All tied up

[Arage Bao]

Those were the days that made me feel alive. We had just gotten back from another job, and we felt we were the kings of the world. Sidney was concerned, as always, but nobody expected anything less of her. She had quickly turned into a little mom to us all, making sure we were okay when we were too stupid and ignorant to do it ourselves. What would we have done without her? Only the Force knows, I am guessing. Anyway, those were the glory days. But even then it was hard for us to remember -why- we were doing it.

John helped. He had started it all, gave us a purpose and a way out of the streets. Before long we were all helping him, getting kids a future. Even then I looked up to him, in a world of scum and con men he was a rock. He knew what he wanted, and would never give up.

I think that trait drew us to him, but looking back at it now… it was also the reason he got killed. The world does not look kindly upon people who try to improve it, and optimists get chopped up and thrown out. It was a lesson I had forgotten because of him, but that faithful day. The day that was supposed to be THE day. It all came back to me. Nobody was untouchable. Everyone would meet his or hers maker someday, and for John… well for him it came sooner than anyone had expected.

His last words. Protect them. Make sure they are safe. Continue our work, I trust you Jared. He trusted me, and I had let him down. Sidney died a few days after that, suicide they said. But I knew the truth. Sid would never have left us, even without John.

Regardless, that day everything fell apart. The Black Eyes got a new leader, because I did not step up. I think I was afraid. Afraid that I would not be able to fill his shoes. It does not matter not anyway, the time for regret is over. Today.. today came the day of the Reckoning.

He thought he would be able to get away with it. Able to just walk away, and take control over everything John had made. But I never forgot, even when Spencer took me in. Coruscant was at the back of my head. Unfinished business, but it was more than that.

A pact, written in blood. John’s blood.

Protect them. I failed at that, but I would give them justice. True Justice.

He would pay.

***​

As he walked into the big hall of the building, Jared was hit by the enormity of it all. It was a damn palace built upon the corpses and skeletons of his friends and family. Justice. The man would witness his craft grinded to dust, his palace crashing down on his own head and then he would know.

Nobody was untouchable.

In the seat sat the man, with an expression of smugness on his face which did not quite fit with the situation. But then again, Arakaj Doegrov had always been a smug piece of work.

Jared walked and walked until he stood a few metres away from the throne. Around him the Lord could feel many and many more people, waiting and stalking his every turn. It seemed Kaj had made himself quite the army.

This was going to be good.

"I looked for you and here you are... right were it all had started."​

​

[member="Danger Arceneau"]

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Call it a little birdy or perhaps just the common good sense her daddy done have her that made Danger well aware this wasn't your usual type of Bantha rodeo. There was a calculated and precise method to Lord Ovmar's actions. Her green eyes went narrowing upon the man, watching his every move.

His words were few, but there was a method to the madness she understood perfectly. For once she held her tongue.

Revenge was a dish best served cold and alone.

 

[Arage Bao]

“You look awfully calm for man who just signed own death warrant, Alekzij.”

It was almost as if an invisible sign was given, when the men surrounded the proud Lord, [member="Danger Arceneau"] was strangely enough not noticed this time. Weapons sighted, they were just waiting for the command to end it all and through it all the man. The High Lord of the Fringe had a soft smile playing on his face, as he regarded his arch-nemesis.

He had dreamt of this confrontation for so long, and now that he was here. Jared could not help but feel disappointing, in his dreams Kaji had always been so much more menacing.

This man… such pity.

“I have outgrown you, old friend. You betrayed us all and I made a promise. One I made sure I would keep.”

Kaji just laughed, he did not understand. Could not understand. Never had he been a man worried about the old voodoo space magic, a gun solved everything had always been his motto.

“Alek, I did what you were afraid to do. Take control of own destiny. Now, last chance. Give up this charade, join me. Things will go back to normal, yes?”

Honestly, Jared should not have been surprised. Kaji had always been a man comfortable with his ability to seize the hearts of the men surrounding him. Like John, suppose. But not today. A promise would have to be kept.

While they had been talking, he had been drawing on the Force. Taking it all in and weaving a web around them all. A web of insanity, as Kaji spoke the last word… Jared released it and the world… turned into madness.

His display of power back in the hallways had been nothing compared to this. Screams, men tearing their eyes out, fighting with each other, brother killing brother and in its midst was the proud Lord.

The eye of the storm, ignoring everything around him and just savouring the fear on Kaji’s face as he finally understood.

This was his end.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

You better be careful what you do,
I wouldn't want to be in your shoes if they ever found you out...

The song lyrics held more weight in this very instance than ever before. Funny, how little diddy's had a tendency to do that. Maybe it had something to do with just how folk deal their measure of justice in the Southern Systems.

You better be careful what you say, it never added up anyway, I got friends in this town...

She understood revenge. She did quite a bit of it herself. And sometimes, all you had to do was ride out that storm.

 

[Arage Bao]

I stood in the middle of the storm, and felt his henchmen around me die in slow, agonizing pain. It felt… liberating. That surprised me, but only just a little. Reason for that was simple, you know all those movies? Were the guy wants, no needs vengeance. He plans it all out, execution is perfect. But then… when he is finally about to make the kill.

When he stands on top, and is the Victor.. he feels empty. Vengeance hadn’t been enough to fill the hole where his heart was, yadadadada. It threw me off, that this felt so damn good. Almost as if all those holomovies were just trying to teach us all a lesson about stupid poodoo like morals. Or.. rational behavior.

Couldn’t help but smirk at that thought.

Kaji on the other hand wasn’t laughing, his face had turned all pale all of a sudden. Almost as if he lost control of the situation, and was about to faint. Gotta hand it to the guy though, besides the sudden paleness? Ain’t many signs that he was losing it.

Course he started to grab for a gun, almost immediately after it was over. Couldn’t help but smirk at that, I mean. Let’s be honest here, a blaster? That’s so.. last century.

But then… he did something curious, he started to smile himself. Did I make him insane already? Really, I gotta be more careful with my touch, ain’t much fun if the man turns into a drooling baby before the show is over.

“Powerful, you have become, Alek. But you forget, komrade. I know you. Know your weakness.”​

His eyes suddenly centered to somewhere behind me and then it hit me like a brick, well.. more like a star destroyer on collision course. I was too busy showing off my madskills at Power 101, to notice the signature of… Danger fething Arceneau.

He couldn’t kill me. We had already established that, but Danger ain’t a Space Wizard, so.. I did the only thing that seemed logical at the time. I started to run like hell, and jumped in front of the bullet.
Yeah.

I am an idiot.

How I didn’t figure out that Kaji would still be using slugthrowers… it’s beyond me. Regardless, it wasn’t as if I could ask him, because the moment the bullet hit me in the gut I did some of my own pow-wow.

A kinetite ball the size of my fist, lurched out of my open palm and collided with Kaji on his throne. Explosion was a doozy. Pretty good stuff.

Then the pain hit me. Sweet Based God, that hurt like a karker.

At least Kaji died.

Why I saved her? I have no clue, maybe I was just a sucker for a woman in danger. (ha ha)

Either way, I saved her beautiful ass, and I got a shot at Kaji.

No regrets.

Well not a lot, at least.

[member="Danger Arceneau"]

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Clearly, men were out of their right minds.

Or more aptly, men with the ability of some mad kind of hoodoo.

Everything went by so quick and fast it was hard to keep up. It was for this very reason that Danger wasn't apt to enjoy folk who were able to majick things up by all kinds of silly ways.

And this one Lord Ovmar took the proverbial Sullustan cake on five liters of crazy in a two liter bucket!

Now, she ain't one for being weak kneed at the sight of blood, but with his back all kinds of scorched like a well grilled nerf steak made things mite bit tricky.

"You damn well bloody fool!" came her curse upon his head, reaching down to try and get a hold of him. Least wise whoever he came in to take care of was dead.

That didn't mean his friends were too.

Grim determination went lining her face, eyes scanning the area for any kind of tool she could use. For in so far, no one else had decided to join their little soiree. But time was a ticking. Out off on the corner was a small holo emitter, with what looked like a holomap of some building. It didn't take a holobook tweet to figure out that it was a map of the current establishment they were in.

Well there's that. But she needed to save their skins, and considering he did done twice saved her arse, well... she might as well return the favor. First came the comm that she took from the now dead boss, a quick call to an encrypted line for her boys would have them track her location soon.

"Done gone made you do such foolish things?!" she uttered out at him, taking charge as she went looking around for things. She was in field medic mode. Ain't one who hasn't grown up on Tatooine without being able to heal a couple of scrapes or two.

Ah hah! Medpack in hand, she made her way back, a right grimace rolling over her features at the damage.

"Idiot," she uttered out again, kneeling down before him, as she helped him out in a slight sit up position. "Stuck 'tween a rock and a hard place with your back and that slug in your gut now."

Blood flow was the most important thing here, as she flipped open the medpac to gather what she would need. Ah! Pain killer, well that would work.

One vial went in the derma needle and the next instant it was pressed against his jugular.

"Just close your eyes now.... I got you..."

 

[Arage Bao]

So… there I was. A gut shot on one side, and a burned back on the other. My power was diminished, and I could feel the pain coursing through my body, now that I didn’t have the safety of Crucitorn to fall back to. But as I said, by now, I was used to pain. My whole life was nothing else than that, it really had a nice symmetry if you thought about it.

Then she asked me why I had done -it-. I couldn’t help but smile, though that only brought more pain and I gasped for air. Then I started to speak, slowly. Through words, and through the Force.

“When you had first met me, during the raid of Subach, my bodyguard said afterwards to me.. “That’s a formidable woman, Jared. Don’t cross her if you can help it. No heart, only pure and malicious vengeance from that one.” But I said to him, you have it wrong. She is me.”

Again I coughed, and felt a slow trickle of blood coming from my lips. Seemed better to switch over to the Force entirely.

“The world has warped and changed us into what we are today. Cold and hard from the outside, only worried about profits and numbers. Vengeance is ours if you dare to strike at us… but we know. We know better. We have dreams, and hopes. In our Fortress of solitude, we feel lonely. A single tear is shed at night, at the loss of our innocence. But the very next day we must wake up again, and once again stand against the world. Tell it: Do your worst, for I will do mine.”

My vision was blurring as the stuck some kind of fething needle into me, but I didn’t queen like a wench. Instead I took it like a man, and tried to continue.

“and so we continue, hoping that one day someone will see us for what we really are. Loves us for us, doesn’t try to to change what we are into what we might be and accepts us.”

I groaned softly, as the pain sharpened before it blunted again against the onslaught of the painkiller.

“Or maybe I am just super super high right now because of that painkiller, and I am just blabbering nonsense. I’d help you with walking, but.. I have trouble with standing rig--”

Right about then I slipped into unconsciousness. Damn slugs and fire.
[member="Danger Arceneau"]

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Smoke would rise to the ceiling with a lazy curl, flowing from the tip of a glowing cigarra held between the slender fingers of one Danger Arceneau.

The scene would be different. Instead of being saturated with the scent of blood, blasters, and burnt flesh one would recognize the light delicate spice of incense and her cigar.

The room that they were in would not be littered with bodies, but with opulent furniture upholstered with the finest of fabrics. Decorated with bodywood bed stands and tables, all carved intricately by hand.

The most extravagant would be the large king sized bed in the center of the room. Carved bodywood posts would tower overhead, the faint pulsing red lines streaking across their surface a spectacular view, bedsheets made of glistaweb a sinful delight, with enough pillows to feel as if one was slept amidst the clouds.

Or so it would be, had the blasted individual who had decided to get a slug on his gut and his back burnt to a crisp were not in it.

A small harrumph would flow from Danger’s lips as the companion at Jared’s side tended to the unconscious man.

Long weeks had passed since that fateful night, in which Danger’s own managed to come pull them out of the devil’s den they’d managed to fall into. Her boys had made quick of the situation, and soon they were enroute to Tatooine.

But not before stopping by Geonosis.

In there, Danger’s highly paid medics and the Kaminoan cloning expert made quick work of gathering genetic material from Lord Ovmar for the production of cloned flesh; skin grafts for his back. The wounds had been so serious that mere bacta would not be enough. Synthflesh was an option, but let’s be frank, nothing healed faster than one’s own flesh.

Besides, it was a tit for a tat. She owed him for what he’d down for her. It was the least she could do.

Her mother’s nagging voice wouldn’t let her forget it.

Along with his rather curious drug induced mutterings. A small hmph came as those fiery emeralds darted over the unconscious Sith Lord.

Curiouser and curiouser.