Picking Your Brain (Anija)

[Laira Darkhold]

Anija Ordo was one of the premiere Master Force Users within the Mandalorians, also a Protector and an acquaintance. She had been the woman that had signed ArmaTech into the fold on Mandalore. She was a good teacher, and instructor in several academies, and it should have been an honor to have her agree to teach me. If I were not so down trodden, so guilt ridden from my experiences I might have been. Instead I was only here for one reason. For the knowledge she could impart on me. I was not done. I was not ready to move on. I was here to take what knowledge she could pass on to me and use it to destroy my enemies, whoever they may be.

I stood, waiting for her to arrive at the shack out in the wilderness of Mandalore. I stuck away from large crowds right now. Ever since Apatros I didn't like finding myself alone, surrounded by potential enemies. Out here, where there was no one else was best, safest for others. I fluctuated on the edge of control and meltdown most days, but some days I was able to keep my composure. This felt like one of those days. I breathed in deeply, working on a basic breathing exercise, centering my focus. There were no enemies, no danger. Anija was going to help me, and that made her my ally.

Bright yellow eyes peered back at me when I closed my eyes, sorrow filled my heart and pain slashed through it like a knife. Soon. I will be ready soon. Once you are avenged Mesh'ika, I will join you in the ocean of stars and we will be together again.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Wilderness. Not a part of Mandalore which Anija had explored much. But at times, she found it a fitting backdrop for various endeavors. Now was one of those times. Draco was a man she'd come to know fairly well over the last few months, mostly due to his joining the Protectors, and then moving the main offices of his company to Mandalore. She'd e instrumental in both instances. And she was glad of it. He was the kind of man she was glad to have as an ally and a friend.

He'd asked her here for something... that she wasn't entirely used to doing: Sparring. And yet, that was somewhat ironic considering that she was an instructor at various academies including the Levantine Astronautical Academy. Sure, she taught mostly starfighter combat and tactics. But, that didn't mean she was a slouch at hand to hand combat. Just that she wasn't wonderful at it. her lips quirked slightly at the thought.

Though as she drew closer to where Draco had told her to meet, she began to feel ripples of emotion which left her concerned. Anger... sorrow. The strength of the emotion rocked Anija back on her heels for a moment before she took a breath and centered herself. As she drew closer, Anija lifted an arm and waved in Draco's direction."Su cuy!" She called out, trying to grab his attention. For now, she wore her full Voxyn beskar'gam, but that might change. As she came to a stop near him, she reached up to remove her helmet, clipping it to her belt.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I turned and nodded at the woman, and I could feel her through the Force, sensing my sea of stormy emotions. I closed my thoughts, cutting out any emotions that I had let bleed into the Force. I had come out here so that others would be unaware, untroubled by my state, and I intended for it to remain that way. "Su cuy." I responded, nodding to her as she approached. I lifted my own helm and placed it on a tree branch, leaving it there. It would be fine for now without needing to trouble me. "Thanks for coming out this far for me." I said, rather solemnly.

I turned more attention to attempt to give off the appearance that I was fine, that nothing was wrong, that everything would be okay for me. She didn't know what I was going through, and she didn't need to. My quest, my purpose was my own and I would walk this path alone. "I heard you became a Master, and well I could always use the help Vod. I was hoping you could give me a rundown of some of the things you know, some of the tricks and Force Powers, and maybe toss in a little combat training." I put on a half smile for her benefit. Whatever knowledge she could impart to me would be of great assistance to me.

"I don't really know what you are capable of, so lets just start with whatever you feel like. You are the master after all." I said, kind of jokingly. I had no idea what abilities she specialized in, and that was part of the reason I wanted to train under her. All knowledge is valuable, and my training had so far been undertaken by a half dozen Masters, all of different alignments. Right now, alignments meant nothing to me, only the desire for knowledge. I needed as much as I could get from as many as would teach me.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

As she moved closer, Anija felt the emotions she'd sensed fade away. Maybe he'd hidden them. Or maybe she'd just been imagining it. For now, she didn't press the issue. What mattered more at the moment was the reason she was here. Training. Nodding to herself, she paused a few paces from him and set her helmet aside as well, so it wouldn't hinder her. For now, she brushed aside her initial concern for his emotional state. If he'd wanted her help with that, he certainly would have asked. And she wasn't one to pry.

"Draco, you're a good friend... and you - as do all my friends - know that when they need me, I show up." Hesitating a moment, she reached up to lay a hand on his arm. Feth, he was tall. "Whatever it is, you can talk to me.... or we can just spar. Your choice. Sometimes combat, even in a setting such as this helps one to be able to sort their emotions and thoughts. It's important to be able to keep your focus."

Having said this, she moved forward, the motion fueled by the Force and years of training. She was shorter than he was, and so was attempting to use that to her advantage. But, she was still lacking in overall close combat skills. After a few seconds, she plowed into him, and rammed her armored shoulder into his chest. That sent a jolt of pain through her, but for the moment, she tried to ignore it, using the jolt of adrenaline to fuel her next move.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

She seemed to be brushing away any concern or worry about me, she reached out and placed her hand on my arm offering comforting words and reassurances. They would have been more than enough for any other issue, any other trauma I had suffered. The thoughts of Chiasa folded backwards, resting deeper in the recesses of my mind. Anija was right. I needed to focus on training and preparing myself for the trials ahead rather than dwelling on my sorrow and pain at her loss. We would be together again soon enough. I just had things to do first. And train myself was the first thing on the list. I nodded knowingly to Anija, and if it were anything else I would have revealed my suffering to her. Chiasa and I had only been together a short time, and we had not made our feelings or relationship public in order to protect each other. But I could not face the pain of accepting she was gone. I could not move on.

She shoulder blocked me. Tricky little minks. It was a good ploy, couldn't blame her for that. For a moment a flash of anger and surprise rebounded through me, but it was replaced by the cold calm of combat. This was training, and as easy as it was to get angry about such an act, there was no reason to. Only react and continue the exercise. Besides, little sparring lessons like this made for excellent training. Her shoulder drove most of the wind from my lungs, but I wasn't down and out. I brought my hands down towards her back for a clubbing blow, reaching out with the Force in an attempt to fuddle and slow her mind, her movements, make her believe she was loosing steam and becoming tired quickly. Its effects would increase over time, the more I focused on it, the longer I kept that focus. It was one of the powers and abilities I had already trained in, but more practice didn't hurt. It also fit the first rule of one on one combat. Outlast your opponent.

What I did not know was that my focus on that was straining my mental barriers, the barriers that held my nightmares at bay. A simple push might tear open the flood gate.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She got the distinct feeling he was tamping down on his emotions. though what the cause was, she didn't know. Nor did she really care at the moment. that was his business. She didn't pry unless there was an obvious need tr request to do so. She knew much of what she said might have sounded like empty platitudes. But they weren't. She really did care. And she would do whatever she could to help.

And thus began their impromptu sparring session. A grin broke across her face as she felt the air rush from his lungs and ready herself for her next move. And that was when his hands came crashing down on her back. Feth, that stung. Even with the padding on her body glove, she could feel the wiring and such digging into her back such was the force behind his strike. Stumbling, she dropped to a knee.

It was then that she began to feel exhaustion creeping in. That was strange. She'd trained to push past that. And they'd barely started. Focusing tighter, Anija began to dispel some of the feeling of fatigue, although some persisted. It slowed her a bit, making her feel slightly sluggish. Growling in frustration, she lunged at his knees, wrapping her arms around them. As she hugged herself to them, Anija dug her left thumb into the soft fleshy spot just to the side of his left knee. It was a spot that hurt like feth.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

She crumpled to the ground from my strike, my focus still pressing her mind, slowing it. I had planned to knee her in the collar bone if she fell, but she hadn't fallen far enough and her reaction was still quick, early in this little sparring match. She pounced, driving her thumb into the outside of my left knee, causing it to flare with pain. I winced, but no doubt she could feel the servos under it, reinforcing it. It still hurt, but it wasn't going to break or tear as easy as someone else's might. Even still, my best bet was getting some separation so I could get my bearings about me, catch my breath, and then press the attack. I reached for her shoulders, any part of the armor I could grab onto really, while rolling backwards and placing my right knee against her chest. The hope was to roll backwards and flip her off of me, giving me a second to move around, but she was also a trained warrior, so the back up was if she held on, I could roll through and end up on top of her.

"Not so easy Verd'ika" I said, in between breaths, a simple ploy at annoying her, making her react differently, with emotion in the bout. Emotion in combat made you make mistakes, made you loose your temper and do things you wouldn't normally do. I knew this all to well. It was why this little sparring session was going to be very theraputic. The last few fights I had been in had been mired in my emotions, my hatred, my grief, my suffering, and I had inflicted that on to others. This was a friendly match that I could cut loose in, that I could relax in. My emotions, they were there, but slowly they were shifting to the back of my mind. Given my focus on slowing Anija however, the memories I had blocked out, the horrifying visions and nightmares I had locked within the deepest parts of my mind lost even to me, they were pressing forward, slowly but surely.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She felt his fingers wrap around the edge of her shoulder plates and gritted her teeth. Probably a stupid move to drop like that, but it was fething hard to focus. Swearing under her breath, Anija tried to plant her feet on the ground and ram her shoulder into his stomach. That didn't work, and an instant later she found out why.

Anija gasped as she felt he fingers close tightly around the edge of her shoulder plates and dig into the muscles of her shoulders as he shifted. His knee pressing into her chest drove the air from her lungs again, and she grunted loudly as she felt him gain leverage. An instant later, she went tumbling over him. It was times like this that she wished for her helmet. As it was, she didn't have it. tucking her head, she tried to land and roll as she'd been taught.

She was mostly successful. It was as she was coming to her feet again that she caught his comment. It annoyed her immensely. She'd grown up living and training to be a Mandalorian, and here he was, tossing her around like she was some raw recruit. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Anija pushed to her feet, and came to a knee for a moment before lunging at him. She feinted, as if she were going to rush him again, and then she ducked around him, driving an armored elbow into his lower back.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

She tucked and rolled through the toss, but it bought me a second of pause, long enough to regain my feet and adopt a more aggressive stance, but she was moving just as quickly. If she had ever had the pleasure of seeing me without a shirt she would have known about the cybernetic spine, made of tight bundles of servos, supports, and duranium. She, however had not been that lucky. She feinted and tucked off behind me, driving her elbow into the cybernetic. While it didn't hurt per-say, it did knock me forwards keeping me from wrapping her up like I intended. I could tell she was getting annoyed, which was kind of the intention behind the Joke and the Force Slow being used on her. I had noticed she hadn't used any Force Powers of her own. Perhaps she simply didn't know I was. It was a subtle touch.

I used the momentum from her blow to spin around, facing her back reaching for her belt to haul her back to grips. It would be close, she might be able to scamper away from the grapple, but then again, she might not be able to. With her facing away from me, I could drag her into a suplex, but that was in the future, I had things to do now. I eased off the Force Slow in order to connect with her mind. <No Force?> was the thoughts I pushed into her mind, more a question then anything else. She had initiated the fight, and I had assumed all bets were off and we were just brawling. Either way I didn't mind. I was having fun, and I was pretty sure once this was over we would be laughing about it in some bar within an hour or so.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

The touch on her mind surprised her, and Anija blinked. Sure, she'd been using the Force... but mostly for physical enhancement instead of actual attacks. As she tried to get her bearing again, Anija felt his gloved fingers seize the back of her belt. In pure reflex, Anija tensed and pushed at him with the Force. There was quite a bit of Force behind it, And Anija watched as the force of it separated them. It sent her stumbling for a moment, and she used the opportunity to try and sweep his feet.

The reflex was born of an event that had happened years ago. One she wasn't proud of. Occasionally, the memory would surface. And now wasn't the best time. But then it never really was. The DeathWatch attach years ago. Anija suppressed a shudder at the memory of it, and pushed a thought at him. 'I was playing nice...' she chided him. 'But, now that you've done that.... all bets are off, burc'ya..' She grinned up at him then, almost in challenge as she shoved at him again with the Force, and grinned as she saw him stumble slightly. Though, it was rather hard to tell.

Grinning, she rounded on him again and dashed forward to seize his wrist. Turning slightly, she wedged her hip up against his and tried to throw him, much as he had done to her not long before. The physical contact was good for something else as well. As she kept a solid hold on his wrist, she probed at him in the Force. It's wasn't as.. .smooth as some might have been, but it was skill borne more of necessity than much else. As she pushed harder against his mental walls, she began to get a clearer picture of his emotions. Though, the cause of such still eluded her for the moment.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

She entered my mind, and what she would see was an thin exterior of cold calmness, even slightly jovial. Just underneath, like a beast breaking loose from its chains she would find rage, sorrow, hatred, loss, suffering, guilt, and the feeling of being truly and utterly alone. She would see visions, memories as though through my own eyes of crushgaunts wrapped around a man's throat and visions surrounding that man, horrific things of nightmares, the feeling and memory of the use of the Force to drive a man insane. She would feel the man's sanity break under the weight of the visions and screams he was imagining.

She would see lightning rippling from his fingertips into a solitary rodian in a dark alley, arcing over him as the reptilian being screamed in agony to cold unfeeling ears. She would hear the rodian beg for its life, then beg for it to end. She would hear the simple answer, "Soon enough." She would see a room filled with people turning upon each other, stabbing, kicking, bashing, punching, clawing each other. They looked like a family with grown or older teenage sons. The room would swirl with shadows of nightmares and horrors dancing on the walls. Then she would see it filled with blood and the bodies of the slain. She would find unspeakable terrors born from grief and guilt. She would hear the same question over and over again. Why her?

And at the center of the maelstrom of emotion, of agony, absolute rage, sorrow, loss, guilt, and grief she would see a bed, covered in blood with a beautiful striped orange twi'lek upon it. From this vision only misery and loss flowed. The source of his failings, his loss. She was gone. And it was my fault. Everything now was a quest to find who had done this to her, to me. To find them, and make their last moments as twisted, as painful, and as final as mine were now. Then to rejoin her in the stars, once and for all.

Her loose connection would feel the cold calm shatter under the weight of the memories that had been barely contained as they now flooded into my mind, having been lifted by her light touch. For an instant tears formed in my eyes, only to be replaced by red. Everything was red. Everything was blood. My body moved with no thoughts controlling it, simple instinct, reaction to the memories. I reached and grabbed for her head, fingers crackling with lightning. She had my other wrist, her hips against mine, intent to toss me. With only instinct, I flooded her mind with visions of horror and nightmares. Unspeakable entities of darkness. Her will was strong, but I wondered how much it could take. I had no control anymore. Ever fiber of my body wanted to destroy this unknown woman down to the last atom, every piece of my mind revolving around the one memory. The memory of how I was alone. Of how I had failed my love. Of how it was my fault.

I could not have told someone my name at that moment. I could not remember who this woman was, or why we were fighting only that it was time to tear her apart; tear her like my heart had been torn in twain.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

As the stood there, locked in each other's grip. Something within the shared connection shattered. It was strange how combat brought clarity to such things. The force of the memory and emotion slammed into her like a sucker punch to the kidneys. groaning out a curse, Anija barely managed to keep her feet.

It wasn't easy. As as the shared vision continued, she saw why. It wasn't just the vision. She'd seen such before. That wasn't to say she was deadened to such things. Oh not in the slightest. It was the emotions tied to it that really drove it home, like a knife to her heart. The force of it all drove Anija to her knees. Which of course made what happened next all the more easier.

Anija gasped as his fingers clamped around her head, and grit her teeth as the lightning coursed over her. At first, it wasn't so bad. But then the visions started. Visions which only built on that of her own which had surfaced again. As the images continued to flood her mind, Anija tried desperately to erect her mental defenses.... but Draco's assault crumbled them like tissue paper.

She fought back... or tried to... but the physical and mental assault was too much. Lightning coursed over her body, dancing over her, and sending sparks shooting from her damaged armor. She'd never even considered adding any kind of Faraday cage or similar apparatus to the armor. And now all it did was to serve as an amplifier for the electricity. As the attack continued, Anija struggled to stay upright - and conscious.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I added pressure to my grip on her head, the servos in my hand granting it added strength. The lightning coursed over her and rippled into my own armor, her grip sending some of the electricity back into me. For a second I felt as though the electrical resistance in my armor would hold, but then as the arcs reached for my head i stopped the lightning, not wanting to injure myself. I had no idea why she had not been prepared for a full on assault, she had been attacking me last I could remember. I could see only glimpses of what happened on Wayland, on Apatros, and on Roon. All the past was forgotten. Only that I was angry, and it was her fault, this woman in front of me. I tried to shake her grip from my wrist, and in order to do that struck for her chest with my armored knee.

All the while the mental assault continued. This was what I knew best. It was what I specialized in. I had but months of study of training into this type of attack. A brutal telepathic attack mixed with illusions of horrors and nightmares. I had taken these memories from previous victims. Victims I couldn't even remember creating before this moment. Like flashes the memories of those acts came back. I sensed the memory in her mind, slight, a nusiance easily replaced with something far more horrid, but I paused. This memory was hers... something that hurt her personally. I latched on to it, dragging it forth towards the foremost of her mind. If this was the worst moments of her life, she would relive it, over and over. I became cocky, confident. I no longer waited for her counter attack. This woman had not been prepared for me. She would not enjoy the moments to come.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She barely felt as his knee slammed into her chest, but the force of it drove her over backwards. It also succeeded in loosening her grip on his wrist, though her grip had tightened instinctively when the mental assault began. Because of this, long scratches would become apparent as the force of his knee to her chest forcibly separated them. Even as she fell back, she tried to fight back. But instead of Draco, she saw the Death Watch from all those years ago. her body was literally shaking from the intensity of the lightning and from the memory being forcibly yanked to the forefront of her mind. On pure instinct, Anija turned on her side, raising her hands to protect her face from some remembered attack, muttering curses as she did so. All she could see was the memory. As vivid as the day it happened.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I could see what she saw, and for a moment I was ecstatic, I was over powering her, I was going to destroy her from the inside out. I moved my hands, the blood on my arm barely noticeable, but they would need stitches. I moved my hands, placing them around her throat and applying pressure. I had not done this before. It was different. The mental assault was different. Normally I implanted thoughts and nightmares I imagined, not reaching into their mind to pull out their own nightmares. My grip was strong, even without crushgaunts, and without her helm she was fairly unprotected from being choked out. Even still, I could see the horrors that happened to her, that she was reliving now as I applied pressure to her throat. This would be over soon, but it would seem like hours or days to her, however long it took to break that little thing called her sanity. Then I would break her.

Fleeting memories of children, an infant giggling, a twi'lek woman purring with delight and pleasure flowed within the horrors and nightmares now. I did not know why they were, I was so filled with rage, with hatred, why would I also be thinking of those things? They did not belong. "Viyi'ee" came a voice, the soft purr of a woman whispering sweetly to a partner. Why did that memory belong here?

 

[Anija Betna]

The memory continued. She was re-living the nightmare that had been buried in her mind for close to fifteen years. The sheer power behind it, and the force with which it had been yanked to the forefront of her rights left her shaking visibly. Still, she kept her hands raised close to her face in an effort to ward off the attack. One only she could see.

Even with her hands up to protect her face, she was unprepared and pretty much unable to form enough coherent thought to try and and push him away when she felt his hands close around her throat. Force, how she tried, though. But something was different. This wasn't part of her memory. The feeling of his hands around her throat was strange and painful. She was still locked in the memory, even as her brain tried to process the fact that something wasn't right.

She couldn't breathe. Gasping as she struggled to duck in a breath past his grip, she whispered the only thing that came to mind. "Arrbi..."


[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Something was wrong... I had seen this before. Like an avalanche the revelation struck me. Back to the shared memories I had with Chiasa, the ones she had shown to me on Nar Shaddaa our first night together. The nightmare she had shown me. The nightmare I had promised not to be. My grip relaxed from her throat and as the memories continued to flow the red I saw slowly faded away. The high from combat lifted, my body and mind slowly tiring, fatiguing from the exertion of putting Anija to the ground and invading her mind. It was not easy, and had she been prepared for such an assault, it may have went differently, but now here she was. On the ground, red marks across her throat much like the ones Chiasa had gained from her attacker. That had been when she took her child. Her child. I hadn't done anything to find the child or to discover her fate since learning of Chiasa's death.

I looked into the nightmare, the psychological terror I had wrought upon Anija and sought out any found memory. I found one, her, her husband Arrbi, their own child, together, enjoying themselves. I was not angry anymore. The memories had mixed and the terrors I had committed and blocked out were joined by the fond ones that I had similarly forgotten to save myself from the pain of knowing they would not occur again. I reached and latched on to this memory, and much weaker than before, attempted to bring it forward. "Its going to be alright, Anija. I'm going to get you some help. Its going to be alright." I reached to pick her up. She needed help, lots of it. Help from doctors, from her family, from her friends. I had to get her to a hospital before any permanent damage was suffered. Guilt ached through me again. This was what I had secluded myself to avoid.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Slowly, the nightmare in her mind began to fade. But at what cost? Anija lay huddled on the ground at his feet, as if trying to protect herself from another attack. The whole ordeal had left her shaking, and even now, her hands clenched into fists up near her face. Tears born of pain, and the remembered event traced down her cheek slowly, leaking from the corners of her eyes, which were tightly closed.

As Draco slowly began to draw another memory to the front, Anija stiffened for a moment before relaxing. This memory she knew. It was of a day that she and Arrbi had taken Mirshko to visit one of the many historic sites around Keldabe. revisiting that memory got her to relax a bit more, but she remained curled up out of pure instinct. "Going to be alright...?" she mumbled, the words clipped and pain-filled. It was hard to focus.

She chuckled, but there was not really any mirth in it. "Funny.. coming from you....." Her tone was biting, and she still could barely focus. Even so, she tried to shove him away.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I wasn't giving up so easily. I had hurt her in ways I could no longer imagine, and she needed help. Red marks in the shape of hands were already appearing on her throat and who knows how much damage the lightning had caused to her body. And yet, I knew that that was not the worst of the pain I had caused her. She needed help. She needed it right away. She needed someone she could trust to mend her spirit, and she needed a doctor to mend her body. And unfortunately, I was neither. When I had snapped I had broken any form of trust she may have had for me earlier, now all I could hope to do was repair what ever damage had been done. I became insistent, hefting her up into my arms, one arm wrapping around her back, the other in the crook of her knees as I carried her. "Come on, I need to get you some help."

We were off and secluded in what was effectively wilderness, but there was a speeder nearby and it was a short trip to civilization. I said nothing to the medics at the facility I took her to. There was nothing I could say. Nothing I should say. Even still I stayed nearby. I wanted her to know what I had come to realize, to understand what had happened in my mind. I was unsure if I was fully aware of what had happened, much less be able to explain it. What was most prevalent in my mind was Maliha. I had blocked out so many memories of Chiasa, the child had been one of them. I needed to find what had happened to her, where the infant had been stolen off to. And I needed to retrieve her. But first I need to resolve this, to answer for it if need be.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Her throat ached. It hurt to laugh... to breathe. After her initial attempt to shove him away, she turned on her side away from him, and sighed heavily. Some part of her knew that he was honestly trying to help. But the other..... she didn't trust him as far aas she might be able to throw him. Not after that. As he reached down and lifted her, she didn't resist, but she did stiffen in his arms, the entire line of her body tense.

As Draco moved towards a speeder and made off towards a medical facility, Anija found herself slipping into a semi-conscious state. Mostly from the pain and the mental shock. Only the constant talking from the medics, kept her awake. She much preferred to be napping. Maybe it would make the pain stop. Or maybe it wouldn't. Not that she really wanted to find out. She just wanted to sleep.

Through all of it, Draco stayed with her. His silent presence - while unwelcome - did serve as somewhat of an anchor for her as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Now, Anija lay in a bed at the medical facility, her body swathed in bacta bandages. At least it helped ease the pain to some degree. Physically, anyways.

What neither of them knew was that when the fight had started to take a turn for the worse.... and the first signs of lightning danced over Anija's form, ANNE has sent a terse message to [member="Arrbi Betna"]. He would know who it was from. <Anija injured. Systems damaged. Follow signal of this frequency..> It was a radio signal. A backup location transponder, should the main one ever malfunction. this certainly counted. Following the signal would bring Arrbi right to the medical center, if he chose to follow it.

[member="Draco Vereen"]