Conviction

[Trextan Voidstalker]

At the time it had felt like a wise decision to return to Coruscant. The place held difficult memories for the young Jedi, but it had always been his home. He had been born here, he had been raised here. Sixteen of his eighteen years spent for the most part on this world. Yet thoughts of his last years on Coruscant had often brought anxieties. He'd looked it up on the holonet, instead of seeking out any advice, and found that returning to the cause could help. Repeated exposure to lessen the impact and all that. It didn't feel like it was helping.

On Sullust it had been easy to focus on the cause of the Alliance, on the war with the First Order. His raw abilities needed to be honed, there were padawans to be trained. Jacen had always placed the emphasis on the former, citing that Trextan had far more potential than he ever had but possessed just a fraction of the control. It wasn't easy to forget what has transpired here, but being far away with important duties seemed to place the memories behind a veil.

Looking up at the block where he had grown up placed those memories at the forefront of his mind. The One Sith had trampled all over his life by starting their war here. The Alliance had done the same by finishing theirs at the same place.

It was a nice apartment block. The man he had come to think of as his father - above the absent Jacen - had been well off. It was his now, inherited after they had both died. Yet instead he lived in a small, empty room at the new temple. Trextan suddenly noticed his surroundings beyond the windows of the apartment above he was focussed on. Airspeeders whined as they rushed overhead. The mid-morning sun that cut through the tower buildings cast fleeting shadows as they passed by. Coruscant moved quickly, but Trextan stayed fixed in place.

He couldn't bring himself to enter the building. Instead he was already setting himself on a different course without leaving that spot. He could - at a push - convince himself that he was just intending to do his duty for the rest of the day. To be a Justicar looking after the people. He knew that wasn't his motivation. As he turned and walked away he was doing one thing he didn't want to do and planning to do another that he wasn't supposed to. Trextan was running away whilst looking to start a different fight.

---

The light down here seemed lethargic. As if making the journey through the upper layers of Coruscant had drained it of its energy. It streaked through the misty air, fingers reaching for purchase on the grimy floors below. The mist was no natural weather, just a byproduct of the atmospheric control systems. It never seemed to truly clear on this district. It was perpetually murky, but the mist hugged the ground closely in the morning and evening. This was a district that law enforcement only entered in large numbers. Trextan walked through it alone, his lightsaber on brazen display, hanging from his belt. A small group at a street corner noticed it. One of the group ran off ahead.

[member="Irina Volkov"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

[x]

Coruscant was, perhaps, the place of dreams for many women across the galaxy, or at least those within her age group, but, like many of the things that one would find peculiar with Irina, she was not like most people her age. A witch from birth, though unrelated to the those hailing from Dathomir, Irina was more acclimated with the open fields and forests of the many worlds she had traveled to, entirely the opposite of this duracrete jungle. Throngs of people crowded the upper levels of the city, while spice runners and vagrants dotted nearly every street corner in the depths of the underground.

She had come to the bustling ecumenopolis for information on the exotic creatures and plants she made use of in her elixirs, and thus far she'd only succeeded in swearing to herself that she'd never voluntarily come back to this hellish planet - probably viewing the city in a similar manner to how prudish city-dwellers envisioned the wilderness. Ever since Darth Carnifex had maneuvered her into subservience she had been spending day and night creating both objects of power and medicinal drinks that would help the Sith lord in his conquests, and now she felt she was in a tad bit over her head.

The planet was controlled by an entity that was staunchly against those who practiced the darker aspects of the force, and her master very openly spoke of them in much the same derogatory manner that he spoke of Jedi. The obvious remedy for this conflict was to stick to areas where the local law enforcement was in low concentrations and far from anyone who carried a lightsaber with them - Jedi or Sith.

-

"What do you mean 'it will cost another hundred credits'?" Irina hissed harshly, her frustration and accent threatening to make her hushed voice quite a few octaves louder than just a low whisper. The small woman had been arguing with her informant over the sighting of some sort of sithspawn, the hide of which would be excellent for the next little project she had in mind. "Well, naturally, if you want to know where it was you'll need to pay up. You only asked about whether one was sighted, not where." The man replied coolly, returning her anger with a smile - only to look up and see the lightsaber hanging on display for all to see from some man's side. "Chit." He hissed, darting towards Irina and shoving her aside, quite the easy feat considering her small stature and lack of physical strength, in order to make a break for it. Irina, of course, was left scrambling back to her feet in confusion and anger, only noticing the man with a lightsaber at the last moment.

It was times like these where she regretted not investing her time in physical training, or at least sprinting, because she likely couldn't even outrun the average person, much less anyone trained to use a lightsaber with access to the force. "Well feth." She grumbled, deciding she'd play the victim in this exchange, or perhaps pretend she had no idea that the man who ran off might have been wanted by law enforcement or the Jedi.

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Irina Volkov"]

“What do you mean he’s alone?” Several kilometres above the murky underworld was a rotund rodian in the back of an airspeeder taking a holo-call.

“No police, no raiding team. Just walking up the street,” replied a very agitated human.

“Relax, just follow the plan.”

“What do you mean relax? It’s a Jedi heading here!”

“Look,” replied the rodian. “The Jedi are like the weather. Sometimes they happen and you just have to deal with it. Get the product and your closest men out before he gets there. They like to show their faces from time to time. If he wipes the bar we keep low in that district for a few months and start again. Trust me Fallast, it was worse with the Sith here. Khalli’s crew crossed a line and she vanished one night. Along with her entire family and every major contact she had.”

“Alright, alright. But it’s taken months to…”

“You’re not seeing the big picture. Because I gave you a little bit of the big picture to manage,” The rodian’s tone betrayed his withering patience. Now instead of sympathetic he was stern and condescending. “If that Jedi wants to tear that little piece off it’s going to happen. Shut up and get out of there quickly or you won’t get another piece to manage for me.”

---

It was telling, Trextan thought, that they all ran in the same direction down the street before veering off. Maybe if he didn’t know where the dealers all operated from in this district he wouldn’t have realised that their instinct was to start running south before changing direction.

“Are you alright?” he called across the street. It was about all the attention the girl was going to receive unless she was seriously hurt. Likely just a drug addict or street girl, there wasn’t tie to deal with that. He had a goal clear in his mind and wasn’t about to deviate from his path. Just two hundred more metres down this road was the five-tier nightclub that was notoriously owned by Jed Fallast. One of Zajaadi’s stooges with a reputation for violence against those who failed to pay for his protection. A man had been found hanging from a streetlamp just last week for falling behind on payments for his drugs. Hopefully his men would put up a fight when Trextan knocked on the door.

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

There was little of the Jedi that Irina had intimate knowledge of, she knew only what she'd been told - and she'd only ever obtained knowledge second-hand from the subjects of Kaine Zambrano and the Panathan king himself. She knew such information was largely unreliable, especially when dealing with an actual Jedi, but it gave her enough to go off of to play the role she'd selected for herself. From what she'd heard, the Jedi were divided by their orders and philosophies, those who were largely compassionate and foolish - easiest to discern by the hearts they wore openly on their sleeves - and the many different variations and degrees of Justice versus Responsibility.

The reaction she got from the man was telling enough of as to which of the two broad camps he fell into, and she took up her act almost instinctively. She wiped her nose, sniffing heavily as though she'd been suffering from a mild case of allergic intolerance to whatever smog and gunk plagued the airways down here, and shot the stranger a disgruntled glare, as though she was silently, internally, blaming him for missing out on something that the man was trying to provide her - perhaps spice or something of that nature. It was imperative that her status as an off-world buyer of information on something that the Jedi would certainly wish to seek and destroy not be made evident, so, if only for a short while, playing the part of a frustrated addict was of the utmost importance.

Play the part naturally, impulsively, and not be over-the-top. Simple, non?

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," She said aloud, turning towards the direction that her benefactor had ran off to - towards the nightclub that so many criminals took refuge in - and began her casual, yet determined, walk that would set her on the same trail as the criminal fleeing the Jedi had taken.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Irina Volkov"]

Trextan narrowed his eyes for a fraction of a second. It felt as if the Force gave a subtle tug at his attention, but the young Justicar ignored it. It wasn't always easy to keep track of everything the Force tried to tell him. He didn't want to end up like Jacen who spent as much time in silence meditating as he did doing anything productive. The young man suspected nothing from the girl who turned and walked away; he had no reason to. Another day and he might have stopped

“Alright,” he called out with a half hearted wave. His attention returned to the path ahead. The artificial light painted the mist a variety of neon hues. Trextan felt eyes on him. A glance over his shoulder and he saw two pairs of eyes on him from the side streets. The message has gone back and he already had a tail. His head bowed just a fraction and he leaned into a determined walk. He could see his destination ahead now. A pair of bulky houk flanked the doors. His first, albeit minor, obstacle.



“What do you mean an urgent meeting?” Irina's contact asked harshly. Everything in the club was in order. A few more enforcers around perhaps. The atmosphere was charged. The handful in the know agitated about the approaching Jedi. That the owners had vanished was making matters worse.

“They went out back, cleared the second safe and went.”

“Well what are we supposed to do then?”

“Ask him to leave?”

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Even as she strode off from the Jedi, towards the nightclub that would no doubt be something of a point of interest to the man, her eyes fluttered to her right, keeping watchful eye as far back as her eyes could see without turning her head to look back at the Jedi. She was concerned with him lingering around, but she needed the information - beyond simply creating elixers, she was also fully intending on creating beasts of war and torture for Darth Carnifex. These third-rate thugs, though she had little knowledge or experience with them, were going to give her the information, even if it meant forcing it out of their minds with mental torture.

Nearing the nightclub, perhaps ten meters from the front-facing entrance, Irina gave pause and, against her better judgement, looked back toward the Jedi. Perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her, although it seldom had, something had felt distinctly off to her - though she supposed it could simply be the nervousness of having to work under the watchful eye of a Jedi - but she dismissed it and pushed on, her gaze lingering in the direction of the Jedi for a moment longer before she relinquished her interest in him and looked forwards once more.

"On another day, perhaps.." She muttered to herself, disappearing from sight as she walked inside, doors closing behind her quietly.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Irina Volkov"]

"I'm not having this," her contact said desperately, shaking his head. "I didn't sign up for this."

Other braver - or less imaginative - souls were taking up positions around the club. Two sat in a booth had a scattergun under the table. One man behind the door kept a holdout just from view in his jacket. Irina's contact noticed her entrance.

"We're done for now girl. You'll have to find me a different day if you're going to pay up!"

---

"I'm not allowed in?"

"Nope."

Trextan looked up at the pair of doormen with disdain. "I'm going in there," he repeated.

The nearest houk took a step forwards and reached for the young man. He was going for his typical ploy of grabbing the jacket, lifting the troublesome individual from their feet and accentuating his point with a light shake. Trextan slid to one side and his grab caught empty air.

"Don't do anything hasty now..." Trextan offered, with both his hands no in clear view. A mind trick likely would have sufficed, but he hadn't come down here to trick people.

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

If she'd feigned fragility while in the face of the Jedi outside, her exterior, and expression, was frozen over like a frigid chill now. There was no masking her disdain for the cowardice of the man that had turned tail and ran like a hen from a fox, and though she could push herself to sympathize with his concern for safety his brutish shove and lack of concern for her, however hypocritical that line of thought was, stripped her of any such compassion. "If I save your sorry hides, you're going to give me the information I want." She responded in turn, her tone like ice and the threat carried with her words evident by the frustration on her face. She was small, tiny even, but there was a sense of danger - that crossing this small woman - was not within the best interests of the man that had drawn her far from the safety of Darth Carnifex's shadow to seek him out for information that she was willing to pay for while risking her own safety on this accursed cage of a world.

She breathed in heavily and let out a long sigh at roughly the same time that the Jedi had arrived at the door, she having stepped close enough to the interior that it was only something of a sixth sense that warned her of his presence as he met with the doormen. "Today is as good a day as any, then." Irina grumbled with a frown, turning to face the door. Of course, she hadn't taken a step towards the door in order to attempt to scare the man away - she instead took the easiest route, one which came in the form of her mind against his.

There was a bit of a trick to this, however - if she were to assault him in too obvious a manner then she would doubtlessly inspire him to seek out whoever it was that intended to keep him away. In most cases, a short and intense dose of fear through the force would have been enough to at least hamper a Jedi's fighting ability, but for now she'd have to be a little more creative and a little more indirect. Touching on his mind was still going to have to happen, though she was going to similarly trick the two meatheads outside in order to keep her act convincing. She closed her eyes to focus, feeling through the force that the building across the street was deserted on its base floor and the three standing outside the door were the only ones she'd need to trick.

Creating a replica of the man that had been Irina's contact, as well as one of the brainless nimrods with a scattergun, with an illusion visible to the three outside, Irina willed the faux pair to make an escape from the side of the club - further down the street from the direction that the Jedi had approached from - and allowed both of the doormen and the Jedi to witness their run into the street in an attempt to make their way to the front end of the building across the street. It was a bit of a gamble, as there was no possibility in the illusion keeping the Jedi occupied longer than it took for him to figure it out, but it was enough to at least draw his attention. As to not expend the physical stamina that was required to maintain this focus, she expended a minimal amount of additional focus to telepathically urge her contact to flee out the rear of the building. She knew there was hardly a chance of him getting out without a distraction, much less if he or any of these buffoons intended to try to kill the man with guns or blasters of any kind, and intended to make this the additional payment he'd required to elaborate on the tidbit of information he'd given her before.