Private That Friend Who Always Wanders off on a Night Out

[Katja Javik]

Location: Coruscant Jedi Temple... ish

It felt very condescending to get told to wait indefinitely while under intense scrutiny. Her presence on the planet alone had already shown that she was not particularly afraid about any punishments that might be presented. The Alliance was not nearly as callous as the Imperials and selfishly she had opted to take the route of less risk. Besides, the Alliance didn't have proof of any wrongdoing unlike the Imperials so she preferred her chances here.

Being locked alone with her own thoughts could only lead her to one conclusion and uppn finding the opportunity to do so, she left the Jedi quietly, in search of other solutions once the remainder of her stims had ran out. It didn't occur to her the irony or reality of her situation. To her, it was just a quick fix and in her mind she would just be caught and returned with little to no consequence. But for now, she had her own say.

Once outside, she could appreciate Coruscant for the freedom that it was... but only for a moment. She knew she was acting on limited time and needed to move quickly, so she did. Her experiences with her Mother had accidentally given her a lot of knowledge about the best places to go to find the most potent substance which was coincidentally one of the best places to avoid Jedi.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

From the frontline battlefields in the war with the Brotherhood of the Maw and the Imperials alike, the ushered in era of peace was one that whispered less than... thrilling duties, of which Rakaan often mused ought to mean the likes of the peacekeeper. To see to the mending of issues upon a planetary system boiling over with strife, or to assume the role of dignitary for diplomacy. Of which, in truth, both appeared to be as bothersome and boring as the next. To be plucked from a mission concerning younglings and one of their first of many missions abroad Coruscant and into the depths of other systems, Rakaan believed himself somewhat fortunate. Though was decidedly not once the replacement was to seek out the runaway Imperial 'prisoner', of which many question marks rose.

An imprisoned Imperial, although detained by the Jedi and left beneath their care. He did not deign to question it aloud, in fact, though a revolving door of queries ran amok across his mind. She was bound to be lost, never to be found, given what Coruscant is. With the assistance of Coruscant's security force, Rakaan did find his share of leads. Snippets of sightings across security cameras before bounding into those same depths, asking if one had seen a particular someone, accompanied by a holographic display for reference.

It was beginning to be quite the headache.

Chasing his latest lead on their runaway, Rakaan strode down a bustling runway. With scanning eyes, he peered towards the dives and bars and clubs, looking and wondering with the Force as his one true attempt to find her. There was a sensation in there somewhere, a telling feeling. Of where exactly, he did not know. Perhaps his senses were not so quite attuned as he thought. In the often worn robes of a Jedi and with his lightsaber hanging from his belt, Rakaan continued on, searching and searching.

​

 

[Katja Javik]

Considering it was her first time on Coruscant, she couldn't claim to feel particularly inspired by the planet, though not that she would be. She was hyperfocused on one goal only: to distract herself from the painful reality that she had created for herself, avoiding responsibility that was rightfully hers. She had evaded such emotions for years since joining the Empire, pushing them aside and allowing the blame to fall on someone else but now that wasn't possible and the repercussions were fast approaching.

She had escaped using a brief moment of carelessness on the part of the Jedi who were as stifling as was to be expected. She knew that she would have to return sooner or later, for her entirely selfish reason of needing refuge from the very people she callously cut down on the battlefield. She wasnt sure how much trouble she could get in but she had the notion in her head that Jedi were soft and feeble. She wasn't too worries.

The first telltale of her whereabouts was the commotion from inside a club, followed by incomprehensible shouting. Calmly, unaffected by the aggression of the man in her face, she stood with a drink in her hand, a stimstick dangling between her fingers as she stood her ground. "Every day you don't pay, the higher I make the interest." A Rodian threatened her. "Yeah, ok. I'll pay tomorrow." She replied, waving it off. "But you won't, will you?" His hand reached for the blaster at his side but Katja was too oblivious to take notice so he raised the weapon and pressed the barrel into her chin to make a renewed threat.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

There it was. The hairs on the nape of his neck rose, small and faint as each of them were. He felt drift across him, a wave of water crafted from concern, from a heat that rose in the hearts of those around... it. It, stemmed from the cantina as the voices rose in unison to be incomprehensible yells mixed with the gasps from those that had not yet found the sense to leave, with the Jedi Knight replacing those that had. In a lower-level bar plagued by spacers and their kind, the sight of a Jedi was an obvious one.

If the venue filled to the brim with an assortment of galaxy-spanned species deigned to look his way. A mop of blonde hair was all Rakaan saw, though the grasping tendrils of the Force told him of all the Jedi needed.

The black-barreled blaster flew across the room in a flash, without warning. The deep black pools for eyes belonging to the Rodian trailed it with all others inside, accompanying a second sea of gasps that came from the shock. A snap-hiss filled the inside with a brightly beaming blue, severing the blaster in two with super-heated plasma and disappearing in the next.

With an embittered expression, Rakaan marched across the room. Those inside seemed too stunned to speak, though their stares said more than their words ever could. Snatching the Imperials arm, he glanced about one final time. "Jedi business," was all he excused.

Leading Katja outside.

​

 

[Katja Javik]

He'd likely have been doing the galaxy as favour if he has just stood by and let her get shot but alas the Jedi were those noble types and it wouldn't have been very hospitable for him to do so. Even with her senses dampened by various substances, she still expressed surprise at the spectacle he made upon entry to the bar, removing the threat of the blaster before she even realised of its existence. Under other circumstances, she might have looked smug at watching the offender get thwarted but there was no pride to be taken in this situation. The Jedi was not a friend, only temporarily not a foe, but it was comical to consider that he might have just saved her life.

"They can never make a quiet entrance, can they?" She asked no one in particular, bringing the stimstick up to her lips, maintaining the same lack of regard for danger. She had been threatend enough times by weapons to be desensitised to such a threat and she had never shown the highest lack of regard for her own life regardless.

Once he grabbed her arm, she stumbled to keep up with him, downing the rest of her drink and leaving the glass on a passing table before they got outside. "All of this for me? It's like you're obsessed with me or something." She laughed and playfully hit him on the arm. She knew it wouldn't be well-received but she didn't care. She didn't come to the Jedi to make friends, only to try and make whatever the remaining fragments of her life bearable.

"I'll come back in the morning." She told him. "I know you don't trust me or whatever but even if I did go back to the Empire, what would I tell them? That the Jedi do laundry on a Thursday? It's not like you've been handing me top secret files." She brought the stimstick up to her lips.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

His eyes turned cold, a stare that found some fraction of contempt rather than hate; those of the Jedi Order could never hate, no, it was not their manner - the opposite even, devoted to the best in the lives of all those that breathed life into themselves. It was in moments such as these, with a hand around the arm of an Imperial prisoner that believed themselves free to wander, that Rakaan wondered whether even an unattached form of annoyance was allowed to fester in himself. He released his hold on her once outside, left to stand on the platform with all others; the crowds thinned after the commotion, much to the benefit of the Jedi.

"Not the point," muttered Rakaan in a bothered breath, with the flick of his wrist the stimstick placed between her lips flew out and over the rail, left to fall into the bustling abyss below. There was no faint hint of satisfaction across his own face, even if it was felt within. "You came to the Jedi for refuge, and the conditions of that are you do as you are told. Am I understood? I promise you the next person that needs to come searching is taking you somewhere much, much worse."

​

 

[Katja Javik]

"Hey-" She protested as he relieved her of the stimstick. "Do you have a zero tolerance policy, or what?" She asked, half-joking. It wasn't like she didn't have more so she wasn't going to pick a fight with him over it at present. Besides, she'd probably had enough for now anyway - How thoughtful of him.

She had a much worse grasp of reading his emotional state than likely he did hers but to her untrained eye he seemed as cold and detached as she could expect from a Jedi. Still, she didn't exactly feel threatened by him, though that was largely due to her own ignorance.

Katja leaned forward on the rail, peering below with an expression of calculation in a clear lack of regard for his warning. "Are you threatening me? I didn't think the Jedi did that." She raised an eyebrow and looked back at him, displaying some degree of contempt. It could certainly be ascertained from their conversation, and indeed her behaviour since arriving, that she had little to no respect for the Jedi, despite using them selfishly for her own needs, and she would treat this Jedi no differently.

"It's not like I'm a threat." She brushed it off, deciding to forgo mention of the likely countless war crimes that would probably see her given a hefty sentence if her identity could be tied to that of the former SCAR Squadron.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

His arms crossed over one another with a faint and persistent lift in his brow, and a stare that seemed studious. The dull colour of durasteel lined the lightsaber on his belt, left to sit in contrast to the robes otherwise draped across his frame. "I'm promising you prison time," said Rakaan with an unkindly stern voice, "and something tells me someone the Council takes in from the Empire is that same someone that would rather avoid the gen-pop of Imperial prisoners."

Rakaan twisted his lip with averted eyes, mulling on the harshness rife throughout his tone. Both unkind and cruel, mostly unbecoming of a Jedi. A Jedi Knight least of all, the young Jedi mused.

"Threat or not, you're in our... care," the word seemed almost hard to say, "and you do as we say."

​

 

[Katja Javik]

Katja studied his expression with curiosity. It was a much different scolding to the ones she would normally receive and it left her difficult to feel anything but frustrated at his lack of retaliation. "But... I never betrayed the Empire." She replied with uncertainty. It may have been true but other Imperials might not view her actions so favourably and she knew it. "Beaides, being Imperial isn't a crime." She told him, knowing well enough that she had committed plenty of crimes. She just didn't think that they had the intel to link them to her or SCAR.

Her false sense of bravado was beginning to falter under the harshness of his words. "Care or custody?" She queried, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She was no stranger to following orders but not from the enemy. Now she was faced with an internal conflict and this time it was one she couldn't escape from.

She remained oppositional despite being aware of her defeat. With a frustrated sigh, she placed her forearms on the railing and leaned on it, facing away from the Jedi, before producing another stimstick from her pocket and lighting it.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

"Is, or isn't," the young Jedi half-wondered with a skyward stare, eyes a shade of blue left to absorb the streaks of colours that sat in spacecraft and stars alike. His gaze flickered between them, as if to find the Imperial war machine set in a dying march among the very stars that hung in the skies above Coruscant. "It's only a matter of time before it is a crime, what with the anti-Imperial business ramping up in the senate."

He turned down to her, though she her attention was elsewhere in the moment. "You're lucky when you crossed over when you did," said Rakaan thoughtfully, "no telling what's to come in the next few rotations."

Rakaan took a step forwards, turning on his heel as effortlessly as always. He leaned onto the same railing himself, though stood with his back against it. By his waist, more like. "And it's what you make of it. The Jedi don't like to do prisoners, but they will if they need to."

​

 

[Katja Javik]

In her defeat, their conversation began to turn sobering. Her thoughts turned elsewhere and looking down at the lit stimstick in her hand only reminded her of what she had done to find herself here. "Anti-Imperial Business?" She repeated idly as her mind was elsewhere. Tossing the stimstick into the abyss below and turned her head to look at him as he spoke.

"I wouldn't call it luck." She replied, her tone beginning to shift. "I've lost my home, the people I considered my family... My purpose..." She trailed off towards the end, hesitant to expose herself in a rare moment of honesty, away from the prying eyes of peers. Her confession was only made easier by the fact he was a stranger and she could speak freely without being scrutinised.

Ultimately, she felt more strongly about losing a part of her identity than any remorse she might have felt for the atrocities committed under Imperial command, for which she didn't accept responsibility despite being complicit. It was a difficult part of indoctrination to overcome.

"Yeah, well the Jedi don't seem to like to give you a whole lot of freedom either." She retorted with a sigh out of frustration more than anger. "Look, I'm not going to betray you. I know you don't believe me but I don't have an ulterior motive. Why would I? I might get arrested as soon as Imperials find me and no amount of bargaining can change that." She told him, picking at her fingernails in nervousness as she spoke so plainly in a way that she never had before. After aways hiding under the pretence of bravado or humour, the substances she had taken wore off some of the inhibition that had initially prevented her from being so candid.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

"Then it sounds as if you have everything to lose," the Jedi said, folding his arms over his torso and casting her a momentary glance. "I'm not trying to get you into trouble, that was something you did on your own. Surrendering yourself into the custody of the Jedi then disappearing reads a lot like someone on the run, and someone on the run has something to hide."

A soft lift to his brow. Rakaan was distrustful of Imperials, if nothing more than confused as to their dogmatic admiration for their once beloved Emperor. Even with his death, the Imperials continued to reign in the northern rim. To what end, he asked himself many a time, and to serve their own greed seemed to be his only answer.

​

 

[Katja Javik]

"If I were on the run, I didn't get very far." She replied, gesturing vaguely to their present location, though remaining silent about keeping secrets. She had been as honest as she needed to be, knowing her association with her former squad would be viewed upon less than favourably if the Jedi knew of the crimes they had committed. For now, she was being careful but nowhere was truly safe.

Her eyes shifted down to the lightsaber at eye-level, the same weapon that had cut down many of her own people. Looking back out over the city, any remaining warmth had dissipated. "You're all the same." She scoffed. "Self-righteous, arrogant... It's insufferable." Her view was not a unique one and was shared widely among Imperials who had been indoctrinated by anti-Jedi sentiment. She didn't doubt the Jedi had an unfavourable view of people like herself either but many, including herself, were blind to their own faults.
Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

His brow twitched, his teeth clenched, his frame tightened. The servos in his cybernetic forearm whirred, alive. Breathing.

"Toss dogmatic onto that list and you have a prime Imperial," scoffed Rakaan, embittered. Swept up into the Imperial war machine with all their lying propaganda, it was no small wonder of the person such a thing bred. To even think one could see well enough through the veil of lies to come out the other side, and then into the arms of the Jedi, well... what a surprise it was.

His lip twisted with his stare behind folded arms. "Keep it up," he lifted his chin, "I'll just let you walk, see where that leaves you."

​

 

[Katja Javik]

It was hard to believe that there was a time in the not-so-distant past that the Jedi and Imperials had existed peacefully. It was even harder to believe that they could ever return to such a relationship. "Hah." She chuckled and shook her head. He spoke with a degree of annoyance that she did not expect from a Jedi and it made her curious. They tended to be colder towards her once they knew who she was but this was different.

Upon the second threat, she pushed off of the railings and stood up straight. Even out of necessity, she despised how much power the Jedi held over her and it was evident in her frustration which continued to amount. Despite being characteristically level-headed, the emotional toll of the previous few days had her reaching the end of her tether and she was becoming increasing antagonising.

"Out of curiosity, how long have you been with the Jedi?" She asked in an inquisitive tone. It seemed innocent enough of a question but it was one rife with accusation.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

There was a smugness stretched across his face, the sort that found itself tinged through with some degree of annoyance. Disbelief, even. Ignorance, in some sense. "I'm not indoctrinated," lied Rakaan, though did not know it to be a lie, "if that's what you're trying to imply."

Years of lessons, of disciplines, of behaviours, all learned through the often cited way of the Jedi. A particular course of action, the required one, with moulded beliefs that befit the rules of their ancient order. Rakaan lacked the insight to understand, to acknowledge that there was no true line of separation between the likes of himself and the Imperials that swore their own teachings were not indoctrination, yet it was only the perception of those in the broader galaxy that allowed for one to be a taught conduct and the other to be form of tyrannical control.

He held himself still, patient, though with a twist to his lip. Rakaan nodded backwards, in the direction of the Jedi Temple. "Tell me now, room or a cell. Which one are you choosing because I'm not debating an Imperial all night."

​

 

[Katja Javik]

"No, not at all." She replied innocently, though she continued to ponder about him. She was wilfully ignorant of the teachings of the Jedi beyond the small amounts of information that an Imperial of her position. Many Imperial Knights were much more knowledgeable, some even former Jedi, but it was a difficult change to adapt to when some retained part of their former selves.

One consistency which remained was the denial of indoctrination on both sides. Stormtroopers were unknowingly selected depending on their suitability for the indoctrination which would inevitably follow in training, breeding unwavering loyalty, even in the face of certain death. Its hold was evident, even as Katja faced trial and punishment in the former Empire, she remained at its defense.

"Alright." She gave a frustrated sigh in defeat. "I'll go back to the Temple." Begrudgingly, she dropped the remainder of the stimstick on the ground before accompanying him.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

"Good choice." He said sternly, before the silence reigned.

Beside the Imperial, the types of people that Rakaan detested despite the teachings of the sacred Jedi Order, he fell into a quiet pace. The world around them both was loud, deafening, blinding; with the walkways thick with species from the core and rims alike, their voices only comparable to the starships and speeders that soared overhead, bathing the walkways in their streaking lights while the platform lined with clubs flashed and bathed them all in colourful neon. In it all, Rakaan only ever elected to think of the wayward Imperial and their arrival to the Jedi Temple.

What happened? Rakaan wondered.

Why run to the Jedi, who are you? His mind dived deeper.

In the middle of a stride, Rakaan turned and tilted his head to the side with an ever-curious look plastered across his face. It held there, affixed for all of a moment. "Who are you really?" The young Jedi Knight asked of her, "Why did you seek safety in the Jedi, not with the military? What have you done?"

​

 

[Katja Javik]

Katja fell into silence beside the Jedi, her gaze focused on the ground. Despite the confidence she tried to portray around others, she carried a wealth of shame and guilt and sometimes reverted into her own world. Anything was a distraction from having to confront reality but distractions were becoming harder to come by.

Everything they passed only served as background noise to the overwhelming noise from inside her own head. It would only ever quieten with the aid of substances, illicit or otherwise.

“Hm?” She chimed in a delayed response once she realised he was talking to her. She sighed and hesitated before answering while she tried to figure out her words. “I’m Katja Javik. A Spec Ops Stormtrooper wanted for desertion.” She told him plainly and honestly. “The Jedi seemed as though they would be more forthcoming to accept me. I met one on Exegol who seemed quite... forgiving. Anyway, I was in pretty dire need of assistance so I came here.” She seemed more hesitant as she continued to explain.

She fell into silence again at his final question, as she wondered how to negotiate the topic. It had been in self-defence and she wasn't the aggressor but to her knowledge Jedi didn't take too kindly to murder. “My Squadmate, he unexpectedly attacked me one mission. He tried to kill me.” She explained, pulling her collar back to reveal the healing wound on her neck. “I escaped but... at a cost.” She didn’t say the words explicitly but the evidence of her crime was apparent.

Rakaan Horne

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CORUSCANT - Katja Javik

​

He tongued the inside of his mouth with further consideration, a faint lift of his chin. As if it were to provide further insight, seeing her from a touch taller of an angle. It was simple enough to discern, the young Jedi understood, more so with the swirl of emotions that rumbled and ruptured across the Force in waves; acute senses told a lot, perhaps too much - able to dive into the fears, the anxieties, the shame.

The guilt.

Though Rakaan wore no frown once it settled into his own understanding. His curiosities clawed at his mind, demanding to be let inside the vault that harboured all the answers. Only an examining eye continued to befall Katja.

"You went to the Jedi because you're afraid of what the senate will decide." Said Rakaan with a sudden clarity, "You think they'll side against you."

The quiet between them resumed, the sounds of steps and breaths and their heartbeats were all that came - one faster, more urgent than the other.

"You've done some terrible things, haven't you?" He asked, though it did not seem to be a question made without forgone conclusion.

​