Lightside Sith 031

Parking the Odachi in a Jabba the Hutt affiliated hangar-as opposed to a public venue where it had a higher chance of being stolen-Kane set off for the venue. 

Sending Durge along with some money so that he could pretend to be one of the participants in the auction, Kane departed with Ferus in tow. Ordinarily, he would have preferred to finish the conditions of the quest alone, but unfortunately, he still had a mopey teen to convince. 

Walking along through a crowd of countless aliens & Humans, he already sent out [Inflict Pain] at half a dozen would-be pickpockets. If he didn't have the Force and reaction speed, he doubtlessly would have had his things stolen several times over. Fortunately, he had an inventory, and even if somehow a pickpocket got past his defenses, he'd be fine. 

By now, a small bubble of empty space surrounded the pair of Force Sensitives. After witnessing those would be thieves rolling around on the ground as if they had been stung by a hundred wasps, the thick crowd of people surging around them got the memo. The big cloaked masked guy was not to be messed with. 

“So, Ferus, how good is your [Mind Trick]?” Kane asked conversationally as he occasionally glanced at some street stall, and the goods on display during their walk. 

“...why do you want to know?” The Jedi reluctantly asked. 

“Well. Ordinarily, as a Sith, I have three options to enter any establishment. Negotiate with my words, money or influence. Enter directly with violence. Or sneak in using some special methods. Today, I want to see if you're worthy of Team Renstar, and the [Mind Trick] is such a basic ability, doubtlessly you can cast it.” Kane said in a somewhat patronizing tone. 

“Yes, but I won't use it-”

“-against civilians or innocent people. Yes, yes, how very boring. I, however do not lack such complications. You know, I tricked a group of rich idiots once to pay for my ‘art’ on Naboo. I would have felt bad playing anyone out of their money, even the wealthy, however, they were all clamoring over a rotten fruit, claiming it was art. Needless to say, I expect you to be forthcoming when the time comes.” Kane sarcastically snorted. 

“Hey, you want to buy some deathsticks?” A horned Devaronian red-skinned alien dude with sharp teeth said, practically breathing upon them as he presented his merchandise. 

“Observe.” Kane said to his companion, then waved his hand. “You want to smoke your whole stock. Why share this happiness with others, when it can improve your day? If you've truly wanted to smoke one of these, do so this very moment, if not, toss that packet off the ledge over there ”

“Yes, yes, you're absolutely right!” The horned man gleefully nodded his head, then lit up a smoke right then and there on the spot. 

+1LP. 

‘Ah. I am such a good person. Letting others do what they want in their heart of hearts, isn't that a true Lightside Sith?’ 

“But you've ruined his life!” Ferus exclaimed, about to wrest the smokes out of the alien's hand, only to dodge out of the way from a sudden blaster shot. 

“Mine. Not for sale. Die, thief!” The Devaronian snarled, blaster pistol in hand. 

“Oh no~ Anyway.” Kaine said, flicking his finger, tripping the red-skinned man with the Force. ‘Go smoke somewhere else, otherwise this crazy man will kill you.’ 

“Go away! Ahh!” The alien yelled, high off his rocker, then disappeared into the crowd flapping his arms like a bird. 

Several onlookers had stopped to enjoy the commotion, then tsked when there were no corpses to be found, and continued on with their days as if what they had just witnessed was an ordinary occurrence 

“Why. Why did you do that?!” Ferus snarled, grabbing Kane by the scruff of his shirt. 

“Ah, ah, ah, aren't Jedi supposed to be emotionless automata?” Kane wagged his finger in mirth. 

Taking a deep breath, and barely withholding a frown, the teen smoothed his face over, and stared into Kane's mask. “Why. Did. You. Do. That?” He asked calmly. 

“Why, my dear Padawan, I merely unleashed the man's inhibitions. You clearly heard the part about tossing the stock off the nearest railing into the depths below, correct? Besides, I was not the one who made him draw his blaster.” Kane smirked, then pointed at a random bystander-a blue-skinned red eyed, big foreheaded Duros-who was slumped over with a black hole on their shoulder. 

“By the Force, no!” Ferus, wracked with guilt, ran over to the downed person, shooing away greedy thieves. 

“How unfortunate. It appears the Duros doesn't have much longer to live. Tsk, tsk, you should've known dodging could lead to this.” Kane admonished. 

“...” Ferus stood up, clenching his fists, looking as if he were going to draw his lightsaber. 

“Are you going to duel me? Here, in the heart of the city surrounded by thousands of innocents?” Kane asked with a raised brow, crossing his arms. 

Taking a deep breath to control his slowly mounting rage, the young protagonist then turned back to the wounded man, desperately searching for some solution. Nearby, some stalls were hawking second hand goods. At one of them, the proprietor-a short, purple skinned Rodian-was selling some kolto. Kolto being, of course, a generic healing cure-all liquid. It was the cheaper, much less effective version of bacta and available in pretty much any decent market. 

“Shopkeeper, how much for the kolto?” Ferus asked, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. 

The Rodian squinted at him, then glanced at the slowly dying Duros. “1,000 creds, Jedi.” 

Ferus blinked in surprise, whilst Kane was full of schadenfreude. 

“Market rates show a half liter of kolto goes for 200 credits. That container of yours most definitely does not amount to half a liter. Given Nar Shaddaa's upcharge, it can't be more than 170.” Ferus tried to reason. 

“Way I see it, you could hand over that lightsaber for collateral. Otherwise, hand over 2,000 credits.” The Rodian pinched and squeezed his fingers together, upping the price, and greedily leaning forward. 

“Renstar.” Ferus said, turning back with a pleading look. 

“Use [Mind Trick]. A life is about to disappear due to your negligence. Can you really afford to be worrying about money right now?” Kane said, pointing at the now almost milk-white alien. Oxygen deprivation, and blood loss had turned him an unhealthy teal-blue. 

Gritting his teeth, Ferus turned his hand at the stall owner. ‘You will hand over the kolto for 170 credits.’

The purple Rodian's black eyes went wide as he did everything in his power to resist the [Mind Trick]. “Jedi. You! I recognized you, and you think I do not know your games?! A thousand of your kind have come to Nar Shaddaa every century. Nightmares & horror stories are told about your kind. No! The kolta is not for sale. In fact, I will hire a hit on you just for the insult!” The Rodian angrily declared, then pulled out his communicator. 

This time, it was Ferus's turn to be panicked. The usually stoic teen had never been in such a precarious position. At that moment, he could only turn to Renstar for help. 

“Oh? And what stories do they tell about Sith, little man?” Kane asked in a dangerous tone. 

“Sith? Hmph, stop bluffing. Those dogs haven't risen up for centuries. The last faker claiming to be Sith was drowned alive in Hutt slime.” The Rodian dismissed without looking up from his communicator. 

Red ignited a second later, and the hand holding the communicator was severed at the wrist. 

“Ahyiee!” The Rodian screamed in pain, falling to one knee. 

‘Huh, my Shii-Cho is already coming into play. Such a toxic lightsaber Form, aiming at wrists & appendages…hmm, perhaps this might be the best method to farm LS Points?’ Kane pondered to himself, happy that he got to apply his learned knowledge in the real world. 

Before this moment, he thought Form I was only good for establishing his foundation. Like how many Math problems were practically useless, but helped prepare oneself for those more tedious/elaborate calculations if you took a science related degree. However, unlike those useless Maths, Shii-Cho was actually applicable in the real world! 

“Hmm, since I am in a good mood, you can go. But your things belong to me now.” Kane said, and waved the Rodian away dismissively. 

+1LP

‘Letting the enemy go could also farm LP? Good to know.’ Kane thought to himself with a nod. 

“I pay protection to Jabba the Hutt, you'll regret this!” The Rodian called out to them once he'd run deep into the crowd. 

“Poor bastard.” Kane clucked his tongue, and shook his head. 

“What do you mean?” Ferus asked. 

Kane just shot the Padawan a look. As if to say ‘what are you, stupid?’ Obviously anyone who narked on Jabba's new super best friend would get a blaster to the face if he was lucky, or a fate worse than death if Bib Fortuna was feeling particularly gracious. Some small time merchant annoying Count Dooku's new murder weapon, how could the steward let that slide? 

“Ahem, anywayyy, don't you have a life to save?” Kane lazily drawled, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. 

“By the Force, yes!” Ferus exclaimed, then rushed to take the kolto from the stand, and began to spray it on the blackened blaster wound. 

Kane, meanwhile, snagged all the miscellaneous objects into his inventory. Blaster parts, droid parts, an advanced battle droid schematic, a few thousand creds, and some miscellaneous Spice made up the most interesting things. The rest was just junk, or too big to fit in the inventory, so he left it behind. 

Once he was done taking what he wanted, he turned to see that Ferus's desperate actions seemed to have borne fruit. 

“Get your filthy hands off me. I saw the whole thing. The reason why I was shot was because of your stupid Jedi compassion.” The Duros scowled, weakly slapping Ferus's hand away. 

Trying to stand up, the pale alien staggered, before falling. Ferus caught him before he could hit the filthy durasteel floor. 

“Ughhh. What time is it? Oh no, I'm going to be late for work!” The Duros exclaimed in fear. 

“So take the day off. I can explain to your employers what happened. A Jedi's word is worth that much.” Ferus stated proudly, puffing out his chest. 

The red eyed alien stared at this future protagonist unblinkingly, as if he had found an asylum escapee out in the wild. “I'm doomed.” 

“Oh. And who, pray tell, are your employers, what is your job?” Kane asked meaningfully. 

Before any of this shenanigans had happened, he had a strange feeling when meeting that Devaronian. That if he stopped, and interacted with him in just such a way, events would go in his favor. Call it psychic bullshittery, but the Force really was magic that way. 

The entire time, he was wondering what it could be. Was it the knick nacks & creds he stole from the stall? He thought it was, because that droid schematic looked pretty interesting. However, his intuition was pointing towards this Duros. One could even say the big foreheaded blue alien had been predestined to be shot the second Kane had interacted with the Devaronian. 

Looking pensive, the Duros blurted out everything on his mind, as if he were a dying man grasping at straws. 

“My employer is the Red Eclipse. They have a serious auction tonight, one bigger than ever before. An all black furred Wookiee, dozens of pre-teen Twi'leks, a body double for Senator Amidala, and the crown jewel, a Hu-well, I'd best not say…I'm the host of the whole thing. If I don't show up, I'm finished! Please, Master Jedi, take me to the auction, and I will forever be in your debt.” The Duros practically wailed. 

Kane almost laughed out loud as Ferus dropped the alien. The teen acted as if he had touched a thousand volts of electricity, such was his shock. It turned out the ‘innocent' man he had saved was scum! Truly, ‘saving’ this man was providence! A Lightside Sith listened to the Force, unlike his Darkside counterparts or those hoity-toity Jedi. 

“Apologies for my companion, he is still a Padawan learner. Here, allow me.” Kaine said. 

“Oh, thank you!” The Duros exclaimed. 

Ferus turned woodendly to stare at Kane. 

“You doubt me? Do not forget what actions I took on Vinsoth. You wanted to do some good on Nar Shaddaa, right? Trust me.” Kane explained with a devilish smile. 

Ferus took a deep breath. “Fine.” 

“Atta boy. On three, go Team Renstar!” 

“...” 

Heh. Stealing from that guy, forcibly trying to use [Mind Trick], you're one more push from falling, Olin. And when you do, I can't wait to see the look on your bitchy Master's face!’ 

He then turned towards the stall, rummaged around till he found a hover sled, and plopped the Duros down on it. 

“Ahem. Lead on, my good man, we shall escort you all the way to the auction's back rooms!”