Maskis smiled and pondered what she said. "Everyone is different, and having said that, not everyone is evil when they are different from those around them." dare he mention that he was once a bounty hunter? One of the few who actually made it out alive in collecting bountys on rogue hutts?

"I can help you out if you wish, although, I do have a question." He looked around. "Have you seen my wookie partner? Where suppose to stay together and he went to get a room at the INN.. thing is.. that was 10-15 minutes ago and he still hasn't come back," he looked around from Asri then gave her the worried look. "He's been acting... rather strangely sense we released Lavality to the Jedi's"

***

Ruse was in there hotel room, which had a birds eye view of where Maskis and this strange trandoshan where standing. "Stay there ..." he aimed down the scope and put his finger on the trigger. "Now.. die so I can collect that bounty," he said in a deadly tone

Dolash certainly seemed interested in his response, and gave it some thought before speaking. "All things are connected through the Force - this is something I've tested thoroughly, I assure you - and if you think that this orb or those caves had meaning, then it is possible they will hold a clue to unravelling this new mystery. At the least, it is probable that such a site shouldn't be left uninvestigated.

"As for your retraining" and Dolash noted that once again he was speaking for the Order, but decided to ignore any concerns about it "Our resources can be made available to you, including the library - which may hold more answers to these questions. It could well be unwise to make you an actual student, though, for our teaching process is meant to bring those with no knowledge of the Force into ability, but there are Jedi here who can train you, help you hone your abilities. However, and I suspect you may know this as well, it is not normal training that you need - In a way, you already have the experience necessary, it is just a matter of finding out what they mean. I feel you will discover your powers best when you teach yourself them, but that doesn't mean you cannot look to us for any aide we might offer."

Dolash rose. "There is much to think over, and probably a great deal to look into and arrange, so I think it might be best to end our meeting here for now. I will see to it that you are granted access here at the temple, and see to one or two other issues. Tomorrow, when we have both had time to think, research, and come to conclusions, we may be able to make more decisive choices. For now..." He bowed to the Trandoshan "It has been an honour, Trazu."

Elsewhere, something stirred in Katria. Katria and Ian were two Jedi, companions to Dolash in his pursuits and missions, and the two of them were at this time engaging in a common patrol through the markets of the city. It was necessary for the Jedi to retain a presence, be visible, make sure everything was going smoothly - and, of course, the sight of a Jedi approaching generally smoothed over any other, smaller concerns.

The Force works in mysterious ways, and rarely - if ever - explained it's reasons. Katria had heard some Trandoshans had arrived recently, and upon seeing a white one sticking out strongly in the crowd, she felt a sudden tug towards it - unknowingly placing herself between the visitors and a certain hotel.

Feeling somewhat out of place, and with Ian giving her a puzzled look, the human Jedi said "Er... Excuse me - sorry to intrude, but are you two part of the group that arrived at the Temple recently? Only I haven't actually heard what was going on, and all..."

Something was off about the situation. Something she could sense, but what?

Ruse pulled his hand away from the trigger, before grinning from ear to ear. "Bye bye Stupid Jedi," he said almost in a laverous tone, and pulled the trigger

A boom was heard, a shot fired. Maskis grabbed Asri and put her to the ground, drawing his sidearm in the process, his reflex's moving faster than the shot itself

Trazu rose and bowed in turn. "And it's been an honor speaking with you as well Master Dolash." He said. "Your wisdom and insight has eased many worries and brought up questions I can only answer myself and hope to find answers to soon. I look forward to our next discussion at any rate. Until then, I wish you a good day." He made his way out of the room, but no sooner had he did so was his mind filled with musings about the discussion he just had.

The Jedi's words made logical sense: had he not learned to surpress the spirit and contain it successfully for a time? The question though was whether or not that was due to the Force or pure mental will on his part. But wasn't controling the Force a matter of willpower? No, he decided, the Force was partically an entity on it's own and pure will power alone did not grant the ability to control it: thus why the non gifted weren't able to lift an object with their mind unless they were blessed with the ability in the first place. Trazu believed, knew, he had the ability, but needed to learn how to reaccess and control it. That would take time and, as the Jedi suggested, research.

He also realized something, which when it dawned on him he couldn't help but be a bit amused by it. Being here in this place, around so many Jedi, seemed to have brought out a noble, if not wise, side of himself he didn't know was in there. Was it just a side effect of being here...or was just another character trait of his that, until now, was buried? In truth he didn't really consider it that important as to why he acted in a certain way: right now he just wanted to track down his son in this massive temple.

It didn't take long, as Silonik seemed to have known the meeting was over and found him instead. He allowed his euthusiastic son to give him a tour of the place.

****

Asri had been about to answer the Jedi when she noticed something odd in the window of one of the hotels. Before she could identify it however, Maskis suddenly knocked her to the ground. Her instincts thinking he was attacking her, she twisted and started to lash out at him with her claws when the sound of gun fire finally registered in her head: her deadly claws stopped inches from Maskis' throat.

Slug thrower....sniper type. Her mind deciphered, knowing that using a sniper rifle that used standard blaster bolts was counter productive as the bolt would give your position away. When it came to assassination/bounty work, as this no doubt had to be, using a slug thrower increased the likely hood you would survive long enough to collect your payment.

The question was though: who was the target? The way Maskis just reacted it seemed like she was the target, but there were two Jedi here present as well. Asri knew Jedi could deflect blaster bolts with their sabers, but not if they could do the same with slugs. Either way...she was certain the Jedi would be able to fend for themselves.

Possibility she was the target did make her worried however. She was expecting certain parties would come hunting for her eventually, but she had been hoping for the 'later' rather then the 'sooner'. Better start watching my back... She thought.

***

Varcanna had instinctively dove to the ground when she heard the shot, her retractable staff already in her hand and extended. To her frustration, she couldn't see who was the target or where the shot came from, though she did notice a pair of Jedi entering the market place earlier. Like Asri, she also concluded it was a slug thrower sniper rifle, but had even less clue who the target was. There was a bounty hunter in town, no doubt about that and if was after that albino that was just fine and dandy with her. Of course, she had no idea what Asri could have done to get a bounty on her head, but Varcanna didn't particularly care anyway.

Just then she heard her datapad beep. After carefully takng it out she activiated it. Looked like she had someone from home trying to contact her, but why and for what? Must be important she decided, so after taking a quick look around she made a fast dash to the nearest alley.

No sense in giving the bounty hunter another target after all....

Dolash looked out over the city in silent contemplation. It looked like he had another job to do - finding out as much as he could about this possessing spirit in case it struck again. Still, if it was related to the ghost, then perhaps -

The Force sometimes gives a premonition of something happening before it happens, when there is no time to explain or understand. Dolash leapt from the balcony, landing gracefully on the ground below with a roll, and rushed through the gates. It was as he passed a startled Fwar that he heard the slugthrower shot, and pressed ahead faster, harder. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Elsewhere, in the market, Katria crumpled to the ground. Ian shouted in panic and immeadietly caught her in her fall, pulling her to the cover of a nearby stall.

"They... they shot me, Ian..." she said, a confused look on her face. The bullet had gone through her shoulder, close to her heart - he could only hope not too close.

"It's going to be okay." he said hurriedly, "You'll be fine, just... just say calm, all right?" It was hardly necessary to tell her that, as Katria's head bobbed back and her breathing became laboured.

Damnit, what am I supposed to do? Ian tried to bring himself under control, thinking through his options. An ambulance wouldn't get there nearly in time, she was hardly breathing. She couldn't use her own powers over the Force, she was too weak. Ian was the only one nearby who could do anything, and now more than ever he felt least capable in the Force.

He found his focus, and breathed deeply. He had to concentrate.

His hand over Katria' shoulder, he tried to imagine the bullet, picture it, calculate it's path. For him, the Force was numbers and motion, it was physics and calculation, it was how he saw it and it allowed him to shut out the horrible sound of her ragged breathing pattern and focus on the bullet. Bringing it out. Bringing it further. Bringing it until...

The bullet was in his hand, and he sighed with relief. She sagged, and Ian held her close. "You'll be fine..."

Dolash burst into the scene. "What happened? Quick!"

Ian looked up, surprised, and said "Katria's hit! She was just standing by that white Trandoshan and then from behind, a bullet - "

Dolash interrupted "Get her to safety, Ian, I'll deal with this."

The Trandoshans he could see, they were safe for now, but the hotel was the best vantage point on to the marketplace. It was the only building tall enough for a sniper nearby, everything else was stalls and shops. He needed to trap the sniper, and that meant getting to the doors before he could slip out.

Dolash broke into a run, heading for the base of the hotel.

Ruse had packed the sniper rifle, his years of hunting have often taught him to not stay in one place for very long, he was already near the door when he saw sometone running toward the door.

"Blast..." Ruse said and found another means outside the hotel, a backdoor, he jumped the wall and found an access hole into the sewer, he then dumped the rifle and disappeared into the crowd.

***

Maskis looked down at the Trandoshan. He had saw what almost happened to him, how would he explain to his superiors THIS little mess? Well, he wouldn't need to for another month when he was required to report in.

He watched the Jedi as she went down, he couldn't beleave his eyes, a Jedi? Down? From a physical object? But then again, it wasn't that that worried him. The sound the rifle was unique, despite it being a slug thrower the sound of the rifle was altered slightly for each snipers preference.. someone was using HIS rifle

"Can you get up?" He asked the Asri

He got that danger sense again, that sense of a threat to someone he cared for, but then it was gone, replaced by the feeling that something bad had just happened. Strangely though, he knew it wasn’t the one that he was originally alerted as being in danger that got hurt…or worse. It was like the threatening party decided to change targets at the last minute. Either way, there wasn’t anything he could do about it now: he’ll just have to wait until he got word the old fashioned way on what happened.

“Dad….” He heard his son say, a look of concern on his young face: he had sensed it too. “What just happened?”

“I don’t know.” Trazu admitted. “We’ll have to wait until someone tells us, if it was our business to know.”

“Ok…uh…where were we going?”

“You were about to show me the library.” Trazu replied with a smile.

“Oh yeah! This way.” Silonik said as he tugged on his hand.

***

Asri was in as much disbelief as Maskis to see the Jedi go down. Why didn’t she move? Wouldn’t the Force have warned her of the danger? Then she recalled how the Jedi just suddenly stopped to ask her a question, one that made the Jedi obviously feel a bit awkward.

“Can you get up?" She heard Maskis ask. Upon releasing she was still on the ground she flipped herself back up to her feet. The look on Maskis’ face though, one of concern and worry, got her mind working.

Pieces of the puzzle started going into place: the design of the market place, where she and the Jedi stood within that market place, the hotel….

The Hotel…. She thought, looking up at the structure, her sudden suspicion confirmed by Dolash’s actions. The sniper had been in there and going by the Jedi’s position…

Shit….I ‘was’ the target. She thought, a chill going down her spine. But who would…? Well, she could safely put least 90% of her race on the suspect list and there was one that had traveled with them. No, while Varcanna does use a rifle, it wasn’t a slug thrower, so she was off the hook. She remembered Maskis’ own question to her when they first met up here in the market place and the mutterings about how his partner got a replica of his rifle.

“Maskis…I think your partner is responsible for this.” She said quietly and quickly explained. “You said yourself he’s been acting strange since you dropped off Lavality at the Academy. You also said he was supposed to be getting a room for you two and that he had yet to return. Plus there’s the matter of that replica of your rifle your partner just bought. Sounds awfully telling….don’t you agree? Unless of course….” She added with a warning snarl. “You are in on this….”

Dolash's race weren't hunters - they were killers. It had taken a great deal of training to suppress the animal instincts of his race, but he'd managed it. Now, however, a few of those tracking traits began to evidence themselves - even then, he didn't know if it'd be enough to catch a prepared assassin.

He bounded across the hotel lobby, startling passers-by, and following the near-imperceptible scent of a spent slugthrower shot. That mechanical smell, it was faint, but it drew him on and through the backdoor. He leapt the wall, only to lose it.

Damn.

All around him were passing crowds, some giving him a mildly surprised glance. Realizing he wouldn't find the assassin this way, he turned back and went to see if there had been any further injuries.

Back at the market, local law enforcement were putting up markers and looking officious, while a recently-arrived ambulance saw to Katria's wound. Ian was sitting with her, but quickly stood as Dolash returned.

"Anything?"

Dolash shook his head. "No, the assassin was in the hotel, but escaped through the back-door and into the crowd. No way of knowing where he went."

Ian sat down again, clearly disappointed. Dolash gave a glance to Katria, who had already restabalzied and was gently getting off the ambulance's bed. "Any serious damage?"

"No" she said, and carefully seated herself next to Ian. "It'll take a while to heal, but I'll live. Just missed my heart, did a lot of circulatory damage - I won't be running around for the next few days, maybe even weeks, but more or less, I'll be fine."

Dolash was not familiar with all the details of human relations, but the way Katria and Ian sat next to one another seemed to indicate something subtle, and so he left them be and went to see two Trandoshans standing within the area of the markers - immeadietly recognizing the albino from earlier in the day. It appeard some sort of argument was taking place, and so Dolash interrupted.

"Excuse me, but is there anything you can tell us about what just happened here?"

Maskis looked at the Jedi and then away, should he tell him that the slugthrower round bore a district sound pattern to his own? No.. that would make him an accomplince and thats the last thing he, nor the fleet, needed. "Afraid not," Maskis responded as he looked at Asri, he knew she was the target, but if she was the target... was it possible that the other trandoshan was as well?

He knew that Lavality was constantly hunted, but those who had put the bounty on her head where slowly realizing that collecting it would be near-impossible. What about the other Trandoshan? Another person might want the head of him because of the destruction the spirit had done, but that did't make sense. And what of Asri? She possibly had a bounty on her head but normally the fleet would know of such things, seeing how they have informants within those ranks

That left only one unanswered question. Lavality. She may be a child, but she has strong military instincts and knows how to handle herself, still, her father was dead, reportedly by stress, but he knew the truth. A bounty hunter was on his flagship and delivered the death blow, but no one knew WHO it was, only that the hunter managed to elude his/her persusers and still has. Lavality was now an easy target, she may be in the academy, but even he sensed it. She was very scared, nervous, frightened perhaps? She lost her left shoulder and had to be replaced, someone called her a 'little luke' due to her left arm, but many realized she wanted to just be a normal kid.

Thats what got him thinking. "Ruse......" he said outloud..." you sob....." he should've known ... why had he been blinded? His rifle missing, and the replica... how could he have missed it? He looked at Asri, then at the Jedi. "I think the person you might be looking for, is a wookiee," he finally said. "He's an elusive one.. and will be hard to track, in fact, I bet he's watching us right now"

***

Maskis was right, Ruse was watching them through some binoc's. "Traitor..." he said, "You'll pay for that," he took the binocs and put them in his bag, then took out a knife."Now to try for that Trando's Son, he's about as young as Lavality so an easy target to boot"

Asri listened to what Maskis said and couldn’t help but raise a brow: she knew he was holding back. She was pretty sure the Jedi would understand the situation and not hold him responsible along with his partner. Apparently Maskis didn’t have that kind of faith in them Jedi.

“I believe so as well.” She said. “We were just talking about how his rifle got stolen and switched with a replica and that a wookiee showed a lot of interest in it when he first arrived here.” She turned to Maskis. “Some ‘friend’ wasn’t he Maskis? Looks like our people have to work harder to get all the wookiee’s trust….”

It was a little twisting of facts she just did, but hopefully the Jedi wouldn’t pick up on it. She knew Jedi could use the Force to discern if someone was telling the truth or not, but what she didn’t realize just yet, was that no Jedi, Dark or Light, could even mind trick her, let alone know if she was telling the truth or not. Unless of course you used old fashioned and somewhat unreliable methods instead.

The reason was a combination of the nanotech in her body and the strength of her own will….

(ooc: Skipping Trazu/Silonik and Varcanna this round so that the ‘timing’ of events involving them doesn’t get thrown completely out of whack with other character’s events. Dolash, if you have a question about what I revealed in this post go ahead and PM me.)