Of old soldiers and young children. (open)

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce Tondry sat in the bar that belonged to the Greater Jedi Order. It was big, it was friendly, it was serving drinks, and to a young soldier, it would be a paradise.

Pierce was an old soldier. To his mind, paradise had been lost long ago.

And this was an odd feeling, for a man only in his late twenties. To Pierce, life had somehow passed him by. And thinking back, Pierce decided that his youth had been pretty abrupt. At sixteen, he'd joined the Imperial Army, and the next eight years had been spent rising, falling, and rising again under Imperial Intelligence. It had been two more years before he'd really gotten the hang of things, but then one day everything had clicked and Pierce was suddenly Vice Director of ImpIntel.

What a huge leap had been made to get from there to here, serving the very government he'd fought to subdue in its' infancy.

And on the subject of infants...

Pierce almost, but didn't quite, say his son's name aloud. It would have been crazy to talk to himself, and crazier to attract attention.

But that didn't mean Pierce didn't think about his son Jax every day, wondering where he was and if he was cared for.

Pierce took a quiet sip out of the mug next to him and keyed in a few words on a datapad. He'd been trying to write something, but the words just wouldn't come, and now Pierce found himself lonely and wanting someone to talk to.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville walked slowly from the spaceport, her Infiltrator docked under a different name. The transponder masker was top of the line, and the Revenge was filed in the Arcan IV logs as The Rifle.

She walked slowly, meandering towards a certain bar near the center of the downtown area. Which meant that it was dirtier and smellier than the rest of the city. Lilaena hadn't been there often, the last time she had visited with her apprentice, but he was traveling with Taylor Millard for the moment. It gave her some much needed time to herself. Away from the Hand, and away from...

...from everything. She sighed again, and pushed open the doors to the bar and grill. There was good food here, and the company was entertaining. Usually, at least. De'Ville pulled her travel-stained dark blue cloak around her body, and walked into the building.

"Weapons?" The NRSF guard was not unkindin his tone.

She looked up at him and smiled a little. "Nothing." Her face seemed almost angelic, and he wondered if she was one of the Jedi who frequented the bar.

"Okay, go in." She nodded to him, and passed through the weapons detector. No alarms went off, she had been telling the truth.

[Marcus Telcontar]

At the other side of the bar....

Yeah whatever. Everone knew the drill now - hooded and cloaked man, pipe smoker, sitting at a table with his stained boots on the table, tankard on the table. Never said much, hardly ever even moved. No one could really pin when the figure came in or out and hardly anyone even knew whom it was.

Just the way he preferred it. Crowds and questions made him uncomfortable, even being in a place like this was not to his liking. He would rather be elsewhere.

What was even keeping him here anymore?

That was a question he was struggling to answer. In reality, he had been here too long and had grown moss and attachments. In his heart, he knew it was time to move on. But he did have somethings to do first.

Like going over to the soldier that had come in and speaking to him.......

But not with Deville about, he noted to himself.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce continued to fiddle with his datapad, adding one or two words, changing them, changing them again, getting frustrated, then deleting the entire addition altogether. He abruptly scooted his chair back to give himself some room.

Jax, the subject of his writings, was not present, and inspiration was not being very forthcoming away from the boy.

The door opened to admit someone new, and as he always did, Pierce looked up to see who it was. This mix of duty, habit, and paranoia seldom yeilded any tangible results and thus it was that when Pierce saw exactly who had entered, he didn't quite register until he'd looked back down at his table.

Then he did a double take.

Staring open-mouthed and astonished at seeing his wife, Pierce could only stand and utter his pet name for her. "Lily?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville was trying to decide her choice of poisons as she walked towards the bar, and then heard her name called. She resisted looking, thinking it was perhaps a Jedi trying to mess with her. Then her mind replayed the voice, and she looked around.

And froze. It wasn't fear...and it wasn't astonishment. She had heard he had joined the NR, and so finding him on Arcan IV was not unusual. But she was surprised, nonetheless, and found her body unable to respond to her mind.

Her mouth opened slightly, and yet nothing came out. The 'tender leaned over the bar towards her shoulder. "Can I get you something, lady?" De'Ville didn't even hear him, her eyes fixed on the man standing at a table.

[Pierce Tondry]

The two stood there for several seconds, not quite lost in each other, but definitely not aware of their surroundings either. Then, Pierce found he had to blink and ended up shaking his head back to ground level. "She'll have a Corellian Rum, on my tab," he said, loud enough for the barkeep to hear.

"Unless she wants to refuse my hospitality," he added. One of his feet kicked out a chair for her to sit in.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Ay.....

Strong emotions, which for him were easy to read.

He closed his eyes, consulting The Force and really wishing he could read the future in the way Helenias could. Her talent for foreseeing what was to come to pass was remarkable, to the point where she was becoming a true Seer.

What I wouldn't give to know what to do here. We have to hand Jax over to Pierce, we had already prepared. ... but ......

For now, he would wait - and watch.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena found herself smiling shyly, and nodding. Her feet traveled the distance towards Pierce, and she sat down. The bartender sat her drink on the bar, and sighed as she had already left. He gave the drink to a server, who delivered it to the table.

She sat, and stared, then blinked and blushed. "I am sorry. I- I..." Lilaena reached for him, hesitated, and then let her fingertips brush his face. "You are real." A smile spread across her face. "It has been a long time."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Yeah," Pierce replied. "God, it's been... how long has it been? I don't even..."

Shrugging away his own question, Pierce took a long look at his wife. "You seem a tad aged," he said. "Stress of life getting to you?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She ran a hand through her short hair, and gave it a tug in the back. It was still growing out from being shaved, but was almost the length it had been last time she...well that would have been when Jax was born. She sat forward suddenly.

"Where is Jax?" Darven had sent her word that Jax was safe and soon to be delievered to Tondry. That had been ages ago. Surely he had him here with him.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce said absolutely nothing while he processed her question. What kind of question was this? "The last time I saw him was when I left him with you in deep space, after the birth. I haven't seen him since- I thought he was with you?"

A chunk of ice settled into Pierce's gut. "Tell me you didn't send him off with someone?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her eyes widened in confusion, and shock. "He is not here? But...he was supposed to be delievered to you! I...I sent him.." She started hyperventilating as she tried to explain. "..I- with Darven...my friend...he..he is very trustworthy! ..He...he said...that..."

She stopped talked, and grabbed her drink. "He isn't here. But ...I just don't understand."

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce took a few deep breaths, trying to work some of those Jedi calming techniques into his habits as well as bring himself back from that dangerous precipice of exploding at someone. He needed to think logically about this. "Whoa, whoa, slow down. What did this... this Darven say? Jax did get here, to this planet?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She nodded, downing her rum and gasping for air as she set the glass down again. "Yes, I sent him here to look for you. Jax was not safe with me, it was best for him." She looked at him pitifully, her mother's heart suddenly wrenched by the consequences of her decision. "Darven told me he had given Jax to a Jedi, and that the Jedi was going to hand him to you. I had no idea you did not have him already."

She buried her face in her hands, unable to reach out towards her husband. It was not her pride, or her shame, but force of habit that kept her hands away. Lilaena had been alone for so long...with only herself to rely upon.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Okkkaaaayyyyyyy....... so if this Draven was supposed to hand the kid to Tondry... WTF did Helenias and I end up with it???

Serves yourself right for not asking more questions, he thought. Or maybe it was some sort of mistake. Well, he was intending to give the child over already as soon as he could, but he just.... didn't....

He sighed quietly, then removed his feet from the table., then to stand up, resettling the cloak on his shoulders. The sword was resettled on his hip as he moved out of the alcove, tapping the pipe to put it out.

He didn't like explainations or showy actions, not now, so he simply walked out of the Bar and Grill. Jax wasn't far.

Time to make good.

[Pierce Tondry]

"It's okay, Lily, it's okay," Pierce reached out and took her hands, bringing them away from her face and down to the table. "If a Jedi did get Jax, he's probably fine. I've been a bit inaccessible lately, and it could be I was just to hard to get to. We can backtrack Darven's trail easily enough, I think."

Pierce took one hand from where he held Lilaena's hands and stroked the side of her face with it. "You did the right thing in hiding Jax. We just have to do a little hunting to find him again, that's all."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She gripped his hand tightly, and took a deep breath as he stroked her face. "Okay." Lilaena turned and looked at him, and blinked.

"You look great." She leaned forward, and kissed him softly on the cheek. "I can feel Jax on the planet...why is he still hidden from you?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Hidden?" Pierce's eyebrows lifted in confusion. "What do you mean, hidden? And if, by 'feel' you're referring to that vaunted Jedi attribute of sense, then I have to say that's not something I've got personal experience with. I haven't really learned much I didn't already know... just tried to figure a few things out for myself, is all. I could no more pick up commlink waves with my ears than I could sense someone magically."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She shook her head, leaning back away from him. "I heard you were being trained in the Force, but I did not mean hidden in that sense. I meant, he has obviously not been revealed to you by the Jedi who has him." Her eyes narrowed.

Why would the Jedi keep a father and child apart? It made no sense. All the more reason to not trust them.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Only took him a minute to get back to the apartment Helenias and he shared. If anyone had been inside, they would have been stunned by the sudden starkness of it - everything apart from basic furniture was gone. All had been moved quietly and secretly. Helenias was going to remain, but Marcus....

For him it was coming close time to go.

On his bed, there was his travelling sling and also his prized bow and arrows, given to him by an old man whom had healed him after a ambush Marcus had only barely survived. He quickly removed his more Jedi grab and switched to the travel stained and worn clothing. He also put back on his sword. His sabre, he put at his side as well, the bow and it's arrows along with the travelling sling on his back

Jax was sleeping in a travelling crib, his clothing and some toys Marcus and Helenias had gotten neatly packed. Last night, they had offered a blessing for the child, already knowing that this was goign to happen - just sooner, not later.

"Hello little one..... it's time for you to go"

He picked up the crib and Jax's bag, careful not to disturb the child that had been part of his life for the last few months. Then out the door, widing out of the Living quarters and out into the street, then to the Bar and Grill, where he paused, took in a deep breath and then entered quietly.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Well, like I said, I've been out of touch," Pierce shrugged. "Part of the problem with wearing two hats that drag you around the galaxy. In the past four months, I've had to deal with two sponsored insurrections and a terrorist cell. Of course, these are all clandestine ops, so I get no credit for anything. It has sucked."

Pierce took a sip from his mug- the drink was a Chandrilan Duster, of course- and set it back down. "What have you been up to?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She gestured vaguely, and was trying to forumlate a good answer to his question when her head suddenly snapped around. Lilaena stared at the cloaked figure which entered the bar, and half stood up. This is the Jedi Darven told me about!?

If she'd know, she would have come out herself and picked Jax up again. The woman didn't move, but then stood to her feet suddenly enough to send her chair flying to the floor with a clatter. "You." She saw a tiny hand waving and her heart caught in her throat, and she was unable to say anything more.

[Pierce Tondry]

The last time Pierce had seen his son, Jax had been a tiny little thing incapable of doing anything but look cute.

The boy in the arms of the cloaked figure was noticeably bigger than Pierce's memory of his son, but the face was still the same, only chubbier. And there was... something else. Something indefineable that told Pierce beyond the shadow of a doubt that his son was the one squirming in the stranger's arms.

Through that strange, heart-stopping mix of fear and joy, Pierce was rendered immobile and speechless. His hands trembled slightly.

'My little one, how I've missed you,' he thought to himself.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Marcus came over, placed the bag of Jax's on the table between the suddenly stunned and silent couple. And just as silently, he placed the now gently awaking child also on the table, before stepping back.

And still not saying anything.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She reached out tenetively, and picked up the awakening babe. Lilaena felt a wave of relief wash over her as she probed him with the Force. He was fine. She refused to look at the Jedi, denying him any gratitude. She was grateful, but angry that it had taken this long for the reunion of Jax with Pierce.

Lilaena held Jax tightly, and the baby squirmed. Nearly eleven months old, his bright eyes were taking in everything around him. She felt a tiny hand wrap around one of her fingers, and Jax pulled it towards his mouth. Lilaena looked at Tondry, and smiled.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Marcus sighed inaudibly.

"Master Tondry, I know not" he began, his soft and quiet voice still penetrating, sounding almost musical with the strange accent "why your child came to me. I apologise for not being able to find you sooner. He is in good health and the bag here is what Jedi Knight Helenias Q'Dunn bought for him - a few toys and clothing that will be suitble for a while. A bit boisterous at times, but nothing that can not be managed. Hear my final words to you however - you can save a person's life, you can protect them when they are drunk, you can heal them of disease, you can even protect their children - but some willl still never be grateful. Yet, it is a true Jedi that would do it all over again. even if they were spat on and cursed."

His hand dipped below his robes and drew out Athona, his lightsabre. A simple twist disconnectect the first stage from the hilt secnod stage and he placed it on the table as well.

"I would have preferred giving this to you when a Jedi Knight you became, but I doubt you will see me again. As I am a man fo my word, my sabre I give to you - Athona, Lightbringer. The blade will glow red / blue and no evil can sully it or touch it, for there is a Jedi Art on it that will protect it, to the death of the evil one who touches it. Guard it well and bring it honour"

With that, the Jedi Master turned on his heel to leave. Nothing else to him needed to be said and nothing he wanted to say, for he had found Deville's indifference deeply saddening and a blow. And still he would do as he said, even if she spat on him. But,it still was cutting to him

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena was cut to the quick by Marcus' words, and Tondry could see confusion in her eyes as she rubbed her cheek on the soft hair on top of Jax's head. Making up her mind, she turned her head to speak to him...but he was already walking away.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce's keen eyes darted back and forth between his wife and the departing Jedi Master. Though his wife's posture spoke aggressive indifference, her eyes said something else. And Lilaena's eyes rarely lied.

"Marcus," he said aloud.

The older man stopped in his tracks, but didn't turn around.

"Thank you," Pierce continued, wrapping one arm around Lilaena. "Jax means more than worlds or words."

He did not say aloud to us but he hoped that Marcus would understand why it went unsaid, even though Pierce had meant it that way.

[Marcus Telcontar]

It could be seen that he turned his hooded head, listening and then considering. There was much he would love to say to Pierce, he would have loved to have sat down and conversed, get to know the man whom he had the deepest of respect for- because wether he knew it or not, Tondry and Helenias were so similar. Maybe not the most powerful of Force Users, but they were two of the most intelligent. it was a trait he had noticed - the tendancy to believe The Force was a cure all. Not enough actual thought.

"Master Tondry, when you are able to, seek out Helenias and thank her personally, for she was the one whom did the majority of looking after Jax. I suspect both of you will have much in common. I also believe she may have found and has looked after something else that is yours. It be a pity we probably wont really cross paths again..... but for you Lilaena De'ville..... we will be meeting again soon. Goodbye"

He turned away and without further word, walked away. Thinking, for there had been a dream he had about Deville, not long ago - a dream of a confrontation. In a cave. He had dreamed she was backed against a wall.... and he had seen in his mind a sabre flash.....

Was she killed? He didn't know. All he knew was their next meeting would not be plesant.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville felt a chill down her spine at the last words of the Jedi, and turned away, back to the baby. Jax was grabbing at Pierce's face, his mouth wide open in a soundless grin. He had two tiny teeth on the bottom...Lilaena hugged him tightly, her cheek against his hair, and a silent tear trickled down her face.

Jax giggled and screeched with joy, and she laughed in spite of herself. "Happy? You're so big!" Lilaena handed him to Pierce and let the baby grab her finger. He pulled it straight to his mouth, and she marveled at how much he had changed in just a few months.

[Pierce Tondry]

'Something else of mine...' Pierce thought. His brow furrowed in puzzlement. He couldn't recall anything that he might have lost.

But that was a mystery for another time. His young son was in his hands, commanding his attention. "Hello, Little One," he said, somewhat formally. "I know we've never been properly introduced. I'm your daddy."

Jax busily sucked on his father's finger as Pierce was speaking. With a sudden laugh of delight, Pierce cuddled his son as best he could. "Oh, my Little One. I love you."

In his arms, Jax squirmed, and Pierce got the feeling that somehow, the infant understood the gist of what he was saying.

But that was impossible. Jax would not, could not have learned anything substantial of language yet.

Pierce smiled at Lilaena. "Come on," he said. "Let's go sit somewhere and we can talk."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena returned the smile, with a hint of mischief. "'Talk?' Talk? After ten months, you want to talk?" She stood to her feet and took his arm, holding on close next to his body. "Of course I want to. I...I have missed you."

Jax gurgled and lurched in Pierce's arms, and De'Ville quickly grabbed him. "Guess he wants back to mama." She cuddled her growing son close. "I cannot..." She left the sentance unfinished.

"So, where are we going?" De'Ville ignored the eyes that were watching them from unseen places in the bar. She could feel them, but did not bother trying to see the beings on the other end of the stares.