Why Must We Fight?

[Jamie Pyne]

She sat still as the others left, closing the doorway behind them, and then a moment longer to mentally prepare herself to actually get down off the table that could have been her death bed. It was such a morbid way to think, but after the evening she had, she felt she had the right to look at the world a little differently for the time being. She was grateful for everything they did to save her, but it didn't change the fact that she still did nearly die, and that made her reconsider a great many things she'd taken for granted, like the simple ability to change her clothes without help.

"Okay." She said, nodding to Aela. Bracing herself with her hands atop the table she slowly slid her bottom off, feeling her weight fall to her legs. She could stand, but leaning against the table for assured support was comforting for another minute or two. Jamie hadn't ever been in much of a position where she needed the kind of help she needed then, and the guilt of making Aela help her with something as simple as changing was rather embarrassing.

The girl managed to free herself mostly from the top portion of the dress with little need for assistance, though taking off the rest from about her waist was the difficult part, the part she'd need the most help with, and maybe when it came time to put on the pants. The shirt wouldn't likely be much of an issue either. The shoes though? Out of the question. There was no way she was going to be able to scrunch her tummy that much to put them on or tie them.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela helped as much as she could, or rather as much as Jamie would let her. Before long the two of them working together had managed to dress Jamie, with Aela ending up tying her shoes for her. It was a bit silly, really, but Aela had two younger sisters and as she completed the final loop of the lace she couldn't help but be reminded of times long ago. "I used to do this for my sisters all the time."

The Jedi Marshall said with a smile.

"Maleah never quite got the handle of tying laces." Her sister had always been a bit of a wild child. "Didn't really like shoes."

Still didn't actually. Maleah always preferred to be closer to nature, and thus more often than not her sister wandered around barefoot. It was dangerous of course, as Aela had found out last night, but that was simply who Maleah was. She wondered briefly where her siblings were. Kaili was likely back on Borleias, Maleah on Onderon perhaps, and Micah...well she had no idea where Micah would be by now. She frowned for a moment and thought about how odd that was.

"I think we're good." She stood up and gave Jamie a smile.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Thank you." She said in return, once Aela had finished. Jamie never had any siblings to help or be helped by, so it was hard to relate. She'd always done everything for herself, and by herself. It was part of why it made asking Aela for help that much more awkward. Jamie never quite expected to have to ask, as a full grown adult, for another adult's help with something as simple as changing her clothes. At least not until she was very old and handicapped.

Rather than climb back up onto the table she took a more proper seat by the corner of the room, leaning her head gently back against the cool durasteel wall while Aela went to let the others back in. Everything fit for the most part. The shoes were of course definitely a little small, but such was the way of things. She could make it through the day with them at the very least, until they got to the hotel and into their room.

"I think if we maybe take it slow I can get there, if it's not too far away."

The only thing she was really nervous about was the time it would take her to get from the building they were in now to the hotel. She wasn't going to be the most speedy of walkers, that was for sure.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela nodded.

The hotel wasn't that far, but with Jamie's injuries it would probably seem like the longest trek of her life. She herself didn't feel too great, her muscles ached from over exertion, her head hurt a bit, and the cuts and scratches seemed to burn every time she moved. It was nothing when compared to what Jamie had been through, but the Jedi Marshall still didn't feel quite confident. Though she knew it was a slim possibility, they could still run into Villia's sister or any number of House Guards.

They had to be careful.

"Let's take it slowly then." She looked around the crates for a few moments. "I don't suppose you brought a hat?"

Such a thing would have been very useful at this time. Bastion was filled to the brim with working peoples of all sorts, the streets were usually busy and as Aela and Jamie knew, one could blend into them quite well if you tried. That was how they would make their way to the hotel, no ostentatious dresses, no pushing people aside, just going with the flow of the crowd. It was a skill, blending with the people around you, one that Aela wished she was better at.

"Once we're there you can rest again." Aela assured her as she pulled open the door.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

It was a painfully slow and arduous process to get from the safehouse to the hotel, but somehow by the grace of the Force Jamie and the others made it without much of a hitch. With Zven having the key to the suite already they were able to bypass the front lobby, sneaking Joran in between the larger men carrying their belongings. By the time they reached the top floor that was to be their room for at least the next day Jamie was exhausted. The blonde ended up sitting down in the lift, her back leaned against the wall to catch her breath throughout the ride, as well as being the last one out.

Of course getting back up was another story. Bjorn saw to helping her onto her feet after a moment of watching her struggle to do so on her own.

The room within was magnificent to say the least. Plenty of space, a small fireplace, massive cathedral ceilings with colossal floor to ceiling windows, expensive carpeting with plush Nerf leather sofas facing a huge HoloScreen. The kitchen was just as large, with a table that could accommodate their party, a gourmet stove and fridge, with several large bedrooms.

"This place is nice." The girl remarked. Even she hadn't quite expected something this nice, all of the bathrooms had real water jetted tubs!

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

”Just another thing to Justify on that budget report.” She was beginning to think that at the end of all this she would have to pay the SIS back for such a huge expenditure bill. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, mostly because her parents weren’t currently in the galaxy to yell at her for spending several hundred thousand credits.

”It’ll do for the next few days.” Aela began to roam around the room, checking on everything and eventually stopping around the table. ”We need a way off this world.”

She decided that not they were safe, they could get to business. ”Jamie, Jorn, and I can’t leave this suite, not until we’re ready to head off world. That means everything falls on you guys.”

Aela looked at the soldiers. None of them seemed particularly worried.

”First things first. Find a ship.” Aela said as she slid her bag onto the table.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

One of the men chimed in regarding Aela's request.

"Well, we can try and hitch a ride on one leaving, see if they'll take us, but they'll likely have questions that we'll not want to provide answers to. Could be tricky, and risky."

Joran spoke up with his own thought. "We could take one." That idea evoked a glare from Jamie. They'd been through enough in terms of confrontations, she didn't want to go adding any more, on top of adding the risk of being shot down by whatever defenses Bastion may or may not have in place on the way out. While it was an option, it was one she didn't quite feel comfortable with unless it was a last resort and they simply had no other options to work with.

"Can we reach the alliance and ask for a pickup?"

Seemed like a pretty straightforward plan. They could simply wait it out until their evacuation came to get them. They wouldn't need to go anywhere, wouldn't need to steal a ship, and wouldn't need to risk being killed.

"Wouldn't that be the safest route off world?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Not really." Aela answered. "Bastion is under the Control of the Mandalorian Crusaders, and while we're not at war...relations aren't exactly warm. If the Alliance sends a ship out here for us there will be questions, and we likely don't want to answer those questions."

They could always send a stealth ship, but that was expensive and well...they really only had so many of those. It could be weeks before they became available, and even then it might be easier to simply follow along with Joran's idea, or rather...a version of it.

"We can always buy a ship." Aela said simply.

It was a bit much to put on the SIS expense report, but...well Aela herself had a lot of personal wealth, or rather her family did. It wasn't the the best option, and she certainly would have preferred something else...but in a pinch it would do. She would have to explain to her mother and father what happened, but she was pretty sure that both of them would understand once they learned about the circumstances. Besides, it wasn't like they had to buy the most expensive ship out there. "My family name is known well enough...apparently."

She glanced at Joran.

"That should mean something." A shrug of her shoulders. "I would just need to contact my families financier."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie thought for a moment, buying a ship simply to leave Bastion was a bit expensive, and given the amount of things they'd already purchased thus far on their trip, adding in a ship, even a cheap one, would come in at around 30,000 credits. And at that price, for a single purpose, Aela would likely be given a very stern talking to at best. Surely there had to be a better, less expensive means to leaving the planet that didn't include blatant theft like Joran had suggested.

"Well..." She started, taking a moment to breathe, the arduous trek from the safe house to the suite still having exhausted her. "What if we simply rented a ship then? It would be far less expensive, and there's got to be someplace willing to loan a small personal ship or freighter. Even if it was a few thousand credits, it would still be far beneath the cost of a new ship right?"

The blonde figured it would likely be a waste of time to check on outgoing ship manifests to see if there was somewhere they could hitch a lift to in Alliance space given their location and the state of affairs between the two governing bodies. Most ships in the sector were likely bound for independent space or Mandalorian space, two places that wouldn't help them in any larger way than if they stuck around on Bastion waiting for a pickup. Renting a ship seemed to be the cheapest, legal way of getting off world without raising too much suspicion.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela looked at Jamie for a moment. "You can rent ships?"

The idea had never really occurred to her before, though it made sense in a way. She frowned for a moment and then turned to the others. The soldiers were looking at Aela, or rather, they were staring, though Joran also looked somewhat bewildered. Clearly the man had never had to rent a ship before, much like Aela.

"Yeah."

Bjorn finally said to Aela's relief.

Her cheeks colored for a moment, and Aela felt slightly embarrassed. She had never really quite lived a normal life. Her upbringing had been somewhat sheltered, her family wealthy and always providing everything she'd needed. Similarly when she'd join the New Jedi Order everything had always simply...been there. Real life problems had often never really occurred for Aela, something she was thankful for, but was becoming increasingly a hazard when she went out to do stuff.

"Alright." She said regaining some of her composure. "Let's do that then."

She shrugged. "Freighter. Something inconspicuous."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

And Jamie thought she had been the sheltered one.

"I'll go see what I can dig up." One of the men spoke up as he headed for the door. "Sit tight. I'll be back shortly."

The blonde took a moment to lift the side of her shirt a bit, to examine the area around the wound she'd suffered. She made a bit of a disgusted face at seeing the reddened, bruised, and swollen area beneath the bandage. It was sure to leave a scar. No matter how small she was certain Kurt would notice it eventually. Perhaps not right away if she was lucky enough to hide it, but eventually he would see it. He'd have questions, likely berate her for being careless. They'd argue, Eventually.

Right now all that mattered was finding a ship off Bastion, and the sooner they did that the better.

"I don't suppose we have any pain medication?" The trek from the safe house to the suite had been longer than she'd hoped for, and her body had only hours before received such a punishment. Pain medication would be invaluable at the present, even if they wouldn't need to leave the suite.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela glanced towards Bjorn. If any one of them was carrying out pain medication then it was likely the large medic. The man shifted slightly and slid off the chair he had been sitting on, moving a few large crates to access his medical bag.

”Not a lot. We have to ration them in case something else happens, but this will let you relax a bit.”

It was a single pill, but a derivative of morphine that would let Jamie sit back a bit. ”Oh.”

Aela suddenly realized.

”I can teach you something.” She had no idea why she hadn’t thought of this before, though perhaps it was because they had been so busy as of late. She shifted slightly and moved over towards Jamie, beckoning the girl to sit down on the floor. The action would hurt a bit, but...well necessary at this point. ”Crucitorn.”

At least that’s what she believed it was called. ”Using the force to control your pain.”

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie looked at the pill, and then Bjorn and then skeptically towards Aela.

"Now?" She asked, feeling wholly and entirely not up to the challenge of trying to learn a Force technique while under quite this amount of pain. It had already been difficult enough without stopping on their way to the hotel, but now all she wanted to do was lie down and rest, but Aela wanted to jump into learning Force powers. Even if it were to curtail some of her pain, she wasn't quite certain whether or not she could provide ample focus or attention to the lesson at the given time.

"I don't know." She said, taking the medication from Bjorn and swallowing it. "I understand the whole learn as you go idea, but I'm not sure my body will agree right now."

Despite her protests, she was unlikely to persuade Aela otherwise. She'd learned that much by now, as did the others, to not waste time trying to convince the woman differently when she had an idea in her head.

Joran simply looked at the two and sniveled. He needn't speak a word to understand that he disliked Force users.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

The medicine would take about half an hour to kick in, plenty of time for Jamie to practice.

"This is important." Aela said rather predictably. "Crucitorn isn't just about managing pain after a battle, but during one as well. So if you get hurt during a fight you can keep going. It's not healing mind you, using it won't make your wounds suddenly seal themselves back up."

For healing Jamie would have to ask someone else. "Rather, it lets you...guard yourself against the pain, ignore it in a way and shoulder the burden to something else. Combine it with other techniques and it can prevent you from getting hurt more, but...we'll get to those later."

Aela had often used the technique in a fight to push herself far beyond the limits of the human body. It was one of the reasons that she was capable of fighting for so long and so hard, she was a master of the technique, one of the few things she could do without any real thought. It had it's dangers of course, lingering for too long without pain was...well tempting, and if one got caught up in it they could very well kill themselves simply by ignoring wounds.

Dangerous.

"See if you can't start to meditate. I know it will be difficult with the pain, but trust me." It was better than just sitting around.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The galaxy had never seen a more sour look of defeat than the one Jamie wore when Aela persisted.

"Okay, okay." She said, slowly and carefully sliding off of the chair and onto the floor. "But after this I am going to get some rest, even if there's a rancor at the door."

She'd never actually seen one in person, but she'd seen plenty of horror flicks to know how big and scary they were. If it were her choice between rancor food and sleep though? At this point she'd take the risk.

"Difficult won't begin to describe it." She mumbled to herself as she shut her blue eyes, legs folded beneath her as sitting crossed was far too uncomfortable for the time being. The blonde rested her hands on her knees, taking in slow and as steadied as possible breaths. The pain was still very much at the front of her mind, and as much as she fought against it, it was still present. Jamie wasn't entirely certain if she would actually even be able to meditate in her current situation, but if it got Aela off her back she would at least try.

Several quiet minutes would pass, the only noticeable movements she'd made were the occasional wince from a nerve sending a spike of pain through her core. Eventually the pain became a sort of constant, something she felt very much though understood to be part of her, at least for now.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela watched Jamie. She didn't try to meditate herself, only focusing on the flow of the force around her padawan. She had never been much of a sensory Jedi, the ebbs and flows of the force really only being obvious to her when they were absolutely in her face. Yet when she sat quietly and was allowed time, she could at the very least see the small pangs of power that floated around Jamie. It would allow her to better guide the Padawan.

"Okay." She said finally as she realized Jamie was ready.

"Now." This was where it got tricky. "Focus on that pain, but not the pain itself." How was she to explain this. "Try to wrap it in the force, like a bandage. Slowly turn and twist it so it spreads and ultimately...dissipates within the force itself."

The process was difficult, but worth it.

Pain was a fact of life, and for Jedi it was sadly all the more of a fact.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie heard what Aela was saying, but to her, it made absolutely no sense.

Focus on the pain? But not the pain? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Was that some kind of riddle? She wondered about what the woman could possibly be talking about when she said those words. Jamie knew the Force was obscure, but boy, this was beyond obscure.

Okay...Focus on the pain but don't....Sure...Yeah...I can do that...Somehow.

It had begun getting easier to feel the Force when meditating, but the idea of using it to push away the physicality of real pain seemed beyond her grasp. Her face contorted for minutes at a time as she involuntarily gestured, wrestling with how to actually accomplish such a feat within her own body and mind. After what felt like an eternity, she felt some measure of calm pass over her, like a gentle wave of energy that allowed her a moment of respite. The pain quickly returned, but that fleeting moment of freedom was exonerating.

"It worked...For a second." She commented, before brutishly trying to reclaim that hold as if she were struggling to cling to a dream after being awoken.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Good." She said simply. "Don't try to force it."

This wasn't an easy thing to do. It had taken Aela years to master this particular technique, and she had only been able to due it because of the copious battles she'd found. Countless wounds had helped Aela hone her skill, dozens of bruises, three broken ribs, all of the injuries she had managed to accumulate throughout her lifetime. It wasn't really anything to brag about, especially considering what half her skin now looked like thanks to all the scars, but hopefully she'd be able to help Jamie understand the technique with a fraction of the pain.

"It takes time to learn this. Don't try to rush." She said calmly.

That was the way with many things of the force.

Once they were on Dxun they would accelerate Jamie's learning a bit. She would be treated the same way that Quietus had treated her. The training regiment was...not a kind one, but it would help make her apprentice strong, not to mention learn exactly the thing she wanted to.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She nodded her head to Aela, trying to capture that moment at least once more if not for the sake of learning, but for the sake of reprieve.

The pain in her abdomen was still very much real, despite her desire to simply will it away. She'd managed to feel a moment respite, but that left her wanting more, or at the very least wanting the pain medication to kick in so that she could finally get some rest on an actual bed with sheets and fluffed pillows. Accommodations that she'd begun to take for granted until very recently. The blonde delved back into her mind and the Force, searching for that link to bond herself with, to bridge the gap between her pain and the comfort that the energy within the Force could lift away.

Slowly that same calm passed through her like she had walked through a gateway, stripping away a small layer of pain from her tired body. It wasn't much, and in all honesty it perhaps could have been the pill taking over, but she felt as though she'd made some small stride, decreasing her pain level just enough that she wouldn't need to ask for assistance to stand from the floor and walk to the bedroom after.

That was something at least.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

The force wasnt something that one could Master in a single night. It took years, sometimes decades, to get the hang of even one thing, Aela herself had only truly mastered under half a dozen different things in the force and they were all things that she had known since childhood.

The force wasnt easy to say the least.

She shifted slightly and slowly stood up, signalling the end of their little practice session. Jamie needed to rest, and there was no way she could keep concentrating with the amount of pain she was likely in. Besides that Aela also had some things to take care of.

Like starting that expense report.

"Get some rest. Ill wake you if anything happens." She told Jamie with a smile.