Chapter Title: Seek
Series Title: Unlikely Brothers
POV: Tannerlin
Ages in this chapter: Tanner (14) Dashen (20)
Chapter Summary: A member of Colton's security team is dead and Colton brings Tanner in to help find the murderer.
One of Colton's security was dead. A guard of his second tier crew. I'd had limited interaction with this particular guard, but in five years he'd been visible enough.
He spoke Darlic. Not a language I knew. Colton did. What they ever said to each other was anyone's guess.
Now he was dead. Not blaster fire. Not vibro-knife. The wound, now cauterized, actually looked similar to one left by a lightsaber except it came with far too much blood. Saber wounds didn't end in bleed outs.
"Wauler was a good man. Served his post well for many years. This was cold blood, not a simple exchange of gunfire." That was Colton. Angry. Upset (though not visibly, only if you knew him). Vengeful. No one crossed that line of harming one of his crew without retribution. "My team will hunt down the one responsible, but we need starting point. Tannerlin. Dashen. Come here."
Me? We?
"Come on, Mouse. We may be sucked into this whether we like it or not."
I followed my brother, uncertain. The Force was around me though. Warning me. Emotions were high, especially the negative ones. Of course I couldn't read all emotion like many fully trained Jedi. Not like Master Ayden could, or Ben Kenobi. But if those emotions were strong enough, I could sense them if not fully suppressed. So the fact that I could sense so much right now...
I had a bad feeling about this.
Standing to the left of Dashen and directly on front of Virgil Colton, I felt as small as ever before. It helped that I was small and that Colton was my total contrast. Still, my back straight, Jedi posture in tact, I waited with my brother for what Colton would ask of us.
"Tannerlin. I need you to use what you have." A rare ask was this, code for using my Force abilities to sniff around. See if anyone nearby was giving off strange vibes. They were, all of them were. Was it guilt? Probably not. But...
"Colt, that's dangerous." Quietly, firmly, my brother stepped in. Always did when there was something with even slightest chance to put me in danger. His comments were kept neutral for any eavesdropping ears. "He's... too young." Dashen's code back to Colton which basically meant, this is the stupidest thing you've ever asked, what is wrong with you?'
Myself, I was nervous, but not of what Colton asked. This type of atmosphere had never been my favorite. Surrounded by the unknown, amongst persons and creatures with strength and powers far greater than a fourteen year old boy. Some of these people, you even glance at them the wrong way and they would gleefully shove a blaster up your nose. Fire first, ask questions later.
So, I wasn't afraid of them finding out what I was. I was just flat out afraid of them.
But Colton had been there for Dashen and me since not long after I'd been stranded; after the Jedi slaughter. Denying him help when one of his own had been slaughtered... Dash and I were both better people than that.
"I'll help." I said, latching onto Dashen's arm with my right hand. "But I need you to set out a reason why I am permitted to be here during the investigation."
"Because I said you were permitted to be here, damn it." Colton's blue eyes flared.
"Colt, come on. You know that won't work with what's around us." Dash countered. "Just figure out an excuse. Tanner is training to one day work security or something impossible like that. He needs experience. What better way to get experience. Then your usual team investigates and Tanner... does his thing."
Wait, what did he say? "What do you mean, Dash, something impossible like that? I could work security one day."
"Mouse you are vertically challenged and you would probably hug someone to death before you accused them of anything to their face."
Okay, so maybe he was right. Yeah, he was definitely right. "Well, I am short."
"Shorter than short..."
Colton shouted a whisper at us. "Stop it! Both of you. Wauler deserves better. Now go and do whatever the hell it is that you need to do. I will plant your cover."
Cover intact, I began an innocent look around the area. Dashen tight at my side. Three walls surrounded the courtyard-type area. One way in and out. Easy access from the air. More difficult from the ground. People milled about, nosy, curious, and as Dashen would say, just flat out annoying. But who knew if one of those millers could be the guilty party.
I reached out carefully within the Force. Dashen poked me in the arm when my face crunched too much, threatening to give me away. He called me my constipated look. Big brothers. Why can you do?
Emotion flew all around. Mostly anxiety. I felt that everywhere, from everyone. Even from myself and my brother. So, that wouldn't work. Subconsciously I tried to pull from what Ben had taught me in my recent visits to Tatooine and what Master Ayden had tried hard to instill into me in our two years together. Clear your mind. Let the Force guide you and then determine if the direction where it leads you is what you're after. Breathing was key. Also, not getting overwhelmed by your own emotions or the chaos around you. It was difficult. It always was. I didn't - couldn't - live a Jedi life anymore. I wasn't training every day and focused every day. Some days, I didn't intentionally touch the Force at all, and that was unheard of for any Jedi regardless of age. But I had the ability - well, some of it - just had to let it lead me instead of the other way around.
Dash felt me tensing, he was that close to me as we walked. Shoulders touching, he wasn't about to let me take a single step away from him. It looked ridiculous, but it's the unspoken deal he'd worked out with Colton if I was to help find Wauler's killer. I was not to be separated from my brother. With a simple squeezing of fingers on my arm, Dash told me to calm down. I did. I breathed. I focused. Okay. This was good now. I was better.
"Dash, I need a neutral corner where I can see better. The corner closest to the entrance to the courtyard. Seeing those coming and going. It'll help. There, near that food vendor. It's part of why people come down this far."
"Come on." Dashen lead the way and seconds later we had taken up residence not far from the food cart. The owner scowled. Dashen growled. "The kid here wants to run security when he's older. Only way to learn, right? See it in action?"
The cart owner laughed a hearty laugh. "This kid? Security? What's he gonna protect us from? Swamp rats? Ha! Good luck with that one, kid. Ha! I feel safer already. Ha!"
I shrugged, completely okay with my several-inches-shorter-than-average height and slight build. I'd always been okay with it. People wanted to judge, always by what they saw outside. One of the first things Master Ayden taught me as a young apprentice was to never take anything at face value. What's on the surface is rarely what hides beneath.
I motioned Dash to ignore him rather than pummel him for the insult. What rolled off my back often sank into Dash's skin and festered. This time though he relented and simply offered another growl.
My eyes floated around the yard. There was another way out of the area. It was well hidden though. To the right of the far corner, a well concealed door. Several scary looking beings stood near it. Looking angry. Irritated. Hungry. At first I thought they were guarding the area, but after a few moments, they each dispersed separately.
A line had formed at the food cart and Dashen and I stepped back to keep clear. My stomach groaned in hunger, but shoving that down, I moved further away from the food until I found the perfect obscure spying spot. Surprising my brother, I plopped right down onto the the dusty ground, nudging him to follow.
"Sitting down on the job, Mouse? That's not like you."
"Easier. And maybe I look less conspicuous. I'm not getting anything yet."
Across the yard, Colton had hooked up with his Chief of Security, Sydenious Greyer. Sydenious was a head taller than the already impossibly tall Colton, and it was always a picture seeing them together. The dark-skinned giant of a man had covered Wauler's body with a thin cloth as local security warred with Colton's security over jurisdiction. Local would win out ultimately, but Colton would not drop his own investigation. Not until justice was done. It's simply who he was.
I was glad to see Sydenious here. Kebrey Pacus too - more security. Both were well aware my true background and would help protect me if anything were to happen. If needed, they could also run interference.
"Sy and Kebrey are here, that's a big positive," Dashen said, basically saying out loud (in a whisper) what was running through my mind. "Anything, Tanner?"
My answer didn't come as I focused intensely on a compact crew of three that had casually wandered into the area. In a sea of different, they were completely off. The Force tickled at my senses. Trying to tell me something. Something was there. Something was wrong... and then I felt it. An immediate and jetted pain fired like an invisible bolt through my head. My body flinched at the suddenness and white-hotness of it all. Luckily Dashen - still attached to me - had an arm to keep me from tumbling over and causing unneeded attention.
"Tanner?"
I instantly broke my connection to the Force. Yes, something was very wrong about that trio. At least one of them was Force sensitive. Not Jedi. Not good. Painted faces turned in my direction after I broke, but they looked past me. Few would suspect a small nondescript boy of being anything of importance in this part of Kaolin. I was safe as long as I kept my distance - in more ways than one.
The lightening struck again. I grabbed a hand to Dashen's arm to keep upright. My eyes fluttered, then started in a pattern of rapid blinking that I couldn't seem to stop. What the...
"Tanner, please tell me what the hell is happening," Dashen whispered to me, his breath hot on my ear he was so close to me now.
My hand grasped tighter as I tried to regain control of myself. I thought...
I thought... what was happening to me was intense from my side, but from a distance maybe didn't seemed like much. Hence the lack of attention from the one causing it all. That trio continued their examination of the buildings and other creatures nearby. As if they were conducting their own investigation. The pain in my head didn't relent and bile rose in my throat.
"Dash, something is wrong. I mean really wrong. Don't think I can stay here."
No, I didn't think I could, but I was also hesitant to leave suddenly and give added attention to myself. Line of sight is where I didn't want to be. If that trio was the guilty party or just investigating for another powerful person, didn't matter. There was power behind the Force user among them and me being discovered here in the middle of all this... let's just say my time of existence would be short.
Dashen set his face to my ear and quietly said, "Hold on, Mouse." Then he reached for his comm and sent something to Colton. Not more than a moment later, Kebrey of Colton's security had arrived to indiscriminately offer cover as my brother stood me up and walked me into the nearest structure. Not exactly what I had in mind, but as I said, line of sight was everything. If they couldn't see me, my chances of being noticed dipped considerably.
I was shoved into a hidden corner of what seemed to be an empty building. Appearances were apt to deceive though and after following us inside, Kebrey swept the place.
"Clear, mostly. But be careful." He said to us, then stepped three feet back to watch the door and our backs.
I slid down the wall, hands set on either side of my face, rubbing obsessively to stop the intensely strange pain. I'd disconnected myself from the Force, so why I was feeling this still... Dash was right with me. Never losing touch. Never losing contact. I was grateful.
"Those three that came in. Painted faces. Two men. One woman. The woman was the leader. She has some type of power behind her. Strong. So strong. Rammed into me Iike nothing before. My head..."
Dash grabbed my hands on his own and then pressed his against the sides of my face. "S'okay, Mouse. Just relax and do some of that boring breathing that you're so good at, all right? Easy."
I did breathe. Deeply. Something I was good at and something that Dashen indeed did find exceedingly boring. His attempt to lighten the seriousness of the situation did not go unappreciated.
"Her power, it didn't lock into me, but knocked me down. Can't tell if she's involved or just another party, but none of it is good. Definitely not good. Bad, very very bad. She's really bad, Dash. I mean really, really bad." There, I think I'd gotten my point across.
"I think you got your point across, Mouse. She's bad." He looked over at Kebrey and pointed to his own com. The security guard would relay the information that Tanner had just given me, to Colton. "You're off this assignment, Tanner, by the way. Whatever is happening, if she's your kind or just with advanced power, letting you close to this situation, it's not gonna happen." Kebrey would relay that too, and there would be no argument from Colton or from me. Wauler's death aside, Colton would not intentionally put me in harms way. Not ever.
"I want to go home, Dash, but I want to help Colton too." Not to put myself in danger, but to help in some way. Deserting him was not an option that I was fond of.
"Staying here is dangerous."
"Maybe I can find a spot from inside there to get a read on that woman and see her. Her face was painted with strange markings. That may mean something. If I can place them..."
Dashen pointed to Kebrey to see to me and he stood guard where I sat as my brother got a glance around the building we were in. There was a second floor. Windows. A possible vantage point. The three of us moved. My head continued to pound and that lightening went through it again several more times. I tried to think back. To anything that Master Ayden or Ben may have said in the past that would offer a clue to what she was. Nothing came. Those markings though. On her face. Those were familiar in some way. I just couldn't place them without a clear view.
I got that clear view a few minutes later. Once we determined that the view from the window was far too dangerous, Kebrey broke out his macrobinoculars and saw what I could not.
"Here, kid. I recorded the images for you. Can you get a read on her tattoos through this?"
Tucked safely behind a wall, unseen by those in the courtyard, I took Kebrey's binocs and peered into them. Several images and two of her head on. The tattoos were yellow diagonal stripes that alternated black. It was similar in nature to what I had studied of the Zabrak race. And of that race, I knew stories of the Sith Lord Darth Maul. This Zabrak - if that's what she was - her eyes were an eerie green and there were two small pointed horns towards the temple of her head. Some Zabrak were known to be Force sensitive and-or users. And even if neither, they were a powerful people not to be crossed.
"Tanner?" Dashen came down to my level as I handed the binocs back to Kebrey.
"I think they are Zabrak."
"And that means?"
"Bad."
"Yeah. Sure. Can you expand just a bit more on that?"
"Nasty and spiteful and powerful and potentially Force users, at least some of them."
"Enough nasty to kill Wauler?"
"I don't know Dash. I think so. But I can't feel anything past that white-hot lightening in my head. She's the cause. That doesn't make her a murderer though. But it could make her a murderer."
"Okay. So, bad lady with powerful Force abilities who may or may not be a killer. Narrows it down just fine."
As Dash leaned back to the window again, Kebrey was the one that caught me from falling over this time. Another bolt of pain. This woman was ridiculously strong and my best guess was that she wasn't pinpointing anyone in particular - me for instance - but was instead sending out blasts to curtail any Force sensitives in and around. Sweeping the area clean... in a way.
"Yeah okay, Mouse, you can't stay here. It's not normal for your body to be shocked like that over and over. It's unnerving and puts you at risk. I'll let Colton know that Kebrey will get us home."
I tried to protest. I wanted to protest. I found it difficult though. As much as I wanted to help Colton track down Wauler's killer, my body had started almost twitching in anticipation of the next invisible bolt to hit me. It had gotten to the point where my face was involuntarily flinching at the thought of being struck again. Dashen saw it. Sense it. Whatever. He knew this wasn't where I could stay any longer.
Standing with his help, I took one more glance out the window. The Zabrak trio were still making rounds, staring hard at the covered dead body of Wauler. I got the sense the woman even smiled while stopping near where Wauler lie bloody and dead. There was something on her back, I noticed then. Something...
"Kebrey, can I see your binocs again?" Clutched in my hand I set my face to the viewpiece and those same images of the Zabrak. This time focused on her weapons rather than her face. There, strapped to her back, a long something. Not a blaster rifle. In fact it wasn't a weapon I'd ever seen. I passed the binocs back to Kebrey. "On her back. That weapon, does it look familiar?"
"Never," he said confidently. He'd know. He'd seen a lot of weapons. He carried about ten hidden his body, so yes, he'd know. "It's something new or even improvised. No way to know the type of wound it might create. Give me a minute."
The big man disappeared, his aged-gray long coat flowing in the wind created in his wake. Then he was back, shoving his wrist-com back under his sleeve. "Okay, kid. Let this play out."
Dashen and I shrugged at each other as another bolt flashed though my body. My brother was ready for it this time and kept me on my feet but away from the window. "Lean against the wall, Tanner. You're out of sight here. Kebrey, what are we watching for?"
There was no immediate answer. Just silence and eyes focused on the courtyard below. Another of Colton's team, I guessed. An unknown who began slugging around amongst the crowds. She was a smaller being, very unlike the usual type that Colton kept around for muscle.
"She's not Colton's. She's Rosina's people." Okay, that explained it. "As bitter rivals, they may not agree on many things, but when one of their own goes down on home turf, it's treated as a threat to them both. She's also a changeling. Sneaky and fast as hell too." That became evident very quickly as the short green slithery creature changed to some type of barking four-legged beast. I knew because I snatched a look, despite Dashen's hand on my chest trying to keep me pinned against the wall.
"M'okay, Dash," my assurance was weak, especially since I could barely stand on rubbery legs, but he allowed it with a steadying hand under my armpit.
"You keep saying that and then your head about explodes. Kebrey, what's going on?"
The changeling still in it's tiny four legged form, became an annoyance then, growling at and then gnawing on the left boot the Zabrak. The Zabrak kicked at it, the changeling screamed and padded off quickly into places unknown.
But it had been known, because long minutes later, Kebrey got some signal on his com. The shapeshifter had managed a look at the weapon close up, had smelled at the rubbed against the bottom of the weapon. The blue blood there. The sample provided was a match for Wauler's. The Zabrak was the killer.
"Okay, kid," Kebrey announced, "time for you to get lost. There's an exit in the rear of this building. Another of Colton's crew is there waiting for you. Get out, things are about to heat up and can't have you nearby."
"No argument from me," said my brother, pulling my arm forward. Another bolt of the Force slammed me and Dashen didn't give another thought. I as off the ground and into his arms and headed for the rear exit. Out of sight, out of mind. Not ten seconds passed before blaster fire erupted all around. We were clear, but I worried for Colton and his people. In the transport home, I leaned on Dash, exhausted from the pounding my mind and body had taken. No other attacks had come against me. So I could rest now. Thankfully.
"Y'okay, Mouse?" Dashen patted the side of my head as I slunk hard against him.
"Think so. Worried is all."
"I'd be disappointed if you weren't, little brother. Colton and his team, they'll be okay."
"Wauler wasn't. I didn't really know him, but the couple times I saw him, he was nice to me. That means something."
"It does. Especially I know it does to you."
"Our lives are weird, Dash. If you think about it. Right now we're heading home to the extravagant residence of a master criminal after helping to two master criminals solve the murder of a security guard of the first master criminal."
"Hmm. Yeah, that's pretty weird. Maybe it's a good kinda weird though, huh?"
I don't remember anything after that. Out cold apparently, I slept for just about an entire day. Things were better when my eyes did finally open. Colton was all right. Kebrey too. As well as everyone else. A few repairable injuries aside. The Zabrak was dead. The details I didn't care to hear, but she had indeed been the guilty one. The other parts of her trio were not dead, but it was unlikely they'd ever have the nerve to return to Kaolin. Ever. I didn't need those details either.
Dashen made me breakfast that next morning. It wasn't very good, but I didn't say anything. He was a horrible cook, but he meant well. He always meant well. And that was okay.
Colton apologized for drawing me into this whole investigative thing and for any pain it caused - and it did cause that. He made me lunch. It wasn't very good. I didn't say anything to that either. Like Dashen, he meant well. And that was okay too.
One thing was for certain though. Big brothers and master criminals aside... I'd be the one making us dinner. The Zabrak's brutal use of the Force hadn't killed me, but if I continued eating what these two were cooking... well... let's just leave that be.
END
