Isolation

[Jacen Voidstalker]

The lobby of the most secure prison in the Alliance was hardly the most scenic location to wait for someone. Slate grey paint adorned every wall in the cubic area Jacen sat in. There was a single caf machine which - as he had just discovered - dispensed the worst drinks he'd ever tried.

He turned to make a face at the man at the guard post. There shared a look and the guard made an apologetic shrug. The guard post was only visible through a gap in a reinforced duracrete wall and the view of the man behind it distorted by an energy field.

Jacen placed the cup of rancid, bitter caf on the chair down next to him. Reaching into his jacket he pulled out the visitor pass he'd already signed out for [member="Avalore Eden"]. It wasn't long since he'd first spoken to [member="Kana Truden"] that Jacen had headed up to Sulon to explain what had happened, how Kana had told him she'd been trying to find Hal.

Kana was still down in the isolation chamber. It was one of many suspended in magma where they kept fallen Jedi. They also used them to contain dark side artefacts. She was allowed out, but only when supervised by members of the New Jedi Order.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Jacen?" Avalore was running late, as was her penchant for most official things. This had all started back on Corellia of course - this running late business - and never seemed to go away. The Healer's internal clock set about twenty minutes behind the galaxy, she was forever fashionable and otherwise aggravating to most.

Maybe Jacen would be understanding, knowing just where she was coming from. Stali was home with the twins and boy were they fussing.

"Hi," breathless, the Healer arrived in a flurry of blue robes to offer the man a hug, "you're the most patient man on Sullust today. Thanks for waiting around. The twins...they're murderous with teeth. I've brought you pie, baked it last night when I couldn't sleep. Hope you like peach."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]
[member="Avalore Eden"]

It took Jacen a couple of seconds to blearily blink his eyes open. He'd settled into a meditative state whilst waiting and it took a moment for all cylinders to start firing again. He slipped off the uncomfortable bench to accept the hug, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Not to worry, can't imagine dealing with two teething babies at the same time to be honest,” he said. His nose wrinkled up as he recalled the acrid stench of teething poop. They didn't tell you about that lovely bit of biology.

“So, first things. If you have any electronics on you they have to go in the lock boxes behind you. I have to escort you into the facility but you can go down and see Kana alone. If you want you can sign her out as long as you stay in the temple grounds and myself and one other Knight have to keep you in eyesight at all times.

“She is…confused I think Avalore. I don't think she's anywhere near able to come to terms with how she lost her way,” he said sadly.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Does pie go in a lock box too?" the Healer teased with a droll smirk.

Jacen, eyeing the guard on duty, nodded in affirmative, "My pie does," and promptly sealed it away for keepsies.

She handed over her comm and nothing else - as a dedicated Healer she had no lightsaber to speak of, or weapons of any kind. What gadgets might be employed by a Healer or Field Medic were typically left in her bag back on her ship. She packed light today, mostly out of necessity but also out of forgetful anxiety. The whole situation with Kana had Avalore's insides twisted in knots.

She wanted to remind Jacen that she, too, was a Master of the New Jedi Order, even if an isolated and relatively unidentified one, a Master no less. But the man had a job to do, and if that involved being protective over a woman who likely couldn't defend herself from someone she considered a close friend, so be it. Once ready she followed his lead through the security doors and check points, smile fading now that the greetings were over.

"I wish she would have said something. The last time I saw her was back on Commenor, she showed up at my apartment falling apart at the seams. I should have made her stay..."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

It took a few moments for the scans to be conducted as the pair were trapped between two secure doors.

"I'm not sure she would have stayed indefinitely if you'd tried," Jacen said with a shrug. "It sounds like she started off trying to resolve some family issues and lost her way. When she was at her most vulnerable she was taken advantage of by one of the Sith. More than anything else talking about that seems to make her uncomfortable," he explained.

The second door slid open and the proceeded down a long corridor. Eventually they came do another set of secure doors, behind which was the elevator that headed down into the magma chamber where the cells were suspended.

"I'll wait here," he said quietly.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore's frown deepened. With a glance to [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] that attempted to hide the sudden surge of anxiety the Healer nodded. In an instant she felt 19 years old again staring up the steps of the Corellian Jedi Temple only this time there was magma and heat and fire and the vestiges of the Darkside in an old, good friend.

Swallowing the words Come with me? was a lot harder than she anticipated, and for as meek as she felt at what she might find down there Ava knew she had to go alone.

So alone she went.


The trip down the lift was long but it was not something she would later recall. Nor the walk down the hallway leading to Kana's cell. What she would remember with utmost clarity was the image of the younger woman as she came upon her, figure thrown into hellish relief at the backdrop of magma flows.

"Kana," Avalore breathed as she looked upon [member="Kana Truden"], brow knit so tightly with concern she considered never wearing another expression ever again a very possible side effect. The Healer waited for a sign that the woman she looked upon really was her friend and not some heathen wearing her skin.

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana had been sitting in an awkward position for a very long while at that point. Face burrowed in between her knees, arms hugging her legs. Her blonde hair draped over both, or at least as much of it as a medium cut frizzled mess would cover. She had come to call it her thinking pose. It didn’t do her back many favors, but the complete darkness helped her achieve some measure of clarity on whatever it was that she had to think about. Not that she actually liked to think on things these days, but for her to ever still have some small hope for getting out of this cell it was the least she could do.

In that particular moment she hadn’t been thinking about anything in particular. Her cell was getting more and more cramped, or so it felt like. It was as if she could touch one wall as well as the other if she just extended her arms enough. She had already tried it a few times and disproven the feeling, but it still lingered and she still repeated the attempts just to make sure.

“Kana.”

The voice caught her off-guard, but she would recognize her anywhere. The former jedi master lift her head up, hair covering her face she swept it away and tucked it behind her ear as she turned to look towards the door.

“Avalore.” She responded in surprise. Kana blinked a few times in rapid succession as her eyes tried to get used to the light.

Questions began to pop up in her mind. The biggest one being,

“How are you?”

That seemed like the most important question to ask, right? A friend cared about another’s well-being. That was how it worked.

Even if Kana had been a horrible friend.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Avalore."

Recognition.

...

"How are you?"

The moment those words left Kana's lips the Healer pressed forward, steps swiftly carrying her to the prone figure of her friend where she dropped to kneel by her and take the woman's head firmly in her hands. They were the only words she needed to hear to know it was Kana and not some beast. She kissed her firmly on the crown of her head before hastily moving to ensnare Kana in her arms.

"I'm fine Kana, good Gods," a heavy breath released the tension of worry from her mind, hug drawing so tightly around her friend that she squeezed tears out of her own eyes, "I was so worried about you."

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana didn’t much like hugs anymore. They were close, they were personal. It wasn’t that she didn’t like that people cared, but the touching part made her cringe. The last time had let someone come as close to her as Avalore did in this very moment there had been mistakes made. In fact it was quite possibly the biggest mistake that Kana had ever made, and even though the flashes had started to get far less graphic than before she could still see the touches and strokes of the pale woman’s hands across her arms, waist and hips as clear as the day it happened. Under usual circumstances this was the part where panic and anxiety overcame Kana, the part where she fell over and cried again.

But not today. Avalore was a rock. Avalore was Kana’s rock. The necklace that was still around her neck had provided the occasional moments of clarity when things were calm. Enough for regret to seep in even when Kana had carried out things she couldn't live with. As much as the terror of proximity was more than real it wasn’t because of the imminent flashbacks or the regret. Not this time. Now it was the shame of it all. She had set off and left her friend in uncertainty to become a living testament to what it meant to act as stupid as you humanly could. Yet even still Avalore had the courage to hug the disgraced Kana. That alone was enough for her to provide the response that the situation called for.

Kana wrapped her arms around the woman who was trying to suffocate her in a hug.

“I’m sorry.” She choked up. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. Not like this.”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

A deep frown etched its way across her face, and though her grip on the woman loosened it in no way lost any of the warmth or strength she was attempting to offer. Another kiss to [member="Kana Truden"]'s crown, more as a way of self-assurance than reassurance, she hushed the woman through her hair.

"Shh, no apologies. I'm not here for that, they can't undo what's happened. I'm here for you, right now, to do whatever I must to get you back and on the road to recovery."

And redemption, she thought but didn't say. Just like she could have said I should have been there, I should have gone with you. But should have's didn't fix things. Only I will's or I am's could. She pulled back, arms shifting to Kana's shoulders with a firm squeeze.

"What do you need Kana? What can I do?"

 

[Kana Truden]

What did Kana need, what was Avalore to do?

It was a question that was hard to answer. Kana was at a loss for words. As much as others seemed willing to help there was little that Kana could think of that others could actually be involved in when it came to making Kana ‘get better’ so to speak. This was in a sense her fight, her own consequences to face -- Kana had come to understand that much since she settled down in the cell. Still, that didn’t mean she had come to terms with what it was she had to face the consequences for just yet.

“I don’t know, Avalore.” Kana sniveled and withdrew herself from her friend. “I feel like...”

The worst person in the galaxy. Someone who is supposed to be locked up in this cell.

“I don’t know anyone here, and as much as I want to say that Jacen is a good guy he isn’t...”

You or anyone else that I know that I could trust explicitly.

“My friend.”

Not yet.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

She supposed she should have known that would be the answer. Grief and regret were difficult things to assuage after they reach a certain level. Time. Time was really what Kana needed. Time, something to put her mind to, someone to talk to in moments of weakness, and someone to help her feel strong again.

Avalore nodded and slowly settled herself down on the floor to sit next to the woman, arms loosely looped around Kana's raised knees. Concern squeeze into her expression, "I"m here," she stated firmly, "and you know me. That's a start."

Then a smile. Something warm, reassuring, resolute. Nothing flashy or ostentatious, just an honest show of care.

"Jacen is a good guy, Kana. He's been...so remarkably helpful to me over the last several months what with helping me with the twi-" and then she stopped, blinking, and that smile became something a bit quieter, coy-like, "oh but you don't know about them." The Healer released a breath and reached up to gently brush some hair from her friend's face, "I can take you outside, in the sunlight. Some fresh air? Would you like that? There's so much I have to tell you."

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“Yeah, you are.” A smile tugged at Kana’s lip much like a smirk.

Avalore was most certainly here and well. At least she seemed to be alright, which in Kana’s case was more than enough of a reason to feel glad. Relief, perhaps. Avalore had been there for Kana throughout the last few months, maybe not directly or even spiritually, but she had been in her thoughts during the brief moments of peace. When the worst of the regret was starting to kick in.

For a second the half-smile began to fade. She knew that Jacen was in fact a good guy, he was quite possibly one of the most friendliest people that Kana had come to know. He was strict, but always able to retain that sense of calm that she associated him with. But for as nice and respectable as he was, Kana’s attention started slipping away as if she wasn’t going to have it.

The inattentive diversion didn’t last long. Kana quickly snapped back to reality when she noticed Avalore never quite finished the sentence. A grin was slowly spreading on her friend’s face, there was something Kana didn’t know.

“I don’t know about who?” She asked most curious before waving her hand most dismissively. “Yeah, sure, sun is good.”

“But let’s talk about this someone I don’t know about.”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"How about we walk and talk," the offer given over a small smirk. Avalore pushed herself to her feet and offered her hands to help Kana up - as much a figurative gesture as it was physical. Avalore would always be there to help Kana up, even if she never asked.

"Stali joined up with the Alliance first, convinced me to join a while after," she began as they exited the cell chamber and began the long walk up that narrow, hot hall, "took him a while to do that. I wasn't ready to be a Jedi again ... not in any official capacity. My work on Commenor had been low-key and quiet. Managed to get the staff at the hospital to stop calling me Master Eden. I was comfortable there and moving to the other end of the galaxy, even if it put me that much father away from the Sith, was a terrifying prospect."

Thinking back now, it was strange to realize just how scared she'd actually been. Context of the time was necessary to understand: someone who had suffered through such tragedies finally finding comfort again...and being asked to leave. A bit like finding an oasis in a desert and being told to continue on anyways.

"We moved into a small apartment in the main underground facility here on Sullust. I think we lived there for about four months before I made friends with anyone. I met a Mirialan Jedi Knight named Chevu who was looking after another Alliance prisoner named Gabe," they reached the lift and Avalore stepped in, waiting for Kana to follow, "met them on a humanitarian mission."

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

A walk and talk was good. Kana nodded and accepted the hand up. They went on their way out of the cell along the walkways that had almost started to feel like the corridor of a Coruscant U. dormitory. The sounds and noises from the to her cells probably wasn’t too different from that truth either.

Kana could vaguely remember the name ‘Stali’ but she was not sure from where. Jedi business, no doubt, but as far as memories went she just couldn’t find the face to go with it. A meek smile set on the prisoner’s lips to complete the half-smirk-half-smile she had going from before. Avalore was still doing the right thing, no matter what. It was what Kana knew her for.

“I think I know of this Chevu.” Kana narrowed her eyes in deep thinking. “Green skin, black hair? Got in the way of a recent attempted prison break?”

“Yeah, that was most likely who Damian subdued before he managed to step down and surrender.”

Wait, Avalore didn't know who Damian was, did she? Kana had most certainly not made introductions to anyone, but Kana had also been gone for a few months without any sort of contact with the kid. Odds were they had met, odds were they had not. An explanation was in order.

“Oh, Damian is my old student. A bit of a wild child, but his heart is in the right place.”

He was also a clone of Marek Starchaser, but that part wasn’t necessary information.

“Anyway, what about this Gabe and Chevu? Humanitarian mission?”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"That sounds about right," Avalore remarked with a quiet smile. Chevu had her lovely moments, but Avalore had heard tales of her particular stubborn streak. Seemed the girl had something to prove ... or someone to impress, perhaps, which went a long way to explain the need for adopting out the twins. Couldn't be a hero on the battlefield and raise two baby boys at the same time. The Healer supposed that was normal for her age and couldn't fault the young mirialan for that decision. She'd made the same choice too, when she was that age, and now lived to deeply regret it.

"Well, at the time Chevu and Gabe were something of an item. She was pregnant with his twins and he was a prisoner ... I wish I was making all this up," suddenly struck her how very silly this whole story sounded and even she knew it was all truth, "Stali and I befriended them when Gabe was released on probation, invited them over for dinners and such, and then at the last Convocation Gabriel approached me and asked if I would be interested in adopting the twins. Chevu wasn't prepared to be a mother, she had her heart set on being a warrior and a hero and Gabe had made himself a nice little home on Sulon that he invited me to live at if I took the twins. And I did ... so I'm a mother now."

The warmth in her face couldn't be replicated by anyone that didn't know that particular feeling.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“Well, even prisoners can be nice people.” Kana reflected on the irony of that statement. She would have snickered, but that didn’t feel ‘appropriate’ and as such she allowed Avalore to continue her story about how she became a mother. The name ‘Stali’ did sound familiar but Kana was not sure why. Perhaps it had been during her time with the order, or perhaps it was someplace else. In the end it didn’t matter, the story went on.

“That’s great!” There was little else she could say. Kana smiled. “I mean, I wouldn’t be a very good mother myself, but you... I think you’ll do great- are doing great. You’re doing great. Probably.”

Perhaps it felt a bit like empty words, one of those things that people were expected to say and therefore they said it. A social game of expectations, sort of. Ultimately what it really was, was an admission and a compliment. While Kana would without a doubt make a horrible mother she knew for certain that Avalore would be one of the best parents that a kid could have.

A brief moment of silence passed before Kana spoke up again.

“You know, speaking of Sulon. There is really just the one place I want to visit once I am let out of my cell.” Kana turned to face Avalore. “Have you heard of the Katarn Homestead?”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore shared a glance with Kana, her own smile wilting but remaining with a feeble effort, "I know. I was a prisoner once, too. But I hardly think my captives appreciated any gesture of kindness from me."

Did Kana know she'd been a prisoner of war with the Sith before? Avalore couldn't recall clearly, but she didn't think so. Not that it mattered - those memories were long gone and far away. She chuckled, reached to squeeze at her friend's arm, "I'm trying my best. Everything's a learning curve times two. I don't think I understood what I was getting myself into, but I have lots of help with them. Jacen included."

Are we out of the lift? Where are we...

Uhhh, sure.

The lift doors finally opened to reveal the second hall that lead back to the doorways where she knew [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] to be waiting for her return, with or without Kana. She paused momentarily at Kana's subject change and accompanying question.

"Know it?" her brows knit upward, smile returning, "It's my home."

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Having kids wasn’t easy. If Kana went by the kind of kid she had been herself she could only imagine the grief that her behaviour would have caused a parent who actually cared. Sneaking off in the night, during the day -- whenever she could actually, come to think of it. It was all caused by neglect, of course, but that didn’t make Kana any less certain that her kids would be doing the same things that she did. Make friends around the shipyards and spaceports, daydream about life on another planet. Her running away from home, once she had built up the confidence to do so, had been a long time coming at the time.

That said, Kana managed to nod her head in a gentle up and down motion.

“Okay.” One could not mistake the surprise in her voice. “That’s... Cool.”

Part of Kana was already creating a draft of the eviction notice.

But no, she could not do that to her best friend.

“I guess that means, I have to come visit you then. Rather than the homestead, huh?”

By which Kana really meant crash the place and take her rightful spot in the homestead. Friends or no, she was going to live there one day. With or without the owner’s permission.

“We should be approaching the final gateway. Surface access and all that.” Kana got ready to take that deep breath. Ready to enjoy what was as close to fresh air as she would get around these parts. “Jacen is meeting us up ahead, right?”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"] [member="Kana Truden"]

"Mornin'," Jacen said in a casual manner as they approached. On his lap was a paper plate he'd pilfered from the guard covered in the remains of a slice of peach pie. There were not many crumbs left. He wouldn't stand in the way of the pair, but would move to have the outer door opened. After that he'd fall behind unless they wanted to talk with him. Avalore and Kana went back a fair way, his place today was merely to follow his duty of keeping tabs on his charge.