Private A storm in the sky

[Chloe Blake]

Chloe's moved from behind Trextan Voidstalker over to his side, helping him getting Choli situated on the med-pod. The Corellian could hear the break in his voice, the strain and fear that coated it as well.

"Hey, hey..." A hand came up to gently rest on Trextan's bicep. "You found her. That's what matters." turning back to look at Choli, the older Warden took a deep breath. Trextan wasn't exaggerating. Chloe could recognize the use of some sort of drugs on Choli's system; her fingers were broken, and the clammy, pale skin, along with the flutter of her lashes and faint twitches, indicated perhaps something more. Perhaps an attempt at mental or physical torture.

"We'll run diagnostics and flush whatever is out of her system. I don't want to give her any sedatives until we know what she has in her already." After adjusting Choli, the blonde Corellian shut the lid on the pod. Turning towards the control panel, she began to select a few quick options. The medi-pod was old, certainly nothing state of the art; however, it would be enough to try and see what they were working with and patching up Choli.

"I can use the Force to help detox and stimulate healing." Blue eyes would flash up to Trextan, "You ever learn how to do that?" Right now, Chloe was spent, she would need help to use the Force to do the same for Choli. They both knew that if the younger Warden woke up in the medical pod, she would panic.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Hey, hey..." A hand came up to gently rest on Trextan's bicep. "You found her. That's what matters."

He gave a sharp nod. He might have found her, but he hadn't been looking. Trextan had barely kept in touch with Choli and if he had reached out more he might have known that he should have been.

"We'll run diagnostics and flush whatever is out of her system. I don't want to give her any sedatives until we know what she has in her already."

He nodded, glad that there was someone who knew what to do in the situation. Someone he could trust.

His gaze lingered on her hands. Someone must have started small, breaking a few fingers to see if she would break. She hadn't.

He felt a little pride for that, even as he wanted to chastise her for driving them to more extreme methods.

"I can use the Force to help detox and stimulate healing." Blue eyes would flash up to Trextan, "You ever learn how to do that?"

"Slowly. It takes me time. I need to sit and focus. Do you think it would help?"

 

[Chloe Blake]

Trextan Voidstalker

Chloe gave an empathic nod, her own pale clammy face attempting a comforting smile.

"Yes. Besides, it is one way for her to register your presence as well through the Force. I don't know what they gave her, but as the medical pod starts flushing out her system and healing her injuries, she is going to need someone to help her get her bearings. I can guide you through it."

Tiny's deep voice would interrupt. "Is ssshe going to be okay?" It was evident the massive Reptillian Warden was worried.

"We'll get her patched up, Tiny. Just need to give her some time... In the meantime, do you know anything that they did to her?"

Tiny growled at the back of his throat, lip curling back to reveal sharp yellow teeth.

"They tried to use the Force on our minds; but my kind can't be manipulated that way. The little one can't either. " Tiny explained, trying to provide as much context as possible.

"Said they were searching for a route through the Hard Roil. A star map of sorts. I had no idea what they were referencing, but it was clear Choli did once they started injecting her with truth serum and using any to get her to talk."

A grimace.

"When that didn't work...That's when they started to use other means. The other prisoners called it a Mind Flyer device of some sort. Scrambles the mind... that might be why she isn't too certain what's real and what's not."

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan sat up on the the surface against the wall. He leaned back on the wall and closed his eyes. It would take time to wrangle with his feelings and establish control.

Each sentence from Tiny was like a body blow. He couldn't help but listen, to hear of each step in the journey. The physical damage could be dealt with easily, but they had attacked her mind.

Trextan tried to let it go, but he could not. All he could do was calm those turbulent seas into a gentle rise and fall of revulsion. It was just enough.

He had never been adept at the more subtle arts. The Force gave a slight tremble as he sank into its embrace. He did not move silently through the flow of the Force, he was a great battleship parting those waters.

Choli was there. Her mind as closed off as ever. It wasn't her mind he needed to reach, even though it was where he wanted to go.

"I can feel her," Trextan murmured.

 

[Chloe Blake]

Aurora Hawk
Hyperspace

Trextan Voidstalker

"I can feel her," Trextan murmured.

"Ahn guld," Chloe replied with a tired, but firm voice. Carefully, she did her best to guide Trextan into focusing his power. The amount of Force potention within the Voidstalker even at his age was enormous. Even now, the Warden could feel how hard he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. If he lost it, he could very well lash out with the Force and harm not only those around him, but the ship. A thought came to her on recommending methods and Masters that may be able to assist him in fine tuning that control, or perhaps channel it better. The Zeison Sha perhaps would be one.

"I want you to focus on her then, try to picture her in your mind. Connect with her, talk to her. Try and see if you can help her peel away the drug and torture effects so she can know what is real and what isn't."

That was the best method of getting Choli to come back to reality while the med-pod worked on her physical injuries.

"Tiny, go on and get everyone else situated. We'll are heading out to Rekali territory to recuperate and get to the bottom of what the Knight's of Ren were doing out here."

The massive Warden gave a nod, but still gave a lingering glance over at Choli's prone, still body. It was evident he was very worried about her. He had come to look at the young woman as someone to take under his wing. Seeing the strong and independent woman appear so gaunt and pale struck a cord to him.

"Tell me if you need anything." He growled out in broken Bocce.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan opened his eyes. His body remained quite still. He didn't subscribe to the pure Jedi teachings, but it was still akin to a trance to delve into the Force this way. He glanced at Chloe and then at Tiny. In a way, he felt isolated from them now. A step removed from the physical world.

He closed his eyes again.

He should have been more calm during the rescue mission. He had lost his control in that torture chamber. Killing the Ren had been simple and professional. The two in the room had been personal. That was dangerous.

Trextan breathed out slowly. He had managed to reach out to Choli once. With eyes eyes closed he focused on the flicking light in the Force that was Choli. He thought back to what she meant to him, what she had meant to him when they have been so close. Mentally transposing that perspective on what he reached out towards helped him connect.

Choli

 

[Choli Vyn]

Choli

The voice was faint, barely a whisper that Choli could catch. But it wasn't right. It was wrong. No, no, not here.

The scene would bloom in Trextan's mind by degrees. Outside, the sandstorm raged, the wind howling as it whipped sand and grit against the cavern's walls. The chaos swallowed the Twin Suns and turned day into a suffocating darkness.

It hurt.

All Choli wanted to do was let her mind drift, to lose herself in the white noise of the storm. She could wait it out here, hidden away from the world. Nothing could penetrate that storm. Nothing could reach her. She would be safe.

The former Rogue pilot sat hunched over, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. She wasn't dressed in her usual desert attire but in grimy Warden spacer clothes. The blue blouse was torn, revealing gray bandages wound tightly around her upper torso and right shoulder. Blood had soaked through, blooming in faint crimson petals just below her collarbone. In her mind's eye, an older Choli stood, overlaid with the younger one who'd been struck by the sniper's shot.

The dim light of the cavern cast long shadows around her, the same cavern she and Trextan had once taken refuge in during his search for a Durindfire gem. But now, as she peered deeper into the shadows, cargo and ammo boxes appeared, and the walls closed in, leading to the narrow, scraggly corridors of the ice moon rebel base.

The drugs and the strain of her mind's attempt to pull her away from the Interrogator's torture blurred past and present. Her voice was barely a murmur as she spoke to herself, her left hand moving in small, jerky motions over her face as if trying to brush away the ghostly remnants of memories that wouldn't let her go. The thick waves of her hair fell in oily, unruly tresses alongside her face, a black curtain that sought to veil her from any more bright lights.

"...No. Not again. It is not real."

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

It burned.

Years ago he had walked safely through the sandstorm but he had been protected by the will of the Force. Choli had been furious, but he had survived unscathed.

This was different. As Trextan sank into the Force, the pain of pushing against those mental defences resolved into the abrasion of sand at his skin. It peeled layers of skin. It burned and it burned. With a grim set determination, he strode through the storm. He felt the twin suns at his back, but Choli was forwards.

A finally rasp and he was through. Trextan expected to see his flesh flayed by the storm, but he was whole. Only the echo of the pain remained.

"Choli."

He thought he would see the image of her from years ago in this place, but he recognised the less familiar woman he had found today. She was dressed as she had been then.

He imagined he could say some remarkable thing to bring her focus about. She would, he thought, appreciate nothing but the blunt truth.

"I'm here. Really here. This is me Trextan. At your bedside. You're going to be okay."

 

[Choli Vyn]

"Choli."

Choli's head felt heavy, weighed down by confusion and the lingering haze of drugs. Her olive skin was clammy, slick with cold sweat as she lifted her gaze. There he was again -- Trextan, staring back at her. He looked so real, so close that for a split second, she thought he might actually be there, but that didn't make sense. None of it did. She blinked, trying to push the image away, but it clung to her like a stubborn ghost.

"Not again," she muttered under her breath, rubbing her hands over her face as if that could somehow clear her mind. The edges of reality kept fraying, slipping in and out of focus. Trextan's face was just one in a carousel of figures that had haunted her since this nightmare began. Chloe, Asmus, Kol - they all showed up in flickers, dredging up memories she thought she'd buried deep. Memories that hurt more than any wound the Knights of Ren could inflict.

But Trextan's presence cut deeper, left an ache in her chest that she hadn't fully reckoned with. He'd been a part of her past, a piece of what she'd walked away from when she chose this path, this life on the edge with Chloe and the Wardens. She never stopped missing him, even if she'd told herself it was for the best for him. That distance was the only way forward. Yet here he was, again. Or at least, her mind's twisted version of him.

"You're not really here." Her voice cracked, exhaustion dripping from every word. She repeated it like a mantra, as if saying it enough would break whatever illusion this was. Chloe's sharp-witted advice had been a welcome distraction in earlier hallucinations, guiding her with a mix of Corellian sass and tough-love wisdom. But Trextan? His visits were harder, more tangled in the emotions she was trying to bury. Guilt, regret, longing - it all blurred together until she didn't know what was real and what was just another trick her mind was playing.

Her copper eyes, dull and shadowed by deep circles, fixed on him again after she'd rubbed her face in a futile attempt to ground herself. "How much longer will this last?" she whispered, the question more to herself than to him. Every second felt like an eternity, stretched thin between reality and the feverish grip of whatever was in her system. She had no idea that Trextan was truly there, that he was reaching out through the Force to connect with her, desperate to offer some kind of comfort, to let her know she wasn't alone.

But all she could see was the past - mistakes, choices that couldn't be undone -and the weight of everything she'd lost along the way. She didn't know how much longer she could keep fighting through this fog.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

When faced with a knight of the Ren, Trextan had acted without thought. There had been no need to ponder his path; he had overcome that challenge with confidence and skill.

He had no idea what he could achieve here. He had no past experience to call upon, no guidance to follow.

"How much longer will this last?"

"I don't know," he replied.

Did it matter? He thought to himself. Did it matter if he had an affect in this place? Her body would heal eventually.

He felt a flutter of panic.

But would her mind?

"I guess you came in here to hide"

He felt a wave of nausea. Trextan had spent a lot of time imagining what could have happened to Choli in the hands of the enemy. She had been captured before, seemingly unharmed. This time he had worked into the nightmare.

"Chloe has given you painkillers to help."

In the surreal, Trextan stuck by simple truths to see if anything landed.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Trextan Voidstalker

It was weird for a hallucination to mention painkillers, especially when it looked like Trextan of all people. Confusion clouded her thoughts as she lifted her head again, this time taking a longer moment to really study the figure before her. His face seemed older, darker, with broader shoulders than she remembered. This was no teenager. The Trextan standing there was in his twenties now, his features more defined, more seasoned. Sure, the shaggy mop of hair was familiar, but everything else felt just off enough to make her stomach twist.

Her brows furrowed, trying to piece together what her eyes were telling her. Wait, wasn't this a hallucination? Slowly, she rose to her feet, the ship's hum in the background almost drowned out by the rapid beat of her heart. With a slight tilt of her head, she murmured, "What in the…"

Then, like a wave crashing against her mind, she felt it -- felt him. That presence in the Force. Not an illusion, not some trick, but Trextan. The same presence she hadn't sensed in years, now humming through the air with all its intensity.

"Trextan?" she whispered, her voice catching in disbelief, as if saying his name out loud would shatter the moment. Her hand instinctively clenched at her side, half-expecting this vision to dissolve into nothing. But he remained, solid and real, standing right there in front of her.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

What did he say to that?

She saw him. He hadn't really expected her to.

"It's really me."

His shoulders dropped, his expression melted into relief. This wasn't about him, it wasn't about them. It still struck him to hear the recognition in her voice. To feel her presence in the Force open up to him.

There was a slight quiver in his breath out, a flutter through the Force.

"It's been..."

He paused. There were more important things to say.

"You're safe. We got you. Do you remember how you came here?"

She was under with some good sedatives and wouldn't be leaving here quickly. He just hoped she knew the way.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Trextan Voidstalker

"But how?" Choli's voice broke the tense silence, her confusion laced with a tinge of disbelief. This was way too surreal, even for her. The haze still lingered in her mind, but memories were starting to piece together. Trextan had done something like this before -- reached out to her through the Force -- but back then, he'd been close by, not... wherever he was now. Was he with her?

Wait.

"Wait, where am I?" she blurted out, her eyes darting around as her awareness slowly sharpened. The med-pod's calming hum and Chloe's steady work were slowly flushing out the interrogation drugs from her system. The fog was lifting, but with it came a flood of worries that made her heart race. Tiny. The others.

"What about the others?" she pressed, her voice gaining strength as the haze retreated. The spark of command that had kept her crew safe on so many missions flickered back to life in the young Warden's eyes. "I had Tiny and other crew members with me. Are they okay? Where are they?"

The questions tumbled out, urgency growing with each word. Even as her mind scrambled to make sense of things, her instincts as a Warden were snapping into place, despite the shock of Trextan's presence. It had been three years.

Whatever had happened, wherever she was, she needed answers -- now.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan stood firm under the wave of questions. As she rallied, her usual intensity rose to the surface. Instead of being intimidated by it, Trextan took that as a measure of reassurance. She was complete enough in her thoughts to focus on what mattered.

Despite how close he had been to breaking down, Trextan had become far too accustomed to facing up to difficult situations. He had dealt with far too much for his years. That helped him meet her gaze and picked off the questions one by one, as well.

"You're on the Hawk. In a medical pod. You're safe. Tiny and the others are here too. Tiny was staying right at the door, making sure you were alright."

"I..."

His wall of control faltered momentarily.

"We didn't even know you would be there. I didn't know."

 

[Choli Vyn]

Trextan Voidstalker

"You're on the Hawk. In a medical pod. You're safe. Tiny and the others are here too. Tiny was staying right at the door, making sure you were alright."

That bit of knowledge provided Choli a measure of comfort, but not by much.

While the projected image of Choli swallowed hard, she did her best to try and wave off the muddled fog she still felt. A grimace twisted her lips at the thought of being in a medpod - she didn't didn't like those things, much less a medic facility, but if it was on the Hawk, then it wouldn't be so bad. As awareness and her body was being cleared of the serums used on her, the more she could also now sense the presence of Chloe as well.

She must be using the Force on me, the pilot mused, her mind starting to pick up on traces and the energy flowing through her body. It had the older Corellian Warden's signature on it.

Either way, she still had a hundred questions burning inside her. How had he found her? How much time had slipped by while she was in their custody? She wanted answers

"I..."

His wall of control faltered momentarily.

"We didn't even know you would be there. I didn't know."

Choli couldn't believe it. Trextan. After three years of thinking she'd never see him again, he was right there, just like that. The realization that it had been him who found her and got her out of the clutches of the Knights of Ren sent a jolt through her, and she wasn't sure whether to feel grateful or frustrated. Maybe both. Chloe would say it was the Gods. Others perhaps the Force. Either way, the sense of humor was telling.

Had this discussion occur outside of whatever Force grafted build Trextan made, he would likely be seeing her emotions swirl in the hue shift of her eyes. That hadn't changed, at least, in the past three years. A cheat sheet into her soul if one could recall what each hue meant.

Did Trextan even remember?

She felt the weight of responsibility on her shoulders for the other Wardens, but in that moment, all she could think about was him. Three years apart, and she still couldn't keep her heart from skipping a beat when he was near. He'd always had that way about him, a quiet, broody strength that somehow made everything seem just a little less impossible.

"I..." a hand would rake through her hair, a fruitless gesture since it was just all a projection of the Force. "Well, I'm glad. I was not sure how I was going to make it out of there. Me and the others."

Honestly, she wasn't sure how much Trextan was expressing was him or just her own projection of what she wanted.

"The Force moves in odd ways." which was telling. Both of them had separated in terms that perhaps made it seem as if Choli was pushing him away, breaking up with him. It had been the responsible thing to do. At least, that had been what Choli had told herself time and again; he'd already had been dragged about by the Sith, then the Jedi, uncertain of what he even wanted to do. The last thing she needed was for him to feel as if he were being pushed into something else he didn't want. To feel that resentment.

Didn't make it hurt any less.

"How much longer until I'm in this pod?" she asked, trying to deter her mind and emotions from wandering elsewhere. It had been three years; seeing him, he probably did a lot of growing and moving on since then.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"I..." a hand would rake through her hair, a fruitless gesture since it was just all a projection of the Force. "Well, I'm glad. I was not sure how I was going to make it out of there. Me and the others."

He saw it. It was a slow change. As her thoughts emerged from the immediate danger and her crew.

She saw him.

It struck her that it was actually him here. Of course it did, he told himself. He allowed some of his own feelings to finally bleed through the Force and to change his expression. He had been so painfully afraid.

Three years. It should not have been, but that was his fault.

"There was a gathering of Wardens," he explained. "I had to speak loudly to be permitted to join the group."

"You..."

He suddenly sounded pained.

"...you're not in a great way. I was afraid. Angry too. We all got you out of there. Did you try..."

She had asked him a question.

"I don't know how long. I could open my eyes and try and see but I don't know how easily I could get back here. It shouldn't be long. I won't be going anywhere. I promise."

After the time apart, he didn't know how much that would mean to her. It seemed quite foolish, now he had said it.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Gear - x x x x x x

There was a lot to unpack in what Trextan was saying, but the part that stuck out to her was when he admitted he'd gotten angry. Confusion rippled through her, tinged with concern. Trextan had always wrestled with his emotions -- before she'd met him, while they were together, and even after they'd gone their separate ways. Things had improved, sure, but with the amount of Force potential Trextan carried, his emotions were like blaster fuel to a starship engine: potent and unpredictable.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice soft but laced with worry. She focused on that question, pushing aside how his emotions were bleeding into her through this strange Force connection. It didn't make any sense, and his promise that he wasn't going anywhere only muddled things further. What was he trying to say?

Before she could press him, a tugging sensation pulled at her through the Force. Chloe was reaching out, trying to connect. Choli's brow furrowed, her expression tightening as she closed her eyes to reach back. It seemed like the medipod was finished with its work.

Had it really been almost an hour? The whole time they'd been talking in here, it had felt like just a few fleeting minutes. Reality was rushing back in, pulling her out of the strange calm of the Force.

Back on the medical pod, the pale, but now physically stable Warden woke. She blinked, dilated slate grey eyes flinching back from the bright light. A hand rose up, trying to block the shine from the halo lights. All the while, Choli was torn between the urgency of the real world and the unfinished conversation hanging in the air like an untied thread.

"Hey there." Chloe's soft, slight drawl drew the younger woman's attention, slanted eyes slowly panning over towards the Corellian's face.

"Khasaan'l. I'm so glad you're alive." the Corellian Warden emphatically relayed, reaching over to try and grab Choli's hand in comfort. The med pod had fixed her fingers. Not a trace left of the damage that had been there before -- save the memories that lingered.

"Come on, step out nice and slow."

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"I'm..."

After everything she had been through she was worried about him. She had seen him come close to losing control and carrying out remarkable feats with the Force. She should have been worried about herself.

How did he even start to unpack what he was feeling. It wasn't something he had ever been very good at. It struck him that he was greatpy at fault for never taking the time to try and do that in the previous three years.

Then it was too late. The moment snatched away as she was drawn back down that thread to her body in the present. It all faded away around him.

"Come on, step out nice and slow."

He opened his eyes slowly. A wave of relief washed over him. Cold and shocking. Trextan realised he didn't know how to act, precisely. It had taken awkward months to become comfortable with one another when they had been a couple. Time had made him less awkward, but he didn't know what to do.

He slowly stood, holding a hand palm up. Then he turned it over, first down.

"Only if you need it."

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Gear - x x x x x x

It was one thing to see Trextan in the Force projection -- a blend of past memories and the future tangled in possibilities. But seeing him in front of her, hand extended to help her out of the medpod, was something else entirely.

He was really here.

Choli's eyes, a deep shade of viridian tinged with confusion, flicked from Chloe to Trextan. She had already gripped the Corellian's hand, legs swinging over the edge of the pod, when her gaze landed on him.

The projection hadn't done him justice.

He looked older, but in a way that made her breath catch. The same shaggy, unkempt hair fell into his eyes, but his face had sharpened -- stronger, more defined. He wasn't a boy anymore. He was a man.

She swallowed hard, her gaze dropping from his face to his outstretched hand. She hesitated, just for a moment, caught in the surrealness of it all. Of all the places in the galaxy to run into him, it had to be here, in this chaos. Definitely not how she imagined their reunion.

Still, she murmured a quiet, "Thank you," her voice rough and scratchy from disuse. She reached for his hand, and with Chloe on one side and Trextan on the other, Choli slowly stood, her bare feet touching the cold floor of the ship. Her legs felt wobbly, the weight of her body unfamiliar after so much time in the medpod.

"How long was I out?" Her voice cracked as she found her footing, gingerly testing her weight. In the three years since they last saw each other, Choli had changed too. The wiry, athletic frame she had when she was always planet-side had softened, shaped by the long stretches of space travel and the responsibilities of a Warden. She wasn't a kid anymore either.

"An hour," Chloe replied, her voice steady but laced with exhaustion. "We're hiding out in the Hard Roil, waiting for things to cool down. We did a few microjumps before finding this asteroid belt to lay low in. Try to stay steady on your feet. I need to check on the others."

The Corllian's eyes flicked to Trextan. "Think you can keep an eye on her for a bit and help her to her cabin? I've got to get the next person into the medpod." She was likely pushing it, but it had to be done. Chloe wasn't sure if it was the situation or the years that had passed between them, but something in his gaze had shifted. Chloe left them with a glance back, clearly exhausted but determined -- honestly, she knew they had a few things to work out. Why not use this opportunity? They'd been orbiting around each other with her as the middleman for too long now. Time for them to crash.

Now, it was just Choli and Trextan. Alone.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Think you can keep an eye on her for a bit and help her to her cabin? I've got to get the next person into the medpod."

"Oh...right...bye..."

Trextan had aged, but for all that he had grown into himself he was as awkward as he had ever been in this moment. Trextan paused, his arm still held out to offer a firm support.

Three years. In that time he should have reached out. He hadn't. Because he still wasn't as wise and confident in himself as he wanted to be. He was at least aware that he should have been more at ease with Choli. They had shared so much.

"She didn't have to go, she decided to give us a bit of time to talk," Trextan observed.

"I bet you probably want rest more than you need to catch up with me," he said. "Not that I don't want to. I do.