Private A Light in the Darkness

[Eenia Vahn]

To be fair, Eenia wasn't an idiot. She was more than aware of what had gone wrong, but it wasn't just her frustrations that had carried her to defeat. It was the way her body still didn't want to move. How the muscles still didn't react the same, how no matter how hard she attempted to push past the catches in her movements, how many stretches, or healings she went through, the scar tissue did not give way. That was what frustrate her more than not being able to work a blade the way she should be able to.

Still, she huffed out a breath and nodded her head to show she understood what she had been told and then instructed. She didn't have to like it to know it was right. However, the instructions to the droid to amp up the voltage on his sabers? That caused Nia to sigh out heavily through her nose and glower across the way at the droid once her Master had left the area again.

"I don't like you." she made sure to state, even if that fact really didn't matter. It at least made her feel a little better inside. "C'mon, lets go." and this time, she moved first.


Vale Vynar

 

[Vale Vynar]

Vale could give a sand rat's ass if she liked him or not, that wasn't what their relationship was about. He could hear 8K goading her and landing clean shots with his high powered training sabers.

“I daresay you'll have enough current running through you to charge my power source for another ten years once we're done here!” The droid chided as he deftly spun out of her attacks and hit her again, and again, and again.

Vale spun in his seat and observed. She was sluggish, like her limbs wanted to cooperate but weren't being allowed to by something. His eyes narrowed and he reached out with the Force and yanked her lightsaber from her palm and allowed her to take another hit from 8K before he waved the droid off.

He shut his eyes and focused on the memories imprinted in the lightsaber hilt and searched for what might have caused her body to move like it was. What he found was interesting; a battle on an old freighter between his apprentice and her sister. A battle that had not gone in the favor of his apprentice. Images of failed healings

Vale silently spun his chair around and typed a few commands into his command console. “It takes a certain resolve to sneak onto Mandalore, board a Mandalorian freighter and attempt to assassinate your sister.” He said after a couple of minutes. “Too bad you failed.”

He spun the chair around and stood back up. “You're frustrated by your injuries and their refusal to heal. Scar tissue should not be something that holds you back, not when you have the Force on your side.”

He tossed her lightsaber back to her and walked up to 8K and hit a couple of buttons on the droid's chestplate. “The Force is strong in you, but your will to command it is weak. You need to learn to channel it and your emotions to work for you Eenia. My body has more scar tissue on it than yours does by a wide margin, yet through the Force I have full command of my range of motion. Maybe this will help light a spark under you.”

Vale stepped out of the way just as 8K's holo emitter kicked on and it instantly became the perfect image of Anora Vahn, pulled from the the archives of the Silver Jedi Order. Vale gave a nod to 8K and the droid powered up its training sabers one more time. “So this is the superior sister? This should be fun.” The droid said with a pure tone of joy in his synthesized voice.



Eenia Vahn

 

[Eenia Vahn]

Taking blows by the sabers did not feel good by any means, but at least this time Nia was managing to block as many as she was taking, and she landed more than her fair share of strikes too. Nothing to be happy about or impressed by, but it was at least a step in the right direction. Still, when her saber was yanked out of her hand, a startled noise escaped her, but this time she brought her hands up and used the Force to shield herself from getting struck again. She was good at defense, she was good at playing the healer, and she was good at protecting herself with the Force when the need arose.

It was everything else she had a problem with.

When she was addressed again, she sighed slowly, but nodded her head. "I know..." and she did. She knew these limitations were as frustrating for others trying to teach her as they were for her dealing with them. But her command of the Force was not weak, it was merely untrained. She had a natural connection with it after all, and learned to wield it quickly when given the opportunities to do so.

She had not known what to expect when her Master made his way back to the droid, but when he stepped away and Anora was in it's place? Eenia took several steps back and shook her head. "No, that isn't what I want." Her need to take Anora out had been due to some very poorly placed emotions and blame. The very last thing she wanted was to go up against her sister again, and the idea of causing her harm didn't feel right anymore. "She's my sister, I want her safe, protected..." Which in Nia's personal opinion? Was not at all what the Mandalorian dragging her big sister all over the galaxy was offering by any means.

Vale Vynar

 

[Vale Vynar]

“She abandoned you, never once came to see you while you were healing, never once tried to reach you. She has no need for you to protect her, she has a Mandalorian. You have become an after thought to your sister Eenia Vahn and you know that.”

His golden eyes bore into her with a fiery intensity. “There is greatness in you Eenia Vahn, I can sense it but your attachment to your sister and refusal to confront those festering issues is holding you back.” He waived off 8K and drew his own lightsaber.

“Now face your sister or face me,” He said as he ignited the crimson blade. “And I can assure you I have no safety settings.”



Eenia Vahn

 

[Eenia Vahn]

"She didn't come to see me because I had just tried to kill her." Nia defended, and it was true. Had roles been reversed, Eenia wouldn't have gone to see Anora either. But she knew that wasn't going to change anything in her new Master's eyes. She knew what he was trying to do, she could feel that familiar sensation roil beneath the surface of her skin. That familiar sting of abandonment, of being left behind - forgotten. It almost felt like a living presence crawling just beneath the surface of her skin, and the more she thought about it, the stronger that sensation got.

"An attachment to my sister isn't wrong." she pointed out. "Strong emotions are needed, you said so yourself. Why doesn't my bond with my sister meet the criteria?!"

She staggered backwards a step when the hiss of Vale's saber was heard and the red light came to life in front of her. She looked from the lightsaber to her Master and back again more times than she liked. There was no longer a need to seek revenge on her sister, and when there had been, it had been wrongfully placed. Her gaze looked to the droid mimicking Anora's appearance, and then back to the Dark Jedi in front of her. Neither of these scenarios were going to get her anywhere - giving in to something she did not believe in was a step in the wrong direction.

"No." her head shook, and her grip on her saber tightened. However the more she was forced to defend her sister, the more angry she was becoming. Why was this concept so hard to understand? She loved her sister, and she would do whatever she had to, go down whatever path was needed from her, to make up for the damage she had caused. And it was this very desire that fueled a heated anger in her. How dare he attempt to re-taint the already damaged bond between the sisters!

"No!" she repeated - yelled as that anger consumed her. "How dare you!" the thoughts came out aloud, and her hand shot up moments later. The droid resembling her sister sailed across the space between it's back and the nearest wall, connecting with a vicious thud and followed by the closest, heaviest thing to slam into it's front and pin it in place. "How dare you try to turn me against the only family I have left!" The metal around her gave a groan of protest, though nothing cracked or even bent - save for the large metal object slowly working it's way harder and harder into the droid's frame. And yet, her gaze had never once left Vale as these things took place.


Vale Vynar

 

[Vale Vynar]

Vale smirked as he felt the Force surge within her. The anger roiling off of her like steam. He paid no attention to 8K as the droid went sailing past him. Oh yes, he had no doubts about how powerful she would become once she learned to control her powers and properly channel her emotions into them.

His eyes locked with hers. “She stopped being your family the moment you crushed that Jedi's head and stepped onto this ship with me.”

There was no question Anora Vahn was situated firmly in the light, Mandalorian company not withstanding. There was no way she would ever view her younger sister in the same way now that she had taken a rather drastic leap into the dark.

Vale didn't even have to move his arm, he just clenched his fist and the box she was driving into 8K came surging forward and cracked her in the chest. It was better to put an end to this for now until they were on solid ground. Vale extinguished his lightsaber and walked up to wear his new apprentice had landed.

“A strength can also be a weakness Eenia. Your bond with your sister draws a visceral emotional reaction when provoked, one that makes you reckless and clouds your thinking.” He knelt down beside her. “If you want to make progress and achieve your true potential, we will need to do something about this.”



Eenia Vahn

 

[Eenia Vahn]

That comment didn't seem to help matters any, if anything it only seemed to make the blond young woman all the more angry. The metal around them gave another groan of protest, though only for that one moment considering Eenia's attention shifted quickly. She was fast to shield her body, she always had been, but shield or not that didn't stop the weight of the heavy metal object knocking her off of her feet. It just kept her from taking severe damage from the blow to her body.

She felt the tension in her body wane a tad, but that did nothing for the anger still festering inside of her. "My sister is all I have left." she repeat, though with admittedly much less force and attitude than she had stated the first time around. Though that didn't make it any less true. She had lost everyone who had ever been important to her - and had nearly lost Anora as well by her own hand. And while big sister may be out galavanting with a Mandalorian of all things, at least she knew Nora was (for the most part) taken care of.


Vale Vynar

 

[Vale Vynar]

The Kiffar shook his head. “You've lost everything.” He said coldly. “You're just too afraid to realize that.”

He pulled the training droid to its feet with the Force and examined the damage she had done to it. A few of the holoemitters would need to be replaced and the chest plate was severely dented. Not the most difficult things to repair.

“Repair the droid.” He told her as he started walking back towards the pilot's seat. “By the time you're finished with that we should arrive at Rhigar. Then we'll see if you have what it takes to be my apprentice.”

8K walked up to Eenia and gestured towards the back of the ship. “This way Lady Vahn,” He said with no indication he was upset with almost being crushed. “I calculate it should only take two hours to replace my damaged parts and Master Vale always has quite the supply on board.”

 

[Eenia Vahn]

Those three simply words hit Eenia like a ton of bricks - or like the heavy metal object she had literally just been tagged with. Either way, they seemed to do more damage than a physical blow could. The blonde exhaled sharply, absorbed for only a moment, then looked away due to the all too familiar sensation of being thoroughly shattered. Those were feelings she had learned to let go of, things she had learned to move on from and better herself from. And yet just like that, the sensation of loss, abandonment, and failure swallowed her whole.

And yet rather than there be a violent reaction to this, it seemed the young woman's defense mechanisms were still very much so in place, and had merely been masked all this time - laying in wait for something to go wrong again.

After a moment, Nia took in a slow breath through her nose and her body just sort of eased. There was no expression on her face, just an empty sort of void in her gaze - but she did nod her head when she was given further instructions. She stood up and didn't bother to dust herself off and instead faced the droid to look it over. Her empty gaze swept over the damage and again she sighed through her nose before she stepped aside and made a gesture for 8K to lead the way.

"I'll warn you, I'm not a mechanic." she let out, and by no means was that an exaggeration. "So we'll just hope I don't electrocute myself, or blow you up." Void or not, at least she was still carrying on conversation.


Vale Vynar

 

[Vale Vynar]

“Oh that would be most exciting!” 8K exclaimed joyfully. “I'd finally accomplish my primary function and eliminate someone!!”

Vale ignored the pair as they disappeared into the back of his ship. He sat down at the pilot's seat and felt the Force as it ebbed and flowed inside Reaper-One. Eenia was feeling sad and devastated by what he had said and that was good. Very good.

It would provide her a source to draw from and amplify her strength well beyond anything the Jedi could have hoped to elevate her to. She was going to need that kind of strength to survive the training he had in store for her. Rhigar was not a hospitable world, once controlled by the Chiss it was now an empty and barren hell made of ice and snow and wind. It was on this planet that Vale was going to turn his new apprentice into a weapon, and a dangerously strong weapon at that, well...if she survived.

Before he put her through all of that though, he was going to have to repair the damage done to her body. The Jedi's healing methods would only go so far, but there were things the Dark Side could accomplish.

The navigation console began to chirp to signal their imminent drop from hyperspace. The ship snapped back into realspace and the large white sphere of Rhigar dominated the viewscreen. He brought the ship down into atmosphere and landed it on the barren tundra.

A snow storm was raging outside the ship creating quite the obstacle between them and the abandoned temple they would use for shelter. Good. The Dark Jedi thought as he stood up from the chair and made his way down to the back of the ship where Eenia and the droid were.

“We're here. Come.” He said to her as he hit the release on the landing ramp and stepped out into the raging white storm outside the ship. He pulled the Force in close to his body, creating a tight a skin tight barrier between him and the elements. It kept his body heat from escaping and was also a handy trick to hide his thermal signature from certain censors when he had to.

He stalked through the storm without a word. The near zero visibility didn't bother him since he'd made this walk many times in his life. The temple he was leading Eenia too was one that his former master believed to belong to a group of ancient Force users. They certainly hadn't been Jedi, they'd never had any temples in the Unknown Regions. It could have belonged to the Sith at some point, but either way the place was empty of any artifacts.

He'd scoured the place plenty of times and even the Force seemed relatively empty in this place. He walked up the crumbling steps and into a large entrance hall. Vale let go of the barrier he'd pulled around himself and let the cold rush into him.

“This way.” He said to Eenia as he started down one of the hallways to a smaller room. In the center of it was a well used firepit and Vale extended his hand and lightning shot forth into the center, igniting a brilliant flame. “This temple is where we will remake you or where we will end you.” He said turning to face her fully for the first time. “We will start with fixing the damage to your body. I'm going to assume the Jedi have at least taught you a healing trance yes?”

 

[Eenia Vahn]

Surprisingly, the droid turned out to be better company than Eenia would have originally given it credit for. She still didn't like it of course as a personal bias, but at least it was capable of keeping up with conversation and helping to walk her through in repairs when it came to things she had absolutely no damned clue about - which was often. Nia had admitted to not being a mechanic after all.

By the time her Master had come for her, Nia had already more or less completed the task of repairing 8K. There were still a couple of things that needed to be ironed out, but otherwise? It was looking much better than when the pair had first come into the room. But being given instruction caused her to nod, and she got up to her feet so that she could follow along behind once again. The sudden change in both pressure and temperature took Eenia's breath away, though she was at least quick and smart enough to shield herself from the elements of this place.

She was also smart enough to hurry along behind her Master, for she wasn't about to lose sight of him in this storm.

Had visibility been better, the blonde probably would have taken a moment to stop and gawk at the temple she was being lead to. Abandoned however long ago or not, it would have been something new for her and well worth her curiosity. However, due to circumstances, she merely kept as close to the man leading her along as was comfortable for her, and shuddered very visibly despite the shielding around her when the wind was no longer whipping at her.

"What is this place?" she did ask, once she was sure her breath would not be taken from her due to the outside cold. She was aware it was a temple, but what kind was more of what she wanted to know. Whether she would get an answer or not, she listened - as always. The question asked of her caused Nia to look at her hands and she nodded her head. "Yes. Healing is actually something I'm good at..." she stated to him. She hadn't been learning and training to be within the Healing Halls for nothing, after all.


Vale Vynar

 

[Vale Vynar]

"And yet your body is far from being perfectly healed." He shook his head and let out a humorless grunt. "The limits the Jedi place on themselves will be their undoing."

He motioned her towards the fire pit and directed her to take a seat. "Before I subject you to this training we will need to fix everything that is limiting you from reaching your full potential." He circled around to where he had directed her to sit and closed her eyes. 8K emerged into the room with a struggling Tauntaun pup in his robotic arms and Vale nodded to the droid.

To revitalize the dead cells that were restricting Eenia's movement Vale was going to need another lifeforce to draw from. It was the kind of so called unnatural things about the Dark Side that the Jedi despised. "This is going to hurt." He added as he reached one hand towards the Tauntaun and another towards where Eenia was seated. He jolted both of her and the pup with a stream of purple electricity, pulling the life essence from the Tauntaun and directing it into the ruined flesh. He increased the output of his energy into Eenia and burned her flesh back into life.

When it was over 8K was left holding a husk of a once vibrant animal and Vale's new apprentice was laid out on the floor in a crumpled, smoking lump. "Stand up, test your range of movement. It should be better than it ever was."



Eenia Vahn

 

[Eenia Vahn]

Well he certainly wasn't wrong there. More than once Eenia could feel that line between what she could do, and what she knew she should be able to do. There were lines that were not crossed, things that were not done, and potential that went untouched because of it. Not that, that was necessarily a bad thing. Power lead to corruption in quite a few cases, and steering away from that path was a good idea when dealing in such a large group.

But Eenia was no longer within the folds of that large group. Right now it was just her, and this new Master. He had seen something in her, chose to spare her, and now here they were.

A fact that admittedly made her weary when he had brought in a pup - or the droid had brought on in, rather. Nia stared for a long moment, brow creased as she listened but wasn't quite grasping what was about to transpire. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and slowly tore her gaze from the droid/pup pair to Vale just in time for him to start the process of exchanging the creature's life for Eenia's healing.

The pain ravaged her in a way she had never felt, and while at first she had endured with grit teeth and discomfort, it wasn't long before she was arched and screaming throughout the process. When it was done, she toppled forward and barely managed to catch herself on her hands before she face planted. Her breathing was labored and ragged, and her mind was trying to process what had just happened to her because despite the pain? She felt good.

Being told to stand made her hesitate, not in disobedience but because her smoldering frame was very prepared to hurt with every single movement. That wasn't the case at all however, and the blonde slowly pushed herself first to her knees, then carefully got to her feet. There was no pull in her muscles as she tried to get up, no wince-causing tugs or wrenches. She stretched, the way she used to be able to stretch and rolled her eyes closed with a heavy, deflating sort of sigh.

"What was that?" she finally found voice enough to ask, and the lids came open over her eyes so that she could look at her Master while she awaited whatever response he was going to give her.


Vale Vynar

 

[Vale Vynar]

“That,” Vale said as he watched her test out her fully repaired injuries. “Is what one can do when they remove the limitations set on them by the Jedi. Maybe if you survive long enough I'll teach you how to harness the life force of another being.”

That was a big if.

The training that he was going to subject her to was not going to be like anything that she had encountered with the Jedi on Kashyyyk. Now that her body was healed and in better condition than it had been when they arrived on Rhigar it was time to see what his new apprentice could really do.

He nodded to 8K and the droid reactivated his electro-blades and launched himself back at Eenia. Vale circled the room and watched as the two reengaged. “We'll need to get your saber form, and combat skills in general, up to snuff before we do anything else. Otherwise this whole thing will be pointless.”

“You need to become in tune with the Force, let it guide your motions and predict where your enemy's attack is going to come from next.” He said as he watched his apprentice become used to what was essentially a brand new body. “You must keep a clear mind but also draw on your emotions to give your attacks strength. Not something easily mastered and I have little faith that is something you can master.”

The Dark Jedi wasn't going to lie to her. There was little point in that kind of thing at the moment. Right now he was just going to add to the already large pile of negative emotions his apprentice had stockpiled and wait until she inevitably exploded and revealed just how strong she really was.




Eenia Vahn

 

[Eenia Vahn]

If she survived long enough? There was a challenge in those words that made Eenia's blood boil. She had not endured everything that had gone wrong in her life up until this point just to be beaten down and killed off now. Not when she was here, finally some place where things were getting done and being accomplished. Maybe not by much, maybe not easily, but that was fine. One step at a time was fine with Nia, so long as it was an actual step. She was being pushed, which was apparently exactly what she had needed all along.

Despite the comment on her survival, he was right about one thing however. Eenia had always been more than aware that her combat skills were not up to par. She had said as such herself a million times, and while she could at least survive? That was the gist of it. She had been on the track for off field work; healing, tending to others - and yes she had been okay with that. Honestly she did like having the ability to save someone's life, to heal them, bring them back from whatever precipice they may have been on.

And yet, she had not even hesitated to prove herself to her new Master when it came to taking a life either.

But there was no time to comment. One minute she was being given the small lecture, the next 8K was coming at her. Nia's blade came up without hesitation this time around and she was ready for the droid. She may still not have been proficient with a blade, but without the restrictions on her body she moved more fluidly. She was faster to block and protest herself, her footwork was cleaner, and she was able to move around and wield the blade without having to hesitate or stop short at any given moment.

It was like having a fresh canvas to work with, new clay to shape, and while it may be a lot of work in the long run, that was perfectly fine with Eenia.


Vale Vynar