Public Breaking and Entering: Blackwall Edition

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

"So you're doing it to feed yourself? That doesn't exactly match what you said earlier... You've been chasing me through alleys, throwing illusions and half-baked traps.... all for what? To fail? You said he wants me. I'm not buying it. So who is it you mean?"

His tone had cooled down no longer taunting, nor mocking her anymore anymore.

"You've already failed to capture me. That part's done. So what's your plan now ; lie here and wait for your punishment? Let him tear you apart for not finishing the job? You think silence protects you from him? It doesn't. Whoever he is… he'll hurt you either way. But me? I'm not here to punish you. I know you're not here by choice. But you've got one now... a real one."

He paused to let that sink in.

"Talk to me. Tell me why you're here... For once in your life, maybe you deserve to speak for yourself."

​

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"You don't get to pretend to care now," 0-7 snapped back with a huff. "Not after toying with me."

Taunting her. Picking apart her insecurities so eagerly. She didn't care if it was just dun moch or not. He didn't get to throw that in her face and then pretend to be the good guy here.

And besides...

"I know silence won't protect me," she muttered. "Nothing will... It doesn't matter."

Nothing mattered now.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

Braze gave a soft, incredulous chuckle through his nose, tilting his head as if she'd just insulted his choice of boots instead of his very soul.

"Oh, ouch. Not even a thank you for the epic villainous monologue?" he quipped, eyes narrowing in amusement. "Here I was, delivering my best mysterious stranger act, and you're telling me I didn't even land the role?"

He splayed a hand against his chest like he was genuinely wounded.

"Harsh critic....But you're not wrong. I am bad at playing pretend." He admitted it easily. "I never learned how to fake the part all that well... Just learned how to survive with it."

He reached down and patted her shoulder. "I did toy with you. I saw the game and played it like you wanted me to."

He rested his forearms loosely across his knees, golden eyes watching her.

"You don't owe me anything. But don't confuse what I did with what who ever 'he' is, and what he has done to you. I'm not here to break you. And I'm sure as hell not who ever he is.You want to hate me? Fine. But don't lie to yourself about what you really want. You followed me because something in you still hopes. Maybe not for me. But for you. And maybe that's the one thing he couldn't kill in you.... if you didn't have any hope left we wouldn't be having this conversation.... Besides... If it doesn't matter, then there's no reason not to tell me his name."

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"What's the point," 0-7 stated. It wasn't even phrased like a question. "You say you all that, but once I give you what you want I no longer serve any purpose to you. You'll just leave me to my fate anyways. Continuing to talk down to me won't win you any points."

0-7 was tired of all of this. Where was it even going? She was tired... Her spirit was tired.

Why couldn't she just be left alone?

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

"Yeah, well… life's tough, isn't it, Princess?" Braze shot back, his tone edged with irritation. "You're the one who started playing games, wearing my friend's face like it was nothing."

He scoffed, voice sharpening. "That's messed up. You don't get to toy with someone else's emotions and act surprised when it bites you in the ass."

He exhaled sharply and turned his gaze away for a beat, surveying the alley around them. This was still a public space… but no one seemed interested in saving the girl from the pale-haired menace pinning her down.

His voice dropped lower, "I don't take it lightly when people mess with the ones I love....Do you even know what love is?"

​

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"I was just doing my job," she muttered. "Didn't you stab those people in the back anyways? They said you fought with the Dark Empire."

0-7 left out a scoff.

"I don't care if it's messed up," the assassin stated. "I don't exactly have a choice here, and if you were in my position you wouldn't hesitate either. I don't need to justify myself to you."

Now she was being lectured? This was insufferable. Insulting. What was any of this even good for? She was already dead and now he was just prolonging her suffering. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? She didn't ask to be here. She just had to do the job to survive, and now she had failed.

"I don't take it lightly when people mess with the ones I love....Do you even know what love is?"

"SHUT UP!"

0-7 turned her face into the pavement. She didn't want to look at him.

"I get it. You have everything I don't. Just leave me alone, please... I'm tired..."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

Braze fell quiet for a moment, his breath slipping out in a slow, steady sigh as he cast a glance toward the street beyond, still keeping tabs on where Okuma Milogen might be lurking.

Then, without ceremony, he shifted slightly, hands methodical as he searched her for any remaining weapons, movements practiced but not cruel. All the while, he kept her pinned against the ash-laden street, the grit scraping softly under their movements.

"Well," he muttered, almost absently, "suppose that's one thing we've got in common."

He didn't look at her as he said it, his tone flat and low.

"We're both still weak... 'cause we let other people tell us who we are. What to do. What we're worth."

And yeah... he'd been right. She didn't strike him as someone who really knew what love was. Maybe never had. Not in any way that mattered.

​

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"I don't let anyone do anything to me," 0-7 hissed. "I don't have a choice in the matter. I'm weak because I was torn apart like a doll and stitched back together."

She had been torn apart and filled with machines. Her Force connection was neutered to keep her weak. She could be tracked, cut to bits, have her mind shattered into a thousand pieces... And if she fought it? Her agony would just be drawn out further.

"I can't even choose when I die..."

It was cruel. She didn't want to die. Or, at least, some behavioral stimuli forced her to be that way. Kalrath had chosen that specific instinct for a reason. You had to convince someone of very little when they wanted to live, after all. 0-7's own body struggled to preserve itself against her will, all while her mind was left cold and lifeless on the inside. If hope was the fuel of the soul, she had run out of gas years ago.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

"Well… that does put you in quite the predicament, doesn't it?" Braze said dryly, though his voice had lost its earlier sharpness. He wasn't prying with the Force, not really. He didn't really need to.

"Well... You're not a doll," he said flatly. "Not unless you choose to be."

He paused, tilting his head just slightly.

"So… do you want a choice?"

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"...I do," 0-7 admitted in a low tone.

All she ever wanted was a choice. It pained her to no end that it was always snuffed out before she even had a chance to act. At this point she was desperate for anything.

Even if it was realistically going to end in her death.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

"I'll give you that choice if you stop trying to attack me... deal?" Braze asked simply.

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"Fine," she grumbled. "It's not like I even stood a chance anyways. I was sent here to lose."

Kalrath had done it to make a point of what she was. How she had been made. That was crystal clear. She was damned anyway, so why struggle?

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

"Well... Before I let you up... " He started simply... "In order for me to give you that choice... I'm going to have to trust you.... and you're going to have to trust me to follow through with that.... I know you may not have experienced much love in your life... but... I need you to pay attention and really hear what I'm about to tell you about it... okay?" He asked giving her a few moments to consider that before adding,

" Love... In it's most simplest of form can be like... well... it is when you give someone else the power to destroy you...and you trust them not to do it." He offered simply and moved to get off of her.... then... He offered her his hand as if to help her off the ground.

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

0-7 sat there for a moment before reluctantly accepting his help up. Then he rambled on about love. Why should she care? The only people in her life could destroy her and would destroy her. She never gave them that power. They took it for themselves.

"Then I love nobody," she stated rather bluntly. "Those who have the power to destroy me took it by force. I hate them."

She let out an exhale, calming herself down.

"What choice do I even have here?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

"Well I'm trusting you not to hurt me. " He said as he assisted her to her feet. "You're gonna have to explain to me everything they did to you so I can begin to understand... If I don't understand then it will be a lot more difficult for me to help give you your freedom. " Braze offered simply.

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"A lot of... what's inside me is no longer organic," 0-7 explained reluctantly. "I have enhancements in place that prevent me from feeling pain, force me to preserve myself, pump me full of adrenaline... My heart is a machine, one which can be tracked to any point in the galaxy. My Force sensitivity has been suppressed to ensure that I am incapable of presenting a threat to my handler. Any method of relieving me of these things can only be performed by cutting me open. In short, I have little faith that you can do anything without somehow killing me in the process, one way or another."

It was pointless. Futile. She'd sooner be struck by lightning than released from the hell she was stuck in...

If Kalrath didn't strike her with lightning himself.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

Machine heart, suppressed Force, and a body not her own, with a life wired for control. Braze didn't say I'm sorry. That would've felt hollow. And he wasn't going to throw empty hope at a girl drowning in the kind of reality most people couldn't even imagine.

Instead, he let out a slow breath and rubbed the back of his neck, gaze drifting for a moment before settling on her again.

"Yeah," he said finally, voice low. "That's... heavy." He looked her in with something that might've been respect.

"And no, I probably can't fix that. Not alone. And definitely not right now."

He paused briefly thinking...

"But you didn't ask me to fix you. You asked for a choice. That, I can try to give you." He tilted his head slightly, v

"I know people. Good people. Doctors who've worked miracles. Fighters with more machine in them than bone who still bleed and break and live full lives. You're not beyond help.... You say your heart's a machine. Fine. So what? I've seen people with beating hearts do things colder than any metal. Doesn't make you less real. Doesn't mean you don't get to choose how you live either."

Another pause as he considered what else to tell her.

"So here's what I can give you.... I won't turn you in. I won't sell you out. And I sure as hell won't let them put you back in the cage without a fight. You're not safe. Not yet. But you're not alone anymore either.... How did you get here?"

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"What you're asking me to do is... disobey my orders and go awol," she noted. "I... they're going to hunt me like an animal."

0-7 turned her head away, gritting her teeth and wringing her hands together for a moment before speaking again.

"The starship I arrived on is not safe," 0-7 stated. "It's rigged with explosives. The moment it makes an unauthorized jump it's rigged to explode. No sense in returning to that death trap."

If he was trying to suggest a way to leave, that certainly wasn't it.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: 0-7

"Well... Welcome to my world. " ​

Braze... smiled.. for some odd weird reason. It was not a comforting smile but rather a devious knowing sort of smile, " Can you show me the ship?" He asked curiously.

 

[0-7]

Chalcedon
Tags: Braze

​

"Fine."

0-7 drew up her hood and proceeded to lead Braze through the alleyways of the planet away from the bazaar. Before long they had arrived at a ship that sat on the outskirts of the settlement. It was a TIE/IN interceptor, clearly in rough condition. It was all speed, no defense. A flying coffin.

"That's it," 0-7 stated. "What do you want with it?"