I'm Not Like Him

[Adrian Lynd]

The two red lightsabers clashed furiously with the single blue one as the rain poured down over the two, the dark side of the force flowed through him and radiated outwards contaminating the air around him with it's wicket nature. His red eyes glowed furiously, as he deflected and attacked, he moved quickly, using the features of the rainforest to his advantage. The Jedi was good, he didn't have time to think, but react, he was always on the defense and if he wasn't so focused he would be nervous, but he didn't have time for that. All had time for was to continue, Guardians, the closest thing to Sith in the Jedi order and a result they were sometimes unpredictably dangerous, but sixteen year old Sith had complicated things for the Jedi, he had two lightsabers and the Jedi only had one. He may have been a Knight, but he was a young enough and arrogant enough that he could exploit it.

Staying mostly on the defense might get the Jedi to a point where he was overconfident, then he would strike all at once, explosively like he always did, a full on force that would overwhelm his attacker added with the element of surprise. The only problem was that he was indeed outmatched and he knew it, so his timing would be critical as the blades clashed and sweat mixed with the rain, he wasn't letting up, the Jedi full on trying to disable his Sith opponent, while Adrian was just biding his time, pushing back as much as he could, but storing up enough energy for a surprise strike when the moment was write and then it happened, but not what he wanted. The tip of the blue blade sliced neatly across his upper right arm for about a quarter inch, he winced and bit down on the inside of his lip until he tasted his own blood. He backed up and rage filled his face as the burning sensation travelled down his arm, the scent of his own burning flesh filled the air and he narrowed his red eyes to slits as he continued blocking the Jedi, more with his left blade for the moment, he had to push the pain away or he was going to die or at the least be captured and that was not something that was acceptable, that was not something that could happen with his mission in mind.

The Jedi's attacking energy was primarily directed at his left blade now and, he knew this, his right arm was still blocking the onslaught, but it was clear that the Jedi viewed the primary threat coming from the left, the rain stung his arm and the frustration and anger focused his rage, and the ruse would be complete, as the Jedi launched another attack against his slowly tiring left arm, he absorbed the hit and deactivated his lightsaber, causing the Jedi to lose his balance and that's when he brought his right saber over and shoved it directly into the Jedi's side. His left lightsaber activating, the teen pulled his right saber out of the Jedi and backed off as the Jedi dropped his lightsaber, it's blue blade vanishing before it hit the ground.

Adrian extinguished both of his blood red blades and stared at the Jedi who had fallen forward, he shouldn't have won and he knew it, but he did, because he was who he was, his confidence soared as the pain shot through his arm. He attached both of his sabers to his belt crossing his arms as he did. He then called the Jedi's saber to his hand and examined it, he heard the fallen Knight moan in pain. He stared down at him and moved towards him, he reached out with his foot and turned him over, there was still life in him, but the wound was most definitely fatal as he had been pierced through his left side and the blade existed the right.

"You've got seconds left, you lost because you underestimated me. You were better than me and you still lost Ji'dai, cross into the netherworld of the force knowing that you lost because you were stupid, rest well with those as your last thoughts."

Adrian attached the Jedi's lightsaber to the back of his belt and turned away from him and walked through the forest to his ship as the Jedi breathed his last breath. He looked back and sneered as he felt the Jedi's life force leave his body. He grabbed his arm and winced, he hated that man, absolutely hated him, he wasn't supposed to be here and now he needed time to heal.

[Adrian Lynd]

He climbed up the ladder to the ship and instinctively pulled himself in with his right hand and that's when he felt the flesh in his upper arm open up. He winced as he felt the blood trickle down his arm, a stark contrast to the cool rain that had been pouring down upon him, he pressed the button to close the canopy on the cockpit, the sound of the rain hitting the canopy was oddly calming even for him. He grabbed his right sleeve and ripped it downwards exposing his bare arm. He then lifted his arm to his face, the blood was diluted with the water that had soaked through his skin but it continued to gently flow out the burned flesh that had been ripped open.

He examined the wound, it was a bit deeper than he had originally thought, but it hadn't impacted bone which was good for him. He moved his wounded arm out of the way and reached between his legs and under his seat for the medical kit. It wasn't anything fancy, just basic stuff for emergency situations. He placed it on his lap and opened it, the first thing he reached for was a bottle of anti-septic, he doused a piece of gauze with it and dabbed it against the burned slash mark on his arm, it didn't feel pleasant but he was a Sith and this was minor compared to anything else. He placed the anti-septic back in the kit and retrieved a bacta patch. How many were in here?

"One, two....and three. Good."

That would be enough to get home, he should probably change it at least once a day and clean it as well to stave off infection, at least before he got to a proper place where it could be treated, but the bacta patches should start the healing process. He slid the medical kit under his seat again and leaned back, the Jedi's lightsaber poking at his back. He sighed audibly at the annoyance of it and leaned forward and retrieved the lightsaber. He then examined it, it was a trigger saber, he fancied himself a duelist. Adrian stared at it a moment before shoving it in a storage compartment by his left leg. He threw a few switches in the cockpit and air started circulating he had a change of clothes in the storage compartment behind his seat, but it might be better to wait until he took off and was en route to his destination before folding the seat down and fanagling his way back there into a change of clothes. Normally he'd just open the canopy, get out and change, but that would defeat the entire purpose. He supposed he could just get completely undressed and stowe his wet clothes, but the seat was already wet, the time to do that would have been before he got in the ship, had he not been focused on his arm he might have done that instead. He sighed and leaned back in his seat again and began powering up the main systems for the ship, the humming of the electronics mixed with the sound of the rain on the canopy and the two of them seemed to cancel themselves out. He reached for his harness and began to fasten the six point system for take off, just as he was all settled in the cool air blowing on him, coupled with him still being soaking wet created and unforeseen circumstance. He sighed audibly.

"Of course I have to kriffing piss."

Adrian threw his shoulder harness off and powered down some of the more sensitive electronic elements, the call of nature growing louder by the second. He reached between his legs again and retrieved the med kit, he quickly pulled out a plastic bag like cover used to place over bandages so they didn't get wet and applied to his arm. He slid the med kit back under his seat with great frustration and opened the canopy a about halfway, enough to deflect most of the rain from entering the cockpit. He then slid out and climbed down the ladder and looked for a place to do his business, he could do it here, but he didn't want to step in it and basically bring it back with him into the already somewhat small ship. He walked a few paces back from where he came, a flash of lightning illuminating the area a bit and revealing the Jedi's corpse not too far from him. He thought about it for a second, but only a split second and shook his head.

"I'm better than that."

He then found a tree, did his business and quickly returned to his ship, climbing up the wet ladder he slipped a bit as he ducked under the canopy and then realized this was the time to change. He started back down for a second, but her was already cold, sitting in the cockpit with even less clothes would be far less comfortable. He'd just change when he got to space, he could deal with it then. He then moved up the ladder and back into the cockpit, the canopy closing as he sat down.

He threw the switches again and powered up the avionics systems, putting his harness on he started the engines, feeling the ship spring to life and groan in somewhat of a protest as the engines pushed the water out. He fastened his harness again, verified all the systems were working properly and he took off, the g-forces pushing him back in his seat, the rain turned to black starry skies as he slipped out of the atmosphere of Onderon and into space. He programmed his course into the navigation computer and engaged. The stars streaked by his cockpit, elongating as he completed the jump to hyperspace, once he verified his course and ensured that the autopilot was functioning properly, he took his harness off and leaned forward in his seat again. The young Sith turned around and grabbed the latch instinctively at first with his right hand, but then felt the sharp shooting pain surging through his arm and stopped. He folded the seat down flat and laid down on it facing the canopy. The blue and black lights of space zoomed over head as he struggled to kick his boots off and shove them under the dashboard, once that was done, he sat up and pulled his shirt off revealing a well developed and toned upper body with a few scars here and there, he threw his shirt under the dash as well, best to have all the wet things in one place for the time being.

He then lay flat and pulled his pants off and kicked them under the dash as well. Adrian then rolled over and reached for the storage bins, first he grabbed two towels, he threw one of them behind him and used the other to dry himself off the best he could. He then reached for his clothes and began the tedious process of getting dressed, first the pants, up and over his knees as he arched his back to ensure he got them all the way up. Then the shirt, would have to cut the sleeve? No he didn't think so, but first he ripped the plastic covering off of his arm so that sweat could not build up in there giving the bacteria a place to fester. Once he did that he pulled his black tunic over his torso and was finally almost settled. He removed his weapon belt from his wet pants and affixed it to his dry ones, he retrieved all of the wet clothes minus his boots and stowed them back in the storage compartment, making a mental note not to forget they were in there or that would be even more of a pain in the ass than it already was. He then leaned back under the dash and put his seat up while retrieving the dry towel.

He was now kneeling on the floor between the seat and the dash, he quickly dried the seat off before returning to it and stretching his legs, righting the boots under the seat near the vents so that they could better dry. He had several hours to go, he set the alert systems in the ship and leaned back in his seat, fastening only the lap belt portion of his harness, enough to keep him in his seat if something happened. He then caught his face in one of the rear facing mirrors to see things behind him, his red eyes glowed like the blood they had spilled today his shorter hair was a mess, so he ran his hands through it and fixed it enough so that at least it looked like he might have done it that way on purpose.

He stretched out further and yawned, turning some of the cockpit lights out he closed his eyes, as his senses came closer to him and him alone he noticed he could feel his heartbeat in his wounded arm. Each beat shot bits of pain through what was left of the nerve endings. It wasn't pleasant, but he didn't mind so much, at least his heart was still beating, unlike that of the Jedi that lay in the mud that he had left behind. His heart would continue beating, because his heart was that of a Sith, his sheer will had allowed him to defeat that Jedi and despite being outclassed as duelist, it was his heart that kept thumping in his chest while the Jedi's lay still. A small smile appeared on his face as he slowly, but surely drifted off to sleep...

[Adrian Lynd]

The alarms beeped and rang annoyingly loud in the cockpit, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, and instinctively reached with his right hand to shut the alarm off. His eyes were slow to open as he was nearing orbit of the city planet beneath him. He had a few minutes left, he had set the alarms to ensure that he did. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched his legs out, he heard a crack and shrugged. First thing was first, he unfastened his lap belt and reached under the seat for the medical kit again and set it on his lap. He then reached down and pulled his tunic up and off so that he could see his upper right arm. It was throbbing but nothing outside of the bacta patch looked particularly bad except for a few darker edges that he didn’t remember seeing before. Carefully he took the corner of the patch between his index finger and thumb and ripped it off. Now that the wound was visible he examined it a bit more closely, some areas seemed to be on their way to healing but there was an area near the edge of where the patch had been that somehow looked a bit worse. He was essentially in a rainforest, perhaps he did not do quite as good a job cleaning it as he thought he had. He sighed audibly and retrieved the anti-septic cream and rubbed the area thoroughly.

“This is kriffing stupid.”

He said with frustration as he applied the new bacta patch and slammed the medical kit shut sliding it under his seat again. He was going to have to go a doctor, that much was clear, he could go back to an aide station somewhere but he was already at Coruscant the time it took to travel to a friendly area and have the wound treated would only give any potential infection a chance to fester and spread throughout the rest of his body. The problem was that where he was going on Coruscant was near to the Jedi Temple and he did not have any plans on running into another Jedi with a fresh lightsaber wound which they would recognize as such without any doubt in his mind. Then of course they wouldn’t see it if his shirt was on and he could push the darkness out to hide his aura, there was a small hospital near the temple that would do nicely he imagined. He could go incognito, black clothes weren’t that uncommon and he doubted that anyone save Alex or Svo’k would likely recognize him and whose to say he would even see them? Kaytren might recognize him, but what would she be doing treating a minor flesh wound at a local hospital? Even still there were hundreds if not thousands of Jedi and the chances of him running into one of them were small, let alone one of them that he knew. This did mean however that he would have to go into the hospital unarmed, he figured there would at least be security guards ensuring that no one walked into the Emergency Room with a blaster and lightsabers would draw attention to themselves just by their nature of being an exotic weapon. Then there would be more questions asked, namely concerning his status as a Jedi an if he was one why exactly wasn’t he seeking treatment in the Temple when it was so close. All of this would raise suspicion around his presence and that was precisely the thing he was looking to avoid.

He sighed again and reached down for his boots which felt as if they were dry at this point. He then slid them on left first, and then the right. He pulled his tunic back down as he put his arm through the sleeve. He reached over his shoulders and fastened the harness once more and pulled it snuggly down minimizing much chance for any violent movement during landing. He scrolled through the nav computer looking for a public landing pad near the hospital at least, finally he found one less than a half of a kilometer away, he looked at the prices and picked a spot in the guarded area of the landing pad. He paid a little extra for this area, but it was secure and rest assured his ship would not be vandalized or broken into with round the clock security. He could leave his lightsaber in the ship without any cause for concern except for the mere fact that he would be unarmed, that in an of itself was something alarming. Satisfied that he was making the best long term decision for his own well being he started the landing sequence.

He entered the atmosphere and the black skies of space gave way to the congested skies of the city planet, he saw water vapor as he slowed to subsonic speeds and approached the landing platform. There was a jolt as he deployed the landing gear and converted to vertical flight, he looked left and right to ensure that he was within the confines of his assigned space and slowly the craft touched down. He unfastened his harness and flung it off of his shoulder, the metal buckles clanged against the side panels of the cockpit. He removed both of his lightsabers from his belt and stored them under his seat near the medical kit. He reached down and pulled the knife from it’s sheathe on the side of his boot and then removed both of knives he carried on his belt, these weapons also found their way under his seat.He then leaned forward and reclined the seat flat again, reaching into the compartment he pulled out a black leather coat, in which were his fake identification and a few thousand Republic Credits if he needed them. He then extended the ladder with a push of the button and opened the canopy to get some fresh air into the cockpit. He went through his normal power down procedures, the stead hum of the electronics fell silent and it looked as if he was finally going to be able to be on his way. He climbed down the ladder, shutting the canopy behind him and armed the ship’s defensive security system, if someone had managed to get past the guards they would be in for a rather rude awakening when they tried to get into the ship.

Adrian made his way to the security desk where he retrieved an access card so that he could enter the facility again when he was done with his business. The guard made sure to inform him that the card would work as long as the rent for the space was paid. He nodded and thanked the guard catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror on the way out, his eyes had reverted to their natural blue as he was no longer passively or actively indulging in the dark side of the force, rather he was trying to blend in and look just like everyone else. He took the stairs down to street level and then looked left and right. To the right he spied the Jedi temple off in the distance and to his left a few hundred meters away was the hospital. He turned to his left and made his way there at a rather brisk walking pace. He passed his fair share of vagrants and spice dealers on the way, he probably would have not known they were spice dealers had they not tried to sell him death sticks. He to himself what a stupid thing it would be to indulge in those chemicals and he surmised that the only reason they had been offered to him is because of his age, which made sense. If non-sensitive kids wanted to indulge in that garbage then it was none of his business, they could rot their minds and their bodies for all he cared so long as they left him out of it.

The doors to the hospital slid open and he walked into the nurses station to find the most attractive women he had ever seen sitting behind the counter. He smiled at her confidently as he pulled out his identification card and slid it over. She couldn’t be more than six or seven years older than him so it was worth a shot. He scanned her up and down and barely heard her ask why he was here.

“Well I came in for my arm, but after seeing you I think you might need to checkout my heart too.”

The nurse looked at him blankly as if that was perhaps the worst line she had ever heard in her life and then repeated the question in her monotone voice, no sense of reciprocation or interest in him whatsoever.

“Guess that didn’t work. I’m Devin Astoria, age sixteen, and I have a severe burn on my right arm that I think might be infected. The power coupling on my speeder malfunctioned and fried it yesterday. I applied anti-septic and a bacta patch but I don’t think I did a good enough job.”

The nurse nodded to him and input his information into the system, it was a rather slow day at the hospital so there was no need to wait. She slid him back his identification card and pointed him to another nurse who led him down to an examination room, the decidedly unattractive nurse sat him down on the bed and looked him.

“Take off your shirt please Devin so I can see your arm.”

Adrian then took his jacket off and set it on the bed behind him, he then pulled his tunic up and over his head and set it down with the jacket. The nurse then gently peeled the bacta patch off and examined the wound, which did appear odd to her.

“So how did you say this happened?”

The teenage Sith’s blue eyes looked at the examining nurse who was now starting to get together a few things so that she could take his vitals and do all the fun medical stuff that he really did not have time for. He sighed with exasperation.

“Well stupid really, I was tinkering with the power coupling on my speeder and…well my friends and I modify them to race, well anyway I was trying to get more power out of it and it arced and fried my arm.”

The nurse looked at him as she scanned his forehead with a thermometer and then began to take his blood pressure. There was something that just looked different about the wound than an electrical arc, it was worse than she would have expected and if it was indeed an electrical arc it seemed that he would have had have hurt him more than he was letting on, a burn this severe caused by electricity could kill a person he was lucky to be sitting here the nurse surmised as she continued examining him.

“You vitals are good, no fever but it is infected. I’d clean it out for you myself, but the doctor does need to examine it before I’d do anything so he can identify the type of infection you’re dealing with and get you the right antibiotics.”

Adrian nodded but sighed quietly, he didn’t have time for this, just clean the wound, he had to rendezvous in the lower city in about ten hours and he really would much prefer a hut shower and a good meal before then. His muscles ached from the fight the previous day, all of the acrobatic routine was something he was adept at, but it was quite a work out, the Jedi was stronger than he was for one, well, he was more trained than he was, there was a difference. Adrian had had to pull out all the stops to beat him and that was most certainly a first, but he hadn’t faced a fully trained Knight alone before either, so he was proud of himself even if he was still a bit sore from the fight.

“Alright, I’d just like to get this taken care of soon.”

The nurse merely looked at him.

“You’re not the only one here, the Doctor will be in as soon as he can, but you’re not dying either so you might want to get comfortable.”

Adrian rolled his eyes and smirked at the Nurse.

“You could send your friend in at the desk to help me get more comfortable…”

The Nurse simply walked out of the room at the arrogant comment from the young man. Adrian chuckled as she left without responding. He then reached around him to his jacket pocket and pulled out his commlink and let his contact know that there was an off chance he might be delayed, but he would still be there. He breathed in deeply and sighed, all of this because that stupid Jedi got a lucky a shot in all of this was a stark reminder to always be on the edge, because Sith or not any wound could be a lethal wound, he must try harder next time to remain untouched. He thought about this for a second and looked down at his muscular but scarred torso, he silently wondered if the nurse believed his story after seeing some of the scars, but then again they could have just as easily come from a speeder accident. His eyes scanned the room rather deliberately, he felt something, something he did not want to feel, a sense of unease, something was wrong here. He then looked down to his left arm and noticed his tattoo. His eyes widened a bit, the tattoo was in ancient Sith runes and what it spelled out no one but a Sith dare let the words pass from their lips for fear they would be cursed by the Dark Side. Quickly he thought up a story for the tattoo, where he got it from and what it says, lying always worked for him and the past and it had to work for him now, if they even noticed.

[Luka Balmore]

About an hour passed, as a Doctor and a nurse stood outside the examination room where the young Devin Astoria was waiting anxiously. The Doctor an older gentleman was listening to a detailed explanation regarding the burn wound on the arm of the sixteen year old in the room. He nodded in understanding, but then the nurse said something that he wasn’t exactly expecting.

“He said the power coupling on his speeder zapped his arm. I don’t buy it, with that bad of a burn his heart would have stopped.”

The doctor nodded again and crossed his arms while reading the patient’s chart. The real question is why he would lie about a burn injury? Obviously it was being done to cover up the real method in which he was injured which from the sound of it was pretty bad. The chart also indicated that the patient seemed to be in excellent physical condition otherwise, he noted his height and weight and then thought for a brief moment. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the young Jedi Healer who was working here for six months to finish out some course work, he was already more or less a full fledged doctor which at first baffled the man who had spent years of his life working towards his dream of being an Emergency Room doctor. Here was a Jedi student who at fifteen years of age was lightyears ahead of where he himself was at age twenty two. He was skeptical of the young Jedi’s abilities at first but in the first two months he had distinguished himself and shown that he was a more than competent physician, which admittedly did make him a bit envious. The older Doctor turned towards the Jedi and motioned with his hand.

“Doctor Balmore, could I borrow you for a second?“

His pointed ears seemed to perk and his head moved in the direction of the voice, his calm blue eyes rested on the doctor and he nodded and walked over. He was wearing a white labcoat over his brown and tan Jedi robes, his lightsaber hung freely from his belt but was slightly obscured from view by the coat. He placed both hands in the pockets of his labcoat, he wasn’t going to deceive even himself, he took a certain amount of pride in others finally calling him “Doctor.” It was something he had aspired to since he was a small boy and to finally be at a level were others were treating him as a peer rather than a child playing Doctor, was somewhat of a marked accomplishment in the young man’s life.

“Absolutely, I’ve got time. What can I do for you Doctor Balliol?“

The young Jedi brushed his blonde Padawan braid over his shoulder and smiled warmly. The ranking Dr. Balliol took a few minutes to explain the situation, not that there was any true cause for concern regarding the young man in the room, but being a Jedi Luka was well versed in burn treatment due to the Jedi’s use of lightsabers accidents occasionally happened and in the best case scenarios a severe burn like the one on the young man’s arm in the room was something Luka would be an expert at treating. Dr. Balliol patted the young Jedi on the back who had nodded affirmatively as to what their game plan would be, he passed Luka the chart and entered the room with the young Jedi following closely behind. The two doctors made their way to his bedside and noted the wound on his arm, Dr. Balliol just took a passing glance at it and verified that the burn was rather severe and more in Luka’s wheelhouse as far as treatment was concerned.

“Good afternoon Mr….. ”

He scanned the chart.

“Astoria, I’m Doctor Balliol and this young man behind me is Doctor Balmore. He is an expert in burns and I’m going to let him handle you, but I came in with him because sometimes patients are alarmed by his youthful appearance. I assure you that he is an excellent Physician, in fact he is a Jedi patti…wo….what was it Luka?”

The young Jedi chuckled and smiled widely.

“Padawan, it means apprentice.”

Dr. Balliol nodded and chuckled.

“Right, Padawan. Anyway, Jedi learn a lot faster than you and I and I assure you he is even more competent than I am in working with a burn like this, so that being said I hope you have a wonderful day and Luka will get that arm taken care of for you.”

With that Dr. Balliol left the room, Luka waited for the door to close and then he approached the young man and offered him a warm handshake.

“So Devin is it? You can call me Luka if you want, we look to be about the same age, so there is no point in you calling me Doctor if you don’t feel like it. I’m fifteen and you’re sixteen according to your chart. So let me ask you now that the full fledged adults are out of the room…”

Luka stared at the burn mark on the young man’s arm and tried to sense an aura, but was coming back with not much of anything. His blue eyes scanned for any other marks and he noticed the scars on young man’s torso, which really could have been from anything, but some of them looked as if they might have been burn scars as well. As he was about to finish his sentence he walked to the other side of the bed and saw Devin flinch a bit, but not before he saw the tattoo on his left arm. Those were Sith runes, there was no mistaking it and the burn on his arm was definitely not caused by a power coupling on a speeder.

“Oh that’s a cool tattoo, what does it mean? Oh and my other question sorry, I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo as well and I just really like the work, my apologies for the distraction. Anyway, you can tell me the truth if you want, I’m not allowed to disclose anything you tell me in confidence. How did you really hurt your arm? I know it wasn’t a power coupling, the angle is all wrong and the burn is far too severe.”

He wheeled a chair over to the bed and sat down next to the young man on his right side so that he could begin work on his arm when the time came. He offered the young man a kind and caring smile, hopefully enough to break the ice, hopefully enough to push past the front that the young man was putting up. There were several thoughts going through the mind of the young healer, first and foremost was this a force sensitive he was dealing with? If so what kind of force sensitive was he? The tattoo was clearly Sith, but that could easily be explained away, often times youths received Tattoos without knowing their true meaning, but a tattoo in the ancient Sith runes was a disturbing if that was the trend these days. He thought to himself about the implications of a young man unknowingly wearing that vile and sinister language on his arm and shuddered internally. His perceptive eyes tried to look for any other identifying marks on the young man, his eyes were not stained yellow or red, but that could easily be covered up and hidden. His pants were not generally those of what he would consider to be an every day civillian and he couldn’t tell but it did not appear that his shirt was either, both items and his boots appeared to be geared towards martial arts in some way shape or form. This only strengthened his suspicion of the young man, that and the lightsaber wound painted a startling picture, he just wasn’t sure if he was putting together all the information correctly.

[Adrian Lynd]

Adrian had been bored, shifting on the bed he was restless and grew ever more frustrated with the passing time, he knew he was not the main priority of the hospital at the moment, but he did not care, not for a single second. He was a Sith and the needs of other people in the hospital were secondary to his own, they could all die for all he cared. He could not allow that thinking to enter into his conscious mind or he might lose his focus on and forget the role he was playing. He stretched out and tapped his fingers on his knees and shook his head, it was cold in here just like it had been in his ship after he had been soaked to his core. It wasn’t that simple here, he couldn’t put his shirt on, nor could he channel the force to equalize himself, instead he just focused his conscious mind on the here and now and did his best to make sure that he was not thinking about anything else.

The door slid open and in walked what looked like a doctor and……KRIFF. A kriffing Ji’dai, of course. Why wouldn’t this happen with the way the last twenty four hours had gone for him? He sat upright and stopped fidgeting and watched the doctor first and foremost and then the Ji’dai who seemed more interested in him than the doctor, he listened intently as the doctor spoke to him and tried to not give off any body language cues that he was nervous and alerted by the presence of a Ji’dai, but he was, it just was not clear how much on edge he actually was. It could work to his advantage, he could alter his explanation a bit in a way that would explain the nerves. He sized the Ji’dai up but dared not reach out with the force to get an idea of how strong the younger man was, but he ascertained that if push came to shove he could dispatch of him if need be. He hoped it did not come to that, he had too much at stake to waste time fighting another one of these ignorant fools, they were like bugs, you see one and kill it and then there were a hundred more hiding in the cracks. This was an completely unnecessary complication to his agenda and it all could have been avoided had he just blocked that attack better, but no matter what, he still could not find a flaw in his technique against an opponent like that. He did the best he could and he had lived, now he would be better for it and would learn from it so next time he would not be so outmatched.

Adrian traded glances between the doctor and the Jedi and nodded but raised an eyebrow a bit skeptically as the doctor walked out of the room without so much as a thought of giving Adrian time to ask any real questions of him. That was rather rude, weren’t doctors supposed to be not full of themselves and give the patient time to ask questions, instead he just passed him off to this Ji’dai who was younger than him. That stupid braid and those stupid robes, his face was soft and weak, as far as Adrian was concerned he might as well have been carrying a balloon and asking for candy from the grown ups.

He shook Luka’s hand and smiled at him but remained mostly quiet, careful to not let any force energy creep into the handshake or anything else that might set his senses off. He hated the Ji’dai, he hated almost all of them, but he did not underestimate them or their ability to pick up on things that others were not. They were a keen adversary and they were to be treated as such, he watched Luka intently, his eyes looking for something that could be used as a weapon if he needed it, there was the jar of cotton balls they could be launched quickly at the back of his head, there was the chair itself, there were plenty of things in this room that could be turned into projectiles if the need arose. Then there was the lightsaber that hung from Luka’s belt, he assumed Luka would be quicker on the draw to it than he, but it was a distinct possibility. There were so many possibilities, but he could not allow himself to be drawn into the what ifs, for all the Ji’dai knew Adrian was nothing more than a young man who had gotten burned.

In turn it appeared as if the Ji’dai was sizing him up as well as if he already suspected something about him, his blue eyes saw more than they let on and Adrian knew this, he watched intently to pick up on the body language Luka. The two were playing a chess game mixed with a staring contest at this point, who was going to blink first, who was going to react and who was going to win? Adrian did not know, but then as Luka began speaking to him and he took on that warm and caring face, trying to be relatable to the Sith that was sitting just feet from him, Adrian started to suspect what Luka was really thinking. He had shared his age and tried to relate to him teen to teen, peer to peer, but Adrian saw it coming, he saw what Luka was doing and the only that might satiate the Luka’s curiosity was a false flag. Adrian could relent and give him something, something that was immaterial, something that was a lie, but something that would be oddly convincing enough to shut the Ji’dai up or at least to throw him completely off his trail, but it would have to smell right, it would have to be in line with what Luka was already thinking. Then there was the tattoo, Luka had brought it up and there was no doubt that the Ji’dai knew exactly what it was, maybe he did not know what it meant, but he knew that they were Sith runes, there was no doubt in Adrian’s mind that he did. The lie must be convincing, both exact enough to sound truthful, but vague enough to sound like he was hiding the full truth while revealing some of it.

Adrian turned his head to face Luka directly and he allowed his shoulders to shrink in shame, he lowered his head and allowed a sense of embarrassment to flow through his mind. He knew Luka was passively looking there as well, not invasively trying to reach in, but trying to see if he could feel anything resembling a force aura, but Adrian held his cards close to his chest, concealing himself in the force was a skill that all Sith learned from a young age. It was one of those tools that was unfortunately a necessity as a result of thousands of years of persecution by the Jedi Order. A Sith could not show his true face in public if he did, he would be hunted down like an animal. One Jedi he could handle, but not one hundred blood thirsty lightsaber wielding do gooders all trying to instill their view of the universe on everyone else. He was nothing but a child of persecuted race and he knew it, but try explaining that to a Ji’dai.

He blinked and sighed audibly.

"Well I….”

He sighed again and raised his head to meet Luka’s eyes.

“I’m….in a gang okay.”

Adrian started to shake with fear and he crossed his arms in his lap in front him.

“I was initiated yesterday and like the tattoo is our colors. It means blood brothers in some old extinct language. Kriff I don’t know what it’s called man. The burn is part of the initiation, they use a kriffing laser sword like the one you got, it’s to test our devotion.”

He shook again and tears formed in his eyes.

“Man you can’t tell anyone, they’ll kriffing kill me. I only came here because it looks infected and I don’t want my damn arm to fall off.”

His gaze did not change as he blinked several times to make it appear as if he was trying to hide the fearful tears that he had conjured up for the moment.

“I mean it Luka, please don’t tell anyone, I’m kriffing dead if they find out I told you.“

He pleaded with the younger healer and he had hoped that for his intents and purposes that he could relate to what appeared to be nothing more than a troubled youth who had gotten in with a bad crowd. How much of stretch could that be? This planet was littered with thousands of kids just like the fictitious Devin Astoria, even for a Jedi it would have to be at the bare minimum plausible. That coupled with the genuine fear and water works show had to be the perfect storm. Luka would have to be heartless monster to think that anyone could manufacture a story like that in the heat of the moment. He kept his thoughts focused on the fear, but somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind Adrian Lynd wanted nothing more than to smack the caring empathetic look off of Luka’s face. It was all fake, everything both of them were doing right now was fake. Luka was trying manipulate “Devin” into spilling the beans about who really was and Adrian was trying to deliberately manipulate Luka into thinking he was nothing, a nobody, just another throw away youth that would meet his end in the violent lower city beneath him.

They were the same, they were playing the same game and it was just a matter of who was better at being deliberately deceptive. At the end of the day though, that meant to Adrian that if the Ji’dai could out deceive him, then they truly were the source of all that is evil and vile throughout the universe. At least the Sith made no secret about their use of the dark side, the Ji’dai used it and refused to acknowledge it. Then they would justify it by the ends of the situation. So who was really evil here, who were they kidding? They were exactly the same.

[Luka Balmore]

Master Li and Master Winterhold had both said it and he hung on their words with baited breath every time they had any wisdom to impart on him. Bedside manner and a caring face will get you further sometimes than even the most probing of questions and once that trust is established, the honesty can then soon follows. The young Jedi healer watched the slightly older young man contemplate the answers to the questions, he seemed to be concealing something that he felt was burden on his own conscience or he was a good actor. Luka had not made the decision yet about what he thought of the young man sitting inches from him, but he had already been established as not a liar per say, but he had lied blatantly and well to the nursing staff. They did not believe him, but that was not any fault of the ability of him to fabricate a story about how he hurt his arm. No, that would have worked anywhere else but a place without experienced and trained medical staff, the art of his lying was good, he just did not know his audience. Knowing ones audience Luka thought to himself was in fact part of what makes any good story teller, but when you have an arm sporting infection caused by third degree burn, sometimes the pain overwhelms the good sense in the otherwise quite skilled liar. He mulled these thoughts over for many moments as he focused on the body language of Devin and gently brushed his aura again with the faintest of touches trying to ascertain the one burning question he had. Was this young man a force user? If so what exactly did that mean?

Then he spoke, he stuttered over his words for what seemed like an eternity and he made the confession that he was in a gang. Luka’s facial expression turned softer, his eyes widened, but he offered a warm and caring smile to the young man. Devin was not going to get any judgement from telling the truth, but Luka still was not sure what the truth was. He had made the confession of being a gang, so the young man was a criminal, there were still many questions to be answered and…

The Devin began to shake and crossed his arms in front of him, the medical side of his brain immediately kicked on and scanned him, it took less than half a heart beat to understand that this was emotional trauma, but that’s just the way his brain was starting to work now. Shaking and chills were often signs of fever and infection and in this case they had already established that the young man did in fact have an infection. There was no fever though at least not an hour ago. No this was an affliction that was far more visceral, this was fear and fear was just as powerful, perhaps more so than any biological infection. He had been initiated yesterday and the tattoo meant blood brothers or so Devin thought, Luka had already taken a mental picture of the Sith Runes and had fully planned to write them down and bring them to Derry when he returned to the temple that night so that he could fully understand what they meant. He had an idea of their meaning, but he wanted to be absolutely sure and there was no better linguist in the temple than the slightly older diplomatic Padawan who he believed was still on world. He roomed with Orspach, down the hall from Luka who had ventured down there multiple times to spend time with the slightly older students who were still part of his peer group.

So now there was a lightsaber? That certainly confirmed what he already knew, this was most definitely a lightsaber wound and Devin had just admitted it, but the angle was interesting. It wider near the anterior portion of the wound and it tapered off at the posterior end of the wound. This was not merely a cut or a burn, this was clearly a slice at an upward angle. How would an initiation of a presumably non-sensitive take place with a lightsaber being sliced across his arm. Moreover if it was a non-sensitive wielding the weapon, how was he sitting here with his arm attached? Lightsabers were tricky weapons and non-sensitives could rarely wield them with any precision as all the weight was in the hilt. Luka scrunched his forehead and stared at the wound for a long moment as Devin continued to speak. The youth was so full of fear that it was almost too much, they were going to kill him if he told, but yet the young man had the confidence to arrogantly hit on one of the nurses at the front desk and then again to request her presence from the other nurse. Sephi ears were good for something other than just looking pointy on the side of their owners head. This young man was not afraid when he entered the hospital, nothing in his behavior had indicated that and if he was who he said he was then Luka thought for sure that there should be some fear in him. All of that being said, he really had no reason to doubt the young man’s story. It sounded far fetched, but the truth often was. He sternly reminded Luka not to tell a soul or they would kill him again. Of course Luka was not going to say anything to anyone, the only one in danger here presumably was the young Devin who by the looks of his body was more than capable of taking care of himself. That did not fit either.

Luka patted the young man on his shoulder gently so as not to send any shockwaves of pain through him. The young man sitting in front of him was in good physical condition, he was well toned, he had all of his teeth which at a glance looked mostly straight and white. He looked nothing like what an at risk youth is supposed to look like, he was well nourished, he did not seem to have any marks on his skin that would indicate intravenous drug use, the only thing that fit were the other scars on his torso and arms. Most of them appeared to be burn marks, but some were healed lacerations, not many puncture wounds to speak of and it’s not that his body was riddled with them either, they were just there, more than usual, but not anymore than usual than for someone who grew up on the streets.

“I’m not going to tell anyone Devin, I cannot, it is against the law.”

He paused and looked the young man in his eyes.

“I will say that you’re young and you should find a way to get out while you still can, I know gangs seem cool, but look at how scared you are of them. You’re quaking with fear and near tears from it. I can sense it in you as well, that’s a Jedi thing, I can feel other’s emotions when they are strong enough, I sense great fear in you Devin and fear always leads to suffering. Sooner or later you’re going to have to do something that you know is wrong and they’re going to egg you on and make you feel like you’re right, but deep in your heart you’ll know it’s wrong.”

He stopped and again paused for a moment, those words were obligatory and he was not even entirely sure if Devin needed to hear them, but if he was telling the truth which again Luka did not have solid reason to doubt then maybe they would help him. If he was still lying, then these words would only convince him that his lie had been successful thus giving him an extra boost of confidence which would in turn make him more susceptible to error.

“So you say a laser sword, it’s called a lightsaber by the way, did this to your arm? How exactly did he do it? Did he press it against your skin and let it set there or did he slice and you had to stand still or something. Oh sorry, one more question. What color was the blade of this weapon?”

Luka knew the answer to all of the questions but one, the color of the lightsaber. If Devin was indeed telling the truth and he was this slightly naive and troubled youth that he presented himself to be the color of the blade would mean nothing to him. However the color of the blade meant a lot to Luka as did the disposition of the man wielding it. Lightsabers did not just drop out of the sky, nor were they made in factories by the thousands. They required the keen precision of a trained force user to assemble them and this was the point that interested Luka. If the blade was red, it could mean that a dark sided force user was assembling a group of troubled kids and forcing them into a life of crime. It wouldn’t be hard with a simple Jedi Mind trick, they worked on the impressionable and the weak minded. Not that some of the kids in the lower city needed to be goaded into something like this with a mind trick. If the lightsaber was blue or literally any other color, then that meant something else and he wasn’t sure yet. In fact he thought that it meant that he could be lying and if he was lying, the smart thing would be to say red because that matched with the runes on his arm. Either way, whatever the answer was, this entire incident would be reported to Masters Li and Winterhold when he returned to the temple. If there was a Sith led gang in Coruscant’s lower city then the Jedi leadership must know of it.

He paused for one brief moment. Mind tricks work on the weak minded, his eyes scanned the other teen for a moment and it finally seemed as if he had a trick of his own up his sleeve. Mind tricks were not something to be done without a justifiable purpose as a trained Jedi could make anyone do anything he really wanted with a simple mind trick, so there was an ethical situation that Luka was keenly ware of especially in this setting, if he did use a mind trick against Devin it would have to be something small enough to go unnoticed, but clear enough for Luka to tell if it had worked or not. This might be something for a bit later, instead Luka focused on trust and one more slightly more deceptive of a trick

“Oh, one more thing, much lighter note, guy to guy. Does that flirting routine you have ever work? Yeah, I heard you…these ears aren’t just for looks, but please leave the nurses alone.”

Luka grinned like any teenage boy would who had just within the last few years developed a keen and undying interest in the opposite sex, but that was not who Luka truly was. Yes he was fifteen, yes he was perfectly normal, but he was a Jedi and a healer, there were more important things in his life than noticing attractive girls, it just was not something that interested him in the same way that it clearly interested Devin and that was the bait, he had asked a question within a question and he doubted the young man even picked up on it and he doubted he would resist the urge to brag if he had ever been even remotely successful in the past.

[Adrian Lynd]

The water works were complete and as he wiped his nose with his left arm, he vaguely wondered to himself when the Ji’dai was going to drop it and get one with fixing his arm, there were so many other places he had to be. He nodded quietly studying Luka’s expressions, it did appear that he believed him, it appeared that the ruse had worked. There was a quiet trace of satisfaction that crossed the recesses of his mind, this was the second Ji’dai he had beaten in a day, but this one was done with far more subtly as opposed to brute force. It was true that Adrian enjoyed the pure brute force at times, but sometimes the subtle victory over the arrogance of the Ji’dai was something else, a flavor that was far too delicate to be taken all at once, it must be savored so that you can fully experience the nuanced rewards that it had to offer.

He couldn’t break character now, allowing his sense of entitlement and pride to interfere within is conscious mind might just give him away. He took great care in watching his sulking body language, the body language of fear. Such a powerful weapon body language could be when used correctly, humans look at body language first, it was a survival instinct and there was no doubt that Luka was looking at him for visual cues as to what was really going on in his mind. If Adrian played his cards right however, there would be no unconscious cues that what he was saying was anything but the truth. His own movements were carefully guarded, but so were those of the Ji’dai. Every movement Luka had made seemed to be well thought out and just right for the moment, the scrunched forehead, the caring face, the pat on the shoulder. He wanted so much to pull away from that and shove the younger Ji’dai to the floor and on a normal day he might just do that, but today, today it meant that his plan was working. As Luka patted his shoulder Adrian instead made eye contact and patted Luka’s hand in return, a simple thank you for the caring gesture. Inwardly however he still felt they were both playing a game, a game that had been going on for centuries and the loser would inevitably be the one who left the room believing the lies of the victor. Then came the words from Luka’s mouth, he was not going to tell anyone, not that it mattered. There was a pause and then a lecture that he feigned interest in, but it required more than that. He shifted in his seat nervously and grabbed the back of his neck in what appeared to be an instinctive manner with his right arm causing the muscle to flex and the burned flesh to crack open again. He winced, not that it really hurt, not to a Sith, but to Devin, to Devin it was a pain he was not used to feeling.

Then there was a string of questions, so many questions, clearly the Ji’dai wasn’t convinced yet.

“A Lightsaber? Oh kriff, I don’t know, I think it was like red…yeah red. I kinda squinted my eyes and had them shut for part of it. He slashed me with it, I was to stand still as he swung it at me and it was my job to kriffing know he wasn’t going to damn kill me. It’s really hardcore.”

He paused.

“I think he used to be a Jedi or something…and I do want out, it’s just not that easy.”

The finishing touches, the coups de grace and cherry on top that made the story even more perplexing that it had to be true, there was simply no way that Luka was not going to believe him now, but there was one more question, one more question that Adrian wasn’t sure what to make of. He watched the grin of Luka who looked as if he had been Adrian’s friend for his entire life. He had heard him hitting on the girl at the desk and he was curious if it worked. What?! This wasn’t something he was expecting at all, but Luka’s body language turned, it seemed a bit more devious and mischievous right now. Was this a genuine question? Adrian looked at the other young man before him, his blonde hair and Padawan braid coupled with those soft facial features that almost made him look like a girl himself. Was he really just looking for advice? Had the lie been so successful that the Ji’dai had completely bought it hook like and sinker and was moving onto more casual conversation from someone just a bit older? That must be the case, Ji’dai would not ask a question like that of their friends in the order at least he did not think so, they’d find it scandalous or something. Whatever the hell the Ji’dai thought about dating these days he wasn’t sure he knew or honestly gave a damn, but whatever.

Adrian cocked his head at Luka in astonishment, his blue eyes scanned the Ji’dai Padawan trying to understand fully what he meant there was a sense of bewilderment in his eyes and his thoughts drifted a bit further from Devin’s thoughts and more into Adrian’s thoughts. The young Sith just did not know what to do with this type of a question coming from a Ji’dai. He took a breath in and decided that it was just a genuine question, even if it was not there was nothing to be lost by answering it the way he normally would.

“I mean…..yeah it works, sometimes. Like it’s not often, but just like anything, the more shots you take the more likely you are going to eventually hit the target.“

He grinned a bit matching Luka’s own body language.

“Dude. There was this Zeltron girl I met a few months back and she was just gorgeous. I was in a bar, I was annoyed and angry because a friend and I got in a fight earlier and I was drinking it off. Anyway, they kriffing hate sadness it’s like their worst enemy or something and if they can make someone feel better….trust me man, they do an she definitely did. If you’re having problems find yourself a Zeltron girl, they are awesome and even if your pickup game isn’t that great, often times they find it cute and you’ll wake up happy in the morning. Come hangout with me sometime, I'll get you a girl.”

Adrian chuckled a bit, maybe this Jedi was a bit cooler than he gave him credit for. Just maybe he wasn’t a complete kriffing waste of a life like most of them were. He was alright, just a guy like him at the end of the day and there was no reason to let a mere thing like Jedi and Sith get in the way of one guy asking the other guy a question about something that he could not easily ask anyone else. He chuckled again and thought about the absurdity of the situation, this just was not what he had thought would come of this, he had just literally offered to hangout with a Ji'dai. He was not expecting his guard to drop at all, but it had. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach.

His guard did drop, but how much did it drop? If he wasn’t still maintaining the light mood of the conversation his eyes would be wide as saucers right now, but he kept his cool and then stopped with his chuckled and his face turned a bit more serious again. He took a breath in and sighed as he felt a warm drop of blood finally drip down his arm as he looked at Luka who appeared to maybe be enjoying the conversation as much as he was? He wasn’t sure, but what he was sure is that he didn’t kriffing come here to talk about girls and gangs with a Ji’dai, he came here to get his damn arm fixed and it was high time that the little healer snapped to it and got to work on his arm.

“Luka I could take about girls with you all day long, but my arm man. How are you going to fix it?”

He sat there and presented his bleeding arm to Luka, confident that the healer’s own instinct would take over. He knew Ji’dai healers, he knew them from the Council of Knowledge, it was an honorable role but one that must be reserved for those who could not hold their own in battle. He had often wondered how that worked, if you were a terrible duelist did they just come up and say that you were going to learn medicine now? Sith did not have healers likely because of how much stronger they were than Ji’dai by their very nature, so they did not find themselves in situations in which they needed healed all that often. As much as he thought the position was reserved for those weak, he did respect the position on a certain level, especially today as he knew as well as he knew his own name, that the Ji’dai would take care of the wound and he would be on his merry way sooner rather than later.

Ji’dai were good for something he surmised, not much, but something.

[Luka Balmore]

Luka watched, his expression changing from the cheeky man to man expression he had offered him a moment ago. The other teen’s body language was not that of a hardened criminal and this was something that Luka had noticed before, but there were still so many pieces to the puzzle that did not quite make sense. Everything was too coincidental and fit too perfectly together to be true did it not? Reality was sometimes that way, he did silently wish that he had more life experience to draw on in this situation than that of his fifteen years, but he did seem to quietly understand that the force would not put him in this situation if he was not the tool chosen for the task. He thought on this for a long moment after he last spoke and watched the sulking Devin who still looked like he was just a kid who had found his way into the wrong crowd. Luka felt his heart ache for the fellow teen but he tried to silence it. Empathy was always his strongest trait and his master had shown him how misplaced sympathy could be used against a Jedi. So despite what his eyes were telling him about the young man before him, he did not fully believe them. Instead he listened to that singular voice that echoed throughout his head that something still was not quite right with Devin. Something was definitely amiss and he was not sure exactly what to do about that either. He could alert the Jedi Temple that there was a suspect teen that he was treating, it would not take much to excuse himself briefly and do that, but there was no evidence at all that Devin had done anything wrong or was going to do anything seriously wrong. Sure there was the admitted gang activity, but he did not announce plans to harm anyone. It was tricky, because moments ago he had mentioned that it was against the law for him to tell anyone anything that was disclosed to him in confidence. So there was an added ethical element, one that he wrestled with and one that made him feel uneasy. Luka was not a liar and he had promised Devin that he could not disclose the information and he was going to stick to that promise so long as no other information surfaced that made Luka believe that Devin was a potential or active threat.

That had to be the best course of action, because at the end of the day he had nothing on the young man. Even if Devin had admitted full on to being a force user of some sort, Luka doubted that he had any cause to immediately call for backup. For one thing, Devin was clearly unarmed and Luka most certainly was not. Luka was not a prodigy when it came to dueling, but he was a Jedi Padawan and as a result he could hold his own in a fight, that’s what they were trained to do. Fighting an opponent who was unarmed, he could definitely do more than hold his own. He heard his master’s and dueling instructors words ring through his head “Never underestimate your opponent regardless of the situation.” This was true and it was something he had to be careful of because even if Devin was unarmed, if he was a force user of any kind he would be more than capable of defending himself and finding a makeshift weapon. Luka let out a slow breath and watched the blood trickle down the young man’s arm, this was something. He took a small device from his pocket, a button was pressed and a translucent pipette extended. He motioned for Devin to give him his arm and he moved closer to the young man and cradled his arm by the elbow and dipped the pipette into the droplet of blood. The red liquid was quickly sucked into the device and Luka set it aside. He then retrieved an antiseptic wipe from his pocket and tore it open. He Gently cleaned the wound and felt the young man wince a bit as he did so.

“Red you say and you think he was a Jedi?“

That was getting reported no matter what, Luka could leave Devin’s name totally out of it but if a red lightsaber wielding force user was indoctrinating Coruscant’s at risk youth in the lower city then that was absolutely something that the Council must know about. There was no conflict within him over that thought, but as he continued holding Devin’s arm he felt a cold chill shoot up his spine and snap at the edges of his aura, Luka’s eyes widened as this happened. What was it? He tried to calm his mind and let the force speak to him, but it was not clear, it was cloudy. It was if the force was trying to speak to him but someone was holding his head under water and he could not hear what they were saying, it was all mumbles and incomprehensible. Luka let go of Devin’s arm and looked at him quizzically, he had heard his reply to the questions he asked about the pick up lines and they all landed, but there was something in that moment that had set his senses on fire, something was different about Devin when he spoke about that. Gone was the sulking and fearful teen and there in front of him was a confident and well versed in the ways of the universe young man. What caused the shift? One moment he was one thing and then the next he wasn’t and he was offering to get Luka a girl. The half-Sephi’s cheeks reddened a bit as he chuckled at the thought and Devin’s reply in general.

“Well you’ll get no judgement from me, but as a Jedi I’m allowed to date, but not really what you’re speaking of exactly.”

He paused and smiled.

“That being said Devin, I am willing to spend some time with you and get to know you a bit better, I would like to help you. I do not wish to sound arrogant, but I’m a Jedi and if you’re afraid of your gang, we can protect you. I might be younger than you, but the lightsaber on my belt is most assuredly not there as a decorative accessory.”

The device to his side that he had collected the blood with beeped and Luka turned his attention to it for a brief second, but stopped.

“Yes your arm, lie down flat for me, I just needed this blood sample to check for infections, you also mentioned your Zeltron friend and I assume I can guess what happened there, so I went ahead and checked for other types of infections too….“

He looked at the device and wanted to raise an eyebrow but he did not.

“….and you’re clear, now I can get to work on your arm. Oh and you are going to feel this, it might burn a bit as your nerves come back. Scar or no scar?”

There was something else he had run a check for, with Devin’s blood, midichlorians. The count was high, higher than even Luka’s own midichlorian count which meant that Devin was definitely force sensitive, but it did not mean that he was a trained force user of any sort. The galaxy was massive and it was entirely possible that he had grown up not knowing anything of the force, it was not as if there was a Jedi recruiting station in every hospital in the galaxy, especially in some of the impoverished areas, Devin did not look like came from an impoverished area. His clothes were functional and deliberate, they weren’t just a necessity, they weren’t something he simply wore to protect himself from the elements, they served a purpose. Was this the gang attire? Was a dark sided force user recruiting at risk force sensitive youth and giving them light training? He was not sure he understood what that could mean, but he did understand that it was possible. He took his wrist comm-link off looking as if he was just prepping to work on Devin’s arm. He subtly hit a button on the side of it and placed it on a tray next to the bed ontop of the blood testing device. This would allow the devices to sync and a message would be sent with just the midichlorian count to the Jedi Temple.

The fifteen year old Padawan had never felt more alone than he was right now, it was just him here with Devin and he could not pin down what that meant. Was Devin an at risk youth or was he dark sided force user concealing his identity? He was a teenager and as near as Luka could tell he had not done anything to warrant interrogation by the Jedi Order. He should meet them though, with a midichlorian count that high, he should go with Luka to the Service Facility and meet with Master Li or Winterhold.

He moved his hands into position on Devin’s arm and began to insert the best pain block he could into the area, he concentrated on blocking as much of the messages from the surviving nerve endings he could before he began to work. First and foremost he set his mind and clearing out the infection, he closed his eyes and allowed the force to guide his energy into destroying the pathogens in his system one at a time. In these moments a healer and patient were almost joined together as one, the healer imparted their own force energy into the patient. It was a deeply exhausting and for a newer healer it could be a rather emotional experience as they may have felt that they gave part of themselves to their patient. Luka had been practicing this for awhile now and he was mostly over the emotional aspect of it, but still hung on to a certain sense of protectiveness that he felt for his patients, it was something he felt he would better manage in time, he was still young. It was good to feel protective of his patients anyway, but there was a line and he could not save them from themselves, he could not force his will on them even if it was for their own good.

The infection was gone, now Luka went to work on mending the damaged nerve endings. Art of the small was a skill that he had been working on for many months maybe even a year now, he had watched the senior healers like Master Li use the skill with a mastery that he had only hoped that he could one day attain. As he focused on the singed and destroyed nerve endings and slowly and carefully breathing new life in them while inserting pain blocks as he went he could not help but think to himself that if Devin was indeed a dark sided force user, he would have preferred to be treated by a regular doctor versus having a Jedi essentially infuse him with light sided force energy. He had never treated a dark sided patient before, but he had to imagine that the experience for them would be intensely uncomfortable in a visceral way.

Sweat formed on his brow as he continued his delicate work with the nerve endings, bed side manner was important and this was going to take longer than he had initially anticipated. Once Devin replied to him, he could start with some small talk again, non-force sensitive doctors and even other healers had explained that part of treating anyone is taking their mind off the problem so you can do your work. He heard his commlink beep, there was a reply to the message, he would have to check it later. His work was far too detailed to stop now.

[Adrian Lynd]

So many things had happened so quickly. Adrian had laid down and Luka began working on his arm and then there was the blood sample and mention of diseases, a lecture regarding his own safety and the mere fact that Luka was a Jedi and could protect him, but this all seemed to be blur as the Jedi had started on clearing out the infections.

“Yes it was a red light…saber, and I need a scar.”

Those were all the words he could muster at he moment he bit his lip and laid his head back as the younger Jedi truly began his healing work. The assault of light sided force energy into his body was not pleasant and he had to maintain his character as well. His eyelids fluttered rapidly as the sickening warmth of the Jedi’s touch invaded his soul. He tried desperately to maintain his composure and not to flinch, but he felt as if he was going to lose this battle at any moment. There were so many thoughts circling through Adrian’s mind as he lay there with Luka working on his arm, beads of sweat formed on his brow and rolled down and into his hair, some into his eyes stinging mercilessly, he wanted to rip his arm away from the Jedi, none of this felt right, none of this felt right at all. It was if the light was attempting to chase away the darkness within his soul, the same darkness that flowed through him and gave him his strength.

Was the Jedi healing him or torturing him? He couldn’t move his arm, it was like it was dead, what was this blonde haired Jedi freak doing to him?! He lifted his head up and saw Luka sitting there in deep concentration with his hands on his arms, he saw small flashes of light coming from the wound on his arm and reasoned that this was nothing more than the healing process and he had just not felt it before. His eyes focused on Luka, his face full of concentration and there was a sense of genuine care that was clearly visible on his face as he continued with his delicate work. Adrian studied the younger Jedi for a moment before a heavy feeling slowly developed in his stomach. He laid his head back down, the young Sith then grit his teeth and closed his eyes to deal with the onslaught of lightsided energy flowing into his arm. The warmth of it seemed to cradle the heavy feeling in his stomach and tried to calm it. He let out a deep breath as he thought guardedly for a moment. Did this Jedi really care about him? He had lied expertly and without thought to this Jedi and here he was giving part of himself, part of his life energy to Adrian to heal his arm. He even had the courtesy to ask if he wanted a scar or not and had mentioned wanting to help and protect him. He did not need help or protection though, not Adrian Lynd. Adrian was a strong Sith, filled with darkness, he commanded the servitude of the Force, it did not flow through him, it was his slave and he forced it to do his bidding. He was a Sith. Then why did he care if this Jedi cared for him or not? Caring and empathy were traits of the weak, trickery of the light side of the force to get one to submit to it’s bidding and be a slave to it instead of it’s master. He could snap Luka’s neck at anytime, he knew he could, it would take just a brief moment of energy and the Jedi Padawan would be dead on the floor. He could do it, but he did not wish to and that was the thought frustrated him.

The burning sensation was there, he felt it, just like Luka had warned him he would, the Jedi event took the time to tell him that it was going to hurt. He must have believed the story, otherwise he would not have warned him, he would not have expressed this much care in both his words and actions. How much of these thoughts were leaking out of his guarded soul and into the front of his unguarded mind? None, at least that’s what he hoped, he was not sure that eh could keep everything from Luka. It was if the Jedi was bonded with him and had joined with him some way, the emotional connection just felt so raw and intense that when this was over he half expected Luka to turn to him and ask if he was a Sith. Then what would he do? If Luka had figured it out would Adrian be in danger? He did not feel that he would and strangely enough as he picked apart this bond it felt as if it was more of a laser focus than an all encompassing bond, it felt like Luka was focused on what he was doing and not much else and it almost felt as if the young Jedi was deliberate not treading on the surface of Adrian’s subconscious. He could not explain it, but was like a deliberate attempt to give him privacy? Why would he do that? He scrunched his forehead trying to come up with a valid reason for this but he could not quite identify it, but it must have been simply that Luka was a Doctor and he valued his patient’s privacy? Was it that simple?! What a simpleton, he could’ve made a move in this moment and Adrian would have been defenseless.

Wait. Was he defenseless??? He couldn’t move his arm as the light sided energy flowed through the site of the wound, down the nerve endings and then throughout his body. He felt like he was actually being passively subdued. He lifted his head up, but then realized he could not lift his torso, or his arm. The Jedi was holding him down! His heart rate increased and his adrenal glands as part of his basic survival instinct dumped a large dose of adrenaline directly into his bloodstream. It was getting harder and harder to maintain the role of Devin as fear escaped his subconscious mind and into the atmosphere of the room, he was quite sure Luka could feel it. His body was desperately trying to get his mind into fight or flight mode, but he fought against it with every bit of mental strength he had. He was being healed, he was not being held captive, he was being healed and he was being held in place so that he did not screw with the Jedi’s delicate work, it was that simple, his eyes turned to see Luka again and this allowed his heart rate to slow, he took a couple of deep breaths and calmed his nerves the best he could

“Luka, I’m scared this feels weird.”

He breathed out through his nose, nothing scared Adrian Lynd, but the words were not a lie, nor were they truly the words of the character he was playing. They were a simple explanation of the fear that he had allowed to briefly overpower his own will. It had to be explained away less Luka might start not treading so carefully on his subconscious mind. What had he gotten himself into at this point? A day ago he was locked in combat to the death with a Jedi knight and now, a Jedi Padawan was cradling his arm and gently mending the wound that a member of his own order had inflicted and he was doing it with such care and grace that it baffled the young Sith’s mind. If only he knew how the wound had truly got there would he be as caring and graceful? Adrian doubted, it, but he was not sure. He shook his head slowly at the Jedi, this was why they were weak. They cared about too many people that had nothing to do with themselves or their ambition, this is why Sith did not have healers. You get your arm chopped off and you do not have some sissy cradling your emotions and easing your pain, you get a new painful robotic arm slapped on there without any anesthetic and that pain was there to remind you of your failure. You gained strength from that pain, it gave you focus and power so that you would never make that same mistake again without being reminded of the pain that it had previously caused you. This was why the Sith were so objectively superior to the Jedi in almost every single way, but still there was something off here.

His eyes took in Luka one last time as he continued his fight with his own mind to hide his darkness and Sith identity from him and he could not help but feel some warmth towards the Jedi. Was this a trick? No, he felt grateful for the healing touches of the young Jedi and his genuine care for him, he was growing to trust him. That thought made no sense, but he had had it regardless and he was not sure what it meant. He trusted the Jedi to not do him harm and to keep his word, that was not something that was supposed to happen, he was a Sith and the Jedi were his enemies. Why would Luka do this why would his enemy show such care and devotion to an enemy? He closed his eyes and drifted off into a deep contemplative focus examining the depths of what he knew to be true and what he believed with all of his heart. Could the grace of a mere student cause him to question his entire identity? He did not know, nor was he sure he wanted to know, now was not the opportune moment to allow weakness to take root in his mind. He shoved those thoughts aside and buried them deep within, replacing them with what he had known to be true his whole life. Ji’dai were masters of deception who would stop at nothing until the entire Sith race was chased to edges of the galaxy and hunted to extinction.

[Luka Balmore]

“One scar, coming right up.”

Luka had said as he finished off the nerve endings. They were good as new now and he must be careful to close the wound and repair the tissue around them before he released the pain block otherwise Devin would basically get a shot of extreme pain. When the lightsaber contacted the flesh, it immediately fried and destroyed the nerve endings that he had just repaired, but as a result the initial pain was extreme, but it quickly dulled as there were not many nerve endings left to send the pain messages to his brain. Now, with the nerves repaired, there would nothing inhibiting the messages to the brain from the burned tissue. Burns in and of themselves were painful, but a burn of this degree could be enough to send a person into shock if it was not for nerves being destroyed in most cases. It was true that in some cases the burns were so severe that at the wound site itself the victim sometimes felt nothing and what he or she did feel was pain from from the surrounding areas of flesh that had been burned but the nerves were left intact. It was a wonderful feature of the body that certain things knew when to die to protect the system as a whole, it truly was a miraculous design he thought to himself. Devin was a human and Luka was most familiar with human anatomy, but he had been studying the anatomy of several species, in truth occasionally it had been hard to keep certain things straight, but if he did remember that a lot of times the basics were more or less the same he could separate out what was different by species and file it away in his mind under that species. Zeltrons like Devin had mentioned had two livers, two livers! This was something that was absolutely astounding to him as it had seemed that it had evolved out of a pure need just like everything else in the body.

His eyes met Devin, the red lightsaber comment was just as unsettling the second time he had heard it and that thought had never left his mind for a moment, but he did have more important matters to deal with at the moment. He felt Devin’s heart rate rise at the sensations flowing through him, he would have specifically warned him about the light energy he was feeling, but in fact he had deliberately omitted this warning. The blood test indicated that Devin was definitely a force sensitive and the sensation would be different for him, but Luka specifically wanted to test his reaction to it. He was focused on the young man’s arm, but he was mindful of his vital signs as well and when he noticed that his heart rate was up to 127 beats per minute and his blood pressure was rising as well, he started to grow concerned. The wound in his arm was not life threatening nor would it ever be unless it got infected and was left completely untreated. Without touching his pain blocks Luka mentally took a step back and looked at the entire picture of Devin for a moment. His brain was specifically telling him that he was in danger, but lightsided force energy should have the opposite effect.

“Peace Devin, what you’re feeling is force energy, it does feel weird if you’ve never experienced it, but you are in no danger, but you need to calm yourself a bit. Breathe slowly through your nose and let it out just as slowly, imagine yourself on a beach with the waves crashing in and the warm sunlight basking over you and warming your skin. There’s nothing else around you, no fears, no worries, no dangers. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Devin was afraid of Jedi. Could Luka divide his own attention further? He looked down at the arm, this could be quick work but if he focused on doing it layer by layer versus all it once he could delay it so that he could look at something else. He nodded and began work on the capillaries and the protective flesh around them, restoring blood flow safely to the clean open wound was a priority as this would bring the regenerated tissue fresh blood so that it could flourish once again.

“I’m going to place my right hand on your forehead, you will feel warmth, your heart rate and blood pressure are concerning. I’m going to send you calming waves of force energy to slow them down a bit, just keep imagining what I told you.”

That was partially true, but he wanted to look at something else while he was there. He raised his right hand and gently placed it on Devin’s forehead and closed his eyes allowing him to to feel the force flow through him. His focus was split now and the layered work with the arm was more delicate with a split focus which is why he went layer by layer versus all at once, it required less precision than doing multiple things at the same time. He took a deep breath in through his nose mimicking what he instructed Devin to do himself. As he fell half into a meditative state he felt darkness surround him it was as if he was being pulled from his body and held up by a wire and suspended above everything that was going on in the room. He saw himself with his left hand on Devin’s arm and his right gently pressed against his forehead. From the air he then looked down at Devin’s bare chest and felt himself being lowered towards the left side of his chest and just when he felt he could reach out and touch everything that was going on, he was sucked in.

He fell for what seemed like several seconds until he felt himself land on his feet in a large darkened hallway. He turned behind him and saw a dead end a black wall and then the other direction he saw what looked like a light. So he started walking towards it. He craned his neck to inspect the surroundings but there was nothing of substance just black walls. As he continued down the hallway he felt as if the light was growing closer and closer and he could feel it’s warmth. Maybe Devin was just a mixed up teen, the warmth of the light that he was feeling was not that of an evil and deliberately manipulative mastermind. He continued down the hall until finally he was at the source of the light, he tried to walk through it to thoroughly examine what lay beyond but instead he ran into it with a thud. It sounded like he had just ran into a glass wall, he raised his fist and knocked on the wall, the sound of his hand knocking on glass echoed through the hallway until he realized something. He looked down at this hand which was now glowing the way the light had, he then looked back up and saw his own reflection in the mirrored glass. The light and the warmth were nothing but a reflection. He sighed and raised his hand again, only this time the mirror shattered into a million little shards and fell to the floor with an echoed crash. What lay beyond the mirror was a simple door with chains and a lock. He stared at the door for a long moment before it started.

The door started pounding and it looked as if someone was trying to escape from the inside, the chains strained and creaked until they eventually broke and fell to the ground onntop of the glass. Luka cocked his head to the side and took a step towards the door. He took a deep breath out and reached for the knob, his warm flesh grabbed the knob and he began to turn it. As he did an icy cold feeling stabbed at his palms and shot through his body, it was so called that it burned. He immediately jerked his hand away and looked down at his palm which was now blackened, but it felt weird, the black marks radiated from where his hand had touched the knob and was spreading throughout his his hand slowing taking over when, he took a single step back in astonishment. What was this? He then looked back at the door and he saw it, the chains lifted themselves up off the ground and attached themselves firmly to the door, he then felt himself being pulled backwards at an alarming rate. The million different shards of the mirror sprang up off the floor an reassembled themselves into a perfect replica of what they had been moments before and then he felt himself slam into the back wall the breath knocked out of him. He then was moving quickly up and out of Devin’s chest, he felt himself pulled back into his own body and he tried not to gasp as he opened in his eyes and removed his hand from Devin’s forehead.

He let the breath out through his nose just as he had instructed Devin to do and then he began work on his arm, not mentioning anything to the young man who seemed calmer now. This was good, this was also alarming. He could not explain what he had seen, nor could he merely put it in a report, he had to tell someone about it and he had to listen to what the force was telling him. He replaced his right hand on Devin’s arm again and began manipulating the remaining layers of flesh to come together and join as one once more. The blackened area of flesh slowly disappeared and what remained was a scar, a freshly healed scar with parts of the wound still visible, looking as if it had been treated with bacta and not healed entirely with the power of the force. This would keep Devin safe, if that truly mattered. Normally he would release the pain blocks one by one and slowly, but there was something telling him to try something different. He looked up at Devin who looked so peaceful and relaxed, but what Luka had just been part of was not peaceful, nor was it in anyway good. He looked down at his hand to verify that it was not blackened and that it was all just a vision. He breathed a sigh of relief and his blue eyes narrowed a bit before releasing the pain blocks all at once, which would cause shooting pain to the wound. Nothing serious, not nearly enough to throw him into shock, but the new nerve endings would send their messages to the brain and it would be enough to startle Devin, perhaps enough to jolt the chains off of the door again and then Luka could get another glimpse of what it was that lay beyond the door.

[Adrian Lynd]

Adrian trembled as Luka’s hand found it’s place on his head, he closed his eyes again and began to breathe deeply as the healer had instructed. Why was he doing this? It was a means to an end he thought to himself, soon this would all be over and he would be on his way, he just had to continue dealing with it for the time being. The beach, the warm sun? That did objectively sound nice, it would be nicer if there was a pretty girl sitting next to him on the beach, but Adrian doubted that picturing a girl there with him would do anything to slow down his heart rate and his blood pressure, so he merely just followed Luka’s instructions for the time being. The warmth rushed over his head like the sun that Luka had described to him, the sound of the waves were relaxing enough and Adrian could not help but thinking that this was relaxing enough. When his mission was over he really should take some time to rest, he had been training rigorously for the past four years, that was a life of the Sith, there never was enough time for ones own desires. He could go to Naboo when he was done here and sit out in the sun by Kadarra beach and just relax for a couple of days, but Naboo was a dangerous place for him. Not everyone in the galaxy whom he had known when he was younger would necessarily recognize him anymore so there was a certain sense on anonymity that he had and going back there could endanger that to some degree. Then again he was here within a stones throw away from the Jedi temple and he was going to be scouting the temple soon enough, so he knew that sense of anonymity would likely not even last past the end of this particular mission.

He breathed out through his nose and Luka had instructed, the warmth continued to bask over him from Luka’s touch and the imagined beach, it was not as unbearable as it had been before, he sensed that Luka had changed his technique a bit, likely to cause less stress on his patient. What did Luka think about the raised heart rate and the fear in his aura? Adrian wasn’t sure and for a moment he wasn’t sure he cared nearly as much as he probably should. The young Ji’dai was just a kid compared to Adrian, yes they were only a year apart and that was it, but that year was vastly different between Ji’dai and Sith. Sith training was much more strenuous than Ji’dai training and the consequences for failure were much more severe. Show weakness at any given moment and you could be stricken down in the blink of an eye if not by the older Sith than by your peers. Adrian had struck down a few of his peers in the past, back when he went to the worthless Sith Academies, he had been flogged and beaten by the masters, but never once did he ever show any sign of weakness. No tears ever flowed from his eyes, no crying out in pain, often times he would look the man with the whip dead in the eye just to piss them off even more, but he never relented, never did he even let out a whimper, a muffled grunt now and again, but nothing like some of the other students who cried like babies. Adrian learned from a young age that pain could be turned into strength and the more of it you could learn to absorb the stronger you became and the more of it you could inflict without feeling an emotional tie to it. Suffering was pointless, there was nothing to be gained out of it, it was merely a point of failure, if you were suffering then that had meant you had lost, but if you could learn from the pain, then you were not suffering, you were just getting stronger. Ji’dai would never understand that, Ji’dai would call that abuse, Ji’dai would condemn it, but it was vital for the proper development of a good Sith and once the student understood this, then they could break free of their chains, the chains that made them victims, only then could they call themselves true Sith. Ji’dai did not do anything like this.

Ji’dai were formidable adversaries, but the docile nature of their training as compared to that of a Sith student was what made them weak. Sith preached strength and victory of one’s inner most self and conquering of the force. The Ji’dai preached compassion, empathy, and slavery to the Force to do it’s bidding. Adrian wanted to sneer at the thought of this, it made no logical sense whatsoever and he had longed for a Ji’dai to explain it to him in a way that he could understand it, he would never agree with it, but the fact that he did not understand how they seemed to enjoy being slaves to Force was mind boggling to him.

Why was he thinking about this?! He took another deep breath in through his nose and Luka had instructed, but clouds had begun to form on the beach, he felt himself being pulled away from the infirmary and firmly planted on the beach. He stood up from his beach towel and stared out into the ocean, the water started coming in, it must be high tide. He went to back up and move himself away from the incoming water. Lightning crashed through the sky and spiderwebbed down into the ocean and loud crack of thunder was heard. He felt himself in the infirmary breathe out through his nose again and that’s when he felt his grip on the control over the darkness hiding within his sole start to loosen. He saw another flash of lightning only this time it struck so near him that he could smell humidity in the air instantly vaporize as it hit the ground. It was followed almost instantly by a crash of thunder so loud that it shook the earth. Luka was going to find out that he was not who he said he was.

He tried to pull his legs up but he was stuck, just like before he could not move and then he saw it. Out in the distance closing fast was a large wave that would most assuredly overcome him and he would drown. He felt the tingle in his arm again the water seemed to be sucked away from his feet and back out into the ocean as the wave gained strength. There was another tingle in his arm, Luka must still be working on the finishing touches. There was slight pain, a pain! He needed to grab onto the pain like a life preserver and pull at it to get away from here, it was the only chance he had. Another jolt of lighting near him and he reached out to grab the flash which shot electricity and sharp pain throughout his body, he smelled his hair burn and then the wave was gone.

His eyes shot open, the shock tore through his body and he gritted his teeth and in a moment it was gone just as fast and as hard as it had hit him. Adrian blinked several times to ensure that he was back and no longer in the vision. He took stock of his emotions, he did not want to turn to Luka yet, if he was feeling Darkness his eyes may well not be their natural color and that would be more telling than anything Luka may have felt. His aura felt subdued, normal for the situation and he looked down at his arm to see the fresh pink scar with a small bit of the wound left open enough that it had looked as if it had just been treated by a regular doctor. He finally turned his eyes to Luka who was just sitting there with that warm smile again. There was a jolt of pain that he hadn’t been expecting, that’s what had pulled him out away from the beach, away from the impending doom. Where did the pain come from? Luka had said there would be mild pain, but Adrian felt as if he had quite literally licked an exposed wire. What was the purpose of that? Had he been deceived? No, Luka was too weak for that, he was not a Sith and he would not deliberately inflict pain on someone just for the sake of it, that’s not what Ji’dai normally did. Their code would not allow it.

He studied the younger teen for a long moment before he felt confident enough that he was speaking as Devin Astoria and not Adrian Lynd. He was a gang member, not a Sith Lord, a confused teen who had fallen into the wrong crowd and had never seen Force healing before. He curled his lower lip and ran it against the bottom of his top teeth before he spoke.

“What the kriff was that pain Luka?! It felt like I kissed a power socket! It was just all over and shot through me.“

Was that Devin or was that Adrian? His blue eyes seemed genuine, but he felt that Luka had seen something, that Luka might have been startled by whatever it was he saw. He stared at the lightsaber on the belt of the Jedi for a brief second, not long enough to be anything more than a curious glance, and what teenage boy would not be curious about a weapon as cool and mysterious as lightsaber? He breathed in through his nose again and calmed himself, if Luka had seen something so startling that he realized that Adrian was indeed a Sith, he would not have finished his arm, he would have immediately stood up and arrested him or worse while Adrian was subdued and being held down. That was his best chance if he was going to do anything, that is what Adrian would have done in his shoes. Now they were on equal footing again and had he seen that Adrian was a Sith, then he would surely realize that he would not win a battle with him, not alone. Unarmed or not Adrian was lethally dangerous and Luka would have sensed that if he felt his true aura for all that it was.

He wasn’t paying enough attention to his arm, just a passing glance at the work was not enough interest. So he craned his neck and rain his fingers over the new scar, he allowed his facial features to show astonishment in the work of the Ji’dai. Force healing was something that was indeed special and to be appreciated, he could not do what Luka did and he did understand that. He looked at the care that was obviously taken to preserve the scar so that Devin would not be found out and then he felt that feeling in his stomach again, that strange feeling that he was not used to feeling unless he had wronged someone in a way that they objectively did not deserve, which was incredibly rare. He felt guilty for doubting Luka. He looked at the Ji’dai’s caring face and realized that he would no sooner hurt him unprovoked than he would a child. Adrian lowered his head a bit, feeling a mix of emotions he did not intend to feel, but ones that he would have to crush later.

“Thank you, it looks great Luka. Sorry I cussed at you, the damn pain was just a lot, you did a really good job.”

He paused and looked at the clock in the room, he was down to seven hours until he had to meet up with his contact. His eyes darted back in forth across the room as if he was wrestling with a decision, a decision that was wildly out of character for him. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before he grabbed his shirt and set it on his lap. This was going against everything he knew to be true and believed in, but that stupid kriffing feeling in the pit of his stomach was not going to go away unless he did it.

“Look, theres a small bar across the street on the way back to the Temple. Let me buy you a drink to thank you for what you did.”

This was stupid, this was reckless, but he felt almost compelled to do it for some reason. He wasn’t sure why, but there was now a rather strong attachment that he felt to this Ji’dai, and maybe that meant he’d eventually have to kill him if this plan did not solve matters, but he’d rather do it this way first, he had done nothing to wrong him. In fact, he had gone entirely out of his way to help him and that did deserve a showing of some gratitude, or so he thought. Why was he so confused now?

This had never happened with him before.

[Luka Balmore]

Luka sat with his arms folded on his lap careful to not let his facial expressions give anything that he might be thinking away. He had seen what he had seen and it did not make full sense, he was too attached to the situation and he truly needed a second opinion or did he? He looked at the other teens clothing once more, functional was the adjective he would use to define it. It was not cheap clothing, it had a purpose to it, that thought had crossed his mind earlier.

In a fraction of a second Devin’s eyes shot open and Luka continued to study the other teen with that calm and never ending caring expression and a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. It was not that he enjoyed the fact that he had allowed the pain to hit Devin in such a manner, but it was more the reaction that made him smile a bit. There was guarded anger, everything about him seemed as if it was carefully and expertly guarded. Luka nodded quietly as it seemed as if he was onto something in that line of thinking. Devin had lied about he had originally injured his arm and then he had told another story, in an entirely convincing way. Was this a lie too? He wasn’t entirely sure, he wanted to believe that the young man would not make something like that up, but there were other things. The guarded reaction to the pain, where anger flashed with no real power behind it, Devin was a Force Sensitive there was no denying that, but was he trained? Luka watched the young man sit up and heard his swears, they did not phase the young Jedi, but instinctively he grabbed the back of his own neck a bit awkwardly as if he had not intended for that to happen. It wasn’t long before Devin was apologizing, but there was more. There was something amiss about Devin, something that was different about him, the words were even more close to his chest than they had been before and there was no talk about gangs or anything else. He nodded and thought about Devin’s clothes again.

The clothes were the thing he kept focusing on, they just did not entirely fit the story, well neither did his physique, but that was beside the point. The clothes he was wearing were clothes he might see a trained force user wear. That made sense and it fit his physique, was this the answer? Was it really that simple? Had he been lying this entire time to cover up his identity? Luka continued maintaining his caring expression but inwardly he shook his head. It couldn’t be, the story made too much sense and he could have gotten the clothes from the gang, he was force sensitive and whoever was leading the gang was a trained force user and it was indeed possible that he was simply recruiting force sensitive teens and giving them mild training and using them for chaos. Dark siders were masters of creating chaos and that fit just as much if not more sense as the theory that Devin was a highly trained force user who was actively concealing his identity.

“I used a Force technique to insert pain blocks on your nerves, but releasing them is tricky and sometimes you can’t do it one at a time, so what you felt was pain from your newly repaired nerve endings as the pain blocks let go all at the same time. I’m sorry that it happened, but occasionally it does, you’re in no danger though. Keep that open portion clean, but I don’t think you’re at much risk for infection, just use common sense. The hospital protocol demands I prescribe you an antibiotic, it is a precaution and I’m giving you the lowest allowable amount. Four doses, once a day just do that for me and you’ll be good.”

He stopped and thought for another second.

“Don’t take them on an empty stomach unless you want to setup camp in the refresher for a couple of hours.“

The smile on his face was still genuine but the words coming out did not match the smile as much as they ought to. It was if he was on autopilot telling the younger Devin about the medication and the pain blocks. Was just the way doctors got after a bit of time? It had only been a few months here and he sort of viewed explaining the side effects and the dangers of antibiotics to Devin to be a laborious task that he did not quite feel like doing. Was it the fact that the hospital made him prescribe him something that he knew for a fact the young man would not need or was it something else? His blue eyes looked into Devin’s matching blue eyes looking for something a clue, a response, or a simple acknowledgement. It was not the job, it was the fact that Devin was a frustrating patient, not because of his injury, but because he remained and enigma. If he could have reached out and grabbed the young man by the shoulders and shook him demanding answers, he would have. Instead all he got was the riddle of Devin Astoria. What was behind the door in the vision that was trying to get out?

He was about to say something but as the words were in the process of making their way from his brain to his mouth Devin spoke again, more kindly this time, but there was a sense of awkwardness in his words. He could not believe his ears, Devin was asking him to get a drink with him? That was…well that was not as odd as he had originally thought as an hour ago the young man had literally offered to find a Zeltron for him to go to bed with, not that Luka was interested in that type of encounter, if that ever happened it would happen within in the confines of a loving and caring relationship, for which he was not sure he had any desire. Would a Dark sided force user ask a Jedi Padawan to a drink for working on his arm as a way to thank you? No, that did not make any sense whatsoever. If Devin was trained in the ways of the force, especially the dark side, he knew full well the more time he spent around a Jedi, the more likely he would be found out. This was yet another twist in enigma, another complication that just added to the already confusing story. He took a breath in and was about to decline when he almost physically felt the force put a hand over his mouth.

Instead he smiled and thought for just another second. For one, after today, he could go for something to drink if he was really being honest with himself, a small glass of red wine sounded wonderful while he was sitting back in his room getting really in depth into holoheroes listening to the symphonic version of the soundtrack to the game. That version of the game’s score in particular was really something that helped him unwind. What he normally would do was go into the settings and mute the game’s music and play that version instead with the speaker he had sitting on his desk. With all that in mind, he was not really supposed to be drinking outside the Temple or without the presence of his master at his age. Also, as an aspiring physician he knew that his brain was not finished developing and alcohol should only be enjoyed in extreme moderation and in the form of a healthy beverage like wine and never really anymore than a glass at a time. He did have a bottle back at the temple a vintage red that had been given to him by his master, she did trust him to know that despite the fact that he was a teenager, he would not over indulge and would only take a glass every now and again. In truth he had the same bottle for months and only had two glasses out of it, it was truly delicious and should be savored versus indulged in.

Back to Devin, the young man was offering to spend time with him and despite all the patient doctor relationship rules at the hospital, this was an opportunity to take Devin to the Temple as he had already tipped his hat that he had nothing else to do for the day. How could he say no? Honestly, what normal person would say no to seeing parts of the famous Jedi Temple? It was not as if you could merely walk in off the street and ask for a tour, you had to be invited. He picked up his wrist commlink and attached it to his left wrist and carefully sent out a pre-coded message which read. “Encountered Force Sensitive, need a Master or Knight. I’m bringing him to you at JSF.” This was not a message he really thought he’d ever use but he had stored it there in case of a medical emergency that was beyond his control, but he had quickly tagged on the last sentence as normally it was requesting for a more trained and learned healer to meet him at the hospital as soon as possible, this time to control the situation he was going to be bringing Devin to them and if Devin really was a Dark sided individual the only one at risk was going to be Luka, not the entire hospital staff, and that was exactly the way it should be. He was the Jedi, he was the one who was trained to deal with a situation like this and he was the one who was willing to lay down his life and safety to protect the innocent, this was quite literally his job.

“Sure that sounds great Devin! I could use a little something, only I’m not allowed to drink at a bar in public, so you’re totally coming with me to the Temple and we can have a drink. You would not believe the amount of supplies we have, it puts any bar to shame really. Come on man, put your shirt on and lets go, you’ll really like the Temple, not everyone gets to seen it but you’re my guest. ”

The tone was spot on for the situation, Luka sounded less like a Doctor and more like an innocently excited teenage boy who was thrilled to be showing his new friend what was essentially his room and the cool toys he had inside of it. There was no way Devin would see through this, there was just no reason for him to and he had no reason to decline either since he had already offered to spend time with him, his reaction would be telling in and of itself, but if he refused then it was not all that hard to amend his message to get the other Jedi to meet him here, but that is most certainly not what he wanted to have happen. The two of them would indeed have a drink, but there would be a Master there to great them or maybe they’d wait. His comm buzzed and he looked down, it was simply an acknowledgement. He stood up with an excited smile on his face and placed his blood testing device back in his pocket. The young Jedi then stretched a bit as he stood up and the sound of his back cracking was quite clear.

“I guess part of growing up means you can’t sit hunched over working for so long anymore.”

Luka chuckled to keep the mood light and then motioned for Devin to get dressed again. There was nothing the slightly older teen could say, he had walked into the situation and Luka had thrown a rope around him the second that door had been opened, this was all on Devin and the only thing Luka had done was break a patient doctor fraternization rule, which did not matter, he was a Jedi not a regular doctor, some rules did exist to be broken.

[Adrian Lynd]

Adrian did not do much but blink as Luka spoke about the antibiotics, he knew he was not even going to take them so what was the point of wasting the resources? Not that Adrian cared about the hospital’s resources. He could add them to his medical kit on his ship, you did never know when something like that could actually come in handy. He knew as well as he knew his own name that despite the fact that the Ji’dai were undeniably the enemy of the Sith, force healing was powerful enough to rid the body of any infections and he did not think for moment that Luka was anything but meticulous. Except for that pain that he had just felt and had been explained away rather quickly, if he was a Sith and he had made that mistake his patient might have cut his arm off to teach him the lesson, but again there were no Sith healers so it was moot point.

His blue eyes looked around the room for moment he still could not believe that he had offered to buy the Ji’dai a drink, guilt was a powerful weakness and he must crush it as soon as he was finished with his mission. That said, he could easily take this opportunity to learn all he could about the Ji’dai’s defenses and maybe with Jawa juice or two….he looked at Luka again, a single Jawa juice would do it, well maybe that might loosen him up a bit and he might freely talk about certain aspects of the temple that Adrian could find useful. Then there was another matter, the drinking age on Coruscant was sixteen and Luka had mentioned he was only fifteen. Adrian scanned the Ji’dai up and down and questioned whether he could pass for sixteen or not. That youthful face is what gave it away anyway, Adrian was sixteen and so was Devin whose identification card he was carrying. So all it really took was for Adrian to buy two drinks for himself. It would really be that simple and that would solve everything.

“Yeah, take them after bantha sausage and eggs for breakfast got it.”

He felt the need to reply to the comment regarding antibiotics for some reason, he was not even sure anymore this whole charade would be ended soon enough and he could get under way with his mission. Force he really needed a shower, he was at that point where skipping out on a shower had consequences. A few years ago he could go a couple of days with no shower and it really would not have been the end of the world, now it was as if he could not go more than a good day without a shower unless he wanted to risk smelling like a kriffing Hutt. When was the last shower he had taken? It was not on Onderon, no it was the morning of though so that was a day and a half ago. He also remembered that he did get drenched to his core and stripped down and changed so that sort had to count for maybe a half shower or so? Who the hell knew? What did it even matter if a Sith smelled a little rank anyway delivering the weapon supplies, but it really was not about that exactly either, he just felt a bit dirty. Was that the shower or was it the lie? It had to be the shower why would it be the lie? His eyes took in Luka’s features one more time. It was because the kid looked as innocent as an Akk Dog puppy, that’s what it was. That's why Ji'dai were so kriffing easy to kill, they were so completely oblivious to what was in front of their face. Still,he felt that lying to him was just cruel because he was obviously too dumb and too innocent to function and play the games he was playing with other force sensitives. Well he was not dumb per say, if he was he would not be a young doctor, but for the love of the Force this Ji’dai kid was incredibly naive. Not that it bothered Adrian that he was as naive as he was, it did in fact actually work to the young Sith’s advantage. It just felt overtly cruel, like torturing someone pointlessly for no real reason, with no real set end game in mind. It just sort of felt like kicking an Akk Dog.

Adrian stretched as he stood up, his shirt which had been resting on his lap fell to the floor because of kriffing course it did. Adrian rolled his eyes as he kicked it over to his side so he did not have to bend down at the awkward angle facing Luka. He then flung it up into to the air with his foot because he was a teeange guy and he could and that’s what teenage guys do. He caught the shirt with his right and did not feel any pain as he had reached out for it and then, he almost dropped it again when Luka spoke. He had said yes, which Adrian was not entirely expecting to happen, mostly because of Ji’dai and their awkward and overly holier than thou sensibilities, he did doubt they drank and then to hear the under age goody goody who had just worked on his arm say that he could go for something, it was a good thing he was in the hospital because he was sure his heart was going to stop. All of that was moderately unexpected, but when Luka then invited him back to the Jedi Temple with him? That was enough to make his eyes widen and turn to face Luka head on. How naive was this kid?! You’re literally inviting a Sith apprentice back to your precious temple. There was no kriffing way the kid was serious, he probably expected Adrian to decline just as Adrian had expected Luka to decline. Adrian shook his head in disbelief blinked a couple of times.

“You’re inviting ME to your Temple for a drink?”

How could he accept?! He was unarmed, he was completely and totally defenseless, or at least more or less so if he encountered a squad of Ji’dai Sith killers or whatever they were. He had heard of them or something like that. There were stories about a man with pointed ears and eyes that just looked clear through you and if you as a Sith encountered this man, you had best have your affairs in order as he was there to end your life. No way in hell was Adrian going to the temple it was just too dangerous and it was just that simple. He paused and looked at Luka as he stretched his tunic over his head and pulled it down to his waist, no once again completely clad in black. Maybe there was a reason for this, maybe he could use this to his advantage. He was planning on going to the Temple some months from now and as part of his time on Coruscant, he really could use some basic intelligence about the place, plus he was unarmed and as incognito as he could possibly be. There was no reason that the guards would suspect him per say, he was with a Ji’dai escort. He had to think about this for a second, but it did make sense there was no reason they would suspect him. Not many Ji’dai actually knew him and the Temple was massive, the chances of him running into someone that knew him were slim and he had grown so much taller in four years, his face had changed his voice was different, he doubted anyone would recognize him unless it was Alex or his father whose name he dared not to even mentally say lest his mind be made weaker by the mention of such a weak name. It would be nice to see Alex again and perhaps Johnathon, but not the other one, he was a disgrace. The sheer amount of blood sweat and tears that Adrian had to shed to overcome that name was mind boggling in and of itself.

He paused and brought himself back to the moment.

“I’d be kriffing honored to check the Temple out Luka.”

He was still in disbelief, was his ruse that good that Luka had been so fooled that he was willing to accept Devin as a friend. This could prove useful on so many levels, Adrian could exploit this new friendship for all it was worth and then at the end once he got Luka to do something that there was no going back from he could turn him. What a legend he would be among the entire Sith if he as a mere apprentice could turn an of age Jedi Padawan to the Sith, that would be more than enough to fully overcome his paternal name. He smiled and put his coat on, once again taking note how the absence of pain from his arm was a stark contrast from what it had been just mere hours before.

“I’ll follow you then, you sure they’ll even let me in? I told you I’m in a gang…”

He had to ask, he’d hate to walk completely oblivious into an ambush with no lightsabers to defend himself. Then again if his Devin persona was as good as it apparently was, he could use that to get out of any situation. There was no evidence he was a Sith, in fact there was no evidence Adrian Lynd was still a Sith, quite the contrary. If they did discover who he really was, it was all a matter of lying again, he was no longer a Sith, he had renounced them after his father proved how weak they were. He did his own thing now, he was a mercenary, they couldn’t arrest him for that….