"We're gonna help Ren out this time. You might want to keep your head down." Jaune said as he drove fast into the man-made forest he suspected Nora was hiding in. Pyrrha winced and cringed with each near miss as they somehow avoided crashing into any of the many trees.
"Ren is probably setting up a trap for her. We are going to try and push her into it." Jaune yelled.
"How are we going to do that?" Pyrrha yelled back, seemingly unaware of the wide grin on her face.
"All we need to do is spook her. Why don't you try and use the force to find her or something. "Jaune yelled back.
Pyrrha considered telling him that the force didn't work like that when she saw the woman hiding "there she is" Pyrrha yelled pointing.
"Good," Jaune replied. "Ren just sent me the location for the trap." Jaune headed for Nora's post making her run off in the direction of the trap.
"What do you think he has planned" Pyrrha asked
"No idea but we shouldn't get too close" Jaune answered, swerving to keep Nora running the direction Ren was leading her.
Pyrrha noticed the jetpack on Nora's back and reached out with the force to disconnect the antenna that connected the jet pack to the controls on Nora's armor.
They kept going until they reached a clear as they were nearing the edge Nora went to activate her jet pack only to stumble when the broken antenna failed to function. During her stumble she ran directly over the trap that had been laid.
The metal fiber net that Ren laid out snapped up trapping Nora within as she started to struggle. "No fair!" She objected from within her net. "My jetpack malfunctioned"
"So how are we going to get her out of there, she seems rather irate?" Pyrrha asked.
"Ren has saber darts loaded with sedatives, they should do the trick" Jaune said as Ren approached from where he was hiding.
"Yeah but she is covered in armor plating" Pyrrha said back hoping that she didn't sound as smug as she felt.
"All armor has weakness" Ren said in a tone that told Pyrrha he had been taught the phrase to the point of not thinking about it. As he approached he readied his wrist launcher and took aim.
Nora kept thrashing in the net while Ren waited a little longer. After she kicked her leg hard enough Ren fired. The wrist launcher made almost no sound as the dart within zipped forward with a soft sound and punched through the armor weave covering Nora's left buttock.
She grunted but kept fighting trying to get the blade in her armor to the line holding her up. Pyrrha was about to ask if that was supposed to work when Ren fired again, this dart right next to the first. "Dammit Rennn" Nora slurred.
She kept wiggling but she was clearly slowing down and soon she had just stopped moving. Jaune stepped beneath the net and Ren moved to the rope holding her. Then Ren cut the line and Jaune caught Nora net and all and placed her into the back of the speeder.
Jaune and Ren discussed payment with Jaune getting a price cut since he helped catch Nora but also not getting that big of a price cut since the saber darts were expensive. Pyrrha noticed Nora was moving and she waited unsure of what to say until she saw that Nora was about to crawl out of the speeder. She cleared her throat and pointed.
Ren saw Nora and fired off two more darts that thapped into Nora's right buttock causing her to groan and go limp for real this time. "Well now that we have handled that I'll pay you for the ammo you used and I'll take the whole magazine"
Ren nodded and hit the button to eject the unfired darts and handed them over to Jaune who loaded them into his own gauntlet. "Just Bring Nora back to the compound and I won't charge for the ammo." Ren said in a tone that sounded like he was getting out of something he wasn't looking forward to.
"Sure" Jaune said, jumping into the car and waiting for Pyrrha to join him. "You might want to buckle up," he said with a smirk.
With her widening grin once again betraying her Pyrrha locked the safety belt on and Jaune took off for the nearest spaceport. Pyrrha's robe had long since given up trying to stay where she wanted it and was blowing far behind her in the breeze as Jaune raced through the city streets.
The space port was nearby and Pyrrha wasn't sure what she thought about the fact that nobody seemed to mind Jaune carrying the netted and sedated Nora to the ship. Once onboard he brought Nora to the holding cell that Ren had installed to hold any bounties. Once she was inside he got her out of the net and laid her down on the sleeping mat making sure she was comfy before heading to the cockpit.
Jaune waited for Pyrrha who was checking with Qui-Gon while he prepped the ship for take off. "Master Qui-Gon says he is going to the Xiao Long compound" as she approached Jaune she discarded her robe draping it over one of the seats.
"Well that's good because we are too." Jaune said starting the engines and letting Pyrrha sit down before taking off. They flew out through the environmental dome and Pyrrha for the first time realized she had no idea why the planet only had such structures.
"Jaune, what happened to your, to Mandalore" she asked. Almost calling it his planet.
Jaune's smile faded into a bitter frown. "Why don't you ask the senate. They are the ones who bombed it into the state it's in now"
Pyrrha did her best not to look aghast at the notion. "Why would they do that?" she asked, surprising herself for so readily believing a claim that a day ago would have seemed impossible.
"They were afraid that my people planned to rise against them in a second Mandalorian war. So they attacked first. They killed billions of my people because they were afraid of what we MIGHT have been able to do." he snarled.
This time Pyrrha didn't try to hide her horror. "They did that out of fear?"
"That is what they said. I think they just wanted an excuse to kill as many of us as they could. A way of getting even for the wars and battle." He answered his contempt for the republic on full display. "The Jedi helped," Jaune added, knowing that Pyrrha deserved the truth.
"They would never" she all but shouted.
Jaune looked ahead sternly. "Who do you think was commanding the fleets?" Pyrrha could feel the pure rage pouring off of Jaune and she knew that she had the obligation as someone who knew the force to try and help him back from the darkness he was feeling.
"You can get out of my head now" Jaune said, surprising Pyrrha with his ability to sense even her simply looking at him. "I was trained to sense a Jedi's hand touching my mind" he explained referring to the teachings he got from some of Tai's old "warhorses"
"You need to learn to control that on your own then." Pyrrha explained. "You are more than just a Mandalorian now. You carry more power and a heavier burden."
Jaune didn't respond but she knew that he wasn't disagreeing with her. "How can I deny the anger that I have such a reason to feel?" he asked.
His wording made him seem bitter but his tone told Pyrrha that he understood the matter and wanted to know what to do. "I am sorry but I don't completely know. But I can tell you that your anger while justified shouldn't be held. You must learn to let go"
Jaune thought about it. The good news was Pyrrha could feel his anger fading second by second. "I will have to look into that, in the meantime please try not to poking around in my mind" he replied as the navi-computer targeted Tai's planet of residence.
…
Jaune walked down the loading ramp with Nora behind him and Pyrrha behind her. "I still say you cheated, I don't know how but you must have" Nora insisted.
"Sorry about that," Pyrrha said meekly. "I kinda disconnected your jetpack's signal transmitter"
Nora spun around to look at Pyrrha intensely for a few seconds. "You did that?"
Pyrrha was nervous under Nora's gaze. "Uhm, yes?"
"That was pretty smart" She said before spinning around and almost skipping away.
"So that was Nora, why don't I bring you to Master Jinn?" Jaune said, heading the direction of Tai's favored bar. Pyrrha went with him and just as they passed through the door the whole room went silent.
Pyrrha scanned the room just in time for Jaune to step between her and the source of the problem. Two men stood facing each other from the other end of the bar. One was a man in plain clothes and the other in what looked like a simplified set of mandalorian armor.
"Bolran Redler, you are wanted for multiple crimes against this town now you can surrender and you will get a fair trial, or you can reach for the blaster and…" the talking stopped when the plain clothes man reached for his sidearm.
He was fast but the man in armor was faster, his hand moved almost at a blur as he drew the antique looking slug thrower and pulled the trigger. The weapon boomed and flashed a ball of flame out the muzzle as Pyrrha watched the other man jolt back half a step before he dropped lifeless with a half inch hole in his chest, his hand had never even reached his blaster.
As fast as the noise stopped everyone went back to their daily routines as the man who Pyrrha now saw had a badge of some sort on his armor turned to leave through the door he had entered. As he left he turned to the bartender. "I'll try and swing by after hours and get that floor cleaned up Glyn,"
"You'd better, Just because you are now Journeyman protector James Ironwood doesn't mean you get to make a mess of my establishment" the blonde woman from behind the bar said with a stern voice and a gentle face.
Tai and Qui-Gon, seemingly unphased by the action moments prior, were sitting at a table overlooking the bar. Jaune led Pyrrha to Qui-Gon just as Yang who was sitting with her father jumped up and said something to Tai who nodded and handed something off to her.
Pyrrha was about to say hello to Yang when Yang all but pushed past her and took Jaune's hand leaving him just enough time to toss Tai the keys to Ren's ship as he was dragged out the front door.
Pyrrha watched as Jaune jumped into the driver seat of what seemed to be Tai's speeder while Yang jumped into the driver seat and they took off at an amazing speed.
Hello Everyone, Noruas here. Very tired while writing this so sorry if I sound a little worn out. If you want to see my work a week in advance or if you want to see some of the stuff that isn't really right for Fanfiction then you can do that at my page. As always, so long, farewell, and thank you for your time.