Eriadu, Later Thursday Fandom Time
Jun. 20th, 2013 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonelikemesinceEriadu was an industrial planet, and it showed in the shape of the skyline and the heavy pollution that hung in the atmosphere. It smelled like one, too, according to Tahiri. Anakin sometimes forgot how much she'd been stuck on remote planets until something like her reaction now came along and reminded him, but he wasn't sure what to make of how defensive she got when he said the buildings were uglier than the ones on Coruscant; she'd never been to either planet before.
She didn't argue when Anakin pointed out that it was probably a bad idea to go barefoot here, with the thick layer of industrial chemical gunk that coated just about every surface, but both she and Anakin bristled a bit when Corran told them to stay and guard the ship while he went out to get the supplies.
They did, though, settling on the ship's extended landing ramp to watch the traffic come and go.
"What do you think the Yuuzhan Vong did to Yavin Four after we left?" Tahiri asked eventually, tentatively. "Do you think they changed it, you know, like they did some of the other planets they captured?"
Anakin remembered Ithor, and he'd seen other worlds occupied and transformed by the Yuuzhan Vong, but none of them had as much personal significance to him as Yavin 4 did. "I don't know. I don't want to think about it."
They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, until Anakin finally had to ask why she looked so gloomy.
"I lied a minute ago," Tahiri admitted, and gestured to the skyline. "I said it wasn't ugly . . . but part of me thinks it is."
"Well . . ." Anakin wasn't sure where this was going. "I don't think it's all that attractive."
"It's not like that. It's just that part of me sees this --" Tahiri was staring down at her hands in her lap, now, talking in a low and strained voice. "And thinks 'abomination.'"
And now he could connect the dots. Unfortunately. "Oh." He supposed it was probably a bit too soon for her to have completely bounced back from the Yuuzhan Vong's attempted brainwashing.
"If you hadn't rescued me, Anakin, I would be one of them now," Tahiri said, her voice back to normal and her tone the one he'd come to recognize as I know when you're blaming yourself, Anakin Solo, and you'd better stop that. "I wouldn't remember any other life."
He had to disagree, though. "Part of you would have always known. There's something in you, Tahiri, that no one could ever change."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tahiri asked, frowning at him dubiously. "Is it good or bad? You mean I'm too stubborn, or what?"
"I mean you're too Tahiri," Anakin replied, realizing after he said it that it might not make as much sense as it did in his head.
Tahiri's soft chuckle was strained, not quite as light as she'd been trying to make it sound. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment, since you never give me any obvious ones."
Anakin opened his mouth, closed it again, blinked, and had absolutely no idea what to say, particularly when he realized, to his chagrin, that he was blushing.
And staring at her, apparently, since the next thing he knew she was asking whether he didn't like her hair; she'd gotten it cut short just before they left the Errant Venture, which had been unexpected. He stammered something about how it was fine, tried to come up with some kind of compliment that didn't sound pathetic, failed --
"Anakin Solo," Tahiri began, probably about to give him grief for comparing her haircut to his mom's, but stopped short at the same time that Anakin felt a twinge in the Force. "Did you feel that?" she asked instead.
"It's a Jedi," Anakin said automatically, knowing she could feel the same mess of emotions he did.
"In trouble. Bad trouble," Tahiri finished for him, bolting to her feet and into the ship to find her shoes.
Stang. "Tahiri, no," Anakin said, hoping to placate her. "I'll go. Someone has to stay with the ship."
"You do it then," she snapped, digging around in her locker until she found her shoes and put them on. "I'm going."
"Just wait a second!" Anakin held his hands up. "Let me figure this out."
"I don't need you to figure anything out for me." Tahiri rolled her eyes. "One of us is in trouble. I'm going to help." The last part of the sentence was a bit fainter, since she tossed it over her shoulder at him while running down the landing ramp.
In between what he'd picked up from his father and grandfather, all the swearing Anakin did while he locked down the ship was nicely varied.
A little bit of Force persuasion at the customs line where he caught up with Tahiri did the trick of getting them through, but the second they were through the barrier Tahiri darted into the crowd and out of sight. The distress they could sense from the Jedi they were tracking got more pronounced by the minute, so Anakin wasn't worried about finding her again.
He did, sure enough, in a dead-end alley where Tahiri was charging toward about the small blaster-and-stun-baton-wielding crowd that had surrounded the Rodian Jedi and backed him up against a wall. The Jedi tried to use her attack as a distraction so he could make a run for it, but one of his attackers got him with a blaster bolt; the rest had turned their attention to Tahiri instead, though and had begun to surround her by the time Anakin caught up.
"Let's take 'em," Tahiri said in a dangerously cold voice, once they were down to dealing with four remaining assailants -- Peace Brigaders, Anakin realized now that he could see their uniforms. Dangerously and terrifyingly cold: she sounded exactly like she had in the vision he'd had of her as a dark sided Force-wielder . . . and like she had just after she decapitated the shaper who'd tortured her.
"No." Anakin tried to project calm and reassurance through the Force. "Let them go."
She hesitated, just long enough for them to take Anakin at his word -- though not without a parting threat of "Jedi brats, your days are numbered!"
The Jedi, one Anakin recognized as Kelbis Nu, was staring off into the distance somewhere, glassy-eyed, and barely hanging on.
"Use your wrist comm, try to find the nearest emergency channel," Anakin told Tahiri as he tried to bolster Kelbis Nu's strength through the Force.
"Ya -- Ya --" he kept mumbling.
"Don't try to talk," Anakin told him over the sound of Tahiri yelling into her comm, but Kelbis Nu wasn't listening.
"Yag'Dhul," he breathed, barely, and Anakin felt Kelbis Nu flicker out in the Force at the same time as the name made his danger senses flare up.
"Never mind, Tahiri." Anakin came over and put a hand on her arm, instinctively fighting off his own impulse to cry. "He's gone."
"He can't be. I was going to save him," Tahiri insisted, her jaw clenched and her own voice strained.
"We got here too late." Anakin realized this was the first time she'd ever been in this situation, trying to save someone and failing. He watched her choke back a sob, her effort to keep from crying visible in the tension of her shoulders, and wished there was more he could do besides say "I'm sorry."
Wait, there was something he could do. "He said something at the end." It might distract her, right?
"What?" Apparently, yes.
"Yag'Dhul. It's a planet, not far from here," Anakin explained. "And I felt. . . danger. Like he was trying to tell me something bad is happening there." Speaking of which, there were bodies in the alley, and a crowd of vagrants in the vicinity, which made it a bad place for them to be. "Come on, we'd better go."
Tahiri, in no mood to let the Peace Brigaders get away with murder, voiced her objections, and Anakin tried to talk her out of it -- which, unfortunately, was just enough time to give planetary security to show up, at which point Anakin found himself convincing her to put down her lightsaber and comply with the officers.
"Good," one of them said as soon as both Tahiri and Anakin's lightsabers were on the ground at their feet. "As officers of the judicials, it is now my duty to inform you that we are detaining you for questioning and possible prosecution."
Some routine supply run. Really, Anakin should have seen this coming.
[OOC: NFI/NFB, OOC-okay, TBC, the usual. Still adapted from Edge of Victory 2: Rebirth by Greg Keyes, with a warning for NPC character death.]
She didn't argue when Anakin pointed out that it was probably a bad idea to go barefoot here, with the thick layer of industrial chemical gunk that coated just about every surface, but both she and Anakin bristled a bit when Corran told them to stay and guard the ship while he went out to get the supplies.
They did, though, settling on the ship's extended landing ramp to watch the traffic come and go.
"What do you think the Yuuzhan Vong did to Yavin Four after we left?" Tahiri asked eventually, tentatively. "Do you think they changed it, you know, like they did some of the other planets they captured?"
Anakin remembered Ithor, and he'd seen other worlds occupied and transformed by the Yuuzhan Vong, but none of them had as much personal significance to him as Yavin 4 did. "I don't know. I don't want to think about it."
They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, until Anakin finally had to ask why she looked so gloomy.
"I lied a minute ago," Tahiri admitted, and gestured to the skyline. "I said it wasn't ugly . . . but part of me thinks it is."
"Well . . ." Anakin wasn't sure where this was going. "I don't think it's all that attractive."
"It's not like that. It's just that part of me sees this --" Tahiri was staring down at her hands in her lap, now, talking in a low and strained voice. "And thinks 'abomination.'"
And now he could connect the dots. Unfortunately. "Oh." He supposed it was probably a bit too soon for her to have completely bounced back from the Yuuzhan Vong's attempted brainwashing.
"If you hadn't rescued me, Anakin, I would be one of them now," Tahiri said, her voice back to normal and her tone the one he'd come to recognize as I know when you're blaming yourself, Anakin Solo, and you'd better stop that. "I wouldn't remember any other life."
He had to disagree, though. "Part of you would have always known. There's something in you, Tahiri, that no one could ever change."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tahiri asked, frowning at him dubiously. "Is it good or bad? You mean I'm too stubborn, or what?"
"I mean you're too Tahiri," Anakin replied, realizing after he said it that it might not make as much sense as it did in his head.
Tahiri's soft chuckle was strained, not quite as light as she'd been trying to make it sound. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment, since you never give me any obvious ones."
Anakin opened his mouth, closed it again, blinked, and had absolutely no idea what to say, particularly when he realized, to his chagrin, that he was blushing.
And staring at her, apparently, since the next thing he knew she was asking whether he didn't like her hair; she'd gotten it cut short just before they left the Errant Venture, which had been unexpected. He stammered something about how it was fine, tried to come up with some kind of compliment that didn't sound pathetic, failed --
"Anakin Solo," Tahiri began, probably about to give him grief for comparing her haircut to his mom's, but stopped short at the same time that Anakin felt a twinge in the Force. "Did you feel that?" she asked instead.
"It's a Jedi," Anakin said automatically, knowing she could feel the same mess of emotions he did.
"In trouble. Bad trouble," Tahiri finished for him, bolting to her feet and into the ship to find her shoes.
Stang. "Tahiri, no," Anakin said, hoping to placate her. "I'll go. Someone has to stay with the ship."
"You do it then," she snapped, digging around in her locker until she found her shoes and put them on. "I'm going."
"Just wait a second!" Anakin held his hands up. "Let me figure this out."
"I don't need you to figure anything out for me." Tahiri rolled her eyes. "One of us is in trouble. I'm going to help." The last part of the sentence was a bit fainter, since she tossed it over her shoulder at him while running down the landing ramp.
In between what he'd picked up from his father and grandfather, all the swearing Anakin did while he locked down the ship was nicely varied.
A little bit of Force persuasion at the customs line where he caught up with Tahiri did the trick of getting them through, but the second they were through the barrier Tahiri darted into the crowd and out of sight. The distress they could sense from the Jedi they were tracking got more pronounced by the minute, so Anakin wasn't worried about finding her again.
He did, sure enough, in a dead-end alley where Tahiri was charging toward about the small blaster-and-stun-baton-wielding crowd that had surrounded the Rodian Jedi and backed him up against a wall. The Jedi tried to use her attack as a distraction so he could make a run for it, but one of his attackers got him with a blaster bolt; the rest had turned their attention to Tahiri instead, though and had begun to surround her by the time Anakin caught up.
"Let's take 'em," Tahiri said in a dangerously cold voice, once they were down to dealing with four remaining assailants -- Peace Brigaders, Anakin realized now that he could see their uniforms. Dangerously and terrifyingly cold: she sounded exactly like she had in the vision he'd had of her as a dark sided Force-wielder . . . and like she had just after she decapitated the shaper who'd tortured her.
"No." Anakin tried to project calm and reassurance through the Force. "Let them go."
She hesitated, just long enough for them to take Anakin at his word -- though not without a parting threat of "Jedi brats, your days are numbered!"
The Jedi, one Anakin recognized as Kelbis Nu, was staring off into the distance somewhere, glassy-eyed, and barely hanging on.
"Use your wrist comm, try to find the nearest emergency channel," Anakin told Tahiri as he tried to bolster Kelbis Nu's strength through the Force.
"Ya -- Ya --" he kept mumbling.
"Don't try to talk," Anakin told him over the sound of Tahiri yelling into her comm, but Kelbis Nu wasn't listening.
"Yag'Dhul," he breathed, barely, and Anakin felt Kelbis Nu flicker out in the Force at the same time as the name made his danger senses flare up.
"Never mind, Tahiri." Anakin came over and put a hand on her arm, instinctively fighting off his own impulse to cry. "He's gone."
"He can't be. I was going to save him," Tahiri insisted, her jaw clenched and her own voice strained.
"We got here too late." Anakin realized this was the first time she'd ever been in this situation, trying to save someone and failing. He watched her choke back a sob, her effort to keep from crying visible in the tension of her shoulders, and wished there was more he could do besides say "I'm sorry."
Wait, there was something he could do. "He said something at the end." It might distract her, right?
"What?" Apparently, yes.
"Yag'Dhul. It's a planet, not far from here," Anakin explained. "And I felt. . . danger. Like he was trying to tell me something bad is happening there." Speaking of which, there were bodies in the alley, and a crowd of vagrants in the vicinity, which made it a bad place for them to be. "Come on, we'd better go."
Tahiri, in no mood to let the Peace Brigaders get away with murder, voiced her objections, and Anakin tried to talk her out of it -- which, unfortunately, was just enough time to give planetary security to show up, at which point Anakin found himself convincing her to put down her lightsaber and comply with the officers.
"Good," one of them said as soon as both Tahiri and Anakin's lightsabers were on the ground at their feet. "As officers of the judicials, it is now my duty to inform you that we are detaining you for questioning and possible prosecution."
Some routine supply run. Really, Anakin should have seen this coming.
[OOC: NFI/NFB, OOC-okay, TBC, the usual. Still adapted from Edge of Victory 2: Rebirth by Greg Keyes, with a warning for NPC character death.]
