Ask Ithor Aftermath

[Vanya]

Per my OP template, thread is death enabled​

Vanya had leapt back to her feet and saw the Sith sprawled on his back. Adrenaline was pounding through her system as she waited for the Sith to get back up.

He didn't. She could sense that he wasn't dead - or at least she didn't think that he was - but it was difficult to say for sure. She glanced at his chest and the wound that caved it in, watching the way he tried with great difficulty to suck in breath.

For the briefest moment of pure animal instinct she almost considered slamming her blade through his chest and finishing the job: letting him die for the deaths he had caused. It would have been justice and it would have been right. Her hand closed tightly around the hilt of her saber before she loosened it.

The thought passed like a shadow and she took a deep breath in. The Sith troopers had already begun to retreat and more Jedi arrived. The battle was won, and there was a feeling of satisfaction in that victory. Her eyes flicked back to the tree and how it remained strong and rooted despite everything.

Vanya hurried to strip away the remnants of the Sith's weaponry, securing it away from him and in her possession. Vanya wasn't really much of a healer, but she knew that other Jedi would be coming soon who were much better at it.

Medics and Jedi soon arrived to secure the Sith and carry him away for treatment and confinement, and Vanya found herself lingering over the Dark Side imbued blade he had carried, his lightsaber now hanging from her belt.

The body of the Ewok was present across the battlefield, and Vanya decided to try to go find Macote. He had done well, and Vanya... wasn't sure how he would respond to what she assumed was his first kill. It was something that changed you, and he was already filled with a lot of... conflict.

She finally spotted him as he finished chasing down and subduing one of the Sith troopers that had been left behind.

Macote! she called out when it was safe, waiting for him to join her.

@Fine Dining Set @Apollyon (for an FYI)

 

[Macote Hassan]

Macote, still in an adrenaline-fueled haze, tackled the last Epicanthrix officer he could to the ground, pounding at his face until the raider fell unconscious. The Kage rolled off, panting as he stared into the sky. With the fire gone, it looked again like a beautiful day on Ithor. If only it didn't stink of the carnage these people had just witnessed.

He came back to his senses at the sound of Vanya's voice, calling him back to the present. He looked across the battlefield, loosing an elongated sigh when he finally reached her side. "I wish I had a better quip. I always heard the best Jedi were quippy." Macote said, distracting himself and the conversation from the truth of what had just happened.

Macote needed vengeance against the Sith for all they had done to him. But this Ewok's death did not provide that. He felt no guilt for cutting down someone literally in the middle of killing innocent people for no reason, however, he didn't feel any great joy in the act, either. He just felt...empty.

Empty as ever. "We would've lost this without you, Warden. You're a hero." His hero, still. From founding the Crusade to, now, proving their mettle in battle. She was an invaluable asset to the Jedi Order, whether or not she saw it.

@Phoenix

 

[Vanya]

Vanya looked him up and down, searching for any injuries and trying to take in the mental stability - or lack thereof - that was within him. She hadn't really worked with Padawans much, but if rumors were true, they were very easily thrown off of their game and unbalanced. A first battle - at least she assumed it was his first - was enough to do that to anyone. It was... overwhelming. Even Vanya still felt that same stress pulling at her body and mind: the feeling of her muscles wanting to just flop to the ground.

Oh yeah? Guess you'll have to work on that, then, she said straight faced before letting a little smirk tug at the corner of her mouth.

When he started praising her as a hero she wasn't really sure how to respond, certainly not feeling that way. She reached up and rubbed a hand against the back of her head, her face turning just a bit of a shade of green at the praise.

I'm just doing my job as long as I can. I'm glad to have pushed the Sith back, she said. She saw herself - perhaps foolishly - as the extension of righteous judgment. She didn't know what they would do with the Sith that they had captured, but she guessed - if it were up to her - it would be an opportunity for repentance, and if that was turned down, perhaps a tribunal and execution.

Ultimately, though, she was eager to change the topic from herself and back to him.

How are you holding up? she asked. Even now she could sense a swirl of emotions within him, and while she wasn't exactly the best at controlling all of her own impulses and emotions, she did her best.

 

[Macote Hassan]

Macote laughed with Vanya's smirk. She really never seemed to break character, so even a smirk put him more at ease.

Macote sighed at her question. How was he holding up? He repeated it in his head, mentally, several times. "I dunno. It feels good to push the Sith back, I guess. I'm glad I didn't die." He expected there to be a little more pomp and circumstance, though. His Master Jarrell's first duel against the Sith ended with his death, so staying alive was a win. Winning the fight was a win. So why didn't he feel happy, satisfied? "It doesn't bring them back, you know? This Sith or that Sith or every Sith could die and my parents still would be gone. So would Jarrell."

He exhaled, letting the tension disappear into the breeze. Even if this only held off the Sith for a day, it was worth it to celebrate a win. "We did it, though. When's the last time the Jedi had a win like that." He was tired, now, and wanted nothing more than to celebrate with a cold beer and some music. Was it too soon to celebrate?

"I need to get off of this battlefield. Do we need to do an, uh, official debrief?"

@Phoenix

 

[Vanya]

Vanya listened to Macote talk about his parents, and she was sure she was supposed to have some great and wise thing to say. Most Jedi probably would have said something like "rejoice for those who have passed on into the Force. Don't mourn them or miss them." Vanya, however, was not most Jedi.

No, it won't, she agreed with him. But you might help someone else not to experience the same thing, she said, turning back toward the remnants of the battlefield and picking a random Ithorian out of the crowd to motion at.

He probably have a wife and kids. Now he gets to go home to them, she said. Vanya was a relatively simple-minded person. She didn't have the patience for being much else, and her tendency to see things as black and white was both a strength and weakness. More and more she wondered if it was a trait she needed to work to abolish, but then something like this happened and she asked herself "but why would I?"

Well, there was the Killik hive invasion, she said with another smirk, although she knew what he meant.

I hope that people will begin to have faith in the Jedi again, she agreed. Two wins was only two wins, but sometimes that was all it took to give people hope that it was possible to stand against the darkness.

As he asked if they needed to do a debrief officially, she just shrugged.

I don't know. Probably, but I'm not sure who would be reading it anyway. If there's something you want to talk about, I'd love to hear it. In the meantime... I'm going to try to help clean things up here a bit, she said. There were still people putting out literal and figurative fires, and although most of the wounded were being taken out, there were some who still needed help. Not that Vanya was much for healing...

Her gaze fell to the huge sword in her hand and the dark power that radiated off of it.

This is an unusual weapon for a Sith, she said, passing it to him if he wanted to examine it. It's clearly imbued with the Shadow, but I don't usually see Sith carrying anything other than a lightsaber. Or anything crafted quite so... exceptionally, she said. Some of the Nightsisters were experts at such things, but arts like that were just that: art. And art was often lost on the Sith.