She hadn't slept much that night, waiting until Dimmy - Karker she firmly told herself - had left, until even the sounds of the shifting estate were quieted. Once the Sith was gone she uncurled, almost throwing herself off the bed and she started to pace. Gone was the clothing she'd been gifted with, opting to put her old robes back on after giving them a shake. The weighted armor on the sleeves, the familiar notion of folding the nagajuban, the tucking of the robes properly was almost soothing. It helped her catch a few hours, curled in the chair near the console instead of the bed she'd been dropped on.
One. Di- Karker, she stressed, making the demarcation firm and clear - was Sith. She'd let herself forget that fact, let herself be swayed by the pleasant demeanor and she'd forgotten the first rule when dealing with Sith: look beyond the surface. Pleasant Sith were dangerous, happy Sith were dangerous, curious Sith were dangerous. Karker was quite dangerous and she'd let herself be lulled by the fact that he'd skipped and forgone the usual treatments of a prisoner. Even now she felt the implants worm into her thoughts, a wave of guilt for thinking sounfairly about Karker but she ignored it, accepting the reaction and then putting it aside. It was, she knew, her best defense after the emotional rollercoaster she'd managed to put herself through last night during the confrontation; the fewer emotions she had, the less the implants had to work from.
Tick tock. She felt the vice of time squeezing around her, the pacing picking up speed as she looped the room. Now it felt small, confining, where before she'd ignored the limitations in favor of study and biding her time. But Karker had confirmed it - she was going to run out of time. Unless... Her pacing slowed, head lifting and turning as if looking at the terminal sitting innocently on the desk. Unless she broke her word.
Two. She suppressed a shudder, remembering the metallic caress of living tech against her skin, the fight and loss against the metal appendages. Droids so close but far enough away that their press was something she could ignore. But now that she'd thought about it, the tech in her head - the 'upgrades' to her head she didn't want - ate at her thoughts like a growing tumor. And it was hard, so very hard, to keep emotions out of the mixture - a rage at Karker instantly abated by an equally crushing despair, enough to make her pacing stop and shoulders droop, head bowed until it passed. A wriggling thought that still, all issues aside, maybe Karker wasn't that bad and that one she squashed ruthlessly. But then she recalled his words, his near-glee as he recounted the fact that the others he'd done this to were, by and large, dead.
"Given up indeed," she muttered. Sith, she knew, fought. Sith did not bow to yokes around their necks, seeing them as something to break through and destroy. Sith also raged, throwing their mighty emotions into their Force until the two were mixed together as seamlessly as one power - and they poured their every emotion in to their every action. KNowing now that the implants keyed on emotions - positive, negative - she knew that a Sith would be worn by their effects far faster than a Jedi. She had time. Tick tock though, for it was still short time, especially as the longer she stayed on Kaas the harder it was to put her emotions aside.
Three. So the best defense was to think as a Jedi thought, act as a Jedi acted, and go after the only vulnerability the implants seemed to have. The two needs warred with each other though, the Miralukan knuckling her temples tiredly as she battled over which art to pursue first. She couldn't afford to waste any more time.
Settling in to meditate she slowly immersed herself in, for the first time since her arrival, the very Force of Kaas itself. It itched at her skin, tugged on her awareness and felt like acid against her mind but she fought past that feeling, reaching again as her concentration fractured and she lost control of the Force. She had one chance to win, one chance to succeed. She inhaled slowly. One method, and one she knew almost as well as she knew herself. Time. She had to throw herself back into the study if she was going to beat the proverbial clock.
Four. She reached, pulling the Force from the room again, the way she had before Karker had - for lack of a better word - cheated. She remembered slowly drawing from his Force, no intentions but to draw power to her hands, and then pain and darkness until she'd swam her way back to consciousness. What she'd have done once she'd pulled enough power though, Book knew would've triggered the implants. Even though it would've been worth it. But maybe, just maybe, she could find a way around them.
Around her hands Force manifested, swirling tendrils of light and dark as she almost meditatively held up her hands, teasing the tendrils in her grip. It was... a start. Lightly she began to familiarize herself with the exact pattern of Force of the implants, an idea forming in her mind on how to deal with them.
Five. The next time she faced Karker she hoped the situation would, for once, go in her favor. She just needed to neutralize the implants, their force connection.
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