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[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Wearing: Interceptor Gear

Armed With: Nathan's Training Lightsaber, Bacta-Works Capture Pistol

Equipment: Med Kit

Arrived in: Breeze-Class Shuttle



Earlier...aboard the Atrisian Pathfinder


Nathan had collapsed a few days ago, and had been bedridden for over a week. Too exhausted to do much of anything.

His wife, Vera Mina , had taken care of him during that time. It was one of the few times he had ever been genuinely out of commission with someone to care for him.

During the rare moments he was conscious he caught Vera applying nutrients via IV Drip.

The rest of the time, he was unconscious...

... reliving the murder of Lysandra.

With the crisis of the empire, the hunt for the Cult had stalled, buying them time. His entire organization was now devoted to aiding refugees and the various factions he served. He knew it was buying them time. He had been so close. So close to truly wiping them out. The Cult might never again have the level of power it had commanded with House Io ever again...but if they could persist, if the war for the Core could not be won swiftly...

...they might have a chance to survive. He couldn't permit that.

Nathan was feeling much better today... especially after Vera entered their private quarters wearing a skimpy looking 'nurse's outfit' that showed a lot of leg and shoulder.

"Ah, Nathan, so glad you're awake! You look less pale." She remarked, carry a tray of thick chunky chicken soup and garlic bread with a glass of cranberry juice (She had discovered this was his favorite form of juice when she noticed him constantly bringing it home.).

"Just barely. You look...spicy..." he remarked dryly...

"Have to do something to get the blood pumping..." she replied coyly, setting the tray on his blanket covered lap.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Like hammered chit..." Nathan replied, spooning chicken soup into his mouth. "But not as much as yesterday..."

"Think you can walk?"

"Yeah." Nathan said as he ate. "How's the fort holding up?"

"I've kept things running very smoothly. Grendel is healthy. Thel Bloodscrawl and Draco Miles have been kept informed of your health status..." Vera said...

"Give them both my best..." Nathan said, looking forward to a chance to spend more time with them. He was taking a solid two more weeks out to recover.

Plus, he had Vera to keep him company...

Just then an alert on the comm terminal near his bed went off.

"May I?" Vera asked.

"Of course..." Nathan answered.

"Matriarch, is your husband awake?" the protocol droid asked."

"He is...what of it?" Vera asked.

"Our spies have called to inform us that they believe Braze has been sighted on Ossus..."

Nathan stopped, eyes focusing like lasers on the comm unit.

Vera knew that look, and knew there was going to be no talking her husband out of it.

Nathan was very loyal to his friends.

Nathan ate with purpose now. Vera sighed as the Protocol Droid relayed the coordinates.

Nathan finished breakfast soon, and winced as he got out of bed. His body was heavily scarred in some places. She knew how he had gotten all of them eventually...

"I have to go after him. He saved my life once. I owe him. He's been heavily brainwashed, Vera. I have to try and break through to him." Nathan justified.

"You're not a hundred percent..." she warned. "You're forty percent, at best..."

"Braze would be worth it even if I was only one percent. Or no percent..." Nathan said. "I have to go..."

Vera kissed him. "Don't take risks. Disengage if you can't unfeth his head."

Nathan kissed her back. "I promise..." he replied, heading to the shower...

Present.


Nathan landed in the middle of the jungle. He had taken strictly non-lethal weapons (He hadn't even gone in an armed ship to hopefully communicate non violent intent in case Braze was watching) to avoid accidentally killing Braze if it came to a fight. He would not risk the boy's death, and didn't hold him responsible for what had happened at Coruscant. Braze's brainwashing had been severe.

As his friend, Nathan was honor bound to try and rescue him.

Nathan crept through the jungle, trying to feel out Braze's signature as he got close to some ruins...

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Loomi Nathan Bloodscrawl

The crackle of the campfire was the only sound daring to disturb the night's stillness. Braze's ship rested a short distance away, its silhouette half-swallowed by shadow, parked near the weather-worn threshold of ancient ruins. He lay stretched out on a low cot, the firelight brushing across the angles of his face as he gazed up into the scatter of distant stars. One hand held his datapad, stylus moving in measured strokes as he jotted down notes, quietly marking thoughts, observations, and the restless drift of his mind beneath the endless sky.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan crept through the brush closer to the ruins, spotting signs of a campfire.

And he sensed him finally.

Braze

Nathan came out of the jungle quietly and without fanfare, for once not hiding the fullterrifyingly high strength of his Force Presence. He kept his distance, leaning against a tree, arms folded.

"You're a hard man to track down." Nathan said, time not accusing or scolding. He wasn't here to condemn him, he watched him on the cot next to the fire.

...and then tossed Braze his weapons. Though non-lethal, he had no desire to resort to them. They were more for show than anything at this point.

"I was fighting Sith aboard The Flagship of Darth Solipsis, I felt what you were going through... looked for you for weeks in-between assignments...are you injured? Are you in need of food?" Nathan asked.

"I want to help. I didn't come here to fight. Someone... someone has hurt you. And the way they did it was pure evil." He said to Braze, trying to get through to him.

"There's still a path forward. If not with the Jedi, then with my family. We can hide you. Give you the treatment you need, for however long you need it. I won't turn you into the Council or The Alliance if you don't want to be. To be honest, I don't trust their leadership after they lost the Core. And I certainly don't trust some impersonal healer to aid you.

Nathan wasn't reaching out to Braze as a Jedi...he was reaching out to him as a friend who was only thinking of his well-being and not the Code's requirements.

"You don't have to be an exile. I've been an exile, believe me, it's not fun..."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Nathan Bloodscrawl

Braze glanced up from his work as a familiar silhouette broke the quiet. His posture shifted fluidly, knees tucked to his chest, a swift back roll off the cot, and he landed on his feet with a dancer's ease. The datapad slipped from his hand, clattering onto the cot in his wake.

"I didn't think I'd see you all the way out here," he said, voice pitched louder than he intended, surprise sharpening the words. For a moment, his body coiled as if ready to bolt. Yet speaking aloud seemed to root him, to soften the edge of flight in his stance.

"Well… that's good. I don't want to fight you either." His tone lowered, almost cautious. "I'm okay. I'm not injured." His eyes swept over Nathan, searching, weighing, uncertain if trust was something he could risk.

"I…" The word caught, stalled, before he pressed on. "I'm not sure what's wrong with me." The admission carried hesitation, as though confessing something he barely understood himself, what Okuma Milogen had done still lingered like a shadow he couldn't name.

"The mercenary keeps hitting something… a black wall. I don't know why. But my mother, my estranged mother, wants me in her possession. And this mercenary…" Braze's gaze flicked aside his expression conflicted, and unsettled. "They have some sort of control over me. I can't explain it. Not really... But I'm not a safe person to be around."

​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"I've been looking for you ever since Coruscant fell." Nathan said to Braze , listening as Braze said he wasn't injured. That was a relief.

Then he went into an explanation of what was wrong with him. His gaze hardened. His own mother was doing this to him?

"From what little I could sense...Braze...I think you may have been very extensively, severely brainwashed on a fundamental level. I've seen the kind of work affecting you only a few times before. I...I underwent something similar that happened in the process of someone trying to save my life. The circumstances were different...I would have ended up a blank shell if I hadn't been given such programming...but I still had to overcome it, build my mind up from scratch..." he explained.

"And I know this...the longer such programming remains, the harder it is to remove. You don't have to come with me, but perhaps you would be willing to let me bring someone to you?" Nathan offered. "I know it isn't safe. But you're my friend, and I refuse to give up on you. I know there is hope. I've never told you this, but it was a conversation we had once that inspired me to get married. I'm grateful for the words you gave me. So I must help, and I know it can be done. I know you can be released from the programming...we just have to summon the will necessary to do so."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Nathan Bloodscrawl

Braze offered a frown and a soft sigh. "I wish I could believe it was as simple as walking away with you, Nathan... but it's not. I don't know if there's a cure for what's been done to me... I don't understand how it works... I don't think I mind... who... do you want to bring? "
Braze didn't like the idea of one of his friend being so close. Fortunately Okuma Milogen was resting presently affording Braze a bit of freedom. It was also quite concerning to have learned that Nathan had been through a similar ordeal.