Embers in Our Bloodlines

[Avalore Eden]

Ryan Korr might be pleased to know that Avalore was quite proficient in Force techniques used to warm the body. She was also quite proficient in physical techniques that warmed the body as a side effect but that was neither here nor there.

Reiki Healing techniques were something only dedicated Healers such as herself learned late into Knighthood. Reiki was to a Healer what Tutaminis was to a Warrior. The skills worked on similar principals, only Reiki energy generally came from within, not without, but could also utilize recycled energy from outside sources if needs be.

Avalore was not presently inducing the skill. That took meditation which wasn't very likely to happen given their current predicament.

Soft earthy tones lifted to meet those metallic hues and her own smile, whatever was left of it, wilted under the intensity of his gaze.

"I'm ok," a quiet response nearly lost to the winds, but she did accept a helping hand to get back to her feet.


There were no more smiles to be had for the journey which brought a different sort of cold with them along the way. They trudged through snow nearly up to their waists in some areas and across icy dunes ravaged by angry winds. Slips and falls were numerous and every time Ryan insisted on carrying her she insisted on walking. It wouldn't do for him to walk for them both, not while her own legs still worked just fine. She may be a Healer but she took care to maintain a solid physical training regimen - which did not account for clumsiness or staying warm in a blizzard.

30 miles in this sort of hell, even fully clothed and prepared for it, would have put down even a seasoned survivalist. Ryan and Avalore were not prepared for it, and by the time dusk settled in over the lands the setting sun only spelled doom for them both. Another stumble, now trailing several yards behind him, eyelids heavy with the weight of frozen lashes, nose red and raw, lips blue, body numb, the Healer strained to get her feet beneath her.

"Ryan-" a wince, it was painful even to breath let alone talk. She could see him up ahead, pausing, then thought she heard him call back on the wind.

Dave?

Dave who?

[member="Ryan Korr"]

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Every breath of cold air stung his lungs, filling them with icy air that felt both curse and blessing. Still his capillaries screamed, begging him for more as he pushed on. By now he knew the skin around his knees no doubt looked flayed and rubbed raw. He would not have dwelled on the thought, had it not been for the pain. Yet even that faded to the numbness around the twentieth mile. Ryan had yet to decide which of the two was worse. He could no longer feel his toes, nor his fingers. Nor his ears. Nor his face. The list of extremities with warmth eventually whittled down to nothing.

The blood around his wrists had frozen, as it had on his wrists and back. Snowflakes littered his red hair, clung to his brows. He looked like a dead man walking.

Avalore looked about the same, sans blood.

He turned to check on her, but couldn't see her in the gale. He narrowed his eyes against the smarting flakes, unable to keep his teeth from chattering.

"Ava-" the wind tore his words away before they'd left his shivering lips. Shouting was useless.

With every step aching, every muscle in his body crying out in protest, Ryan made his way back to her. She lay in the snow, scarce able to rise. Korr would have scowled if he could feel the muscles in his face. She should have let him carry her five miles back. Bending to his knees, thighs burning, Ryan pulled her into his arms. He grit his teeth, forcing them to be still.

Silent but for the howling wind, he rose again and battled back toward the mountains. Three minutes later and he cursed himself for a fool, thinking the trek to be a hard one before he carried her. Biceps strained. The remaining mile seemed an impossible task. He remembered Marcello's words, his teachings, recalling the then agony of a whole tent digging into his shoulder as he carried it through the mud, pants soaked with rain. Just a passing pain. He whispered.

Another ten steps. Just a passing pain.

They came upon the mountain's roots and as Korr had thought, there were many caves spread throughout the crags. Many were abandoned mines. Korr chose the nearest one and stumbled toward it, barely able to stand. Inside at last, he collapsed to his knees, trying to set her down gently, but unsuccessfully. She dropped from his quivering arms to the cold, hard floor. Ryan let out a long gasp of exhaustion.

The wind screamed at the cavern entrance, groping fingers of snow fluttering in, seeking some remaining warmth to leech. Korr tore off his cloak and with numb fingers made an impromptu flap over the mouth of the cave. It was far from perfect, but it took the bite out of the wind.

They needed a fire. Ryan gestured, using the Force to open a pouch on his belt, for his fingers could barely function. Flint and tinder came out. He glanced around until he found a scrub poking up from the corner of the wall. A gesture tore ripped it free of his roots.

Soon, he had a very sad little fire going. Yet he basked in the warmth greedily until the light cast a glimmer on his chafed, bloodied wrists. Ryan grimaced. The wounds would need tending, or they'd fester. Freezing to death wasn't bad enough. He needed the threat of dying from disease too.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"I can walk -" a sad excuse for words leaving her mouth as Ryan returned to pick her up but there was not the strength left to follow through. She tried to keep her eyes open as he struggled to carry her the rest of the way, knowing full well the dangers of hypothermia, but if later on she looked back at this experience and was asked to recall it? Avalore would not remember anything from the moment he scooped her up until the moment she made contact with the cave floor.

It was a fiendishly sharp yet dull pain that pulled her from the slipping slumber. A rasp groan sounded over gasps for air not cut by the wind. She rolled to her side and curled, shivering uncontrollably. She'd seen images of snowflakes, but not the ones that plagued their view for the past several hours. Destin's ring sat frozen on the skin of her chest beneath the layers of rigid clothing.

Gentle snowflakes against a chilled blue sky. Fat and falling in free loops to land upon the cheeks of two young boys. A homestead in the snowy lands. The warmth of a family. Avalore let it saturate her mind, saw the faces of the two children she'd only come to know through these visions, watched them change to images of her sons. Stali. Gabe. Chevu. Jacen. Vaet. Spark. Kana. Their livelihood was hers. Their happiness, warmth, joy, even their pain and anguish that each had to bear - she would and had shared in it all. Avalore was not complete without those rocks each for stability, to tend to and care for and watch over. She couldn't die out here in this wretched tundra.

Who would take care of them then?

Ryan had a fire started. Avalore's trembling had grown still, the ice rimming the hood and shoulders of her cloak beginning to melt, color slowly returning to her cheeks, small puffs of foggy breath escaping her lips. But this wasn't from the fire, at least not fully, and strangely enough the fire wasn't the only growing source of warmth in the cave anymore. Laying on the cave floor deep in a forced and controlled meditation, the frozen Healer-cicle slowly willed the energies within her to thaw her frozen body.

[member="Ryan Korr"]

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

He turned a haggard gaze in Avalore's direction when she stirred, thankful for the sudden heat blossoming from her in the Force. Soon the frost stiffening his robes melted, leaving them damp, but no longer near-impossible to be rid of. A man of necessity, Korr reached thawing fingers back and grabbed the neck of his robes. He pulled up, wincing as the material dragged against tiny shards of glass still embedded in his skin.

A hiss escaped from between his teeth until at last he was free of the garment. The paltry firelight illuminated a host of scars on pale flesh. He pointedly did not look at Avalore while he used his grappling hook to create an impromptu clothesline. When he finished he seated himself and gazed into the flickering flames.

Cast in shadow, a series of roping scars curled along his back, chest and upper arms. Remnants of the Vong's cruel embrace. Two discolored ovals on the abdomen marked the touch of lightning, while five evenly spaced angry weals showed where a Sith's clawed fingers had nearly disemboweled him. A second pair of blemishes still further disfigured his back, one on the right shoulder blade, the other just above the kidney. A Sith's lightsabers.

He traced the tear-drop scar beneath his eye - the only one ordinarily visible - then aware of his action, stopped. Korr glanced down at his wrists, cut deep by the manacles in the crash. More scars. Reaching back, Korr grit his teeth, and began to grope for any bits of glass still wedged in his back.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Droplets of thawed ice fell from lashes as Avalore's eyes finally flickered open. She breathed deeply, puffs of foggy breath roiling in the air before her face and dissipating into the faint current of cold still managing to move through the cavern. She was warmer now but not warm, as it were. The cold was still a very real thing and the frostbite of her extremities now thawed to a constant aching fire of pain.

"Ohh.." a painful breath as reddened hands reached forward through still-frozen sleeves of her robes, grappling against the icy stone floor beneath to push herself up. The outter robe was the first thing to go and it was a process to remove the heavy winter-weight, waterproof, Order-issued article now that it was more or less frozen material. It had done its job well in keeping her mostly dry but it was not designed for traipsing across snow-laddened landscapes in the middle of a snowstorm. Avalore grunted as she pulled herself free, hissing at the sting of cold-burn left behind from her necklace chain and ring.

The next to go were her boots and then pants, leaving her in thermal sport leggings that she'd layered beneath. Her sweater sleeves had been soaked and frozen, it went next. A plain t-shirt with more thermal long-sleeved sportswear underneath remained.

Her breath was not nearly so foggy now and the shivering had returned. The Reiki Meditation didn't have a long lasting effect, but it was enough to help her get moving again, get her barrings, tend to Ryan who had so valiantly carried her the last leg of the journey. Turning her attention to the shirtless man the Healer crawled over to him, movements slow and stiff, before settling down beside him. Brown eyes took in the myriad scars and a frown would have formed if she'd been physically able to make one. She wanted to know the stories behind them all, wanted to ask, but simply didn't have the energy. So instead her eyes lifted up to inspect what his hands were doing and noticed, finally, the remnants of blood at his wrists and back.

Trembling jaw setting Avalore reached up towards his nearest arm to bring his efforts to a halt, "Let me."

She pushed herself up and slowly moved to kneel at his back, eyes setting to examine the wounds through her exhaustion. It was hard to see in the darkness of the cave with the stark relief of the small dancing flames jumping shadows all about so she gently pressed one hand against his skin, fingers stiff with cold and numb to most sensation except the prick of glass shards as her palm slowly stroked from one side to the other. She stopped whenever it caught her own skin and used her other hand to pull them out as gently as she could manage. The same palm issued faint Healing energies - only enough to close the smallest of cuts. Avalore wished she could do more, but at this point she couldn't spare a lot for Healing if she had any hope of having enough energy left to Meditate again for warmth.

"Let me see-" breathless words as she settled down at his side again, his back now as free of glass as she could make it with minimal articulation of her own fingers, "let me see your wrists."

[member="Ryan Korr"]

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He leaned over the table, Destin crawling on the playmat as Armaud sat quietly. Content, as always, his green brother roamed to the edge of the play pen. Opening up the wrapper, he inspected the item. Turning it over, he smiled, before peeling apart the bread. No mustard. He let out a long sigh, cracking his neck as he wrapped the food back up. "I'll show you crime..."

Picking up the receiver, he was interrupted by a click clack padding against the metal hull.

"Sir, have you seen Master Avalore?"

"Master Aval-" He stopped himself. "No Dick, I have not. Don't you have something to do?"

"Oh no sir, you forget to give me any daily tasks. Which is quite alright sir, I've grown accustomed to incompetence."

Destin let out a cry, Gabe shared in the expression. Silently and seething. He tried to give her a call, no answer. Odd. Well, next step. Scrolling through the local phonebook for the spaceport, the number of restaurants were few and far between. As stupid as that droid was, he was right. It had been a while since he heard from Avalore and as much as he didn't want to seem clingy, well, there was a reason he gave these children up for adoption. Looks like it was time to call the sandwich man again.

"Sir, what are you doing?"

Gabe looked up from the device, back down to the device, back up to the droid. "Dick, GO...AWAY!" Destin responded with an ecstatic scream, eyes glaring at the droid. Dick gave as repulsed an expression as a droid could.

"Dear me, even you little master?" He backpedaled with his annoying metal feet. "I'll just go and clean something."

Gabe laughed and nudged the child's nose as the phone rang.

"Yes, I'm looking for a woman...Yes, I'm aware there are many woman are Arkania." He paused. "Well, she's average height, thin, slightly wavy brown hair. Wearing Jedi Robes." He paused and stopped. "What do you mean she's fine? If she's fine, let me talk to her...What do you mean you can't do that? Wait, everything is going to be fine?" He stood up and paced, finger scratching across his forehead. "Yeah, I understand what you just said. I speak Arkanian. Let me talk to your manager...Oh, you are the manager? Perfect, just the idiot I need to speak to." He placed the receiver against his mouth and spoke sternly. "STOP TALKING."

Once the chitter chatter died back, he placed the phone back to it's full and upright position. "I'll give you one chance to tell me what's happening. After that, I'm calling my family and we'll see how long you stay open...No family has that power? OH? Well, I'll just let the Adasca family know that. Thank you for the information." He paused, smiling. "Good, I'm glad you understand. Now, what happened...what do you mean she was arrested? Well, where is she being held! You don't know! You screw up my sandwich and now this?"

He sat down and shook his head. "No, in fact, don't tell anyone I called. Aratan..." He looked down at the wrapper. "Cataran?" He smiled. "You signed your name on the sandwich wrapper. So. If anyone comes bothering me, I'm gonna assume it was you and you'll be getting a visit." Gabe nodded and committed a fake laugh. "Sure, of course. I'm glad we understand each other. Take care."

He hung up the phone and yelled down the hall. "Dick, come back! I need you!"

[member="Avalore Eden"] | [member="Ryan Korr"] (Purple Grandmaster)​

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Muscle laden shoulders arched at her touch, ivory knots cording across his back. No manner of finesse, even without the numbing cold, could render the task of pulling shards of glass from his flesh entirely painless. Ryan winced occasionally, brain foggy with exhaustion. He wore a deep frown, though it was scarce noticeable under a face burnt red by the wind and covered in dried blood. The slowly dying fire reflected in his eyes.

At last, he tore his gaze away from the embers and glanced from his wrists, to Avalore's face. Ryan could find no hint of disgust in that honest, tired face. Confusion writhed within his heart. How could she not be repulsed by such scarred sinews? Yet, she had likely seen wounds more horrific than his own. He remembered lying in the hospital bay, watching beings wheeled by who were missing jaws, or had their faces burnt away. He'd seen their suffering, but it did not belay his own sense of shame. Why did a guardian of peace carry so many blows given in anger?

Korr shifted, grimacing at the shocks of pain from his torn, raw knees beneath the pants. Regaining feeling seemed more curse now than blessing. He could feel blood seeping from the chafed wounds, sticking to the pant legs.

Her fingers on his wrists sent a wave of reassurance through him. Weariness overcame him, dispelling brooding thoughts beneath a heavy veil that tugged at his eyelids, urging them to close. He blinked, fading fast. I'll rest, he thought, just for the moment. Ryan's eyes closed and his head drooped forward until he sagged unconscious against her shoulder.

[member="Avalore Eden"] | [member="Gabriel Sionoma"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

The canvas of scarring had not gone unnoticed by the Healer, but for Avalore these were merely the brushstrokes she'd become accustomed to. As the once Chief Healer of the Jedi Order within the Republic she knew very few Jedi, Masters especially, who had not lived their lives unscathed. Even she bore scars - both hands covered with them, remnants of the corruption taken from the back of Hal Terrano. She'd never regained full dexterity of her fingers since then - not even Force Light was capable of undoing all the damage rendered by an angry Mark of Darkness. Years of therapeutic work and healing by others had allowed her to restrengthen her hands, but she'd never have the same precision and already, at only her early thirties, she suffered from arthritis in those myriad joints.

The cold and frostbite did her no favors, but luckily her skills as a Healer required little in the way of articulation of fingers. Moreso it demanded precision of the Force and the mind, intellectually as much as esoterically. Even that was proving difficult as the frost seemed to have permeated her skull and worked to slow her thoughts. She willed herself to push through it just as he had pushed through and carried her here. Avalore took his wrists and worked what little magic for him. It wasn't much but with any luck it would keep the deeper damage from becoming infected. About to ask about the apparent wound on his scalp, she hadn't a chance before the man slumped into her.

"Ryan...no. No, no. Stay awake," faint, rasp voice strained through frostburned chords, hands lifting to his neck and then jaw, pushing him back. For all his muscle he was quite heavy and Avalore struggled to keep him from collapsing completely to the floor where his bare skin was more like to freeze against stone and drain what little heat he might still harbor.

"Ryan wake up..." her pleading voice cracked painfully, dying from the effort. He wasn't waking up and there was nothing more she could do other than try and keep him warm. With a grunt and a deep, pained groan as frostbitten feet pressed against stone, Avalore pushed herself up while attempting to balance his weight against her and moved to drop onto the man's lap. Facing him, straddling his legs, she rolled his head to the crook of her neck, the man's forehead rested against her shoulder, and pulled the dead weight of his arms in between them as best she could. She folded her own arms in, hands resting against the scars of his upper chest, measuring the faint trace of his heartbeat through her palm.

Her own back to the fading fire, tingling at the sensation of heat, Avalore closed her eyes and dropped into meditative breathing. Finding the energy to fuel the Reiki was near impossible - she was pulling from the reserves of her reserves, but before long her own body had become a source of warmth. She hoped she could find the will to outlast the fire.

[member="Ryan Korr"]

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Drifting, drifting so far away on an endless sea. A cloudless sky above, empty of even the stars, save the moon. In the blackness she shone down on him, soft beams that chilled him to the bone. A great eye in the night, watching him. Always watching. A servant of the abyss sent to lure travelers into the darkness and turn them. Ryan's eyes would not open, yet he knew all this was there.

Korr struggled to swim, to escape but his body would not move. The moon leered, the only object to look upon, hideous in her beauty. He tried to sink and drown himself beneath the waves, yet they buoyed him up on his back. Ryan's breath came fast as a ray from the moon cut through the black and shone upon his form. The beating of his heart quickened.

A black cloud appeared above, drawing closer with each passing heartbeat. The cloud drew into the moonbeam and fragmented into hundreds, thousands of tiny forms, a swarm of chirping creatures that dove down toward him, guided by that Eye. They swirled, a cyclone of leathery wings, and seized him by the wrists. Claws dug into his flesh, venomous eyes glinted in the moonlight. He saw faces in that cloud. Faces he remembered. Faces of friends, twisted in agony, in hate. They hauled him from the ocean and Ryan could not resist.

The skin of his back brushed against a hard surface, like stone, then he felt himself being pulled backward, away from the creatures. Warm, gentle arms curled around him. Still his eyes would not open. The moonspawn tugged at his wrists, refusing to fail their master's command. Those soft arms held him close, held him tight. They would not let go. Sinews strained and joints pulled as Ryan's arms stretched.

A voice whispered, hot in his ear.

"Wake up," she said.

"Eri?"

"Wake up."

Gray eyes fluttered open to the sight of a soft, curving ivory pillar. The sound of flapping wings was gone, replaced by the howl of the wind outside the cave. Another's arms were still wrapped around him, a warm weight that sat upon his lap. Korr blinked away the nightmare and moved his head where it rested on a bony shoulder. His nose brushed against a neck.

He leaned back, just enough to meet Avalore's eyes. He said nothing for a moment, eyes searching, their hot breath misting in the slim space between them.

"Thank you."

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

"Grab Armaud!" He pointed, frustrated at the protocol droid. He couldn't help but laugh. "No you daft walking space heater, the rocker!" He shook his head as he pressed the keypad to the cockpit.

"Sorry sir, you haven't upgraded my tactile enhancement. I fear this is really all your fault."

"Of course it is." He looked towards the green child in his arms and tickled his cheeks. "It's always my fault, yes it is!" The door hissed open as he looked back to Dick. The thing was struggling but managed to clamp a hand down on the handle. Lifting up, he began waddling towards the cock pit with that bit of consternation in the dimly light head lights. "Are you a pilot, sir? You don't look like a pilot."

"You know very well that I'm not."

"Well then sir, I feel it is my obligation to remind you that only a licensed pilot should be taking control of this vessel."

He looked towards the robot as he walked in with Armaud, pointing towards the children's seat set up in the cockpit. Beginning to strap them in, for safety reasons, Gabe did the same with Destin before turning to the control panels. The children began to cry.

::This is docking control. We've noticed your vessel powering on the engines.::

::Affirmative, docking control. We have an unforseen emergency::

::Have you been given permission to vacate the bay?::

::No. It's a matter of state emergency. It deals with the Alliance and the Republic.::

There was a pause a Gabe clicked on a locator encryption, hoping to pinpoint the location of Avalore and her communication device. Nothing was returned and he leaned back against the chair, cracking his neck as he waited for the silence to end. It came through a fuzzy sound across the comms.

::You are cleared to vacate the bay.::

::Affirmative.::

The vessel was simple enough to fly, no different than his modified Star Viper. He may have not been a licensed pilot, but he knew his way around a vessel dashboard. Powering on the thrusters, he slowly crawled out from the spaceport before firing on the main power. The ship blasted off into the snow storm of the tundra, disappearing in a haze of snow.

"Sir, you said a matter of emergency. But we are still on planet? You're trajectory wont take us off Arkania." The rusted fingers pointed towards the scatter diagram of likely planetary paths.

"No, it won't." He spoke calmly, setting the vehicle to autopilot as he watched flecks of snow hit the screen.

"Where are we going, then, sir?"

"I don't know." He stated plainly with an air of nonchalance. Lifting his finger to the droid, to stop him from talking, he shook his head. "Stay quiet now, Dick. I don't know where we are going, but I intend to find out. So long as she hasn't lost that ring."

He sniffed and crossed his arms, staring blankly out into the fields of snow.

[member="Avalore Eden"] | [member="Ryan Korr"]​

 

[Avalore Eden]

Something about the weight of a friend on one's shoulder that could feel so much like the weight of a world.

When a world shifted, even one so cold, you felt it no matter how deeply entrenched in meditation you were. Opening her eyes felt as though she were attempting to part the tectonic plates of the planet beneath her - the weight of exhaustion and sickness gave a resistance the Healer almost couldn't combat. When Ryan leaned back he was met with slivers of eyes the color of dried earth.

Avalore made a muted sound of relief, "You woke up," thank the Force... a hand warmed by Reiki meditation reached up to stroke absently over his tangled hair, "thought I lost you." Her own eyes drifted shut again, slow and shallow breaths comingling with the fog of his own she felt the last vestiges of her energy burn depleted.

"I've been thinking..." her head began to sag, "about where we should go ... for lunch next."

[member="Ryan Korr"]

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

Armaud had drifted off to sleep, the slow and steady rocking of the ship was enough to soothe. Between whimpers, Destin had done the same. They weren't exactly peas in a pod, those two, but right now in their bulkhead baby carriers, they sort of looked like it. If you twisted and squinted with just the right angle.

"Sir, we have a call from port authorities. Seems they thought you were leaving the planet."
"Odd, I don't recall ever saying that."

Dick pressed a diode on the center of his chest, twisting a knob as his headlights flickered. What came out sounded oddly like Gabriel.

"No. It's a matter of state emergency. It deals with the Alliance and the Republic."

Gabe leaned back in his chair, looking over towards the droid. With a hand stuck on his chin, he squinted at the rust bucket and smiled. "You done?"

"Quite so, sir. What should we relay to the authorities."
"Inform port authorities that we've lost precious cargo and are tracing it back to a beacon. If they are having trouble confirming our position, that's because I tossed out our relay beacon." He paused and looked at Dick. "Leave that last bit out."
"What last bit? The relay beacon? What are we sir, if not honest?"
"I'm not quite sure what you are. But I'm a survivor. Tell them we are looking for lost cargo and will exit space when found, should be any time now."
"Of course sir. Does that mean you have a location for Master Avalore?"
"Master?" He shook his head incredulously. Somehow she was a master and here he was, chopped liver. "Yes, something like that."
"Very good sir, I will relay our limited and somewhat deceitful dialogue. I'm sure port authority will appreciate your brevity."
"Yeah, I'm sure they will too."

He turned on the dash blue lighting, moving his hand across the touch screen as he reset the bearing. He had gotten just the briefest flicker of something out there in the cold. Hunger pang, resonating from the miniature holocron. WSW, Azimuth 247.0. He confirmed the bearing and leaned over to the small green child, little grabby fingers tightening around his index finger. "Don't worry buddy, we'll find her."

[member="Avalore Eden"] | [member="Ryan Korr"]​

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Warm fingers crunched through frozen hair, tugging at his scalp. Korr opened his mouth, but even speaking at this point was too much of an effort. He settled for a rasped, "Alive," that sounded as though his throat had been dragged across volcanic glass. Too many shouts in the wind.

Teeth chattered uncontrollably. Running noses no longer proved an issue, anything wet had long frozen, including blood.

Korr noticed Avalore's head drooping forward. Her strength fading. "No." A warm mist blew from his mouth, clouding the air between them.

He took her shoulders, shook them gently. Not working. Korr rubbed his hands together. Friction. Heat. He blew on his hands, then held up one palm to her cheek, hoping the warmth would stir her senses back to consciousness. If she died here, out in the middle of nowhere, he would never forgive himself. Nor would her children, he suspected.

I've seen too many friends die to Sith blades. I'll not lose another one to simple elements.

"Wake. We'll go somewhere... somewhere without the cold. I hear Tatooine is nice this time of year."

[member="Avalore Eden"] | [member="Gabriel Sionoma"]

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

"There."
"Where, sir?"
"Look at my hand, Dick!" Gabe shook his arm towards the view screen.
"I'm sorry sir, I just see your hand."

His pointed finger turned into a slow fist as his expression turned into something between a squint and a glare. A square.

"I'm sorry sir, but mean expressions wont change what I see."
"I'm starting to think nothing changes what you see."
"Quite right sir. Perfection, I've heard, cannot be improved upon."
"Is that right?" He stood up and walked out of the cockpit, the children snoozing hard.
Dick lifted his hand. "Yes it is, sir."

Before long, he was in the infirmary as he clicked the intercom on. "Dick, the autopilot is set to a general location for landing. Once we get close, make sure the thrusters are aimed away from the cave."
Static came through before it returned a sound. "Of course, sir."

He blinked, somewhat shocked, as he shook the sensation of agreeableness away from his core. Opening up the oxygen reserves, he looked towards the temperature. In anticipation of treating hypothermia, among other suspected issues, he had turned the temp up a bit and wrapped them in insulation. They were sitting nice a warm, but not overly so to produce too high of a pressure. Pulling them out, he placed them on a hover cot and pushed the thing out. The repulsor responded with a whine as he rounded a corner. Setting it to park, he entered the cock pit as he felt the ship set down.

"Dick, why are the thrusters facing the cave?"
"What do you mean sir?"
"I asked you to make sure they face away from the cave."
"Oh, no you didn't sir. You asked me to make sure the kids behave."

Gabe sniffed as he jutted out his jaw, the blank stare from the droid was enough to warm him in any weather. Pressing the diode on the center of the dash, the vehicle spun slowly as it set down in the snow. Feet extending out and clamping to ice, he looked out towards the view screen into the grey darkness of the night. He looked towards the temperature and the snow flying across and shook his head. "Can't survive too long in this. Dick, watch the kids. Please."

"Since you asked so politely, sir."

Exiting the cock pit, he cracked open a locker and threw on the warmest coat he could find. With the engines set down to idle, he pushed the cot down the now opening ramp towards the cave. He felt the cold cut in as soon as he left the warm atmosphere of the ship. Bitter, to the bone and more so, he bared his teeth as he pulled his hood up and strafed the small distance across the open expanse before finding the mouth of the cave. Cutting on a blue stick lantern, he pushed in and navigated the narrow walking space, feeling the meager presence within, feint and growing even more so.

"AVA!" He announced himself, the sound of his voice echoing through the cavern. "AVA, where are you!"

[member="Avalore Eden"] | [member="Ryan Korr"]​

 

[Avalore Eden]

"...Sp...spira..." Avalore's head drooped and body fell limp, all the light of her energy reserves gone out like a candle flame in the wind. The Healer's radiant warmth dissipated in the faint breeze of the cave, Ryan's makeshift fire having long since burned out.

In those moments of waning consciousness she found herself thinking of the twins, of Stali, of having nothing of her own to leave behind. A hollow legacy of tears and grief and pain. A story of sadness and loss. Didn't seem fair. Didn't seem right. Was it wrong of her to want for happiness as a Jedi? Was this simply the Force telling her it was not her right to have such luxuries? It was only her obligation to see that happiness found others.

She felt cheated.

She felt...cold.

Still.

So still.


[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]
[member="Ryan Korr"]

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

She stilled in his arms, a song cut short. Fear spiked through Korr, a rusted nail driven through numb flesh. Not you too. He struggled, cold, senseless hands seeking to grasp her shoulders and shake her awake. Yet even that effort drained the weather-beaten Jedi. Rocks might stand all of nature's furies until they eroded into nothing, but Ryan was only flesh and blood.

A sudden blast of wind stronger than the last tore the robes away from the cavern entrance. Korr's eyes peered through the white haze, barely cognizant as a dark figure emerged from the driving snows. The Spaarti. They'd found them again. Come back to finish the job.

As the figure came closer, the lines sharpened, became a face. Tanned and leathery, beard flecked with grey. Cunning eyes. Korr knew that face. Knew this man.

Fire suffused Ryan's being, a hot blast that burned away the planet's cold grip over limb and thought. He laid Avalore on the floor and rose, muscles trembling as he tried to remember how to speak. How to fight.

"You," he rasped, a righteous fury roaring within, howling at the memory of blood in towering treetop villages, in vast ocean cities, in tight, metal corridors. Jedi blood. His blood. Slick red puddles on the ground. Crimson streaks and scarlet cartwheels. "You," the voice gained a hint of remembered strength.

Then just as suddenly as it had come the power disappeared, slipped through his fingers like sand through a sieve. Korr's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell backward. Unconscious before he hit the floor.

[member="Avalore Eden"] | [member="Gabriel Sionoma"]

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

Bundled up in warmth and pushing the cot in front of him, he didn't truly register what he was seeing. The slump of a cold body, brown hair rigid and crisp, and the glow of his ring on her neck. His eyes trailed upwards instead, to a man, who seemed to be as lost as he was tired.

You.

Gabe nodded, curiously. "Yes...me?" There was a pause there, a fire deep in this cave, and Gabe was well aware of what was going on. He recognized the man, a tango long ago, and that Atrisian he had danced with. Shaking his head as he held up his gloved hands, he tried to dissuade the man.

You.

"Yes, we've gone over this...why don't you sit do..." Just then, eyes rolled back and Gabe flung his arm out, pulling on the man gingerly with the force. Where his body went limp, Gabe slowly lowered him to the ground. Last thing he needed was dealing with head trauma, not when so many other things were going on. It was then that his eyes drifted over to Ava and he moved forward, quickly. Pulling a hand free from the glove, he felt her forehead and grimaced at the touch. Shaking his head, he stood up and approached the cot. "Stay on the ship she said, I'll bring you a sandwich, she said."

Whipping out a thermal blanket, he lied it across the wide cot. Then another. And then another. Till the sides were draped with foil. Walking over to Ava first, he lifted her up and placed her on the edge of the cot, folding her arms over her body. Tucking her into the thermal blanket, he sighed and walked over to the now unconscious Jedi. "Now for the wordsmith..." Lifting up the man with a bit less ease, he approached the other side of the cot and laid him down next to Ava. He too was fashioned into a burrito. And with a bit of work, he folded the last blanket over them and secured them to the cot with straps.

"I'm quite sorry sir, did you say something?"
"No, prep the med bay. I'm bringing Ava and her guest back to the ship. Warm four bags of saline."
"Of course sir, should I continue to watch the children?"
"Uh, yes?"
"Well, I am only one droid, after all."
"Thank the force for small miracles."

Cutting off communications, he returned to the task at hand.

Pulling a face mask out, he folded it over Ava's mouth and turned on the oxygen. He did the same with this other person, the one with the silver tongue. Pushing in a slow supply of warmed oxygen, he sniffed and put his finger against her throat. An extremely weak pulse, his even more so. Letting out a slow sigh, he removed his jacket and placed it over their heads, kicking the repulsor back on. He didn't have time to be worried about her. Or the kids and what they would do without their mother. Two feet in front of the other, fight or flight. Pressing hard against the lift, he navigated back out of the cave with a gentle hand. Nothing sudden, in fear of them waking up and going into shock. As the repulsor hit the metal ramp, he pushed into the belly and closed the door behind him.

[member="Ryan Korr"] | [member="Avalore Eden"]​