Two Different worlds... [Connor Harrison]

[Anija Betna]

She shrugged slightly and leaned forward, meeting his gaze. "Ori'haat... (truthfully) I don't know. But, it wouldn't surprise me if that had been the case. Now though, the Mandalorians aren't like that." Nodding, she sighed. "Though, it might help you understand where I'm coming from in regards to my father.." She told him softly.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Looking at her, Connor took a long drink of water.

”Perhaps.”

He licked his lips and tapped his hand on the table.

”So what…what exactly do you want me to do? Is your father still suffering or has he been exorcised? How are you about this also…are you ok?”

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

At that, a frown crossed her face. "From what I can tell....the spirit has been separated from him...but at the cost of his connection to the Force." She replied softly, turning her glass in her fingers for a moment. "I wasn't there, but I felt when it happened." She then looked up and met his gaze. "I'm....mostly okay. I was able to see him afterwards.... but I still feel slightly upset over what I did on Aeten II. I let my anger and frustration take control."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

With am empathic smile, he reached forward hesitantly, before stopping and placing his hand on his glass.

”Look, when faced with something like that you don’t know how to act. There’s no rule. And to be fair, you fought fire with fire. You didn’t take his life, but you acted with intent and that saved his life and yours. I was isolated here for weeks, and the things I did to my fellow Jedi, well, honestly, having a knee shot out would be a mild punishment.”

It wasn’t really going to help, but he knew the past couldn’t be changed, only accepted.

If you had let anger take control, you would have killed him to end it all. But you didn’t. You controlled it. You’re human, don’t forget. Not a monster, or robot.”

Sitting back, he thought for a moment.

”What is your father doing now, and where is he?”

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She shrugged slightly and closed her eyes for a moment. "Some might disagree, though. Others thought what I did was bad." A pause and then she continued. "The spirit forced him to place his own ripper in his mouth and threatened to make him pull the trigger." Taking a deep breath, she took a sip of her water. "I am glad he's no longer under the spirit's control. As to what's happening now, last I knew he was still sitting in a Mandalorian prison."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor stood up and took away her glass with his, moving to replace it with more cold water as the conversation was getting quite serious.

"You've not really told me why you've come to me, Anija."

He came back, placing the glass in front of her and took his seat.

"Do you...do you want me to visit your father, is that it? Or is it you who needs my help?"

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Her brown furrowed slightly, and she sighed before lightly rubbing the bridge of her nose with two fingers. To be honest, she wasn't all that clear on that herself. There was silence between them for several moments as she considered his words. When she spoke, it was a bit... hesitant. "While I'd like it if you could visit my father, I doubt I would be able to guarantee your safety, given recent events." She held up a hand to forestall his comments for a moment. "I know you can handle yourself, but the situation regarding non-mandalorian Force users in Mandalorian space is a tenuous one at best, currently."

"As for myself..." she continued more softly. "I've had basic training in regards to Force skills. I've o knowledge on how to handle a lightsaber. My main talents currently seem to be in Telekinetics and Force Piloting...." She paused and then sighed before continuing. "If you are willing, and have time in between your other duties... I'd like you to train me. I serve primarily as a pilot and as one of the leaders for the Mandalorian Protectors. Similar to your Jedi Shadows in some ways." She met his gaze evenly. "I would like to learn better emotional control and focus, among other things."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Behind his glass, drinking steadily, his gaze went from confused, to amused to shocked. The Mando silenced him twice, but it gave him time to think on what she was saying. When she finished, he smacked his lips and sighed, looking out of the window and drumming his fingers on the table.

Another invite into danger. Why did these things always sniff around a troubled Jedi Master?

"So you want me to come to Mando territory to visit your father, but you can't vouch for my safety? And THEN you want me to give up my time serving the Order to teach you, a Mando warrior, how to control the Force that your culture doesn't agree with?"

He looked at her and cocked his head.

"Care to point out what bit of that makes sense to you, because to me it doesn't make any."

He leant forward.

"Miss Ordo, a Jedi born with the Force spends years to understand, control and feel it so they can learn to serve it against tyranny. What makes you think a Mandalorian warrior such as you can come into the way of the Jedi and dedicate time, blood, sweat and tears to understand a power your culture doesn't agree with? Hm?"

Sitting back, he pushed his tongue around the inside of his mouth and shook his head.

"You've got nerve coming here to ask that of me, you have. I'll give you that."

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Connor Harrison"]

She frowned. "I wasn't suggesting you visit Mando space, Connor. As much as I'd like it if you could. Mainly because I know the situation there regarding Force users who are not Mandalorian is very touchy at the moment." She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose with her left index finger and thumb for a moment before she looked up at him again. "I know what I ask is.. .complex. I am merely making a request." She sighed softly. "I know it's a highly unusual request, and I would understand if you chose to refuse."

There was a pause as she considered his last statement. "It... doesn't. Not really. I'm going on a feeling." She shrugged and set her glass down after a moment as she felt a sudden cold chill worm it's way up her spine. She had always been able to sense the various people in Ordo that she was close to. Even Arrbi, and Ordo after he was stripped of the Force. Which had been but days ago. She had still been able to sense him faintly. Such was her bond. A bond that had formed over the span of almost 20 years. And now, it suddenly felt as if that part of her was being torn away.

A stabbing pain made itself known in her chest, and one hand went to her chest as she felt her vision go blurry. She'd gotten so used to feeling his presence in the back of her mind. And suddenly it was no longer there. Not even the faint echo she'd felt after he was force-stripped. it felt like there was suddenly a void in her mind where his presence had always been. Squeezing her eyes shut, her other hand gripped at the table so hard her knuckles turned white. "Buir..." she whispered, hot tears slowly beginning to trace their way down her cheeks. her vision blurred and she kept trying desperately to find him in the Force, even that faint almost-there feeling she'd had recently. it was no longer there, and she felt her heart sink.

 

[Connor Harrison]

It was a little tense, granted. Connor sat looking out and thinking as he listened to Anija. He could go to Mando space, but what trouble would he possibly stir up? Saying that, he didn’t always play by the rules and if he could help her, then what was the reason not to go – this could help build bridges between the two.

Noting her increased movement to hold parts of her head and face, Connor couldn’t help but turn slightly and watch her. She seemed to bear a large amount of weight on young shoulders. Her hand went to her chest, and she convulsed slightly.

”Are you ok?”

Connor felt she was in pain – emotionally, and she was panicking. The spike in her Force signature was evident and irregular. Her body tensed, and she whispered, and began to cry…

”Anija?”

Sliding out from his side of the table, he moved around and leaned over her slightly on the table, placing a hand on the cold armour on her shoulder.

”I sense great pain – what’s happened?”

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Connor Harrison"]

There was a long moment of silence between them, and she could feel her other hand gripping the table so hard it made her knuckles ache. She barely heard Connor's words. All she could focus on for the moment was the pain. Her eyes were highly closed, and tears leaked from the corners. Faintly, she could see flashes of images in her mind. Of Ordo and his armor. He seemed to be fighting something but she couldn't tell what.

Finally, after a minute or so, she slowly opened her eyes and looked up. When her gaze met his, her blue eyes were troubled....haunted. "My father.... I think I just felt him die..."

 

[Connor Harrison]

It took a while for her to register him being there, and he knelt down on the floor so he was a little lower in height for her to talk to. Tears streaked down her face – not floods, but instead singular lines of powerful tears that spoke more about her than she could say.

In trying to hold back her emotion, she was coming across as a girl who had so much to give and was scared about how to do it.

”Anija, take a deep breath. Your understanding of the Force is still raw and fragile to your mind. You may have felt a tremor, a spike, maybe your father needs your help, maybe you’ve felt an emotion rather than a death…?

Connor thought about the possibilities surrounding her feelings, but he couldn’t say which was the most plausible. He held out his hand.

”Hold my hand, and look into my eyes – tell me everything about where your father is and see him through my eyes – see him in your mind and let me find him – do it. Open your mind to me and focus.”

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

At his hand on her shoulder, she tensed ever so slightly, it was mostly out of reflex, and from the intensity of emotion she was feeling. A deep, shuddering breath, and then another as she tried to calm herself and focus. It wasn't the same type of focusing exercise he knew, but the one Ember had taught her so long ago. Slowly, her erratic breathing calmed somewhat, and she looked up at him again.

It felt as if her heart had had an Ordo-sized hole torn in it, and it, was difficult to hold back the flood of emotion. He had given her a chance at a new life. One she had flourished in. And now, she felt... hollow. At Connor's words, she frowned slightly and tried to focus again using the same technique. It helped a bit, but her emotions were still chaotic. Her frown deepened as she took a breath or two to steady herself, and gripped his hand so hard she feared she might break it.

"I... don't know...." She sighed heavily and brushed sweat-dampened hair from her face as she tried to focus on his words. "It's hard to really .... explain. I saw him fighting....someone. Looked like a dark room... maybe an old ship..." She shrugged, her eyes drifting closed as she tried to describe what she had seen. "Whoever he was fighting.... his opponent was using some sort of bladed weapon. I can see the little bit of light glinting off of it... And see one thrown towards him. He couldn't move out of the way of it." Here, she sucked in a breath, and gripped his hand that much harder. Right now, it was her one link to sanity.

Hesitant, she slowly took another breath, and tried to open her mind, attempting to bring the images of what she'd seen to the front of her mind. The mental abilities were ones she wasn't very well versed in, and she hoped he could make sense of it. With her free hand, she clenched it into a fist as she concentrated, and then fumbled with the panel on her gauntlet as she tried to type out a message to Betna. He had to know.

What he could do, she wasn't sure. Her hand shook badly as she tried to type. <Arr'ika - As you know, I'm visting with the Silver Jedi on Voss. I had hoped they could help me make some sense of recent events. In the midst of it all, I'm very certain I felt Ordo die....> She didn't know how else to explain it. Sighing, she encoded and sent it to his personal comm, instructing ANNE to give it priority status. To the message, she also attached her coordinates.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna wasn't too far away. That is, he wasn't in system or being a paranoid husband at all. Not that he didn't trust his wife, just that... Well, since Teta he was a little more keen on how close it could come to losing her. She'd survived with only minor injuries and made a full recovery. He knew she could easily handle herself in almost any situation and really didn't need him there to watch over her at all, even though she was in the early stages of pregnancy.

That said, he just happened to be on a patrol out by Dromund Kaas with a Protector bes'uliik starfighter wing. It wasn't exactly scheduled for him to be there, but with the rise of One Sith combat against the Republic, and a larger number of neighbors than before, he figured it couldn't hurt to hop on to a patrol on their furthest border. The fact that Voss was in a fairly quick jump distance from Dromund Kaas was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with Anija's presence there. Nothing at all. Not a thing whatsoever.

They were just starting the patrol when Betna's comms chirped at him, showing him he had a message waiting for him. A quick read was all he needed. She hadn't said it aloud, but he knew her enough that to send something so... basic and blunt with little other information meant that something was wrong.

A quick exchange with the squadron leader was all he needed before his starfighter peeled off from the formation. The rest of the patrol went on their way while Betna's craft aligned in the direction it needed to go. He locked in the coordinates Anija had sent him and let the navcomputer do the rest. As the bes'uliik's computer counted down to hyperspace, he responded to Anija with a short message of his own.

<Message received. Making best possible time to Voss. ETA one hour.>

And with that, the message was sent just before the stars in Betna's cockpit turned to lines. He'd be there soon...

[member="Anija Ordo"]
[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Shifting a little under her iron grip, Connor struggled to maintain focus on the fragments of her vision. She was closing herself off, and not in a calm state of mind. He closed his eyes to work with her, wincing as he tried to move his hand around in –

I can’t move – I don’t want to move. The world slows outside, and the room spins as the Mandalorian and I make love; once, twice, all night.

She is holding me close, and I simply lay and wait. But, she is crying, reciting lines of foreign words I don’t understand – there is passion, but there is sadness. He nails draw blood down my torso, flesh peeling back as crimson blood flows form me. However, I look out into the world and say nothing.

I have to think, there’s so much to do I can’t fathom where to start.

The girl hits me, blames me – her face starts to morph between the pale beauty of Sith Lord Matsu Xiangu – taunting me with my ways of taking what I want, when I want, but never knowing WHAT I want. She laughs, I do nothing except think.

Her nails become razors that peel back my flesh and she blames me for killing her father...

”ANIJA….”

Connor recoiled a little and pulled away his hand from her forcefully, standing up quickly and inhaling some sharp breaths. Moving over to his seat, the water was wonderful as he drank it, calming down from the nightmarish vision he hadn't felt for a while.

”Sorry, forgive me. Look, um…do you want me to take you anywhere? Do you need to return to your people?”

He rested his hands on the table edge and rocked gently back and forward, head down slightly.


[member="Anija Ordo"] [member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She started slightly as Connor uttered her name, and her hand dropped when he pulled his out of her grip. She wasn't entirely sure what he had seen, but she got the impression that he was having some sort of vision. What it was, she didn't know. But it had shaken him badly.

His rather abrupt question startled her out of her own thoughts, and she stared at him for a few moments. "I uhm...I don't know...." She said softly after a deep breath. She had calmed a little, but her eyes were still troubled. "Is there any way to find out if this vision is true? Besides traveLing to the location?"

Frowning at his final question, she sighed. "Perhaps. I have sent a message for my... husband to meet me here. I don't think it's safe for me to travel alone." She paused and studied his face for a moment. "Connor...I am sorry if I've caused you distress...."

[member="Connor Harrison"]
[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Waving his hand dismissively, Connor stretched out and sighed to try and relax, focusing back on Anija, trying to get rid of the manipulative images in his head.

”Hm. It’s a tricky question, because visions aren’t necessarily a slice of reality. It could be a manipulation of your emotions playing to a specific part in your memory to create it.”

He sat back down and placed his hand on Anija’s as reassurance due to her nervous aura.

”I have had visions in the past that haven’t yet come true, and I hope they won’t, but I know it’s a manipulation of my emotion telling me what could be, or what will be, does that make sense? Almost like a metaphor from the Force. Maybe this vision of yours means something has happened, but he may not be dead? I can’t say for sure, but if you wish me to consult the Grandmaster of the Order about this, I can.”

When she mentioned her husband – husband? – and being brought here, Connor frowned slightly. He cocked his head as if he had mis-heard.

”Sorry?”

He took his hand off and tucked them both under his arms.

”Well, why did you feel the need to bring your husband here, another Mandalorian? I can’t hold a convention here for Mando’s with emotional issues who want to look at their Force ability on a whim. No way.”

Standing, he rubbed his face and took his glass to the small kitchenette.

”We leave the temple. Give him coordinates outside of the grounds; I can’t have you all here without clearance from the Grandmaster.”

Closing his eyes, his breathed deeply with his back to Anija. The Sith Magic was bleeding into his emotional state again.

[member="Anija Ordo"] [member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Hyperspace. It was quiet, calm, and peaceful. At least, it should be and normally was. Betna, however, was somewhat worried. Normally he'd sleep or read or write, maybe even play a game or two while he waited for the really long trips. But that was with work related things or when he was coming home, not when he was rushing to a loved one. That made it a little more stressful, a little more worrisome.

He sat and fidgeted a bit, thumping his fist softly on the arm rest of the chair. Being worried and stressed and upset wouldn't help things, it would only make him slowly angrier the longer it went on. He'd need a clear head when he landed so he could deal with things on the ground there. He doubted Anija was in any danger, but that wasn't a certainty. He checked over his gear and equipment for what seemed like the hundredth time today. His .44 revolver rode in the dropleg holster on his right thigh, his rifle and shotgun both were stored in the cubby behind the cockpit. Ammunition for all of his weapons sat nestled in and among his equipment and the various knives he carried, just in case, were all tucked away and easy to grab. Toss in the pair of wrist rockets that he carried in the cubby as well, since he didn't want to risk a misfire in the cockpit with the weapons, and he should be able to take care of anything short of a bull rancor. He might have to do something tricky then, which reminded him he didn't have any grenades. He'd have to correct that next time.

Having gone through the motions of checking his gear and reminding himself a few times that there was nothing he could do until he got there, Betna settled back and did his best to nap, or at least rest. He'd need to be on top of his game when he showed up above Voss.

With luck, things would go smoothly.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Her lips quirked slightly at his comment, but at his next words she frowned. It wasn't 'on a whim' as he put it. She wouldn't have sought out the Jedi if Ember had been reachable. But since Yavin, he'd vanished quite thoroughly.

A sigh and a curse under her breath before she nodded. He had a point. One mandalorian - a known one - was an entirely different matter than adding one that was an unknown. She could understand the concern. Shaking her head, she rubbed at her temples for a moment before she began to type out another message. <Arrbi, per request of the Jettiise... meet me at the following coordinates....> to that, she attached a set of coordinates well away from the temple, but still accessible from the air.

Faintly, she could feel Arrbi's frustration and [member="Connor Harrison"]'s...well she wasn't exactly sure what she felt from him. It was more a mixture of emotion, and she wasn't as familiar with him as she was with [member="Arrbi Betna"] or the other members of Ordo clan. "New coordinates have been sent..." She told Connor softly.

 

[Connor Harrison]

He sighed and closed his eyes again. Anija's tone was...just what he had expected. Sorrowful and apologetic. It's not like she didn't know what she was doing, to invite another Mandalorian just to waltz into the temple itself. He turned to her, still sat in his living area.

"Let's go."

He waved his hand up to her, motioning her to stand.

"We'll take a walk from here outside the grounds before you attract any more attention from the Rangers and cause a lockdown."

Connor rubbed his chin and looked down at her. She was clearly troubled, and confused.

"I just don't want any trouble, and the sooner you both get time...alone, then you can head back home and find out what has happened with your people, ok?"

He moved to the chamber beside his bed and pulled out his lightsaber hilt, attaching it to his belt, still wearing his training vest and trousers. You never could be careful with Mandalorian's honing in on your position. What if they wanted to take Connor away and interrogate him regarding his possession with the Taung? What if they wanted to use him to help the mystery father whom Connor should care for somehow?

He turned his head slightly to the right as Anija moved.

[member="Anija Ordo"] [member="Arrbi Betna"]