Prince Charming...?

[Hal Terrano]

Where on Cato Neimoidia is Hal Terrano?!

Well, if you have to ask that question then I assume you do not know him very well. Hal Terrano was training, tempering, sweating. The schedule was strict, ramped up even further by a desire to atone for his time spent with the Sith. Physical suffering is a sign of healing, no? Pain is just a sign of progress, right? The ache of muscle and bone alleviates the guilt.

Wake up, get up. Breakfast consists of a hearty bowl of porridge, no sugar, no additives, although after experiencing tea for the first time with Avalore he had a couple of thoughts towards adding honey. Baby steps. After that do his dishes. It should be a Jedi's duty to clean up after themselves, a more subtle inclination towards discipline. Although, he would wash any extra dishes if they happened to be near the sink at the time. No complaints.

Cardio. A morning jog. Knee brace on to lessen the impact of an old injury, not to mention correct stretching procedure beforehand. Nothing too strenuous, sprint occasionally in short bursts before returning to a jog. He actually enjoyed this morning activity, a breathe of fresh air, moreso after living on Coruscant. The scenery granted him a certain aspect of peace, meditative running, how about that?

Well, except that time a Neimoidian kreehawk shat on his head.

Next up, strength training. Different weeks had different schedules, Hal Terrano did not skip leg day. Free weights. Squats. Deadlift. Low reps, high weights. Although he didn't shun the less macho aspects of strength training either. Yoga was probably one of the most ideal practices for a Jedi. Physicality, mentality, even a little bit of spirituality, much harder than it looked, however. He had considered asking [member="Avalore Eden"] to join him in this pursuit, mores the pity that he wasn't topless during his training. Jedi robes, I'm afraid, one has to get used to constantly moving in fluttering garments. Why not train in them?

Although a shower would follow after that and then there was definitely nudity on the go.

That was just the morning, which dropped us off at lunch time. Bluefish, brown rice, greens. Fish is the ultimate meat. Endorian Chickens? Don't be a scrub. You go fish or you go home.

So that's where we begin, in the dining hall at one of the large tables, where our favourite blonde socially dire Jedi sat alone in silence, eating his incredibly unseasoned and pious affair. Smile Hal, you could be dead.

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore's morning routines were very much scheduled and ... routine, but nowhere near as rigorous or religious as Hal's. She did enjoy a good workout, focusing on cardio. Her morning affair was a long jaunt between suspended bridge villages, from one rock arch to another - a massive loop that generally took her more than an hour to complete and toured those homesteads surrounding the arch upon which the Jedi Temple was constructed.

One landmass bridge connected them to all this. Just one. So, from time to time, Avalore and Hal passed one another - she in her fluid, rhythmic gait; he in his stilted militant staccato. Ava always looked back out of curiosity, sometimes turning to jog backwards just to watch his golden-blond self bob out of sight and into the mists that clung to the rock formations of Cato.

She'd be lying if she said she never worried about him. Especially now.

Avalore did enjoy the serenity of yoga, typically first thing in the morning as a wakeful ritual. She found it helped to calm her nerves from any previous night's haunting dreams if there were any, but they also helped to ease a strange ache in her joints that had made itself apparent only after leaving the Darkside-saturated Corsucant. Avalore couldn't explain the feeling, but certainly her tenure there had left some lingering side-effects.

At some point, she thought to herself while crafting a protein shake, she aught to include Darius into her morning routine, but for now she was complacent with allowing her new Padawan some time to settle in.

She moved from kitchen to dining hall, finding Hal there eating his usual, and stopped beside his chair, leaning against the table, protein shake in hand.

"Hey," was her greeting, casual as always but with a certain twinge of delicacy a mother used for a child she knew to be sick, "you're due for a new kolto patch. When you finish lunch why don't you come with me to the infirmary and we'll take a look at your back, alright? How's it feeling anyway?"

Her free hand found his shoulder and squeezed gently.

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

The cutlery clinked and clattered slightly as the Knight continued his modest meal, his day that bit brighter now that [member="Avalore Eden"] was in it. As the flaky white fish flesh fell to the gentle persuasion of his fork Hal turned to look at the healer as she addressed him, the intention of a polite smile still locked within his head.

“Good afternoon, Avalore,” he responded in kind, I mean, he wasn't frowning so that's how you knew that he was content.

He couldn't really pass comment about needing a new kolto patch, she was the healer after all. You don't go to the hospital and tell the doctor how to do his job, well unless you're a pushier more competent doctor, which Hal wasn't in any way, shape or form. He raised a new forkful to his lips as she gave his shoulder a squeeze.

There was a moment of quiet munching as the man refused to answer her question with a full mouth. Come now, manners at the table, please and thank you. In that moment he simply looked to her with that icy stare, a slight waggle of blonde eyebrows indicating that he was going to speak when his mouth was actually empty.

“My back itches,” he finally responded, “but there is barely any pain. I must thank you for that."

Pausing the man looked down to his half-eaten lunch and then back up to the protein shake equipped woman, “I will be finished my lunch in a minute, Avalore,” Hal said, scooping up a fresh forkful of fish. The utensil stopped mid-journey however as he took a conversational plunge, “How are you today?” the Knight finally queried before the fork resumed its mission.

 

[Avalore Eden]

A look of concern filled her expression at the mention of itching. This was certainly not good news, as itching could mean one of two things: something good like healing, or something very bad like corruption regrowth.

She hoped that it was the former.

"Alright," the answer was quiet, "take your time. I'll grab a quick shower and meet you there." Avalore stroked a hand over his head with a smile, patted his shoulder and headed off.


The infirmary, now freshly re-stored with all the medical essentials, was looking a bit more techie now. With some persuasion at the Ossus Temple, Avalore managed to get the head Healer to agree to loan her out a data unit with information pertinent to Healers, Doctors, and overall patient care. It had proven to be quite useful for her, since getting in touch with Ossus otherwise was often more trouble than it was worth. She'd even gone so far as to enter new information on the Cato holistic medicines now that she had some results to report. Avalore was doing just that when Hal finally entered.

"Hey," the greeting was thrown over the holoscreen before her as she typed, "shirt off, let's have a look."

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Let us all absorb the moment, in which [member="Avalore Eden"] was less talkative than Hal Terrano. I'm absorbing, absorbing, still absorbing. What? Fatal user error? Looks like this cannot be absorbed. We'll call it an anomaly in space and time then.

A pet and pat later and she was gone. A man not used to being touched he was always incredibly aware when making physical contact with anybody. Not that it frightened him, he just noticed it on another level. If asked her would have conceded very awkwardly that he liked those small little touches from Avalore, a squeeze of the shoulder here, a reassuring pat there. Maybe it was just an aspect of the healer but she provided a warmth and comfort that he had never known, and all in just a touch.

As she left to shower Hal's face melted away to an expressionless state and he continued to eat his healthy fare in silence.

Once his plate was clean (and his dishes were done) he made his way to join Avalore in the infirmary. She was already there and waiting, which once upon a time might have bothered him as our blond Knight had the tendency of arriving early to everything.

The robe was off, then the tunic underneath. Praise to the Force, Hal Terrano was shirtless once again, and without needing a further prompt, sat down on an examination bed. This time he couldn't think of any opening conversation piece and so instead opted to enter a state of being stone-faced. Oh, Hal, you charismatic bugger, you.

 

[Avalore Eden]

Tap, tap, tappy-tap-tap. Avalore finished up her latest entry before pushing herself away from the desk on a repulsor-chair. All she needed was a pair of spectacles and a pen to chew on and, hot damn, she could pull off that sultry scientist look. Hah, right. Disheveled Jedi Healer was about all she would ever be capable of fitting.

The chair bumped into a set of cabinets on the far end where Avalore sorted through some cleaning supplies before getting to her feet and making her way over to set up, just as she had the last several times. With a sigh the Healer pushed her hair from her face and leaned up to carefully begin peeling away the poultice patch. Most of the clay, as she had come to find, had dried against the gauze and was more or less easily pulled from the wound. It absorbed infection and promoted quick cell growth and regeneration, which was something that had concerned her at first. Heal too fast and one was more likely to scar, but not fast enough and the risk of infection rises.

Luckily, no such thing had happened, and after two poultice applications her order of Kolto had arrived. So now she was working with more familiar methods. What exposed flesh on the perimeter of the area she could see was healing nicely - pink and healthy, not scar tissue.

"This looks really good so far, let's see what the rest looks like -" and she lifted a cleansing towel to carefully wipe away the remaining kolto application, upon which she felt her enthusiasm suddenly deflate, "...oh...no."

Black.

It was black.

As black as if it had never been cut out.

Had the Kolto done this? Should she have stuck to the holistic clays? Was this her fault?

She swallowed and gave Hal a delicate glance. How to tell him without him freaking out?

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

You can be a sultry scientist if you want to, girl.

He sat as still as was humanly possible while Avalore went to work. It was just regular procedure, right? The niggle of the Dark Mark still pranced around at the back of his consciousness. So far being on Cato with [member="Avalore Eden"] was more than a welcome distraction from such woes and of course when not enjoying her company he was back into the rigorous daily training that a Jedi should do, that inky blackness upon his back had been covered, both physically and mentally.

Well, until about now.

Sitting on the bed Hal's mind drifted to why he was here. It was itching. Itching like before. Frown incoming in three, two, one. Forehead creased he tried to reason that the prickling tingling was all a part of the healing process, as if the body was testing one's fortitude. Don't pick at it! The body would scold while the mind worked its very hardest to make it the biggest point of irritation.

There was a glimmer of hope, it looked really good so far and then...

Unbeknownst to him, Avalore was rather worried about how she would break the news.

She already had.

“You said oh no.”

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore's hands wavered, one at her lips in disbelief and the other hovering over the wound, an angry black mark that should have been an area of fleshy pink skin still in the process of healing. Now in the process of re-corruption.

"Hal...just," she floundered.

What do I do? What ....what can I do?

"...just don't move, ok, let me just-"

and she whisked back off to the computer and began typing furiously, "don't touch it!" she piped with a sharp look, just to be sure. Flitting through several files, she quickly re-read one particular passage on the nature of Darkside Corruption. Force Light was often used not to heal it, but to eradicate the corruption much like anti-biotics were used against infections. It cleansed the area so that the natural body could resume it's normal tendency to heal on its own.

Avalore had never used Force Light on anything before, but she'd taken theory lessons and went through the various meditation exercises. Seemed easy, right? This was just a pop-quiz.

You're awesome at pop quizzes, girl.

"Ok...ok," and she hurried back across the room, but this time to his front, "Hal look at me. It's...the mark is there again. I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. It was healing so well and then suddenly it's back again. But I'm going to make it right, ok? I'm going to help get rid of it, and we're not going to use a knife this time."

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Sometimes it's better to just come out and say it. [member="Avalore Eden"] had apparently missed that memo.

Without being clued in the Healer left him balancing on an edge of uncertainty. He had to presume that the Dark Mark had not been eradicated but judging by the manner in which she verbally flailed and buzzed around the room to her terminal one couldn't be blamed for thinking it was much worse than that.

Was it bigger? Blacker? Had it mutated? Was it now oozing angrily? Were blackened wings sprouting from the back with three sixes etched into the nape of his neck?

Thankfully Terrano lacked the imagination to picture any of these outcomes, all he had to presume, was that it wasn't gone.

He tried to crane his neck around to look at it, but his lack of owl anatomy didn't allow for this and just as she banshee'd the words don't touch it, he immediately brought his eyes to the front once more. Those familiar lines that found themselves often etched across his forehead began to appear as the sound of furious typing did nothing to sooth him.

When she rushed around to his front Terrano tried his very hardest to soften his facial features. It finally came out. It was still there. Was he worried? Yes, but one of Hal's strengths was an unwavering calm in the face of adversity, even when he was trying to carve it out of his back like the Sithmas turkey he was as stoic as ever.

“You need to calm down, Avalore,” he said, looking her directly in the eyes with what was quite possibly one of the worst combination of words to say to a woman. “Are you sure?” he queried, regarding her quest to get rid of it, “Should we not contact the...” he stopped mid-sentence gritting his teeth together as if searching for the right words was truly difficult.

Learning from Avalore herself, Hal reached out with both hands to grab hers, maybe give them a firm squeeze. That's what she did when trying to pacify him, right?

“Do what you need to. I trust you.”

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore stood before the man with her mind racing and her heart pounding in her ears. Normally she didn't get so worked up. In fact, she recalled being pretty calm, cool, and collected throughout most of her classes and live field experience. Feth, she'd ran into an active war zone to retrieve the fallen body of her former Master, and yeah she'd been terrified, but her mind had been clear.

Get the fallen, bring them to safety. Keep them alive and comfortable as possible.

That had been her purpose.

Worried frown creasing her own face, Avalore didn't realize her state until Hal made it painfully clear. She was scared. Really scared. Scared of what could happen if she couldn't fix this. Would she lose Hal? Would he go back to the Sith? What if she made it worse?

Why was she a Knight again?

For one split second Avalore Eden faced a choice: cry, break down, confess all your short-comings and all your fears OR pull yourself together and do what you were taught.

YOU are the Healer.

But I don't know what to do.

HAL is the patient.

What if I hurt him?

THIS is your first real test out in the big wide galaxy.

I'm not ready.

"Do what you need to. I trust you."

Avalore looked down at her hands currently nestled within the larger palms of the Knight Terrano. With a blink she realized it was the first time since returning to the Jedi that Hal had offered any sort of physicality to her. Always it had been the other way around. He didn't owe her that, but it was a breakthrough she hadn't been expecting. It meant something. She nodded.

I'm going to help Hal. I'm going to rid him of that mark. I'm going to make things right for the both of us.

The traffic of her thoughts gently filtered away as the Healer closed her eyes and took a slow, steadying breath. Calm down Avalore. Think, meditate. You can't perform Force Light with fear or doubt present, you know this.

Knowing was only half the battle, though.

She opened her eyes and set those big, bold browns back on Hal, "I know what I can do."

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

He looked to her as she closed her eyes and one-by-one began to regain those marbles that had been rattled loose and split forth across the infirmary floor. It might have been a trick of the strong clinical lights that beamed above them but it almost looked as if Hal Terrano had a smile threatening at the corner of his mouth.

So far in their time spent together the blonde man hadn't been much a rock, he had been drunk, he had been crying, he had been self-mutiliating but he had not been the support that she, his friend needed.

[member="Avalore Eden"] never admitted to needing support, but between her circumstances upon joining the Jedi and her time spent in the cells of the Sith there had to be a woman in there that needed a little lift, some comfort, some friendship, some strength...even if she didn't even want to bother anybody else with it. Mark of a healer, that, spending all their time trying to fix everybody else that they forget to take care of themselves.

Her eyes opened, this time coming back with a pinch more resolve. Good. Hal nodded, giving her hands one last squeeze before letting go.

“Then do it.”

 

[Avalore Eden]

A broken smile formed on Avalore's face, touched by this moment with Hal. They were forging ahead in their friendship and, damnit, they were breaking down barriers she hadn't even known existed. Really, what Avalore had known of Hal was minimal to the utmost, given their single rendez-vous at the faire. She hadn't known what a basket case the man really was, even if he hid the basket in a very neat and tidy lock box. Beneath that stoic exterior was a man woven with wicker, fraying here and there but on the whole a pleasant thing to see and experience, and still capable of carrying all his own marbles in a convenient, portable sort of way.

She wanted to hug him, but refrained, and gave him a nod instead.

Avalore rounded the table to his back again, took a slow and steady breath of calming, lifted her hands over the corrupted wound, and began to concentrate.

Force Light was not ushered by will power alone, but by the desire to cleanse and make whole, to heal and to rejuvenate, to understand and to forgive. Though there was little for Avalore to forgive [member="Hal Terrano"] for, she'd certainly come to find that understanding the man was a task unto itself. She wished for all the other things, and would do her very hardest to see them through, but through it all Avalore mostly wanted Hal to live with peace of mind and wholeness that though he had endured the Darkness and perhaps even committed himself to it, he could live beyond his past and forge a brighter future for himself and for others.

A pale light formed within the palms of Avalore's hands, warm and bright.

Eyes closed, mind focused, she sought out the mark of the corruption before her, sensing it upon the Force with great clarity, and for the first time the Healer finally began to understand what it meant to see the world through the Force.

The light grew brighter, encompassing her hands and overtaking the wound. Hal would feel a warming sensation along his back, though perhaps pain was inevitable as well. What Avalore didn't know was the effects of Force Light on corruption - its cleansing powers often caused a great deal of pain for those fully lost. She pressed on.

Brighter still, until the flourescent lights of the infirmary paled in comparison, pure white drowning out the yellow hue.

She felt it now, the Darkside disease within the Force, prickling at her presence, attempting to drive her back. Avalore steeled her resolve and reaffirmed her intent.

I will help Hal. I will cleanse him of this mark. I will bring peace to his mind. He will not have to feel the itch of shame or anger or guilt anymore.

The sensation receded, the darkness furled, peeling back, beginning to dissipate in the essence of the Lightside. Avalore slowly opened her eyes, mouth faintly gaping at what she was doing, what she was accomplishing.

"Hal...it's working, it's-"

then something went wrong.

Hal would feel the mark surge through his veins, expelling the power of the Healer in protest, fighting back. Avalore gave a sudden shriek, recoiled and dropped to the floor, illumination faded.

 

[Hal Terrano]

Ever the good patient Hal sat perfectly still as Avalore gathered the last few fragments of her confidence and composure. There was no rush, she could take her time and he, the ever dutiful would wait for her. Thankfully this waiting was to be short as once more the Healer shifted back around to his back, leaving him to stare at his favourite spot on the wall again.

The blonde Knight was clueless to her new method however and asking her would have likely shaken his prior statement of trust like the proverbial pineapple tree.

Not just a patient, but a guinea pig too.

She began, and true to description came the first tingling of warmth, a metaphysical salve for the soul. Initially it was very pleasant, as if the process might have been as pleasant as a massage but that was not to be the case. There was a reaction, that inky blackness upon his back in the very beginnings of protest. Perhaps to another it might have felt different, more severe but to Hal Terrano it was like...

...static.

Fuzzy, prickling, irritating.

A temptation arose, he actually wanted to turn around and see what Healer was actually doing to garner a physical resistance. However the almighty slayer of temptation managed to squash that notion completely, he imagined that [member="Avalore Eden"] wouldn't have been very impressed if he started craning his head around mid-procedure. Probably get clipped on the side of the head for his trouble.

The purification surged forth, strong light casting a shadow of his sitting form in the clinic as the warmth began to win. Purity edging out corruption. The irritation began to recede. It was most definitely working.

Was.

The shrinking presence of the Dark Mark erupted so suddenly that even Hal himself made a gruff shout of pain and surprise. For a second his entire being seized, a sudden wave of darkness crashing through his system with enough haste that the Jedi almost vomited. Emotions that decidedly did not belong to Hal Terrano howled through his chest, anger, hatred, fear, passion, all compacted into the space of a few seconds. That wasn't the only concern.

“Avalore!”

Legs up, he whirled around upon the table and leapt off to attend to the collapsed Jedi. In his heart stirred a dreaded notion, if she had hurt herself trying to help him. Kneeling by her side the Knight fought to remain in his usual crisis-composure, moving to check her pulse and seek out any potential head wounds from the fall.

“Avalore, speak to me!”

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore did not respond. Out cold, but very much so alive.

There was no physical sign of injury to the Healer herself, at least not where her head was concerned, but her hands were a different story. The fingers looked charred, as though she'd attempted to grab hot coals and refused to let go. Her fingertips were black, not unlike the mark between Hal's shoulder blades.

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

With a pulse and a skull absent of fractures the coarse man managed to relax slightly at the current state of [member="Avalore Eden"]. She was still alive, that was the most important factor, it was about the only factor.

What could he do?

It wasn't like applying a bacta patch to a wound, behind his very back something had happened to the woman and Hal barely had a clue. The assumption was that the Dark Mark had reacted violently to her methods but from there it was a veritable mystery. What had it done? Was she just unconscious, or was it worse? Corruption was known for spreading.

With teeth grit, the Knight scooped Avalore's unconscious form from the hard unfeeling floor of the infirmary. He could at least lay her down somewhere comfortable. With the brow of unceasing worry equipped, he hurried still shirtless throughout the temple, taking the woman directly to his room and laying her upon his bed.

It was only then he noticed her blackened fingers. Frown deepened.

Avalore, what did you do?

 

[Avalore Eden]

Twenty minutes or so passed before the Healer came to, brow eyes slowly blinking open. Disoriented by how strangely dim the infirmary had become, her gaze eventually landed upon the familiar scowl of [member="Hal Terrano"]. Blurry, but there was no mistaking it.

There was also absolutely no missing the sudden surge of pain in her hands, like burning.

"Hal..." she winced, "my hands. What happened?"

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Ever vigiliant and loyal Hal did not leave the woman's side. It wasn't as if she had received a bump to the head and was just resting it off, no, he didn't even know what had happened. There had been a veritable explosive wave of darkness and that was it, that's all that he could gather with his back turned. So he would stand by the bed and wait, for however long it took.

Which was roughly twenty minutes

Relief filled him, the thought of [member="Avalore Eden"] never waking up hadn't been entirely absent from his thoughts while he waited but no signs of alleviation crested upon that ever static face. Immediately she moved to ask about her blackened hands and Hal was admittedly helpless in diagnoses, that troubled him. Although his helplessness didn't pester him nearly as much as his feeling of responsibility.

“I do not know, Avalore,” he spoke slowly, softly, “I felt the healing working, and then there was a surge in the Dark Side, I turned around and you were on the floor.”

He paused, jaw stiffening.

“Are you okay?

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore closed her eyes at the pain, grimacing over a shallow breath. It seemed to come in waves, as if whatever now corrupted her hands had a heartbeat of its own. As if it were alive. The thought of it disturbed her deeply.

"My hands..." she said again, swallowing hard as she forced her eyes open to look at them. Charred black fingers greeted her and she tempted, carefully, to bend them, and choked on the resulting surge of agony, "they burn...oh...feth," slowly she sat up, gingerly cradling her hands at her lap. The Healer shook her head side to side, looking as though she might be sick, "I'm...I'm not ok, Hal. I'm not. I don't know what happened. It was working and then...it backfired. I don't think I'm strong enough to overcome whatever power put that mark their. I'm sorry," hot tears pooled at the corners of her eyes, "I'm so sorry. I've only made it worse."

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Now here comes the real sense of helplessness.

His mark, his scourge remained upon his back where it was out of sight and nearly out of mind, sometimes itching, sometimes crawling but never more than an annoyance that he tried vehemently to repress. His mark was ritual, it was willing but hers, hers was aggressive, received as the threatened Dark Side bit out with its back against the wall, hers was pain.

“Do not be sorry,” he responded almost immediately, brow furrowing heavily as he searched for further verbal comfort. “It was working, I could feel it.”

He moved to sit down on the edge of the bed, looking on to the woman with his sturdy features still cast in stone. He might have moved out to touch her hand again were they not charred with hatred.

“We must leave and seek counsel.”

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Oh Hal, you wonderful charming fellow you. You try so hard to comfort and you're doing swell!

But Avalore just wasn't feeling it. She's a bit indisposed with self-degradation at the moment, Hal, don't mind her. You just keep doing you, and someday she'll fething snap out of it! That's right, she's the toad, Hal, not you!

"Where?" Avalore breathed, looking up at Hal, about as pathetic as a kicked puppy, "to Ossus? The Circle of Healers disbanded, I wouldn't even know where to look. ...might be able to get information out of the Temple database I guess."

[member="Hal Terrano"]