Stolen Lightsaber (Complete)

[Kale]

(OOC: Continued from here (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31011))

The Plaza Cueva de Luce was one of many abandoned enterprises on Coruscant that had since become home to the seedier segment of the planet's population. It had once been a ten-story mercantile complex on the corner of a massive elevated city block, complete with a sheltered hydroponic park on the roof, but the megamalls on the other side of the block had drawn away all its legitimate business decades ago. Now it was an eyesore, a decaying hulk, and a last resort for people like Kale.

He'd lived there once in one of the lower-floor apartments. The rent was cheap, but it had been hard for the teenaged human to pay on pick-pocket revenue, even after he split the bill with his roommate, Sharkeid Alharaba. It had seemed like a gift from the stars when a Jedi asked him to join the GJO--free food, free shelter, and free clothes, if only he'd agree to learn about the Force and follow all their rules. But something very... odd... had happened that day. Kale thought it was worth making the thirty-minute walk through the dark from the Jedi Temple to his old stomping grounds.

As he walked across one of the many windswept footbridges that spanned the gaps between stratoscrapers, he pulled his gray robe tightly around his narrow frame and felt the form of the lightsaber he'd stolen pressing against his chest. It had started out as a simple prank, and he told himself that's still all it was. But when Dasquian had chased him through the Archives and cornered him in the alley, he'd been genuinely scared--scared enough to be more than a little rash with his force abilities.

He'd unknowingly touched the Dark Side. He didn't know what it was, or what it meant, but it had terrified him. When it had gone, he'd been hit with a heady sensation, sort of a cold thrill, something that seemed wholly un-Jedi-like. He wanted to figure out what it was, but he wasn't sure it was something he ought to discuss with the other Jedi. First off, he needed to find a place to hide the stolen saber, and the best place he knew to do that was in his old home.

[Rhea Kaylen]

"Well, look who it is."

Rhea pushed a tendril of black hair back from her face as she looked at the figure on the back stoop of the Plaza Cueva de Luce. As a permanent resident of the rundown apartment building, Rhea had seen many streeters, young and old, pass through these doors, but once they left, they almost never came back again.

Which made catching Kale slipping into the back entrance, looking much more healthy than he had the last time she'd seen him, quite an event indeed.

He also looked rather harried at the moment, especially at being startled by the woman as she returned from her night-shift, so Rhea just smirked and reached around him to press the release for the pneumatic door. It slipped jerkily back from the darkened entrance.

"Welcome back, Kale."

[Kale]

Kale spun around to face the source of the voice. Usually it was hard for anyone to sneak up on him like that, but he'd been too preoccupied to notice. He was lucky it was just Rhea and not one of Gucchi's cronies; he'd have a hard time explaining his hiatus to one of them.

"Er, uh... Hey, Rhea. You know, I'd love to talk, but I don't really got the time..."

The look on Rhea's face told him he wasn't going anywhere without some sort of explanation. Maybe this wasn't so lucky.

"Listen, I didn't want anyone to know I came back, okay?" he said. "I ain't stayin' here; just need to make a quick drop-off, an' I'm gone."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's eyebrow arched dubiously, but she didn't expound.

"Oh, don't be so skittish, Kale, no one will have a clue. I think there was a party earlier on the fifth floor, so the lower levels should be clear at the moment."

Just to make sure, Rhea stepped into the building and gave the hall a quick once-over. Silent as the tomb, though the next floor up was emanating moans that sounded suspiciously like a very ill drunk. She turned back to Kale, who still hovered just outside the door, looking rather as if he wished she would just sod off.

Not likely.

"You want to come in for a sec?" Rhea offered, pulling her keycard from her pocket and moving toward her ground-floor apartment. For the boy's sake, she kept a sharp ear and eye out for any passerby or eyes peeking from doorways. None appeared.

She turned at her door and spotted Kale starting to open his mouth; she cut him off. "And you well know I won't say a thing about your mysterious return," Rhea told him quietly. "Can I help it if my long-lost cousin suddenly showed up and someone happened to see him come in?"

[Kale]

Kale really didn't have any better plan, so he followed her in. She had a better idea of what was going on in the Plaza than he did after going AWOL for a couple months. And as much as his natural suspicion rebelled, he knew he could trust her to keep her word. He didn't know why, but Rhea did things like that.

The teen quickly ducked into the shelter of Rhea's apartment, very conscious of the black Jedi robe he wore over his familiar T-shirt and jeans. While it did disguise his form from unwanted onlookers, it wasn't the sort of habilament you'd expect to see in a place like Cueva de Luce, and it might attract questions even with the grace of Rhea's cover story.

Kale wandered toward the spartan living room and leaned on the edge of a tattered sofa. "Thanks," he mumbled. "I don't need to stay long; I just gotta get to my old hall. Y'know, the air vent."

Rhea was one of the few people who knew Kale used to stow things he wanted kept safe in one of the ventilation conduits outside his old room. He was the only one on his floor who could fit through the narrow ductwork, so it was prime storage for the few valuables he'd ever owned. As far as anyone knew, he'd packed up all his stuff when he disappeared, so he hoped no one would be the wiser if he unloaded a hot saber there.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea went through the routine of coming home, relieving her pockets of accumulated flotsam and moving into her kitchenette to put on the tea kettle. She smiled wanly at the teenager in her living room, for the first time realizing that more than just his figure had changed.

He was sporting a stylized black cloak that rather hung over his old clothes, his hair had been tamed (somewhat), and he'd looked a bit more closely at a razor than ever he had while a streeter. He was crossing his arms over his chest in a somewhat protective way and refused to meet Rhea's brown eyes. His 'drop-off' was inside his cloak somewhere, and his momentary trust in her hospitality was not about to stretch so far as to let her in on the secret. Not that she'd expected as much.

That cloak, though...

"You're welcome, my friend," she told him kindly, hiding her thoughts by turning to the whistling kettle. "And you're welcome to stay as long as you want. Is there anything else you need?"
She eyed him askance as she tipped boiling water into two chipped mugs and prodded at the floating teabags with a spoon.

"Besides a cup of tea," Rhea added, carrying the cups into the living room and handing one to her guest without further preamble. She watched the boy over the rim of her cup as she took a sip of her own tea.

Something was niggling at the back of her memory. Something about cloaks...something important...

[Kale]

"I don't need a cup of tea," Kale said obstinately. Reah's proffered hand didn't sway in the face of the rude refusal. "Uh, right," the boy relented. "I'll have a cup of tea."

He uncrossed his arms and took the steaming cup, and the lightsaber made a visible bulge in the loose fabric of the robe. If Kale noticed, he didn't let on; he merely sipped at the fragrant cup, grimaced gingerly at the hot tea on his lips, and sipped again as he got used to the temperature. He didn't particularly like the flavor, but the heat and the aroma were soothing nonetheless.

"Don't need nothin'," he said, and gaguing from Rhea's reaction, he wasn't lying very well. But he stuck to his story for the moment; it was the best cover he had.

An uneasy thought occurred to him. "You, uh... you wouldn't happen to have talked to Sharkey lately, would you? I mean, did he tell you anythin' about... me?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Sharkey! That was it!

Rhea barely managed to swallow her tea rather than choke on it as she suddenly remembered why Kale's cloak seemed so familiar.

It had been weeks ago, just after Kale had suddenly and silently disappeared. Rather worried for the young streeter's safety, Rhea had managed to snag Sharkeid "Sharkey" Alharaba late one evening as the boy loitered about outside her apartment. Inquiring after Sharkey's erstwhile roommate, Kale, she'd received a somewhat garbled recount of Kale's purported exploits.

According to Alharaba, Kale had become a Jedi.

Judging from Sharkey's quick recapping and his quicker flight from the scene, the young man had not been very happy with his roommate's new occupation. And with decent reason: several generations' removal from the universe during the Empire's regime had not succeeded in purging the Jedi's public persona. Even now, the title 'Jedi' conjured plenty of mental images of a super-human police force, unbeatable and terrifying to criminals across the galaxy.

And as the crime-lord Gucchi's newest lackey, Alharaba probably thought he'd be on the Jedi's 'Ten Most Wanted' list.

Now the cloak, which Rhea realized was a Jedi Temple-issue article of clothing, made sense. A lot of it.

And Rhea was a bit flustered.

"Uhmm..." she hedged, still trying to gasp past the tea. "Actually...we did have a chat, yes. I'd...I'd forgotten."

[Kale]

"You, uh... you did, huh?"

Rhea's reaction put Kale on-edge. He was pretty sure she knew, and he thought he'd probably made a mistake in jogging her memory on the subject. The last time he let his change of vocation slip, he lost one of his former friends, and he could count those on one hand with room left over. The last thing he needed to do was to turn the whole ghetto against him, especially if this latest escapade got him canned from the Order.

But he wasn't content until he heard her say it. "So... what did he tell you?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

"Well..." Rhea thought fast for a moment. Kale looked worried, and rightly so. Rhea just wondered why the boy had let Sharkey in on the news in the first place. Of course, those two had been pretty good friends at the time, so Kale had probably thought Sharkey could be trusted.

That was much farther than Rhea would ever have trusted Alharaba, whom she'd never much cared for, but she couldn't fault Kale for trying to confide in a friend.

The woman sat down, cradling the warm mug in her cold hands, and nodded toward the only other chair in the room to indicate Kale should have a seat. When he grudgingly did, Rhea sighed and spilled the beans.

"He told me you'd gone to the Temple, Kale. I couldn't get much else out of him, but that news was shocking enough." Rhea looked up at him, leveling her dark eyes on him imperiously. "What in the name of Astrel made you do that? Not that I think it was necessarily a bad idea," she quickly added for clarification. "It's just...you're the last person I'd have thought would voluntarily subject himself to such a regimented heirarchy. Doesn't it get a bit...suffocating?"

[Kale]

Talk about a double-sucker-punch. Not only did she know the whole story, she was more concerned about his wellbeing than her own. Kale didn't want to guess how Gucchi would take the news that she'd been helping out a Jedi in the plaza, even an expatriated Padawan.

He sank dejectedly into the chair Rhea had offered. Answering her would only encourage more questions, but, for some danged reason, he felt like answering her anyway.

"They said they'd give me free room and board just for signin' up," he said. "I mean, I figured they'd made some sort o' mistake, 'cause they really thought I had this connection with the Force, so I was just gonna stick around until they threw me out. But... frell it..."

He wasn't making much sense; it was all just gushing out like a broken faucet. There was a definite pang of fear that made his voice shake--here in a place where showing fear was as good as selling your soul. Kale didn't even know what he was afraid of, and he sure didn't imagine that Rhea might understand. When he spoke again, he kept his voice level, controlled.

"I did somethin' back there. I don't really understand it, but I'm not sure if I can go back. I need to think about it an' try to work it out." A look of resentment crossed his face. "An' frankly, it ain't none of your business."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Well, so much for being nice to the kid.

Rhea fought against the strange feeling rising in her chest as she fixed Kale with a hard stare.

"None of my business?" she repeated. Setting down her mug with a clank on the battered table, Rhea stood, pulling her unshed jacket closer around her and crossing her arms over it. She moved across the room to something sitting on the floor, shrouded in a quilt.

Kneeling before it, she flipped back the quilt to reveal an ancient-looking wooden trunk, polished smooth by time and every inch of it carved in strange, flowing runes. Rhea opened the creaking lid, rifled about inside for a moment, then pulled something from the dark recesses and closed the trunk.

When Rhea straightened, she forced herself not to look at the long, gleaming cylinder in her hand. She did not need to see it to know its surface by heart: finely crafted silvery metal, well-worn black handgrip, ancient runes carved roughly into the top, just above the button-slide that would activate the long, humming blue blade.

Giving the precious, old lightsaber a last fond squeeze, Rhea looked back up at Kale.

"I'm making it my business," she told him simply as she tossed the saber toward him, knowing he would catch it.

"What happened? What did you do?"

[Kale]

Kale snagged the lightsaber with one hand and stared at it in wide-eyed disbelief. He'd never known Rhea had a saber, first of all, but--why the frell had she chosen to show it to him now?

He licked his dry lips, raised his eyes momentarily to hers, then dropped them again. This was all a waste of time. The longer he stayed, the likelier it was he'd be found out by one of Gucchi's hirelings. But if she wanted to know so darned badly, maybe he should tell her, and maybe she wouldn't be so eager to talk anymore.

And, if he had to be perfectly honest with himself... she'd gotten his attention.

Without saying a word, he reached with his free hand into the front of his cloak, pulled out the saber he'd stolen from the archives, and held it alongside Rhea's. The silver finish on his saber still held the unmistakeable glint of a museum polish, and the gold inlay around the emitter nozzle shimmered like firelight, but, from artistic touch that defined the casing and the anachronistic pommel stone on the butt end, it had to be very old indeed. It was about three inches longer than Rhea's saber and a little thicker, and it didn't look for a moment like the sort of sidearm a Padawan, particularly one with Kale's history, should be carrying.

Kale offered the pilfered saber to Rhea. "You tell me how you got yours, and I'll tell you how I got mine," he said.

[Rhea Kaylen]

"Fair enough," Rhea allowed as she took the proffered relic. She let out a low whistle as her eyes played over the gold-and-silver length, her fingers brushing the masterful inlay as she felt the differences in weight between this saber and her own.

"Well," she began, trying to keep her voice from shaking, "I'm pretty sure I didn't get mine the same way you got yours." She looked back up at Kale, nodding at the saber in his hand. "It was my mother's, once upon a time. The whole story's a bit long; do you have the time to spare?" She paused a moment, then added. "Your decision to become a Jedi was a very important one, and I'd hate to see you throw that decision away now. I...might be able to help you out, Kale, if you're willing to let me."

[Kale]

Woah--her mother owned a saber? So, what had put Rhea in a dive like this?

Kale's fingers beat an agitated taboo on his knee as he thought over Rhea's offer. He'd planned not to spend five minutes in the Plaza, just to get in, drop off the goods, and get out. He didn't know what he'd been planning to do afterward--maybe just spend a few days floating around until he got his thoughts in order. But a few days might be as good as a few years as far as his chances at the Order were concerned if the knight who was chasing him just put two and two together. Ancient saber disappears, and so does Padawan who's a known thief. Kale couldn't imagine the Jedi would even let him back in to defend himself.

So maybe... just maybe... whatever Rhea had to say was worth listening to before he disappeared into the night again.

"What the frell," he said with a shrug. "But maybe you oughta hear me first. I jacked the saber from a display case in the Jedi Archives, but one of the knights heard me and came after me. He cornered me in a dead-end alley... shoulda had me. But he didn't. 'Cause I used the Force to help me hide."

He waited for the significance of that last statement to register. "Yeah," he nodded, "I don't know if I buy the Jedis' whole Force schtick, but there's gotta be somethin' to it, 'cause I used it. I've done it before without even knowin' it, but this time, there was somethin' different. Cold, sorta... bleak. But it worked. I was sure it wouldn't work against a knight, but he looked right over me and never saw me. Now, I'm sure they'd can me if they knew I took the saber, but if they knew I used the Force against them... I dunno what they'd do. So..."

Kale dropped off after the useless conjunction; he didn't have any more answers than that. He felt stupid for spilling the whole story on her. He didn't know what it was about her that made him do things like that.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea dropped her eyes, thinking. Her mind was sluggishly trying to wrap itself around the things Kale had told her.

One thing was for sure, though: 'cold' and 'bleak' were two words a Jedi should *never* use to describe the Force. Never.

"Kale," Rhea began, sitting back down on the edge of her sofa. "I come from a long line of Jedi. My mother and father, my uncle and grandparents and forefathers for the past five generations, all of them were Force-sensitive. I am Force-sensitive. Trust me, the Force is real, like the air you breathe and the wind that has destroyed monoliths.

"If you are truly Force-sensitive, then you need the Jedi Order more than you know. You must not remain untrained, for the very reason you managed to escape with your new lightsaber. It sounds to me like you managed to connect with the Force, all right, but in all the wrong ways. The Force brings life and strength, yes, but it can also destroy, decay. And it is only then that you will feel cold.

"You've touched the Dark Side, young Padawan, and it is because of this that I suggest you get yourself back to the Temple as fast as you can fly. As for that saber, even if it weren't inoperable..." Here Rhea skillfully pried off the polish-encrusted access panel and pointed to the conspicuous lack of a power cell, "it wouldn't have worked as well for you as a saber of your own."

She reassembled the old, beautiful weapon and handed it back to the boy. "Granted, you'd get a pretty penny for it, if that's what you're thinking, but I rather suggest you return it."

[Kale]

Kale didn't want to believe her. It was too much at once for his cynical mind to handle. Too mystical. Too ridiculous. But as much as his skepticism rebelled, he couldn't shake the odd feeling of how much she'd just sounded like his own Master. Somehow he knew Oriadin would've said the same thing.

And, dang it, she'd given good advice before. Even when he didn't want it.

"The Dark Side," he said dully. "That means... aw, frell. If they ever find out..."

He didn't know how to finish the sentence. His imagination supplied several possibilities, and none of them sounded pleasant.

Kale raised his face back toward Rhea and attempted at a flippant smirk. "Well, it worked, whatever I did. I dunno, maybe I can sneak back in... maybe even put the saber back without anybody noticin'. It ain't much use to me anyhow; even if it did work, I couldn't swing one to save my life. That's why I hid. And what good is a guy who's good at hiding to the Jedi?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea shook her head slightly. //Good going, Kaylen,\\ she thought viciously to herself, //Unload every precept of Jedi dogma on the boy at once.\\

She could see, even through that classic Kale grin, that she'd nearly blown the boy's mind. She never had learned when to hold her tongue.

"Kale, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like that. You've not committed--" Nope, bad choice of words... "You're not automatically a bad guy now, just because you made a mistake. I know you didn't mean to touch the Dark side, that it was just an accident. And, chances are, if you explain to your master what you've explained to me, he'll understand. I doubt there's been *any* young Jedi who hasn't made the same mistake, or, worse, tapped into the Dark side intentionally. It's not something to take lightly, mind you, but you've not fallen from grace. Not by a long shot."

Rhea took a breath, winded, and tried to steady her voice as she made a quick decision.

//I just know I'm going to regret this...\\

"Look, I'll make a deal with you," Rhea said quickly, before she could think better of it. "You promise me you'll go back to the Order--*without* the use of either Dark or Light side stealth, just go back now--and I'll help you get the saber back into the archives quietly. No one will know about your latest grand larceny, but you must let your master know about what you did with the Force.

"I don't believe for one second that you're 'no good' to the Jedi Order, and in fact your penchant for sneaking around will no doubt prove invaluble to you and to others at some point. But not if you're blowing your new chance at life by living like a crook. Sooner or later, Kale, you'll need to decide which life is more important to you--your new one or your old."

She paused, then stood restlessly. "And now I sound like one of those stuffy Order masters, don't I?" she asked with a grin.

[Kale]

Kale thought about it. It didn't seem like a hard choice--go back to where he knew he had three solid meals and a roof over his head, not to mention the possibility of making himself better than the lot the galaxy had given him. But there was still some inhibition left, probably from his perception of Dasquian when he'd been under the influence of the Darkside. All he'd been able to think of was his fear.

But Rhea was right, and he knew it. The longer he waited, the more likely he'd be identified as the one who took the saber. But more fundamentally than that, he didn't want to blow the chance. He didn't want to be just another statistic on Coruscant's burgeoning population crisis reports.

He took a quick drink to moisten his throat. The tea was still hot, but he'd gotten used to it by now. "Thanks for the tea," he said belatedly. "I, uh... I really do want to go back. As for the saber, well... I'd appreciate the help. They're gonna be watchin' that gallery like junkyard dogs. Maybe we can get it back some other way. I don't think they'll take well to me tryin' to break into another display case, even if I am puttin' the saber back."

He turned the saber over in his hand. Oddly enough, he didn't really want it anymore. He'd never needed it. He didn't even need the credits. He'd just... done it.

Kale chewed nervously on his lower lip, looked back up at Rhea, and said, "But I can't tell my master. No, it's not like that, I mean... he's gone. He's been out of town the past few weeks, not that anybody told me anything about it. When he gets back... maybe. I'm still a little freaked out by the whole thing."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea nodded, feeling relieved. The boy's decision was the best one he could have made, she felt certain.

Rhea picked up her empty teacup, running her finger along the lip as she stared at the residue clinging to the glazed ceramic. She remembered her granny trying to teach her to read tea-leaves, once (it seemed like millenia ago, now). All her five-year old eyes could ever see had been ugly brown mush.

But, though she'd never understood tea-leaves, there were a lot of things her granny and her other relatives had taught her that *did* make sense. Other traditions, older and far more important, that had been passed down to her, for her to pass on to her children.

And, since she'd missed that chance, she owed it to her family, long dead, to try to pass on the Jedi teachings to Kale in any way she could, even if that meant standing outside the Temple to physically bar him leaving it.

And she was up to the challenge.

But first they had to get Kale back *into* the Temple!

Something was bothering her, and she eyed Kale. "Your master just...up and left? He didn't leave you word, no one told you where he was going? Does he do that often?"

[Kale]

Kale looked a bit bewildered. "Uh, this is the first time... but, yeah. I don't know what he's doing. I figured maybe he had something important that just came up, but I really wish he woulda told me first."

There was some definite bitterness in the teenager's voice. He'd given Oriadin his trust, something he was customarily very stingy with. He wasn't too happy about having been left in the lurch, whatever Oriadin's business was.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea well knew that when her thick, black eyebrows descended in anger, it was like stormclouds crashing over her dark eyes. Ocasionally, just that gesture was enough to frighten away the source of her anger.

But at the moment, the unlucky recipient of her waxing irritation wasn't here, and *that* was the problem.

From the tone of Kale's voice, Rhea could tell she wasn't the only one miffed. Some master...what was he playing at, trotting off on some escapade without his Padawan (this in itself was plenty unorthodox) and not even leaving word where he was going? No wonder Kale had come back to the Plaza looking so lost and dire--the boy had no one to talk to and had just stumbled over the Dark Side of the Force. Kale had had no clue what was to happen to him next, had fled the Temple, and, the source of this whole issue, had been left so long to his own boredom that he was trying out his lock-picking skills on Temple property.

Oh, if Rhea ever got to talk to the boy's master, he'd get it...

But there was no time for that now. They needed to get back to the Temple as soon as possible, and figure out how to get that saber back to its home. Then she could wait around to ambush Kale's master.

Standing, Rhea walked briskly over to her trunk. Her head and shoulders disappeared into it for a moment as various items sailed out. Finally, she reemerged with an old, somewhat faded Jedi cloak (which she hoped wasn't too far out of the Temple's current style, or she would be out of luck), and she donned this and held out her hand for her mother's saber, still clutched in Kale's weathered young hand. The saber looked rather well in that hand, Rhea couldn't help thinking.

"Well, we'll worry about your master when we get a chance to. For now, we'd better just focus on your new saber. Oh, sorry, ky'da, but we'll have to walk. I've no speeder or bike."

[Kale]

Kale got a little nervous when he saw Rhea's scowl--he'd been on the receiving end of it a few times. But he realized she was just as insensed about Oriadin's disappearance as he was, and maybe more. Kale found that, well... odd, but comforting.

The teen watched stupidly as Rhea fished out a Jedi robe and threw it on. She looked just like a Jedi--more than he did, at any rate. There was something about how she carried it; Kale would've called it regal if he didn't already associate that with rich snobs. Rhea had been at the Plaza longer than he had. How'd she get so noble-looking all of a sudden?

It took Kale a moment to realize she was asking to have her saber back.

He sheepishly turned the weapon over, then unceremoniously dug his hands in his pockets as he headed for the door. "That's not a problem with me. I'm used to walkin'. Rhea, if you don't mind my askin'..." He trailed off as he stepped outside the apartment door and looked up and down the dingy, dirty corridor. There was still the danger of running into one of Gucchi's goons.

Kale held his voice to a whisper, and it echoed dimly off the cracked plaster walls. "If you've got all that Jedi stuff... what are you doin' livin' in the Plaza?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea, fiddling with the saber's stubborn belt-clasp, blinked in surprise and raised her eyes to Kale where he stood outside her apartment door. She'd forgotten, for a moment, that Kale had had no clue about her heritage until about ten minutes ago, and realized his question was extremely relevant. Besides, after he'd confided in her, it was only right for her to return the favor.

After all, Kale was trustworthy. A thief and a teenager, yes, but trustworthy.

Just as Rhea, moving to the door, opened her mouth to respond, a loud and heavy THUMP! one floor up startled her violently. She froze in place and darted her dark eyes upwards, straining her ears and senses to detect possible danger. Whatever it was (probably just an exceptionally rowdy partyer) was silent now, but the noise served to remind Rhea that she and Kale were, after all, standing in a hallway of the Plaza Cueva de Luce. Speaking about Jedi while dressed like a pair of them was simply asking for trouble from the management...especially considering who the management of the Plaza was.

So reminded, Rhea scuttled out of her apartment and pulled the door shut behind her, hearing the bolt automatically shoot home. Pulling the unfamiliar weight of the itchy cloak around her to hide her form and her lightsaber, Rhea herded Kale down the hall and back out onto the street.

"Best we talked about it on the way, ky'da," she said quietly, pulling the cloak's hood over her head and smoothing her thick black-and-white hair under it. Touching Kale's shoulder as an indication he should follow, Rhea glanced about to be sure the area was deserted and set her feet on the once-familiar path toward the Jedi Temple. She hoped she hadn't forgotten the way completely.

"Remember, Kale, my mother and father were Jedi knights. This cloak belonged to my mother, as did the saber. My father's things were lost long ago. I'm no Jedi, mind you--" here Rhea paused while a vagrant shuffled by, "at least, not officially. My parents and grandparents and uncle taught me everything they knew before they died, but I was never an apprentice, nor did I take the trials to become a knight. But I kept the memorabilia. Simple as that."

[Kale]

Rhea hadn't quite answered Kale's question. Most people weren't too inclined to say how they ended up stuck in a place like the Plaza, but Kale found it hard to believe Rhea was the sort to have landed herself in the ghetto on credit card debt.

"A whole family of Jedi... sheez. So if you coulda been one of them--livin' up in that temple, gettin' everything free? Then what are you doin' in a dive like this? You'd make a better Jedi than me, that's for sure."

If he sounded contentious, it was because he was still nervous. Even after determining to go back to the Jedi Temple, he had second, third thoughts. He remembered how it had looked to him--felt to him--while he'd been hiding from Dasquian. The Dark Side had taken all his worst fears and suspicions about the Jedi and blown them up to terrifying proportions. No matter what Rhea told him, he couldn't forget that feeling. So if there was a reason she was avoiding the Jedi Temple herself, he sure as frell wanted to know what it was.

The teen pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders as they stepped out the side entrance into the demi-lit street. The Plaza had once been covered with gaudy neon and glow panels; now only a few lights guttered over boarded-up store windows and ivy creepers, casting skeletonic shadows over the alley. Kale would have preferred it dark. It was easier to go unnoticed that way.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea tried not to frown. Kale sounded...uneasy about something. She wondered if he was still shaken about his less-than-ordinary evening.

She had to laugh at his last comment, though. "Oh, I doubt that, Padawan," she replied, remembering to keep her voice low and her face shrouded from the flickering glow of the holo-signs above the street. "I'm clumsy and forgetful and disorganized, and I don't focus on things very well. But, well, the reason..."

Rhea couldn't help her voice from trailing. This was uncomfortable territory. Clearing her throat, she pressed on. "The real reason I live in the Plaza, I guess...is because my parents were Jedi. I wasn't very old when my mom and papa...died, and, um, the thought of actually becoming what my parents died for...I didn't want that. Not at first. Later, I gave it some serious thought and knew that my parents died for a good cause, a cause I might even be able to take up, but it would have been so hard to go back into the Temple my parents loved--" Rhea absolutely hated talking about her parents this way; it was the only subject capable of bringing tears to her eyes. She swallowed hard, berating herself.

"Anyway, by the time I was considering it, I'd already been living at the Plaza for several years and made some friends. I kind of felt responsible for a few of them, including you, and...I just decided that I could do more good in a place like the Plaza than I could by living at the Temple.

"As for how I got to the Plaza in the first place?" Here she lowered her voice still further, barely above a whisper. This was still a dangerous topic of conversation, especially for a female denizen of the ghetto.

"Just before they were killed by a last faction of the empire, my parents, knowing they were in danger, sent me to live on my home planet, with my grandparents. When they died, I was old enough to come back to Coruscant. My parents had lived in the Plaza before their deaths, in order to keep a low profile. This is where I was born, and thus to where I returned."

[Kale]

"Oh."

It was an anticlimactic repsonse, but Kale really didn't know how else to respond. His head was still awhirl from the last four revelations he'd had that night, and he'd never been a real sensitive sort anyway. He'd lost whatever family ties he might've had once upon a time, and he always thought he was beyond regretting it.

But he knew what loss was, and he felt bad making Rhea recount it for him.

"Well... I wasn't really thinkin' of that, I guess. I've never had much of a choice, myself. Until now."

As they stepped onto a footbridge to the next block, Kale glanced up at the forest of towering stratoscrapers, their windows and search beacons glowing like artificial stars. You couldn't see the real stars; there was far too much light on the skyline for that. That was all the heaven a streeter on Coruscant ever saw--the pale glare of the upper-level penthouses and offices burning late into the night.

And all the rich folks that lived up there saw nothing above them but black. What a funny kind of planet.

Kale didn't take the line of thought much further. It only got depressing after that. If there was a way to break the vicious cycle, maybe heading back to the Jedi was a step in the right direction.

"So, what're we gonna do when we get there?" he asked. "Drop the saber in a mailbox and climb in through a window?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

A devious grin split Rhea's face, and she felt the last tendrils of her sorrow falling away.

"Oh, no, Kale," she said quietly, pulling her cloak tightly together at her neck and sinking farther into the shadow of her hood.

"It will be much more interesting than that."

[Kale]

OOC: Sorry for the delay... gah. Schoolwork and writer's block don't mix.

Kale watched the shift in Rhea's mood with some mild trepidation.

"More interesting?" he echoed. "I dunno... I've got a very bad feelin' abo--ow!"

Oddly, he'd stumbled on a discarded beer can before he could finish his thought. Paying it no mind, he stuck his hands back in his pockets and led the way gingerly back to the Jedi temple.

Continued in Getting in after hours (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32316)