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 Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 4:30 pm
Ithor, Tafanda Bay
Oh boy. This went about as bad as Kal thought it would.
"Daesha, I can probably tell you how they tracked me," Kal said, not wanting to Daesha to get angry with him. "I'm a small public figure in the criminal underworld now, in that I have a minor bounty on my head. Which isn't a problem. I can take more than few hunters by myself. The fact of the matter is, however, I'm sure that's how they tracked me to Ord Lithone."
Kal looked Daesha in the eye.
"We both know, all you would need to is bribe a local official there, or hack into however many networks they have, and you could see that I landed in a public port on that planet," Kal said, still sitting in his chair. "It wouldn't have been hard, at least. I'm sure they probably know by now that I'm here, too. One of the reasons I came to you is because I knew you were in a crowded place. Ord Lithone was kind of a backwater world..."
Maybe Daesha didn't realize it, but the Empire and the Sith didn't always go hand-in-hand. Not every master or knight required or appropriated a military ship for their needs. Many of them preferred not to, more skilled in subtlety and use of the Force than actual combat. Kal looked away from Daesha for a moment, getting lost in thought. Then he looked back up at her shrewdly.
"I'm banking on them not wanting to cause a ruckus out in the open," Kal admitted with a grin.
Now Kal's darker and more callous side was coming out. Something he'd found was quite useful outside of the Sith Order and the Empire.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 4:54 pm
Corruo, Elevator Shaft
Sephis plunged his lightsaber deep into the turbolift's ceiling with both hands. The saber's long hilt gave him extra room to place his hand and more ways to gain leverage. A ring of magma formed around the place that Sephis was slowly wheedling through. One tiny hole wasn't going to allow Sephis to fit through here, though. He slid his saber out of the opening, turned a small knob on his hilt all the way up, extending the blade, and pushed through on a different spot on the turbolift.
When the blade of the lightsaber was all the way through, Sephis changed the angle at which it was cutting, switched his hands that he was strongly supporting the long hilt with one, and pulling it sharply with the another, and then began to make a slow circle, beginning and ending with the new hole he'd made. Sephis jerked his saber out, deactivated it, attached it to his hip, and then used a Force Push on the glowing on the top of the turbolift. The metal groaned and screeched. And then it gave way, leaving Sephis a nice man-size hole to drop through. The mind he was tracking was just a little further.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:15 pm
[ NABOO ]
Mina moved to Sam's other side, and under the pretext of giving the woman a warm hug, she helped to support the Grandmaster as well. Her eyes widened in surprise for a moment, and she tensed before relaxing and glancing at Kennero.
Yup, still loved him. More than anything.
She looked back at Sam, and the arm she had wrapped around the taller woman... and flushed again, some part of her she didn't even know existed suddenly. Well, existing. "Yeah, uhm... yeah," she muttered. "I mean, it is good to see you again too."
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:36 pm
Naboo.
--------------------------------
------ Sam leaned into the both of them gratefully, closing her eyes against more memories that wanted entry. Upon contact, she immediately felt stirrings of her time with both of them upon her mind. Mina's contact brought more, because she had known the girl when she was a Sergeant for the Republic. Once she had her feet again she pulled back gently from both of them, only slightly to avoid any offense, and nodded her thanks.
It seemed that, for the time being, contact was accelerating her remembering. She wanted to remember, now, but too quickly and she wouldn't be able to function. When she looked upon the field of flowers she felt a tickle in her hands and, looking down, she realized that a some point she'd retrieved the seeds she had come here to gather originally. Pain lanced her heart to look at them, but she balled a fist to keep them in her palm.
"Yes." She said, stronger now. Slowly, she was becoming so much more than just Sam again. "There's a home I had here. "
What would she do now? Return and tell Warren, she supposed. Tell him that she couldn't remain here any longer, tell him that she wouldn't be growing old with him, say good-bye. Part of her was grateful for that, but she wasn't sure how large a part of herself that was. --------
[ •°o.O ♫ ♬ ♭ O.o°• ]
--------
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:41 pm
Malachor V Space/ Shadow Prison
As the wave of pain sweep over the Jedi he made effort to move, no effort to reset, and no effort to fight back. The pain was likely the worst thing he would ever experience but he would live through it. He knew he would live because through all those days and weeks and months coming to talk with the woman he had studied her in just about every way one can be studied. He also understood the situation that was now presented to her, she could feed and run and be free after five years. Time was on Ronyo's side for she did not have time to finish him off.
All the images and emotions that seemed to be sucked from Ronyo's head were mostly things he had already told the woman once or twice. All of them but one, and even as that memory left the Jedi's mind he felt no fear and no feeling of failure or doubt. The woman had the planet, but Ronyo had had the same thing six years ago and it took him who know how long to get the way to it. Sure she could suck the mind of more Jedi and piece together the map, but it would be as shaky a map as even the Jedi were currently using. This was also the Jedi's base of operation for the last five years, which meant she would need an army to even make a dent in the numbers. Also in order to cross into Tython space you had to cross Coruscant space which meant the Republic. Regardless Ronyo knew that it was just a matter of time now though before the Sith came to destroy the Jedi home world. Before Ronyo saw the darkness creep up on him as his consciousness began to slip for a time a small grin lay on his mouth.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:52 pm
Naboo.
Kennero watched Mina while she assisted, interest peaked. He sensed that her pheremones increased just slightly when she came near Sam, and her cheeks held a blush that suggested.. but then she looked at him, and he relaxed. Mina loved him, there was never any doubt.
Sam spoke of a home, but Kennero wasn't comfortable with escorting her all the way. So far, both Mina and he had handled this situation delicately and calmly, but it was big. The return of Sam and Isani both on the same day, on opposite sides of the coin, and in the same place. It did not sit well with him, and neither did Isani's vanishing act.
"Tell me where it is." He said. He could get there faster than Sam could, and if his suspicions proved correct then it would be better to have Sam out of the conflict while she was still weak. Mina wouldn't like it, just like he knew she didn't like him coming here alone, but he trusted that she would take care of Sam.
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haphazardly parked Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 7:26 pm
NABOO
Isani glances up at the woman. "Well?" she snaps impatiently. "You have the message, now go."
The woman nods and leaves, carrying the silver A; her lips move as she recites the verbal message Isani has given her. Cut out your heart, Kennero, before someone else does.
It's Isani's way of - not quite caring, but... It's her final lesson to Kennero. She left her heart there and a burning building cut it out and now her kind of grief is clawing at her insides because she's not Alliandre Kigarin who had a kind heart that could endure. And Armina Rahl might have that quality, but Kennero was Isani's Padawan and he's no Ali either. She knows him well enough to know that, and he's deluding himself if he thinks he can protect Mina forever. Life doesn't work that way.
"Can we go now?" Rikka asks flippantly, as impatient as Isani was a moment ago.
"Of course," Isani says, standing and following the woman out the door. She and Rikka turn in the opposite direction of the woman, and head towards the spaceport; there's an ex-Sith and a lightsaber crystal Isani needs to hunt down (though not to keep, not anymore; just to destroy. A taunt for old time's sake before she begins truly living again.)✁✂✃ As soon as the woman clears the city limits she accelerates drastically -- according to Lady Alayne, the group she's to meet up with has a head start, though they're on foot. The woman has Lady Alayne's A necklace for the one called Armina Rahl, and the advice for the one called Kennero, and a message for Sam.
She reaches the humble home taking very little notice of anything. She knocks on the door and Warren lets her in because the woman smiles and says something about being lost -- and then she plants a knife in his back when he turns to get her a glass of something to drink, and sits at his kitchen table and waits.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 7:37 pm
[ NABOO ]
"Kennero," Mina objected instantly. "Would that be safe?"
Her fiance's safety was, of course, the first thing on Mina's mind. But when she looked at Sam for her answer to Kennero's question, another problem came to mind. What was going to happen if she was left with Sam alone? What was this - this foreign part of her going to do, or whatever, or feel, or whatever.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:37 pm
Naboo.
--------------------------------
------ Sam tenses, reading into what Kennero says more than she would have expected to prior to her sith-abetted self-discovery. The Isani she knew was Jedi, but her instincts called her Sith. If she'd come here for Sam, then she should know better than to believe she was following a sudden, altruistic calling. " It's not far from here, to the East." Mina's words cause hesitation, but she fears for Warren now. Kennero was a Jedi Knight, had been more than competent five years ago, and Warren was a farmer. He was trusting, and sweet, and he'd be mulch to a Sith. Though she detects concern from Mina at the thought of Kennero going ahead - if she reads him correctly, which she was certain she had - Sam is more worried for the man who's put a roof over her head the past five years. " We can go together," She says to Mina, " Right behind him." --------
[ •°o.O ♫ ♬ ♭ O.o°• ]
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:47 pm
Naboo.
Kennero caught Mina's hand in his and held it firmly while he spoke. "Armina Rahl, since I've met you my life has been anything but safe. Loving you is more dangerous than anything else." Pausing, he lifted her hand to brush it against his lips with a small smile. " And yet, I have always returned to you, despite that danger."
Letting her hand go reluctantly, Kennero stepped back and opened his senses to the East. He sensed no Sith that he could tell, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone had been hiding their presence this day. "East." He said once to Sam, confirming her direction, and he began at a jog. Cloaking his presence once more, saber ready, he made his way quickly but stealthily to the 'home'.
Sam was right, the home wasn't far. He could see the thin, grey trail of smoke in the sky and smell the hearth of a dying fire before he saw the home. Just beyond a small drop-off, which Kennero slid down on his heels, the home was nested into the bosom of the small hills. On approach he could sense nothing from the home, but growing proximity brought a single occupant to his awareness. Whoever it was, they were calm, collected, patient, and none of those words were adjectives he would draw on to describe Isani.
So he approached, cautiously to the front door, and stopped when he saw it slightly ajar. Drawing his saber, pushing the door open with two fingers, he waited for the occupant to make themselves known.
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haphazardly parked Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:00 pm
NABOO
[the woman]
The woman is sitting at the kitchen table when the one called Kennero pushes the door open warily. The A is clutched in her fist and the one called Warren is dead, having bled out a few moments ago; he's lying on the floor by her feet and she's been dispassionately watching his blood pool and slide along the uneven floor. Her own feet are crossed on the chair, the blood having reached its legs.
"Come in, Kennero," the woman urges in a distant, emotionless voice. "Do not be shy," she says to be reassuring, though there is nothing reassuring about the monotonous way she says it. "I have been waiting for you."
She sets the necklace down on the table and gestures to the chair across from her. "Won't you sit?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:18 pm
Naboo.
The voice is not assuring, but he does as he is bid. Not because he trusts, or is subservient, but because he senses something is wrong. The light from the inside of the house is low, casting an amber light across the main living space and adding an eerie touch of a ghost to the home.
The first thing he sees is the woman, who is not dressed for the life of a farm in her city-dress, and then the blood, and then the dead man. Kennero's chest tightens for the thought of Sam returning to this, and a small anger smolders in mirror to the fire because he knows this man did not need to die.
"Stand up." He says to the woman, too harshly, and then he sees the silver necklace. Chest tightening even more, for himself, he looks to the woman again more closely. His defenses are on guard now, though she is just a woman by appearances and senses. This is a game. He says to himself, tasting bile at the thought of it. "Where did you get that?" He asks, pointing at the necklace with his saber, though he knows the answer.
Sam and Mina will be along soon.. he shouldn't play this game, shouldn't ask the questions he's supposed to ask, but this time he wants the answers. He has to play to know.
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haphazardly parked Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:23 pm
NABOO
[the woman]
"It's a gift," the woman says, tilting her head as if puzzled by Kennero's anger. She ignores his command for her to stand. "She's left you all a gift."
The woman gestures at the man who was called Warren before he became merely a corpse. "This one is for Sam-el Joelk, so she may leave without regrets," the woman says as though reciting something. She is. "The necklace is for Armina Rahl, so she may remember her fallen master," the woman continues.
She stands then, and holds her hands out, palms up. There's no blood on them - it was a clean kill. Knife in, let go, the man drops and then he bleeds. Her boots are bloody now, though, even if her hands are not. "And a gift for you: A final lesson. Cut out your heart, Kennero, before someone else does. Kill me if I have made you angry."
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:47 pm
Naboo.
Kennero glares at the woman, once for her message and then again, darker, for her invitation to murder. This was Isani's move - now it's Kennero's.
Isani has crafted this, and this woman, into something dark. Kennero may have condemned her, but he won't carry out her sentence. With the Force, he places his saber at his side and reaches for the woman's mind, squeezes it, and waits for her to lose consciousness. A civilian; pliable in Isani's hands and weak in his.
He goes to the man. He knows there is nothing he can do before he rests his hand on the man's back, ignorant and dismissive of the blood he has now on his boots and his hand, but he feels the loss of this stranger's life. Isani thought of him as a pawn, thought of the woman as a pawn, and both are expendable.
Calling the necklace to his hands, his bloody hands, he clutches it tightly. It was still warm from Isani's neck, only slightly, but soon it will be as cold as her heart. He holds in his hands the false hope he'd harbored, the belief that a part of Isani was holding onto the good part, the part that loved Alliandre, and he knows that her message was not merely cryptic. Cut out your heart, Kennero, before someone else does.
Warm again, because he's tightened his grip until the sharp point of the 'A' has bitten flesh, he knows that Isani has cut her own heart out and left it one a silver chain.
Choking back grief, Kennero raises the necklace to his forehead and takes the time to gather himself before Mina and Sam arrive.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:19 am
[ NABOO ]
They are halfway to the house when Mina feels the drastic shift in Kennero's signature; there's a burst of fear and wariness, followed by... by grief, grief so powerful she gasps and staggers slightly. Standing straight again, Mina looks to Sam with a panicked expression. "We must hurry, please," she says, swallowing a lump in her throat to pick up her pace.
When the reach the house, Mina has calmed slightly -- enough to tell Sam to stay outside for a moment, while Mina checks within to see what's got Kennero so unsettled and so deeply upset.
She eases open the door.
There's a woman unconscious and a man dead, and Kennero stands before them with a necklace. Her necklace - and Mina's master's before her; the knight isn't stupid. She knows what this means to her fiance, and how much it hurts. She can feel it as well.
"Oh, Kennero," Mina breathes, rushing forward to wrap her arms around him. "Oh, my love," she says because there is nothing else to say.
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