A Matter of Blood

[Gray Raxis]

Gray had received word concerning his cousin [member="Jack Raxis"] recent activities. He had met with him not too long ago and tried to him out of going to war with the other Mandalorians, specifically the Mand'alor and Vizsla clan. That had both worked and failed as a clan war was not self declared by Jack, but he had fled to the Republic to fight for them. The real issue though was that before that had happened and before Gray had been informed of it, Jack had attacked [member="Ra Vizsla"] during the recent invasion in Republic space by the Mandalorian people.

Gray had stayed neutral to the fight for multiple reasons. The people of their clan did not support the unprovoked and aggressive behavior since there was honestly nothing they saw being gained by it or a threat being dealt with. They also didn't have any treaties or alliances with the Republic so they had no real reason to care about the outcome enough to aid them. The main issue though was the clan was dealing with matters in their sector of the galaxy and it was too demanding for them to be able to afford to leave to help anyone right now. The whole situation was just not justifiable for any action but neutrality right now. And so they were going to stay out of their brothers and sisters of Mandalore's way.....then Jack screwed that all up and put the clan at risk.

So Gray had a hard choice at hand, and one that only he as both blood kin of Jack and the Alor of clan Raxis could make. He knew there were those biting at the bit to denounce his clan and possibly even declare a crusade to remove them from the galaxy. He needed to avoid giving them what they wanted, and so he had decided to travel to Mandalore in secret. He had taken only a single pilot to fly his shuttle for him there. He had sent an encrypted message to Ra asking for an audience and gave the location along with the time for the meeting with it.

Gray had met plenty of resistance coming into the planet, which was only to be expected. The Raxian banner was met with a mixture of anxiety and suspicion by the fleet guarding the planet. He gave them no reason to act upon it though, and followed their every order. He eventually found himself at the palace and had left the only two weapons he had brought with him out of habit on the shuttle with the pilot. So he traveled to the location by foot and arrived early.

Gray stood in his Rogue armor with no attachments or weapons on him. He was completely unarmed, partly by choice. He was in the same wing of the palace he and Ra had spoken in before. He looked at the trees while idly thinking over everything. He was nervous about the possible outcome of the meeting and secretly feared the worst. But he also knew there was nothing he could do about that fear other than try to overcome it. He knew what he wanted to do, so all that was left was to do it when his Mand'alor arrived.

 

[Ra Vizsla]

[member="Gray Raxis"]

They stood in the gardens.

Well, Ra sat.

Gray stood.

This conversation would require a lot of patience from Ra to avoid in killing Gray outright, so he had wanted it to be here, in Ra's place of worship, in Ra's place of peace. The message had been for Clan Raxis to arrive in secret, but the man had donned his banners when arriving to Keldabe.

This, again, angered the Mand'alor. He felt betrayed by Clan Raxis at every turn. Turn your cheek to the enemy and they will slit your throat, his captor had used to say in his younger years.

Ra's green eyes flared, but only for a moment. He searched, in vain, for his inner peace.

Betrayal.

The absolute opposite of honor. It was worse than the corruption they fought so desperately in the Core. It was worse than a score of Republican Senators lacing the Galaxy with their lies.

It was as bad as Roche.

Betrayal.

This is what Ra faced today, and it was ugly business.

"Alor Raxis," Mand'alor greeted him, his eyes closed, facing the horizon of the bio-dome Keldabe.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray could feel [member="Ra Vizsla"] anger threatening to break him. It was intense, like the heat of a forge on full blast upon bare skin. It was not a good sign for the meeting, but it was completely understandable. A line had been crossed, a very important one at that. Jack had betrayed the Mandalorians, but he had also betrayed his clan in doing so as well. He had done too much damage with his actions, without thinking about those who would be effected. It was terrible, but that was not what needed to be on mind right now. Right now something else was more important.

Gray looked at Ra as the man sat down with his eyes closed. He was trying to calm himself, and Gray had learned from previous experience trying to help calm him down wouldn't work. So instead he just left the man to his own devises. All Gray needed to do right now was speak. So he said, " Mand'alor Ra Vizsla. I hear Jack fought with you on the wookie home world. Is this true?" He left it at that and waited for an answer. He still half hoped it was just a basely rumor, even though he knew deep down it was not. He would remove that hope soon enough though when he heard about it from the man who was there.

 

[Ra Vizsla]

[member="Gray Raxis"]

His alabaster skin reflected in the sun as the shirtless Mand'alor rest his hands on his knees, unmoving.

"I believe his words were..."

Ra's brow furrowed.

His eyes opening, staring off in the distance.

Fury burned in his soul.

"Clan Raxis will defy you until their extinction."​

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray frowned as Jack's words were spoken to him. Defy until their extinction? Nothing about that statement was good, and it just brought some anger to seep up in Gray. His cousin had done and said something extremely stupid, and his actions would surely lead to the destruction of his clan. This was not the path Gray was leading the clan down, and it seemed he was going to have to fight to keep them there.

Gray said after a moment as he calmed himself, " Is that so? Seems Jack has been away from the other clan members too long. He doesn't understand what we want at all." He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was still upset by those words. They were words that could mean the end of the clan when they were innocent of the reasoning why they were spoken. He said after he had calmed down again, " Jack had called several people of the clan together after his fight with you it seems, although none of us knew about that yet. He was calling for us to go to war against clan Vizsla, against you."

Gray let things sit where he had ended them for a moment. He wanted them to sink in before he went on saying, " Every single one of us were adamantly against that idea. We do not want Mandalorians fighting each other, or to fight our Mand'alor. We tried to talk him out of the idea, but then he just said he would do it himself and took off. What he said and what he did are not what Clan Raxis believe or want. We might not agree with the war, but we won't betray our people. We are not fair weather friends Mand'alor. If Mandalore is under attack we will be there. If the people need us, we will give our all to see it is done. But in this war currently, you don't need us. The news I have heard so far about the invasion of Kashyyk speaks to that. What Jack did though......." He could only shake his head. He wasn't feeling like talking right now, even though he was doing most of it as usual. He needed to speak for the sake of his clan and those that depended on them right now though. So he was going to continue when Ra had spoken his mind next.

[member="Ra Vizsla"]

 

[Ra Vizsla]

[member="Gray Raxis"]

Ra slowly stood to his feet, pushing off the ground with his hands. The goliath Iron Wolf stood to his full height, his green eyes furiously emblazoned with anger as the Raxis leader kept talking.

"You dare to caution me on war. You condemn the actions of the Jeedai children being killed. And you stand here, before me, and YOU LIE like a POISONOUS SNAKE."

A dark cloud of anger beset the Mand'alor.

"You betray your PEOPLE. Your BLOOD. Your BROTHERS." Ra pounded the bare flesh of his chest, the veins in his neck beginning to pop, the red of his face beginning to embellish.

"You are either a COWARD for not facing me yourself on Kashyyyk, or you stand before me now, too incompetent to lead your people."

Mand'alor physically turned his back on Gray, as Gray had symbolically turned his back on Mandalore. Ra closed his eyes, crossing his arms, attempting to calm himself.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray listened to what [member="Ra Vizsla"] had to say to him. The man was angry and Gray was trying to be understanding of that. He was trying to handle this as best he could, but the moment Ra finished speaking and then turned his back on him.... Gray was done being polite and understanding. He and his clan had received nothing but flak and ridicule from the other Mandalorians. They had been treated more as outsiders than as brothers in arms despite them shedding blood for Mandalore. They had gotten nothing but disrespect from the beginning and that ended now.

Gray frowned and said in a serious, stern tone, " I do not want to hear that coming from a Mand'alor who was never challenged to gain his position. You know nothing about me nor my clan. You do not know what we have put up with, what we have done for the sake of Mandalore and the Resol'Nare. You say I am lying to you. You accuse me of being a coward, yet you have no proof to back it up. And the reason you have none is because there is none. I cautioned you against war for the sake of war because our people have forgotten what war truly is. I condemned the death of the jedi children because it was wrong and dishonorable. We are warriors not butchers. And I come to you telling you the truth of things only to be told to my face that I am lying."

Gray had to pause a moment. He didn't want to lose himself to anger any more than he was at this moment. He had completely lost himself to it in the past, and he regretted it to this day still. He didn't want that to happen once more because there were lives on the line right now. He got calm enough to continue only thanks to his training with the force and so he continued, " My clan has received nothing but disrespect from the clans of Mandalore since our founding. We shed our blood as much if not more than they did, and we are treated as outsiders. We follow the path of the Resol'Nare and yet are viewed as outcasts. We fought for the ways of our people and we have done more to spread its influence to further corners of the galaxy than most of the other clans, and yet we are not even given a chance by our own. You claim we betrayed you, Ra Vizsla, and the people of Mandalore. You claim this yet I ask you, who was it that was truly betrayed to begin with? You had made up your mind before this meeting ever took place and refused to listen to my words. Is that what a true ruler, a sole ruler, of Mandalore is suppose to do? If we had betrayed you, if I was a coward and a liar, why would I come here today? Why would I do any of this? If I was not a true son of Mandalore, why would I risk my very life coming into the middle of your home unarmed if I was here to do anything other than clear my clan's good name?"

 

[Ra Vizsla]

[member="Gray Raxis"]

"If you were not a traitor, if you had not condoned Jack's actions, you would have brought me the Dar'manda's head instead of your 'sincerest apologies.' Words are not a Mandalorians way. Action, strength. Honor, valor. These are our ways."

Ra kept his back to Gray.

"No proof? I have video footage - not that I needed it, since every Mandalorian was there to see it - of Raxis soldiers yelling death to the Clans. Every Mandalorian believes Clan Raxis has stabbed us in the back. You are the Raxis Alor, are you not?"

He turned, eyes staring into Gray's.

"If you believe my challenge to all the Alors of the the Clans does not earn me the title Mand'alor... if you believe my blood duel against Davon Karr, Anija Betna, Arrbi Betna... that I have won... does not earn me the title Mand'alor...then you are as unaware of our customs and traditions as I fear."

Ra turned to Gray, cold.

He was done playing games with these pacifists.

"You will bring me Jack Raxis's head, declare him Dar'manda, swear fealty to the Clans and return Clan Raxis home to Manda'yaim."​

​

He stared, unblinking.​

​

"Or I challenge you to a Blood Duel, to be held before all of our brothers and sisters, to see if your blood truly is yellow."​

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray just listened to [member="Ra Vizsla"] words. The man was not going to be reasoned with, and it seemed he was more interested in blood than anything else. Gray coming here this day was proof of action in and of itself, yet he was unwilling to recognize it. He was making demands of the clan, of Gray, that were not going to happen. Gray had told him that the clan was not fair weather friends, and that included their own. Just because one of them was misguided did not mean they should abandon them.

Gray stared back at Ra with as much intensity as the man was at him. He said back in a tone of complete seriousness, " I refuse to do any of those actions. I told you Mand'alor that clan Raxis is not fair weather friends. That includes our own. If you want a blood duel, then I accept. But before that I will do what I planned on doing in the first place. I will take Jack's punishment for him. Do to me whatever you wish. Immediately after we can have our duel. And then I will go find Jack. I will capture him alive. And I will punish him for his actions. He will apologize to you and swear fealty. Family, Honor, Clan Mand'alor. Now do what you will, but leave the petty insults for lesser men."

Gray just continued to stare at the man after he finished. The man might be done playing games with them, but Gray was done playing games with the clans. He was going to do exactly what he said he would do. If the man didn't like it then that was too bad. Gray planned on following threw with his words just then. Jack might have done something incredibly stupid with no regard for the fall out of it for others, but he was still blood and Raxis did not turn their back on their blood anymore than they did on their own people.

 

[Ra Vizsla]

[member="Gray Raxis"]

"Leave me,"

Mand'alor sat back down on the ground, facing the sunset.

"We will duel in three days time. You will answer the challenge, or you will be declared Dar'manda."

Ra closed his eyes, seeking some solace away from the lies and deceit of Clan Raxis.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray did not leave when he was told to. He just stood there looking at the man. The man was angry, but so was Gray by this point. Gray knew that nothing good could come or had come from that, but its the situation they were in. He said after a moment, " I offered myself up to take Jack's punishment, but I won't offer it again after today. If you will do it just say so and you can provide the details of it later. If not then you can just forget I even mentioned it. Either way, I will be at the challenge Ra. And after I will be doing as I told you I will. Believing me matters little, because it won't change the truth of things." He finished speaking and waited to see if Ra would speak or not. He was not doing as he was told, but it was no more a betrayal than what they had been accused of. He was giving the man a chance to actually take advantage of what he had offered. It was ultimately up to the man to decide though if he would. But you never could tell what to expect from a man who refused to do anything but keep his eyes shut.

[member="Ra Vizsla"]