Private To Fly Again

[Katherine Holt]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple - Temple Steps

​

Since being able to leave the Prosperity, there was one place at the Jedi Temple that Katherine had been hesitant to visit. She had looked at it, passed by it, but never dared to set foot on it…or well hover over it in her chair.

The Temple Steps.

It had been the place where Katherine had stood in resolute defence, when the Dark Empire launched their attack on Coruscant. And while they had succeeded in pushing them back, the redhead Padawan had been captured as a consequence of her foolishness that day. Her current inability to walk, the loss of her wings, the scarring…All reminders of how much of a goddamn idiot she had been.

Katherine grimaced, gripping the lightsaber hilt in her hands, her lightsaber. She had lost it during the battle, right before being rendered unconscious. By some weird luck, it had saved it from being taken by her captors, just like her armour and spear had.

The Padawan let out a sigh, trying to calm her emotions. Her whole point of coming out here was to try and overcome her fear. It wasn’t like Ellayina was going to appear out of the blue and stun her again. But the phantom pains…they still haunted Katherine.

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

Land Among The Stars​

Weapons: Lightsaber | Vibroblade

Azurine may not have been here very long, but she had certainly been here long enough to figure out just how out of place she seemed to be among the halls of the Coruscant temple. She felt almost like an outsider looking in at a world that no longer belonged to her, like she was a passing spirit haunting the grounds and waiting for the moment when the shoe would drop and everything would be ripped away again. A ghost of her former self just trying to figure out how to get back to her own body again.

Master Noble had wanted her to spend some time adjusting and getting used to everything, but that was easier said than done when she'd practically lost 900 years of time to hibernation along with everything (and everyone) she'd had. Hell, she had only just now put two and two together that the woman who'd decided to take her in wasn't just a master, but the Grandmaster of the order and suddenly the whispers that seemed to go about when she'd enter a room made sense. Where she had come from, there was no Jedi Order. It has been smothered away with the rise of the Empire. For the entirety of her training that had to be kept secret and informal, it had been just her, some others scattered here and there across the galaxy that they had run into, and Kynn.

At least the temple is as beautiful as he described it. She thought to herself, but it didn't seem to bring the kind of comfort that she'd hoped it would, nor did it drown out the ever present pain and the crushing overwhelm of the whole situation, the thought of him once again making her heart sting with longing and hurt.

So there she sat, on the temple stairs, her legs pulled up close to her chest with her arms wrapped tightly around them, her right one very clearly a metallic and robotic prosthetic, wondering if she'd ever feel at home again. She still had a couple of fresh bruises across the knuckles of her biological hand from the fighting she had been doing in the undercity instead of sleeping.

When she felt the approaching presence of another, one who's aura seemed to hold a similar uncertainty, fear, and pain of her own, she looked over to see the chair bound redhead hesitating at the edge of the structure.

"A little overwhelming, huh?" Azzie said quietly, though she remained where she was sitting at the base of the stairs hoping not to intrude to much, "Yeah, I feel it too."

Katherine Holt​

 

[Katherine Holt]

Katherine blinked, suddenly hearing a voice in relative close proximity. She looked down along the stairs, to see a dark-haired young woman sitting towards the bottom. It was a voice unknown to the Padawan, leading her to wonder if they were a new member of the Order. Clipping her lightsaber to her belt, the redhead guided her hoverchair to glide down the stairs.

As she did, Katherine took a closer look at the apparent newcomer. The metal limb wasn’t exactly difficult to miss, but she took note of the small horns protruding through her hair. Once she was close enough to see the tattoos, it became all too apparent the stranger was a Zabrak.

Definitely not a face I’ve seen around here before.

In that moment, Katherine had made the subconscious decision to distract herself from her own thoughts, by meeting someone new instead.

“Something like that, yeah.” Katherine began, shifting her hoverchair around to face Azurine. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around, have you recently joined the Order?” She asked.

“I’m Katherine Holt.” Katherine raised her hand out for Azurine to shake.

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

Land Among The Stars
​

Outfit: Clothing | Glove
Weapons: Lightsaber | Vibrosword

"Yeah, something like that." Azzie answered softly, chuckling a bit to herself at the irony of how mirrored that interaction was, and ran a hand through her short, inky colored hair, avoiding knicking her horns on instinct. The girl before her couldn't be much older than 16 or 17. She was so certain of it that she'd have straight up choked on her own air if she was wrong, but she really doubted it.

"Azurine Varek," the name rolled well off the tongue in her Iridonian accent, though typically sounded harsher without it. She gave a soft smile and extended her metal hand to take the shake (given she'd lost her right arm and that was the hand customarily used in greeting), "You can call me Azzie."

She took a moment to take in anything she could about the girl, Katherine, she said her name was. Clearly, she had a presence within the force that could wield it, her aura was bright enough to give that much, and the lightsaber she had clipped to her belt only added to that. She looked human from what she could tell, at least by what she could see of her sitting in the chair. The hover chair, though, definitely drew her attention, and she felt a bit of sadness for her. She knew what it was like to have something in the way of a limb or an ability suddenly stripped away. She didn't let her amethyst gaze linger for long, though, not wanting her to feel like she was being judged.

"I've never actually been to Coruscant until recently. Heard stories but never truly set foot here," she said, knowing that both of them were using the conversation as a distraction from their racing minds, and she welcomed it. She grabbed her glove from where it sat beside her on the steps, slipping it over her slightly bruised biological hand. She wasn't exactly the biggest fan of the idea of accidentally prying into personal information that Katherine wasn't ready to give simply by accidentally touching her chair and being unable to control her own psychometry.

Katherine Holt​

 

[Katherine Holt]

It didn’t pass Katherine’s notice, that Azurine had covered her hand before shaking. The Padawan’s curious mind immediately pondered on the ‘why’, and came to two different conclusions. One where she didn’t want to assume the worst about someone she just met, and the other where she didn’t exactly want to pry.

Psychometry, while a very useful talent to have. Could be quite the sensory overload to someone who wasn’t fully taught in it. At least, there was what Katherine had read up about it. That and the whole, not wanting to involuntarily pry into sensitive memories of an individual.

Katherine turned to look out at the sights that surrounded the Jedi Temple. The stretches of concrete and metal that led towards the city proper in the distance.

“It’s quite the sight isn’t it? Intimidating too once you're in the city, with all those towering buildings.” The redhead remembered her first steps there, and the feeling of wanting to immediately run back to the safety of the Temple. “This was the first city-planet I ever set foot on, quite the contrast to growing up surrounded by nature.”

Not that Katherine knew what that felt originally. To her it was all in hindsight, having only just recently ‘regained’ the memories she had lost of her childhood. Although they were technically Lorelei’s but well…they were one in the same now.

The Padawan turned to look at Azzie. “Have you started your studies yet?”

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

Land Among the Stars

Outfit: Clothing | Right Arm | Glove
Weapons: Lightsaber | Vibrosword

Azurine noticed Katherine's pause and watch of how quickly shed covered the only hand she had that wasn't robotic and instantly kicked herself, realizing how poorly that could be taken now that she thought about it. "I'm not a germiphobe or anything like that, I swear. I just-" she tapered off, letting out a sigh, "I don't want to intrude, it wouldn't be fair to you, and the echoes of the force attached to objects are more like screams to me." She didn't know if she explained it well enough, but that would have to do.

She followed Katherine's gaze out into the sights of the city. It was definitely large and overwhelming, but she'd seen enough big cities in her life by this point that the city itself wasn't what was causing her woes. That didn't mean that she didn't miss the harsh canyons of Iridonia. Even the captiol city of Malidris could be pretty harsh given the climate and storms. It certainly was rough out there, but it was home, and her body was literally built to survive such things.

"Growing up on Iridonia, you kinda get used to your environment wanting to chew you up and spit you out," she joked, trying to make sure her expression showed that it wasn't a source of trauma in her but more of a fondness despite her words, "What planet are you from?"

Azzie's question kind of took a back seat when she was asked about her studies. She nervously rubbed the back of her neck, casting her violet gaze to the ground. She had been learning for years ... just not here.

"You could say that, yeah. But not with the Order yet. I uh ... Master Noble wanted me to take some time to get used to things and rest before we continued my training," she eventually explained as best as she could. She didn't want to jump right into the fact that she was a relic displaced in time, knowing how off-putting that kind of statement might be.

"What about you? I assume you've been here a while, so many here were raised in one temple or another."

Katherine Holt​

 

[Katherine Holt]

Iridonia. That was a name vaguely familiar to Katherine. She recalled running into a fellow Padawan during her first few months at the Temple. First time actually interacting with a Zabrak, but she had already been fascinated by their culture.

Which was the case for practically everyone and everything. The redhead was something of a ‘knowledge sponge’ Always eager to learn, and would spend her free time reading up on whatever interested her. Zabrak and Iridonia had been two such subjects that had occupied a lot of that time.

It was a harsh environment that forged you into something, for better or worse. And admittedly, it made Katherine curious about what brought Azurine to the Jedi. But at the same time, the redhead Padawan was all too familiar with how deeply personal something like that was.

Azzie’s question about her own planet, had Katherine stare off to the side a bit. “I don’t remember its name.” Nor seemingly bothered to learn it since. “It was a planet that sat along the border of the Sith Empire and New Imperial Order…”

Her childhood memories were a whole other can of worms, with at least a few good ones sprinkled in.

A mention of ‘Master Noble’ had both Katherine’s eyes and mood light up. “Oh! You’re studying under Valery or Kahlil? Another one added to the flock.” She joked, with a grin on her face. “I’m one of Master Kahlil’s students. Always a joy to meet a fellow Noble Padawan.”

“Me? I’ve been around for…Force it feels like it’s been a good long while at least. Master Kahlil helped pull me out of a bad situation.”

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

Land Among the Stars

Outfit: Clothing | Right Arm | Glove
Weapons: Lightsaber | Vibrosword

The mention of the new Imperial Order made Azurine's blood boil. The fact that even a remnant of them was still around after everything they had done in her time to snuff it out made her want to scream. She felt a sting of empathy for any planet that happened to be caught on a border like that. If the Empire was anything like it was back in her time, she couldn't even imagine the kind of oppression and torment the people from them had to face.

"I'm sorry." That was all she could think to say on the matter even if she was curious. She didn't know how much the galaxy had changed since she'd been removed from it, but she didn't want to pry too much into something that she had no buisness knowing.

Azzie's eyes seemed to mirror Katherine's curiosity when the masters were mentioned. She hadn't even realized Kahlil had a student. What a welcome surprise among the overwhelming aspects of this place. Someone else who could understand the pressure she seemed to be thrown under without even knowing it. "I'm finishing my training under Valery. I'm not necessarily used to this level of structure, though," she said, thinking about how hands-on and informal her training during the rebellion had been when there wasn't an official jedi order.

"Master Kahlil helped pull me out of a bad situation."

The statement struck her harder than expected. It was a pain she understood too well, and given how she had only been awake for a few days now, it was still fairly fresh.

"That doesn't surprise me, Valery did the same for me. I wouldn't be here right now without it," her words held a mix of emotion. Nomatter how grateful she was for all of the gentleness and patience she had been shown there was still a part of her that believed she wasn't worth that trouble and that it shouldn't have been her who survived 900 years later.

Katherine Holt​

 

[Katherine Holt]

Katherine caught it in that moment, the flash of something in Azzie’s expression when she seemed to register the redhead’s words. A sense of understanding, that whatever the Zabrak had been through wasn’t all that different to her own. The context might’ve differed, but how it left the two of them afterwards weren’t.

She knew exactly what Azzie was feeling in the wake of being taken under Valery’s tutelage.

“Kahlil and Valery, they’re good people. Some of the very best I’ve had the fortune of getting to know. Neither shy away from helping those in need, but it isn’t always as frequent that they personally take someone under their wings.”

The redhead turned to look at Azurine. “Valery has seen something in you Azzie. I can say that with some confidence, from personal experience. Just as I know right now, you’re struggling to recognize what that is. Whether you feel like you're worthy of their attention, their instruction…their care.”

A small smile formed on Katherine’s face, a sad but knowing smile. These were all emotions that the Padawan had gone through, and in some respects still was to this day. Feeling something prickling at the corner of her eyes, Katherine turned her haze away, instead towards the cityscape before them.

Am I really going to talk about this?

There was a measure of hesitation, but every time Katherine looked at Azzie, all she could see was a mirror. A reflection of what she had been like when she had first arrived. And while the redhead couldn’t help herself right now, just maybe she could help someone else.

To at least make Azzie feel more comfortable, even if it was only slightly.

“My parents effectively sold me to the Sith Empire, for wealth and security.” There was no hiding how bitter those last two words came out. “I was taken to the Sith Valkyries to be trained, right up until the Empire was approaching collapse. Got taken away with a number of other students, under the ‘care’ of a Sith Lord; Darth Moirai.”

Speaking that woman’s name still made the Padawan shiver slightly. It took ages to stop hearing her voice, to feel her presence like it had been during the attempted possession.

“Moirai subjected me to experiments, wanted to turn me into some sleeper agent Sithspawn, the perfect bait for Master Kahlil.” The guilt of that had been hard to shake, and if Katherine was honest with herself, some small part of it still lingered. The fact that she; the ‘personality’ that was manufactured for the purpose of exploiting Kahlil’s kindness.

“But the experiments were interrupted before they could be finalised, and I was able to escape. Ironically, Kahlil was the one who found me in the end. I was this thin thing, with these oversized, blood-stained wings. Once I found out just what kind of Sithspawn I was meant to be, I felt like a monster, an abomination…not deserving to be alive.”

Azurine Varek​