While the City Sleeps (Open)

[Darth Nyne]

He eyeballed Ryo, slightly annoyed he was not much more than a boy and at that, force user or not, he didn't like being questioned about himself. Especially given his families long history with the Order during and prior to the Alsakan ordeal.

More than all of that he could tell that the young Jedi was getting annoyed, even though his voice remained emotionless his feelings were radiating off of him as if Lucius himself could read him in the Force.

"You boy, need to control yourself better, you know all the hoopla about anger and annoyance and where such emotions take you." he'd heard it a thousand times from his father, who always believed that Lucius would manifest in the force sooner or later. "I've given them access to the temple through a set of codes given to me after my fathers death, I believed the boy would be best cared for here, and my codes guaranteed access." he sighed "now if I could just find someone who remembered him so I could find his quarters and get his personal things."

 

[Jiang Winters]

[ooc: From my understanding, the schism happened over twenty years ago. There's no way for any younger char to know any of the people involved, unless the Order taught the names and faces to everyone within the Jedi Order.]

"A council member won't come unless someone goes to get them, my friend." Jamall replied to Ryo. While it was hardly his place to speak in such a way, as he was but a padawan, things needed to move quickly before the boy could go berserk again, and having the guards stand around doing nothing would not help anyone. "Surely you two must have Comlinks? Call the security office and have a report of the situation here relayed to a Council Member."

With that issue hopefully resolved, the Catharese padawan made his way towards the fallen Kasa Horansi, giving the boy a wide, wide berth as he did so. He crouched beside the one known as 'Jiang' and briefly examined him with his own eyes, before wordlessly moving in and hefting the heavy feline in a fireman's carry. He grunted under the exertion as he wobbled to his feet, and he ended up having to draw upon the Force in order to carry the striped male. "This guy weighs a ton." He grumbled to himself as he turned to head to the Kasa Horansi's ship. He paused just long enough to glance at the woman who had departed the ship with the striped alien, though.

"I'm just going to put him back in his ship for now until everything out here is sorted out." Jamall explained. He did not delay long enough to hear her response; instead he simply padded up the ship's ramp with the unconscious Kasa Horansi bearing him down. Once aboard the freighter, he instinctively hooked a right and headed down the hallway a short distance. He located the crew's corner on the right of the corridor not far from a bathroom, and proceeded to carry Jiang into the seemingly little-used quarters and deposited him upon a bunk.

He took a few seconds to make the Kasa Horansi comfortable, then headed back out of the ship, and resumed his earlier position by standing near Ryo and Sarina Lightell.

 

[Count Sam]

OCC:well, ryo's parents were jedi, and they fought during the ospion war so he probably know alot of stuff about the order,anyways I guess Ill wait for Grim to post now befor I post :p

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

A great murmur rippled through the temple, Coruscant was not peaceful today. The Grandmaster, felt that his presence was now asked. This sense nearly caused him to falter in a spar he was conducting with his padawan. He quickly disarmed her and stopped. "Our lesson is concluded." She would know that he had business to attend to.

He knew the destination, but not the purpose. He would find out soon enough as he arrived on the scene. There was no need to ask for an explanation as someone immediately began to speak at his appearance. He would respond accordingly as he neared the young man at the center of this conflict.

 

[Count Sam]

Things were starting to get more annoying now, as the stranger behind Ryo said something about anger, but well Ryo ignored him again.He also was going to start an argue with the cathar padwan, but it seems that this was going to be pointless as well, since the grandmaster wall already their.Yeah this guy always showed up when things seemed to be out of control.

 

[Green Ranger]

Autumn tucked her hair behind one of her ears nervously as she watched the Jedi pick up Jiang - with some considerable effort, she noted - to lie him down within his ship. While she knew of a few simple chants that would help the healing process, most weren't of any real benefit compared to genuine rest, and the man-cat would end up paying for it later.

She headed back over to the group, keeping her thoughts to herself for the moment. Her eyes fell on the area of darkness where the boy hid from the world. She wanted to be angry at the boy. She wanted to leave now and abandon him to the cruelty of the universe. But...the way he had spoken, screamed at Jiang...everything about it seemed slightly off, as if the boy was not in full control of his actions. Almost as if his personality had two sides to it...the scared, paranoid child, and the darker, angrier and far more violent side...

Before she knew what she was doing, she found her feet moving towards the darkness. And despite the alarm bells screaming in her mind, she continued moving forward.

* * *

Sarina turned around, a relieved smile crossing her face as she recognized the Grandmaster of the Order. If anyone knew what to do with the situation and information that could be provided, she imagined there to be few better suited to the task...he was the leader of the Jedi after all, surely that had to speak for his ability. The pair of Guardians seemed satisfied with his presence, and returned to their posts with little fuss.

'Finally,' she said, relaxing as she spoke. She hadn't even realized she was so tense, until now. 'We've got a bit of a situation developing here, as you're probably well aware of. We could use a bit of Jedi wisdom right about now...'

She stopped, realizing who she was, where she was and who she was speaking to within a heartbeat.

'Also...I'm well aware I'm not meant to be in the hangar...the circumstances required a little more action and a little less obedience. Forgive me.'

* * *

The shadows swirled around him, encircling him...protecting him. Not so much physically, he knew it was simly an absence of light...but it stopped the eyes. He couldn't cope with the accusatory glares. He didn't know what had overcome him. It wasn't like him...he knew the man-cat meant him no harm, but part of him...and now he didn't know what had happened to him. He had looked hurt, so very badly...

His eyes gazed into the black. They were useless in such conditions. The darkness helped him see...other things with more clarity. All around him, dots of light, tiny strings connecting them all together...like a great spider's web, with tiny beads of dew on the intersections. Or the hyperspace route chart for a navicomputer. A giant lattice. He looked away from his own point of light...he didn't like looking at it, it looked and felt so wrong...and it was like looking at one's body, but being in it at the same time...he felt uncomfortable. There were many points of light close to him. He could put a face to some of them. A blonde girl with large red and gold eyes. The man-cat...though he was faint...and another that had arrived recentl-

Her.

It was impossible...but it was also impossible to be any other but her. The woman with the funny ears. The 'Nonjedi'. The imposter. He remembered many things about her. She had been at...at the hospital. She asked him questions. Made him do tests. Copied him. And, at the end, he had hurt her too. And she had shaken her head - she had been sad - and left.

And then the needles. The pain. The silen- his mind shut out the memories again, and he stumbled to find his train of thought again. There was another arriving now. This dot of light...it was like the warmth of an afternoon sun, breaking through the clouds...soft, yet you could feel it to your very core. He was...curious. And just as he reached out with invisible hands to examine the dot closer, a very real hand touched his shoulder in the darkness.

The lattice crumbled around him, and the dots of light vanished...as too did his bubble of darkness. His eyes took a while to adjust, but then he saw her. The girl with the blonde hair...the funny eyes. She looked...not sympathetic...it wasn't pity, either. And it definately wasn't fear or anger...understanding? The look on her face completely disarmed him. He wanted to push her away, to hide again...but his mind froze. His powers failed. He realized his cheeks were wet...he had been crying? He...he had hurt the man-cat, and he had been crying. She looked at him with...with that look of understanding. And he just stared right back at her.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Inside the vessel, Jiang's subconscious was hardly content to allow the hulking striped feline sleep peacefully. Instead of a dreamless sleep, it delved him into a vivid dream. More specifically, a jumbled recollection of memories long suppressed by the neural implants inside his head.

Within his mind, he stood silently on the edge of a wide-open field with tall golden grasses. A winding river with water clear as glass sliced right through the center of the field, before splitting off into a thousand tiny streams and circling back around the field again in an wide and infinite loop, after which the field simply gave way into nothingness, as though the field were an island floating high up in the air. The sky was cloudless and the sun bright, fiercely beating down upon the field with its warming rays. But why did everything feel so... Cold? So foreboding?

Standing on the bank of the river was a couple. A young Kasa Horansi who looked somewhat like himself, and a black-furred feline girl. A Mashi Horansi, perhaps? Both were playing in the water like a pair of cubs, splashing one another and laughing. He moved in to investigate, his long strides rapidly carrying him through the grass towards the close-by river. But as quickly as he walked, the river did not grow closer. It was as if he was walking on a treadmill.

A great metal specter the shape of an arrowhead descended out of the sky. He did not understand why, but the apparition chilled him to his very core like nothing before in his life. A slit opened up in the belly of the object. From it, ten figures slowly lowered to the ground; each the size of humans, yet they had no discernible features. They were little more than wispy humanoid clouds of black smoke. Jiang could see momentary panic and fear spread across the faces of the young couple even from where he was. He roared at the two felines, trying to get them to run from the men. But nothing escaped his open maw; not even air. It was as though he had been completely and utterly silenced.

The figures advanced rapidly on the couple, holding short metal rods in their wicked hands. The male yelled at the girl to run and charged at the ghostlike apparitions. The female stood frozen in the midst of the shallow river, watching as her striped friend was set upon by the group. The battle that ensued felt like it took hours as the striped male landed blow after blow upon the less-skilled beasts attacking him, but in actuality it took seconds. The horde overwhelmed him, a pair of figures seizing him by the arms and a third ramming the rod it carried into his back betwixt his shoulder blades.

Jiang's body spasmed and electric agony tore through him just as it coursed through the boy, a scream of pain trying to slide past jaws that were locked together by the raw power ripping through his body. The boy - supported by the figures - went limp in their arms, while Jiang collapsed to his hands and knees, chest heaving and tears beading up in his eyes from the cruel shock of what could only have been a supercharged stun baton.

The black-furred girl in the river cried out for them to stop, but the male in the arms somehow summoned up the strength to make an attempt to pull himself free. The cruel figures holding tight to his arms retaliated, and the metal rod was driven into the gap between his shoulder blades again. The same crippling pain coursed through Jiang's body again, while the female's voice cried out a single, solitary name: "Jiang."

The boy, was not a random stranger. It was himself.

Jiang awoke with a cry of terror and bolted upright in the bunk he had been laid out upon. His chest heaved and his eyes were wide with unmistakable fear, his claws dug into the sheets of his bed. The pain was gone, the ghostly figures were gone, everything was gone. He sighed in relief and slid his legs off the side of the bunk, then pushed himself off and onto his feet, and walked out of the room towards the airlock to get off the ship and get some fresh air. He could certainly use it after that hellacious nightmare.

 

[Green Ranger]

(Ahem?)

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

(Ahem?)

He looked to the boy. He was something irregular, he instantly felt for the mans pain. He spoke in response to Sarina, "All is well."

He fixed his attention now on the boy who's eyes now glazed over ebony. Tears dried on his cheeks and dropped past his face. He was about to near the boy when he stopped short. A woman of an uncommon appearance... she was doing something. The situation would be neutralized in a moment, or so it appeared.

 

[Count Sam]

Ryo stood back, since it was useless to do anything in the presence of the grandmaster.The thing that was really making Ryo so excited was the method that the grandmaster was going to use to deal with that boy.Yeah after all it seemed that this was going to be a hard task even for the grandmaster, or at least that was Ryo's opinion.Ryo's eyes were now fixed on the boy, and the grandmaster.He was probably ignoring everyone else in the room.

 

[Green Ranger]

Autumn looked at the boy...right now, he seemed so vulnerable, and if her memories didn't tell her otherwise, completely harmless. Still, there was the question as to what to do with him...she stopped, hearing the sounds of footsteps behind her. She glanced over her shoulder - 'Jiang?' she said with complete shock.

The boy seemed suddenly uncomfortable. He squirmed out from under her hand and vanished into his sphere of shadow again. She sighed with slight irritation.

'Look...stop that already,' she said calmly to the boy, 'He's fine, see? But you don't want to hurt him again, do you?'

She got the distinct impression some inner conflict raged within the boy's mind at the moment, and she couldn't blame him - he was clearly claustrophobic, but at the same time, he was worried he would hurt someone again.

'Maybe you could just...try it out for a little? You know, see what it's like...maybe it won't be as bad as you think it might be...and it could stop you hurting people, at least for a little bit...'

She left it with the boy, walking slowly over to Jiang.

'You really shouldn't be up and about at the moment,' she said, a hint of concern in her voice, 'I think we've got things under control right now.'

* * *

Sarina glanced over to Colm. Having recovered from the shock of seeing the boy again, see seemed to have returned to her usual composed self, though there was still a hint of worry in her voice when she spoke.

'So, what do you think about all of this? The boy is clearly unstable...but sending him away could prove disastrous. At least here he can be monitored, I suppose...'

 

[Jiang Winters]

The Kasa Horansi's furry black-trimmed white ears perked up upon hearing that girl, Autumn, speak his name. It sounded like she was surprised to see him up and about. He could hardly blame her; after the ferocious manner in which he'd been attacked, it most likely appeared miraculous for him to be back on his feet again, with not so much as a trace of injury marring his body. Save for the blood staining his torn armorweave vest and soft white chest fur, that was. Still, he'd probably been out for ages, so he decided it would seem somewhat normal for him to be up and about.

He paused near the bottom of the ship's entry ramp and hooked his thick arm about the hydraulic strut responsible for raising and lowering the ramp, and watched her briefly interact with the boy before turning about and walking over to him. "I'm fine, Autumn. I look worse than I feel." That was a bit of a lie. Physically, he felt rather good. But emotionally, he was upset and disturbed by what he had seen in his dream. Or was it a memory? He didn't know for sure.

"How long was I out of it?" He asked, before peering over the top of her head at the boy and the Jedi, then returning the gaze of his bright blue orbs to Autumn and then asking, "And has anyone figured out how to help the kid?"

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

"We can keep him here. Under supervision I think he can find peace. If need be I will be his charge, he needs guidance. Pinning him in will be counterproductive to any effort to help him." He was still watching the boy. "What is his name?"

 

[Count Sam]

Ryo was amazed by the grandmaster's answer to keep him in the temple. After all the boy's mental condition did not allow that, or at least that was Ryo's opinion, but well Ryo knew well that the grandmaster was always wise at taking his decisions, so that made him a little bit relifed.Gladely, the huge cathar woke up, and it seemed that he had recovered from the boy's attack.

 

[Green Ranger]

Autumn still seemed concerned by Jiang's sudden re-appearance, and her eyes shifted around the floor a little as she spoke.

'Not long at all, really...ten minutes at most. All things considered, you shouldn't even be conscious right now...'

She wanted to say more...but it wasn't her place. All things considered, the pair were still relatively strangers, and she didn't want to alarm him with probing questions...no matter how desperate she was to ask them. She decided she would have to wait, at least for now. She focused on his follow-up question for the time being, hoping to swing the topic away from his sudden recovery.

'I think they're talking about keeping him here...honestly I don't know what to think of the idea. I mean, they may believe they can help him, but from what I...what we've both seen, it may be more than they're prepared to handle. I...don't know enough about the Jedi to make that kind of judgement.'

* * *

He wanted to go to the man-cat. Apologize. Maybe he would keep him away from everyone...or maybe he wouldn't. He stood up slowly, his legs shaking slightly. He wanted to run...but he knew he wouldn't get far. It didn't matter what he did now, he realized he was already caged by invisible walls. He didn't like being caged. It reminded him too much of...places. Cells. Containment fields. And something else...but his mind refused to acknowledge the memory. For a moment, his spine was on fire, his skull feeled like it had cracked open...there was so much screaming...but it was a brief memory, the barest glimpse...he didn't even know if it was an actual memory. His mind created a lot that couldn't be real...but there were so many walls...it was hard to tell.

* * *

'Guidance?' Sarina said, frowning slightly, 'What guidance can you give to a broken mind? And how can you possibly protect yourself from him? The boy can't be taught...his mind is far too fragile as is, without trying to cram Jedi philosophy in there. I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but...he's too fearful, and he's too old. All I can see coming from this is a lot of suffering.'

She prepared herself for rebuke...not that it meant much. She was a prisoner amongst the Jedi, and her word really only held as much meaning as the Grandmaster decided it to have...but she had to speak her mind. As much as she was confused about...everything at the moment, she couldn't let Colm take in such an agressive and volatile person without putting in her two credits first.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Jiang smirked faintly and patted a spot atop the right side of his chest. "I'm full of surprises." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders. His words were intended to suggest to Autumn that the 'surprises' he spoke of were responsible for pulling him back to his feet in such a hurry. He removed his arm from around the hydraulic strut upon which he had been leaning and folded his arms across his chest and looked on at the Jedi and the boy.

He took a few steps down the ramp and stood alongside Autumn while listening to the young woman answering his question, and did not tear his eyes away from the group of Jedi as he spoke in response; "The Jedi should be able to give him the help he needs." He paused and softly bit his lower lip for the briefest of moments, his arms falling to his sides as he turned his head and looked down upon Autumn, and continued to speak; this time in a whisper. "At least, I pray to the gods they can. For the boy's sake."

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

"I don't plan on allowing him the guidance a normal Jedi would be permitted. He should stay with the Jedi. There are techniques for dealing with these advanced symptoms, you may know some. Ossus is where he should be, it is remote and quiet. And yes, he can't be taught, not conventionally."

 

[Count Sam]

It was true Ryo thought about that from the beginning. The boy's mental condtion was not going to make him able to join the jedi, yet as the grandmaster said there was a possible chance of helping him, or at least keeping his strang powers under control so that no one else would get hurt. Ryo sighed as he got ready incase the boy made any other random attacks, and as he thought again about the hard times this boy had in his past life.

 

[Green Ranger]

((Serious apologies for the major lack of activity regarding this and my other thread. Haven't really been in the right frame of mind to write, but that's all over now, so onwards with the story.))

Sarina shook her head in resignation, but remained quiet. It seemed the Grandmaster had already made his decision, and there was no changing his mind. She was just worried that he didn't know exactly what he was in for. After a few long moments, she sighed and turned to him.

'If you're so adamant on this, you'll probably want someone who either is a bit closer trustwise to the boy, or at least more knowledgeable on his...symptoms. I can't speak for the company that brought him here, but as I already am...ahem, a guest of the Jedi...if you want me to, I'll go with the boy to Ossus. It's not my decision to make...but I'll go, if you feel it is necessary.'

Her thoughts flickered back several days, to the strange meeting she had had. Her heart ached at the thought of abandoning Edo...but she knew that he would understand. She had a responsibility to the boy...in many ways, she was at fault for his current state. Edo would understand. And if he didn't, then he was no longer the man she had fell in love with, all those years ago.

* * *

Autumn fell silent at Jiang's response. She had a lot to think about. Events had spiralled out of her control, and she had now taken a backseat to the priority the boy posed...but if he was now under the care of the Jedi...she didn't know if she could go back to her old life. Something had changed in her, and suddenly she felt insignificant. There was so much going on in the galaxy, and her personal agendas were no longer important. One of her hands reached inside her dress, to the carefully concealed lightsaber hilt within. Perhaps the weapon was of Jedi make...perhaps not. It was no longer important. But she would not discard the item. Perhaps someday, it would prove important once more.

 

[Jiang Winters]

[w00t, one of my all-time favorite threads is back!]

"Autumn?" Jiang asked simply, as she fell silent following his response to her words. The massive feline turned to fully face the young Tae woman while his tail swayed behind him, those bright blue orbs of his focusing on her face in an attempt to discern why she had suddenly became quiet. "Are you thinking of something?" He queried, but then suddenly smiled faintly and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry. You don't have to answer that." He added in while returning his gaze to the group below.

He made a mental note to leave some kind of contact information with the Jedi before he left, and ask for periodic updates on the kid's progress. He had to admit, despite all the trouble the boy had been, he was slightly attached to him. Perhaps that was the famous kasa horansi over-protectiveness kicking in, or maybe it was just Jiang's nature. But no matter what it was, the feline didn't want to see the kid hurt again.