Private Jailbirds

[Arlo Renard]

Kai hung suspended in the containment field inside his cell. His body floated in bluish light, manacles upon his wrists and ankles holding him in place. It was quiet here in solitary, and he intended to enjoy it for as long as possible until they inevitably moved him into the noisier general population…

Footsteps drew nearer. At first he dismissed it as a changing of the guard, but they stopped directly in front of his cell door. Cut off from the Force, he couldn’t sense who it was. When he lifted his head and beheld a familiar face beyond the bars, it came as an unpleasant surprise.

Oh, great…

Corin Trenor​

 

[Corin Trenor]

It was with hands stowed into pockets that Corin stepped forwards, out the from relative darkness inside the solitary confinement cell and into the blue that suspeneded the would-be criminal; words, no more than whispers, spoke of what happened between Kai and Iris and all that lead the Padawan into this current state. Ever curious, it was time to do more digging.

"You know," Corin said with a soft tilt of his head, "I always thought I'd end up somewhere like this before anyone else we knew."

He glanced about the room, only to return dark eyes onto Kai.

His voice cut to a different, more judgement tone. "I thought Iris was your friend. You pay that friendship back by trying to hurt her?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

“I thought so too,” Kai said. The collar around his neck disrupted his connection to the Force, leaving him unable to communicate with his usual telepathy. So he spoke out loud, with a dead man’s voice, if only because he had no other choice. “Instead, you got knighted first. Funny how life works.”

But Corin wasn’t here to have a laugh. Kai wasn’t quite sure why. Had he come to gloat? Corin didn’t seem like the type to care enough to come all the way here just to rub it in. Had Dag sent him?… No. Dagon Kaze would’ve washed his hands of him by now. Prison time had to be the last nail in the coffin, sealing Kai away in the Knight’s mind as a complete disappointment. Maybe he even regretted saving the boy's life on Dahrtag all those years ago…

Corin mentioned Iris, called her his friend. Kai's throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. He tried not to think about Iris at all these days.

“She was my best friend,” he said. “But I learned the hard way that I couldn’t trust her with a secret.” He lifted his head, peering up at Corin. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You want to know the secret, solve the mystery of why Kai Bamarri wound up in prison?”

Corin Trenor​

 

[Corin Trenor]

He was never too sure as to what came from Kaze as of late. It was odd, this newfound liberation that came with a mountain of responsibilities; the kind that stood there so firmly in contrast to what Kai was now on a road to endure - confinement, utter and complete. But Corin was no Padawan, neither of them were now, but the unshackled of the two had become distant from the man that raised him once compared to all the time the two then shared. In reflection of such, Corin bowed his head for all of a moment.

For that and what was said of Iris, that is.

"Among other things." He remarked with the rise and tilt of his head, a narrowed pair of eyes followed. "You say that as if there's more to know, though. Is there? Those transcripts, they don't tell me the full story do they?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

"Transcripts? What transcripts?"

Corin Trenor​

 

[Corin Trenor]

"You're in prison, Kai." He said plainly with an arch to his brow, "Officers have to write transcripts about the offending incident. Or what they know, rather. My assumption is that there's very little there."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Relief was visible upon Kai's face. He'd been a bit afraid that Corin had access to much more than just a basic police report. But no—Corin hadn't even looked at the transcripts yet, from the sound of it.

Kai could've stayed silent and kept him guessing, but he quickly dismissed that as a bad idea. Corin was a detective trained by Dag, and that meant he would doggedly pursue any trail he could find like a bloodhound. Especially if Kai gave him a reason to suspect there was more to the case than meets the eye. And if Corin explored every nook and cranny, who knew what forgotten loose threads he might find?...

Better to control the truth than to try and hide it.

"As much fun as it would be to let you keep on assuming things about me, I might as well spill the beans." Kai managed to put on a smirk, wearing it like a mask of bravado and self-assuredness. "Iris found out I was doing vigilante stuff on the side, and she threatened to tell Master Noble. So I tried to erase her memory, make her forget what she knew." He shrugged. "It didn't work."

He had been a vigilante for years, prowling Coruscant's underworld, attacking criminals and wrangling Sithspawn as the elusive Doppelganger. But nobody had ever known that before now. He was that good at keeping secrets.

None of it mattered anymore. He had nothing left to lose.

Corin Trenor​

 

[Corin Trenor]

He wore his features as if a mask themselves, left to be no more then neutral and impassive as Kai offered his own explanation. On the inside, it felt as if a bead of sweat fell over his heart and slid off into his stomach somehow. Like a cumbersome stone, it sat there and Corin cleared his throat on instinct. Even then. he never bought it. Iris kept his secret, surely she would keep Kai's too.

"What else did she find, Kai?" Corin asked dryly, "Something a little worse than vigilantism, wasn't it?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

“Oh, you want to know what I was doing when she found me?” There was bitterness in his tone. “Why don’t you go ask her? I noticed you two have been getting real close lately. I’m sure she’ll be happy to tell you all about it.”

The bitterness slid rapidly into jealous anger, the image in his mind of the two of them talking at the gala greasing the slope. It wasn’t enough that Corin was Dag’s apprentice—he had to be Iris’ friend too. Possibly even something more. Kai was certainly no longer an obstacle, if he’d ever posed much of a barrier to begin with. Maybe with him out of the way, Corin would fill the hole in Iris’ life he had left behind. No doubt he’d do a much better job than Kai ever had.

Corin Trenor​

 

[Corin Trenor]

Corin seemed unamused, a sudden shift in his demeanour had seen it become sour instead. To Corin, Iris had become a reluctant friend; someone that stumbled onto a secret and that allowed for a shared bond to form between them, one in which Iris herself devoted time to Denon. She involved a Senator, much to the dismay of Corin, but all with the finest of intentions. Beyond that... There was no beyond that, Corin noted.

"Listen, Kai." His tone sounded a touch more serious, "I could talk to Iris. I could command her to tell me now, and she would have no choice. But she's your friend and she see's the world rose-tinted, I'd never find the whole truth from her."

He shuffled forwards, closer to the suspended prisoner. "So cool it, Kai. Iris and I are friends, that's all; whatever happened between you two is none of my business. But the real reason behind the removal of someone's memories, that's my business."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai snorted. “Yeah, because you make it your business.”

Try as he might, he couldn’t keep the slight tremble out of his voice. Kai hadn’t been afraid of the others, but he was afraid of what Corin might do to get the information he wanted out of him. Other people had tried to get him to talk, but he had kept his mouth shut. With Corin, he wouldn’t put it past him to resort to more extreme methods.

Control the truth, don’t try to hide it.

“There was a Sithspawn that looked like a kid. I killed it, and Iris freaked out. Said I had gone too far.” It was a lie, but it rolled easily off his tongue. Necessity had steeled his nerves, made it possible for him to look Corin unflinchingly in the eyes as he spoke. “Like you said, she’s got rose-tinted glasses. She doesn’t understand that some things have to be done. I figured it would be a mercy if she didn’t remember what she’d seen.”

Let Corin believe that Iris was blameless, and Kai was a monster.

Corin Trenor​

 

[Corin Trenor]

Dismissive as per usual.

"You and I know well that Noble is militant and combative, I'm certain she would never take issue with the death of a Sithspawn." Said with an unintended edge, at times Corin somehow forgot what Kai really was deep down beyond the adopted flesh of the dead and damned. "Is that really what you feared, or is there still something you're not telling me?"

His brow arched, "I'll find whatever it is. Just a matter of time."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

“It was the vigilantism Val would’ve thrown a fit over,” Kai replied, his tone even. “Iris was afraid I was going Dark. Maybe she was right.”

Saying that might earn him a one-way ticket to Azrael, but hey. Those inmates were practically his people anyway.

He merely shrugged. “Go right ahead. Pry into Iris’ latest trauma. Bother Master Noble over an open and shut case. Waste time you could be spending fighting Sith and defending the helpless, brave sir knight.”

Corin Trenor​

 

[Corin Trenor]

He regretfully smirked with an amused huff at the last mention. His eyes fell onto the emitter that contained the criminal Kai Bamarri, a common scene for those that met face-first with the bruised and torn knuckles of the Red Mask, an unstoppable bleed over into the life of Corin Trenor - carefully concealed in the pockets of his jacket.

"I will, Kai." He said matter-of-factly while a subtle series of nods followed, only then for his eyes to rise back onto Kai. They lingered there for a moment, then a moment more before Corin then turned around and made for his leave. "It's been nice catching up."

Arlo Renard