Private List & Heel

[Thal Mantis]

JAKKU
UNKNOWN REGIONS

​

In the graveyard of Empires, Thal had come with only one purpose: to bury another.

For months, close to a year, there had been a bloodbath, bodies left across the galaxy. Some criminals, some scumbags. But they all had one thing in common: slavers, or in the service of them. There was no judge, no jury, no trial, no evidence, no guilt. Only retribution and vengeance. And the only lead was a pair of blue lightsabers, and the brutality of the attacks. There wasn't any mercy, and the style of attacks were more in line with what Sith warriors did than what Jedi typically did. Jedi were typically graceful, clean cuts and thorough attacks.

But the survivors, the few that remained, described a whirlwind, a mess of blue lights and a streak of sparks and a shower of limbs and heads. Thal had perfected his craft, fighting his way across the galaxy multiple times over. In the pits, on the battlefield, in the shadows. Now, he was on his own. He had escaped, and once again, become unhinged. Romi Jade had tried to contain him before, and it seemed to work only briefly.

But like all things, Thal was his father's son. The sins of the Father, the fall of the Son. He had learned much about his father. He had become more and more like the Mandalorian over time. In appearance, in demeanor. Whether he liked it or not. He had been tracking a particular syndicate, and found that in his efforts, he was moreso cutting fingers rather than limbs off. He needed to go for the head.

Jakku was deep in the Unknown Regions, a garden of Empires in one form or another. Either the killer awoke here, or the Empire itself died here. The landscape was littered with the corpses of past Empires, starships, skeletal remains of soldiers, and the wreckage of battles long forgotten. Thal stood over a ridgeline, looking over Cratertown. Now defunct, it was mostly home to traders- and the slavers, maintaining slaves here for transport across the Unknown Regions. Thal scowled.

At night, he struck, like a Demon. Cratertown, for several hours, was hell personified, and the Devil himself had possessed Thal.

And when dawn broke, Thal had left, and barely anyone in his path was left standing. There was only death and destruction, and once again, the only clue as to what happened were the survivors, the slaves that he freed, reporting that it was a Jedi who did it.

The next morning, Thal lay in a spacer's inn, claiming that his ship was over in Blowback Town and he was here to pick up parts and he'd leave in the morning. The lie worked, and he secured a safe space to stay for the next few days, until the rest of the slavers showed up to check on why their compatriots had failed to deliver the goods. And then, he'd attack again, and get another lead, and continue his onslaught. He had a new list of names.

Men buying women and girls brought him the most fury, and them- the most wrath. Wrath that came down on them like a fire. But for now, Thal had to bide his time, and be patient. People would be looking for him. But people were looking for a Jedi, not a Spacer. In the next day, he'd go out, and sure enough, buy parts to cover his tracks. He just had to wait.

 

[Kyra Perl]

The hint had come through and that was all it had taken. Kyra was meant to follow up on it with a Master, but said master had gotten called back for pressing needs. Kyra had been ordered to return to Silver Rest on her own, but ...

She couldn't.

Because then the slaves. Who would help them.

Kyra disobeyed orders. She flew fast and without delay to the location she was told a slaver would be laying in wait-- other slavers were due in soon. And then she'd... She didn't know. She didn't have a plan. She couldn't think straight, she just needed to stop them.

And that was how she ended up at the spacer in, creeping her way towards the room that help the force signature she had sensed at the scene of the slaughter. Why one slaver would murder all the others, she didn't know. Money, maybe? She found the discovery to be disturbing, but a blessing in disguise. Handling one was much easier than handling five.

She took a careful step to his door, her hand slowly wrapping around the handle. The floor board creaked.

 

[Thal Mantis]

He sensed them coming close. Someone on the hunt. Someone coming for him. Something painfully familiar, but unable to be placed all the same. But they were outside his door. Nobody was coming for room service or midnight snacks- no, this was someone intent on killing him. So, at the other side of the door, Thal stood, as he heard the doorknob twist.

The floorboard creaking, the twisting of the handle. The door was locked, but it wouldn't stop a good person. Locks only kept the honest ones out. Thal stood up slowly, shirtless and enraged, but equipped with two leather-bound lightsabers. Twisting them into position, he held them on either side of the door- activating them through the plasteel door. Two sharp blades protruded out.

The force did a lot for Thal- he was, after all, a very physical person, and the physicality was only enhanced through the force. He cut down, and shoved the two broken pieces of the door beside him. He didn't say anything, he stood, facing his would-be attacker, lightsabers in hand. And then, he moved, the blade in his left coming right for her neck. Thal was a man of incredible violence- every move was calculated to end the fight quickly and efficiently. The only noise he made was an animalistic snarl.

Anger, was a powerful tool. And Thal had a lot of it.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

Of all the things Kyra expected to find on the other side of the door, two sabers jutting through wasn't it. While Thal had moved fast, the time taken to discard the door was all she needed to respond in turn. His boiling fury and animalistic intent was met with a sharp scream, the shrill tones of a growing girl hitting notes that would hurt the sharpest of ears.


What the--

He went for a neck. Without thought, she retaliated with large telekinetic push. Both he and the door bits would go flying back, the action powered by the fear that had spiked through her. She scrambled for her saber, if just because that felt like the right thing to do. Before he hit the ground she found herself regretting disobeying the Masters orders. How could she think she was capable of handling this?

There was no time to think, only to do. She ignited her saber, the golden hue spilling across her pink figure. He hit the ground. She took a stance. The padawan gaped wide-eyed, her body tense for his retaliation.

She did not move first.

One hand was held out, forgotten and pacifying. "S-Stop! You're under arrest!"

 

[Thal Mantis]

The force push was a surprise to be sure, and not a welcome one either.

He was slammed against the wall, his shirtless body, despite it's muscular nature- did not feel great to crash against a plasteel wall. Groaning in what could be described as great displeasure, he looked around as he recovered, trying to regain control of his breathing to stem the pain that he was feeling. He probably hadn't broken anything, but at best, he might've had a few cracked ribs.

Then the lightsaber came out.

His eyes narrowed. Not a Jedi color. But not a Sith color he saw. She claimed she was placing him under arrest. A Sith could do that just as much as a Jedi. So there wasn't going to be a lot of mercy thrown around. Besides, a Jedi would've come with the local authorities. She was probably an assassin, hellbent on making a name for herself.

Both of his lightsabers lit up as he stood up, illuminating the darkened room with the mix of blue and golden lights. He didn't move for a moment, before he rushed at her, both of his lightsabers raised up his head, and went crashing down on the smaller woman. He didn't need to outmaneuver her or use any fancy tricks or skillful bladework- he could muscle his way through this fight.

He snarled, but said nothing still.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra yelped, instinct taking over, urging her to dodge. She jumped out of the way, avoiding the conflict all together and breaking for the hall. What the hell kinda slaver was this? And why did they have sabers??

It barely took two moments against this man for Kyra to realize she was seriously outclassed. It took her even less time to decide to ditch the cause, no hope that her growing skill with the saber could stand up to the animalistic fury of the blade he had brought down on her.

She held up both hands, trying to trick him into pausing for a moment. "OK, ok! Sorry. Sorry! How'd you even know I was the- right! Bye!" He was clearly more comfortable holding a saber than her. Question was, could he run as fast? The girl gave a wild look over her shoulder, turning and running.

She wasn't dying for this. Nu-uh. No way.

"Whaa-a-aaaah!" She complained, skidding around the corner.

 

[Thal Mantis]

He ran after her, screaming all the way, lightsabers still lit at his sides as he sprinted down the hallway. The dark hallway was scraped with blue light and sparks, leaving a burning gash in his wake as evidence of his passing. He turned a corner as she did- then he stopped running. And he just walked. Walked like the beast he was. Most hunting animals rarely got the jump on their prey- they simply stalked them until they were tired enough to give in and die.

He was more determined to kill the would-be slaver Assassin than she was willing to kill him, so it would seem.

So he spoke to her, in the language of the Slaves that she was hunting. The Hutts kept Basic to the Masters, using the barrier of language to keep them in line. Now, he would use it to taunt her before he ran her through.

"Kava doompa D'emperiolo stoopa!"

Translation, roughly: Time to die, Imperial.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra had run the wrong way. She slammed into the end of the hall, nothing but doors on either side. There was no mistaking the fear in her eyes. The padawan was very unskilled at holding emotion back.

"What does that even mean?!" She yelled back, frazzled. He stalked forward, like a cheetah on the prowl. She looked left, the right, both doors latched tightly shut to the chaos in the hall. She was trapped. She threw her mind out desperately, gleaming the room to her right was void of life. That would do!

Another pulse of the force slammed into Thal, intending nothing more than to knock him back, even stall him as her saber flashed out and cut through the wood. The girl stumbled in, looking desperately around her, only to find herself in a windowless room. "Chit, oh chite," she cursed, scrambling over the bead and taking stance in the corner of the space.

"S-Stop," she uttered, trying to bring confidence back in her voice. She had decided to do this after all! She wanted to be a jedi? Well they didn't get scared! She raised her chin, steel entering her voice.

"You're under arrest for intent to sell slaves. Put your hands up, or I'll bring you in forcibly!"

 

[Thal Mantis]

The push knocked him over, but didn't deter the brute much from his goal of killing the woman. He snarled, standing up and igniting his sabers again. She cut through the wall, intending on creating space between them. Smart, to a degree. She was trying to play to her strengths, but he had her cornered.

And then she spoke.

His eyes narrowed, and he turned and stared at her for a while.

Then it dawned on him. In the blue light of their shared lightsabers, it all clicked.

She was the sister of Nida Perl , just by the face alone. But what was she doing here? The Perls, he figured, were still stuck on Silver Rest- he turned his head and deactivated his lightsabers, reaching out through the force. Assassins weren't scared like her. And they didn't put people under arrest.

"You have a sister, don't you?"

Thal's normal speaking tone was remarkably soft-spoken- betraying his father's brutish size and his mother's fury that he inherited.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra stood tense like a frightened rabbit, wavering saber casting wobbling shadows on the space between them. He studied her, and she glared at him right back! Not one part of her seemed willing to back down, despite her back being pressed to the wall of the room he cornered her in. He received a small look of confusion as he straightened and put his saber away, the change so abrupt...

She didn't trust it.

She eyed him, not lowering her saber as the strange question hit the air.

"You have a sister, don't you?"

She raised her chin, her lips purses. "...Several. Whats it to you?" She demanded, her voice clipped. Seemed she forgot she was trying to arrest him, the girl not pushing forward to grab him with his guard lowered.

 

[Thal Mantis]

"Which makes you a Jedi."

He felt her fear, and backed off slightly, but kept his guard up in case she decided to attack him again. He turned his head, mulling over the last meeting of Nida, and the strange sensation of someone feeling pity for him hitting him in waves. He turned his head back towards the other Perl.

"Which means you're not really looking for me, or you might be looking for exactly me."

He didn't feel insulted that Nida never mentioned him to her sister- after all, he was more or less, an afterthought in many people's lives, which lead him to be on a killing spree across the galaxy, carving his way from one syndicate to the other, with the violent efficiency of a sledgehammer going through old walls.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra flustered, looking for the piece to all this she clearly was missing. She sought out for signs of familiarity in his face, but found none. Was she suppose to know him? He seemed to know her, either that or was deranged enough to guess the likely chance that she did, indeed, have a sister.

The tip of the saber lowered ever so slightly, the girl considering him and his strange words. "...I mean ooooobviously I'm a jedi, I have a saber!" She waved it haphazardly between them, then focused it with decreasing confidence back on him.

"Who are you? And what are you doing with a jedi's weapon!"

 

[Thal Mantis]

"I am Thal Mantis. I am- I was a Jedi. With the Silver Jedi."

He held up his hands, putting away his lightsabers, letting them hang off his belt in his usual place. He was glad he was at least wearing pants, shirtless and caught off-guard, he felt indecent in front of the other Padawan.

"Did Romi send you?"

Always looking out for his welfare, he supposed. 'Don't murder them', 'stop killing these people', all that boring nonsense.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra's eyes widen in tell-tale recognition. No, Romi had not sent her. But Romi was her sister too.

"But-But you're a slaver," she protested, the dots slow to connect. With his saber put away, hers was finally lowers towards the ground. She gestured to the room around them helplessly, unable to reconcile her perception of him with his revealed identity.

"I came here to get slavers. You're in a slavers room- you even speak their tongue. No one else was assigned to this, that's why I broke orders and came here myself. I'm not even suppose to be here. No one is suppose to be here--but slavers!" Clearly, the concept that he could also be working rouge did not dawn on her.

I mean like, who did that? Besides her.

 

[Thal Mantis]

"Supposed to be and how they are, are two different things."

Thal narrowed his eyes when she spoke, showing that even though the space between their ages was less than a few years, she had a lot of living and information left to find out for herself.

"Get? Arrest? I came to kill them, what did you come to do? Put them in handcuffs? Take them to court?" That old familiar feeling of anger started to creep back into his voice, much like his father. He spoke more than his father, though. He leaned forward aggressively, standing up near the girl to his full and mighty height.

"And what do you think I did to get here?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra stepped back as his anger battered at her senses, the empath wincing ... And bristling in turn. Kyra was starting to be able to recognize when others' emotions hit her. Up until recently she'd blindly swing from one high to the next, echoing the enviroment around her with no real sense of self to care. But awareness did not equal control. For a fleeting moment she was frightened of his anger.

And then she started to mirror it.

"Well gee, I dunno, I'mma assume kill people!" She straighten to all of 5'4" of height, not an inch lost to poor posture as she jammed her saber accusingly at him.

"What kinda jedi are you?? We're suppose to take em in for justice, not chase friends through the halls!" She huffed, then groaned at a sudden thought. "Oh force, the debriefing, think of the paperwork whhhhhhhhhy, it's gonna be a headache," she complained, pacing a step or two.

She stopped short, eyes sharp as she looked up at him.

"Did you kill em?"

 

[Thal Mantis]

Thal, meanwhile, hadn't once stopped to think of the implications of his actions, let alone the paperwork. But it was amusing to see her fret over it, and his eyes danced for a while, smirking somewhat when she began to... whine.

"Not all of them."

He said it matter-of-factly, and the way he said his words told her that he was not done-

And like he told her sister, he might not ever be done. Kyra was descending downward, into the galaxy Thal lived in. No longer Silver Rest's protective walls and great libraries would protect her- Kyra was going to where the scum of the galaxy were, life for money. Money for life. And Thal- Thal was simply there, killing, maiming, torturing his way through the worst of the worst. There was no justice system out here- no police, no laws, no rules to be followed. There was only the reality that Thal killing them was the best justice that the ones they enslaved were going to get.

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh," she quipped, exasperated. "You're horrible. Horrible! -- You know that? Bah!" She closed the saber and pocketed it, pacing a little as she tried to consider the implications of this mess she had just walked into. A thought dawned on her.

She stopped short, giving an apprehensive glance over his shoulder, towards the hall. "Do you got a bunch of them back there? Force-" She surged forward, slipping past him to go towards the room he had barreled out of. She had thought he was a slaver because he had been inside, but now it made more sense. He wasn't a bad guy-- he had just gotten to them first.

Oi! The mess he made!

"She stormed through the hall, full of determination as she made for the once was slaver's rooms.

"And the enslaved??" She demanded over her shoulder.

 

[Thal Mantis]

"I did them the simple favor of giving them a handful of money, the guns, and the clothes they were denied. I told them to make for Republic space." The Republic was just as likely to help them as much as the Silvers- but he didn't want any Jedi hot on his tail from Silver Rest, hearing the stories of the brutality that he had been inflicting across the galaxy in his attempt to get them freed.

Just, you know, like now.

"I aim to behead, not dismantle the network. Some people go for the top, the bankrollers. But truthfully- that isn't the evil parts. The rapists, the kidnappers, the slavers are all at the bottom. And you're standing here, because I got sloppy when I was killing them. Now- I have a question." The tone shifted, and his father's quiet, reserved- but incredibly unhinged presence of violence filled the room, the space between them with a certain, awful, malevolent tension.

"Are you going to stop me?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra stopped short inside the room, looking around in confused horror as she sought out signs of blood. ..Or worse, bodies. His explanation was practically unheard as he rattled behind her, the padawan well truly and over her head as she stood turning in place. "..." What the flup was she suppose to do with all of this? How- what- How was a jedi suppose to proceed.

His menacing tone had her turning, her shoulders raising in instinctual fear as his intention rippled across the force to her. He was dangerous, her instincts screamed. He'd hurt her if he had to.

The edge of wariness hit her tone as she faced him proper, her hands drifting back towards her saber on her belt. "... Stop you from doing what?" She asked slowly, dreading the answer.

She looked small in that moment-- every bit the child and padawan she still proved to be. She shouldn't be here. That knowledge shone in her eyes now.