((Taking much inspiration from
@Kremon for using the open prompt to set up the next chapter in a story...I give you
"All that I'm Living For" by Evanescence, as a lead up to the next chapter in the story of the Daughters of Ela. Story is
here.))
All that I'm living for
All that I'm dying for
All that I can't ignore
Alone at night
The Rampart touches down with a *thud*, and the port stabilizing fin shatters from the wing. Belsavis repair crews, led by a dozen firefighting droids, rush to the ship. Medley quickly changes out of her flight suit and into a plain white robe, pulls her hood up, and leaves the ship. As she walks away from the smoldering Rampart, she doesn't hear the deck officer speak into his comm, saying, "it's Song Three, sir."
Medley is too preoccupied with her thoughts; she can see Alexandra slumped against a wall in Coruscant General, and Meagan walking across the Senate Plaza. She sees her Padawan, Sariyah, studying in the Jedi Temple Archives on Tython. And she sees a hooded Jedi in an ancient palace, on a volcanic planet where even the ground itself seems permeated by darkness, being run through by a red lightsaber.
Then she feels them.
I can feel the night beginning
Separate me from the living
They are reaching out to her again. Probing her thoughts and feelings. She is always vulnerable to them on Belsavis, as her suppressed frailty emerges from a distant shadow. She walks from the main hangar, through the prison administration center, and emerges into the crisp, open air of the minimum security section.
It's snowing. Sunlight glints off of each flake as they fall, and Medley sticks her tongue out, catching as many as possible. She giggles quietly to herself with each catch, and while the prison officers and soldiers glance at her with casual amusement, they pay no major attention to her presence. For all they know she's just a random Jedi, on a random task, with no effect on their lives.
They don't know who she is. No one does.
Understanding me
After all I've seen
Medley boards a speeder bike, and keys the navigation controls to the west. It launches forward, zipping past a platoon of guards, through the minimum security gates. War rages around her, as does the rain of blaster bolts, which she easily avoids. The prison uprising is still flaring, and she can feel every life slip away and back into the Force.
And with each death she feels, she becomes even more angry. She grips the handlebars of the speeder more tightly, and clenches her jaw. A bogwing hovers just to the side of the road, and Medley deliberately turns the speeder in its direction. It realizes its impending death, and before Medley's speeder can collide with it, it beats its wings and soars upwards.
Medley takes a deep breath, and keys the bike's autopilot with coordinates to the maximum security wing. She tries to relax, to calm herself, but visions of moments' past haunt her thoughts. The Sacking. The attack on Tython. The war on Voss. And Oricon.
The speeder slows to a stop at the northern edge of the maximum security section, near the special restraint cells. The weight of her emotions has caused her to shake, and she feels her mind begin to swim. She loses her grip of the handlebars, and tumbles from the speeder.
They are screaming at her now. Screams laced with darkness, with pain, with dread. Medley curls into a fetal position, pulling her knees as close to her chest as she can. She wants to scream back at them, but she knows that only makes them stronger. She is shaking, shivering, and feels herself slowly giving in to the dread...
...but then she feels the warmth. It soothes her, and she exhales a strained breath that she feels she had been holding for an eternity.
Piecing every thought together
Find the words to make me better
Medley struggles to her feet. While the screams of the servants of the Dread Masters still echo in her mind, another, more powerful voice is keeping them at bay.
She can hear her mother singing to her.
If I only knew
how to pull myself apart
---
All that I'm living for
All that I'm dying for
All that I can't ignore
Alone at night
Medley feels a renewed strength. She looks around, and finds herself standing at the sloped ramp that leads down into the thoroughfare, and into the Ancient Prison. With her head still spinning, she ambles towards the Aphor tree at the edge of the pathway. She sits down in front of it, and traces her finger across letters that have been etched in the trunk with a lightsaber blade:
M + K
All that I'm wanted for
Although I wanted more
The moment her fingers grace the surface of the bark, she sees the Zabrak's face. The dread retreats; her mother's melody goes silent.
Lock the last open door
My ghosts are gaining on me
Medley taps quickly at her comm, while ignoring the incoming messages from Alexandra, Meagan, the Republic Fleet, and the Jedi Council. There are dozens from her sisters, which means that they're alive. That is all Medley needs. She finishes her message, and leans back against the tree.
I believe that dreams are sacred
Take my darkest fears and play them
Her eyes close. Medley tries to focus on Tython, where she is immune to the voices of the Dread. She sees herself sitting by the stream in front of the Temple, feeding a Wingmaw the remnants of her lunch. She named that one "Fondness". And it is her favourite. It is not the largest of the flock, nor the swiftest, but it is perfect in its imperfection. Fondness coos softly at her. As Medley reaches forward to pet the top of its head, it lunges at her.
Like a lullaby
Like a reason why
She screams, and her eyes snap open. She is crouched on one knee, with both of her lightsabers drawn. The tips of the blades are anchored into the ground at her sides, searing the grass.
Like a play of my obsessions
Help me understand the lesson
The Dread screams begin again.
So I'll find myself
Medley sees herself in a classroom in the Jedi Temple - but on Coruscant - with a dozen Younglings seated before her.
So I won't be lost again
And then she sees herself in an ancient temple, on a volcanic planet where even the ground itself seems permeated by darkness, being run through by a red lightsaber.
---
All that I'm living for
All that I'm dying for
All that I can't ignore
Alone at night
A curious bogwing approaches Medley, and she strikes. Her lightsaber bisects the avian just below its wings.
All that I'm wanted for
Although I wanted more
She can feel the searing pain in the middle of her chest.
Lock the last open door
My ghosts are gaining on me
Medley forces her eyes open at the sound of the approaching starfighters. Three Flashfires swoop overhead, low and in formation. Sensor formation. It isn't one of the routine defensive squadrons that provided air support to the prison security forces. It is Republic Fleet reconnaissance. They are searching for something.
Guess I thought I'd have to change the world
To make you see me
To be the one
Medley sets her comm on the ground and stabs it through the center with one of her lightsabers. It cackles with the shock, but goes dark.
She thinks back to the encounter with Senator Picus. Cutting through his desk. Pleading for Belsavis and the prisoners within who were being forced into war and death and dread from a supposedly noble Republic who differentiated itself from the Imperials based on the value they placed on life. The anger within her grows from a simmer, to a boil, and then the pot overflows.
Medley stands, and her lightsabers emerge from the ground with a hiss. She sees a group of three Esh-Kha prisoners walking towards her, up the ramp that leads to the Ancient Prison. They have their blasters drawn, but lowered in defference, holding them parallel to their chest.
The Dread screams seize her mind, and she leaps towards them. With two swift strikes, the trio of Esh-Kha is rendered single. As the remaining warrior turns to flee, Medley reaches out and seizes him through the Force by the throat. She walks casually towards down the ramp, and drops the Esh-Kha off of the ledge, into the lava below.
I could have run forever
But how far would I have come
Without mourning your love
The closer she walks towards the entrance to the Ancient Prison, the louder the screams become. Medley tries to focus on the Zabrak, to picture herself staring into his emerald eyes as his hands wrap around her waist. To feel her hands caress the three horns that line his skull. To...
Please Small, turn back! Two voices rippled through her mind.
---
All that I'm living for
All that I'm dying for
All that I can't ignore
Alone at night
All that I'm wanted for
Although I wanted more
Lock the last open door
My ghosts are gaining on me
Medley cups her palms to her ears, struggling to remain standing. Her knees are weak; she feels out of breath. She knows the voices in her mind, but she can't focus on them.
She sees the Zabrak restrained, his head precariously close to a fire. The left side of his head is being burned...she feels the left side of her face as if consumed by flame.
Should it hurt to love you?
Should I feel like I do?
Should I lock the last open door?
The Flashfire squadron banks swifly, their noses angling downwards towards her. They open fire on her position, bolts of red and green straffing the ground, and destroying the speeder. Medley leaps across the expanse ramp, into the Ancient Prison caverns.
She falls to her knees, closes her eyes and tries to catch her breath. And then another vision seizes her heart.
Medley sees Kamren looming over her, with a red-bladed lightsaber in his hands.
My ghosts are gaining on me
