Old Friends, Burning Questions

Posted on Tue Sep 4th, 2018 @ 1:16am by Rynseh Lahan & Zenarrah Sozo

2,429 words; about a 12 minute read

Chapter: Chapter V: Unbound
Location: Training Room, TRIO starship Descent
Timeline: Two days after "The Lion, the Shadow, and the War Room"
Tags: Descent, lightsaber, Balmorra, Draga Yu, Axion

ON

Two lightsabers ignited, one a stark and traditional standard blue, the other bristling in cyan light.

"You seem like a decent woman," said the proud and burly owner of the blue saber with a wry smile. "I'd hate to kill you."

"You seem a decent man," retorted the smaller wielder of the cyan sword returning the smile, "I'd like to see you try."

Rynseh Lahan leaned back into a traditional opening Soresu defensive posture, one hand on the saber hilt holding it horizontal, up, and to the right of his head, the other hand stretched out forward, open-palm and gesturing to his opponent with a dare to try and take him down. "Think you can finally break through the 'wall' after all these years?"

"Think you can shut up and not hold back?" Zennarah Sozo countered as she held her blade in front of her, angled up diagonally towards Ryn in a basic Shii-Cho stance.

Ryn nodded, "Begin," and let the lady Nautolan take the first swing.

She lunged forward with a wide arcing slash towards his left shoulder which was easily deflected, and followed her momentum with a slight twist of her waist to bring her blade to strike at the Cathar's bulky right thigh.

Ryn easily stopped each irritatingly elementary attack and they both took a step back and circled the room, never taking their eyes off each other. "Three years away from the Order, and this is all you have to show for it?" he mocked her.

"There it is," Zen noted as she shifted from a Form I basic swing to a Form V overhead chop. "The Dun Möch champion growls, but has no bite."

"This is merely sparring, Zen," Ryn said with a glare. "There is no need to be rude."

Zen cross-cut towards the torso, pressed her attack and rained further chops, a thrust, another slash, and whirled around to bring her weapon down again to lock blades with him. "Why won't you counter me?"

"Your skill hasn't aged as well as your face," the older Ryn said, easily holding off Zen's hard press against his blade. Between his natural strength and the Force, he had enough to hold back three Zens or more at once with endurance to spare. "You're allowing your technique to erode. I started to see it as far back as our mission on Rishi."

"I haven't changed," Zen said through grinding teeth, struggling to hold her ground, and losing control of the lock.

Ryn shoved her back hard with a grunt, advanced a step forward, rapidly whirled his blade in front of him in a smooth continuous figure-eight pattern, effortlessly parrying every retaliatory strike, twisting left, then right, frustrating Zen's every move and forcing her back further to the wall behind her. Having had enough disappointment from blocking his former pupil's indolent efforts, he went on the offensive, bringing to bear his best knowledge of hard Djem So overhead chops and slashes. Within only five short moves, he overpowered her defense, slapped her lightsaber aside, and brought his blade close to her neck to end the friendly duel.

"Yes, you have," he said calmly. "Normally, I would offer another round, but it's clear to me that it would yield the same result."

Now who's being rude? Zen thought as she looked away from Ryn's glowing blade and nodded in supplication to his assessment.

Ryn deactivated his weapon and clipped it on his belt at his side. "You were one of the best duelists of your generation," he said. "This isn't like you at all. What's holding you back?"

Zen disarmed and clipped her weapon as well, starting to move towards the door, but halted before going through. "Attachments," she turned to answer him.

"I suspected as much," Ryn said with a shake of his head. "I saw you spar better than that when you were a padawan. It would have been impossible for you to slay those bounty hunters on Nar Shaddaa fighting at the level you just displayed."

Zen shrugged, "You're right, I suppose. Like I said...attachments. I have more important things to be concerned about than just play-fighting with an old friend."

"We're both parents, and we both share the same concern for our offspring," Ryn noted, realizing he might have laid on a bit too much of the obvious.

"I appreciate the sentiment, old man," Zen said derisively, "but Rusasha is safe behind the walls and guards of the Temple. Zaracoda is still out there somewhere, struggling against who knows what. I've had visions of her...she's filled with confusion and fear, there is terrible pain and loneliness, and I can sense the influence of the dark side surrounding her. How can any mother center herself knowing that her only child could be half a galaxy or more away, and could wind up dead at any moment?"

"I promised you that we will search for her after--," Ryn reminded her.

"Yes, yes, after we catch those two upstarts," Zen cut in revealing her annoyance with Ryn in her tone, dismissing his words with a wave of her hand as she exited the training room.

"We need to know what happened to Loren," Ryn said following after her into the corridor leading towards the bridge. "I suspect Bomoor and Thane possess knowledge of what happened to her. I intend to extract a full confession from them."

"And if they choose to resist?" Zen asked over her shoulder as they passed through an open reinforced doorway.

"Then they will be subdued and arrested," Ryn replied. "That is why you are here. You have excellent tracking skills, and with you by my side they will be no match for us if the situation devolves into violence. I would, of course, prefer they come quietly."

Zen scoffed, "I highly doubt they will. They are selfish immature men going their own way. It disturbs me to think of the possibility that Zaracoda could be on the same ship with the likes of them."

When they arrived on the Descent's cozy bridge, Ryn placed a hand on Zen's shoulder to stop her and get her to turn and face him. "What gives you the idea that she might be with them?"

"Speculation," Zen said turning to look at the big paw on her shoulder, then looking up at Ryn with a scowl. "A feeling. You know better than I that the Force gives us signs we often don't understand at first encounter."

Ryn withdrew his paw and narrowed his eyes upon Zen as her watched her approach the navigation console. "You knew this in one of your visions, didn't you? How long did you suspect this?"

"As I told you before," she replied, "I felt the dark side encroaching upon my daughter. It was difficult to make out details, but she was on a Corellian freighter of some sort. My most recent vision was last night. If you doubt me, then we should be able to find answers when we arrive on Nar Shaddaa."

"I never said I doubted you," Ryn said.

"My lightsaber prowess may be slipping," Zen said with a grin, turning from the console, "but so is your memory."

"Meaning what?"

"Balmorra, an hour before the explosion? You publicly doubted my resolve when I chose not to go in with you and the team."

Ryn took in a long, deep breath. That day was still as raw in his mind as the hairless grafted skin on his body.

"I'll never forget the looks on the men's faces," Zen added. "They never saw a Jedi Knight talk down to another like that. You were, of course, just being your usual tough brigadier self, but I could tell it damaged their confidence in us. You said I was once a great duelist, but you were once one of the most reliable and trusted voices of the Reborn. It was apparent to everyone why Quellus sent you...used you as the Temple liaison to the Senate. But on Balmorra...you weren't exactly yourself that day."

"Yes..." Ryn said, his voice trailing off as he stared into the shimmering holographic navigation display of the galaxy.

"'Yes'? That's it? Just...'yes'? No explanation? No attempt to chide me for my poor choice of words?"

Ryn nodded, and after a brief pause between them, he answered, "You were right about me that day."

Zen blinked at him, a stunned look on her face. "I was? What about?"

"That I was losing my grip on the value of my oaths to the Reborn Order. That I was losing myself, losing my way, doubting my purpose as a Jedi Knight. I did a lot thinking over the last three years."

"You mean when you weren't gaming the galactic stock market, right?"

"Right...most of my thinking was in that first year of recovery. It started the moment you brought me back to the ship after the explosion and stayed by my side. I was a charred husk of a man, and yet not once did you ever look away from me. Even when the doctors pushed you aside, you still kept watch. What you did...it inspired me. Reminded me why we are Jedi. Why we do what we must for the Light. You reignited my spirit, gave me a reason to keep breathing, and renewed my purpose as a Knight. When I heard you exiled yourself from the Order, it broke my heart, but I had a pretty good feeling why you did it, and I made peace with your decision."

"Attachments," Zen softly echoed her earlier word. She turned away from Ryn, knowing that under normal circumstances, she would feel great satisfaction from knowing how much her compassion meant to him, but instead all she had now was shame and self-loathing. He still didn't understand what drove her to leave the Order. Protecting Zara on Nar Shaddaa wasn't the only reason. It took all Zen had to hold back her tears.

Ryn tilted his head slightly at the look on Zen's face. "Was it something I said? I meant no--"

"No, it's fine," she assured him, turning back to him with a smile. "It's just...well...I did a lot of thinking too in that time."

"Oh? About Zaracoda?"

"Well, not just her, but about Balmorra too. I still don't know what happened that day. I left right after they debriefed me, and I never heard your side of the story. Look, I know this may be asking too much too soon--"

"No, it's quite alright, Zen. I've gotten over the end-result of Balmorra. The Force has its ways of changing us when we least expect it: sometimes mysteriously, other times...painfully. Our task was fulfilled at a great cost, but we accomplished the mission; the threat from the terrorists was eliminated. The galaxy became a safer place...but..."

"But...? But what?"

"Something didn't add up. Right before the explosion, the terrorist cell leader, a man named Draga Yu, was open to negotiations. I managed to talk him down enough to consider our terms for surrender. I knew he was genuine when he made a reasonable counter-offer. I could sense his sincerity, and that he was, in fact, an honourable man. He wasn't the fanatic we were led to believe back on Rishi. I remember when Captain Val Jean picked up the negotiations, I saw someone standing on the walkway above looking down at us. I couldn't tell who it was because they were covered head-to-toe in dark green battle armor with white stripes. It was one of those military powertech suits where the helmet was fully integrated with the rest of the armor, and not a separate piece. It could have been any humanoid under that gear, but it was definitely not one of the cell members. They didn't have the kind of funding for such expensive equipment. I suspected it was a bounty hunter working for them."

"And then what did you do?"

"Whoever it was, he saw me, stared at me for a moment, and then ran off out of sight. I was going to give chase, but Val Jean asked me for my input on the terms offered. We were making positive progress, Draga Yu even went so far as to confess that he was betrayed by Axion and wanted no further bloodshed. He was going to accept full responsibility for everything his people had done on behalf of the Cult. We were about to finally strike a peaceful end to the crisis, and then..."

"Fire," Zen concluded solemnly for him.

Ryn nodded with a deep, slow breath, still hearing the screams from the troopers under his command that day. "Perhaps it was another, more fanatical member of Draga's men that set the bombs off...or maybe..."

"You think it was that armoured person, don't you?"

"At the time, I wasn't sure, but I lean now much more in that direction, yes."

"So assuming it was a bounty hunter, was he really working for Draga, or--"

"Axion," Ryn answered with confident resolve in his voice. "I'm almost certain of it. The likely reason being he was there to make sure the bombs went off. When it looked like Draga was folding his hand to us, that was the bounty hunter's cue to kill us all."

"So this mysterious green armoured gun-for-hire is still out there, huh? Are you planning on asking me to help you find him next?"

"Only after we find your daughter," Rynseh replied. "A promise is a promise."

"'My word is my life,'" Zen quoted one of his old oaths of honour.

"Always." Ryn turned for the door. "If you need me, I'll be in the automation center making adjustments to the sub-light engines."

Zen nodded and watched him go, leaving her alone to her thoughts. The image of the green and white armour Ryn mentioned popped into her mind almost immediately. She knew that person. She knew exactly who it was, but she had no intention of telling Ryn. The mystery of that mercenary's identity was a deep secret she swore to keep from the galaxy. No one, not even her old friend could learn its truth. If Rynseh uncovered that secret on his own, or the day came when she felt the need to tell him, then she would not hold back the next time they drew sabers on one another, and it would be almost certainly a duel to the death.

END and TBC

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