| abstract
| - Night comes to this part of Coruscant not a moment too soon, at least as far as Johanna is concerned. She has made the trek here again for the fifth time in as many days, wandered onto the grounds of what used to be the Basilica in order to gloat, and to think. Coherent thoughts seem to string themselves into coherent streams more easily here... though why that should be, she doesn't know. The pilot's heavy boots make a satisfying crunch as she moves with no particular attempts at stealth over the still-large pile of rubble that marks where the great edifice once stood. She's an odd form in the night, unsteady angles melting into curves only to reform into angles whenever a knee juts out to test her foothold on the dangerous ruins. Eventually she finds herself a seat on the base of a pillar and lights up a smoke as the cooler air brings with it a damp chill from the Western Sea. The Force is drawn to shroud Luke Skywalker, like an eclipsing field that demands all eyes and ears to ignore his presence. In this way he has kept his presence on Coruscant an absolute secret from all who don't need to know. For what reason? That remains a secret, just like his presence. The black-clad Jedi Master approaches the perimeter of the ruins, his hood drawn to cover his face. The form of Johanna is visible to him from the distance, and he squints his eyes slowly. Her presence is easy to sense, and he lingers at the perimeter for a moment to gather his balance. Then he crosses the verge and begins to trod quietly into the ruins, masking himself with the power of the Force. No sound or sight would reach the eyes of the fallen Jedi who gloats on the rubble. At least for now. Indeed she senses nothing out of the ordinary ebb and flow of the Force in this area. In fact, were it not for the macabre setting, Johanna might well be mistaken for a content being merely enjoying the early evening. There can be no mistake, however, not here and especially not when the site has been fenced off to prevent juveniles or other rowdy sorts from clambering over the ruins. She's up to something. Slowly the thoughts pull into a clear line and she understands that she's remembering what happened here, and that with great satisfaction. A nasty smirk contorts her otherwise pretty features as she leans back a little and takes another drag, surveying her handiwork and nodding once to herself. "We did pretty well, didn't we?" the Jedi murmurs to herself. The voice reaches Luke's ears steadily through the night, and for a moment, he grieves. He knows to some degree what plagues her mind, and he still feels to some degree that it is not her fault. But she's not seen him yet. He draws the Force in, channeling it to maintain his protective shroud, and gently kneels down beside the base of a pillar which was broken off a meter up. He gently places a hand upon the pillar, and closes his eyes. Drawing into the Force, he maintains the eclipsing shield as he begins to search through the Force for some sign or tale of what happened here. What will Luke see? The strange gray no-fire that engulfed the Basilica like a necrotic bloom, or the final and indescribably brilliant point of light a split second before the explosion? Whatever he sees will hardly please him the way Johanna is pleased by the recollection of it. He might be grateful for the information, but it won't make him happy. Does it make *her* happy? Does she even remember what that emotion feels like? It probably doesn't matter to her any more, not in her state. With a small sigh the pilot drops the dying smoke into the rubble and lights up another. Truth be told, she's more like her brother with every day that passes... what had Luke said about not following Tyler down that road? As the damp rolls in more sharply she pulls her shabby overcoat even more tightly about her frame and tries not to shiver. As the image plays out in Luke's mind, his mouth drops open. The destruction flows into his mind's eye through his focus, and at the very last minute, he draws his hand away, letting out a gasp. At that very moment, he loses the control over his eclipsing power, revealing his presence through the Force to those who are sensitive. He rises to his feet, and immediately looks toward Johanna. "It was you," he calls out, knowing that he's been exposed, but by now, raising his defense will do no good. She stops mid-exhalation, the noxious cloud of fumes wafting oddly to the side instead of being expelled in front of her. The still-glowing stick of paper and toxins is flicked to the ground and the pilot turns slowly until she sees Luke with both her mortal eyes and her Force senses. Johanna looks oddly pleased. "Skywalker," she returns languidly, "Have you come to kill me?" A few beats pass, then, "I never knew you to be one with a love for the melodramatic, but if you're going to cut me up at the scene of the crime, as it were, then I guess you must have some affinity for theatrics." The pilot slides herself from her seat and drops noiselessly to the mass of warped and cracked masonry below. "Yes, it was me. And what of it?" Luke reaches up to pull the hood down from his face, and takes a couple of slow, striding steps from behind the pillar and toward Johanna. "Tell me why." He draws to a halt, planting his fists against either side of his waist. "Tell me who or what drove you to make this decision." His eyes contain a look of intense focus, his mind reaching out as if to peruse the surface of Johanna's thoughts. What she's feeling, how she's reacting, if he can sense turmoil. His feet spread apart on a section of sturdy rubble, as if preparing himself for what he hopes won't come to him. She laughs, unconcerned by the intensity of his unseen queries. "I'll tell you nothing," the pilot ventures in an almost singsong tone, closing yet more of the distance between them with an unusually light step, "Besides, what do you think you can do about it now? The Basilica is no more. Give it up and move on. Be glad the contents survived even if their former housing has not." Suddenly she wants another smoke. Why *did* she get rid of that last one? "No need to be so dour, anyway. We should get out of here and catch up over a drink or something. I don't understand why the Jedi must always be so serious." Sure, Joh. That makes perfect sense. As always. Luke doesn't seem to be quite ready to play along with Johanna's words. "This is not you, Johanna," states the Jedi firmly. "Look into your own memories. Search through the distractions and his poisonous words and you will find who you truly are. You've only chosen, perhaps even been manipulated to forget. /Don't/ let that happen." His fiery gaze lashes out toward Johanna, blazing with hope and conviction. The wind blows a hard gust which causes his cloak to flutter about his legs, his hair to blow to the east. "Shut up," she commands, unafraid, "I hate it when people spout nonsense. Don't make an ass of yourself, Skywalker. Either get out of here and leave me alone, or come with me for some banal amusement, it's been a boring haul out here save for a few bright points and I could use a conversation partner if they're willing to speak sensibly." Her own hands plant themselves on her hips and her posture finally mirrors his, though there's something mocking in those dark eyes of hers whereas his expression offers nothing of the sort. Luke is not about to start a fight. Not with someone who was once a student. No, instead, her response has only strengthened his conviction. "It isn't nonsense," he replies. "You know this." He raises his left hand, motioning toward Johanna as he begins to take a slow step toward the left. "What is it, fear? Fear of Vadim's power? You know the dark side is not stronger. It's manipulative. Seductive. You know these things, Johanna, you are a Jedi Knight, not one of his pawns." Indeed, it's the calm with which the reply is delivered that torques the pilot. Her hand twitches reflexively towards her weapon before she relaxes, not entirely cognizant of why she's fighting for control. Self-preservation must surely be a part of it -- for who really wants to die? -- but there's something else. There's something about the situation that lets her savor the irony just that much longer. "I believe I've heard all of that before. You were my teacher for several months; I'm not stupid or suffering from amnesia. By now you should know me well enough to realize there are few things I fear." Big fat liar. But anyway, "Least of all whatever it is that you want to call Vadim." And then, from somewhere on the edges of their awareness’s, it becomes ever-so-vaguely apparent that there is a third spectator to this happy little reunion in the rubble. Someone else is having a look through Johanna's eyes even as she stands there taunting Luke. It pulls back again so quickly however that it must surely have been a thing of the imagination... Luke stands stoically, poised and ready to react should Johanna lose to the plague of voices in her mind. Instead, something else enters the picture. It is not expected, or else Luke would have reacted quicker. Luke doesn't realize that he's too late, when he takes a step forward, his left hand lashing out toward Johanna. "Leave her!" he bellows, extending the power of the Force in an attempt to drive the intruder from his former student's mind and thoughts. By the time Luke's demand has rippled through the Force and reached Johanna's mind, it finds no target, and merely ripples into nothingness. The Jedi Master is well trained, capable of controlling his power to keep Johanna safe, not to strike where there is no foe. However, his hand remains extended, and with the gritting of his teeth, he begins to scour the woman's mind for traces of the intruder. "Fancy, fancy, fancy," Johanna snipes, the bizarre tone growing stronger, "Come on, you half-breed itinerant bastard. Show me why the Empire is willing to put up a hundred thousand credits just for your capture." Her hand doesn't pause this time, her lightsaber igniting into a brilliant glow of white. There is no attempt at humor in her anymore. She is what she is now, a coiled spring of directionless rage wanting only to find a suitable outlet into which it can explode. "You'll find I've learned quite a bit since our last encounter on Tatooine." Is it really her, or is it the shadowy figure again? Over time it's become hard to tell one from the other; they are almost inextricably linked and even she cannot know the extent to which the dark presence has altered her. Her transformation had not been much of a willing one. "Did you really think you could make him leave just like that?" It's almost reluctant. Luke watches as Johanna ignites the blade, and slowly begins to shrug off his cloak, letting it fall to the rubble behind him. He then reaches across his body and retrieves his own lightsaber. There's a little spark of light at the tip, then the green blade leaps to life, and he grasps the hilt with both hands, raising it to the ready position. "Yes. I did." He stands still, bracing for Johanna to make the first move. "Don't do this, Johanna. You're above this nonsense." His voice rings over the atonal hum of his lightsaber. Will he be like Aurejin, ready to deal a killing stroke if she begs it of him? The two Masters are alike in some ways yet so different in others; Luke is not of the Old Republic and his style is markedly different, his outlook narrower in historical scope. Something tells her that Luke would look at her in disdain, and this thought drives her to distraction. "He's very insistent, you know," Johanna returns, keeping a close watch on her opponent, "And he's much older than you can possibly imagine. He's seen it all before, knows all your tricks and more besides. When your distant ancestors were but an idea in the minds of their ancestors, he had already been in existence for millennia." The soft swish of her boots is drowned out by the gusting of the breeze and the sound of two lightsabers at the ready. "There's no way past him. He is the end of the road for us all." "You're wrong," replies Luke, stepping lightly amidst the rubble. The Force is now guiding his feet, his hands, and his mind. It flows through him like an open breeze, surrendered to his will. "I can see the fear in you, Johanna, without evening sensing it. This fear is his strongest weapon, and you can disarm him now by renouncing your fear. No man is invincible, he /can/ be defeated. This is why he is trying to manipulate you, to corrupt you. He needs you on his side, not mine." He steps forth then, and raises his lightsaber until its very edge is nearly touching hers. There is a crackle of energy as the two blades tempt each other, desiring to meet each other in contest. It is a desire that Luke holds at bay for now. "You still have a choice, Johanna." "Liar!" she roars, surging forward to begin the attack with a brute strength she does not possess, "LIAR! It is the Jedi who have stolen my children from me! He HELPS me!" So perhaps that's what has her all riled. Her curses melt into the wind and are subsumed by the furious hiss of meeting blades. A faint, strange stench of something singed permeates the area. "What can you possibly promise me? Your students couldn't even leave my family in peace. I'll have Sabrina's head for what she's done." She wants to bring out the violence in him, provoke him and push him to the point where he will turn on her with the full force of his wrath, for it will be then that Vadim will have his way and prove more than a match for the Jedi Master. "Come on, Skywalker. Draw him out. I promise you'll remember the meeting." Green meets white with the hiss of energy as Luke raises his blade to fend Johanna's first blow. He slips the lightsaber at an odd angle which forces her blade to break free, then counters the blow with a full arc that brings his blade down to meet hers at the opposite angle. "Your children are safe from the Emperor who plagues your mind," he replies. "You will thank us for this." He draws the blade away, and raises his arm to send another quick thrust, keeping Johanna on her toes. "Some day, from beyond the Force if that's the path you choose." The threat against Sabrina does nothing to shake Skywalker's poise. What Johanna may not yet realize is that Luke has made an oath to himself. His feelings will not interfere with what must be done, the course of action that he's led down by the will of the Force. The threat doesn't even tickle his mind, and he spares no response to it. She knows his skill with the blade is of a far higher caliber than hers, and she knows it is not a battle she can win unless Vadim intervenes. "How dare you," Johanna gasps in disbelief, surprisingly wounded by Luke's admission of complicity in the disappearance of her young ones, "How DARE you!" There is a deep well of loathing to draw from now, to fuel her as she answers him measure for measure with her weapon and a faint haze glows about her form. It seems her anger is luminescent; the desert woman now a thing of rage and light. The space between them is resonant. "Keep at it Skywalker, it won't be much longer now." Johanna isn't lying. Even as the words leave her lips her presence seems to shrink back, compelled into hiding by the magnitude of the energy that wants to confine part of itself in this mortal form. "Yes, indeed." It is a trained and precise, almost inhuman-sounding Coruscanti that slices through the night air. As if to prove his skill with the blade, Luke leads Johanna amidst a number of quick strikes, their blades meeting above their heads, then below, then to either side. The hum of each blade roars then softens, striking with quick flashes of energy. Then Luke calls upon the Force, leaping into the air at a speed much faster than should be natural for a human. His green blade strikes at the white one from below, then he summersaults through the air above Johanna's head, lowering the blade to fend off any attacks through the middle of the impressive maneuver. Somewhere in the air above the wayward Jedi's head, he twists about so that when he lands, he is facing her once more. Skywalker extends the blade, meeting Johanna's close to the hilt. Their hands nearly touch, and Luke stares into her eyes with a look of complete control. Utter peace. Fluid balance. "You are stronger than the dark side, Johanna," he says during the sizzling silence. He then draws back one hand, gives forth a grunt, and thrusts it forward, sending a shock of kinetic energy toward the woman in an effort to remove her balance and send her toppling backward. Cramming a sun into a small black box should be an impossible task, but Vadim dedicates a considerable amount of his attention to the battle at hand and the resulting burst of power from Johanna is incredible. Luke's last attempt to knock her flat on her arse is stopped short in an almost-deafening sonic burst as the one shockwave collides with another generated an intangible instant after Luke's assault. Anyone caught near the energetic explosion will feel all kinds of sore the next day. "Still trying to meddle I see," not-Johanna comments, brushing the dust of the rubble off of herself with a casual hand, "When will you Jedi ever learn? It isn't your Order I desire; I have no aspirations to end or alter anything about the way you do business. My interests are far beyond your comprehension." There is disdain there, and mild amusement. "Put away your blade and we can talk as civilized men do. That savage you were just fighting is more animal than human; ignore her. She has had her uses but her time is coming to an end." The explosion blows Luke's hair backward, his hand meeting the energy midstrike. He holds it for a few daring moments before the energy overwhelms him, and he suddenly changes course. The blade is drawn away, and he puts his effort into defending himself from the sudden burst of pure energy. It lashes about him, some of it is absorbed into his hand, and he manages to temper it with grit teeth and sheer willpower over the disturbance. This certainly didn't come from Johanna. Luke curls the fingers of his free hand closed as he swallows the last bit of energy, his black clothing now dust-ridden, his hair disheveled, and begins to lower the green blade to his side. His eyes stare upon the transfigured person before him. Johanna, in appearance, but not in form. He doesn't say a word. He knows this man favors silence. Instead, he stands stoically with his lightsaber at his side, energized and ready for another defense should it become necessary, leaving Vadim to make the next move. "Sit," the Dark Lord indicates with a wave of Johanna's hand, "I don't enjoy these sorts of petty confrontations. The both of us know a thing or two about the Force, don't we? I feel I have reached the limits of my patience with this one. Always trying to... what is your human expression for it... prove something, is it?" Not-Johanna seats herself on the same pillar she'd been on earlier, leaping to her perch with an unnatural ease. "I have met your friend Brandis in the flesh, had a normal conversation with him, even. Far more rational a being than this one. But as I was saying, I don't have more than a passing interest in your Order. You mean nothing to me in the grander scope of things, though it might be a hard concept to stomach, and not without reason. The Jedi were important members of society for many generations. I was there long before they were, however, and I know how the wheels turn." The remaining dust is brushed off with a look of marked amusement. "What, then, is your interest in denying me my way? I do no harm to you or your students." After a moment, Luke disables his lightsaber, and slowly clips it back onto his belt. The dust begins to lift itself from his garb, falling to the ground at ease, as if a hundred tiny fingers did the cleaning. He then reaches a hand out to his right, and his cloak lifts from the ground a good distance away, soaring into his fingers. He throws it over his shoulders and moves to sit a few meters away from Johanna, now watching her warily. "Johanna most certainly has her reasons for her actions, I believe," says Luke with a reasonable voice. "I don't imagine she's used to being... handled this way. Perhaps people like myself would be more interested in hearing you out if your methods weren't so terribly familiar to the most of us?" He tips his head downward, looking toward Johanna with a frown. "Mmm." Vadim looks into Luke and past him, hearing the chatter of the Jedi's ancestors in the Force and considering the strength there. "History is an important thing and all too often neglected. I reunited this one with her ancestors, but I fear she wasn't too happy about it. They rattle around up there," a light tap to Johanna's forehead, "In a most displeasing manner. If only she would let them have their say. It's what every one of your species wants in the end; to have a say in things. You humans are so primitive. You fail to see the greater picture." Something approximating a sigh emanates from the being and he turns to look up at the night sky. "I will give you back this one if you want; I have the most important part of her memories for myself and there is not much more she can do for me. You need only say the word." Luke shakes his head slowly. "I've no interest in giving you the luxury of answering my request. If Johanna wants to be free, she will make that choice on her own. You didn't need my permission to begin this experiment of yours... you don't need my permission to end it." He rises to his feet, cloak billowing in the dusty air. "Just know that this dark path will ultimately end in your own destruction. If not by the hands of a Jedi, then by the hands of your own." Vadim nods slowly. "So be it," he replies, words measured, "She has asked in the past and I have prevented it; I will free her now. This burdensome life she leads will be no more and her presence will be in my safekeeping until the time is right. Balance must be maintained." The Jedi's form hops down from its seat to study Luke's visage once more ere Vadim recedes, taking with him all that animated Johanna and leaving behind a lifeless body that slips to the pile of rubble beneath it with a barely perceptible thud. Luke darts forward, hands protruding from his cloak. He doesn't cry out to stop Vadim, for he knows it won't do him any good. Instead, he rushes on Johanna's lifeless form, drops to one knee, and reaches out to put one hand on her forehead. His mind searches for her life essence, but it only takes a moment to discover that it's gone. The body before him is truly dead. A shudder runs through his body, and his eyes squint shut as tears begin to form up. She was lost. After a moment, Skywalker turns his face skyward and opens his damp eyes, staring at the dark night sky as he struggles to bite down the emotional response. Luke chooses then to focus upon Vadim's last words, rather than the dead body before him. That's when he begins to find his calm. Nothing has been what it seems, and this encounter certainly was no different. He shakes his head and looks down upon the lifeless body before him. "Johanna," he murmurs quietly, grief in his voice. "My dear friend. I am so sorry." He reaches for his comlink, and cues in a message to the Voidstalker. "Artoo, find someone. Leia, or Ai'kani, or Colonel Ikihsa. I... need a body to be taken somewhere." Where, Luke? The exposed hospital? The Senate building, overrun with squabbling politicians? He looks down upon Johanna again, going over the words of the dark one again and again.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)