fandomhigh | So You're a Fugitive From Justice, Tuesday, 3rd Period

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So You're a Fugitive From Justice, Tuesday, 3rd Period

"Hey, everyone, welcome back," Zayne said. "Now that we're past the 'why' of my former status as a fugitive, we can start to get into more interesting things. Today I want to talk about friendships when you're on the run."

"Unfortunately, we have to start with a couple uncomfortable truths. When you're accused of a crime and run, it's going to convince a lot of people that you did it. That probably includes at least some people you know and love. And it's understandable," Zayne said. "If the authorities they've trusted all their lives say you did something and all they know is that you ran away, it's going to be tough for them to side with you. It hurts, but it happens. And maybe worse, even if they believe you, you might be putting them at risk if you rely on them. My Dad believed in my innocence, but then he ended up getting kidnapped as bait for me. Even if they're prepared to help you, they're probably not prepared for what that really means and what kind of danger they'll be in."

"So it's probably a good idea to make some friends on the wrong side of the law if you're there anyway. In some ways, it seems kind of like you're putting together a criminal crew. And... well, that's because that's exactly what it is," Zayne said. "It's part of the life if you want your best shot at surviving."

"Ideally, your group will provide you with a variety of skills to use on the run. It's good to have somebody clever, but hopefully not too manipulative. If they consistently call themselves a mastermind, you're either in luck or a lot of trouble. Figure out which one quickly. Flee if you need to. Transportation is a must. If your mastermind can get you someone they trust with some kind of vehicle, all the better. You'll probably need at least one person who's a really good fighter because people are going to catch up to you eventually. And then you'll want somebody who can do a lot of things. Maybe not al of the well, but vague competence is key."

"I was the guy who was vaguely competent in my group, for the record. I could fight and use the Force. I could pilot ships. And I was really the glue keeping things together because without me, none of them would have law enforcement chasing them so excitedly. I was only REALLY good at that last thing, but the rest gave me enough skills to help out," Zayne said. "I lucked into my mastermind, Gryph. I had actually arrested him and kept him chained to my speeder bike when I discovered what happened to my classmates. So right from the start of my escape, he was stuck with me. Not that he had a huge problem with that. He was viewed as a small time con artist for a long time. Being associated with me made him the second-most wanted criminal in the galaxy. So really, it was in his best interests to keep me out of custody. I'll start getting into how next week."

"Gryph led me to Camper, kind of a crazy old man who lived in a junkyard. Or, more accurately, he lived in a junk hauling starship that was in the junkyard," Zayne explained. "Camper got us away from the trouble for a while. And then he accidentally got us into much worse trouble, but that comes with the life, too."

"For the muscle, we actually had a couple options. We started off with Jarael, who was kind of a foster daughter to Camper. Trained warrior, good with melee weapons, you never wanted to get in a scrap with her. And for reasons too complicated to get into right now, but generally because of her, we ended up with a Mandalorian soldier, Rohlan. Extremely well armed, great fighter, trained soldier, great pilot, had a jetpack, very sneaky." Which was an understatement.

"What I'm getting at is that once you know what you need, it can fall together quickly. Camper and Jarael weren't criminals, although they were in hiding. Rohlan was an enemy soldier who had a good reason to help us out. And they all fell into place due to my connection with Gryph."

"So, find someone you can trust or who's dependent enough on you to help you out, then work together, using any connections you have to round out your abilities," Zayne said. "And don't get me wrong. If you need to, you can get by on your own. But it's going to be harder and much lonelier if you go that route."

"So. Time to round out your own abilities with some classmates," Zayne said. "I want everyone to be honest about your skills as you break out into four categories: Mastermind, Transportation, Muscle, and Rounded. Then start raiding the other categories to put together a crew. And do this carefully, because if it works out, you may end up in this crew again later in the semester."

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"The last big conflict with the Sith was a couple years before I was born," Zayne said. "A Jedi named Exar Kun got obsessed with looking for knowledge, then he started looking for power, and then he gathered an army to look for control of the galaxy which turned into a massive war. The Sith eventually lost in a big way and they haven't made much of a comeback since, but that war still looms over everything going on in my time."

"And I do mean everything. The whole reason I'm teaching this class is because a group of Jedi feared the return of the Sith so much that they started abusing the Force to prevent them from ever coming back. But if you're looking for direct experiences with Sith, I have a couple stories. One's short, the other is really complicated, but both might shed some light on them."

"That would be astral," Ben said enthusiastically. "Oh, one quick thing first--in your time, is this only two Sith we're working with, or a whole planet full?"

"Either story - or both - works, if you're up for it," Ender said.

"Exar Kun had a disciple, but that was a compromise because they were both fighting over the same Sith artifact and a Sith ghost told them to cut it out and take over the galaxy together," Zayne said. "I guess Kun would have been happy ruling on his own, and Ulic Qel-Droma wanted more followers, so I don't think there's a set number."

He had no idea that he was just a few years from the Rule of Two getting started.

"Anyway, I'll start with the shorter story. This is after the whole fugitive thing, for the record," Zayne said. "There was a Sith adept named Toki Tolliver. Tiny guy, fox-like, serious rage issues. He was a Sith student during Kun's time. I guess he wasn't to strong by Sith standards, but he was smart. When Kun was killed and his Sith disbanded, Toki was angry that he wasn't on the road to galactic conquest anymore, so he started to get some revenge slowly and quietly. His standard move was to play helpless and board a ship because people wanted to help the little, fragile-looking guy. After a few days, people would start being found, strangled to death. Since people didn't know he could crush throats with his mind, they never suspected the guy with tiny hands."

"He would knock out the ship's communications for days, then he kept murdering people, one by one for days, until he killed every last person on the ship. Then he would finally fix the comms and send out a distress signal do he could do it all over."

"I have no idea how long he'd been doing this before my ship ended up responding to one of his signals. But it was years. I can't even imagine how many people he killed by himself."

"That's...super creepy," Ben commented with a small shudder.

Somehow, the story reminded Ender of Achilles Flandres in the years leading up to his death. He didn't say so, however: just listened.

"So what'd you do?" he asked.

"First, we freaked out about being surrounded by so many dead bodies without an obvious suspect. Then we tried to help the lone survivor," Zayne said, shaking his head. "We caught a couple breaks. I wanted to investigate thoroughly, so we didn't go back to our ship right away. And I hate to say this is 'lucky,' but when Toki started going after us, he started with a Trandoshan in our crew."

For Ender's reference, Zayne explained, "Trandoshans are big reptillians. When Toki tried to crush his throat, a lot of it was wasted effort against his scales and strong neck muscles. We had to do some quick surgery, but he lived."

"It took a little bit of time, but we finally figured things out when he attacked Jarael. Fortunately for her, he hadn't killed a Jedi in years, so he left her to beat me up until Rohlan shot him dead," Zayne said.

Edited 2012-01-10 19:30 (UTC)

Ben nodded, drawing his own conclusions about how this fit with his impression of the Sith.

"So what parts of his attack methods would you consider particularly Sith-y?" he asked Zayne, giving Ender a quick smile. He was trying to keep an open mind.

Or as open a mind as a Jedi could when hearing about Sith.

"And you said he was just... an apprentice of some kind?" Ender checked.

He was keeping an open mind, but then he didn't have any of Ben's cultural biases in this case.

"Just a student when Exar Kun died, so he had a couple decades to figure things out on his own," Zaye said. "And he taught himself well. Because from what I've seen, the thing a Sith usually wants more than anything is control. With Exar Kun or Karness Muur, they wanted to control the galaxy. Toki Settled for controlling the crews of the ships he attacked. The way he killed people caused terror. He thrived on being able to cause that whenever he wanted."

"Which I guess leads me to the other thing. Ben, do rakghouls still exist in your time?"

Ben frowned hard before shaking his head. "It doesn't sound familiar," he said finally. "I'm guessing they aren't adorable family pets?"

"Ghouls," Ender repeated. "Some kind of aggressive ghost?"

"Closer to zombies, really. They used to be people before they became infected and turned into mindless monsters," Zayne said. "An ancient Sith Lord named Karness Muur decided that he needed some new minions, so he used Sith magic to create rakghouls. He had a talisman that could control them and makes new ones. And they could make more by biting or scratching uninflected people."

"When Muur died, his soul possessed the talisman. It ended up hidden in Taris, the planet where I was trained. And after enough time passed, nobody remembered what made the rakghouls, so we thought it was just a horrible virus. At least, that's what we thought until the Mandalorians found the talisman."

Ben's nose wrinkled up at that. "The Mandos in my time aren't using zombies, at least. They're irritating enough without them."

Though he'd love to tell Daala that her precious warriors used to--on second thought, no. Daala would probably think that infecting civilians was fine as long as it could stop the Jedi.

Ender didn't think she was that far gone yet, Ben's narrative.

"And so, you had to deal with Muur's talisman," Ender guessed, "Possibly whatever remnant of his soul was in it, Mandalorians, and these rakghouls..."

Force users had it rough in any century.

"I... tagged along. The Sith-obsessed group that framed me? They also collected Sith artifacts to neutralize them so nobody else could use them. One of their agents, Celeste Morne, was looking for it, too. Once the Mandies had it, she followed them to a staging area on Jebble. Gryph and I stumbled across all of this and, well, I couldn't NOT help, you know? Even though she knew she was suppose to bring me in. Or kill me."

"When we got to Jebble, the Mandies found out that they couldn't really control the talisman. It needed a Force user, the stronger, the better. It almost took control of me, but Celeste," Zayne said, choking up a little. "She gave herself up, trusting that she'd be able to keep Muur's influence down. She couldn't at first. Jebble was a staging groud for a Mandalorians attack on Coruscant. Muur turned every Mandalorian on the planet into a rakghoul. I managed to snap Celeste out of it briefly, but she could only resist so long."

"The Mandies also had an artifact that could cut off Muur's influence from the rest of the world. It was a torture device, really, keeping the person in it alive indefinitely in dark energy, but Celeste volunteered to go into it to keep Muur out of the rest of the galaxy. I was going to bring her back to the Jedi and get some help, but the returning Mandalorian fleet decided to handle the rakghoul problem in a... pretty decisive way."

Ben winced, and only half of it was from the emotional recoil of what Zayne was feeling. "I've seen what happens when the Mandos decide to...handle problems," he said softly. "I'm sorry about your friend."

"Thanks, Ben. But I'm not sure 'friend' is really the right word. I only knew Celeste for two days. But she saved me from being a Sith for the rest of my life, sacrificed herself for the good of the galaxy, and literally gave me the key to taking my life back," Zayne said. He'd explain that part eventually. Maybe as part of class. "I owe her more than I could ever repay. And then I failed to rescue her."

He sighed briefly and collected himself. "So that's what the Sith are, in my experience. They're obsessed with obtaining control and power through whatever means they can. Slaughtering people one by one, or taking control of a planet in one fell swoop while corrupting the strongest person I'll ever know. After that, I actually understand why my Masters feared their return. And I'm sorry that they eventually did come back in force."

Again, that was going to happen much sooner than Zayne knew. And it would be ushered in by a man Zayne did once consider a friend.

Zayne had a habit of being in the center of big things, you see.

Ender nodded, genuinely looking as if he was processing that. It was just one man's tale, of course-- but it had clearly touched Zayne deeply.

"I'm sorry, too," he said quietly. "Though... considering all that... do you feel it's reasonable what your masters did?"

"I'm really the wrong person to ask about that one," Zayne said. "I'm opposed to killing even when you can make a good argument for it. When they planned the murder of unarmed, innocent kids based on a vision that suggested one of us might turn evil without any good non-vision signs that any of us were evil? Maybe I'm biased, but that's one of the worst things I could imagine somebody doing."

'One of' was a key phrase there. He'd actually seen worse things. But that still stood out as pretty horrible.

Ben nodded, looking a little heartsick. "Especially since I've had it hammered into my head that the future is constantly in motion," he said softly. "Visions aren't absolute, and trying to prevent them can actually set them into motion."

He leaned back against a desk. "We've been dealing with the concept that Sith only in twos for generations, but now we've stumbled across an entire planet full and are a little out of our depth." He thought of the system chart he'd put together on Friday. "They've spread out much faster than we realized, and based on what you've said and what I've learned, I'd bet they're focused on taking control of as much of the galaxy as they can."

"At the very least, they're making a good bid at setting up a fleet in absolutely record time," Ender said. "This, of course, is more than a bit of a problem..."

"That would seem to be the Sith's MO. I wish I could offer some kind of ancient wisdom to help you out," Zayne said. "But the best I have is trust in the Force and do your best."

Ben turned to Ender. "Do you have questions?" he asked.

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So You're a Fugitive From Justice, Tuesday, 3rd Period

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