Working Through It

[Cassius Droma]

The Spectre Melody cruised through the endless blue tunnel of hyperspace, going at a speed much slower than what it was capable of. In the cockpit, the tall K-X series droid T-4D4 sat in the co-pilot's chair, monitoring systems and navigation. Overall, there was a bit of a sense of calm throughout the ship. The engines gave off this low hum that provided a curtain of white noise around the whole interior.

The captain, Cassius Droma, sat in the circular booth in the lounge, a tall cylindrical glass of meiloorun nectar sitting on the round table in front of him. Hyperspace, when traveling along a plotted course, could be a relaxing experience. Cassius couldn't even count the number of times the streaking of stars and the warbly blue tunnel fading into view meant that he was safe and leaving a harrowing situation behind. It was a time he could be completely isolated from the rest of the galaxy.

That was why he decided to bring along Prennis Keeoli. She'd told him she needed to speak with him, and the matter seemed... serious. Try as he might, he could feel that there were still some confusing feelings surrounding her regarding her former loyalties. He was sure that coming out of that wouldn't be as easy as flipping a switch. Picking her up from Kashyyyk, he plotted a relatively easy course towards the Outer Rim and sent them into hyperspace, turning off communications and making sure they wouldn't be picked up by a casual scanner.

"So Prenn, tell me... what's on your mind?" he asked her, taking a sip of his juice. The galley would have been open to her, so she would be free to get whatever she liked. The lounge was arranged in that whenever she sat, they'd have an easy time talking to each other.

[member="Prennis Keeoli"]

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

{ Tag: [member="Cassius Droma"] }​

~ † ~​

Her mind raced as she sat in her own skin opposite Cassius, the tea she had brewed herself doing little to help. Where to start? How? Too many half-formed replies threatened to push past her lips at once, bound to be nonsensical, so she coughed into her elbow instead. She sat back against the booth and sighed. Her first and foremost thought would be a good place to start. It wasn't hard to identify that one, but getting it past her teeth was another question altogether. "3451," came too quickly for her to cushion it with any context.

She paused to sigh again and shift on the booth sofa before glancing over the table at the Jedi. "Have I ever thanked you?" she asked, deciding in a moment to leave the cryptic number sequence to be discussed later. "It means a lot to me to be out, so much that I could never repay you." She didn't have to--she anticipated the response--but she felt the need to express the gratitude in that way nonetheless.

"I'm working on it a little by myself," continued Prenn after a sip of tea. "I should probably go see a therapist. I'm trained to know emotional trauma as well as physical when I see it, but I can't patch it that well.

"Most often, flashes of that scene on that planet I think you saw come to me over and over in my sleep. Voices too. Ones I don't recognize from Dosuun, so probably blood relatives. But something different happened recently. I signed up with the Antarian Rangers for some combat training. I thought it'd be a good idea, should I find myself in a situation like Commenor again. I haven't noticed anything at the Halls of Healing, but I am keeping an eye out for you like I said I would." A nod to Shadow work.

"Anyway, it was going well until..." Prenn shook her head. "Some sort of trigger? I don't know. All of a sudden, I was hot and sweaty and my skin was crawling and-and...I couldn't get to sleep that night for the longest time and, when I did, I had a dream. At least one. All I remember is that number."

 

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius didn’t have to be a Jedi to see that she was uncomfortable. It was understandable – while they had both been through quite an ordeal on that unnamed moon, she had come out of it with her entire life changed. No doubt, she was still having trouble adjusting to all of it. He wondered if her lack of progress in recovery was partially his fault – he’d asked her to help him with the Silver Jedi Order, but now she was surrounded by people that would have a very negative opinion of her if they knew her past.

His brow furrowed when she recited some sort of four digit sequence, but before he could ask about it, she asked a somewhat rhetorical question. “I’m just glad I was able to save you from the First Order.” He wished that it would be that easy with each enemy he came across – peeking into their mind to unlock some sort of horrible truth about whatever master they served, rather than having to draw a blade on them.

He listened pensively as she talked, relating how what he had unlocked in her mind still haunted her, but that the full memories had not come back to her yet. It seemed all Cassius had done was given her a glance through a peephole, rather than open a door. His eyebrow did raise a little when she mentioned she had signed up for some Ranger training – not exactly something he could imagine her doing. Then again, they were useful skills to have.

It was clear she’d had some sort of flashback or episode, but caused by what? Cassius shifted in his seat somewhat as his mind began to try and solve the puzzle. It was just like when he was trying to study a new artifact or decode glyphs… he liked mysteries.

“Do you remember what the trigger was, exactly?” he asked. “If I had to take a guess just from what you’ve told me, something you were doing in Ranger training triggered a memory of your First Order conditioning. Training like that can be regimented and not too dissimilar to what you probably went through with the Order.” He took a sip of nectar before continuing.

“Your mind isn’t completely healed – you still don’t remember your past before the First Order. Ignoring it could only make it worse… and therapy of the traditional kind might take too long.” There was a slight pause of hesitation before he made his suggestion. “I think… you should try to find where you came from. Get some closure to all of this.”

He looked up at her. “You might still have some family out there.”

[member="Prennis Keeoli"]