Private Behind Closed Doors

[Braze]

TAGS: Jasper Kai'el Valery Noble

As Braze and Jasper disembarked from the stolen—liberated space cruiser, they strode purposefully through the grand halls of the Jedi Temple. It had been a harrowing event that had taken them to a small underground cloning facility, where they had been kidnapped and held against their will for what had felt like an eternity. But they had prevailed, their resilience and resourcefulness shining through once again. This time, they hadn't only rescued themselves but a group of young Force-sensitive children, innocent lives that had been subjected to the dark machinations of malefactor.

As they approached the meeting room where they were to give their debriefing to Valery, the Sword of the New Jedi Order and Council Member in charge of quite a deal that went on in the order, Braze couldn't help but feel a sense of apprehension. He knew that what they had discovered in that cloning facility could have far-reaching implications for the galaxy as a whole.

Braze followed closely behind Jasper, that sense of uneasy nervousness settled in the pit of his stomach. He had heard of Valery, many times before. Her reputation as an astute leader preceded her. Yet, despite having seen her address the Council on numerous occasions, he had never been in her direct presence, let alone spoken to her.

The memory of Kaleleon ’s trial came to mind, a moment when Braze had been present in the Council chamber, but had chosen to remain silent, even when the shield Kahlil Noble had called on him. It wasn't his place to speak then, and he had respected the authority of the Council. But this was different. He was here to deliver a report of their harrowing ordeal, an experience that had tested their mettle and had far-reaching implications.

As they approached the meeting room where Valery awaited, Braze couldn't help but fidget, adjusting the collar of his robes and smoothing out invisible wrinkles. He glanced sideways at Jasper, seeking reassurance in his mentor's presence, silently wondering how this encounter would play out.

“She’s nice right?” He managed out a mousy squeak just at they reached the doors.

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Braze , Valery Noble

​

“She’s nice right?”

Jasper gave a warm smile to this. It was rather innocent of a question. The boy must not have had too many run-ins with the sword. He sometimes forgot not everyone did. After all, he was on the council. Debriefs with his fellow members was a pretty common occurance, and Valery had been one of his mentours as a learner.

"Very nice," he assured. "I've known Master Noble for... a while now. She taught me a lot, even when she had students of her own to take care of. I... have some stories I could tell, but I'll save all of that for another time."

He very much looked up to Valery, perhaps not in a way too dissimilar from how Braze looked up to him. Childish, perhaps, but a part of Jasper still very much strived to be half the Jedi that Master Noble was. A part of him wondered if that was even possible. After all, her and Kahlil had faced so much. He didn't even know where he would begin to even reach that kind of achievement. Regardless, the knight wasn't here to be whistful. They did have a report to give, though a greatly impromptu one.

"Come on," Jasper continued, patting Braze on the back. "Let's get in there, yeah?"

Jasper would lead, stepping through the door of the council chambers and giving an awkward sigh. He was used to debriefs, but the kind where he wound up in some sort of trouble unintentionally were always kind of weird. The knight had historically had pretty bad luck. He half expected Master Noble to have already been prepared for something like this.

"Master Noble," he greeted, giving a half bow. "Sorry for the... sudden need for council. It's been a strange last few days."

They had a long meeting ahead of them if what they had discovered was any indication of.

 

[Valery Noble]

Council Chambers

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Braze Jasper Kai'el

As soon as the turbolift made its way up, and the two Jedi stepped into the chambers, Valery turned away from the window. She had been looking across the Coruscant skyline for a while now, lost in thought and wondering about what came next. A new war was threatening to plunge the Galaxy back into chaos, and in her personal life, there was more than enough to think about as well. From raising her children, to handling her Padawans.

But, for now, she would focus on other important matters.

"Knight Kai'el," Valery began before she dipped her head in greeting, "Padawan Braze," she then added. This was the first time she properly met Jasper's Padawan, so she was quite interested to find out what he was like. She had high expectations of a Padawan under Jasper's training.

"How can I help you two?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Valery Noble Jasper Kai'el

​

As they approached the council chambers, Braze followed Jasper's lead, his nerves starting to kick in a bit. He had never been in such a formal setting where eh was expected to preform and participate before, and the weight of the situation they were about to discuss hung heavily on his shoulders.

When they entered and Valery turned to greet them, Braze instinctively dipped his head in response to her acknowledgment. He respected her reputation as a Jedi Master, and it was an honor to be in her presence.

"Master Noble," he greeted with a slight bow, trying to maintain a respectful and composed demeanor. "We've come to report an... unexpected situation that we recently encountered. It involves a cloning facility and the rescue of several Force-sensitive children. We commandeered a star cruiser from the adversary and left an underground facility stationed on the forest moon of Endor." Braze's voice was steady, but his eyes held a hint of concern as he prepared to share the details of their mission. He glanced to Jasper uncertain if his Master wanted to elaborate on it or detail any plans he had for dismantling the place or weather or not they had the resources to send to something that was in a way small scale.

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Braze , Valery Noble

​

"We've come to report an... unexpected situation that we recently encountered. It involves a cloning facility and the rescue of several Force-sensitive children. We commandeered a star cruiser from the adversary and left an underground facility stationed on the forest moon of Endor."

"There's... more than that," Jasper noted with a frown. "They have some kind of network in the underworld, been kidnapping force sensitives. If I... understand correctly, I think they've been mixing DNA, trying to find a combination with the best outcome. They're making soldiers."

He remained composed, but his disgust was clear. Valery was one of the first people to learn what he was. There were very few things in the Galaxy that Jasper truly hated, but people who played with life were a breed that he truly despised. The knight would never let this hatred consume him, but it was there, hidden below the surface. Nobody deserved to play god, not like this.

"I believe I met the base donor," he noted. "Some red-haired mercenary. There was a room there he was defending, but didn't seem to care when we sprung the place with the kids. Whatever boss they were opperating under wasn't there. I figure they've cleared out the place by now, gotten out their personell and all that..."

Jasper sighed, crossing his arms and beginning to stroke his chin.

"This is bigger than we saw," the knight stated. "I... don't think us getting taken there was an accident."

Or at the very least Braze ending up there wasn't an accident.

 

[Valery Noble]

Council Chambers

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Braze Jasper Kai'el

Clones? Rescued Force-sensitive children?

Valery frowned at the early details that were being revealed, but there were a lot of unanswered questions. Seeing Braze turn to Jasper, however, kept her quiet for now, so she could listen to what he wanted to add. And it only got far worse from there — this was clearly no isolated incident, but an elaborate plan to take Force sensitive children for experimentation. Cloning in and of itself was something highly frowned upon these days, but to involve kids like that?

The motherly side of Valery was a raging inferno, though one she could control.

"There are several problems here, in my opinion. The ongoing experiments and large-scale operation they have is one, but the source of it is their ability to find Force sensitives. You can't exactly see whether or not someone has our connection. The Jedi rely on a list that we maintain, and our senses can help too. But the presence of a young child is not that strong, and can easily be missed."

If they had a way to find them easily, it'd be a huge problem.

"Do you two have any leads still that can help us stop this? Maybe some data from the ship you took from them? Or something you found while you were there?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Jasper Kai'el Valery Noble

"It's true," he began, addressing Valery's concerns. "They seem to have found a way to identify these children easily, and that's what makes this operation so dangerous."

He paused for a moment, reflecting on their recent mission. "As for leads, we did manage to secure some data from the ship we liberated; It's full of data from what fuel ports they visited last and their navigation computer wasn't wiped. " Braze explained.

"There might be clues there that could help us track down the source of this operation and hopefully put an end to it. Those kids don't really know what Jedi are or what the force really is... They were pretty well shut off from the real world. "

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Braze , Valery Noble

​

"They could have a rogue Seeker," Jasper theorized, scratching his chin. "Someone who's trained to find force-sensitives. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time... or maybe the right time. Regardless, there's clearly someone more skilled at the top, someone who knows what they're doing."

It was most certainly concerning. Rogue Jedi was not an unfamiliar concept to Jasper. Those who lost their way could easily be twisted into something far more dangerous. In this instance they just so happened to be assisting with the breaking of the laws of nature. That frustrated Jasper greatly. Life... The Force... It was not ment to be used in this way, not when the beings that wound up being created were only made to suffer. Toil for a master they never wanted to serve.

"We'll need to rehabilitate the children," he told Valery. "They're aging naturally. This... shadow organization was raising them in a room underground, isolated from everyone but a few people. They were training them to be soldiers, I think, at least if their gene donor was anything to go off of. I'll help with what I can, but someone with far more experience with young ones in that kind of state will need to help them."

He wasn't quallified. They needed professional help.

"I'm not surprised something like this is happening," the Sentinel of Harmony stated with a sadder expression. "I just..." He sighed, crossing his arms as he thought for a moment. "I didn't want to be the one to have to find it."

 

[Valery Noble]

Council Chambers

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jasper Kai'el Braze

"Very concerning," Valery said with a frown. Force-sensitive children had always been quite safe, with very few able to track them down unless they exposed their connection on accident. The Jedi had their list, their senses and even blood tests to figure it out. Normal people could only go off of more direct things happening caused by the children.

So either they had something new, or someone was helping them. Or worse, it was someone trained in the ways of the Force who was behind everything.

Valery then nodded at Braze, as he explained what kind of information they had available, but she was quick to turn to Jasper as well. His concerns were most important to address right now, "We should contact the parents of the kids, and get them involved in providing help. We can't do anything without their consent."

"While we do that, we should try to use the intel you two found on the ship to stop this from happening again. Preferably as soon as possible, because every second counts in these situations."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Valery Noble Jasper Kai'el

​

Braze's brow furrowed in concern as he explained the situation to his fellow Jedi. He wanted to provide as much information as possible to help them make informed decisions.

"Well, it was only us and Tessa there specifically," Braze began, his voice filled with a mixture of worry and frustration. "I'm not so sure Tessa has parents from what we talked about on the way here. Maybe if they have other locations, they might have more prisoners. The children we brought with us appear to have been... uh... 'grown,' as part of their experiments. And I don't think they really have parents either."

He hoped that this additional information would aid their mission and give his fellow Jedi a clearer picture of the situation they were dealing with.

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Valery Noble , Braze

​

"While we do that, we should try to use the intel you two found on the ship to stop this from happening again. Preferably as soon as possible, because every second counts in these situations."

"I'd... like to request aditional hands working on the case," Jasper noted. "There's a lot of things I need to reflect on. This case is... a little more personal for me. I need some time to collect myself."

He had been in the zone when everything was going down, at least for the sake of making sure that Braze and the children were safe, but now things were different. Jasper had time to reflect on the situation, the biases of his youth creeping back into play. Even if he had come to terms with who he was, the knight could never really move past the pain that the man who created him had caused. At peace but not forgiven. It was a strange spot to be in, one which gave him an aversion to those who dabbled with effecting the lawas of nature.

Jasper sighed, hanging his head a little. He was a member of the Jedi Council. Shouldn't he have these things under control? Especially in the face of his student, the man couldn't help but feel ashamed for being a bit of an emotional mess.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I don't mean to drop this on someone out of the blue. I just... need a minute."

 

[Valery Noble]

Council Chambers

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jasper Kai'el Braze

Braze's clarification helpes Valery better understand the situation they were in. It complicated things a lot, because simply keeping the kids wasn't that easy to do. They couldn't be forced into being Jedi, and they'd need to be signed up with authorities here on Coruscant as well. It was a bit of a mess, especially because there were several of them. But...they would be safest with the Jedi, at least for now.

In addition, Braze also helped Valery understand the emotions she felt from Jasper. This hit closer to home than he liked.

"We all have our limits and boundaries," Valery assured Jasper with a gentle smile. "There is a time and place for confronting our fears or things that make us uncomfortable, but there are lives at stake here. Perhaps it would be wise that I get involved myself?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: @ Valery Noble Jasper Kai'el

Braze could sense how this was all weighing on Jasper, and his brow furrowed with concern. He wanted to offer comfort or reassurance to his mentor, but the situation was undeniably complex. He listened intently to what Valery was saying, and as she spoke, he nodded slowly in understanding.

"I don't know if there's another location," Braze began, his voice measured and thoughtful. "I counted twenty-four of the red heads… there was another young person there, but they didn't come with us. They had this."

With those words, Braze retrieved an ancient lightsaber hilt from his robe and presented it to Valery. The hilt was a relic from a bygone era, and its design was markedly different from the lightsabers of modern times. The hilt was made of aged, weathered metal, and it bore intricate engravings and markings that seemed to tell a story of its own. It was a cross guard style hilt, and bore golden electrum detailing.

What truly set this lightsaber apart, however, was the crystal it contained. Instead of the standard kyber crystal, this saber's core was powered by a rare crystal known as the Adegan crystal. It emitted a soft, ethereal glow, casting a gentle, azure light in the dim room.

The saber's hilt itself was longer and more ornate than those typically used by contemporary Jedi. Its grip was adorned with intricate patterns, and the emitter had an elegant, tapering design that culminated in a curved point, giving it an almost regal appearance.

Braze felt deeply unsettled as he handed the ancient lightsaber hilt to Valery, recalling the encounter with the other echani. He couldn't shake the unease that had settled within him since their encounter, and it reflected in his eyes as he passed the hilt to Valery.