Private Typhoons

[Colette]

Thud. Thud-thud. Thud. Thud-thud-thud.

It makes sense when you think about it.

Thud-whap-thud… Thud.

The fact that she was here right now and not on the shuttle was proof of that.

Whap-thud-thad.

Still. They could have asked. They could have pretended that they had even considered bringing her along or something. Maybe say that she would have endangered the mission, or that her emotional state was too shaky to be anything more than a liability to them and that in partaking she would be skirting dangerously close to something Valery wouldn’t have wanted to expose her to because she just knew much better than to do that. Actually, just saying anything at all would have been enough, but no…

THUD-whip. A bad hit.

“Ahhhh!!” Colette’s screamed in pain. Her left hand latched on to her wrist as she nearly cringed over in pain. Naturally she didn’t, she was far too angry in this very moment for that. A set of teeth bared with mounting rage as her breathing grew all the more ragged. She tried to hold it back, really, but the emotions were just too much. The girl threw herself at the roof-mounted punching bag with a tackle as if to imagine it was whoever was the source of all this turmoil so that she could make them stop.

Except, synth-leather wasn’t known for its ability to stick to things outside of superheated speeders. While Colette had fully managed to get herself to the other side of the bag, her grip was nowhere near as good as she wanted it to be, and most certainly not good enough to tear the equipment off of its hinges. Her face planted itself against the padded flooring with an oomph. A cough pushed past her lips as the bag slipped back into position.

Or rather, it swung away. Colette decided to roll over on her back and sit back up again so that she could give it another try. Except much like she should have predicted, that didn’t happen. The bag swung back in karmic retribution, and at that point it didn’t matter how much she had trained. When a heavy bag filled with dense materials struck you across your face and nose, you felt it. Another agonized scream parted her lips as she rolled over and began to cover the nose that was now leaking at an increasingly faster pace. Tears slowly trickled down her face as she remained still on her side with an all too heavy dose of self-pity and fear.

It wasn’t fair that she was here, she thought in between the sobs. If she had just managed to make more of her studies and exercises she could have done something. Instead she was… Here. Unable to do a damn thing, and far too weak to even know where to begin.

But, at least here nobody could see her in this state. This gym was seemingly never in use around this time. The girl decided to remain on the floor as the bag gently swung back and forth, content to wither in a pile of her own blood and tears. At least for now. She deserved this.

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

"Are you alright?"

The voice that spoke to her was unfamiliar but calm and with a gentle kindness to it. It belonged to an older man, likely in his 60s or beyond, but there was something very different about him. He wasn't among the living. Dressed in old, traditional Jedi robes, the Force Ghost of Adam Dawn greeted her with a small dip of his head.

Thus far, he had only been able to reveal himself to Valery on occasion, or to her husband because of how closely he was tied to his former student. It was still a surprising thing for a Jedi of the Old Republic to be married, but after speaking with Kahlil and learning to understand how he had changed Valery's life, Adam was no longer against the idea. He had practically raised Valery, and given his own life to protect her an eternity ago, so anything that made her happy or kept her safe, he'd support.

Which brought him here today.

Valery always had a special place in her heart for her Padawans, and now that something terrible was happening to her, Adam felt compelled to be there for her students once more.

"I hope I didn't startle you, but I wished to speak to you about someone, and I think you already know who."

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

That was an unfamiliar voice. Colette froze for a second before she opened her eyes to look up at the glowing spirit of someone she had never seen before. She tried to pick herself back up again but her head spun, her tears still rolled, and the blood still trickled on down from her nose and onto the floor.

Nausea became real by the time she sat up again and realized that this man was not part of the recently deceased at all. The kid put her back to a nearby wall to grant herself a measure of stability as her eyes peered over at the spirit yet again, drawing only the one reasonable conclusion from all of this.

“You can stop talking in riddles. I’m dead, aren’t I?” She asked in utter defeat. “Or I’ve got a really bad concussion.”

“Look, I get it, brain. You want to talk about Valery because even in this state you think I’ll have an easier time talking to made up ghosts than some sort of… Rational response to whatever is going on in there.”

She sighed. Fine.

“No, I’m not okay, mind-ghost. I am here, my best friend and mentor is out there and in serious danger, and I can’t do anything to help.” She groaned from the nausea. “You know this. You’re literally a part of my brain, and all of this is very… Weird.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

Adam chuckled at the reaction to his sudden appearance, "You remind me of her," he then said before he took a few steps forward, while Colette lowered herself to sit down against the wall. "But no, you're not dead, and I'm not part of your mind." He was keeping some distance and his voice calm enough, knowing that it was strange for Jedi to experience something like this, especially for the first time.

Talking to the dead wasn't exactly normal.

"My name is Adam Dawn. A very long time ago, I was a Jedi, just like you. A Guardian, a teacher, and the Master to the woman you're so worried about now." He paused for a moment and chuckled.

"I suppose that means we are connected."

"I understand the situation you're in now, and I wished to speak to you about it." Similarly, he had talked to Kahlil Noble on several occasions too, but mostly through strange dreams and shared visions with his wife. Colette was now in a position that Valery and so many other Padawans have been in as well, so he felt compelled to help.

"Why do you believe that you can't help her?"

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

She laughed at the name. She knew it was probably rude, even if it was towards her own brain, but it was true. Riiight, this ‘Adam Dawn’ was just magically appearing out of nowhere the moment she needed someone to talk to and when she felt the most alone. And she just so happened to have taken a bad hit to the head, and then, in that very moment she was face to face with the ghost of her master’s master.

Who was next? Adam Dusk? The mentor of the mentor’s mentor?

Even though her own head and mind spun in circles around her she would nonetheless entertain the conveniently apparated man’s presence. He insisted that they were connected, that he knew the situation, and wondered how come Colette felt unable to help.

Her eyes shifted to the side and her head tilted just ever so slightly to look at the ghostly apparition before she stared back at the ceiling again.

“I could have stopped this, somehow.” She muttered as she moved a hand to swipe at the blood coming from her nose and brushed it off on her waist. “The force is infinite, I could have found a way.”

“Could have told her not to go, or… I don’t know. Prevented it from happening in the first place.”

“Hurt them before they could hurt her.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

"That's a way of thinking that has driven many Jedi, especially Seers, insane," Master Dawn said after he listened to her answer. It was not surprising that she wished she would have been able to prevent or stop it, but there was danger in possibly blaming oneself for it as well. The Force worked in mysterious ways, but the future couldn't always be safely predicted and responded to.

"I understand it's not easy to wait while she's out there in need of help. But you still have an important role to play in her recovery, once she's brought back." He knew there was no guarantee that Valery would even survive what was happening to her, but even he had to stay positive when it came to his former student.

A woman who was almost like a daughter to him.

"Through the bond I'm sure you've developed with her by now, you've likely felt her pain. She's going to need help and support when she's back, and a lot of that will rely on her loved ones and Padawans." He tried to offer an encouraging smile. "But for you to help her, you have to make sure you're not hurt yourself."

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

“Good thing I’m not a seer then.” Colette muttered under her breath and stared off in the other direction. All in all he was speaking wisdom, even if it obviously was her own wisdom. Colette’s eyes rolled back to look at him as he patiently laid her thoughts out for her.

“Right.” She said and leaned her head back against the wall again. “How can I not be hurt?” She asked. “I wasn’t considered for her retrieval, and they deliberately left me in the dark until they had left.”

Her hand swiped the blood from her mouth. It would seem the bleeding had started to slow down, so at least that was good. She looked over at the blood smear on the bottom of the bag and then the one on the floor.

“Unless you mean hurt as in the nose thing.” Colette groaned and drew a circle in front of her face while she looked over at Adam. “Can’t do much about that one.”

“Okay, no, really, mind-ghost. Since you seem to know so much about Valery all of a sudden, why don’t you tell me something about her, hm? I’ll run it by her later to confirm that I am — in fact — having a concussion right now.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

Maybe she was a little too much like Valery.

Adam idly stared at the Padawan but had a difficult time keeping some laughter contained. It had been a very long time since he trained Valery or any Padawan for that matter. For one to make demands of a Force Ghost wasn't all that surprising, but it was definitely quite amusing to him.

"I'm sure they considered you, but it's also their duty to protect you." That and it was likely that the Jedi out there looking for Valery were not emotionally quite their normal selves.

"But I can tell you a story about her that might help you understand. Has she ever told you about her scar?" He asked but Adam already knew the answer and quickly continued. "As you do know, she and I were Jedi serving an Enclave on New Cov, which was built in the middle of some dangerous jungles. But somewhere during her later years as my Padawan, we received reports about the animals being unusually aggressive."

"We learned a Sith Beastmaster was attempting to corrupt the already dangerous predators, so my Padawan and I left to find and confront him. It was a journey that would take us many days, but it hardly felt like we were getting closer. As if this Sith was always one step ahead. Until we were stuck inside a cave for shelter one night when a violent storm passed over our part of the jungle." He paused for a moment and frowned.

"We sensed the Sith nearby, but I decided that it was too dangerous to go after him in the storm. Valery disagreed, but after I rejected her ideas, she waited until I was sleeping and went after this Sith herself. She... was caught in an ambush, and nearly torn apart by a group of Vornskr he held under his control."

"Her stubbornness and overconfidence got her seriously injured, and if I hadn't been able to find her just in time to chase the Sith away, she would have died."

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

The scar, huh? Colette looked rather unimpressed for a while. New Cov, jungles, aggressive animals… They were all rather easy things to come up with. Sith Beastmaster was a curious spin on it, but not too far-fetched. Valery had, after all, once said that Colette had some sort of natural affinity for them so that would easily have played into why it was a Sith beastmaster of all things.

But then, he mentioned something Colette had never heard about before: a vornskr.

What the hell was a vornskr? Her face scrunched up in both surprise and confusion for a moment as she looked at this Adam Dawn character with a deeper belief that something was definitely not quite right here. Was she making up words now? A vornskr. That sounded like something a drunk would say when they tongue-tied themselves trying to say vroom-skrrr.

“Hm.” The kid hummed as if she was almost willing to believe that. “That… Doesn’t sound impossible, but…”

“No.” She laughed. “Master Noble is not that impatient, surely she wouldn’t…” Colette fell into thought again. “I always thought that scar was from wrestling a nexu, or like a…”

“I don’t know, some sort of garden fork carrying lunatic.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

Just as stubborn, too.

Adam just chuckled when she rejected the idea at first, knowing that it wasn't too strange. People who only ever knew Valery as Jedi Master probably couldn't imagine a time when she was able to drive just about anybody insane. From her endless energy to her stubbornness and competitive attitude...

"Even your Master made mistakes when she was younger, some worse than others." He didn't dare say more, knowing Valery would hunt him down even in death if he said too much.

The thought made him chuckle.

"All of it has made her the woman she is now, but as strong as she is, she's going to need you when she comes back. Her Padawans have always given her a lot of strength."

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

“Sooo… You want me to make more mistakes.” Colette was probably doing it on purpose by now. The smile on her lips gave that much away. “I will be there for her when she comes back, of course I will.”

The kid put a hand on the wall to slowly push herself up from the floor and get back on her feet.

“Of course, she has… Kahlil, and Vera, and—” Colette stopped for a moment. “Huh, Vera.” She fell into thought. “Hey Adam, do you think…”

“No, I mean yes, Vera is probably safe right now.” She muttered and felt — in this moment more than ever — the pain in her nose. Her eyes closed, hands reaching up to cover it. “Son of a fu—” Colette cursed but stopped herself. “That hurts.”

One hand rested on the wall.

“Don’t tell Valery I said that.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

"Her children are fine, and safe here at the temple, but understandably scared as well." He paused and looked off towards one of the walls, almost as if he was able to stare right through them and see anything within the Temple. "Perhaps you should pay Vera a visit. A friendly face might help her, now that both her parents are away from home."

Vera's gift of seeing visions likely also meant that she knew more about what was happening to her mother than any kid should ever know. She was a tough little Noble, but she was still a child.

Adam then watched Colette rising up to her feet, all with the necessary bit of cursing and chuckled warmly. "I won't tell her, but you should probably be careful with your language. Your Master might be very kind and protective, but I've heard she can be quite... difficult as well if her Padawans misbehave."

Running laps was nothing compared to the kind of PT that she could drag her Padawans through.

"Is there anything else I could help with before I leave?"

 

[Colette]

@Valery

“Master Noble knows very well that I am not going to let her beat me with her ‘disciplinary actions’, Adam.” Colette laughed as she realized that she was warming up to this conversation with herself. “If she asks me to jump over the Jedi temple in one go, I’ll do it. If she thinks tiring me out with a few laps is going to make me any less likely to mind my language… Mmmmm-nah.”

The kid took the first step towards the door with a groggy groan before she looked back over her shoulder at the ghost.

“I think I’m going to go and find Vera now.” She said and looked back towards the door to point at it. Yet no sooner than she turned back around to look at where Adam stood, he was gone. “Aaaand he’s gone.” She muttered. “Great.”

Although her wrist hurt and her nose hurt just as much, she didn’t really give herself the time to swing by the nurse just yet. Mostly because this felt rather superficial and not like something that really needed attention, and also because it was a detour. What Colette however DID do was to wash herself off. At least enough so that the blood on her nose and lip wasn’t quite so visible.

As she approached the Nobles’ room she gave the door a gentle knock before she stepped inside.

“Vera?” She called out. “Vera are you in here, or are you at the… Child place?”

“Where the little children are.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

While Colette laughed, Adam couldn't stop smiling. A single glance at Colette was like staring directly into the past, back to when he was training Valery. She possessed so many of the same qualities, and he couldn't help but miss it a little. It was serious work to train a Padawan and be a Jedi, but he'd be lying if he ever claimed that he didn't enjoy it. The bonds that form through training would last forever.

Even beyond so many lifetimes.

"Good luck, Colette."

With that, Master Adam Dawn was gone, and the young Padawan moved through the Temple, and to the room the Nobles shared within the Temple. It wasn't as homey as their apartment, but they spent a lot of time there when they couldn't travel between their home and the Temple for some reason. Now, two Temple guards were stationed outside the door, and no Jedi except for those in the close circle of the Nobles was allowed to pass.

"Where the little children are."

"I'm not little!" Vera called back with a pout. But it quickly turned into a faint smile when she spotted Colette. "Is mommy back?" she asked because usually Padawans visited only when mom was around, right? Sadly, Vera already knew the answer and turned back to the triplets with a frown.

All three of them were crying, and nothing Vera was trying could calm them down.

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

A small rock faded from Colette’s chest as one of the cutest, and undoubtedly most frightening, voices in the temple found offense in what Colette had said. Though she asked if her mother was there Colette shook her head over the sound of three babies crying.

There was no time to waste. Colette patted Vera on the head and ruffled her hair as she passed her by and made her way to the triplets to see what they were crying about. No doubt they knew that something was wrong, and no doubt they could tell that it was related to their mother somehow. Colette pursed her lips for a moment to think. They were too young to be reasoned with, and too young to know better. They had an instinctive understanding of the world around them…

“Heyyy…” Colette whispered as she leaned in to stroke one of them up and down along the arm. “Colette is here, okay? Mom’s out for a bit but will be back soon.”

“Hey Vera,” She said and turned towards the older sister. “Could you pick up Aurra?”

Colette herself picked up both Adam and Aeryn in one arm each, the force ensuring their heads leaned into one shoulder each as she started swaying them back and forth for a moment.

“And put her on your shoulder like this, okay? And hum…”

A melodic hum rumbled in Colette’s chest as she swayed the wet little kids in her arms and encouraged Vera to do her best to follow along. The triplets were warm and surprisingly wet. Tears, no doubt, but also warmth. She imagined they had sprattled about. Children did that when they were young, or so she had been told. Couldn’t control their limbs quite yet but clearly felt a need to use them.

“You’re doing great, Vera.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

Even though Vera knew far more about what happened to her mother than she should, she was able to smile a little when Colette patted her on the head and walked over to help with her siblings. Dad was now also out there to find Mom, and several Padawans had joined him. She couldn't recall ever feeling this alone before, so having Colette show up to keep her company really made a big difference.

"Okay..." Vera then said when she was asked to pick up Aurra. "Aura doesn't have the Force, so she doesn't know," Vera then said, but the little Noble in Vera's arms was still crying. Most likely because her siblings were as well, who perhaps felt something about the disappearance of their mother.

She was, after all, the most important person in their lives together with Kahlil.

Vera then watched Colette and followed her instructions to gently sway along. It quickly had its intended effect — the babies stopped crying and even let out a few happy squeals here and there. "Thank you, Colette," Vera said before she kissed her sister's little forehead. "I promised Mom and Dad that I would protect them but I'm scared."

"Will mommy be okay?"

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

As the babies got quieter Colette kept on swaying but stopped the humming, and when they had finally quieted down for a moment she slowly helped ease them down into a nearby couch where they could all sit together as she knelt down in front of them.

“Hey, anytime, kiddo.” Colette said and beamed a smile at Vera. “Of course your mother will be okay. She has one of the strongest Jedi in the whole galaxy coming to help her, and then he has some of the most capable people to help him out.”

One of the children seemed to squee for a moment, potentially at the risk of crying again. So, simplicity be what it be, Colette ran her finger along their nose and blew a raspberry and began to rub her thumb up and down along their shoulder.

Her attention set on Vera.

“Vera,” She said and reached out with her other hand to place it on the kid’s shoulder. “You’re a good kid.” Colette gave the shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I’ll be here until your mom is back, but I’m going to need your help with the triplets, okay?”

“Which isn’t all bad, you know.” A mischievous grin spread on the Padawan’s lips. “For one, it means we’re going to need a pillow fort and a lot of good vids to help pass the time with once the small ones are asleep, hmm?”

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

Vera smiled at Colette reassuring her, and nodded along — she was right. Dad had left to find her mom, and there wasn't a person in the Galaxy she trusted more than him. Capris and Cora were both like big sisters to her as well, and they'd be helping him as well. Mom was going to be okay, she had to believe in it.

"Maybe she's hungry?" Vera then asked when Aeryn made a squee noise. Luckily, she either wasn't or Colette's little tricks distracted her enough from it to make her go quiet again. At their age, they were already getting some food, but they still required mom to be fed as well.

"Vera,"

Vera blinked and turned back to Colette with a smile, "I can help!" She was quick to respond, but when she learned what it is that Colette needed help with, she immediately began to bounce up and down. As all kids, she loved to build pillow fortresses and sharing that fun with her siblings, or her basically-siblings (padawans), was the best thing in the world!

So as quickly as she usually appeared, Vera now ran off to grab not only every pillow she could find, but also her stuffed animals. Her bear, Eddie, was the first to be settled into place.

"Uhm, Colette?" Vera then asked while she began to build her fortess. "Can we have snackies too?" The triplets weren't the only ones who would get hungry, after all.

 

[Colette]

Maybe the triplets were hungry, indeed. If they weren't already then they would be eventually. From what the elder had told her though, solid foods at an age this young wasn't a good idea. No teeth, no chewing, no way. A worried frown set on her lips as Colette began to look around the apartment. There had to be something in the kitchen. Vera got her things in place for the evening and Colette looked over at her with a smile.

"After dinner." Colette nodded with a smile. "But not too much, so make sure to pick something that you really like, okay?"

The teenager began to go through the cupboards and drawers to get acquainted with where stuff was. You'd think after having seen this place from her time with Valery it would all be rather obvious where things were, but such was not the case. In one of the drawers she seemed to find some sort of powder, or 'formula' as some seemed to call it.

After finding three separate bottles she proceeded to mix three different dosages, one for each child before she put the bottles in the fridge for later. As she wrapped up it seemed that Vera had gotten halfway through her construction work.

"Who's your friend there?" Colette asked as she took a seat by the triplets and looked over the backrest of the couch and back to Vera. "They're very cute, can I hold them for a moment?"

A hand extended towards Eddie, but nothing would happen without the express consent of Eddie's best friend. A warm smile spread on the babysitter's lips as she thought back to her own time as a child. She hadn't had a stuffed animal of her own as much as one of the older and lazier loth cats that had retired from a full life of catching vermin in service to the tribe.

Few things were as captivating to sleep to as the content purr of a satisfied feline friend.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Training Room

​

Tag: Colette

"Mkay!" Vera exclaimed — she knew exactly which snackies she wanted, and now that Colette promised them after dinner, there was no way she'd accept no for an answer anymore. The little Noble had made up her mind. Vera then turned back to continue working on her forst and after every few minutes, a new plushie would join her little army.

Her bear, a tooka cat, a loth wolf, a Vornskr, a Tauntan...

She had a lot.

When Colette returned, she asked a question about them, and Vera beamed a bright smile, "This is Eddie!" she called out before offering her favorite stuffed friend to Colette. "Just be nice to him," she added with a nod, and every second it spent in Colette's hands, Vera would watch it like a hawk.

Nobody would hurt her bear.

But as fun as it was to talk and build fortresses together, the time for hunger finally came. It started with Aeryn, but Adam and Aurra quickly began to cry and scream as well. Vera blinked, looked at them and then at Colette. "Do you need help? Maybe they want their plushies back..."