Trulalis

[Leena Kil]

Breaking hyper, the needle ship was alive with chittering furred being as they scrambled about preparing for what could be an immediate counterattack from their Sith greeting party.

 

Leena had changed back into her traditional healer’s robes. Her silvery saber hilt hung at her waist alongside a bag of special crystals used to enhance her applications of the light side’s healing energies. The only sway from a traditional healer’s garb were the trooper’s plastics boots she had her flowing pant legs tucked into; a cry back to her days on the front lines, a story unknown to any but the Jedi and the soldier who had gifted the original boots to her.

 

Standing there staring out the viewport, Leena’s heart twittered in anticipation. She had spent much of the jump in meditation, calming her mind and preparing herself for what was to come. She bolstered the wills of the Squibs as the force flowed through her and exponentially outwards on soothing waves of light. The vessel was a beacon of light side energies in the void of space. 
 

Darth Mavanger’s message played across the holoscreen. Leena did not even need nod in agreement as the needle ship, H.M.S. Smalliest, turned and began to arc towards the surface at a steep pitch.
 

Was it a trap? Undoubtedly. As a healer, Leena was not going to be subtle. She would go to where the cancer erupted and cleanse it. Wringing her hands, Leena stared forward. She was not sure she would be enough. Around her, the dedicated almost viciously happy chatters of the Squibs grounded Leena in reality. With her friends surrounding her, Leena knew it in her heart, she could do this if the force willed it to be so.

 

In the distance, the Squib scanners noted a Sith shuttle rocketing towards the same area of the planet. Was it the Sith Lord? Was it his troops coming to capture them? They did not know. It did not really matter. Leena would confront whatever Sith sought to spread their cancer. The Squibs with their hodge-podged array of ill-gotten weaponry and equipment, some homemade some liberated, were keen on getting their paws on whatever tech they could. Any Sith soldiers that came to play were ripe for the picking.

 

The corvette touched down a far cry from the ruined temple that stood unobstructed atop a rolling hillock overlooking the rolling plains to the horizon in every direction.

 

Striding down the ramp, Leena stepped out onto the grass-covered soil. Her weapon hung by her side. She palmed an egg-sized blue-green crystal in her hand, tumbling it over and over as she walked. The force swirled about the healer, strengthening her will and emanating out from her in an aura of righteous energy that sought to tamp down any negative or dark emotions in it’s field.

 

Soon enough the crumbling temple came into view. Leena surveilled it’s tumbled parapets and debris-scattered radius.
 

Had she beat the Sith here?

 

Where was the trap?

 

The natural sounds of the world about her were all that interrupted the silence. Leena hefted the crystal in her hand and lobbed it high into the air until it cracked sharply against a rocky wall of the temple and fell to the ground, a faint glow pulsing faintly at the heart of the stone.

 

“Hellooo,” Leena sang out clearly and cheerfully. “Is anyone home?”

 

 

[Leena Kil]

Leena blinked with a start at the sound of a voice from around the temple, just out of view. Even over the drizzling rain she heard his voice clearly calling out after her stone had chirped against the settling structure.

 

Making a semi-circled berth, Leena moved about a far perimeter of the temple, keeping the area in view bit giving her a safety margin should things turn violent unexpectedly. She only slowed to a stop when the rising human came into sight, his hair dripping with rain water. She remarked silently that he did not seem much older than she, although he seemed to present a more weathered countenance.

 

Leena would have kicked herself for not sensing the dark aura that seemed to radiate with an ethereal glow on the energies of the force as they came from the man. He was truly a student of the darkside. She did not kick herself though, she was too busy letting a warm smile creep across her face at his words.

 

Leena found it almost sad that the man seemed so convinced that her goal was to kill him, that her friends back aboard the ship were some sort of kill squad. That thought alone was enough to make her nearly giggle. The diminutive quick-talking rodents were sly and spritely, but a seasoned kill squad? Hardly. The only things they were good at killing were common sense and good pile of scrap metal.

 

“Nonsense dear warrior. I am no butcher. In fact, I am far from. My name is Leena and I am but a humble healer.” Leena raised her hands to allow the falling rain to harmless batter against her outstretched palms and trickle downwards towards the slick grass and muck. She felt the life of this place. Even as the darkness clung to it’s hold, Leena felt the natural healing energies of nature growing stronger with each falling drop.

 

“Truthfully I’d welcome the chance to talk Master Mavanger. Why have you come to this world but to corrupt and destroy with your fleets and your soldiers? You are already spreading across the galaxy. What is the point? So much destruction and waste, lives lost and upturned. I just do not understand.” As she spoke, Leena drew on the light of the world around her. She was not a naturalist by any means, but life was life. From that life flowed the Living Force. That was what she touched as she radiated a warmth into the air around her that permeated outward in a cocoon of soothing tidal energies. 

 

Leena stood regarding the Sith with a cautious sense of curiosity. What was it that made him so? What cancerous sin had bore such a man so low when he could have been so much; so quick to grasp at his sabers when the need for violence buzzed far off overhead without threat to them here. She smiled warmly at the man awaiting his reply and what revelations he may disclose.

 

The girl’s silvery hilt hung at her belt. She did not make even a motion towards it. This wayward soul had yet to present any cancer that needed carving.

[Leena Kil]

Leena stood listening quietly. It was not as if the Sith was entirely wrong; but he had made some assumptions. Assumptions had a tendency to lead people down some interesting paths. His words twisted the truth. It sounded plausible, most lies had some basis in truth after all. The smile did not fade from the girl’s face. She just shook her head. It was not worth an argument. The man was sure of his own statements.

 

“As long as people submit.”

 

”They will have peace.” 

 

“The same logic used by every conqueror the galaxy over. Leave the people to their own. Take your empire and go home. If chaos rears it’s head, protect the weak and innocent. Live in peace with all.  I did not come here to fight you. Didn’t come to conquer or rebel or shed blood either. If I did, I suspect more than a piecemeal corvette would’ve been useful. My friends just gave me a ride. Those up above, they are not Jedi.”

 

Leena paused as she pondered the musings of the Sith. She giggled softly before she spoke. “You sure talk a lot.”

 

”And that is saying something coming from me.”

 

”Still you seem pretty touchy with those sabers of yours for not being here as a warrior who just wants to talk. What would it hurt these people, the people of the Outer Rim, if you and your Empire left them alone? Don’t give them something to rebel against. Give them a choice to live as they desire. Peace for everyone.”

 

Leena waives her hand calling a downed stoney chunk of ruin towards her. It dug a furrow in the ground before it stood tall, giving the girl a place to sit. Settling down on the stone, Leena’s legs bent, her feet flat on the ground, the rain continued to fall heavier as the clouds churned overhead. She felt  the water running down her face. It felt natural. It was something of her very essence, the water. She relaxed against the touch of it against her flesh. She felt the power of the storm as it charged the air. It was natural; as cleansing to the world as any antiseptic in one of her wards. Leena smiled at the Sith. 

[Leena Kil]

“Do you mean a strong guiding hand like the one that crushes the hopes and wills to live like the people of Mon Cal?” Leena retorted, rolling her eyes at the Sith’s blatant ignorance. ‘Why is it bad guys like to monologue so much?’ “What of the poisoned seas and death that reigns on every doorstep there all under the peaceful hand of the Sith? Is that even a life worth living?” 

 

 

 

“What about Coruscant? Were you there when your brother threw a moon into the world killing trillions in the name of order. I walked that world. Wherever the Sith go their fear holds hearts for a moment, but the legacy that trails in your shadow is naught but the chaos you claim to seek to rid us of. Their souls long to be free.”

 

Leena paused. She took a deep breath focusing herself again, allowing the frustration she felt at the Sith Lord’s words to dissipate with the falling rain. She grasped the warm cloak that was the force all about her and allowed it to fill her from the inside out until she radiated with it’s warmth. 
 

Leena did not move from her perch. She sat, her legs tense and pushed against the ground as the stone she sat atop balanced precariously; ready to move if needed. She hoped it would not come to that. She felt the rain on her skin and a warm peaceful surge filled her soul. It seemed clear this man before her was misguided. She did not claim to be the smartest, experienced, or even most powerful Jedi. It did not matter. She served as she was called. The force blew like a gentle breeze through the rain about the temple, the smell of fresh rain and earth in it’s grasp.

 

She turned her eyes back to Mordecai, the force  and offered a smile. “You are right in the long run though. The galaxy would probably be less chaotic if everyone and everything were dead.” The girl’s voice rang with a laugh as warm as the rain as she spoke the words, they sounded so insane. Warmly she continued, “How about we make a deal? Since you, Master Sith, are the one seeking the chaos of battle, you turn and walk away. Return home. Lay down your arms and work towards the peace you desire, peacefully. We can work towards a peaceful galaxy together. No sense plunging it further into chaos with senseless violence right?”  

[Leena Kil]

Leena raised her eyebrows questioningly, “Cannot and will not.” Leena parroted the man’s words, turning them over in her mouth as she tasted the very thoughts that carried those words.

 

Seated atop her stoney stump, Leena regarded the man, visibly flinching as the Sith’s blades ignited. She studied the warrior for a moment. She could feel his tempestuous emotions as they carried forth on his snarl. she inhaled deeply, focusing in what she was about to do, drawing in a sense of calm that she exuded outward through every pore.

 

Carefully, slowly and calmly, Leena reached to her waist, unclipping her saber. She held it gingerly between her thumb and first two fingers so that Mordecai could see she was not palming it to strike. She reached back and tossed it behind her, sending the cylindrical shaft down the grass hill behind her.
 

“Then lets put the rhetoric aside then and talk, you and I. No orders. No creeds. You and me, talking.”

 

Leena’s knees tensed, prepared to spring into action if forced to. She did not want to, the force swirled in a sense of warm tidal calmness around and out from the Jedi. She waited his next move.

[Leena Kil]

Leena heard the man’s words and for a brief moment her breath caught in her chest. She was not a warrior. She was a healer. Her eyes darted off to the side, as if to look behind her where he weapon, the weapon of a Jedi Knight now lay. She exhaled, allowing the fullness of the light side energy of the force to fill her, the energies pulsing along her extremities as they surged in light of the coming onslaught.

 

And an onslaught it was. She had heard the words of the man. He had not even allowed her a moment’s response before he surged forward on a wave of dark tidal energies that crashed against the ever-growing aura of light that glowed about Leena.

 

With her legs already tensed and half a move’s plan already in her head should the Sith speak with actions and not words, Leena moved as the dark side pummeled against her aura of goodness. With concentration, she was able to hold back the energized onslaught; but the whirling dervish of blades was a different matter entirely. 
 

By luck, or the force, Leena had not moved towards her weapon as had been expected of her; instead she launched herself into a quick summersault putting more distance between herself and her signature weapon lying enshrouded by the grass and already nestled in the moist soil. The Sith Lord’s charge placed him at a further distance from the girl than he had begun; his blade piercing nothing but rain and air.

 

He did not stop though, spinning towards her like a devil. Leena stood; her body tense and the call of the force crackling about her with a light energy that continued to grow as the purity of the force, of her cause, of her soul, continued to feed and amplify it. The Sith’s saber slashed towards Leena’s skull with alarming speed and understanding, carving a furrow across the elongated cranium of the healer, burning her flesh  ut not piercing her skull. Had she not instinctively ducked backwards the blade would have sliced her skull in two. The girl’s face contorted in pain even as the force dulled the worst of it; the rain hissing off the scorched wound.

 

Leena did not even have time to comprehend the attack, it pressed on with such intensity and ferocity. The man was a warrior and his actions proved it. Leena was a healer, not used to the rigors of combat. So as she struggled to comprehend the rigors of the assault, survive the surge, and ascertain a way to turn the tide, Darth Mavanger struck again his blade driving towards where her knees had been before she ducked, tearing into the cloth bag that hung at her waist and spilling the specialized crystals within to the ground.
 

The dozen or so stones fell, each radiating a colored glow through their multifaceted surfaces. The healing energies of the force were contained within and fed off and unto the growing glow of light side energies that cascaded about the Healer.

 

And as they tumbled, an idea came upon Leena. She was a Jedi. She was a healer. The man had accused her and her associates of atrocities, atrocities Leena would not stand by either. She was a Jedi and she would act as a Jedi.
 

Extending her palm towards the Sith’s face, Leena’s finger stretched taut as she drew upon the growing energies of the force, releasing it in a single blasting beam of pure blinding white light towards the Sith’s face against the backdrop of the darkened battlefield of cloud cover, rain, and shadow. Leena’s other hand called through the force to her downed weapon, sending it up and arcing into the air high above, deactivated and shimmering as it reflected the surge of starbursting energy against the dark sky. 

 

((ACTIONS:

Moved off center away from her saber (this move was discussed OOCly before writing of this post), taking a lightsaber blow to her head and having her bag of crystals sliced torn open. 
Leena continued to grow the surging power of the light side of the force about her in an aura of light, directing some of this energy into an attempt to blind and disorient Mordecai using the attack “External Light” as found in the Jedi Healer Guide. Leena then used telekinesis to throw her deactivated lightsaber hilt up into the air.))

[Leena Kil]

As the Sith warrior’s onslaught continued, Leena buried herself deeper into the force itself. The light side was there all around them. The world breathed it. It hummed in the downed stones on the muddy ground; it reflected in the flash of lighting overhead; and it cascaded downwards with each drop of rainfall that carried life and healing in it’s tiny grasping globule.

 

Her weapon was near useless as it continued to arc high overhead, tumbling end over end in a free dance, the rain reflecting the power of the storm on it’s silvery surface. She had hoped her blinding blast would have at least slowed her opponent. It appeared it had not, only dazing him for a mere moment.

 

Still, a moment was better than nothing. She was a Healer. She was a Jedi. She was not a conquering general. She saved lives. She did not destroy them. A moment was all she needed.

 

Mordecai’s onslaught begun anew before Leena could follow up with another offensive countermeasure. She back-peddled, drawing the battle in an arc back atop the hill her mind focusing on immersing herself in the force and bracing for the incoming blows. As she moved Leena stepped backwards and turned, their path bringing back around towards the crumbling temples
 

The woman grimaced in pain, gasps and yelps of surprise escaped her lips as the Sith’s saber landed blow after blow on her body. The force flashed softly and sizzled in the raining air with each blow, embracing the incoming blow and slowing it against an otherwise invisible aura of light side tidal energies that surged to meet each blow. The glow of the force barely had time tondisapate before another blade arced towards the Healer’s body impacting the energized aura about her.  Like a doctor drawing pus from a wound, the force leeched power from the sabers attacks and their deadly intent.
 

Leena moved deftly with the skill of a surgeon. Each step was rapid and sure, keeping her at the fringe of the Sith Lord’s impressive range even as she focused on being one with the force itself, allowing it to flown through and around her, protecting her. She grit her teeth against the pain, stumbling slightly as the saber grazed her thigh. Her mind focused on ending this fight as only a Jedi could, through the purity of the force and righteousness of her cause.

 

The girl’s white robes were torn and burned, wisps of smoke rolling upward after each stab and swing. Where the sabers impacted her body, they did not cleave flesh, instead they delivered horrendous burns, causing the Healer’s skin to bake and bubble, blacken and  become crisp as the heat of the burning plasma sucked the moisture from her skin.

 

Through it all, Leena stared at the Sith’s eyes. The warmth of her eyes cried out with a desire to not trod down the dark path the Sith seemed to push them towards. She felt the force. She silently called to it, allowing it to fill her and expel it out exponentially, bathing the battlefield in a purity that one could practically taste.

 

((Actions: Lessened the impact and momentum of the lightsaber blows to Leena’s body from Mordecai’s sabers, while backing up and moving across the battlefield. This was achieved via the use of a Healer’s Aura, lessening but not nullifying the attacks. As such, Leena is forgoing any offense attack this turn))

 

((2))

 

  

[Leena Kil]

The blows continued to rain down unhindered. It seemed that the catching power of light had done little but anger the Sith as he pressed the attack. Withering under the flurry of blows, Leena knew this could not continue; but it did. Even so, her high flung saber began to plummet downward, having lost momentum in the rain-filled sky.

 

The force still swirled about Leena, a holy aura that flashed against the shadows with each blow of the Sith’s rage-tinged weapons.

 

Leena ducked to one side as she sensed more than saw the Sith’s crimson blade slicing towards her neck. The Force was her guide and her protector.

 

Even as she did, she felt her feet yanked from underneath her and fell to the muddy ground with a splatter as her bottom impacted the rain-saturated soil.  The momentum of the fall combined with her backwards momentum sprawled her backwards for a mere moment. It was the only saving grace against the two-bladed combo meant to detach her arms from her body. Still, the move had done it’s work, leaving Leena at a position of disadvantage and interrupting her focus on her healer’s aura that had been negating the greater edges of the attacks. The Sith’s blades burned and split the flesh of Leena’s upper arms near her shoulders until she hit the ground with a cry of pain. Even if the force dulled it, the injuries still hurt. They were no mere burns and the Jedi’s body cried out in pain; Leena’s face contorting in immeasurable agony as the blades found there mark, if even for a moment.

 

Inhaling a ragged breath, Leena’s vision swam as tears clouded her eyes. She felt the force swirling about her like a tidal force of water; electric, fluid, and concrete. It was a comfort. It was that still small voice that held Leena and centered her amidst the maelstrom of chaos and pain. It spoke to her, controlled her movements, led her when she could not lead herself.

 

The momentum of her fall had been enough that Leena rolled back over her head in a backwards summersault, the Sith’s sabers tracing biting furrows down her buttocks as she rolled. Her hand was outstretched, it pulsated with pain. The force was her master. Leena served the force. Her cartwheeling hilt landed in her hand as she clasped it shut; the muscles in her arm grating in pain with the move.

 

Leena churned to a crouched mass atop her knees. As she knelt there in the blood, her white healer’s robes coated in mud and blood and soaked by the rain, she barely had time to take a breath before the Sith sought to drive his blade home. As she did, the force seemed to recede into the Jedi, concentrating it’s power about her. In that moment, Leena’s saber hilt ignited, a teal beam of plasma that bathed the Jedi in it’s soft protective glow. The rain barely had time to strike the saber before it was moving. The Sith left her little time to consider her options, and Leena acted on instinct and guidance by the force alone.

 

Having only basic lightsaber training, forgone in interest of further development of the healing arts, Leena knew she stood little chance against the warrior before her in bladed combat; but her ally was the force, she fought with it, not against it. It was a powerful ally.

 

Leena was barely able to bring the teal blade up before the Sith’s blade plunged towards her chest. Her saber caught the blade; but the momentum of the Sith’s hammering strike was too much for her to hope to stand against alone. The girl’s breath escaped her body as she was driven backwards, her body tipping as she leaned with the clash of sabers.

 

And as her breath was forced from her body by the power of the blow, so too did the concentrated force erupt from within the girl. A ring of shining energy erupted from the girl, an explosion of momentum and force energy and light. It leveled the grass about Leena in every direction, kicking up loose dirt, rocks and vegetation. Anything that was not anchored was at risk of being launched back away from the Jedi for meters in every direction.

 

Leena only hoped that it was enough.

 

((ACTIONS: Tumbled, took several blows from Mordecai’s sabers, rolled back, caught her falling saber and used it to try and deflect Mordecai’s final blow while also releasing a force shockwave in every direction.))

 

((3)))

[Leena Kil]

Soon after the Sith’s craft lofted off from the world, the squibs who had accompanied Leena began to grow concerned as their hails to their Mon Cal friend did not respond. As the sun began to set, the valiantly diminutive rodents put together a posse. Armed to the hilt with everything  from hydrospanners to home-made disintegration cannons, they prepared for the inevitable possibility to confront any manner of Sith menace. 
 

Cautiously, utilizing infrared scanners and burst of light against the growing shadows the squibs set out. It did not take them long to find their friend. She was dead. Their usual carefree chatter turned somber and silent as they gathered their friends’ fallen belongings and fashioned a sledge of sorts to try and bring her back to their ship with some form of dignity.

 

In the distance, an unknown animal howled dourly into the still and wet sky.

 

The least they could do was return her to her people, the Jedi. After all that Lena Kil had done for the Squibs, they only wished they might do more.