The Worst Dominion Ever (Fringe Dominion of Lipsec)

[Aran Finn]

Alen went from ready to be ravaged, to pinned under Kitt, in about half a second. At first he thought this was the end ... she was going to take his clothes and his pride in front of everyone in the room, propriety be damned. But it wasn't the case. As she looked up, Alen saw a faced wracked by grief, tears streaming down her face ... she needed him more than ever. That was all the incentive he needed to get it together. Eyes roamed to the scene across the room. Three Fringers, three near corpses ... blood, confusion, anger, grief ... Alen was no empath, but he could feel those emotions flow through the room and tighten his chest. He looked back at Kitt, who was so close to breaking point, and his heart and stomach did a simultaneous backflip. She needed him. The room seemed to go dark around him, the hectic levels of noise fading to silence, and four pieces of his mind became two, and two slid seamlessly back into one.

A hand went through Kitt's hair and grasped the back of her head comfortingly as the other drew her closer to him, letting her bury herself in him. His head buried in the crook of her shoulder, Alen knew that there was nothing he could say. No wisecrack would make her smile or laugh ... there was tragedy in the air, and all Alen could do was be a rock. The love gas was still in the air, but Alen was not so susceptible anymore. He needed to fall back to his strength, for he was strong, and the strong ignore what they cannot defeat.

[member="Kitt Solo"]

 

[Kitt Solo]

Sobs racked through her body and she clung to Alen. She saw Anders and Jared and the redhead being led somewhere. Hopefully out - to help. But she could barely register it. She was broken, lost, and drowning in the room's emotions. She felt...weighed down. Her fingers curled around the back of his neck as her salty-face pressed into his prickly-beard.

Eyes remained closed as her body trembled against him.

Her throat felt raw. Was she crying that hard? "Oh...Alen," voice croaked. She made no move to relinquish her grip on him. She couldn't even think to thank him for being there. For being truly there. She could barely think to breath, let alone exist.

[member="Alen Na'Varro"]

 

[Not Ordo]

[member="Alen Na'Varro"] [member="Kitt Solo"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Anders Sivas"] [member="Mikhail Shorn"] [member="Marselia Urstalis"] [member="Hannibal Oryen"] [member="Dak Canton"] [member="Anaya Fen"]

Gavin stood up from behind the bar with lipstick smudges covering most of his face. He was wearing nothing but a Breath mask with a canister of lovesick gas attached to his only piece of clothing, his utility belt and holster. He looked around and had no clue who the woman he had spent all this time with was but she was wonderful. He looked over and saw Jared on the ground with Anders and neither looked good. He didn't know if it was the force or adrenaline but something made him feel a lot more sober really fast. He grabbed the medkit from behind the bar and jumped over. His naked form raced to Anders side and popped the medkit open. With blazing speed of a trained combat pilot he tore open a bacta injector and stabbed it into Anders femoral artery. He tossed the injector to the side and scooped Anders up and away from Jared.

"I'll be right back cousin." he said as he bolted as fast as the force could propel them to the Hospital just a few moments away. The staff stared at him and his...form as he ran inside. The emergency response team quickly decided Anders was more important than staring at Gavin's...blaster and rushed to provide emergency care. They worked extremely fast to get Anders into a bacta tank and Gavin watched to ensure she hadn't died.

"This woman has lost a child." the head doctor said to Gavin, "Any idea what happened."

"Woman?" Gavin said confused, "hold on there's one more injured."

Gavin bolted for the door blaster flapping in the breeze and breath mask flopping against his chest. He had to save his cousin, "sparky-needs-to-carry-a-blaster' next.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

"NO!" The shriek came unbidden from her lips as blaster bolts slammed into the animal that was Mikhail. Her saber staff csme to life with a hiss and she returned a handful of bolts back to their shooters without looking to see who had shot them.

Then she was on her knees at Mikhail's side, the deactivated staff hitting the floor next to her with a thunk. Her test felt tight with emotion and her breath came in short sharp bursts, utterly unaware of everything around her, including the fact that [member="Kitt Solo"] had moved them outside. He couldn't be dead. He wasn't meant to die. Trembling hands reached out to pull him towards her. "Get up." She hissed at him.

[member="Mikhail Shorn"] [member="Dak Canton"]

 

[Aran Finn]

[member="Kitt Solo"]

Alen didn't know what had happened between Jared, Anders and Shorn ... to tell the truth, he didn't care in the slightest. But Kitt's outpouring of grief affected him in more ways than he could understand. Nothing else mattered, in that room full of love gas, armed insurgents and naked commandos ... nothing but being there, wrapping Kitt up in his warm embrace, and making sure that she got through everything okay. He readjusted, pulling Kitt into an even closer, more comfortable position if that was possible, and placed his chin on the top of her head. He still didn't know what to say ... no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of a single thing. So he erected a protection bubble around them, cut them off from the outside world, and kissed the top of her head comfortingly. His chin then returned to rest on that spot, and he just lay there with his arms wrapped around Kitt like a cocoon.

He would be there for some time with her. He would stay forever, if he had to.

 

[Lord Ghoul]

Unfortunately, being in a comatose state is not conducive to conversation. Fortunately, the Garhoon had just fed.

Wounds slowly started to heal. A flicker of life arose in him.

[member="Anaya Fen"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

I look up from Jared's stricken neck and catch [member="Kitt Solo"]'s empathic eyes crushed by the gravity of loss, acts of violence and upheaval of a scene which started so well, started with the Lipsec peoples' culture and way of life being maintained. The pheromones had filtered through our heads and muddled us, contaminated our minds and flung our bodies into cycles of untempered want. In the thick of blood loss and Force-stunted exhaustion I watch around my people and the room begins to dim. It is watching Kitt's face I know my emotions have been projecting and what a hell that must be for my fellow empath. Kitt and I shared a life shifting event and we shouldn't have. Kitt shouldn't have had to feel the life of my child slip away, she shouldn't have had to hear the one and only lullaby, nor feel the panic of [member="Mikhail Shorn"]'s animalistic behaviour and Id. None of this … none sits right in the back of my throat. Even in my dwindling condition, I try and surge forward with a flimsy peace at Kitt's sobbing mind. 'It's going to be okay, [member="Kitt Solo"]. Take care of Jared for me, he needs more looking after than you'd think. He's not allowed to give up hope. I want to be buried on Annaj, if it comes t--.'

And it's Lipsec's fault. As my head tanks to the ground I feel Jared's skin temperature rise like fire and i know instinctually that it's actually my skin going cold. In a whirr [member="Gavin Ovmar"] has me, my head nestles into his bare chest and I concentrate on taking body heat, forcing my heart to pump what blood is left - but slowly. Slower.

I can't feel my legs, and thank the Goddesses I can't feel my torn stomach.

The hospital hums from behind a verdant flush. I feel the sticky weightlessness of a bacta tank and my ravaged but clearing mind calls out for my Apprentice. 'Lia, where's Jared? He should be standing, but he still needs attention.'

 

[Kitt Solo]

[SIZE=10pt]It wasn’t pretty; she was a hot-sticky, red-faced, salty-tear streaked mess. She was still reeling from moment with Anders when…[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]She trembled within Alen’s embrace.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]A part of her registered Anders’ voice and the empathic encouragement. The other half couldn’t process it at all; she already had too much to process. If only she had been with it enough to see her student-now-knight save the day in his Birthday Suit! Sadly, or maybe for the best, she missed it all.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]She didn’t know when the sobbing stopped and turned to whimpering. She didn’t know when the whimpering stopped and when her erratic breaths settled. Time didn’t matter, or she didn’t care about it as she pressed into Alen, as if she could give him her burden.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]The shield helped.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Slowly, she disentangled herself from the empathic entanglements with [member="Jared Ovmar"], [member="Mikhail Shorn"], [member="Gavin Ovmar"], @Marselia Ustalis and finally, [member="Anders Sivas"] and began to build-up her mental walls, brick by painstakingly measured brick. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]She stayed linked to [/SIZE][member="Alen Na'Varro"][SIZE=10pt].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]She stirred in his embrace, finally opening her eyes. Tilting her head, she looked at him across the almost nonexistent space of separation. Throat was still raw, the haunting of grief still very much on her face. Words wouldn’t be enough, instead, she let him feel everything she wanted to say through the force: her gratitude, how much she admired and…loved him, and a tinge of guilt at her own failure here.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]There were things that needed to be taken care of. She would find the strength to get up and do them. But for a moment longer, she stayed where she was, eyes locked with Alen's.[/SIZE]

 

[Aran Finn]

For a time, Alen didn't think of anything. The rest of the world, in fact the galaxy itself, did not matter. Here, within the space of a small protection bubble, he was entirely involved and present. Time did not pass as it usually did. Not when he opened his mind entirely to Kitt, and let her feel the warm embrace of his mind that co-existed with the comforting physical cocoon he wrapped her in. They had opened an extremely strong mental link, close to symbiosis. He was no mentalist, but he had been taught by a line of incredible mentalists, so he knew the theory behind it. To snap the link now would destroy Kitt ... not that he had any second thoughts. Not that any thoughts crossed his mind at all. As Kitt slowly rebuilt her mental defenses, Alen's comforting presence was simply there.

Na'Varro could not tell how much time had passed since Kitt had broken, but after some time she did open her eyes. Alen's were there to meet them ... and then he felt the flood of emotions come his way. The admiration, the love ... the guilt, even. His own emotions began flooding back towards her across their strong mental link. Na'Varro had never been the type to say I love you, but as an empath, Kitt would probably never need to hear it. Because she was able to feel the truth of it in all its strength. The bearded man envied her for that. His perception of the emotions of others had always been dulled ... perhaps not always, but from an early age he had learned of how dangerous it was to feel. Life was hard, emotions made things harder ... but Kitt made things better. He could never thank her enough for being herself, and there ... but she'd feel the gratitude. And then there was the reassurance, the confidence that he felt in her ... No failure. Kitt hadn't failed anyone by having the ability to feel emotions ... in fact, she was more beautiful for it.

Alen's eyes were still locked with Kitt's. He could see the strength returning to her, and knew that now was the time. So he stroked her hair softly, kissed her ... once on the lips, another one on the forehead. He smiled.

"C'mon, Kitt." Still cradling her somewhat, he sat up and then got to his feet, extending a hand to her. "Let's sort this mess out and go home."

[member="Kitt Solo"]

 

[Marselia Urstalis]

She watched, a little stunned by everything that was happening, as [member="Gavin Ovmar"] carted [member="Anders Sivas"] off, leaving her with the neck-damaged [member="Jared Ovmar"]. She stared after the high councilor's cousin as he disappeared from sight, and at the blank doorway for a moment or two after, before something crept into her mind that, yes, there was still the matter of her master's lover. Her head turned somewhat robotically, the love drug still trying to reassert its effects on her, but she was simply too... shocked.

And he... he was somehow still standing?

'Lia, where's Jared? He should be standing, but he still needs attention.'

The sound of her master's voice in her mind brought her the slightest bit of clarity, reminding her of where she was, what happened... and making her cognizant of the fact that she had been standing, eyes on Jared, but not in focus for at least a few minutes. She gasped, feeling suddenly like a horrid person for the few minutes she spent 'checked out' of reality when he was still standing there.

I... um... he's right... he's right here, she replied with silent words, largely distracted from emotion, Still standing... sorry, let me check...

She stepped closer to him, peering at his neck - Anders had done what she could, and the wound looked mostly okay... but he had still lost blood.

"You're... I'm not going to ask if you're okay..." Her eyes went to the door again, wondering if Gavin was coming back, as she put one hand to his right shoulder, "...because you're not. Can you walk, Councilor Ovmar?"

 

[Not Ordo]

[member="Marselia Urstalis"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]


Gavin raced down the street until that lucky streak hit and he found an unlocked speeder van. With no reserve he hoped in and Strategically Transferred Equipment to an Alternate Location. The van moved faster than him and he quickly stopped in front of the place his cousin was still bleeding on.

"Jared owes me so big for this." Gavin said as he jumped out of the speeder, "I didn't even get a number."

Gavin rushed to the door and slid through on bare feet. He took a quick breath of lovesick gas smiled and rushed to Jared's side.

"Hey!" Gavin said with a quick slap to the cheek, "eyes open Cuz. You may feel some presure..."

Gavin picked up his cousin and tried to pretend this didn't look bad as he carried him to the speeder and put him in the back.

"Come on red!" He called through the doorway, "you can peek later. We gots to go."

Gavin jumped in the drivers seat and shuddered from the cool seat on his less than properly clothed form.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

That flicker of life brought a wave of relief over Anaya. Snathcing up her saber staff she clipped it back to her belt and then hauled Mikhail's limp form up by his arm, pulling it over her shoulders and clutching her other hand about his waist she half dragged half carried him away from the site and towards her ship.

"By the force, Mikhail, I am going to make you suffer for this."

[member="Mikhail Shorn"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Marselia Urstalis"] [member="Gavin Ovmar"] [member="Anaya Fen"]

I was pulled into many directions, people wished for my attention. Wished to hear that I was doing alright, that I was well. If I could walk, well.. I was standing already. So walking.. yeah. I think I could do that.

Just then Gavin returned, I could feel the touch of Andra on him. She was going to be fine, it was a fact. A fact, because I would make it so. He let me lean on him, and I grunted in appreciation.

“I-I am fin--”

My eyes steadied themselves upon the retreating forms of Anaya and her little vampire friend. Was half of mind to try and stop them, but now? I wasn’t in any condition.

I tried to draw upon my hate, and came up empty. There wasn’t anything left, only a hollow feeling, sadness and pity.

Still, I closed my eyes and focused on her back.

“He killed my son.”

Simple words, with a direct meaning.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya paused as Jared's words, conflict rising within her. She could never comprehend the loss of a child for it was something she would never experience. She'd never even formed a bond with someone she could perceive to be her child. She was utterly selfish and for that reason, she would not understand the weight behind those words. All the same, Jared was in pain and it was that that rose conflict. She glanced at Mikhail's face. She knew the scoundrel well enough to know that taking a child's life was not something he would do twice with intention.

Regardless of his façade, Mikhail still suffered with compassion, it was that compassion that carried him down self destructive paths as he sought to punish himself. Another thing Anaya couldn't comprehend.

"All is fair in love and war."

She replied, readjusting her grip on Mikhail and continuing her retreat.

[member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Mikhail Shorn"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

[member="Kitt Solo"] would be fine. [member="Alen Na'Varro"] made it so and in the fragments I got from the two of them I feel an uncanny reassurance that love in its messy intrinsic snare can and will conquer the rigour mortis of chaos and death. The pressure dropped and for hours I felt bent sideways as the bacta in the tank knit me back to a wholesome physical completion minus . . . “He killed my son.”

One might think being in bacta is a long and fragile recreation. That in the distancing sleep behind transparisteel one is set apart and shut down. I learned over the years that nothing shuts down completely, especially when it's fought for so heartily. Maybe I learned to stretch myself because of it, to survive beyond normal understanding and perhaps that stretched my mind to encompass the penetrating grace and mercy which has become a call sign for me here in the Fringe. [member="Marselia Urstalis"]'s shell shock is a wave I buffet into and my mind dims. I flicker out of consciousness as doctors come back around and nurses up my dosage of barbiturates. It shouldn't hurt, being in Bacta should be the sleep of healing but I cannot sleep.

I cannot rest until [member="Jared Ovmar"] and Lia are on the mend. Gavin, oh he'll be fine but the heady shock tips my chin. I hear klaxons and am vaguely aware of rushing feet and yelling orders. It's winter and I'm in bed with Jared, his hand is trailing my stomach as his eyes shed the struggle of our lives for a deserved calm. All is right with the world. 'Lia, once we're on board the Suma take some you-time alright?'

The image thunders out of me with a burst of electricity searing in my chest. Eyes flung open and my chin smacks into the mask over half my face. I struggle wildly in the tank, my mind reaching out for Lia and Jared as the death shudders out of me, until I taste a fruity tang in the pumped air of the mask, mellowing me out. A doctor peers into the tank, his hand on the glass. His eyes crinkle at the corners, squinting into the verdant mire at my fallow stomach. His lips contort in downward angles, nostrils flare. I'm an object on display, and I hate it. I will my hand to tap the glass, to move or shudder or twitch and it won't do it. In the bar, I was far from helpless. I spilled myself out to do it, but I saved Jared's life. Suspended in the tank I'm a show piece of macabre medicine and lost chances.

"Who is she? Where's the man who brought her in, do we know if her husband is nearby?"
"We didn't find any ident on her, and her DNA isn't in our database."
"What can you tell me?"
"She was in the second trimester, but barely. Her lung got punctured, her kidney's bleeding and there's damage to her liver and digestive tract. Lost so much blood the veins in her left leg have collapsed. We're running a plasma extender drip and synth-blood is on its way from biopsy."
The doctor hisses, "How is she alive? There's not enough fluid in her veins to sustain her heart beating. . . is she… get the cart!"
"My medical opinion? Sheer force of will. Tha-Doctor! Her heart's infarcting! She must have thrown a clot."

I'm lying prone in a ripped blue dress on the Sumatiyara after [member="Mikhail Shorn"] bit my neck. My droids had enough sense to put me on the biobed scanner and I saw it. Our child floated in my belly. I prayed to the Goddesses that Mikhail hadn't killed it. How would I tell Jared?

Another burst of electricity on my chest and I call out through the Force in a shuddering disintegration toward Jared and Lia. Exposed and inspected, I keep trying to move my fingers in the bacta tank, to kick a foot. Anything, but the sedations are working and only my mind is active as the doctors conference and stare. 'Stop looking at me. Stop inspecting me. Get me out of here. Stop.'

Another burst shocks my ribcage. The bacta is my only shield from the tempest outside.

 

[Kitt Solo]

She nodded to Alen as they stood, never having felt so exposed, vulnerable, and...secure at the same time. Gingerly, she ran her fingers through his before giving his hand a firm squeeze. Eyes widened as [member="Gavin Ovmar"] came back, clearly in the nude. She scanned the damage, arm still against Na'Varro's as she stood next to him, side-by-side for this one.

[member="Jared Ovmar"] was being led away. She cringed, catching a bit of his exchange with the weird, red twi'lek. Focus snapped back to the room. She could worry about the intrusion of strangers and unknown forces later. Reluctantly, she released Alen's hand and went for the blaster on her thigh. It was time to shut off the gas and...

"I'm going to have a word with the locals," she looked to Alen as her tone said it all. They would never be using the gas again.

[member="Alen Na'Varro"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

As [member="Gavin Ovmar"] returned to the scene of the disaster, Bucket had reintegrated itself at [member="Jared Ovmar"]'s side. The SC-1 Battle Droid's head whirred and clicked, the droid itself was learning. Maintaining proximity to Jared and Lia, Bucket continuously scanned the area for dangers and things out of place.

When Gavin took his cousin's arm over his shoulder, Bucket copied the motion alone in the air. The droid brought its main gun up and swept the area as they moved, glancing at [member="Anaya Fen"] with a tilt of its neck. Bucket moved on and walked in front of the Ovmar Cousins. Patching itself into the hospital's computer system, the droid moved faster.

< Medical attention required. Bucket escort to medical attention. . . Andra entity unknown in bacta tank. Medical orders: electric shocks to ribcage. Myocardial infarction. 3 Humanoid Plasma Expander Units ordered. Synth-Flesh ordered. Received. Procedure complete. Electric Shocks to Ribcage. . . Electric Shocks to Ribcage. . . Where is Next of Kin? Master Jared, what is kin? >

 

[Marselia Urstalis]

She stared rather listlessly at [member="Gavin Ovmar"] as he came in a rush to his cousin's side, hefting the dark-aligned councilor on his back, and advancing towards the exit again, as he had done with [member="Anders Sivas"]. Her mind had plainly set aside the images of what had occurred in the interests of mental self-preservation, and set up a state of numbness, to keep it at bay. She had seen nothing like it before, and would not ever be able to unsee it now, but by the grace of her psyche, there was a form of blissful ignorance of the facts at play: seeing-but-not-seeing situational robot of flesh and bone.

"Come on red! You can peek later. We gots to go."

The voice slipped through the psychological haze and into her recognition, eyes moving to the side from which the voice came, head following in mechanical process. Words had been heard, but understanding was a few moments behind in coming. She blinked, then... eyes widened in a slight show of realization, and she broke from a standstill into a run, quickly joining [member="Gavin Ovmar"] at the door, without the form of [member="Jared Ovmar"] in his grasp and immediately following him, slipping into the vehicle. As she buckled in, another voice came to her, but not through her ears. The one thing that continued to assure her that her master still lived... and the one thing that threatened to break through the numbness to her roiling centre -

'Lia, once we're on board the Suma take some you-time alright?'

- and the driver, the cousin, whose less-than-decently-covered form she had uncharacteristically shown not a single mote of interest in, wasted no time in booting it to their destination. Something broke above the surface again, only to drown in the false calm once again. One tear, a sharp intake of breath...

...then nothing.

 

[Yasha Cadera]

[member="Marselia Urstalis"]' shock buzzed in the back of my receding mind. The cacophony of medical professionals and med-droids frothed around my tank and from a distance I know how rare a thing is was to be rushed in arms-length grabs from man to doctor until the tank took my bleeding body in its sticky, miraculous embrace.

The fact the bacta was having issue keeping me alive was enough for my semi-conscious mind to lash outward, consumed with the panic and fear of this situation and doubt even the nature of medicine itself. Again and again my mind lashed outward looking for Lia, looking for Jared, looking for a tether and all I found was the soft lull of recent memory.

[member="Mikhail Shorn"]'s passionate lips on mine, my hand on Lia's cheek, [member="Jared Ovmar"]'s grab and the threads of danger which left me spilt upon the floor. 'Moommmmyyyyy! Mommy you are coming! Look! Look! Mommy I wanna show you, come on Mommy!' The little Lord Ovmar whispered in my ear, I felt warm and coated in sunlight….

The shock again, a vicious tether of paddles and sparks to restart my failing heart. The fact I was able to keep Jared alive was a miracle of the Force, how much of my own body and essence had I expelled to save him? Was I ticking down, a clock made of watch works with one gear missing? This last shock sent my mind furrowing outward, I touched upon Lia in an attempt to contact my apprentice but no discernible language came. Nothing but emotion: pure and frightened, and the lingering calls of a small boy child, fading beautifully away.

 

[Arage Bao]

I was too tired to complain about anything at all, the situation had taken its toll from me and I wasn't sure how this was going to end. Much had happened this day, things that would have far-reaching consequences.

Ain't sure how I feel about it, because.. I don't feel. My mind is slipping into the grey nothingness of the void, I didn't want it to.

But I was tired. Used up all my reserves, and I didn't have anything left. I needed this to recoup, to take some time. In the end Gavin and Bucket had me, I was safe for now. Andra was safe. That was what mattered.