Assasins, Incorporated

[Darth Turbogeek]

He watched Arya's ship disappear into the murk of the Vjun sky, then with a fair bit of depression, turned and went back inside the castle, dragging his feet with a good deal of depression. Something new to him, he was normally happy go lucky. But right now, he was stuck here and Abst, in what Arya called the freak show. He didnt really understand what a freak was, but he did understand the residents of Bast were not ...... normal. Well, so Arya told him and in the forays off the planet, he had seen they were somewhat different to the other beings he had met.

Especially their colour. All of them were Dark. He was learning that normal beings were grey. Jedi were Light coloured, tho he had only seen one or two. There was however that horrific Man With No Colour..... utterly unique in that he had not a shred of colour in his mind. He stood out and was a sort of a nightmare for the young man. Turbogeek had seen him again at Arcan IV and had bolted. It seemed a good idea to run his ass off wit that man.

At least he wasnt here and Arya had assured him that the Man With No Colour wouldnt dare come here. Somehow, that didnt make Turbogeek any safer. He was pretty certain that if that Man wanted to, even the creepiest dark Jedi would have to give way. Still...... he wasnt here.

And Either was Arya

Or was Gem. The little girl had left earlier for some reason, leaving him basically alone with a bunch of beings that hated him, except for Jeseth.

Well, jeseth was still here. Still wanted Turbogeek to pick up rocks and stuff with his mind, even showed Turbogeek he could, but the young man couldn't. He also couldnt do the huge leaps and jumps the Dark Jedi could.

Could set things alight tho. That was fun. And he had overheard Jeseth speaking to Delirion, saying that for some reason Turbogeek was immune to "mind tricks" He had asked Jeseth about that and had gotten some long winded answer about strong and weak wells..... no that was wrong, wills.

What the hell was a will? And why was one strong and antoher weak?

Turbogeek reenetered the gates of Bast and saw the funny wrinkled thing called Hobgoblin, sitting and staring at him. Apparently Old Hob had tried a mind trick or two on Turbogeek and even he had failed. It seemed, said Jeseth, Turbogeek's mind refused to see anything else other than the truth. It was an odd ability, so Jeseth said, along with the strangely over powerful healing gift.

"And what has ye lost?" cackled the goblin.

"ahh SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!" Wow. He didnt realise how snippy he was. The goblin almost seemed to recoil, as Turbogeek had only ever tried to avoid the spooky thing, never dared to challenge it.

The youndg apprentice continued to walk inside, depression in many ways overtaken by anger at how he had been left alone in here. In fact, he really felt like he wanted to lash out right now, frustrated and lonely. He punched a stone gargoyle savagely, and howled at the pain he got in return.

Frell, Frell, Frell.

[Jeseth Cloak]

The halls echoed with faint footsteps, a shadow spilling out across the dimly lit chamber. The shadow was in that same familiar form that Turbogeek knew: it was Jeseth's, his Master. "I see you've learned quite a bit of control while you've been gone." The sarcasm was thick as in his voice as he walked towards Turbogeek, gazing at the young man's hand curiously. The bloody scratches were seemingly healing themselves. "Well... at least you didn't shatter the thing." He released Turbogeek's hand and motion up with his slender fingers, passing his own black gloved hand in front of the statue. "The gargoyle, I meant."

Jeseth smiled a bit, looking up at the ceiling of the gothic castle. It was the specter of some long forgotten cathedral. A house of gods which had somehow fallen into the hands of mortals. Bast was indeed a place of lost and misguided souls, and at many times Jeseth realized that there was little hope for any of them. Most at Bast were destined to die in the name of what they believed to be the truth. But I will not die. The thought echoed, it's defiance of fate pressing into the Force. Jeseth had much in store for the Galaxy. He would see all of it come to fruition. "Tell me about your travels... You seem to be in a state of despair. Were they unpleasant?"

[Darth Turbogeek]

“The trip was good” Turbogeek realised he must be in a bad mood, he had even snapped at Jeseth and he would have never dared to do that. Funny thing was, he wasn’t in a mood to apologise. He looked at his hand, which was already starting heal over from punching the statue. That was the other bizarre thing about the healing gift, it worked on him too. It lead Turbogeek to be careless at times, even burnt himself badly on a flame, that any trace was gone in an hour. Even getting ambushed and bashed by that woman on Arcan IV had no real side effects after a few hours sleep.

Actually, what he really wanted to do was to disappear and be alone in his thoughts for a while. But he wasn’t about to say that to Jeseth….

“Umm, where….. Ahh, there you are. I thought you must have slipped off. Come with me to the training area”

Turbogeek moved to obey, however his thoughts had moved, with the same abruptness as they always did to whatever caught his attention. His moods changed every bit as fast, the bad mood switched to a thoughtful one

I wished myself to disappear and for a second, Jeseth was looking right at me and lost sight of where I was. I wonder…

“Jeseth, can some one use the Force to hide?”

“To a degree. A Force user, especially a Dark Sider can hide their presence in the dark Side, so that the accursed Jedi can not know what they do, unless they contend with the Dark Side itself. Your plans can be concealed from a Jedi searching the future, as the dark Side confused and clouds. You can use a mind trick to convince someone that your not there”

“No, I mean become invisible, not use a mind trick”

“Not possible”

Somehow, Turbogeek wasn’t quite so sure. He had gotten a hint that something was possible just then. In a flash if insight, he realised Jeseth might not know, but he knew someone who did.

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Or then again... perhaps it might be possible. I have experimented with a few techniques, taught to me by my master once upon a time, Nupraptor... by calling upon shadows..." The Dark Jedi held up his hand, letting it vanish in and out of shadows faintly as if it were just a trace of smoke. Jeseth could sense something about his apprentice - a desire for reflection. "Is there something bothering you?" Jeseth's hand was covered in frost. Wherever it had gone, it was obviously very cold there. The bits of ice sprinkled to the floor, dribbling away into tiny beads of moisture which seeped through the stone and steel floor.

"Forget training today. You seem tired." The winged man reached into his coat, flipping Turbogeek a keycard. "Use my study if you think it'll help. or Lasitus' old quarters. They're upstairs, in the west tower - but be careful if you venture there. It's not very stable, and last I checked you couldn't fly." Thought I have to admit, you've surprised me before...

[Darth Turbogeek]

“Yeah okay. Thanks Jeseth”

No, Jeseth didn’t know. That was fine, despite his reliance for knowledge on a few people, he didn’t always expect answers. He could find them himself, if he looked hard enough.

“Jeseth, what’s stable?”

“It means if you breathe wrong, the walls and floors might fall”

“Oh. Well, I’ll be careful”

He scuttled off. One thing he didn’t mention to Jeseth was that he was already acquainted with the West tower, in one of his early days here, he had explored the castle well, out of curiosity. He had also spent a few days locked in his room, away from prying eyes learning how to lockbreak. Wonder what Jeseth – or any of the other freakshow residents – would think if they knew that the young man they hated could already defeat the various locks of the castle? Probably not much, Turbogeek thought. Privacy was valued here and some people went to great lengths to make sure they stayed private. That strange and normally quiet voice had told him the basics, the intuition and curiosity took care of the rest. Much like the oddly cobbled together medical instruments, he also had a set of crude tools for lockpicking. An afternoon on the Galatic Data Network had proven fruitful too.

He took a detour past his room, changing into the grey cloak Arya had told him was good for sneaking in, soft boot, his “toolkit” and also his knife pouch. Ever since discovering that forks could be used as weapons, he had quite taken to cutlery as an unusual weapon. He had a few quite nice knives as well, one being a well weighted dagger that had an arm sheaf. That one he strapped on.

Turbogeek couldn’t use a sabre to save himself, but he was developing quite a nice skill set with small blades. Not real skilful, but he was stating to really learn. Jeseth had a draining droid that Turbogeek trained against, plus every type of datapad. He also practiced. Dressed, he took a look out the corridor, saw it was empty, then with quick and silent footsteps, jogged down the corridors to wards the West Tower

[Jeseth Cloak]

He watched as his apprentice went off towards his quarters, then scratched his chin. Something was strange about him today, but Jeseth couldn't put his finger on it. Hopefully it would pass in time, and not set back the time-table which had been laid out.

Where is Nya now?

His heart ached slightly, more than he was used to. Where had she gone now? There was nothing he could do to keep her. Perhaps that was the message that was being repeated to him over and over again. Sooner or later, he'd have to let go of everything that mattered to him...

<font size=1 color=gray>
Drip...</font>


The Dark Jedi sighed and turned his attention towards the noise, a small puddle of green fluid coming together in the corner of the room. The upper wings of the castle seemed to have the most problems. Everything from leaks, to broken electrical relays, and in more than one instance instability in the castle supports. Rama's attack hadn't affected much of the lower wings, but the impact of his ship's strike had left the upper wings o the Castle dangerously weakened. Hob had been keeping the place together nicely since, but it would only be a matter of time before they walls would refuse to stay up.

Something will have to be arranged. Perhaps... TriOptimum? Hmmmm...

Jeseth made his ways down one of the corridors towards the Castle's lower levels, beckoning shadows towards him for cover. The passages were maze-like, intricate, and altogether erratic in their directions. He just continued to walk, his feet echoing very faintly upon the floor. In the distance, a large draftee door awaited him, the top of it coated in moisture and frost. Turning to assure himself that he hadn't been followed, Jeseth pressed his hand up against the locking mechanism.


<font size=4 color=gray>...Crank - Crank - Crank - Crank...</font>


The door slid open slowly, ice-vapor billowing up from the ground and wrapping around the Dark Jedi's feet. He spread his wings slightly, pushing away some of the cold and sending it traveling back down the passages from which he had come. Blue light immediately coalesced within the mist, falling upon Jeseth's face. Beyond the shifting particles of ice, and the pale blue glows, there laid a source of light. Her face was still rosy, as if she were alive, through all around her tiny particles of frozen liquid drifted. Her red hair moved freely within the capsule-like chamber, floating.

"Good morning, Fire..." The Dark Jedi tilted his head slightly, as if awaiting a response. Nothing came.


<font size=5 color=gray>CLAP!</font>


The door shut behind him. "I've been away..." His eyes scanned the rest of the chambers within the room, all of them empty and sealed. "I thought you might want to know... Our 'brother' is doing well." Something about the row of capsules farthest to the right, though, seemed different from the one that Fire now rested in. They weren't stasis tubes - or bacta tanks - they were cylinders... "I've already met him in person... He's full of doubt... but there is still hope for him." Jeseth unclipped metal buckles from his back, near his wings, tucking the feathered appendages close to his body as he removed his coat and painstakingly worked to pull away his shirt. The rest of his clothes followed, dropping to the floor. The bacta tank was ready for him. He hoped that in time it would be able to remove the mat of scar tissue which coated his chest, but it hadn't been able to before now...