Past in Present

[Setzi Lunelle]

Feeling it from dark to bright​

When a wrong becomes a right​

When a mountain fills with light​

It's a volcano​

​

So much present, inside my present​

So, so much past

- Feist​

​

Two a.m. on Ord Trasi, Setzi woke in a cold sweat. This was more than a crisis of confidence. She had the stifling, suffocating feeling that she was going to die if she didn’t get the feth off of the burning planet, and right that minute. Her Sith companions sleeping in adjacent rooms, the Darksider, lost, confused, regretful and terrifed fled in the dark of night to her ship the Pirate’s Foe and lifted off without notice.

She’d murdered a slew of guards and almost pledged her allegiance to the Dark Lord, but this instinct - some would say fight or flight - caused her to reconsider. It was time for another one of her monastic sojourns the kind she had before she was captured by pirates and put into stasis for a year. The kind she had before Connor Harrison had found her, but the friend she’d known was gone. His husk called itself Sith. No, he was still human - barely - but she could not convince him otherwise.

Time away on some primitive planet where civilized life has not evolved, where I can study and-

Urrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrroowwwwwrrrrrrrrrr…..

The Pirate’s Foe had other plans, however, according to the woeful thruster noises.

Setzi careened out of the atmosphere to make a pit stop on Toprawa for repairs, but even the heavily forested planet was not immune to spillover from the recent Sith attacks on Ord Trasi and Kol Huro and she found herself landing in the middle of a huge riot or rebellion - it was difficult among the thick black smoke and flaming buildings, the spaceport so heavily damaged that it was barely operable. On her comms she caught the tail end of a distress call and response from the Silver Jedi.

Strapping on a light armor vest in case of combat, hooking her saber to her hip, the Dark Jedi realized her past and her present were about to collide in that Force-fateful way which surged through her body and thrummed through each and every nerve like faint and faraway thunder.

[member="Kastin Valentine"]

 

[Kardev Byrric]

Historically, Toprawa was a planet engulfed in war.

Centuries ago, numerous planetary governments and groups had aided the Rebel Alliance and their plotting to overthrow the tyrannical sovereignty that was the Galactic Empire. While cloak and dagger operations typically succeeded without detection, these rebel cells were soon discovered by the empire. Soon enough, the entire world was made to pay for such grievances against their ruling state. Cities crumbled, forests and plains burned, and people were slain by the millions.

To this day, the effects of that devastating attack could be felt - and the ongoing war between the Sith and their enemies didn't help matters either. Being this close to so many wars stifled the recovery of their economy and brought nothing but trouble and discord to the people of Toprawa.

But not everyone who ventured to the world brought ill intent.

---​

​

This was the first time Kastin had touched a weapon in a long time.

Clutching the blaster rifle with trepidation, he steeled his resolve as the young woman beneath his kneeling frame gave another heaving cough. Blood trickled from the corner of her lips, eyes dilated with shock, and that gnarly scorch mark marring the front of her uniform. The medic hastily snagged the vibro-bayonet from her ankle sheath and snapped it into place along the barrel before raising it above his head. One heaving slam downwards saw the weapon embed itself into the ground vertically right next to her head.

"It's okay, I've gotcha," the medic's shaking voice soothed. The next few moments saw him stringing an IV bag up on the buttstock of the rifle, looping the cord downwards before inserting the needle into her arm. Plasma would soon begin to slowly trickle into her veins, hopefully supplementing her body's grievous loss of bodily fluids in the form of blood and water.

Then came dressing the wound. Kastin ripped open her bloodstained shirt to reveal the charred scorch mark of a blaster bolt, still bleeding.

A pressurized bandage coated in bacta seemed to do the trick. The medic applied it as gently as he possibly could, lifting her body just a tad to wrap it about her waist to fasten it.

"It hurts, so bad," the woman pleaded, eyes tearing up. Her shaking hands found the cloth of his uniform and tugged weakly, begging for him.

Chaos reigned in the streets around him. Local defense personnel, such as the young woman beneath him, had been nearly overwhelmed by the riots spreading across the world like a wildfire. Insurgents called every corner or back alley a home and struck the defense forces with every possible chance they could.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

Before opening the hatch, Setzi assessed the console for the required repairs. She only needed couple of parts and an eager teenage Mon Calamari engineer to install them, but the barrier to freedom between The Pirate’s Foe and the atmosphere of Toprawa was not a thirty minute repair job, but the huge cacophony outside of the ship keeping her from access to the parts and the manual labor, the ebb and flow of normal commerce - disrupted by sudden events. She had a medical droid and some farming ones but could stand to purchase one who could make these simple fixes.

The Dark Jedi emerged from The Foe, determined to get off of Toprawa before anything else. Absolution wasn’t even on her mind. But after a minute or two in the pandemonium, Setzi began to have that same sinking feeling she’d had on Ord Trasi - that if she didn’t begin to make amends, however small, she would be doomed to choices which kept her in the pain that she often craved - and then regretted afterwards - like a cycle of addictive spice, ill-fated to keep making the same mistakes until death.

Between the rubble in the spaceport, the throngs of rioters and those who sought to escape the fray. Suddenly a Nalroni male fell before her, gargling out something in his language and then in Basic:

“Help me! My leg!”

Setzi crouched down and noticed the alien’s leg full of shrapnel wounds from some kind of grenade. Looking around, she decided to act, laying her hands upon his thick, shredded calf, healing him with the Darkside of the force, gritting her teeth as she referred the pain of his jagged flesh into her own body. About ten feet in front of her she could hear a woman’s voice complaining of the pain and what appeared to be a peacekeeping soldier administering bacta pads to her injured torso.

[member="Kastin Valentine"]

 

[Kardev Byrric]

As much as he hated saying it, this was all he really could do for the poor woman beneath him. Tending to her wounds and making sure she didn't die en route to the field clinic was his primary responsibility; actually saving their lives was the handiwork of the doctors and surgeons that had accompanied the Silver Circle's peacekeeping force on Toprawa.

Moving her was going to be a damn challenge, though.

"Hey," Kastin spoke gently, "I'm going to move you to someplace safe. There's a field hospital a few blocks down, the doctors there will take care of you, okay?"

Her eyes were half-lidded from the painkiller he'd administered. He slipped off a glove to press two fingers to her jugular. The joyous feeling of blood thumping through a vein. The medic grinned at her once she gave a weak dip of her chin - a nod.

This block of the city had largely been abandoned. Those who still remained tried to sit safely in their homes, waiting out the disaster erupting all around them, or the more sensible of the populace had been evacuated and relocated to safer locations some distance away. Typically those who remained were insurgents, defense forces, and the few civilians that figured hardiness and luck was on their side. That wasn't usually the case.

Sergeant Valentine pulled the hover stretcher from his medical pack, laying it out on the ground next to her. As gently and safely as he could, he lifted her and scooted the stretcher under her with his knees. Fastening the straps, he rose to appraise his work one last time before toggling the anti-gravity function. It rose around three feet from the ground, just high enough for his hands to clasp onto the thing and pull her back to the clinic.

However, his trip was not long lasting. Seeing [member="Setzi Lunelle"] and her apparent patient drew him close. The masked soldier slowly pulled his charge over aside them.

"Don't worry, I'm a medic," he attempted to soothe their worries of his possible insurgent background, "Is there anything I can do for either of you? Are you wounded? I can get you to a field hospital."

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

As Setzi treated the Nalroni who began to rouse and gurgle gratefully in his native tongue when his leg was almost fully healed, she’d fought through the worst of the pain until her vision blurred and her legs cramped. With a sigh, she wobbled backwards until she was finally sitting cross-legged on the pavement. Realistically, the Jedi felt the way she did because Darkside healing thoroughly punished its master with agony and nausea, but Setzi wondered if she wasn’t also experimented upon in statis… or perhaps she had a slight case of PTSD from her various battleground excursions. Either way, she felt as though she might be sick, but held back that feeling, instead focusing her attention on the medic nearby. He was able to safely evacuate his patient, perhaps he could do the same for injured Nalroni.

Boom!

An explosive went off nearby, and Setzi covered the alien with her own body for a moment to protect them from debris or shrapnel. When she rose to sitting position again, tilting her face up, slick with sweat from the recent Force healing, the medic was speaking to her.

“He may need additional treatment.” The Nalroni shook his head no and began to limp off. “Or not. I’m fine though. I just need to rest here for a bit and then be on my way for ship parts.”

It would be clear to Kastin that the woman was unsteady though with no visible wounds. And that she had done something to the alien to allow him use of his wounded leg again though she had no supplies, but for a belt with a few items hitched to it, her lightsaber hanging there as well.

[member="Kastin Valentine"]

 

[Kardev Byrric]

The thundering roar of an explosion nearby pulled Kastin from reality into heightened awareness. Eye dilated and widened, first instinct being to shield his patient on the stretcher with as much of his body as he possibly could. Thankfully, the blast was far enough away that only laughingly tiny pieces of shrapnel ricocheted from his lightweight armored plating - nothing of it even touching the young woman attempting to keep her breathing steady and heart rate even.

Turning back to the other woman and her wounded charge, Kastin was taken aback. While blood stained the trousers of the man, who moments before was in painful agony, now stood completely and limped away with minor discomfort.

What in the blazes? The medic mouthed in awe.

Then he saw the lightsaber upon the lady's hip, along with that neutral swagger of a Jedi Knight. However, Kastin had been told that no Jedi from the Silver Circle had accompanied them on this mission - they were stretched too thinly for a substantial amount of personnel and resources to be diverted here. Only a medical company-sized element was the most the Circle could muster, but its presence was definitely making exponential changes here.

"Can I help you at all, Master Jedi?" Kastin asked, eyeing the saber once more. Instead of accepting his offer, the woman said something about ship parts before her voice trailed off.

"I've no idea if we have any of those back with the company, but there's always a possibility." The coughing of his patient tore him away from the Jedi, "But I've gotta get her back fast. You're welcome to tag along if you'd like."

And with that, he continued on his journey back to the field hospital with hover stretcher in tow.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

"Can I help you at all, Master Jedi?"

It had been so long since she had been considered a Jedi that she nearly didn’t realize the medic had been speaking to her. Even when she was last on Voss as part of the SSC, she had been highly scrutinized having been a former Sith, treated with kid gloves even. Reformation from the darkness would be a long road, and she doubted anyone believed it could happen.

And as the Force would have it, it had not.

He thought there might be ship parts at the base, but she nearly turned and went the other way, until the outer wall of a damaged structure fell back the way she came, and Setzi realized that The Pirate's Foe was now blocked, even buried. She could pull the crumbling stones from the ground with telekinesis, but after healing the Nalroni, she needed to recharge her stamina.

And turning around slowly all around her she saw terror, woe, pain and death. No peace. Not even moment of tranquility for those who tried to stem the flow of blood. She'd not chosen this life of relentless psychological agony, but that did not mean she had to like it nor accept it.

“Wait!” she exclaimed and jogged up to the medic. “No, you can’t help me but maybe I can help you? I’ll have to rest before I can do it again, but I can assist in healing the worst of the survivors if the doctors and droids cannot keep up with the influx of wounded.”

She gave the Silver a grim nod as though to say, continue on and I’ll follow.

[member="Kastin Valentine"]

 

[Kardev Byrric]

Whether her allegiance to the Silver Order or not, Kastin was a stout advocate of assuming the best in all people until given a reason not to. To be fair, the medic was pretty sure he'd picked up that mindset when the Order accepted his application to become an Antarian Ranger. All the folks there believed the same stuff, so it was refreshing to finally work alongside like-minded people and do meaningful work.

And speaking of meaningful work, he caught sight of the field hospital.

Glancing back to the Jedi trailing him, he spoke. "Absolutely, we'd love any help you can provide."

It had been weeks since he'd last interacted with a Jedi. He envied them, really. Their mystical powers and seemingly omniscient knowledge of the universe and life were all things he dreamt of. Healing people within the blink of an eye, lifting things with your mind, and using those lightsabers of theirs was astounding.

However, fate had other things in mind and chose not to endow him with a strong presence in the Force. But at least it gave him steady hands and a penchant for patching these poor souls up.

"I'm Sergeant Kastin Valentine, Antarian Ranger of the Silver Order." The man spoke again as they neared the hospital. "Surgical tent is that way, headquarters and supply is over there, and the triage and treatment sections are there and there."

The second the pair began entering the perimeter of the medical unit, sentries had already notified runners. Two more medics came running from the triage area to take the wounded woman from his care and elevate her treatment as needed. Kastin passed off his patient with a smile and a promise that he'd see her again someday.

Then he turned back to [member="Setzi Lunelle"]. "You mentioned rest?" He arched a brow, "We don't have many creature comforts around but I can hook you up with a cot and a hot."

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

Setzi gave the medic a tentative smile. She thought briefly of her sister Chastity, the younger sibling’s voice in her head telling her to ‘loosen up a little.’

‘For once, you’re on the right side of the law. Like it was before we were Jedi.’

And yes before, the darkside consumed us both, she countered in her head.

Still, Chaz was right. Each step Setzi took towards the field hospital was accompanied by a miniscule burden lifting off of her shoulders. Though that feeling of losing her sister never went away, not for a moment. In fact, she scanned the medical beds right now in hopes of seeing Chastity lying in one, which is what she did at any scene of carnage or healing. Setzi used to get her hopes up that they would be reunited, but now she only glanced around out of habit.

“Rest. Oh right. I think I’m okay,” the Jedi said, distractedly running her hand through her sandy brown hair. “I’ll just take orders from you if you don’t mind, Sergeant. My skills would be best served attending to the severest injuries. Ones that aren’t amputations preferably.”

Her darkside healing could not replace a limb but if there was enough tissue, bone, flesh and nerves she could knit someone back together. Setzi only hoped she would be able to hide the toll it would take upon her physical form.

Can’t risk becoming one of the casualties, she told herself.

[member="Kastin Valentine"]