Private Don't Pretend

[Arris Windrun]

NAR SHADDAA
THE DARK LANDS
Kirie

A woman bent at the waist to heave behind an alley dumpster. What came out was a mixture of blood and something else that was bluish-green.

"Yo!" A voice called out.

Another joined in. "Is that--?"

They were both excited, and their footsteps grew louder on a fast approach. "Windrun!" They exclaimed almost in unison, but not quite.

She wiped the fluid from her mouth and presented a grin. There was no joy behind it. She signed something for both of them, then parted ways.

Trust every pain.

Every weakness.

Every setback.

Stop trying to rise above your instincts.

Or your flaws.

Pretending is a luxury we'll never have.

That was how she had been raised. A woman who could never really distinguish herself from a gun. Is that why she became more like one over time? Not just in bits and pieces, but refined and ugly purpose. A violent tool to dissuade and to kill. A representation of someone else's power - an icon that defined galactic culture for longer than anyone could remember a different way.

The elevator door closed. Arris leaned against the back wall, drew a cigarette; lit it.

"Long time. You surviving the Academy?" She said through a drag, uncanny as her voice came through clearly despite her lips unmoved to let the smoke roll slowly from her mouth.

How long had it been? The Wheel, Genarius, Chandrila, Calipsa... Arris had been busy, too. Both since their previous little field trip. The cyborg showed Kirie the ropes of the Underworld, but their exercise was cut short by petty gang politics.

She offered Kirie the cigarette at half length since she lit it.

Their's was a slow ride down, from the Red Light Sector into the Dark Lands below. When they passed the threshold from one level to the next, there was a complete absence of light as if someone flipped a switch.

At the bottom, the door opened. Before them was a district filled with countless bodies like any other on the Smugger's Moon. Only difference is they had to make due without lights and only limited power. Many resorted to chemical fires just to cook their food. But it wasn't as if they were broken and without complexity. This was an entire society built around the conditions. Naturally, however, the Dark Lands proved a perfect spot for the worst of the worst to hide. And so many of the Dark Land's gangs were run by ruthless offworlders with nothing left to lose but their power.

"Still keep that lightsaber on you?"

Her mood was different. Arris read as more relaxed than in their first meeting, but a Sith was unlikely to be at peace.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

Swaddled in her cloak with the hood pulled up over her head, Kirie felt sheltered from the sights and smells of Nar Shaddaa. The thick woolen material swallowed the world around her, and the red stiched symbol emblazoned on the back of the garment was a symbol potent enough to make the common thieves, thugs and scammers think twice about approaching her. Anyone truly dangerous would pay her clothing no mind, though. After all one could buy clothes from anywhere, so she kept her eyes open, peering with suspicion out from the dark folds of her hood.

Walking quickly and with what she hoped was authority, she turned into an alley lit by a sickening mix of yellow green and purple smoke lights that flickered on and off, warping the proportions of the cramped passageway and making the shadows dance around her. She checked the instruction on her datapad and nodded to herself. This was the correct place.

Kirie shuffled up to the turbolift entrance at the end of the alleyway and hit the button to open the doors, wrinkling her nose at the unpleasant medley of scents that wafted out of it. She stepped into the lift car and sighed, grabbing the handrail for support as the lift whirred, chimed, and smoothly descended a few dozen levels.

"Long time. You surviving the Academy?"

Kirie gave a respectful nod in greeting. She didn't know how to greet the Triumvir. During their last meeting, Arris had made her disdain for titles very clear, but the pair of them weren't exactly on a first name basis either. Perhaps she would tolerate being called 'Ms Windrun...'

'Fine. I am learning.' Kirie replied, an artfully neutral expression worn across her face. 'Becoming more skilled.' Ms Windrun hadn't exactly earned the right to details about her life, and she hadn't forgotten about the beanbag incident.

"Still keep that lightsaber on you?"

Again, a small nod. Though, this time Kirie did open her cloak so Arris could see the sleek silver hilt clipped to the black patterned belt that sectioned her tunic. In the back of her mind, she wondered what they might use it for, then she caught sight of Arris' face and her eyes widened a touch.

"Are you sick, Arris?' Kirie hesitated. 'I mean- are you feeling alright, uh, Ms Windrun? You look a little green.'

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris responded with a curt nod. It was good that she was learning, or at least that was the natural belief. Vestra Tane has since taken over most responsibilities at the Academy, and, as Arris heard it, she was far more effective.

The acolytes were no longer mere soldiers and tools, making progress through independent excursions and hallway incidents alone. They were studying, practicing, developing techniques, and honing niches. 'Sith Lords in training' was how Tane put it. Arris... Arris didn't understand any of that. Didn't care to.

But it was good to hear Kirie made progress. It meant - the cyborg hoped - that she was less timid; more useful. One thing the mute may've noticed was that Arris kept eyes on her hands when she signed, instead of glancing immediately to the droid.

When Kirie hadn't accepted the cigarette, Arris burned it the rest of the way down.

They walked together through the Dark Lands now.

Again, a small nod. Though, this time Kirie did open her cloak so Arris could see the sleek silver hilt clipped to the black patterned belt that sectioned her tunic.

She nodded in return.

The cyborg winced a little, her frustration visible, when Kirie probed her health.

"Arris is fine!" She snapped back.

With an exhale, "I'm not a Miss, a Lady, the goddamn High Chancellor or Underlord."

It had affected her to realize. Not just this, but other things. Sickness, death, the constant wash of blood on her hands.

So she chose deflection and relied on one part of her that made any sense. She took a fast step forward to cut Kirie off, stopping in front of her with a grin on her face, and pointed at herself.

"I'm Arris fucking Windrun - look it up."

She turned back to the street. Ignored the handful of souls that watched them with hollowed expressions. Arris kept walking and waved Kirie to follow.

Her tone shifted back to what it was before, somewhere between sullen and impatient. "Yeah, I might be."

They turned down a side road, and in the distance was something unusual for this district. A brightly lit area. But that wasn't why they were here. Arris knew Neriah was probably somewhere over that way, and the Talusian wasn't ready for them to work together on this one. Instead, they stopped at a facility entrance - Network Access - a companion piece to the power station that served two purposes. One, to automate the utilities. Two, to network droids.

Arris turned back to her, a hand on her revolver. "Before we go in, I gotta ask. Why the fuck don't you kill?" She thought back to The Pit where Kirie led the charge with a lightsaber, but hadn't recalled her actually using the damn thing - at least not the same as the others.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

Kirie's eyes skimmed over the masses of people that milled about the Dark Lands, never coming to rest. It was as if by stopping to consider them, their pain and wretchedness would become her own. Kirie knew she had no way to help them, not yet, so she refused to look. She would remain calm, and level, and unaffected, and follow Arris' instructions until she was allowed to return to what passed for home these days.

A twinge of worry twisted in her chest. Was she becoming like Neriah- a numbed drone performing tasks for Ms Windrun? No, it was different, because Kirie could still bring herself to care, to feel like what she was complicit in was wrong. Neriah had given up, but Kirie still held onto her dream: as soon as she learned enough about Dark Healing to help people and protect the ones she loved, she would leave the Covenant and never look back.

"I'm not a Miss, a Lady, the goddamn High Chancellor or Underlord."

'Force of habit.' Kirie told Arris, following up with a bow of her head that was far too deep to be genuine. 'Before I was your underling, I was a handmaiden.'

"I'm Arris fucking Windrun - look it up."

'You are a Sith Lord.'

Trailing behind Arris, Kirie eyed the sign that read 'Network Access' that looked like the entrance to some decrepit city infrastructure. She wondered not for the first time what they were doing there, but she didn't ask Ms Windrun. She had a feeling she was about to tell her, and why make needless conversation? Better to just listen. Talkative Acolytes invited special punishment, and Kirie had already said enough to make Ms Windrun plenty mad.

She chewed on the woman's admission she was ill. What did that mean, that she'd be out of her hair soon? Unlikely. By the looks of it all it meant was that she was even more irritable than usual.

"Before we go in, I gotta ask. Why the fuck don't you kill?"

Kirie fixed Arris with a level, even stare, looking up into her eyes fixedly. This is a bad idea, she thought, but her rational brain couldn't stop her hands from moving. She already sick of Arris trying to tease some sort of potential out of her.

'Because I'm not like you.'

She breezed past Arris and into the darkened building, waiting a few steps in for the Sith to follow.

 

[Arris Windrun]

"Chaos, a handmaiden?"

That... made all too much sense. "Is that how you were enslaved?" She took a shot in the dark.

Arris approached the sealed door and placed a hand on it. She was a technopath - someone who listened to machines in the Force, could commune with them in a way, even get them to do what she wanted. Asking a door to open was a simple task; all she had to do was reach out and try.

But she didn't.

Instead, the cyborg knocked along the frame until she heard it hollow. Then she held her hand out like asking for a wrench; she pulled Kirie's lightsaber into her hand with the Force and ignited it 'flat end' against the steel until it melted.

"Easier with a blowtorch," she mumbled as she handed it back.

Arris punched into the weakened metal and made a hole, then reached in to pull out some wires. Her head twitched towards Kirie, looking at her as if she was about to say something before reconsidering. The acolyte's previous remark lingered.

'You are a Sith Lord.'

"First time anyone's said you know. What is it with the... Lord thing? I've heard Adekos call himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, but what the hell does it actually mean?" There was sincerity in her voice. She truly did not know more than the basics.

A few electrical manipulations later, and the door snapped loudly as magnetic locks disengaged and the blast doors opened a crack. Arris forced her hands inside to find leverage. Her cyber arms hissed against the strain of overworked hydraulics until she slowly forced them apart wide enough for both to squeeze inside.

At no point had she addressed the 'I'm not like you' bit, but she chewed on those words, too.

Inside the Network Access, things already took an unusual turn. Across the floor were scattered remains by the dozens. At a glance, they looked like exoskeletons, but that wasn't it. They were deceased Gank whose 'ganic bits have long rotted or been picked away, leaving behind only cybernetic frames and exposed implants. A faint scent of toxic metal lingered.

By the cyborg's lack of surprise, it was likely that Arris expected what they found, but the stale air suggested the place had been sealed longer than the blonde had ever been alive.

She looked back over her shoulder. "You're all 'ganic, right?" She asked with a hint of concern. "You don't hear it?"

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

"Is that how you were enslaved?"

'No.' she shook her head. 'That was just bad luck.' Kirie considered explaining further, but she decided Arris hadn't really earned that, so instead she shrugged and stepped back, neither protesting nor reacting as Arris took her lightsaber off her belt with the Force. She would have certainly panicked if she'd thought Arris was going to take a swing at her, but she'd recently learned to trust in the gut feeling that warned her of such events, that rudimentary but oh-so-reliable sixth sense the Force provided her.

She stood patiently with her hands clasped in front of her while Arris worked, upright and perfectly still. She considered Arris' other question. Was it a test? Maybe, but why was her voice so genuine, like she really wanted to know? Surely one of the Triumvirate would know that answer better than anyone.

Kirie decided to split the difference. She'd present half the answer she'd been taught, and half her opinion. That way, she was half right either way, and Arris would only be half mad.

'Here? A master of the Dark Side, a Lord of equal status to her brethren and above all others. In other places, it means other things. But it is always a ruler.' Kirie's eyes affixed Arris coolly. 'You are a ruler. Nominally, I am a ruler-in-training, but for now I am your servant.'

The destroyed door to Network Access yawned in front of them, and Kirie cautiously sidled up to it to peer into the darkened space. It was dim and musty inside. She looked at the twisted hunks of metal and plastic and fabric, frowning, then, her eyes widened as a strong sensation hit her.

Death. The things on the floor, they were lifeless husks, the remains of things that had once carried life, had sentience. She didn't know how, but Kirie knew it as sure as she knew anything. She tried to refine the sensation, to figure out when they died, but it was beyond her. Already the sensation was so overwhelming it was becoming hard to discern anything else within it. Kirie let out a breath she had been holding and tried to distance herself from the feeling.

'Yeah.' Kirie replied distantly. '100% home grown.'

"You don't hear it?"

Kirie shook her head.

'It's quiet.' she shot Arris a sharp look. 'What do you hear?'

The bodies, Arris' talk about hearing things, it was enough to set Kirie's nerves on edge. Goosebumps ran down her arms as she carefully entered behind Arris, careful to step only on the clear spots on the floor.

'Arris, what is this place?'

 

[Arris Windrun]

Bad luck? Her stomach sank. She was afraid. It was hard getting used to it again. Feeling.

You are a ruler. Nominally, I am a ruler-in-training, but for now I am your servant.'

"And what?" Arris replied. "Is it not a choice?" She chuckled at the stupidity in what she said.

"Yeah - I know." She didn't elaborate on what she meant by that.

What Arris felt, what she heard, was the drop of water and a clicking sound. It grew louder the deeper they moved within. But she knew it was in her head, noise in her cybernetics. Something felt her, and it tried to influence her. She could resist it, but she didn't want Kirie blindsiding her and turning feral because of some hidden implant the technopath never felt.

'Yeah.' Kirie replied distantly. '100% home grown.'

"Good," Arris thought. "Something is talking to my..." And now, why was she referring to her parts as anything other than herself? "Trying to control me."

Good for her on catching that one. A useful instinct in the making.

The cyborg looked back over her shoulder at Kirie. She could sense the acolyte's fear and see it along the raised bumps on her arms.

"Are you familiar with the Ganks?" She asked and proceeded to elaborate. "Cybernetic people, their clans once ran this part of Narsh and elsewhere on the moon.

"Back during the massacres, they tried to build a 'machine-god' to enhance their fighting coordination."

What she didn't say was why she searched for it, even though she suspected the acolyte would jump to many conclusions.

Gank corpses continued to litter the halls as they walked deeper inside, and eventually, they arrived at the apex. A massive control room with the scope of an auditorium, walls filled with machines, computers, and viewscreens. Remarkably well-preserved, and more surprisingly, active.

But it was what lay at the center that would draw them both in. Wires and tubing descended from the ceiling towards what appeared to be a pile of bodies. Dozens of Ganks, welded and interfaced, kept alive by an insidious life support engine, and connected to a chair that looked quite like a throne. Sitting in it was another gank, but unlike its monstrous kin behind it, it was untouched save for a cable jacked into the base of its skull and subtler life support tubes along the spine.

Arris approached the figure without pause or ceremony - she either expected or didn't care what she saw - and inserted her cyberjack.

After a small pause.

"Fuck."

Disappointment. All the hope she held drained from her, and a deep hopelessness rippled in the Force.

The Gank's brainmatter was barely alive. It had been a long time, after all.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

Kirie raised an eyebrow.

'How about you give my saber back.'

She stayed close to Arris, eyes flitting from corner to corner, waiting for the things she felt was inevitable- that something was about to jump out and attack them. But still nothing moved, all was quiet and still. Somehow that was worse, especially since Arris could obviously hear something, especially because she looked and sounded worried.

They continued through the warren that was Network Access, and she began to get used to the presence of the dead Ganks. In fact, the thing that was really beginning to bother her was the cloud of long-settled dust they were stirring up as they walked. It made her eyes water, and she was fighting the urge to sneeze. Somehow, she was sure Arris would not be very approving of that.

"Back during the massacres, they tried to build a 'machine-god' to enhance their fighting coordination."

Kirie wiped her nose with her sleeve and shook her head.

'Ancient history.' She signed. 'Why do we care?'

Then they turned the corner to the control room, where the scattered corpses became more numerous, then small heaps, and finally, in the centre, a pile of twisted metal taller than Kirie with a figure on a throne at its centre. Instinctively, she knew what they were there for, but she hung back even as Arris approached it. It was as still and quiet as any of the other scrap in this place, but it was like she could feel it breathing.

Was this their machine god? If it was, a whisper of life still flickered deep inside it.

Curiosity got the better of her and she sidled up beside Arris, shooting a sidelong glance at the cyberjack inserted into the cable that ran into the Gank's skullish remains.

'What's the problem?' Kirie asked Arris. 'That it's still alive?'

 

[Arris Windrun]

Kirie

Arris handed the woman's weapon back. "It doesn't trust you," she said, as if she knew what the kyber crystal thought.

Which was odd for Arris of all people, who hadn't used a lightsaber. Hadn't owned one - well, except for Vagabond's, but that was a trophy. So she certainly wasn't the type who would know anything about them at all. But it spoke to her when she held it. There was a deep pain buried within, shrouded in a twisted pride. It was a weapon that would gladly strike with ferocity as if ordained for imperious violence.

Or, at least, that was Windrun's interpretation. She had only held it for a moment.

"We care--" Arris was busy running her own diagnostics. "--because it's apparently an oracle."

And Arris needed an answer.

'What's the problem?' Kirie asked Arris. 'That it's still alive?'

"No... problem's the brain is too dead," self-defeat sheathed her words. "Nothing we can do now. It's worthless."'

Arris turned to Kirie with half a smile. "Dragged you all this way for nothing."

She still hadn't said why she dragged the acolyte along.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

Kirie gave Arris a look like she had just punched her, her face full of dawning horror until she managed to regain the wherewithal to chase the expression away. She scowled at the woman and looked away, suddenly very intent on making sure the saber was securely fastened to her belt.

'An Oracle.' Kirie repeated. Was that something that the Covenant needed, or that Arris needed? The Order had many prophets when she had lived there. Kirie had always found them scary, lost in the abstract, difficult to understand, and she'd been afraid they would turn their eye on her.

"Dragged you all this way for nothing."

'Wait.' Kirie held up a hand. She didn't like the expression on Arris' face, like she was almost relieved they had failed. Kirie pushed past her and came up close to the dead Gank on the chair. She stared at it closely, her nose almost touching it at times, and she reached out to pinch the rotted cloth of its clothing between her fingers, and feel the smooth bone of its skull.

Kirie closed her eyes, and this time she reached out not with her hand, but with the Force. Her face appeared tranquil, but her bunch fists layered in her lap

Herself and Arris were bright stars, the latter's shatterpoints so numbered and injurious that they were obvious even to Kirie. She had never sensed anything quite like it.

But, Arris was not her concern. Kirie tightened her focus and searched around her, until she could perceive the faint thrum of life again. It was harder to see, barely present in the Force. As she probed at it she felt it slip again and again from her mind. But she could see it, and she was sure Arris was right. The life support worked fine, but the matter inside was ancient, slowly moldering...

Kirie opened her eyes, severing the connection. She blinked as stars faded from her vision. She looked back up at Arris.

'Can I try something?'

She held out her hand.

'Hold on firmly, and don't freak out.'

 

[Arris Windrun]

Kirie

The cyborg paid little mind to the younger woman's reaction, or her repetition of 'an Oracle.'

She didn't pay mind until Kirie held up a hand and asked her to wait. Windrun's attention was locked onto the acolyte, as if she awaited her further instruction.

When Kirie closed her eyes, Arris tilted her head slightly. She wasn't sure what Kirie intended to do, but knew something esoteric and Force-y when she saw it. It was a learned recognition from spending too much time around Vestra. Whenever she was with that one, things got weird.

For a subtle moment, Arris felt something wash over her - felt kinda like a phantom was inches away from her shoulder, but it didn't seem to pay as much attention to her as it did the monster latched onto her brain. When the acolyte's eyes opened, she'd see Arris hadn't stopped paying attention.

"Huh?" She was confused.

What was Kirie supposed to try? Then, she looked down and noticed the woman's hand move again. At first, she expected another sign, but when the hand continued onward like an offer, her confusion hitched onto uncertain fear.

Arris hesitated before her metal hand extended to meet it. From her perspective, there was little sensory information, just the echo of resistance to tell her hand touched something. It made her nervous, not because of Kirie specifically, but because it reminded her of yet another thing she'd lost - and since her ugly moment with Neriah, the cyborg had allowed herself the intolerable suffering of human feeling.

"Yeah." She mumbled so improperly that her vocalizer cracked.

As if taking her hand wasn't a clear enough answer.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

Arris' hand was colder than Kirie was expecting. She thought it was have at least some semblance of life to it, being grafted onto Arris, but it was as cool and lifeless as any machine, Her fingertips brushed over the grooves at the edges of the panelling and she imagined levers and wires and servos beneath its surface. She thought it was quite cool, all things considered.

Not that she'd tell Arris that.

Leading Arris by the hand, she positioned the pair of them in front of the throne, and slowly lowered herself to kneel on her knees, silently prompting Arris to do the same. She placed her free hand on the knee of the dead Gank, looking over her shoulder to make sure that Arris was positioned correctly. In her mind, the impressions of the Force overlayed with their physical surroundings. Yes, this would work. Probably. Probably it would work.

'This might hurt a bit.' she told Arris. 'Just hold on and don't squish my hand, alright?'

Kirie closed her eyes, and felt for her power. She had come to imagine it like a pond fed by a stream that itself poured from a massive yet inaccessible reservoir. At the moment, the pool was full and easy to access. At her urging, she felt it flowing through her body, bouncing around her fingertips, waiting to get out. As always, the feeling was intoxicating, and she longed to let the energy loose.

Kirie let out a slow breath and set her jaw, widening her perception by willpower alone. If her hands had been free she would dug them into her palms, but she made do tensing her muscles until they cramped and spasmed.

She could feel her now: Arris, with her own pool of power to command. Larger and deeper and darker than Kirie's own. So much more vast than she could have ever anticipated. She could feel it now, roiling inside of her. A strange, greedy feeling overcame Kirie. She had to have it, whatever caused Arris to have this strange sea to control for herself. When they were done, she would ask her.

Kirie willed Arris to allow what she was about to do. With neither hand free, she just had to have hope that Arris was either trusting or motivated enough to resist the impulse to pull back. If she succeeded, Arris would never underestimate Kirie again, she was sure of it.

Energy began to flow from the hand touching the Gank, her skin glowing red as the Force flowed out of her. From her other hand, she began to absorb energy to make up the difference, drawing from the wellspring inside Arris. The sensation would be painful, tingly and numb like an electric shock, but as long as Arris didn't stop it, the dark circuit would function, and channel her healing into the dying god.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Kirie

If only Arris could recognize the slight glide of fingertips. She was ignorant of it.

She followed Kirie, who led them before the Throne, and as she prompted them both to kneel, Arris fought the urge to hesitate and followed along. The cyborg bent at the knees, which hissed quietly, as she kneeled.

Arris chuckled a little at the acolyte's warning. Why would she be concer--

'Just hold on and don't squish my hand, alright?'

A hit of guilt. The cyborg was now exceedingly aware of just how strong her hands could be.

Arris nodded, "I won't."

Something scratched beneath the surface of Windrun's mind. An urge to resist as she felt what was like unwelcome hands upon herself; drawing from her power. Was this part of the plan? Should she ask? She had gone along with it up until this point, so why stop? Arris shook the instinct and allowed herself to simply feel... vulnerable. What an awful feeling.

As Kirie drew from the cyborg's power, she would perhaps sense an inkling of how it came to be. It wasn't a vision; it was just the emotions that made up her power. The attention of a trillion eyes. Many who wanted to see her die. Others who wanted to see her kill. There was the cyborg's fear; her need. At the precipice of death, with the legendary wellspring of Ruusan's vergence, she willed two things: To live. To win. The pillars of her power, strong and towering, but in their own way deeply fragile and pathetic.

Arris was too distracted to even flinch. Maybe she didn't feel any pain at all. She wondered if Kirie felt it. Then, perhaps because she was drawn back to then, the Dark Horse recalled something... Something she never decided to draw on before. Until now. A technique taught to her... Well, more given to Arris by Tilon on Ruusan. She reached out in her own way and sought to control Kirie's pain.

It was easy to rationalize: to protect the acolyte from unnecessary distraction. But, really, it was something shameful. Guilt. Empathy. She had hurt Kirie before, she believed it was the right call - maybe still did - but something stirred inside of her. Promised her. Maybe lied. Said, "you can make up for it now." Could she wash away the stains of her own guilt? Just like that?

Something struck her. The co-processor was angry. And it was afraid. It looked at Kirie with disdain and hatred, and said to her in its own primal way. You are fucking dangerous. It evaluated her as a threat, and so it shut her off to it and forced her to draw from Arris instead.

Arris yanked away and vomited. Coolant. Blood. Something else. She was in pain, terrible pain, and rolled against the ground.

The Gank awoke and rose from the throne, removing that which bound it. The machine-god's mouthpiece was possessed by something else, and it moved to grab Kirie. It meant to kill her for the transgression.

A punishment for them both.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

Ugly feelings and dim, half-formed visions swirled about Kirie's mind, batting at her concentration. Any other time, the fleeting snippets of memory- which must have come from Arris- would be distracting enough to break her focus. This time, Kirie felt as if her mind was anchored to the dying machine. She couldn't break free, even if she wanted to.

The bad feelings began to mix with the pain of siphoning Arris' and her own energy into the Gank. Shooting pains rocketed up her arms and her fingers spasmed in Arris' grip. Kirie was struck by images, viewed through Arris' eyes as if she had been there herself. She could feel her body dying, see a destructive energy raced across her body. She resisted it. The energy wracked her nerves in a painful euphoria. She wanted to fight, wanted to live! There was a horrific scream, and the pain rose in intensity, and then suddenly abated, as if someone had placed a healing balm all over her body. With it, the vision faded, and they were returned to the dim room and the dead Gank.

Unbenknownst to Kirie, Arris would receive a memory of her own: Oil-black smoke and licking tongues of flame, a foot severed at the ankle and a jagged piece of metal embedded in her gut. A stranger bending down to help her, and then that same stranger, cold and lifeless in the dirt while she herself blossomed with new vitality. A soldier stood over her. A starship circled above like a vulture. Strong hands grabbed her shoulders-

Arris pulled her hands free and their connection was severed abrubtly. Kirie doubled over and clutched her head as pain and nausea returned to her. Why had Arris stopped it? They had been so close, she could feel it. Kirie's ears were ringing, but she could hear Arris throwing up beside her. Her eyes were watering, but she could see the Gank on the throne rising slowly, ripping out the cables that bound it.

Something wasn't right. The consciousness inside it didn't feel the same. Something else was inside it.

Metal fingers wrapped around her bicep, securing her in place like a vice. Kirie panicked and kicked at the thing. No, no, no!

It was going to kill her.

'Arris!'

Her eyes shot to Arris for help but she was still on the pain, writhing in agony. No help at all.

Desperately, Kirie's hand went for the saber on her belt, grabbing the silver casing and jamming it against the Gank's neck joint. She grit her teeth, and ignited the crimson blade.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris saw the Gank as it rose, and she tried, hurt as she was, to control it. The cyborg extended her hand and willed herself over the machine-god's once proxy. But - to her fear and surprise - there was no response. Whatever natural affinity for Mechu Deru the technopath had was severed in that moment; denied by the power of her implant, who ruled over Kirie's would-be killer like a crushing hand wrapped around the hilt of a sword.

A flash of emotion flooded through her. Instincts, thoughts not her own. They told her to let it go, to let Kirie die, that it was for the best. Every angle worked against her. Not an argument meant to convince, but a brute force attempt by a manipulator so deeply afraid of the acolyte who sought to find any reason at all for Arris to stay her hand, and let that younger woman die. If not that, then at least overwhelm the Talusian into subconscious submission.

"Fuck that!" Arris barked in anger.

She fought the machine's influence over her body and reached for a holster, drew the revolver, brought the barrel's end to the right side of her dome, and---

She grit her teeth, and ignited the crimson blade.

The connection severed. The Gank crumbled. Windrun's answers - Kirie's almost end - was dead. The co-processor shrank like prey into its hole. It had lost the moment and declared a truce... For now.

Arris sat there on her knees, panting; her cybernetics needed time to readjust back to equilibrium while a crescendo of pain and fear now hummed its way to silence.

She couldn't help Kirie, and in the end, it didn't even matter, but she still wanted to pull the trigger all the same. A shaky cybernetic hand lowered the weapon down from her dome, then let go, letting the heavy weapon clatter against the ground. The cyborg fell forward onto her hands and knees and threw up again.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

"Why the fuck don't you kill?"

Kirie stared at the pile of scrap that had been the Gank. Curlicues of smoke wafted up from the hole in its head, which dripped with unknown matter and smelled like burned plastic and cooked meat.

She nudged the dead thing with her foot. It didn't stir, and the life that had dimly stirred inside it before was gone now. However many hundreds of years it had clung to life, she'd just extinguished it.

Dread and sorrow settled like a weight in her stomach, but a more pressing feeling demanded her attention.

'Arris... I'm sorry.' Kirie signed, her eyes still on the corpse. Whatever secrets it had held had obviously been important to Arris. 'I panicked. I killed it. Whatever answer-'

Kirie glanced at Arris and her eyes widened when she saw the blaster. She turned from the Gank and hurried over to Arris, just as the weapon clattered to the ground.

She patted Arris on the back comfortingly as she emptied her guts again. Kirie bent over and picked up the gun, clicking the safety on and sliding it back into the holster on Arris' hip.

When the woman was decent again, Kirie regarded her with a raised brow.

'Planning on leaving me on my own in the Dark Lands, were you?'

There was a sound from back the way they'd come. A clang of metal. For the first time she remembered that they had left the door wide open.

'We should go.' Kirie told Arris. 'You're obviously sick, and there's nothing left here for us. Can you walk?'

 

[Arris Windrun]

Kirie

She had to remember how to breathe again. Her airways were shut off to allow for the rejection of more matter in her stomach... Well, it was more that it was stomach matter itself, which wasn't very good. She hadn't even noticed Kirie's quick work of getting the pistol back into its holster.

"It's that..." She tapped a finger against her head, then shook it. "Listen - you didn't..."

Arris coughed like she had come down with a terrible sickness, causing her vocalizer to crackle. She looked sidelong at Kirie as bits of blood and coolant dribbled off her mouth and down her chin.

"It was my failure, yeah?" She was more confused, really. Didn't know if blame mattered here at all.

But she wanted to finish what she was trying to say before. "It's the thing... in my head."

It was hard to focus.

She turned towards the way they came in when Kirie mentioned leaving. The cyborg attempted to stand, though her legs were weak. Not physically, just she didn't have the same control over her body. As if her co-processor was trying to say, 'see how well you do without me then.' Even before the Kaggath, she needed it to coordinate her implants and movement. Without it, she felt immensely weaker.

After she stood, Arris turned and grabbed Kirie by the shoulders. Her grip wasn't strong; if anything, she remembered the woman's earlier request not to crush her hand. That anxiety continued to weigh on Arris.

"If I die - take Neriah and run."

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

"If I die - take Neriah and run."

Kirie stopped and spun around, her face cold.

'Oh, you're feeling bad, are you?' Kirie shook her head in derision. 'Don't pretend like you're not one of them, Arris. This is your party.'

Kirie looked Arris up and down. She really wasn't as intimidating now that she could barely walk, now that she was dribbling blood. Chit, maybe Kirie could even finish her off. But then again, maybe not, and she had a feeling it would be lose-lose even if she had it in her.

Which, by the way, she didn't. Not after finishing off the Gank God or whatever the kark that thing was.

Kirie shook herself free from the grip on her shoulders, unsure exactly why she was so angry. Maybe it was the way that Arris, her torturer, now just looked like a hollow, sickly woman, maybe it was the fact she was trying to act like Kirie's friend again.

'You wanna help me, Arris? Give me 2000 UCs, and I promise you'll never see me or Neriah again.'

She jammed a finger into Arris' chest. Accusatory, hostile, even overconfident.

'Except, I know you're not going to do that, because you don't actually give a chit about me, just your own self pity.' She glared at the blonde Sith, steely-eyed.

'I'm gonna get out, and I'm gonna get Neriah out too. Whether you're alive or not couldn't bother me less.'

There was another clatter from back the way they came. She saw a beam from a handheld light flicker briefly along the hallway. Scavengers, most likely, from what little she'd seen of this place. The sensible thing would probably have been to leave Arris to fend for herself, but Kirie wasn't like that. She hooked the woman's arm over her shoulder and gave her an urgent tap on the back.

'Come on. Time to go, Ms Windrun.'

 

[Arris Windrun]

Kirie

The cyborg was too weak for Kirie's contempt. All she had to offer was a stare a little too lifeless to say anything relevant about their situation, other than that she was as weak, hollow, and killable as the acolyte saw.

Arris stumbled back when she was pushed off the younger woman's shoulders and poked. Her cybernetic arms were stubborn to be moved, but she didn't give the impression that it was a voluntary resistance. Not with the way the powerful joints were tight, like a machine in need of thick grease after decades of dysfunction. When Kirie dared her for the credits, Arris, try as she might, slowly looked down at herself and reached into her jacket. Of course, she hadn't any on her.

Absently, without eye contact, she muttered. "Mm... My garage... Inside the back wall..." Her vocalizer now sounded like a radio clipped at the edge of a frequency jammer.

She was too focused on the money to register that Kirie had mentioned taking Neriah and running all on her own, without the Talusian's help. She hadn't even noticed the lights or sounds of those who had made their way through the unsealed entrance... The way they now needed to leave. Hell, Arris was still fumbling through her jacket as if finding some loose credits was still the most important thing she could do when Kirie grabbed her arm and threw it around her shoulder. Arris made some kind of noise, like words that hadn't quite made it in time.

She struggled to walk along side her now with a tap on her back that prodded her forward.

"Listen... We're hitting Coruscant... Soon. Everyone is coming along - you, Neriah. Everyone."

As they pushed deeper, their departure was noticed by the yet unconfronted strangers. First, it was the sound of whispers. Likely, they conspired, deciding their approach; what to do if Kirie and Arris were hostile. Or maybe whether to back out. Or maybe they didn't care. Maybe they'd kill them both and sort out the why of it later.

Windrun's free hand groped the grip of her weapon. It was a big question if she could fight, let alone draw the thing. Kirie would have gathered a few moments ago just how heavy the revolver was when she returned it to the cyborg's holster.

It was stupid timing, but Arris wasn't done talking. First, however, she managed to force an implant to release a burst of stimulants normally reserved for when her synthetic heart stopped. Her body jolted and her movement stabilized a few seconds later.

"Shut up about me and why I do anything," she tossed Kirie the sidelong glare of a hurt woman; grey eyes under a mess of blonde hair.

She flicked the safety back off and drew her gun.

"I'm fucked - but Mercy will kill you; all of us, if we fail. I just need time to think... To work out all the angles."

 

[Kirie]

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Tag: Arris Windrun

'I- Coruscant? Why?' Kirie's mind was spinning rapidly. Was this some sort of fakeout, a way to get Kirie off her back? No, Arris looked too genuinely hurt, too weak to be posturing. 'Does anyone else know this?'

There was an opportunity here. There had to be. Maybe, if she could tip off Neriah too... Kirie bit her lip. What if the Covenant won? What if they sent her to fight on the front? Probably they would, and any chance she had to get away from the Covenant would be squandered. She could try before, of course, but that would probably just earn her a blaster bolt to the chest trying to steal a shuttle she couldn't fly, or something equally stupid. She had to think. Arris was throwing her a bone, surely, but how could she use the information to-

"Shut up about me and why I do anything."

"I'm fucked - but Mercy will kill you; all of us, if we fail. I just need time to think... To work out all the angles."

Well, welcome back Arris Windrun. Kirie blinked at her in amazement, even stepping back as the woman rose to bear her own weight again, and drew her very heavy gun.

Unkillable, Kirie thought to herself. It was the only explanation.

'No we, no us.' Kirie answered. 'There's you, and there's me.' They sure weren't a team, but if Arris was to be believed, the woman was more on their side than she'd ever let on. They could help each other, even if she was certain that she would never like or trust the woman. 'Think on your plan, Arris. I'm interested to hear it.'

Maybe, then, Kirie could award this information exchange by helping Arris get out of this place.

And for that, she had an idea.

They were nearing the Network Access entrance, and like Kirie thought, it was already crawling with scavengers, hovering by the broken-in door, waiting for someone brave or foolish enough to charge in. They called out when they saw Kirie and Arris, chattering amongst themselves, sizing up the darkened figureds in the ruin.

Kirie stepped in front of Arris, and held out the palm of her hand towards the assembled crowd. She lowered her arm to her belt. An instant later, the crimson blade of her saber ignited with a hungry hiss, unleashed for the second time that day. She brought the tip around slowly, to point at the scavengers. With her free hand, she strung out a series of rapid signs. In answer, the her droid boomed out a cold voice.

'You do not know me, but I am sure you have heard of her.' She jerked her head at Arris. 'She is Arris Windrun. I am her companion. We are Sith of the Covenant, and you're in our house.' Kirie stepped forward, her face an unreadable mask that flickered in the red light of her blade. 'And if you don't get out right now, I am going to cut down every one of you.'