Chapter 11
Kai-Kwon awoke with a start, pushing himself up on outstretched arms to glance around the still room. He used a hand to wipe the thin film of sweat that had collected on his brow as he tried to recall the nightmare that woke him…but he couldn't. He couldn't recall the dream that woke him…because that terrible feeling that had accompanied the dream had not left with the fogginess of sleep. He sat all the way up and closed his eyes, sinking into a meditative trance. The Force did not have to take him far before he pinpointed the disturbance. opening his eyes, he called out "Orgus!"
The sun was still tucked beneath the horizon when Kai-Kwon was ushered back into the Council chambers in front of the hastily awoken Masters. They listened intently to his vision of Orgus Din, bloodied and bruised, and to Kai-Kwon's great relief the power of the Master/Padawan connection still held great sway over the Council.
"Your orders still stand. You are to retrieve Orgus Din and find out who is holding him and for what purpose. Only this time you will be accompanied by Master Zon and ten other Knights of our choosing. Given the small army of Flesh Raiders that could be waiting for you we will have to trust in the Force that this will be enough."
Standing now she added, "you will leave in an hour. Prepare yourself".
After adorning the chest plate, gauntlets, and durasteel leggings necessary for any mission where violence was nearly assured, Kai-Kwon made his way back to the speeder hangar, where a few minutes later, all the Jedi had assembled. Master Shan had chosen from the largest, strongest and best offensive blade masters in the Order. Given the Raider's size, and the fact they still had not shown a penchant for blasters, they weren't taking a defensive tact.
They would be led on this mission by Su-Diri Zon, a human woman Council member from Commenor. She was considered to be one of the greatest blade masters in the Order, having mastered the dual bladed Soresu form. She was tall and lean with a severe but not unpleasant face, her graying black hair was cut short and pulled back into a simple pony tail.
Six of the ten additions were human, and Kai-Kwon silently revisited his old hope for a future Order that wasn't so human-centric. Master Zon was not one for speeches, only intoning "may the Force be with us" before turning to straddle her speeder bike. Kai-Kwon and the other ten Jedi Knights followed her lead, and one by one they zipped out the open hangar and down the ramp into the morning light and steady falling snow, leaving Bail and Ilyria watching from the hangar ramp.
They reached Kalikori by midday and Kai-Kwon immediately noticed even stranger behavior on behalf of the village denizens. Most came out of their hovels at the sound of the speeders with blaster rifle in hand, only to make faces of surprise at the platoon of Jedi motoring by, before turning back around to head back into their homes. But it wasn't surprise Kai-Kwon was seeing on their faces…it looked more like worry…and felt like hostility.
Master Zon must sensed it as well. She bypassed the speeder pad and kept riding through the village, finally shutting off the bikes closer to Town Hall.
"What's going on here Jedi Deo?" She asked as she swung her long leg off the bike.
"I'm not sure Master but the villagers have seemed strange since our arrival yesterday morning, now that awkwardness has given way to something else altogether" he answered shutting off his own bike and heading to the front steps.
"I don't like it" she said as they ascended the stairs.
As they entered the great hall Ryu was descending the back stairs from the top floor where her mother had been laid up. "Jedi… Deo" she said stopping halfway down the steps to gaze over at the twelve large and suspicious looking Knights wiping the snow from their shoulders and looking around in obvious unease.
Ryu made it the rest of the way downstairs before she spoke again "I…just wasn't-"
"wasn't what Ryu?" he cut her off, all pretense of naiveté gone as he felt the Knights around him began to tense.
It was Master Zon who spoke next. "Where is Master Din?" she stepped in front of Kai-Kwon.
For a moment it looked as though Ryu was going to continue the charade with an answer but then her composure faltered, and she crumpled to her knees burying her face in her hands. "He's gone!" she cried through tears and phlegm.
Kai-Kwon sunk to the ground in front of her and removed her hands from her face "gone where Ryu? What has happened?"
The young Twi'lek looked at him with tears streaming down her cheeks. "ha-he...t-took him" she managed through hyperventilating breaths.
"Enough of this" Kai-Kwon heard from behind him as Master Zon grabbed the loose robe around her shoulder and yanked her up. Without thinking Kai-Kwon grabbed the Master's wrist, "Master Zon please…she knows me?"
He subtly begged forgiveness with his eyes. "Very well. But we need answers Kai-Kwon" she said releasing Ryu and retaking her place with the group behind him.
By the time he looked back to Ryu the heavy sobbing had stopped and she had found her voice, no doubt motivated by the menacing Jedi Master. "He was taken before sunrise by the Nautolan."
"Who is this Nautolan?"
"We always believed him to be a Jedi like you" she said, the relief in her unburdening coming off her in waves. "He never told us his name but he controls the Flesh Raiders. During the attack…the only attack, he slipped in with the Raiders and poisoned the Matriarch. It was unlike anything we had seen from the mountains. It paralyzed her and he told us she only had a week before it paralyzed her lungs and she…died."
The tears began to streak and she hung her face in her hands again as Kai-Kwon looked behind him to Master Zon. "Bengel Morr maybe" she answered the silent question.
Bengel Morr was a Jedi Knight who had gone missing a little over three years ago. His frustration at the Council and the Treaty was well known, and most assumed he had left Tython for the Outer Rim or Imperial Space. It wasn't long after the Nautolan's disappearance that Deron Sy-Zota vanished in similar fashion.
Kai-Kwon gave Ryu a few more seconds before he removed her hands from her tear-streaked face, "go on".
"He told us that only he had the antidote for the poison and to get it we had to call the Temple for help. Once whichever Master was sent was poisoned we were to hand him over…and...", she stopped and looked at the ceiling.
"Tell me". He could barely control his rising anger.
"-and we were supposed to get rid of the Padawan" she added with a slump of her shoulders.
Her confession complete, Kai-Kwon rose, leaving the girl a crumpled mess of pain and guilt on the floor. "It was you who poisoned Master Din wasn't it?"
She didn't, or couldn't answer, but she didn't need to. "It must've been a slow acting agent but I can remember him looking a bit tired even on the way up the mountain" he said to the assembled Knights.
"If it's fatal in a week to the Matriarch we should still have time" the Gand Jedi added.
This time Ryu did look up and just shook her head "…we were told it was catalytic. The poison would not enter his blood stream until he exerted himself, but once he did the poison would reach his brain and put him into a coma.… but if he's in a coma for too long the damage to his brain will be irreversible" she sighed through tears again.
"I need time to establish a connection to Master Din" Kai-Kwon said, looking around the hall for a quiet room.
He felt a pull on his pant leg and looked down to see Ryu looking up at him "I'm so sorry Jedi Deo. Now we have nothing…my mother, our Matriarch, will die and we won't even have your protection".
He reached down and grasped her under her armpits, pulling her to her feet. "We will find this Nautolan and the cure he says he has. I don't know what will become of our partnership but you should have trusted us. I understand your fear and your panic but you just should have told us…we could've fixed this…together".
She could only hang her head. Suddenly the rhythmic clanging of a bell could be heard coming from outside. Ryu's head quickly shot up.
"What? What is it?" asked the Miralian Jedi Knight Feelen Tooz, his green face adorned with purple tattoos crinkling in confusion.
"We're-we're being attacked" she said as if she couldn't believe things could get worse. Her lekku whipped around her back as she looked out the front windows. Suddenly a pink skinned Twi'lek burst through the front door with a blaster rifle in hand.
"Mistress Ryu!" he shouted. "The Flesh Raiders are back".
Ryu flashed a look to the Jedi that pleaded for direction. "You are the Matriarch for now Ryu. You must rally your defenses" he answered her silent plea.
Her inherited determination finally appeared as she grabbed a blaster rifle off the rack by the front door and moved through the doorway. The male Twi'lek on her heels. Kai-Kwon and the other Jedi all seemed to look at Master Zon at once.
"What do we do?" asked the well-muscled human Jedi Knight named Kaz Andruki.
"We fight. Until the Council rules otherwise this village is still under our protection".
They all nodded in agreement and Kai-Kwon was glad they were led by a warrior like Su-Diri Zon. The Jedi filed out of the great front door, taking up positions on the front steps, two to each with Master Zon on the top landing and Kai-Kwon on the fresh snow in front of the steps.