au starter for @mistforms
Something his mother had never directly admitted to him, but that he knew anyway, was that she was glad he wasn’t force-sensitive. When he’d been a kid, he’d been disappointed about it, but as an adult, he understood exactly why a Sith mother would pray that her child was not divine– not in that way, anyhow. When she trained him, she could train him without fearing that one day, he’d have to prove himself by ending her– or that he’d fail, and she’d have to kill him, instead.
No, when she’d trained him, they’d nothing to fear but his own weaknesses; which he’d rapidly worked to release. Capable of resisting mind tricks, hiding from most force-users unless they were looking for him in particular, and even armed in precision shooting designed to counter force use, Ethan Nakamura, some 19 standard years old, was quite the effective tool to both his mother and the Empire.
Which was why he was never anywhere for very long, almost always either investigating a lead or hunting force-users. Some, he was to kill. And others, he was to take to the Empire as assets.
He’d prefer to do it without resistance, though, so as he mounted the rooftop above this guy, his rifle was loaded with a stun round, not live ones. He raised the modified sight to his single eye and, with it still on safety, found the force-user with his crosshairs.
And then, he did what he was never supposed to do: Ethan hesitated.
Usually, he was taking out adults much older than himself, some of whom wouldn’t waste any time killing him back. But this target… looked his age, or near it.
And that’s when he made his second mistake. As he pulled back to look without his scope, the barrel of his rifle clanged against a central air fan installed on the roof, giving him away immediately.
Kriff. Ethan would have to do this the hard way. He strapped the rifle to his back and drew a grapple, anchoring it to the roof ledge, and then leaped down, descending the building in one fell swoop, halting just before he hit the ground.
He pushed off the wall, yanked his pistol from a hip holster, and leveled it at the force-user.
Who was… close. Really close.
He could look into his eyes.