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"All right." Hera drops down from the nose of the Ghost, having spent the last forty-five minutes cleaning and mending the nose gun canopy. "How's it going, Chopper?"

Chopper blats, a shower of sparks spraying from under the ship. Hera walks around to join him, kneeling down next to the droid to get a look at the panel he's reattaching. "We should probably look into getting this replaced –"

Before she can finish, Chopper blats again, rolling toward her with his unignited welder. Hera raises her hands, but doesn't move.

"– I was just going to say, you're doing a great job in the meantime."

This gets a contented, 'I already knew that' sort of chirp, and Hera steps back as Chopper resumes his work.

"Can you keep watch out here? I need to talk to Kanan for a while."

Chopper waves a free arm at her, and Hera steps away, out from under the ship and into a spill of moonlight. Interruptions were doubtful, in any case. They'd chosen a cavern far from any of Ovanis' cities, offering nothing of value but a place to rest. No ship could approach without being heard, as echoes crashed easily through the high, curved mountains. In fact, few pilots could even land a fighter, let alone a freighter, among the caverns here.

But Hera still glances up once to the moons. Then she turns, and heads up the ramp, into the Ghost. She walks through the crates they'd stacked in the cargo hold, up the ladder, tracing her hand along the table as she passes through the galley, and then against the wall as she walks along the cabins.

When she reaches Kanan's door, she curls her hand into a loose fist, and knocks.

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Hera's fingers curl tightly around Kanan's hand. As she inhales, her breath begins to shake.

The dark sky grows brighter, now a strange, pale violet. There are quick flashes of sunlight, bursts of blaster fire, of Chopper beeping, before she pulls the stars back to her -

And then, they're back to the deep black sky, the stars scattered above. But it's not silent. There's a woman's voice, at first calling out as though from a distance, but abruptly close, as though next to her. "Mirtrevon, Here -"

A hand closes around her arm, and there's a flash of bright green eyes, so much like Hera's -

And then Hera gasps again, opening her own eyes and leaning forward.

Kanan pulls all his probes back as soon as Hera leans forward.

He'll only let go of her hand if she tries to let go of his.

"That was rougher, I know."

His own voice is a little raspy, caught low at the back of his throat.

"I'm all right."

She says it low, before she leans back again. But then she does, tilting her head back toward the ceiling for a moment, her eyes closed again.

With another deep breath, she opens her eyes, and turns back to him.

Hera's quiet for a few second, only watching him. But then, she repeats it. "It's all right."

"You're sure?" he asks, more than a little worriedly.

Kanan still doesn't let go of her hand, though, even if his own breathing is slightly ragged.

"It's a . . . violation. I know it's for a good cause, and it'll help immensely down the line, but -- you don't have to be okay with it, you know."

Her eyes fall.

More than anything, she has a creeping sense of guilt. For asking Kanan to do this, for pushing stubbornly on. It is a violation, but not just for her.

But she knows he won't want to hear that, won't want an apology from her. So she stays silent at first, thinking over what she does want to say.

Quiet, and a little tentative, "Someone did it to you."

Kanan swallows, free hand clenching and unclenching as he tries to consciously keep it from becoming a fist.

"During training, yes. And . . . there was a prank that went a little too far."

He breathes.

"I got lucky in the field, I never got captured like that, so."

His smile is crooked, and a little tired.

"It always feels worse when you fight it."

"That's usually how it works."

This has never done much to stop her. Her hand fidgets in his, but she doesn't let go of him. "And I know it's asking a lot of you, Kanan, I just -"

She glances up to him, and then down again. "I don't see a better option."

"It's not -- "

He falls silent for a moment, hand still holding hers. At last he looks at her face instead of their hands, and sighs.

"There isn't a better one, I know. And this is training I want you to have, if . . . if it ever comes to that. I just -- there were people that used this casually, back . . . then. It was normal, but -- I don't really want to be one of them. That's all."

She looks back at him, and then places her other hand over his.

"Kanan, this is the only time you are going to do this." Her voice is slow, but steady, and she never blinks away. "I'll never ask you to do it to anyone else."

He takes a deep breath, exhaling and letting some of his tension flow away into the Force.

"I know. I do."

He believes her. He trusts her. That's part of why this is so hard.

"Right. Ready to go again?"

Hera gives him a very small, quick smile, and she nods.

"Yeah. I'm ready."

"Breathing first."

Kanan smiles back, and it's less of a grimace this time.

He waits until she's settled in, then waits some more, and then sends a lance of Force-energy directly at her mind, seeking to bore through whatever defenses exist and hit the memories within.

Edited 2017-12-04 01:14 (UTC)

Though a little more able to anticipate the intrusion, the force, and directness of it catches her off-guard. The stars flash out of her eyes, to a bright, sunlit sky and the sharp swing of the Ghost around her.

Her breath hitches, and she leans forward, pressing her free hand to her forehead.

But again, almost at once - "I'm okay."

Kanan's getting better at feeling the moment Hera registers the intrusion, which means his presence is minimized inside her mind as fast as he can making it so.

"All right. We'll give it a minute. Do you feel the differences between each type of technique, though? It -- it's a little early for you to make use of it, but just sensing it is a good start."

His hand has clenched down around hers, and he deliberately relaxes his grip again.

Oops.

"That time felt more like I smacked my head against something," she says, moving her hand to rub at her temple again.

"But I get what you mean."

"A lot of people start with that, exactly because it keeps you stunned for a minute. That makes it easier to get in your head and look around."

He winces as he talks, he can't quite help it.

"I think that's pretty much what the droids do, too. Just dive right in and push toward what they want."

"Then I guess I'll have to find a way to be ready for it."

She moves her fingers from her temple back to her forehead, pressing between her eyes. Then she lowers her hand, and opens them, glancing back to him.

He raises an eyebrow, rubbing his hand through his hair.

"Do you want to keep going, or call it for today so you can practice your technique, and we'll try again later?"

"Let's try again."

She lets out a breath. "Just - at least once. I don't think I have enough... experience, to form a technique yet."

"It's more of a reflex. You feel it coming, and you immediately envision the night sky. It's like slamming up a wall, but -- it's not a real wall."

He exhales again, fingers tangling with hers.

"It's easier to talk about once you have the feel of it. So sure, let's go again."

This time he'll start with the multiple tendril approach, again.

Hera waits this time. First she focuses on her breathing, counting off the seconds as she inhales and exhales, feeling through the motion of her body as her chest rises and falls.

She waits until she feels the intrusion creep into her mind, the thoughts he's seeking - voices, blasterfire - ringing out as though from a great distance.

And then she pulls the stars back to her, black space wiping out the sunlight, the silence deep and crushing any other sound.

Edited 2017-12-04 03:28 (UTC)

"Good," Kanan says, voice warm, even as he increases the volume of the probing tendrils.

"Now let's see how long you can keep it up."

The stars form patterns, constellations that mean something to Hera, that remind her of certain things. He reaches out through the Force and focuses on those star patterns, probes trailing in that direction, seeing if this is the way in.

A soft buzzing breaks into her silence, like a fly she needs to swat. Hera keeps her focus on the stars, and their light grows more intense, like fires flaring in the distance.

She smells smoke, and her free curls along the edge of Kanan's bunk, fingers digging into the cover. The buzzing grows louder, a ripple crosses over the stars, enormous shadows crawling along them, blotting them out. Hera leans forward -

- but her eyes stay closed. Everything is suddenly, quickly, engulfed in darkness, but with this returns the silence. And in that silence, she beings to rekindle the stars.

"Holding onto that space, that shield, can be hard. And it's going to get harder."

He begins pushing, gently at first, and then more insistently, trying to get behind the stars, into the places Hera's vision doesn't cover.

Kanan remembers being on the receiving end of this sort of training, Master Depa drilling him in this until it was second nature. You can't be a field operative without it, and he . . . Caleb . . .

It doesn't feel painful, exactly, but like vines wrapping around her, growing tighter the more she tries to disentangle from them.

The stars ripple again, and flashes of green and red streak across the sky. The silence breaks not softly, but with a roll of thunder. Hera takes a sharp breath, as the thunder crescendos into the familiar roar of ships passing overhead, of voices crying out to one another -

Hera lets go of his hand, suddenly, pressing both her hands to her head this time.