The Other Side

[Lina Ovmar]

It was a bizarre sensation, floating between life and death. One could pick themselves apart and rebuild over and over again till none of it made any sense. She could watch the patterns of the galaxy shift and change yet she could do nothing to change them. Curse the sith. Curse Ordo. Curse Mierin and Nemene and every single on of them that sought to rip apart her and her world.

She should hate him too. He that turned her miserable little existence upside down. Things were simpler before Yavin, she could see things as black and white and not these hundred shades of grey that the force thrust upon her. But with the grey came access to powers that gave her strength, knowledge that kept her here. Floating.

She needed that knowledge. She needed to get back. She needed to kill Ordo, to kill all of the Sith. She needed to liberate those the sith wanted to 'bring to heel'. She needed @Velok.

I know you're here somewhere, you ugly shabuir.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

"In a manner of speaking. Yes. More as an echo than anything."

The voice might have come from anywhere. Might have been waiting to be summoned. At least, the response was immediate.

"Then again, I like to think that an echo of me is worth a symphony of lesser instruments. Welcome to transience, Mia Monroe."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

If Mia had been alive, the hairs on the back of her neck might have stood on end. There was something unsettling about how quickly he came, like he was already there, had been there all along.

"Even as an echo your arrogance is sickening."

Alright, so she did hate him. She'd like to think there were few people in the galaxy who didn't.

"You know, I'd probably never be in this mess if it weren't for you."

[member="Velok"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

"Mia, you're a boulder rolling down a mountain. You smash things until you break. Is that your fault? Is it the fault of the laws of nature? Who can say? But you'll note that there's no place in that metaphor for me.

"Now. Are you ready to move past blame to something productive? You want my help, I can only assume it's so that you can return to life and keep rolling down that mountain until you break again. Futility is your prerogative; I've known that ever since I saw what you humans call a push-up brassiere. So be futile, and yes, I'll tell you how to get back.

"You need a receptive body. Now bear in mind, your echo of me comes from before I died, before I experienced any of this. For a body, a clone is best, some say. It so happens that there are millions of clones of a mildly Force-sensitive old Jedi I knew, a woman who was able to turn weakness into competence. I'm speaking, of course, of the Fringe Confederation's clone army. That, I think, would be very convenient. It would save you the trouble of years of machinations.

"There are other options, other entities that carry my echo. Children of the Emperor, it is called. Most of them innocents."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"I'm going to take that slight, under advice. Though, if we were so futile, you wouldn't have wasted time playing puppet master with the galaxy."

"Years is not a timescale I can accept. Call me impatient, but this boulder has a brother to smash."

She was quiet for a moment. "Tell me about these Children."

[member="Velok"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

"There was a crystalline lifeform with a long and tortured past. Loronar Corporation, centuries of pain. He now resides in the chassis of a mouse droid.

"There's a Mandalorian woman named Shaara Sule, reformed Death Watch. She has a child.

"There's a woman of Metellos named Selka, though another influence has interfered with her status as a Child of mine.

"There's a Twi'lek cyborg, a woman trained in the arts of the Theran Listeners.

"And there's my son, an old Whiphid shaman-chief on Toola."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"No."

"Maybe."

"No."

"I think I met her...No."

"Feth no!"




"Tell me about Shaara."

[member="Velok"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"All the muscle memory you'd require. Competent with ranged and melee weapons. Sees the Force as a can opener, like any good Mandalorian -- untrained, reasonable potential. I say untrained; there's enough of an echo of me buried in there to use her potential to a higher extent in extremis. Her child is five years old; the father is dead. Shaara Sule has no living family apart from the son. They live on Concordia, she mines beskar."

[member="Mia Monroe"]

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Mia was quiet for sometime. What was she doing? Why was she even asking about these people. They were innocents, to take their mind and body was wrong. What would happen to the child if she did? There was a part of her that decided she didn't care, that no matter the price she needed to get back. But it was only a part, and it hadn't won yet.

"I can't take the life of an innocent for my own selfish needs. If I did that I might as well do away with it all and call myself a sith. Not gonna happen." A clone then? Call Mia vain, but that idea didn't sit well with her either.

"What are the odds of finding a force sensitive Jane Doe? A nobody. A nobody who has more to gain than lose by this?"

[member="Velok"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

"S|im," said the Whiphid, voice dry. "What you're doing is fundamenta||y of the Dark Side, Monroe. There are no shortcuts around the conscience. If you make hard choices, do so de|iberate|y. Or ignore my advice, go off, and find a body you're comfortab|e taking. You may be |ucky. You may take years."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"I'm not trying to make shortcuts, I'm trying to make sure the collateral damage is minimal. Just because this is Dark Side doesn't mean I have to forgo all my morals and just forget about the impact this has. Unlike you, I actually give a shid about everyone else."

She fell silent for a moment, stewing in her sudden flash of anger.

"Lets go and find a clone."

[member="Velok"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

"I'm an echo. You're a spirit. You have the motive power; do as you wi||. Now, I shou|d probab|y mention that there's substantia| evidence to support the hypothesis that you don't exist right now."

He |eft it there, without exp|anation, to irritate her.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"Oh feth you, shabuir."

The seed of doubt rooted itself pretty quickly. When you were floating between life and the manda, you had a lot of time to question yourself.

"I really hate you."

Eventually, nothing became something as she tugged herself away from the ever beckoning call of peace. She had to get back, she had to fight. Not just for her people, but because she'd left someone behind and there was nothing worse than not being able to say goodbye. The last she'd seen him, he'd been in a hospital bed. Whatever direction she was going in now was not the one she was planning on but she was there before she could stop herself. Deep inside the asteroid, in a cavern lined with stygium crystals.

"Damn it." she muttered. "If I'm not really here, then this is not manda and I'm in Chaos. Only Chaos would make me wander the galaxy with only you for company."

[member="Velok"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

"Chaos and the manda don't exist either. A|| |ife |oses its identity and returns to the Force. Some |eaves echoes. You are one, I am another. We are gone."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"Wayii! Ne'johaa!" She exclaimed.

Just for a moment, she wanted to believe. Just for a moment. Those little moment of hope were all they had left. When war warped the galaxy.

"There's a Dark Lord playing in your sandbox. Are you going to help me get back so I can kill him or are you going to spend the rest of eternity picking apart everything I say?"

[member="Velok"]