Private Taping up the Pieces

[Jem Fossk]

//Prosperity
//The Aftermath
Dagon Kaze

Jem sat at the edge of the recovery bed, her spine ridged and taunt with emotions that she kept bottled up. Her Master had almost died. Everything she had felt and seen the last few months now seemed inconsequential.

It was cold inside the room. Yula had finally left after a whole night at Dagon's side, safety measures at their safehouse requiring her presence to resolve. Those measures felt more relevant now than ever before. Dagon never liked to linger. The moment he was able, they'd be leaving the protection of the floating jedi temple for an environment they could control.

Dagon had always been so careful, so how did he caught?

Jem's throat bobbed as she looked over the bruises bacta was fading away. "Wake up," she urged, her whisper pulsing through the force in a desperate plea.

She grabbed his hand, energy sparking through the touch in an unintended zap.

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Returning to the land of the living was an experience accompanied by nothing other than extreme pain.

He'd been in this state before. Some years ago, when he had first faced his brother only to be sent to an early grave from the spires of the Ziost Academy. Had it not been Kaska's timely intervention at the time, Dagon Kaze would only be a name written off in the annals of the New Jedi Order. A corpse beneath the barren dunes of the Sith World.

This time it wasn't the interference of an experienced Knight that pulled him out of the pits of doom but that of his own apprentice.

The jolt barely lifted his eyelids open, they staggered against the weight as if he was trying to pick a whole building up. Every bone, muscle, joint, every fiber had been put to the final test over the last two weeks. It would take more than a single session of bacta to recover but time... time was not a commodity they had an abundance of. Despite the blurred vision inducing severe nausea and migraine, his instincts were clear enough to know that.

"Jem--" the Knight muttered, tilting his head to meet her face. Or what looked like her face in the haze over his sight. "--we... we--" he struggled to pull himself up, "--'ve got... to go."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem jerked her hand back, her posture jolting up when he stirred. She didn't expect that to actually work. Was she supposed to do that? What if he wasn't ready to wake up.

Her relief was bitter sweet, curbed by the presence of worries she couldn't shake.

"We can't go," she informed, her voice small and subdued. "Not until Yula gets back-- we didn't know how much you told him-- or if the safe house...." Was still safe.

She dwindled off, her worry softening her sharp lines into an abundance of wrinkles.

"She's handling it," Jem assured, straight and to the point. She didn't reach for his hand again, part of her was still flustered that he had caught that. She cleared her throat, unsure as she looked around. She had never been in this situration before.

It was horrifying.

"....you want... water?"

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"Yula?" even the eyebrow lifting up hurt as his whole scalp was being pulled off his head.

The shattered fragments of his mind were slowly gluing together the present, completely ignoring what Jem was saying until he finally realized they were off Sularen's ship.

They were alive.

His eyes widened as his vision cleared enough for him to make her face and the white medbay walls behind the apprentice.

"Jem-- you're alive!" he gasped. Coarse wind shredded his lungs into coughs that left his palm damp in crimson."Ugh... how? I- I thought... I thought I lost you. I-- I..." his eyes dipped down as a sigh escaped his nostrils, "...I'm sorry."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

"Yeah," she repeated, monotone. "I'm alive."

Guilt ate through the blanket of numb shock that was still rocking her. She grimaced and allowed Dagon another moment to recollect himself before commenting in a small voice.

"We thought we lost you-" She struggled for another breath in, then deflected it all with a sharp, "Yula was a mess you know. Cried every day."

Her fingers curled around the proffered glass and brought it closer to her chest. It's cool surface felt soothing. She ran her thumb along a line of condensation and added with less spite, "I'm just glad you're ok. You're ok, right? Did they get anything?"

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Slowly, his memories began to recover. The same could not be said for his body. That was going to take a far longer time. But time... time was no luxury.

"Yula cried?" Dag automatically asked as he pulled himself up to lean against the wall. Eyes squinting as every muscle, tendon, and joint seemed to ache in unison.

Why did I even ask that?

"They got nothing." but they got closer than anyone ever had. This was no longer Sable, the Whip Queen, asking questions in the back of a seedy drug warehouse on Denon. No, these were professionally trained killers. Chaotic imperials under the foot of Darth Solipsis.

Her father.

"...but I sure got plenty of their hospitality for a lifetime..." he murmured, taking a peek under the white hospital gown. A mosaic of scars upon a mosaic of scars upon a mosaic of scars.

Adjusting his back, his blue eyes turned to meet hers. Jem looked blank, as grey as the walls on the ship, and lost in thoughts at the furthest reaches of her mind.

Concerned?

Worried?

...or is it something else clawing at her?

"What... uh-- how did you--" he bit his leap before adding, "--what happened when we left you?"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

They got nothing.

Good.

Jem tried not to think about the ways they tried. She didn't want to envision his screams, she didn't want to think about his pain. A lot more blood would have spilt if he had talked. She should be grateful he shouldered that for them. All she could do was turn further gray. It was her fault he had suffered at all-

His words drew her back to him. She blinked, then looked down at her own hands and considered herself for the first time.

"I-..."

How had she survived? She should have died. She had never seen death so clearly before. No amount of training could ever prepare her for death to come in the form of her father.

Tears built and refused to fall.

"I found the light," she answered, shrugging half heartily. "I mean, when I thought about you getting away, I just-- felt it, really... for the first time it just... it engulfed me and... I don't know..."

Love, sacrifice, protection all the things that made up what her father didn't. She didn't understand that right now, but he would. They were very things that made each and every new scar on his body.

"I couldn't leave you to them," she told him, unabashed. "Don't ever order me to again."

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"I-..."

Jem began and he placed his hand over her knee. A soft, lopsided smile tugged at his dry, cracked lips. The sheen of tears clearly reflected the light on her eyes. Her recollection of her encounter with her father curved his lips down. She shouldn't have been there but the fault lied with him. His inclination to work alone driven by his overprotectiveness of his apprentice had led her there.

Had put her life at risk.

"... you touched the purity of the Light. Love, compassion, selflessness..." he remarked, there was both pride and concern strewn in his tone. To wield such emotions required immense control, focus, and training. It was the Jedi's greatest source of strength but also where the line was thinnest between the Light and Dark. Dagon closed his eyes, pursed his lips, and uttered, "Thanks." he breathed out a long-held sigh and glanced about the room, words roaming in his mind.

"... but... there might come a time..." his brows knitted closer together, "... when you will have to obey." he left the meaning up in the air. A scenario he did not want to utter but had to prepare both of them for.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Clammy fingers slowly found their way back over his, squeezing tight at his gratitude.

"Don't thank me yet, he's still coming," she murmured, her voice sour. She could feel the impending doom clearer now-- a tangible squeeze of the darkside that encroached in on her like an incoming storm.

This wasn't over.

"Why don't we just deal with that when we get to it," she dismissed, making no promise and entertaining none of his protective ways. "I'm just glad you're okay. I-... don't know how I'd get through this without you, Master. I-" Her fingers tightened, expressing the care that she wasn't equipped to say.

Maybe family wasn't all to do with blood. Maybe it could be forged, too. "Together next time. We're stronger that way. You taught me that, remember?"

He also taught her street law and yet she caught him j-walking all the time. Pft.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

The mere mention of Solipsis made his jaw clench. The jitters of helplessness subtly shifted beneath his flesh. It was a foreign feeling, its only familiarity drawn when he had witnessed the fate of his brother on that cursed day on Ziost. Yet, Aeric, as strong as he was, had not unleashed such pestilence upon the galaxy as the Sith'ari.

He was a threat with no equal measure.

She squeezed his hand, drawing his attention back to the present, "Together next time. We're stronger that way. You taught me that, remember?"

A half-smile cocked his lips. He was a hypocrite. Do as I say not as I do. More often than not he tackled obstacles alone, guarding everyone underneath his wing. Even when all the feathers had been plucked away. Dagon had his reasons. All he did - all the lengths he went - was for a brighter future for those after him. For Jem, for Yula, for so many others. A better galaxy tomorrow.

Maybe he should start learning his own lessons.

Maybe he should be the one that starts obeying next time.

Yula had mentioned it before - the savior complex, she'd called it. Feeling personally responsible for everything and for everyone. Taking all the blame on himself. It weighed him down, pulled him under.

"...yeah." the smile blossomed, "Together."

"... now get our stuff, kid. You're gonna carry me if you have to but I'm not gonna waste another minute on this damn bed-- ow!" he groaned as he pulled himself further up, testing the extents of the damage he had sustained, "--we've got a galaxy to save."

"--and probably an apartment to clean." he murmured thinking of all the cleaning shifts they'd missed on Denon.

Jem Fossk