Private Going Home, Pt 1

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

C O R U S C A N T
UPPER LEVELS, SPACE PORT
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Starports were always crazy, Iskendyr had grown accustomed to the craziness of it all. He traveled light, with a single leather backpack over his gray overcoat. Aunt Ivalyn couldn't meet with him right away so he was meant to meet with her at a midway point the two had agreed on. She assured him that she had people to keep watch on him, although he mostly wrote it off as something she thought would be comforting to say. The fourteen year old was simply trying to navigate his way through the starport, but he wasn't the only member of the Tavlar Military Academy around. Cadets over the age of thirteen standard years, who were going home for the holidays had been dropped off. Iskey reread the gate number on his ticket and was heading toward it when he was bumped into by Verat, the kind of smooth talking, charismatic arsehole who knew how to use his charms to get what he wanted.

"Watch yourself there Snakebite, we're not in school anymore. There's no teachers for you to hide behind," warned Verat who was a Coruscanti, and held the smug attitude of someone who's never held anything but a silver spoon. "Oh hey, what's this... a fancy bracelet, is it?"

"Give it back, Verat," Iskey returned with a low growl in the tone of his voice, "that's mine!"

Verat snatched it away from Iskey's hands as he attempted to grab it. "Nah, I think it's a little too fancy for a pisspot like yourself, Snakebite."

"No, what you mean to say is, you haven't a clue as to what it is, with your pissbrain, Verat. I'd be surprised if you knew what it was without your friend Drannon to give you the answers," sneered Iskendyr in return and he added, "like you did in the tactical map exam, you got scared didn't you? Overwhelmed with x-wings, little Verat, became a bloody rat and you know what..." Iskendyr leveraged his height as he stepped up toward Verat, "snakes eat rats."

He snatched the bracelet back.

Verat shoved him in return, "step off Snakebite, I didn't need Drannon's help."

Iskendyr said nothing, turned around and started to walk away. "Sure, whatever to help you sleep."

"Don't you walk away from me, Snake!" Verat shouted and shoved Iskendyr to the ground from behind, the bracelet sprang from Iskendyr's hand.

"You rat bastard," huffed Iskendyr as he scrambled for the bracelet.

Verat got ahead of him and stepped right on Iskendyr's hand before it could grab the fleur-de-lis bracelet. "Nah, I don't think I'm the bastard here, Iskendyr." Replied the Coruscanti boy with venom in his voice, he used a hand to slick his hair back, "in fact, I'm certain it's you. Besides..." He pressed his heavy boot further onto Iskendyr's hands, "think that bracelet is a touch feminine, don't you think?"

"It's a bloody family heirloom," growled Iskendyr whose upperlip began to curl, he wanted to so badly to just use his Force abilities to throw Verat off of him and make him eat dirt. He knew better though, doing such things in publics was a no-no, so he tried to think of what he could do even as the pain in his hand grew, he took a breath, then another, "but you wouldn't know about that, cause your parents don't even love you. If they did, they'd visit you."

Verat moved to pull his foot up with a mind to slam it on Iskendyr's hand. Iskendyr seized the moment, grabbed the bracelet and rolled away from where Verat had stomped his foot down. Iskey got back to his feet and slipped the bracelet onto his wrist. Verat grabbed him by the coat, but that was when someone finally intervened instead of walking around and judging the two of them.

Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers
Tag: Iskendyr Yvarro

"That's quite enough," Valery said, her voice calm but assertive. She had been walking down the street a little more casually, hoping to score a last few purchases for Life Day. But after hearing the commotion, that Jedi side of her kicked back in, and she had to go look what was happening. Two young men in an altercation was hardly anything special, even on Coruscant, but they were quite bold with how public of a location this was.

Guards or law enforcement would have been a lot more physical when trying to break them up. Valery just stepped between them, forcing some distance and giving them a chance to back off a step, or go right through her. The latter would be a mistake, because as much as she hoped to settle this without more fighting, she was going to teach these boys a lesson if they dared to attack her or continue their fight.

"Get yourselves together and think," Valery urged them, before finally looking around. "Don't you all have something better to do? Go on, shoo," she told the bystanders, and when they realized who had stepped in, most of them left. Those who remained mostly did to film Valery and the little fight that had happened.

"Is that her?" one person whispered.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," another replied.

"You two, explain yourselves," Valery demanded of the two boys.

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Verat knew exactly who Valery Noble was as he dusted off his gray overcoat, "you see, I was just helping this... Dosunnian, seems he lost his way. Country folk like him get lost in big places like this." Began the young man not realizing that his poor attempts at covering up what he had been up to wouldn't go far. However, being as young as he was, he doubled down on it. "We're from the Tavlar Military Academy, must've seen the school around. Lovely ol' ship she is, well, my friend here." He gestured toward Iskendyr, "just a bit slow, so we had a misunderstanding." The fourteen year old Coruscanti explained.

His explanation earned him a scowl. Iskendyr thought the boy was pathetic lying like the way he was, while Iskendyr wasn't from Coruscant and had not a clue as to who Valery was. He explained, "that's not my friend, and yes we are from the Tavlar Military Academy. He was trying, and failing to take this." Iskey held up the fleur-de-lis bracelet, "it's a family heirloom of mine, my great-grandmother Fiolette, got it after her niece died. She passed it on to her daughter, my grandmother Ariel gave it to my mom Zola, and now I have it." Iskendyr could see Verat wanting to interject and so he continued, placing the bracelet back on his wrist. The boy gave the woman his full attention, "I am from Dosuun, and I am a little lost, but not because I'm from some country town." He narrowed his eyes on Verat.

Verat scoffed, "No just some backwater world, Dosuun is out in the Unknown Regions and that's where you belong, Snakebite." The venom to his voice still there, "I bet you don't even know who this woman is."

"Does it matter?" Iskendyr inquired, adjusting his coat, "she's got a point, we shouldn't have been fighting." His teeth ground against one another, it was just one of the many moments he wished Verat would just eat dirt. "And..." The anger was rising once again, "Dosuun isn't some backwater, uncivilized world, Verat." He returned and continued on, "if you'd paid any attention to Intergalactic History, then you'd know it was the capital of the First Order."

Then as if Valery Noble herself wasn't standing right between them. Verat looked toward his rival and continued. "And then you guys got sacked by a bunch of scales," Verat narrowed his gaze on Iskendyr, "how, pathetic. The lot of you, and you call yourselves Imperials?"

"I am," the teenager declared.

Then Verat quite wickedly retorted, "your family is nothing but traitors, liars and-"

"Defiance," Iskendry was quick to fill in the blank, "we are defiant, we march to our own path. We will not blindly follow one person, just following orders like the sheep that you are, Verat." It was Iskendyr's turn to sneer, his turn to unleash his venom. "What are you? Mhmm? Wasted breath from your father? Your mother's last wretched gasp? Do not begin to tell me my history. Unlike you, I know what my family is about, while you still piddle yourself on tactical exams and pray that you don't have to participate in the holo combat scenarios. Your idea of glory is from behind a desk where nothing can touch you."

Verat chewed on the inside of his cheek and then remarked. "At least my mother's still alive and I know my father."

Iskendry wanted to punch him, he wanted to throw him to the ground and instead he balled his fists up.

Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers
Tag: Iskendyr Yvarro

Valery's left eye twitched a little, as the two continued bickering. She could easily tell a lie from truth, so she hadn't cared for a single thing Verat initially told her. Iskendyr was quick to point out the falsehoods as well, but after that, the two were just going at each other like she wasn't even there. If this was going to be happening with her kids one day, she'd be pulling them to their rooms by their ears.

Teenagers.

"That's enough," Valery said, her voice more stern this time, before she looked at Iskendyr, "He's not worth it." She could tell that he was ready to snap, but it'd only further escalate the situation. Luckily, it seemed that he knew that as well, and forced himself to stand down despite the anger inside.

"I'm not going to get involved in your personal issues, but you two are going to stop fighting here. You," Valery then continued, her eyes shifting to Verat, "Will not be taking something that isn't yours." She narrowed her fiery gaze, then looked back at the other young man. "I think it's good for you both to part ways for now, before this escalates any further. I doubt either of you want to spend a night detained, hm?"

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Verat sneered, and slicked his hair back with a hand. The other hand tugged at his coat, he gave a smile toward Valery but when he flicked his gaze back to Iskendyr... He was pissed. Verat heeded the Master Jedi's words, perhaps the promise in his eyes that whatever grudge he was holding, he'd resolve when the boys were back at school. Iskendyr took a deep breath and exhaled, he waited until Verat was out of sight before he turned his attention to the Master Jedi.

He was feeling a little overwhelmed by the experience, but decided to focus his attention on the woman, the Master Jedi. "Names Iskendyr Yvarro, thanks for helping me." A pause as he patted himself down, his face going through a myraid of emotions from fear and panic to relief as he pulled the flimsiplast sheet from his coat's inner pocket. "I uh, well, since... you seem like you're from here, maybe you can help me again?"

"I have to get to Quesaya," Iskendyr showed Valery the ticket, "my aunt is picking me up from there, and then I'll be headed home to Dosuun for the holidays." His face lit up at the mention of home. "I was having trouble finding where I was supposed to go when that happened." He adjusted the strap of his backpack, and as he took the ticket back, sliding it into the pocket. Iskendyr tilted his head it was just then he could sense just how strongly the Force eminated from her. It was about as powerful as Master Simon, but he gathered as much that she wasn't an Imperial Knight. The way Verat had mentioned how Isky didn't know the woman made him think, "you must be a pretty powerful person, the Force radiates strongly from you." He commented not knowing who she really was.

That much Verat was right on, Jedi's don't make much in the way of headlines on Dosuun.

Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers
Tag: Iskendyr Yvarro

"Of course," Valery told Iskendyr after squinting at the younger man who finally departed. It was for the best that they separated now, though Valery felt like it wasn't going to be the end. Bullies or people with bad intentions could be patient, and strike when their target didn't feel safe anymore. For now, though, the young man in front of her seemed to be okay, so her attention shifted back to him with a smile.

"I'm Master Valery Noble," she then said to introduce herself, but rather quickly, he seemed to be in need of more help. Valery tilted her head curiously at first, then nodded in response.

She would always help if she could.

"I can help you get to where you need to go. Just in case someone else decides to show up and cause more trouble." Escorting him to his stop wasn't that difficult, and it wasn't too far away either. Coruscant's public transport made it easy enough to get around. Though, before they could leave, he commented on her presence in the Force, and she ended up chuckling. "You can feel it, hm? I'm suppressing most of it to avoid unwanted attention."

"But you're not wrong, I suppose." She didn't like to talk much about her strength, and she hated comparing herself to others. But it'd be silly for her to deny that she wasn't strong, given her title and position in the Galaxy. She had slain Kyrel ren, became Carnifex's greatest rival, and ended a huge Galactic war.

Sometimes, it felt nice that not everybody knew that. It kept her grounded, and also made conversation more natural.

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr gave Valery a quizzical look, "Master Jedi?" The curious tone in his voice continued, "we don't hear much of Jedi, let alone of Master Jedi in school or at home. What's it like being a Jedi? Do you like it?" He looked around and then over at Valery, "you seem nice." He adjusted the pack on his back. He fidgeted with the bracelet on his wrist and offered a weak, yet warm smile, "thanks. I really hope he stays away." Verat and Drannon were never nice, in a pair they were the worse alone he could handle them alright.

"I can," Iskendyr answered simply, "I've always been able to sense it, it was one of the first things Master Simon taught me." Casually he continued on acknowledging Valery all in the same go, "Master Simon always told me to suppress my abilities. He said people can use me for the wrong reasons." Iskendyr walked beside the Master Jedi and then addressed, "Verat and Drannon are the worst, makes me wish that my aunt hadn't transferred me to that school."

"She just didn't want me to continue to be pampered, I used to go to the Tregessar Naval Academy on Dosuun." He started to ramble, "it's the best youth academy there, but apparently since the family is associated with the company that helped Dosuun rebuild after the Ssi-Ruuvi invasions. We're spoiled, according to my aunt. She wanted to me to be where no one really knew our last names." Iskendyr's rambles went on, "she always said that great grandma Fio's contributions were probably to make up for the fact that she betrayed the First Order for the Sith Empire."

"But, great grandma's company Primo Victorian is still in operation in the Commonwealth. In fact, part of why I'm so excited to go back is that my aunt Ryssa is going to give me a tour of a few of the shipyards. She and my family are hoping that one day I'll be the next big Admiral Yvarro to bring honor back to the name."

Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers
Tag: Iskendyr Yvarro

"I love it," Valery said with a chuckle, "It's a lot to get into, though. But... it comes down to using my abilities to help other people, and to defend this Alliance against threats." Which has been quite the thing ever since she stepped out of stasis. From the Brotherhood of the Maw to the Sith Order and the Mandalorians — there were a lot of superpowers who wanted to destroy the good things people had here.

"So, helping you out there was my pleasure." She offered him a smile and dipped her head at the gratitude he showed. It wasn't something she needed to do her work, but it felt nice and he seemed very polite. He also seemed to feel quite comfortable around her, as he began to explain why Verat had treated him that way. Bullying was something Valery could relate to somewhat, as she had been bullied after she was scarred.

Just... everything around him felt a little more elite than some random Jedi at a Temple in the jungle being mean to her because of her appearance.

"She and your family?" Valery asked, choosing to latch onto the last thing he said. "What about you? Do you want to become a great Admiral? Or do you have different aspirations?"

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr nodded along, it made sense that she'd be there to help the Galactic Alliance. Better that helping people was something she seemed to want to do. He looked up at the signs and noticed they were getting closer to the gate, he was enjoying the conversation and looked at the time. He had a little time before boarding began. Valery asked what he wanted, and the question was interesting to him. At that particular moment Iskendyr stopped in his tracks and looked at her. "What I want?" The young boy turned to face the Master Jedi fully. The psychometry for him began to take hold, what he saw around him were echoes of the past. Various Imperial uniforms and each one seemed to notice him, and for the Master Jedi...

What lay before her, was a warning, whispers of a fractured future. In one moment, he could be a member of the Galactic Alliance and in the next clad in Imperial uniform, a much darker future. He stood still, longer than what was natural, entranced by the past that seemed to call to him. He could hear her voice and he looked at her, his attention once more on the Master Jedi. "What I want? Is... irrelevant." Iskendyr knew what his duty was, "I am the squire of Master Simon, I will be a great Imperial Knight, learning the shipyards is just a step on my path."

It was as if something within him had clicked, motions of yesterday moved through his mind. "I love the shipyards, and I've always wanted to see them," sounding more like himself, "so it's yeah, I guess it's more in line with what I want. I enjoy time in the tactical room and the strategy courses. Verat and Drannon can never get through without cheating."

Valery Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers
Tag: Iskendyr Yvarro

Valery tilted her head curiously.

The moment he stopped walking, the Force suddenly had a mysterious swirl around him. A connection to the world of yesterday, and even far beyond that. Valery found herself caught up in that swirl, and images flashed through her mind that were not unfamiliar in nature. Vera had been seeing visions ever since she was 3 years old, and both of her parents had been drawn into them on occasion as well.

This was a little different, but still felt like a similar warning.

"What you want is never irrelevant," Valery said with a smile. "If we commit our lives to something we're passionate about, we're far more likely to excel." She looked up at the sky for a moment and let out a soft sigh. "If you enjoy what you're doing, then all is well, though. But it's always important to ask yourself who you're doing it for."

"What's the cause, and what are the consequences of what you do. Both for your own life, and for those around you."

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr smiled more for her than for himself, "it's nice, I guess. Some people are able to work out what they want." The teenager hadn't really known that for himself. "It was worked out for me." He had always known, been told what he was to be, how he was to act, behave and for him it seemed that was just the way the galaxy worked. Life aboard the Tavlar Military Academy was introducing him to the idea that there were other ways that the galaxy worked, and not always for the better. Iskendyr considered what the Jedi Master had told him, with regard to the questions, who was he doing this for? The answer was plain as day to him, his family, they were most important to him.

The cause? Order. The galaxy had lingered far too long on the edges and fringes of Chaos. Consequences? The galaxy itself showed those consequences just looking through the annals of history, especially the most recent of those. "The recent hyperspace war is evident enough of what happens when Chaos is allowed to go unchecked. The Maw were allowed to cause wanton destruction, Tython nearly destroyed." An apt student of history, "before them the Sith Empire burned planets at will, my ancestral homeworld among the fortunate ones spared this fate due to a single family member's diplomacy."

"You are right, Master Jedi, it is important to ask what we do, who we do it for, and what our cause is." He thought about it for a moment and answered, "my cause is for order and I feel that the consquence of a galaxy without it is clear. Worlds burned at the hands of the Maw, some were oblierated from existence. The Sith were left unchecked and it took the New Imperial Order to form, to bring them to heel." His brow furrowed, Iskendyr winced, wherever he was going with this statement stopped.

The same warnings Valery no doubt saw, grew louder. In a moment a flash, an image, Iskendyr looked for a moment toward it and then to the Jedi Master. They had gotten closer to the gate he needed to be at, "you saw her, didn't you?" It was rhetorical, and so he pressed on. "My great grandmother, I saw her on Jakku when I spent time with them... my aunt thought they could help me with my..." he recalled the word, "psychometry." It was one thing to be connected to your ancestors it was another to be haunted by them.

"I didn't really fit in with them," remarked Iskendyr as he thought on the words to say, "maybe it's cause I had the weird visions on that broken ship in the sand. Or because I'm an Imperial, and not a Jedi."

"Nor will I ever be," he admitted, "it is not for me, the life for me is to carry on the legacy that was handed to me. There must always be a Yvarro in service, just as a ship always needs a captain." His tone was somewhere between acceptance and melancholy. As if he himself had been bound to some sacred duty, or perhaps it was his perception that it had fallen to his young shoulders. A burden of generations past, "as I said, what I want is irrelevant. To want is a luxury for the privileged, and I am not among them."

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Coruscant

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers
Tag: Iskendyr Yvarro

"To an extent, we all have some decisions made for us. A lot of kids naturally fall into their parent's footsteps, after all. Whether it be work or hobbies." This was different though. The choices he was making, or having been made for him, would determine a whole lot for his future. Perhaps even irreversibly so. As a Mother, it was not easy to accept it — she didn't want to ever force her children to do anything.

But maybe he was quite passionate about this, too.

It sure seemed that way when he mentioned his desire to bring order. To stop forces like the Maw and Sith Empire, who had both risen and caused so much chaos and bloodshed. The Sith Empire had been right before her time, but Valery had personally ended the war with the Maw when she summoned that Wall of Light over Exegol.

She knew the consequences of inaction.

Valery's lips parted to finally speak, but she stopped when a small signal in the Force revealed an image to her. One unfamiliar to her, but one clearly related to him. Her brows furrowed in thought, and she listened intently to what he had to say. "Well, if you accept this path as your own, there are still many different ways to fill the role. A want for Order is one thing, but the Galactic Empire that ruled under Sidious sought to bring order to the Galaxy as well."

"Your methods are as important as your desires."

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr shook his head, "you mistake my words, Master Jedi. As kind, and as thoughtful as you are, I am an Imperial." The decision had been made and he would see it through to the fullest. "On my honor, order shall be restored," he would do what others had failed, his great grandmother moved toward the gate and he turned his attention in that direction. Then snapped his attention with military precision back toward the Master Jedi. "Sidious was a great visionary, but he was no Sieger Ren, nor was he the Grand Moff, the greatest that this Galaxy has ever seen, did you know that she led the First Order into war against the Galactic Alliance. It was her nation that gutted the Alliance? Brought it to its knees, just vulnerable enough for Darth Arcanix, Taeli Raaf herself to betray the Jedi?"

"The Alliance only works when everyone seeks to serve the greater good, and not themselves," but since that cannot be relied upon, as history has taught Iskendyr, "and since even the Alliance is vulnerable to corruption, there is only one true way to achieve order." The call for his shuttle was made and at his tender age it seemed Iskendyr had become the culmination of all the indoctrination, the education that had molded him for Imperial life. "My thanks again, Master Jedi, I will not forget your kindness. I wish you the very best of holidays for Life Day, if you celebrate it." With that, the young man disappeared into the gate.

Fiolette however remained a moment longer, her gaze lingered on the Master Jedi - evaluating her before disappearing into the aether.

Valery Noble
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