Star Wars: A Thing Of Beauty

Shake It Off

In a few months of the physical therapy, Jinang has progressed very well. He can walk without help most of the time, and got there without even accepting the walker. Mentally, he started feeling better, trying to fill his thoughts with the new memories he's been making. Focusing on the area around him, on Poppy, and on Dr. Shae. It's gotten quite easy to think about Tanner as Jinang finds himself attracted to the big, strong Pantoran... And as Jinang regains his motor functions, he started to workout however he could. Using little weights, doing sit-ups, squats. Eventually he started doing push-ups, poll-ups, and started jogging, running, sprinting - progressing further and further as months passed on by. And after a little over year, he started training to fight again. Sparring with a Harrower training droid that the mercenaries didn't need anymore. Though, he hasn't actually met a Harrower up close, which he's found odd. He was incredibly sloppy with his techniques, but the Jedi and the mercenary left him with lots of combat experience that was still in his head. He just had to practice and get the hang of combat again.
While he was in recovery for almost three years, the clone wars continued outside of his little world on Rutanda. The huge, somewhat inconsequential gossip making its rounds all across the stars is that senator Padme Amidala gave birth to twins. Only about a month after Jinang's accident on Felucia. More leaks revealed that the twins are a boy and a girl, named Luke and Leia Amidala. Their father is unknown, but one theory is that the father is Rush Clovis, the Baron of Scipio. There are also rumors that Anakin Skywalker is the father, due to him being around senator Amidala quite frequently. But that's all just speculation and gossip.
Both the republic and the separatists recently started recruiting civilians for combat training and will start sending the new enlisted troops within another year. There are also heavy rumors that the republic had already begun a new clone program on Kamino. It's difficult to see how the war really looks, only seeing it from the republic or separatist points of view in different medias, but one is consistent no matter who's telling the story: the clone wars is ripping the Galaxy apart...

Jinang is starting to feel some kind of normalcy, getting adjusted to this new experience. But it still doesn't feel quite right... At first he felt like an unwanted visitor in his own body, which is the Koga side of him. But he can't separate Koga from Jinang. And it's maddening... Even if he could separate them, both sides don't even feel like the person he is now. But perhaps that's for the better. He's certainly thought about his life in the last year more than he had in Jinang or Koga's lives, but it usually just confuses him. It's too painful. But he knows with certainty that he won't be going back to the Jedi ever again. That life - Jinang's life, is behind him. But Koga's life... He's not even capable of trying to fill those shoes. While he thinks, he likes to climb out on the windowsill with his legs dangling over the side, looking out on the desert. It's virtually untouched outside of the city, with a few structures visible, scattered far from each other in the distance. On Felucia, he was starting to become a stranger to that sort of peaceful scene, where he could look in any direction and see the consequences of war set upon nature. Someone enters the room, with much lighter footsteps than Tanner's, and Jinang turns his shoulder to see a Mirialan woman he's never met before, and climbs back into the room to greet her. She's got short, spiky black hair that's shaved on the sides, and she's wearing a dark grey, slightly oversized jacket with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow.
"Sup." She says, very casually. "Koga 'an I never met before, so I got sent to talk with ya."

"Alright..." Jinang says, sitting down on the couch. "What's this about?"

"Name's Marssi. Marssi Mar." She said, grabbing a seat and sitting on it backwards, resting her arms on the head resting. "I'm with the Harrowers. New there. But I'm here'da invite ya on a mission. You in?"

"What's this mission?" Jinang asked, resting back on the sofa. "I need more details if I'm going to do anything like that."

"Right, right, right." Marssi said. "Uhhh. We're escortin' Pantorans into dangerous territory to help out some civs. And like, maybe you'd like to help I guess. There's pirates 'an shit."

"Right..." Jinang says, slightly entertained by this woman's extremely casual attitude. Though he remains stoic. "How long to I have to decide?"

"A few days, tops." She answered, standing up. "I'mma leave some contact info wit'chu, and you can think about it. You'll get paid by the way."

Then Marssi leaves, but immediately steps back in and leaves a commlink on a shelf by the door. "See ya, hopefully." And then she leaves. Jinang found her interesting. How utterly informal she was. He is seriously considering going on this mission, and wondered for a second why they chose him specifically, but then remembered they must have seen him training over the last year. So he waits for Tanner to come check on him, to see if the doctor would approve of him going on a dangerous mission. In the meantime, Jinang decided to take a nap while he waits. Sometimes Jinang doesn't like sleeping, because he often has terrible nightmares. Waking up feeling scared, or even screaming and flailing around. He dreams about things he went through as Jinang and Koga, the traumas they've both experienced. Koga is also a killer and a murderer, and Jinang now feels a lot of the guilt that comes along with the dark deeds of an assassin... During this nap though, his dream didn't scare him. Instead, he felt a very deep, powerful sense of sorrow, accompanied by the unfamiliar voice of a woman beckoning him. But then Tanner was there, waking him up with a gentle nudge on his shoulder.
Apparently, the Harrowers had already reached out to Dr. Shae about Jinang's condition and that conversation with the doctor is what led them to send someone to talk to Jinang. Then Tanner explained that they should send someone who had never met or seen Koga before, and the only one in the whole gang was Marssi. The reason behind that is because Jinang will recognize a lot of Harrowers whenever he starts talking to them, and that will cause him distress.
"I appreciate everything you've done to look out for me, doctor." Jinang says, still laying in his bed. "Do you really think I'm ready to fight though?"

"The question isn't rather you can." Dr. Shae answered. "I know you're physically up to it. Its rather you really want to or not."

Jinang stops and thinks for a second, and Tanner quietly gives him time to think. Jinang's never really thought about what he actually wanted out of life. Both Jinang and Koga had goals of their own, even dreams. But those all feel meaningless to him now... They aren't his dreams. Though, what he wants will have to wait because he made a decision anyway.
"You and so many others have spent a lot of resources and time to take care of me." Jinang says, strength returning in his tone. "Its time I paid you all back."