Ask What Did I Sign Up For

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra did not think he would end up on Nar Shaddaa of all places as one of his first training missions. It had only been a few weeks since he joined the Order and all media outlets were going on about his father’s war on the Sith. It was embarrassing having this much attention, and he felt like a weird accessory to all the big moves his father was making.

He was standing in an alley, pinching his nose because it smelled so bad. The cities were smelly and everyone looked gross and poor. Ezra had to keep himself from gagging as he watched two Trandoshans walk by. Everything Jedi was always associated with bad smells for whatever reason, and it was getting old.

He checked his chrono before rolling his eyes. Ezra leaned against the alley wall and pulled up his NalPhone to start browsing through Space Tinder.

@Phoenix

 

[Zathria]

Zathria was taking Ezra out on his first actual field mission, and she was really not sure about this. She'd worked with Padawans before, but never one quite so fresh, and the reality was that Justicar work was often dangerous.

Well, she had faith. Faith in both of them and faith in the Force. Plus she ahd sensed the power of the Force in him was no small thing. Well, she was here to train him anyway.

She rounded the corner, her own lightsaber concealed under her robes. She'd feel better if he had a saber, but he didn't yet despite the kyber crystal, so she'd have to make due with something else.

Good, you're here, she said, seeing him doing something on his phone, but not prying.

Here, take this, she said, producing an electro sword from beneath her clothes and handing it to him. It was from her rather hilariously large collection of weapons that she owned "just because" though it was slightly shorter than many and therefore easier to conceal if he chose. But it was Nar Shaddaa, and frankly he could probably open carry it without even drawing a weird look.

Ever been to Nar Shaddaa before? she asked. She hadn't, and it was... not exactly the pinnacle of society.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra heard her coming thanks to his Sephi ears. He put his comlink away, staring blankly as she suddenly produced an electro sword. He eyed it suspiciously, “Where were you hiding that?” He blurted out, his gaze panning over her quickly. In the end, he took the weapon, gingerly holding the hilt. He had never wielded a weapon really, though his father taught him Teras Kasi.

“No,” He answered in response to her question, “We were at war with the Syndicates so I wasn’t permitted to come into Hutt space,” Why would he, anyway? It was unruly, disgusting and full of AMS. Ezra felt like a commoner walking around this level. However, he had the sense to keep all those thoughts to himself. He busied himself by promptly turning the electrosword on, listening to the hum as he waved it around a few times, “Sick,” Ezra said before switching it off again.

He looked at Zathria, “So where do we start looking for this guy….Master?” It was a blow to his ego to call anyone that and the displeasure was clear on his face.

 

[Zathria]

A woman never reveals her secrets, she quipped as he asked where she had hidden it, smirking slightly.

Only for last resorts, but it will do until you can make your saber, she said. She hoped he would be able to do that soon. He'd already gotten the crystal, which meant that the key piece now was teaching him to attune with it. Once that was done, the saber construction part wasn't nearly as difficult.

She nodded when he said he hadn't been here before, and she wasn't surprised. It wasn't exactly a tourist destination, and to her, the scent of despair and hopelessness hung in the Force.

She smiled slightly as he waved the sword around before putting it away, seemingly approving based on his exclamation.

She could sense his hesitation as he called her Master, and for a moment she wondered if she should address it or simply let it be. For the moment, she opted for the latter, and focused more on his question.

Time for the first lesson? There are some techniques to track people with the Force, but that requires some conditions we don't currently have, she said.

But that doesn't mean we can't use the Force to give us an edge. It can provide us with... nudges in the right direction, she said, frowning before thinking of a way to relate this for him.

When you race, you get a feeling that you should just... do something, right? A gut instinct that you couldn't trace to any sort of reasoning, she asked, waiting for him to confirm what she already knew to be true.

That is the Force, and it works for a lot of things other than just podracing. Before we head out, I want you to close your eyes and focus on those feelings. The tugs and pulls of your mind from things you can't quite explain. Tell me what you feel, she said.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra listened to her and his blank expression suggested that almost none of it was sticking. However, when she mentioned podracing, he was caught off guard. His eyes were wider as he looked at her, “Are you saying my racing is good because of the Force?” Ezra asked bluntly, not sure how he felt about that. Did that mean he was inadvertently cheating the entire time? His father was also excellent in the race. And he was also one of the few human races that could keep up with others. That line of thought was far too terrifying to even consider.

“Uh yeah..sure..feelings..” He closed his eyes, genuinely concerned by the implications. It took a bit to calm his mind. For a moment it looked as if he was focusing, but eventually his mind began to aimlessly drift towards other things like football and Dash.

“I don’t feel anything,” Ezra admitted, hints of frustration bleeding into his tone. He wasn’t used to things not going his way. He had the Force, he knew it, he had blown up an ice golem! But all of those times he had been under great stress. He had never been able to wield it when he was simply calm. He didn’t know how.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria forgot just how foreign this all was for him, and the fact that his racing was born out of his skills in the Force was a foreign concept to him.

That's the case with a lot of things. People who have the Force as an ally are just... naturally gifted at certain things, she said. She could almost sense the feeling of unease in him about it and added a moment later.

You were born with it, just as all the other species who are born with the innate ability to race are born with it, she said. Many races had faster reflexes or many other skills that humans lacked. It wasn't all that different.

The Force connects us to everything else, and is always there, but it takes concentration and the ability to focus your mind. Distractions... well, they're distractions. That's why we do so much of that meditating that I'm sure you love, she said with a smirk.

Try first to just focus your thoughts on the Force. On knowing that it's there. On the feelings you've had before, and if it doesn't come now, that's fine. It's study and practice that hones it, she said. Oh yes, the two words that no one really liked to hear, but that was the truth. Like anything in life, it didn't come naturally.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra felt slightly better after that explanation. It was true - there were many races that were inherently better at racing. Why was having the Force such a handicap? However, that still didn’t explain his father. Perhaps that was because of his Sephi genes?

As requested, he closed his eyes once more. He focused on the Force itself, that feeling he was always vaguely aware of. Now it had a name. Ezra called it to his thoughts, asking it for answers. After a moment, he could sense distress. It was not his own, and it felt outside of his own mind. However, he had a sudden compulsion to start walking.

He began to take steps forward, an almost dazed look on his face as he walked around a corner. After a few minutes, he arrived behind a dumpster in an alley. Ezra gazed ahead, spotting an unassuming warehouse in the distance.

“Something…is wrong there,” He said, rubbing his temples. The experience left him with a throbbing headache, “Someone is scared or afraid..or about to get hurt.”

 

[Zathria]

Zathria followed Ezra as he followed whatever it was that the Force was leading him to. She had no idea what was going to be on the other end, but she was confident in their ability to handle the situation.

When he came out of his almost-trance-like-state, he described someone in danger or in need of help. She paused a moment. This wasn't really what they had come here for, but... being a Jedi was about more than just taking orders from above.

Should we go help them? she asked. There was really only one right answer in her mind, but he was new to this. Running to help other people in danger probably wasn't an instinct yet.

Even so, she started pulling her lightsaber hilt out and heading for the door to the warehouse, sliding it open and hearing the sounds of someone hitting someone else. A man sounded as if he was groaning in pain and as Zathria got a better view she could see that two men were beating on another man while two more men restrained what Zathria had to assume was the beaten man's wife.

Blood poured down the man's face, and he looked as if he were already half dead.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra hesitated when she asked. He knew he was supposed to jump to the defense, but he didn’t feel that strong compulsion. Not because he didn’t want to help, but because he feared what could happen to him, “What if we get hurt?” He asked Zathria. Vocalizing his concern was a first step for him, normally his ego was entirely too big to allow it.

He followed her nonetheless, peering in to see the gruesome display of violence play out. Ezra’s gaze flicked over to the wife that was loudly crying and wailing. He felt a sense of panic. Most of him wanted to simply move away from this. He immediately looked at Zathria, knowing she was about to barge in blades whirling. However, he couldn’t help but ask, “How do we know that guy didn’t do the same to the people hitting him right now?” Ezra asked. The ISC often showed reports of Jedi meddling where they shouldn’t, always taking the moral high ground sometimes with devastating effects. Their meddling left destruction in its wake for bystanders and others that were otherwise minding their own business. A lot of times Jedi acted without fully understanding the situation, sometimes even helping out the bad guy just because the good guy was more brash.

“Are you going to talk?” The man doing the beating asked as he walked around the wounded man, “I don’t want to have to start hurting your wife, but I’ll do whatever it takes to get what I need.”

 

[Zathria]

He was so much hilariously taller than her that what would have normally been a hand on his shoulder for reassurance ended up being a hand on his arm instead.

That's why training is important. We will be fine, if worst comes to worst, get to cover and let me deal with them, she said. It was no guarantee that things wouldn't turn out dangerous and... well, to be quite honest, there was risk particularly with him not being trained. But she also wasn't going to just let this happen either.

She was, admittedly, caught off guard by his follow up question. It wasn't always an easy thing to answer if she were honest.

How do sector security know who the good and bad guys are? They step in, give people a chance to back down and comply, and when they start shooting at you, you know they're not good guys, she said. It wasn't really the time for her dry sense of humor, but it did underline the point well.

Also good guys usually don't beat people's wives, she added a moment later as she heard that statement escape the man's mouth, her gut dropping and an anger threatening to bubble to the surface.

Stay behind me or behind cover, she said. She was a Soresu fighter, and if there was one thing that Form III was good at, it was defending itself to the end of days, batting away blaster bolts at impossible speeds and all that jazz.

And then, sure as he had called it, Zathria stepped out into the open, saber hilt in her hand.

Jedi Knight. Stay where you are and stand down! she shouted, her voice carrying through the Force, booming Gandalf-style with sound and also making it far more difficult to pinpoint where it had actually come from.

Kriffin, Jedi! one of the men spat, but rather than try to attack, they were probably smarter and started to run, scrambling off toward the exit. Zathria reached out with the Force, thrusting her hand outward and letting the Force hit one of the men in the rear, slamming him into the wall not gently but also not hard enough to really damage him.

Help them! she called to Ezra, looking over her shoulder and indicating to the husband and wife as she moved forward to try to cuff the man she had... detained.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

When Zathria’s voice disembodied voice boomed and echoed all around, even Ezra was comically duped, looking around in wonder. However he quickly realized, his ears turning pink as he shuffled in. He was way out of his element and he awkwardly looked over at the wife. He spotted one of the men level a blaster.

Ezra quickly thought on his feet, coiling the Force around the woman to yank her to the side and to safety. Except that’s not what happened. Instead, she was pulled directly into the trajectory of the blaster, the bolt going right through her head. His jaw dropped as he scrambled back, looking desperately at Zathria.

“I…I..” He felt like vomiting, mortified by what he had just done. His ears began to flatten as the husband’s anguished and tortured cry filled the warehouse.


Nat 1...

 

[Zathria]

Zathria shoved the man to the ground and cuffed him but had failed to notice the last man standing in the shadows. Danger bells started screaming in her mind, and her saber burst to life again, spinning to search for and confront the unknown threat.

It was too late. She leapt forward but felt like she was running in slow motion and she knew what was going to happen even before it did. The Force fluctuated and the blaster cracked the air. When the woman was struck, Zathria's gut dropped.

The Force coiled in her and she lashed out, letting it slam into the man, this time far harder than for the last. She needed him to be out of the fight, and at this point, whether dead or thoroughly incapacitated no longer mattered. He had made his decision.

She turned immediately toward the two people who remained and the body of the third. The screams and wails were severe, and Zathria... didn't know what to do. She should have. She was a Jedi Knight, a healer, a Justicar. She had been training most of her life for this. And none of that mattered because no matter how good of a healer she was, she couldn't fix dead, and the ebb and flow of the Force left no question to Zathria's mind: the woman was dead.

In the course of about one second, her mind shot through a half-dozen different possibilities. She could already feel Ezra beginning to slip, and understandably so. She needed to talk to him, but she couldn't now. Not when there was still danger. Not when there was still chaos.

She moved over to Ezra, grabbing his arm to shake him out of the glazed look that was now on his face. She had seen it before on the battlefield, and that's all this was right now.

Ezra, get the restrained man and bring him over here. Don't let him get away, she said, pointing to the man she had cuffed who hadn't actually gotten up yet, but would probably figure out soon there was nothing actually stopping him at the moment. The assignment was mostly to keep Ezra busy and moving. To fill his mind with something other than what had just happened while she made sure the shooter wasn't going to get back up... she had a feeling he'd never be getting back up.

She knew that not only Ezra, but herself had to keep moving. She could already feel the doubts and responsibility for this creeping in the back of her mind. That she had brought him somewhere he wasn't ready for yet. That she should have prepared him better. That if.... and then she cut the thoughts short. There were ugly truths to situations like this, but the truth that underlay everything was that the only person responsible for this was the man who had pulled the trigger. That was the truth no matter how much her gut churned. No matter how awful she felt.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra was numb, and he could hear a pounding in his ears. He wanted to vomit and break down, and he began to spiral into his own mind. He began to see glimpses of something - that same visor and the helmet he saw back in the forests of Ithor. He felt that same icy chill run down his spine. However, before he could falter any more, Zathria gave him an order. He nodded as if in a trance, walking over to grab the restrained man. The thug was so shocked at the turn of events, that he was stunned into silence.

“I’m…sorry…” He said hoarsely at the man that was wounded. The man continued to wail, collapsing in his grief. The warehouse was filled with nothing but the sounds of his quiet sobbing. Ezra’s fingers were trembling, and he was still reeling. Would he go to prison? Was he a criminal now? He tried to avoid looking at the woman or what remained of her face.

The Force was dangerous. He knew it was dangerous, but now he witnessed it first hand. It all felt like a mistake. He wanted to turn back time to when he pretended not to have it. When he existed without it.

“..I’m sorry…” He whispered again, unsure whether to himself, the other man or Zathria. Or to his parents.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria wasn't really used to having to manage someone else other than herself, and she was beginning to think she wasn't cut out for it. The thoughts of wanting to blame herself were already flowing, but that, itself, was selfish. She had someone else to watch out for now, and he was far more vulnerable now than ever. He'd just taken his first steps into this world, and he'd hit his first indescribably horror.

She could hear him still muttering that he was sorry, and with both criminals subdued she pulled him aside.

Ezra, listen to me, she said, waiting until he actually looked her in the eyes before speaking.

You didn't pull that trigger. This is not your fault, do you understand me? she said. She knew he wouldn't probably believe it, but the first step to believing it was repetition.

I want you to say it, she said. Most people vastly underrated the power of self-talk for convincing oneself of something and changing the way one thought about things.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

“I..” It was his fault. He couldn’t think of it any other way. He had to catch his breathing, quickly recovering. He was blowing the mission with his own angst, and it was exactly the kind of thing Pops despised. Ezra closed his eyes and breathed softly, thinking back to the calming techniques his father used. He opened his eyes again, “It’s not my fault,” He repeated back to Zathria, his voice firmer.

He looked past her towards the two remaining men, “Now what?” Ezra asked, unsure where to go from here. Was it time to interrogate them? Who was really the bad guy here? He was well out of his element, and he would stay in his lane and let Zathria drive.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria looked at him with intensity in her eyes as she listened to him say it, waiting and watching for him to actually internalize what he was saying and believe it. He had... at least calmed down somewhat, and to his credit managed to get control of himself faster than many would have.

The "what to do now" was a harder question to answer. On most worlds, it would have just been a "call the authorities" and let them sort it out, but here, it was Nar Shaddaa. There were no authorities or anyone who cared about what went on down here.

Now, we find out who they work for and if it's not the Hutts, we let the Hutts know that people are stepping on their tails, she said. And if it was the Hutts, then things could become more complicated.

And if it is the Hutts, then we try to help him get off world, she said, moving over to drag the two criminals off to a more isolated area out in the back alley.

Reach into his mind, press your will upon him to tell you who he works for, she said. Feel the tethers of energy that connect you to him.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra was deeply hesitant to use the Force again. He opened his mouth to protest, but she insisted. He knew he had to get over his fears in order to use the Force effectively. He couldn’t keep being afraid of it. Ezra exhaled softly, the man looking at him warily. The man was panicking and struggling, opening his mouth to scream. However, that was when Ezra reached out with the Force and into his mind.

At first, he thought nothing was happening, but then the Force flowed through him like water. He could see into the man’s mind, see the anxiety and fear. He stepped past it all as he would dodge obstacles physically. He didn’t realize what he was doing, but he was sifting through his thoughts. Press your will, she had said, and he began to do just that. Zathria would sense what was going on and would feel the Force surge powerfully through Ezra in ways she would not expect. She would feel a pulse of strength that went far beyond the capabilities of a Padawan. To where it was almost dangerous.

“My name is Evon Kai,” The man said, with a slightly glazed over look, “I’m a member of Crimson Dawn. I arrived on this planet because Tarlos Karn was supposed to smuggle Sith artifacts to Iron Dragon. Tarlos insisted on full payment so he could feed his family. Once payment was submitted, Tarlos never brought the goods. My men and I were deployed to track him down and find the location of the owed artifacts. If I don’t complete my task, I will die.”

The man got up in a zombie-like state, moved in front of Ezra and knelt down, “My Lord, I serve at your command.” Obedience.

Ezra’s eyes widened and he took a step back, blinking a few times and looking at Zathria in a ‘help me wtf?!?’ sort of way. He didn’t know what he did, but he was spooked.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria watched Ezra as he dug into the man's mind, sensing the apprehension he felt as he did so. But as the trickle of power that flowed through him was truly opened up, a torrent of power flowed into the man's mind. Power that was raw and unshaped, but Zathria was attentive.

In fact, she was so caught off guard and attentive to Ezra's power he was displaying that she almost forgot what she was hearing from the man's confession.

Crimson Dawn. Artifacts. Iron Dragon? Some of these things lined up such as the reports about the work that Crimson Dawn did. Oh kriff, are we messing with Crimson Dawn? she thought to herself. It was in its own way a whole new problem.

She quickly noted down what he was saying before he started... oh... oh my. Zathria looked down at the man as he kneeled to her Padawan and called him "my lord." Yeah, so that one was weird.

Zathria reached out with the Force and waved her hand, overstimulating the man's GABA receptors and causing him to simply collapse from his kneeling position into an unconscious heap onto the floor.

Because really the lesson here was that whatever problem you didn't want to face, you could just put to sleep. Okay, maybe not, but it sure worked here.

We'll let the Cartel take them and perhaps we can follow up on these confessions at a later time, she said. What they knew was that it wasn't Hutt business, which meant that the Hutts should take care of transgressions in their own backyard. It also made her wonder about the man and his now-dead wife. They must have been smugglers of some sort.

She quickly remembered that she still had a Padawan on the verge of panicking and who looked about as pale as the unconscious man.

You did well, Ezra. You are very strong in the Force, she told him. You have a greater natural affinity than most people, which is part of the reason that I want to teach you to control it, she said. She knew in her heart and mind that he would likely surpass her someday, but getting him to the point where he could use that power responsibly was what her contribution to him could be. He had the potential to become a great Jedi Knight someday, and she wanted nothing more than to help him succeed at that.