Forest Fires

[Rayth]

He wished that he was a bold and brave jedi Knight who knew what to say. All he knew to do was to embrace her back, all self-consciousness buried under the weight of the day.

"We'll go let them out soon," Acaadi replied. He didn't contradict how Kyra felt. It didn't feel as if they had lost, but it didn't feel like a win. Perhaps once they had seen the result of their actions.

He peeled himself away from her slowly.

"Someone is coming," he said, letting her arms still rest over his shoulders. "I'll go see who."

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra released him, grimacing as she struggled against the ground to get herself upright again. The longer she live with the blaster pains, the more she was able to think around them. Her quakes had settled to small, enveloping shivers; her screams to groans of pain.

“Tell them to hurry up,” she complained, looking down the hall in fear of another enemy. But no such force existed on the ship, not that she could feel. Not that that meant anything to her, she had missed the bolts coming at her too. She stared at the door Acaadi had buckled in. How? She sensed the answer. But she commented nothing on it, recognizing the flaw in her actions today as well.

Which frankly was a first for her.

As Acaadi spoke to their order, she reached for the counter, trying to pull herself up on it. Sweat pains dripped down her face, her expression contorted as she limped for the hall.

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi let her stand on her own and focused on what she had told him to do. It almost felt as if he was swimming through a dreamland now. This didn't feel real. It couldn't be real. Was this how violent the galaxy was? It had been set ablaze by war for generations now.

The Rangers informed him in a curt tone that they would arrive exactly as fast as they were able to. They tried to hold him on the comm to explain more of what had happened but he followed after Kyra. The way she was he did not want her too far from his sight.

They had to pass the two he had slammed into the wall. The Force no longer moved through them as if they were alive. Acaadi tried not to look. He had never seen death in any form before today.

"Hey," he called as they approached a heavy door. "There's some prisoners behind there. They'll be pleased to..."

The door slid open and a great roar filled the corridor. Acaadi saw a flash of fur and suddenly his feet were lifted from the ground. Hands the size of his torso were wrapped around his neck.

"No...I...Ky..." he gargle.

 

[Kyra Perl]

It all happened so fast. Kyra jolted back in shock of the sudden chaos. Hadn’t the force told her there was no more left standing? She reeled for barely a moment before dots were connected and she could process the furry form standing before her.

“No!” She threw herself forward, all hell tossed to the wind as she grabbed at the wookie’s arm and tried to pry him back. All her training was forgotten as she begged and pleaded, pulling desperately.

“Let him go, let him go! We’re friends, we’re-“ Her own fear was injected into the Wookiee who throttled Acaadi, her empathic nature bleeding out of her and communicating her intention without words.

The Wookiee made noises of pain and confusion, falling back from them both. Kyra fell against the walls, rattled by the wookie’s own seething anger that project right back through the contact. A tense silence filled the hall and room that stood open before them, the wookie’s that could sit up staring in equal confusion and fear at the scene that laid out before them.

 

[Acaadi]

"AAARARRRGWWWH?"

Acaadi has taken some lessons in the language of the wookie. He was bent over double, gasping for air. Everything had happened so fast that he wasn't sure what had happened. The Force had shifted and suddenly all three of them had been falling.

"Yes...the...jedi..." His voice was faint and raspy. Acaadi rubbed his throat.

A low rumble passed around the group as several more of the captives confirmed that they recognised the pair.

Acaadi turned towards Kyra with a questioning look. A other moment and the wookie might have crushed his wind pipe.

 

[Kyra Perl]

A sob hitched in kyra’s throat, bubbling up only to be caught there. She clutched at herself, simply overwhelmed. It took everything she had not to curl into herself and check out. Her mind kept screaming at her that she was shot. Shot!

By instinct, she pushed past it. They were not out of hot water yet.

“We stoped them,” she told the wookie’s, letting herself slide fully to the ground. “They’re gone, you’re free. “

The wookies cawed in a mixture of what she could only figure was relief. The rippling anger of the closest wookie disappointed out of her awareness. She slumped in relief, shuddering in pain against the wall. More wookie words were said, the meanings lost to Kyra, who had never bothered to take a course outside her own tongue. Still, she somehow glimpsed the essence of their intent.

“Yeah. They’re coming. They’re coming.” She squeezed her eyes closed, unable to help a groan. “Acaadi, their cuffs.”

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi gave Kyra a thumbs up rather than try to talk. The wookie who had nearly torn his head gave him what it probably thought was a friendly pat on the shoulder. Acaadi was glad it didn't quite take it out of the socket.

The mirialan rushed back up the corridor and searched through the bodies for a set of keys. He returned and started working his way through the wookies. One by one their cuffs clattered to the deck. They had been bound with particularly heavy durasteel to keep the wookies contained.

The ship juddered. It vibrated for a few moments longer. Acaadi stood before Kyra and tried to smile.

"See? They're here. We'll get you a medic. Okay?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra stopped seeming to hear him, the world growing thick around her ears. Her vision swarm, her gaze locked on the face of a wookie who stared back at her. They looked smaller. Not fully grown. Her age, even. Gender unknown. These fact flittered through her, as if she was back on the field trip simply trying to observe again. Blood pooled through her clothing, the stain growing.

Emotions swarm in the wookie’s gaze as it held her own, but she saw none of it as the cotton descended over the last of her senses. Safe now. Safe... her eyes flickered closed, if just for a short rest... Her skin was chalky and damp as new set of footprints came urgently through the halls. Awareness swam back to her as a calming presence and a firm set up hands lifted her up.

Safe, the force repeated. They were safe, it promised.

She gave into its will and let the force lull her back into a peaceful sleep.

A Jedi kneeled over her, his fingers hovering over her temple even as the shift in the force dispersed and her left Kyra to the induced slumber. “Are you hurt?” He asked Acaadi, his gaze cutting sharply over the boy. Another was already at the aid of the wookies.

 

[Acaadi]

"I'm...I'm fine, just bruises. Look after Kyra, please."

Now they were real grown ups here to manage the situation in was all too easy to let down that thin veneer of control. Kyra had been shot. When he looked to her now he could let himself feel the force of what that sight did to him. He could still hear the shock in her voice as she had collapsed.

Acaadi should have done more. If he had been better prepared than no one would have been hurt at all. The Ranger medic said something to him, but it went in one ear and out the other.

As Kyra was loaded onto a repuslor stretcher he allowed the main to grasp him across the shoulders and walk him out of the ship. The other side of the airlock gleamed. White corridors and clean crisp air. Safety. Safety from the trandoshans but not from his own guilt.




The next day, academy medical ward

Acaadi hadn't slept much. He had reviewed certain moments from the skirmish over and over until they refused to stop spinning around in his head. He saw the cold logic. They had tried their best and saved a lot of wookie. That he couldn't put a finger on why he didn't feel good about that made it worse.

"She will be out soon," came the cold hard voice of a medical droid. Kyra was in a bacta tank. Fully immersed to make the healing even faster.

Acaadi stood before her, now that she was awake and they would let him in. He pulled a small microphone from the console next to the tank.

"We, er, we made the news," he said hesitantly.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra looked forlorn in the tank. There was no other way to put it. It was almost easier to unconscious and critical than conscious and stable inside that damn thing. She hadn’t spoke yet, not even when she reached a state of healing where the pain left her finger tips and exhaustion didn’t weigh her down.

She just floated. Forlorn, distressed, and highly claustrophobic. She tried to meditate her way through it all, the serene of the water probably soothing to anyone other than her, she figured. She was just broken. A poor imitation of a padawan that couldn’t even calm her thoughts.

Her eyes widened at the news, a distressed noise catching in her throat. Nooooooo. Her mom was gonna see that!

 

[Acaadi]

"Oh," went Acaadi with a frown. He was not certain if it was the news he had delivered or just because she didn't want him around in her current state. Either way the Force seemed to dance around her to her distress.

"Sorry, do you want me to go?" he asked. "I mean...its not as embarrassing as floating up through the trees without a single piece of clothing..."

He tried a small smile. It seemed to be in his nature to want to try and help. Acaadi just wasn't quite able to convince himself that it was something he would be good at. Which was new for him. Acaadi was used to everything being easy.

 

[Kyra Perl]

At any other moment, Kyra would have laughed at that. He did get a look that softened, the girl recognizing his efforts and appreciating it. Truth be told, he was right in the embarrassed hunch as well. Kyra had always known who she was and how to act, but ever since that first slaver dropped in on her head, that whole confidence thing had muddled a bit.

Still, she didn’t want to be alone either. Meditation clearly wasn’t gonna magically click and start working for her here. She made an attempt to clear her throat, everything about the mask and the liquid she was submerged in horribly unsettling.

“My mother is going to kill me when she sees.”

 

[Kyra Perl]

At any other moment, Kyra would have laughed at that. He did get a look that softened, the girl recognizing his efforts and appreciating it. Truth be told, he was right in the embarrassed hunch as well. Kyra had always known who she was and how to act, but ever since that first slaver dropped in on her head, that whole confidence thing had muddled a bit.

Still, she didn’t want to be alone either. Meditation clearly wasn’t gonna magically click and start working for her here. She made an attempt to clear her throat, everything about the mask and the liquid she was submerged in horribly unsettling.

“My mother is going to kill me when she sees.”

 

[Acaadi]

"I see," Acaadi said with a nod. "Oh," he added quickly. "I hadn't thought of that."

It was his father who worried the most about his Jedi training and the dangers it posed. Lots of students suffered broken limbs and burns. How would he feel about Acaadi being in a real firefight already?

"Maybe it's only on the local news? They won't see it?" he said, looking as if he was trying to convince himself.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra made a neutral noise, not convinced either way. But if her mother did see then Kyra did expect a conversation, and they had had so many conversations, Kyra didn’t want to go back down that rabbit hole. Regardless of how supportive her mother was.

She sloshed in water, squirming against its confines. Acaadi’s own fears reached her then. She blinked, for the first time registering how little she had thought about him since everything had occurred. A twinge of guilt hit her. She quickly scrambled to make up for it.

“Are you okay? They’re not mad at you right? It was my idea to run on. They have to know, I’ll take the blame.”

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi shook his head. This was all so outside of his quite sheltered existence that he didn't know how to take it all in.

"No one is blaming us. The masters are all calm about it. I mean, they're always calm about everything."

Acaadi looked up at Kyra. His green brow was creased into a frown. It pulled the black geometric shapes across his nose and cheeks out of shape.

"I suppose I should feel good about it all? But I kind of...don't. And like you're the one who actually had to go through getting shot. I've got nothing to complain about and I still feel like I messed up. How are you feeling about it all? Other than well, pain and being stuck in a fething tank of goo."

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra’s expression contorted at the reminder.

Still, the question struck her, no easy answer forth coming.

How was was she doing? Upset? Angry? Guilt, frustration. They all caught inside her gut, a strange contrast to her usual easy going nature. She didn’t know how to be mad, other than to be half frightened by the power of it. Her mouth worked inside the mask, struggling for words but only pulling up silence.

“Like I messed up too,” she confessed, as if those five words could truly cover how much she had abandoned her training back there as she flew off the handle.

“...dotheyknow?”

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi shrugged. "I just kept to events. No one has asked if..."

The mirialan cast a glance over his shoulder as if he expected Master J'tso to walk in. He had managed to put on a calm face as the questions came. Then he had stuck to facts before trying to press them about Kyra.

No one had asked if he had opened the door that his emotions had led to. The amount of power that had flowed through him was almost intoxicating. And there was the trap of the dark side. He could manage this alone. He told himself that but it did not sit right.

"Bet we'll be really popular in class over it though!" he said, trying to find a light in all this.

 

[Kyra Perl]

“It doesn’t feels right,” Kyra reiterated, not letting the topic go. “What we did, we’re not hero’s. We’re wrong!” She hit at the glass, her frustration bursting from her, kicking the liquid around her into a flurry of bubbles that turned it opaque.

 

[Acaadi]

"Hey, hey this...doesn't look that strong," he said. His eyes scanned the glass tank looking for cracks. That little ripple hit more than the tank. He felt a wave of her frustration.

Acaadi knew that Zeltrons were natural emotional manipulators but he suspected it was his own fragility that caused him to feel so off kilter. It wasn't any attempt on her part to manipulate him.

"I know," he said in a frustratingly calm voice. "I know," he added, this time in a growl of impatience. He held his hands out in front of himself, looking at them as if they had betrayed him on their own.

"But we can...Well I don't know what we can do and that's the worst part."