Private Resourceful Refugee

[Hekate]

Hekate was scrapping, she was scrapping. Fighting with a boy, pushing and shoving for a peace of technology. Hekate didn't know what it was, but she knew it was valuable. It must be right? Why else would he be fighting so hard for it? She had tried to just grab it and run, but the boy was a scrapper as well, he had grabbed her then grabbed the piece of technology. Hekate needed the scrap, she could sell it and buy a meal, she hadn't eaten all day, she'd missed the soup and bread line. If she didn't get this piece of scrap she didn't know when her next meal would be. She'd once went she thinks three days without a meal. It was hard to tell time in the undercity. The hunger pains were horrible.

Why wouldn't he just-

"Let go!" A Force Blast filled with red energy blasted the boy off his feet and knocked him back into another tent in the camp. Hekate stared in shock, froze, ready to bolt before the camp security came and took her away. Hekate didn't want to go to prison, she wouldn't be captured ever again. She hadn't meant to! She just wanted to eat something!

Hekate made ready to run, when the boy got back up. Relief washed over her. He was fine, which meant she would be fine. Then the boy held up his arm. It was hanging off at the elbow. Hekate's eyes widened, the boy screamed. She rushed toward him and Touched his Mind. Sending him to sleep. Hekate gently laid her hands on the boys arm and started muttering an incantation, praying that it would work.

"Askelpios, Panakeia, Iaso, Hygeia" Hekate incantated repeating it quickly and rapidly as red energy spread from her hands. The boys arm started knitting itself back together as she chanted. Hekate felt relief but maintained her focus. If the boy had been awake he would have been screaming and writhing in pain.

Hekate slumped back exhausted, but she didn't have time. People were gathering around her muttering and whispering. A few were saying Jedi. Hekate was no Jedi and had no wish to be one. She needed to get out of there. She ran. She ran as she always ran. She ran until she ran out of breath. It was only when she stopped to catch her breath she realised she forgotten the piece of technology. Whatever it was.

Hekate broke down into tears, sobbing.

Arbiter

 

[Arbiter]

//: Hekate //:
//: Refugee Camp //:
//: Attire //:
​

---

If a droid could sigh… Arbiter did. Or the closest imitation of it. The meeting with Quinn Varanin was… ridiculous. But productive. In its own way. Now at a refugee camp, to return to the ship empty-handed felt wasteful. Recruitment was work, and work had to be done. There were always opportunities in misery.

The camp stretched out. Rows of tents leaned against one another. Some were patched with whatever cloth could be found. Fires guttered in scavenged barrels. Children scurried barefoot through mud. Chasing one another between cooking lines. Old men sat in silence, some of the women whispered prayers into cupped hands. Relief, sadness, and anger mingled in the air.

Emotions. None of them interested Arbiter.

A refugee staggered too close. Slamming into Arbiter’s obsidian colored chassis. The man sneered. His hand shot out, grabbing the edge of Arbiter’s cloak. “I’ll take ya in” he muttered. drunk or stupid enough to believe it. ”Sell you for parts!”

Arbiter’s yellow glowing optics shifted down to him with a detached hum. Its metal hand closed lazily around the man’s wrist. Pausing. Arbiter’s attention shifted past the man. Across the muddy square, a girl wrestled with a boy over a piece of scrap metal.

Ah. There it was. Desperation. That’s what Arbiter was looking for. Except this one… the droid’s hand effortlessly applied pressure. Bones splintered and crunched. The man shrieked and fell back. Clutching the ruined hand. Arbiter released him without so much as a glance. Its full attention on the girl.

"Let go!"

Arbiter watched as the girl’s voice cracked with hunger and fury. Followed by a burst of Force energy that hurled into the boy. Arbiter tilted its head. There it was. Not just desperation.

Potential.

By the time it closed the distance, the girl was kneeling over the boy. Hands glowing with crimson light, before taking off once more. Arbiter crouched over the unconscious boy that she left behind. The wound was gone. ‘Better than before.’ Arbiter processed. Optics shifted to the piece of scrap metal they were fighting over. Forgotten. Standing back up, it did not take long to catch up to the mysterious girl.

Collapsed into the shadows, sobbing. Arbiter approached slowly, until it loomed above her. With the creak of servos, it lowered down to her level. Machine-bright yellow optics shifted to an almost gentle light blue. Locking on to her tear-streaked face. A voice rasped from its vocabulator with a hollow almost human cadence. "Are you alright? Tell me... what troubles you?" From its cloak, Arbiter extended its hand. "Would you keep a lonely droid company?" Opening to reveal an abundance of credits. Enough to buy clothes. Food. Freedom from camps like this. "Just to chat." Enough to make her believe the droid’s hand offered comfort, not chains.

Blue lights dimmed back to yellow. Calculating. Arbiter’s tone shifted with it, smoothing into almost tender. “For your time.” Simple and undeniable. Letting the promise linger in the air. “We can grab a bite to eat… and walk awhile.”

 

[Hekate]

Hekate jumped startled as the droid greeted her from no one. She froze got ready to bolt again. She was bone deep tired, weary and hungry to her stomach, but she'd run if she had to. A rush of panicked thoughts run through her mind.

Who was the droid? What did he want? Maybe she had stolen some of his parts and he wanted revenge? Maybe he was trying to trick her, capture and sell her into slavery? She'd heard of bounty hunter and assassin droids before.

Hekate listened to the droids seemingly harmless care and concern with narrow eyes and suspicion. People could be cruel, they could be liars. Hekate had seen enough of it both as a slave and on the run. She'd learned the hard way not to trust anyone too easily. Everyone wanted something whether it was her abilities, or just her beauty. Although Hekate had to admit she couldn't see a droid wanting her for the latter, not unless they meant to sell it. Hekate flashed back to dancing in a skimpy outfit a slave collar and chain around her neck, high on whatever they had given her to keep her compliant. They'd laugh, choke and shock her when they wanted to see the pretty lights with her dancing.

I won't go back to that place! I won't!

Hekate was about to attempt to brush off the droid when he opened his hand to reveal enough credit too… too she didn't know what but definitely enough for a meal, maybe even a place to stay. Hekate's eyes widened, her mouth opened, her face filled with greed and longing. She shut her mouth and glanced hesitantly, shyly up at the droid. The voice in her mind saying not to trust him was gone. She needed the money.

"Vhat do you vant me to do?" Hekate asked her thick accent coming through she scowled, cleared her throat. She'd been laughed at that she sounded like a vampire . Hekate had actually met a vampire Nel Warren and they sounded nothing like her.

"What do you want me to do?" Hekate asked enunciating clearly, only a slight lilt of an accent coming through.

She didn't know what this droids game was, but she was no longer the bright eyed, bushy tailed, fool she used to be. She would not be taken in again so easily. She'd die first. Still that many credits she couldn't just pass it up. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to snatch it and run. Or just to go meekly with the droid and do whatever it asked no matter how humiliating. Hekate flushed, her jaw got stubbornly clenched, she thrust her chin out and stared directly into the droids… eyes? Did droids have eyes? Hekate didn't know. How she wished she understood technology. Whatever. Hekate stared into his face plate with the two lights coming from it.

"No one gives away free credits just for a chat." Hekate stated persistently and stubbornly.

Arbiter

 

[Arbiter]

//: Hekate //:
//: Refugee Camp //:
//: Attire //:
​

---

Arbiter examined the girl closely. Studying how her expression changed when her eyes fixed on the credits in its palm. The girl’s hunger betrayed her. Yet, there it was. Courage. Ever so fragile and yet defiant. Staring straight into Arbiter’s optics. It found her… intriguing.

“You are correct. Nothing is free.” Arbiter’s optics flickered from yellow to violet. Tone cracking faintly with static. “But neither is running. Nor starving. Each has its cost. Which one are you willing to pay?”

The light shifted again. Pulsing to a stable green. It's tone mechanical, but carried a hint of optimism. “Just as I told you. Only to keep this lonely droid brief company. To chat.” A deliberate pause. “What you decide after that… that choice is yours. Tell me, what do you truly risk in a simple brief exchange of words?”

Arbiter rose to its full height, servos hissed faintly. Its cloak folded back over its chassis. The lights cooled once more to yellow. “You can keep the credits I’ve already offered.” Its hand remained extended. Patient and unmoving. Waiting for her to take what she needed. Arbiter didn’t like to waste time on persuasion. No coaxing. Just facts. Its head turned towards the direction of where it saw the girl fight for scrap. “Money can be earned. There is always work to be done… somewhere in this galaxy.” Sounding tired. Arbiter brought its optics back. Looking at the girl in the eyes.

“What is your name? You may call me Arbiter.” slowly turning, Arbiter began to walk. Slow and deliberate steps back into the path it had come from. A pause. Its head rotated back over its shoulder, optics glowing. “Suspicion is good. It keeps you alive.” A few more steps, servos humming.

“Well then. Are you going to keep this lonely droid waiting?” Arbiter did the closest thing a droid could do to smiling. Optics narrowing with a flicker calm blue of amusement. “If not, perhaps you’d be so kind as to point me toward the camp’s exit?”

 

[Hekate]

Hekate's shoulders slumped a little. The droid was right she was tired, hungry and sick of running and not eating and not having a place to sleep. Hekate held back tears.

It wasn't as bad as slavery. She reminded herself. but it almost was.

Hekate snorted. It was a very undignified sound but she had learned it from some street kids, who had bizarrely referred to themselves as street rats or riff raff. They had taught her much about surviving on her own in exchange she entertained them with pretty light shows of her abilities. Particularly the little ones.

"I could lose my life and my freedom" Hekate answered sullenly, yet stubbornly. "A man with horns told me he was a manager and could make me a star for just a few moments of my time. He was not interested in anything I was willing to give. He asked a cost I was unwilling to pay."

"That one I did not heal after." Hekate's eyes flashed red, the energy swirling within her at the memory.

Hekate felt her being studied, no that wasn't right, what was the word ana… analyzed. Yes that was it droids didn't study they analyzed, based on their promamaging? No programming. Hekate wasn't quite sure what the limits of their programming was. This one seemed almost possessed, multiple voices coming out of it's… speakers? Hekate sighed in frustration she disliked not knowing about technology immensely. She wished someone would explain it to her.

A droid would be perfect! She realised with a thrill. Who better to explain technology than technology itself!

Hekate started considering this new giver of unexpected charity with cautious interest instead of suspicion.

"Hekate. Everyone calls me Kate" Hekate responded shyly. She rarely gave out her name.

Hekate felt a thrill of fear as she realised the droid was leaving.

"Wait!" Hekate panicked. "I'll come and chat yes? But you must chat with me as well. Tell me of technology."

Hekate's yes were full of fragile hope.

"Come there is a stand we're we can buy food."

Hekate lead the droid to a kebab stand and got her favourite. It was expensive she could usually only afford one every so often but now she had credits!

"Fourteen credits" The Twi'lek demanded suspiciously. Hekate had forgotten she'd stolen from this stand before. She blushed and held out the money. Waited for the food to arrive.

"What does a droid do with that much credits? Downgrades?" Hekate asked proud she could use the term she'd over heard for improving a droid. When the food was ready Hekate dived in with relish.

Arbiter