Hindsight

[Kuzo]

"Dazzle fox?"

The utterly incredulous look on her face was almost as out of place as the weird nickname. She shook her head sharply, closing her eyes for a moment as she tried to order her thoughts.

"You're right. I know you are. But I came all this way to find something....."

​Irajah trailed off, looking up at him, a small frown on her face.

"Look, we can't cut across the middle section *anyway*, right? That's suicide. So if we need to circle around no matter what, why not see if we can swing by the archives at the same time? If things get too real, we'll run like karking durni, okay? But staying as far away from the middle where.... whatever those things are.... well, are..... that's important right? I just want to see if the archives are intact. If they are, well, I can come back I guess," she sounded unsure. How in the maw was she going to get back down here, with those things crawling around?

She breathed in deeply, letting it out in a whoosh.

"But if I can't get anything out of them anyway, then it'll save me a trip back here and having to deal with the clacking menaces," she added, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. As if on cue, the sound of tearing metal reached them and she grimaced.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Locke didn't point out the one thing on everyone's mind right now.

Neither of them knew if there weren't more of those things resting in dormancy in the archives or scattered across the hall. Who knew what woke these ones, maybe they were just the closest to the elevators, maybe they were difficult sleepers, how the hell did either of them know how these things worked?

"Fine." The SIS finally responded with a sigh. Clearly, the lady was gonna go through with it either way -- which meant he could either knock her out and throw her over his shoulder or leave her to her fate.

The latter was obviously not an option... the former was practically suicide as it would make it even more difficult to maneuver around the area.

"What's your name, so I know who to curse, when I am dying?"

The sounds of the metal tearing stopped suddenly, all the noise reducing itself to a pinpoint, until all that remained was the vague, unsettling scrapping of claws against metal. It seemed to be moving away from them, though, at least for the moment. This would probably be their only chance.

 

[Kuzo]

"Oh, not content with 'Dazzle Fox'?" She asked with a smirk.

But the sounds across the level drew the smile down into a frown as they both froze, listening intently. She barely breathed, straining to hear if the sound of metal against the duracrete was moving in their direction. After a few tense minutes she breathed out slowly.

They weren't headed toward them, yet.

"Doctor Irajah Ven," she said, her voice barely above a whisper as she looked back up at him, clearly waiting for his.

Slowly, she stood up, using the wall for support. Glancing around, she squinted. It was ridiculously dark down here, dark enough that there wasn't a lot of a chance that her eyes would 'adjust', unfortunately.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"Nah, I was just testing out nicknames, jury's still out which one is the best." Locke mumbled, while closing his eyes and rummaging around. This was the part that he really hated and that was enabling the cybernetics in his eyes. They were build off running on his own biochemical system, drawing energy and substance from his body directly and that really wasn't a comfortable feeling. You could practically feel it leeching off of yourself. Already his stomach was churning, a shiver running up and down his spine as warmth was drained away.

Then he blinked.

And suddenly light appeared. Not literally of course, but low-light vision had a tendency to burn light into your retina and make you blink wildly, while your eyes refocused themselves on the here and now.

"Take my hand." Elly whispered softly, once he noticed she was looking around and trying to get her bearings. "I will lead us."

The cybernetics could do more, of course. But he wasn't going to use them here and now - too much drain on his body and he wouldn't be of any use to this Irajah, no matter what their challenges were ahead.

Road ahead seemed to stretch out far, but that was just an illusion.

Difficult to program in real depth-perception when the lights you were working off were literally figments of photons bouncing around the entire room and reflected by rough durasteel.

 

[Kuzo]

"You realize I can't actually *see* your hand, right?"

His found hers a moment later and she held on without self consciousness as they started threading blindly through the level. Well, blindly for her at least.

"So, fair's fair, unless you just want to be called 'The Nameless Wonder,'" she finally whispered, once it was clear he wasn't offering his own name in return.

Every now and then they'd pause. Sometimes due to something she knew he was seeing but she wasn't- sometimes because of a noise somewhere, echoing oddly through the darkness. Her own breathing seemed impossibly loud.

How is it possible those things don't hear us, when it feels like everything is amplified? Are we actually that loud? Or is it in my head?

Irajah knew the psychological affects taking hold here- from an academic stand point at least. Actually being here, in this moment, however, made it a little difficult to look at from an unbiased point of view.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"Is that an option?" The tone was so seriously whispered that for a moment Ven wouldn't be able to realize, if this man was making a joke or being completely for real.

Then he squeezed her hand gently- there wasn't much else to do, the vague grin wasn't gonna show itself in the dark and there was no point in talking too much. At the risk of being spotted by a stray... whatever the hell they stumbled into. Part of him wondered if he should use one of his cover identities.

Might have been safer.

Could have been better, but somehow... "Locke. Elliot Locke." His real name slipped past his teeth and went out there, whisked away by his current partner-in-crime.

At the end of the day Locke didn't want to die without her knowing his real name.

Well, as real as it could be with a man like Elliot behind it. In front of them, him, he saw the entrance of a passageway. His low-light vision couldn't see very far past that, but it seemed to be clear for the moment. Gently the SIS agent crept inch for inch towards it, before stepping on through and pulling Irajah in.

"Second."

Leaving her alone (and blind, but he didn't think about that for that moment) he went back to the entrance. The door was stuck, electronics overridden by something farther into the installation.

Luckily Elly was full of surprises.

With a sigh he mentally squeezed at his cybernetics, before an interface popped itself before his mind. Already, he could feel energy draining away from him; before it could be too much, the doors hissed shut and left them in the even darker.

"Let's hope we won't find something worse here than what we found there." Locke whispered as he took her by the hand again.

 

[Kuzo]

[member="Elliot Locke"]. Well, that was better than the Nameless Wonder.

Irajah followed along behind him, trying to focus on her breathing and the feeling of the ground beneath her feet, rather than on the oppressive darkness and the occasionally skitter of sound just within the edge of consciousness. She had no idea where they were- it was easy to lose her sense of direction in the darkness.

The word wait died, unspoken on her lips as he let go of her hand. She reached out, finding a wall just at her back and sank against it. She had hoped having something solid right there would help. And it did- a little. Despite the fact that she *knew* there was nothing to see, her eyes darted back and forth, straining to listen. Locke's footsteps, a pause, the whoosh of the door mechanism, then footsteps again. Nothing else once the door closed from the area beyond. That was a good thing, yes?

"We need to find a corridor with rooms all perfectly across from each other," she whispered when he was near again. She might have gripped his hand more tightly than she needed to for a moment, as if the reassurance was as important as the actual guide. "The archives with the information I need should be the last door on the right."

They were, as it turned out, already in the correct corridor, she simply had no way of knowing that.

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

His free hand briefly went to her shoulder where it rested for a short moment, giving her a small moment to recover her composure and get back into the groove of things.

Up ahead they might not get that opportunity, so better now than to freak the feth out if something happened.

In the meantime Locke's eyes searched for the hints of details that Ven mentioned. Then, once he refocused on the walls and the corridor itself, he realized they were already were she needed them to be. He pulled her with him now, his grip around her hand tightening slightly in response to her own grip getting stronger.

Just one more measure of comfort- Locke wasn't much of an emotional man in the moment, but this was the least he could do for the civilian.

"We are already there." Locke whispered over his shoulder, before taking the door she mentioned. It seemed stuck, the electronics dead and unable to be hacked.

He cursed, before looking up and down the corridor.

"I am gonna have to force our way open. It might get loud." Which was a problem, if they weren't completely alone here, especially considering the girl next to him couldn't see for crap. But there would be sufficient time to harrow about karked up decision making once they got here out alive.

"If something happens, you take my hand, we run and kark the rest, okay?"

Receiving another squeeze of the hand Locke assumed that was acceptance, let her go for a moment and with a measured glance, charged into the door, smashing it open and revealing a reasonably big room. Computer systems lining up the walls and, for some reason, still in a working state.

Maybe it was a different power-grid?

In the distance howls could be heard, but they did not seem to grow closer as of yet.

The light of the archives threatened to overwhelm his cybernetics, so he shut them off, but now Irajah would be able to see somewhat.

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah winced at the sudden lights, but it didn't stop her for long. Letting go of [member="Elliot Locke"]'s hand, she hurried across the room- for a moment at least, he was forgotten as her eyes readjusted and she started to dig through her pack.

"Karking maw," she muttered. The data pad. She'd dropped it. Of course.

Glancing around, she didn't see any intact stools in the room. Of course. Bending over one of the consoles, she pulled up the main menu. Slender fingers started moving across the keyboard in swift, sure motions. Yes, there was a user Simon Ven in the system. Pulling him up, she didn't even scan his profile- she knew him, even if the picture here was younger. Face illuminated by the light from the screen, she didn't realize just how strong a resemblance there was between her and this particular picture of her father.

Pulling up his login, she hesitated for only a moment before her fingers set to the keys again, tapping out a series of numbers.

Access.

"I'm in," she said over her shoulder. "Now let's see what's here....."

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Locke saw the similarities, but didn't say anything about that for the moment.

There would be enough time to figure that one out later. Instead his eyes went searching and searching, before eventually landing on the piece of information that he had come from. This mainframe was a bit smaller than the ones lining the walls of the room, a bit farther away too, but still connected to the infrastructure of the computers.

A datahub, by the looks of it and a fairly advanced one too.

"Alright." The SIS agent said over his shoulder, while studying the metal box in front of him. "Hurry up though, it's quiet now, but I'd rather not overstay our welcome here."

All the information coming in and out went through this little thing and that meant it would be protected. But contrary to Irajah... this was his job.

Information extraction.

From the depths of his pockets he got out a spike, not a regular one that helped with circumventing cyberdefenses, but one that was specifically cooked up by the boys in the locker-room for these kind of situations. What it would do, was insert itself straight into the source and start confirming things for him.

After a moment more he found a jack-in where the spike was inserted. From dormant, the LED on the stick started to hum blue as it activated.

Quick process.

 

[Kuzo]

"Well, I'd intended on copying everything and reading it at leisure, but I dropped my data pad," she said over her shoulder, though her eyes never left the screen.

"Those.... things.... have probably eaten it or something. Shame."

She'd had some good holos on there.

Her fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up notes, strings of genetic code, patient files. Hazel eyes scanned over it all, reading the lines of DNA as easily as someone else might skim over a newsholo. She was so focused she really wasn't registering what [member="Elliot Locke"] was doing.

And she didn't hear the low scritch scritch coming from beneath one of the desks. She kept talking, an absent tick rather than because conversation was the goal, half aloud, half to herself.

"I was right, he was doing work on it long before Gap Nine..... same basic premise, different virus- but this one would have collapsed under it's own virulence far too quickly- and he saw that, never even got this one out of the theory stage, huh...."

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

At first Locke didn't catch on either, so focused he was on getting the data and making sure nothing got corrupted, that all his attention was there and not on the subtle screeching sound that was weaving itself into the background noise of the servers running, the light humming and Irajah's ticking on the screen.

But that didn't take up too much time.

Once Elliot pulled out the data-spike and put it back in his pocket, he rose up and noticed the sound suddenly. Like it just pushed itself into the foreground of his mind.

"You hear that?" The man mumbled as he turned around and started to walk back towards Irajah. That's when all hell broke loose, literally.

One of the desks suddenly erupted in pieces of wooden shrapnel, metal shards and one huge hulking monstrosity. All iron edges, talons and claws, big teeth and two piercing, flooding red eyes burning in the shadows of its optics. It didn't waste time and immediately went for its nearest target.

Irajah.

Locke didn't think, that karking idiot never thought, and roughly pulled the girl away from the computer and shoved her behind him towards the servers. The other hand was already holding his - really small - taser blade. One second before that bulk of mass crashed into him, she would hear one thing.

"Get the kark out."

 

[Kuzo]

Everything happened too fast to register properly. One second she was replying absently "Hear what?" and then the desk beside her literally exploded in a rain of wood and claws. [member="Elliot Locke"]'s hands were the only thing that kept her from falling backward as she scrabbled. None too gently (but she wasn't about to get upset about it, considering), she found herself shoved behind him. Off balance, she fall back against the server wall.

Red eyes and metallic teeth reflected for a moment and then the creature descended on Locke-

Irajah wasn't really known for following instructions particularly well. And even if she might have other under circumstances, this was anything but.

She didn't think, just grabbed the closest thing she could pick up. She didn't look at it took closely, just let her fingers wrap around whatever came beneath her hand. She didn't even realize that there was nothing in reach, didn't consciously use the Force, or indeed even notice that she had.

The fact that the mop handle was there in her grip was enough.

"DROP HIM!"

The fact that this was a mop and not some instrument of battle seemed thoroughly unimportant. Without hesitation, she swung it at the things head.

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

His taser blade lashed into the thing's hide over and over again.

While the edge found purchase each time, it was like sticking a little needle in the hide of a dragon. Perhaps there was satisfaction to be found, but in reality there wasn't much use for it. Its claws ripped into Locke, though, and that was an entirely different equation. The thick talons cleaved through armor first, then the tips cut open skin -- like it was playing with its meal and wanted to enjoy the visceral pleasure of ripping open its prey first, before going in for the kill.

"DROP HIM!"

Elliot cursed, angry that she didn't run when she had the chance, but before that could spill out in something more... he was dropped unceremoniously to the ground. A soft whine came away from the beast as its head bowed down and let itself be moped-handled by the little sassy lady.

"Did you just... bad doggie the gorram- ow." Locke noticed suddenly felt the pain rushing in his body. Burning stripes across his chest, not deep enough to puncture organs, but enough that it was hurting like a fether every time he took a breath. "Feth."

He tried to push himself away from the thing and push himself up.

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah wasn't really sure which one of them was more surprised- her, the creature, or [member="Elliot Locke"].

Keeping the mop out but ceasing her attack, she watched it warily as Locke moved backward across the floor. It was the first time she was getting a good look at one of the creatures, and she eyes cast over it dubiously. It whined again, clawed paw coming up to rub its own ear for a moment before it laid it's massive head on the floor. Red eyes glittered up at her.

"It's.... tail is wagging."

The utter incredulity in her voice was clear.

Something stirred in the back of her mind, a childhood memory. 'Raja and the Monsters.' A series of stories her father had told, featuring his young daughter and a variety of great beasts. In the stories, they had always been be friends, companions and partners through troubled times, going on adventures. A name floated up and out of her mouth before she could really think about it too deeply.

"Kresh?"

It's tail started wagging harder. Slowly, it's head rubbing against the floor, the beast flopped on it's side, rolling over and watching her the entire time.

"You have *got* to be kidding me."

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

By this point in time Locke had managed to prop himself up by the desk behind himself.

He was still sitting, but now he had a better view of the entire affair. For instance the gorram whatever the feth it was currently rolling around and asking for a belly rub. It... did look a little bit cute, now that it wasn't busy trying to bite his face off, but that was besides the entire point.

The point was that this thing had been trying to eat his face off!

"Can we talk about the big nexu in the room?" He looked pointedly at the animal. "Quite literally?"

One of the questions on his mind was why it listened to her, the other was how the woman knew its name. He immediately discarded the theory that she had been trying to kill him somehow - wouldn't have tried to save him. Her facility? No, the accounts she had accessed weren't hers.

The man looked like her.

"This was your father's facility?" Wild stab in the dark, it could have been an uncle or maybe an older brother, but something about the creature in front of him, its name and the way it was being pet-like to the girl.

It would have made sense.

 

[Kuzo]

"Well, he was one of the researchers here," she replied, a little absently. She was still marveling over the utterly dream-like series of events that had led to this point.

"I don't *think* it was his?" The tone said that while that had surely been the case before, now she was reconsidering.

She stepped slowly, eyes never leaving the nexu that was wriggling its butt in excitement. Kresh whined again, looking up at her expectantly. Well. It was sort of a nexu. Between the metal claws, geared joints, and the mechanical gleam in it's eyes, it was almost exactly what she had imagined as a child. It was as though the character from her father's stories had stepped out of his words.

Only, she supposed, it was actually the other way around.

"Careful...."

"No," she said softly. "It's okay. I got this."

Slowly, she crouched down. A small hand reached out, hesitating for a heartbeat before reaching out to scratch at a particular spot beneath the beast's chin. Those red glowing eyes closed, tail wagging faster as the creature relaxed against the floor in a puddle of fur and deadly teeth.

"My father told me about you," she said, addressing the nexu directly. She didn't know if it understood her words, but they were more for [member="Elliot Locke"]'s sake anyway. "He made up stories..... of the adventures you and I went on when I was a child. 'Raja and the Monsters.' And my favorites.... were always the ones..... with Kresh."

She smiled, remembering. A distant chuckle and then "Mom *hated* the ones with you in them. She liked to tell ones about different 'monsters'. But they were.... always my friends. In both of their stories."

​The smile turned down slightly, brow furrowing. Kresh was a figure from her childhood imagination. And here he was, right in front of her.

What were the chances he wasn't the only one?

 

[Kenth Typho]

While [member="Irajah Ven"] was busy in contemplation Locke was mostly looking at his wounds.

They weren't too bad all things considered, but would need to be cleaned, if he didn't want them to get septic. Not that there was much to be done about that, unless suddenly his mind went to the medpacks he had packed with him. From the depths of his suit he grabbed one - torn to shreds and useless - and sighed to himself, before simply using the emergency containment unit to isolate the crap out of them for now.

Emergency containment unit was a fancy word for a huge band-aid that automatically attached itself to a wound and dressed it. Very handy when you were in the middle of the field, but that was about it.

"Am I the only one concerned here that your dad was telling you stories about a Sithspawn as your guardian?" Locke pointed out gently, before pushing himself off the floor and holding himself against the table. Kresh didn't like that, which was projected by the red in his eyes suddenly sharpening and a growl escaping his metal teeth. He didn't jump yet, but his attention was firmly fixated on Locke.

All Elly could do was raise his hands in an universal gesture of peace.

"Not that I don't mind being looked at like I am a tasty dish, but could you... maybe?" He mumbled over to Irajah, without losing his sight on Kresh.

 

[Kuzo]

"Well, I wasn't worried about it until now," she said, her tone slightly exasperated.

The aggressive motion from Kresh in response to [member="Elliot Locke"] wouldn't do, however. Irajah had never actually had a pet growing up, but after having lived with an amiphstaff for several months, this didn't seem particularly daunting.

"No," she said firmly, stepping between Locke and the nexu. "This is my friend."

She took his hand, clasping it in hers all the while watching Kresh.

"You can give him dirty looks all you want-" it wasn't actually clear which of them she was talking to for a second. "But friend. Got it?"

Kresh's eyes moved from Irajah to Locke and back again before it whined once more. It slunk forward, nosing at her foot.