The Desert's Test

[Rasputin]

Cassus chuckled at her ignorance. Her master had apparently forgot to mention the Sith to her. Of course he would. The Jedi neglected what they feared.

"Mean Jedi?" Cassus questioned, "I wouldn't say mean, but it's all relative. But I can say that I am not a Jedi."

Indeed, he wasn't. He was Sith, and he embraced it. The Jedi had abandoned the galaxy in their darkest hour. They deserved death in Cassus's eyes. He looked onto the girl. For the first time, he actually felt pity. Pity for this girl. She was being tainted by Jedi ways.

 

[Rector_Ras]

Of course they had never been on this planet before. There was no luck finding anything from them. He was about to turn to leave the cantina when the girl walked up to a guy who had sat down near where they where standing. She said something about using the force on some body. Catching his attention he decided to stick around maybe he could learn something here and if that guy was causing problems he could at least try to help stop him.

Jason got some water and then went to sit down a few seats away from where the 'bad guy' was sitting. He could feel something was up with him but he want sure what. The girl sounded bossy with her first comment but the man seemed not to notice and just kept talking. He asked her what they where doing on a criminal infested planet. The girl answering almost confused and a reasonably rude comment on calling the guy a mean jedi. "What is a mean jedi? A sith maybe?" he though as they talked. She said he had used the force so it was possible. He now knew that they where both force sensitive and if the girl had been taught then she had to have a teacher.

Jason's mind started to race fast. "If she has to have a teacher then her teacher is that guy!" Standing up he walked back towards the couple but this time put himself infront of where the man was looking and said " You guys are jedi aren't you. Why are jedi here?" He thaught that if jedi where here then maybe this place did have something that was worth protecting. He put one hand on one of his lightsabers so he was ready to go if anyone was to try something whether it be the jedi or the mean jedi.

 

[Green Ranger]

As the two cowled figures slunk into the bar, a Gamorrean bouncer moved to stand in their way, grunting and snorting in its gutteral, primitive language. The figures halted for a moment to acknowledge the creature, red visors glowing in the dim light of the stairwell. Over the din of the music, it was unclear what words were exchanged between them, but the Gamorrean soon stood aside from the figures, who shambled into the bar.

Mos Eisley was never unfamiliar with alien or unusual life forms, and so the two figures blended in to the throng with ease, pushing their way through the crowds to a table where two Rodians were conversing over the events of the day. Greeted by the hooded figures, they moved on quickly, clearly shaken by the mysterious pair, who proceeded to sit down and observe silently - at least for the time being. Nearby, their quarry sat - the elder Jedi and his ward, surrounded by a growing throng of tag-alongs. The pair exchanged glances, but said nothing for now. Watching, waiting and listening seemed the most prudent course of action.

 

[Jax Vos]

Magist was now sitting at the bar, watching them. This was too much. The girl seemed to be naive about others. However, as he was not exactly good a reading lips, he could only assume she was saying things that most non-Jedi and even some Jedi would find a little bit surprising.

However, the thing that truly bothered Mag was that the man was not doing anything about it. That made the human-zeltron think. This was unusual, but if the man was not concerned, maybe he was approachable.

Luin Magist decided to move. This was going to be strange. He had never done this sort of thing before. Mag walked over to the man, ignoring the guy who was standing, and sat down at the table nearest him.

Excuse me, sir, Mag said, but have we met before?

 

[Mistress]

Zabić had been in her element, getting sloshed in the far corner of the bar. She eventually perceived Cassus through glazed eyes; and quickly deduced that in spite of the liquor, he wasn't any more attractive than the last time she saw him, which left him practically repulsive. She found him to be rather brash and confrontational, but for some reason her friend Jaron didn't seem to mind his ways.

The crowd around her was so drunk that they would not notice if the cantina caught fire, and she suddenly realized how boring her scene is and decided to venture out of it. One word from a stranger hit her hears, one word, Jedi. Zabić halted in her approach and thought it amusing to learn what the Acolyte would do under the circumstances.

The Crusader approached, silently studying the main attraction. 'What have you found, Cassus?' she wondered if he knew before the outburst from the other boy. But she couldn't just leave him to whatever terrible fate he would surely create for himself. "Cassus, you aren't bothering the fine folks that hail from afar; are you?" she asked in a cool drawl.

Drunk off her block or not, what would her the Battle Master Drakus say, if he found out she was here with Jedi and a fight didn't break out?! She looked at Cassus with a keen smile breaking across her lips as she wriggled a brow.

 

[Sreeya]

"Not a Jedi.."

A Sith. Lana was suddenly uncomfortable. She had been taught about the Sith, but she had never met one. From everything she learned, along with what happened to Coruscant, she was surprised to find the Sith man to be so calm. She half expected them to be rancors in human form. Lana decided to drop the subject, clearly not wanting to cross a line.

"I see."

She had nothing else to add, especially as a woman came to join them and address the Sith. Lana wondered if she was a Sith as well, in which case she wondered how long before trouble broke out. For now, the young girl kept calm, turning to the bartender and attempting to order a drink. This was also a new feat. With a sigh, she slowly began to realize exactly how much there was to learn about the galaxy.

"You guys are jedi aren't you. Why are jedi here?"

This was an odd change of tone. Lana scowled at the man.

"What, do we need permission to be here?"

 

[Rasputin]

Cassus nearly scowled at the presence of Zabic. Although it had been nearly a decade since he last saw her, he instantly recognized her loud, obnoxious voice.

"Zabic, my dear, I'm merely being polite with my new friend," he replied. His voice was welcoming, but the look in his eyes was one of an intense flame. He did not want to be disturbed.

Turning back to Lana, he would hold his long index finger over his lips, signalling her to hush. She had made a loud outburst. In here, it could get her blasted. Her dead would not do well for Cassus's plans.

 

[Rector_Ras]

Jason had been expecting the older man to answer not the female who was in another conversation. She had turned to him fairly rudely and asked him if they needed permission to be there. He knew that the jedi where being hunted and that where they went people would probably be dieing. Peoples families and friends dieing because of the jedi. Looking at the jedi girl he turned and said "Yeah you do need permission. You should. You both know your being hunted and where you go hunters will follow and then we have a huge fight going on and people die! peoples friends and family! Brother, Sisters, Moms, dads and even grandparents could die because YOU two decided to come here. Do they deserve that? I'm not one to take action on nice people but you being here will only cause death to people who someone cares about so WHY ARE YOU HERE!" Jason had been yelling by the end. He didn't mean to be and now he only hoped not to much attention was gained from it. People yelled all the time in theses places right? He also wondered what the older man was going to say he had been silent and if he was the teacher he would have to know at least as much as he did. He would have to know that they made everyone around them unsafe

 

[Brandon Rhea]

A long time ago, what Jason was saying would have been true. Jhon used to have a nasty habit of leaving mayhem and death in his wake wherever he went, but those days were no more. Jason was clearly a man prone to hyperbole. The Jedi were hunted, to be sure, but there was no one in the immediate area who posed that much of a threat.

“Many have tried to attack me,” Jhon said with a smirk, trying to stay out of the conversations as much as possible. “It generally doesn’t end well for them.”

 

[Sreeya]

Lana simply stared in wonder as the man went off on a rant about Jedi causing murder. She could draw no conclusion other than the fact that he was a lunatic. However, after noting Cassus' suggestion for her to be quiet, she did just that. It did well for her because Jhon decided to respond instead. She looked at him curiously. Many had attacked him? He had been very vague about his past. She had never seen a side of him that was the least bit violent, and she couldn't imagine him lashing out against anyone. Lana looked down as a drink was passed to her by the bartender. It was a bright pink drink, and she raised it to her face to sniff it, grimacing immediately.

"I don't think I like this planet.."

She muttered the words quietly under her breath, but they were loud enough for Cassus to hear.

 

[Rector_Ras]

The girl was silent but the man now answered. “Many have tried to attack me,” Jhon said with a smirk, trying to stay out of the conversations as much as possible. “It generally doesn't end well for them.” He had said

Jason wasn't sure if he understood what he was saying so he continued a bit more calmed down and under control. " I'm not saying you guys kill people. I'm saying you guys being here there will be people who attack you and what happens to all the people who are around you. Are they just collateral damage to you? that is what I meant. You guys probably have good intentions but you being in a populated place will have people die. that is all ok. And uh i am sorry I blew up there."

 

[Rasputin]

"Neither do I," whispered Cassus in agreement. It wasn't a lie either. He found this place to be a blight upon the galaxy.

The apprentice looked back up at the girl. She looked so innocent, almost as if she had never faced the real world before. Pathetic. If this is how the Jedi trained their apprentices, by sheltering them and then throwing them into a bar while their masters got drunk, it's no wonder they are now near extinction.

"Anyway, I don't think we've been properly introduced," pointed out the Sith, "I am Cassus. Cassus Jansen."

 

[Mistress]

Zabić didn't even try to suppress her lip which instinctively curled at sight of Cassus' expression. "Acolyte," she leaned, nay nearly fell over the back of his stool, to whisper into his ear, "I'm keeping a personal tab on how often you piss me off."

She laughed aloud at the other young man's outburst about the Jedi bringing death. Surely in Zabić's mind Jedi weren't to fear, as they were morally passive.

She finished with Cassus, "Have your fun then. I will be witness for you to the Battle Master." she said, but in reality, she would have no memory of anything to follow, the room already took to spinning around her. She suspected Cassus was waiting for the right moment to make the first strike.

She stood erect, yet unsteady, looking at the young girl, poor victim of the destitute Jedi. Regardless of her political views, Zabić thought the girl ought to possess some sort of intuition, which she wasn't listening to...or is it that her Master who just boasted about his skills, was her protector? 'They are a strange duo indeed.'

Without waiting for Cassus to decide to move, Zabić reached hastily for her Lightsaber. But instead of the heroic standoff she lusted for in her mind, she completely lost consciousness due to her lavish inebriation and stiffly fell backwards into the booth behind her.

 

[Rev]

Oh how the Universe was such a small small place.

Interaction seemed constant in the famous Cantina; an ever expanding social platform in the centuries that passed. It was that interaction that boasted ignorance to much of what or whom entered through the familiar doorway. In this case patrons paid nothing to a Jedi Master and his pupil both quietly nestled within the social hive of everything vile that Hutt space had left to offer. Tucked within that hole in a shroud of her own was a face that would be familiar to the Jedi Master Jhon Cordatus. For it was the last he'd recall before that tragic ending to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Aÿisha Remy.

The woman's pale green eyes would follow in secrecy as first the Master took seat followed by the young woman. Taking a long moment those green orbs fixated on the girl, Lana's eyes luminescent with curiosity. A smirk would trace along the elder woman's face as a familiar feeling rushed over her. Something about that little girl was reminiscent of something.. someone.. But where her mind began its barrage of question her feelings, the Force, brought answers. The smirk which riddled her face moments before had grown into a smile as her mind caught up with the hard thump of her racing heart.

"She lived."

Moving to take a stance from her seated position only a few feet across from where Jhon had decided to sit Aÿisha would halt herself. She would plop back down into her seat with an audible thud. The chatter of the patrons covering up the otherwise audible noise she would narrow her eyes on what had stopped her movement: Cassus. From where she sat she could not tell the man's age, but certainly could sense his darkness. Closing her eyes she would take in a slow but deep breath, reaffirming her Force Signature was well masked.

Standing at last she would watched as a rather large Trandoshan pushed his way by, but not before knocking over a drunk Twi'lek. Taking a step over the near unconscious alien she could hear his comrades lifting him to his feet as she walked away. As she got only a step away Jhon would call out in request for a drink. Reaching up to her hood she would pull the brown fabric down from her brown revealing a delicate but worn face, dark hair, and green eyes. Garnishing her beauty with a fading smile she'd request one of her own.

"Make that two."

Plopping down next to Jhon she'd look at the old Jedi Master and a man who at one time she would have considered a teacher and friend.

"I wouldn't expect to have seen you here."

She would sit to receive the name of the Sith across from her and she would give it no attention. It was the elder 'higher' of the two bickering with the lesser that truly took Aÿisha from their ranks. Sitting for only a moment her thoughts would reflect to that battle on Rhen Var with Thaed. It was because of that she found herself on Tattooine. Pushing that thought aside her curiosity would finally break its peak. Giving a long look at Lana she would lean in close to the little girl, staring her directly in the eyes and flashing her a friendly smile. Aÿisha's voice would bring with it a warmth it hadn't held in many years as she queried the girl.

"And who might you be?"

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Whether it was on paternal instinct or just outright fear, Jhon could barely control his next action. Despite the limp, despite all the physical damage he had received on Coruscant, he was still one of the most powerful men in the galaxy, and he was not afraid to let people know that when it was necessary. Right now, despite how much he would regret this later, he thought it was necessary to do what he was about to do. There was too much risk involved in the convenient arrival of the one-time Jedi.

The former Grand Master shot off of the stool and grabbed Aiysha by the shoulder, shoving her back against the cantina wall as he drew his blue lightsaber and holding it towards her neck. No one in this cantina would understand why he was doing it, least of all Lana, who would be rightly afraid at the actions he was taking. Only the Jedi Council from over ten years ago would know that Aiysha Remy was the dark Force user, one supposedly atoning for her actions, who stood in the Council chambers just moments before the room was a source of an explosion that destroyed the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, killing hundreds of Jedi. It was the largest single act of mass murder perpetrated against the Jedi since Order 66, and Aiysha - though it was definitively never proven - was always the obvious suspect.

"You never did get to return for your lightsaber," Jhon scowled, as he moved his blade closer to her throat. "How’s this one for you instead?"

 

[Sreeya]

Lana was about to answer Cassus when yet another woman came by to sit near her. This woman had an aura of mystery about her, and Lana found it quite odd. With everyone, she could sense them at least a little, even if they were not Force users. With this woman, she ran into a blank wall. She felt nothing. As if the woman wasn't even there. Lana couldn't place it, and she reminded herself to ask Jhon later what that meant. Her crimson eyes met with the woman's. The woman smiled and asked her name, and Lana believed this was the first Tatooine native that appeared to be genuinely warm to her. Lana smiled back.

"I'm Lana! Do you know my Master?"

She hadn't missed the introduction she had made to him before asking her name. Lana looked from Ayisha to Jhon, but he moved before could process what happened. Within seconds, he had pushed the woman back and had his saber out threateningly against her throat. Lana was mortified, jumping out of the seat herself.

"JHON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

Lana ran towards him, both terrified and angry at his actions.

"She didn't do anything! What is wrong with you?! Let her go!"

She had never seen Jhon like this. He had pure rage in his eyes, and he looked more menacing than ever. What had this woman done to incur such wrath? The Jhon she knew wouldn't hurt a fly.

 

[RollingThunder]

Hannibal approached the cantina just in time to bump shoulders with a rather large Zabrak who seemed to be in a hurry. Hannibal stopped him before he got too far.

"What's going on in there?"

"I dunno. Some dark Jedi nearly kill't me. I'm gone. Too many inside. Like rats."

Hannibal spat on the ground. Jedi were few and far between this side of the galaxy, and quite frankly once you leave Imperial space Sith are hard to come by as well. This was wild space. Life was cheap out here. You could be a junk bot or you can be a Sith lord, every extra day you spent out here was a gamble with your life. This was a place void of organization, somewhere he felt Jedi and Sith didn't really belong. This wasn't a sector for tradition, whether it be chaotic or benign.

Hannibal ran his hand through his hair and walked through the entrance to the cantina. Fancying himself as some kind of hotshot, he made sure he gave off the same kind of presence as an unleashed tusk cat.

That's when he saw the drawn light saber.

He draped his arms over his blaster rife and spoke loudly, "do not bring the law into this place. It won't do any good."

 

[Rev]

Before the former Sith Lord really knew what had hit her she found her back pressed against the wall and Jhon's lightsaber nearly pressed to her throat. Whomever said "time slows" when you're in combat evidently had never found themselves there. She could feel the tension grow with each passing second then finally break under the former Grandmaster's words. It was after his words came to a close that the awkward silence finally filled the once lively cantina.

It took every part of Aÿisha Remy to not reach for her blade hidden blade, to attempt to strike down the man before her. But it was not her hand who guided her now, but that of the Force. Instead she fell whim to the otherwise powerful Jedi's grip, her frail framework buckling some against the strength of his hand. Her arms would stretch out, using the wall to show their passiveness. Resisting the urge to tear her gaze from his own she stared back with the same intensity he showed her.

"If you think it possible to answer her questions after, then I welcome you to. Otherwise I expect her only to deviate from that path..."

She would lean in closer to Jhon, feeling the heat of the lightsaber burn against her flesh as she whispered into the man's ear.

"It wouldn't be your first pupil, would it?"

Moving her lips away from his ear she would cast a smile at the old Grand Master the smoke of charred flesh emanating as did the smell. Letting out a breath of frustration she'd merely wait for the man's decision.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

What Lana saw wasn’t rage. It was aggression born out of fear, a fear of having never known what Andraste told her followers about her daughter and who her daughter’s father was, but it was a controlled aggression. The Jedi Master knew precisely what he was doing. Had it been enraged, he would barely be able to control himself, but Lana might note how eerily calm Jhon was despite his actions. No doubt Aiysha, far better trained than Lana, would know it too, but she would also know that Jhon was not someone to be trifled with.

“She knows what she did,” Jhon said, never breaking eye contact with Aisyha, trying to ignore the mockery of his training of Andraste. "What are you doing here, Remy?"

 

[RollingThunder]

Hannibal knew better than to make a move.

He motioned for the bartender to get him a drink. One was handed to him in little time. He just stood there with a big grin on his face.

One hand on his rifle, one hand holding a glass.