LordDarthYoda - The site has been pretty weird for me these past weeks. As long as you still are watching :). I think Palpatine is more of an Opera follower than a pop star follower - I do think he would be cackling at the casual adulation given to the Jedi, and making a note to have that song banned when he becomes Emperor. I also think you understood Ezah's motivations perfectly.
TheAdamBomb505 - Thanks! Here it is :)
A/N - has been pretty weird for me the past few weeks, so I just want everyone to make sure they haven't missed a chapter (it's especially relevant as this chapter is a Part 2). I always post around the same time on Sunday, so notification or not, you can always find an update at the usual time. Not totally happy how this chapter turned out, but I think it's okay. You'll have to let me know, as usual.
As always, Please enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 10: Acting in Concert, Part Two
"What do you mean, we should see for ourselves? Can't you just tell us what they are doing out there?" Nara didn't quite understand why Hatara was playing so tight-lipped about this. A part of her wanted to suspect that Hatara was part of this anti-Jedi conspiracy, but that idea didn't really make any sense – as Ezah's manager, she presumably traveled world to world for Ezah's concerts – there was no way for her to be involved with a local group like the one based on Estimar. Still, it was hard to get over a first impression, and she was finding that she just didn't want to trust Hatara.
Hatara bowed her head slightly, "Apologies. I'll tell you what I know. First, there is a protest going on outside. Peaceful, but loud. Disruptive. Plus, when I left, the people in line were starting to argue against the protesters. Which meant the tension was escalating."
"Why aren't the people in line being let inside?" asked Sascha. "I thought the doors would be open by now."
"That brings me to my second point. Some of the volunteers and staff are rebelling. They are refusing to work."
"Why?" she asked.
Hatara glanced at Ezah before answering, "I was only able to speak with one of these people, but she said that they were participating in a non-violent protest against the 'pro-Jedi forces' within the government."
"I don't understand. Aren't these workers full time workers at this auditorium? Why are they protesting?" she asked.
Hatara had the answer for her, "For events like this, the company that runs the building hires students to work. Selling concessions, being ushers, and so on and so forth. So there is a large percentage of workers here that are students and because they are students, they don't seem particularly concerned over potentially losing their jobs."
Ezah, paced, obviously unhappy, "Let's get right down to it, can I perform or not?" asked Ezah
"The staff that they have here is doing their best. But they are behind schedule," replied Hatara. "I've already bumped one of the opening acts due to time constraints, I paid them for their time, of course. But we could just cancel the whole thing. Promise to come back at a later date. We've done it before, on Genari, when there was a hurricane that cancelled our show, we can do it again here."
"It would be a reasonable way out," Sascha suggested.
"I'm here to perform," said Ezah, "Not to run at the first sign of trouble."
"One of us should investigate," Nara said. "And I think it should be Sascha." For a whole bunch of reasons, she didn't want to mention why it made sense for it to be Sascha that investigated these anti-Jedi protestors, but she hoped that her friend would just agree to do so.
"I'd be happy to go and see what is happening out there," Sascha said politely.
Ezah nodded and pointed to the door, "Go. Tell me what its like out there."
"But I just told you, Ezah," said Hatara impatiently.
"I want the Jedi's opinion," Ezah said, folding her arms across her chest. "And I need to get ready to perform. So the male needed to leave while I change into my clothes. "
As Nara knew he would, Sascha blushed, and he quickly walked towards the exit of the room. Before he exited, Sascha looked at her and then at Ezah. The unspoken message was clear – protect Ezah. She nodded in understanding before Sascha walked out the door.
Once he was gone, Ezah turned to Hatara, "I need you to go out there and get everything ready. Threaten those that won't work with lawsuits if you have to. Just...make it work, like you always do."
"Are you sure, Ezah? I still recommend that we just pack up and go."
"My mind is made up," Ezah said confidently.
Hatara shot Nara a quick look, "As long as you stay with one of the Jedi, I'll go see what I can do."
Ezah smiled slightly, "We aren't going anywhere. I need to do my vocal warm-up anyway."
"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can," replied Hatara, hustling out the door.
And with that, Nara and Ezah were alone in the room together. Fearing that the Twi'lek would immediately start to undress, Nara averted her eyes. "So, what would you like me to do?" she asked.
"Just stay with me and make sure I don't die," Ezah said dryly.
"I think I can manage that."
"Also I might need you to do my makeup."
"That…I don't know if you want to ask a Jedi to do that. I have some experience of doing my own makeup, I can only remember applying makeup to friends a handful of times. They don't exactly teach makeup class at the Temple." She shook her head, "What I don't understand why you aren't just packing up and leaving. We're pretty sure that you are in danger…and I think you know it. Sascha is following your orders because he knows you. Hatara because you pay her. Me…You have to win me over, first."
"Sascha always said that you spoke your mind," Ezah commented, clearly not offended by her blunt speech. "And that's why I wanted you to stay with me."
"I'll stay with you. But I want you to know that I disagree with how you are handling this right now."
Ezah cocked her head to the side, "It's interesting. You believe I'm in danger, and you could drag me from my room kicking and screaming without a problem. But you don't. Why?"
"I don't know," Nara admitted. "I think if I knew concretely of what sort of danger you were in, I would do it. Like, say I knew an earthquake was going to destroy the building – I'd be grabbing you and rushing you to safety. But because I don't know specifically why you might be in danger, I'm letting you potentially walk into it. Weird, huh?"
The Twi'lek shrugged and smiled, "You're the Jedi. I'm just the damsel in distress. Now if you don't mind averting your eyes for a moment, I'm going to change into my performance clothes."
Nara fastidiously studied the wall in front of her. While she wasn't quite as easily embarrassed as Sascha, she still felt a tinge of embarrassment that Ezah was apparently comfortable enough with a total stranger to disrobe while in the same room with her. That was the sort of trust people had in the Jedi. She would probably always find it unnerving.
After a couple of minutes of staring at the wall, Ezah laughed, "You done staring at the wall?"
"I'm done staring if you are done dressing."
"I'm was done dressing two minutes ago."
Nara turned around to see the Twi'lek dressed for the stage, tight black nerf leather pants along with a tight shirt that left a small amount of her midriff bare. If Ezah had been effortlessly beautiful before, now she was easily more beautiful, even to her. The Twi'lek's dress wasn't overly flashy, or even overly revealing, but it just...worked on her.
"Can I get the number for your tailor?" she asked.
Ezah grinned, "I could ask if they'd be willing to do a robe for you."
"I was being facetious."
"I was being polite."
Nara smiled, for the first time she felt herself warming to Ezah. The nervous, almost fearful Twi'lek was slowly disappearing, and a more confident young woman was taking her place. Maybe Ezah was just nervous before going on stage? That seemed like a workable hypothesis. Sascha thought enough of Ezah to call her his friend, and Sascha didn't suffer fools. Not for long, anyway.
"So how do we keep you safe? Let's assume that you will go out and perform tonight," she said.
Ezah shrugged, "It's not like I haven't performed in front of hostile crowds before. I once performed during the holy week on Astralis IV, a time when no woman is supposed to be allowed in public. I had religious fanatics throwing debris at me before and after the concert. But during the concert...they watched. That's the power of music. They weren't always quiet when they watched, but they watched."
Nara was amazed. The inhabitants of Astralis IV, a small colony world in the middle rim, was a world that was not in the Republic, mostly because they refused to accept 'secular non-religious' rule. The priesthood that ruled Astralis IV did so with an iron fist, trying to maintain the religious purity of the world. Theoretically, the residents of the world were simply waiting for their god to come and take them into the afterlife as their religious text had promised. But in Nara's estimation, if this deity was a real thing, making his believers wait several thousand years before returning was bordering on cruel and unusual punishment.
"I'm surprised they let anyone perform there at all."
Ezah's mouth quirked, "I wasn't meant to. I ran this contest for my fans and whoever won would get a free concert for them and their friends, and I would come to their planet to do so. So this young woman from Astralis IV won the random draw. I offered to bring her and her family to Coruscant to see one of my performances there, but they wanted a concert on their planet as promised."
"And the priesthood let you?"
"Well…lets just say I didn't announce that I was performing beforehand. I did a small acapella performance in a local gymnasium. Not sure how the priests found out. Someone must have ratted me out. As soon as I was done the performance, I was told to leave, politely told to leave mind you, but the implication was leave now or face jail time."
"That seems like a huge risk you took."
Ezah shrugged casually. "I'm a performer. I went there to perform. It's that simple."
"So that's your plan for tonight? Go out there and assume everything will work out?" Nara applauded Ezah's bravery and her commitment to her task, but it seem like she was intent on walking into danger, just because it had worked out for her in the past. Not exactly smart.
"Well, as long as the security guards are out front, scanning people for weapons and the security guards at the front of the stage do their job, and the laser shield that protects me doesn't inexplicably fail, I think I'll be fine. Oh, and I'll also have two Jedi to protect me." Ezah grinned confidently, "What's the worst that could happen?"
The bad feeling currently occupying the pit of Nara's stomach seemed to grow larger after Ezah's spiel, "What indeed could go wrong," she muttered. Besides everything.
In Nara's estimation, when things could go wrong, they usually did. Ezah's concert proved to be the exception to rule.
Though the concert was late, Hatara managed to cajole, bribe and threaten enough workers to get the auditorium into working order, and eventually everything was ready for Ezah's concert. Nara was granted a spot right beside the stage where Ezah was performing, in good position to intervene should someone decide to rush the stage. Instead, her good position just gave her a great vantage point to watch Ezah's concert.
There was a bit of drama near the end of the concert, however. When Ezah announced that her next song would be 'Jedi Boy' a small, but loud section of the audience tried to disrupt her performance by making noise of their own. But Ezah, using the fact that her voice was amplified by the speakers on stage, simply just continued to sing the song as usual. And then after it was done, she requested that the crowd sing along with her as she sung 'Jedi Boy' again. With the other 95% of the crowd behind her, the sounds of 'Jedi Boy' drowned out the loud protest.
In Nara's estimation, it was the best concert she'd ever been to.
It was also the only concert she'd ever been to. Not much competition.
Nara watched Ezah take her final curtain call from the crowd after doing an acapella, sing along version of 'Jedi Boy' in obvious defiance of those that were still trying to shout her down. No one took a shot at her. No one rushed the stage with a home made knife. She just sang her sung, waved the the crowd and walked off stage one last time. Still, Nara sensed that the danger had not passed. The Force was telling her that whatever danger was going to present itself to Ezah Reisel tonight, it had not happened yet.
Nara walked back to Ezah's room, keeping just ahead of the Twi'lek, cautious as to any potential danger. But nothing happened. No one jumped out of an electrical closet and tried to stab Ezah. No one did anything more than congratulate her on putting on a good show and ask to take a picture with them. Maybe the Force was just...wrong? Or maybe whoever had decided that they wanted to attack Ezah had decided not to. Either way, it was looking like this whole night had been something of a waste.
Nara made it to the door to Ezah's room first. When Ezah was close enough, Nara bowed her head slightly, "Good show, Ms. Reisel. I'd open your door for you, but I don't know the code."
Ezah, her skin shining with the sweat she had worked up by putting on her performance, smiled, "What, they don't teach Jedi to pick locks?"
"They do. It's just generally considered to be impolite to do so right in front of the person you are ostensibly protecting."
"Ah. I see." Ezah stopped in front of the keypad, and Nara averted her eyes so she wouldn't be looking at the keypad when Ezah was entering the code. The door whooshed open, and Nara caught Ezah smirking at her, "You're so much like Sascha. It amuses me just to see how much the two of you are alike."
Nara stepped inside the room and watched the door close behind her, "I don't think of myself as very much like Sascha."
"Maybe I see you as similar because you are both Jedi," Ezah allowed. "Anyway, I find it amusing to see you being much different than the person Sascha has described to me on many different occasions."
"Sascha talks about me?" she asked, totally surprised.
"Aren't the two of you close friends? That's the way Sascha describes you."
"I mean...yeah, I'm just surprised that Sascha talks about me at all."
Nara started listening to Ezah's response, when the sensation of danger grew stronger in her mind. She had been sensing danger ever since stepping inside the auditorium, but now it seemed that whatever danger she had been sensing was now coming their way. Quickly, she sent a mental summons to Sascha in the Force, telling him that wherever he was, he needed to get here, and quickly.
"Ezah," she interrupted, "I need you to hide."
"Hide, why?"
"Because someone is coming."
But by the time that Ezah had even started to look for somewhere to hide, the door was opening. Nara's hand went to her lightsaber, which was concealed in a pocket on her shirt. But when she saw what came through the door, she let her hand fall back to her hip empty handed.
First into the room was Hatara. Her eyes were wide with fear, her clothes had been ripped slightly and her lip was swelling up. Behind her was a group of three beings. The one that drew Nara's eye first was the large, muscled security guard that had been guarding Nara's door. The other demanding her attention, was a well-muscled female human with her blonde hair in a wild buzzcut. The most important fact about her was that she currently had a knife pressing against Hatara's throat. The the third person was yet another human, this one was fairly average looking, he looked like his day job might have been as an accountant. The real detail that drew Nara's attention was the small, holdout blaster that he was currently holding in his hands.
Nara made a quick read of the situation. These three humans had obviously taken Hatara hostage, but their intended target was clearly not Ezah's manager, but Ezah herself. While she would probably have no problems defeating these three humans, even without her lightsaber, it seemed unclear if she could do so in such a way that would keep Hatara alive.
Plan: Stay as close to Ezah as possible, get lightsaber ready to protect her, wait for reinforcement from Sascha before acting.
In a single blink of an eye, Nara committed to her plan. And thus to make sure that she had maximum surprise when she needed to act, she decided that she would play scared, hopefully so that these intruders would see her as less of a threat. "Hatara!" she yelled shrilly.
The human with the blaster pointed it at her. "You. Togruta. Don't move."
Nara put her hands up, "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" She then fell to her knees and tried to make herself look as non threatening as possible. It was a galling act for a warrior such as herself. But a true warrior always knew when to strike.
In contrast, Ezah stood tall, keeping her hands where the intruders can see them "What is the meaning of this?"
The woman stepped forward, using Hatara as a human shield of sorts, "Right now. I want you and your friend here to not move. Then, we'll be having you record a little message to all your fans."
"Let me guess, a message where I say the Jedi are frauds? That they are destroying the Republic?" Ezah retorted hotly.
"We have lines prepared for you," the woman replied. "You say them, you broadcast them to your fans, put them on the holonet and everyone goes home without a scratch. Well, everyone except for your manager here. She put up a nice little fight and got rewarded justly."
Nara grit her teeth, while she hadn't necessarily warmed to Ezah's manager, no one deserved to be attacked and hurt like that. Especially when there was a Jedi in the building. Still, her experience told her that if she wanted to successfully resolve this hostage situation, she needed to be patient, and not act rashly.
"I'll start considering your offer when you let my friends go," said Ezah
The three hostage takers shared a look, "No, they'll call for help the moment we release them," said the woman, who Nara was starting to assume was their leader.
"I promise I won't," Nara wailed dramatically, "I just want to go home."
"Just keep quiet, Togruta," said the smaller human with the blaster, hefting it dangerously towards her.
"Okay," Nara whimpered. Mentally she was thinking about how she could possibly defeat these three intruders in a way that would prevent Hatara from being hurt. None seemed to come to her. She could use the Force to try to make sure that the knife wasn't used on Hatara or anyone else, but that would take all of her concentration and leave her easy prey for the other two hostage takers. So all she could do was wait. Fortunately, she could sense that Sascha was close by.
Ezah made an attempt to make eye contact with her, which she ignored. The Twi'lek turned her attention back to main woman, "Okay, tell me what you want me to say, and I'll do it. Please don't hurt anyone."
The woman smirked, "Raynar, give her the lines. Then set up to record. Bavais, watch the door and the Togruta. I'll keep a hold of this one," she said, adjusting her grip on Hatara.
"Right, Mischa," said the hulking former security guard, who took up a position right beside the door, and stared directly at her. She averted her gaze. So Bavais was the security guard that Ezah's insurance company had paid for? Guess whatever he was being paid by the insurance company had proved to be too little. As always, credits could be a powerful motivator.
On the plus side, she could sense that Sascha was very close. On the bad side...she wasn't quite sure how helpful he could be if the door was locked from the inside. Maybe the door wasn't locked though, she didn't remember seeing if the intruders had locked it behind them when they had entered. Only a slightly crucial detail, one that she had forgotten about. Drat.
Meanwhile Mischa and Raynar had corralled Ezah in the corner of her room. Ezah was scared out of her mind, Nara could sense, but the Twi'lek was too brave to show too much of her fear. Nara had really underestimated Ezah, she realized. She should have trusted Sascha more. He was very rarely wrong about people.
"Can I make some changes to this statement?" asked Ezah. "People will know I didn't write this."
"Lady, we get paid double if you say exactly what's on the datapad," retorted Mischa. "Just say what needs to be said and we can all get out of here, and move on with our lives. Let's make this easy, please."
"Just do what they want," she said, faking being hysterical, but trying to pass a message on to Ezah.
Mischa still had her arm wrapped around Hatara, controlling her, but her knife was no longer pointed at her throat, being too distracted by everything else that was going on. That was good. That maybe gave her a chance to intervene in keeping Hatara alive. But she still needed Sascha here to deal with the other two enemies.
Fortunately, he was almost here. She could sense him, just outside the door, awaiting instructions. She closed her eyes and concentrated, opening up her connection with Sascha in the Force. Nara couldn't give him specific instructions about what he should do, but she could convey emotions through it. She conveyed urgency, telling him to come through the door now, but also caution, because there was someone waiting for him right by the door.
"Okay," said Ezah. "I'm ready to read the statement."
Mischa smiled deviously and pointed towards Raynar, "Ready to record, Raynar?"
"Ready to record," the slender man confirmed, pointing his datapad at Ezah. Obviously his datapad had the ability to film video, which was not an unheard of capability for a datapad, but usually not a feature that came standard these days.
Ezah took a deep breath, and then all hell broke loose.
The door whooshed open, and Sascha burst through, catching the hulking Bavais with a flying kick to the midsection before he could react. Despite the strength of the hit, the large man didn't go down, instead he swung a desperate punch at Sascha which her friend easily avoided. But Nara could not pay attention to that fight any longer, her task was to keep Hatara and Ezah safe. That meant making sure that the knife currently in Mischa's right hand had to be disabled. That meant using the Force. But even the Force had limits. She couldn't simply just summon the knife from Mischa's hand, not when it was being held tightly like it was at the current moment. But she could concentrate and keep Mischa's arm immobilized.
"Everyone STOP! Or the lady gets the pointy end!" yelled Mischa
Sascha didn't listen, he dropped the hulking Bavais with a blistering headkick. The big man fell to his knees and then collapsed onto his side, dazed.
Raynar dropped the datapad and picked up his holdout blaster again and pointed it at Sascha, "Stop right there, bud."
Sascha put his hands up in a calming gesture, "Okay. I'm stopping."
"No one is going to be a hero today," said Mischa, indicating that she still had a firm grip on Hatara. "Raynar. Stun them both."
Raynar hesitated for a second and that was all that the Jedi needed. Raynar fired and missed, his blue stun bolt whizzing past Sascha as he dodged to the side. Raynar aimed and fired again, but Sascha dodged again. Then he extended his arm and used a Force push to send Raynar flying into the wall. Rynar grunted on impact and then collapsed the the ground, laying still.
Mischa, her eyes widening at what had just happened to her colleague, tightened her grip on her knife and pushed it closer to Hatara's neck. "Who are you people?"
Nara concentrated on Mischa's arm with the Force, attempting to keep it immobilized. She wasn't sure if she could control it totally, but she could probably prevent her from driving the knife into Hatara.
"Drop the knife, and this goes easier for you," said Sascha in a calm voice.
Mischa's eyes darted to her colleagues. Raynar wasn't moving. Bavais was trying to get to his knees, but judging by the lack of coordination in his movements, the big man wasn't going to be a factor for the next little while. Sascha might have been the smaller man in the fight, but, as she knew from experience, he hit damn hard when he wanted to.
"Everyone, stay still. I'm in control here," said Mischa, a note of desperation entering her voice.
"You're in control," agreed Sascha, keeping his voice calm. "Just think about how this ends."
"It ends with me getting out of here," said Mascha, her eyes darting wildly between her and Sascha. Unfortunately for Mischa, she seemed to have forgotten the other person in the room.
Ezah, who had snuck up from behind Mischa, socked the human with an imperfect, but solid punch to the jaw. That was all the opening that the Jedi needed. With Nara continuing to use the Force to keep her knife arm immobilized, and her other arm being used to keep a hold of Hatara, she was a sitting duck for Sascha, who dashed to Mischa, hitting her with a left hook to the stomach and then a right cross that dropped her to the ground, moaning incoherently.
Ezah, showing good instincts, picked up the blaster that Raynar had dropped and used the stun setting on the blaster to keep the three intruders down for a while.
Amazingly, it was all over.
"Everyone okay?" asked Sascha.
"I think I'm in shock," mumbled Hatara, who stumbled forward and into a gentle embrace from Ezah, who ran a hand gently through her hair in a comforting manner.
"I'm okay," said Ezah.
Sascha nodded and picked up Hatara, "Let's get out of here. Nara, lead the way."
"Happy to take point," said Nara.
"What about the attackers?" asked Ezah.
"I called the police as I ran here. They are on their way, but I don't want to be there when they arrive. Our cover is valuable," replied Sascha.
"Let's just get out of here while we can," said Nara. "Details later."
"Let's follow the Jedi," suggested Hatara.
"Good idea," said Ezah. "We have an airspeeder out back that is for me. We can take it to my hotel."
"Good, let's get out of here," said Nara.