Catching Up (Open)

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Great. Got sent back when I was on my way to Bestine. Got sidetracked on the way here. And now I have no idea what is going on. Joy.

Kieran Devaneaux sat alone in Yog's Bar and Grill, suffering the pain in his knees quietly, but with firmly clenched teeth. His white, blinded eye glistened softly in the dim light of the particular area of the Bar and Grill he was seated in. He had recently returned from an extended shakedown - after which, he had thought, he was being sent to the front - but it seemed that fate did not wish for him to go into battle.

So here he sat in the Bar and Grill, deep in thought...and wondering whether there was anyone else here.

[Kyashi]

There is the faint clink as Kyashi lowers his steamy cup of tea to it's saucer. His attire is what could be considered, normal. A black shirt with a net undershirt peeking from underneath with plain black pants. Aside from the dark red eyes, the scars on his cheek and the larger scar across his neck, he seems like any other partron. His gaze settles on Kieran and stops.

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Kieran looked up, his remaining eye - blue, and bloodshot from lack of sleep - fixing on the other patron. He is silent, but smiles. After a moment, he speaks. "I was beginning to think no one was here. Please, sit down. I could use some company....being stuck on your ship alone is not exactly the best fate one should deal with."

[Kyashi]

He silently picks up his tea and joins the man at his own table. The man looks much older than him, his eyes are tired looking and his smile lacks...something.

He raises his cup to his lips, remaining silent. He waits for the man to start talking...

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Kieran sips from his own cup of tea, his single eye looking over the younger man. Not much younger than YOU, boy. But you look ancient to him, judging from how he looks at you. Hmm. Perhaps you should dispel that impression.... His right eye was sightless and milky, but the gaze of the one that remained, though tired looking, was unflinching. This person looked somewhat familiar, but the Padawan/NR captain could not guess why for the life of him...he supposed there was only one way to find out. "Are you with the Order?" he asked quietly.

[Kyashi]

Kyashi nearly spits out his tea. He quickly swallows it, and laughs loudly. He grins.

"Not exactly."

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Kieran smiled, but he did not miss that reaction. Okay. Touchy subject. 10 points for the idea, but negative points for the style there, Kieran....hmm. "I'm still in training. Provided I stay here long enough to BE trained. Either the Navy calls me out for something, or I get gripped by wanderlust. Take your pick." Kieran chuckled. He suddenly felt he was forgetting something. "My name's Kieran, by the way - and I'm not entirely sure what my job is at the moment, but when I left I was captain of a Defender Star Destroyer and a Padawan in the Order....one part hasn't changed, but I'm not so sure about the captain part." He looked over his guest. "And you?"

[Kyashi]

"Kyashi. You could say I'm...also a student of the Force. Although, I don't belong to the GJO."


Another sip of tea before he asked a question. "Why would a Jedi wish to be in the military? I thought you were all about being peaceful."

[Kieran Devaneaux]

"A fair question; one I have asked myself," Kieran admitted. "I am more in it to defend the people rather than wage war. Though I will admit, waging war is exciting....when you're actually able to. Except I ended up getting lost because the navcomputer on my personal ship, the Devaneaux's Fury, got fried on the way to rendezvous with my ship....why, I haven't a clue." Kieran shrugged. "Really, I joined up because I do not believe a Jedi should live in such a spartan lifestyle..."

[Kyashi]

The boy shook his head, the look on his face plainly showing his disappointment with Kierans' answer.

""Waging war is exciting"...? A Jedis' purpose is to protect people, not to obliterate them into space dust. I always thought Jedi were to use peaceful means to end conflict, and yet, most of you seem to be obsessed with fighting as a means to an end. And you don't believe Jedi should lead such a "spartan" lifestyle? Then why did you bother to join them and not just join the military and murder till your hearts' content?"

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Kieran was somewhat surprised. "You misunderstand. I disagree with the way the Order works because of two reasons: one, it seems to me that we're shut up like monks or something, and two, if some wacko decides exterminating the Jedi again is a good idea, he only has to go two places instead of all over the galaxy..."

Sighing a bit, he waited before speaking again. "I joined the Order because they may be the only ones who can help me regain my past. Anything from earlier than seven years ago is a complete blur. Except....flashes from time to time."

[Kyashi]

"One, I have never seen any Jedi who has ever acted monk-like in any way. You're free-beings, and you can travel the galaxy as much as you like, and if you think you're bound to this place, then you are a sheep. Two, there are far too many Jedi to wipe you all from the face of the universe."

He sighed lightly, studying the Jedi over the steam of his tea. "And how exactly can the Jedi help you regain this past of yours? Are you sure you want to know what happened to you? It could be something too horrible to remember."

[Kieran Devaneaux]

"Perhaps," Kieran conceded. "But sixteen years is almost two-thirds of my life; I think I deserve to know what happened in that time period. No matter how horrific." What kind of person was I then? he couldn't help but wonder.

[Kyashi]

"I see," he took another long sip of tea. "I would trade you -- you can have my memories, and I can have none."

[Kieran Devaneaux]

"I take it you have not exactly had a great life. Do you have no family or place to call home either?" Despite his feeling of acceptance here, Kieran did not call Coruscant home, nor Deralia either. He wanted to know where home was....but did this boy, he wondered?

[Kyashi]

"I had a home. I had a family. And... the Force took it all away from me."

The boys' eyes gazed down at the table, a faint frown curled the corners of his mouth. "My father...wanted to get more powerful after he had a taste of the Darkside. He thought my mother and I would get in his way, so he killed her in front of me."

His hand went to his throat, a finger sliding across the long scar that went from one side of it to the other. "He slit my throat...and then I killed him."

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Kieran was surprised. This young man seethed with the dark side, but he did not appear to be Sith or from the Sovereignty....too young for the Sovereignty, anyway. But darksiders were allowed here in the Bar and Grill, he knew, so he said only, "It is obvious you are still alive, so it seems he did not slit the artery..."

[Kyashi]

The faint frown became an even fainter smile. "Heh, yeah. I was real lucky on that one...Now I have a souvenior of the day I destroyed my own future. I was only four when it happened, so most of it is still a blur to me..."

He took a sip of his tea, now starting to cool. His demeanor had changed back to the boy who had first sat with Kieran. "Sometimes, it's better to leave the past alone, for your own good. Focus on your future instead."

[Kieran Devaneaux]

"Hmm, perhaps." Kieran sipped his tea quietly and suddenly...

Another flashback....

An evil, cold-looking man - eye scratched out, much like his own eye was like now. His father. "Stand against me, will you?" he was shouting.

"Your tyranny will not make us stronger, Father," Kieran replied. "Your evil is consuming our world, our people. Can you not see it?"

"You dare question my ability to rule? What do you know of leadership?" his father snarled.

"I know enough that no sane leader is anything like YOU!" he snarled back.

"Very well, then, Kieran. You leave me no choice. Guards! Take my weakling son and throw him off the balcony," he barked.

"Yes, m'lord Artimus," one of the guards said.

(So that was his name, Kieran thought idly. He was a lord of some kind....lord of what? He couldn't tell.)

"I will not allow you to kill me, Father," Kieran said, unafraid.

"I have decreed it, therefore it shall be done," Artimus replied coldly. He nodded to the guards, who grasped Kieran's arms and then propelled him out the open doors and off the balcony --

Kieran's eyes snapped open with a short scream. He clutched his chest, gasping. That had been a bad one....worse than the last. Thank the Force it wasn't when I was standing on the Council building's balcony, he thought. Then he realized his guest was still here.


Meanwhile...
Far away from Coruscant, a lone freighter cruised the spacelanes on its way to the Republic capital. A lone figure, in his early fifties, sat on the floor of his quarters. His eyes were closed, and he appeared to be in meditation. Any Jedi could recognize the dark side aura that exhuded from him - or anyone who was Force-sensitive, for that matter. He was not trained, but it was still quite noticable. He had not changed much in seven years. His hair was still stark white, his right eye as sightless and white as his son's, and the remaining eye glared coldly.

In his mind's eye, he watched Kieran and the dark side-aura of the boy conversing with him, and knew the time for his revelation was at hand. "What are your orders, my lord?" came the voice of the captain, standing nearby. He was one of the old guard captains when this man had ruled over his homeworld.

An evil smile appeared on his lips. "Set a course for Coruscant," Artimus Devaneaux said quietly. "It is time."

[Kyashi]

Kyashi merely raised a brow. He could sense something from him, but it wasn't clear.

"That was...interesting."

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Kieran cursed himself. Of all the rotten luck, it had to be when I wasn't alone, he thought. "It happens...from time to time," he said finally.

[Kyashi]

"Ah, I see..."

Kyashi smirked. 'I suppose the Jedi are supposed to be helping with that, right?"

[Kieran Devaneaux]

"Well.....truth be told, they haven't done a whole lot. The flashbacks have usually come in meditation, and they only last for a minute or two. But hopefully, SOMEONE will figure out what is going on with me..."

[Kyashi]

"Well, that's stupid. Why stay if they do nothing to help you? I'm sure there are people who could help you faster than the Jedi ever will."

[Artimus Devaneaux]

"Listen to the boy, Kieran," the voice from Kieran's flashback nightmare said boldly. "Surely there are people who could be of more assistance to you." Stepping into the dim light, the shadow of the past known as Artimus Devaneaux towered over his son. "Like your father, perhaps!"

Then, just as mysteriously, he was gone.

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Kieran sat dumbly, shocked to silence. He felt an emotion he had not felt in seven years.

Cold, gut-wrenching fear.

[Kyashi]

Again, Kyashi gave the man a quizical look. What the frell was wrong with him?

He drummed his fingers on the table, as if to try to wake Kieran from his stupor.