A Father's Blade: Chapter Thirteen

Tahiri raises her head, poking it out from beneath the sheet. When she hasn't been eating, exercising or taking care of hygienic needs, she has been beneath this sheet, with it pulled up over her head, for the most part motionless. At first, they would come in and check on her. Two or three different people – usually one of them was a big burly warrior. Finally they seemed to realize that she was just sleeping or hiding and it started only being a single person coming to check on her.

Then they had stopped.

They had come to expect her to be beneath the sheet and she could feel in the Force the flicker of surprise at those times when they stop at her window and saw her out from beneath it.

For a moment, she wonders what it was that prompted her to poke her head out. Was it a sound she had heard? Or maybe a prompting from the still elusive Force. She gives an internal shrug – the drugs in the air still making it hard to focus and concentrate or even care about anything.

It is mainly pure intellectual desire – plus the horrifying memories of her own shaping – which drives her to escape. She gets up, pushing the sheet away, prickles rising over her body in the cool air of her cell. She steps into the simple refresher area – a toilet and a shower. It was more of an alcove than a room, a tiled section of her cell – even the shower lacking a curtain to keep the sprays of water confined.

She turns on the water now, stepping under it, allowing it to flow over her as she considers her next move.

She reaches out with the Force, stretching for Noelani and can barely feel her – a small brilliant candle in the back of her mind, just enough awareness for each of them to know the other is alive and for the most part unhurt – but not nearly the usual strength and clarity of their training bond.

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Kyp Durron rests his head against the flight couch of his X-Wing, wondering once again how he managed to get roped into going to Ambria to check up on one of the Jedi Knights. Of course he can understand Kam's concerns.

Both Tahiri and her apprentice, Noelani, were seriously injured on their last mission. And though Cilghal has given them both clean bills of health the Council was still hesitant on sending the pair on this mission.

The navicomputer beeps and he goes about the task of dropping from hyperspace, changing course slightly and then once more entering hyperspace. That chore done, he closes his eyes and begins to meditate, stretching out trying to feel Tahiri.

Yet the harder he pushes, the more his frustration grows. For all he receives is the mental image of a fog.

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Chase leads Noelani away from the open air market, wondering what the people there make of the two of them. Two kids, a boy and a girl, obviously too young to be out on their own, and to top it off the girl's clothes are ripped and bloodied. He sighs, and casts a glance behind him, hoping no one is following them.

Happy that he doesn't see anything suspicious, he turns a corner, leading them further away from the market district and towards the industrial area with all of the abandoned buildings located there.

As they walk, he finally notices a change in the upkeep of the buildings – the ones around them now are decidedly shabbier and unkempt. Some appear on the verge of falling down on themselves.

Movement catches Chase's eye and he sees a pair of speeder bikes idling near one of the buildings, on their engine housings is the blue and gold logo of BioTech.

Without thinking, Chase reaches over and grabs Noelani's hand, pulling her towards him, as he darts towards one of the buildings which appear ready to be condemned. With a solid kick, he busts open the door and pulls her in as well, quickly closing the door behind them.

"What's wrong?"

He looks at her, noticing how wide her eyes have grown and wondering how they can be such a clear blue. Then he shakes his head, focusing on the problem at hand.

"BioTech security"

"Oh!"

Chase turns around, and cracks open the door, peering out, watching the speeders bikes. After a few minutes, he can feel Noelani tugging on his jacket. He glances back over his shoulder at her, and sees the look of fear etched on her face. He raises a finger to his lips – a universal symbol for quiet and then turns back to the cracked door, watching the speeders.

Finally two BioTech security officers walk up to the bike, conversing about something. He lets out a sigh as the pair climb aboard their bikes. Their engines roar into life, a rumble which shakes dust loose from the ceiling, raining it down on them. Chase continues watching the street until the noise has gone and then closes the door, turning back to Noelani.

"I think they're gone now. Hurry up an get change so we can eat." As he says this he turns back to the girl, almost surprised to find her unbuttoning the line of buttons which run down the front of her shirt. He can feel his mouth drop open, and knows that he is staring.

"Uhm…"

Noelani's head bounces up, and she finds him staring at her. He notices a blush cropping up on her cheeks as fire flashes in her eyes. "Do you mind?"

Chase is taken aback slightly, and quickly averts his gaze even as he turns back to face the door. "Oh! No. Yes. Sorry. I… I didn't see anything or nothing."

Chase hears the shuffle of clothes and fights the desire to turn around to watch her. After what feels like an eternity, she announces, "Okay. I'm done. Help me with this."

He turns back around, and sees her pressing one knee down onto her old skirt, as she works a vibroknife down the tough cloth, apparently trying to cut it into thin strips even as she favors her broken arm. Ducking down, he takes the blade from her, and quickly cuts the skirt into strips.

She points towards three pieces of metal just a bit shorter than her forearm. "Use those and re-splint my arm."

Chase quickly starts to work, and not for the first time wonders how he knows to do this as he ties the three metal bars around her arm. Once he's done, she settles cross legged on the ground, and closes her eyes. He scratches the top of his head, wondering what she is doing.

Almost as if she's read his mind, her eyes pop open, and she looks up, catching his gaze. Amusement seems to flash through her eyes. "I'm trying to get in touch with my Master."

"You've said you had a master before, are you some type of slave or something?"

The amusement quickly fades away from her eyes, replaced by some darker emotion. "No! My master is the best Jedi in the Order."

He feels as if someone has slapped with and he rocks back slightly, suddenly very untrusting of the cute blonde in front of him. "You're a Jedi?"

Her head rises quickly, as she looks at him, and he now has to wonder if she has done something to him, caused him to let her follow him around using her Jedi tricks. As he watches, her face seems to fall, and she drops her eyes, looking away from him.

"You don't like me now, do you?"

He kneels down beside her. "I didn't say that."

"But I could feel the suspicion and fear when I said I was a Jedi."

Her body begins to shake slightly, and Chase looks around bewildered, trying to figure out how to fix the situation.

Her shoulders hitch, and he can hear her sobs. "I can't find my Master, I know only two folks here, one's an old Cathar and the other one hates me."

Chase drops down beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "Hey, I don't hate you."

She looks up at him, her eyes wide; a tear runs down the side of her face closest to him. "Y-you don't?"

He grins, and shakes of his head. "Of course I don't."

Then to his surprise, she twists around and leans into his embrace, resting her head against his shoulder, pressing her face into the crook of neck. Startled, he wraps his other arm around her into a tight hug before he realizes that is what he was doing.

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Thesim stands and watches the lump on the metal cot covered by the thin sheet. His greedy eyes trace the curves and bulges, telling him that he's most likely dealing with a female human. He plugs his datapad into a socket next to the large window, and a moment later it pings.

He pulls it out, and reads over the information about the Jedi specimen. He frowns as he notices that she had been shaped by the Yuuzhan Vong, and as he reads what was done to her realizes that her shaping should have no effect on the mind control drugs. Next he pulls up an image of her, and licks his lips as he stares at the image of a pretty blonde, the three vertical scars on her forehead somehow enhancing her beauty. He notices the note in her file, saying how all she does is spend time under the sheet and one of the psychiatrists believes that she has given up hope, saying something about how she feels safe beneath the sheet, and that she will not now try to escape her cell.

He reads her name. Tahiri Veila. Smiling, he speaks it aloud, "Tahiri." He likes how the sound of it seems to roll of his tongue.

Movement within the cell draws his attention and he looks up to see the girl from the picture staring towards him, her green eyes dull from the tranquilizers and mind control drugs being pumped into the room. He watches her, and almost as if she feels his scrutiny, she pulls the sheet up and back over her head, lying back down on the bed.

He chuckles slightly, and walks around the corner to the entrance to her cell. He approaches and his badge lights up slightly and at the same time the door to her cell flickers away to nothingness. He steps through and the door turns back on.

He takes a step or two into her room, his eyes glued to the form lying still on the cot.

"Hello, Tahiri."

She makes neither sound nor movement. No indication at all that he had even spoken. He closes the distance to her cot, and yanks the sheet off of her, and stares, startled by her already being nude.

He grins. "You will speak when spoken to. Hello Tahiri."

"Hello." Her eyes widen slightly, and he can see the confusion pooling in them, as if she can't believe she had just spoken. He grins, glad that she is beginning to understand her fate.

"That's right. You must obey me. Now, stand up."

She swings her long legs off the edge of the bed, and stands up, rocking back and forth slightly on her heels. Graceful, feminine movements, which Thesim enjoys watching. Anger rolls up from the fog in her gaze, and Thesim licks his lips once more, realizing that he's going to really enjoy this.