Fandom The Rescue: A Star Wars Story [Closed]

[Lucyfer]

There was a temptation to say that she did, in fact, want to be this. There was even truth to it, beyond the fear she felt of Darth Vader. She was angry at her past. She was angry at the Jedi, and all that had come of it. She was upset over the Clone Wars, and so much more than that – that it seemed this role was a sort of repentance, even if it was also doomed.

There was no one before the Jedi took her in.

And now that the Inquisitorius had found her, even that had been lost, what freedoms and hobbies she’d known as a Jedi, unpracticed and unfamiliar. As unfamiliar as Cal’s strange brand of mercy.

“I don’t know who that is,” Fourth Sister finally said, gaze drifting back to the floor. It was the truth, but a truth she hated – because there was no one she could ever be that was separate from either thigns. She knew she was taken from Naboo. She knew the Jedi told her that the name she bore, was one her parents gave her, but even then…she couldn’t go back in time, and find who she would have been, without all of these influences.

~***~

Andor nodded, stepping along, as the woman gave a slight shake of her head, though not without a smile. Cassian waved off Aria’s statement, “No worries, you are my evening plans,” he confirmed, as if the General hadn’t already made that clear to him. He heard the woman up ahead chuckle, and found a smile touching his lips at that, knowing the implications she was thinking of. “Not like that, Trina.”

“Whatever you say, Cassian,” she smiled, a door whooshing open as she touched her rank insignia to it, letting them all, including K-2SO, into the room. She gestured to the bed, “If you wouldn’t mind,” she spoke to Aria, as Cassian took a seat in one of the chairs.

K-2SO just stood, awkwardly, too gangly to look right in the small room.

“I’ll need a bit of an overview of what’s happened to you, and anything I should know about regarding your previous medical history,” she said, walking further into the room to get the pulse oximeter from one of the nearby drawers to clip it onto one of Aria’s fingers.

 

[lostsouls]

Cal was surprised he didn't get another snarky remark after all he had said. But he wasn't going to try and get her to be mean and angry again. He also doubted she had properly calmed down. Maybe they could talk a bit better about the plans going forward from her imprisonment if she had even calmed down a bit.

"Then maybe you should find out," he suggested and sighed softly. "It's not like your life is ended here. If you don't try to better yourself, and help us to some extent, I have to say, then they will probably kill you and your life does end here. But it doesn't have to. And everything is better than death, am I right?"

Of course, she might not like that she had to probably help a bit through at least telling them some plans she knew. But it was the only option for her to not die as soon as they were done torturing her for information. "If you cooperate, they might give you a lot more options. I promise I will make sure they don't just use you for... whatever you know. When they have their information and are satisfied, there is nothing speaking against you trying to better yourself and find out who you really want to be. Even though I have a feeling they would like you supervised anyway," he admitted. "Taking as little risks as possible to make sure you don't kill a bunch of people."

----

Aria couldn't keep herself from blushing a bit when Cassian said she was his evening plans. It did sound different than it was supposed to sound and she was also only a woman around his age. "Not like that, Miss, yeah," she agreed and glanced over to Cassian. Well, this could also be embarrassing if the nurse would still think they were ... a thing.

Aria sat down on the bed and watched the nurse, Trina as it seemed, put the clip onto her finger. When she was asked about her previous medical history, she didn't know if she wanted to answer at all. She would have the entire, rather uncomfortable story of her escaping Order 66.

Maybe she would be able to break it down so she also wouldn't sit here for too long. "I got captured by an Inquisitor. I think she gave me a lightsaber wound around my back. I already took a stim on the journey to here. It helped a bit with the pain in my arms and legs. Well, I only have one ear, the other one is a prosthesis. It works fine though, just some ringing every now and then..." she explained. "I've had it for years now, but yeah, it should be checked anyway. And I'm really sure I have even more wounds somewhere on my body, but the back pain is really the worst. I feel like I will break apart underneath it."

 

[Lucyfer]

Death was indeed the worst of it – and Fourth Sister knew her time had been running short even with the Inquisitorius. There were fewer and fewer Jedi in the galaxy, which meant less of a need for her, and the others. As much as there was a part of her that thought death would be a relief, an escape from the fear…she supposed, she’d also take a living escape.

‘You’ll always be living in fear.’

Because she knew, despite Cal’s words, Vader would come after her. She was only delaying the inevitable…but then again, Cal had delayed it for years now, hadn’t he? She didn’t outwardly agree with his sentiment, but she was thinking, at least. “I suppose it would be unfortunate for everyone involved if I decided I wanted to be a mass murderer.” Her tone was dry; it was a possibility, though.

“What happened to you, after Order 66?” She asked, “You obviously didn’t show yourself immediately,” he hadn’t been on the list, or known to them at all, until he was found by Second and Ninth Sister.

He’d hidden well. Something she failed to do.

And she envied him for it. Envied him for also being able to make choices, right then.

~***~

Trina left the clip as it was, before she went to go get her scanner, returning to Aria’s side and calmly running it along her arm, getting an idea of how the blood was moving through that. She let out a small hum as she looked down to the clip, the details reading into the scanner for the heart rate. “You did well for someone in that much pain,” she noted.

Of course, the scanner wasn’t going to tell her much about the pain, and a stim wasn’t the best treatment. Lightsaber wounds weren’t something they dealt with frequently here. Nor were wounds caused by the Force, for that matter.

Nonetheless, she didn’t think it would be anything impossible to deal with.

“If you would like to take off the prosthesis, I can make sure to have it looked over by our team of droids. They tend to be better at those things than I am,” Trina said, “as for the more physical wounds, I will need to ask you to disrobe a bit so I can have a look at them.”

“I’ll turn away,” Cassian said quickly, already in the process of it. “You too, Kay-Too.”

“I am a droid.” K-2SO seemed confused by this.

“Turn around,” Cassian said again, and K-2SO did, but with as much exasperation as a droid could show – which was a surprising amount.

 

[lostsouls]

Cal couldn’t hide a small chuckle when she was talking about how unfortunate it would be if she decided to be a mass murderer. It would definitely not be the best situation for everyone on this planet and it would disrupt the peace more than just for a day.

But he was even more taken aback that she asked how he had survived Order 66. Technically, he should have seen it coming, because all he was doing at the moment was questioning her about everything and suggesting new ways of living to her. That she would eventually ask something back was bound to happen.

Cal took a deep breath and then started to explain.

“I was working as a rigger on Bracca. I was hiding there for years. It was not fun, but it was relatively safe. We worked a lot with imperial ships and when you work right under the nose of your enemy, you’re often harder to catch,” he admitted, sighing softly. He had still been afraid every single day.

And then one day the day came, his friend died and he had to run away. But he was still alive and that was all that mattered after all.

As long as he could live and help people, he would be fine. But he didn’t wanna go down without a fight if it ever came to it.

“I was really lucky. One wrong sentence and I would have been imprisoned and killed. Maybe even made into a weapon for the Empire as well,” Cal admitted.

———

Yeah, she had done well for all the pain. She had endured worse on her endless journey through the galaxy, but this had still left some marks on her. Aria was also so worried about seeing Fourth Sister again. She didn’t know if she would be able to control herself. The thought of getting revenge was way too consuming, even though it shouldn’t be.

When she was asked to get rid off her clothes, she nodded slowly and couldn’t hide the blush creeping onto her cheeks while Cassian and his droid turned around. “I still don’t want a droid to see me naked,” she responded to the very confused K-2SO.

Aria took off the belt where her lightsaber was hanging and put them both onto the table next to her before she opened her quite damaged and old jacket, taking that off as well before she continued with her top. “It would be nice if I could also get something to sleep better later. I don’t think I can sleep with that pain,” she admitted to the nurse, but still hoped for medications that would be strong enough to make her sleep, but not to completely knock her out for days.

While the nurse was checking her wounds, Aria glanced over to Cassian again. “Will I get to see the Inquisitor again any time soon?”

 

[Lucyfer]

A rigger on Bracca. ‘How did you get there? How did you know it would keep you safe? How did you hide…?’ A thousand questions, but in the end, she supposed it didn’t matter. He had been found, in the end, as they all were. His only salvation came in killing two Inquisitors, one who had gambled on a greater prize, and lost it.

They all knew Trilla’s failure in trying to take the holocron, as well as bait Cal back into her hands, so she would have both. It would have been a grand success for her, only Cal killed her, and took the holocron back.

“Skilled,” she corrected over lucky, “it’s not luck that lets you kill two Inquisitors,” not luck alone, at any rate, “as well as escape the Inquisitorius Headquarters with a holocron.” Perhaps that was reason enough to hope for something more, as well. Perhaps she had stumbled on the one person in the galaxy who could evade what remained of the Inquisitorius and stay safe.

She didn’t know. She found anything like hope hard to hold on to, even when she considered hoping to find a way out of here, to tell Vader where the Rebel Alliance was. What would greet her? Gratitude, or death?

She didn’t know.

The fear never really left. “How did you know to go to Bracca? To work as a rigger? Was it something your master said, or…?” he seemed, at least, to have had a better idea of how to survive in the world.

~***~

K-2SO remained confused, but did as instructed all the same, and stayed that way, both himself and Cassian facing the wall as Trina went over the visible wounds, taking stock of them, and scanning them to get a quick damage and depth report to determine what would be needed to deal with them.

Bacta, in many cases.

“Oh, we’re not going to let you suffer in pain, we do have plenty of medicine for that,” Trina reassured, “Though I’ll have to ask you to rate it on a scale of one to ten, and let me know of any allergies, so I can figure what might be best for you. As for these wounds, a lot of them should be okay after a bit of bacta. It seems like you also may have a few bruised organs.”

How, Trina didn’t want to ask.

“I’ll see about getting a few injections set up to target those areas, so we don’t have to put you into a full bacta tank. Let me get these bandages on you, and then you can get dressed again while I call up for the other things.” She had said a lot, but she began to wrap the visible wounds, at least.

Cassian waited for her to be finished talking, before he answered about the Inquisitor, “Honestly? I don’t know,” he said, “this isn’t a…typical situation, we don’t have protocol for dealing with Inquisitors,” let alone with a Jedi who wanted mercy for one. He was pretty sure otherwise, they would have executed the Inquisitor shortly after getting what they wanted.

 

[lostsouls]

Cal wouldn’t play down that he did know how to fight with a lightsaber. Of course, he had the skill to defend himself, but at the same time, after he had started his journey from Bracca, he learned so much more. A journey where he had to learn so many things again, find himself again in some way. It had been hard, but it had brought him forward and he never wanted to miss that again. Maybe he would be dead without going through all of this.

“Maybe it was skill. But I also had to learn to... use my abilities and use them correctly. But they were a hard match, definitely. It’s definitely not easy to kill two inquisitors.”

It was everything but easy and Cal had seen his death coming multiple times whenever he was caught up in a fight with the inquisitors. “No one really told me to go to Bracca. I just thought it was the safest option because who would expect a Jedi Padawan to just become a rigger? I guess most people expected them to be on the run all the time but hide on a planet and work like the poorest of people in the galaxy. Sometimes it’s best to just hide in places like that. Become a part of something else, basically?” He tried to explain, but he doubted it would make any sense for now. Thinking back, everything had been a lot more complicated, considering he had also found out more about Trilla's past and all the other cruel things the Empire did.

And he had met creatures on his journey that he had only ever heard of in myths.

——

Aria was very relieved that they did have some medicine for her, because she really doubted she’d be able to find any sleep if she was not drugged. "Don't have any allergies," she assured the nurse, smiling softly. "And on a scale of one to ten? I would say it's a solid seven. I had worse things, but this is not nice either," she explained, brushing some hair out of her face.

Her fingers brushed over her metal ear and she could feel the way it was vibrating a bit when it shouldn't. "Could I get this checked tomorrow again? I don't know if it will get worse over night, but it really seems to not be working too correctly," she chuckled.

When Cassian answered her, Aria looked back over to him and his droid. "Of course, you don't, but... I mean, the Jedi Code technically forbids me to... seek revenge on her and let myself be guided by those feelings, but the Jedi Order is gone, so I don't have to obey their rules anymore. And that means... I'd like some closure," she admitted. But she did have the dark assumption that Cal would not want her to take any kind of revenge on Fourth Sister. He seemed to have these naive thoughts that she could be good, but Aria was really afraid that this was everything. He was naive and there was no way she would want to be a better person.

"I am just worried what Kestis is going to have to say about that."

 

[Lucyfer]

Fourth Sister continued to listen to his rationale. At least he didn’t completely downplay his skill, but it seemed he also had to reconnect. Not a surprise. Someone hiding from Inquisitors would certainly try not to have much of a Force signature. It was another way to be caught without meaning to be. It was hard to hide in plain sight if your own energy was announcing your presence everywhere you went.

It was how they found children for the Harvester program, though.

Among other things.

What he said did make sense. A place like Bracca, working as a regular person, wouldn’t make him stand out. Not like other Jedi who had taken more recognizable jobs, not quite part of a group, and becoming too well known for it. Of course, Cal didn’t last in that job. He was still found.

They all were, eventually.

“It makes enough sense,” Fourth Sister said. “Hiding amongst others, making yourself unknown, it follows logically. It’s just interesting you’re one of the few Jedi who ever thought of it. Others stayed on the run, or made themselves too well-known, even under pseudonyms.” And so, drew the wrong attention.

~***~

Trina hummed acknowledgment of what was said about the pain level, and allergies, planning to find something that would help out immediately, but not offer too much. The last thing they needed was a strung out junkie. Three days seemed good for the wounds, and then they could see where it stood after the bacta had done its job, too.

She looked up at the mention of the device. She had brought it up earlier and Trina had mentioned if she wanted it looked at, she could have that done – but Aria hadn’t taken it off then. “Do you want that done tomorrow, or today? We do have droids I can send it to, either way. It may take some time to get it back, in either case.”

Depending on the damage done to it.

Cassian would wait until Aria had answered Trina, not even sure where to begin. In the end, he had to shrug, “If you plan to join us,” which, supposedly, she hadn’t decided yet, “You’ll have to play by whatever decision the general comes to. If he says she lives, convinced by Kestis, or anyone else, that’s it. If he says she dies, then we may have to deal with Kestis.”

Not an option he was looking forward to. He supposed they also shouldn’t look forward to deal with Aria. “I can’t advise you. I can only tell you that if you go against what our command says, you won’t be able to stay with us,” it was something she’d have to consider in how she chose to move forward, and whether revenge was more important than starting over for herself, as well.

Assuming high command was stupid enough to let an Inquisitor live.

 

[lostsouls]

Cal sighed loudly when she told him about the other Jedi, how they hadn’t done so well in hiding and eventually lost their lives for it. If he had to be honest, he would probably say they had been too sure of their position and had underestimated the Empire, but would he ever really admit that?

He was sure Fourth Sister thought the same. Technically, who wouldn’t see a Jedi as someone who could survive this mess? If they were a fully trained Jedi Knight, they’d have the skills, the experience and the right weapon to survive, but at the beginning of this war, after Order 66, no one would have been able to foresee how bad everything was actually going to get.

“In situations like these, in times like these, it’s rather normal for someone to do stupid decisions. Or wrong decisions more like. They probably didn’t know better at that moment,” he admitted and ran a hand through his hair. He was wondering when the first people from the Alliance would come to have a talk with Fourth Sister. He’d definitely insist to stay with them, just to make sure he could prevent torture.

“So, what are we doing about your steps after the Alliance is done with you? Do you want my help?” He asked eventually.

—————

“Send it to the droids then,” she nodded and took the device off completely, handing it over to Trina and sighing softly. She hadn’t been without the ear in a while, sleeping with it as well to be aware of everything around her since she really couldn’t guarantee herself that some Bounty Hunter wasn’t right behind her and trying to kill her.

That life was gone now, given that Cassian and his droid, together with another Jedi had rescued her. But she knew she could never forget that Fourth Sister had captured and injured her. And fighting another Jedi because that Jedi wanted to protect an Inquisitor seemed pretty fucked up and in unnecessary fight and risk.

Maybe they’d have to see how it would go in the long run.

“I don’t have anything against following orders, but I think Kestis is making a mistake. No matter if he’s a Jedi or not, it’s a mistake to leave an Inquisitor alive,” she sighed and rubbed over her thighs before she looked at her hands again. “Maybe we’ll just have to wait. I’m sure your people will want to know a lot from her and Kestis probably has his reasons as well why he so badly wants to keep her alive,” she groaned, rolling her eyes for a moment, before turning to look at Cassian.

“I will not let the desire for revenge consume me. But I probably will need time to adjust to working here and with you anyway...” she pointed out.