The Search for Gemini

[Laertia Io]

Laertia followed everything [member="Bella Rimini"] was saying, and nodded when the orders were given. She was good at following orders. She always had been. It was what had made her such a good Marksman. Jazz and Martin were going to hold the fort while she and Bella cleared out the nest, so to speak. And it was a nest, by all indicators. She kept silent throughout, not just because she never really spoke during these sorts of things but because she knew her speech impediment made her hard to understand, and even she could get a little self conscious after a while. She had tried, many times to correct the impediment, through various medical means. They all failed. The doctors told her the impediment was simply how her brain was wired.

"Gud luuck yoo tooz..." Laertia said to Martin and Jazz as she entered the cargo lift with Bella. The lift was slow, and it made the wait a little awkward as the woman in power armor experienced more stage fright as the lift went down, vanishing as suddenly as it came. Bella pulled out her silver lightsaber and got ready, telling her not to hold back. Laertia's free, cybernetic hand twitched from a strong phantom pain but she was able to control it as she gripped her lightsaber. The hilt was scratched and worn. It had seen her through so much, and holding it was like holding and petting one of her rabbits...second nature.

"I'll letz yuh knowz iff dherez a probblum, Mastuh Rimini..." Laertia assured her in a friendly manner. It had been a long time since any but her biot caretaker Moya had expressed their willingness to back her up. It was refreshing.

As the lift came down, she activated the large energy buckler on her arm encased shotgun, her blade sputtered out, green and sharp but unstable looking, like a lightning bolt seized and barely made straight, seemingly on the verge of losing cohesion. It was actually quite stable--she'd yet to see a synth blade break it, and it tanked lightning like a champ.

When the door opened, the guard that asked for their pass had at least a few dozen other guards at a checkpoint that were savvier than hee, all leveling multibarreled repeaters at the pair.

Rimini gave the go. Laertia looked at the guard, teleported to within five meters of him, closed the distance before he could reach for his rifle, slicing the weapon in half as per the dictates of Shii-Cho and her own rusted chivalry when it came too henchpeople--to disarm rather than kill, hitting him with a stun blast from her shotgun as multiple deadly bolts pelted the nearly entirely encased armor and she turned, manuevering her blade in preferred one handed fashion while using her Form One, for she only encorporated her techniques from other styles as necessary, to deflect the heavy blaster bolts, her blade a heavy green fan that pelted bolts away as she walked closer, firing her stun blasts, using the arm encasing shotgun as the occasional bludgeon to a ribcage, knocking people out as she cut through weapons and hands, but taking no lives as she smashed her way through the security all the way to the door, which opened to reveal many more guards, who began pelting her armor with shot gun fire, the force of which knocked her back a little but did nothing to truly stop her as she lumbered toward them, her sword arm dancing like a conductor with a wand at an orchestra, for just a moment the guards felt the panic so many before them had, facing The Black Knight of Nar Shaddaa as she cut through them. (though not killing any of them.)

A phantom pain and migraine started at just the wrong moment and though she could tolerate both, it threw off the aid of her sword arm, and cut off her access to the Force at just the wrong moment, making her stumble a little and allowing one of her a attackers to slice at the armorweave at her hip, drawing blood and preventing her from teleporting away after one leveled what looked to be a sonic cannon of geonosian design and fired it at her.

Her armor was too bulky to evade the blast and the blast slammed her into a wall, making her ears ring and giving her severe dizziness and nausea as she struggled to get up, instead forced to resort to firing her shotgun, knocking everyone that pelted her heavy armor with repeater bolts that had already blasted off minor pieces of her armor out cold with return fire.

The migraine finally ended after thirty seconds and as the guard with the sonic cannon leveled it at her she disappeared, reappearing five meters behind them as she managed to focus past the nausea and ringing in her ears as she opened fire with her stun blasts, her armor now scorched, melted and blasted off at some points. A migraine hit again and threw off her aim, missing a guy who managed to let off a spray of fire from his repeater that she was force to block outright with the energy buckler on her shotgun-arm as she advanced the bolts pelting rapidly off the energy shield for a few seconds before failing, the armor on the shotgun itself starting to heat up and spark before she finally closed the distance and knocked the screeching lizardman out, the pain in her skull intense but bearable as she slowly brought her arm up to knock him out, a slowly returning (and perhaps faulty) sense of knightly honor refusing to let her kill them, no matter how much they tried to kill her as she went out of her way to spare them in her assault, managing to get off a few more shots from her shot gun before it burned out due to previous damage. It was essentially just a club on her right arm now. Her lightsaber was her last defense as the alert sounded finally. They had made good time...the alarm was only just going out.

The migraine ceased, the nauseated and disoriented Jedi charging the group that came out of the doors at the other end, crashing through them and bursting through the doors, sending lizards flying as her now moderately damaged armor took a few dozen more bolts that she quickly deflected with her lightsaber teleporting behind them and swinging the unstable green blade through the arms, legs and weapons of her foes, realizing she was in some sort of elaborately decorated safe-deposit vault of glassteel boxes containing gems, ancient coins, jewelry, bonds, some even had lightsabers in them. The bulk of security was concentrated here as she pressed forward, keeping calm as her blade kept dashing through weapons and her now useless arm shotgun kept breaking lizardman jaw--

Another lizardman had a sonic cannon, which blasted Laertia from behind into some of the boxes, and Laertia felt total disorientation as she smashed into him, the nullifiers taking the worst of it, but causing one of her ear drums to blow and her nose to bleed out. She forced herself to stand as the bolts from others continued to start melting her armor on the chest due to staturation fire, the armor starting to heat up internally as will and survival instinct forced her to stand up, altering her saber swing for a simple stance from the fast style, holding her blade out in front of her, using the quick, simple, darting movements the style entailed to bat the storm of bolts back at the seven remaining shooters surrounding her from the front as they fired, their own bolts blasting apart their hands--

She caught a small, blue white bolt, fired from the rifle of the last one two late through the smoke. It hit her armor and Laertia knew she was in trouble when the systems went dead and everything she was wearing felt heavier. Just to make matters worse, a migraine hit right then and the armor became to heavy to move in period and she fell over in agony without her brainwave regulators in the helmet to stabilize the random torture. The Lizard man pulled out a vibro knife and plunged it downward towards an armorweave covered hip...

But Laertia, nearly too weak to move, barely managed a weak swing that lightly brushed the lizardman's ankle as he closed in and it caused him to cry out though he still fell forward and tried to plunge the dagger through her reinforced visor and it was more luck than skill that her arm happened to be in the way at the last momentand the ip only just barely got through, a half inch from her eyelid and began to get closer...



The United, now a pale skinned, red headed woman in a white gown drove the padawan back in this strange place in her own head, a corrupted meadow that erupted in geysers of blood and pieces of human flesh that spilled around them, bloodying the padawan's mental self as her mental blade held back the dark lightning from the woman's mouth.

Laertia refused to give up, refused to let the evil thing infecting the lake defeat her. She WOULD beat it, even if she had to cut through every single soul that made up this aberration in the Force.

Slowly, gradually, she stepped forward, forcing back the lightning, her blade getting ever closer to The United's face, able to see the maggots wriggling underneath a surprised face and wanting to be sick at it.

But still, had she really been so desperate for a parent that she had briefly willing to consider even this offer as long as she would be adored by someone? She felt revulsion at the very idea of it. She forced the lightning back to the point The United was forced to actually block with her red blade, the pair actually locking, neither side giving ground, the clashing lights of their mental blades lighting their faces in the bloody setting. Dark gray eyes locked with rotting gray ones.

"You really think you can beat the combined will of hundreds of witches?!" The United snarled as their wills fought each other symbolically through the mental blade lock. "We shall devour your soul, girl!"

"Iff yooz gotzta askk, itt meens I gotz a channce..." Laertia replied quietly.

"A 'small' chance, girl..." The United snarled violently. "You are up against the will of those with vastly greater powers than your street hoodlum mind can grasp--"

"Yuhr qwittuhz..." Laertia snapped. "Radda dhen fytinz too duh bittuh ennd yoo choze deth. Yoo all didz. Powuh? Yoo onnlee gotz duh powuh too fytes. But I gotz duh powuh of wantin too lyve."

"A foolish sentiment..." the now-muscular woman sneered, pushing the blades towards Io's face a little.

But pushing the blades towards Io was a mistake, because in that exact moment Laertia used a budding knowledge of Makashi to slightly alter her footing shifting both blades to her left, grinding her mental blade down the United's and biting through hilt and fingers, cutting the red headed witch in half, the two halves seperating into two different piles of maggots that rapidly reformed into two more women, one a woman with very dark skin and shaven head with sulphur eyes, rather beautiful, wearing a slick, all white body suit wielding a simple shoto with a purple blade, the other a considerably older crone in a hooded, all white gown wielding a silvery, curved hilt lightsaber, this with an orange blade.

Laertia guarded in form one, maintaining a jedi ready as the two circled her. Laertia went utterly still, then focused, reaching past the pain and hate and fear of this mental hell that rained blood and flesh on her and her enemies still, and thought of rabbits. Her head dipped a little, blade swaying as she closed her eyes.

The crone dived first, then the one with the shoto. The old woman aimed at her head the other her heart. Laertia did not move until the last possible mental second, shifting backward, twisting her blade and smacking the crone's blade into the one armed with the shoto, who was forced to block avoid being skewered, Laertia following up with a wide heavy, fast slash that cut through both of them at the same time, reducing them to four heavy piles of squirming maggots from which more and more witch women constantly grew now, deciding to take her with sheer numbers as opposed to skill.

Laertia sunk deeply into her understanding of form one and shifted her foot in the bloody grass as the maggot piles formed more women that surrounded her from all sides, armed with lightsabers. They roared and charged and Laertia's movements, previously pragmatic, swift, chopping, stabbing and slashing suddenly became beautifully complex, to the astonishment of the spirits around her. Her blade unpredictable, flowing liquid patterns.

Laertia had a special relationship with Form One. She knew it better than any other style. Its simplicity came natural to the former hoodlum, but also its secrets.

She had not uncovered them all, to be certain. Not at such an early point.

But what she had uncovered during that particular time in her life was certainly more than these witches were prepared for as they charged, channeling the movements she knew in her sleep as well as the light to help her as her mental blade deftly cut through the air, finding their way past guards that were more thought out and complex by comparison by the sheer strength of the will behind that mental blade, dashing through target zones and weapons in unpredictable patterns around her. She moved only as needed to evade a blade, stance simple and grounded but quickly shifting on a moments notice, her strange reversed color blade slapping aside dizzying numbers of attacks that came from everywhere, to the frustration of the conglomerate entity trying to destroy it as gradually each champion of the Bogan it was composed of, slowly began to whittle down its power, striking down each soul and sending them to chaos, humiliating veteran witches ,people who had fought with a lightsaber for decades brought low by swift but shockingly simple and unpredictable offense, one never able to tell how Laertia would alter her attack angle in the fight next as she cut down spirit after spirit trying to mob her, creating more piles of maggots that became more women in various all white robes and gear soiled by bloody rain and flesh that dropped from the sky, Laertia's blade burning through imaginary copper scents and gore, remaining perfectly balanced as she continued to cut down the witches, none of whom individually or in their most well thoughtvout groups could bring her down as they attacked with every lightsaber strategy, from every angle they could attack from, the green fan of Laertia's blade still intercepting them, though some were geeting closer all the time. She knew she was mentally tiring. But she could not allow herself to lose.

A blade at last scorched her shoulder, then a thigh and Laertia leapt back, guarding with her good arm as dozens of witches advanced across the strange blood meadow towards her, the other piles of maggots still producing and growing more.

"A foolish effort girl!" One of the younger, more angelic looking women cooed mockingly. "You only got two hundred and seventy five of us!"

Laertia had to think as she slowly retreated, sweating, mentally starting to tire. But she would not fail Ursula. She REFUSED to fail Ursula.

But how to win?

Ursula's words, about not deserving the lightsaber if one could not be a Jedi without one hit her. And what would a real Jedi call a victory? Ending the conflict...or merely winning through attrition?

Laertia thought on this a moment, and then cast aside her mental blade. The witches collectively smirked in unison. "Do you surrender?" They asked in unison, all their eyes rotted as they stared.

"NEVUH!" Laertia shouted, raising her palm to a bloodied sky, thinking of all the good things in her life, her rabbits, and the Marksmen, and Ursula, and how if this thing ever left this lake it could hurt all of them.

It was solely the love and concern for her makeshift family that allowed her to call on the light, which erupted brightly from her palm.

The witches began to scream as they started to catch fire...



Laertia dropped and deactivated her lightsaber, still in near blinding pain as she stopped the knife from going any further through the visor, though now the lizard man was trying to use both hands to shove it through.

Laertia grabbed his face, briefly getting him away but causing his knife to cut off a piece of visor. As he tried to shove it through again, Laertia, barely coherent, managed to brutally swing her shotgun into his face, knocking him out cold. There were no other enemies around. Hitting the emergency release, a coughing Laertia pulled herself out of the damaged armor, barely able to think from the migraine. Her black hair, normally a strange, assymetric moe-type cut, was matted to a scalp, the current stringiness of her hair revealing the trench wounds in her scalp from the shrapnel. Her pale, actually rather beautiful face marked by deep scars. Her dark gray eyes fluttered about in pain and uncertainty as she rolled around in agony around all the injured people she had spared, the smoke from blaster fire settled above her.

Finally, the horrid migraine ended, and an exhausted, wounded Laertia barely pulled herself up, looking for threats in the room.

"Mastuh Rimini?" Laertia called out weakly. Her suit still needed a few minutes to reboot, but she could already see some lights starting to flicker back alive. She teleported her lightsaber to her hand, waiting for any new threat to show itself while she waited for her comrade as she leaned against one wall of deposit boxes...

 

[Bella Rimini]

A body slumped forward nearer the open door. Bella stepped over the corpse lightly and with a great scowl on her face. Mmm. So far, so good.

While Io had been busy inside the vault, Bella had taken care of the remaining forces in the hall, the palisade, and some meager reinforcements from the stair. Thankfully, Jazz had locked many of the doors and lifts remotely. True reinforcement to this level would now become a lengthy and time consuming process for the rest of the fort. And besides. Spectacularly enough, most of the guards were already stationed down here anyways. Indeed Bella speculated that Laertia had already incapacitated over half the fortress herself. Impressive, though. Such a prowess obviously came at a price.

"Io?" Bella looked around the room with a frown.

Catching her signature in the Force was an erratic and incoherent battle reflex. Yet there she stood. Slumped against the farther wall. Her armor in nearer shambles. Half smoked. Half carbon-baked. Bella wondered at it's design. Half doubting it's integrity, half impressed by it's resilience. Yet, now she was more worried for the poor girl in the corner. Was she hurt?

"Hey." Bella walked calmly over the bodies within, Stepping over each nearly-dead corpse with grace and gentle ease, "Hey. You good? You hit?"

A lizard creature began to stir and groan slowly amongst the fallen dozens. Causing Bella to simply turn and snap her fingers at him. The creature then suffered an immediate return to silence.

Rimini turned slowly back to Io, "Time to go. Can you move?"

In the rooms and hallways beyond. There lay dozens upon dozens of bodies. Like a slumbering army, the horde remained motionless and content with their dreams. In that moment. The stillness of the vault was profound.

They had vanquished them all.

[member="Laertia Io"]

 

[Laertia Io]

"I'll...lyvez..." Laertia answered [member="Bella Rimini"] as she was helped to her feet. She had a wound on her hip the regenerative properties of the armor had almost fixed all the way. Blood was dried on her nostrils and she could only hear out of one ear and she felt nauseated.

"Yooz a syte fer sorr eyez Mastuh Rimini..." Laertia spoke weakly, completely spent but knowing there were no more enemies for the moment.

But it wasn't time to go yet. They still had to find the Gemini Box. She dragged herself up. Her glum expression highlighted by how pale her skin was in the black body glove she wore, her body language itself different out of the armor, uncertain, faltering, haunted dark gray eyes darting around in anticipation of an attack as she awkwardly clutched her lightsaber, unactivated as she looked through the deposit boxes for their box, a task made easy by their transparent nature. Her criminal education fluttered about in her head, pricing every bit of loot based on its street value. Her trained eyes settled on an organic looking lightsaber in one box and her hand waved over its electronic locks after forcing herself to focus and she opened it, pulling it out, feeling the texture looking at the color.

"Orrigynall Wun Syth Empyre. Auuthenntick. Mynt. Fifftee Thousanndz on duh blacck mahrkett stahndard fer redd blaydes, exxtra twunny fer exxoticc cuhlurs..." Laertia mumbled to herself in a natural, slightly high pitched tone before putting it back, the blade having been merely a passing curiousity. If she had found this, any of this as a teenager she'd have been set for life. She would have left Nar Shaddaa the next day on her own. It might have even been enough to get her prior criminal record expunged. She would have taken some of it in her less refined years. But she had not come here to try and fill her pockets, even though it would have helped. She had come to help Bella get her box. And get her box she would.

Laertia began to think about where she would put such a valuable item, and decided it would not be somewhere obvious. She started looking at the marble floors and walls, switching her cybernetic eye to a low res thermal mode to search, the ruddy imaging capturing faint finger prints on an out of the way wall as her cybernetic left eye's pupil glowed red from the enhanced vision, she approached it, sensed electronics behind it and stretched out her senses, fighting nausea and how her head swam to quickly reverse the circuits programming to open the hidden treasure room.

(Zelda Unlocking Theme plays)

Laertia was given pause as she sensed it, sensed the power.

It was silvery, with gold filaments throughout a crystalline structure in the middle. A faint white light could be seen at the center...

"Pleez tell mee dhatz wut wer heerz fer..." Laertia trailed, finally managing to make eye contact with Bella, though her eyes still occasionally slid elsewhere in uncertainty and stage fright from her brain before her armor lights fully came back on, sparks emanating from it as she sighed in relief, going over and lifting it back up, not at all looking confident or secure as she popped open the suit plating. Hud and power was just about the only thing still working...sixty percent of the armor was still good. Shields were down, need calibrating. She lifted it up with her natural arm, the power armor creaking as she strained, the magic of the water spirit giving her the power necessary for her muscles to do this. She was clearly muscular, but it was obvious there was no way she could have lifted the powered suit to stand on her own. The strength was always on. It had actually forced her to be careful, as it increased the force of natural blows to lethal levels, and people who had fought her commented that she felt "denser than should be possible"

Laertia had been a mere girl when she had acquired the Force Blessing, and had taken the Water Spirit's blessing (Even with the Spirit claiming it would require a favor someday, and with Laertia rather pointedly observing the potential for a deal with the devil situation...which it had stringently denied...) due to being too scrawny to fight off all the larger thugs that had stolen her food that day. But giving a scrawny teenage girl the physical strength of an adult alpha wookiee had proven a recipe for chaos all its own...

Laertia dreaded the day she would see the Water Spirit again and whatever favor it would request. She'd been a desperate girl when she had accepted the blessing of the ashla specter. But also smart enough to know accepting the gift of strength from the unknown spirit was an insanely dangerous gamble that would no doubt come back to haunt her. But she had needed an edge on the street, as many as she could get. Learning to teleport had been the first edge but could only open so many doors. The strength had opened others...mainly in the skull cracking department...

Laertia climbed into the armor wearily, struggling through her injuries and shutting it, breathing. The regenerative system was still inactive. But she could move in it.

"We...shud go noww, Mastuh Rimini, iff dhatz wut weez iz lookinz fer. Martin andd Jazz ain't gonna waitz ferevuh..." Laertia said wearily, her armor in need of a number of repairs she could not do here. She was at least taking solace in that she was alive. Her posture still looked uncertain, even in the power armor.

OOC: Feel free to scene transition us back to your ship if you want or we can keep going here...

 

[Bella Rimini]

Bella reached in and pulled out the glowing cube. Smiling, she closed her eyes and whispered faintly to the box.

"Shela Karo."

Slowly. The box unfolded upon itself. Revealing the hidden contents within.

"Bingo." Bella smirked.

Just larger than the palm of her hand lay a Force Compass. Three tiny golden gyros spinning within a silver frame. This was exactly what they had come for. The secret within the Gemini Box.

"Right. Time to go."

Bella tucked the compass into her belt pouch and looked around the room. Nothing among the horde seemed to interest her further. Besides, a dragon's loot was often poisoned anyway. Rimini turned to watch Io climb back into her suit. Though Bella didn't understand how the suit worked or integrated with Io. She gave a quick nod to mounting up and leaving. If the suit could still stand upon it's own two legs? Well. Fair enough. Bella would have hated to have to leave it behind or blow it up anyway.

Moments later the two warriors arrived back into the hanger bay. Jazz met them at the edge of the lift,

"Good news gals. Martin's secured us a ride."

A nearby sand skiff slowly shuttered to life. It's engine spinning up as the large sail boat began to rise from the ground. Meanwhile, a stray ladder fell down from the side of the skiff. Allowing the three women access to the deck above.

"All aboard!" Martin called out from the vessel's bridge.

Just in time too. The wild heat from a fusion cutter began to spray white sparks against one of the hangers farthest doors. It appeared the rest of the base was quick to catch on. It wouldn't be long before they cut the metal door of it's hinges. Probably flooding the hanger bay with more guards too.

"Right. Let's go!" Bella and Jazz quickly ran to board the barge.

"What about the door!?"

"Don't worry. She comes with missiles! Yee'haa!" Martin beamed.

As if on que, twin missile bays revealed themselves from the side of the skiff. Targeting the exit door.

"Hold on to your butts!"


* * *

Outside the fortress exterior. The cold underground tunnel seemed as silent as they had left it. Until suddenly. The exterior door exploded. Flooding the cavern with fire and dust. Blasting away as the giant skiff came speeding out of the hanger. Martin's glowing face leading the charge from the command deck.

"Yee'haa!"

They blasted down the rail line, down the swirling desert tunnels, and finally. Came flying right out the underground ramp and back into the sunlight. Catching a huge amount of air.

"Martin!" Bella screamed.

"Yee' doggy! Woo!" The gleeful soldier shouted back.

"Martin!" Jazz screamed.

"Hold on ladies!" His lead foot only growing stronger.

Yet no sooner had they escaped into the smoldering heat of the desert, than did two more skiffs come flying out of the tunnels below. Two angry missile boats. Right on their heels.

"Martin!" Bella shouted again.

"I see em'! I see em'!" Martin scowled, "Missiles away!"

Their lead skiff exchanged fire. Blowing one of their pursuers back into the stone age. Causing the hovering sail barge full of angry Lizardmen to tumble and crash right out of the sky. A huge tumbling fireball cascading across the desert sand.

"Woo!" Martin yelled.

"Incoming!" Jazz shouted.

Two huge explosions plumed off their starboard side as Martin jerked on the stick. Their barge shook terribly from the early detonation. Almost causing them to loose altitude and crash altogether.

"Hey! Io! Use this!" Martin shouted as he threw her his grenade launcher. Twelve rounds in a drum.

"Make it count sister! Wa'hoo!"

The missile tubes on the trailing skiff seemed to click, whirl, and reload. The ship was coming at them hard and fast from the rear. Almost out of time.

"Do it! Do it!" Jazz shouted from the railing.

Here they come!

[member="Laertia Io"]

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia followed [member="Bella Rimini"] via teleporting though the damage to her ear drum made the task twice as hard to concentrate. She could barely balance herself. Thank the Force the brain wave regulators were functioning again. Small miracles. Laertia started to feel her pain lessen though her armor now creaked as she moved with an unpleasant squeal. Yeah, this thing was gonna need a week or three to fix stuff. And she was between paychecks too. She still felt self conscious at being seen by Bella...she hadn't wanted to be seen in that disheveled state...she had used to hold her head up high. Those days were long gone. She wanted her rabbits. But the day wasn't done yet. They still had to make it home. Laertia's mind fell back on Moya, wondering how her caretaker was fairing before they reached the hangar, Martin producing an old sand skiff as the hangar started to be breached and Laertia teleported to the top deck, wincing under her helmet as another migrain started. The rockets came out and suddenly Laertia was somewhere else on another battle with another vehicle that had rockets. That battle had left her in her present day state. She had panic attacks as the missile boats chased them, the regulators unable to help in this instance...her reaction to artillery was just too strong. She gripped the railing on the deck, too weak to really help at this point, hyperventilating from the loud explosions reminding her how mangled her brain was as she held on, ashamed at how useless she suddenly was...



The United screamed and screamed, the spirits of the witches catching fire as the light from Laertia's mental hand continued to erupt, bright and warm, scalding the evil presence in her mind, weakening it rapidly as she calmly channeled it, determination etched into her mental face. But the United was still in Laertia's mind, and in its rapidly approaching destruction it tried one last time by reaching into her heart and using the one thing she desired above all else...

Laertia was interrupted in her channeling, all the mental constructs of the spirits that had not been outright banished and destroyed left horribly maimed and burned and fused together in the bloody meadow, screaming as their strength all went to one last desperate attempt to corrupt the padawan that had proven too strong for even their ancient collective.

Laertia found herself in the center of her most private wish.

It was a quaint, one story country home with a barn filled with golden sunlight. There were little porcelain figures of cute animals everywhere.

Laertia was not in her usual spiky black attire but a long pink country dress with polka dots. Her assymetric bob that she normally had was instead long and straight and she had a pink hairband with a rabbit in front of it. There were no weapons, nor hint of anything violence related. It was just her, in her small modest room with her rabbit Songsteel sleeping fitfully on her bed, while she deliberately messed up her hair while staring at the mirror.

She jumped a little as she flicked her hair back for in the mirror she saw something standing behind her.

It was hideous and hunchbacked, it's face a large lamprey-like mouth, skin the color of rotting drywall, emaciated.

"It almost has you..." it hissed at her, its lamprey mouth fluttering horribly as it did.

"Daughter?" She heard Ursula call out as she entered Laertia's room, distracting her, the purple skinned twi'lek woman wearing a long white dress. She frowned a little, noticing the ugly creature had suddenly disappeared.

"Daughter, your hair is messy..." Ursula chided before picking up a brush and walking behind her.

"Sahry, Momm...I didn't meenz tuh..." Laertia smiled back happily, innocently, feeling crestfallen suddenly. "We fixin' duh roof tuhdayyz?"

"Obviously, child, I brought the materials. We'll need to be extra careful once we're on the roof...I don't want you slipping and falling..." Ursula replied, beginning to brush Laertia's hair. Laertia stared into the mirror with a goofy smile as she watched her hair get straightened, the brush going gently through dark straight locks. It was her wish. Her fondest wish. And it wasn't real. Couldn't be real.

She didn't want to leave...she wanted this to be her whole existence, just this moment of mom brushing her hair while her rabbit snoozed nearby and kicked in his sleep. The creature's warning before Ursula walked dashed that.

Instead, Laertia started to cry...

"Daughter?" Ursula called out in motherly concern, pulling Laertia close in a hug. "What's wrong, child? Tell me. You're not alone."

"Itz jusst..." Laertia sniffled through tears.

"Yes?" Ursula asked trying to wipe away Laertia's tears.

"I knowz...I knowz yooz all a bunnch ov fethinn psykos...but stillz..." the wounded young woman at the heart of the padawan wept inconsolably as she held out her right hand. "Thankz...thankz fer dhis..."

The false Ursula screamed and rotted in front of a weeping Laertia as she channeled the light to finish dispelling the remaining souls corrupting this place in the form of the fake Ursula, the environment shattering around them and catching fire as the false rotting Ursula thrashed about on the burning floor, taking hundred of different forms in the slow, agonizing minutes it took for the light to banish every last remaining soul before she was gone. Before they were all gone. Laertia didn't stop crying for a few minutes after, even as the blackness surrounded her. For just a few seconds she had had her hearts desire and ripping away from it had been painful in the extreme.

Laertia was surrounded by blackness, still in her pink dress when she saw something amazing. Faint blue lights, taking the forms of men and women approaching. These were the Jedi spirits, trapped and tortured by evil magics.

"Young one. You have acted with valor and released us from our torment..." they said in unison. "You have purged this sacred lake, and though we are free, we shall stay, to make sure the lake is not corrupted again. We see in you the potential for the Jedi of old...but your future is clouded. Your path is a difficult one...but if you adhere to righteousness and act with honor you shall always have the light as your ally. Go now, child, and know you walk with our eternal gratitude..."

Just like that, Laertia snapped awake, to find Ursula standing over her with her arms folded...

"You struggled for a while. I grew worried. What did you experience?" Ursula, the real one asked as Laertia quietly rose from her meditation position.

"Sayme tingz duh dahrk syde alwayz offuhs..." Laertia answered, still wrestling with what had happened. "Fulfillment..."

"But you rejected that. That took a lot of discipline, whatever it was you were offered." Ursula surmised, nodding approvingly.

Laertia didn't elaborate on what she had been offered as she stood on the small island in the sunken ruins with her master.

"Wut happinz noww?" Laertia asked.

Ursula drew her soft blue bladed lightsaber, its hum silenced by internal machinery.

"Kneel." Ursula instructed crisply.

Laertia did so, feeling the buzz of elation and excitement. It was happening! It was finally happening!

Ursula let her blue blade hover over one of Laertia's shoulders, then the other.

"I hereby proclaim you a Jedi Knight, Laertia Io..." Ursula spoke formally, knighting her now former Padawan.

But then she broke into a smile. "And it was a long time to wait...but worth it..."

"Thankz, Ursy!" Laertia replied happily.

"One thing remains..." Ursula added, holding out the lightsaber Laertia had come here with.

"This blade was a placeholder. You may continue to use it, of course, but I believe to truly signify your new rank I think it only proper you construct a new lightsaber, and given how we are on an old training ground..." the white suited Jedi Master trailed.

Laertia gave one of her goofy grins.

"Sayy no morez, Ursy!" The Knight replied immediately going to look and scavenge...



Laertia was pulled out of her memory by Martin tossing the shaking, shivering Io a grenade launcher. Twelve rounds. Don't miss...

Fighting her panic with the memory of beating back far worse the armored woman shakily took the grenade launcher as the skiff rocked, aiming it at the one behind them with her free arm, trembling.

Her hud winked out and now she was having to eyeball it. The ex-shadow focused gripping the launcher one handed.

"Doo yooz feelz luckki...punkz?!" Laertia exclaimed as she opened fire with one grenade after the other. But she teleported the ones she could see closer to the missiles.

The blast was so huge that not only did it take out the skiff targeting them, it also took out the other two that had been trying to catch up, making them go up in a ball of fire also. The resultant blast nearly knocked Io to the ground but she held fast, emptying her last remaining shots towards a surprise skiff that had tried to flank them, blasting it apart so hard their own deck rattled.

Laertia, barely standing and woozy glanced over the grenade launcher. "Hmmmm..." she mumbled.

Laertia looked. No more enemies over the horizon. They were in the clear it seemed.

"Heyy, Martin, yooz gotz a spayre wun ov dhese? I'mm radda fondz ov itz all ov a suddin..." Laertia joked about the launcher...

(Laertia has leveled up!)

(Force Power relearned!)

(New skill learned!)

Power: CLEANSE

Spoiler

Use the light side of the force to cleanse corrupt nexuses of dark energy. As character grows more powerful with the light, greater nexuses can be cleansed

Skill: GRENADE LAUNCHERS

Spoiler

Character can now use primitive grenade launcher systems, such as single shot, revolver, and magazine based launchers. As character grows more skilled, more complicated forms of launcher can be both constructed and wielded.

 

[Bella Rimini]

As the hot wind whipped through her hair, Bella couldn't help but feel sudden pride and admiration for [member="Laertia Io"] clutch win. The dust settled upon the battle and soon their pursuers were nothing more than plumes of quiet smoke upon the horizon. The shake and rattle of the sail barge seemed comforting then. The whole team had made it. Every last one of them.

"Good work everybody." Bella nodded and stood up straight. Breathing in deeply. Finally a moment to relax.

Jazz flopped to the floor of the barge and gave a big long sigh. Shaking her head and washing away the sweat on her brow. Meanwhile, Martin seemed nothing more than a gleeful little child. Whistling like Steamboat Willy at the controls. He'd never seemed happier.

Bella moved to Io's side and put a small hand on her power suit's arm,

"You too. We did that in record time thanks to you, ya know."

She smiled, then took a step back and sighed at her armor's condition.

"You uh? ...You gonna be okay in that thing?"

Obviously, Bella never little about power armor. Let alone a half scorched steel bucket with medical devices attached to your head. It seemed the perfect device for a suicide run out on Kessel.

But as the smoke from the battle faded and sweat cooled against their skin. The team's mind could finally turn to things outside and beyond the mission behind them. They had to get back to the ship. Return the compass to Rannon. And maybe. Just maybe. Figure out what kind of adventure Laertia planned on teleporting to next.

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia walked through her handiwork in the sunken ruins of the temple, the lake purified, and lacking the presence of the sentient miasma that had held Jedi Souls captive. Ursula meditated nearby, in a lotus postion atop an ancient, fallen statue. Her eyes were closed.

Laertia, completely oblivious to the fact she had pulled off a stunt that would have taxed a master of many years experience, due purely to the love of her family searched the remains of the temple. She felt the nexus, clean and pure. It made her think of rabbits.

Not into philosophy, Laertia could only remark to herself that it felt nice.

She felt a tug from the Force, guiding her to the remains of an ancient forge within the temple. It looked like the forge had been for making both sword and lightsaber...she spotted a circular, fountain like object depicting a woman in a hooded robe with her arms out stretched facing away from the lake. Her boots treaded through water reaching the fountain. But it wasn't a fountain. Laertia was intimately familiar with the construction of lightsabers, having taken apart multiple training models and Sith lightsabers, studying the tools of her targets, becoming familiar with each nuance, each variance, practicing the cleansing technique on each after having taken her first. It was an antique molecular furnace, which seemed to draw its power and material from the lake itself. Laertia studied what remained of the instructions. There was a reason the Order set up shop here. Something similar to the Ambria Lake was in effect. Proper meditation and drawing force infused minerals from the water made for a powerful lightsaber crystal. But the instructions came with a warning: Ordinary lightsabers were too weak to contain the power of the crystals the forge made. It needed vents, energy quillions.

There was a raised dais to meditate infront of the Forge. Laertia checked the internals by opening a maintainance plate on the side but the machine had been built to last. Ultra high quality. Laertia would have loved to meet whoever designed it.

After resetting the plate she began looking for parts. She found an old scratched hilt casins and spare shoto emitters and began working, meditating to bind the circuitry together with telekinesis. It was exhaustive work. Very few parts were still in good quality shape but she made due, as she had on the streets learning to fix generators and droids. It was all a matter of efficiency.

The hilt construction was finished in three hours but the hard part came when using the Forge.

As she cleared out the recesses of the furnace she heard a whisper in her ear. It was the hiss of the same strange, deformed being that had warned her about the final illusion.

"You're welcome, little one..." it hissed in her mind darkly, feminine in its mental rasp.

Laertia twisted around, looking for the source but could not find it.

"Something the matter?" Ursula called out, still not moving.

"Tott I herrd sumthinz, iz all..." Laertia answered, going back to her work...

Clearing out the furnace receptical she activated the machine and meditated on the dais next to it, thinking of rabbits, trying to forget her experience with the United. She felt the power of the lake surge through her as she connected to it through the Force, felt the machine draw in water and filter out its empowered minerals as it gathered in the container. It took another three hours and it was nearly sunset by the time she was done, lost in the small glowing peace within.

Finally, she rose and went into the receptical, retrieving the small, bright green crystal within, sealing it inside her new lightsaber, activating it. The green blade and its quillions erupted from their emitters, sharp looking but unstable. She felt an even deeper connection to this blade than her regular one. It swung like a dream. The balance was perfect...

Laertia decided it needed a name. Since she had essentially removed a very nasty weed from this place, she decided she would name it Constant Gardener, because she was going to be doing a lot of gardening with it...

(Zelda Acquisition Theme plays)

(Laertia made The Constant Gardener!)

"Well done, Laertia..."

The Knight turned to Ursula, who had snuck up on her, smiling as she showed her. Ursula came over and examined it before handing it back.

"A fine weapon...lets break it in..." Ursula said handing it back and drawing her own lightsaber, a soft blue blade erupting from a weathered silver hilt.

"Yooz shurr, Ursy?"

"What, you didn't think we would come all this way to make your lightsaber and not give it test run did you?" Ursula joked in one of her rare non-stern moments. Laertia gave another goofy grin and gave a Makashi salute before the two cleared out of the forge space and to a relatively open area of what had once been the temple lobby.

The pair stared each other down, both sharing a smile before they dashed towards one another. It was one of the happiest moments of her life. Quite possibly Ursula's as well, given that rare smile the twi'lek woman had on as their blades clashed...



Laertia looked at [member="Bella Rimini"] as she was congratulated.

"Pryde muhsellff onn speedee surrvyce..." Laertia joked. But then the power system on her armor failed and she was forced to exit her armor when it popped open, crawling out, looking as disheveled and morose as before. She looked at the others, trying to manage a small smile but not making real eye contact with anyone really, her posture lacking and confidence as desert wind blew her hair around, revealing the trenches the shrapnel had dug into her scalp, her skin even paler in the twin suns. She touched her right wrist out of habit, walking awkwardly to the railing of the skiff. Without the armor, the stage fright came and went in spurts, and caused her to avoid talking further but mercifully there was no migraine.

Later on...

Moya was waiting outside The Blessing of Loste as the skiff pulled up to both their ships. She waited outside with Laertia's standard clothes as the ex shadow teleported off the skiff and repeatedly all the way to her location. The biot smiled, holding out Laertia's spiky jacket. "You look like hammered chit..." Moya joked, a twinkle in the curvy biot's brown eyes.

Laertia took the jacket and clothes and headed into her ship. She came out five minutes later in her spiky wear, her hair done, expertly hiding the scalp trenches and then walked with Moya back to the others.

"Heyy evuhreewunn..." Laertia said quietly. "Dhis iz Moya, muh caretaykuh. We aint'z readee tuh leeve forr a whilez. I gotta getz duh powuh sysstemm ruhstorred onn muh arrmur. Yooz gunna hav anny uze fer dhat skiff? Cuz wee cud uze itt."

"Vehicles are an asset hard to come by for traveling magicians like Laertia...an ex shadow is always on the lookout for small outta the way strongholds and hideouts..." Moya explained. "Its nice to meet you all, by the way. Laertia was a little more eager to start helping the Order again than she indicates..."

"Mayyyybeeee..." Laertia admitted playfully.

The Biot turned to Bella. "How did her armor hold up?"

 

[Bella Rimini]

Bella and Martin remained nearby while Jazz returned to the cruiser for a hot shower. Both gave a nod to Moya, a bio robot, and stood in the shade of her ship.

"Well. I suppose it did quite well. All things considered." Bella smile and shrugged, "Though I figure you get what you pay for. Plus, It's nice another Adept make use of such a technology in the field. I'll take every advantage I can get. Hehe."

Martin smirked and pointed back to the skiff,

"And yeah. That old thing is all yours. Good luck with it too. Piece of junk. Ha!"

Bella dismissed Martin with a wave and a smile. Like Jazz, he desperately needed a shower and a debrief. Then Bella returned her attention to the others,

"I suppose this is goodbye then. Thanks you again Laertia Io for all of your assistance on this mission. My team was most impressed. Likewise, I'll see to it that the Masters of the Jedi Temple of Rannon hear about your service here today. And, should you ever feel the need of company? Do please drop by the temple. Anytime."

Bella then gave them a slight formal bow. Almost ready to take her leave.

With everyone heading home, Rimini supposed it was now time to return to their own places in the universe. She and her team to Rannon, then back to Denon. Moya and Laertia then off to repair and renew themselves likewise. Grateful and content. Indeed, for the completion of another relatively easy little adventure.