Someone, help me. Please? {Shandari, por favor!}

Shandari was sitting up on the cliff with Shard, her feet dangling off the edge. They had been discussing future plans for the group Shandari was now second in command of, or at least in the beginning. By now they were trading off stories from their past. She was in the middle of telling him what she did to a group of guards that tried to harass her in a Cantina on Nar Shaddaa when something flaming shot through the sky. Her eyes followed it as it crashed into the ground far away. For some reason it just seemed to catch her interest.

Shandari turned back to Shard, touching his mind. "Let's go check it out. I'll meet you there. It shouldn't take you much longer then me to get there." And with that she spread her wings, being careful not to hit him, and took off into the air. She spun gracefully for a moment, then shot off quickly. Soon she would only be a dot in the sky from where she took off.

Shandari loved to fly. Almost nothing was as exhillerating as soaring through the air, her hair blowing wildly around her head. It was one of the only times she truly felt at peace, and her black eyes flashe green for just a moment, as they often would when she was in the air, or around Shard. A sign of happiness. She rolled onto her back as she got closer, slowing slightly to just enjoy the sky. Soon she was above the wreckage, though she circled it a bit before coming down.

The Rilan woman landed among the flaming wreckage. Curiously she looked around, wondering what all she might find. A broken computer here, a destroyed droid there, bodies everywhere. It seems like it was quite the full ship. She sensed the danger only a moment before it happend. A flaming beam fell towards her. She managed to get far enough away so that it would not kill her, but her left wing was not soo lucky. The flames licked the black and red feathers, scorching them, the skin underneath burning. Quickly she moved away, her face scruched in pain. Luckilly, it was not serious, and wouldn't take much to heal, but she wouldn't be able to fly back.

Slowly, but surely, she began to make her way out of the ruins of the ship, not wanting to risk another accident. As she went on, she began to notice what looked like a trail of blood, fresh blood. Curious, she began to follow it, grabbing one saber from her belt as a precaution. Now clear of the wreckage, she noticed the trail seemed to be going in the same direction as the temple. She continued to follow it. Eventually, she saw someone moving in the distance, though it seemed weakly. She got closer and closer with every second, igniting the pink beam, in case whatever it was might be a threat. Eventually she caught up to it. It was just a girl, a young girl. The girl turned to her, and seemed ready to fight her. Well if she wanted to fight she would get it. Shandari prepared herself, waiting for the girl to strike first.

Marie shook her head for a moment, and then moved her hand away from her saber, shaking her head again. She didn't want to fight, especially not since at that very moment her legs gave way beneath her again, and she collapsed to the ground on her knees, quaking slightly. "P... please... don't... don't hurt me," she whispered, her body shaking softly. She couldn't believe this. She wasn't normally this scared, but something about this winged woman, who clearly stood a little taller than she, just terrified the wits out of her.

She jerked slightly as the blood finally got into her eyes, and she reached up to swipe at it, wiping the blood out of her eyes, starting to shake even more. She was getting extremely light headed, and her body was threatening to collapse completely on her. She blinked, trying to get her eyes to focus, but it was a wasted effort, as she toppled over.

She was out cold, and it was clear on a quick glance why. The gash on her forehead certainly didn't help, nor did the fact that her knees were badly skinned. On top of that, the deep red color of her left hand made it clear that she was a survivor from the very wreck Shandari had just come from.

"Be careful," Shard replied as the Rilan lifted off. He glanced back down at the wreckage; it must have been shot down from above. No doubt the orbiting fleet had gotten trigger-happy again, it was a wonder those who had legitimate business on the dry dusty planet could come and go as they did. Him being one of them, of course.

He looked back up, watching Shandari as she darted about in the air above. The sight never failed to make him smile, not only for the sight itself but because her enjoyment of it was so overreaching. Only around him did she ever feel anything like it, which in itself made him happy as well. He couldn't say why, though there was some degree of jealousy; not a lot, to be sure, but some.

At last the Rilan banked and began descending, and the Miraluka decided he would do likewise. Not along the trail, of course, that would take too long; the only other way was straight off the cliff, down to the bottom. And that's exactly what he did, taking a step back and simply flinging his lithe form into space. His body twisted in midair as a precipice drew near; one foot landed lightly on the outer edge, he flipped down and kicked off before he hit the rock. Subtle jolts of the Force kept him on track, and he alighted with a crouch just as Shandari landed amidst the wreckage.

From his distant vantage point he saw most of what occurred; the wounded girl crawling painfully away with a trail of blood behind her, the burning beam nearly crushing his partner (he panicked, of course, but held himself back; if she got hurt doing something as stupid as poking around a freshly wrecked ship, it was her own fool fault). He watched as she walked away, nursing a burnt wing; the lone survivor turned and they confronted each other.

"Interesting," Shard said to himself as Shandari revealed a lightsaber. He felt a powerful jolt of fear from the girl as she fell to her knees, mumbling and wiping sweat (or was it blood?) from her forehead before falling over in a dead faint. Of course she would be injured, even a blind man could see that. Or smell it, perhaps.

"Blood loss," he called as he walked over, relaxing the cloak over his Force power slightly. "She has greivous injuries, and all the leaking has weakened her." He indicated the trail that led from her current position to the wreckage. "We should take her back to the Temple; she has the Force in her, strongly for one so young, and she could be useful." Before that, though, he knelt beside the fallen girl, running a hand over her injuries; he wasn't the most skilled healer, but he did know a few things.

What Shandari would feel next would be very odd; Shard was actually channeling the Light Side of the Force, his hand on Marie's forehead as he did what he could to at least stop the blood flow. From there he moved to her other injuries, and the blood stopped for the moment. "You see her hand; she has used Lightning in the recent past," he said, holding up the charred apendage for Shandari to inspect more closely.

Gently he picked her up, a hand beneath her shoulders and her knees. "There is a great deal of fury and hatred in this one," he explained as he set off in the direction of the Sith Temple, "but also fear. I expect she has recently lost someone, or several someones, very close to her; perhaps it is related to the injury on her hand." He paused, then shook his head. "But we won't know anything for sure until she wakes up, and for that she needs the kolto tanks. Possibly a blood transfusion as well."

Shandari blinked. A moment ago, the girl had seemed like she was ready to attack her. Now she was begging the Rilan not to hurt her. It confused her. Was she that menacing looking? Was one look enough to make an opponent back down? She would have to test this theory later on. Once more her mind focused on the cowering girl. She didn't seem to last much longer, suddenly collapsing. The sand beneath her grew red as she layed there, unconscious.

Shandari was just starting to walk towards her when Shard showed up. She deactivated her pink saber and placed it on her belt once more. He started say what was wrong, and for the first time Shandari truly looked at the girl. The deep gash, the charred hand. She blinked in suprise when Shard began to heal the girl. She wasnt disgusted or anything, just suprised that he chose to wield the light side.

Shard scooped her up, and the three of them began to make their way back to the temple. Throughout what happened, she had forgotten about her wing, and went to stretch it. Her face scrunched in a wince as she did, and quickly pulled it back in, softly stroking it to try to soothe the pain. Once more, she reached out to Shard. "How do you think she survived when no one else did?"

Marie didn't react through the entire treatment. But inwardly, she was railing at whoever it had been that had used such a power on her. She couldn't believe it! Looking for people affiliated with the Jedi, and here she apparently had stumbled across two of them.

It took several minutes for her to work her way through a haze of unconsciousness back to the surface, but when she finally had, she made a half-hearted attempt at squirming her way free, and then gave up as hopeless. She hung there in the male's arms, her eyes wide in sheer terror.

Jedi, the both of them. Great. The minute they find out I can use the Force, and tap into it the way I do, I'm dead, she thought to herself, trying to make herself seem smaller. "Please... I app... appreciate what you've done, but just... just put me down. I"ll... I'll make my own... my own way." She winced at the sound of her own voice, scratchy and hoarse.

"Please. I... I have to get to... to Coruscant... Debts that have to... to be settled... and all."

Ahh, she's awake, Shard thought to himself, looking down as Marie squirmed. Good. "Hopefully we'll find out in a moment," he told Shandari, silently. "You're a long way from Coruscant, little girl," he told Marie, giving her a slight shake to emphasize where she was. "Someone like you wouldn't be welcome there anyway; they frown on people who hate the Jedi, particularly as much as you do.

"Fortunately, you have landed among friends." He shifted his hold on her slight frame, so she could look around; with the Temple straight ahead it would be an impressive sight. "This is Korriban, the home of the new Sith Order. That Temple is our stronghold, our headquarters; many have come before you seeking knowledge and power, though not quite in such a flashy manner as yours." Here he smirked slightly, but did not comment further on that issue.

"There are no Jedi here, I can assure you of that," he went on, pausing in their walk. "There are those in this place, myself included, who could detect Jedi from far away. With training you could do so as well, it isn't terribly hard." This from the fellow who could detect a fly ten miles off if he wanted to. "But anyway, I am Shard and this is Shandari; I could find out who you are on my own, but it's generally polite to let a girl introduce herself."

To Shandari, he said, "This one could prove amusing perhaps. Stick around, though; you were the first person she saw on this planet, and familiar faces tend to be comforting." Out loud: "So. Your ship was shot down, and everyone else died. Care to explain how you were the only survivor? And the wound on your left hand is interesting as well. As is this." As he spoke the last bit, Marie's lightsaber floated free and hovered in the air above her face, just out of easy reach. "Did you make it yourself?"

To Marie, Shard would be an enigma. He had no obvious presense in the Force, yet his actions proved otherwise. His clothes, his weapons, the easy way he held her in his arms, all indicated a man of supreme self-confidence and considerable personal force. In particular his glasses, which were so dark that even from her close vantage point against his chest Marie would be unable to see past them.

Marie tensed up when he mentioned that she was a long way from Coruscant, expecting to be dropped to the ground at any moment. When he didn't, and then commented on people like her, she opened her eyes, staring up at him. The comment about having landed among friends, though, caused her to push her senses outward, probing gently at the minds of the two with her. From the female she got the sense of a MASSIVE amount of power, but from the male, she got... Nothing. That perplexed her, but she refused to let it show. She winced when he mentioned flashy, and sighed, looking away from him. "Wasn't my fault," she croaked. "Captain said the hyperdrive failed just before we got shot. Then all I remember is the impact of the crash, and crawling out of that wreckage as the only one alive," she said softly.

She sighed, and shivered slightly. A coldness was setting in on her, and it had nothing to do with the company. As her vision swam again, she blinked. She was getting woozy again, and that wasn't good. Turning her face in, she clung tightly to the Miraluka carrying her, not even noticing the temple ahead of them. But when she felt the familiar weight of the lightsaber vanish from her hip, she rolled back, very nearly falling out of his arms as she tried to reach for it. "NO! Please, give it back! It's all I have left of my uncle after those bastard Jedi took him! Please, give it back! Everything that I put into that either came from him or I learned from him. Please!" she said, not directing her plea at one or the other, but rather at both of them.

"I don't know how I survived," she said, as one arm went around his shoulder to brace with, as the other reached out for the saber dangling a few inches from her outstretched fingertips. "All I know is I did. And I don't care how I survived. All that matters is that I've been given a chance to finally take my revenge," she said, finally simply going limp in his arms, shaking her head. Holding up her singed hand, she sighed. In a much quieter voice, she whispered. "As for my hand, I tried to stop the Jedi that took my uncle. But I failed," she said, tears growing in her eyes.

"Bastard Jedi, are they?" Shard inquired, raising an eyebrow. "I have no doubt that many would agree with you, especially around here." He looked up at Shandari, in a way that suggested winking. "Even more especially, my friend here. The Jedi claimed her family as well." He did not mention his own family, which was still very much alive on Alpheridies; not that he knew or cared, since he hadn't seen or heard from them since his father died.

"However, it is interesting that, at your age, you built a lightsaber of your own. You say your uncle taught you this... what else did he teach you?" Whether he actually felt anything relative to a helpless, moderately pretty seventeen-year-old girl being in his arms was hard to say. In fact he did, but it was more a distant, scholarly sort of feeling rather than what anyone else would have done.

Then he smirked, and the lightsaber turned on its side and spun around. "You would hate to lose this, I presume," he went on casually, as it suddenly winked out of Marie's sight. Shandari would see, though, that the metal cylinder simply floated down and reattached itself to the girl's waist. She didn't feel it, though, not for a second or so; the Miraluka had blocked out all sight and sensation of the weapon from her perceptions.

But a second later she would feel it once again, where it belonged. "You should invest in a more secure holster, my dear," Shard went on, as if nothing had happened. "It was the Force that brought you here, I believe... to learn from us, and avenge your family. Again, though, what is your name? I don't want to have to pry it from you without your consent."

Shandari would hear his voice in her head: "This one has much in common with you. Not only that, but you were the first to see her approach. If she agrees to be taught, it should be you that will act as her guide and her teacher through the road that awaits her."

Shandari turned to Shard. "First person she saw? She was terrified of me." Her voice sounded cold in his head. She didn't care that the girl was afraid or not. She was just stating a fact. To her the girl didn't really mean anything. She was just the victim of some crash, no importance to her. She struggled to think why Shard was even bothering to bring her back.

She watched the scene unfold between Shard and the girl with bemused interest. Apparently that girl treasured her saber. While the rest of what was spoken about didn't appeal to her, that did. It gave her many ideas, stuff that she didn't even realize where it might lead, until Shard spoke to her next.

For a brief second, suprise flashed on her face. "Teach her? What is she even capable of?" This weak looking girl looked like she might not even survive the night, and he wanted her to to teach her? "Why do you think she even deserves teaching?"

But that question was answered when the saber flipped off her belt into her hand, and the emitter was pressed to the male's throat in a heartbeat, though it drew a pained grimace to Marie's face to do so. "NEVER again take my saber. It is the ONLY possession I have that I treasure. I have killed people for less," she said, waves of pure fury washing off of her.

When she was sure she had made her point, she lowered the saber back to her belt, clipping it there. She nearly missed the hook that hung from her belt that the saber hung from, but she managed. But that was about all she managed, as she went limp in the male's arms again, her hand closed tightly around the saber on her belt this time.

She sighed, looking over at the female. She shook her head, disgust clear in her eyes. "I survived a crash that killed everyone else," she said weakly. "And you ask what I am capable of? Had I been more focused, I wouldn't even BE here," she muttered, thinking it was quiet enough that neither of them would hear.

"Had I been more focused," she continued in a murmur. "Had I been more focused, that Force Lightning blast would have taken down that Jedi's ship, and Uncle Aliran would have taught me more. And I would be on Coruscant right now, wreaking havoc amongst the Jedi."

With that, she faded into the deep, restoring rest of TRUE sleep, and of a healing trance. Of course, with her talents, it would still require a few days, and in some dim recess of her mind, she registered that fact as unconsciousness claimed her again.

Shandari's response, for some reason, annoyed Shard, and he turned to say as much when Marie threatened his neck. "Oh, have you?" he inquired, annoyance swiftly replaced by amusement. "Wonderful, hardly into your teenage years and already a hardened killer. You'll go quite far with us, I'm sure." To Shandari he said, "I guess then, she doesn't value the clothes on her back? Maybe I should take them off and teach her a lesson in manners."

But the girl in his arms was going on again, and she sounded weaker with every word. "She's fading quickly," he said to himself as Marie's muttering trailed off bit by bit. "Certainly ambitious... the first time ever using Force Lightning, and she wanted to strike a whole ship out of the sky." He shook his head, concealing a trace of admiration. In the meantime she'd given away a few facts; her uncle had been taken captive by the Jedi. Perhaps he could mount a rescue at som future date?

But, in the meantime, she had fallen asleep. "If that's how you feel, I'll train her myself," he replied to the Rilan, carefully placing Marie against a rock and slipping a hand over her heated forehed. The girl wouldn't have been able to keep him out in any event, awake or not, but to be sure he utilized one of the full aspects of Art of the Small: minimizing his Force presense down to a microscopic level, so that he seemed to disappear altogether within the Force. Then he gently probed the unconcious Marie, looking for her identity, invisible to everyone's perception.

"Her name is Marie Desikot," he explained. "Her parents died when she was seven... the house collapsed, the Jedi were involved. Foster parents, more Jedi involvement... ah, a dark man. An uncle?" Something had seemed off about these memories... as if someone else had been meddling with her thoughts at the time. "Her uncle trained her, but after a few years the Jedi took him captive... then she left and came here."

The Miraluka looked up at his companion, a hard look in his face. "She is already somewhat trained, it would be injudicious to leave her as such. I shall take her to the medical bay of the Temple and see her into a kolto tank; you can come if you want, but I think you should try and center yourself for a while. You seem unsettled." With that he picked Marie up again and set off for the Sith Temple, not looking back.

((OOC: I'll make a new thread in the Temple forum sometime this week, for Shard and Marie.))