Reflection

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

He had been narrowing down his focus around her presence when the Force barrier was manifested. Such a thing made a clear discontinuity in the flow of the Force. It shone like a beacon to his mind's eye.

Jacen set out, slipping through the curtain and heading back to the stairs as quickly as he dared. The strap of his rifle was around his neck and shoulder, the weapon across his midriff.

At the insistence of the Force he pressed himself back into a book as three men chased past him, heading for the kitchens. He followed after them.

There was a pirate curled up on the ground, both hands clutching his waist. He raised a shaking, blood soaked hand and pointed towards the end of the hall. The three ran off and Jacen broke into a jog. The pirate barely looked at him as he checked the man's belt and vest. No comm-link, but a spare power pack that Jacen stuffed into his pocket.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Ohmygod-" whimpered Deema as Avalore shoved them into the ktichens, "ohmygod ohmygod."

"This way!" the Healer hissed, ducking behind the Sous Chef.

"HEY! You're not allowed in here-"

PEW PEW PEW

"EVERYBODY DOWN," prowling in through the same double-hinged doors the Pirates made quick work of intimidating the cooks, "three people just came in here. Hand them over or everyone dies."

There's a door - a cook crouching across the aisle from Avalore and her charges mouthed silently at them, pointing to their left - I'll distract them.

With a nod Avalore motioned to Deema to remain quiet and crab-crawled forward to the end of the line, watching the cook while peering down to the other end of the kitchen where the Pirates were systematically searching the lines.

"I SAW WHERE THEY WENT!"

PEW PEW

Two shots fired off into the corner, narrowly missing their helper who ducked behind her station, "I saw where they went - over there, into the storage room."

"Search it."

Go, go now, Avalore hissed at Deema and pushed her towards the doorway. She couldn't be sure, but she thought it lead back towards the dining halls.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

Five blaster shots was five more than Jacen wanted to hear right now. The swinging doors made the volume of the skirmish fluctuate as he approached.

“I saw…”

“…earch it!”

Jacen left nothing to chance as he approached. He hugged the far wall and kept the carbine up and locked into the crease of his shoulder.

Thump, thump, thump…

The doors stopped swinging and held open before him, locked in place by his telekinetic grip. As he edged forwards he caught sight of the trailing pirate. The other two were opening the storage room. Jacen wasted no time in taking the shot, but he was thrown off by a cleaner standing to bolt for the open doors.

His red bolt merely clipped the man who tumbled out of sight. The other two turned and opened fire quickly, keeping Jacen at bay for the moment.

“Try the other door, get the doctor!” shouted one. Jacen caught a glimpse of the one he’d clipped crawling for another exit.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Go...GO!" Avalore shoved the Doctor and Deema out the back door and the three of them stumbled into an access hall between the main theaters. Sounds of the opera had long since died, making the Jedi wonder just how wide-spread this band of pirates was. Where would they be safe?

"Stopstopstopstop-" quickly putting on the breaks, she narrowly gave themselves away as they rounded a corner and headed down a side hall. Silhouettes of pirates rushed past at the other end - she waited a beat, then waved them across the hall to the other side, "this way."

"Who are you?" the Doctor uttered after her as she pulled them to a stop down the side hall while peeking in through a doorway.
"Yeah," Deema hissed, "what was that thing you did earlier? The thing that stopped the bolts?"

"Shhh," Avalore waited as the sound of two more pirates echoed down the hall. They were searching for them, it was only a matter of time, "my name is Avalore Eden, I'm a Master Jedi Healer of the Galactic Alliance."

"A JEDI?!" Deema squeeled.

"Deema quiet!"

"Oh I've always wanted to meet a Jedi, do that thing again!"

"Not now, this isn't the time-"

"You must be here to help me," the Doctor grabbed at her arm, "you must have known!"

A deep grimace took Avalore's face as she looked the man in the eye. His fright was hideously apparent but dispelled by the lockdown presently involved on her mind. She didn't have the heart to tell him she was here on holiday. That his peril had not even been a fly on the windshield.

"Yes..." the reply was gentle, how she imagined a truer Jedi version of herself might've said it, "that's right. The Force has lead me here to help you. Now do as I say and stay quiet."

Avalore lead them down to the end of the hall, hung a right, pushed open the door and walked straight into the butt-end of a blaster. The last thing she saw was the oriental rug catching her fall.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

One of them had managed to leave the kitchens and go chasing after their quarry. That left two trying to hold off Jacen. He still had no real notion of what was going in. He'd sensed Avalore use the Force, had heard several of them shout about chasing a doctor. Couldn't be Avalore. They'd shouted a different name.

Jacen fired hopeful shots to keep the two pinned down as he pushed through the door and found cover. One of the kitchen staff made a run for it and got hit by a stray bolt. Jacen took that as his sign to finish this skirmish. He closed his eyes and stretched out with the Force. Both pirates were yanked up from cover and slammed into the ceiling with enough force to break bones.

He dumped them unceremoniously on the ground and went for the exit. There was a trail of blood against one wall where the pirate he'd shot had used it for support. This was a maze of back corridors between the kitchens and backstage areas it seemed. All he could do now was trust the Force and keep moving forwards.

 

[Avalore Eden]

~
~
~

"Ava....Avalore....Avalore..."

Blinking slowly, the Healer came-to with a short groan. Her hands were bound at her back, attached to the hands of the one presently hissing in her ear.

"Ava...Ava? Are you awake? Girl wake up, we in a hot mess."

Her head felt huge and bulbous - probably because it was. The egg on her forehead was swollen and slowly seeping blood from a cut, leaving a dried and sticky trail down the side of her face. She could feel her hair in her mouth but couldn't pull it free.

"Deema?"
"Gurl."
"What happened?"
"That beefcake knocked you out with his gun, tied us up and put us in here with all the others."
"Others?"
"Yeah, look aroun' you gurl."

"QUIET," thump thump thump thump thump, Avalore didn't need to see the hulking pirate as he approached, she could smell him, "NO TALKING."

"Ah!" Deema flinched away from a threatening gesture, smacking the back of her head into Avalore's and managing to sound affronted as she screeched, "Don't hit me! I'm bein' quiet, gad."

Avalore waited for the sounds of his receding footsteps before trying again, "Where's the Doctor?"
"Who?"
"The guy from the bathroom."
"Oh they took him," Deema nodded, pursing her lips, "he tried'a run and they caught him."
"Did you see where they went?"
"How should I know?!" she yelled, annoyed-
"NO TALKING."
"OKAY, I'ma stop right now."

...

"Deema?"
"I can't talk right now Avalore. Big Ugly says it's not allowed."
Grimacing, Avalore looked up and around. They were back in the theater and she could see the evening's star also sitting bound with her hands tied not far from where they sat.

"Jacen..." she couldn't see him in the crowd of people, but she couldn't see everyone.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

"Of the places to hole up you end up in a godamn comedy club," Jacen grunted as he crawled along on all fours between two rows of fold down chairs. He wasn't laughing.

He pushed himself up onto his knees and glanced towards the entrance. There was no sign of anyone following him. Jacen rolled onto his back and let the rifle fall from his grip. Instead of laughter a pained groan rang out around the small hall. His fingers tentatively reached for the burned flesh just below his ribs. The blaster wound had self-cauterised so at least there was no threat of bleeding out soon. His drew in air in short, ragged breaths.

There were only a couple of hundred seats in the empty club. There were four more like it in this section of the ship for smaller entertainment events. With another groan he rolled onto his side and wrapped blood stained fingers around the strap of the blaster and drew it close. Twenty two shots. Enough to get another blaster anyway.

He was confused, but not from the pain. They had been searching for a doctor. They had said 'he' but was that his mind playing tricks on him. It had seemed as if they had laid an ambush for Avalore. Concern grew and galvanised his resolve. First he needed a plan.

"Furball owes me more than a few beers for this," he grunted. What he tried wasn't easy. Especially not with someone who he hadn't mentally connected with before. It was something he had only done a few times with people he fought besides often. He closed his eyes and reached out through the Force, trying to brush up against Avalore's consciousness.

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Ah!"

Avalore's head suddenly exploded in a fresh wave of pain, causing the Healer to lurch forward with groan.

"Avalore stop making noise, he told us to be quiet! Avalore?"

"Bwwuuuuh-" it was like a nail. Like someone had taken a nail and driven it through the egg in her head with the butt of their rifle. But despite the constant yet dull throb of her concussion, Avalore didn't think that was the cause of this new issue. She reeled on the spot groaning, "Hnnnnnnnn-"

"I SAID BE QUIET!"

Thump thump thump thump.

"Ah! What's wrong wit-chu?! We aren't talking!" Deema snapped.
"Why is she making that noise?"
"Maybe because you glocked her with your gun! Look at her head!"

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

Avalore!?

His extension snapped back to his surroundings as if a rubber band had been released. His consciousness hit his own body like a rock. He squeezed his eyes tight shut, the pain behind his eyes now joining that down his side. Jacen had hoped she might have followed his touch or tried to respond. Apparently that wasn't to be.

"Well, at least she's alive," he mumbled. He didn't realise he'd been causing the pain just by trying to reach her, his immediate assumption was that she had already been in a great deal of pain. He wasn't certain when he'd first talked to himself during a crisis. He'd done it on a sith world when trying to save Chevu from Reverance.

He didn't speak as he pushed himself from the floor. The Force was still with him, but twenty bolts wasn't enough to mount a rescue. Within his own mind he started building a wall. Only the Force and logic could be his guides now. There was no room for the swell of frustration and fear at Avalore being held captive or the anger for the pain throbbing from his side.

Another power pack, some idea of what he was up against and an idea of what they were after. That was what he needed.

 

[Avalore Eden]

Somewhere down the halls of the ship a man yelled out in fear, pain.

"I don't have it! I don't...have it-" the Doctor was strapped to a chair, two black spots sizzling in his neck from a taser.
"You've hidden it. WHERE!" one of the Pirates speared the man with the taser again.
"GAAAAAAK! It's on the ship! With a contact-"
"WHO!?"
"I don't know! I was supposed to meet them at the next stop at a pre-" he sputtered, "pre-arranged spot."

~~~~~

"Ohhh," Avalore breathed slowly, trying to find her center. That happy place. She wished desperately that she could get ahold of her ring and just spend a few minutes in the cold and snow.
"Avalore..." Deema hissed quietly after watching some of the Pirates walk off, "A-a-a-ava, they leavin'. They doin' something. They..." Deema leaned, the whites of her eyes flashing as she jerked to see over the tops of the chairs, "ohhhh, they grabbin' people Avalore. It looks like they're searchin' for something."
"Deema, please stop talking."
"W-w-w-what are they searching for?"
"I don't know. They have the Doctor."
"What if they start shooting people?" Deema's voice was taking a higher pitch. Avalore didn't need empathy to know she was beginning to panic, "I'm too young to die Avalore. Can't you do anything? Aren't you a Jedi for crying out loud?!"

One of the pirates looked their way at the sqwaking. Avalore looked up just in time to catch the eye of the blue-skinned twi'lek Opera Star.

"Shush," she took a deep breath, "I'll think of something."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

"Alright, alright," he mumbled, talking himself into getting up off the floor. He kept the strap of the blaster tight across his right shoulder so he could avoid taking too much of the weight on his left. That meant he could keep his left elbow tight to the his body and prevent pulling at the wound down his flank. His first steps were slow as he took to the sloped aisle that ran down the side of the rows of chairs.

"Power pack, answers," he mumbled to himself. Grimacing against the pain he took the stairs up onto the stage and pushed open a door into the back corridors that connected the performer's rooms to the various entertainment halls. The Force was his guide now. Whilst it couldn't answer every question, it could direct him towards other life forces on the ship. It was a matter of pushing through the teeming mass of emotions in the largest halls where they were storing the prisoners and finding more isolated individuals.

---

"Come on hurry it up," Tarric called. He stood at ease, his carbine held with the muzzle to the floor. It wasn't a glamorous job, but taking the prisoners to the refreshers a handful at a time was a necessary one. One, two, three, four, five...wait. He craned his head forward to see someone shuffling down the corridor towards them

"Hey!" he called out. "Get back with the..." the man was armed. He was not one of the crew. He looked distinctly unhappy.

Tarric raised his blaster and it was yanked free from his grip, bouncing along the floor towards the newcomer. He looked down at his own hands as if they had betrayed him before pulling his sidearm from its holster. That too went flying across the floor.

"There's a..." he started to speak into the comm-unit on his jacket before that too was torn from him.

"I hope you've got some spare power packs," the man grunted. Jacen raised his left hand to itch at the fake beard again.

"Erm..." Tarric tried to think of something to say or do, but instead his mouth hung open.

"Yeah, yeah I know, not fair." Jacen gave a dismissive wave of the hand and Tarric felt himself thrown from his feet. He felt a crunch and everything went dark.

 

[Avalore Eden]

Minutes ticked by, longer and more drawn out as more and more people were taken from the hall. Avalore watched with uncertainty as the people that were hauled off never came back. Then when she began to hear more gunshots she felt her patience to do nothing wilt. There was no proof to her assumption that they had begun killing hostages for she had no inkling from the Force to feel the loss of life, but it wasn't something she would take by chance.

"Wait... WAIT!" she sat up straighter, ignoring the sensation of spinning as she attempted to get to her feet, "Please stop! I can help you, whatever it is you're looking for, I can help-"

The nearest mook looked her way, a big sluggish looking thing that slowly blundered over to her, "What exactly are you going to help us with?"

"I'm a Jedi," she admitted, "I can help you find what you're looking for."

The giant slug sneered at her in distaste, "Jedi ... aren't any Jedi around here. They've been wiped out by the One Sith..." but uncertainty crept into his wrinkled expression, "you have no lightsaber."

"I'm not that kind of Jedi, I'm a Healer."

"Prove it."

"Bring me one of the hostages you just shot and let me heal them," if she could effect some good out of this situation and give Jacen more time then maybe they might all get out of here in one piece. Avalore took a deep breath and watched as the slug nodded to one of the other Pirates by the door to retrieve a hostage.

"A-a-avalore, what are you doin'?" Deema stammered quietly, "You can't help them."

"Shush."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

[member="Avalore Eden"]

"Alright then, a Jedi if you say," replied the raider. His back leg shifted back and he brought his blaster up and trained it right at the centre of Avalore's chest. There it would stay, unwavering, for the next few minutes. “Bring one of them.”

It wasn’t long before a civilian was brought to Avalore. His face was bruised and blotchy. The skin above his left eyebrow had been opened up and the wide gash was bleeding profusely. The terrorist sent to fetch the prisoner had come back with another armed woman. She looked perturbed.

With a shake of her head she started talking rapidly in a hushed whisper. “Tarric’s not back with the bathroom break group. Not responding to radio.”

The muzzle of the rifle stayed fixed on Avalore. The brute’s finger stayed over the trigger. “Alrigh’. Go have a look then. He’s probably left it on the wrong channel again is all. If he…”

He stopped speaking. For the first time the muzzle left Avalore and swung around. The other two turned and raised weapons as well. No one called for backup just yet. After all what had caught his attention didn’t look all that much of a threat.

There was no fanfare to Jacen arriving. A middle-aged man just limped around the corner. His left hand was clasped tight to his side, his fingers tight together. At first it might have seemed as if he wore several rings on that hand, but a second glance revealed bright red streams where blood escaped between his fingers. His right hand held a blaster, but the arm stayed limp at his side.

“Stay there!”

Jacen kept limping a few more strides. The tension increased. Two clicks were safety catches being disengaged. The rifle that had been trained on Avalore had already been off the safety it seemed.

The Jedi Marshal sighed emphatically and looked to each in turn. Through a grimace he spoke hopefully: “Put your weapons down?”

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore had her reasons for why she'd never gone the route of training to become a Jedi Warrior like [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] and [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] and [member="Meeristali Peradun"] and so many other Jedi she'd come to befriend in her life. Worth noting was her thinly contained fear of guns and a deep-seeded fear of fire. Not too many people knew about these things; wasn't Jedi-like to fear something after all, but Avalore Eden had never made herself out to be a perfect Jedi. She only tried to be one, and that was about the best she could really do.

So when Jacen arrived she hoped beyond hope that he couldn't see nor feel the waves of fear washing over the Master Healer as she stared down the barrel of the blaster pointed at her. The amount of effort it took to keep from trembling was substantial, if not aided by her own injured state. She wanted to focus on the wounded prisoner, desperately wanted to look away from the gun and turn her attentions to the bleeding man presently withering and blanching before her.

Stop staring at it Ava.

Stop.

Stop.

She couldn't. The fear rooted her movements in place.

"Stay there!"

An after image of the gun remained burned in her vision long enough that she'd not even noticed he wasn't pointing it at her until it was pointed at Jacen. His voice finally pulled the Healer from the frozen mental state.

"Put your weapons down?"

If only.

"GET HIM."
"Ava get down!"

The sound of blaster fire filled her ears and not a moment later Deema had tackled her back to the floor. She landed in a heap, head pounding the merciless drums of battle, but knocked from her terror. Avalore looked up to see the backs of the brute and the armed woman as they moved on Jacen, the rest of their retinue filling in behind them. The man with the bleeding head sat crumpled and trembling several feet away.

Ava pushed herself up to crawl towards him only to come face to face with the end of another blaster.

"Where are you goin-"
"STOP POINTING GUNS AT ME-" a massive blast of the Force shot out, sending the man reeling backwards into the head brute. They both went sprawling in a spray of blaster fire.

"Ava use your light-sword!" Deema yelled at her.
"I'm not-" frowning and with a hearty jerk she threw a nearby chair at the armored woman with the Force for good measure, "that kind of Jedi!"