Private Why Are You Following Me

[Iris Arani]

The train on Denon had been eye opening for all the wrong reasons. What should've been a normal trip turned into absolute chaos. The only saving grace was that there were at least allies she could count on then. Felix Faraday was one of them. Hopefully he was fine, but now that she was back home on Coruscant she figured she could relax. Figured she could. There were a lot of tricks she learned during the war as a Shadow. Compartmentalization of her emotions was the biggest.

Knowing she was being followed was a close second.

Walking through the streets on the capital of the Galaxy should've meant people wouldn't have followed her. She got off world enough that there was no reason to risk it, especially since the Jedi were based here. But she could feel it. Someone was in her shadow. Watching, following. The colors showed that much. And they knew what they were doing about it. No matter where she looked, she couldn't actually see the person. Were they a threat? Maybe. After what happened on Denon she wouldn't be surprised.

She rounded a corner, dipped into a back alley. If they were dead set on following, she'd find them here.

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

It had been on the rail heists on Denon that she had first felt the disturbance. Somewhere on that train, she had felt the focus and ability, honed and precise; It had reminded her of her Master’s presence, though it lacked the cold determination of Enyo Typhos. Maris had done all that she could to disguise her nature before the Jedi - if that was what she was - but the Shrike had detected a recognition of something in her, despite her impressive capability at obfuscation. It was one look, one had been enough to fascinate the raven-haired agent. There had been no reason to follow the force user half the way across the galactic core, no reason beyond the Shrike's obsessive inquisitiveness.

Now, she found herself in yet another ecumenopolis. The same world on which she had purchased the name and history of Erisa Adler, a world she had learned to navigate as easily as any vertical urban megacity. She had remained a passive passenger on the transport between worlds, content that she need not confront her target in the sealed environs of the spaceship. Instead, she had waited for their arrival planetside to begin tailing the Jedi.

For some time, Maris had been as precise and careful as she could, utilizing all of her prodigious stealth and the knowledge of streets to conceal all hint of her passing, and had observed the Jedi from afar, quietly admiring the focus, mimicking certain motions and gestures she saw, copying looks the woman gave to passers-by.

It had proved all too tempting to push her talents, to test the ability of the Jedi to spot her, and so Maris forsaken some of her caution and dared to observe from closer, all the better to observe the Jedi, trying to sense her in the force across the distance, as she had been able to sense her Master.

The moment the Jedi had changed her actions had been decisive, Maris’ cool grey eyes had observed the woman take opportune moments to look for her shadow. The tradecraft was admirable in itself, but when she had chosen to divert from the main streets and enter an alley the Shrike knew that a challenge had been issued.

Maris Fero paused in her progress and spent long seconds considering the next moments in the course of her actions. There was no plan. There was no true agenda beyond her obsessive curiosity. Closing her eyes once more the Shrike tried her best to sense the other force user ahead of her, but with no true acuity of practice she felt only the residual passing of another soul. She thought of her distant Master once again, feeling the dull ache of loss as her thoughts lingered on Enyo Typhos , reimagining her family.

A decision point passed and Maris descended from an elevated walkway to street level once again, and lingered at the corner before the mouth of the alley, breathing and letting the veil of her stealth part, feeling exposed as she stepped off and turned the corner - Walking into the shadows.

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

There was a flash of blue, but no companying hum as Iris pointed a lightsaber for Maris the moment she rounded the corner. Purple and pink eyes narrowed in focus. Detachment. For the time being, Iris was fully in her Shadow training, keeping her emotions at bay. Keeping the budding panic in the back of her mind at bay. She recognized her. Barely. Someone from the train, but who she was, what side she was on, Iris couldn't say.

It was why she held out the nonlethal blade of Entropite instead of striking.

"Who are you?"

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

The young woman before her was dressed in a mismatch of clothes, the underlayer apparently a bodysuit of some type she might have recognised from the fashions of the Shadowrunner youths of Denon, the long almost shawl like hooded zipper was of Coruscanti make, probably lifted from a street side vendor by a light-fingered soul as she passed to supplement any attempt to blend into the crowd. The long hood fell low over her brows, shading much of her features from the Jedi, but the glowing blue of the weapon caught the flash of her eyes, making then appear blue for a moment.

She let herself react with the panic she should feel, no attempt to obfuscate as she stepped back on her heels in an attempt to keep distance and nearly turned to run. But she stayed put, frozen for a moment in the sabers glow, hands parted by her sides carefully unmoving. One empty, one holding a half hidden piece of fruit.

"No-one.. no-one, really."

The stranger replied, her voice betraying the youths relative age as she slowly rose her hands to reveal the nonthreatening contents. There was more truth to those words than met the eye, Erisa Adler no longer existed and Maris was less convinced by the day that Maris Fero had been anything other than a cover story to disguise whoever she truly was.

She did not dare reach for a weapon, knowing just how fast she was, she couldn't guarantee a trained jedi wasn't far faster.

"I-I'll just leave.."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"I didn't say you could leave. I asked who you were."

It'd be easier if she had her helmet. The programs within it helped her at least get some information on the people she saw. No such case here. Not even Domxite was with her this time, though she knew they'd probably know something was off. Iris hadn't gone immediately home, after all. That was alarming enough. Iris kept the blade level, letting her senses scan around for other colors. Other people.

"Why were you following me?"

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

“I need your permission to leave?” the stranger asked with an air of rebelliousness that suggested the woman didn’t react well to being given orders.

She was alone, of course, and the Shrike had made efforts to avoid the attention of any authority or official they had passed. She had been like a ghost until she had decided not to be. She didnt answer the original question, still unsure quite who she would be to this woman yet, and seeking a sign before the force might lead her to the best answer.

“You are a Jedi…” she replied gesturing a little to the weapon pointed at her, though careful not to make sudden moves. “I’ve seen them in Holo’s before. But never for real.”

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"You do when you've been following me as long as you have been." Still, Iris did lower the blade. She didn't lower her guard, but at least Maris didn't seem like she was there to be a threat. That, or she was really good at hiding her intentions. And if it was the later, Iris doubted anything she'd do would keep her alive at this point.

"We're very real, yes. I still want to know why you've been following me, though."

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

“I felt you, through the train.” the stranger explained after a momentary pause to compose her thoughts. Still moving slowly, she let her already raised hands push back her hood to expose her face fully to the Jedi.


"I needed to follow you, I needed to know if you were like me. And I didn't have anywhere else to be." The shrike continued, grey eyes watching the lowered lightsaber as she took a could of slow lateral steps to put her back to the alley wall.


"I felt you help on the train. And I thought you might have seen me, people don't see me."


She came to rest against the alley wall. Slowly lowering her hands toward her belt, but stopping short of it awkwardly, as if trying to find a comfortable position that wouldn't cause the Jedi to run her through.


"Do you want me to apologise?"

 

[Iris Arani]

"Oh."

Iris extinguished the quiet blade, letting the ligthsaber drop back into the pouch she'd pulled it from. Felt on the train, huh? There were a good number of colors that evening, all chaotic and over the place. But she couldn't say she directly remembered Maris's own.

She did at least recognize them for following her.

"No." Iris never did care for apologies. Instead she walked back to the mouth of the alley, back towards the street. Paused only when she reached it to blink and look back to the girl.

"You coming?"

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

The Jedi deactivated her weapon and the Shrike allowed herself to relax a little, her own weapons were mostly stowed away in her small backpack, though the shock prod was still secreted up her sleeve. Granted, it was very very unlikely to come out on top in a saber duel, but she still liked to feel some close protection..

She watched the Jedi consider her, her gaze settling on the force users eyes as she tried to read the surface thoughts there, not a power she had found any success in before.

"Where are we going?" She asked before making to follow, still wary for now before adding, "You never gave me permission to move."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"To the temple. If you're so curious about the Jedi, you should at least see them yourself." And the fact she was so skilled at hiding meant there was some kind of training. Or something else was off. Iris wasn't too sure one way or another, but she wasn't going to figure it out on the street. She did pause though, glancing to the girl curiously.

"Oh. You can move, yeah."

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

To the Temple.


So they had a Temple. She had never actually paid the Jedi order enough attention to even realise that much. Her former masters opinion on both faces of the major force religions had been less than complimentary and Maris had been comfortable to trust her word.


"What happens at the temple?" She asked, her natural proclivity toward curiosity informing her choices. "I have never been to any temple or anything… I thought you needed to pray to go there."


She followed, hurrying to come alongside the Jedi, matching her pace as best as she could, she even seemed to match the woman's gate.


"What do I call you?" She asked as she looked around the streets, alert for threats. Though she kept cool it would be obvious to Iris just how attentive the Shrike was being to her surroundings.

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"Pray?"

Iris blinked, glancing once again to Maris before shaking her head. "I don't think Jedi pray. It's where we live, train, learn. You're clearly Force Sensitive, so.. I figure you can learn what a Jedi is first hand there." Maybe even be one. Iris shrugged indifferently at that thought before once again turning to lead the way to the temple.

"Iris."

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

Iris.


The shrike tried not to show the discomfort she felt at the idea of visiting the temple, there was something about the connotations of the word and the idea of living there among people she didn't trust didn't immediately sit well with the young woman.


You're clearly force sensitive..


"I suppose so…" she replied as she considered saying more yet held her tongue for now.


"Iris is a pretty name, not that that's important or anything." She added abruptly as if feeling foolish for saying it. "Do all Jedi live in temples?"

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"It's a name."

Iris was indifferent, one way or another. Her name was the only thing she had from her mother, the only memory that could be given. "No. I have my own apartment, and a couple have their own homes. Younger Jedi tend to live in the Temple though. Why?"

Maris Fero

 

[Maris Fero]

The Jedi wasn't very talkative, Maris wondered if she should cut the interaction short already, perhaps they were leading her into a trap - Did Jedi do traps?

"I thought.. the holos make it sound like the Jedi move around from place to place, and don't live anywhere really?" she suggested with a halfhearted shrug as she was open in her ignorance on the truth of the Jedi order. At a whim, Maris offered another item of truth, "I-uh- I've never really been all that comfortable living in big groups or.. well. Big spaces. I slept in a locker growing up."

Iris Arani