“Someone must stand with you, and at least I have reason to fight," Irtar said. He'd finally broken some of the tension, slowly accepting Ahnk's hand. He found his hand shaken, and offered a slight smile. “To whatever end, so long as it’s a good one.”

Ahnk joined him in smiling, nodding deeply.

There are many ways to make a journey. One can walk, one can run, one can book transportation in whatever form it takes. The injured can crawl. The able can carry the injured. Along the way will come detractors, and the brave will fight them. There are many journeys, and many paths to the same end. There are many ends, and equally many ways to succeed and fail in questing for said ends. But there is only one way to begin a journey, and it is by commitment. However strong that commitment when it is made and by however much enforcement it is held through the perils of the journey differ greatly, but no journey begins without a resolute resolve to make the first step.

Irtar had now taken that step. Though he may come to regret it, he had opened the door.

“So," Irtar asked, "want to know of my training and what I know?”

In truth, Ahnk did not. A person's history shaped them in ways that were important to know but Ahnk did not need to know what Irtar was willing to tell him. Ahnk was not one to make logs and consider carefully what had happened and how it could shape someone. He saw within Irtar everything that was needed to make a good warrior... how he had gotten there was a personal journey. He did not need to share it, only to understand it himself.

...but it was while considering rebuking Irtar that Ahnk noticed he seemed to be uncomfortable around him. He seemed to keep him in center frame, seemingly hesitant to offer Ahnk his back or any obvious angle of attack. Ahnk was both flattered and worried. The apprehension radiating off of Irtar, while understandable, was going to be something that would need to be worked on.

Irregardless, a man who was not comfortable with him would not be comfortable with being interrupted. So Ahnk said nothing. Merely... listened.

“Well, before I found out I was able to wield the Force, I was going to be an engineer. Have a knack for robots but I’m pretty solid with most things mechanical in nature. Like I built my own portable training course. Nothing too intense but better than what they had on Naboo. Got the nickname ‘Irtar’s Run’ from those who saw me running around on the thing in one of the courtyards,” Irtar stopped momentarily, and Ahnk got the feeling Irtar sensed he was disinterested. To the contrary, this was something Ahnk was not aware of. His skills as an engineer had already proven useful... and, in fact, may prove so again. Ahnk was not much of an engineer, but Sihoyguwa did need some repairs. He wasn't comfortable enough to ask Irtar now, but he filed it away for later conversations.

“WELL as for training in combat and the Force… well most that I know is from personal experience and searching.” This was something Ahnk was able to directly relate to, as he was largely self trained... likely to his own detriment. “Y’see, I first was under training by Master Organa-Solo, but then she ran off to the Force knows where. Didn’t have the decency to tell me so I got to enjoy a nice period of time where I was left to try and pick up different lessons from the other knights and padawans who would bother with me until Master Vodo Baas came along. Well, he was a Knight at the time but he ran me through some combat training. He was the one who sent me off to Dantooine where I decided to leave the Order.”

Ahnk found himself nodding His story was not an altogether unfamiliar one... in fact, it held many parallels to the history that Andrew Micheal Rashanagok had endured to get to his current state. There were even common players in the game. Ultimately, none of this surprised Ahnk... much of his history had already been researched by Ahnk following their meeting at Gash's funeral. While Ahnk was not technically supposed to be allowed access to the Jedi Order's database, every database had backdoors, and the Order had documented well Irtar's tenure, and departure, from the temples on Naboo.

Ahnk suddenly felt Irtar become very cold. He stopped speaking, and Ahnk knew the reason why. He no longer felt the same uneasiness... there was something new and more tangible. Reaching deeper, Ahnk saw... something. It was a vision of a fire haired woman... in flames. It was something strong within Irtar... something that caused him passion enough to radiate into something that, if only for a lucid, surrealistic second, Ahnk could perceive it as well. That was a story he was interested in hearing... but Irtar did not seem to want to share it.

“Well, after I left the Order I generally trained myself," Irtar said, continuing after his short, uncomfortable pause. "Body training, working off of different drones to try and get down some of the saber skills, fighting the occasional Sith that is intent on killing me. Y’know, regular stuff," Irtar said, and smiled. Ahnk couldn't help but grin. The life of a Jedi was certainly full of combat. "Oh, and getting pummelled by Vodo for leaving the Jedi Order. I managed to fend him off… for a bit," Irtar offered, and Ahnk saw him grab at one of his injuries. Ahnk saw him wince as he ran a hand over it, and Ahnk nodded.

“And you’ve not yet told me why we’re on Bonandon," Irtar said, with more then a measure of his earlier frustration. "I take it since you seem to know the Vindas, or have a connection with someone up there, that you’re here for a favour or something?”

Ahnk nodded, slowly. "Or something."

The sun was raising on Bonadon, slowly, but surely, ascending across the sky to eventually rest overhead and allow another day of commerce to commence. Ahnk's eyes rested on the building in the immediate foreground... standing ominously over them was the logo of the Vinda Corporation, cast in metal and cut away and embossed until it stood, imposing and threatening rather then welcoming, in sight from the docking port, visible from anywhere in this city from any angle. From where Ahnk was standing, the sun was striking the gigantic V and casting it's shadow down in inverticy. The darkness spread, amplified as it were, across the entire landing port.

Being on this world again was not an easy thing for Ahnk to do. The last time he had set foot on this planet, he had been a very different man. This place had been a very different place. Now, the beginnings of the stirrings of revolution had begun to take root across the world... a revolution that was needed, but one that Ahnk was reserved with nevertheless. Change was always dangerous... it was a certainty that change would occur, but no guarantees were made with regards to the end result. Destruction bred creation but it could also breed perpetual destruction. He was not sure that the structure existed for the ideals that were bantied about, but he regarded the current climate with cautious optimism.

But that did not make the air any easier to breath.

"I have... several outstanding accounts with the Vinda Corporation..." Ahnk said, without going into much detail. His human fingers curled and uncurled instinctively. "I am... borrowing something. I suppose it depends on the balance of my accounts."

Ahnk was not comfortable discussing his history with the Vinda's, and Seth in particular. Since that day, at Gash's funeral, he had concluded that coming back to this world would be a bad idea. But something told him that that girl... that that girl could help him. He did not know how. He did not know when. He did not know why she of all people would be able to help him. Asking her to journey beside him asked her to pay a price he did not want to demand, Nevertheless, something inside him demanded her company... and his instincts did not normally lead him into peril.

Ahnk decided to change the subject. "Have you ever been to Lake Lei Mutoh? It's a nice place to swim, if you just want to relax. I know the chances of either of us making it to Naboo any time soon are pretty low, but I still... have some... land, there." This wasn't helping him feel comfortable. "Uh... tell me something. What was the average time on Irtar's run? I was able to run it in eight minutes, but I wasn't a young man then. I'm kind of curious as to how I stack up, if you happen to know the median."

VC-HQ - Ms Vinda's Private apartment.





"Come in, its open"

Natalya spoke aloud in response to the door chime that had just rang moments earlier...

She stood to greet Bonadan South East Two's head admin, Administrator Varga, who looked decidely flustered, she cocked her head to one side out of curiousity as the man entered the room. He had insisted on speaking to her face to face, but would not say why over the comms, claiming it was better that the 'matter' be discussed in private.

Whatever that meant. Nat was not aware of any matter concerning the spaceport that involved her, so she was intrigued at his ominous tone of voice.

Varga entered , but kept a respectful distance.

"Well?"

Natalya started, "What is so important that it warrants this cloak and dagger routine?"

Varga, a wily wiry looking man with greying hair shifted his weight to one side, he was a holdover from when her father's Corporation ran Bonadan, and as such had been the head administrator at the spaceport for years...

"You have a visitor, Ms Vinda, actually two , in fact..."

Her interest now piqued, Natalya folded her arms and leant against the table which resided on one side of the lounge she was currently occupying...

"Oh? Who?"

"Ahnk Rashnagok, and an associate, a man"

Natalya's eyes widened, and a slight frown spread across her brow...as the name slowly registered...

"Ahnk" She repeated her voice distant...

"He was at Gash Jiren's funeral...and..." (her voice trailed off)

"Yes..."

Varga clasped his hands behind his back and started to survey the room, slowly walking around it as he began to talk...

"How much did your father tell you about him?"

"Not a great deal, apart from the fact he shares the name of a long dead Sith warlord" She responded ruefully, "He simply said he was an old friend"

Varga smiled, but it wasn't altogether friendly..

"It is the same person"

Natalya's confusion was clearly visible across her face...

"What?" Was effectively all she could reply with, thinking the man was either mad or she had misheard him...


A Sith!....


"Ahnk Rashnagok, the apparent Sith War criminal is waiting to see you outside.." He confirmed, again humourlessly...

The consequences of what the man had said was now rushing through her head..


My father is friends with a...Sith?...


Natalya's face seemed almost disgusted at the thought, and she did not believe it, could not. There must be a misunderstanding here? She told herself...also the mans she saw at Gash's funeral was not the same man reported to be the Sith in question, they looked so...different. not only that , but since when did Sith start politely asking to see someone?

Nothing added up.

Why was he here?

Too many questions.

Natalya made a point to remember all of them the next time she saw her Father.

Varga interrupted her thoughts " You now understand why I felt this matter be settled in private..."

Natalya, still puzzled nodded slowly... "Yes, of course...."

Varga continued, almost as if this experience was an everyday occurrence... " The security have been notified and they are on standby, should you need them, and if he tries anything , his ship won't be going anywhere...all parties involved have been told only what they have been needed to know..ie: nothing"

Natalya looked at the man slightly dumbfounded... "You think he's here to cause trouble?"

Varga's reply was quick "No....but"

"But what?"

The Administrator smiled once again, even less friendly than before..." but with a man like Ahnk, trouble tends to follow him around"

Natalya simply nodded, heeding the warning.

Varga had stopped his circling of the room and was now standing back at the door... "Shall I send for him? Or have him arrested?"

Natalya's eyes narrowed out of annoyance...

"Just get rid of him, Varga"

"As you wish, Ms Vinda" And with that, he exited the room.

Leaving Natalya alone with the many questions that were now racing around her head...

"I have... several outstanding accounts with the Vinda Corporation..." Ahnk said, a tinge of hesitance bringing some suspicion onto young Irtar. "I am... borrowing something. I suppose it depends on the balance of my accounts."

Irtar was about to press into questions, to try and draw the truth out of Ahnk but he was cut off before he started.

"Have you ever been to Lake Lei Mutoh? It's a nice place to swim, if you just want to relax. I know the chances of either of us making it to Naboo any time soon are pretty low, but I still... have some... land, there." Irtar looked at Ahnk seriously and critically. Obviously Ahnk was trying to move on to something else but Irtar couldn’t put his finger on the why. "Uh... tell me something. What was the average time on Irtar's run? I was able to run it in eight minutes, but I wasn't a young man then. I'm kind of curious as to how I stack up, if you happen to know the median."

It was as if the previous doubt had been suddenly stricken from his mind in a moment of prideful surprise. Irtar had always been very prideful of his creations and never missed an opportunity to gloat about his creations. Especially about something he had never had the chance to talk about to anyone in the past several months.

“I didn’t know you were anywhere near when I had that thing up and running.” Irtar commented with a bit of suspicion that just fell off him. “Are people making recreations of it for other training grounds? Ha, who needs the diploma from the Academy of Engineers!”

Irtar straightened himself after that little bit of excitement took him. He had hoped that maybe somewhere he had succeeded, if not politically or in the Force than at least a profession he took some measure of pride in. Even if it didn’t save lives or create justice or anything along those grand ideals, it was something.

“Well, as for times…. I can’t remember. It’s been a while since I’ve been at the Jedi Temple as to stack it up with other Force users. For the full run, you’ve got my time licked by a minute or so.” Irtar said with a nod, his brow furrowed in thought as he tried to summon up old run times and statistics.

Irtar’s Run was a meticulous thing he had designed as a way to assist his self-training. He didn’t have a master to run him through the steps and basics once Leia had left, so he built a training course to expand his skillset both in the Force and physically. Since he couldn’t just leave it in the courtyard, he was forced to make it modular and mobile and he ended up constantly expanding it with new additions. Some new hurdles one weak, another set of panels one needed to push with the Force to move on, etc.

Once it began to get more renowned, most of the padawans wanted to try and run it to accent their training and even some of the knights used it for the pure efficiency of it being an all-in-one training platform that was always changing. All of it lead to a situation very hard to keep track of times. Where at one time two minutes was a respectable score, it became a near impossible score. Not to mention that but Irtar never did build that score keeper but that was because the Masters didn’t want to create an atmosphere that could fuel rivalries.

“I think that Dolash had gotten like…. seven minutes back in one of the earlier models. This was back before he was promoted to Master, of course. So I’d probably say at his skill level then he would have gotten nine minutes on the Run as it is.” Irtar said with a nod. “Other than that, just a lot of faceless padawans that never seemed to have the dedication to make it more than a week with what they were trying to learn. Shame really, we’d have an army of Jedi if people just didn’t give up when they learnt there was actually some effort involved in it.”

“You would never believe some of the people who came through the doors of that place. Major problem with the open door policy was the people who’d just come in for a lark with it. Like, there was this one girl from the Force knows where who just called herself ‘Mystery’. Oh, and there was this other guy with a bacta sickness, said he was some sort of ‘Shadow Jedi’ or some such. Oh, and then there was this little guy the size of an action figure….” Irtar began to go into and then realized he was about to go into a rant and caught himself, just pushing it to the side with a slight of a smirk. “Well, as you can tell it made it really hard to keep track of things like the scores in a little thing I set up.”

“But I must thank the Jedi for setting up on Naboo. There’s a lot of scrap left around the planet. Something about a droid army attacking it years ago. I was actually working on a Droideka Mark One I found just rusting in the swamps before I left. Was going to design it to help kept the farm safe from Kath Hounds and even a Grauler if one choose to try and come around. Maybe I should….” Irtar was cut off from finishing his sentence by sound of a door opening behind them. Irtar spun around on his heel to face the admisitrator as he came upon the duo.

“Ms. Vinda will see you now. Follow me.” The administrator said in a very official and straight forward manner, turning and heading back from whence he came. Irtar looked back to Ahnk and waited for him to take the lead before following since he seemed to know what he was doing. Well, at least knew more than Irtar.

The pair followed him from the landing pad, into an elegant corridor. This was Vinda Corp headquarters after all. Irtar looked around the hall, his eyes eating the new sights. They didn’t need paintings or anything like that, the walls and floors that seemed to be made from different types of marble made it unnecessary. Even if it was fake, the effect was all that was needed. ‘Vinda Corp Makes Lots of Money’.

Irtar’s senses were brought back by the sound of the door closing behind them, followed by the clacking of boots. The two guards following behind, rifles lowered by still in hand. Irtar swallowed a bit as they went, remembering the last time he was being escorted to meet someone of importance. Well, ‘escorted’ might be too nice of a word for it. Irtar pushed the memories from his mind as they walked down the hall, coming to a set of elevators.

“I hope you were right about things working out….” Irtar muttered to Ahnk as, with a ding, the two doors opened and they entered the elevator. And with a lurch, they continued that much closer to destiny.