Distractions

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

There was no fear in the young man's eyes as he cast a glance over his shoulder. He was looking for a path to retreat but he wasn't driven by his emotions.

"I just want to..." Jacen's words were cut off when a large rock sped away from the pile next to him. He slowed it down but it still struck his shoulder and knocked him from his feet. "Not bad."

Jacen was back in his feet, pistol drawn. He lined up the young man's back and fired. Their mystery followed skidded to a halt, turned and swung the saber across his body to dissipate the blue stun ring. Jacen sighed.

The man turned, dropped his weight to run and then stopped completely. His saber hummed faintly as Jacen walked around him and came to face him. With a flick of the wrist the saber was sent skidding away to deactivate on the ground.

"My patience isn't quite infinite though," Jacen muttered.

"Urmgurmustaffee..." Went the other Jedi.

"I'm going to let you go," Jacen said slowly. He drew the pistol once more. "I can tell you now that a stun ring from two metres to the chest is not at all pleasant."

The boy shrugged as he was released from the hold. He kept his hands out the his sides.

"You won't understand."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela kept herself in the shadows, but just barely.

She watched what she could, though in her head she was trying to puzzle out exactly what the hell was happening and who this boy was. From his appearance she could tell that he wasn't one of the natives, and from his impressions in the force she could read that he wasn't a Sith.

What that meant she had no idea.

This place was growing more and more mysterious by the second, and as Jacen drew his blaster Aela couldn't help but catch a breath within her tone. For a moment the young Jedi master could only read confusion within their opponent, though there was...something else. She frowned slightly, but stayed where Jacen had told her to. Unconsciously her hand had gone to the blaster she had been given, fingers folding neatly around the handle as if she were about to draw.

"I don't." She spoke quietly to herself.

Unconsciously she drew upon the force, reaching out to the boy.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Try me?" Jacen suggested.

"No," came the polite reply. The young man turned towards Aela position and narrowed his eyes for a moment. His hood fell back. He was a zabrak, Jacen saw. Pale skin like most humans but with beige tattoos.

"Your name then?" Jacen asked.

The zabrak looked towards his lightsaber once more. Then he shrugged and took two cautious steps towards a rock and sat on it. He drew up his knees and closed his eyes.

"Right..."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

For a few seconds Aela didn't do anything, then slowly she looked out of the crevice. "Jacen?"

She couldn't keep herself away. What she sensed from the boy...it was odd. The young man wasn't Sith, though by now Jacen would surely know that. He was trying to speak to him, and that meant there was no more danger of fighting.

Probably anyway.

The young Jedi Master stepped out from behind the rock outcropping, bright orange eyes shifting from Jacen towards the Young Zabrak. Confusion pulled across her features. She was still trying to make sense of all of this, and quickly she found herself somewhat enthralled by the deep tattoos that had been pressed into the boys skin. She frowned for a second, and then spotted an odd sort of mark on the back of the boys hand.

"Jacen." She said quietly as she approached her friend. "His hand."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Despite his calm demeanour the young man opened one eye as Aela approached. He shut it quickly and returned to his meditation. Jacen could sense him stretching out into the Force. Was he trying to contact someone? Unfortunately unless he kept him unconscious or could pull an ysalmiri from thin air there wasn't much choice.

The young man pulled his hand back into his robe on reflex. That was revealing.

"Show her the hand," Jacen instructed calmly. A second passed as the students weighed up his options before holding both out in front of him. It was a bit too late to pretend he didn't know which hand they were talking about.

Jacen tried not to smile in Aela's direction. He failed. Instead he shook his head and turned towards the saber on the floor to cover it.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She glanced at the symbol, taking half a step closer before deciding that it was best not to approach the boy after all. Her eyes narrowed, and then slowly her head began to nod as she confirmed the suspicion she'd had when she first saw the mark.

For a moment Aela wondered if she could be right. She'd always had a fascination with the Jedi and their history, even when she was a child. Her lips thinned for a moment, and after another passing minute she decided that she was right. As Jacen covered the lightsaber Aela walked over to him. "The Symbol is Jedi."

He told her quietly.

"After the Mandalorian Wars, thousands of years ago, the Jedi fell into strife." They had called it the Jedi Civil war. Most of the stories from that time were gone, and Aela only knew of it thanks to her fathers library. "Some chose sides, some didn't."

She nodded over towards the boy. "That symbol belongs to a sect of Jedi that disappeared, choosing to go into exile rather than take part in fighting their fellow Jedi."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

That was a long time for a sect to survive. Aela had tattoos, but they were some form of Force enchantment he didn't understand. It seemed a strange thing for a Jedi Order to use them to identify each other. Could they have survived this long? The Galaxy was a large place. Someone could have resurrected the sect more recently.

"He's not talking to us. Apparently we won't understand. I think he's trying to warn her that we're coming."

It was a gamble, but it paid off. The boy turned a little too sharply. Just a hunch based on the words of the one who had sold them the translator.

"How bad was this strife?" he asked Aela.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"Bad." She told Jacen.

She tried to think about the last thing she had read on the Jedi Civil war, all the information that she had dug up. The stories had all been supremely interesting to her at the time, still were of course but it had been a long while since she'd actually read the information. The Young Jedi Master frowned for a second, and then began to recount what she could remember.

"The split began during the Mandalorian Wars." She frowned. "Some Jedi didn't want to fight when the Mandalorians attacked the Republic, others did."

She shook her head. "It caused a split, and when the Mandalorian Wars were over..."

Aela trailed off as she thought for a moment. The histories were unclear as to why the orders didn't simple reunite then and there, but that didn't seem all that important now.

"The War continued, Jedi against Jedi." She took in a breath. "It nearly tore apart The Republic."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"You have no idea of which you speak!" the boy almost spat. As both heads turned towards him he seemed to remember himself and fell silent.

"Care to elaborate?" Jacen asked. He didn't. The boy set his jaw defiantly and then closed his eyes again.

Jedi against Jedi. He didn't care for the sound of that. There were so many threats across the Galaxy that they didn't need any strife from the outside. Even if there were no plans for an internal power struggle just having another group working in the shadows instead of alongside them could compromise any plans they had. There was more at stake here than there seemed. During his moments of silence he had sensed as much.

Aela wasn't in the right frame of mind for this. What could he do? Take her back to the port and set off on his own? She probably wouldn't have that. When they reached whatever it was that this faction sought out in the wastes he could leave Aela where it was safe.

"You can walk or be carried?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela glanced down at the boy for a moment. He was probably right in a way, all that she knew about the subject came from a dozen history books which were so ancient that even her father didn't exactly know where they'd come from. For all she knew the tomes had been written by the Sith, a tool of propaganda used to sow seeds of dissent within the Jedi. The young Jedi Master shook her head slightly, her lips thinning as the boy kept up his wall of silence.

"Either way..." She began quietly.

The Young Jedi Master was confident in the facts she knew, at least the larger details. That symbol on the boy's hand was Jedi in origin, something she was confident Jacen would be able to tell too if he inspected it. The history behind it might have been murky, but at the very least they had something to go on.

"I don't think He's Sith." Aela whispered to Jacen, leaning in towards him. "Or being controlled by them."

She glanced at the boy. "Sort of just seems...like a kid who got carried away."

The last of her words came as the boy looked at Jacen, his eyes a glower of anger and indignation.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Every decision is made from a certain point of view. We don't even know if he's done anything wrong yet," Jacen admitted. "For all we knew he had orders to follow any outsiders following this path for a good reasons and I just ambushed him." He gave a shrug and retrieved the lightsaber.

The boy took a deep breath and slid down from the rock. The expression had gone from his face now. If anything he looked slightly concerned. He was definitely slightly younger than Trextan, but older than his son had been when he had retrieved him from Coruscant. Aela's words surfaced memories. The young man had been controlled by the Sith. And it had been his fault.

The boy held out his hands as if he expected to be bound.

"No, no I don't think that's necessary." As the boy turned his back and started to continue down the path Jacen shared a look with Aela.

Just keep a close eye on him.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Part of her felt a bit silly even thinking suspiciously about the boy.

Getting a look at him now without the robe and without anything else Aela couldn't help but want to laugh. He was a skinny thing, skinnier than her and a good bit shorter as well. There was a threat to his eyes and the way he looked, but she suspected that any attack that came from him could easily be batted away.

Not that such a thing discounted the seriousness of the situation.

"So." Aela said as she fell into line behind the boy. "Whats your name?"

She highly doubted that the young man would be any more open with her than he had been with Jacen, but that didn't mean she couldn't try. Jamie and her mother had both told her once that boys were more open with women than with other men, and although she wasn't all that charming...she could still try.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen walked ahead of them both. He had no real concerns that the young man would try anything on the route. Even if he did, despite her state, he wasn't really a threat to Aela. Despite the terrain being arid it wasn't particularly hot. In the canyon the shade stretched out to cover over. His breath still became rapid and shallow from the oxygen deficient air.

The boy stubbornly refused to acknowledge Aela for some time. Instead his eyes burned a whole in Jacen's back. Even as he tried to quell his emotions it had hard to ignore how humiliated he had been.

"Luke," he said eventually. A name couldn't hurt. He had warned his master. She would know what to do when they arrived.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela of course felt about as unthreatened by the boy as she did a kitten.

Even without the force or her lightsabers she could probably take him down within just a few heartbeats, maybe faster than Jacen had. The thought of this wasn't even in the forefront of her mind however, far from it. Instead she tried to remember what Jamie had told her. To that effect she stiffened her back slightly, sticking out her chest just enough to be more noticeable and soothing her voice all at the same time.

"Luke." She repeated the name. Everyone liked hearing their name, that was a fact her father had told her. Granted he had been talking about haggling with market salesmen, but Aela was almost entirely sure that the principal was the same.

"That's a very famous name among Jedi you know." The Histories often spoke of Luke Skywalker, a man who had brought balance to the force and then faded away. Aela remembered the tales of him well enough, most children who learned from Jedi did. "Are you named after him?"

As she spoke Aela began to walk a little closer to the boy.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen came to a stop as they reached the end of an upward scramble. The canyon became markedly more shallow and they could see much more of the landscape ahead of the. On the horizon he could see twin rocks rising up together. It looked to him like a maw jutting up from the ground to try and swallow something passing by in the air. He intrinsically knew that it was where they were going. Even several kilometres away there was something that looked unnatural about the formation.

“I don’t think so,” the boy replied. Once again there was a long pause before the reply as if he had to struggle to decide to answer such an innocuous question.

Jacen turned to look over the pair over his shoulder. He was slightly amused by Aela’s change of tone. A cause was a distraction, but he was wary of the behaviour it could impart. That running off to find a new cause was a way to keep your troubles firmly behind you. He turned towards their goal, pretending he hadn’t noticed Aela’s change of posture and continued on. He decided that he would deliberately slow his pace before their reached their destination. The thin air brought a lethargy to his movements. There was a chance Luke’s master was going to be just a hostile when receiving them.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"Ah. Happy accident then." Aela said as they continued to walk.

She was keenly aware of their surroundings of course, how the boy was peering around watching them. She could see that he was searching for something. Perhaps there was a marker or a another noteworthy monument that he was looking for. It would make sense given the general state of this world, and the path they were forging wasn't exactly the clearest. Using waypoints to navigate would make quite a bit of sense, that was how it was done on Tatooine.

Aela mused quietly for a second. "It's an interesting world you live on."

Her voice mimicked the tone her mother used when she tried to get her father to do something.

"Reminds me of a planet I visited with my padawan once." She slipped the fact into the conversation easily. Perhaps the boy had not yet realized it, but they were themselves Jedi of course. "Have you always lived here?"

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

The pause was shorter with each response. This time Like turned and looked at her as he replied: "I don't live here." He said it as if it was obvious and that Aela should have already known it. He looked to Jacen and then back to Aela.

Can you get him to give away how many they are?

Jacen had only brushed up against Aela's mind once before to try and communicate a message. If he recalled correctly she hadn't been overly fond of it. However there wasn't much time until they reached their destination and Jacen wanted an idea of what they might be walking into. The local might have mentioned just one person, but that didn't mean there weren't more of this sect.

As the maw loomed ahead of them Jacen looked for any other obviously artificial creations. There were no buildings in sight. No vehicles either. The base of the formation wasn't yet visible though. The open ground between themselves and their destination made him nervous.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

It was progress.

Aela knew that she wasn't really a charming person. Sure she had a certain allure about her, but that was mostly because some boys thought that her outward behavior was meant to just push some away while drawing others in. They weren't entirely incorrect in that assumption, but the problem was that the ones who were more insistent generally tended to be complete and utter morons. It was an unfortunate fact that she often attempted to forget, but right now it was neither here nor there.

"Ahh." Aela said suddenly. "I see."

She frowned for a moment. Obviously he the boy didn't live in the desert, likely somewhere beyond, or did he mean that this planet was just a place to visit? Aela had no idea, but as she opened her mouth to speak again she felt Jacen brush against his mind.

Aela's brow furrowed, but she continued to speak. "So is it just you then?"

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Jacen wondered if he had pressed the question towards Aela too forcefully with how directly she approached the matter.

Luke gave her a suspicious glare before he replied. "No."

Jacen could see where the maw met the land now. If the place didn't feel so strange he might have thought the landmark an improbable natural ocurrence.

Luke accelerated past him. Jacen watching him very carefully. The young man kept a quick pace and then came to an abrupt halt. He turned to the both, looking confused. Jacen stepped past and left him to Aela again.

There was an entrance at the base of the formation. Up close it looked even more like an animal's gaping jaw than it had done before.

"Were you expecting someone?" He asked.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

For a moment Aela didn't say anything.

She was too engrossed by their surroundings. It wasn't anything special really, another desert. There was a vague feeling of familiarity to it all. For some odd reason desert worlds had a habit of looking the same. Jakku, Tatooine, they blended together even to someone like her. She supposed it was because there were only so many ways one could put together sand and rock. Her lips thinned, and slowly she looked around them before finally settling her gaze on the boy.

"Something wrong?" She asked, concern slipping through her tone.

Aela was almost entirely confident that the boy himself was an innocent, simply misguided in attacking them.

She doubted that whatever sect of Jedi he was connected with meant them any harm, more likely they were protecting something. Aela had encountered one such group before, though that had been with a small group of padawans rather than Jacen.