Private The Relic That Knew Her Name

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Near Dathomiri Space-

As the ship broke through the atmosphere to make a landing at the pad below, Juniper let out a sigh of relief. Living job to job didn't leave much room for fuel reserves, and in typical Le Fey fashion, she was skidding into the finish on empty. She made it, though, and that meant another payday and a bit more fuel to last her until the next hunt.

As the hunter made her way down the docking ramp onto the landing zone, she took in the sights around her. She had never been on this planet, but from what she could tell, it was agricultural. Farmland stretched as far as the eye could see, broken only by scattered structures and slow-moving equipment. She wasn't sure why her contact chose this planet out of all of them, but her job wasn't to ask questions. It was to collect and deliver.

This job, in particular, came from another hunter- one who had been chasing some ancient treasure and was willing to pay handsomely to have someone else finish it. So Juniper did what she did best. She tracked the relic down, secured it, and brought it here. Easy enough. Or so she thought.

As Juniper made her way toward the hangar bay doors, she could tell something was off. The usual security that checked manifests and credentials was replaced with what looked like mercenaries, and flight control never pinged her for her ship's ID. The men didn't move to stop her either. They just watched. It didn't feel like a meeting point. It felt staged. Either one of those things could've been overlooked, but all of it together made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Keeping her head on a swivel and Pathbreaker close by, Juniper continued forward through the hangar doors. As she opened them, she was stopped by one of the mercenaries carrying a large blaster and equipped with heavy armor. "Juniper Le Fey, our master is excited to meet you. Refrain from drawing any weapons and bring the cargo this way." Their voice was heavily distorted by the armor, to the point you couldn't make out if it was masculine or feminine.

Juniper complied, hitting a button on a remote as a small hovercraft came out of the rear of the ship, carrying the large box on it. It slid into place behind her, and the group continued forward.

It was becoming more and more obvious that this was not normal. She was hypervigilant now, taking note of everything they passed in case she needed to make a break for it. This wasn't a place she wanted to get lost in, and it didn't feel like a place that would let her leave easily. There was no small talk as they continued either, just silence between the synchronized steps of the mercenaries and the sharp ping of Juniper's stilettos against the metal floors. It wasn't even five minutes before they arrived at the hangar where her contact was waiting.

As the hangar doors swung open, Juniper was greeted by the sight of even more mercenaries, all equipped with heavy blasters and even heavier armor. In the center of them was a massive Zabrak male, equipped with multiple lightsabers hanging from his side and an array of what appeared to be anti-Force shackles. His horns were chipped in multiple places, some sharpened to a fine point, likely to be used as a weapon.

Things were starting to click for Juniper in ways they hadn't before. Whoever she was working for was in the business of hunting Force users. She glanced at the shackles for a moment longer than she meant to. Not something she'd ever want used on her.

As the groups met, Juniper broke the silence first. "Nice to meet you. I'm Juniper. Gotta say, it wasn't too easy getting this. Had to break a few skulls." She gave a bit of a chuckle as she spoke. She reached out to meet his grip, but he didn't take it. Instead, he motioned toward the box hovering behind her, taking a subtle step back.

"Is that the artifact?" he barked, his eyes trailing Juniper instead of the box, as though he were sizing her up. "Please, go ahead and open the box. Bring the artifact here and place it in this case."

As he finished, the Zabrak snapped his fingers and three guards immediately jumped into motion, grabbing a large case and bringing it forward. They placed it before Juniper, and then the awkward silence returned, heavier now, pressing in on the space between them.

Juniper sighed and went back toward the large crate. Normally she would use the Force to open the box, but seeing as she was working with some kind of Jedi hunter, she decided to use her strength instead. The sorceress popped the top of the crate off, and as she did, she could feel the shift in the energy in the room. It felt like all eyes were on her now. The Zabrak was staring intently at her, studying her every move. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

After the top of the box was off, Juniper took the front of the box off as well, revealing the artifact to the group. When she did, the Zabrak's eyes narrowed like a hunter catching scent. His lips curled into a smile that was more hunger than joy. "Bring it here. Now." His tone was tight, leaving no room for misunderstanding. Juniper blinked slowly. She normally had no time for men's shit like this, but once again he seemed very dangerous, and she really needed the money.

Ready to comply, Juniper reached for the relic, her hand barely touching it before she felt a shock run through her system, like she had just been struck by lightning. Her eyes erupted white, and actual lightning began dancing across her body. Finally, her eyes rolled back into her head as her vision began.

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Spoiler: Vision

It's cold. Not the kind of cold from a winter storm, but the kind that freezes you to your bones.

She can't see anything.​

But she can hear.

Voices.

Chanting.​

Chanting in a language Juniper couldn't understand, but whoever was listening could. It sounded ritualistic.

Soon the cold was replaced with warmth.

Then-

Fire.​

Next, it was like going down a dark slide, images flying past, each one more mysterious than the last. It felt like Juniper was flying through history. She could make out pieces, small details, but it was mostly feeling.

Whoever was tied to this relic was powerful.

Ancient.​

The Force around them didn't feel like anything she had felt before.

Then one last image.

A warm touch.​

A mother's touch.

A hand setting a small basket down. Careful, deliberate.

Fingers brushing against a baby's cheek.

For just a moment, everything felt still.​

Then-​

Black.
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As Juniper jolted back, her entire body was wracked with electricity. Pink bolts of lightning danced down her body, her eyes flashing with pink and white. She could see the Zabrak glaring at her, not with surprise, but with recognition.

"So it answered you." His tone was cold, almost scarily devoid of emotion. "Don't move." He started reaching for his cuffs as he finished. Juniper knew she only had a few seconds to get out of here before they were swarming her. She also knew that whatever this relic was, it was tied to her mother. She was sure of that.

"Damn it, I really needed the credits..." she said as she grabbed Pathbreaker and drove the heavy end of it into the knees of the first mercenary that tried to approach her. She followed that up by slamming the next three into the hangar walls with the Force. Finally, she made eye contact with the Zabrak as she launched a huge wave of Force lightning toward him, the pink tendrils reaching out and licking at all of the mercenaries.

As the light settled, a few of them had fallen, but the Zabrak stood tall, his armor absorbing the lightning. He let out a hearty chuckle as he approached. "You witches will all burn. I will hunt you all down." He unleashed a massive stream of blaster bolts as he spoke. Juniper leapt to the left, behind a support beam to avoid being hit.

Witches? What did he mean? Juniper was no witch. She was a Dark Jedi who had trouble controlling her Force powers. What was a witch?

She didn't have time to ask any questions as she bolted out from cover, using the Force to increase her speed. She leapt into the air and slammed Pathbreaker into the ground, sending more mercenaries flying. Their blaster bolts came rapidly, but she did her best to stay hard to hit. It wasn't long, however, before she was overwhelmed, the sheer volume of fire forcing her back step by step until it felt like the end was close.

Juniper wasn't going to die like a punk. She was going to take as many of them down with her as possible, so she began to gather her energy. It wasn't long before lightning and pure Force energy surrounded her, absorbing the blaster bolts as they struck. This was something Juniper had never done before, more power than she had ever used in her entire life, something deeper than instinct, something pulling from somewhere she didn't understand.

...then it went black.

She was out cold, her body giving out under the weight of what she had just unleashed, but the Force still clung to her, keeping her alive even as everything else inside that hangar was reduced to ruin.

Except the relic.

So the two of them lay there, motionless in the aftermath, surrounded by scorched metal and the fading echoes of power, as the dust settled and the silence returned, waiting for whoever, or whatever, would come to claim what remained.

Vytal Noctura

 

[Vytal Noctura]

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Darkness slowly coalesced into form, and soon gave way to unseen light as contours and detail of a feminine figure strode calmly in the vacated hanger bay. Four others ill-defined shapes gathered and came into being, two on either side of the first, dressed in simpler attire meant for agility rather than brutality. All of pale skin adorned with obsidian ink.

A simple gesture directed the four to scout the surroundings. It was not their first time. And one hunting ground was much like another even if those of the wider galaxy had far more energy weapons than most Sisters had reason to use. Best to make certain there were not others on the cusp of invading this scorched chamber -- to take swift vengeance on its survivor.

If necessary, one would even secure the ship outside. The ways of Outsiders were not Dathomir's ways, but that didn't meant her people had to remain ignorant of how to defend themselves. To use planetary defenses and ships to deter would-be invaders was no sin so long as they did not forget their roots and their ancestors.

One remain. Dressed in blood red, the pale woman's emerald eyes drifted over the artifact before they fell to the woman crumpled on the ground.

Unwise to release your restraints suddenly and without training, Vytal knew, but having been young once herself and surrounded by Outsiders the Pale Witch knew the wise choice was not always the right one. Reckless abandon could at times be necessary. Seeing how the woman hadn't destroyed herself in the process it appeared she had made the right choice this time. Her ancestors must have been watching over her.

Vytal stepped forward and began to kneel down beside the woman. A hand extended slowly as the green flame engulfed her forearm. Good of Juniper Le Fey to survive, but she needn't be wracked with pain once she regain consciousness either. Explosive usage of power often carried physical cost.

She would see if the woman would wake with the worst of the exhaustion dispelled. If she did not, then they would make preparations to bring her back to Dathomir with them. Including the relic. Since Vytal's return she'd taken to old habits of amassing such objects as they had on Ryloth. Not for power, but to keep them out of the hands of the unworthy, the foolish, and the deprave.

And, in this case, there would seem to be a connection to Juniper.

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Juniper drifted through her unconsciousness, letting herself be absorbed by it, letting her mind wade through it like a slow current. The Force had protected her from herself, and now it dared to hold up a mirror, forcing her to look at parts of herself she had buried long ago. She sat back and watched a slideshow of her life, as though seeing it for the first time, detached and distant. The explosion had dislodged memories from her mind she had never even dreamt of before, and she was an avid dreamer.

That same woman, the one Juniper felt a connection with in the previous vision, was back. This time Juniper could make out her shape, but not her face, nor any defining features. The only thing she could truly feel was the warmth that came from her, a warmth and a fire, suggesting she wasn't only a protector, but a fierce warrior as well. Juniper reached forward with everything she had, even in her unconscious state, trying to touch the hand that had grazed her. It was futile, obviously, and the woman remained just out of reach, a presence without answers.

It felt like an eternity sitting in the dark chasm of her own mind, but soon Juniper began to feel a pull at her feet, like someone had pulled the plug from a tub of water. A green mist began to form in front of her mother's vestige, curling and shifting as it pulled Juniper further and further back, down into nothing. Before long, she felt the connection snap, and she awoke to the sight of Vytal Noctura and four other strange women before her, looming over her body like carrion birds.

The huntress quickly shook the drowsiness from her body and tumbled backwards, using the momentum to flip herself back to her feet. A confused and pain-ridden Juniper stared wide-eyed at the witches before her. She had heard of them in passing, the stories every young kid heard, but nothing she had ever paid much attention to. Since joining with Crimson Dawn, and more recently the Mandalorian Empire, Juniper had learned that the power of the witches was less superstition and more something very real. She still had no idea what they were doing here, however.

"If you've come for the relic, take it," she exhaled, glancing over at the artifact still resting on the ground. "It's not worth dying for." She bent to pick up Pathbreaker, residual lightning dancing from her manicured fingers up along the spine of the weapon, flickering with a mind of its own. "Just please answer me one question..."

"What the hell just happened?" she asked, the words coming out rough but honest. Beyond the ringing in her ears and the pounding in her head, she wasn't able to form many thoughts, let alone the right ones.

 

[Vytal Noctura]

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The Nightsisters watched the woman, but made no sudden moves as she rolled away. Their faces were lithe and chiseled from an active and ascetic life. Brothers might historically be viewed as guards and warriors, but the Sisters were not idle or cloistered in a cave either. If anything, efforts to bring the two together where their skills and inclinations were served best would make certain of it.

Vytal's hand slowly fell back to her side as the woman secured her weapon. Her emerald gaze remain fixed, lidless on Juniper as she sought to get her bearings or at least convince the strangers to leave without further trouble.

"Isn't it?" A clawed hand slowly waved off to the side and the relic began to slowly float upward until it was chest-high. "That which has the voices of the Ancestors should not be so freely surrendered. Our magick is eternal, as is our will. They sensed you were in danger and gave you the strength to overcome it, and shielded you from wielding it untrained."

"This belongs to us." The relic floated until it hovered mid-way between Vytal and Juniper. "It is of us."

Vytal regarded Juniper for a moment. "As you are."

Juniper Le Fey​

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Juniper let out a quiet breath, shaking her head slightly as if that alone could clear it. The words didn't sit right. Witches, ancestors. Of us. It all sounded like something out of a story, the kind people told when they didn't have a real answer, and Juniper had never been one to buy into that kind of thing.

"Yeah… no." Her voice came out rough, but steady enough as she shifted her weight, keeping Pathbreaker low but ready. "I don't think so. I know what witches are supposed to be. I've heard the stories, I've seen enough to know what that looks like, and that's not me." Her eyes moved between Vytal and the others, trying to find something real behind what they were saying.

She held that for a second, letting it sit. She didn't need a title, didn't need someone else telling her what she was supposed to be. She had made it this far on her own, doing things her way, and she wasn't about to let that get rewritten because of one moment she couldn't explain. "I'm not 'of' anything," she added, her tone firm. "I'm just Juniper."

Her gaze drifted back to the relic despite herself. It hovered there like it had all the time in the world. That feeling came back again, tight in her chest, familiar in a way she didn't like. Her grip on Pathbreaker tightened, a small flicker of pink lightning running along the spine before fading again.

"I know what I saw," she said, quieter now, her focus returning to Vytal. "That wasn't nothing. That wasn't random." She paused, just for a second. "I saw her."

Juniper held Vytal Noctura 's gaze, steady even with the ringing in her ears and the pounding in her head. She didn't like any of this, didn't like what it was starting to look like, but she wasn't going to ignore it either. "So either I'm losing it," she said, her voice lower now, "or you're about to tell me why I recognized someone I've never met."

She let that hang there, her stance still set, not backing down.

"…because I'm not walking away from that."

 

[Vytal Noctura]

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"Tis possible when a familiar voice Beyond speaks that tis not what it claims to be. Spirits are even less pleasant than the Living when they are consumed with desire to enter this realm. But in this case," Vytal stepped forward and gently place a hand atop the floating relic, "tis what it seems."

"What do you think it was, Juniper? Why do you think this artifact of power called out to you? Gave you a vision? Did it promise power? Glory? Riches beyond imagining? Or was it something... subtler? Something meaningful. A connection. Someone close to you, and would care for you." There was a brief pause as Vytal turned her emerald eyes upon the wary woman. "Not all get a chance to speak with their Mother a second time."

"Whatever you may think of 'Witches,' we can offer you guidance in bringing this connection into focus. In helping you to control your own power." She extended her other hand out toward Juniper. "Tis your choice. We offer communion, not servitude. Understanding, not indoctrination. You will remain free to come and go as you will, if you accept." Though it went without saying the longer she stayed among them the more she would learn, but one couldn't force someone to stay -- they would resist every lesson, commit every error.

Juniper Le Fey​

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Juniper didn't move for a moment after Vytal finished speaking, her gaze lingering between the witch and the relic. It still didn't sit right, the idea of being of anything, of belonging to something she hadn't chosen, rubbed against everything she had built for herself. But the feeling from before, the vision, the warmth, it didn't fade just because she didn't like what it implied.

She exhaled slowly, her grip on Pathbreaker loosening just slightly. "I'm not looking for a title," she said, her voice more even now. "And I'm not about to start calling myself something I don't understand." Her eyes flicked briefly to the relic before returning to Vytal Noctura . "But I'm not gonna ignore what just happened either."

"If there's something there," Juniper continued, quieter now, "then I'll figure it out. I just don't plan on doing it blind."

Then, without another word, she lifted two fingers to her lips and let out a sharp, piercing whistle that cut through the hangar. The sound echoed for a moment before something answered. A streak cut through the open space above them, fast and familiar, before banking hard and diving toward her. Misch came in hot, wings snapping out at the last second as he slowed just enough to avoid slamming into her, circling once before landing nearby with an excited chirp.

Juniper let out a quiet breath that almost sounded like a laugh, some of the tension easing as she brushed her fingers along him in a quick, grounding motion. "Yeah, yeah," she muttered. "I'm fine."

Her gaze lifted again, settling back on Vytal, steadier now.

"…so," Juniper said, tilting her head slightly, "where do we start?"

 

[Vytal Noctura]

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"Titles are mere tools. A word to convey a lifetime of belief and power. Yet, we do not recruit; we invite those with the knowledge or heritage to join us." Juniper was free to eschew being called a Witch if she like. She had yet to be trained in anything of their magick and so any Sister of years would laugh in silence at the claim from the onset anyway. Much as a Jedi Master of good humor would if an initiate claimed to be a Master because they moved a rock. Still, Witch was as good as any title to use if it helped place her in the grand scheme of things.

"I invite you to join us on Dathomir, Sister. Tis a better place to talk then here," she gestured at the bodies on the ground around them. Someone would come looking eventually. "There, we can explore the relic, your connection to your Mother, and the power you can wield in time." Not counting the erratic or wild power Juniper obviously held presently, of course. Vytal lifted a hand to forestall objection. "Learn what you will, but you must know control so as not to be a threat to yourself. Or your familiar."

She would leave it at that and gauge Juniper's reaction to the idea of departing with them. If she insisted on learning here and now, Vytal could indulge though only through patient suffering. Sometimes the young were as brash and bullheaded as the Brothers.

Juniper Le Fey​

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Still shaking the pain from the explosion, Juniper was in no place to turn down help. She may have been used to running alone- well as alone as she could be with a friend like Misch. It wasn't the same though, she figured, as putting her energy into the Crimson Dawn. There she had agency, she was allowed to move freely within the group as long as she paid her dues and respected the chain of command. The same was likely not to be said for Dathomir.

Was Juniper willing to give up even a fraction of her freedom for whatever was pulling her mind and body toward the women? Would she be able to live up to the expectations she had already set for herself, or the expectations of Vytal Noctura and the others? These were the insecurities that Juniper usually had no time for, but they were leaking through into her thoughts.

To the sorceress, it felt like an eternity, but in reality, it was only a few moments before she answered. "You can provide information on why my body does this?" She asked, gesturing broadly at herself as lightning continued to spark from her body. Whatever self defense mechanism her blood provided for her was turning out to be a lot of work.

"If so, then lead the way." She knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't at least try to see this through.

Juniper followed Vytal and the others, Misch close by as she took her first steps into her new life.

END​