Private You can run on for a long time...

[Vess Sadragen]

By the time Vess reached Coruscant, she had nothing left but the clothes on her back, a half-corrupted terminal, and a single unmarked credit chit hidden in her boot.

She hadn’t slept in almost four days.

It started on Nar Shaddaa a job like any other. Quiet, precise, low-risk. Slice into an old relay node drifting on the edge of Hutt space. Pull whatever junk code hadn’t been corrupted by time and neglect. Sell it off to someone rich, stupid, or both.

Except the node wasn’t dead.

It was a decoy.

She was let in welcomed even. The locks gave too easily, the structure too clean. The second she connected, she felt it. Not just a pingback. A full trace.

By the time she severed the uplink, her location had been burned. She barely got out of the alley before the first team arrived armored, masked, no insignia. Not a word exchanged. Just weapons drawn and a kill order written in posture.

She ran.

Back alleys. Turbolift shafts. Maintenance tunnels slick with coolant and blood from someone else’s last mistake. She cycled IDs, rerouted her heat signature through three separate relay loops and they still followed.

They hit all her safehouses. One after another.

Her cache under Sector Twelve torched.
The clinic in the old docks raided.
The rented crawlspace wired to detonate on entry.

She tried to reach her contacts. Ghosts. Dead channels. Accounts drained or locked. Someone had poisoned her whole network in advance. They hadn’t just found her. They’d prepared for her.

Whatever she’d clipped off that relay it wasn’t corp data. It wasn’t something you flipped for credits.

It was a red line.

And she’d crossed it.

By the end of the third day, Vess was bleeding from a gash just below her ribs, half-limping, running on stims and spite. She stole a ship from a rundown merc garage small, ugly, barely enough fuel to make it out of orbit. But it got her clear.

And there was only one place left in the galaxy she could think to go.

Not because it was safe.
Not because she was welcome.
But because there was one person she believed wouldn’t turn her away.

Even when she said she wanted nothing to do with Jedi.
Even when she swore she’d keep her freedom.

She didn’t want to be controlled.
But she didn’t want to die.

She arrived on Coruscant under a false transponder that burned out the second she landed. Walked from the edge of the industrial sector to the Temple by foot. No food. No sleep. No security. Just raw will and the hum of a terminal pressed against her ribs like a second heartbeat.

By the time she reached the Temple gates, she looked like a half-dead runner from the underworld boots scuffed to the thread, coat bloodied at the waist, posture like her spine was the only thing still holding her together.

She said only one thing to the guards:

"I need to see Valery Noble "

Vess turned and looked out over the city just before the skyline began to glow with morning light. The city below was waking. She wasn't. She hadn't slept. She didn't feel like she ever would again. That was it. No backups. No tools. No way out.

Just this.

Just here.

She didn't immediately turn when she heard footsteps behind her, bracing herself. If there was one person she didn't want to disappoint it was her. She didn't have the strength for pretense. When she finally spoke, her voice was thin. Quiet, as she turned, the young woman was near tears.

"I messed up."

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery felt the moment before she heard the words. A flicker in the Force — sharp, raw, familiar in a way that made her breath catch mid-step. She was halfway down the Temple's eastern hall when the alert came through. Someone at the gates. Asking for her by name.

She didn't ask questions. Didn't wait for a full report. Just turned on her heel and started moving — boots echoing against polished stone. The closer she got, the heavier the feeling grew. Not dark. Not wrong. Just exhausted. Frayed to the edge of breaking. A presence held together by will alone. She cleared the last steps and stepped into the light of the courtyard just as the guards flanked the gate, hands hovering near their weapons.

Valery didn't slow. Her eyes found the figure instantly — leaning, barely standing, wrapped in blood-streaked fabric and an energy that buzzed with desperation. And beneath it all, something else. Something she hadn't felt in Vess before.

"Stand down," Valery said to the guards, her voice calm but absolute. They hesitated for only a second before parting. She crossed the remaining distance without a word, each step slow, deliberate — not to startle, not to press. But her gaze never left Vess, reading her posture, her injuries, the fragile thread of strength that had somehow gotten her here.

"You walked all the way here like this?" Valery's voice was softer now, touched with something between disbelief and pride, "Stars, Vess…" She didn't reach out — not yet. But there was no judgment in her eyes. Just concern.

"Come with me," she said gently, her voice the same one she used with younglings after nightmares. "You're safe now. We'll get you cleaned up. Fed. You can tell me everything once you've rested."

Vess Sadragen ​

 

[Vess Sadragen]

She didn’t know where they’d taken her. Somewhere inside the Temple. Quiet. Too quiet, almost—but not in the way that made her skin itch. Not the silence before a blaster bolt. This was just... still.

Just warmth. Soft fabric. A place to sit.

And Valery.

That was all that mattered.

Vess sat with her legs pulled in a little tighter than necessary, arms resting loose around her knees. She didn’t feel hunted anymore but she didn’t feel normal, either. Her ribs still ached under the bandage. Her muscles had that weird, floating ache that came after stims and adrenaline wore off and your body remembered it was mortal.

But she was fed. Clean. Nobody had asked anything of her.

And nobody had tried to finish what the team on Nar Shaddaa started.

She didn’t look at Valery when she spoke. Just kept her eyes half-focused somewhere a little to the side. Her voice was quieter now, steadier than before but dulled, like something had been sanded down in her.

“…I thought I could stay ahead of them. Whoever they are.”

“I’ve handled threats before. Crews. Corp cleaners. Even got close to the Sith once. But this...” her throat caught, “this was different. They didn’t threaten me. They didn’t even talk.”

She swallowed. It wasn’t nerves. Just dryness.

“They didn’t come to kill me, they came to erase me.”

Fingers flexed against the side of her leg. Small motion. Habitual. Like she was expecting to still be holding her terminal.

“I was just supposed to lift garbage data off a decoy node. Flip it. Easy credits.” Her voice thinned. “But they knew I’d come. The trace was already there. They built it for someone like me.”

She shook her head, slow and hollow.

“I don’t even know what I pulled. I didn’t get far enough to read it. The second I cracked the first layer, it was over. They weren’t surprised. They were ready.”

Her hand lifted briefly, thumb brushing beneath her eye before resting back in her lap.

“I’ve had every identity I’ve ever used wiped. I’ve got one credit chit and a dying terminal to my name. That’s it.”

She exhaled, steady now. Tired, but not unraveling.

“For three days I was running on fumes, fear, and instinct. I burned every line I ever drew between me and the galaxy. And when I ran out of roads…”

Her voice softened.

“I remembered you.”

Now, finally, she looked at Valery. Not desperate. Just quiet. Raw.

“You were the one person who didn’t ask for anything. Who didn’t try to fix me. You just… let me be.”

Small. Barely audible. But honest.

“Thank you.”

Not for saving her.

But for still being exactly who Vess needed her to be when there was no one left. The bravado was gone, the walls and all the defenses Vess had built up over the years to protect herself, finally removed. Perhaps for the first time Valery was getting to see the raw, hidden Vess underneath.

TAG: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery didn't speak right away. She sat across from Vess at first — still, silent, her eyes tracking every small motion with the kind of intensity only a Jedi could offer. Not interrogation. Not analysis. Just presence.

Vess's words hit like slow tremors — not loud, but deep. Echoes of a run far too long, from shadows far too quiet. Valery had seen it before: in refugees after a battle, in Jedi who returned from missions gone wrong. In the mirror, once or twice. That brittle edge of survival.

When Vess finally looked at her — no walls, no performance, just real — Valery exhaled softly and stood. She didn't say anything. Just crossed the small space between them and lowered herself to the floor at Vess's side. And then, gently, she wrapped an arm around her. No grand gesture. Just the kind of contact that said you're not alone now.

"You're safe," Valery said at last, her voice quiet but steady. "That's what matters." She let the silence settle again for a moment before speaking further, her tone soft — not coaxing, just kind.

"We'll get you something to eat. Real food," she added with the faintest hint of a smile. "And maybe one of the Healers can check on you. Just to be sure."

Then, with a gentle squeeze of her arm around Vess, she added, "What comes next… we can figure that out together. You're not in any rush. You're here. You can stay."

She meant it.

And for the first time since Vess had collapsed at the gates, Valery allowed herself to relax — just slightly — beside her. Not as the Grandmaster, but just as someone who cared.

Vess Sadragen ​

 

[Vess Sadragen]

Vess didn't speak at first.

Not because she didn't have words but because her body answered before her mouth did.

She leaned into the hug.

Not abruptly, not with force, but with the quiet, aching relief of someone who had been holding herself upright for too long. Her head rested against Valery's, eyes closing for a moment. She didn't even realize how badly she needed the contact until it was there steady, warm, real. Her breath hitched once in her throat, and then she exhaled slow, a tremor carried in the sound. Her arm came up slowly, then the other, and she wrapped them around Valery in return. Careful, like she wasn't sure if she was allowed and then, all at once, like she didn't want to let go.

"I'm not used to people meaning it when they say that," she said softly. "That I can stay."

Her voice was quieter than before. Not weak just stripped down. Honest in a way she rarely allowed herself to be.

"I came here. Not because I ran out of tricks. Because I couldn't think of anyone else I'd trust to help me… and not use it."

Her fingers curled faintly into the sleeve of her coat or maybe into the edge of Valery's jumpsuit. She didn't seem to notice.

"I don't know what it looks like yet. What I'm supposed to be now. But I don't want to go back. I don't want to keep doing this alone."

There was still hesitation there pride, caution, all the things she was made of but none of it was aimed at Valery.

"If you're still willing to help me figure it out…" she murmured, voice barely above a whisper now, "I'll try."

"I should probably let you breathe.." she said, a playful note undercutting her rasp.

Then, with a quiet exhale, she leaned back and gave the Grandmaster just a little more space, but didn't retreat entirely. The trust was still there maybe the most honest thing Vess had offered anyone in a long time.

She didn't have to say it, but it was clear in her eyes.

She was staying.

TAG: Valery Noble