Penultimate Piece, Part III
Posted on Fri Oct 5th, 2012 @ 12:03am by Thane & Bomoor Thort & Sev Rezer & Berry
Edited on on Fri Jul 26th, 2019 @ 1:29pm
2,816 words; about a 14 minute read
Chapter:
Chapter I: Web of Fate
Location: The Lucky Corellian, Nar Shaddaa
Timeline: 2000 Hours (Local Time), Day One (Straight after "Penultimate Piece, Part Two")
OLD
"Then we shared the same damned vision." Thane said the words simply and with a level of annoyance, displeased with how the Force had treated them this past day; it was as if the Living Force Bomoor was such an adherent to had decided to take its revenge on Thane for ignoring it so fantastically up until this point. The Human let out a long and tired sigh. "I need to speak with Bomoor," he told the part-Aquar, "go downstairs, eat some more food, dance with the fish - whatever - but this is important."
She flashed him a bright grin. “Well, yeah,” she said as if it was obvious. “You have to figure out how to stop that bad guy. But I think you guys can do it.” She patted his back and then pulled the sheet completely off the bed. “Can I take this?” Then she walked out.
NEW
Bomoor looked after Berry as she left. Her emotions were wild and hard to read but could she really have the potential to be a Dark Jedi? He held out an arm to his friend, using the Force to try to calm his emotions - while Thane was immune to mind manipulation, Bomoor's hoped abilities could have some small effect to soothe the Jedi's mind, "Sharing a vision?" he queried, trying to stay calm himself, "That is...rare...and we both know the implications of such things."
Both Bomoor and Thane were regular visitors to the Jedi Temple's Data Archives. It was there Bomoor had read about the Living Force, a concept that had shaped the way he viewed the universe, while Thane read up on forgotten teachings and techniques. The writings on shared visions spoke of it as a rare occurrence, shared only between powerful groups of seers or those with tightly-woven "force bonds".
Bomoor leant his head closer to his friend, "Are you absolutely certain of what you saw, Thane?"
"Even with my sense of humour, that would be pushing it," he remarked, trying to alleviate the situation slightly before letting a long a breath as he collected his thoughts. "But yes, I am certain about what I saw. There was a figure, engulfed in shadows... a being of anger and extreme willpower, wielding a red blade. I don't know what it was it had within its grasp, but it was powerful, too, and was using to lure the girl over to him." Thane closed his eyes as he tried to envision what he saw again, and the memory instantly brought a mixture of dread and disdain to his mind. "There were a lot of voices, and I could tell they were all alongside this dark figure, and the noise grew terrible.
"Naturally, I went for my lightsaber," Thane added with a short laugh, "for whatever good it would do me, but when I looked back, I was in the Senate Rotunda, but it wasn't as it normally was. A slight improvement, actually; there was no one there, except for a great throne in the middle... and whatever talisman or tool that was luring Berry was sat atop it. But there was another figure there: it was Sev Rezer, but it was as if he was a friend, and he shot down this tattooed man before he could harm me."
The Human shook his head and he looked up to his friend. "Anyone else would probably say it was a bad dream, or that I'd used my own Force power to invade the girl's mind. Anyone but you, eh?" Thane sidled over to where his red spacer's jacket lay and threw it over his white undershirt, making all of the usual checks he did when gearing up, which primarily meant brushing past his saber hilt a couple of times.
"This assignment's already become far more complex and intricate than it ever needed to be," he went on, checking the hilt he had taken from the defeated Gran Dark Jedi earlier in the day, "and it can't be a coincidence. We know Rezer was here for a longer period of time than he usually liked to be on any planet, meaning he must have had a good reason," Thane went on. "We stumbled upon Berry and now we're sharing visions about this Mandalorian neither of us have ever met. The Force may be permeating everything and trying to guide us, but nothing is fixed, not when we have that power to control the Force, to take advantage of what it gives us. We need to train her, Bomoor; we can't let her turn into something that would wreak destruction for the hell of it."
"Visions are tricky things, Thane," Bomoor cautioned, "A figure or an object can sometimes be just a symbol, a hint at the future - I'm not sure anyone could tell you exactly what this vision meant but it does seem clear that this girl is at the centre of it."
Bomoor walked over to where Thane was gearing up and picked up his own belt, "You know, there are some that would take more severe action - if they saw Berry as a threat, they might... well... What I mean to say is, the council would never approve of a padawan with such a questionable future. You know what they are like, 'Our powers are for the preservation of peace' - they fear the darkness, they fear the unknown. This is dangerous territory indeed..."
"Then there's a simple answer then, isn't there?" Thane said before answering his own question. "We don't tell them."
"I didn't really mean to say that I wanted to eat YOU," Berry continued blabbing, her legs swinging from her stool, feet bare. She was still dressed in her seaweed chest wrap and seagrass skirt, but all of this was modestly covered with the sheet from the apartment. Her hair was a little messy from her rough sleep but she was at least clean. "But I was wondering if you had any....fresh food."
The bartender stared at her with one big eye, a very hostile gesture of his species but one that was lost completely on the near-Human. "Fresh as in...freshly caught?" His eyes narrowed. "Freshly killed?"
Berry sighed. "Noooo, like...freshly gathered. Harvested." She pouted at him, almost as if it was his fault he didn't understand her. "Y'know, greens. Fruits that come from trees." Her brown eyes widened, brain making some connections. "Since wine comes from fruit, maybe you have some?? Even dried is okay!"
Rezer entered the Lucky Corellian once again that week. The Calamari Bartender yelped. "Not you again!", he cried hiding behind the counter. The Mandalorian gave the bartender not even a look. "You", he said to Berry. "You're with the Jedi", it wasn't a question. It was an affirmative with menaceful tones. "Take me to them. Now." He made no move or expression.
Berry's jaw dropped, and if her eyes were shiny enough they would have twinkled like the strongest star. Mr. Razor was wearing....ARMOR. The words began tumbling out of her mouth, but unlike others that the Mandalorian had run into, it wasn't out of fear. "MR. RAZOR you're wearing full-body armor I've never seen that before!! Isn't it like the strongest thing ever?"
She grinned and jumped off her stool, the sheet bouncing around her shoulders as she rushed over to him. She wasn't afraid in the slightest. "Also, are you related to that guy that got killed over by the table? You guys smell sort of the same." Her smile seemed so wide it would've broken her face. He looked so coooool!! Awe radiated from her as much as scariness radiated from him.
Sev looked at the girl, annoyance flashing on his eyes. "It's. REZER.", he said very slowly. "And no, He was a mandalorian like me and I killed that guy." He measured the girl feet to head. "Now, take me to the Jedi or... ", He waved his hand towards the table where Mavan dead body were just a few hours before.
She smiled confusedly at him. "Why would I do that? You're going to hunt them, too, right?" She pursed her lips to the side, looking very stubborn. "You'll have to go through me." Then she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, suddenly very serious. He was nothing more than a shark in the sea, looking for blood. She was faster than a shark, but was she faster than him? She was going to find out. Her senses heightened, and she watched him warily.
"You're not very bright, are you?", he said bluntly. "If I wanted to hunt them, do you really think I would enter the cantina and ask to you to take me to them? I would just blow the whole cantina up and not waste my time with a little girl who thinks can fight me and survive for more than ten seconds. You're starting to annoy me, girl. Either you take me to them, or I'll just shoot you in the face and go look for them myself, di'kut."
She frowned stubbornly at him before suddenly bursting into laughter, snorting almost. She grinned merrily at him. "It sounded like...you...are snorting honey!! You're funny." She bit her lip, eyes twinkling again. His smell...she remembered it from before, in the fresher. Right before she ran into the door. The part-Aquar nodded, smiling. "All right, let's go." As she walked she grinned at him over her shoulder. "And wasn't I already annoying you from the first word?" Her bed sheet bounced a little with her steps.
He stared back to her, trying to decide if he should kill her or not. After a moment, he just followed her. "dini'la dala", he muttered.
Berry just laughed. "You got that right." If she read him right, killing her was too easy and a man that skilled may not want to stoop that low on someone so trivial. She looked all smug as they neared the stairs. And she didn't really care if she died. Well, you can't eat fish when you're dead...she sighed at her dilemma. "So what's your favorite food?"
Sev couldn't believe the sheer fearless that girl had. "Girls that ask too many questions. Yours?", he replied making a face.
She gasped, grinning widely back at him as she walked up the stairs. "Nu uh!! You don't actually eat people, do you??!!" She sighed. "People tell me they taste like birds. I like fish more." She smiled at him. "They're my favorite. And greens. Do they have fish back where you come from? And why won't you tell me what your favorite food is?" She pouted a little at him, looking hurt. Then her eyes widened. "I bet you can catch fish with your bare hands--that's so coooool. But not in that armor since it'd slow you. Wait, but maybe it's fast armor?" She frowned, thoroughly confused, then shrugged as they walked down the hall.
"What do you expect me to do then, Thane?" Bomoor boomed, "Just give up on the Order? Run away with you and that pestiferous girl? I know we have both spoken about such things but, honestly, where would we go and who would finance this grand plan? You?"
"Do you mean the very Order that gave up on its own principles hundreds of years ago, feeding the poison that spreads everywhere?" Thane shot back, his voice actually growing uncharacteristically loud, although nothing compared to the baritone of the Ithorian. After a few seconds of holding Bomoor's gaze, he spoke again, his voice level again. "No, I'm not saying you abandon anything, but they won't allow it, and they won't understand it. I can't train her by myself - I shouldn't - but with you by my side, we can make sure-"
The door opened and Berry entered... followed by a Mandalorian.
Their target. Sev Rezer.
"Perhaps we should finish this later, Bomoor," Thane whispered, placing a cautionary hand over his lightsaber, his narrowed eyes glaring at the newcomer Berry had brought with her.
Sev rested his hands on his pistols. "I heard you were looking for me," he said, "so I decided to look for you first. But before you start with your boring speech about taking me to justice, you should hear what I have to say."
Not taking his hand away from his hilt, Thane mirrored Sev's defensive but ready stance. Seeing him in the flesh only made him more certain that this was the figure he had seen in the vision, killing the tattooed man. He made a cursory glance at the part-Aquar girl, partly pleased she was unharmed, partly-angry about numerous other factors. "Speak, Mandalorian."
Rezer supressed his anger at the tone Thane had used. He says Mandalorian like it's a curse word. I really hate Jedi. "You saw the Hutts' crews fighting each other", he started, not asking, but stating. "It's just the beginning. Zorbo will kill Grogga, but the one that'll be doing the killing is someone you two must know. Axion, a Dark Jedi, along with is apprentice, Nala Sao and his cult. I know when and how. You should come with me to stop him. Aren't you Jedi do-gooders?" The Mandalorian gritted his teeth. "Besides, I'm sure you don't want Axion to get that trinket Zorbo promised him if he killed Grogga."
Bomoor stood forward, placing his legs apart in the defensive stance he naturally took when faced with a danger, "We saw the gang war and fought a Dark Jedi," he growled, "But you are our target, Rezer. Everything else is secondary."
He held out his brown arm, ushering the girl behind him, "Come over here Berry - get away from that man."
Berry blew out air, deflating. "Aw..." But he was so cool! She puffed a cheek and trudged over to the Jedi. And it wasn't like he was going to hurt them. She fiddled with the corner of the bed sheet as she watched the exchange, then peeked into the fresher. Was there any food left?
"This man speaks the truth, Bomoor," Thane cautioned the Ithorian, only giving a second's glance to the other Jedi, "in the vision Berry and I had, he was our ally... as loathe as I am to admit it." Looking at the bounty hunter once again, his fingers twitched slightly. Whilst he personally had no qualms against some Mandalorians (dependent on the faction), he could not condone Rezer's past in specifically hunting Jedi, regardless of his own feelings towards the Order as a whole.
He racked his brains thinking about the trinket Rezer mentioned, of what Axion could be hunting. Despite what his premonition had told him, he was still struggling to not activate his lightsaber and end the Mandalorian's life now. "If you came to us," he said, airing his thoughts for Bomoor's benefit as much as his own, "then you've taken a big risk to tell us this..." Thane tried to reach out using the Force towards the bounty hunter, and whilst he was able to get a surface reading of the intentions and feelings welling inside the other Human, he was nevertheless experienced in shielding his mind from those touched by the Force.
Finally, he brought his hand away from his lightsaber and stood upright, in a posture of calm and power. Reaching out towards Bomoor, he said, "Rezer is the lesser of two evils; if this Dark Jedi cult is truly seeking this relic, going so far as cause a Hutt turf war - right in the middle of their heartland, I might add - then that takes priority." Thane gave a cursory glance to the Mandalorian. "And not this man."
Berry smiled as if it was obvious as she ducked out of the fresher with some food in hand and normal clothes on.
The Ithorian exhaled deeply, his extra lung capacity gave this motion extra force as well as duration. He withdrew from his defensive position and began to pace back and forth, momentarily blocking out the menacing Mandalorian standing in the doorway, "I know, Thane. I know this is big... and I can't ignore the fact that all these things are being drawn together by the force - the girl, the Hutts, this cult...your vision. It's all wrapped up in the force. This is beyond the council... they could not see this..."
Bomoor knew what he had to do. Even if it broke all the rules, he could just feel it. He halted suddenly, twisting his neck around and glaring straight into Rezer's eye, "Tell us everything you know."
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