Private Stranger Meets Fiction

[Shanalex]

Location: Jakku's Planetary Airspace, Transport Cruiser
Tag: Valery Noble

It has been some time since Shanalex's grand escape from the confining space of Courascant's prison. The breakout wasn't some spectacular display of fireworks and nobody was severely harmed in the process. Shanalex didn't really know what was going on with herself, but she had every intention to just get the people to stop attacking her. Good thing there was such a thing as a jolt of electricity at her fingertips just to stun them.

Ever since then Shanalex had done her best to keep her head down and always be on the move. At first, Shanalex had no idea where she was going, and frankly she had to sneak on board which earned more than one scuffle once she's discovered. Other than that, Shanalex avoided booking hotels, and if she needed to get on a ship at some point she always try to scrounge up free credits one way or another to avoid getting tracked by whoever might be watching. Even a credstick could ping her location to somebody, so Shanalex had to pick and choose where to get the credits and try to stay out of the local government's radar.

So far she managed to do a good job at that, but what she doesn't know was that Shanalex was being tracked all along. Unnoticed by her was this tiny bug droid that continued to spy on her. Perhaps not that Shanalex hasn't noticed the droid, but rather she doesn't know what it is and just assumed it was some bug that kept following her for some reason. That being said, the former Sith Lord could only go so far before her past came back to haunt her. Whether she remembered it, or not.

Shanalex was seated mostly by herself on a transport ship that was in the middle of hyperspace. There were others on board as well, but they were travelers and frankly minded their own business. Sleep deprived as she was, Shanalex managed to catch a couple winks of sleep before she was rudely woken up. Something with a firm, tight grip as a vice grabbed her by the hair as her molten golden eyes snapped open. With a strong pull Shanalex was lifted off from her chair and in the air. The hand was thick with muscle and calloused palms. Her eyes found the source glaring at her with such deep hatred belonged to a heavily scarred zabrak. She sharply inhaled with a hiss as she grabbed his hand to no avail.

"Found you…" The zabrak spoke very clearly yet dripped like venom of hatred. With a gut wrenching twist, Shanalex was thrown hard against a wall as cries and mutters of surprise filled the ship. The impact knocked the wind out of her lungs, and the pain that coursed through her made it nearly impossible to think. As she slumped down to the ground, the zabrak leapt on her like an animal as a wicked blade was produced from his arm before he stabbed her just a couple of centimeters from her lung. However the blade still pierced through flesh, blood flowed from her arm, and the blade bit through the bone. She was shocked as bodies tended to do when being stabbed, and in the moment instinct kicked in as the desire to survive overloaded all train of thought.

Just as the zabrak was about to lacerate the blade out of her shoulder, Shanalex finally cried out both in pain and anger as a thunderous crack of Kinetic energy erupted from her. Sending the assailant flying into a row of seats as the entire ship shook while the lights flickered. She didn't know who was attacking her, or why for that matter. Her hand clenched tightly over her shoulder as she scrambled to her feet and ran down the aisle. Away from the zabrak who yelled a blood curdling war cry.

"You cannot run like a coward!" And so he chased after Shanalex. Seeing and feeling the raw emotion closing in. Shanalex pulled the fabrics of reality as she sent a lot of bags from the top shelf to tumble down on top of the zabrak. Who angrily slashed and clawed his way free. For Shanalex it was just to slow him down, and frankly a lot of people were smart and just stayed as far away from the conflict as possible. However, her mind began to feel heavy and the sensation of, lack of a better term, buzzing inside of her head. Darkness clung to the edges of her vision.

She looked wearily over her shoulder to see the very same zabrak with a blade protruding from his arm ran after her. The bottom line was that the zabrak was faster than she, and she was wounded with bloodlust hindering her senses. Shanalex finally made it to one of the escape pods, but before Shanalex could get in. She felt something cold and sharp that punctured through her lower back. There was no gasp, just her eyes widen in surprise. Her body felt cold, and strangely numb. The wicked blade had pierced her back, and so Shanalex tumbled inside of the escape pod.

The zabrak followed after her as he produced a second blade from his other arm. Intent to finish what he started. However, darkness swept over the ship as the Force screamed to life from Shanalex before she suddenly lashed out to grab the zabrak by the throat. Dark, red threads seeped from his flesh and into her own as he was caught in surprise from how strong her grip was. With gritted teeth, he stabbed her again in the abdomen with an added twist. But Shanalex continued to drain the vitality from his body even as she could barely maintain consciousness. Drawing the life essence from his own to her own, and in short close up her wounds.

Shanalex kicked the button to close the hatch before the pod launched itself into Jakku's atmosphere. All the while she continued to drain from the weakened zabrak. Both of the blades were being pushed out of her body as the wounds were mostly closed as he struggled for air.

[br]

The escape pod lands into the midst of an old ship graveyard. Shanalex lay inside unconscious for some time as the barely alive zabrak struggled to stay awake. For he feared that this would be the last time he could be awake for. How long, we'll, that remains to be seen. Of course the whole encounter would've been recorded by the little bug droid. So at least someone saw the full story?

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Jakku
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Ship: Link
Tag: Shanalex

In the cockpit of her ship, Valery took a moment as her eyes fell on Jakku — years ago, she visited it last when one of her closest friends was moved to a hospital there. But since the destruction of the Jedi Enclave on the planet, her journeys hadn't brought her back at all. Most of her time was spent at the frontlines with the Maw, or at home with her family whenever she wasn't busy.

Today though, those Jedi duties finally brought her back.

Not long after visiting Shanalex in her cell on Coruscant with her Padawan, the woman had escaped and managed to make her way off-world. But the former Jedi Shadow wasn't that easily fooled — a remote camera bug had followed Shanalex throughout her travels and captured one particular incident that ended with her crash on Jakku. Pinned down on the surface, Valery had finally decided to intercept her and began her approach in her X-wing.

"Moving down to land now," she told her astromech before the ship pierced through the atmosphere.

Not wanting to alert the woman too quickly, she decided to land a decent distance away from the ship graveyard and continued the rest of her approach on foot. Whether the woman would still be there when she arrived remained to be seen, but there was no way Shanalex was getting off this world before Valery would find her.

It was only a matter of time.

 

[Shanalex]

Location: Jakku
Appearance: Regular Clothes
Weapon: Light Dagger
Tag: Valery Noble

Some time had passed as Shanalex woke from her brief slumber. She was bewildered with the top view of such a confined space. Monitors flickered in front of her yellow eyes as the occasional rhythmic beep kept the silence at bay. Her droopy eyes remained unfocused as she looked around. As the former Sith Lord didn’t realize the weight that pressed against her was the frail husk of a zabrak. As her brow furrowed with concern and worry; Shanalex was equally perplexed as to what was going on.

Then like something clicked into place, her eyes fell on the blood coated blade that protruded from her abdomen. A flash of memories flooded her mind as was further bewildered. Her head began to throb with an intense pain as she recalled every bit of detail. Right up to where Shanalex drained the would-be assassin’s vitality to the point of near death. The woman grimaced as she attempted to push the zabrak off of her, but to no avail. It felt like the pressure of the world weighed her down.

Shanalex’s head rested against the back of her seat as the throbbing in her head intensified. After a moment of collecting herself, Shanalex struggled to pull the lever with only her foot as she discovered she couldn’t reach the door by hand. Not with the zabrak weighing her down. With the horrendous metallic grinding that deafen the confined space, Shanalex finally pulled the lever up. With a deep breath, Shanalex kicks open the door as the scorching heat from direct sunlight streamed inside the pod.

Her eyes squinted at the sudden change of light before Shanalex looked down at the unconscious zabrak. The darksider shook the man’s shoulder.

”Hey, can you move,” Shanalex questioned the man, but the shallow and raspy breathing was any indication of an answer. She rested her head for a moment as the movements had caused a minor tear in her abdomen once again where the blade protruded from her body. Once the sharp pain subsided, but her body still ached. Shanalex willed the Force as kinetic energy wrapped around the zabrak’s body and proceeded to lift the zabrak out of the pod. With one hand stretched out to keep the zabrak afloat as Shanalex moved to get out of the pod as well.

Shanalex realized that her pod was actually upside down, and with the realization she found herself surrounded by sand dunes and a graveyard of ships. Not a soul was in sight aside from themselves. As gently as she could, Shanalex allowed the zabrak to rest in the shade next to some half buried corvette. Once the dark lady climbed out of the pod, her eyes shifted down to the wicked blade that remained in her body. A serrated edge on top of that, and Shanalex understood that any attempt to remove the blade would only inflict more tears than leaving it in.

After she grasped her situation better, Shanalex turned towards the escape pod before she reached out with both hands through the Force. Metal groaned under pressure as the pod shifted with the strong kinetic energy that cloaked the pod. With great effort and concentration; the escape pod was slowly lifted in the air as the pod rotated 180 degrees so that it would sit up right. Once it was done, her legs suddenly gave out as her body throbbed and ached. Her breaths were sharp and quick as she simply allowed her body to recover to some degree.

That was when the former sith lord felt a change in the Force. A change of tune, and a familiar presence that was familiar to Shanalex. It was the presence of the woman who kept Shanalex captive in Coruscant. And the presence was swiftly approaching from above towards Shanalex’s direction. Or at least the general direction. Shanalex had a mind to make a run for it as she had done so in the past. However, she was in no condition to make such attempts and frankly Shanalex wasn’t familiar with this planet at all. It briefly reminded her of Tatooine, but she didn’t recall seeing graveyards of ships like what she saw.

Her lips quivered as thin streams of tears rolled down her cheek before Shanalex brushed them off. While Shanalex had no killed any guards during her breakout of prison, Shanalex still incapacitated them with controlled bursts of lightning from her fingertips. Breaking out of any prison in general was a serious offense, and it was usually done by someone who was guilty of something. But Shanalex had to find out who she was and looking at four blank walls with the occasional pep talk wasn’t to cut it for her.

Her sith yellow eyes shifted over to the zabrak’s body as she noted his once muscled flesh was incredibly thin and almost hollow. She could see each grotesque bone of the man’s rib cage as the only thing keeping him together was his own skin. As memory came to serve, he recognized her albeit he wanted to kill her. Yet the memory revealed a thread of fate that might lead her to answers.

As she favored walking with more weight on her right foot than her left. Shanalex made her way back into the escape pod as she searched through the contents for anything. As she knew an escape pod was outfitted with a medical kit along with a field kit. Fortunately she did find such a kit, and thankfully it contained some IV equivalent bags. She felt Valery’s presence landing some distance away, but Shanalex was focused on securing the medical syringes, fluids, and cleared the seat. Shanalex had done her best to make it as comfortable as possible, but there was only so much that could be done with an escape pod.

After everything was set, through the telekinetic usage of the Force, Shanalex guided the unconscious zabrak into the escape pod once more. She followed by ensuring that tubes and the needle were sanitized before attaching the bag of medical solution to one end and then inserting the needle inside of the zabrak’s arm. Once Shanalex was certain that there weren't any air bubbles within the tubes, she flipped the switch to allow the fluids to flow into the zabrak’s body. She anchored the bag up on a higher elevation to allow gravity to do the work on that end. As she kept track of time, she kept the syringes and the other medical supplies easily accessible as well as keeping the medical fluids refrigerated as possible.

Her hand reached down to retrieve a peculiar hilt as Shanalex grabbed what was supposed to be a winter blanket. The size alone could double wrap Shanalex into a burrito, but she ignited a short crimson blade that extended up to eight inches as Shanalex began cutting off scrap from the pod. She even went to work on creating anchor holds for the blanket before she used the scrap to suspend the heavy blanket over their heads. Shanalex essentially turned it into a shaded front as it was simply to keep as much of that heat away from the zabrak as possible. It was still sweltering as her skin glistened with beads of moisture and her dark locks stuck to her forehead.

So by the time Shanalex felt Valery’s presence approaching from a safe visual distance. She switches off the dagger form of an energy blade before stashing it at the small of her back. Shanalex looked over to Valery as the woman approached as she braced herself for the storm that was approaching. Frankly, Shanalex wasn’t sure how she was going to get out of this one, and even if she did unless Shanalex could get her hands on a ship this blazing desert would be her only solace. The former sith lord was certainly in no shape to even toy with the thought of potential combat, but Shanalex cannot predict an outcome that wouldn’t resort to some physical confrontation. Once Valery was in normal talking distance however that distance might be, Shanalex would offer as she leaned more on her right foot than anything else.

”Well this is a bit awkward. I didn’t expect to run into you so soon,” she said with a pursed smile as her eyes shifted from one eye of Valery’s to the next. As if Shanalex was trying to read some kind of book, or emotion. Any kind of indication of how Valery might react, and Shanalex could only hope that her words don't set the Jedi off. Typically Jedi wouldn’t even raise a lightsaber at an unarmed person, but if enough evidence justified the course of action or even believed to be a Sith then technically they could just draw lightsaber to eliminate the threat without much of a conversation.​