((This was written a little over a year ago, so it definitely takes place before KoTFE. Thought I'd share it for those who RP with Ke'rii, it's a nice little glimpse into part of his back story. Enjoy!)
A SIBLING'S DECEPTION
The Shengli broke out of hyperspace and soared towards Ord Mantell. As was typical of the ship's captain, the vessel was being steered too steep, and coming in too fast to make an ideal entry into the planet's atmosphere. But the D5-Mantis starship could handle the roughness--she had many times before. And what was one more dent? Just another part of her charm.
With a thunderous roar, the vessel broke atmo and Ke'rii Ogasawara grit-ted his teeth as he fought the wind gusts blowing at him from what felt like every direction. The storm outside was bad, but he looked at it as another twist of odd luck. He had hoped to evade Republic detection anyway.
He grunted as a hard gust of wind tossed the ship off axis. The sudden jolt destabilized the vessel momentarily, and a red warning light began to flash on the console in front of him, followed by an annoying siren. He glared at the warning and made no effort to silence the wailing siren.
"Going in for another one of your infamous landings? " the young girl's voice was mocking, yet said with a smile.
The sudden appearance of his daughter, Keiko'li, momentarily stole Ke's attention. His pale cerulean eyes widened as he looked back at her.
"I thought I told you to stay strapped in down below!" he yelled, quickly returning his attention to the uneasy landing cycle as another squall tossed the ship.
Keiko grabbed her father's chair, catching her fall, before stumbling into the co-pilot's seat. She smiled as she strapped herself into the seat, quickly pulling her long brown hair into a pony tail. She noticed her father's horrified glances as she tightened the safety straps across her shoulders.
"Scold me later," Keiko said as she switched off the warning siren. "You can't do this without me. You'll crash... again."
Ke'rii tightened his jaw. Damn he hated when a twelve year old was right. The cockpit fell silent, except for the straining mechanical sounds of the en-gine fighting the storm.
"Then do somethin' useful, will ya?" he said, his attention returned to the task at hand. "See that yellow switch to your right and up three panels?"
"Yeah."
"Turn it on."
"What is it?" she questioned, as her short physique struggled to reach the switch.
"Geoscanner. I'm blind here."
The Shengli tossed again, aiding Keiko to reach the geoscanner. She hit the button and a holodisplay of the ground below popped up. Instantly another alarm rang out as the scanner returned readings of the immediate area.
Ke didn't have to look at the display to know what the alert meant, and he quickly maneuvered the ship in an upward direction. He cringed, anticipating the impact moments before the starboard side of the ship struck something hard. He had come in too close to Ord Mantell's mountainous region.
Perfect, he thought sarcastically.
Keiko let out a small cry and instinctively grabbed the safety straps that held her in place. They tightened around her upon impact. No doubt, there would be a bruise the next day.
"Tahla'ada!" Ke cursed as another alarm wailed.
Deal with that issue later, he thought as he glanced at the geoscanner and spotted the closest, and hopefully safest, place to land. He drew in a breath knowing it would be tight.
This may very well end up being another one of his infamous landings af-ter all.
"Hang on, kiddo," he said, gripping the steering so tight his knuckles turned white.
After what felt like another eternity of being jostled in the storm,
The Shengli finally descended on the sandy beach of one of Ord Mantell's smaller islands.
Ke silenced all the alarms, but the console in front of him was an unnerv-ing dance of flashing red warning lights.
He frowned.
This better be worth all the hassle, Mei-mei, his inter-nal thoughts grumbled towards his sister, but out loud he said: "Your aunty Mei sure knows where to find adventures, huh?" he looked over at Keiko with a smile. "You all right, kiddo?"
Keiko nodded her head. "Yeah," her grip was still on the straps as she looked over at him. "Ship's hurtin' though."
Ke'rii let out a sigh as he removed his safety belt. "Yeah, well, she'll make it through this. Been through worse." he flashed Keiko a reassuring smile as he moved to help her out of the tightened straps.
"Aren't you glad I disobeyed you?"
"Don't go makin' that a habit," Ke looked up at her as he hit an emer-gency release on the straps. "You did good," he admitted after a moment of consideration.
"We would've exploded."
"Maybe."
"Starboard side is busted. Just imagine what would've happened if I had-n't turned on that geoscan-thingy," her smile was full of pride, and a bit of cockiness genetically found in her father as well.
He couldn't help but smile. "Well, we'd be..."
"Squished."
He laughed. "Perhaps."
"Or worse... without a ship."
Ke nearly lost his smile at the idea of losing his ship. It was almost as bad as losing his most trusted friend Bianhu'ren--his blaster. He glanced at the console, the kid was right... the ship was hurt. But kept his nonchalant de-meanor so not to worry her. "She can be fixed. No worries, kiddo."
He walked off the bridge, heading to the cargo bay in the hull of the ship.
Truth was,
The Shengli was in trouble... again. And this time, in Republic space. The only thing in his favor was knowing Mei'li had called him to meet her here. Puzzling as that was, Ord Mantell wasn't his little sister's flavor... especially since she was now deep into the world of the Sith and the Imperium. Now, had they both remained with the Republic he could antici-pate that she had fallen in love with some smuggler who flew her around for a time, romanced her, convinced her he was in love with her, then ditched her and left her on this rock.
But again, that was unlikely.
And it wasn't like Mei could fall into the Separatist movement that seemed to be a constant on-going problem on Ord Mantell. Just wasn't her style.
'Course neither was living amongst the Imperials, he considered, but quickly dismissed the thought. He knew her reasons.
"You think aunt Mei is here already?" Keiko ran to catch up with him, nearly losing her footing on the stairs leading down to the hull.
"In this weather?" he laughed and shook his head. "Doubt it."
"We gonna stay here then? Wait for her?"
"That's right."
"Can't we go to the spaceport? Food here is getting sad and I'm sure there are plenty of cantinas, and--"
"We stay here," he turned to face her for emphasis. "Period."
Keiko frowned.
"Ord Mantell is dangerous," he continued down the stairs, Keiko follow-ing after him. "Smugglers, Separatist, and not to mention your old man's kinda made himself some enemies in the Republic."
"Whatcha do?"
Ke'rii came to a stop in front of the armory. He looked directly at the ret-ina scan to unlock the cabinet. "Republic doesn't like it when you make a cred or two doing what I do."
"Did ya kill someone?"
"Not because I wanted to," he said, opening the cabinet and retrieving Bian (the shorten form of his blaster's name). He secured the weapon to the holster on his hip.
Ke's holocomm beeped just as he finished locking the armory.
"Fifty creds says that's aunty Mei," Keiko challenged.
"I'll see that and raise you another fifty if she's changed her mind about meeting here." he grinned and the two shook.
He answered the call and the hologram of his sister appeared before him. Her image distorted by blue hololines. Static glitches interrupted occasionally from the raging storm outside.
"Let me guess," Ke said before the other could get a single word in. "You don't wanna meet on Ord Mantell anymore."
The woman in the hologram tilted her head. "Can you open up? I'm right outside."
"Oh!" Ke said, surprised. "And here I thought you had changed your mind. One sec."
He abruptly ended the call and opened up the ship, letting the ramp fall to the ground.
Rain was still coming down in sheets, and with the sun dipping behind the mountains, it was difficult to make out Mei's figure in the darkness. Ke'rii hit another button that turned on the flood lights. He smiled when he saw his sister standing at a distance.
"Hey!" he emerged from his ship, his arms outstretched, ready to greet her with a giant bear hug.
Keiko was a few steps behind him, throwing on a hat and shall to cover herself from the rain. She stopped seeing an armed man standing with his back up against the ship.
"Ke!" she called out, attempting to alert him, but was too late.
Before Ke had time to realize what was happening, he was surrounded by six men in Republic uniforms, their blasters trained steadily on him. He com-plied with their orders and raised his hands above his head, interlacing his fingers. He fell to his knees, as ordered.
"Ke!"
Again he heard his daughter shout behind him, her voice strained from struggle. Turning to look at her, he saw one of the men stopping Keiko from coming after him.
"It's all right, Keiko," he tried to assure her. "Just do as they say."
One of the men disarmed him, tossing his blaster off to the side.
Ke'rii turned his attention to the woman from the holocall as she made her approach. It was his sister all right... just not the one he thought.
"Ke'rii Hoban Hua Ogasawara, you are being placed under arrest for the murders of General Marcus Varnoss and Captain Shil'r Na."
"Nice to see you too, Xia," he said dryly, pausing a moment to recall the names. He didn't recognize them, he never collected any bounty on them and he certainly wasn't a murderer. He shook the inconsistency off. "So what? This is how the new Jedi Order works? You pretend to be someone you're not to lure me out here? Isn't that against some code?"
Xia'li removed her hood, revealing her near identical look to her twin sis-ter Mei. Xia, however was detached, void of passion and spirit. No doubt her demeanor a reflection of her years with the Jedi.
"You speak of a code you could never understand, Ke'rii."
He couldn't help but roll his eyes. Her tone was like any other Jedi he had met. Condescending, arrogant, and full of some sense of superiority over him. Come to think of it... most Force users were that way with him...
"Spare me the lecture," he said, his tone coming off more spiteful than he intended. He opened his mouth to let out another smart ass response when his attention shifted to Keiko being lead away by one of the Jedi's guards. "Where're you taking her?"
"She will be safe."
"I didn't ask that," he hissed at her. "Where are you taking her? What are you going to do with her?" he glared up at his sister, not even caring about his own fate.
"Her whereabouts aren't relevant to you, Ke'rii," Xia insisted.
"The hell they aren't!" he started to stand and a guard started to move in on him, but Xia gestured for the man to stand down. "She's my daughter," Ke continued, shooting a glare at the guard. "One more step and you're down, big boy."
"There is no reason for threats, Ke'rii," Xia attempted to calm and reas-sure him.
"Gahaor!" he exclaimed. "Six men with guns, a Jedi, me on my knees, my daughter being taken to who the hell knows where and Bian on the ground," he points to his blaster. "That's the definition of a threatening situation in my books, sister."
"Be calm, brother--"
"--I am calm!" he insisted, his tone contracting his words. "Now I'll ask you again, where the hell are you taking her?!"
"She will be safe," Xia repeated unflustered by his outbursts. "Aren't you more curious why I--"
"--I could care less why you lured me to this rock," Ke interrupted. "I think it kinda goes without sayin' that you're going to pin me as the poster boy as Republic Killer. Let them all see what happens when someone kills your military officials. Might I remind you this is war? Ni lai shun shou; take things as they come. Isn't that what our grandfather used to tell us?"
"Only you didn't kill them in war," Xia'li pointed out. "You are not a sol-dier. You hold no allegiance to anyone except yourself. You kill for credits, nothing more. Shi shi sheng yu xiong bian," she quotes their grandfather's words that actions speak louder than words.
Ke stares at her for a moment. "And you turned on your family. Mei-mei's told me about how you tried to have her arrested for treason, how you are wanting dad hung for his crimes. They are both victims of this war, and you want to punish them for that. Is that really what the Jedi and their code stand for? "
"We stand to uphold peace and balance in the galaxy. We are defenders of the light and will protect others from the dark plague that has corrupted those who oppose us," Xia states.
Ke shakes his head at her babbling. "Spare me your preaching. Just get this over with. Kill me or whatever, but I never even heard of those people I supposedly murdered."
Xia shifts her stance, placing her hands behind her back. "We are not go-ing to kill you, Ke'rii. You're going to work for us."
Before she even finishes her statement, Ke erupts with a loud laugh.
"I only take orders from one person. Me." He jabs his thumb into his chest for emphasis.
"You will change your mind once you hear what we have to say," the Jedi says and turns her attention to the guard standing behind her brother. "Take him to my ship."
* * * * * * * * * *
Ke'rii leaned forward on the table. The shackles bound on his wrists clanked against the metallic surface. He looked straight into the pale yellow eyes of the large Cathar male sitting across from him. For a moment he glanced to Xia'li, who was standing in the corner of the interrogation room wearing her brown Jedi robes.
"I thought this was a job interview." he said smugly, his words coated heavily with sarcasm as he lifted his hands from the table to show her the durasteel bonds.
Xia stepped forward. "It is."
"Then why the shackles? Don't trust me?" he leaned back in his chair as he heard the Cathar growl under his breath. "Relax, little kitty."
At that the Cathar stood up, his chair scrapping the floor as it was pushed back. He slams his hands on the table.
"Ri skae scaa!" the Cathar shouted at him, enraged.
Ke didn't flinch, though he felt the man could tear him the shreds if he were allowed the opportunity.
"Calm, Lirru," Xia said, placing a hand on the man's back. "This is what he does because he is scared."
"Scared?" Ke laughed. "I'm not scared. I just don't see why I'm here and what you could possibly offer me that would make me agree to get a paycheck from you. So how 'bout we have a real conversation, without any of us being tied up."
"I don't trust him," Lirru said, his sharp feline eyes trained on Ke'rii.
"Aww, c'mon, now Lirru. I'm a nice guy once you get to know me," Ke said, and had the audacity to smile at the Cathar when he heard him growl again.
"Leave him to me, Lirru," Xia said.
"For the best," the Cathar said, threatening. He pushed his hands off the table, slightly shifting it out of place before promptly leaving the room.
"I'm gonna miss him," Ke said. "I really think he was staring to like me. Maybe I shoulda brought him some treats. Like the little fishy ones that Juju likes--"
"Enough, Ke'rii," Xia stopped him. "I know you are feeling betrayed--"
"Ya don't say? You lied and manipulated me, and still... I don't know why the hell you think I'll work for you."
"You'll work for us because you don't want to be incarcerated."
"For a crime I didn't even do," he reminds her.
Xia sat down in front of him. "Calm, brother."
Ke rolled his eyes. "Don't even call me that. You and I both know our kin-ship has always been a fallacy."
The Jedi nodded in agreement, the confirmation actually hurting Ke'rii a bit on the inside.
So that was how it was, Jedi Order over family blood... "Whatever, just tell me what you want me to do so I can get outta here."
"We want you to join Imperial Intelligence--"
Ke snorted. "What?!"
"You'll be working as a double agent for the Republic Strategic Informa-tion Service."
"You got the wrong person, Jedi. SIS? Imp Intel? Really? What makes you think--"
"Because this is what you do, Ke'rii. This is what you have always been meant to do."
"What? Spy?" he chuckles and shakes his head.
"You have a desire for information, for knowledge. To learn the truth. You would be working both sides."
"You've got the wrong man," he insists. "You might have noticed that fei-sty young girl you took? She's my daughter, my family--I know that doesn't mean much to you... you know, attachments and all that forbidden gahaor... but giving her a good life is my top priority. I don't give a damn about this war. I don't give a damn about the Jedi and their cause. And I don't give a damn about the Sith and their cause. You can battle out this conflict without me."
"You would be working to secure a safe life for your daughter, for your sister... Mei'li."
Ke looked up at her. "Don't even pretend to know her, much less give a damn about her," he holds up a hand to silence her before she can speak again. "And don't even think you can use me to get to our father either."
Xia leans back, silence filling the space between them for a moment.
"Keiko'li... she's what? Ten? Eleven?" Xia asked.
"Twelve," he corrected. "And what does that have to do with any of this?"
"It is interesting she doesn't call you 'dad' or 'father'."
Ke shifts uneasily. "Yeah well... she's at that age I guess."
Xia shakes her head. "Hm... no I don't think so, Ke'rii. Whatever per-ceived rebellious nature she thinks she has would have been abandoned when she saw my men with their guns trained on you."
"Where are you going with this?" he said, irritated.
"She was born on Coruscant..." Xia states as she retrieves a datapad. "Ac-cording to our records, she was born as Keiko Fah," she looks up.
Ke shrugs. "So her mother had a last name. Is that a crime?"
"...and her father."
"I'm her father," he states defensively.
Xia shrugs, setting her datapad on the table between them. A dossier is left open with a picture of a man clearly visible. The action meant to get Ke's attention.
"There's an Owen Fah who seems to think otherwise."
"Well he's not."
"He has a nice reward out for his daughter."
"Yeah, well I challenge him to take a biological test, because he ain't her father, I am." he looks the Jedi in the eye, his breath held as a thought dawns on him. "Where's Keiko?"
"I told you, she is safe."
Ke'rii clenches his jaw as he stares at the other. "I swear, ni malyasa'yr tahla'ada gar laam if you..." he threatens in earnest.
For the first time Xia'li smiles, which only makes him feel more unnerved by this situation.
"I assure you, I have not contact Mr. Fah," she inclines her head, "Nor will I if you agree to cooperate."
Ke'rii frowns, now understanding the point of this conversation. Black-mail. The damn Jedi, his damn sister, was blackmailing him.
"You have my attention," he says, reluctantly consenting.
THE END.
