AU Week: Older Child Ibani

[last_kallig]

In one version of events, the young child Ibani stood in Milliways with a group of heroes ready to go back to her world and help free them all when something went wrong. Somehow, someway, she ended up on the other side of the Door with the door to Milliways shut and refusing to open again.

In another version of events, she grew to miss her mother so much she went back through the Door of her own free will, and was also unable to come back.

Either way, the years passed, her mother was murdered, and Ibani was taken for training as a Sith. For her, it's been 6 years since the last time she was in Milliways.

Which is why she's not expecting Milliways when she enters this time, dressed in the black robes of a Sith acolyte. She has a pyramidal holocron in her left hand and a Sith warblade in her right, blood still on the blade.

For a moment, just a moment, her eyes turn yellow with the Dark side as her anger boils. How dare this place turn up NOW, after she's already lost so much? After she's been forged into a weapon, after there's so much blood on her hands!

But she has better control now at 14 than she had at 8, so she takes a deep breath and puts the anger aside for a time when it will be useful.

Comments

[childofrebellion]

The blade draws Cassian's attention and then he sees the girl holding it and curses in Spanish, he didn't want her to learn how to become a killer. There's no pity in his eyes only worry and sorrow, the first man he killed still haunts his dreams.

Cassian stands up with a wince and slowly walks over, his hands open as he tries to figure out how many years have passed for her, the crystal she gave him is tucked into a pocket of his jacket, "Ibani."

[last_kallig]

The first man she killed was the one who killed her mother, more than three years ago. There have been many since.

She flicks the blade sideways in a practiced motion, wiping the blood off on her robes, then sheathes it in another single motion.

"Hello, Cassian," she replies. She's smiling, but there are edges there, shadows, that her younger self didn't have. If the self is durasteel, her edges have been beaten, heated, sharpened into a weapon. She moves like a fighter, like a specialist in stealth, like a Sith.

"It's been six years for me. How long for you?"

[childofrebellion]

She moves like commandos and assassins he's known, like he can move and it hurts, he should have done more, but he doesn't have enough to give, "Not even a week."

[last_kallig]

Ibani gives a short, bitter, laugh at that, then covers whatever distance remains between herself and Cassian.

"Well, not starving anymore, and not in a collar," she begins. "That's changed for the better."

She moves to wrap an arm around Cassian in a sideways hug. "Missed you." Her voice almost cracks on that last sentence, but she keeps it together.

[childofrebellion]

He hates to hear that laugh and the hug is a surprise, he moves to hold her with a brief wince,

"Progress is something. I missed you too."

[last_kallig]

Ibani wonders briefly why he winced. (It's been six years, she's forgotten he was hurt when she last saw him.)

"On the other hand, the training I'm stuck in is quite likely to kill me before I'm through, or worse."

She chuckles. "Force, I'd be safer in your universe, whatever it might be like, than I am on Korriban."

[childofrebellion]

His arm's healed, this is a new injury, cracked ribs from another fight. As she talks he thinks about if she would be safer, he never had training that tried to kill him, work and the voyage north did,

"I don't have much of a home to give and my work means a lot of powerful people would like to see me dead, but you're welcome to it."

[cutting_edgex23]

Maybe it's the blood on the blade that gets X's attention. Maybe it's something else.

Regardless, a slim woman dressed all in black appears somewhere to Ibani's left.

"That blood is not yours?"

It is always wise to check.

[last_kallig]

It's a good thing the Force warns Ibani slightly before X appears, or something unfortunate might have happened. A surprised Sith is a Sith that tends to throw things with the Force!

"No, it's not mine," Ibani says, then wipes off the blade. "It belongs to someone who was trying to kill me."

[cutting_edgex23]

Eh. X is used to telekinetics. And being thrown is almost like flying!

Er.

"They will not try again?"

Which is to say, they're dead, right? It is only sensible.

[last_kallig]

Ibani ponders this for a moment. "No, definitely not. I don't think you could even animate their corpse effectively, if you had the ability."

"My name's Ibani, by the way. It's....been a long time since I was here last."

[cutting_edgex23]

"Good."

Beat.

I am X. I have been coming here since I was small. Too."

[last_kallig]

"I'm glad to meet you, X," Wren replies, smiling slightly.

"You too? I wonder how many children find their way here because they have need of it?"

[iprotectyou]

Sixteen-year-old Baze was there that day when Ibani's door stole her away from him. He had planned to take her home, to the Temple of the Kyber, but though he waited for six long years, she never returned.

Now she's back... And he doesn't recognize her. She's so changed from the small, vulnerable girl he cared for before, that he wouldn't be able to recognize her even if he tried. She moves with poise, with grace, and with controlled anger. She moves like a killer, something he's only seen rarely. The blood on the warblade only cements the impression, gathered through fleeting glances.

Finally, he decides to approach.

"You're not injured, are you?" Baze says. His movements are economical; even if he weren't wary of her, he keeps himself on a tight leash, because he's bigger than everyone else.

[last_kallig]

Ibani recognizes him immediately, but she's not relying on something as fallible as sight. The Force never lies!

"Baze?" she says, surprised, hopeful, and grieving all at once. Her first real friend doesn't recognize her! But she wasn't a monster when he knew her.

"I, no, I'm not injured." She quickly wipes the blade off, sheathes it. "It's me, Baze, Ibani."

She swallows hard. "The door, the door wouldn't open, I...." her voice cracks, despite her best effort to hold herself together.

[iprotectyou]

"Ibani?" Baze croaks. Tears prick his eyes. He closes the distance between them with his long, powerful stride, and wraps her up in his massive arms. Sniffling, he rests his cheek against her temple.

"I missed you so much," Baze says, his voice as watery as his joints. He draws her back by the shoulders to look at her face. "I'm sorry that I didn't recognize you. So much has happened... What's going on now?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani hugs Baze tightly, far stronger now than she was as a small child. "I missed you too! So much. You were the first real friend I ever had."

"I've changed a lot," she admits, "and you don't have the advantage of the Force."

Her smile falters a little. "The Sith took me to be trained, to become one of them, if I survive."

[iprotectyou]

Baze cups her cheek, eyes wide. "If you survive?" he says, and then his shocked stare hardens with determination. "Well, that won't do. You're coming home with me, to the temple. What... What happened to your mother?"

Baze doesn't want to ask that question. He knows the answer won't be anything good.

[last_kallig]

Ibani shuts her eyes a moment, lets herself just feel Baze's hand on her cheek.

Then her eyes open again and even now there is remembered rage and pain in her face. "One of the guards murdered my mother three years ago. I killed him with the Force, which is how I was 'found' by the Sith."

Then what Baze said about taking her to the Temple sinks in. "The Temple? I....would they let something like me near the Kyber?"

[imthepilot]

Bodhi looks up from his caf, his X-wing helmet at his side. He cocks his head at her, trying to work out if she's the child he knew or someone else.

[last_kallig]

Ibani flicks her sword sideways, wiping the blood off on her robes, then sheathes the sword in a single motion. The holocron gets stowed in a pocket.

She moves like a predator, and there's a sharpness to her that she lacked as a smaller child.

"Hello, Bohdi," she says, smiling hesitantly. "The door wouldn't cooperate for me until just now."

[imthepilot]

"Ibani." He nods, respecting her as a fighter. "Are you injured?" Triage first, greetings after.

[last_kallig]

"Not this time," she says, smiling. "Bit of a fight back on the other side of the door, but I'm not the one who got injured."

[imthepilot]

He nods, relaxing a touch knowing she's not hurt. "Hungry?" He gestures her to join him.

[last_kallig]

"I am, actually, must have burnt more calories than I thought."

She walks over to join him, light and almost silent on her feet.

"How have you been?"