Bad News

[Jak Skirata]

Chasin City

He was here once again. He had left Avalore a message...Whether or not she could grasp the solemn and urgent tone of his holo-message he had yet to see. They were meeting at the same outdoor tapcaf at the same time. Despite the false sense of joy that filled the popular area, he knew the Republic was on its knees, nearly at the mercy of the One Sith, yet still trying to fight strong with against them. The Jedi were slowly beginning to show the Galaxy the sort of warriors they were and for some the lines between the difference of Sith and Jedi was beginning to blur.

Avalore was not one of these Jedi.

She found her skillet best suited to rejuvenate life, not take it away and she seemed to know when violence was appropriate. At least...that's the sense he got from reading the cup she had left behind at their last meeting. A true Jedi, through and through...Though the lengths she seemed willing to go to find this coward he was being payed to find foretold of a woman not afraid to let her emotions take hold every once in a while.

"Peh...look at me, judging this Jedi so harshly," he muttered, scratching behind Iskandar's ears. The Anooba's eyes pinched closed in pleasure as the Mandalorian's rough hands scratched a spot that the Anooba had been too disciplined to scratch himself in public.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore arrived only a short while later in a state of tempered concern. She might not have been a Jedi empath, but it would have taken a drunken fool to miss the tone of the man's latest missive. The Healer hadn't even bothered to remove her hospital robes - not that it exactly made her stick out, given the tapcaf's proximity to the Chasin City Hospital, but it drew more attention than she would have preferred.

Without even bothering to order anything, she found the man and his beast almost exactly where she'd first met him. He didn't look too much worse for wear, but the last few months had worn on Avalore rather substantially. Pale skinned and sallow faced, the Healer had put all her free time into her duties at the Hospital. Sleep had become an afterthought what with all the new arrivals from the latest of the Republic's war against the Sith, but there was no denying the sad truth that Avalore was tired.

Exhausted even.

Physically, mentally, emotionally.

She had hoped against all hope that his meeting would bring good news. Dreamt that he'd arrive with word of Hal's impending retrieval. But it all had been dashed away in his message prompt. Avalore felt she finally knew what it was like to be the mother awaiting word on the fate of her child away at war. She felt brittle, frail, but somehow still hopeful.

"What did you find?" she asked quietly of him as they came face to face, "Tell me you found something."

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

Avalore looked...very tired, ragged even. He frowned and tsked, attempting to keep the conversation light. He wasn't expecting her to look like...This and he wasn't entirely sure if she didn't have at least a cup of tea to calm her nerves after the bomb he was about to drop she'd do something she'd regret. Or maybe he was just thinking too hard. Either way he waggled his finger,

"Can't we just have some tea first? It looks like you had a long day." He raised his hand to grab the attention of a waiter nearby and began ordering a cup of caf, lots of milk and whatever raw meat they had for his scruffy companion. "You want anything Master Eden?"

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

Avalore's lips drew thin, silence saturating her form.

"You want anything Master Eden?"

Brow tight, she held in the answer that begged to be given and quietly took a seat across from him. Countless things the Master Healer wanted could be granted by no man, no matter how strong or cunning. Did she want tea? No, not really. Did she need tea? Perhaps. But in all the things she really needed right then, tea was likely not the most important.

"Tea," she said, gently clearing her throat, eyes failing to connect, "with honey. Thank you."

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

The Anooba's ears flattened at the shallow tone of voice and lowered its head into its paws. Was it the war draining on her? The sheer amount of people that needed attention? Or maybe this was weighing on her more than he thought. Davin's brow fell into a more serious position as he reached into the bag at his feet. He paused for a moment, hesitating. Did she really, truly want the news? Did she already know the answer to her question? He knew that when Gil returned home without his daughter and wife in tow these questions ate at him even knowing, but still not knowing the answer.

He let the Jedi healer settle in her seat and pulled from the bag the Padawan's saberstaff. Caked with mud and rust beaten from the time it had spent out in the elements.

"I found this near a young girl's body, crudely buried near the temple. I got the update on the bounty and assume this was Lira's?" he paused for a moment. "He just watched," he balled a fist tightly under the table, the leather squeaking under the pressure, "Hal is gone, whatever he was before...He's no Jedi Ma'am."

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

The moment Avalore laid her dark brown eyes upon that saberstaff her silence became absolute. Though a great deluge of emotion now filled the Healer her face remained utterly stoic and impassive. Perhaps she had finally come to terms with what it truly meant to be a Jedi - to know her duties above her own pain and toil. Or, more likely, the practice of containing everything had finally made perfect.

Several long, painfully quiet moments passed as she stared at the weapon, taking it all in, before she reached forward and claimed it within her own fingers. It would be placed within the Sanctuary alongside Diana's lightsaber hilts.

He would not be keeping that.

"Thank you, Mr. Skirata, you will be paid for Lira's portion of the Bounty," the words were hollow, fragile like glass, "I wish for you to continue searching out Hal. I will not so easily give up hope."

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

Even a novice like him could feel the storm of emotion within Avalore, though whether or not it was the Force or just understanding that sort of loss and the feelings that came with it was another story.

"Thank you, Mr. Skirata, you will be paid for Lira's portion of the Bounty, I wish for you to continue searching out Hal. I will not so easily give up hope."

A split second of anger flooded him, causing even his canine companion to look up in surprise. Continue searching for Hal? What for? He was a coward, not worthy of even being called a warrior, let alone a Jedi. His hands tightened into fists causing the leather to squeak quietly. But the anger became a quiet fury. He tried to hold back his smirk, he wasn't sure if it was successful.

"You want me to find him? With all due respect, there's nothing left worth saving." Not to him. Not a coward like him. "He just watched her-" He cut himself off from finishing the sentence. Was it even about the bounty anymore? Had the Force tricked him into caring for these people he had never met? Or maybe his psychometry was pushing feelings upon him. Those visions were unusually clear and vivid and had left him seething the entire flight here.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Yes," Avalore replied without hesitation, unwavering brown eyes locking upon the Mandalorian, "Hal Terrano's bounty will stand until the day it is fulfilled. By you ... or anyone else."

There was a solemn determination that could not be missed in the tone of her voice and the set of her jaw. No one knew [member="Hal Terrano"] like Avalore Eden did because no one knew the Hal Terrano that she knew.

He just watched...

Sometimes we all do things we later come to regret. Sometimes we all are too frightened to act, too frightened to move.

Avalore briefly thought back to Manaan. To Coruscant. To Cato Neimoidia. All the moments she had come to regret were the moments that had shaped her evolution as a Jedi the most. Was this man lying? Was he protecting information he didn't wish her to know? Was he telling the truth? Had he truly seen everything? There was no way to find out, all she could do was continue forward, onwards, and listen to her intuition and her gut.

Listen to the Force.

The Force was telling her not to give up.

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

"Fine."

Davin stood from the table, startling his Anooba companion, "Sith don't often come along quietly though." He turned from her and grabbed his sack from the table. He was a man of his word and a job was a job, regardless of how much it stank. He would find this man.

And he would answer for his cowardice.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Mr. Skirata..."

Avalore called after him slowly rising from her chair, the virbrosword held firmly within her scarred hands.

"What did you do with her body?"

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

He paused, his Anooba whimpered and looked back at the Jedi. Davin took a breath,

"I gave her a proper burial. I truly am sorry for your loss, I should have recovered her body so that her true comrades could say their goodbyes."

The Anooba's nails clicked on the floor as it walked ahead of Davin and waited expectantly but obediently by the exit.

"You're sure you want to go through with this," he asked, his back still to the Jedi Healer. "Do you really know what you're asking of me?"

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Proper...burial? On New Plympto?"

A frown tugged at Avalore's face for a brief moment. That wasn't a proper burial at all. A proper burial wo-

The Healer stopped herself there. What's done was done and certainly he'd only done so with the best of intentions.

"Thank you," a reassuring nod more for herself than anything else. His efforts shouldn't go with resentment.

"And yes, I do. I'm asking you to fulfill the duty you knowingly and willingly signed up for, despite all adversity and disinclination to what it means. The very same that I do every day of my life."

[member="Davin Skirata"]