The Lie of Peace (Cyrano x Jemady Angel)

[CyranoDeBergerac]

There were many reasons why the YT-Series freighter was Jedi Peacekeeper Ajak Tarr's preferred form of interstellar transport. Firstly they had plenty of space that could be used for many reasons. Tarr had spent a couple years tweaking and rearranging the space he had on his particular freighter until he had found just the right ratio between passenger space and cargo space for his needs. Seeing as he was not a smuggler he had originally thought that there wasn't much need for cargo space, he had carried what he needed and a little extra room in case he found something fancy he wanted to take home to the Temple. As the Galactic Republic's expansion into the Outer Rim continued he found he needed more cargo space to transport much needed goods and supplies to colonies and planets out of the reach of typical trade networks. He also found that the more time he spent in the Outer Rim, the more criminals he needed to bring in (preferably alive) that he didn't feel particularly inclined to house in comfortable quarters. A few years back he had thought that he had found the perfect ratio of space usage for his nameless freighter.

Then the teenager had come along and he'd needed to redo the space again and give it a name.

Fluke stood out in the space around Dantooine, primarily in comparison to the many Jedi craft that filled the skies and the landing platforms, there weren't as many Jedi who were as big of fans of the red and black color palette as Ajak was. For the peacekeeper the colors were a primarily practical choice, allowing him to blend into the night sky when he preferred to operate in the Outer Rim. Getting the drop on drunk or sleeping criminals was much preferred to exchanging blaster fire with alert and angry ones. Sure, it wasn't the most honorable approach, but honor wasn't necessarily his highest priority when it came to gun fights. In fact, one might observe that it was his lowest priority.

Dantooine was a regular stomping ground for the wandering Jedi, home to one of the few Jedi academies in the Outer Rim, Tarr would often visit the terrestial planet for pick-ups, resupplies, deliveries and just to rest. On this particular visit he was only planning to stop long enough to pick up his Padawn and then continue on to his next destination. There was never any rest for the wicked on the Galactic Frontier

Fluke toughed down on the landing pad adjacent to the classrooms at the Jedi Enclave, where Tarr was sure Jedi Master Chata Qell was keeping his Padawan in one of her many lengthy and strenous lessons. Qell was one of the three Councillors administering the temple on Dantooine, on the surface Tarr had all respect for the Selkath Master. She was one of the wisest women in the Outer Rim without a doubt, but on the inside that voice that no other Jedi could hear urged him to put a blaster bolt through her bill. Powering down Fluke Tarr kneed shut one of the hidden compartments in his cockpit, hiding a clear container of death sticks. On paper a potential bribe for any corrupt forces Tarr encountered outside of his jurisdiction. In reality a bad habit he had picked up on his last visit to the Core Worlds where they were all the rage.

The Correlian Echani always drew attention when he stepped onto the campus of the Academy, his white hair and white eyes marking him as obviously non-human, but also exotic even in an institution as diverse as the Jedi Order. He wore his hair long, passed his shoulders, and it often contrasted with the red cloak and mask that he often wore to mark him as a Peacekeeper. He wasn't wearing that cloak though today, instead favoring a long duster jacket made of gundark leather. Thick enough to stop a blaster bolt or two it had made the difference between life and death in many fights. Hanging from his belt were two lightsabers, one on each hip, and attached to a holster on his thigh was a double-barreled blaster carbine. Great for capturing criminals at point blank range. Or at least that was his excuse whenever asked. The RSKF-44 heavy blaster pistol in a shoulder holster under his left arm didn't have the same excuse.

With the attention that his landing had drawn, he didn't expect he'd be waiting long for his Padawan to find him in the courtyard, probably with her bags packed and ready to go. He knew it was tough on the kid to be left behind for months at a time, but Hutt Space was no place to take a Padawan if he was a responsible Jedi Knight, which was something he pretended to be when in the company of those who expected it of him. Which was to say the act dropped a little bit the moment they were off-world. This trip was going to be much safer than Hutt Space though, finally dipping out of the Outer Rim for the first time in almost a year. There was a group of Trandoshan poachers that were causing trouble in Wookie space that needed to be dealt with.

Ajak Tarr liked hunting Trandoshans. Their limbs could grow back.

Leaning against one of the trees in the courtyard he closed his eyes and crossed his arms, getting comfortable as he waited for his Padawan, reaching out into the Force to touch her mind and see where she was so he could know how long he was going to be waiting.

 

[Jemady Angel]

The trials of the force were many fold, and seldom did one understand them at first glance. It was a lesson that she had faced many times over in her years as a Padawan. First under the guidance of the renowned healer Master Wendai Fendala, a Twi'lek Knight who held much renown through her years of service. The woman had taught her how to heal, how to commune with the force, and how to survive the ones you love after their deaths. Losing her Master had been the second hardest thing to ever happen to the young woman, but only after the loss of her younger sister.

Second, she learned under the hand of her second Master. A man she often wondered when she was first paired with him if he wanted her there at all, yet over the years they worked together she realized he continue to with or without her. Unlike Master Wendai who had been a healer, Peacekeeper Ajak was a warrior.

Some had thought that the pair were a strange fit for one another, especially those who witnessed the Apprentice Jani'mar around the outer temple. Sitting with her legs tucked under her, guiding several younglings who had been struggling to learn peace through meditation. Her lectures from Master Quell had ended an hour before, when the Master had to attend to a wayward lecture by one of the younger Jedi instructors.

"Peace is something that you find within yourself, not just the world around you..." The young human woman spoke to the three sitting in front of her, her voice soft upon the wind. Carried upon it but not overpowering it's own sound as she let it wash over the small ones. Leaving them to think of the peace within the tone, not just her statement as she felt the brush of a familiar prescience entering her range of sense.

Her Master Tarr was back on world. Only two months behind schedule, she thought to herself with an inward smile. She had been anticipating three, but still, she kept herself prepared for moments like this as she turned back to the students in front of her. Taking a deep breath, the three of them had eyes closed, concentrating as the Padawan turned her body a little, waving a hand to catch the attention of her personal companion, her R7-S3 Astromech droid. Although he would understand her is she spoke, she signaled him with a small set of hand signs to go and grab her bag for her while she turned around as her friend left the room and returned to the younglings at hand.

"Remember to breath..." She began once again.

The lesson was wrapping up when her Master confirmed that he was ready for her. The brush of his prescence entering the edge of her mind as she reached out. Pressing him out for just a moment as she told the young ones. "Rejoin the rest of your class now. Enjoy the rest of your lessons for today." Only then did she let him press back, opening up her mind so he would get a flash of her own vision. Seeing the three young ones jumping from the pillows they had been sitting on to run out of the space. Soon she was standing up, a single word sent as a feeling of excitement offered as her reply to him.

Coming.

Jani'mar wouldn't have outright admitted it to anyone else as she smiled. Yet as she picked up her back from R7-S3, she knew internally how estatic she was that he had returned. She was pleased to help out and to learn at the Academy, but she was a Padawan, a Padawan trained to work as a field medic. Trained to help those in need along the outer rim, but someone who was meant to stay cradled in a classroom all day. As she walked out of the room, and out towards the courtyards, she knew another adventure was in front of her. One she looked forward to exploring, one she looked forward to learning from as she exited the temple and walked towards the white haired figure she spotted in the distance. A hand raised up, waving at the man as she strapped her bag to her back.

The young woman was a beauty in her own right, and somehow while he had been away so many months she had grown in many ways all over again. It may have been the brightness in her smile that she offered every person as she walked past them, or it may have been the lightness of her step which marked her as a dexterous fighter, which could also have been hinted by her lack of armor in favor of easy movement. It may have been the way her tanned skin curved within her cloak, or even the way her chocolate hair had grown. Dancing around her face in the light breeze as she said goodbye to several individuals that she passed before she drew up in front of her Master for the first time in what felt like an eon to the young woman.

The bag on her back was all she had brought, but she always traveled light. Her belt holding a med kit in the back, and two mismatched lightsabers at her belt. One was the one she had built, and the other her old Master's. She had been training to duel wield under his guidance since he had taken her under his wing, but she still lacked the mastery of it that he did. Yet there she was, a beacon of hope in front of him as she smiled upwards towards her Master.

"You came early." She told him, her tone nearly playful in nature. Yet they both knew that he was later than expected, a fact she didn't hold against him in the least as she patted the top of R7-S3's round top. "You wouldn't have happened to make your ship magically big enough to fit my fighter in it yet, would you?" She continued on her playful streak, seeming relaxed today as she watched him. Her brown orbs with their golden speckles sparking with happiness at the sight of him. Ready to go out once more, and make a difference to the galaxy awaiting them.

 

[CyranoDeBergerac]

Ajak knew his Padawan's price. Not what it would take to convince her to do anything, or what it would take to do something specific. He knew what price a Hutt slaver would pay to have her put in a chainmail bikini with a chain and collar around her neck and tied to the dais on which they lounged. He knew what they would offer him in barter to have her youthful curves in their slimy clutches, to run their mucous covered tongue over her soft face. And the Hutts were honestly some of the more savory individuals that he could sell her to if he wanted. Years of Peacekeeping on the Outer Rim and in the Colonies had left the Jedi jaded in more ways than one. It had been his responsibility to keep those unsavory forces away from the colonists and other respectable society. When they transgressed the sensibilities of a Colonial governor or other dignitary he ensured that they faced 'justice'.

Justice was one of those many lies that Ajak had discovered during his many years travelling throughout the galaxy and 'righting wrongs' as he was often lauded for doing. Every time he returned to a Jedi stronghold or another place where he would meet those who knew him as he had been he needed to remind himself of what he had been previously. Before everything had changed for him. Whenever the real him was in danger of coming out he would recite the Jedi Code in his mind to remind himself of the role that he played, the role that was expected of him, and what the man that everyone thought he was needed to be doing.

There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force.
​

All lies. In the Outer Rim there was rarely anything more real than emotion. And if there were no such thing as ignorance than Ajak would no have needed to kill so many fools who thought that they could outdraw a Jedi Peacekeeper who otherwise survive an encounter with him where they consistently chose the dumbest and most foolhardy of actions to take. As for passion he knew passion better than anyone. The passion of pressing his lips to a woman's, of forcing his tongue down her throat and gripping her hindquarters in one of his strong, often gloved hands. Of taking her and having her and controlling her. That was one of the many passions he had felt in his time in the Outer Rims; that and taking a life with his own hands being the sweetest. All things were chaos in the vacuum of space; even more so when the Nihil were coming from all directions and when ships could break apart in hyperspace and have their parts reappear to destroy everything in their path in flaming chaos. As for death, there very much was death on the path that Ajak Tarr walked.

When Jani'mar came into sight for the first time Tarr smiled, it was a roguish grin that he might only barely play off as a master being proud and happy to see his Padawan again. There was something about the young medic that made him want the lie that he told them all to be true. That he could still be the Jedi Knight that his own Master had dreamed of him being. Of being the Master that she deserved to have. As she moved towards him though, his eyes went placed they shouldn't have, examining the growth of her body and her curves. Readjusting his estimates on what the Hutts might give him for her. It took reciting the Code three times for him to force the thought from the back of his mind that all she was could be his with the simple movement of his hand and the right words whispered in the right tone with the right amount of Will of the Force.

The playfulness in her voice, the cheerful innocence in her smile, all of them were refreshing considering the loneliness that came with travelling alone.

"As always, I will have to wait for another day to experience the delightfulness of your piloting skills." He said with all the tact and diplomacy he cared to muster, letting his young apprentice know that he was teasing her. "You've grown since the last time I saw you Jani." He remarked, though he doubted if she had even grown an inch anywhere but her chest and rear. And the length of her hair of course. Turning on his heel he gestured for her to follow him as he made his way back to his ship, where the boarding ramp was down and ready for them to come aboard.

"How is your Shyriiwook? We're heading to the Mytaranor sector."