This is the second installment... hopefully shorter than the last (and definitely the last chapter) in this little short series called Ashes! All about my own made up Star Wars character named Aira Kamissa, and if you haven't read the first one, please do! This one takes place nine years later.
A few things to know: Obi-wan was seventeen in my last one, so now he's twenty six, Aira was eighteen, so now she's twenty seven!
Qui-gon Jinn has been dead for three years. Anakin is nine when he's picked up on Tatooine, and at the start of my story, he's twelve.
Nine Years Later
A tall, slender Sorrusian woman stood on the landing pad of one of the numerous Sorrusian hangars, waiting for her transport. While she'd avoided going to Coruscant, the planet all covered in city, stench, and bad memories, she'd received a call from a client that was eagerly awaiting her skills. Aira Kamissa wore her once long black hair trimmed short and practical, yet still beautiful in it's simplicity around her face, complementing her bright green eyes that shone unnaturally in the smoldering Sorrusian sun. She had long discarded her Jedi attire after returning to Sorrus and now wore a slimming purple uni-suit with her blasters strapped to her back, and her and her old master's light sabers attached firmly to her hip. When most of her clients inquired about them, she'd merely regarded them as trophies, and refused to say more. Ever since her master had been brutally murdered in front of her, Aira had avoided any talk or reference to her previous life as a Jedi, though trying to fit back into the xenophobic environment that awaited her on Sorrus after she'd chosen to leave the Temple was difficult. Finding herself in wanting a means to live by, she used her honed Jedi skills and heightened Force sensitivity to establish a name for herself as a hired mercenary. Bounty hunters were easy enough to come by, but mercenaries were the elite, and Aira took great pride, no, great satisfaction in her work, even when it treaded on the shadowy line of legality.
Hyperdrive had always been Aira's least favorite thing about traveling to other planets. Coruscant was three parsecs away from Sorrus, so the ride wouldn't be too terrible, though the avoided confrontation of her dead past left on the planet had made Aira skittish.
"We'll be landing in three minutes miss. Perhaps you'd like to take your seat?" the man servicing the transport asked politely. Aira responded with a curt nod and sat down in the leather backed comfort of first class as she watched the endless Coruscanti sky-line pass beneath the wings of the shuttle. Once on the ground, Aira was greeted by the thick air of an industrial planet, much the opposite of Sorrus. Pulling out her contact pad, Aira flipped through the coded locations that her employer had sent her, and she scanned the sheet quickly. Didi's Cafe, a well known and dodgy joint that held conspirators, criminals and senators alike. A good place to blend in.
Taking a seat against the wall in one of the corners of the crowded restaurant, Aira politely ordered a concoction of freela and pomegranate juice as she waited. Her Jedi instincts that had never quite left her allowed her to listen to numerous conversations at once, but also made her suspicious of every action and motive. How could people live so ridiculously and recklessly? If her previous training had taught her anything, it's that she was gifted to judge and meditate on every little irksome thing she found in humans and aliens alike.
Waiting was Aira's least favorite game after hyperdrive. Of course, she decided that if no one showed up within twenty minutes of the rendezvous, that she was probably being hoodwinked, set-up or cheated, and would leave. She never got the opportunity. A person wearing a dark brown cloak entered the boisterous atmosphere of the bar, though they seemed tentative. Aira watched interested. The man, Aira deduced, judging by his stiff demeanor and bulkier appearance... no, perhaps a boy, walked into the midst of the carousers and sat at an empty table hesitantly. He was waiting for someone. My cue, Aira told herself, slipping gracefully and unnoticed towards the stranger, who she assumed was her client.
"Can I buy you a drink, sir?" she asked politely, pulling up a mismatched chair next to the cloaked boy.
"I don't accept drinks from strangers," the boy recited and soon, Aira realized she'd made a mistake. God it looks like I just hit on some ten year old! Aira scolded herself for being so impatient and calmly took a seat next to the boy as not to arouse suspicion. Letting her attention slip, Aira was brought back into the cafe when the boy spoke.
"Are you the Sorrusian merc?" he asked curiously, which sparked not only Aira's interest, but also suspicion.
"And you would know this how?" she retorted, her eyes smiling with amusement.
"I'm the one in need of your services." Aira didn't gawk, but her mind drew a blank. This was not the voice she heard on the comlink. This kid was young, and he probably knew little about what was going on.
"Look kid-"
"I'm not a kid!" the boy responded stubbornly.
"Yeah, what are you, ten?"
"Twelve! And a Jedi!" Aira once again caught her tongue before saying anything stupid.
"Jedi eh? And what would you want with the likes of me?" Aira had scooted closer to the boy and rested her chin on her hand as she awaited the boy's response.
"To arrest you." The curiosity and amusement left Aira's emerald eyes in an instant, and while she knew her escape would be hasty and drastic, she wouldn't involve unnecessary lives. Forgetting completely about the boy, Aira, trying not to arouse discontent, stood quickly up and headed towards the kitchen. Thankfully, she'd honed her skills at Jedi mind tricks instead of letting them slip, and made her way safely to the back of the restaurant. Funny that no one had been guarding it... too funny. Taking caution of what might be on the other side, Aira slipped her lithe, Sorrusian body through the tight space of the cracked window that normally would've restrained anyone else's escape. Of course, what... who she met on the other side was the most surprising.
"Why is it that Sorrusians always take the back door?" Aira stopped at the voice, which in its own way sounded foreign, but also familiar. Knowing she was caught however, Aira put her hands up to indicate her surrender, and then proceeded to grin.
"And how many Sorrusians have you met over the last nine years Obi-wan, save the crazy one that attempted to kill you and your master oh, how long ago?"
"Twelve years. No doubt she was a relative of yours," Obi-wan Kenobi, now Jedi knight responded casually, removing the blaster from Aira's back holster... and the leg holster, and the one on the outside of her thigh.
"For someone who used to be a Jedi, you really didn't have your wits about you today Aira," Obi-wan remarked as he clipped the handcuffs securely around the mercenary's wrists.
"Well, I was a little thrown off by the kid in the bar. You'll have to work on him Obi-wan. I don't think I could've found anyone more obvious," Aira laughed at her sticky situation, testing the stability of the handcuffs before mentally noting their weakness, and taking her time to plan the perfect escape. Glancing around awkwardly, Aira followed Obi-wan to the speeder.
"Obi-wan," she hissed, trying to get him to look at her.
"What is it Aira?"
"You will let me go," she said firmly, pulling all her Force sensitivity to her and trying to persuade Obi-wan with a mind trick. It didn't work.
"Aira, are you honestly trying to influence me with a mind trick? That doesn't even affect academy level students," Obi-wan chuckled insulted.
"I wouldn't know, but is it working?" Aira asked light-heartedly. Something in Obi-wan's face changed in that instant, and Aira sensed it.
"Something wrong?" she asked, hopping without help into the back of the speeder without a second thought.
"No, just something you told me once," Obi-wan reminisced, and Aira groaned inwardly. What was he getting at? Couldn't he just get in the speeder so she could escape?
"Well?"
"It's nothing."
"Then what are we waiting for? An okay from the senate? Let's get back to the police station!" Aira hopped up in her seat with false excitement.
"You've changed quite a lot since you left," Obi-wan stated bluntly. Those short words came down hard on Aira as she realized, in his eyes, she must be a complete failure. Not that she cared, it just... was.
"If you must know, we're waiting for my apprentice. He couldn't quite squeeze through the window as you could. Ah, here he comes now." Aira flipped her head around to see the same boy jogging up to the speeder, glaring at her with the demeanor only a twelve year old Jedi could muster.
"We meet again," the Sorrusian woman chuckled devilishly, relishing in the padawan's discomfort. They rode the rest of the way back to the temple in silence.
"Ahem, Obi-wan, you um, I don't know, missed the station... where I'm supposed to go to prison, for killing people? Remember?" the confused look in Aira's quizzical green eyes made Obi-wan remember the lightness of her youth before her master had died. Most of the masters at the temple still considered it to the biggest tragedy of their time... and Yoda had seen a lot of tragedy.
"I never said we were going to turn you in," the Jedi master glanced over his shoulder to see the look of horror in Aira's face.
"So this whole thing was a set up to get me back to the temple... I should've known," Aira glowered forward in her seat, testing the strength of her handcuffs. Slipping her flexible wrists through the tight metal, she sighed and glanced reluctantly out the window. "You do know that as soon as we get there, all that's going to happen is a bunch of old geezers are going to chew me out... then bribe me with my dignity in return for a favor... which I smell is coming. But speaking of geezers, how's Qui-gon, I mean, the guys gotta be pushing sixty-"
"He's dead," Obi-wan stated blandly continuing to stare out the windshield of the craft and into the traffic as the temple approached with each passing second.
"Oh... I'm so sorry," Aira said with sincere remorse in her voice as she reached up and patted Obi-wan on the shoulder with her free hand, and glancing over at Anakin who gaped at her self-induced freedom. Thinking back a moment, Aira realized that Obi-wan was probably going to get on her case about what she'd said to him all those years ago... about the decision she made after her master died- was murdered and how he had taken a different path and it had led him to a great place in his life. Whoop dee freakin' doo.
"Aira! A long time since I've last seen you, it has been," Jedi Master Yoda recited, nodding for Anakin to release their captive from the handcuffs.
"A little late for that, shorty," Aira teased, dangling the limp metal from her fingers which were singed and scarred by the burning hot recoil of a standard blaster. Obi-wan noted a change in the Sorrusian's voice and tone. It no longer hinted to a perfect temple upbringing, but instead sounded un-aristocratic and riddled with slang. Her perfect human accent had become marred with Sorrusian and merc tonal qualities, and left Obi-wan in an unfamiliar frame of mind when he listened too intently to her voice.
"Yoda," Aira acknowledged loftily, allowing her eyes to wander around the walls of the Temple. So much had changed, and at the same time, nothing had. Same walls, same chipped paint and old bricks needing new sealant; same old Jedi motto ticking relentlessly in the back of the student's minds... but the students themselves. Last time Aira was here, it was her and Bant and Obi-wan and Bruck running around, challenging each other to fights and flinging bland, imported cafeteria food in each other's faces. Now it was a new, motley crew including Anikan's generation. How Nostalgic, Aira thought sarcastically, crossing her freed arms and waiting for the old, wrinkly green Jedi master to cut to the chase.
"Later, talk we shall, but for now, you may eat," Yoda nodded curtly to Obi-wan who attempted to usher the resistant Aira toward the mess hall.
"I don't mean to be rude but-"
"Then don't be," Anikan offered, blocking the now irritated Sorrusian from speaking with the master before he hobbled out of sight.
"Of course!" Aira exclaimed somewhat exasperated. She didn't come here to chit chat. Now that I think about it, why did I come here at all?
"We would like you to inspect the trade routes to Nar Shadaa," stated Jedi councilman Mace Windu as Obi-wan, Anikan and Aira (looking slightly bored and uninterested in the whole affair; stripped of her weapons, but still managing to cop an attitude) stood in the middle of the council room, awaiting their mission.
"Why do we need her for this?" Anikan interrupted obtrusively, earning him a warning glance from his master.
"I agree with the kid. What use am I gonna be on a routine trade-"
"We believe the notorious pirate and slave trader Krayn is interfering with normal routes. You'll be escorting a Colicoid ship as ambassadors. Your transport leaves tomorrow." Aira's eyes narrowed in recognition to the name.
"You still haven't answered my question." At the completely detached tone in Aira's voice, Obi-wan stood appalled that his former Jedi role model could be so absent in emotion when dealing with the killer of her master. No one spoke for a moment before Yoda continued.
"Undercover, you will be Kamissa. Infiltrate the pirate defenses you must."
"I never agreed to this. Besides, what're we gonna do if we find Krayn, huh? Slap him on the wrists and bring him back here for a fake trial that he'll buy his way out of? Believe me, I've done it a hundred times-"
"Well, it's either us or them," Windu nodded towards the door where six Togorian police were waiting to 'escort' Aira away in case she refused the case.
"Geez, I didn't realize the Jedi were so big into coercion and press ganging," the Sorrusian cursed silently at her bad luck and conceded to the mission.
"God I hate hyper-speed," Aira clasped the arms of her seat in a violent grip until the stars came into view a few moments later at a closer range. Whew. Nar Shadaa at last. The council had decided to send Aira under cover as a mine inspector, of whom Krayn would have to impress, lest Aria Assimak (Aira's new alias) shut the plant down and ruin the operation. She was, however, impersonating a bought off official who, due to regulations, was scheduled to appear on behalf of the workers guild, or course, the reports were all falsified, to which Aira approved haughtily. She had, in the last evening, spruced up her appearance and changed from a skin tight suit to a modest secretary uniform. No less than six hours of space flight later, Aira found her transport landing on a smog covered planet that made her slightly uneasy about landing. Never before had she seen such expanses of workers of all shapes and species. I hate to act emotional, but I hope that Anikan and Obi-wan... they'll be fine. I have one goal and one goal only, Aira decided, refreshing her lifelong vendetta she'd pledged against Krayn that fateful day he'd killed the only person she'd recognized as a father her whole life. I don't give a crap about what the Jedi say. If I see him, I WILL kill him, she promised herself as she made her way to the premiere building for visitors and honored guests at the top of the plantation where slaves were forbidden.
"Ah, you must be Aria," a tall, broad-chested humanoid strode forward; face riddled with scars and evidence of his many years in the profession of piracy. Aira's hand reached instinctively for her light saber, but only remembered that she was forbidden to even carry a blaster on the premises. Her saber, and her masters, were both concealed within her belongings, and she could access them later. But Krayn was in front of her. Right now. Surrounded by four thugs at least twice the Sorrusian's size. She was outmatched, but if she could get Krayn alone...
"That's me!" Aira chirped in response, following Krayn into the immaculate house, scowling at the close proximity between them. Each passing second, Aira's resentment and revulsion grew until she had to excuse herself from his presence.
"How long do you think this inspection will take Ms. Aria?" the pirate king asked, his grey eyes impatient as he hurried about his business.
"It'll take as long as it'll take," Aira confirmed, trying to congeal the malice that dripped from each word directed at him.
"Take her to her room," Krayn barked to his Wookiee guard. I'm going to loathe every second I'm here, Aira reassured her self pessimistically. As soon as she got to her room, she located her dual light sabers and tucked them in an easily accessible yet concealed place.
The mission was going on its second week. Aira had had to stomp around the grounds in goulashes with a clipboard as if appearing to do something. Obi-wan, where the hell are you? Aira cursed her luck as she perused through the barracks writing down chicken scratch on her clipboard while being wary of the enormous Wookiee, Rashtah, who was following her (when he wasn't tailing stupidly behind Krayn). Dismissing Rashtah as she entered, Aira surveyed one of the grimy, cramped interiors; moldy wood smelling of rotten lumber and deterioration as well as rats and sewage, Aira cringed, that is, until she saw a familiar Jedi apprentice. He apparently saw her too. What are they thinking? Putting that idiot boy under cover in a barrack? The Jedi council is faulty! Aira swiftly ducked out of the dingy hut just as Anikan had acknowledged her presence. There's no WAY Obi-wan would have stuck him in such a dangerous situation... unless he was actually captured... which means rescue may or may NOT be coming! Those damn Jedi. Aira attempted to keep her cool as Anikan raced out of the building after her. Keeping her inspector facade, Aira ignored him and kept walking.
"Hey, wait up!" the padawan called out, causing a foreboding sense of mistaken identity to creep up her spine.
"Your slave is addressing me far too informally," Aira noted, tipping down her fake, half-moon spectacles while she shook her head and scratched something down on her clipboard. "See that it doesn't happen again," Aira nodded to the Wookiee who slammed Anikan backwards and locked him in the dark confines of the barrack. Poor kid. That's the last place I'd want to be. Aira only hoped he made it out alive, because judging by the upkeep of this place, not many did.
"Watch where you're going!" Aira snapped as she navigated the complicated halls of the Agra Culpas building, making her way to her filing destination. The hooded figure, she deduced, had purposely stood his ground before she stepped into him, though she recognized his presence immediately.
"I'm going to kill you for being this late," Aira hissed barely audibly to Obi-wan, whose shear disguise would go unnoticed to most with Force sensitivity.
"Where is Anikan?" he asked hastily, casting his hooded eyes about the empty hallway as if to look inconspicuous.
"In the barracks. 103B6," Aira recited automatically, nodding to wish Obi-wan luck before they parted ways. It never got that far however, because a sudden siren blared loudly over the slave fields, signaling some sort of unrest. An uprising, both Jedi deduced. Nodding in silent agreement, Obi-wan fled downstairs to recollect his missing apprentice, while Aira headed upstairs to find the killer of her master, Jedi Knight Larkin Demir. This will be my finest hour, Aira assured herself, glowing with the prospect of fresh, intoxicating revenge. What she found in the Pirate king, Krayn's office however, left her dismayed. It was empty. No trace signaled the notorious slave trader had even been there!
"DAMMIT!" Aira screamed, loud enough that it even penetrated through the ears of the Colicoids who were rising against their oppression below. Realizing she had little to no time left for vengeance, the Sorrusian leapt to her feet and thundered down the lift until she came face to face with a most satisfactory, yet heart wrenching scene. Anikan Skywalker, Obi-wan Kenobi's Padawn's light saber was hilt deep in the slave trader, Krayn's chest. The padawan wore a blank expression as though killing was nothing to him. In one single moment, it all became clear to Aira. She reached down through her cloak and gently brushed her fingers against the hilt of her own and her master's light sabers that she had retrieved from her room before the uprising and sighed. Revenge would've meant nothing, Aira admonished, acknowledging the solemn padawan's face as he completed the kill and walked to meet his master with surprising calmness and dignity. Without meaning to, Aira had fallen to her knees, running her fingers through her short cut, black hair and holding tears back in her emerald eyes. I almost killed him... and it would've meant nothing! So what if the Sorrusian had killed before? That was when she was a mercenary. That was when she was lost. Looking at the scene with a new eye, one that was not clouded with a malevolent intent, Aira allowed a lone tear to fall from her eye. She recalled Anikan's cold hearted reaction, and her heart lurched. Would she have reacted that way? Would it have been worth it? What would her master have said?
"...don't all Jedi get second chances?"
Though Obi-wan was concerned about his Padawan since their return from Nar Shadaa, but it was Aira he was worried about. Her whole demeanor had changed in that single instant she'd broken down and cried in front of him and his apprentice over Krayn's dead body. What had come over the merc? Her normally cocky and unattainable personality had washed away like the coming tide and been replaced with a much calmer presence, as though her Jedi composure was returning. Perhaps she's found a new path, Obi-wan wondered, sticking his hands inside the sleeves of his robes as he proceeded through the halls of the temple, heading towards the council room. He stopped however by the crèche, when he noticed an extremely unthinkable sight. Aira, the sassy, Sorrusian hitman was cradling one of the youngest additions to the temple, cooing to it gently as she held the baby in her arms. A smile spread across Obi-wan's face as he walked into the council chambers and debriefed them on the mission... and on Aira's status.
"She applied for a position in the nursery the instant she returned from the mission," Master Windu explained of Aira, causing Obi-wan to relax even further.
"Go see her, you should," Master Yoda urged, gesturing the young knight towards the door and back the way he came.
"I never imagined babies could be so... tiny," Aira commented wistfully, stroking the head of a sleeping tot before facing Obi-wan. Her eyes... they were so much different from those of the girl he'd met only weeks before. They were filled with life and prosperity, as though the chains of revenge that bound her were now severed and she was free to live her life.
"Why the change?" Obi-wan asked slightly startled by Aira's new found redemption in the Jedi code.
"I visited the Room of a Thousand Fountains. My master came to me. He said: 'From each death, a new life rises from the ashes.' Somehow I knew I owed it to the temple, to the children," Aira whispered, gesturing to the cradles. "I couldn't keep living like I was Obi-wan. Looking back, I can't even recognize myself those last 10 years. It's... unreal."
"The proverbial phoenix," Obi-wan murmured as Aira surveyed the rest of her charges.
"I meditated a while yesterday. I was surprised I could still do it so fully, but there was this moment of awakening... and I realized I'd risen, out of the darkness, the ashes, and into the light." A slight pause built between the two Jedi, before Obi-wan spoke.
"Your master would be proud."
Okay, so I know Aira was so OOC at the end, but I had to wrap it up! Anywhos, tell me what you think please!
