Private Lost and Found

[Cenric Marus]

Ylesia - The Tainted Reek

There were more than a few places in the galaxy that one could hide if they really wanted to. Nal Hutta, Nar Shaddaa, hell, half the outer rim was filled with planets that either no one cared about or were lost to most maps. It was a convenient fact that most people liked to forget, but for someone looking to hide it was a boon unlike any other.

That was what he'd found anyway.

For the last six months Ylesia and a few planets in between at been his home. Things had changed for him over the last year, more than he had ever expected it to. The Alliance he had been part of disappeared, he'd lost contact with his master, and everything else had fallen into question. The only contact he had left was Mariya, and she was somewhere in the Expansion Regions.

Out of touch and too far away to do anything for him.

So he'd done what he could; survived.

It hadn't been too hard. The skills of a Jedi, even those of a padawan, got you far. On a planet like Ylesia there was always jobs to do. Farming, working protection, half a dozen other things that he'd had to turn down to keep his integrity intact. A few times he'd even managed to get off world, bounce around for a bit. Oddly enough though he always ended up back here.

Perhaps because it was a good mid-ground. The world was known for it's spice production, but under it's new rulers there was nothing...threatening here. It was peaceful enough, calm. The type of place someone would get away to without ever being questioned.

Of course, one always had to watch out for the scum.

Though he supposed that was true for most of the galaxy.

As he drummed his fingers on the table he noticed a group of Gamorreans walking into the bar. They spoke in their guttural language, poking around as if they were searching for something. He frowned for a moment. Leaning back slowly Cenric pulled his cloak a bit tighter, not trying to draw anymore attention than he had to.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra quickly made her way through the back rooms of the bar. Rain soaked into the tops of her robes, leaving a chill in her body she didn't have time to try and shake. She had entered through the back, illegally of course, and had made her way towards the front of the establishment in a bid for emptying out onto another street altogether. She had been trying to shake her tail for the better part of an half an hour, the object in her pocket weighing heavily in her mind.

The doors swished open, the lively buzz of the bar hitting her over the face. The young jedi stepped forward, rain water dragging her robes down and leaving them to tangle with her legs, exposing her saber at her waist as she-- she stopped short, her frame tensing as her gaze landed on the Gamorreans. She abruptly turned around, making haste back for the door she came through. They spotted her, her red hair clear as day despite the fact that it was soaking wet and sticking to her.

The backroom door, while locked, opened to the wave of her hand. She darted through, the Garmorrean's causing a scene as they shoved past a crowd of people and jammed the closing door back open with their foot. The bar keep approached, cursing out the- one grabbed him, tossing the poor man hard into the wall. The bar keep slid down, unmoving. The door was pried open. Kyra's heart slammed in desperation as skidded out the back door again-- right into the thick chest of, surprise surprise, another set of Garmorrean.

She gave a nervous laugh, taking a step back. It grabbed at her hair, locking her in place.

 

[Cenric Marus]

Subtlety was not something everyone had a gift for.

There were a few ways to stay alive out on a planet like this, and running around openly as a Jedi was not one of them. Cenric had worked hard to try and keep his own skills on the downlow, so much so that he'd learned how to use a blaster properly. Mariya had spent the better part of two weeks teaching him, and after that it became second nature.

His lightsaber was still with him of course, but he kept that tucked away on the small of his back where no one would see it. Cedric and he had gone through too much trouble to forge it, and he wasn't about to give it up just in case he was captured. He had made efforts to stay hidden. He wore no Jedi robes, and the helmet adorning his face had actually been scavenged from a Bounty Hunter in the Salucemi System.

No one suspected him.

The girl that just waltzed through the Cantina?

Everyone suspected her. It was bad enough that she showed off her lightsaber to anyone with two pairs of eyes, but then she went and used the force right out in the open. Cenric would have called her a fool if she hadn't already left. His head shook, and he didn't give it another thought until he saw the band of Gamorreans break through the crowd of the cantina and head directly in the direction the girl had gone. "Shit."

Cenric said to himself quietly as he stood and followed after the group.

 

[Kyra Perl]

"The flash drive." It gritted in its foul tongue.

Kyra struggled against its grip, shooting a nervous look to the other three that closed in around them. "Alriiiiiight, okay- ow! You don't have to tug. I have it right here." She patted down her body, her fingers skimming the cool metal of her saber. She paused for a slight moment, a tug of her the force warning her of something.

The back door busted open, another person spilling onto the scene. Kyra took the moment to flick out her saber, the warm purple light immersing the alley as she deftly brought it across the arm holding her. Instead of searing through the arm, the training saber merely hissed and stunned the figure under it. Kyra squeaked, the fingers embedded in her hair seizing up. The gamorrean keeled over, taking Kyra down with it.

She flailed, desperately swiping out her foot to trip another charging pig-face. As the assailant fell, she nabbed him with her saber too, a belated block also deflecting a bullet sent her way. All the while she remained trapped in the seized up hand. The pig-face's sweaty digits stuck to the red strands and threaten to pull them out from their roots. She flailed against him, prying at his stiff fingers.

 

[Cenric Marus]

Four quick shots rang out just as the door crashed open against the opposite wall. The wail of a blaster rang out and filled the entire alleyway.

Two Gamorreans immediately dropped to the ground with loud thuds.

As quick as the whole thing had begun, it was over. Cenric stood in the doorway still wearing his mask and robe, a single WESTAR-34 blaster in his hand. One Gamorrean lay half tangled with Kyra on the floor, another on the ground in front of her, and two others were dead. His lips thinned behind his mask, gaze wandering for a moment as he took a step over towards the girl and slowly lowered his blaster. There was no telling if the fat little piggies would get up again.

"Training saber?" He asked the girl as he kicked the Gamorrean that had been nearly pinning her.

The alien released her hair, though it was likely not by his own choice. A snort escaped the creature, likely something between pain and just a response to being kicked.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra flushed at the question, her lips pressing into a line as the blade was pulled back out of existence. "I coulda gotten them myself," she commented back, pulling herself into a seated position. The girl sat utterly disheveled as she took a moment to compose herself. "Ow," she complained again, rubbing at her scalp. She smoothed down her hair, then blinked and patted herself down in panic. Her finger hit the hard metal in her pocket. She relaxed a touch, letting out a sigh of relief.

Her mood perked considerably, the girl abruptly smiling as she lifted herself off the wet gravel. It was her turn to look over the figure, the little empath reaching out to sense his mood. There wasn't much to study otherwise.

"You okay?" She chirped, rocking up on her toes as if the very words would make her take flight.

 

[Cenric Marus]

"Im not the one who was being chased." A couple of years ago he would have balked at killing two men, even Gamorreans, without much of a second thought.

Briefly Cenric wondered what that said about him. Was he worse off now?

A voice in the back of his head told him no. He was still a Jedi, still held to the code, he just knew how to end a situation faster now. He supposed he'd adopted that over the years, even while training under Cedric. Things weren't always as black and white as they seemed to be, and although rules could be bent, he'd never broken them. In the end that was what mattered.

"Your master not teach you to properly hide yourself?" He asked in regards to her blatant use of the force. "Particularly on a world like this."

On any planet run by the Hutt Jedi weren't exactly the biggest desire. Their kind had a way of meddling in criminal affairs. On a good day they were bad for business, any other they would shut everything down. That was why Cenric hid his lightsaber, why he used a blaster.

Less risk that way.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Nothing. Nada. The figure before her just stood there, extraordinary calm. Inhuman-like, actually, for having just shot and killed two guys. Either he was a sociopath or...

She blinked, looking down to her saber hilt. "Hey, how did you know this was a training saber?" She challenged, pointedly dodging his question. She seemed to register his chastising at least, wordlessly tucking it away as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Last time I checked no jedi were stationed here." Besides the obvious fact that she had checked for SILVER jedi, the girl was still drawing to the correct conclusion, wrong route towards it be damned.

"But you're not a jedi anymore, are you? Else you wouldn't be using those rudimentary things." She jerked her chin towards his blasters, a layer of disgust for them in her tone. She crossed her arms over her chest, reading closer to try and fuss out the enigma that stood before her. There may have been no tell tail emotions to pick up on, but through the force one desire was abundantly clear.

"Who are you? And why are you so dead set on not being found?"

 

[Cenric Marus]

"Because I don't want to be killed." Cenric stated plainly, not bothering with why he was here in the first place.

This girl didn't need to know his history or why he was on Ylesia. That was his own business. For now he was more concerned with the Gamorreans having any friends. His head glanced back and forth in the alleyway, lips thinning as he holstered his blaster pistol and pulled the small leather strap over the weapon again. His own lightsaber was still on the small of his back, though he wasn't about to show that to the girl.

He took a slight breath, the force pooling within himself in a steady focus of serenity.

It was something Cedric had taught him. The thought of the void swallowing all emotion and anxiety. Nowadays he was almost constantly in that void, hiding himself and tucking away anything that might unstabilize him. It helped keep him alive, keep him safe.

Cenric wasn't doing it to spite the Zeltron, no, it was just what he did out here. There is no emotion, there is peace.

He remembered the Jedi code.

"Why were the Gamorreans after you?" He asked her pointedly, ignoring her other questions. "Steal something?"

He'd overheard that when he'd reached the door.

 

[Kyra Perl]

It was ironic that he had been without an order for years and could still keep to their teachings, while she, an active member, could not. There was nothing calm about her demeanor, the girl bouncing on her toes in unspent energy.

"You're avoiding my questions." She grinned, not half as concerned as he was about the eyes that could be landing on them on the street right now. It was an alleyway, wasn't that enough? "You were a jedi, weren't you? I can feel you doing that--- being all one with the force right now. It's unmistakable." She dropped her arms from their defensive position across her chest, at ease around the stranger already. It wasn't the simple matter of him saving her life that had her lowering her guards, but the energy inside of him.

The sensation of it was like arriving home to the smell of mom's fresh baked bread-- enveloping and comfortable. She held out her hand. "I'm Kyra. You are...?" She raised her brow, not leaving him much space to dodge this one.

 

[Cenric Marus]

He shrugged his shoulders. "What I was doesn't matter."

Not right now anyway.

There no particular reason to hide his name from the girl. It wasn't like he was famous or well known. All he had ever been was Cedrics Apprentice. Sure he'd fought in a few battles and beaten some Sith, but that hardly meant his name was famous. Most people would probably just blink at the revelation and shrug.

"Cenric." He told her flatly, not shaking her hand.

One of the Gamorreans on the ground let out a loud groan. His pig like snout shuffled slightly and his eyes opened, Cenric reached over and kicked him in the face.

Not a very Jedi like act, but he'd learned over the last few years since the Alliance. Sometimes you had to do unpleasant things when it was called for. These men knew that, they worked for a gang. Lips thinned behind his helmet and he glanced back towards the left side of the alleyway. He could sense something coming, though just the barest wisp of danger. "What'd you take from them?"

He asked again.

 

[Kyra Perl]

She blinked as he kicked the face in of the stirring Gamorrean. Not very jedi-like, indeed. Still, she was undeterred, not shying back from him as she withdrew her hand. "Effective. But primitive. Like your guns," she commented, more talking to herself than anything.

She glanced with him over their shoulder, feeling the slight danger too. "Tell you what, Cenric." She tossed up her hood, masking her skin and hair from view. "Take me to your little hidey-hole, let me use your facilities, and I'll show you." She grinned up at him, a bundle of confidence. Pheromones drifted off of her, weaker than the average Zeltron, but still ever present as they encouraged a more... relaxed atmosphere around her. Her empathetic nature amplified this, the force working in sync with her nature as it urged Cenric to drift further into a relaxing trust. She went up on her toes, leaning in.

"You're curious. Admit it."

 

[Cenric Marus]

Since the girl had now twice refused to answer his question Cenric defaulted to quickly doing math in his head.

The mask he wore prevented her pheromones from affecting him, the rebreather in it filtering such things out. That given the fact that he'd already been centering himself, he could feel the tug at his emotions she attempted, his lips thinning in a scowl.

Anger spiked within that void for a moment, a slight temptation to lash out that was quickly quieted as he thought.

Four Gamorreans had come after her the first time. Thugs like that weren't exactly cheap and he doubted a loan shark or anything of the sort would be a problem for a Jedi Padawan. Add that to the danger coming around the corner and he guessed whatever she had gotten herself involved with was likely bigger than just a local gang.

Plus she was a padawan, which meant her master was likely nearby. There was no panic in her, so probably not captured either.

Add to that the fact that she was trying to manipulate him?

"Not enough to get killed." The former Padawan stated bluntly as he turned away from Kyra and began to walk back into the Cantina.

There was a reason he hadn't tried to find his way back to the remnants of the Alliance, a reason he hadn't sought out the Silver Jedi or anyone else. He didn't want to get involved, not when he didn't have to.

 

[Kyra Perl]

A spark of panic hit Kyra, who thought she had surely landed herself a safe place to regroup. She wasn't use to misjudging someone, and she wasn't use to be refused help to boot. Still, he was a stranger and he had said no. Pouting and crying only worked on family. What was left for her to do about it?

Her mind raced for the next step, the next solution. She had chosen this path and she wasn't about to beg for help out of it. His retreating back did earn a bitter reply, though, her throat tightening at the sight of it. "And you wonder why you're alone."

The impending danger grew imminent, the force pulsing with it's increasing presence. Kyra shoot a wide-eyed glance over her shoulder and fled. All he would be left with was the pitter-patter of her light steps splashing through the puddles, going the opposite way.

 

[Cenric Marus]

"No I don't." He called after her with a little wave of his hand.

As he stepped back inside of the cantina Cenric quite truthfully that he'd done nothing wrong. The Gamorreans were taken care of, the girl had been confident enough that she would likely take care of herself, and well he doubted she was alone.

Still, something felt off.

He could not have said what it was, but he felt like he was missing something. Fingers curled slightly, tapping the handle of his blaster with his thumb. Had he missed something? Lips thinned for a few second until he eventually shook his head. No, she hadn't asked for help, just tried to use him as a jumping off point.

If he'd agreed she likely would have shoe horned herself and her master into his life. The small apartment he'd gotten himself and everything else he had would have been burned. The risk was too great, especially given that he'd just settled in. Best to just let it go.

Five hours later Cenric walked into the Manor of Legukk the Hutt. The slug was a minor crime Lord here on Ylesia, usually worked for other bigger gangsters in the system. He was harmless enough, generally only running gambling rackets and the like.

The former Padawan had worked for him one or two times before, mostly just transport jobs. All of them had gone off without a hitch, and thus he was a favorite of the Hutt. There was of course an understanding, Cenric wouldn't do any violent jobs. No enforcement and no debt collection. The rules worked out well for both parties, finding people to transport your goods was hard on Ylesia. Trust was thin here.

As he made his way through the winding halls of the manor Cenric caught sight of something.

For a moment he thought he was crazy, but the sight of two Gamorreans holding a pink girl and dragging her away was difficult to miss. The trio moved just beyond a doorway that slammed closed as Cenric walked by down the hallway. "Shit."

Cenric said to himself quietly as he continued down the hall towards the Hutt throne room.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra didn't want to talk about it, alright?

She might of bitten off more than she could chew and that was all she had to say on the matter. It wasn't like anyone KNEW she was here. If so, she definitely wouldn't be here. Where was here again? Facts blurred as she felt herself dragged through halls. Her head spun, the result of a nasty blow to her temple to stop all those breakout attempts she kept doing. Play it cool and lay low? Apparently not the style of this panicked padawan.

She didn't understand what went wrong. Of all the stories she had heard about her sibling's adventures and heroic misdemeanors, none of them ended up like this. But what was it Yula use to say? It's not over until you're dead. And she wasn't dead, at least she didn't think. And that was enough to quell the massive panic that began to erupt in her as she regained consciousness chained to a wall. She whimpered, the first thing to hit her being another wave of pure panic. No one was coming in to save the day here. She had kinda made sure of that when she went off solo.

But that was alright, she self-soothed. Because she had wanted this-- a chance to prove herself. And she wasn't dead yet. She stirred, her body hurting more than she had ever known a body could. Sure, she had been shot before. But that was a very centralized pain. Being kicked at by a group of thug- pig people? Totally different sensation. She squinted through her one good eye, blood from her temple streaming down over her swollen one. She skimmed the room to find it bare. Dirty, but bare. Her chains were threaded through a hoop above. Locked. No keys around to be found, no lackadaisical sleeping guard. Honestly, the stories really let her down here.

Maybe the force could get her out of this. Honestly, she struggled to see how.

 

[Cenric Marus]

Cenric's conversation with the Hutt went the same way they always did. There was a lot of grandstanding, some back and forth arguing, and then an agreement on a payment.

The only thing that was different this time was that Cenric hardly payed any attention at all. Instead of being in the meeting his mind was off wandering and thinking about what the hell that girl had gotten herself into. A part of him still wanted to believe that her Master was running around somewhere and this was all some sort of bait, but the more he thought about it the more he realized that assumption was foolish. The girl had likely gotten in over her head.

There probably was no master.

That meant Legukk likely had the girl and was going to sell her to whomever was after her in the first place. The Hutt didn't seem the type to make enemies with Jedi, not when he could help it anyway, so that meant the payday was probably well worth it. Cenric found himself getting annoyed. "Thank you, great Legukk. I will take my leave."

Cenric did a bow, he always did in front of the Hutt. It was the safe thing to do. Even a minor slug like Legukk had an ego the size of a small moon.

The Hutt gibbered something at him in that odd guttural language, quickly translated by the protocol droid. Cenric nodded, and then turned around to leave the throne room. Normally he would take a left, head straight towards the exit and go to the transport depot, but this time he took a right.

He needed to look into why the girl was here, and the only way to do that was to go deeper into the manor.

 

[Kyra Perl]

If one looked the right way, Kyra's supposed misdemeanors came in the form of missing supplies. And a lot of them. Kyra had bombed a supply train of spices and made off with a large chunk of the underground finances, hoping to destabilize the organization and, she didn't know, end the thug presence on the town?

It had been a simple plan, and a noble one to boot. But it had put a target on the red head so large all forms of public transportation became impossible for her. Which sucked, cause she couldn't drive herself. She had accidentally made herself enemy number one in the underground community and selling her hide off to the highest bidder was the best way to recoup losses.


Kyra couldn't believe how screwed she was. No amount of squirming broke the chains, which seemed to be unaffected by the force. There remained nothing of use to her in the room besides her own panicked breathing, which did little to calm her. The confident demeanor she had worn only hours ago was quickly fading, the girl losing her wits about her as it did so. This was serious. This was real.

She was well and truly trapped.

The force rippled with her distress, the little empath sending out a silent plea for aid.

 

[Cenric Marus]

The Manor was laid out like a labyrinth. Every corner had two turns, every path lead back on itself, and one had to be sure not to take a wrong right or they would end up standing in the middle of a Rancor pit.

Cenric was lucky that he had traversed most of the place before, once he'd even gotten a guided tour from Legukk's second in command. He remembered the layout of the place well enough, though his progress was slow. Every now and again guards would wander through the hallway, traversing through and checking things out as though they were actually doing work. Each time that happened Cenric clung to the walls, holding himself fast so no one detected him.

Eventually, after what seemed like an hour of skulking about the former Padawan managed to reach the staircase towards the lower levels. His head half poked around a corner, spotting an extraordinarily fat Gamorrean standing tall holding a vibro axe besides the door. A frown touched his face, and his lips thinned as he dipped back into the hall.

"Alright." Cenric said to himself. "You can do this. Remember what Cedric taught you."

The words were so quiet they did not even make it through the voice modulator of his mask, but he said them with confidence. A breath filled him, and then he stepped forward into the hallway. Almost instantly the Gamorrean stepped forward. His axe moved in a threatening manner, and he grunted in that odd guttural language that Cenric could not understand. The Jedi frowned, but walked forward confidently. His hand waved just slightly. "Legukk sent me, I am to transport a prisoner."

The Gamorrean stopped for a second, confusion dawning on it's face, then slowly it nodded.

A mind trick was something he'd only managed once or twice before, and both time he had failed. The fact that it worked now was more likely a sign of just how stupid the guard was rather than Cenric's own skill. He smiled at the Gamorrean as he stepped past him, heading down the stairs and into the dungeon.

A moment later he popped up in front of Kyra's cell.

"Not very good at this Jedi thing, huh?" He questioned as he glanced at the control panel for the cell door.

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Cenric!" Kyra cooed, as if they were the best of friends. Her desperation was turned on its head in a heartbeat, the girl tugging at her chains as she tried to pick herself up and go to him. She looked a right hot mess and not nearly subdued enough to have learned her lesson over it.

"I knew you'd come! I mean don't get me wrong, you coulda stepped forward a bit sooner, now I have to go about stealing things again-- but you caaame," she rambled. Perhaps she had hit her head too hard? "Whatcha waiting for, get me out of here, they say a sith's comin'." She looked between him and the stairway he had come from, the an edge of fear shown in her gaze in front of him for the first time.