Dammit! Why Didn't I See That Coming???!!! (Malachite)

[Zayani Brin]

Cold. Way, way too cold. Why the feth was it so cold? Lexa tried to harness her naturally higher body heat and warm herself, but no dice. She was starting to feel as cold as the permacrete she was sprawled out on. She didn't know how much blood she was losing but she knew it was bad.​

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This was just supposed to be a pit stop. Lexa never liked to stay on Nar Shaddaa longer than she needed to. She was supposed to be on her way to Ryloth by now. She'd been walking back to her hotel from a diner when someone hit her head. Things got hazy after that, but she somehow managed to end up on the business end of a knife to her stomach.​

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And now here she was, dying in a dirty alleyway with no wallet and a horrible blow to her dignity. Lexa tried to sigh, but ended up coughing instead. Ow.....​

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Numbness was starting to set in. She couldn't feel the pain anymore. But she couldn't move, either. Her eyes grew heavy.​

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"Sorry, Azy..... Guess I..... I won't be seeing you...... Next month......"​

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Finally, she let her eyes close.​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite was standing outside the smoker bar, waiting for the man with his paycheck to arrive. He'd collared the serial killer he was meant to be paid to catch, had actually beaten (and drained) said killer within an inch of his life, and had the medsealed and unconscious man propped up against the wall of the bar. The gold-furred fox-man was unwilling to go into the actual bar, on account of the fact that the fumes would screw with his breathing.

What distracted him from this train of thought was the two men who came running out of an alleyway. Most people might have just shrugged and assumed that it was two more thieves on the run from the assortment of gangs, pseudo-cops, and illegal refugees who littered Nar Shaddaa. But when Malachite sniffed the air, he could smell blood. Mentally doubting the wisdom of this choice as he did so, he ran into the alley... and found a woman lying on the duracrete, bleeding out. He could see the cut that was clearly a knife wound, and he could see that she was unconscious.

He figured out what he had to do. He lifted the woman's shirt up to where the cut was, set his hand afire, and began to sear her wound closed. Other than the bleeding, it didn't seem like anything vita had gotten cut, and the wound itself was gone. When Malachite pulled his hand away, he sighed in annoyance at the scar his hand had left. He wrapped his jacket around her and picked her up.

And then got the security alert on his comm that somebody was trying to break into his speeder.

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

While swimming around in the darker recesses of her mind, Lexa began to feel... warm. It was a familiar feeling, but at the same time, it was foreign. Nevertheless she let it fill her insides. It went all the way down to her toes, staving off the cold.​

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The next thing Lexa felt was something very soft. It wasn't a pillow or a blanket. It seemed like... Fur? Was she going to be eaten by a sewer rat or something? Eh. She was too tired to care. So, she let herself drift back into sleep.​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite felt a small bit of movement from the woman... Not physical movement, as she was still totally limp in his arms. Rather, it was probably her mind trying to work out why she wasn't dead. With a sigh, he realized that there was no way to get straight to his speeder from here, except by jumping over a wall. With the woman still in his arms...

He mentally shrugged. Not anything that insane, right? He pulled the woman into a tighter grip and jumped straight up the wall, balancing the weight of his landing with his tails. And then he saw something very interesting. It almost made him want to howl with laughter, except it didn't. It made him want to burn a certain pair of thieves to a crisp. He leapt down from the top of the wall and shifted the woman over onto his left arm and shoulder so he'd have his right arm to set things on fire with.

One of the men heard Malachite landing and pointed at the woman, muttering, "Hey, Dev, ain't that the girl you stabbed back there? That guy looks a little angry. Like, he recognizes us kind of angry. Or... Maybe this is his speeder we're 'jacking."

The other man rolled his eyes, looked at the fox man, and sighed at his partner, "Don't be ridiculous. He just found the broad in the alley. There's no way he knows it was us, and this ain't his-" His eyes widened in horror as he saw sparks beginning to fly from Malachite's right arm, "Shoot 'im, boyo! Shoot 'im or we're both wolf meat!"

One shot came, glanced off a spark, and exploded into a miniature firework. The next caught the blonde fox's arm, but left nothing but a red mark on his jacket. The third never got to hit him, as a spark came flying into the gun, and the Tibanna canister exploded, sending shrapnel into his head and killing him. Dev's eyes grew even wider, and he hurled a knife into Malachite's shoulder. He began shooting like a madman, trying to kill the flaming beast before him. He didn't.

Malachite finally relaxed when the man fell with his own knife in exactly the same spot in his torso as he'd stabbed the woman not even ten minutes before. Out of habit, the blonde fox searched the two thieves' pockets and found a couple of wallets and a bunch of different knives and holdout pistols. He very barely resisted the urge to rifle through the one feminine-looking wallet, which was probably the woman's, but there was an ID sticking out of it... "Lexa Kimene"... He didn't think to look at the picture before he opened the doors to his airspeeder.

He put the woman in the passenger seat, strapped her in, and took his spot on the driver's side. And then... basically wondered if it should be up to her if she got taken to the hospital. Feeling relatively secure that she wasn't in any danger of bleeding anymore, and that his car wasn't in danger of being stolen with him inside it, he closed his eyes and dozed off.

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

It was a few hours before Lexa's body regained strength. The first sound that came to her ears was snoring. Wait, she snored? No no no, it wasn't her. But then... who was it? Better yet, where was she? If this was the Afterlife, she wanted the first transport out. ​

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Her eyes slowly opened. Okay, now she was SERIOUSLY wanting the first ticket back to the world of the living. This "Afterlife" was a total rip-off! She didn't want to spend the rest of eternity in a car! She looked down at herself. Where'd the coat come from? Another snore cut through the air, making her jump a little. It was coming from....... Holy HELL!!! How could that much fur be on one guy?? How could so much guy fit into one car???!!! Ugh... This was starting to make Lexa dizzy.​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite felt himself snort, shook his head, and then realized he hadn't reclined the driver's seat... Just in time to hit his head on the ceiling. And then manage to drop the seat all the way down to the flat position... Way to make a first impression, Mr. Fox. He sat up, untangled his tails, and tiredly tilted his head at the woman, grinning, "Er, hi. Guess you're awake, then. Name's Hitodama Kai- Y'know what? Call me Malachite. I like that better."

He leaned on the window, his head throbbing like somebody had thrown a rock at it, and his grin melted into a crooked smirk. That really hurt. He concluded, a little bit annoyed, "And you are the one deciding whether you're going to the hospital or not. I didn't want to, in case it was some gang thing that happened to you."

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

It took a moment for Lexa to stop staring at this freakishly tall, furry man called Malachite.​

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"Guh-uh.... Yeah, um, hi, I guess?" ​

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Lexa instinctively looked down at herself when he mentioned the hospital. She unzipped the large jacket (probably Malachite's. Smelled like... smoked ham?) and grimaced at her ripped and bloodied grey shirt.​

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"Oh, c'mon! I just bought you last week!" ​

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She cautiously lifted up her shirt and examined her stomach. Other than an already healing burn mark, nothing indicated to her the need for serious medical attention. She looked over at Malachite and pointed at the burn.​

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"What's this from? I distinctly remember being stabbed, not torched."​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite just mentally shrugged at the woman's reaction to him. That was a pretty normal reaction to seeing a huge, furry, guy with a bunch of tails taking up half of the car you were sitting in. He kept his head up against the window and threw his coat into the backseat when she took it off. He hadn't noticed the tear in the actual shirt before, but it should've been obvious in hindsight... he'd had to move the shirt to close the wound, after all.

He tried feeling for a lump on his head, but there was none. It just hurt. Finally, he looked at the woman and answered her question by wiggling his fingers and lighting them on fire, "Well, I torched you. Sorry about that. But why put a medseal on when you can actually close it, right?"

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

Lexa's eyebrows raised a little bit when Malachite's fingers lit up with flame. So, he was a Fire Shaper, too? She shrugged.​

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"I guess that makes sense. I just wish I could've been strong enough to protect my skin. Burns are kind of ugly."​

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As she said this, she lit her own fingers with little tendrils of fire. She didn't let them last very long, though. She was still recovering, so she didn't want to use up too much of her energy.​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite had zero sympathy, and he was more than willing to make it known, "Bleeding out is uglier."

To be perfectly honest, the woman's fire abilities interested him a hell of a lot more than he cared to admit. He hadn't ever met anybody else who could make normal fire... Those damn Cernun didn't count. Their fire was blue. Wrong color completely. Stupid self-important blue people. And those damn Chiss, too... Were all blue people just high-brow assholes?

Why was he thinking of that? Who cares?! He finally looked at the woman again and asked, "I think I found your wallet, by the way... Lexa?"

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

At the mention of her wallet, Lexa reached a hand down to her pocket.​

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"Oh yeah! Those kriffing bastards stole it. Please tell me you didn't let them get off easy."​

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It wasn't like there was much in it. Five credit chips, to be exact. Oh, and a coupon for ketchup at Spacemart (which expired eight months ago). To be honest, she never really used it for much. But she didn't feel right without having it.​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]
​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite fished the wallet out of his pocket, along with the six or seven other wallets he'd found on the two thieves. Most of them didn't have IDs in them, so he felt no compunction against rifling through them. He put Lexa's wallet on the dashboard, and then remembered to actually check outside the window. The two men were still there, and the blonde fox looked back at Lexa again before replying, "Oh... those two guys who left you there? They tried to steal my speeder," he raised an eyebrow and set some sparks flying around his fingers, "So I stabbed the knife fighter with his own weapon, and made some shrapnel from the other guy's gun fly into his skull. And then I stole their stuff. Good workout."

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

"Well, I'm glad someone was around to avenge me. Would've been a real crappy way to go, otherwise."​

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Lexa replied in a joking tone. It was strange how she could make light of nearly dying when it had literally only happened a few hours ago. She picked up one of the other wallets. Whoa! This guy had 100 credits in his wallet, and he didn't think anyone would touch it??? She whistled slowly.​

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"I'm starting to wonder why they thought I was a good target. I mean, LOOK at this guy's load! That doesn't just grow on trees, you know."​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite grinned and chuckled as he picked through one of the other wallets. Wow, there were a lot of credits in these things! Like, enough to completely negate the fact that he'd left the other bounty hanging. He looked over at Lexa and grinned even wider, "I think having those idiots try to break into my car was the luckiest thing that's happened to me all month!"

He found himself pulling out wads and chips with almost every currency he could readily think of, and he blinked in surprise when he found some kind of gold necklace in one of the wallets. He gave Lexa a look of total disbelief before handing her the necklace, "I'm damn sure we both deserve some kind of binge after all this... And I've got nothing else to do with this cash."

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

Lexa gingerly took the necklace and examined the pendant. It was a silverish-copper, with two birds intertwining with each other to form a heart. The back of the pendant read; "Wait for me, Ria. - N".​

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It seemed like something that this Ria girl, whoever she was, would've held very dear to her heart. And those bastards had to go and steal it. She handed the necklace back to Malachite.​

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"I don't think I should keep something like this. It's too personal."​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Malachite gently took the necklace back from Lexa, and as he looked at the pendant, his grin faded. His mind was reeling. Memories of his mother and father and the gold heart that was always visible on his mother's belt when they went out on a hunt. His mother strapping guns to her belt, and the look of awe that the blonde boy had on his face whenever his dad strapped his long sword to his back. The long-bladed weapon with the same golden heart on the pommel.

And most confusingly, the vision of a pretty young woman with partially dyed hair and an entrancing laugh. And he heard her voice call out, "Hey, Ni-" before he dropped the necklace out the window to land on one of the corpses outside the car. He climbed away from the front of the speeder and into the back, pulling his coat around him as if it would keep the next part of the memory out of his head. The death. The Red Knight. The blood.

Of course, it didn't. He relived it every time he was reminded of them. He felt tears and sparks from his eyes, and he let them both fall, the sparks fizzling to nothing before they hit the floor. He hid his head in the golden fur coat. No matter that he'd just saved her. Lexa was a random stranger, and this wasn't her business.

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

Lexa watched in silence as Malachite dropped the locket outside the speeder and then crawled to the back. Was he... crying?​

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She didn't move for a while. He had saved her life, but she still had know idea who or even what he was. What right did she have to comfort him? Besides, what if he didn't want her comfort? But, she couldn't just leave him like that. She hated seeing people cry. When others shed tears, Lexa felt a part of herself crying with them. Even though she didn't know why he was like this, she wouldn't just let him sit there all alone like that.​

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So, Lexa crawled to the back of the car and sat beside him. She didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything at all. She just placed her hand softly on his shoulder as if to say, "You're not alone".​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

Everything was red. The man in the hallway into the house, the walls, the ceiling... Everything. His father's tawny-colored hair was on fire and dripping with blood. His mother's favorite gun was stained red. The long sword still propped against the wall was splattered with blood. Whose, he didn't know... The butler? Maybe one of his parents? Both of them? Maybe the attacker had lost, too? No... He still walked through the house, with those red eyes and the two different-colored lightsabers. They could have been blue, or green, or even white... But they were red, just like everything else.

Malachite felt a hand on his shoulder... He shuddered and heard himself muttering, "Everything's dead, dead, dead, red. I can't find them. Sword's gone. Everything's gone. Where?"

He suddenly didn't know who the person next to him was. He blinked at her and asked, very softly, "Where are we... And why isn't everything red? Everything there was red and dead."

[member="Lexa Kimene"]

 

[Zayani Brin]

((OOC: Dude. I'm listening to sad ME3 music right now, and it fits so perfectly...))​

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Red and dead..... That pendant. It must have made him remember something. Something that sounded really bad. ​

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"H-hey," She said softly, as compassionately as she could. "Wherever there is? It isn't here. Here, you're with me. And with me, you're safe..."​

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Lexa kept eye contact with him as she gently brought her hand up to his ear. She lightly brushed her thumb up and down behind it, hoping to calm him down a little.​

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[member="Malachite the Shoki"]​

 

[Malachite the Shoki]

((I'm listening to Theory of a Deadman... Probably would've been far more fitting a few posts ago ))

Malachite shuddered slightly at the feeling of the hand as he closed his eyes and saw more red... He couldn't really process what Lexa was saying to him.., "Safe? Safe... Not safe. Too much red. Dead people. Too much. Lexa, everybody's dead. Father, Mother, Butler? Dead."

He felt himself shudder again, and his tails wrapped around Lexa, pulling her closer. He grabbed her hand, and it felt warm. He slowly stopped seeing the red everywhere, and by the time he woke up, his arms were around her, too. He blinked and rasped, "Sorry, Lexa... I was probably saying something about... something. It's not important."

[member="Lexa Kimene"]