Private Rattlesnake

[Arris Windrun]

CORUSCANT
UNDERWORLD
Acier Moonbound
​

Arris picked idly at her noodle dish. Some fusion of a hundred different food cultures that, over time, coalesced into an "authentic" bit of Coruscanti cuisine. But she knew the ingredients. The same shit served at every street food stall like the one she parked her ass at. Though everyone acted like it was a cornerstone of the community - a business that had been there for nearly a hundred years, allegedly tracing its lineage to an even older establishment before the plague.

"So it's true then," an amused voice picked up behind her, but she didn't acknowledge it at first. "I mean, I heard you were back... fought in some big tournament a couple years back?"

She finally glanced over her shoulder. He was oddly familiar, but she couldn't exactly place him. "Huh? You want an autograph or something?" Another fan, she figured, though it had honestly been a while, and she was no longer enjoying her fame.

He smiled and laughed. A beanpole of a thing with a scratchy-looking goatee and spiked hair that was at least a few fashions dull. "Oh, wow. This is even weirder than I thought. I mean, I heard you went blonde, but this, man? You really went off the deep end, didn't you?" His arms went wide in a gesture that framed her whole being.

Then, it hit her. She did know who this guy was, just...

A DECADE AGO...

"C'mon. I'll pay you back, I promise!" The lanky teen insisted.

A dark-haired woman smoked her cigarette at the corner of a convenience store. Grey eyes over a bed of faded freckles looked at the boy. "Naw, fuck off. You still haven't paid me back for the last time." She drawled.

PRESENT

...He was just a kid then, but she remembered him. Yeah. She remembered a lot now.

"Sorry, I don't know you," she deflected.

"Really?" His voice strained in disbelief - or was it disappointment? "I mean, I'd know that face anywhere," there was poison in those words, "but she wasn't made of steel, and she sure as hell wasn't a fighter, and I'm pretty sure she--"

Arris stepped off her stool and had him dangling by the collar faster than he could finish that thought. She grimaced and glared; he looked down at her with six degrees of fear. Bystanders paused to process the commotion, while the stall attendant looked about ready to close up shop just in case.

Her voice went low, with texture not unlike a growl. "Yeah, I know you. And if you think you know who the fuck I am, then you know what I've been up to all these years. Don't think for a second that I won't waste you."

Flailing hands tried desperately to pry her metal fingers off his collar, which tightened uncomfortably around his throat. "Pleaase..." His plea was a pathetic, raspy thing, but then something switched in his brain. He was still a ganger after all, brainwashed the same way she had been. He consolidated that fear into a faux and bitter apathy. "I work for him now. He'll come after you if you kill me!" Shit posturing if she said so, but it's exactly what she would've said.

Her eyes shifted. A little wide with surprise, but not quite shocked, even though her heart picked up like the peak of a club beat. She let him go, and he nearly buckled at the knees, wheezing and coughing as he caught his breath. She reached into her pocket to draw a cigarette.

"What makes you think he's got that kind of pull?" She asked quietly, anything to mask the rush of emotions.

He looked at her, a little confused, trying to regain his bearings, but his lips curled into a smug little smirk. "He's king of the board, man. It was always gonna be his show. And I'm not the only one who fell in line, either. You ran away, Arris, but the rest of us had to stay." There was no mistaking the resentment in his voice before he scrambled away.

Arris sighed and took a long, desperate drag. She hadn't even noticed Ace watching nearby. Until now.

"How long you've been there?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant - Underworld

Equipment:
Knight Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | The Wayward

"A while."

Ace's voice came from somewhere behind her shoulder, calm and annoyingly unbothered as usual. Hands buried in the pockets of his jacket, he stepped forward through the lingering tension left behind by the confrontation - but not enough to fully close the distance.

Coruscant traffic roared overhead in layered waves. The food stall while the owner pretended very hard not to look in either of their directions.

"I was meeting someone about something." Ace said simply.

Vague on purpose. But Arris was smart enough to fill gaps when she wanted to. The Vergeworks was stabilizing under his rule, but distance still slowed everything down. Cargo, information, smuggling routes. A direct route into the Core would turn Bonadan from a forgotten industrial sinkhole into something far more useful.

Ace had been trying to change that quietly.

His gaze drifted briefly toward the direction the ganger had disappeared before returning to her.

"Was there a point to that?" He asked flatly. "Guy recognized you, so you threaten him? I know you're a schutta, but I figured you'd mellowed out."

There wasn't much bite behind it. More observation than genuine criticism.

Truthfully, Ace had seen a different version of her before. Back in Coruscant's industrial sector. The Works. She was... less sharp, or more accurately, visibly less angry at the galaxy.

His eyes studied her for another moment before he finally asked the thing he'd actually been wondering since the conversation started.

"Who's 'him'?"

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
​

There was no mistaking her vulnerability now when she turned to face Ace properly. One thing about the cyborg's nature was that she never experienced nervous reactions on the surface - her arms, hands, fingers, whatever. It was all controlled by precise engineering. And yet, there it was, a slight vibration in the metal. Her connection to the Force wavered; her co-processor retreated as Arris Windrun, the real Arris Windrun, fully surfaced.

'Was there a point to that?' He asked her, and she said nothing. Didn't even take another drag.

For a second, it seemed like she was gonna ignore his second question, too, but finally, after a drag that took the cigarette down to the root (and then some), she exhaled sharply and answered. "I need to go home, Ace." Okay, maybe it wasn't the answer he was looking for.

The cyborg threw credits to the stallman and turned to leave, then she stopped, but didn't face Ace.

"Actually," she began softly, "I could really use your help on this."

Arris didn't wait for an answer before she left him with one last line.

"Up to you - meet me at the spaceport in an hour. We're going to the Corellian System."

Yeah. She was about to do the dumbest thing ever and enter Republic space.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant - Underworld

Equipment:
Knight Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | The Wayward

Ace had seen Arris vulnerable before. Rarely, and never for long, but enough to recognize the signs beneath the armor plating and cigarette smoke. Usually she buried it beneath sarcasm, violence, or that detached mechanical calm she wore like another layer of durasteel.

Right now? It was all over her. Not dramatic or emotional, but noticeable enough. The slight tremor in the metal and the wavering presence in the Force may as well have been screaming. Which meant this was big.

When she finally answered him, it wasn't even really an answer.

His expression didn't shift much at all. "Okay then." He replied simply.

Ace watched her throw credits onto the stall counter before turning to leave. Honestly, he was already preparing to head in the opposite direction himself. He had enough problems without voluntarily involving himself in whatever unresolved nightmare from Arris's past had suddenly reared its ugly head.

Then she stopped. Asking him for help.

That made him pause. Why him? Why not Mercy? Or Kirie? Hell, why not Nilira? But before he could ask, she was already moving again.

Ace remained standing there for another moment. Eventually he exhaled quietly through his nose and started walking. Fifteen minutes passed like that, aimless movement through crowded lower-level streets while his thoughts worked faster than his footsteps.

He didn't want to get involved. Ace already had enough on his plate. The Vergeworks. Covenant politics. Mercy. Arris herself. The route project between Bonadan and Coruscant. His own increasingly fractured sense of direction.

But... This was also opportunity. Arris trusted almost nobody emotionally, he'd figured out months ago. If she was voluntarily asking him into something personal, then either she was more destabilized than he'd realized... or she trusted him more than she'd admit out loud. Maybe both.

Trust had value. Especially here. Ace's thoughts shifted then, colder and more strategic as he moved through the neon haze of Coruscant's lower sectors.

If he gained enough leverage with Arris... enough genuine loyalty... maybe he could eventually turn her against Mercy entirely. Remove her and things changed. The pair of them could truly reshape it like they'd wanted. Or maybe that was becoming another one of the lies he kept telling himself lately.

Either way, by the time the thought finished settling in his head, Ace had already made his decision.

---

The spaceport was crowded by the time he arrived. Ace stood near one of the outer docking platforms, posture loose and expression unreadable.

He arrived before Arris did. And when he finally saw her approaching through the noise and movement, he watched her in silence while the distance closed between them.

Then, once she was close enough, Ace finally spoke.

"Don't make this a thing."

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
​

'Don't make this a thing.'

"Oh, shut up," she teased a little. Shelter from the storm that raged inside.

Their journey was uneventful - it was surprisingly easy for them to enter the system without as much a peep from patrolling CorSec ships. Then again, they were in a rustbucket freighter that ran transponder masking like no one else's business. The Covenant had a lot of ships like that for reasons just like this one.

Smuggler's Paradise, the dirty gem at the edge of the Core, Corellia was right there. Everyone had heard of it, of course, and Arris wasn't about to be Ace's tour guide if he hadn't. However, it was worth noting that while many people associated the planet with its reputation for producing great ships and better spacers, Corellia had a much darker side to it: the presence of powerful syndicates that in some (albeit subtler) ways rivaled the Hutts.

But it wasn't Corellia where the freighter's nose ultimately faced. Further across the system, two smaller planets danced in close proximity: The Twin Worlds, Talus and Tralus. It was former that Arris approached, her home...

She was awfully quiet then, moving on from her simple remarks and meaningless conversation as she stared forward, out the viewport. If Ace thought her vulnerability was bad enough on Coruscant, then he hadn't seen nothing yet.

The freighter landed at the Qaestar spaceport, the heart of the lush world's largest and busiest urban center. In contrast to the beautiful grassy seaside, rolling hills, and running rivers they saw on the way in, Qaestar was ugly, polluted, and waaaay overcrowded. More so when Arris walked them to a part of the city that made the word "slums" feel generous. There was a swoop gang on every corner, a racket happening every few steps, and the worst part? Most of 'em were just teenagers. Sure, there were plenty of adults - the shady thugs and taskmasters, but they generally kept out of sight.

Finally, Windrun approached a square brick building that looked to have once been a few stories tall. Only the stone walls were scorched black, cracked and broken, with all the windows long shattered.

Arris just stood there and stared.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Talus

Equipment:
Knight Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | The Wayward

Ace spent most of the journey doing everything except talking. At various points he sat with his lightsaber partially disassembled across the dash, making minor adjustments that didn't actually need making. Other times he quietly handled Vergeworks business through encrypted holocalls and messages, approving shipments, and settling disputes.​

​

The most surprising part of the trip was how little resistance they encountered. No Republic inspections or CorSec inquiries, just a rustbucket freighter slipping through Republic space unnoticed.​

​

It wasn't until they crossed into the Corellian System that his attention finally drifted away from his work. Through the viewport, Corellia hung against the darkness and Ace studied it quietly, recalling the times he'd been there.​

​

The first time he'd met Kinley Pryse . The second time he'd crossed blades with Eira Dyn . For a few moments, he simply watched the planet drift beneath them before his gaze shifted higher. Past Corellia. Talus and Tralus. That was where Arris had been taking them from the beginning.​

​

When they finally descended toward Talus, Ace found himself studying the world carefully. It wasn't what he'd expected, the planet was beautiful. Or at least parts of it were, then gradually that beauty gave way to something else. Industry. Crowded districts. Pollution.​

​

Talus was different from Bonadan. His home planet was simply endless factories, scrap, and machinery. The Vergeworks consumed the horizon no matter where you stood. Talus was like someone had taken something beautiful and slowly carved pieces out of it.​

​

What didn't surprise him were the gangs. Or the kids. The moment they entered the poorer districts, Ace recognized the patterns instantly. Teenagers on corners, lookouts pretending not to be. Rackets operating in plain sight. Adults lingering somewhere behind the scenes while children carried most of the visible risk.​

​

Different planet. Same story.​

​

Eventually Arris led them toward what appeared to be the remains of a building. The structure looked like it had once been several stories tall. Now it stood gutted and blackened. Fire damage scarred the walls. Windows sat shattered and empty. Time had done little to heal whatever happened here.​

​

Arris stopped, so Ace did too. At first he studied the building, but then his attention shifted toward her. She looked... stunned? For a moment Ace said nothing, eyes moving between the ruined structure and Arris before finally settling on her again.​

​

"What?"​

​

Whatever this place was, whatever had happened here, it was obviously important.​

​

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
​

Arris remembered.

Long ago, that building was the centerpiece of this community, home base of the Sneaky Shens - her gang.

Back then she didn't have a single prosthetic or implant. She was just a kid, a teen like any of the other ten they've seen around the last bend. The Shens primarily dealt in protection and smuggling. They made sure all the local businesses played by their rules, and that the smaller swoop outfits didn't get out of control. They worked closely with a larger syndicate, "paying up" they called it - "a little bit of what we have for a little bit of what you have" is how the boss once described it to her. Though the reality was much uglier.

"I was a runner," she finally said something, speaking as if he was in her thoughts with her. She carried data, items, news. Slipped in and out of security checkpoints that separated the slums from the rest of the city. "How I got my name, y'know." Arris looked at him. "Windrun," she snorted.

Yeah. Real original. But people like her didn't have families with names to carry forward. Their identities were glued to the streets and the outfits that took them in.

She looked back up at the building, amusement fading into something bittersweet, then hollow, until her posture faltered a little and she sighed quietly to herself. The last memory she had of this place...

"I ran away."

The boss, a man called Secondhand Ferris, was the textbook example of a mover and shaker in the underworld. See, the Syndicates worked in a simple way: There were the families, some hereditary, others ceremonious, they were old, traditional, and operated somewhere in a grey area between crime and legitimacy. Then there were the gangs - fluid, volatile, community institutions that had neither the luxury nor the pretense of being anything other than scum in the eyes of the upper class.

The pecking order was obvious. But Ferris, oh, he had ideas of his own. Chairman of the Board, the ruling body that kept the Syndicates in check. Referees in their deadly games; kingmakers and power players.

Arris had been explaining this to Ace. "Ferris made a deal with the Family that ran Qaestar," she used the term 'deal' loosely. "A... A daughter of theirs, Rox," She looked down and smiled. Woulda been blushing too if her cheeks could. "She came to stay with us. Y'know... As a prisoner, but not really?" A hostage. "With her, the family couldn't touch us. Or... Or..."

She remembered hearing the fighting. Family foot soldiers and armed speeders. Then, she heard an explosion and saw the fire on the horizon, smoke coming from the base.

Arris fell to one knee in the dusty streets, her fingers running through the old debris. "I ran... I just ran and stowed on a ship for Corellia."

She looked up at him, eyes tired and scared. "I have no idea if she ever made it out. Every fucking day... Whenever I look at Nilira, or Kirie, or some other girl stuck in the Covenant, I just think about her..." Her jaw tightened. "We're here to die, Ace. We're an organization of death, and every single day I look at those girls and watch them chip away until..." She trailed off, eyes down again. "I want more for them; I can't abandon her again." That last part was a slip of words she hadn't caught.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Talus

Equipment:
Knight Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | The Wayward

Ace listened. He didn't interrupt, ask questions, challenge her conclusions, or pick apart the logic behind them. He simply stood beside her in the dusty street and listened while his eyes remained fixed on the ruined building.​

​

As Arris spoke, pieces started falling into place. A kid slipping through checkpoints, carrying messages, data, contraband, and moving faster than everyone else around her? It explained the name entirely.​

​

His attention remained on the blackened structure as she continued. Ferris. The gangs. The families. The ecosystem that had governed Talus long before Arris ever left it.​

​

Then she mentioned Rox and his eyes shifted away from the building and toward Arris. The name wasn't new. At first she'd only been a face in an old holo hidden away amongst the clutter of Arris's Nar Shaddaa hideout. Then she'd become a name during their conversation back on Coruscant. Even then, Arris had admitted she'd ran when things got bad.​

​

But not this. Not the whole story, the guilt, and the years she'd spent carrying it. As Arris spoke about Rox, Ace found himself thinking about someone else.​

​

Hina. The thought arrived uninvited. Bonadan, the orphanage, the scrapyards. The years before the Force, before Sith and Jedi and wars and prophecies. Before everything.​

​

Hina had been there through all of it. Then one day she wasn't, left for Zeltros and never looked back. Ace hadn't understood it at the time, didn't possess the words that he'd loved her. Hadn't even known what love was supposed to feel like. But Fatine had changed that.​

​

And looking back now... Hina was probably the first person he'd ever loved. Not romantically or consciously. Completely. The way children sometimes love people before they understand they're doing it.​

​

He'd never seen her again.​

​

His gaze drifted back toward Arris. Suddenly it all made sense. Nilira and Kirie. They weren't Rox, but they also were. Years of guilt and regret projected onto new faces. A chance to save someone she hadn't saved before.​

​

Then Arris brought up the Covenant. An "organization of death" she called it. His eyes lowered toward the broken pavement and another memory surfaced.​

​

Aether standing across from him on a rooftop. Talking about their father and about intentions, power, and all the ways good intentions slowly became something else.​

​

When Arris finally finished speaking, silence settled between them. Ace didn't answer immediately, he just looked at her and for the first time he realized what he was actually seeing. Just Arris. Not the myth, the cyborg, Mercy's attack dog, the Triumvir.​

​

He saw the hurt teenager that had never really left this street, that never stopped running. He saw the woman that carried every mistake she'd ever made like dead weight chained to her back.​

​

For a brief moment, Ace saw something painfully familiar staring back at him. Something that looked a lot like himself. Or maybe who he was before all this.​

​

A quiet sigh escaped him and when he finally spoke, there was no judgment in his voice.​

​

"Then get them out, Arris."​

​

His eyes drifted back toward the ruined building.​

​

"I don't want anyone I care about within a parsec of this place. And you're just... continuing to allow them to be here. Contributing to their suffering and the guilt you already feel..."​

​

The words hung there for a moment, then Ace looked away entirely. The walls went back up and the softness disappeared, exhaustion taking its place.​

​

"...It's all just pointless."​

​

Arris Windrun ​