The Rough With The Smooth

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Castor had decided a long time ago now that he really, REALLY, hated Tatooine.

If he hadn't already decided that however, being bodily thrown around the local cantina by a local gang for asking uncomfortable questions would be enough. He groaned on impact with a bar stool, having been thrown clear across the bar to impact it in the first place.

His ribs hurt.

Groaning, he pulled himself up to his feet again. Swaying slightly, Castor spat out some blood onto the bar floor from his split lip.

"Alright... now I think I'll give you another chance to give up." he declared boldly, much to the confusion of those around him, "I urge you to accept... before I am forced to take drastic measures... just tell me about The Railroad."

There were five thugs, all of them turned to look at their leader. Obviously none of them were very smart but the fifth man was clearly the leader. He looked tired of this whole thing.

"Obviously we don't tell him ya gobs!" he cursed, "We're winning! So shut him up by giving him a Tatooine Neck Tattoo!"

One of the men advanced with a knife in one hand, intent on giving Castor that 'tattoo'. Castor sighed a little bit before grabbing the man's arm, twisting it uncomfortably until the man released the knife. Catching the knife in one hand, Castor used his other to slam the man's face into the edge of the bar, breaking his nose with a crunch. The man attempted to pull himself up with his hands on the bar for support.

Castor pinned the man's hand to the bar with the knife through the middle of it.

"Look just... tell me about The Railroad and we can all just go back to our drinks huh?"

Judging by the number of blades that were drawn, Castor figured it was probably a lost cause. He almost physically itched to tear them apart with the Force. To choke them, to tear out their eyes and their throats. To cut through them like wheat with his lightsabers.

But he wasn't supposed to do that anymore... minimum necessary force. That was the Jedi way - hence the split lip and the aching ribs.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz had walked in with the purpose of buying another Tatooine specialty drink. As much as she thought the planet was a dump, there was a particular blue drink she had gotten quite attached to. She was spending a few days on the desert planet to scope out the rebels ever since her alliance with them. She had already run into Val, but she decided to linger around just to have more of that drink. Raz was adorned in her armor, not concerned with what kind of attention it attracted. She was geared up enough to fend off most attacks, and people shied back from her at the sight of a PIPE.

She had barely stepped into the cantina before all hell erupted. She watched as a man was tossed across the floor, and his quick retaliation. Raz rolled her eyes, trying to make her way towards the bar to just get her drink and avoid the mess. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option as the fighting started all over again. Everyone had blades out and began to close in on the man that was asking about some railroad.

“Hey!” Raz called out, “Who wants me to blow this joint sky high?” Everyone turned to look her way, immediately spotting the rocket, the PIPE, the flamethrower and everything else that made up Raz the walking tank. She scowled at them, watching the men step back with their hands up. There were no rules on Tatooine, and she knew there would be little repercussion for her blasting someone.

The ‘leader’ of the pack grumbled under his breath something about ‘next time’, before poking the Jedi in the chest and walking off with his posse. Raz paid them no heed, making her way over to the bar and tapping on the counter to let the barman know to come up from his hiding spot. He had been crouched down below, cowering away behind the bar. He slowly came up, still visibly shaking as he looked at Raz sitting across from him.

“You know what I like,” She had been here consistently for a few days in a row now, and she slapped down the credits. The man got to work right away, leaving Raz to her silent, annoyed thoughts of having to break up a fight to get to her drink in the first place. Of course, she had no idea she had botched an interrogation attempt.

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Well poop.

The interrogation had actually been going reasonably well, all things considered, when a Mandalorian woman with the armaments of a large tank decided she had an opinion. Naturally, said opinion became law as Tatooine had the unspoken rule that whoever waved the biggest stick had the loudest voice.

But the problem was that people like The Railroaders were less likely to pipe up when there was the chance of a PIPE being shoved up against their throats. When the leader poked him in the chest, Castor's instinctive frustration at being denied his mission objective flared and mixed with the anger he was feeling.

Fear leaked out through the Force, causing people to shiver and look suddenly slightly nervous as Castor's eyes flashed yellow.

"Next time I'll not ask as nicely."

Castor took a deep breath to calm himself down before turning back around to the bar. He turned to speak to Raz before catching a groan of pain.

Between the two of them was still the man he'd pinned to the bar.

"Ah..." he sighed before pulling the knife out, pulling the man up and making him stand between himself and Raz, "Say, Missus Mando, how do you feel about human trafficking?"

The man tried to squirm away but Castor squeezed his hand, causing him to whimper in pain and not move.

"Where are my manners... Castor." he introduced himself as he ordered a whiskey, "Ignore the sabers and please don't stab me? They're only still red because I'm lazy."

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

She was happy to get her drink, and she lifted up the visor just enough to take a sip. Raz ignored the whining from the man that was still pinned, keeping her focus on minding her own business. There were a few whispers about her armor and the badger insignia, but she ignored it for now. She was perceptive enough about her surroundings to be able to stop it before anyone could launch a real attack. Raz tapped her fingers against her glass, thinking about joint attacks the Mandalorians could do with the rebels.

That was when the man from earlier spoke up, addressing her directly. She tilted her head to look, scowling at him as he held his target in place, “Not a fan,” She muttered as she took another sip of her drink, “But I’m also not the Sector Rangers and don’t go around solving crime,” Raz shrugged, turning back to face forward. What he said next piqued her curiosity a lot more, and she swiveled around to face him. She had assumed he was simply another Jedi - apparently there were several. Why did he mention about having red sabers then? None of this made sense.

Meanwhile, the pinned man was now begging for mercy and whining. He even helplessly looked at Raz, but he knew better than to bother saying anything. Raz took another sip of her drink, her eyes on the sabers on this ‘Castor’, “You expect me to casually ignore a potential Sith right in front of me?” There was a dangerous edge to her tone, and he would see her fingers flirting with the trigger of her disruptor. One shot from that would be enough to shatter him, and he would know it.

“You have two seconds to explain yourself,” She said calmly, glaring at him still through her visor.

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

The Mandalorian wasn't very interested until Castor mentioned about his lightsabers - him and his big mouth huh? But he wasn't exactly hiding them. They were clearly attached to his belt, even if they did kind of blend in with the robes he was wearing they were noticeable and recognisable as what they were.

And since there were only the Sith who openly carried he supposed he probably looked a lot like a Sith. The fact that he wasn't still wearing his sith armour was only so much help. He was just wearing robes but he doubted wearing robes alone would do much to disguise him - he'd heard once that Sith all "had a way about them" from a criminal, a petty crook, so he wouldn't be surprised if a Mandalorian of her calibre could see it.

Probably should have... what? Lied?

Knowing his luck it would have come out at the worst possible time.

"Traitor." he tapped his chest, "I'm a traitor - left the Empire behind me. Started learning some... alternate methods... from an older lady. Real peaceful type of woman. Trying to teach me a 'better way'."

He gestured to the man between them.

"The Railroad is a network of human traffickers that kidnaps free men and women from Tatooine to sell in Imperial Hutta as slaves." he told her with a small frown, "I just thought I'd point out I'm not actually a Sith anymore in case you thought about shooting me for having them, you know?"

The whiskey arrived and he picked it up.

"Finally... remove foot from mouth... replace with whiskey..." he took the drink and enjoyed it before glancing at the Mandalorian, "... so are you going to shoot me with that for being ex-Sith?"

The suspense was killing him but he imagined being shot would have much the same effect.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

His concern about human traffickers was the only reason she hadn’t blown his brains out just yet. She heard him out, quirking an eyebrow about some old lady teaching him things. Raz wasn’t sure whether she believed him or not, but there was no real way to verify anything. If she brought up Jedi, it would tip him off to their existence, and if he mentioned he was seeking Jedi, he would give them up to a stranger Mando. She sighed, finally putting her weapon away.

“Aren't there ways to coax the mind to comply instead of resorting to violence?” She said finally, nodding towards the man he had trapped. It was also the subtlest of hints at a Jedi trick, one he would only know about if he knew they existed. Raz thought of all the chaos this Castor man had caused, and she rolled her eyes, “If you’re ex-Sith, why are you still using their methods to get information you want?” Raz ordered herself another drink, taking a sip of it. She was addicted to this blue drink, ignoring the powerful kick she got from it.

The cantina was quieter now, the violence having died down. The barman wasn’t a fan of Castor, and he kept shooting him dirty looks. Raz eyed Castor curiously, wondering what it meant to be ‘ex-Sith’. Did that mean he was a Jedi automatically? Did he have to go through extra efforts to not be….evil? Was there a whole process? How could the rebels tell they could trust him? She watched him for a moment, tapping her fingers along the glass of her drink. Did he even know rebels existed? She didn’t take rebels the type to draw attention to themselves like he had.

“Interesting to see someone come join the losing side of the war,” She scoffed, taking another sip of her drink. It wasn’t often that Sith tried to come over to the other side, not when the Imperials owned such large swaths of the galaxy. Treason, if caught, could result in instant death and there was very little hope for a peaceful life. If Castor was being honest, he had signed up for a very brutal and risky path.

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Castor was glad that Raz wasn't going to shoot him but when she spoke he flinched as if he had been struck regardless. There were ways that he could take the information he wanted from the man without the use of violence it was true. He knew there were ways to trick the mind into giving up the information and he knew that the Jedi were famous for it. It was something they were able to do - to use the Force in a barely noticeable manner to relax people's hold on their secrets and their emotions.

But it was not something that he knew how to do.

It caused a bloom of shame and self-hatred to swell within his gut, rising to choke him from the inside, before he forced it down. Before he took a deep breath and tried to release the emotions out into the Force, to be absorbed by the Force. Still, he looked away, unable to meet anyone's gaze as he spoke.

"I... I don't know how." he admitted quietly, "I know how to use the Force to shred his mind - to take what I want by crushing his mind but I don't, well, know how to do it in a... peaceful way."

A Jedi way.

"Believe me, if I could do that? I would." He chuckled bitterly, "They never taught us that method in the academy. They preferred the brutal method - said it was more effective anyway."

He ordered another whiskey and the bartender glared at him before spitting in the glass, then going to fill the same glass with whiskey. The bartender set it down in front of Castor and the ex-sith stared at it for a moment. The Dark Side coiled around him and he wanted to lash out.

Wanted to hurt the bartender.

He slowly pushed the whiskey away from himself instead.

"I didn't like who I was under the Empire." he told her simply, staring straight ahead but not looking at anything, "Didn't think I'd be able to look my sister in the eyes as I was. Didn't think I could keep telling myself that it was the only way. When Leah... when she told me there was another way? I jumped."

Castor sighed a little bit before releasing the man. Staring at the human trafficker, he frowned for a moment before shaking his head, suddenly feeling the desire to harm the man but knowing it wasn't his own.

"Get the hell out of here - and tell your boss if he wants to see me, I'll meet him out the back." he instructed the man, letting him run free before glancing at the Mandalorian, "I'll have five minutes or so before they arrive for a 'chat'. What's a hunter like you doing here?"

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

So he wasn’t a Jedi. Raz quirked an eyebrow beneath her helmet, observing him quietly as he spoke. She wasn’t going to reveal much more than that, drawing back her feelers. Raz didn’t miss the exchange with the bartender spitting in his glass. She hadn’t heard the name Leah before, and she wasn’t quite sure what he meant by ‘another way’. Were there ways other than Jedi? She didn’t think so, but she also didn’t expect him to blurt out the word in public like this.

After a moment of pause, she decided the man was telling the truth. Either that or he was an elaborate actor, but from the way the bartender was unconcerned about how he treated him, she surmised he had been around here before. Raz turned to bartender and ordered a glass of whisky, sliding it over to Castor when it arrived. The bartender gave her a look of betrayal and he was met with her turning to look at him, her expression as blank as the T-visor that looked his way. In the end, the man just shook his head and went back to cleaning his counter.

Raz looked up as Castor sent the traffickers away, knowing the ‘boss’ would come back in a bit. As he turned his attention back on her, she had to grin. The fact that he didn’t recognize the badger insignia right off the bat confirmed that he wasn’t exactly in leagues with Sith. Sith within the Republica and even within the Old Empire were quickly learning of Solus. A few rebels knew about the alliance, but even then it wasn’t widespread knowledge. In many ways she actually liked it.

“Oh you know, I’m here to check out some podraces,” She wasn’t exactly lying, “Even a bounty hunter needs off time here and there,” Raz turned her seat to face him, “If your little chat with these people isn’t an exclusive occasion, I might just be inclined to join you,” She looked down at her chrono, “I don’t have anywhere to be, and I’m very sure their head honcho probably has a price on his head.”

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Castor wasn't about to turn away a drink.

Still, he left the required amount of credits on the bar anyway - there were rules for the rebels about paying for their own drinks and food. Apparently they didn't want to get the locals all riled up. Considering the same locals were anti Imperial for attempts to do the opposite he couldn't exactly blame them. He nodded to the Madalorian before taking the drink and savouring it. It was more polite to be seen enjoying a drink that was bought for you than to just take it all in one shot.

It was a decent sipping whiskey actually... much better than the last one he'd bought for himself.

He supposed that the scary-looking Mandalorian woman got the good stuff and he got the swill at the same price. Chuckling a little bit, he smirked slightly.

"... well at least you didn't use that line all the others use." he joked, "I'm just a simple woman trying to make her way in the Galaxy. That's how that one goes right?"

Looking at her for a moment, he hummed before finishing off his whiskey.

"You know, I do believe I get a plus one." he agreed with a nod of his head, "I'd appreciate the back up if you've got the time. Hopefully it's quick and easy - in and out, you know?"

Castor stepped away from the bar and drew his pistol rather than either of his lightsabers. Hopefully he wouldn't need it but hey, he had been without it before and he much preferred to be with it. Moving towards the back entrance to the cantina, he glanced over his shoulder at Raz.

"So do you have a name?" He asked her with a raised eyebrow, "You know, before I open the door and they try and knife me?"

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz quirked an eyebrow at him, “Well I am that,” She nodded, “Except my simple means burning and destroying Sith left and right while I make my way through the galaxy. But I’m simple enough because it’s a pretty easy decision to make,” She grinned as she finished up another drink. She was not normally the chatty type, but the situation she walked into was far too amusing. Combined with the alcohol beginning to hit her, she was feeling particularly okay about dropping her usual reserved demeanor.

She said nothing about his thoughts on hoping the operation would be easy. There was nothing simple about most incidents she was involved in. Even in things she meticulously planned out, she often got herself into far more trouble than she had signed up for. Raz followed him towards the other entrance, drawing out her gun. It wasn’t exactly legal, but she dared anyone here to do anything about it. Though she wasn’t entire familiar with Tatooine, in many ways it struck her similar to Nar Shaddaa: there were no real governments or rules. It was the perfect place for a rebellion to have a safe place without anyone around to enforce anything.

As he asked her name, she paused for a moment. Why did people want to know her name? If she wanted to give it, why would she be in a helmet? It was one of those things she found as fascinating as she did strange. In the end, she shrugged, “Ghost,” It was cliche, but that was the beauty of it. She was known more widely as Ghost than she was as Raz Solus. It had taken a lot of effort for her to cough up her name around Hugo Ion, and even then it was only to him. Outside of her clan, only a handful of people knew her name. She was certainly not going to give it to a Sith - former or not. With a pang, she recalled the last Sith that learned her name, and it caused a jolt through her that he would be able to feel through the Force despite not knowing the cause.

“Just open the door, I’m ready for whatever bullshit they have there,” She grumbled, always on high alert. Raz wasn’t expecting a fight right off the bat - the men had seen the tank she was, and she suspected their means of retaliation would be far more nefarious and underhanded. Would they try to endanger the people they had been trafficking?

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

It was strange that burning and destroying Sith could be considered a hobby or an occupation these days - it hadn't been all that long ago that the rest of the Galaxy was afraid to even sneeze aggressively around a Sith for fear that they would actually get their kark kicked in for their audacity. Castor had been trained during their arrogant days and it had taken him by surprise when the rest of the Galaxy apparently hated everything about the Sith.

And then he'd jumped on that bandwagon too.

Funny how the Galaxy worked.

He was preparing to open the door when she declared that he should call her Ghost. Castor blinked a few times before turning back to her with a small, growing, smirk.

"Ghost? Seriously?" he smirked wider still, "Alright... I'm going to assume that creativity is an armour modification you haven't bought yet."

Castor wasn't often jokey but before he entered combat was one of the few times that he was. Smirk still in place, he opened the door to the alleyway and stepped out. He forced himself to act casual, even when he immediately noticed that they were outnumbered. Two to one side of the alley, the left as he left through the door, and three to the right.

With a struggling little girl held by her lekku by the leader.

Castor stepped into the middle of the alleyway and smiled a little bit, blaster in one hand but not aimed at anyone. The leader puffed his chest up.

"I see you're not entirely foolish... you brought a Mandalorian mercenary."

There for a pause before Castor's gaze moved downward.

"Hello there!" he addressed, not the leader... but the little girl, "And what's your name?"

The leader blinked in confusion and the little girl whimpered as his hand tightened on the lekku.

"Excuse you?"

Castor used the Force to form a barrier between the man's hand and the girl's lekku, letting the girl breathe easy but still giving the leader the illusion he was squeezing something.

"He's rather nasty isn't he?"

The men around the leader shuffled, looking rather amused. The leader was not and he made to smack the girl around the face with the butt of his blaster pistol.

"I am talking!"

Castor's grip with the Force batted the man's hand away and he addressed the man for the first time. His crossguard lightsaber was in his free hand in an instant, igniting as it moved.

"AND I'M NOT LISTENING!"

His eyes were a sickly yellow, anger dancing throughout his entire body as his lightsaber crackled menacingly, the blade casting the alley in an ominous red light. The anger receded with conscious effort from Castor but the unease it had caused did not disappear. Castor's eyes were blue again when he spoke again.

Once again, not to the leader.

"I'm sick of him talking." he admitted to Ghost, "Human refuse like him doesn't deserve to speak. Which ones do you want?"

His casual attitude about which ones they were going to kill was probably unnerving but he didn't much care - he had eyes only for the little girl.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz gave him a blank expression, despite the fact that he couldn’t see it, “Really? This coming from the man named after cooking oil? At least Ghost is an alias, you’re just plain stuck with yours,” She snickered to herself. It was entertaining to let her more juvenile side out, and she normally saved this kind of banter with her clansmen. Perhaps Val had taught her how to lighten up more, and she realized she didn’t always need to be in armor figuratively along with literally.

As soon as they entered, the mood shifted, and she could see the girl held up by her lekku. Raz had her disruptor out already, and she could see a couple of the men nervously shifting at the sight of it. She was about to shoot, but she was more curious about how Castor was acting. She didn’t miss the flash of yellow in his eyes, and she had been around enough Sith to recognize their mannerisms. Her eyes narrowed behind the T-visor, and she briefly pondered who was her true enemy here.

In the end, he quickly recovered from it, shifting focus back to the leader. Raz was already on the move, and she leveled and fired the gun. The leader was in the middle of angrily talking when the bolt tore through his head. All of a sudden, there was a spray of blood and viscera that splashed behind him, splattering the wall there. There was no head above his shoulders anymore. The girl screamed, the body next to her slow to drop to its knees and topple forward. She crouched and got into a defensive pose, trying to protect herself from everything around her.

Raz had already focused her attention back to Castor, the humor and lighthearted nature completely gone, “Get your shit together, ex-Sith, or it’ll be your entrails that’ll need to be mopped up next,” She shoved him out of the way rudely to aim at a man that had been taking aim at Castor, firing her sidearm blaster at his chest. The entire area was in motion, the leader’s men trying to fire at the two. Raz quickly rushed to the side and dove behind a set of crates. One of the men primed a grenade and tossed it towards Castor, not at all concerned with how packed together this place was.

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Well this was going to hell in a handbasket.

And his name had a proud lineage beyond mere cooking oil! But this was neither the time nor the place to make a big deal out of it now was it?

Moving as soon as Raz had pushed past him, he flicked his lightsaber up, deflecting two shots aimed at his front down to the ground at the feet of the shooters. The little girl screamed and covered her head. Castor internally swore for a moment before firing his blaster twice, catching one of the men in the gut, causing him to double over.

Seeing the man doubled over was just what he needed to come up with some way to deal with the new threat: The grenade. It was close to him but that meant it was close to literally everyone else in the alleyway, including his Mandalorian ally and the little girl. Using the Force, he grabbed the man who was doubled over and threw him on top of the grenade at the same time as he charged the last thug nearby the girl.

The grenade exploded.

It shredded through the man Castor had thrown on top of it but the blast was not entirely contained - the ringing in Castor's ears would likely be there for some time. Using his lightsaber close to his chest, Castor blocked the instinctive fire from the man he was charging until he was too close and he was able to impale the man through the stomach. He took the man down to the ground and that was the only reason he noticed that the speeder at the end of the alley pulled forward.

Except it wasn't a simple speeder.

It was a tactical.

"DOWN!"

Laying flat on the ground, Castor rolled to the right to hug close to the wall as the repeater on the tactical opened fire, lighting up the alleyway with a hail of blaster fire.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

“What the kriff?!” Raz ducked to the side as the speeder began to start blasting towards them. Her cover was being quickly blown to bits, and she had moments to react. She barely saw what the not!Jedi was doing, crouching to keep from being blown to shreds. She knew she would have a very small moment when the firing stopped to keep from overheating. A few bolts grazed very narrowly past her, two of them tearing into the plates on her shoulders.

At long last, there was a brief pause. Raz popped up from where she was, finding the coast clear thankfully. She leveled her wrist and fired her rocket, watching it zoom right towards the speeder and hit it square. There was an explosion as Raz ducked back behind what remained of her cover, the speeder completely ruined. She waited for a moment, wondering if she needed to pack more explosives into this encounter.

The moment of pause told her that the speeder was too damaged to fire, or the people doing the firing were dead. Raz slowly got up from cover, glancing down the alley. The speeder was in flames, and there was silence in the streets. She finally rose to stand, relieved that they had neutralized the threat. However, after a moment, it became clear why she had a direct line of fire to the speeder.

The young girl was lying motionless on the ground, her body completely riddled with blasterfire. Raz grimaced beneath her helmet, shaking her head, “Damn,” She muttered, her gaze lingering for a moment on the girl. It didn’t stay there much longer, however, and she was already making her way towards the other bodies. She went through their belongings, finding datapads and other items that might give a clue on where the main base of operations was. She was surprisingly calloused towards the dead girl in the middle of the alley.

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Trust a Mandalorian to be packing enough explosives to make mince meat of a tactical... Castor was about to thank Raz when he spotted the same thing that she did. Unlike the Mandalorian, Castor was not able to just turn off. He rolled over to the small body of the little girl and for a few seconds desperately searched for any signs of life. With the Force, with the Light, he knew that he could heal wounds. If there was something, some sign of life, then he should be able to do something! Enough to get some kolto and then some surgery.

But as soon as he touched the girl he knew there was no point.

The little girl was dead and she had been dead probably since the tactical had first opened fire. He took a deep breath and had to immediately work on controlling his emotions before he began to rummage through the pockets of the leader, who's headless corpse was right beside the little girl.

He didn't find anything.

Standing up, Castor kicked the corpse in the side savagely, breaking some ribs of the man who was already far too dead to care. He was having a hard time controlling the well of anger that threatened to bubble up inside of him. The girl had died for nothing and now her blood was, quite literally, on Castor's hands.

"... I karking hate this planet." he growled as he advanced towards the only living being (aside from Raz) he could feel in the Force, "And I karking hate that being a Jedi means I have to show mercy and compassion... to scum like you!"

Castor dragged the driver of the technical out through the broken window, depositing the thoroughly burned man on the pavement. He stood over the whimpering man for a second, breathing heavily, before pulling his emotions back under control.

"Let me into your mind to find the information I want." he told the man quietly as he knelt down beside him, "And I will give you a quick death. Save you from the agony you brought upon yourself."

He placed a hand on the man's head and pushed his will into the man's mind, plucking information from it. While he wasn't being as gentle as he normally would have been - he was still being a lot more gentle than a Sith would be. By the time Castor knew that there was a nearby garage operating as a cover for the trafficking, the man's mind was still intact and he was whispering, croaking, for Castor to kill him.

Castor looked down at the man for a second before impaling him through the heart with his lightsaber before extinguishing it.

"... there's a garage around the corner." he told Raz, "I'm going to free the people. You do what you want. Thank you for destroying the technical."

He was too tired of having to be the 'good' guy right now to be polite or ask for help that, in all honesty, he probably needed.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz whipped around to look at him as he growled about being a Jedi and the limitations that came with it. She watched him approach a whimpering man and the words he uttered. As the moment ticked by, she felt rage well up in her chest. Her jaw tightened as she watched him all but torture the man and drain him of knowledge. She walked closer towards him, right as he used the saber to impale the man. The action was swift, efficient and very much…

“Sith,” She hissed, looking at Castor, “You’re a kriffing Sith. You are no Jedi,” She said flatly. She was angry - beyond angry. Raz wasn’t one to be fooled easily, and she had given this scum the benefit of doubt. He hadn’t come across as a Sith, and the fact that he casually talked about being a Jedi confused her even more. Did he truly associate with Jedi or was he making a sick joke? Raz didn’t care if this meant the alliance between her and the GA was in trouble - nothing he did spoke to her of Jedi. He had brutalized that man and made him a hollow shell, and he put him out of his misery right after that. She couldn’t respect a single bit of that, and she wasn’t the type to hold back when something triggered her like this.

Without hesitating, she leveled her gauntlet and fired off a jet of flames directly towards him. Her other hand began to level the heavy blaster in her hand, prepared to shoot. The flames were intended to engulf him and roast him alive. She didn’t give it a second thought, no hesitation whatsoever. She didn’t care that they were joking around moments prior, his actions proved that he was the enemy. He had precious seconds to react before she would keep pressing attacks on him till he was dead.

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Force damn it.

The Mandalorian was doing what her people did - get angry and try and kill anything that made them angry. She had seemed better than the rest but apparently not. Apparently she was just as willing to kill someone because she assumed she knew everything about them. She didn't know how hard it was for someone who had been a Sith to become a Jedi and she would never know. Worse, she would never care.

So there was no point in arguing with her or attempting to reason with her.

Gritting his teeth, Castor grabbed the door of the speeder with the Force and flung it at her before using the Force to add to his speed as he dashed out of sight. The back of his robes caught alight regardless but he avoided being burned by slipping free from his robes as he ran.

He would duck around a second corner before using the Force to jump onto a rooftop and continue his escape. As he was running, a heavy feeling began to form in the pit of his stomach. What he had done back there began to actually catch up to him and he stopped atop a rooftop some distance away, hiding behind an air conditioner unit as he slid down to his knees.

"Gods... Gods what have I done...?" he questioned himself as he looked down at his shaking hands, clenching and unclenching them as he watched, "She was right that... that was not the Jedi way. I need to get better. I need to keep fighting against things like that. I... I won't fail my Master."

Taking a deep breath, he made the decision.

It was time to do it - time to purge himself of everything Sith. It was time, at last, to purify his kyber crystals and shut the door on the temptations and the weaknesses of his past.

/Exit Thread
@Sreeya