I Know Something About Pain You Don't

Really, Tahiri could have been annoyed that all her evacuation efforts had ended up being for nothing in the end, but she was too grateful to have everyone back to focus on that. (Maybe later, once she'd slept off the exhaustion, there'd be a little room for that.)

Not helping with the exhaustion was the sudden rush of sensing everyone through the Force again, where a week ago that sensation had been dwindling rapidly. That part she didn't mind, though; that just reinforced the sense that everything was right again -- plus she could draw on that to keep herself on her feet just a little while longer.

She got back to her little cliff dwelling after conferring with Sekot and some of the local village leaders, took a nice long bath to deal with the fact that she felt unpleasantly like the inside of a sandcrawler, then curled up on her bed with her datapad and comlink to check messages on both. Jaina's voicemail, now that she finally had a chance to listen to it, made her laugh -- and send a quick text message back to her and Ben.

I knew you'd fix this. Thanks.

Firekeeper and her other friends should get messages too, she thought, half-drifting out of consciousness, but even drawing on the Force she was too tired to manage more words than she just had. Maybe after a nap . . .

[OOC: Oh god finally I get a chance to get back online. Open for calls with the usual daytime SP disclaimer, and feel free to assume handwavey messages of back-ness by, like, Monday evening gametime.]

Tahiri found it unnerving to interact with Zonama Sekot at the best of times, and tended to keep that to a minimum; it was weird to talk to the manifestation of a living planet's consciousness. The past couple of days hadn't left her much choice, though; she'd been glued to the star maps on her datapad, watching as system after system blinked out of existence and telling the hyperdrive equipped planet where to go.

It was hard to stay one jump ahead when there wasn't a whole lot of galaxy left.

She was exhausted from trying to spearhead an evacuation effort that got a little harder every time someone who'd been helping faded out of existence, and just felt demoralizing now that she'd watched a void (not at all unlike the ones that the Yuuzhan Vong's coralskippers used, she couldn't help thinking) swirl up and swallow Tekli right in front of her. There were no suns in this tiny corner of space that was all that remained, and when she looked up into the night sky only a handful of stars twinkled faintly. Even those were disappearing faster than she could count the seconds.

Calmly, surprisingly so, Tahiri thumbed her comlink and set a message to record.

( Ben, Jaina, it's me. )

The stars were completely gone now; where Tahiri's consciousness had always buzzed with the awareness of life sensed through the Force there was only a vast echoing silence. The horizon, too, was dwindling as the swirling, inky mass rolled toward her. Tahiri had faced insurmountable odds before, but this time there was no Jaina to be her usual formidable self, no Ben to believe in her, no Anakin with whom she could seamlessly mesh her Force abilities and achieve the impossible.

Just her, and the oncoming blackness.

"Krel os'a hmi va ta!" The Yuuzhan Vong cry of defiance, followed by a guttural Tusken bark that translated to about the same thing.

It was meters away from her now, and rather than resort to any more words Tahiri unhooked her lightsaber from her belt, thumbed it on, and held it up in the very first high guard position she'd ever learned at the Academy. For the space of a breath it burned brilliantly, a golden beacon against the impenetrable dark. For the space of a breath she had time to think that at least she'd gone out as a Jedi.

Then, finally, as that thought made her smile, there wasn't even that any more.

[OOC: I'm really just a terrible person. NFB/NFI/OOC okay, posted this early in the day because solo_sword told me to. Go frown at her.]