An "abandoned" warehouse, Coruscant, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning [FT]
It was a sight Zayne had seen before. The police of Coruscant were searching frantically for Demagol, the Mandalorian monster who had escaped during his own trial. They were led by Malak, who seemed to be forgetting the more peaceful tenants of the Jedi Code. "You're all a bunch of incompetent clowns! You know who we're looking for. Stop every vehicle you find! I don't care about rights or jurisdiction, there's a monster on the loose!"
Zayne and Gryph were watching far too closely in a filthy warehouse that didn't seem to be attracting any attention. "We're safe," Gryph said. "As long as the owner of this dump doesn't come back"
"He already has, Gryph," Zayne said. "He's me. Just a hobby garage. Bought it before I joined you on Metellos. I, uh, needed a home base."
Zayne's admission was disrupted by a hunk of garbage being thrown into a pile of garbage.
"Do they sell home base insurance?" Gryph asked.
"I think Rohlan's feeling better," Zayne said.
"I don't feel better! And I won't!" the true Rohlan yelled. "Asleep for months! And they thought I was Demagol? I hate Demagol!"
"That's good," Zayne said. "Because we need to know what you know. Everything. You helped save our friend Jarael from Demagol once. We need you to do it again."
*****
Zayne, Gryph, and Rohlan found their way to a spot with some chairs and water. It had been a long night, and they needed some refreshment if Rohlan was going to tell the story of Demagol as he had learned it.
It was the story of a Zeltron named Antos Wyrick who, as a child, had been captured by emotionless cyborg slavers called the Iskalloni. While Zeltron youths usually developed empathic abilities, Wyrick's captivity stunted that development. In order to survive, Wyrick offered to help the Iskalloni in their horrific surgical experiments.
Mandalorian forces overtook the Iskalloni shortly before the Great Sith War between the Jedi and the Sith forces of Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma. The Mando'ade took the Wyrick boy in and taught him of other species, while Mandalore the Indomitable himself taught Wyrick the martial arts. When Ulic defeated Mandalore in battle and the Mando'ade were brought under Ulic's command, Wyrick began a quest to find out more about the Jedi. He found a trophy Ulic carried with him - a robe worn by Ulic's former Master, the great Arkanian Jedi, Arca Jeth. When the Jedi prevailed, Wyrick left the Mando'ade.
He took up residence on Arkania, eventually settling in with Arkanian offshoots who had been pushed out of their medical schools due to their impure blood. After years of failed experiments, Wyrick reconnected with the new Mando'ade, who wished to avenge their defeat at the hands of the Jedi. With Mandalorian backing, offshoot helpers, and the genetic material from Arca Jeth's robe, Wyrick went about trying to create a new race of Mandalorian Knights at a research colony on the hidden planet of Osadia.
In time, Wyrick discovered his best chance for success. He discovered that while all records showed Jeth to be a pure-blooded Arkanian, he was secretly an offshoot. And so Wyrick used his offshoot colleagues as incubators for his new race. The first successful birth was named Edessa - a name Zayne recognized as Jarael's birth name. But there were many after Jarael, all of them physically talented at a young age, but Wyrick believed they might be able to use Force talents as well, perhaps even amplifying the Force in others.
But Wyrick didn't have enough researchers to use as parents, so he made a deal with the Crucible to find him more offshoots. But the slavers were greedy. When Wyrick took a trip to report his progress to Mandalore, the Crucible struck, killing the guards, raiding the labs, and kidnapping the children. The project died when his offshoot colleagues - the parents of the children - discovered he brought the Crucible to Osadia and they swore to never work with him again.
His work stolen, Wyrick returned to Mandalore colder than ever, willing to do anything to anyone to advance his science. The Mando'ade gave him a new name: Demar'agol, the Flesh Carver.
"Demagol's story known, I had begun to look into Cassus Fett before I met you," Rohlan said. "I didn't mind helping you put one over on Demagol. I stripped his armor for you to wear at Flashpoint. Seeing he was a Zeltron confirmed what I already knew. But when I returned to fetch him later, I made a rookie mistake. NEVER remove your helmet while the hostile is breathing. I don't know what he injected me with, but my muscles went limp. I couldn't speak. But he talked, like a madman! Nattering about your offshoot friend, Jarael. He'd seen her and made the connection. She might be a Jeth child. And if she were, the rest might live, too. He had to go with her, and that meant he had to be me."
"The last thing I remember was aboard the Jedi shuttle. He dosed me again, and again. Then he was gone. And so was everything else," Rohlan finished.
"We got conned!" Gryph complained. "How could this happen to us? To me?"
"He made us uncomfortable. But he protected Jarael. We thought he was okay. We all have idiosyncrasies, so we cut him slack! But there's something else," Zayne said. "The slavers who took Jarael were from the Crucible, and Chantique was taken from the same place. But she said she was sold into slavery by her father, and she's a Zeltron!"
"Maybe," Rohlan said, catching Zayne's drift. "One of Demagol's earliest test subjects was a daughter. His own, with a Zeltron he met on the project. The daughter disappeared one day, and the mother committed suicide. But you don't think..."
"He threw her away," Zayne said. "She's a psychopath... and he's a sociopath. He thought she was a failure. He threw her away...."
"Everything about this is disgusting," Rohlan said. "Children are SACRED to the Mando'ade! I'm gonna make him a smear on the ground. Can you make it happen, kid?"
"Yeah," Zayne said. "And it's about that time. Get the door, Gryph."
Gryph hustled over to the door and let in two guests. One of them was dressed very elegantly. The other was Slyssk. "Ahem. Announcing Shel Jelevan, late of Taris, and Escort. Such as he is."
"You called me away from a Senatorial dinner party, Zayne," Shel said. "And people are going crazy out there looking for Demagol! Whatever this is had better be..." Then she noticed the awkward smile on Zayne's face. When she turned to the other man in the room, she saw the face that had been plastered all over the holonet. "Oh. You're him."
She turned back to Zayne and sighed. "You don't mess around, do you, Zayne? You just find all the public enemies and bring them home for dinner."
"No dinner," Zayne said before turning back to the Mandalorian. "But I had Slyssk bring you a gift, Rohlan. I hope you like it. You want Demagol's head. So do I. Call this a down payment...."
Minutes later, Rohlan stood before the group in his armor... Well, almost. "It's flimsy!" he complained. "And who shaved off my spikes?" He didn't even mention the colors had changed.
"It's just a party costume," Zayne explained. "But it'll help you move around. Cargryph Capital licenses all the Spikes merchandise. Oh, er, I forgot to tell you... you're a sports hero."
"I'm a WHAT?" Rohlan demanded.
"I'm working on finding you a real jetpack," Zayne promised. "In the meantime, let's see if my new addition to the warehouse is ready." As he led the group to a lift, Zayne pulled a remote from a pouch on his belt and pushed the button.
As they started to descend, Gryph asked, "Who sold you this dump? Your equipment lift's going the wrong direction!"
"I know it doesn't look like much," Zayne said as the lift came to a stop in an unheralded but impressive basement, "but I've made some additions. Welcome to Rogue Moon Project Command."
Gryph's eyes were practically bugging out. "What... is this place? Who paid for all this?"
"You did," Zayne said, leading the group on a tour of the facilities. "Or, rather, we did. Dad invested what we took in from the Exchange, and the bounty on the Correllian Strangler. After I turned down the Jedi's offer to join them, Shel and I got to talking. With the Republic and now the Jedi worried about the war, nobody's looking out for the regular people. So we brought together the families of the other Taris Padawans and created this: the Rogue Moon Project."
"Here we have Gharn's father and Kamlin's sister," Zayne said, indicating the people at the vid screens. "You've already met Oojoh's grandfather. He ran the freighter that carried the dustdivers to the refugee center. Everyone pitches in. Shel knew how to build an organization from the Taris Underground. Through her work with the Senator we get all kinds of information. They helped me find the Chancellor Fillorean and the Crucible. That's what we do. We help people. Refugees. Wrongly accused fugitives. Anyone without hope like we used to be and like Rohlan is now."
"I can't believe it!" Gryph yelled. "I'm supposed to be the Mastermind around here! You run all this?"
"They do," Zayne said. "I'm more of a volunteer field agent. A henchman."
"He's more than that," Shel said, carrying Zayne's lightsaber. "He's carrying on where my brother - and the others - couldn't. We even had a specialist fuse their crystals together for his new lightsaber. With Zayne on the job, they'll always be alive." She handed the lightsaber back to Zayne. "Thanks for letting us borrow it. We etched their names in the base. Use it in good health."
"Hopefully from here we can find Jarael," Zayne said after securing the saber to his belt. It would have come in handy a couple weeks ago, but he was glad to have it now. "It's a fair bet Demagol took her to Osadia. At least we know he won't hurt her."
"Ummm, Master Zayne?" Slyssk said, pulling a tag from his pocket. "I just remembered when you mentioned the lightsaber. I found something while mopping the other day. After Rohlan... er, the other Rohlan - finished using those chemicals he'd bought on Wor Tandell, he dropped this."
Gryph took the tag and tried reading the small text. "It says... 'Double-bladed lightsaber of Exar Kun, Fallen Jedi... Recovered Yavin System, by Covenant Shadow Morne.'"
Zayne leaned in to continue reading with a panicked look on his face. "'...extreme danger... do not remove from nullification resin under any...'"
"It's from one of the Sith weapons the Moomos stole from the Odryn warehouse!" Gryph said, facepalming. "Could Demagol have lifted one and gotten it out of the green protection stuff? Was that what the chemistry stuff he was doing was about?"
"This is horrible," Zayne said, turning back. "Demagol doesn't know what he's got... or CARE! Exar Kun... he LIVED to corrupt others! Anything he touched could be tainted! If Jarael is some kind of Force amplifier, there's no telling what could happen! We've got to get to Osadia!"
"That's no good, Zayne!" Rohlan said. "Nobody knows where Osadia is. Even Demagol's colleagues I talked to don't know!"
"There's got to be a way," Zayne said. "There's got to be something..." Zayne's face sudden got that certain determined look that Gryph knew too well.
"He's got The Look! Spirits help us, he's got The Look!" Gryph complained.
"Then you know to get out of my way, Gryph," Zayne said, hurrying over to a vidscreen Shel was stationed by. "Shel, we're going to need information on fleet positions. And the Senator's connections to set up a call. Diplomatic channel, top secret. Even from the Republic." He turned back to Rohlan, who had followed Zayne's energetic dash across the room. "Demagol isn't the only one who knows where Osadia is, Rohlan. Dace Golliard knows! The slaver who kidnapped Jarael in the beginning. He's the weak link!"
"But you said the Crucible was in hiding," Rohlan pointed out. "How can we call him?"
"We're not," Zayne said. "You're going to call Cassus Fett! And you've got to do it right now. It may already be too late."
[OOC: Oh god, you should have seen how long this post was before I took the story out of dialogue and just prosed it up a little. Anyone who's actually reading these, I apologize. Ahem. Anyway. From Demon Part 2 by Miller and Ching.]
Zayne and Gryph were watching far too closely in a filthy warehouse that didn't seem to be attracting any attention. "We're safe," Gryph said. "As long as the owner of this dump doesn't come back"
"He already has, Gryph," Zayne said. "He's me. Just a hobby garage. Bought it before I joined you on Metellos. I, uh, needed a home base."
Zayne's admission was disrupted by a hunk of garbage being thrown into a pile of garbage.
"Do they sell home base insurance?" Gryph asked.
"I think Rohlan's feeling better," Zayne said.
"I don't feel better! And I won't!" the true Rohlan yelled. "Asleep for months! And they thought I was Demagol? I hate Demagol!"
"That's good," Zayne said. "Because we need to know what you know. Everything. You helped save our friend Jarael from Demagol once. We need you to do it again."
*****
Zayne, Gryph, and Rohlan found their way to a spot with some chairs and water. It had been a long night, and they needed some refreshment if Rohlan was going to tell the story of Demagol as he had learned it.
It was the story of a Zeltron named Antos Wyrick who, as a child, had been captured by emotionless cyborg slavers called the Iskalloni. While Zeltron youths usually developed empathic abilities, Wyrick's captivity stunted that development. In order to survive, Wyrick offered to help the Iskalloni in their horrific surgical experiments.
Mandalorian forces overtook the Iskalloni shortly before the Great Sith War between the Jedi and the Sith forces of Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma. The Mando'ade took the Wyrick boy in and taught him of other species, while Mandalore the Indomitable himself taught Wyrick the martial arts. When Ulic defeated Mandalore in battle and the Mando'ade were brought under Ulic's command, Wyrick began a quest to find out more about the Jedi. He found a trophy Ulic carried with him - a robe worn by Ulic's former Master, the great Arkanian Jedi, Arca Jeth. When the Jedi prevailed, Wyrick left the Mando'ade.
He took up residence on Arkania, eventually settling in with Arkanian offshoots who had been pushed out of their medical schools due to their impure blood. After years of failed experiments, Wyrick reconnected with the new Mando'ade, who wished to avenge their defeat at the hands of the Jedi. With Mandalorian backing, offshoot helpers, and the genetic material from Arca Jeth's robe, Wyrick went about trying to create a new race of Mandalorian Knights at a research colony on the hidden planet of Osadia.
In time, Wyrick discovered his best chance for success. He discovered that while all records showed Jeth to be a pure-blooded Arkanian, he was secretly an offshoot. And so Wyrick used his offshoot colleagues as incubators for his new race. The first successful birth was named Edessa - a name Zayne recognized as Jarael's birth name. But there were many after Jarael, all of them physically talented at a young age, but Wyrick believed they might be able to use Force talents as well, perhaps even amplifying the Force in others.
But Wyrick didn't have enough researchers to use as parents, so he made a deal with the Crucible to find him more offshoots. But the slavers were greedy. When Wyrick took a trip to report his progress to Mandalore, the Crucible struck, killing the guards, raiding the labs, and kidnapping the children. The project died when his offshoot colleagues - the parents of the children - discovered he brought the Crucible to Osadia and they swore to never work with him again.
His work stolen, Wyrick returned to Mandalore colder than ever, willing to do anything to anyone to advance his science. The Mando'ade gave him a new name: Demar'agol, the Flesh Carver.
"Demagol's story known, I had begun to look into Cassus Fett before I met you," Rohlan said. "I didn't mind helping you put one over on Demagol. I stripped his armor for you to wear at Flashpoint. Seeing he was a Zeltron confirmed what I already knew. But when I returned to fetch him later, I made a rookie mistake. NEVER remove your helmet while the hostile is breathing. I don't know what he injected me with, but my muscles went limp. I couldn't speak. But he talked, like a madman! Nattering about your offshoot friend, Jarael. He'd seen her and made the connection. She might be a Jeth child. And if she were, the rest might live, too. He had to go with her, and that meant he had to be me."
"The last thing I remember was aboard the Jedi shuttle. He dosed me again, and again. Then he was gone. And so was everything else," Rohlan finished.
"We got conned!" Gryph complained. "How could this happen to us? To me?"
"He made us uncomfortable. But he protected Jarael. We thought he was okay. We all have idiosyncrasies, so we cut him slack! But there's something else," Zayne said. "The slavers who took Jarael were from the Crucible, and Chantique was taken from the same place. But she said she was sold into slavery by her father, and she's a Zeltron!"
"Maybe," Rohlan said, catching Zayne's drift. "One of Demagol's earliest test subjects was a daughter. His own, with a Zeltron he met on the project. The daughter disappeared one day, and the mother committed suicide. But you don't think..."
"He threw her away," Zayne said. "She's a psychopath... and he's a sociopath. He thought she was a failure. He threw her away...."
"Everything about this is disgusting," Rohlan said. "Children are SACRED to the Mando'ade! I'm gonna make him a smear on the ground. Can you make it happen, kid?"
"Yeah," Zayne said. "And it's about that time. Get the door, Gryph."
Gryph hustled over to the door and let in two guests. One of them was dressed very elegantly. The other was Slyssk. "Ahem. Announcing Shel Jelevan, late of Taris, and Escort. Such as he is."
"You called me away from a Senatorial dinner party, Zayne," Shel said. "And people are going crazy out there looking for Demagol! Whatever this is had better be..." Then she noticed the awkward smile on Zayne's face. When she turned to the other man in the room, she saw the face that had been plastered all over the holonet. "Oh. You're him."
She turned back to Zayne and sighed. "You don't mess around, do you, Zayne? You just find all the public enemies and bring them home for dinner."
"No dinner," Zayne said before turning back to the Mandalorian. "But I had Slyssk bring you a gift, Rohlan. I hope you like it. You want Demagol's head. So do I. Call this a down payment...."
Minutes later, Rohlan stood before the group in his armor... Well, almost. "It's flimsy!" he complained. "And who shaved off my spikes?" He didn't even mention the colors had changed.
"It's just a party costume," Zayne explained. "But it'll help you move around. Cargryph Capital licenses all the Spikes merchandise. Oh, er, I forgot to tell you... you're a sports hero."
"I'm a WHAT?" Rohlan demanded.
"I'm working on finding you a real jetpack," Zayne promised. "In the meantime, let's see if my new addition to the warehouse is ready." As he led the group to a lift, Zayne pulled a remote from a pouch on his belt and pushed the button.
As they started to descend, Gryph asked, "Who sold you this dump? Your equipment lift's going the wrong direction!"
"I know it doesn't look like much," Zayne said as the lift came to a stop in an unheralded but impressive basement, "but I've made some additions. Welcome to Rogue Moon Project Command."
Gryph's eyes were practically bugging out. "What... is this place? Who paid for all this?"
"You did," Zayne said, leading the group on a tour of the facilities. "Or, rather, we did. Dad invested what we took in from the Exchange, and the bounty on the Correllian Strangler. After I turned down the Jedi's offer to join them, Shel and I got to talking. With the Republic and now the Jedi worried about the war, nobody's looking out for the regular people. So we brought together the families of the other Taris Padawans and created this: the Rogue Moon Project."
"Here we have Gharn's father and Kamlin's sister," Zayne said, indicating the people at the vid screens. "You've already met Oojoh's grandfather. He ran the freighter that carried the dustdivers to the refugee center. Everyone pitches in. Shel knew how to build an organization from the Taris Underground. Through her work with the Senator we get all kinds of information. They helped me find the Chancellor Fillorean and the Crucible. That's what we do. We help people. Refugees. Wrongly accused fugitives. Anyone without hope like we used to be and like Rohlan is now."
"I can't believe it!" Gryph yelled. "I'm supposed to be the Mastermind around here! You run all this?"
"They do," Zayne said. "I'm more of a volunteer field agent. A henchman."
"He's more than that," Shel said, carrying Zayne's lightsaber. "He's carrying on where my brother - and the others - couldn't. We even had a specialist fuse their crystals together for his new lightsaber. With Zayne on the job, they'll always be alive." She handed the lightsaber back to Zayne. "Thanks for letting us borrow it. We etched their names in the base. Use it in good health."
"Hopefully from here we can find Jarael," Zayne said after securing the saber to his belt. It would have come in handy a couple weeks ago, but he was glad to have it now. "It's a fair bet Demagol took her to Osadia. At least we know he won't hurt her."
"Ummm, Master Zayne?" Slyssk said, pulling a tag from his pocket. "I just remembered when you mentioned the lightsaber. I found something while mopping the other day. After Rohlan... er, the other Rohlan - finished using those chemicals he'd bought on Wor Tandell, he dropped this."
Gryph took the tag and tried reading the small text. "It says... 'Double-bladed lightsaber of Exar Kun, Fallen Jedi... Recovered Yavin System, by Covenant Shadow Morne.'"
Zayne leaned in to continue reading with a panicked look on his face. "'...extreme danger... do not remove from nullification resin under any...'"
"It's from one of the Sith weapons the Moomos stole from the Odryn warehouse!" Gryph said, facepalming. "Could Demagol have lifted one and gotten it out of the green protection stuff? Was that what the chemistry stuff he was doing was about?"
"This is horrible," Zayne said, turning back. "Demagol doesn't know what he's got... or CARE! Exar Kun... he LIVED to corrupt others! Anything he touched could be tainted! If Jarael is some kind of Force amplifier, there's no telling what could happen! We've got to get to Osadia!"
"That's no good, Zayne!" Rohlan said. "Nobody knows where Osadia is. Even Demagol's colleagues I talked to don't know!"
"There's got to be a way," Zayne said. "There's got to be something..." Zayne's face sudden got that certain determined look that Gryph knew too well.
"He's got The Look! Spirits help us, he's got The Look!" Gryph complained.
"Then you know to get out of my way, Gryph," Zayne said, hurrying over to a vidscreen Shel was stationed by. "Shel, we're going to need information on fleet positions. And the Senator's connections to set up a call. Diplomatic channel, top secret. Even from the Republic." He turned back to Rohlan, who had followed Zayne's energetic dash across the room. "Demagol isn't the only one who knows where Osadia is, Rohlan. Dace Golliard knows! The slaver who kidnapped Jarael in the beginning. He's the weak link!"
"But you said the Crucible was in hiding," Rohlan pointed out. "How can we call him?"
"We're not," Zayne said. "You're going to call Cassus Fett! And you've got to do it right now. It may already be too late."
[OOC: Oh god, you should have seen how long this post was before I took the story out of dialogue and just prosed it up a little. Anyone who's actually reading these, I apologize. Ahem. Anyway. From Demon Part 2 by Miller and Ching.]