A Homestead for Troubled Teens

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="The Revenant"] (if you want to drop in)

Something was wrong.

The Starchaser-teen wasn't responding to the bacta. The wounds she sustained on Kiffex against some prison thugs were slow to heal, in particular, a plasma-dagger stab deep in the right side of her chest. There were also signs of head trauma and some other bruising which pointed to other complications. The Alliance heads didn't want to risk losing another of their own, especially when they had a master healer resource like [member="Avalore Eden"].

With Gabe's permission, they shipped off one of their own to the Kataran Homestead and hoped the teen would have a better chance at recovery.

A sheen of sticky-sweat stuck the fabric of her shirt and pants uncomfortably against her skin. It wasn't hot in the room. But it felt hot to her. Troubled-eyes moved beneath closed lids. A whimper left her lips. Face was scrunched up and paler than its normal, vibrant shade.

[member="Sage Bane"] called her name. He whispered it in her ear. His figure changed into oily tendrils of the darkside. Slick, sticky tendrils began to wind around her limbs. She could feel the substance soaking into her bones.

A scream ripped through her parched throat. And another. And another.

Those poor kids trying to sleep. And poor Stali. And Gabe. And Avalore. And maybe even Spark Finn.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Kinsey if you can hear me-"

Avalore was checking the young woman's vitals, stoically calm despite the otherwise disturbing screams issuing from her patient.

"my name is Avalore Eden-"

Others might have argued a fruitless endeavor of speaking to her while she was clearly suffering on the bed, but Avalore had seen things in her time as a Healer. Evil things, corrupted things, terrible-no-good-very-bad things. It didn't matter, there was a routine to her care and she administered it equally to all parties involved. Jedi or civilian, Sith or criminal. Everyone received the same treatment, even if it was a difficult thing to do.

"I am a Master Healer with the New Jedi Order serving the Galactic Alliance-"

Kinsey was strapped to the bed for the safety of Avalore and the Healers that had traveled with the girl to help. This case had stumped enough doctors and medics to warrant more than a single Healer's attention.

"you're presently at Katarn Homestead on the moon Sulon."

"The sedatives aren't working, Master Eden."

"She didn't respond to Bacta on Sullust."

"Has anyone attempted to meditate on her condition?"

"No, Master Eden, she was moved too quickly."

They should have kept her on Sullust, Avalore thought to herself with a steadily growing frown as the girl's screams caused her bones to shiver, her skin to grow goosepimples. She would have been better off in the Healing Hall where they had rooms built just for the operative condition of Meditative Healing. There she had access to Healing Chambers and Kasha Crystals. She could even call in the Healing Crystals of Fire from the Jedi Academy if needs be, but those worked best in the proper setting. The medical bay of the Homestead wasn't really conducive to such things, but they would make due. They had to.

"Secure her, get her vitals plugged in," blue robes fluttered sharply as Avalore strode across the lab to grab a chair and bring it over to Kinsey's bedside. She had only a single source of Kasha available to her: the ring crafted by [member="The Revenant"] and given to her for safe keeping, meant to be passed on one day to her son Destin. It wasn't as powerful as the Kasha crystal she had found for herself on Cerea, now in the hands of [member="Kana Truden"], but it was enough to do the job necessary.

Settled in the chair the Healer pulled the chain of silver from her neck and folded the dangling ring between her scar-ridden hands. A long, controlled exhale through her nose she began the process of blocking out the external factors within the room - the noise, the heated presence of pain and suffering, the scattered energies and movements of her Healer Aides - and focused her mind upon the young woman on the bed.

Kinsey.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

'Come. Pateesa. Why would you want to leave me?' The dark tendrils thickened as the nightmarish playground turned into a mid-slicked slope. Kins knew she was being dragged toward the mutinous pit of sarlaac abomination the Sith Lord had created.

'I made you my queen.' Like over-sweetened wine, his voice seemed to fill her lungs, choking her as she was dragged downward. Down. Down.

A gurgle-gasping sound left her throat, replacing the screams. Body bucked against the restraints. Head whipped to the side. "No. Nononono," the first was spoken, the rest of her pleas were silent mouths.

Then a presence. Her name. Her name by a different voice. A voice that wasn't sadistic.

"Please."

Fingernails dug deeper into the mud-slope, resisting the oily-tendrils for a second. She needed a second. A reprieve.

Maybe she wasn't alone.

"I need help," she whimpered. Her skin felt like fire. Terrified blue-eyes searched the nightmare landscape for the voice. For the presence.

'You'll never leave me, Pateesa.' A slick tendril slurped down the back of her neck. She was dragged closer to the lip of the pit.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Sinking deep into the ethers of the Force, Avalore's presence reached out towards the ailing woman. She saw her in what amounted to a paling glow, akin to a flicker-flame slowly dying out. But there was also a heat behind that color - a putrid, bubbling essence seeking to vanquish what light remained. Foggy spectres curling about, ambiguous but sinister.

For the briefest of moments Avalore withdrew, reminded all too much of the day she treated the Mark of Darkness on [member="Hal Terrano"]'s back.

Then she felt that plea for help. It was a need that arrived to her senses not by sound, but by a weak feeling of being tugged at. It was all she needed to reaffirm herself. She'd overcome that darkside corruption once before. Alongside [member="Ilias Nytrau"] Avalore had found the courage and confidence to face it a second time, leveling her own doubts against her years of tutelage as a Healer and her strength as what he had assured her to be a good soul. Together they had cleansed Hal of his mark and banished the corruption of her hands. They both would be scarred for the rest of their lives, but they would live. Then, nearly a year later, Avalore tended to the broken former Grandmaster [member="Kiskla Grayson"] in an effort to banish the woman's demons; heal her mind, body and soul. Kiskla named her Master in those final days before Avalore bid her farewell.

Bittersweet memories.

She held on to those and let them burn bright, showing herself as a growing beacon within the shadow of KInsey's mind.

Avalore wasn't a mentalist. She wasn't a connoisseur of esoteric Force Powers. Her abilities and skills beyond Healing extended to very few things, but Force Light was one of her specialties, and it was this that she used on the woman now.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

For a moment, that lighter presence was gone. Panic surged in the teen. Lips in the waking world whimpered, "no." Fresh-tears streamed from tightly closed pools of blue. Fingers found the fabric of the sheets, twisting them into knots upon knots.

In the nightmare-scape, Kinsey blinked. A fiery-light surged on the horizon. And she knew in seconds, she would be engulfed. And it would fething hurt. Parched throat screamed. She could feel the oily tendrils of Sage Bane burn away from her mind. Even they couldn't hide from the force-light. The bond with [member="Darius"] spiked with her pain but seemed to solidify with the light.

Mouth closed and her body suddenly stilled on the hospital bed. Dark, knotted strands of hair remained stuck to her moistened skin, still fiery to the touch. Eyelids finally fluttered open. Confusion painted her exhausted visage. There was a woman next to the bed, leaning over her with feathery-brown hair and scarred hands.

The teen tried to leverage herself but straps prevented any movement. The restriction sent a surge of panic through her recovering soul. "He's not here, is he?" Voice sounded foreign even to her, like sand-grating against a speeder's hull on Tattooine.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"He who?" Avalore asked gently, her own face pale from the effort extended to purge the darkness from her patient. There'd be sweat on her brow had she not just wiped it away.

She managed a soft smile and moved to press a hand against Kinsey's shoulder, "No one here but us Jedi Healers and Medics," a soft sigh and then: "I am Master Healer Avalore Eden, you are in the medical wing of the Katarn Homestead on Sulon, moon of Sullust of the Galactic Alliance. You are safe now but badly injured. I need you to lay still, tell me your name and the last thing you remember before you blacked out."

Avalore would need time to rest before she could tend to any further wounds, but that was why she had a team with her today. Some cases were far too grievous, far too much for a single Healer, even a Master, to handle alone. Getting Kinsey to talk and calm down while her fellow Healers began removing the restraints and attaching monitoring nodes would give her a chance to recoup her energy.


[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

The panic on her exhausted face didn't ebb away until the healer touched her shoulder. Homestead. Healers. Near Sullust. Not Fresia.

He?

"Sage Bane," the name was a nervous whisper. Pools of blue darted around the room as if fearful saying his name would suddenly alert the sith lord to her presence. Tightened-muscles began to unwind as the healers removed the restraints. But there was something even more comforting about being in the presence of Avalore Eden. Maybe it was simply a connection through the dosing of force light? Maybe it was because the woman reminded Kinsey of her own mother - just a little bit, with that tone of voice and the intentional gentleness in her touch that was also meant to be firm, reassuring.

"I was on Kiffex." Gaze tried not to get distracted by all the other healers hustling about. "Some escaped prisoners were going to murder a village of people and the Alliance didn't have any soldiers to send to help them." Timid pools of blue returned to Avalore. "I had to go on my own. I stopped the prisoners. There were two who...who...ambushed me. I told them, begged them to stop but they didn't listen. I-I killed them."

First kills on the battlefield. Surprising considering her tutelage with Sage Bane. But that was another story for another time.

Fresh tears streamed down her cheeks. "I didn't want to."