“Relief” was the wrong word to describe Aria’s feelings after Illesia had disappeared through the emergency shutter, because she knew the Xiis would not give up that easily, but at least (for now) it was over. Nodding in agreement with her partner, a wry smirk came to the Champion’s lips as she muttered:
“That won’t be the last we see of her, I’m sure.”
Little argument was provided when Voldon suggested that the pair got some rest, the couple instantly following up on the instructions. After a quick examination of Illesia’s exit point, Chwuq gave a satisfied snort and the two hounds trotted after their masters.
_______________________________________________________
After entering the room, Yerbol seemed to deflate as he collapsed onto the end of the bed, reaching for her and wrapping his arms around her as his words trailed off and he couldn’t finish his sentence. Returning his embrace, Aria sank down to sit beside him.
“Shhh, shh, it’s okay.” she murmured soothingly, brushing her lips gently against his forehead. “It’s over now. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.” she promised, pausing to allow some silence to pass between them while she thought over her words for a while. He needed time to process everything that had happened to him and she was more than happy to sit with him and support him in any way he needed while he did that; it was just a matter of knowing the best way to do that.
“Do you...want to talk about it?” the Champion swallowed, her gaze flicking down to meet his as she smiled gently and quickly reassured him: “You don’t HAVE to, if you’d rather just...not. But I’m just saying that I’m listening, if...if you DO want to.” a quiet sigh left her lips as she shifted a little closer to him, running her fingers gently through his hair to give him time to simply speak out his feelings if he wanted to.
Aria hardly batted an eyelid as Chwuq and Taral leapt up onto the bed to join them with anxious whines, for once there was more than enough room and they would only make more of a fuss if they weren’t allowed to offer him their own comfort in whatever silly way they thought was appropriate. “But don’t you go thinking this is going to be a regular thing!” Aria warned them after the pair had shifted up towards the pillows with the hopes that Yerbol could get some sleep after he had said anything he needed to that would allow him to recover his strength again. The Tuk’ata were content to settle by the duo’s feet after Aria had swatted them away from snuffling at Yerbol too much to ‘let him sleep without you pestering him’, and were soon snoring away too. Aria remained largely quiet as Yerbol vented out any frustrations and feelings on the past few days’ happenings, eventually speaking up again to coax the Champion into a much needed sleep, his partner keeping watch over him until she too drifted off from exhaustion of the day’s events.
Feeling somewhat fresher after a few hours’ rest, a chance to soothe their aching muscles with a warm shower and change into some clean clothes (which took some ne, the duo filtered back through the hallways into the war room to catch up with Voldon again. The Battlemaster looked far more rested too, though still frowning as if something puzzled him, when Aria and Yerbol trooped into the room.
“You look better.” he commented with a slight smile as they gathered around the holoprojector which was displaying a map of the planet’s infrastructure.
“So do you...aside from looking worried.” Aria noted, her head tilting slightly to one side. “What is it?”
“We’ve lost track of her. And with all the surveillance systems damaged or looted by the gangs there’s no way to tell where Illesia could be now, or where the Xiis might strike next.”
Aria frowned at the map for a moment, her attention then moving to the holoprojections of Ailel, Cheriss and Kira who hovered close by it. Apparently the entire Council had been trying to pinpoint a place the Xiis leader and any of her surviving minions could have fled to with no success.
“The issue is that she could be ANYWHERE.” Cheriss growled, unimpressed.
“She could even have gone off-world by now, to try and destabilize any other authority figures before they can band together to bring aid to Coruscant.” Ailel put in, her expression as severe as Voldon’s.
“Do you think she might try to come back for Saresh again?” Aria suggested, leaning a little closer. “We managed to chase her off but she didn’t get to kill the Chancellor, which is what she wanted in the first place.”
“It certainly isn’t out of the question.” the Dathomirian responded. “Where is the Chancellor? I’d make sure she’s well protected, and any other members of her Cabinet, if I were you.”
This was easier said than done with their current numbers however, there simply weren’t enough individuals with the required skillsets to shadow the number of Cabinet members.
“We can’t keep going on like this!” Aria groaned in protest, resting her head in her hands at the mere thought of trying to manage protecting that many politicians whilst trying to track down the Xiis’ whereabouts and warn any remaining government officials on other planets at the same time…. “We’ll all drop dead before we ever stop them!” she felt Yerbol’s hand close around her shoulder and squeeze it comfortingly and flashed him a smile as Cheriss spoke up again in agreement with Aria’s statement.
“She IS right, we can’t go on like this.”
“Which brings us to our earlier suggestion.” Ailel continued, facing the two Champions. “We might as well fill you both in now that you’re here.”
“Fill us in on...what?” Aria enquired carefully.
“We really can’t afford to delay any longer, this Academy on Zinuthra. We need to start setting it up, start training youngsters again.”
Aria frowned a little.
“That’s a tall order, isn’t it, Master Sparr?”
Cheriss knitted her hands together, her expression as unyielding as ever. It was unnerving.
“Perhaps yes, but if we’re going to stop these Xiis from destabilising the galaxy we need more Qyaari, ten of us can’t be in every corner of the galaxy at once.”
“Saresh would never agree to it.” the Champion protested. “Taking children for training only to throw them into the fire as soon as their training is complete? I won’t agree to that, Cheriss. It’s wrong.”
The Dathomirian growled softly in frustration.
“We don’t HAVE to ask them to fight the Xiis. Even if the youngsters stay on Zinuthra with one of the Elders to keep the mundane duties running smoothly while those of us that are more experienced handle the active fighting.” Cheriss rubbed her temples as she attempted to get Aria onto the same wavelength as she was. “Vano’s stuck in the library sorting holocrons and historical archives when she could have been out there helping you, Yerbol and Voldon. If we could get her a handful of younglings to train who were interested in archiving…similarly, if one of us Elders could stay behind in order to supervise the day to day tasks around the training facility, make sure we could process distress calls and the like, the older and more experienced Qyaari could be better spread out across the worlds the Xiis would be targeting.”
It took another moment for the light bulb to switch on in Aria’s head, but when the Champion said nothing in reply for a few moments it was clear she was starting to understand.
“So, what do you want us to do?”
“Speak to Saresh before you leave, get her approval if you can. Then we’d like all three of you back on Zinuthra, we can reach out to the Force sensitive areas set up on Taris and other planets and arrange transport out into Wild Space.”
With their course of action decided, the holocalls disconnected. Cheriss was right, with only ten Qyaari there was NO way they could manage to track Illesia’s movements and keep on her tail. It would be a risk to leave her unmonitored for any length of time; but with the current Council members and the two Champions already running ragged they were likely to slip up and not successfully be able to track Illesia’s movements anyway.
They regrouped with the Chancellor and filled her in on the discussion, the Twi’lek understandably apprehensive about the proposition. It took a lot of prodding from the Champions and Voldon, but eventually they managed to get the Chancellor to acquiesce to the idea, under the condition that they would keep her regularly updated on the training material and that they would do their best to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past two Orders.
Rhine and Denali and a meagre assortment of Alliance soldiers had survived the battle with the rest of Illesia’s Xiis contingent, which at least left Saresh and the Cabinet with some form of protection while the Qyaari were off-world.
“Be sure to put a holocall out if anything seems unusual.” Aria reassured them. “We’ll send another protective detail to help you out as soon as we’re able to.”
“Don’t worry about it, we can handle it!” Rhine reassured them with a broad grin. “We’ll make sure nothing happens to the Chancellor and her aides.”
While it was somewhat comforting, Aria only hoped they could count on Illesia and the Xiis having to lick their wounds a while too. If they mounted another attack too soon...they could be in for trouble. She tried not to think about that as she sat in one of the pilot seats of the Ice Box on their way back to Zinuthra. Instead, her mind wandered to thoughts of what setting up an actual Academy on Zinuthra would be like, and she couldn’t help but feel a small fizzle of excitement and a twinge of apprehension at the same time.
Exchanging a glance with Yerbol where he sat beside her, Aria managed a wry smirk and a half-hearted jab of:
“....You know Cheriss is going to insist that we do some of the teaching too, right?” as the last two to receive teachings directly from Renso himself, the Dathomirian Elder was always reminding them that it was “their duty to pass on their knowledge to students one day”.
“I was hoping I’d have a few grey hairs before we had to ACTUALLY do any tutoring, but then again I haven’t checked lately so I could be wrong.”
Member
Birdboy
Fetzen
mickilennial
Oso
Lurking Krog
swannie
Kaithe Dame
Dion
Dark Cloud
PrinceAlexus