A mission to Fresia (OPEN)

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

"Stubborn?" Tattooed-cheeks scowled. "You are...," voice hitched in her throat as she was caught up in his river of emotions and saw a glimpse of his very core. Vaguely, she was aware of the shell of herself, left behind, still staring defiantly back into those clouded-orbs.

And like a floodgate, her own emotions, memories, and entanglements flowed back through Korr's connection. He would feel the dark, twisting serpent of Odium's blood through her own. But anything else about Odium was abruptly cut short. He would see the vision Quinn had when she ran into Soliael of Darth Isolda controlling the nautolan, herself, and Ryan with stitched-in puppet strings through flesh. He would smell the rotting flesh of her work. And he would hear her voice in his head.

You can't help her.

Just as quickly a much different voice echoed in Ryan's head. This one would feel battle-weary, stubborn, and one he would recognize as Quinn's.

She is my mission. Odium will be released when she dies.

Besides Odium, Ryan was now the only person who knew her intentions.

Understand?

This was just the surface. She knew Ryan couldn't handle the rest.

 

[Fen]

Darkness touched him like a poison and he recoiled, hands nearly jerking free of her wrists. Her thoughts hissed in his mind, like the hot sizzle of burning flesh. They showed him a nightmare of powerlessness, dancing on the strings of another's whims; then the timbre of her thoughts shifted, growing warm and humid as a Felucian jungle. Feral, but not evil.

There was a quality of concern for Odium that he did not understand... until he suddenly did.

The thoughts faded, the brush with darkness leaving Ryan's breath heavy and his eyes wary. Guarded.

"Yes," he said at last, tone slightly stoney, somehow withdrawn. Perhaps she had glimpsed why in the moments before his mind closed itself off again.

He stood, releasing her and held out a hand to help her up. The back of his head felt sticky with congealed blood, but the trickle had stopped.

"I..." He grit his teeth, the muscles in his jaw working furiously, "... will help you. I feel a connection with the Darth. I do not know why. What I do know is that she has deceived a great many of my Order. Friends. I will help you, but will you let me?"

The hand was still extended.

[member="Quinn Vos"]

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

She stared at his hand as she settled back into full awareness, feeling the cold press of earth at her back. A lingering tingle remained around her wrists where the very outstretched hand had been moments before. Whether he intended to or not, she now shared a bond with the copper-haired jedi knight with eyes of iron.

The psychometry, the force, and the brushing of minds created the rope that now tugged her in two different directions. It was different from the bond she shared with Odium but just as strong. Now she was just in danger of being ripped apart by two unyielding forces.

With this realization, she warily took his palm with her own, her skin rough and calloused like sand-paper. The axis of the world tilted as her throbbing head made the sudden vertical climb. By instinct, her free hand shot forward to steady herself on the closest thing, fingers went to curl around the curve of his shoulder.

Tugged in two different directions.

Just as quickly she pushed away from him. "We work together," she conceded and flexed her fingers to try and shake off his touch. "But are you prepared for this journey? It will not be easy or what you are used to. She will see you coming and Odium wants you dead."

The lessons in basic were paying off.

 

[Fen]

He could not deny the flutter within his chest at her touch, much as he wished. A huntresses' hand lay on his shoulder, with calloused fingers. Calloused from loosing arrows from her bow. Arrows meant for death. Her touch pierced his chest, but still he stood, though his knees threatened otherwise. Who knew a man of stone could have such a frangible heart?

She pushed away from him, emerald eyes searching his own, for what? Weakness? He met her gaze evenly, quelling the turmoil within as best he could. A struggle raged within her. He had sensed it from the beginning, from their first encounter. This time though... this time it took on a different quality. More intimate, as if he himself played a deciding role in her fate.

Don't fool yourself.

Dry lips compressed into a thin line. The skin of his cheeks grew tight, further revealing the scar just under his right eye. One of many.

Could she be redeemed? And if she was, would he still hold her to answer for the crimes she'd committed, the murders? He pushed aside the moral quandaries duty thrust upon him, batting out troubling thoughts like cobwebs.

"I know," he said at last with a curt nod. "I am."

[member="Quinn Vos"]

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

"Good." Whether it was the light...or something else, fiery-eyes seemed to soften for a moment as she regarded Ryan's steady-gaze. The moment quickly passed.

"She will attack here," Mocha index and pointer finger pressed against her own temple. "You will need to prepare or we both die." Her hand fell away from her face and her fingers twitched against her pouch. If they were going to work together, she had to tell him everything.

"I came here for this and it may save us," outstretched palm extended toward Ryan, fingers slowly uncurling around the artifact for him to see.

 

[Fen]

He nodded once at her words of caution. His training in the Force could be deemed well-rounded and though he possessed a certain resilience when it came to games of the mind, he would prefer not to test his defenses against this Darth Isolda's assault.

As gray eyes fell upon the item in her palm they widened.

"You had it," he muttered, voice a mere whisper, "this whole time."

Korr grit his teeth, staring once more straight into her eyes, then he called his lightsaber hilt to his hand with a gesture of the Force. The weapon had fallen from his grasp when she knocked him down. He made a slow and deliberate show of hooking it back onto his belt. A sign of trust.

"I know little of its powers, beyond that it was crafted by a vile being... a dangerous tool."

[member="Quinn Vos"]

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

"Not whole time," she slipped the artifact carefully back into her pocket. Visibly she tensed when he took hold of his lightsaber but she made no move for the Nagai daggers strapped around the curves of her upper-thighs. "This dangerous tool has the power to turn away Darth Isolda's followers and could give us the time we need."

She scooped up her bow and slung it across her shoulder.

"You changed up there," gaze traveled momentarily away from his iron-eyes to the low-hanging ceiling above them. She cocked her head slightly and narrowed her eyes at something unseen.

"Republic forces are coming. I must go." Fiery-gaze snapped back to the copper-haired jedi blocking the tunnel's exit.

 

[Fen]

For several breath holding seconds, Ryan continued to bar her path, transfixed by her ardent gaze. What was it that caused the trembling of his heart? Her broken Basic? Those green eyes that shone like two gateways into the jungle of her untamable spirit? Or maybe it was the way she approached everything with a fearless abandon? Or perhaps the inner darkness that swirled within her, the same darkness he felt within himself?

No, it was none of those... and all of them. Try as he might to keep a stoney exterior, he could not hide the- the feeling in his eyes. He was young when last he felt like this... young and foolhardy. Memories and fear rose up, rearing their heads like venomous vipers that sought to destroy this moment of happiness. He crushed them beneath his heel, but still felt the sting of a bite. Was he still a fool?

Korr moved aside to let her pass, then paused again, impulsively. She reminded him why the Jedi still struggled to hold back the tides of evil, even if it seemed all other lights had gone out. There was good in her, he could feel it.

If he played the fool now, at least he played her fool.

"You test my conscience." The words were a mere whisper, the muttering of a distracted mind, pulled in two directions.

"I can get you off the planet," he said slowly, thinking that a misstep might offend her volatile, yet vibrant independent streak, "If you wish."

[member="Quinn Vos"]

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

The bare skin of her arm could feel the heat radiating off his chest as she nearly bumped into him as he paused. The wall of the tunnel was at her back with the path to go out or deeper into the murky depths on her sides. But the face of a Jedi held her attention at the front, the narrow tunnel not giving them much room of separation.

The scars on his face were much more visible from this proximity. She knew they held a story, just like the ones etched across her marbled-skin. But it was his eyes in the murky light that tightened the rope, to pull her further off the axis of loyalty to darkness. But Odium's blood and love wouldn't give up the Kiffar warrior so easily.

Two different directions. So like the tunnel they stood in now.

"You take great risk, Ryan. If your allies see you with me," she stopped speaking because they both knew what would happen. The next four simple words would be so weighted.

"Show me the way."

 

[Fen]

With lips closed tighter than an atmospheric seal, Ryan gave her a curt nod before moving down the tunnel at a brisk pace. He could feel the approaching presences, their minds like little pinpricks of light. They'd lingered too long.

Breathing evenly, Korr let his mind attune itself to the steady pounding of their feet as they rushed out the winding caverns, making several sharp turns along the way. Daylight broke on them, as great a relief to him as the feel of the cool waves breaking on the hot shore.

Fear cut through him, not a poison, but a giddy exhilarating drug. The unknown awaited full of danger and uncertainty. It should have paralyzed his senses or left him confused and angry. If it had it was buried somewhere far beneath a sudden thrill for life.

The daylight was not the only thing they were greeted by. A choking fog of thick, green foliage sought to trap them with branches and entangle them with vines. The thick undergrowth began to thin out the farther in they moved until Korr pushed aside a fern leaf to reveal his Stealth X in an open glade.

He glanced at Quinn, then nodded toward the X-wing. The pursuers were still somewhere behind them, trying to track them, but Republic soldiers did not possess the speed of Jedi. The alarm was still spreading from the initial infiltration. No doubt the sudden appearance of Silver Jedi caused some additional hurdles for the Republic assets.

Gritting his teeth, Korr waved a hand and the canopy swung up. A bound aided by the Force carried him up into the cockpit, he looked back down at the green-eyed huntress and extended a hand toward her.

He might have forgotten to mention that it was a single seater, but he didn't exactly care if it made things awkward or not. This was the surest way to get her off the planet alive. Her survival was what mattered most.

"Still coming?"

@[member="Quinn Vos"]

 

[Quinn Vos]

Running through the sticky-foliage came natural for the Kiffar warrior. It made her think of Kiffu. She squinted up at Ryan in the glade. Hesitation slowed her steps across the sun-warmed grass. Fiery-orbs eyed the form of space transport skeptically.

Traveling through space was the equivalent of putting Quinn into a cage: recycled air, restricted movement, less control.

She came to a full-stop just below Ryan and his beckoning hand. Feet felt rooted to the earth. Tattooed-face tilted up, eyes darting to the side and it was clear she was weighing the options of staying and taking on the entire Republic on her own.

"This...is it?" For the first time, the steely-eyed Jedi would hear something very close to fear in Quinn's voice. "There is no room for my bow."

@[member="Ryan Korr"]

 

[Fen]

Ryan frowned, non-plussed. He searched her expression. It didn't make sense, she would probably just knife him in the cockpit if she thought he was going to try anything.

"Is it the single seat, because if-... Oh."

The apprehension was practically scrawled on her face in a bold size 18 font. She either was very claustrophobic, or she hated flying. Either way, the sight of spaceships didn't seem to be one she enjoyed.

"I'm sorry, a bigger ship would be picked up on the scanners. This is small and a stealth ship. It's the safest way to get off the planet. We can, uh," he glanced into the cockpit, leaned over and punched a button. There came a popping sound from below. "Stuff your bow in the cargo compartment. I just opened it. It should fit."

He looked past her, where he could feel the patrols searching. If they saw him with her.... He grit his teeth.

"We need to leave."

@[member="Quinn Vos"]

 

[Quinn Vos]

@[member="Ryan Korr"]

"Okay," she snapped, agitation and apprehension flickering across her muddy-brown features. "But it is small." She looked up at Ryan and held his gaze a beat longer before her feet peeled themselves from their entrenched position in the earth.

She un-shouldered her bow and quiver and stashed them in the open compartment, her anxiety levels building.

Fiery-orbs lingered on the jungle just beyond before she refocused her attention on the coffin..er, cockpit ahead. With a force-induced bound, her lithe figure teetered next to Ryan on the ship's plating. A breeze pushed against her hot and sweaty skin as she turned her wide, yet determined eyes to the small seat.

"You first."

 

[Fen]

Bare feet slapped against the hull as she landed close beside him. While she stared at the seat, he stared at her. Once again, he could smell her; her hair like a light salty breeze, her skin like crushed grass and clean sweat. He breathed in deeply, eyes glinting with hard iron, then bit down on the inside of his lip.

"Sure," he grunted.

The tall Jedi slid into the pilot's seat with the ease of familiarity. He started running through a mental pre-flight checklist and began punching buttons to take his mind off the fact that he would be trapped in a very small cockpit for the next who-knows-how-long with a woman who tugged on his emotions like no one else he'd ever met.

@[member="Quinn Vos"]

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

She gave the jungle one last longing gaze. She could feel the danger rising in the force with the Republic's advance. Her anxiety of space travel helped her push past the realization of the intimate space she was about to share with someone who already muddled-up her darkside connection and Odium's ties.

Pursing her plain, chapped lips into a thin line, she squatted down beneath the opened canopy. She bristled slightly, knowing what was about to come. With her heart racing faster than normal, she lowered herself in, feet straddling Ryan's legs, one at a time. His lap was her cushion. She leaned slightly forward, refusing to lean her back against his chest.

"Okay," voice hitched heavily in her throat, the anxiety radiating off her sun-kissed form in rolling waves. She perched on Ryan like a stone-statue, quelling the slight tremble in her digits by squeezing her hands into fists just above his legs. Eyes squeezed closed and she was thankful not to be shamed by Ryan seeing the expression on her face. His steady, warm breath just at the back of her ear was surprisingly grounding.

That was disturbing most of all.