Private After Asog

[Arlo Renard]

Kai tried to be discreet about parking the freighter in Tribunal Station’s hangar, but even as he passed through the barrier he sensed that he was being watched.

The mysterious man on the intercom at Tribunal Station had offered to let them borrow a ship under the assumption that they were simply “going for a joyride”. He probably wasn’t going to be happy when he found out they’d taken it to a war zone instead. That is, if he found out—Kai had no intention of telling him where he and Iris had been, if he could avoid it.

He would have to come up with a different explanation for their long absence, however. As he descended the loading ramp, he had a story half-plotted in his head already. He would play up the whole joyride mentality, but spin it into a whole crazy yarn about going on a week long bender…

Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Of course, little did Kai know what Cotan already knew.

He could be as discreet as he wanted to try and be, but when Cotan was notified that his other ship was finally back on the station's sensors and headed back towards his private hangar bay, he'd already made his way over to wait for the landing. Leaning against the far wall, arms crossed, stern expression on his face, and preparing himself to listen for just what tall tale would be spun to try and garner his easy forgiveness and acceptance.

"Hey, kid," he called out as Kai started to descend the ramp. "Where'd your friend go?"

He wouldn't reveal anything yet.

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai froze at the sound of Cotan's voice, coming not from the intercom but someone close by. His eyes found the man leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

<Oh,> Kai began, not having to fake his surprise. <She went home.> He took a deep breath, preparing to spill his guts. <I'm real sorry about taking your ship for a lot longer than you probably meant us to have it, but we got into some trouble and we couldn't get back for a while. A week, yeah. It's kinda messy in there now, I don't recommend you go inside. Definitely don't shine a blacklight on it. Do you have any cleaning supplies? I can try to clean up a little, if you want...>

Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Must be one hell of a mess you two made," he replied, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Or got into." So the kid wasn't going to come clean immediately. Fair enough, he'd have at least a bit of fun at his expense. Teach him about withholding information. Of course, Cotan couldn't be too mad, he didn't exactly ask what they were planning to do either. "What happened? Went into the Marcol void, ran afoul of some pirates? Did you make your way to the rift and have some trouble there?"

Give him options, see where he takes the story.

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai shook his head vigorously. <No pirates, no sir. We, uh... went to a nightclub on Bespin and met some... people.>

Bouncing on his toes, Kai avoided looking at Cotan, his eyes wandering everywhere else they possibly could.

Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Bespin?"

Oh, now the story was getting good. "Met some people, huh? Walk into one of the casinos, or one of the night clubs? Or..." He grinned. "Wander on down into Port Town?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<One of the nightclubs. Don't remember the name…> Kai rubbed the back of his neck in apparent embarrassment. <She asked to get a drink, then another… Met some people who had… drugs. Spice or something… So she did some spice… I drank and did spice too, but that stuff can't really affect me. Then we went back to the ship with these people, a Twi'lek lady and a Bith musician and some humans, and things got a little bit crazy from there…>

Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"A Bith? You're more adventurous than I thought. Or she is, either way."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<Anyway, I was tired, and I figured they'd just party for a bit then leave, so I went to bed. But when I got up, we were somewhere out in space, and everybody we had picked up was still on the ship. They convinced us to go to a cantina on Tatooine of all places, and then we had a run-in with a Hutt crime lord named, uh, Gooba, and—>

Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan nodded along with the story, before raising a hand and quickly interrupting.

"So, wait, was it the Bith that convinced the two of you to go to Asog, then? Or the Twi'lek?" He did his best to maintain a stern face for the time being; it wasn't too terribly difficult, given that he did have reason to be stern, but the idea of letting Kai keep dissembling was still just too amusing. "It was really interesting, as I was leaving there and my droid told me that he'd just caught my other ship in the system and leaving. A bit strange, don't you think? Partying your way right into a fight like that?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<It was one of the humans, I think. A scruffy-looking guy with a beard.> Kai blinked. <Oh, you were there? So you already... hey!>

He trailed off, realizing Cotan knew everything. He'd just been letting Kai jabber on for his own amusement, probably. Resting his hands on his hips, Kai smirked.

<Okay good, okay fine. I get it. You were at Asog too, weren't you?>

Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"I was indeed," he replied. He still looked stern in the face of Kai's smirk.

For a moment, at least.

"I should've listened in a bit closer on what the two of you were talking about that day, I was just flipping through security feeds because I was bored, heard something about a ship. Figured the two of you were going to do normal teenager things."

A pause.

"And I mean normal teenager things, not normal Jedi teenager things. Glad I didn't have to go and drag you out of it all, at least."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<You wouldn't have been able to hear me on the security feed anyway. I talk telepathically most of the time. Like now.> Of course Cotan had misunderstood; he'd only heard one half of the conversation between Kai and Iris.

<My friend Iris got in a fight with a Mawite woman who threw her off a train and stole her lightsaber. The lightsaber's focusing crystal is a rainbow gem, so it's a living being bonded to Iris. I offered to help her get it back. We figured the woman would be at Asog, and she was...> Buuuuut... <We didn't get the lightsaber back and the woman got away. We saw her face, though.>

He promptly projected a memory-image of Thalia Senn into Cotan's mind, hoping he might recognize her.

Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan's brow furrowed at Kai's story. A rainbow gem being a living being bonded to Iris wasn't any different than normal Kyber crystals at the fundamental level, though he could imagine it went deeper than normal; and he could fully understand wanting to rescue the lightsaber and crystal within from any painful fate. The face, however...

He recognized the face instantly. He had a good memory for them. From being on Manaan learning with the Order of Shasa, seeing her around Romi's enclave on Jakku, talking with Quill after things came to a head, the offer to bring her to the enclave on his station instead; he'd had precious little direct interaction with Thalia Senn, but he made sure to keep note of many of the lost souls that had entered his orbit in the past.

And he suddenly felt very tired. He leaned back against the wall, resting his chin in one hand with a sigh. "So that's what happened to Thalia. Wonderful."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<Thalia?> So he did recognize her face. <Who is she?>

Cotan Sar'andor

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"A former Padawan of the New Jedi Order." Now he had to figure out what to do with the information. He didn't know if Quill would want to hear about it or not, but given that he had taught the girl for a time, Cotan would probably pass on the information regardless, and see if there was anything the elder man knew about her that could prove helpful in drawing her away from the Maw's influence. Or what her skills were beyond what Cotan knew of, although given how long it had been...he doubted Quill would have much.

It all just made him feel old and tired again. "She was a bit...volatile. Devoted to the cause, but perhaps a bit too much. When she thought that some of the unaffiliated masters were failing the order, including the one she was learning from at Romi's enclave on Jakku, she attacked him. Got herself injured in the process, but as a show of good will he healed her and took the injury himself. Aaran Tafo went out to try and find her after that, and the hope was that she could come and learn at the enclave I've set up for Jedi here on the station. But I never saw or heard of her arrival. I heard later that she'd ended up with Khefiir instead, and that she'd been involved in the attack on Korriban, but not much else beyond that."

He thought about asking if Kai had any idea how she'd ended up with the Maw, but...certainly not. Not if he didn't even recognize her face or name. Romi, then? Khefiir? Tafo was nowhere to be found, that much he knew for sure. Quill had divested himself of both Jedi and Thalia, not entirely unrightfully. Now, though, for her to be working with the Maw...

"Sithspit. If I'd known that you and the girl were trying to find her on Asog, I might've been able to step in and help pull her out of there." It wasn't like he'd expended much energy anyways, making plans with Halketh for how to deal with Solipsis. But even then, cutting out their leader would just send the rest of the Maw scattering. They'd have to be hunted down and dealt with, and the galaxy was a large place. Easily large enough for a single wayward apprentice to hide away, and he didn't even know who it was that had managed to pull her to that side of the conflict. "You need a ship, kid, then keep the freighter. I already have two others just in my personal collection anyways. Call it repayment for telling me about this if it makes you feel better."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

"A former Padawan of the New Jedi Order."

Kai's hands dropped from his hips, his eyes widening and his lips parting. As Cotan explained further about Thalia, and the shock faded, Kai's brow furrowed.

<A former Padawan should know better,> he said. Apart from her scorn for his kind, the woman he had fought on Asog had nothing in common with even the most flawed Jedi he knew. Kai was no stranger to temptation, even falling prey to temptation. But it had never been in his nature to be needlessly cruel, to taunt those he would take as victims, or to enjoy making others suffer.

Cotan offered to give him the freighter. Kai did need a ship. <Thanks. All that stuff I said about the blacklight and the bleach, none of it was true.> As if that needed to be said.

Cotan Sar'andor

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"I figured. The two of you were being too awkward around each other for me to think anything like that actually happened."

Cotan smirked, seeming to regain a bit of his youth for a moment.

"Now, go get yourself something to eat, hang out in the garden, I don't know what. I'm sure Asha's been worried sick about you."

Arlo Renard