Too Late a Hero

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Damian Starchaser"]

The brain being starved of oxygen to the point of shutting down was no laughing matter. It could lead to long term problems if prolonged. At the same time Jacen wasn't about to let a boy who had the stones to break into the most secure prison in the quadrant get his hands on a potential hostage. Especially after already using her as a living shield.

"Get her to the infirmary," Jacen said to the guards. "If you're not very good at, perhaps don't start working on the brain," he suggested to Damian. They helped a rather groggy Marshal to her feet. When the boy had nobody close to hand and his weapon was with a guard Jacen released his grip.

"Well then, time for a little chat I think. Kana?"

[member="Chevu Visz"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Peyton Steele"]

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian grimaced, “I’m bad at force healing, but I know chokeholds. She’ll be okay in a couple of minutes. Right as rain.” Damian did know chokeholds, and first aide and explosives, and combat techniques and lying to get what he wanted….. He was really good at those things. Oh and being friends. He was great at being friends. Looking to Kana he smiled a weak embarrassed smile. He’d never been caught before. Well okay there was that one time when he was investigation a rather nasty fellow and he walked in him wading through his apartment looking for an explosive device… but he was able to bullpoodoo his way of clear that.

He wouldn’t be bullpoodooting his way out of this mess though. He followed [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] up the staircase and into the office for interrogation. Damian moved to a chair at the end of the table and looked up at Jacen Voidstar, “May I sit?” he asked. It was better to ask, show submissiveness from the get go, and make the interrogator feel like he has the upper hand early.

[member="Chevu Visz"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Peyton Steele"]

 

[Kana Truden]

A weak smile on her former-or-current student’s lips. Kana gravely nodded at Damian as she was let out of her cell by the shamed guard. There was that hint of uncertainty in the air, the bitter taste of not knowing whether Damian’s little adventure had derailed the rehabilitation train or made it worse. Kana would be lying if she didn’t feel that slither of anger at what she had seen gone down. All the mindless violence and chaos caused for nothing.

Or well, to see Kana who pretty much equaled to the same amount.

She followed along the others down the corridors.

“Yeah, sit.” Kana would answer before Jacen had the chance. She took a seat of her own. A moment of silence passed and Kana raised her finger, pointed it at Damian and took a deep breath. “What the hell is going on, Damian?”

She lowered her hand and let it flop onto her lap.

“Jason, I swear I had no idea this was going to happen. My studen- former student?” Kana blinked and then shrugged. “He can be a bit absent-minded with his, uh, approach to things sometimes.”

[member="Damian Starchaser"] // [member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Damian Starchaser"]
[member="Kana Truden"]

Jacen slipped into a chair. The serious expression on his face looked almost strained, as he attempted not to find the whole situation amusing. He could laugh about it later, especially once he’d ensured that no one else had been injured during this little episode.

“You would have been better served knocking on the door and asking to see your former master,” Jacen explained. “We would have obliged. Kana will be staying here on Sullust for the time being. Leaving is entirely within her power, she’ll be kept until we can help her regain the control she once had to resist the dark side,” he said. He turned to Kana. He didn’t want to say any more, it was up to her what she wished to reveal to her former student.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian smiled a lopsided smile over at Kana. "I lost you on telti," Damian said. His smile held a melancholy air to it. "I fought [member="Darth Vornskr"] and managed to blow the Sith Lord up and escape but the sith were everywhere, hunting me. I had to go underground and a few months later managed to escape the system. When I came back... you weren't there. I searched for you and ended up on Zoist during an invasion. But before I could reach you this... person... attacked me." He shivered at [member="Sage Bane"]'s mental manipulations. "He did not take my attempt to drown him lightly either and once again I was on the run and I lost you. But then," he nosed over to Jacen Voidstalker, "Then I found you and I had to see you. Of course I was hoping not to get caught. I needed to see if you were still you. If you were and wanted I'd have rescued you. I'd still rescue you if you want." Damian said his smile widening. Probably not the best thing to say in front of a Jedi Master who just helped to capture you but whatever. It wasn't a Marek thought. It was the opposite of a Marek thought....

"You're my master," Damian said, "From now until the end of time."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Telti. It had been long since then, far too long. Long enough for the last time that Kana and Damian ever saw each other to have been at some point where she still had her faith in the galaxy in one piece. At least to a degree. It was certainly part of the reason she broke down in the end, started wandering and wondering about at the galaxy. Questioning the reasons she kept on going with all that she had experienced. The fact that they both seemed to have gotten themselves ‘locked up’ one way or another with the Sith.

“Yeah.” Kana slowly nodded. “I lost my way, as the others around here keep calling it.”

“Do you remember Ruusan, Damian? Did you hear about it?” She swallowed air as she looked over at Jacen. At the moment he was the only one who knew about what Kana had done. At least the ideas behind them, not what she actually did. “Everyone died. Everyone except me.”

“I couldn’t stay. Despite the warnings, I signed up for an offensive. Ord Mirit.” She looked between Jacen and Damian. “Wanted to die, ended up deserting. Left the field after the Sith Lord I was fighting refused me.”

“Went to Coruscant and things went... Wrong.” The dumb one, Kana, didn’t want to truly talk about it. Not like this. “I can fill you in later, right now we most likely have more pressing matters to attend.” She turned to Jacen. “Right?”

And then she turned back to Damian with a tiny flicker of a smile. “Damian is my student, from now until the end of time.” Eyes right back at Jacen. “I will claim the responsibility for his actions if it saves him time in a two square meter apartment.”

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Damian Starchaser"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Damian Starchaser"] [member="Kana Truden"]

"Doesn't work like that I'm afraid Kana," Jacen replied. "But as long as he hasn't seriously harmed anyone I think an apology would suffice. "Did you?" Jacen asked. There was no point in the boy lying; Jacen would find out what had happened soon enough.

Jacen turned to regard them in turn. Their sincere claims on each other had started his train of thought down a particular track. "But Damian will be staying for a while," Jacen added. "At least, I'm sure he'll want to be here to help a friend in need."

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian smiled a little at [member="Kana Truden"] as she made her statement of facts. Fact. Then the young man's smiled diminished as she made her offer. He wouldn't accept her accepting his punishment. After a moment of thought and contemplation he looked over to [member="Jacen Voidstalker"], forcing himself into a disarming smile. "I lit a simple garbage fire on the J tier to distract the guards, then while under cover as one of them evacuated the rest to deal with a controlled blast. I used a bit of thermite welding to seal the doors behind me but that agent and Jedi came through and saw me. I subdued the pretty green Jedi with minimal force utilizing a choke hold.There should be zero casualties and no capital offenses." Damian operated clean. Still he felt bad for [member="Chevu Visz"].

Then it happened, Master Voidstalker mentioned helping a friend. "I've thought about a lot of things while I was on the run. About life and death, about the force, the lightside and the dark. Do you know what I think? The force is everlasting. The reason the force can last forever is because it doesn't exist for itself. You cannot exist in a solely insular world and still be considered human."

 

[Kana Truden]

There was little Kana could do but smile and nod in disappointment. She couldn’t take the blame, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t do it anyway. Not now, but should the boy get himself in trouble for what he did then she would damn well do whatever she could to keep him out of her seat. Alone in a cell was no way to live a life. Maybe Kana was getting as overly protective of her student as she always was, but she’d be damned if she had to see the kid behind bars over some stupid attempt at ‘freeing’ her from this place.

“I see.” She said as she leaned back in her seat. “Well, if anything comes around to change that, you know where to find me.”

She took a deep breath.

“Damian is the most unorthodox student, and jedi, that I have ever encountered.” She spoke to Jacen. “Hell, we met because he was looking to-” She paused for a second and looked at Damian in a brief moment of panic. Did she tell Jacen about the intended robbery? “Well, it’s not important. He blew up furniture and walls even back then.”

“He kind of likes to do that.”

[member="Damian Starchaser"] && [member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Kana Truden"]
[member="Damian Starchaser"]

“I don’t mind so much about the furniture, as I do about the walls that separate us from the magma,” Jacen said. His eyes belied the amusement that wasn’t reflected by his expression. “And don’t worry we’re not going to be locking you Padawan up,” Jacen said to Kana, sensing her distress.

“Actually I’d like a little talk with Damian alone if you wouldn’t mind. You can head up to the gardens if you’d like for a while. They’ll be meditating in the Bafforr plantation soon I believe,” he said. Kana acquiesced and left the pair alone.

“Right then,” Jacen said, turning to Damian. “Your appearance is actually very good timing, even if the method was not. I believe the root cause of Kana coming off the rails was that she felt abandoned by all those around her. I think she has to ground herself again, make connections with those around her. You could be a great help to her right now Damian, but this is going to be a long slog. The path of least resistance for her would be flying off with you and running away from what she’s done. Can you be part of the solution, stay and help?” he asked.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian leaned back in his seat as he smiled at the Jedi Master. “I’ve always had good timing sir.” Politeness. It was an important thing. Ever the gentleman, at least when needed, Damian kept his smile firm on his face. He listened, intently, to every word that [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] said. “Of course I’ll stay,” Damians face contorted a bit into a frown. “Why else would I be here? [member="Kana Truden"] took me off the streets.” He paused and thought about that for a moment… “Well… she took me off a luxury liner that was being raided by pirates. We stopped the pirates but they took same Data from Santhe corporation from a vault and then we went to their facility and took it back.” He didn’t mention that the liner belonged to his father or that he intended to rob the casino onboard. Those details weren’t important. “Well okay we didn't’t take it back. We found when they were selling it and made sure authorities were with us when it happened to get both the buyers and the thieves themselves.” That detail was important.

“So yes, I’ll stay and help. I assume this means I’ll be allowed to come and go as pleased? I have other, business ventures, that I need to deal with. Important things really, although on the surface they might not appear that way.”

 

[Kairon Rees]

[member="Damian Starchaser"]

"Kana is still being escorted when outside the temple grounds, and I'll add you to the visitors register at the main gate," Jacen replied. "Right then, you'd best work out where you're staying, we have some rooms free in the main temple and I need to go and see how much damage you've caused!"

 

[Damian Starchaser]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] made a generous offer of a free room in the Jedi Temple, but Damian was a private person. Instead he found a small place above a bar. It wasn't air conditioned or even fit for habitation, at least not by legal means, but it suited his purpose. It was high where he could see down the lava flows and had a commanding view of the streets in every direction. In addition it backed up to an alley providing protection for... anything he might want to do.

A day passed before Damian felt settled enough to visit the prison once more. He entered showing ID and being allowed to move freely to Kana's cell. The Damage he had done was being repaired. One of the workers gave him a look to which he replied with an innocent, almost angelic one of his own.

"Good work, although to tighten security you should really reinforce the internal bulkheads with energy and ray shielding."

They were not amused.

[member="Kana Truden"] was waiting right where he had left her. "Master," he said sitting on the other side of the shield from her. "Tell me everything."

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana was right there, in her cell, meditating. Or at least trying to. All things considered she had never been the best at it. Besides, being dragged alongside Damian on tropical adventures ‘back in the days’ usually proved to be far more relaxing in the end anyway. That is to say the literal end. Beaches, luxury liners and other places where you were pampered like that always had a way of making you far more relaxed than meditation could ever make you.

Now, add someplace for Jedi to go and do that and then meditate and you’d have yourself an award winning Jedi Order combination to be sure.

But that was enough about reminiscing and pondering. It was time to face reality again and to that extent Kana slowly opened her eyes.

Yep, still smelled like molten sulphur. Still deceptively warm.

“What do you want to know, Damian?” Kana got up and pulled her chair up in front of the entrance. “The why? The what? The who?”

“I mean, it doesn’t matter, they’re all connected. One way or the other.” She shrugged. “Have your pick.”

[member="Damian Starchaser"]

 

[Damian Starchaser]

[member="Kana Truden"] looked the same as when he'd first met. She was pretty sure, but there was an aura of kindness and gentle caring that seemed to utterly overflow from her very being. "I wish that you could see yourself how I see you," Damian said considering for a moment what he should ask. He didn't normally pry, well not with friends at least, and yet he was sure [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] wanted him to help out here and not just sit around.

"How about you start with what you don't want to tell me, and from there we can move onto better subjects?" It seemed like a good suggestion, get the painful stuff over with and move on. Damian recalled his first adventure with the woman and smiled. "Kana.... you know my history. I've been through a lot, done things to survive. I won't judge you."

 

[Kana Truden]

“Yeah, well, I don’t.” Kana responded to Damian.

“What is there to actually call ‘the parts that I don’t want to tell you?’” Kana perked her brow. “That would be all of it, Damian. I hate every single thing that I have done over the course of the last few months.”

“I murdered people, Damian. I committed high treason by selling information about the Ossus Academy to the One Sith thinking I could help them thin the herd. Hell, I even sle-” She stopped, looked to the ground. The Sith Lord ‘thing’ wasn’t her most favored topic. It was all there in her nightmares, at the touch along her waist or inner arms. Imagery etched onto the Jedi Master’s mind like the bad memories they were.

“I was seduced by one of the big guys.”

“She...” Fight the memories. Tell the truth. “Used me.”

“Look, we’ll just... I made some bad moves. Can we leave it at that?”

[member="Damian Starchaser"]