Private Don't Panic!

[Ordo]

“You want to destroy Carnifex…take me back and help us fight him then!”

Ordo stopped in His silent march to the cockpit, His shoulders stiffened with the implication that HE should do anything. He turned slightly and looked at her over a heavy shoulder, the force that He had pushed away suddenly crashed in around them to resume it's own foolishness. He let the power fill him. The near antithetical power of the Manda held its ground but allowed the force its ebb and flow through the Mandalorian.

"Are you that naive?" He began as He turned and walked slowly toward her, "If you go back Carnifex will use you against your master. His brother will skin you and have a mural painted on your cured hide to commemorate their victory."

His beskar coated boots rang on the Durasteel deck plates like a steel war gong as one heavy step after another pulled Him toward her.

He fed His emotions.

"And I...if I go back." He said as He thought about the debt of honor He owed toward a child slave He had stolen for intel, "Everything dies. I am not obligated to preserve anyone. Do you understand? I can not protect a band of brainless fanatics too foolhardy to know how to make a workable plan, from themselves and fight not just Kaine but His entire entourage."

He looked down at her and shook His head.

"If I take you back now," He said as He leaned down to look directly into her eyes, "Your life will be in your own hands, Revna Free-woman. But I'll give you this one choice. Come with me, I'll let you leave at a spaceport with some credits and a lightsaber for protection, or you can go back and I'll destroy that arena and anything too stupid to leave. Now choose."

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


She stopped pursuing after his retreating form when he stopped, and a warning flashed through her as she saw him partially turn and look over his shoulder at her. The hairs stood on the back of her neck when she felt the Force flood through him and around him…as if a wall that had been holding it back crumbled. Revna held her ground despite her instincts telling her to back away, even as the giant man turned and began walking towards her, his deep voice rumbling out as he bluntly laid out the truth before her.

The warrior’s words made her pause as she frowned in mild confusion. What…was he talking about? Her Mentor had only gone to challenge Carnifex…had there been others there that he hadn’t been expecting? She felt fear squeeze her heart as the gravity of the situation truly dawned on her. Carnifex being there was bad enough as it was…but to have others there who might be just as powerful as he, fighting against her family, her …her…

The fall of his boots echoed throughout the space that stood between them, until that distance was shortened. The little woman still held her ground, though she had to almost crane her neck at one point to keep looking him in the face…though her heart was beating rapidly in her chest now.

His emotions coiled around and within him, and it was impossible for her to not feel the same. Especially now, as chaotic thoughts churned through her mind at what she had heard.

His rebuttal against taking her back made the situation starkly clear to her. She understood the threat…no, the promise…that death would follow in his wake if he took her up on her words and took her back to the arena. He said everything would die.

And she believed him.

He stopped to look down at her, and she looked up at him, and she listened to his words. Her life was in her own hands if he took her back, and what would happen next would be of her own doing. But…he extended to her a choice. A hard choice: to go with him and be dropped off somewhere, or to go back to the arena to face whatever chaos would be unleashed there.

The situation, for her, was grave. For others, the choice would have been an easy one to make: self preservation was generally a motivator for most people. It was for the little Acolyte too…but not in this situation.

Revna stared the warrior in the face, as words bubbled from her chest, up her throat and out of her mouth.

“My new family I just discovered I had, after years of believing I had nothing, is there in that arena, probably trying to save my Mentor’s ass from his foolish choice. And…that ‘brainless fanatic’ is more than a ‘master’ to me. That man has become my Father, the only real Father I care to have in my life after mine abandoned me. I lost my mother already…I-”

Her voice cracked, and she sharply turned her head away from the man before her as the emotions she felt welled up from deep within. Memories, painful and deep, threatening to consume her mind.

“Kark this all to hell. I can’t walk away from them like this. But I know that if I go back, I will only make things worse for everyone. I just want to be there for my family.”

She shook her head, torn in two different directions, frozen by indecision. She knew the choice her Mentor would want her to make. She knew he’d want her as far away from the mess he’d gotten himself into as possible. She just didn’t know if she could do it and forgive herself if he died and she wasn’t there. “I want to go back…but not at the cost of having you destroy everything, including my family. It’s bad enough that they have to deal with Carnifex and whoever else decided to show up with him. They don’t need to deal with you too.” Her heart swelled to the breaking point with everything she was feeling. She knew what she needed to do…and it was the hardest choice for her to make at that moment.

“My Mentor would want me to stay as far away from this chit as possible…so as much as I don’t want to do this…I will remain here. I’m your prisoner anyway, under your control until you decide to release me.” the little woman said, her voice low and hollow, before she started to walk away from the man. She just wanted to find a place now where she could be alone to shed her emotions, to express her weakness, in private.

She hoped she would see her Mentor, her High Priest, her father figure again…alive. Along with her cousins Malum and Trayze. As much as she wanted to be there with them, fighting Carnifex alongside them…she knew she would only get in the way.

 

[Ordo]

He frowned. The turmoil that roiled through the woman came off her in waves. It was hard not to feel her whirlwind of emotions. The ships engines and systems vibrated through the hull. The background hum of it filled the silence following her words. He reached out to the cockpit with his mind and began to manipulate the controls and start the navigation computer to calculating possible jumps.

"Fething sith." He said as He reached out and shoved her down into a chair firmly but not harshly, "Sit for a minute. I'm calculating jumps to the nearest station to the arena. I'll get you some shiig."

He moved to the side and pulled a small metallic insulated cup from a small upper cabinet. The flat brushed metal of the galley cabinets with their spotless surfaces and distorted reflections looked seldom used as he quickly heated water and added the black, slightly citrus, Mandalorian tea.

He put the cup down on the table beside her before He moved away to rummage through a foot locker beneath a bench seat near by. Lightsabers clattered to the deck as He dropped some beside the container like a giant child digging for that toy they wanted in the moment. Finally He paused and pulled out one wrapped in linen cloth that was yellowed with age. He sat it down beside the locker and replaced the others before he closed the container and careied the lightsaber with him to a wall locker.

The soft beeps of buttons on the locker being depressed before a small whirring of servos declared the lock open. He looked through the numbered rows of crystals and devices of square, hexagonal and various other geometric shapes before He plucked one from its slot and closed the door again.

He walked back to the girl, the woman, and sat the data crystal down.

"A treatise on my Djem so and Trakata mixed lightsaber form. The combination of aggression and tactical practicality will be good for you to get a grip on. Especially fighting users." He said with all of the enthusiasm of a middle school teacher handing out homework on a Monday afternoon, "And take this. It's old but its very durable and water proof. You'll need something to practice with."

He began the process of making himself a cup of the same tea like drink as He had made the woman.

"There's a station in orbit of the arena." He said as He gave the lightsaber a last look, "You should be able to get passage to where you want to go from there."

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


Revna was momentarily startled by his grip on her shoulder as he forced her to sit down in a chair before she could walk out of his reach, telling her to sit for a minute…and she did so without complaint. She watched the man with a near emotionless expression on her face, despite the swirling chaos that boiled under the surface. She blinked when she heard him say that he was trying to find a station to jump to that was closest to the arena. He seemed to have understood the turmoil raging within her.

She was curious as to what this ‘shiig’ was that he had mentioned, and her curiosity was satisfied a moment later when he set a metallic cup of tea down in front of her. She looked from the cup, to the giant man, and tilted her head slightly to the right. She continued to observe him when he turned away, reaching for the mug as the citrus notes of the drink reached her senses. She savored a sip as she continued to watch him rummage around in a foot locker, curious to what he was doing. He seemed to be looking for something, and she watched in surprise as a collection of lightsaber hilts were dumped to the floor.

Wish I had that many lightsabers… she mused to herself.

Eventually his search led him to whatever he’d been looking for, and the little woman looked on with further curiosity as he revealed an aged linen wrap which seemed to be protecting whatever was underneath - her conclusion was that it must be a saber hilt as well, considering he had been sifting through some others.

Her eyes followed him as he crossed over to a wall locker, and after imputing the security code, looked through a collection of items that she couldn’t see clearly. He picked up an item and sealed the locker, before turning back towards her and sat what appeared to be a datacron in front of her.

A frown creased her pale brow as she looked at it with a mixture of curiosity and confusion, which cleared away as soon as he explained what the datacron was about. She lifted her eyes back to him, the realization dawning on her that he was…giving this to her. She recognized the term ‘Djem So’ to be a lightsaber Form, but she wasn’t familiar with the second word, ‘trakata’.

Her eyes widened a bit when he set the linen wrapped object down with a softened thud before he turned to make himself a cup of tea as well. The little woman stared at both the cloth and the datacron for a few moments, surprise etched all over her face. She took one more sip of her tea, before reaching out with a small and pale hand to gently pick up the concealed object, unwrapping the linen almost reverently to reveal the saber hilt underneath. She looked over the beautiful object, feeling the weight in her hand, before she finally tore her gaze away to look back at the Mandalorian.

This man had tortured her not that long ago…and now he had made her some tea, and was passing along a datacron for her to learn from, as well as a lightsaber? This situation was turning out to be quite the adventure, she mused to herself in stunned silence.

“I…will use these well…” she murmured, before she blinked rapidly and frowned again. “Who…are you?” she questioned him quietly, realizing that she had never actually asked for the great warrior’s name.

 

[Ordo]

For a moment, she didn't move, slowly her eyes opened revealing amber in the place of brown.

"You will regret all you have done."

She spoke the word "no" to his amusement and finally spoke of regret...
...He leaned his lips to her ear and pressed them to the small lobe.

"No pet." His deep rasping voice came, "I won't. .."

He paused as the memory came back unbidden. The things he had been. The things He had done and set in motion. He was a destroyer. He was the blade that cleaved, the scorching flames that left nothing but ash in their wake. He was the artificer of death and the hands that dug homes for the final rest. He was the smoking air in the midst of battle and the sickly sweet stench of the bodies left out in the sun. But who was He? The father that buried His own? The husband that failed His healer wife? Was He the witch brother, the Mandalorian...The sith? Is that who he was? Or was He all and nothing at once?

He was still far too divided. His other half maintaining His connection to the Netherworld and by extension The Manda. Could Cin Vhettin still be applied to one such as He to use a name less synonymous with gross butchery and violence? No.

He turned, His back stiff and eyes brows drawn tightly together and leaving His brow furrowed like rows of a farmer's field. He sat calmly despite His arrogant self hatred and His foolishness for reflecting on what had no way of being changed.

"I am War." He said before taking a sip of the Shiig, "But I was a Mandalorian general once and a sith. I was Ordo be' Ordo, like Carnifex was Kaine, but after enough time we all find ourselves...other than what we were. Now only War, servant of The Manda."

He knew He was only bound to confuse her but that couldn't really be helped. He thought of His sister, Mia, His daughter Jespa who loved and hated Him in equal measure it sometimes seemed. He thought of Rosa, that poor woman that He had helped ruin with the Ember of Vahl. How many lives would He yet destroy before He was finally given His rest?

"I was Darth Sortis, once, briefly, you can just call me Ordo." He said softly into His cup before He sipped and the ship lurched into hyperspace. "We'll have you back in a few minutes or so."

He stood and His armor bled back out over His body. The helmet creeping over His face as if living metal before taking the shape of the Mandalorian Buy'ce. The T-shaped visor flashed with light before He began stalking back down the corridor.

"Be at ease, Revna Free-Woman." His voice deep and hollow through the helmet, "You'll find no more horrors here today."

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


Time stretched on between Revna and the Mandalorian warrior before her. He seemed almost lost in thought after she had asked him who he was, and while she was briefly tempted to peer into his mind to read his surface thoughts, she quickly banished that stray thought. There was no need to incur his wrath, especially after the fact that he’d just given her some personal items of his.

The little Acolyte watched as he turned and sat, seeing the stiffness in his posture. Her question had been perhaps a little…uncomfortable, for him. She was beginning to think he was going to ignore her probing question when he finally spoke, his deep voice breaking the silence.

His response to her brought a mixture of deeper curiosity, confusion, and surprise. He was War, he had been a Mandalorian general, and a Sith? She’d never met anyone who had been a former Sith…all the ones she knew were loyal to their ways, their Order.

The man fell quiet again, looking into his cup of tea, seemingly to reflect some more before he shared more of who he had been with the little woman, one of which was his former Sith persona, Darth Sortis. She would have to ask her Mentor about that name…if she ever saw him again this side of eternity.

The giant Mandalorian gave her a name by which to call him by, and she memorized the name Ordo. Even as they sat there in silence, Revna understood that this man had a long and storied history, and despite the suffering he had put her through, she felt…a sense of reflective sadness. She didn’t pity the man; she didn’t feel bad for him…for he had chosen his paths and walked them…for good or ill. But she understood the weight of memories and consequences, even if it was nothing compared to what he had to deal with.

The ship lurched into hyperspace, and he told her that they would be back soon, and uncertainty squeezed the young woman’s heart. Time had passed; surely the fight that had started when she had been taken would be long over by now. There may be no point in going back to the arena on Geonosis. If her family and her Mentor survived the fight against Carnifex and whoever else was there with the Dark Lord…then she would see them again in more familiar places.

“The fight is probably over by now. I didn’t sense…their deaths. Perhaps they live; my Mentor has survived this long fighting against other Sith Lords…perhaps he found a way to survive again. Though knowing him and how fething stubborn and zealous he can be…” she trailed off, leaving her statement unfinished.

The man, Ordo, rose to his feet and Revna observed in fascination as his armor seemed to just appear and coat his large frame, finished off by a helm. The woman almost asked him how in the chaos he was doing that, but he had already turned to stalk down the corridor and away from her, telling her to be at ease as he went, and that she would suffer no further horrors.

Her gaze drifted back to her half-way finished tea, still warm in and steaming. So many things rippled through her mind, made her feel emotionally subdued and quiet. Her earlier outbursts of emotion in her attempt to defy his torments had taken a lot from her, and she could feel the creeping sensation of exhaustion settling in, along with the echo of pain that still permeated her bones. Sighing softly, she finished off the tea he had made for her, and set the cup aside before leaning back in the seat, stretching her legs out in front of her and closing her eyes. She would rest for a bit, regain some of her energy, before she had to face whatever lay before her next.