Confiding in the other side.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei was still on Storinal. Somehow they hadn't taken off yet. He couldn't remember much about what happened other than fighting the Togrutan, getting drunk, then suddenly running like hell. But he had felt the Darkside. The Togrutan was a Darksider.

Wei couldn't help but wonder about how he handled that. He always wondered how Darksiders could stand to have all that boiling rage all the time. Clutching to pain and fear. Why couldn't they just let go? Now he was finding he couldn't let go.

He needed to know. And to find out, he'd have to find the Togrutan. Wei ordered Aramis to stay on the ship and practice telekinesis and kata, then left to go find the man he fought just hours before.

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas Codrey had run through alleys, stumbling into walls, sliding on grit and grease and garbage as he kept frantically to the alleyways. The fight kept replaying over and over in his head. What had changed suddenly? Where had the man's focus, his determination, his sheer power come from? It wasn't the human's strength itself that had slipped the Togruta up, it was the sudden appearance of it.

At last, the red-skinned darksider had collapsed in a broken building, resting heavily atop a pile of discarded cushions. The window nearby was broken, and the cool breeze afforded Zenas some comfort. He could see the streets clearly, and though he was certain anyone passing by would spot him, he found himself too tired to care. He pulled an aged and stained tarp over himself, piling some of it up on his head to maybe hide his montrals.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei walked about the city streets, fighting a hangover and wishing he had more booze. Something to keep his head from pounding. Not the fiery drink he liked when he wanted a fix, but something smooth and warm and a little sweet.

He found a shop and bought a small bottle of hazelnut liquer. He took a sip and walked on. Storinal generally kept itself very clean and presented a nice front to its mostly tourist visitors. however deep on the inside where all the background work happened to maintain Storinal was the usual assortment of factory buildings, storage warehouses, and other such dilapidated structures.

There was generally no life around here. Except for one tired spirit that seemed to be edged with that simmering anger that comes with being furious day after day. Wei jumped to the window and slipped in through the broken pane.

"Hey. You're that Togrutan. What are you doing out here?"

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas had nearly fallen asleep when Wei suddenly appeared. He jumped back, stumbling over the cushions and rolling to stand, his tarp twisted around him and fanning out like a ragged cape. His lightsaber came to hand, but he didn't activate it. He sensed nothing from the human, but it could be a ploy.

"Recovering," Zenas said bitterly, seeing no reason to lie. Even if he bluffed that he was still strong, stronger even, the man may decide to draw an even greater power and just end it in a single stroke. "Where did that sudden power come from earlier? I can't figure it out."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei motioned with the small bottle of liquer. "This helped. It eases the pain."

He took another sip. "I was a Jedi once. They taught me to empty my mind and let the Force flow into me. Naturally. I can't really do it anymore without some kind of alcohol to lower my inhibitions."

The former Jedi sat on the edge of the old mattress. "Too much in the way."

[Zenas Codrey]

Suddenly it was all quite clear.

"You were suffering withdrawal!" The way he said it, it was an accusation, and he was furious over it. "That's why your hands were shaking, and why I could knock you around! That's so...ARGH!" He stalked to the window, looking out of it. The anger made him hot, and the wind was nice. The heat and emotion felt ambient around him, and it irked him. With a sharp focusing it became straight-edged like a knife, and across the street the contents of a garbage barrel erupted into flame before smoldering out.

"That is so ruttin' stupid," Zenas hissed. He thought about his master, and the clear red wine he'd drink when he was reminiscing. "My master was an old human man like you, and he drank a clear, red wine on occasion. It never helped him in combat, not even when I waited for him to finish the bottle before I ambushed him. It doesn't make sense."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei took the shout with a shrug. "Some people drink for the taste. Some people drink to get drunk. I drink because I want to forget."

"So what's with all the rage?" Wei asked. "It seems like you got an issue with something that you just can't let go. What's got you going?"

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas didn't turn from the window. "A betrayal. I'm going to avenge myself of it." There was a beat, then: "It took away my entire world when it happened. I had nothing. I was promised a way to avenge myself, and now I have it. It's only a matter of time."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "My family died for a reason I don't know. I came home one day to find my father's head a charred mess and a hole in my wife's stomach you could park a speeder bike in."

Wei drank. "All I know is that it had to do with the fact that I used to be a Jedi. Now I'm trying to figure out what they were after."

Wei leaned against the wall. "Sometimes though, I feel like you."

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas looked over his shoulder with a mildly confused expression.

"What, betrayed?" Again, he recalled his master. Milek Tomberlin had ranted at length about the betrayals of a unit of soldiers, a system of government, an official, some nonsense Zenas hadn't really understood except that it gave them a common thread, and was indeed the only thing really keeping them from killing each other.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"No, not betrayed." Wei held the bottle in front of his face and smelled the alcohol as he swirled it in its bottle. "I feel angry. I feel hate towards people. All I want is to make people pay."

He set his glasses on his nose. "Sometimes though, I'm mad at myself the most. What was I doing that day that kept me from home so late? Why couldn't I have been able to tell that something was wrong? Had the Force tried to warn me, to save my family and I just missed it because of how long I'd been without keeping up with my training?"

He took a mouthful of the drink and swished it around from one cheek to the next before he swallowed. "Why did that have to happen to me?"

[Zenas Codrey]

"I don't know. Better question: Why are you so timid about your anger? Your hatred? Why are you worried about any of those things now? Surely you expected that there might be some retaliation against you for being a fugitive in hiding. Did you never fear the possibility of these events? Were you not prepared?"

Zenas had moved back toward Wei, leaning over and glowering at the drunk. "Did you fear an attack on your family? Yes or no?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"You want me to turn out lookin' like you?" Wei asked. The alcohol was loosening his tongue as well as his anxiety.

"I didn't fear anything. After a while I forgot I was even a Jedi once. I forgot there was a temple and people trying to kill all the Jedi in the world. Man, was that a mistake."

Wei shrugged. "And you. Why do you cling to your hurt so much? Did you expect to be betrayed?"

[Zenas Codrey]

"No, I didn't, which made it hurt that much worse. I had no reason to expect it. I believed that no matter what, the person who did betray me never would...at least, not of her own free will. She was forced into it. I feared that someone might try to manipulate her, and I was right to fear it. The morning when my fears were realized, it angered me. I used the Force for the first time as my anger peaked and transformed into hatred. It was strong in me then, and with training it grew to the level you saw today. If you'd had any das't sense you'd have feared reprisal from the law. You'd have been angered by it, you'd have hated the stormtroopers and their masters, and you'd have had the power to save your family."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei shrugged. "Why? They weren't bothering me. I dealt with them all the time and none of them suspected me of being a Jedi. There was no cue from me or my family to indicate my past. I just wish I knew how they found out."

He finished the bottle and threw it across the room, where it shattered into several brown pieces. "I just want to know why they went after my family."

[Zenas Codrey]

"Because they discovered your identity as a fugitive!" Zenas shouted, feeilng the heat rise in his face and hands. "You should have always been aware of yourself and your surroundings! You should have moved your place of living around so that you could not be easily found! Tell me you at least changed your name and made some effort to change your appearance. Tell me you at least did that!"

Zenas wanted to take Wei's head off at the shoulders, but he still wasn't feeling strong enough. And with the man's addiction fed, it would be a disaster anyway. He sank onto one of the cushions that had been kicked out to the center of the floor.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I was a nobody. There's plenty of people in my culture with my name and my hairstyle. No one cares."

Wei shrugged. "I've been digging through some of the remaining logs and files my father left on the company data pad. He was looking for something, and apparently that something had to do with the Jedi of the Old Republic."

The former Jedi glowered. "Technically, they weren't after me for being a Jedi. They were after me because my father retired and left the comany to me. I had the inventories and the schedules. I had the information they needed."

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas put his palm to his forehead. So it wasn't that his human was a former Jedi, it's that he had information about the old Jedi.

"And how is that any different!?" he asked, sounding vexed and weary. "The word "Jedi" is clearly a criminal one to the Empire. If you had anything about you related to "Jedi" and didn't take any precaution for it, it..."

He lost his train of thought as he tried to work past his aggravation and articulate. "Ugh. If you knew about the data, you should have been ready," he finally stated with forced calm. "I knew about the person who tried to steal my mother away and fought tooth and nail for her, as best I could. It just sounds to me like you were caught with your pants down."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I didn't until after everything was said and done. I sat down and puzzled over it for hours before I found the hidden directory where my father kept all that info. If he hadn't written a note on a scrap of flimsy jammed into the connector port, I would have never found out. But apparently he knew what was coming."

Wei stretched a bit and almost smiled as the alcohol loosened him up. "So what's all that about your mom?"

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas glowered. This was the kind of thing that made weaknesses in people. Still...part of him couldn't resist telling Wei.

"I grew up separate from all Togruta and the sort of community that my race values. Ordinarily we're tight-knit, without much individuality. Everyone supports everyone for the sake of everyone. My mother struggled with the sudden absence of that community every day. I tried to compensate as best I could, but having never known it, I developed into a very individualistic Togruta. I'm sure others of my race would find me quite obscene."

He smiled a little at that.

"She loved me anyway, and we did our best for each other. But she met someone, and began to develop a relationship with that person. I saw right away what a threat it was. Her partner didn't care for me in the least. From the first day I was introduced, that treacherous human tried to turn my mother against me."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "Sounds like your mom just needed someone to give her what you couldn't. There's a particular kind of need that adults need that children don't provide. It doesn't mean she didn't love you any less though."

Wei shrugged. "I've heard that mothers are like that."

Wei had never known his mother. She died in childbirth and his father gave him to the Jedi Order when they asked for him. Wei would have held it against him, but things turned out just fine in his life and with his relationship with his dad.

"What would you do if you ran into your mom again?"

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas knew there was nothing his mother needed that he could not provide. Certainly there was nothing he needed that she had been unable to provide. He was briefly torn between telling that to Wei or telling Wei how ignorant he was of mothers when the human posed a difficult question. His head tilted slightly as he considered it, eyes taking a distant look.

"...It would depend," he finally decided. "On whether or not she was alone."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Well, that's fair, I guess. You ever wonder what she would do if you two met?"

Wei's head moved, pulling the hair that he managed to pin down between his back and the wall. He moved the long cord of hair. It had been cut when he made the rank of knight. In his culture, a man kept his hair long. Most women didn't grow their hair as long as the men did. It was a sign of age and wisdom. Wei wondered if he really was wise.

"You're still her little boy. In her mind, and it looks like in yours too. Is it really that appealing to you to have her take care of everything for you forever?"

[Zenas Codrey]

"When we are reunited, she will be happy to see me, and we will be a family again. We will take care of one another. I'm not a child anymore and I don't expect her to treat me like one. I certainly won't behave like one to her. I've grown up, and I've learned skills that will help her. That was the entire point."

[Wei Wu Wei]

He settled down on the mattress. He could smell a little mildew on the mattress. Some homeless must have found this recently.

"I need more alcohol. Maybe some bourbon."

The concept of more booze made him feel better, but the thought alone wasn't enough to motivate him to get back up again.

"What do you like when you want comfort?"

[Zenas Codrey]

"My mother has provided me the only true comfort I've ever really known. Though when I'm embroiled in the search for her, especially when it becomes necessary to use my combat skills, the lightsaber is a reassurance that I will have her again. It is my ultimate, foolproof method to have her love again."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Funny you should mention your lightsaber being an assurance. Mine is too."

Wei took his from his sleeve and snapped it on. He watched the Togrutan for any signs he might decide to attack him. But Wei wasn't interested in fighting and with luck Zenas would notice.

"That hum clears everything."

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas ignited his own saber. Yes, the hum of it was empowering, but it wasn't his favorite sound.

"I like these ones better."

He rapped his saber against Wei's, hearing the harsh snapping sound of brief contact, then held the blades together so that they crackled with opposing energies.

"These are my favorite sounds," he confessed as he watched the red blade of his weapon slide back into the hilt. "They're futile sounds. A blocked strike or locked blades are no detriment to me. I'm strong enough that I can push an enemy off balance from a saberlock, and I can strike so powerfully that a blocking weapon can bounce back and cut it's wielder if their grip lacks the proper strength. My resolve only grows when I hear those sounds."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei gave a little to Zenas as the Togrutan tapped the sabers together.

The snaps and crackles were nearly rhythmic. It was starting to become better for him than the booze, but the booze was simpler. Booze was safer. Maybe not safer for his body or his mind, but it kept Imps off his back. Well, the government at least.

"You should let go of that anger you have," Wei said. he snapped off the saber and moved towards what looked like the way out. "Moms never really stop loving their sons. I don't think your betrayal is as premeditated as you think."

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas still didn't think Wei grasped the situation properly, and now that it seemed the encounter was coming to a close, was feeling combative again.

"Let go of your addiction," he answered. "Its a weakness. I don't think your opponents will let you drink during a fight."

He walked past Wei to the window and hurried out into the street, crossing it and disappearing into the shadows across the way.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei watched the Togrutan jump out the window.

"Yeah, I'm working on that," he said quietly to the space where Zenas was.