"And you live as if hell were continually at your doorstep." Voldon shot back with a half teasing smile at the on edge Twi'lek.
"Which is a good mentality to have when your planet is under siege." The Elder rose from the bed and onto his feet, joints popping as he rolled his shoulders and kicked his legs out.
"Age." He mumbled bitterly before he walked to Yerbol's side, the younger Force user's eyes closed, his chest rising and falling far too slowly for his liking. Then again, he was alive. That was a victory. 
"Ari, come." He brought her to the entrance of the med bay, looking out at the crimson emergency lit hallway before telling her:
"I'm going ahead to the Senate tower. I have a feeling that they'll need all the help they can get. Stay with Yerbol until he gets better and then join me at the soonest possible moment. Send any Alliance forces that pass by to the undercity. I'm sure that the security chief could use all the help they can get." As his left foot exited the medbay, he swiveled around to ask:
"The hacker, Junoco. Give me his contact information. His offer for assistance might be called in." After receiving the information necessary, he nodded a goodbye before stalking back into the darkness, which was punctuated every so often by a distant shout or the firing of a blaster rifle. Two Alliance battalions passed by the med by, one leaving a couple of soldiers behind to guard the place out of both concern for the citizenry and preserving a place to help nurse their own back to health if needed. Other than those two squadrons, however, there was no other activity, leaving a chilling, empty silence to sink into the bones of those who were wrapped in it. Conversation was sparse for a while, but about forty minutes after Voldon's departure, Yerbol's eyes opened. 
"Where..." A Twi'lek came to his side and cautioned him to not move too quickly nor expend energy until the bacta had "taken full effect". Upon looking down at his slightly mended body, fragments of recent events floated through his mind. Her torture, the way she dug her fingernails into his back every time she took a small piece of him, the rescue, Ari...
"Ari?" He called for her, taking her hand in his own as he looked into her dark eyes with momentous relief, his own icy blue irises returned to their normal, healthy state. 
"How long has it been? I mean since they took me." When he was informed that it had only been a couple of days at most, he chuckled, then promptly winced at the pain that shot through his abdomen and up his ribcage. 
"It felt like time had just forgotten about me. Years could've passed and I wouldn't have even noticed." Cautiously he sat up even further in the tank, still holding onto Aria's hand firmly. 
"Illesia has that effect on people." He grimaced, gripping her hand even tighter as he brought it up to his lips, kissing it gently before releasing.
"She wanted me to forget about who I was and wholly give everything to her. I kept refusing, so she kept digging." He motioned to the wounds on his back and chest. 
"She can...take your very essence from you." He shook his head and rephrased:
"Remember how Renso talked to us about the Force? How it can be manipulated, even taken from other people? I think he knew that from his experiments on the Xiis. All that talk about consumption and devouring and power...Illesia embodies that. That's why the other Xiis follow her. I think. Because the other Xiis don't seem to..." A sudden wave of light-headedness prompted him to lay back, but he continued to speak:
"can't use the Force. She can, though, Ari. To the point where she can just suck the living energies out of a person. If she keeps up at her current rate, she could become more powerful than the Elders, more powerful than even Renso or your father or...well, maybe even Revan himself." Yerbol attempted to leave the tank, but was shooed back in by those who surrounded him.
"No, don't you get it?! She's out there RIGHT NOW and without us fighting her she's going to slaughter this world without a second thought! I NEED to get out there, I NEED to-" Another bout of light-headedness and he was back to almost prone. 
"I can't...can't let her..." His eyes closed once more, slipping into a needed sleep that according to Denali he needed to at least function in the capacity necessary for their occupation. Pushing him any further would only be a risk, the doctor proclaimed. 

___

"This isn't good." Junoco ran a shaky hand through his mussed ash brown hair before typing furiously on the datapad he had brought, Voldon slicing another thug to pieces at the entrance of the tower before responding peevishly: 
"What?!" 
"Security protocols on the Senate defense systems are out."
"HOW?"
"I don't know, I don't know! It's going to take me a bit of time to restore turret control, so give me a bloody second or two!"
"You've got sixty." Voldon spat a stream of blood onto the ground before wiping his mouth from the solid blow to the face he had received from one of the grunts that had decided to storm the Senate tower. The Xiis were indeed a problem, but another had spawned from their inflicted chaos: street gangs that once were rivals bonding together to overtake a fragile government. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but for it to occur now was...unfortunate timing. Thankfully Voldon had retrieved Junoco and gotten him to the Senate tower just in time to help Alliance forces repel a host of gang members that were unloading military grade firepower on the defenseless symbol of their new government. While this first wave was gone, there were small shuttles dropping even more thugs at the opposite end of the walkway that connected the tower to the spaceport. 
"HURRY UP."
"Not helping! Not helping!" Junoco frantically hammered away for another few seconds before throwing his hands up into the air, datapad nearly crashing to the ground.
"HA! HA!" Whirring and clicking could be heard from beneath the entrance, six mechanized laser turrets popping up to deliver suppressing fire against the incoming vagrants. 
"Droids are coming up next!" He shouted gleefully as the surviving Alliance troops fell back inside. 
"Seal the entrance." 
"Already on it!" Junoco complied with Voldon's command, heavy metal shutters slamming into place. 
"Good. Sergeant, can you make do with guarding the entrance?" A red headed man no more than the age of twenty six nodded, smiling in relief. 
"Excellent. This should be over soon." Voldon withdrew his comm unit and rang for Aria, telling the Champion:
"You two need to get to the tower now. Junoco is sending you coordinates to a network of tunnels that'll have you here fast. Stick to the shadows. There's a lot of traffic on the main thoroughfares."