Private I Roved Out: Ch 3 - What We've Become

[Loxa Visl]

With luck and skill, she managed to keep up with him. It wasn't the keeping up that was the difficult part, it was the navigating the store displays and aisles without knocking things over. Loxa very narrowly avoided sending a card rack sailing by lightly bumping into it and catching it immediately before any noise could be made. She caught up to Khal on the last aisle and hesitated.

That deep frown persisted.

<<This One- >> she hushed quietly at him, leaned close so she need not raise her voice to speak, <<does not wish to steal.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

He didn't fully caught that.

At least.

His ears caught it, but his brain had difficulty processing that. Still busy squinting at the interrogation his reaction was belated, but then it spawned rather quickly all at once. "Are you... really??" He hissed back and then? Poked her in the nose. Probably out of frustration or to see if she actually EXISTED in the same reality that Khaleel did.

"That guy is currently ratting you out, who cares, get yar ass moving."

And then Khal pushed her into moving if she didn't get her arse into gear.

 

[Loxa Visl]

The man wouldn't be able to see it, but that poke to her nose made the witch go cross-eyed. Loxa grimaced and quickly clapped a hand over her nose at the sting.

<<Nya touch->> she hissed back at him, batting his hand away, the aviators glared. <<Rat-fing, rat-ling, a boy is no rat-huwah>> Loxa nearly tripped as he rudely pushed her toward the door, the bag of gummy bears making an unceremonious CRINKLING as she caught her heel. The cyborg presently interrogating the boy immediately twisted its head to look their way.

Loxa froze, feeling the surging chill of its gaze landing on her, and then shot off like a scrambling rocket as she heard the sound of blaster rifles whining. She made it to the door, skidding past it and narrowly missing the first bolt that burst through the glass and out into the open. A hand grabbed the door handle, yanking her back round and she shoved her way out the door yelling the Paecean equivalent to I'M SORRY.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

That didn't go according to plan.

At all.

The logical conclusion however was that with Loxa through the door first? Now Khal was pinned down by blaster fire.

Kriff me. Khal grunted as he pulled out his revolver and pointed it over the corner of the aisle. He knew, instinctively, that once upon a time this would have been as easy as breathing to him. Eyes closed, breath out and the bullets would find their way to their intendent target before the third beat of his heart.

That's not how it went this time.

First shot went wide.

Second too.

But the surprise was enough to force the three mercenaries back behind cover. Khal knew this wouldn't last and he quickly pushed himself off the aisle and ran for it. A blaster bolt took him in the shoulder right as he passed through the door. Grunting in pain and clutching his shoulder he shot the control panel of the sliding door.

It hissed shut behind him.

That wouldn't keep them for long. Now to find that witch and his ship to boot.

 

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa hadn't gone far having no intention of leaving Khal behind. She was preparing herself for the possibility that she'd need to go back into the line of fire, and she would have too if Khal hadn't burst out through the door moments later.

<<SSSST->> she hissed at him from her current cover down a side ramp. No no, up here. Hidden up in the durasteel catwalks above your head. The aviators flashed in the darkness. Loxa pushed them up to her brow, and with the grace of a tree-bound stalker dipped through the railing of the walk and dropped back to ground level with a quiet thud and CRINKLE.

Loxa hurried to his side, immediately smelling blood and the acrid stench of flesh melted by blaster bolt as she fell in hurried stride with him, <<A Man is wounded,>> she remarked, <<A Man must be faster.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

"A man wouldn't have been shot at all, if you had gotten yar ass in gear when I told you to." He hissed back after getting over the mother- o'a heart attack from discovering her presence above him.

He was about to say more but then-

A crash into the shut door.

It already got a bit out of shape. The curve of a shoulder planting itself into the metal. This reminded Khaleel exactly what he had been thinking just a moment ago. That this wouldn't last and they had to GO. "Let's go." And without waiting to see if Loxa followed, he'd start in a run, towards the half-fueled ship.

Without paying for THAT either, Khal would quickly start to disengage the fuel line entirely.

"Start the ship." Yelled to Loxa as he busied himself with this.

Loxa Visl

 

[Loxa Visl]

The witch's jaw gaped open, a scoff working its way into her expression only to be interrupted by the aviators sliding from her brow and back onto her nose. She jumped and immediately frowned at them. Accursed eye-shields.

The door crashed, the man yelled, the witch quickly moved to keep on his heel. He yelled again. Bristling at the rudeness and the alarming situation, she did as told and disappeared up the cargo ramp and into the ship. Witch, blanket, aviators, and gummy bears made it all the way to the pilot's nest in record time. She settled herself down into the chair and gave the command console a cursory glance. Took her a few moments to figure it all out, but the main components to a launch process were all fairly universal from ship to ship.

By the time Khal got the fuel link unhitched the engines were already rumbling.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

And by the time they were unhitched the door flew open and away.

Out came the three mercenaries and they were most definitely not happy.

Khal shot first. Now that he could actually aim it was relatively more accurate, taking the big cyborg out by his knees. It wouldn't kill him, but would definitely slow him down. The other two returned fire. He quickly jumped up the ramp, dodging slugs left and right, as he tried to line up another shot and realized that was silly.

They were already gone.

"Kriff me." Khal muttered as the ramp shut behind him and he rolled onto his back. Breathing heavily and staring at the ceiling, while clutching his wounded shoulder.

"This isn't exactly the job I was planning..."

Loxa Visl

 

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa piloted them out and away from the station, shifting their trajectory back to their original plotted route. They wouldn't get as far as intended with the amount of fuel in the tank, but by setting them back into hyperspace they could at least escape their current pursuers.

She stepped back into the cargo bay when the man didn't reappear and found him on his back supposedly either counting his blessings or his regrets. Fingers clasping the glasses, she pulled them from her face and pushed her hood off her head. The golden-eyed wonder set her gaze upon him and honed in on his shoulder, concern showing clearly through the pinch of skin and scar.

Moving to stoop by his side, Loxa gingerly touched at his arm just below the bolt wound.

<<A Man must be treated. This One can help.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

He didn't noticeably respond to her touch.

This is because Khal was used to the pain.

Once the initial shock was over, it shifted towards the more familiar dull ache under his skin. Familiar and welcoming in its own way. "Mhmm," He muttered, opening his eyes and watching her carefully. "You know- those were my colleagues. If they ID'd me? My name is gonna be right along yours on the bounties."

And presumably they'd hunt a traitor harder than an inquisitive type.

"Medpack is in the back." He shifted, trying to stand up, and then groaned. "I used to heal quicker..." More to himself than to her.

Loxa Visl

 

[Loxa Visl]

Perhaps another might've felt pity for him and his situation, but Loxa saw it for what it was.

<<A Man knows the consequences of a decision made,>> a very pretty way of stating he'd brought this on himself and that he should have killed her when he had the chance. Now here they were, caught in the cross hairs of his own organization. He had to have known this was one of many possibilities. Loxa offered a hand to help him up should he need it, surprisingly strong for how slight her build was, <<This One needs only water to help. We go to kitchen.>>

Natural water was prime, but any clean water would do. Upon reaching the kitchen, Loxa peered through the cabinets until she found a larger container to fill. Bidding the man to sit and remove his shirt, she filled while he (presumably) did as told.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

"Well, yeah, but ya could be nicer about it." Khal muttered as he took her hand and hauled himself up without a second thought. Almost as if expecting she'd be able to pull him up with relative ease.

Weird.

"Just... water? Okay, sure." They walked past the medpack and Khal was a bit confused about it. "We will have to be more careful from now on. Next step they gonna try an' get the fuel station to share the ship's ID." That wasn't a given. Some of these stations were pretty conscious about how easily they parted ways with it.

They could lose half their clientele if it came out they just handed out IDs left and right.

On the other hand... a weapon in your face could be really convincing.

"You will have to keep the shades on when we go out. And I will... put on a hat or something, I guess."

 

[Loxa Visl]

Her distaste of the sunglasses was more than apparent.

<<This One cannot see with A Man's ... eye glass... mais, if A Man think it will help.>>

Container filled, Loxa walked it over to the table where he sat and set it down, looking him over ponderously.

<<A Man could remove beard.>> That would certainly help change his look. She tugged at the sleeve of his shirt, <<Off.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

He scratched his beard when she mentioned it.

"My... beard?" No, that felt wrong, almost sacrilegious in fact. "Lots of beards in the Galaxy... I don't think that would help much." A bit defensive and certainly trying to imagine himself without one.

It was difficult.

Even when he had been younger Khal had grown one.

"Anyway, we won't take the next refuel depot. But... I know a little pirate colony a bit off-the-map. It will add three more days to our journey, but we can get some repairs done there and if we are lucky get some fuel." Far less risk that the hunters would follow them there. Mostly because few people were that suicidal.

Khal had some connections however.

Hopefully they'd remember the favors he had done their colony.

"So, water? What's next?"

Loxa Visl

 

[Loxa Visl]

She wasn't convinced that the loss of his beard wouldn't help. Loxa shook her head, <<This One is sure it will help.>>

Buuut he bulled right past the idea with his new alternative route plan. She listened, her typical lasting patience wearing thin. Though annoyed at his lack of skill in following directions, she felt unsurprised by it. Something about him told her he never was very good at taking orders or directives from others. And something in her mind told her she'd just have to do it herself like always.

"So water? What's next?"

Loxa sighed, rolled her eyes to the ceiling and then stepped to his front, clapped a hand over the top of his head and yanked the man forward and down. She leaned over his shoulder and grabbed the tail of his shirt to pull it free up over his back and head. He was shortly released to sit back up and the offending shirt was plopped into his lap.

<<Next,>> Loxa stood back again and gestured toward the container of water with one hand, a sweeping motion upward that saw the water lift free into a floating hydroblob as if she'd turned off the gravity in the ship. With another gesture of her fingers in a circle, it pulled itself into an amoeba-like sphere, then began to glow a faint blue, <<A Man sits and This One heals.>>

Her other hand lifted to join the first, and the two worked in tandem with fluid, gentle, graceful motions to draw the water in a loose stream through the air where it pooled near his head into another spherical shape, then slowly lowered down over his wounded shoulder.

It would not hurt or sting, but it was frigid to the touch.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

"Hey-"

Before Khal could protest more Loxa already unceremoniously yanked him forward and managed to get the shirt off him. "You know, if you want me naked, there are better ways of doing it." He muttered as he rubbed his scalp. Her grip had been something fierce, but somehow it almost felt... familiar, which was odd to him indeed.

He shivered there once the flying water started touching his wound.

It was cold, almost frozen, to the touch.

"You do this often?" Khal murmured as he watched her work. This was some magic chit and usually Khal had little truck with it. But he couldn't argue with its results.

The pain was already starting to fade.

 

[Loxa Visl]

<<Naked. Naked no.>> The witch shook her head slightly, brows faintly furrowed in concentration, <<Only shirt.>>

Her hands continued to move in fluid, graceful gestures, mimicking the rolling of tides to draw the water back and forth and around his shoulder. The glow seemed to move along with her, encircling the man's blaster wound, soothing and cooling and numbing away the pain. Little by little the skin began to heal.

<<Water is the source of many things,>> she replied to him, tone quiet and calm, <<nurture, clean, purify, heal. Inside and out.>>

Her right hand drew forward and then up in a slow, controlled loop. Khal would feel a very strange sensation as she pooled the water at the front of his shoulder and forced it through the wound. It would sting at first, but the cold would numb quickly, then it would tingle and tickle as the water began to appear at the back of his shoulder, tinged green and no longer glowing.

<<Does A Man have shot often?>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

Khal chuckled.

That isn't what you said- The chuckle died out there. Partially because he hissed, the freezing cold starting to feel like a burn in its own right. Partially... because this woman had never said anything of the sort to him. At any point that he knew her. Right? Part of him was trying to put together all these strange little happenstances.

Another part of him was trying to flee away from it as soon as possible.

"Alcohol does the same thing." He muttered through gritted teeth as he tried to relax and let her do the work. "More of a controlled burn than this frigid cold, of course."

He shrugged and then hissed again, still painful.

"To many times to count." And he shifted back into the light, which revealed the rest of his body. Lots of scars there. Burn marks. Patched and healed gunshot wounds. Rips and cuts and stabbing survivals.

"Though usually I get stabbed, which is far more of a pain in the arse. You?" He tapped her cheek as if his fingers belonged there. "What happened here?"

 

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa scrunched her face and shook her head in disagreement, <<Noo. Alcohol not heal...>>

By the time all the water had been funneled through his wound, the front opening of his shoulder was nearly healed and the back was well on its way. It would scar, but it would heal clean and without infection. Loxa articulated through the air to wheel the water back into an orb, green with dead tissue cleansed from within, and gestured for the orb to float lazily over to the sink where she let it pour itself into. The last of his wound disappeared down the drain with a gurgle.

When she looked back to him he was displaying his life's patchwork of scars and marks to her, perhaps a bit proudly. It was a lot to take in, so much so that she was distracted enough not to see the hand moving toward her face. The moment Khal's fingers made contact with the skin of the witch's cheek she flinched back, her own hand catching his wrist as quickly as a viper's bite.

Even with the blood oath and knowing he could do her no harm, old habits died hard it seemed.

Loxa watched him keenly for several moments before releasing his hand back to him, <<When This One was a slave, the Witches take on hunt for strange beast ... This One was bait,>> taking the container from the table, Loxa moved to the sink to rinse the rest of the water down, <<This One was not fast enough.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

"Well, it can heal some things." Like consciousness. That was a big one that could be fixed by it. Right about now? With his skin on fire and him exhausted... oh, yeah, some alcohol sounded perfect actually.

Maybe once they were done here he'd dip his nose into the rum he was saving.

This seemed like a special occasion.

"I don't know about not fast enough... you are alive after all, no?" That was more important. Scars... well, they wouldn't heal, but they certainly reminded you of things you SHOULDN'T do again. "Hm, I am confused however. You said you hunted with your sisters previously. But you were their slave before? How does that work?"

He was mostly amused by her quick snatch of his hand.

It was fair.

Why did Khal want to cup her jaw so badly? It was creepy, really.