The Deranged Dragon And The Shivvy (Rokh/DragonsFlame)

[Josh Dragovalor]

He chuckled a bit. "You're right" he said. "I wouldn't have it any other way. I'd get BORED if he wasn't like that!" he cracked, with a grin.

"Hmm...." he mused, scratching his beard. "A training droid...." he began. "We could give it two lightsabers!" he exclaimed. "Or make it six feet tall for a challenge, and even better? Scan some files to get a training droid drive so it fights like Former Grandmaster Ben Watts!" he said. "Then we could try and tackle it together. Sounds like an interesting challenge"

As their food came in, Josh's eyes lit up at the sight of the steak. As it was set down, he thanked the waiter and stabbed his fork eagerly into the steak, dipping it in ketchup. "Really now?" he asked at her statement. "That's... Barbaric" he said, sighing a bit.

"But it's a big galaxy out there Naila. There's good people, there's bad people. Nice people, not so nice people.... People that are absolute poodoo... People with a strong sense of justice... Black people. White people. Red people. Green people. Tall people. Small people. Cat people. Dog people. There are even people born blind that have to rely on the Force, and others that have HORNS sticking from their head" he said, making a demon impression with his hands on his head, imitating horns. Grinning, he put his hands down and stuck the fork harder into the steak, cutting a piece off.

"But then there's you. You gotta be the best you can be in this large galaxy" he stated. "But at the same time... Just be yourself"

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

"Don't forget wolf-people," The girl reminded him, waving her ears. "Well... Fox-people. Sort of," she mused, taking her rare breed into account. "But I hear you. If you don't act like you, then who are you really?"

Naila had to resist the urge to simply bite into the meat and start tearing at it with her teeth. Because that would be uncivilized, she thought, mentally teasing herself.

"But on to important matters. What was it that you needed to talk to me about?" She enquired, one eyebrow raised in curiosity. "The suspense is killing me."

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

(Funny thing, the thing that he had brought her there to talk about changed, and became the absolute opposite. He was supposed to tell her that the Jedi were breaking off or loosening from the Republic, and because of that he was being made to leave for Tython like most Jedi, but I can work with this)

He chuckled. "I could never tell what kind of breed you were" he admitted. "I assumed either dog or fox. Close enough, I guess" he said with a smirk.

He finished another bite of his steak, then swallowed politely before speaking again, wiping his face with a napkin. Always be courteous when taking a lady out for dinner, even if you're just friends.

"Well...." he began. "Two things"

"One.... The Republic I guess, instead of having the Jedi loosen up and get their arses back to Tython as planned, is instead having the Jedi take a bigger role in their military" he explained. "As per the rule of new Supreme Chancellor Harkness.... Jedi are now able to hold positions in the military" he said. "I was actually planning on talking to you about what you were going to do if the Republic half seceded us and sent us off planet, but things changed"

"On that note... With Jedi now being able to hold military positions and ranks, they named their first one recently" he said. "That uh... Hehe.... Was me" he said, scratching his head. "I'm the new Grand Admiral Of The Republic"

"But... Number two. It doesn't end there" he said, taking a breath.

"We have a new Grandmaster" he began. "Selena Halcyon... Which is ironic because the Council exiled her just last month for attacking innocents on Contruum and almost dooming us all to a war with every faction on the map, before the Republic was saved by Chancellor Philip J. Halen, before the Senate, greedy as they are, tried to use that to label him unfit for leadership and attempted to have him impeached, leading to him quitting and Harkness being elected" he said.

"What I'm getting at is... Selena decided to uh... Make some changes to the Jedi. Without permission obviously, but she's the Grandmaster, so not a whole lot we can do about it" he said, sighing.

"The... First thing she did was set up a new Jedi High Council. Masters Only, so... Yeah. She told me on the spot that my time as a Knight on the Council is over, booted me right then and there from the Jedi High Council" he said.

"But... Well, she surprised me right after" he said with a slight smirk. "I uh... Was then told that I'd be serving on the Jedi High Council not as a Knight, but as a full fledged Jedi Master. So in hindsight.... I'm a Jedi Master now" he said sheepishly.

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

After knowing @Joshua DragonsFlame virtually since he became a Jedi (or re-became one), one would expect that Naila would anticipate having bombshells of information dropped on her from the human. Or at least that she would be used to them. But this cannonade of news took her by such surprise that with each announcement, she seemed to grow more and more astonished until all that she seemed to embody was wide eyes and stutters.

"Wh-... you... the..." She shook her head. She'd heard whispers of Jedi involvement in the Republic changing with the new Chancellor, but this was... unprecedented. "That's amazing!!" She shouted, eliciting head-turns from nearby customers. She lowered her head, face reddening slightly from embarrassment.

Slightly quieter, she continued."Congrats. Grand Admiral and a Master? That's phenomenal."

Apparently, his combat roles got many peoples' attention. Understandable. The Guardian, she knew first-hand, was devastating on the battlefield and a competent leader as well. As for the Master position, she wasn't surprised. He was a son of a Force-Sensitive family, and that only made one's power and prowess even better, not to mention his sort of 'past-life' experiences that he had unlocked as a Padawan and Knight.

"I take it you'll be quite a busy Jedi now, huh?"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He smiled a bit. Though he never had a "past life" and simply had an issue with amnesia that was fixed on his Knighting. Regardless, he'd worked hard for the positions he had, and he seemed proud of it.

"Yeah... It was a LOT to take in" he admitted, taking a breath. "I've been a Jedi since I was only five, but... To have all that happen... It's amazing" he said. "I never dreamed of doing this much, or getting so far... It's like a dream" he said.

"I'm going to be real busy" he admitted. "But hopefully it won't keep me from my promise to try and see you more often". And it was true, he had promised Naila to keep in touch more, and despite his responsibilities, most of which he had already been doing anyways as a member of the Council, he was going to keep that promise.

"And I guess there's a third thing..." he admitted, taking a breath.

"I uh.... Met my father" he said quietly, scratching the back of his head. "He was... Alive. All these years. Just like Nick was"

Then he realized. Oh shart. He hadn't told her about Nick. He felt bad for being too quiet to keep Naila in the loop.

"Hehe... Whoops" he said. "I guess for you, I should change that to four things... My father is alive. So is my brother, Nick, though... Well, I kind of wanted to keep Nick a secret because.... Well...."

He took a breath as he played with his food nervously.

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

Naila was about to say something like "Your dad was alive?!" her ears perked up attentively until the human mentioned his brother. He was alive too! Naila didn't feel much animosity towards Josh for keeping that from her. He had to have some secrets after all, but the news, though intriguing to the Shistavanen, only seemed to stress @Joshua DragonsFlame.

Her ears dropped a fraction, showing her concern. "What is it? Is he in a coma? A cyborg?" She stared intently at the man across the table, her food momentarily forgotten.

"Nearly your whole family is really alive! Why would you want to keep one of them a secret?" She asked. She knew not to be suspicious of Josh. Not like she used to be when they were both Padawans, but something nagged at her Precognitive side. Something... not good.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He sighed, looking down at the table, unable to meet Naila's eyes.

"He's... He's a Sith, Naila. He's a Sith Knight. I didn't really want to talk about it, but some months back, I decided it was time to run a secret mission on Dantooine and destroy that simulation prison facility thing...." He revealed.

"It ended up being two missions. First one, I snuck onto Dantooine without anyone knowing. I didn't remember where the facility was, or which one it was, so I went to a village to get information. Turns out there was another facility nearby, run by Imperials who used that as a home base to kidnap people from the village and use them in their simulation experiments. Of course, sadly they weren't trained Jedi, so they didn't survive the pressure it puts on your body. How I survived for so long is a miracle, but I suppose it explains why I emerged weak as a kitten and with amnesia. Probably side effects" he explained.

"So I made it a goal to sabotage both facilities. My first target was the one nearby that was kidnapping them for transportation. I stormed the place, and ended up duelling a Sith Miraluka by the name of Vira. I defeated her, but refused her beggings to kill her. Instead, I left myself open, refusing to kill her, and I got a nasty couple saber burns for it. I uh... Kind of let her kill me after that. I could feel it in the Force, yknow? She wasn't a Sith at heart, only due to an enslavement. She couldn't finish me off, and I managed to convince her to break free. After that, I sabotaged the facility, got the location of the simulation one, then took Vira and dropped her off on a planet of her choice, of course after taking her to a pit stop at a candy store because she talked of never having had sweets before in her Sith enslavement" he said with a heart laugh, playing with his food a bit, taking a drink to clear up his voice.

"So after that" he began. "I took a week to make plans and prepare, and Saoirse and I eventually found the facility, and stormed it" he said. "We fought through the scientists that imprisoned me and so many others. I tried to spare them despite the fact they tortured me for 5 years, but they attacked and I ended up slaughtering them all both in self defence and in defence of Sao" he said, a bit of regret on his face, but he sighed and shook his head.

"We got to the simulations. We planted the charges and freed the villagers that were still alive, letting them escape. Before we could finish though, we were ambushed by a Sith Knight in black robes. He drew a duel bladed lightsaber and attacked us without mercy or hesitation. Throughout the fight, I repeatedly kept sensing a familiar presence in the room. One I hadn't sensed ever since I was a child, somehow able to sense little bits and pieces... I had the gift, you know? And mom always seemed proud of me for it. But thats besides the point... Eventually I couldn't shake that feeling and I managed to slice the Sith's hood off. And..." He gritted his teeth. "My suspicions were correct... He had my fathers eyes... He had those same worried eyes that I saw when I looked at Nick as an infant one last time before our speeder exploded ... That had been the last thing I saw, and I never forgot it... But.. It was him. Right in front of me years later. But... He was so full of hatred. There was no remorse... His eyes were cold and evil, and it broke my heart..."

He stared down at his food, close to tears.

"He stared at me for a moment... Almost as if recognizing me...
Then he attacked me again. No remorse. No mercy. An accidental miss on Force Lightning caused him to detonate the charges by mistake. Sao and I had to run before the facility exploded. But.. Even though we destroyed that awful simulation... I know Nick survived. I know he's still out there"

He sighed. "With the help of my friend Jak Sandrow, I was able to hack into his files, and my suspicions were correct. Nick's been alive all these years, the Sih got him.. He was a bounty hunter up until about a year ago. Some mercenaries found him near dead near the speeder, and had taken him just before Pinewrap had come and taken me. He'd been trained as a Bounty Hunter and became known as The Green Fox, up until he was found by Lucien Cordel, trained in the basics of the Force... Then he was kidnapped by Circe Savan, a woman I once called friend. She turned him... She corrupted him. She turned him into this evil, soulless, remorseless Sith assassin, with no regard for anyone else. I just... Didn't know how to react..." Be said, sighing.

"It's... Not something I like to talk about" he admitted. "I've tried to forget, but I have a feeling that this isn't over"

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

Naila's ears drooped. She felt sadness emanating from her friend. She herself was brought close to tears by the end of the story. Shaking her head, she sniffed, wiping her eyes with a corner of her sleeve.

"I want to say *sniff* that I understand what that feels like but I'm not sure anyone in the galaxy would *sniff* be able to say that and not be lying." The Knight reached out to pat the human's hand. "I had no idea all that was going on on top of everything else. Your brother, he..." She searched for the right words.

"It's not his fault, what's happened to him. I believe that you can still save him. I know you can, with every certainty short of Precognition." She tried cheering @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] up; Naila hated crying or seeing other people cry. "So buck up, man. You're Grand-frakking-Admiral of the Republic. You can do anything," She stated with a degree of certainty that she wasn't sure that she felt. There was so much about Josh that she didn't know. She had no idea how events this wide-scale and convoluted would turn out. But she wasn't the sort of person to give up hope. "If you ever need help, just call."

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He smiled, squeezing her hand tight as he fought back the tears.

"Thank you...." he managed to get out, taking a breath. "I'm sorry I had to spoil the mood of the dinner with this, Naila. And... I KNOW there's still good in him. I can sense it. I just.... I don't know how to go around it. I don't know where he is. I don't know what he's doing. I have no clue where to start.... Just... HOW? I've turned Sith before. But just female Sith, who are a little more.... Sensitive" he admitted. "I can't use those charms on a man" he joked, trying to lighten up the mood just a bit as he gave a weak, yet cheesy grin.

"The point is... I don't know where to start. I mean, how do I turn my own BROTHER, who I don't know a thing about, and haven't seen in 16 years, away from the Sith?" he asked.

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

"It's alright, really. You know I don't mind," The girl accepted his apology. "Omae! what do you mean only female Sith are more sensitive?" She teased, lightening up.

"Anyway," She said, recommencing her meal, "Not that I'm an expert on this sort of thing, but I'd say that it will just take time. Unless he's got someone controlling him, like a Sith Lord," She shuddered at the thought, "It's simply a matter of reestablishing contact with him and getting to know him. Try to bring him back slowly; after all, if what you say is accurate, the Dark Side is all he's really known." She hoped that would help, but she wasn't really a reliable source of advice. Maybe master Drel would know what to do, she considered.

"I seem to remember a history lesson where such an approach worked. A Jedi named Galen Marek, I think." She tried to remember the details, but failed.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"Galen Marek... I think I might know a descendant of his actually" he said. "Was a Padawan of mine, used to be a Sith" he mused. "Maybe I'll talk to him"

He sighed. But smirked a bit. "They are SO more sensitive" he joked, grinning. "Well, let's just say they're more sensitive to... Charms" he joked with a wink. He grinned as he ate a bit more of his food.

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

"Oh you just think you're so slick, don't you Mr. Grand Admiral?" She sneered, laughing. Naila had to hand it to the human. He hid his baggage well. Not that she was any expert at reading people, but with everything going on around her friend, one would think she'd notice something more tired or overwhelmed there.

As of yet, she couldn't tell, besides the slight slump in the shoulders that all Jedi carried, as if the weight of the galaxy were on their shoulders.

"Well, I'll have you know that I've grown immune to your so-called 'charms'," The Shistavanen claimed, looking back to when they first met, how easily flustered and red-faced she could get at the humans jokes and flirts.

@Joshua DragonsFlame

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He laughed. "Oh really now?" He asked, a grin twitching on his lips.

"Well, I WAS going to mention the fact that you look more stunning then when we met.. Did you do something to your hair, perhaps?" The Master asked with an amused smirk. "It's like you got yourself set up for a dinner date, not a highly dangerous mission in the criminal underworld" he cracked. "Having a beautiful woman in tow during a mission is distracting yknow" he joked with a grin. "There something you ain't tellin me?"

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

"What do you mean? This is how I always look," She returned. "Maybe you just haven't been paying enough attention. And, as a matter of fact, I did do something to my hair... months ago... When they cut the Padawan braid off." She showed him where the braid, with its feathers, used to be, though the hair itself had since regrown.

"Plus, I wouldn't exactly say that I was 'in tow' on this job, I-" Naila trailed off, all of a sudden. She looked past the human, past the wall. A thousand yard stare.

She saw a fortress in a mountain. She saw her master, battered and bloody, chained to a wall in some cell, on some distant world. She saw a black mask, and eyes like burning coals.

The girl blinked, then shivered, though no breeze came through the restaurant. "What in the..."

@Joshua DragonsFlame

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He chuckled. "Okay, maybe you just got even more beautiful since I met you last" he snarked.

Suddenly, Naila blacked out. Josh's eyes changed to those of concern, and he snapped his fingers.

"Naila. Hey" Snap snap. "Naila!"

This wasn't her first blank stare and blackout..... But it'd been quite awhile since the last one.

He grasped her shoulders and shook her.

"Hey"

Finally, she seemed to shake it off.

"What happened?"

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

"I... don't..." She tried to gather her thoughts. What was that? She thought, Is master Drel in trouble? Will he be in trouble? Where is he now? Those questions and a million more swirled through her head, making her properly freaked out.

"I saw my master," she blurted. "He was in chains, and there was a castle, and... and-" She grabbed her head in both hands. "What the frak was that!? I have to help him." She was moving to stand. To go... where? She didn't even know where to start looking, or even if what her Premonition showed her was present or future. "Josh! Do you have access to the Temple's mission records? I need to know where he went."

She felt guilty, somehow. She had not had much contact with her master, who had been like a father to her, since she had been knighted. It had to do -in part- with them both being on separate missions all the time. But she still felt the weight of it. She wished, now, that she had spoken with the Nautolan more often. At least then, she might've had an idea where he was going.

@Joshua DragonsFlame

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He nodded calmly as he stood to his feet. Paying the bill, he motioned her outside as he went.

"Come on" he said. "Lets get you to the temple" he added.

As they walked, he attempted to distract and calm her down.

"Did I ever tell you about Saoirse?" He asked. "I was going to mention her back there but our time got cut a little short"

Little did Josh know the pain that was ahead, and that this was the last thread, timeline-wise, that took place while Sao was alive. Ah, the perks of RPs that takes ages to do.

@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

Naila appreciated what Josh was trying to do. The human was trying to get her mind off of the vision. Trying to calm her down. After all, a calm mind was a sound mind.

"No, I don't think so. I've heard of her though." She replied a bit shakily. The adrenaline was subsiding. Slowly, but subsiding nonetheless.

Naila was eager to get to the temple. Wherever Drel was, they may need back up to rescue him, and she had one Republic sergeant in mind for the job.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He nodded a bit. "Yeah.. Sorry bout that" he said. "Long story short, we've been together for quite some time, her and I. Kind of funny how that came about, actually, considering she used to be a Sith...."

"But.... Yeah.... Ugh, I don't know how to say this" he said with a nervous chuckle. "I wasn't exactly expecting it either"

Josh knew Naila was only half in the game right now. And the Jedi Master was hell bent on helping her find Drel. But if Naila was panicked, they wouldn't get anywhere"

"She's.... Pregnant" he finally revealed. "Mine, apparently..."

He took a breath. He didn't know if he was helping matters much... Perhaps this story was better off told on the ship there..."



@[member="Naila Rokh"]

 

[Naila Rokh]

Naila raised an eyebrow at Josh's explanation of Saoirse's origins. "Another Sith that fell to your 'charms' I assume?" She teased lightly, trying to put the vision out of her head for the present. Though within the confines of her mind, Naila was a bit surprised. She had never known the human to have any sort of romantic connections, although there was a time back when they were Padawans that she had thought he'd been interested in herself.

But at his awkward admittance that he may have gotten the girl pregnant, Naila stopped, her face contorted strangely. Josh? Was going to be a father? Finally she couldn't hold it in any longer, and the Shistavanen Knight did something probably unexpected.

She began to laugh.

"No freakin' way!" She said between fits of (literally) barking laughter. "You're gonna be a dad!" She couldn't figure out why it was so funny. Maybe the absurdity of the fact that, among everything that was going on, Joshua DragonsFlame managed to turn a Sith and end up being the father of her child.

She went to put the human into a (sort of) congratulatory headlock. "Is it a boy or a girl? What names are you thinking about? OH! Who's going to train the little cub? Or cubs? Do humans have more than one at a time? Either way, any child of yours is gonna be uber-powerful. " She bombarded @Joshua DragonsFlame with questions, her vision of Drel momentarily forgotten.