EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Julan's gaze snapped up to Janius, wide-eyed. He was caught off-guard, and stammered for a few seconds as he spoke. "What? I don't...I...that's not funny!"

Several of the others laughed, though not all may have been doing so in good fun. There were two or three that looked more judgmental, perhaps mistrusting, than the rest. Must like the rest of the village as a whole, there were some who did not necessarily take kindly to outsiders. Julan's anxiety might have been at least partially justified. Still, the violet-scaled girl was content ignoring any and all of the others to continue her questioning. "Humans also have marriage? I didn't think you'd have that without the Hist to keep you together. Did you really come here to find your son a wife? I thought he said he was here for his rite?"

The boy sitting on the log in the back huffed dismissively. "No chance a softskin-raised like him is going to beat a real hunter. Should have just picked the rite of endurance and hope that the Hist take it easy on you. Or maybe you're afraid the Hist will punish you for being softskin-raised."

---

"Well, in a war, that is usually a much easier question to answer. Anyone who associates themselves with Vile deserves what they get. Outside of a war, you rarely would have a reason to hunt down someone to kill them. For the most part, you would only be defending yourself against an attacker. If someone is trying to kill you, then it should not be a moral question for you to kill them." Ahnasha answered. She did not usually think as much about her targets as Rhazii was, but she wanted to give him reasonable ways of avoiding guilt. "We don't usually make mistaking selecting our targets in this war, and if we do, then it won't be your fault."

Last of the Jedi (EliteCommander and Sep)

Kresst finally slowed down once the loading ramp was closed behind them. He was keeping an eye on Mach, but still did not sense any sort of threat from him. "I'm afraid I don't have those answers yet. Once we are somewhere safe, hopefully we will be able to figure all of this out." He replied, just before their pilot came rushing to them from across the ship. She was a Mon Calamari woman in a red flight uniform, almost the same shade as her skin. Kresst had guessed early on that she was a member of the Jedi Service Corps, due to her force-sensitivity. While not quite panicked, she was certainly alarmed, confused, and looking for answers.

"Okay, what is going on here...master?" She asked between breaths, only barely remembering to use some formality. "This planet has turned into a warzone, and I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone. Too much longer, and I'd have had to have taken off."

"I'm not sure I understand all of this myself, but we need to get off-world right away." Kresst answered.

The pilot looked visibly relieved. "Good. I'll have us back to Coruscant as fast as possible."

Kresst held up a hand just as the pilot was about to turn back towards the cockpit. "Wait. I'm not sure that is a good idea. Something...horrible is happening, and I'm not sure Coruscant is safe anymore. Just...take us away from the planet, into space. Far from anything. In the short-term, that is probably the safest place we can be."

"I...okay, Master Jedi, I'll do as you say. What about the rest of the soldiers? The clones, I mean; should we wait on them?" She questioned, to which Kresst slowly shook his head. Understanding his meaning, the pilot rushed back up to the cockpit with her astromech to get them off of the planet. She already had the engines primed and ready, so there was no further delay for them to take off.

Kresst understood the probable trauma that was fresh on Mevenn's mind, so he managed to overcome his own questions and worries enough to keep a calm exterior. He gently encouraged Mevenn to sit down in the ship's common room to calm her mind and collect herself, while keeping Mach close to himself. Given what Mevenn had claimed happened between herself and her squad, Kresst did not think it wise to leave them together alone.

Since their fates were in the hands of their pilot at this point, Kresst simply took the time to meditate and gather his thoughts while they were leaving the planet. In the Sith temple, he had sensed betrayal, but now it seemed that it was far worse than he could have imagined. He had first felt the darkness encroaching on his senses back when they were approaching the Sith temple, but now, out of the planet's atmosphere, it was hardly any weaker. It was a wave of darkness permeating the whole of the galaxy, for those with the senses to feel it.

Eventually, the atmosphere in the ship settled into an uneasy calm, shortly before the pilot joined them once more in the common room. She stepped into see Mevenn and Mach on opposite sides of the table from one another, with Kresst meditating at a seat in the middle. She was finally the one to break the silence. "I think we're out of any immediate danger, at least. C2 has us on a course towards...nothing, and it doesn't seem like we're being followed. So..." She began, letting out a long, deep breath. "...what the hell is going on?"

Kresst slowly opened his eyes and straightened up in his seat. "Yes, I think we all need to catch each other up on what we've missed. I went down into the Sith temple with that local commander, and Mach. Eventually, after I dug up whatever answers the commander was looking for, he turned on us. He knocked Mach out, and attempted to kill me. He was an acolyte of the Dark Side. Perhaps self-taught, given his meager skills, but I had no choice but to kill him. I managed to wake Mach up, we headed back up to the surface, then back to you as fast as possible, Mevenn. I felt the betrayal from within the temple, but had thought it was the locals."

Last of the Jedi (EliteCommander and Sep)

Though Mevenn was undoubtedly turning to Kresst for wisdom, he was equally as surprised as Mach. At the very least, unlike Mach, he did have a few moments to think and collect his thoughts without Mevenn holding him down with the Force. "What? No, it wasn't your clone that betrayed me, it was that Captain. I assumed you were fighting the locals up here. This is..." His voice trailed off as he shifted to focus on Mach.

Despite Kresst's surprise, he was at least in more of a position to think clearly than Mevenn. He focused on the clone's mind, but did not find what he was expecting to sense. Kresst believed Mevenn when she said the clones had turned on her, yet all that Kresst could sense within Mach was a mix of fear and confusion. It was possible that he was skilled at masking his emotions, but Kresst's instincts were telling him otherwise. And regardless of the truth, they still needed to move quickly.

"What we should do is get on the ship and get into deep space as soon as physically possible. We can try to figure this out once we're not in the middle of this warzone. Our pilot isn't a clone; she's directly employed by the Jedi Order. Hopefully she won't betray us too." Kresst recommended before giving a calm, but firm gaze towards the clone. "Mach, we will figure this out, but please give your weapons to Mevenn. It is for the best."

Last of the Jedi (EliteCommander and Sep)

Kresst, as he was rushing towards the ship, was drastically different from his normal, relaxed state. Where as he was usually slow to the point of being frustrating, he was now springing forward with each force-assisted leap. Even then, it was clear that he was holding back so that Mach would even be able to keep up at all. More than Kresst, the clone's armor hinted at the ordeal they had been through, being covered in dust with a cracked helmet held under his arm.

For Kresst, the explosions and blaster fire he heard and felt on his approach plainly showed that the conflict had not been restricted to the Sith temple, which made it even more imperative that they get off of the planet quickly. As much as he wanted to obtain the Sith artifact, he did not feel it worthwhile enough to risk throwing his life away over it.

"We've been betrayed!" Kresst shouted as he neared Mevenn. "We need to get off of this planet right now! Are your men already aboard?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Julan started to rub the back of his neck. "I, um, we're not really friends. I mean, not that we can't be friends, but we all just...met." He said, looking as awkward as he was sounding. The boy on the log looked too surprised about Janius actually speaking Jel to pay much attention to Julan, but the girl who had been questioning Julan looked up at him with an almost ravenous sort of curiosity. She had dark, somewhat violet scales, and looked to be somewhere within a year of Julan's age.

"You're his father? Is that really true, though? I mean, how can a Human be the father of a Saxhleel?" The girl asked.

---

"It's alright." Ahnasha said without hesitation. "That was the whole point of this: to deal with those feelings now, with me, so that you aren't really in any danger."

Ahnasha sat herself down in front of Rhazii. She seemed mostly relaxed, but her twitching ears and occasional glances into the forest showed that she was still reasonably alert. "If you want to talk, we can take as much time as you need. There is still plenty of time before we need to be back in the city."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Hmm, sure, I guess we can. I just hope we don't interrupt anything." Kaleeth replied. Julan was within sight, but too far away for even them to hear over the general noise of the village. Although, Kaleeth could observe a few things just by watching Julan. A decent-sized group of seven or so young Argonians had gathered around Julan, and he clearly was not exactly comfortable being the center of attention. He was not smiling and laughing as he often would with his friends back home, but neither did he look like he wanted to get away from the group. Some of the Argonians were excitedly talking to Julan any chance they had, while a few were looking at him silently, and perhaps judgmentally.

Regardless, Kaleeth joined Janius and approached Julan and the others. The girl who was firing questions at Julan like a volley of arrows did not notice as first, but most of the rest of them did. Most grew silent, and all eyes shifted to Kaleeth and, in particular, Janius. A tan-scaled boy sitting on a log in the back of the group sat with his arms crossed, staring up at Janius with a blank expression for a few seconds before finally speaking. "He doesn't look that strong."

---

As tempting as it was to embrace Rhazii's sympathy for her own comfort, Ahnasha did have a purpose to telling her story. Keeping her calm, she spoke softly and nodded to him. "And I would agree. I was furious when I saw him die, because I wanted to bleed him out slowly. I wanted to make him suffer in just the same way, but it was...Sabine I believe that finished him while they were rescuing me, more quickly than I would have liked. But, I still saw him die, and do you know what it was I saw? Fear, regret, pain. He was terrified to die...just like the man you killed. And yet, he got off easy compared to what he deserved, I think we would both agree. The point being that all people, no matter how despicable and deplorable they are, will tend to die in fear. The man you killed looked pitiful in his final moments, he looked like he deserved your mercy, but that doesn't mean he did. They were bandits. While I doubt they extensively tortured their victims, they still killed innocent people for a few bags of coins. Think of all the mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters that never returned home because of them, and think of all the people who will now live because of you. Don't...take this the wrong way, but I'm actually glad you reacted like this. Only a monster kills without feeling."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth looked uncertain for a few seconds, and had to think of how to word her response. She hummed to herself for a few seconds, then shrugged. "Um...sort of. I think all of this is just really hard for me to make sense of. A lot of our time we just spent talking about the past, about...memories. We talked about my mother a lot, especially about how she was after I left. It hurt her that I left, but I understand she didn't hate me for it. She wasn't like that. She, um...well she did probably hate you. A lot, unfortunately. Not because of who you are or anything, but just because you took me away from her. I think she would have liked you if she got to know you. The Elder agreed. She also thought it would be a good idea if I talked to Thorantilth about communing with the Hist properly. I think I will, but maybe not right now. I just need some time. So, how is Julan getting along with the others? Have you been listening in on them?"

---

Ahnasha shook her head. "No, our situation was different, but we did lack the will to endure what we needed to endure. You know that you were burned in a fire in Black Marsh, back when we were negotiating with Hal-Neesa's cult. That is all true. They were being attacked, and as a condition of our alliance, we were helping them. Neesa and her cult are awful people, make no mistake, but those mercenaries were every bit as detestable as them. They captured us, me and your father. They restrained us, with Fendros facing me, then had healers keep me alive while one of them while one of them cut me open."

For a moment, Ahnasha hesitated and broke eye contact to hide the pain that the memories brought back. Then, after a deep breath, she looked back to him and recited her story with a practiced lack of emotion. "He peeled back my skin from my neck to my abdomen, like a hunter skinning a deer. He cut through the muscle to put all of my insides on display for Fendros. He did anything he could to hurt me and force us to give up information on Neesa's stronghold for their attack. The stronghold where you were at the time. We failed. Fendros told them what they wanted to know; gave them intelligence they used in their attack. I blamed him for a while, but I could only do that by lying to myself. I wouldn't have lasted a minute longer. I would have told them, had he not. It was a different sort of mental willpower that we lacked, but just as important."

There was another brief silence from Ahnasha, but she managed to keep her thoughts focused. "And the man who did that to me, my torturer, what would you think should have happened to him, Rhazii? If it were your choice, what would you say he deserved?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth hesitated a moment, moving herself up alongside Janius and taking his hand in hers. "Not unpleasant, but...she was honest with me. Said some things I think I needed to hear. I did hurt my parents when I left. There's no sense trying to hide from that. But, she said there was...purpose to it. I'm, um, not exactly sure what she meant by that. She kind of started rambling for a while when we were talking. Her caretakers said she's not always able to focus like she should. She's still her, though, just a little bit crazier, I guess." She said, smiling lightly.

---

"It's understandable, but I'm glad you trust me. In truth, I've always worried about you following in our footsteps, and living the kind of life we live. It's dangerous, and not for the feint of heart. But, I also know that it is not my place to stop you, and if being a warrior is the life you want, then I need to do everything in my power to prepare you for it. I brought you out here to help prepare you mentally for the road ahead of you. To have a stronger mind than...I did, when I was younger." Ahnasha explained. She paused, releasing a long breath as she lowered her head, as if in shame. She pulled back somewhat from Rhazii and brought her hand up to her chest. For the first time during their hunt, she actually looked uncertain, or even nervous.

"A weak mind will not just get you hurt; it can hurt the people you care about the most. Me, your father, we both had weak minds when we needed to be strong the most." She said as she began tracing a finger down the prominent scar down the center of her body. "I told you this was an old battle scar. That was not true, at least not entirely. This scar is a constant reminder for how we failed you, and how our failure scarred you for life." She said, bringing a hand up to Rhazii's cheek, over the remnants of his burns.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth had not specified exactly how long she had intended to speak with Reanaseer, but it was likely longer than Janius had been anticipating. She ended up being away for almost a hour and a half, which was far longer than it took for Julan to have his dinner. Most of that time was rather dull for Julan, considering that he was still too anxious to approach anyone himself. He constantly was getting looks from others, some suspicious, and some merely curious. However, it took someone else approaching him before he interacted with any of the village beyond just asking for food. It was almost an hour after he sat down, but Janius would finally see Julan talking, albeit nervously, to a group of villagers around his own age.

For Janius, Kaleeth did eventually return from Reanaseer's hut, though her demeanor did make it hard to tell exactly how that conversation went, at least at first. It was hard to tell if she was depressed, or merely self-reflective as she approached. "Um...sorry I took so long. I guess time got away from me. Is everything still alright?"

---

Once she caught up, Ahnasha approached Rhazii more slowly. She kept her voice calm, but still firm. "Your beast does not enjoy leaving behind the spoils of a hunt. I am not surprised it is lashing out, considering all of the meat ran from. It wants its reward."

Ahnasha stepped around and knelt down in front of Rhazii. Before saying anything further, she pulled Rhazii into a hug and held him there. She wanted to give him a few moments to vent his emotions in silence, but she did need to keep him calm enough to avoid transforming. "Breathe a moment. Just focus on that, on each breath. You're here with me, with your mother, who wants nothing but the best for you. Do you trust me, Rhazii? Do you trust that, more than anything on this world, I want what is best for you?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

We can probably skip ahead to Julan's rite. With all the other things happening, I suppose we should not linger too long on anything superfluous.