Aella was nearby, he sensed. Jae was as well, though at a greater distance. It was cold and wet, his eyes slow to open. Green-blue liquid surrounded him as a single tube connected to his respirator. There was a light numbness to the afflicted region, the bacta already healing the blackened skin. It should have been worse save for his armor. A flash of Chiko's face entered his mind, he hadn't said goodbye.
Aella was asleep in the corner, covered by a thin blanket. The healing cuff lay discarded nearby. Two days at least. He reasoned, his senses slowly returning. There was a dull ache from his chest, curiosity driving his attention in that direction. A star pattern of scarred skin of a hand's width was imprinted across his left pectoral. The external damage was nearly healed, but the internal would linger as the bacta coursed through his body.
He closed his eyes again, allowing his mind to wander. His uncle's mind was closed to him. A screen of seemingly random thoughts acting as chaff. Val had known this of Jae, but the presence of Aella had intensified his uncle's efforts. Shoj was sleeping as well, but lightly and without dreams. Val supposed it was closer to meditation than true sleep. He'd attempted such a state under Korta's instruction but had yet to have great success in attaining the peace of mind and singular focus required to enter the trance.
His mind returned to Aella, her thoughts unguarded, flowing freely like a fine mist. Curious, Val approached, not intending to go beyond a brief glimpse into her emotional state. Flashes of faces, places and events from a life not his own, a warm glow of fondness for these things and the cold of their absence, lost forever. She was dreaming deeply of the past, which he was content to leave her to, were it not for the briefest flash of something else. A world on fire, the screams of billions and a figure that watched solemnly over the destruction. The ship was of alien make, the figure clad in armor of red like blood. They seethed with dispassion and foulness that sparked vicious anger in Val even so divorced from this imagined event.
There was a familiarity to it. He knew this being, this aura. It was like Chiko, what Chiko may have become had she continued along that path. Aella stirred, the nightmare awakening some part of her, forcing Val to withdraw. She did not awaken fully, however, mumbling softly as the terror within her grew. Desperation mounted as she fought to escape the dream. "PRU'D GA'AN!" She screamed, beginning to convulse violently. Val opened his eyes, clawing toward the glass of the bacta tank. The lights in the----- medical bay flickered as power began to fail across the ship. Aella lifting herself slowly into the air, still convulsing as the dream manifested within her mind.
Her left hand shot out suddenly, a durasteel hull plate bending as she grasped for some invisible foe. "NO!" She howled, her voice thick with desperation, tears streaming from her eyes as she pleaded with the phantoms. Val hardly felt his wound at all, panic driving him to search for the emergency release. It was an old pod, the release was a manual lever resting near his feet. He pulled himself down, wrenching the control up and popping the seal with a hiss of inrushing air. Aella was spinning about the room, her convulsions and attacks crushing equipment and threatening to rip the ship itself apart.
Val leapt from the tank, feeling something freshly healed tear open as he did so. With scarcely a moment to react, he evaded a medical drone destroyed and tossed toward him by Aella's fit. He ran toward her, hoping to catch and wake her, but she resisted, sending him flying back into a bulkhead. "Aella!" He yelled, an invisible weight pinning him to the bulkhead. "Vax! It's not real!" He reasoned, hoping to break through but Aella paid no heed. Val breathed deeply, focusing himself before reaching out, his hands outstretched as if to push away the invisible barrier. With great effort, he managed to free himself, but the maintenance of that foothold drained him quickly. He had to reach her somehow.
He closed his eyes again, embracing the vision. Aella fought a desperate battle with the phantom warrior. The two danced before the dying world, sending shards of metal and fire skittering off the floor of the ship around them. Val yelled for her, but she was too deeply devoted to the vision. There were other horrors in this nightmare world, flashes of the dead, of pain and bloodshed and torment. Val waded through these, forward toward her and the foe. Always out of grasp, always too far to reach.
The darkness reminded him of home, of the battle in the command room, the war on Zyllovan as well. As his mind strayed, so did the vision surrounding him. Aella's fear grew as the scene devolved. Shouting incoherently as the phantoms grew in number. He reached out to her, knowing it was too far to reach. He spoke softly, "It's not real." Aella was weeping now, cowering before the monsters surrounding her. "These are just memories." Val said, his voice echoing across the eternal silence. Aella stiffened, turning toward his voice, the look in her eyes wild and distant.
His hand lay upon her shoulder, the vision fading as her consciousness settled. Val opened his eyes, Shoj and Jae stood in the doorway as he kneeled over her. When her eyes opened, tears fell freely down her cheeks. She sat up, grabbing him by the shoulders. Shoj made to reach for his blaster, but Val's look dissuaded him. She looked deeply into his eyes as she spoke, slowly, each word dripping with fear. "Not memories, the future." she said, her head falling as she began to cry. "An inevitable convergence."
His heart skipped at that, knowing she believed it. Jae moves to cover his nephew, placing a large towel over his bare shoulders. "You should wash up and rest kid, the bacta tank will need repairs, so I hope you don't mind that scar too much." The old mercenary stated grimly. Val looked to the wound, freshly bleeding although faintly so. Val shrugged at that, "Can't be helped." He said, giving Aella a reassuring look, "I'm mostly healed anyway." He said, lying mildly for her benefit.
"I'm sorry, I thought I was in control." Val waved it away. "Trust me, nobody was expecting this." He said, standing and beginning to wipe away the sickly sheen of bacta from his skin. He inspected the damage to the tank, a chunk of glass had been shattered where he'd impacted and the control panel had been destroyed by a stray piece of the medical droid. "You're incredible you know." He said, surveying the destruction around him. "It would take a lot out of me to do something like this, but you're only a bit winded."
He moved to the medical bed, sitting down and grabbing a towel. "Is it to do with your gift?" He asked, genuinely interested in her talent. Aella leaned against the wall behind her before sliding down to the floor. "I don't think so." She replied, "In fact, I don't think I did this at all."
Val's face twisted into a confused frown. "What do you mean? It was just a vision, it had to have been you." He reasoned, knowing that what she suggested was not possible, or rather should not be. He moved to dress himself, a horrible thought reverberating through his mind as he did so. Was her gift so attuned that it allowed energy to pass through? He turned, his eye catching a shard of metal that didn't belong. He bent to pick it up, his tortured skin screaming as it was stretched. It was dark and cold in his hand, a damascene pattern flowing along its surface like waves on a sea.
He tossed it to her and as she recognized it her eyes widened. "Has anything like this happened before?" he asked, wondering if she was able to control a power of this magnitude. She was slow to respond, a long pause of contemplation before she nodded affirmatively. "Only a few times, never so vivid as that." She replied, then explained, "It occurred when I fought you on Zyllovan, the night before I had a vision of the battle. It is how I found the opening to strike your companion." That only confused him further. "Explain." He said, sitting back to listen closely.
"I knew the vital moment because I had lived it before." Aella replied. "A momentary lapse, but enough to remove her from the fight."
Val closed his eyes, remembering the moment. Chiko had frozen after executing her foe. Had it been the vision of Aella which had caused that? He shook his head, trying to clear a growing ache. "Do you know who it was? On the other side of this vision?" Val asked. Aella merely waved it away, "No, I've never felt anything close to that malice before." she said, her eyes distant, reliving the experience. Val looked away from her. He had felt something like that before, a lesser malice still, but its character was unmistakable. "I have." Was all he could manage, remembering Chiko as she had once been.
"Where?" Aella asked, her curiosity primed. Val met her eye, but shook away the question. "Too close to home." He said, dodging the question. "Your visions are of the future alone?" He countered, hoping she would not push him on the previous.
She shook her head as she answered, "Not always." A fresh sensation of fear shot through Val as he reflected upon the power that they had tested. "I must report this." He began, not looking at her. He felt the shift in her, a distance that grew between them as conflict loomed.
"Relax Aella, I would not force you to face that." He said, hoping she would believe him. Her eyes narrowed as she mulled over his words. "But you'd ask me to, wouldn't you?" She posed, her voice taking on a tone of annoyance. Val smirked sheepishly, "Would you consider it?" He held out his hand, gesturing wildly as he explained, "I'm merely one man, my word can only carry so far, but with your gift, we can show them the threat!" He said, his passion growing as he did his best to channel his father. The effect was not necessarily as he'd intended. He was met with cold silence as she considered, then that coldness warmed as she began to chuckle softly. "I'll want my ship back when we're through and safe passage out of Imperial space." she bargained. Val shrugged at that, then stood and moved toward her, hand extended, "If this is as important as I believe it to be, you'll have nothing to fear from my order."
She took his hand, the deal made, her smile was warm and hopeful for the first time since he'd known her. He could get used to that.