The world swam around her as the ship took off from the pad and accelerated to reach orbit. A few minutes later when a stable orbit had been achieved, she struggled to stand up and failed. Time was running out and she needed a solution. She reached into her medical pouch again and pulled a hypospray out. It was already loaded with Kolto. Not the one she wanted but it would do.

She managed to pull down the gauze wrapped around the wound in her side and jammed the hypo into the wound and triggered it. The soothing feeling began immediately and the damage was being repaired already, but it wasn’t enough. She reached into her satchel again and fished around for the stimulant. Finding it she knocked the empty vial out of the device and locked the new one in place.

Her vision was doubled while she fought with it. She dialed for a quarter dose and then jabbed it into her neck. A moment later some of the fog lifted and her vision less blurred. She felt a little strength return and she took advantage of it by prying herself out of the chair finally. It was agony to straighten up and she growled loudly through clenched teeth.

The young woman staggered to the hallway and then slid along the wall the rest of the way, leaving a smear of blood. She made it to the makeshift med-bay she had arranged whilst waiting for this fight and dropped to her knees. She cried out at the gut-wrenching pain the sudden jarring had caused and reached for the supplies. With shaking fingers she laid them out in the order that she would need them.

She tried using some small scissors to cut the existing gauze free, but couldn’t coordinate the movements with her hands. She involuntarily tossed her head back in pain before forcing it back to where she could see. “Oh kriff it.” she said. Grabbing a wad of gauze in one hand and the handle of the knife in the other she yanked it free with searing pain and pressed the wad into the gash.

She nearly passed out with the effort and pain. She scrambled for another quarter dose of stimulant and injected it. She dropped that one and then called upon the Force for a Curato Salva healing technique. Her concentration was marred by the pain, but she was able to mend much of the internal damage. She would no longer bleed to death.

She picked up another hypo with a painkiller in it. That was immediately injected in several places around the wound. She had saved that one for this moment in case it had put her to sleep. The pain receded and she felt light-headed. It was wonderful. She reveled in the lack of pain she felt and slumped further into the wall she had been leaning against.

A few moments later she roused herself enough to remove the wad of gauze and inject more Kolto into the wound. It oozed blood at her in response. Dressing the wound properly she wearily crawled the rest of the way to her quarters and bed.

---------------

A short time later she awoke on the floor next to her bed. She puzzled out what had happened and stiffly rose to her feet. It was painful but she managed. In the cockpit, she sat in the pilot’s chair once again and made the calculations for her jump to lightspeed. Once the ship was aligned she engaged the drive and listened to it spool up the enormous amount of energy it needed.

She slept again while the ship traveled to its destination at Korriban. An alarm woke her when it was time for reversion to regular space. Her brain was foggy but she paid it no heed. She reverted and went through the motions of docking like normal. When she rose from her seat another searing pain in her side caused her to double over. She felt a light sheen of sweat on her brow and knew she had a fever. Something was wrong and she didn’t know what. Poison?

She made sure she had her lightsabers on her belt and stiffly walked as normally as she could. It was mid-day so everyone was out and about. She hated being this vulnerable in front of everyone but did not have a choice. If that blade had been poisoned, then she needed to find a cure for it and soon. Sweat began to sting her eyes as it rolled down her face.

Ruqua was one of those heading to her next class after her normal meal with Ganlaan. Talo’Ra had been watching the two get close over the last six months. The process seemed to have been accelerated by her month-long absence. It wasn’t unheard of for relations to strike up in the open. Vigorous youth and the prospect of sudden death bred hormones.

The Cathar found Talo’Ra leaning against a wall and trying to catch her breath, with sweat pouring off of her. The women exchanged glances before Talo’Ra said “Med bay. Degriro. Poison.” A moment later the Human woman fainted.

Ruqua knew that she should just carry on with her business and let this one die, or whatever she was doing. However, one fact jumped out at her. Talo’Ra had said their master’s name. She had clearly been in a horrendous fight and was gravely injured. The Cathar knew that they had both recently finished their third trial. Had Talo’Ra just fought, and beaten, their master? Was it possible?

If she had been the winner and looked like this, what must Degriro look like? She relished the thought of him being beaten to a pulp, or better yet, dead. She hated him with the burning fire of a star for what he’d made her do. If he was dead then she would have to find another way to ascend. If he wasn’t, then this was her chance to kill him herself now that he was weakened. A fair fight means nothing to a Sith.

She had to know what happened. She didn’t feel a recent death in the Force around her, but she wasn’t sure. Besides, Ganlaan would never forgive her if she let this woman die and he didn’t get to try and figure out what the poison was. Using the Force she picked up the unconscious apprentice and floated her along while heading to the med bay.

Upon arrival, she sought Ganlaan out. As was normal he was up to his eyeballs in patients. Darth Freen was there to supervise the apprentices, but barely bothered when it was Ganlaan. His natural healing ability and instincts were razor sharp. He was, in fact, Freen’s hand-picked successor, much the way Ruqua was for the Blade Master.

Ganlaan only noticed them entering because of the floating body covered in bloody clothes. When he saw the Cathar with her he put the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind. “Another victim of your practice, Ruqua?”

She gave him a toothy feline grin that set the fur on her cheeks standing out like whiskers. “Not this time. I don’t know what happened to her. She said something about poison before she passed out. I thought you’d like to investigate. See if you can figure out the poison.” She quirked an eyebrow at him, “Who knows; you might even save her life.”

Darth Freen said “Poison, is it? A mystery!” and dissolved into near-hysterical laughter. The two apprentices exchanged a mildly alarmed glance. “Well? Come on girl, set this pretty down.” As the body was levitated onto a table Freen said “Oh! I know this one. Good skill. Stubborn. She’s no you though, is she, apprentice?” The Darth cackled in what sounded like a female voice. No one was quite sure what the Darth was as he or she always wore an ambiguous uniform and mask. The only certainties were Freen’s skills and that the Darth was quite mad.

Ganlaan kept his face blank as he set to work on Talo’Ra. Using a variety of scanners he took measurements. He managed to stabilize her failing systems. None of the scanners could define exactly what the substance was that was slowly killing her. He turned to Freen and said “My Lord, I’m afraid I do not know what’s doing this. I am at a loss. None of the scanners show anything definite, yet I can feel it in the Force that she is dying.”

Darth Freen lowered its head into what seemed like a stern gaze on him. “Have you tried, everything, you can think of? Is there nothing else?” This time Freen sounded like a man.

Ganlaan searched his mind for a moment. One could imagine the wheels turning quickly in there. He hesitated in his answer. “I haven’t tried that new technique you have been teaching me. I have not mastered it yet.”

Freen said in a harsh voice, “Did I ask if you had mastered it yet? No! I asked if you had tried everything. Answer the right question!” The Darth then cuffed him hard in the back of the head. Ganlaan’s slicked-back hair went flying into disarray at the blow and he smoothed it back.

“Apologies, my Lord. I will use it now. I’m sorry.”

In what sounded like a happy and girlish voice, Freen said “Great! I’m sure you’ll get it!” Another alarmed glance passed between the apprentices, before he set to work. A wispy and vaguely purple mist seemed to emanate from the man. Its ephemeral nature made it seem to blink in and out of existence as it reached out. A tendril, much like that of a tentacle, attached itself to the arm of Talo’Ra.

As soon as it happened, Ganlaan was able to feel her essence and seemingly see inside of her. His golden eyes lost focus as he used the Force for sight, rather than them. He spoke in a distant voice to catalog what he saw: Her injuries, her organ status, and finally, the substance. His eyebrows drew down as he tried to discern the identity of it.

After a minute of wrestling with the problem, he changed tactics. Memorizing its impression, he took notes from all the scanners and cross-referenced them, using the Force to guide his fingers. “I’ve never heard of this one before my Lord. Quell toxin?”

Darth Freen danced in place. “Ahhhh. You found it. Well done. I didn’t know if you had it in you to find it.” The Darth’s demeanor changed in a second to more of a lecturing tone. “Lord Drowl discovered this little known gem of poison more than 20 years ago. He was creative, that man. Balmorra will never be the same.”

Ganlaan directed his gaze at Freen, “You mean, you knew which poison it was the whole time?”

Giggling again Freen said “Of course I knew. I’m the one who gave it to Lord Degriro, ah, Darth Wyckedd now. I knew both this pretty doll and your pet cat here would be facing him soon. I wondered if I’d get to see this in action!” Freen bounced in place and clapped gloved hands together quickly. “I’m so excited! It’s like my birthday again.” Freen cuffed Ganlaan again and said angrily, “Well? Why aren’t you administering the antidote? Get to it you oaf?”

Anger flared in his eyes before he was able to hide it. The Darth didn’t take kindly to any shows of defiance. Most students learned this the hard way; Ganlaan still had a scar from his first lesson. Having never used that particular one before, he moved to the antidote cabinet to see where it might be. He had just found it when Freen’s communicator went off.

The masked face peered into the unit and drew out the word “Well. Lord Degriro has met with some unfortunate circumstances. It seems someone sliced him up pretty good. The Blade Master has a boo-boo.” More cackling was followed by a stern voice. “I will patch him up, but this one had better watch her step from now on.” Freen giggled and started skipping on her way out, “Oh this is marvelous! The fearsome blade guy. He’s got an owwie! He’s got an owwie! He’s got an owwie!” This last echoed back down the hall to the med-bay, everyone who was awake exchanged nervous glances.

Ruqua broke the moment with a quip “That went well. Don’t you think?” She flashed her canines at him and he actually smiled back. He got busy with reading how to administer the antidote and then set word to action. Once done, it was down to a waiting game to see if she survived.

He triple checked the monitors on her and then wandered off to his other patients. All the beds were lined up along the outside walls for immediate treatment by medical techs and droids. Patients were then discharged or sent to more private rooms for long term recovery. Very few were fully treated with Force healing as it was quite taxing on the one performing the act.

Ruqua pulled her hood up and over to partially hide her face. She watched him make his rounds in the large room with open admiration and hungry eyes. The hood ensured that none of these common folk would easily be able to determine her line of site, not that any tried. Apprentices tended to be wantonly cruel to try and impress the higher ups. None without rank dared to even look at them for fear of being killed for little to no reason.

Ganlaan felt her observation and grinned slightly at the thought of her doing it. However, he had a job to do, Freen would teach him another ‘lesson’ if he didn’t attend to it. A new emergency patient had his attention for quite a while, as she was choking on her own fluids. A few tense moments later her airway was cleared and he performed a major repair on the spot. Once done he directed some underlings on how to finish treating her.

When he came back around to Talo’Ra’s bed he said in a grouchy tone, “I don’t know why I have to save all these nobodies. Half of them are Spice addled trash, too stupid to dodge a falling rock. This is a waste of my talents.”

Ruqua replied, “Oh! The great and powerful Ganlaan has to deal with the riff-raff. The scandal of it!” She started laughing at his annoyed reaction. “Come on. You know what that freak Freen would say; ‘The resources of the Empire are not infinite. We must be efficient with what we have.’ Then start laughing or choke you. Equal odds either way. He’s Bantha poodoo deklaw.”

“He? You think Freen’s a male?”

“Well we can’t keep calling it, ‘it’ now can we? I decided to pick a side.” She said this with a combination of conviction and curiosity since no one seemed to know the truth.

He sighed while checking Talo’Ra’s monitors. “I suppose you’re right. Again.” She smiled maliciously at him under her hood. “I heard that.” he said without looking at her. “Well well, it looks like Talo is going to live. Her vitals are approaching normal. Now, we should look at her other wounds. This one on her side seemed the worst. Help me undress her.”

Ruqua said slyly, “You just want to get her naked.” When he stopped moving to rebuke her she started to laugh. “Oh come on, it’s what every guy wants: Us girls, naked.”

“Really? Her clothes are covered in dried blood, and who knows what other bacteria. I need to clean this up or she will get another infection and die.”

She rolled her feline eyes as she dropped her hood back down to have an unobstructed view. “Okay, okay, I get it. Spoil sport.” She pretended to pout the whole time they were removing Talo’Ra’s clothes. “Happy? You got her naked and ruined my fun all in one shot.”

He ignored the jab as he inspected the wound on her side. It was partially healed over but it was a sloppy job. “I have to open this up again.” A droid rolled by and stopped with a fresh hospital gown on a tray and the Cathar picked them up.

“This is awfully revealing. Sure you don’t want me to model this for you later?”

His golden eyes tracked over to her lithe form and looked her up and down slowly. “Keep one for yourself.” He got back to work again, opening then cleaning the wound out. A few minutes later he was done and began channelling the Force into the wound. A green mist surrounded the wound and a normally painful process was never felt by the unconscious woman.

While he was working he said, "Deklaw? What is that?"

She said, "Someone hasn't been studying the Sith language. It means crazy. Nuts, has a screw loose, bonkers, his shuttle has slipped off the landing pad-"

"Okay, I get it." He actually chuckled in public with this. He never did that.

He had just injected the last of the Kolto into the wound to keep it from splitting open again when Talo’Ra stirred. Her eyes fluttered open and confusion entered them. How had she gotten here? Her gaze swung to a familiar figure bending over her stomach. Weakly she said “Gan? What’s going on?” Her head rolled to the other side and saw Ruqua there as well. “Ru?”

Ruqua leaned over and looked into the apprentice’s eyes “The one and only.” She looked down the Human’s body and back up, “Gan was just admiring your body dear.”

The drug induced fog in her brain did not allow for Talo’Ra to keep her defenses up. She said “It’s not the first time he’s seen it.”

Ruqua spluttered with mirth as she couldn’t help but chortle wickedly. “Oh ho! Has he now?” She cast a dangerous gaze in his direction. “Nothing recent I trust.” The menace in her voice was unmistakable.

His normally expressionless face seemed to go rock hard as he replied, “It was a long time ago. Before you.”

Somewhat mollified, the Cathar dropped it for now. It would be fun to make him squirm about it later. Talo’Ra confusedly asked again “What happened? I can’t remember.” Her eyes sagged almost completely shut and she forced them open again.

Ruqua said, “Well I don’t know dear. I found you in a hallway raving about poison. Then Freen got a message that someone had mugged the Blade Master in a dark alley, or something.” She tilted her head to the side and said “You tell us.”