Nia Doarr

Nia hesitated, but revealing what she was searching for couldn't hurt too much, could it? She took a sip, contemplating. The reason she'd come here was to learn without outside input. Having a guide would help her achieve her goal, but it could also compromise it. Unfortunately, it was a risk she would have to take. She didn't know this temple, didn't know where the archives were, or if she could even access them alone. Whoever this woman was, she would have to trust her. "Alright. I suppose I don't have much of a choice. I seek the history of the Jedi and Sith conflict. I seek it here instead of another temple because I wish to read of it outside of the eyes of the Jedi. I've witnessed the Jedi make decisions and commit acts that have shaken my faith." She watched the woman, on guard. She'd revealed an inkling of her own allegiance, and had yet to discern how the Togrutan woman would handle that.

So the other woman was once a Jedi, and from the sounds of it, had reached the same conclusion as Nia was closing on. She relaxed, finally accepting the woman's offers of nourishment, though she kept her distance. She glanced at the temple. This was her goal. Inside, she could find records. Stories. Maybe even firsthand accounts of the galaxy that explain what happened to the Jedi, why they aren't like the stories she'd heard as a child. The woman's repeated question snapped her out of her thoughts though, and she frowned, repeating herself as the woman had. "I seek answers. Knowledge that I hope is in what remains of this temple's archives. You say you were trained here- perhaps you can show me the way to the temple's library?"

Nia was hesitant to accept the strange woman's offer. If she wasn't a Jedi, then who was she? The lightsabers implied force-sensitivity, though she claimed she wasn't a Jedi. She didn't seem like a Sith though. Maybe an Imperial Knight? Though what would she be doing here, in the ruins of a Jedi temple? Perhaps the same as Nia was. She kept her distance. If this had been earlier, before Mon Cal and her encounters with the Rebel forces, she might've accepted. But she was different now. Wary. Mistrusting. When the Togruta spoke, she confirmed Nia's first thought. That she was a force sensitive. This only brought more questions, however. How had she 'felt' Nia? Reached out through her mind? Were these skills she herself could learn? But she had little time to ponder, as the woman finished cooking her meal. It was clear that Nia was intended to sit, so she did so carefully, still keeping her distance. The question put her on guard, concerned. "I seek answers to a question, though I may not like what I find. But now, if I may ask... What brings you here? If you are not with the Jedi, then who?"

She stiffened, the intrusion into her mind largely unwelcomed. She glanced around, looking for the source of the voice. She clearly wasn't as alone as she'd thought. Someone was close, and they had command of the Force. She hesitated. Perhaps it was a ghost. She'd heard stories of Jedi and Sith leaving behind wise and powerful spirits, but she still questioned the validity of those claims. She pushed on. With no way to respond to the presence, it was the best she could do. Until she saw the smoke. Not from the temple, though it had clearly taken a beating itself, but from nearby. Perhaps this was the person who had spoken to her? She approached. It was a small camp. She'd left her robes near where she'd arrived on the planet. She was alone, and in a galaxy that was very hostile to the Jedi. Her father's lightsaber had been left, too, though it had pained her to do so. There was a lone figure, tending a fire. Nia hesitated- she could see the lightsabers, and the woman certainly wasn't dressed like a Jedi. But why would a Sith be here? And she felt like a Jedi. Nia couldn't explain how, but there was almost an aura about the woman, similar to those of the other Jedi she had met, such as Mjan and Kel Koon. The best way to find out, she decided, was to ask. "Excuse me ma'am. Are you... a Jedi?"

It had been a relatively short time since she'd left Mon Cal, but she'd done so much since then. After Rose's death, and her narrow escape, not to mention what she'd seen of the Jedi while she was there, she'd been sent spiraling, nearly rejecting the Jedi outright. But she owed her father more than that. The order he loved and served for so long, there had to be more to it. Maybe the Jedi were a shadow of what they were now, or maybe the ones she'd met were just bad examples of what a Jedi was. As it were, she'd spent the last few weeks going from planet to planet, almost aimlessly as she saw more of the galaxy than she'd ever seen before. She remembered how excited she'd been on Ord Mantell. The luster of it are, the energy, the new experiences. Somehow that had been taken from her, and she was desperate to reclaim those feelings. That drive had brought her here, to Haruun Kal. She'd heard whispers of a ruined Jedi enclave here, and had spent most of what was left on a round trip back to Sullust, where she'd found herself previously. If the living Jedi couldn't show her what she'd been looking for, she'd ask the dead instead. Sifting through rubble and ruin to find answers appealed to her more than training soldiers anyways. Maybe she could finds answers. It was no secret that the Sith were evil, or that the empire was waging war against the Jedi, but evil was a point of view and the Jedi were likewise waging war against the Sith. The dead and the past would tell her the truth. Her true purpose was to find archives untouched for years, read what she could. It would be free of propaganda, from either side of the war she hoped. She cleared the treeline, to her surprise, and faced a large building. A temple. Not as large as the one on Felucia, and certainly not as large as the one she'd seen in holos of Coruscant before its ruining, but it was clearly Jedi. The architecture and the feeling about it were there, like Felucia, and like it had been on Nar Shaddaa, though it had been much fainter there. She took a breath, and stepped forward. This place would hold answers. She could feel it.

Nia was lost. The sheer number of people who needed help here both proved her earlier points and overwhelmed her. She didn't know what to do. She didn't have the skill or the knowledge to help anything more than minor wounds right now. Nor did she have the presence or the authority to calm the masses or organize the first responders. When the Cathar caught up to her, she turned to face him. He was massive, but she wasn't afraid. If he was truly a Jedi she was in no danger, and if not, she'd be dead regardless. Still, the accusations gnawed at the back of her head and she watched him as he spoke. "You let your fear control you, master Jedi. I fear catching this disease, I fear death. I fear being truly alone for the first time. But I brave them all in the name of what's right. This may be a trap. Or it may be that everyone is on edge and making extremely poor calls, like in that warehouse. Regardless, we have a duty to help them. Now, if you wish to join me I will not turn you away, but you must promise not to harm or to threaten anyone else." Before he could respond, Rose arrived. She and Rose had gotten off on the wrong foot from the start, as regrettable as it had been. And it seemed to be a streak that wouldn't end here- she winced as Rose slapped the Cathar, and took a step back when the twi'lek wheeled around to face her. She took in the other woman's words- getting into an argument would do them no good. Nia had said what she needed to, and this was a consequence. Still, it stung that the pilot had seemed to miss her point. And then things got chaotic again. At once, most of the manhole covers in the streets blew off with extreme force, and she spun around to see the Cathar dive in front of one to protect her. Blaster shots rang out from the buildings around her and civilians dropped to the floor, dead or injured, the screams mounting once again. Fear hit her in a nearly palpable wave as her tendrils picked up scents and pheromones, and she took a step back to steady herself. Find peace. Find something to focus on. She moved to the large cat's side, moving the metal plate off of him. Instinct drove her now. She held a hand over his chest- He was in pain. She could feel it, too. He was covered in injuries- She didn't know how he was still alive, much less how he was still diving in front of manholes. The shoulder she could help with- she knew how to close wounds and how to heal them. The bones would be trickier- the fracture, maybe. But it would take time. She looked at Rose, then at the buildings around her. She looked back at Rose. She knew what she had to ask. She hated it. "Cover me?"

Nia knew how she appeared- that she seemed naive and childish. She could tell that Mjan thought of her that way- likely that the rest of the people in the warehouse thought that way too. But she wasn't necessarily going to beat herself up over their negative opinions. If it was naive to aim for such a simple goal, to help people directly, then she didn't mind it. Still, it hurt that they were so clouded by fear that only one offered to help. She didn't know the others, but from what she'd seen of Mjan, she was disappointed in him. Not as a Sith turned Jedi, she didn't think he was in danger of falling or anything like that. But he seemed so caught up in his crusade against the Sith that he didn't know how else to help the galaxy. And the more she saw of the other Jedi, the more she thought that it was a problem with the Order, not just the individuals. She grew up with tales of Jedi helping the weak, and protecting them against the tyrants and the Sith of the galaxy, but all she'd seen so far were Jedi more concerned with the Sith's destruction and the citizens' preservation. When she was approached by Ro, she stopped for a moment, listening. "What is there to trust people with? The only ones I'll be endangered by are those seeking to cause more chaos. You may help if you wish- Force knows this planet needs all the help it can get right now." She glanced at Mjan, his temper seemingly controlled now. "I find no comfort in holding weapons, Master Mjan." She left the rest of the shouting behind- she registered the words. Accusations of murder, offered deals and shaky suggestions. But she'd spoken her peice. When she exited the warehouse, there was still chaos. Dozens of injured and sick still fled the hospital. She was nearly overwhelmed with the flood of fear, both in the air and in the force. Still, she steadied herself. These people needed help. It would do her no good to give into the fear that had gripped all the others. She fought through the crowd, wincing with every brushed arm and bumped shoulder, looking for anyone who needed immediate aid. She was barely experienced with using the Force to heal, but something was better than nothing, she thought.

Nia couldn't believe this. Three Jedi, and the war droid and the stranger seemed to have a better grasp on the situation. She looked at all the drawn weapons, the tempers flared, the threats issued. "Enough! All of you!" she shouted. In all her years, she'd never once shouted. She'd always been quiet. Always timid. But here, in the middle of chaos, she found her voice. "Mjan, Rose. For all your talks about fighting this war to defend the innocent, to defeat the menace of the Sith, you jumped so quickly to threaten them for your own protection. That is not what a Jedi is." She wheeled around to the second lightsaber-wielding Jedi (@Leena Kil), no more impressed. "You jump so quickly to your weapon, and though you do so to protect the innocents, you threaten an ally in the same manner that you are trying to dissuade him from doing it. You are a hypocrite." Next was the Cathar shouting of conspiracy and betrayal, oblivious to the countless innocent lives that had also been taken. (@Durose Roshan) "You are no better! You think this is a trap, and yet you draw your weapon and try to goad us to a fight! What good would that accomplish? We'd simply have even more dead Jedi. Not to mention the scores that still need our help, trap or no!" She spun around, addressing them all. "You're disappointments to the Order that my father gave his life to serve, bickering and spreading fear like the Sith of old, and if you insist on following this path to its end then I will have no part of it. You can find me out there, with the sick and the injured, doing what a Jedi should be doing, rather than spend your time acting like criminals and terrorists. You should all be ashamed." She spun towards the crowd, and subsequently, the exit. There were injured people out there, and sick ones too. She would help them, even if the others wouldn't. She pushed through the crowd, and towards the exit. She had a sinking realization she may have just left the Jedi Order, but right then, she didn't care. All she cared about was helping those that needed it.

Nia shook he head at Rose's words, an emotion playing on her face and in her mind she couldn't place. How could they sit here, able to help, and not? Nobody knew where they'd came from- not unless Rose had started sharing those details with strangers. And now they were letting people suffer en mass on the slight chance that their objective would be compromised? It bothered her in ways she didn't know she could be bothered. She stood, and was about to protest, to go and help anyone she could, when an explosion rocked the warehouse. The glow of fire reflected off of her black pupils, dancing in the dim light of the warehouse. She froze, watching in horror. How many dead from that explosion? How many more to follow in the aftermath. Her heart fell. All she wanted to do, with every fiber of her being, was to help them, and she couldn't. The mission demanded it. When Mjan grabbed her, she gasped, her discomfort pulling her out of her mind as she was pushed behind him. At the very least, she was relieved to see her master prepare to go aid them. at least until Rose ordered him to stand down. That relief was quickly quashed by what happened next. Rose called out the incoming refugees, and she was thrown like a ragdoll higher into the scaffolding. And then, before she could say anything, he'd drawn his weapons, threatening the frightened people. She jumped down- her own safety was barely considered. She reached out, grabbing his closest wrist. "Mjan, they're refugees. They need our help, not more threats. Put your weapons away. Please. Whatever our mission was, this is what we need to do now. Do not start down a path we'll all regret in the name of more war." She stepped back, moving between her master and the crowd. "This isn't right. You know that."

Nia meditated through the chaos that was taking place in the warehouse. They'd been stranded here for a while now, and she was honestly grateful. With a pandemic in effect, they were stuck here. It was either a massive coincidence, or the Force was trying to guide them to something, though she was too inexperienced to properly discern which. At the very least though, she worried. Historically, when planets locked down in the manner that Mon Cal did, it only made people want to leave more. And if this disease, whatever it was, got off planet, how many more would follow? It was a little frustrating, to be stuck here with nothing. But losing her temper as Rose did would do no good, for anyone. Most frustrating is to be so close to the water and yet unable to submerge herself. Part of it was homesickness, but another part was just familiarity. She'd always been a little better with people under the water, thanks to her specie's adaptations. It was smothering, to be above the water though. She glanced at her master, concerned about his glare. It seemed they were all getting a little cabin fever. "Master, maybe we can't prove who we are, but should that stop us from helping here? Even if it's not exactly..." she hesitated, before continuing. "Legal? These people are suffering."

For the first time since leaving Glee Anselm, Nia doubted herself. She'd always been unsure of her place, but she knew she had the connection to at least warrant her presence. Seeing how her comment had affected her master, though, she was hit with a wave of doubt that this was truly her path. Still, it was a small moment, and she didn't come all this way to be chased off by a wayward reaction. She owed it to her father, at the very least, who's legacy she was here to honor. She bowed her head. He had a different view of the galaxy, which could be attributed to his upbringing. She didn't blame him. And maybe, given time, she'd come to hold that same belief. But she couldn't reconcile teaching others to kill with herself. Maybe he was right, that they weren't responsible if someone used what they taught for evil. Even so, she felt that they should still be cautious, that the blame still fell on them. How many cruel people would never get the chance to be cruel because they were never given the tools? The opposite was true, of course. Perhaps even moreso. Still, she knew that there were more concrete ways to help, even if she didn't know what they were just yet. Maybe in ways like she'd done in the hanger on Nar Shaddaa, healing Beth's wounds. Or maybe as her father did, protecting those whom conflict was forced upon rather than seeking it himself. She voiced none of this, however. When he glanced at her, she nodded. At the very least, simply a test flight wasn't a problem. On its own, it didn't lead anywhere, simply aided whomever piloted the 170 next.

Nia was, undoubtedly, excited to have the opportunity that she did. Ord Mantell was full of old ships, with ancient battlefields and ruins dreadnoughts. It was almost a step into history. But when she was asked her approach to the Force, she hesitated. Her father had taught her little. Most of what she knew she knew from studies and what came from inside her. Even then, she struggled to put it into words. "I know little of the Force. Only that it binds every living thing. And to me, that means severing those bonds through violence is an afront to the very being of our galaxy. Which brings me to what I wanted to speak to you about... I have concerns over what we are doing here. If we train Bakura's people to fight, who's to say they won't use that knowledge after we leave to become tyrants themselves? And if something like that were to happen, are we, the teachers, not just as responsible as those we taught? Either for misjudging their character or teaching them to begin with? Is every death they inflict not our responsibility to prevent?" She was quiet for a moment before continuing, quieter this time. "You are, of course, my master. And if you command me to teach warfare, than I will. But I feel... I feel that my path is elsewhere. I can't explain it. I don't know how." She bowed her head. She had a crushing fear that she would be expelled from the order for speaking of their decision like this. But she'd rather be home, on Glee Anselm, a shadow of what she could be, than to quietly ignore her morals and convictions.

Nia nodded, thinking. She'd left most of her belongings at home- she didn't travel with much. A spare change of clothes, her father's lightsaber, a datapad, and a credit chip that was running dangerously low on funds. She didn't need much else- she had never been one for extravagance. Even now, the most she wanted was to explore. "I do not need anything, thank you. I'd like to explore a little bit, if that's alright with you, though. I've never been on a planet other than my home world long enough to do so. Especially above the water. I've never even been to the settlements on Glee Anselm that are above the ocean's waves." She didn't touch on the concerns she wished to raise- there would be time for that. But for now, she wanted to enjoy herself. It was an odd feeling- She'd always been content to sit in her home and endlessly research new topics, but now that she was out and about in the galaxy, all she wanted to do was explore. She'd not even touched her datapad since she'd left home other than to keep in touch with her mother.

Nia was lost in the haze of conversation. She didn't know what a Quasar-carrier was, though she knew vaguely what an x-wing was. An ARC-170 was more in her comfort zone, an old ship with a storied career in the Clone Wars. Still, it wouldn't do her any good to zone out, or to become lost in thought. She'd have to learn this talk if she wanted to fit with their story. She was silent for a while, searching for the words to what she wanted to say, but she didn't even know what that was. So she settled for silence, waiting to speak until spoken to. She was, however, itching to explore the city they'd landed at. It was her first time on a world other than Glee Anselm with time to spend exploring, and she wanted to make the most of it. She refrained, however, since she knew they were there on a mission, and she had no way to keep in touch yet. She'd have to raise the issue later.

Nia smiled softly at Beth's offer. "Thanks, I will keep you in mind if I ever need one. Though I think I should take you up on food. I haven't eaten since before I was on Nar Shaddaa." She followed Beth to the Bazaar, staying behind her while she bought the food. There was still so much she didn't know- she'd tthought her stories and her research would prepare her for the galaxy, but she'd been an planet after planet now and not one had been anything like she'd thought. She'd thought Ord Mantell was full of treasure hunters trying to get rich quick with treasure lost in wrecked starships. But all she saw here were hard working salvagers selling honest goods. When Mjan arrived, she barely noticed at first, until he spoke and she jumped, startled. As he explained their roles, she listened aptly. "I appreciate it. I have questions regarding what we will do here, but they can wait until we are in private. And I would like to hear the story behind the fighter when I have a moment if that's possible."