Private List & Heel

[Thal Mantis]

The entirety of the room stopped, looked, turned, or just moved their heads.

Thal was the first to react, before any of them could. They were not the type to be taken to prison, or cautiously wait for anyone to arrest them.

A split-second after Kyra's bold attempt to get them to back down, blasters, disruptors and slugthrowers were being drawn from their holsters or lifted up to shoulders. But from behind Kyra, came the same snap-hiss, following the movement of an extremely angry man.

Before the first blaster shot, his blade shot outwards, not thrown with the force, but literally thrown. His skill with the weapon was growing, and he hadn't mastered telekinesis, so throwing it worked well enough. The blade found purchase in the upper half of a goon, and the blade he carried in his hands shifted, rotated, and began to carve and cut it's way to the stage.

To say that Thal's violence was nothing short of spectacular, in a way, was understating it. He was a violent man, brought up violently- and his talent for dismemberment and life-taking was astounding, even at his age. He was however, doing it with purpose- as the women were being led out, for fear of being rescued- Thal was taking the fast approach to the stage, trying to cut them off before they could be hauled away.

The air in the room- grew heavy with static.

 

[Kyra Perl]

And suddenly-- Slaughter. Romi had been very clear on not doing this. Slaughter bad-- justice good! But such thoughts went out Kyra's mind as she gaped after him. He carved a path towards the stage, his motions filled with murderous intent. Kyra snapped out of her shock fast enough to catch his path. Those who had one drew guns, now fired, or ran. She raised her saber in time to deflect one back into the crowd, then broke into action.

Acaadi love aerial practice. Day after day they practiced jumps and flips and leaps through Kashyyyk's massive forests. It was as fun as it was education, because now there was one skill in particular that Kyra was rather skilled at.

She launched off the table, soaring gracefully through the shallow head space and rolling into a dismount on stage. The path with least resistance meant she arrived first, a panicked looked leveled Thal's way as she carved his path up the steps towards her.

Her gaze said it all, both chastising and pleaing for him to not. Before he could reach them and slaughter them all first, Kyra took off, scattering into the hall the slavers were yanking the women down. "Stop! You're under arrest!" She told them all, her saber raised as she pitched a stance. They would listen, right?

 

[Thal Mantis]

They didn't listen.

Thal swept one's legs out from under him, and impaled him in the face with a lightsaber. He continued his path of carnage, barely stopping. Slowing down, but the way he fought- he continued to move forward with each strike, as if he was simply walking. Violence came naturally to Thal, it had been instilled in him since he was a child.

The slavers here did not create a monster, but their compatriots did. The Red Tower lay smoldering and burned for what it did to Thal.

These people would feel no less of his wrath, perhaps even greater.

One across the room took aim at Kyra Perl .

She was an idiot, an imbecile, and naive. But she was good. She wasn't like him. She didn't deserve to be shot in the back. And out of instinct- Thal's hand shot out. The room exploded with hateful blue light, and Thal's hatred, malice, and anger exploded through his fingertips- electricity shooting outwards, lightning drawn from the deep reservoirs of hate inside of him.

The lightning bolt sent the man flying, killing him instantly. She was safe, for now.

Thal turned and pressed onward, charging past her.

She jeopardized the girl's lives. Thal had a plan- but she undermined what he was trying to accomplish here. But no time to voice that now. The women were lead down a hallway, where Thal was nearly shot as soon as he rounded the corner. He pivoted and charged down the hallway, cutting the through the wall to get to the man hiding around a corner.

"They're going to the speeders! Cut them off!"

Thal had done his research, and he was right. The slaves were being lead out, away from the slaughter that Thal had started. The only chance for them now was for Kyra to get out and get to the speeders around the outside, and hopefully, the pair could catch up to them.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra didn't know what she expected. She guess she never saw that work for her master, and yet Caedyn had always managed to make things work out in the end. Without him here, she was a bit at a loss at what to do besides chase them. Their own numbers were too small, and she now wondered how she'd even manage to bring one man to justice. Never mind the whole place.

Thal's method of slash and kill... while it certainly thinned their numbers, she couldn't accept-- all the dead...The situation ran through her head at a rapid pace, no solution in sight. The force flashed a warning. She turned in time to see Thal save her with a bolt of lightening. Her jaw dropped, her saber lowering slightly.

"..."

No time to comment, she obeyed him now, chasing after his heels and moving towards the speeders. They broke out of the building, blaster shots hitting at the pavement they pounded. Another soaring leap sent her over the heads of girls and slavers alike. She landed lightly before them, touching ground and cutting them off before they could reach their precious get away. Kyra swallowed hard, raising her saber at the panting slavers before her. In their hands were the girls they ran with-- each frazzled and shying back from the hot end of her weapon.

"Let. Them. Go," Kyra ordered, the slaves own desperation reaching her through the force and imprinting onto her emotions.

 

[Thal Mantis]

The men turned their blasters to Kyra, and some to the girls. But then they stopped, turning.

Time slowed, to only where the Jedi could clearly see what was going on.

Kyra wasn't supposed to cut them off- it was Thal's plan to use her as a distraction. The blue blades of Thal's lightsabers punctured through the chest of two of the slavers, and his hands wrapped around the face of a third. A sickening crack, a twist, and the man fell over. The fourth fell victim to one of Thal's mighty knees, slamming him against the side of the speeder. Thal laid him over the hood of the speeder, bringing his elbow down on his ribcage. Blow after blow, he beat the man to a pulp.

Thal moved quickly, brutally, and fast.

The man lay limp, beaten to a pulp. He always left one alive.

He grabbed him by the collar.

Words were whispered. He looked over at Kyra, rather not repeating them in earshot of her.

He stopped, picking up his lightsabers. He looked at the slaves, then crouched, running a hand through his hair.

"I'll collect the credits inside, and a couple of accounts for you all to draw from. You can buy transportation off-world. Head to Silver Space, if you can. The Inner Rim is best, but try to make it to Silver Space if you're able."

Thal stopped, as the girls nodded and broke down crying, and he began to undo their shackles.


---

Hours passed, and Thal threw the bag at the girl's feet, and then turned. Their life was their own now, and his involvement ended there. He motioned for Kyra to follow him, and they ducked back into another, pre-planned location. A safehouse, of sorts. He had been planning this for a while. They were in a small, cramped room above a cafe. Three beds, one with equipment and credits laid out over it. Thal had been self-sufficient and self-funded. Identity cards, documents, and papers lay in a separate container. Thal had been evading the Silver Jedi by pretending to be a new person each time.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, his bloody hands clasped together.

He looked up at the younger Perl.

"You must have some questions."

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

To say the least.

Kyra sat deep on the bed, her legs crossed and arms wrapped around her mid drift. She was the same age, if not younger than most of the woman he had freed. And in that moment, she looked just as lost as them. Blood spatter was turning dark on her clothing-- a line of it unnoticed on her face. She felt decidedly helpless in that moment. Nothing she had done had been at the aid of the women. In fact, it was quite apparent to her that she had amounted to nothing but a hindrance.

A hindrance to murder, sure. She could live with that. But without the murder, those women wouldn't have been retrieved. And that was what she had nearly prevented. No amount of racking her brain gave her another solution for the predicament. She struggled to see another way.

Larger numbers of their own? They had none.

How do you restrain a whole underworld of slavers with just one? You don't. ... You can't? She didn't know. She squeezed her eyes closed and shook out her head, conflicted and braced for his 'I told you so.'

"Why do you do it?" Not the saving. Or the killing. Her heavy implication was clear, her gaze opening to the bags... the money... the new identification. The whole shebang. It was decidedly not jedi, and yet, he had said he was.

 

[Thal Mantis]

He looked over at the wall. She wasn't much less than a year, maybe two, younger than him. He sighed and looked down at his feet, rubbing his hands together.

"Because the world outside of Silver Rest is ugly. And it takes something ugly to make sure those people have a chance. They won't ever be normal but... they can make their own way now."

He rose to a stand, running a hand through his long, shaggy hair. Not the close-cropped, the styled braids he wore while at Silver Rest.

"There's a difference between acting noble and being noble. I sold my soul to devil so other people could be saved. You don't have to stay. It only gets uglier from here. Day in, day out."

He leaned on the wall, crossing his arms, watching the woman with a fervent, almost bitter stare. His eyes- they'd seen too much. Too much for a young man. Too much pain, too much regret. Too much hate.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

Goose bumps erupted across her flesh, the stare transcending to something deeper. He was a man whose emotions she did not want to touch. She swallowed hard, wanting to look away but finding herself encapsulated by the pain that drew out of his chest.

"...I can't. I have a master. And friends," she finally told him, her voice thick with regret. Nothing else was said. No words would suffice. The events of the day left her feeling numb and small, but her limbs moved without issue. They slid her off the bed and across the floor, her approach calm yet unwavering as she wrapped her arms around him.

And she stayed there, embracing him. Her zeltron pheromones slowly trickled out around her, the ones meant to calm and sooth. She let her head rest against his shoulder, saying nothing. It was like Nida always said-- actions speak louder.

 

[Thal Mantis]

"I know. You aren't supposed to be like me."

Such a sad, ugly truth. Such a horrible thing to think of. That he sacrificed everything about himself so that people, that he'd never meet, never touch, never know the names of, could have a future.

He'd never had a hug in his life.

No motherly love, no paternal affection to speak of. No love of another, nothing. So when she hugged him- he tensed up. Touching him was usually reacted to with violence- but all Thal could do in that moment, was sit there, quietly. A single hand went up and hugged her back, unsure of what to make of the sensation of someone touching him without trying to kill him.

He felt oddly calm.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

Eventually, she pulled back. Her throat felt thick, a sensation clearing it did not aid. She casted him a reproachful look upwards, a thought on her mind she didn't want him to reject.

"Come back with me? My sister's there. And there's these creatures call Bryn, they doing a lot worse than what you see out here-- there's so many refugees, we need more hands. You could help me. ...Maybe teach me to move a little more like that-- you saved my ass." Her arms dropped from him, hanging loosely at her side.

She felt helpless to his plight. She couldn't help but feel the only solution was taking him home. He had strayed so far from the light. She didn't want him falling any farther.

"Please? At least to just bring me back? I'm stranded otherwise."

 

[Thal Mantis]

He felt like a lot of things in a such a short time. A lot of things that were new, and unfamiliar. And it truthfully made the brute uncomfortable.

"If I go back- what is there for me? I don't belong there. I'm not like you, I'm not a Jedi. No matter how much I want to believe it."

He stared at his feet, in shame, in anger.

"I have to finish this."

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra pulled back, a bit of disappointment tinging with her distress. "Finish what? It's never ending. All of it. They are everywhere-- these bad guys-- you'll do this until you die. There's no way out for you here. She took his hand, her palm warm.

"Please. You heard Romi's voice. She misses you. Just- Just try."

 

[Thal Mantis]

"I have to finish what you and I started tonight, Kyra. I won't let those girls be sold and used."

He had to hit it home, make it real for her.

"Do you want what happened to your sister to happen to at least 30 girls, Kyra? I can't live with that on my mind, on my soul. I can't. I can't leave, not now. I'm so close, so close to finishing this, just this at least. I won't hide at Silver Rest, I won't run to stare at books. There is no good to be found in only studies and theories. This is the galaxy, Kyra. This is reality."

He stood up, heading for the refresher.

"Whether you like it or not, I am reality."

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra flinched, not expecting him to pull Nida into this. How on Kashyyyk did he know so much about her family? Not for the first time, Kyra was left feeling like an outsider. Perhaps it was just because she was the youngest and therefor most sheltered of the family, but did everyone really know everyone here? It's a small galaxy after all...

His sharp words felt like needles, hitting sore spots she just didn't know how to shield. She knew at once that there was validity to his words, but her throat clenched to tight to allow her to swallow them. At least in that moment.

She let out a shaky breath, taking a step back from him. "I- I have to get back," was her weak excuse. If he was reality, what did that make her? Or the others? The shock of the day left her thoughts convoluted, and his rough touch only made the dissociation worse.

She stared at him for a moment longer, then shook her head. "I've got to go," she croaked, bending down to claim a bag of her own. She'd need funds to make her way back. Perhaps a new identity too.

She should have never left the safe confines of her master. Some realities were just too sharp for her to accept.


Yet.

 

[Thal Mantis]

He watched her leave, content with knowing that his war, his own crusade- was to be waged on his own. She wasn't ready for all of it, and truthfully, was he?

She was the purity of life, the gentle reminder of what he could have had with good friends, and a decent child. Instead, he spent years, locked in a cage, made to fight. Forced to kill, forced to slaughter. They made him a monster. He returned the favor. He became one, and he would remain that way for the forseeable future. What solace was there in books, in meditation? There was a duality in the son of Preliat, the desire to overcome tragedy and heartache, and the desire to kill those who made the galaxy suffer the way it did.

Kyra wasn't ready for that. Kyra was innocent, pure of heart. She only got to look behind the curtain. Thal was backstage already. The Silver Jedi touched on darkness, but- they didn't understand it. See it. What made up evil. What motivated it. Thal cared little for the philosophy of evil, the theories of why men did what they did. He only knew that they did it. And they crossed a line- and he came to correct that course through death and dismemberment.

She wasn't ready for that. So he let her go. He didn't beg her to stay. He didn't need her to.

He could do this on his own. And as she left, a part of him knew that he'd do this over and over until someone stopped him, or he died. But then a more grim thought crept in-

What would change in her after today?

There were some things that you could never undo, some things you could never unsee. And this was certainly the case with Kyra. She was never going to forget this, forget him. Forget all the horrors that she had to see- and that she had to see him do. He stared at the wall when she left.

He had to prepare.

Another night, another war.