Private The Hapes Conspiracy

[Cadere]

Aaaaand there it was, Zemira was quick to dismiss the little game he had made over the fight. Between deflections, he smirked "Oh, lighten up Zemira! A little fun never killed nobody! Uhh... phrasing?" Cas hollered with a slight chuckle and with that, she was gone, in pursuit of the head Hapan which meant Cas had to clean up shop in here. Easy enough.

"You're all alone now, Jedi!" one of the men yelled out to Cas, shooting off a blaster bolt aimed at his head, smirking as he effortlessly jerked his head to the left as the bolt darted passed him "I think I'll be alright." he stated confidently, twirling his lightsaber. Sensing the slight panic within the Hapan men, he figured he'd go easy on them. Those who Zemira had disarmed before leaving quickly found their weapons and opened fire on Cas without hesitating he darted toward the Hapan closest to him, deflecting all incoming blaster fire headed his way.

When close enough to the nearest Hapan, Cas somersaulted toward him before planting his boots firmly and aggressively on his face. Using the poor man's face as jumping off point, Cas kicked off, knocking the Hapan out, and leapt over to the next, enhancing his speed with the Force and appearing as a blur, he landed on his next opponent's shoulder in a single-armed handstand for a brief few seconds and used the time to swiftly use his free, weapon hand, to cut through the Hapan's blaster rifle. Pushing off of his shoulder, Cas transitioned into another somersault and touched down behind him before swivelling himself around and knocking out his closest foe with a spinning heel kick.

It seemed his incessant talking had paid off as it apparently worsened their respective aims, Cas didn't get hit once during his risky acrobatics. There were three more left before he had effectively cleared the area, but they were a fair distance away, luckily though, they stood in a line which made Cas' plan all the more easier. Extending his arm, Cas made a fist and yanked all three of their blasters with the Force, then he threw both arms forward and unleashed a semi-powerful Force push to send them hurtling into a wall and effectively rendering them unconscious.

Hopefully they stayed that way for a while as the Kiffar exited the warehouse and focused on Zemira's signature within the Force to find her, fortunately he could sense she was close by. Arriving in the alley way, he quickly saw the standoff between the two Hapans, with the blonde-haired one's blaster trained on her - reacting instinctively, he directed his arm at the Hapan and turned his wrist harshly and as it did, the Force dragged the blonde Hapan forcefully away from Zemira. As he fell to the ground and subsequently dropped his blaster, Cas somersaulted over and landed directly in between him and Zemira. Lightsaber directed at his face, Cas cast Zemira a sidelong glance "Thought he had you for a second there, you alright?" he asked, concerned but completely oblivious to the situation. "What do you want to do with them?" he was genuinely uncertain of what do in this situation as it wasn't simply black or white.

Zemira

 

[Zemira]

"Cas!" Zemira exclaimed after watching the situation unfold before her. While it could be argued that her ally didn't know the nature of the situation he had just walked in on, she did not appreciate that he ran in to defend her without first assessing the situation. She shouldered past him and offered a hand to the fallen man who only scowled in response before pushing himself back onto his feet. Although his weapon had been within arm's reach, he knew any efforts of resistance were futile when facing two Jedi.

"I don't need you to protect me. I can look after myself. I didn't ask for your help." She glanced over her shoulder at Cas while still keeping the Hapan in her peripheral vision. It seemed any rapport she had begun to build with the man was now dissolved and he watched the pair with scornful eyes. "I don't know... We can't report them because they'll get executed." She told Cas. Being familiar with the justice system in place on Hapes, Zemira was aware of the fate that would befall these men if they were exposed for their crimes. While she didn't condone their actions nor agree that they should go unpunished, she believed the death penalty was too far in this situation. They were desperate men only turned bad by their circumstances, or so she believed. She hoped giving them a second chance would give them the opportunity to change their paths.

"If your group changes its goals to meet your aim peacefully then I will try and help you. I will tell authorities we killed the assassin during a fight who we believed was working alone. This is your only chance. If you betray my trust and attempt another assassination then you will be caught, if not by the Jedi then by the Royal Guard then you and your group will be executed. Protest peacefully and make allies. Assassination will only make you enemies and you do not need any more of those right now. Use your anger to make change, not on some mindless assassination which won't change anything. Show Hapes that you are valued citizens and they might believe it." She tried to bargain with the man who took a moment to consider her option before giving a hesitant nod.

Zemira turned around to talk to Cas but it seemed the man had no intention of leaving his ideals behind as he quickly reached for the blaster on the ground and shot towards the pair of Jedi in one swift movement. Zemira had tried to appeal to the man's reasoning but she hadn't taken into account the fact that if the group gained enough power, as it aimed to do, then they could very well try and take power by force and start a civil war which it seemed was what they intended to do.

Cadere

 

[Cadere]

"What?!" he asked, bewildered at Zemira's exclamation of his name. When she brushed passed him to offer the terrorist a hand up, his look of confusion only grew. Had he missed something? The Hapan had aimed a blaster at her and not long before ordered his men to kill both of them, why was she offering him help up? Weren't they supposed to arrest him. Regardless, he backed away slightly and while still confused, he elected to keep his lightsaber ignited.

With Zemira shrugging off his attempt to help and declaring she didn't need his 'protection', Cas threw out his arms in both disbelief and confusion "Are you kidding me, Zemira?! In case you forgot, he was aiming a blaster to your head! What was I supposed to do?!" he exclaimed in frustration. The Kiffar wasn't trying to be Zemira's 'Knight in Shining Armor' or anything similar in the slightest, he saw an ally possibly in danger and he acted accordingly. As one was supposed to do. With her near-constant critiquing of him, she was almost as bad as Sakadi, but the slight difference between the two, was that his former Master was capable of having some fun from time to time.

As Zemira bargained with the Hapan terrorist, he shook his head and let out a disgruntled sigh at the entire situation - imagine being condemned for trying to aid an ally. Once his fellow Knight turned to talk to him as well as turning her back on the terrorist, through the Force Cas quickly sensed a shift in the terrorist's intentions. Swiftly, Cas grabbed Zemira and pulled her close before swivelling the both of them around where Cas' back would now face their attempted attacker and enhancing his speed and physicality with the Force, Cas speedily turned to face the terrorist as he shot off his blaster. Using the speed in his left arm, granted to him by the FF-CAR1, the Jedi Knight deflected the blaster bolt with a flick of his amber blade before closing the gap between them and in a lightening fast spinning motion, Cas severed the terrorist's blaster arm. Before his arm could even fall to the floor, Cas threw his head forward and connected his forehead into the Hapan's nose in a devastating headbutt, sending him collapsing to the ground unconscious.

"You sure you don't need that protection?" he quipped passive aggressively, extinguishing his lightsaber and lightly rubbing his forehead Cas turned to face the Hapan Jedi "Before you try and scold me, I could have done worse. Force knows he deserved it." he stated, sounding almost remorseless. While Cas still felt sympathy for the oppression of the Hapan males and empathised with their desire to revolt, any kind of support he would have had was immediately lost when the blonde Hapan attempted to kill Zemira with her back turned. "He just tried to kill you, you still want to show him sympathy now?" Cas asked, challenging his fellow Jedi "You offered him a peaceful solution and he threw it away, I don't wanna see these guys executed... but what else can we do?"

Zemira

 

[Zemira]

"I could see he was aiming a blaster at me." She replied over her shoulder calmly before addressing the man. The Knight should have known better than to try and reason with a man who had nothing to lose and she should've seen his reaction coming. Unexpectedly, she was pulled aside by Cas and watched in surprise as he intercepted the Hapan man and swiftly disarmed him. She hadn't sensed anything amiss and Cas had just saved her life moments after she had reprimanded him for previously attempting to do so. The Knight's face grew red with embarrassment as she prepared herself for the oncoming onslaught she expected from Cas.

She took his words without returning any. No words would come out of her mouth if she tried as she was at a loss for how to come back from what she had just said. "It's not just about him. It was much bigger than that. If I could convince him to protest peacefully then maybe I could stop the spark that could initiate civil unrest." She replied cooly. Regardless of her personal feelings about the man, she knew she had to at least attempt to solve the issue before it began because although she didn't know the full extent of the group, she wanted to minimise the risk of Hapes descending into civil war - an extreme outcome but not impossible.

"I don't know." She replied as she rubbed the back of her neck, thoughtfully. Although with the information they had gathered, they would be able to inform the Jedi and they could decide what action would be best to take. "We need to protect the Queen until we can relay this information onto the council. They'll know what's best to do. I don't think they'd expect us to solve this alone when the future of Hapes depends on it." She told Cas. "Let's go." She commanded before leading the way out of the alleyway, momentarily glancing over her shoulder as she did. "Thanks." She thanked him for saving her life earlier but said nothing more on the matter.

Cadere

 

[Cadere]

Zemira didn't fire back at him, which with the kind of company he kept he half-expected her to do so, and in fact, her not retorting made him feel slightly guilty for coming at her so harshly. The Hapan Knight simply explained her goals in a calm manner which made him feel even more bad for being an nerf herder to her, her reasoning was sound and logical - a civil war was completely unnecessary, but the males still had a right to voice their discontent.

"Yeah, you're right." Cas responded in a sigh, the Jedi would definitley need to get involved in this - luckily Hapes was in Silver space and with the influence of the Jedi, some compromise may hopefully be reached. When Zemira began to head toward the end of the alley, Cas' eyes darted between the unconscious terrorist and Zemira, he didn't feel comfortable leaving them but it was the better option than turning them into be executed. Cas' eyes managed to catch Zemira's as she turned to thank him. As she did so, the young Jedi felt his heartbeat pick up a few paces before feeling slight butterflies in his stomach - clutching at his chest, he looked down at it with a reaised eyebrow, wondering what the hell just happened before eventually catching up to Zemira.

That night and the next day was spent protecting the Queen Mother and thankfully, things were quiet with her banquet remaining uninterrupted. Eventually, their assignment was over and the Concord as well as the Silver Jedi were informed on what they had discovered. Cas and Zemira were informed that the matter would be looked into and a solution would be made, with that being the last thing the pair heard about the subject. Unlike the majority of his missions, Cas was left feeling unsastisfied with the outcome - he was used to getting a definitive win, with the nature of the mission being black and white.

But this? This was one of those greyer situations which frustrated him to no end, he didn't get a resolution, there was no clear good or evil and there were no winners nor a happy ending in this. The Kiffar just hoped something could be arranged between the two sexes of Hapes... and maybe things could change for the better. Cas would have to hope...

Zemira