ᴛʜᴇ ɢɪʀʟ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴏʟᴅᴇɴ ɢᴜɴ
Iris Arani
.They began as enemies. Not by choice and certainly in mindset, but merely circumstance. So much had changed in the little time that has past since then. Iris would go on to fight beside Tayl and her family in the battle that would see mother and daughter reunited after so many miserable years. A battle that did not leave the young Mandalorian unscathed, and in fact, left her more humbled and broken than ever before.
Iris had stayed by her side, even when she was too broken to take notice. She'd cared for Tayl in her darkest hours, and been the first face she saw when opening her eyes. Even then, she did what she could to further that care.
Tayl was grateful. More so than she ever thought she would be to a Jedi. Though alien to her zealous mind, it had fundamentally changed her outlook on the Galaxy and the very Force itself.
That was why she left Iris a message, asking her to come to the recreational garden aboard The Recluse.
She sat atop a large and flat rock near the center, flowing water running along the edge of this artificial and grassy island, circulated and filtered through various systems hidden beneath the small wooden bridges that connected the artificial land to the rest of the room. It even had little fish in the pond, and gnarled trees.
Beside her, safely atop the rock where nothing could be burned, a little heating tray had been placed alongside wooden platters and little cups. On top, lay a single little tea pot full of Cassius Tea that was done whistling, instead brought to a low boil.
It was the first time in awhile that she had her helmet removed for an Aruetii, which sat beside her on the rock. Her now lavender face, smoothed over by many bacta treatments and synthskin, was now out in the artificial sunlight for Iris to see whenever she arrived.
Even the armored lekku sleeves and gloves had been set aside, revealing the strange black gradients at the tips and along her fingers. It was as if the Dark Side had drained a portion of her life force there, even after the much more organic skin grafts that were cloned from her own genetic code.
It were these words that she dwelled on the most. A statement she genuinely meant back then, and wished to own up to now. She knew the organic skin grafts in those few places wouldn't heal the same. She wanted the marks to last. A warning to anyone who dared consider adding new ones; I am a survivor. And I will still be a survivor long after you are dust in a tomb... But it was also a reminder to herself of where she had been. That she couldn't be caught off guard by her own hubris like that ever again.
She just never imagined it'd look like this.
