing security systems or bypassing locked doors, the little BD-unit would be far more useful than either of them.

Once inside the holding chamber, Ace drifted toward the entrance while Lorn approached the cell. His eyes remained on the corridor beyond, ears tuned to the conversation behind him.

"Put it on."

"No."

Ace closed his eyes for a second before letting out a slow breath through his nose. They didn't have time for this. He turned just enough to look back over his shoulder, his expression flat.

"You're not in a position to be saying 'no' right now." His voice remained low, almost conversational. "We're here out of courtesy, not 'cause we need you."

That wasn't entirely true, Lorn wanted her knowledge, but Ace felt there were other ways through the Blackwall. Still, she didn't need to know that.

"Stay here and rot for all we care."

Lorn Reingard | Her | Ala Quin | Colette ​

 

[Her]

---

Tag: Lorn Reingard | Acier Moonbound | Ala Crescent | Colette

---

Her's gaze turned from Lorn to where the other voice was coming from. She recognised him. Acier Moonbound. There had been some news circulating around Theed about him recently. He was a fugitive on the run. While information was usually taxed in a situation like this, with nothing by a four-by-four cell to call your room, and the only visitors being Jedi to pass on what they knew about the outside world, it was easy to lose track of what was happening out there beyond prison. However, up until Aurelian had taken the transmitter, Her endeavoured to keep up to date with what was happening in the High Republic while she was in Jedi captivity. She wanted to keep her thumb on things despite being a captive. There were no walls, not even the Jedi's, which would prevent her work.

Quickly, Her begun putting two and two together with what she already knew and what she was finding out.

"You're not in a position to be saying 'no' right now.... We're here out of courtesy, not 'cause we need you."

"Clever," Her muttered to themselves as she deduced that they were here to take her.

There were a number of ways that Aurelian could have procured her freedom. She imagined that he could have utilized his executive powers, as the ruling Monarch of Naboo, to remove Her from incarceration by the Jedi Order, and to take her into the custody of the crown instead for reasons that he would have to justify later on. The Jedi would have kicked up a fuss about it, and there would have been a stir among the Senate as Naboo seemed to move against the interests of the Jedi Order, but at the end of the day, it wouldn't have been as if King Veruna had freed the prisoner and let her go. He would have merely exercised his rights to take Her into his custody for questioning, or interrogation, or the half-dozen reasons, excuses and justifications that she imagined Aurelian could have made up about it while the two continued to conspire secretly against the Sith.

But Aurelian was a cunning man. It soon became apparent to Her what this was. What she thought was happening, only a moment ago, when she thought that she was merely defying a Jedi and an unfair demand, was soon realised instead to be the means in which Veruna had arranged the end of her captivity. While Her couldn't possibly understand everything that was happening in the moment, as there was not enough time to figure out why with Reingard, a Jedi Councillor, was betraying the Jedi with the formation of his Vanguard-- an unknown fact to Her before now-- it did seem that Aurelian did not want to be publicly linked to what was happening tonight.

There would be time to figure it all out later. Her would just have to buy the time.

"Stay here and rot for all we care."

King Veruna wasn't the only cunning one in his debacle. Someone else, desperate for freedom, with the prospect of being let out before them, would have immediately seized the opportunity by instantly complying with their jailbreakers and what they wanted her to do. But Her didn't know Reingard, and from the rumours that her contacts in the K.R.C had passed onto her about Moonbound, he was someone from the Sith Covenant who had seemingly been brought to justice before being freed by an unknown assailant who, at the time, Her had guessed to be in league with the Dark Lords who had conquered the Galactic Empire. She would never have guessed that a member of the Jedi Council would be responsible for breaking Moonbound out of his own shackles. No, Her couldn't trust these people, particularly, when she thought that one of them was still with the Sith from Coruscant.

Also, if Her complied with these men, and allowed them to extract her from this cell without a fight, then it would all but prove her guilt to the Jedi Council and the authorities from the Republic about the allegations that they had made against Her in the first place. Thus far the Council hadn't put it altogether who and what the enigma was that they had captured after the meeting Her had arranged with them all those months ago. They felt that she was a Sith but feelings would not be enough to convince others in the High Republic that she is a Sith Lord.

Not yet at least.

So far, the Jedi Council only had a name (Ella Nova); a claim that she was a former member of the Jedi Order, which came alongside the request to return back into the fold as a returning Jedi Knight; and the well known ties to the Imperial remnants which were already something that had been cleared through a combination of Her's participation in the Five Veils Revitalization Project from three years ago, and Joa Sodi 's Naturalization Act that had given her citizenship on Enarc. Facts needed to be established about Her first to ultimately justify her imprisonment, otherwise, it would not be hard to argue that the Jedi Order were falsely persecuting a Republic citizen illegally.

Her had been banking on the weaknesses in the system and was looking to expose them whence her confidence and bravado when it came to the interrogation with Sela Basran and the conversations with Ala Quin . But in one fell swoop King Veruna had put her in a position where all the suspicion placed on Her's shoulders would be realised after she was seemingly broken out of incarceration by what looked to be a Jedi traitor as well as someone from the Sith Covenant and another who she sensed was in the vicinity of the two men as they demanded for Her to put the Force Collar on first before they would break her out of the cell.

Yet, if Her did not go with them then, perhaps, she might never leave this prison. It did appear that the Grandmaster was determined to keep her here as long as she possibly could as she tried to reach the former Knight of the Old Republic and bring her back from the dark side. It could be years before Her was let out of here. That had never been apart of the plan. She had been banking on Aurelian Veruna to come through with the means to release her after Her was done informing the Jedi Council about those in the High Republic and their seemingly sinister ties to the Sith Order... But not like this. No. Her couldn't simply leave without making it look as if Reingard, Moonbound (and whoever else was with them) had taken Her against her will. That she was an unwilling participant in this jailbreak.

But it would have to be done in a manner that they did free her as it had been originally planned with Veruna. Otherwise there might not be another chance to get out.

"Okay," Her lied to Acier. "Go ahead. I don't care."

Lifting her gaze discreetly up into the air, Her thought about the security apparatus of the prison. No doubt there had been listening and recording devices that the Jedi Council would use to monitor their prisoners. She wondered what it would look like, to them, if Reingard and Moonbound forced their way in to take Her seemingly against her will, and whether or not whatever Aurelian had said to convince the Jedi Vanguard to break Her out of prison was convincing enough to make them get violent and take the Grandmaster's prisoner with force.

---

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Her | Ala Quin | Colette​

Lorn stared at the woman behind the barrier, disbelief hardening his features. Did she actually just say no? The sheer audacity of it burned. They were handing her a way out of a lifetime in a cell, yet she played head games. Nobles were always a plague, and this King of Naboo was no exception, pulling strings and dragging the Vanguard into his games. He hoped this would be worth it in the end.

Acier's words cut through the tense silence, making it clear she could rot here for all they cared. Still, walking away empty-handed meant leaving the gamble and their location on D'Qar, completely compromised. A low grumble escaped Lorn's chest as he finished overriding the control console.

Whatever game was running through her head, she broke first. The shimmering blue shield hissed and faded into nothing. Lorn stepped across the threshold, irritated. Closing the distance before she could pivot, he seized the collar, snapping the heavy metal around her neck before binding her wrists in magnetic cuffs.

"It is in your best interest to comply," Lorn muttered, securing the locks with a harsh click.

Her gaze remained locked on his, but time was already running out. Grabbing her upper arm in a iron grip, Lorn jerked her forward and signaled toward the dark corridor.

"Stay close and stay quiet," Lorn said, nodding to Acier to take the lead.

Beyond the holding block lay the open-air courtyard, a expanse carved directly into the mountain away from the main sanctuary compound. Clear that courtyard, drop down the hidden mountain path, and they were home free.

 

[Colette]

Lorn Reingard / Acier Moonbound / Her / Ala Quin
The water stirred in her glass, an amused chuckle parted Colette's lips into a grin as she listened to what Ala had said. It was all about the small strides, and in that regard she was happy for her colleague and friend.

But that wasn't the only reason they had met. Lunch meetings weren't uncommon these days. At least not to Colette. To her it just felt like a more efficient kind of way to both eat and discuss topics that were otherwise very important. And more than that it was a means to stay visible outside of the Council chambers and make sure that the members knew who they were. Not in the vain sense as much as the 'we are working on it' sense.

"I think—" Colette began, but the sound and buzz of her pad tore her attention away from the conversation. Her eyes scanned the screen, and she instantly froze.

[ Honeypot activated. Proceed to Cell Block ASAP. ]

It came with ensuring the security of the temple after the split between the Order and its more 'zealous' members. Security had been forced to be ramped up when for some reason countless members who had once held multiple clearances had decided to seek another cause. Seeing as a Jedi Order housed multiple very big and very important objects that could be easily stolen by such a person, it became imperative to secure those that mattered the most as fast as possible.

It was rather macabre then to imagine that one such object was no object at all but a human being, allegedly. Colette had wanted the person in question released into Republic custody months ago, and now here they were.

The old codes had been left in the system for this exact purpose. Colette swallowed the rest of her words and slowly began to nod as if to approve of her own foresight. Ala seemed to have disappeared into her mind again. Colette cleared her throat for a moment to get the grandmaster's attention.

"We've got a situation." She said calmly and rose from her seat. "Her."

The quartermaster who usually cleaned up after herself gently brushed her fingers against the grandmaster's shoulder to get her off of her feet and into a walk at pace with her tray left behind on the table.

Meanwhile the metallic doors to the courtyard slammed shut with a hiss. Pneumatic locks sealed the doors firmly shut as the door behind the Fugitive Three did the same. Would it stop them? No. Would it buy Colette and Ala time? Yes.

 

[Ala Quin]

The conversation had been lovely. Distracting, even. Then came the vision.

The Force gifted her the horror once again. Only Colette's prompting snapping her out of the sight of her short saber piercing Lorn's abdomen, as he sunk to the his knees, and her mind screamed out in grief. The only difference this time was that there were two other's with him, and in a location not so far away...

"We've got a situation." She said calmly and rose from her seat. "Her."

"Her." Ala echoed at the same moment. She turned, knocking over her chair in her haste, and marched as purposefully as her frame could permit.

"I swear to all that is living, if Lorn is doing what I think he is doing..." She couldn't finish the sentence. The sheer, desperate madness of it.

"Lorn and Acier are breaking Her out of confinement," Ala said, as they crested the rise and approached the entry of the courtyard of the Jedi prison. She seemed supremely confident in her assertion. Hopefully, Colette could understand why.

Tapping her comms, Ala punched in the emergency codes. "Complete lockdown on the courtyard. Now."

Security countermeasures roared to life. Turrets whirred. Suspension fields crackled into existence. Battle droids snapped into defensive perimeters. As a detachment of Temple Guards began their rapid deployment, Ala intercepted their frequency, her voice an urgent snap. "Hold your fire. All units, stay your hand until my command." Don't shoot him. Please don't shoot him.

Drawing on the Force for speed, Ala and her companion blurred across the stone, finding themselves standing in the centre of the courtyard. They faced the heavy doors from which the three fugitives would soon emerge.

Ala's palms were slick with sweat. Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She forced a breath into her lungs, desperately fighting for composure. She couldn't look like a grieving lover. She had to be a wall of Jedi resolve.

"Colette. If this goes poorly. Do not hesitate to do what must be done," she said, through gritted teeth.

The door hissed open. Shadows loomed on the hearth.

"You will receive one last chance to turn back on this path," Ala said, voice steady, controlled and commanding, "by the Order of the Jedi Council and by Republic law...if you proceed from this courtyard with this Sith prisoner...you will be deemed an enemy of the Republic. You will forgo all rights pertaining to the rank of Jedi within the Republic. You will be branded as a terrorist. And you will be hunted down and brought to justice."

As the shapes fully emerged into the light, Ala forced her gaze to catalog them. To the boy who played Sith, then Jedi, she gave no heed. Acier had no moral compass left to appeal to. To Her - to Ella - Ala gave a heavy look of disappointment, mourning the fractured hope of who the woman could have been.

Finally, her eyes found Lorn. The world narrowed. Ala closed her eyes, taking one agonising breath to steady her soul before looking at him again. The rigid Jedi facade cracked.

"I don't want you to leave, Lorn," she whispered, the official command evaporating from her tongue. She fumbled her words for the first time, desperate to hide behind her duty, but failing. "Stay with...us."

| Outfit: xxx | Tag: Acier Moonbound Lorn Reingard Colette Her |​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Shiraya's Sanctuary

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace rolled his eyes as Her finally relented. Whatever game she was playing, he didn't care enough to figure it out. Lorn had secured the collar, the cuffs, and the prisoner. That was what mattered.

At Lorn's nod, Ace returned one of his own before moving to the front of the group. The shrill wail of an alarm echoed through the corridors. So much for slipping out unnoticed. The Jedi knew they were here now, which meant they wouldn't just be dealing with locked doors. There'd be opposition waiting on the other side.

The blast doors leading into the courtyard were already sealed. Ace stopped a few paces short of them before glancing over his shoulder toward Tic, still perched comfortably across his back. He gave the little BD-unit a silent nod.

Tic answered with an affirmative chirp before hopping down onto the floor. Scurrying over to the control panel, the little BD-unit extended his scomp link into the access port. While Tic worked, Ace shifted his attention back toward Lorn.

"Is she really worth it, Lorn?" He asked quietly. "You've already pissed the Jedi off enough breaking me out."

When the magnetic locks disengaged, Tic let out a triumphant trill before bounding effortlessly back onto Ace's shoulders just as the blast doors hissed apart.

A woman's voice carried through the widening gap, warning them of the consequences, before Ace even stepped outside. His gloved left hand settled loosely against the lightsaber clipped to his belt, still unignited, as he emerged into the courtyard first.

His eyes found Colette almost immediately and the hard edge in his expression softened as guilt lingered there for only a moment. He hadn't forgotten their conversation while he'd been imprisoned.

His gaze drifted to the smaller woman beside her. Ala Quin. He knew her name and little else. Still, through the Force, he could feel enough. Her disappointment toward Her barely registered beside the storm that churned beneath the surface whenever her attention settled on Lorn. Hurt, fear, hope, all tangled together behind a mask of Jedi composure that was already beginning to crack.

Then she pleaded with him. Ace's eyes shifted sideways toward Lorn as it all felt painfully familiar. He remembered Sibylla standing in front of him. Lorn beside her. Both of them begging him to stop while he convinced himself he was doing the right thing. He'd been so certain that he was willing to burn every bridge that mattered. Only to find out they'd been right.

Ace remained where he was, ready to stand beside his friend if it came to that. But first...

"...Lorn." He said quietly, never taking his eyes off the older Jedi. "You sure you really want to do this?"

Lorn Reingard | Her | Colette | Ala Quin ​

 

[Her]

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Tag: Lorn Reingard | Acier Moonbound | Colette | Ala Quin

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[ I WOULD LIKE TO GO HOME ]​

It was a cold, freezing night in Shiraya's Sanctuary which was at odds to how it was supposed to be at this time of the year. Warm evenings had often been the source of Her becoming uncomfortable as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, while she lamented in the captivity of the Jedi Council. Except this night. Although the collar around her neck prevented Her from being able to summon her abilities with the Force, or to feel it's ebbing flow in this powerful epicentre that the Jedi called home, there was nevertheless something dark brewing in the nether which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Something wrong was happening here.

Such are the consequences when friends and lovers split.

"Is she really worth it, Lorn? You've already pissed the Jedi off enough breaking me out."

Her overheard Moonbound as they waited for the guy's droid to slice open the blast doors up ahead. She had been unnaturally quiet since Lorn broke into the cell block and forcibly put the Force Collar around Her's throat. Someone less suspicious and far more honest than Her might have tried to put up a struggle against the Vanguard as he aimed to take her away to parts unknown and for reasons which, despite some rumbling thoughts on what was happening here, were equally as elusive. Alas, Her continued to let Lorn push her through the corridors no matter how rough he was.

While the Jedi Council did not trust Her (as they had made it abundantly clear after Ala explained to them that she thought Her is a Sith Lord) it was nevertheless apparent that the enigmatic woman had come to Shiraya's Sanctuary in order to tell them things that they didn't know about the Sith Order. Therefore the fact that Reingard and his compatriot from the Sith Covenant were moving against the Jedi Order, in order to take Her, was quietly confusing, particularly, when she knew that Lorn was a member of the Jedi Council. He clearly wanted something from Her and didn't want to do it in his capacity as a Jedi leader. She could only wonder what it was in the moment. There would be time later to figure this all out.

Despite the frantic, chaotic situation that she found herself in one thing became clearer the further Reingard and Moonbound pushed Her through the prison complex towards their shared escape. It would seem that Her hadn't been able to keep a thumb on everything after-all in spite of the contacts that she had procured to keep an eye on the ins and outs of the High Republic. Something was amiss here which left Her, ironically, in the dark to what it was. Her had no idea who the Vanguard were yet, and why they had formed, although she anticipated that if they ever got out of here alive then she would find out from these men who had broke in to take Her from the Jedi Order. The situation was further compounded by the potentially devastating element epitomized by King Veruna and what he had found out about the Jedi Council's prisoner before these Vanguards had broke into the prison complex to free Her.

Ayra would have hated being in this situation, Her summarized.

"...Lorn. You sure you really want to do this?"

The way that the blast doors were retracting into the slits in the walls was a painfully slow experience. They seemed to take an age. There were already voices speaking outside in the courtyard. Her summarized that the Jedi were already aware of the trespassers and what they were here for. Those crimson, sad eyes found themselves looking upon Lorn as he stopped beside Her. Lorn had dragged Her ward throughout the complex in a bid to evade the guards that were stationed here and the Jedi that were mobilising to protect their home from intruders. She didn't like him already. But even Her couldn't help but ponder the same questions that the other Jedi must be asking themselves.

Why was he doing this?

"I want to go far away, go far away," Her sung in a low, humming voice, like she was singing to herself, as she averted her gaze away from Lorn and back towards the blast doors as they finally opened.

"I don't want you to leave, Lorn... Stay with... Us."

"They don't want us to stay home," Her continued to say in a low, singing voice which hummed a sad, quiet melody which inexplicably seemed to resonate throughout the entrance to the prison complex as the Vanguards and their captee squared off against the Jedi Grandmaster and her friends.

---

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Her | Ala Quin | Colette​

"Do you have another way through the Blackwall?" Lorn asked Acier quietly. "This one knows, and your friend has our location. There is no other choice."

Tightening his grip on the prisoner's arm, he dragged her forward as Tic finished slicing the lock. Right before the heavy metal doors parted, a sudden, suffocating wave of emotion crashed into Lorn's mind through the Force. Oh, fu--, he thought, his stomach dropping as the blast doors slid open to confirm his worst suspicions.

Cold air slapped his face as he stepped out onto the courtyard beside Acier. Security countermeasures whirred to life around them, turrets tracking their movement while defensive droids stood ready to fire. Standing at the center of the killing floor were Colette and Ala.

Ala's voice carried across the stone, starting with formal declarations of treason before dissolving into raw, desperate pleading. Stay with us. The grief in her eyes burned through him, but she couldn't see the bigger picture. She couldn't see that this sacrifice was for their ultimate survival, doing the ugly, necessary work the Council was too terrified to execute. Saving the galaxy meant stepping past the rules, no matter the personal toll.

Glancing sideways at Acier, Lorn offered a grim look. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this," he muttered under his breath, his voice steadying. "We will not harm them."

The prisoner's rhythmic humming grated on his nerves. Shifting his weight, Lorn hauled Her closer and released her arm, settling his hands into a formal fold across his chest.

"No. More. Talking," he barked at the woman before raising his voice toward the two Council members. "Let us go. This doesn't have to escalate."

The optics of the situation were atrocious, but an armed jailbreak would spare the Jedi the embarrassment of releasing a Sith captive themselves. Taking a slow breath, Lorn evaluated the upgraded turrets and security barriers that had been installed during his absence.

"I have to leave," Lorn said, meeting Ala's gaze with unwavering resolve. "You know as well as I do that things need to change. Colette, you too. We are doing what needs to be done. Just let us go."

 

[Colette]

Acier Moonbound / Lorn Reingard / Her / Ala Quin
If he was doing what Ala thought they were doing? There was not a single doubt they were doing just that. The codes had already confirmed it. Ala began to unravel into an emotional mess. And while Colette had sympathy for her situation, now was just not the time. They stood at the center of a courtyard but it might as well have been the eye of a hurricane.

The quartermaster gritted her teeth through each crack that made the facade crumble. The trio that appeared weren’t a particular shocking one. Her eyes locked with Acier, and for a moment she would ease up before the steel walls came up again.

He was showing guilt. Good, that meant he had taken her words to heart.

‘Her’ got a glance before Colette moved on to Lorn. This whole situation could have been avoided if the Jedi hadn’t decided to play at some kind of convenient or outright arbitrary arbiters of justice. A slight had been made, laws broken, and yet the prison that had contained ‘Her’ was one of a religious institution. It had never sat right with Colette and it still wouldn’t.

And what was it that ‘must be done’ if this went poorly? Colette wasn’t about to raise her blade on the misguided, nor was she about to cut a woman down for her grief.

“We can’t just let you go, Lorn. You know that.” Colette gently shook her head. “Problem with forcing change is that you never know if it’s towards or away from where you want to go.”

Her eyes latched onto Acier as if to pierce through his soul in search of answers. No judgment, no anger or disdain. Her head gently tilted, a question between the two that needed answering before this went any further.

Is this your new pack or not?

 

[Ala Quin]

Colette was right. They couldn't just let them go. Ala actually spit out a laugh.

"Force damn your stubbornness, Lorn Reingard. We would be here for you even without the Sith of it all," she said, glancing again at Ella with that same disappointment she had almost learned to weaponize.

"You broke Moonbound out of a Republic facility!" She called out, "if we let you go from here the Republic would consider us complicit for not arresting you."

Snap-hiss.

Both yellow blades shot forth from the hilt. But Ala did not ready herself in an aggressive stance.

"You claim to be doing this for all our good, and yet your actions threaten to undermine one of the few remaining safe havens the Jedi have left to rebuild. You are a fool Lorn. You are damned, stubborn fool..."

She cast a glance at the droids standing nearby.

"Stun them."

| Colette Her Lorn Reingard Acier Moonbound |​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Shiraya's Sanctuary

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Singing. She was actually singing. Ace spared Her a brief glance, brows knitting faintly. Whatever game she was playing, he couldn't begin to understand it. Before he could say anything, Lorn's patience finally snapped.

Ace looked away again without comment. His focus settled back on the courtyard. Colette. Ala. The line of security droids. The turrets tracking every movement they made. His eyes moved between them with deliberate precision, measuring angles, fields of fire, avenues of movement. Decades of fighting condensed into 2 short years had taught him to read a battlefield almost instinctively.

Lorn had apologized earlier. Ace didn't answer. He couldn't. Part of him understood why Lorn believed this was necessary. Another part couldn't shake the feeling that he'd stood in this exact place before, convincing himself that ugly choices today would spare others tomorrow.

As Lorn and Ala continued speaking, Ace noticed Colette still watching him. Then came the slight tilt of her head. For some reason, it pulled him back to a tiny prison cell.

When wolves separate.

They do so to find new packs.

You are in the middle of that transition.

Were the Vanguard his pack? ...He didn't know. Not yet. But Lorn had been. Long before the Covenant. Lorn had been one of the few people Ace had trusted without reservation. Whatever doubts he carried about this mission, he wasn't about to abandon his friend now.

His eyes met Colette's. The uncertainty remained, but so did the resolve. It was answer enough.

The sharp hiss of twin lightsabers drew his attention back to Ala. Twin golden blades cast their glow across the stone, yet Ace made no move to ignite his own. His gloved left hand remained resting lightly on the hilt at his hip.

Then came the order.

"Stun them."

Blue light erupted from his lightsaber an instant before the first stun bolts reached him. His blade flowed through tight, efficient arcs, each crackling ring of energy collapsing harmlessly against the humming plasma before it could reach anyone behind him.

His bare right hand shot forward. Metal screamed as one of the advancing security droids buckled inward as though crushed beneath an invisible weight. Its chassis folded violently around itself before Ace's arm swept sideways, hurling the ruined machine across the courtyard. Its mangled frame slammed into the line beside it, bowling through several more droids in a shower of sparks and twisted durasteel.

More blue rings flashed toward them. Ace's lightsaber flowed back into motion, intercepting each stun bolt as he gave ground only enough to keep himself between the barrage and those behind him. His eyes never lingered in one place for long. They flicked from the tracking turrets overhead, to the remaining security droids, and finally back to Ala and Colette themselves.

Lorn Reingard | Her | Colette | Ala Quin​