Private Rust & Hunger

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

The underworks beneath the refinery districts were quieter than people imagined. The roar of factories and freight lanes became something duller and heavier, filtered through layers of concrete, pipework, and rusted infrastructure. Steam hissed from fractured vents overhead while distant machinery throbbed somewhere behind the walls like the heartbeat of the district itself.

Two men moved through the corridor below, voices low beneath the hum of machinery.

"They're gettin' nervous."

"Good. Means we're hurtin' the right people."

Several meters above them, Ace crouched motionless along a rusted maintenance beam running beneath the ceiling framework. The shadows swallowed most of him entirely. His dark eyes tracked the pair calmly.

For the last three days he'd been following the crew responsible for siphoning Vergeworks shipments. Not through trackers or surveillance systems. Through routine, observation, and pressure. The same instincts Sector 9G had burned into him long before he ever touched the Force.

People relaxed when they thought they were hidden, and that was usually when they made mistakes. The men below turned down another corridor branching deeper beneath the factory belts, boots splashing lightly through runoff leaking from old pipework. Ace moved silently overhead with them, crossing between support beams and narrow service ledges with practiced ease.

Ahead, the pair slowed near a rusted security gate marked with faded shipping insignias and one of them produced a code cylinder. Ace's gaze narrowed slightly. The gate groaned halfway open before the two slipped inside. From his position overhead, Ace caught a clearer glimpse beyond the entrance than they probably realized.

Portable floodlights. Stacked crates. Eight bodies minimum. And sitting near the center of the room were one of the missing medical containers already partially unloaded. Another nearby had been stripped open entirely, ration packs separated into smaller distributions.

Not for resale, but redistribution. Ace remained still above the corridor while voices drifted upward through the opening below.

"…move the next batch before daylight shift."

"…heard Moonbound's sniffin' around now."

"So? Lotta people say his name lately."

A dry breath escaped quietly through Ace's nose. The gate began sliding shut, but before it fully sealed, Ace dropped soundlessly from the overhead beam. His boots touched the floor without a sound. Then his gloved hand caught the edge of the gate just before it slammed shut completely and metal groaned sharply.

Inside, conversation died instantly. Several heads snapped toward the entrance and the two men from earlier visibly stiffened when they recognized who was standing there beneath the harsh industrial lighting.

Ace's gaze moved slowly across the room. They were armed, but nervous. One of them instinctively reached for his blaster before stopping halfway.

"…shit."

Ace stepped fully into the room as the gate sealed shut behind him with a heavy metallic clang.

"Yeah." He said evenly, almost bored.

His lightsaber flared to life.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

The underworks were familiar in the same way that the undercity of Coruscant or Denon was. The planet was different, and the noise from the refinery that filtered down may have been an addition to adjust to, but for the most part, the people were the same, they moved in the same way, with eyes downcast but watchful, scattering like rats when people who held the power moved through. Which made it easy to blend in.

The job was a simple info grab, identify the crew, find out where they were sending the shipments and bring her contact details so he could steal customers…and crew, if they were willing.

If not?

Well, that wasn’t her problem.

She’d been watching for two days, tracking who came and went, following them to understand their patterns and get a better idea of what she was dealing with. Cargo and went. She had no idea where it was going yet but she’d gotten a pretty good idea of where it was coming from. They were not the most careful with their conversation, but why would they be? The refinery wasn’t noisy but it provided a blanket of comfort that made them think they couldn’t be heard.

She popped the last of the ration bar in her mouth, chewing slowly as the last two members of the crew arrived right on schedule. Lily shifted in the ceiling framework, preparing to get closer to listen when movement a few meters below her made her freeze. A shock of white dreadlocks caught in artificial light that siphoned in briefly from above her, before they vanished into shadow again.

Was that..? No way. Not all the way out here. The galaxy was small but might not have been that small. Right?

Lily shook it off and watched as he dropped to the floor catching the gate before it could close shut, even from up here, Lily could hear the silence. She sighed, tucking the wrapper into her pocket and pushing herself from the ledge, her feet landing soundlessly on the maintenance beam before pushing off again taking in the site beyond the gates as she dropped before the air folded around her and she teleported, landing beyond the reach of the floodlights within, behind the bodies now turned to face…

Stars, it was him.

Snap-hiss.

…Shit.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

The room stayed still after the ignition of Ace's lightsaber. Nobody wanted to be the first person to move. Ace stepped further inside while the gate sealed shut behind him, blue light dragging across stacked containers and rusted flooring as his eyes moved over the room again.

Then the Force shifted and Ace's eyes narrowed faintly as his awareness brushed against another presence somewhere deeper in the room beyond the floodlights. Force-sensitive and familiar. The realization sharpened something in his posture almost immediately.

His blade angled slightly now, attention splitting between the workers in front of him and the darkness behind them. The room noticed it too. Nervous glances started shifting around without understanding why.

One of the men swallowed hard. "Look, man… we ain't tryin' to start problems..."

"Little late for that." Ace interrupted evenly.

His eyes stayed fixed beyond the group now and for a brief second, neither side moved. Then recognition clicked, not from sight initially, but from memory. Coruscant. After the siege.

Ace's expression hardened slightly. Of course.

A dry breath escaped through his nose. "Didn't take you for the shipment theft type." He said flatly into the darkness beyond the workers.

Several heads immediately turned in confusion toward where Ace was looking.

"What?" one of them muttered.

Ace ignored him. His gaze stayed locked toward the shadows past the edge of the floodlights now, unreadable beneath the pale industrial lighting.

"Either step forward." He said calmly. "Or stop hovering behind people that'll die first if this goes bad."

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Acier's focus shifted to her, recognition hardening his expression. He'd been all hard edges when they'd last met, but there had been something softer beneath it all, something that had cared enough to help her. She didn't see any of it now and she wasn't about to aggravate the situation by delving in to see if that softness was there, he'd been very clear about her staying out of his head.

Her eyes flicked to the container between them all and then to each of the crew, skimming across their minds as she did. She needed to find that information before this went sideways, the last thing she needed was Acier getting between her and her payday. She'd had enough bad luck where that was concerned of late.

"Either step forward." He said calmly. "Or stop hovering behind people that'll die first if this goes bad."

Lily's eyes snapped back to him, her own narrowing just a fraction. She didn't hide behind anyone. The suggestion that she did, that she had anything to do with this? Well, that just irritated her. She teleported, appearing in front of him and the crew jumped, one of them yet out a yell of surprise another swore loudly.

"Where the fuck did she come from?!"

Lily ignored them for the moment, the soft hum of the lightsaber filling the space between them.

"Acier." she greeted her head tilting slightly as she studied him. "Aren't you a little far from your jurisdiction? Or is the Covenant bored of the Core already?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't react when Lily suddenly appeared between him and the others. The blue glow of his lightsaber simply washed across her now instead of the workers behind her while several of them cursed in surprise at the sudden teleportation.

His eyes stayed fixed on her. Lily. For a brief second, disappointment settled quietly behind his expression before the usual restraint buried it again. Coruscant flashed through his mind, exhausted and injured, risking everything by dragging a frightened Force-sensitive stranger through the aftermath because he knew exactly what would've happened if the Covenant found her first.

He'd given her a chance to disappear. To do something worthwhile with it. And now she was standing between him and a stolen shipment operation beneath Bonadan. Of course.

"Lily." He returned evenly, dark eyes locked onto hers.

Her question earned her a dry, humorless scoff quietly through his nose.

"I've got more jurisdiction here than you."

He didn't elaborate further. Didn't mention that he'd grown up a few sectors from here. That he knew these corridors better than most people knew their own apartments. That every crate, pipe, and rusted maintenance tunnel in places like this still felt more familiar to him than the gleaming towers of Coruscant ever had.

Movement flickered suddenly at the edge of his vision. One of the workers had started edging toward a side exit during the distraction. Ace's free hand jerked sideways instantly and the Force hit like a collision.

The man slammed violently against the nearby wall hard enough to rattle loose dust from the metal framework before an invisible pressure pinned him there several feet off the ground. A sharp grunt escaped him as Ace's fingers curled tighter. Nobody else moved after that.

Ace's attention returned fully to Lily. "What are you doing here?" The authority in his voice flattened the room immediately. "Don't tell me you're with them."

His hand tightened slightly again and the suspended worker let out another strained sound against the wall. Then Ace's eyes narrowed faintly.

"Don't tell me you're stealing from me." The threat beneath the words stayed dry and controlled.


Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Was that…disappointment? It was a flicker, buried before she could really get a read on it. Was he disappointed it was her? Or that she was here? Feth, why did she even care? Because he’d saved her life? The memory resurfaced unbidden, her legs tucked against her chest as he set his hand over hers and the force flowed through the both of them rebuilding what the phobis had stripped away from her.

She squashed it, her jaw tightening. Before any quip could find its way to her lips movement pulled at their attention. Ace reacted before she could, the man’s body slamming into the wall with crushing familiarity. Lily swallowed, her gaze sliding back to meet Ace’s.

Lily tried not to listen to the panicked thoughts racing through the man’s head, her composure fraying slightly at the edges. How was it so easy for him? For any of them? They didn’t hear their thoughts or catch glimpses of the loved ones they thought about when death was imminent.

Or maybe they did and they just didn’t care.

“I’ve been watching these idiots for the last two days, gathering intel on them and the shipments they’re moving. I’m not interested in the shipment, just where it’s going, so you can stop flexing like I don’t know what you’re capable of.”

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace held her gaze for another second after she finished speaking. The tension in the room had shifted again, rearranged into something less straightforward than before. Lily wasn't aligned with the crew, that much he believed now. Opportunists chasing information made a lot more sense than her suddenly attaching herself to some half-organized redistribution ring beneath the Vergeworks.

Ace exhaled quietly through his nose. "Alright."

The word came after a long enough silence that several people in the room visibly loosened before immediately tensing again when his attention shifted away from Lily, and toward the man pinned against the wall.

Ace's hand lowered slightly and the invisible pressure eased just enough for the worker to breathe properly again, though not enough to free him. The man sucked in air sharply, coughing once against the metal behind him.

"Talk."

The authority in Ace's voice flattened the room again instantly. The worker looked between Ace, the lightsaber, and the others in the room before swallowing hard.

"We... we ain't the ones organizing it."

Ace's expression didn't move. "Obviously."

"Nobody knows his name." The man said quickly. "Just a contact. Sends routes through dead drops and burners. Pays good if shipments make it through distribution."

"Distribution to where?"

The worker hesitated. Ace's fingers curled slightly and the metal framework behind the man groaned loudly enough to make several others flinch.

"Alright! Alright!" The worker blurted. "Lower sectors mostly. Some factory blocks. Places the corps stopped caring about years ago."

Ace's eyes narrowed faintly. It made sense. One of the women near the crates finally found enough courage to speak up.

"We weren't sellin' it."

Ace glanced toward her.

"Most people still can't afford half the shipments comin' through these sectors." She added defensively. "Medicine gets marked up three times before it even reaches us."

Another voice spoke up from deeper in the room. "People still get left behind, man."

Silence settled briefly after that. None of them were entirely wrong. The Vergeworks was more stable now than it had been in years. Safer too. Fewer crews disappearing into gang wars, fewer sectors burning over territory disputes, cargo actually reaching districts consistently instead of vanishing into black markets every other night. But stability didn't magically make people rich.

Ace's gaze drifted across the ration crates again. This wasn't random theft anymore. Somebody was building support networks underneath his system using stolen shipments and desperation to do it

Ace finally deactivated the lightsaber. "Next contact. When."

The worker still pinned against the wall swallowed again.

"…Tomorrow."

Ace's eyes lifted slowly back toward Lily at that.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily stepped aside as Acier's attention shift, arms folding across her chest as she turned to face the rest of the crew her light brown eyes rolling over each of them in turn as his sharp authority cut across them. Every question, every response made them shrink just a little more as none of them could quite meet his gaze. This wasn't just fear that came from his display of violence, this was deep seated that came with reputation. So who was Acier to them?

And if this was his shipment, was was he to her client? Rival or potential ally? She hoped for the latter, the last thing she needed was to be on the wrong side of him. She felt his eyes slide back to her slowly and she exhaled a sigh meeting his gaze.

"I've tailed them on a contact drop before, its clean. Only way you'll catch that thread is if you're knowing what you're looking for and get there before hand to see it placed." she paused thoughtful for a moment "And I'm willing to bet if they catch sight of you they'll abort, but..." she trailed off looking at the workman pinned against the wall.

"If I have a location and a time, I can get to ahead of the drop, I can find them." Her eyes moved back to Acier "That is if you want my help. And if you do, I have conditions."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace said nothing immediately after Lily finished speaking. His eyes stayed on her for a moment, distant in the way they always seemed to get when he was thinking several moves ahead of everyone else in the room. Around them, the workers remained tense and quiet while the man pinned against the wall struggled carefully against the invisible pressure still holding him there.

Lily was right. That was the irritating part. If this contact network was as careful as she described, then the second they caught wind of him directly investigating the drops, the entire operation would vanish underground before he got close enough to identify who was organizing it. Dead drops, burners, intermediaries. Whoever built this system understood operational distance well enough to stay insulated.

And Ace was no longer anonymous in the Vergeworks. That thought settled unpleasantly in the back of his mind. His gaze drifted briefly toward the floor before returning to Lily again. Expression unreadable still.

Then, without looking toward him, Ace released his grip on the worker. The man dropped hard onto the floor with a choking gasp, immediately scrambling backward across the metal ground while rubbing at his throat. Several others rushed toward him cautiously, helping pull him away from the wall.

Ace ignored all of it. His posture remained still, though there was something restrained in it now. Not reluctance exactly, more like someone forcing themselves to accept a solution they didn't particularly like.

A long silence passed. Then Ace clicked his tongue softly against the inside of his cheek.

"What." The word left him flatly.

What are your conditions.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

double post, my bad lol

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily itched to know what what going on in his head, her fingers tapped lightly on her arm, somewhere for the wnegy to go, something to distract her from the urge to reach out, to rummage where she was not wanted.

The silence was too long, but she stayed still waiting. If he said no? Fine, she'd go anyway and the information would be hers alone but if he said yes?

The workman dropped pulling Lily's eyes briefly from him, her posture relaxing a little more now he was free.

"What."

Her eyes snapped back, and she turned fully to face him, searching his face for anything beyond the flat reluctance.

"We get them? I get to keep a copy of the intel and walk free, no questions asked. And that," he eyes moved pointedly to the unlit saber in his hand, "only comes out as a last resort, not as an entry piece."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace's eyes flicked briefly toward the hilt in his hand when Lily pointed at it. Then back to her. For a second, he looked like he might say something dismissive. Dry. Sharp. But the response never fully formed. Because irritatingly enough, she wasn't entirely wrong there either.

The lightsaber disappeared back onto his belt with a quiet metallic click.

"You done lecturing me?" The words left him flatly, though the edge behind them lacked any real heat.

Around them, the room slowly started breathing again now that the blade was gone. Not relaxed, but no longer expecting instant violence. His gaze drifted back toward the workers briefly before settling again on the man sitting beneath the wall rubbing at his throat.

"Tomorrow." Ace repeated calmly. "Where."

The worker swallowed hard before answering. "Old turbine station near the eastern coolant canals. Drop happens before shift-change."

Ace knew the area. Half-collapsed industrial sector, minimal traffic, too many sightlines and exits. Good place for dead drops if you wanted multiple escape vectors.

Which meant Lily was probably right again. If he walked in personally, whoever was orchestrating this would vanish before contact ever happened.

One of the workers hesitated before speaking carefully. "You gonna kill him?"

Ace's eyes shifted toward the speaker.

"The guy runnin' this."

Silence settled briefly. Interesting question, because the answer depended entirely on what Ace found tomorrow. If he was doing what Ace thought he was doing? Then maybe. But he didn't inform anyone in the room. Why would he? His lack of an answer quieted the room again, not from fear but unease.

Ace's attention shifted back toward Lily. "One copy." He said. "Nothing leaves Bonadan connected to this network without me seeing it first."

He then flicked his head toward the exit, then moved toward it.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"You done lecturing me?"

Lily shrugged, "Maybe," she fought back a smile, her gaze slipping away to the workers as the tension eased form their shoulders, the threat of being carved up by a lightsaber less imminent, before drifting back to him, a flciker of mischief in her eyes befoe she added, "Depends on if you're done being an ass."

She moved away as Ace questioned the workman again, a little softer than before but the calm still held a dangerous edge. She settled against a crate watching the exchange.

The unease returned when he didn't answer the question. Lily said nothing, what happened to the person running the operation wasn't her business, if they were dead by the time the intel was in her client's hands, she'd still done her job.

Acier's counter to her conditions was less of a negotiation and more of a demand. She didn't argue, one copy was enough.

"Fine." The word was light as she pushed off the crate, following him toward the exit. The heavy security gates slid shut behind them and Lily felt the tension crack behind it, listening to the sudden chatter of thoughts.

Holy shit, that was Moonbound?!

Who was the girl? ​

This whole operation is a bust...​

I need to get my family out of here...

Someone should warn him Moonbound is coming...
​

Lily exhaled a sigh and pulled her attention back to Acier, shifting he pace to fall in step next to him.

"Well, you certainly know how to make a scene. Dramatic entrance, threatening aura, that lovely stoic expression that comes so naturally to you that leaves everyone guessing..." she counted each item off on her fingers.

"And those floodlights? Its like the stage was set for you."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace let out a quiet sigh through his nose the moment Lily finished talking, the sound carrying just enough exhausted disbelief to make it clear he found none of this nearly as amusing as she did.

The corridor stretched ahead beneath dim industrial lighting and exposed pipework while the low thrum of refinery machinery vibrated faintly through the floor beneath their boots. Somewhere overhead, a freight engine roared loud enough to rattle the metal framework around them.

He kept walking, though his eyes shifted toward her briefly. Last time he'd seen Lily, she'd been tense, nervous, and careful. Now though? Now she leaned into things. She was more confident. Easier in her own skin. Interesting. It had only been a few months. Something must've happened in that time.

Still, one thing clearly hadn't changed.

"You still like to talk, don't you." The comment came dryly, a mixture of observation and insult.

Around them, the underworks slowly widened into one of Vergeworks' lower transit arteries crowded with workers, loader droids, and suspended cargo rails grinding overhead. Most people moved around Ace instinctively without quite realizing they were doing it.

Silence settled again for several steps. Then Ace glanced sideways at her.

"You had a chance after Coruscant." He said evenly. "To be whatever."

A loader platform drifted past nearby, briefly washing the corridor in rotating industrial light before disappearing deeper into the sector.

Ace's expression barely shifted. "So why are you really here?"

Not Bonadan, or this job. That wasn't what he meant and they both knew it. Why this life? Why orbit syndicates, smugglers, information brokers, and people dangerous enough to ruin everyone around them eventually?

Ahead, the corridor opened toward the lower market lanes, steam rolling through flickering neon while crowded salvage stalls buzzed beneath refinery supports.

Ace slowed slightly near the entrance without fully stopping, waiting to hear her answer.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Part of ily had hoped that Coruscant had just been a bad day, that his sour mood was directly linked to the destruction around them, but apparently, Acier was just as stoney no matter what day. Lily rolled her eyes at his flat reply.

“Yeah, and you’re still miserable so at least we’re both consistent.”

She let the silence fall, watching the way people parted for him, n one of them looked at him, its like they felt him coming and survival instinct kicked. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight, people who held power often had an aura about them that people naturally gave a wide berth, but it was not something she expected from Ace.

Lily’s eyes met his as his question landed and the confident bratty facade cracked slightly before she looked away, her jaw tightening. “Because I have a job to do.” Her eyes tracked movement around them without really seeing it.

That wasn’t the answer he was looking for and she knew it, her gaze slid back to him as they slowed. “Because I don’t know how to be anything else. And because no matter where I go, I run into someone like you. Call it fate, or the force or whatever you want. No matter how far I run, it always chases me, so…”

She shrugged.

“Why fight it?”

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace ignored the miserable comment entirely. His expression didn't shift and neither did his pace as they moved through the crowded lower market lanes beneath the refinery districts. But Lily's answer lingered longer than he expected it to.

"Why fight it?"

Ace's jaw tightened faintly. Then he answered, blunt and direct. "Because it's your life."

His eyes shifted toward her briefly through the moving crowds.

"You're your own master."

That was enough. He didn't need to launch into some speech about fate or the Force or people surrendering themselves to whatever current dragged hardest. The galaxy hit everyone eventually. War. Loss. Fear. Power. That wasn't the point.

The point was deciding whether those things owned you afterward. Ace figured Lily was smart enough to understand the rest without him spelling it out.

Ahead, the market lanes gradually narrowed again as the pair drifted away from the heavier foot traffic and toward the older industrial sectors closer to the eastern coolant canals. The lighting grew dimmer here, more fractured, entire sections of overhead fixtures dead or flickering inconsistently. Fewer people wandered this far in unless they lived here or had business to conduct.

Ace's gaze lifted briefly toward the distant rail systems overhead, mentally mapping routes already. Places someone running dead drops would use to watch before ever stepping into the open.

"We need a plan." Ace said finally. "For tomorrow. We should start with scouting out the drop location."

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

There was something in the bluntness of his reply that irritated her, like he had some grand expectation of her just because he hauled her off Coruscant. Like she hadn’t already climbed out of a dozen pits of her own accord before she met him. Lily was her own master, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the expectations people kept placing on her to be more.

No matter where she went, no matter who the force threw across her path, they were never content to just accept the person in front of them. There always had to be more. Stop running and settle; follow your heritage, become a Sith; accept your destiny; be a better person; be a worse person.

The only person who hadn’t demanded anything of her, was Vess.

She exhaled a breath out of her nose.

“Whatever expectations you have of me, I guarantee I’m going to fall short of them. So save yourself the disappointment, Acier. You can judge me for that when your hands aren’t covered in blood.”

Her attention moved pointedly away from him, to their surrounding as the lane narrowed and the space around them darkened, her gaze moved from flickering lights to the shadows beyond them.

“We find a quiet place to wait that keeps us both out of sight, and I start listening. The traffic here isn’t too bad, I can filter through people fast enough.” Her eyes moved upwards scanning the fixtures above “Probably want to be somewhere we can drop on them if you want to keep the element of surprise.”

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace's jaw tightened. Not because Lily disagreed with him, but because she'd completely missed what he'd meant. There was no grand expectation. No vision of what she was supposed to become. No disappointment that she wasn't living up to some imaginary standard he'd created for her.

He'd dragged her off Coruscant because he thought she deserved the chance to choose for herself. That was the entire point. He hoped she'd make better choices, otherwise what had been the point of getting her off Coruscant at all?.

A quiet scoff escaped him following her last comment, and for a brief moment, irritation flickered through the Force around him before being forced back under control.

"Blood or not, I'm still making my own choices. Talking like the galaxy keeps dragging you places. Nobody's holding the leash except you."

Ace left it there. Maybe she got what he meant. Maybe she didn't. Either way, he wasn't interested in arguing philosophy all night.

Fortunately, Lily moved the conversation somewhere useful. His attention settled on her as she outlined the plan, watching her scan the surrounding structures while she spoke. Listening.

When she finished, he nodded once. "Yeah. It's practical." His gaze followed hers briefly toward the overhead framework. "Uses what we're good at."

For a few seconds, only the distant noise of the market filled the space between them. Then Ace glanced away.

"We've still got until tomorrow." The words came almost as an afterthought. "You can stay at my safehouse for the night. Or don't. I don't care."

His eyes drifted back toward the crowds moving through the market. Lily hadn't given him any reason not to trust her, but trust and certainty weren't the same thing. Ace had spent too long around Sith, criminals, spies, and liars to confuse the two.

So, it was better to keep an eye on her. Or try.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily rolled her eyes, but dropped the subject. Control over her own fate was an illusion, at this point she was just doing her best to outrun it. Sooner or later it was going to catch up with her. But how did you explain that to someone who had no idea what it was like to stare a Sith ghost in the face and hear it call you its heir? It was impossible, not without telling him who she was, not without revealing herself.

As much as he had helped her, she was under no illusions of what Acier was. She hadn't forgotten that sensation that had flowed through him, the split second where the thought of killing her had come just as easy as breathing.

She looked away, stuffing her hands into her pockets, pushing the memory aside. he wasn't the first to consider it, and he wouldn't be the last, by now, she should be used to it.

Her gaze snapped up when he spoke about the safe house, and all the miserable thoughts she had faded. The prospect of spending a night in close quarters with him brought her absolutely zero sense of joy, however, it did present her with the opportunity to understand the broody sith a little more. It was amazing what you could learn in a night.

The corner of her mouth turned up, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "You know, most guys offer dinner, hell at the very least a drink before they invite a woman back..."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace exhaled slowly through his nose. The joke bounced off him completely.

"Enough." He said flatly. "Come or don't."

He didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he turned and started walking. The streets grew quieter the farther they moved from the more populated sections of the district. Industrial noise never truly disappeared in the Vergeworks, but it dulled into a distant mechanical hum.

Eventually Ace stopped outside a narrow residential block wedged between a machine shop and a repair garage. Nothing about it stood out, which was exactly why he liked it.

A few minutes later the door slid open. The safehouse wasn't much to look at, but it was clean. Small living space. Small kitchenette. One bedroom. One refresher.

The furniture looked secondhand but well maintained. A worn couch sat against one wall beside a low table covered in dismantled datapads and spare components. Several ship parts occupied shelves where decorations probably should have been. Power couplings. Navigation modules. A stripped astromech photoreceptor mounted on a stand for no reason other than Ace thought it looked interesting.

Near the desk sat a crate full of tools organized with almost obsessive precision. The only real color in the apartment came from a collection of old star charts pinned to the wall beside a hand-drawn route map covered in notes and corrections.

It wasn't luxurious or poor. It looked exactly like somewhere a mechanic, slicer, and former street kid would willingly choose to live.

Ace stepped inside first and the coat came off immediately before being tossed onto the couch. Without a word he crossed to the kitchenette, filled a glass with Scarif Slush from a chilled dispenser, and took a long drink before setting it down.

Only then did he sit at the desk. His datapad lit the room with a pale blue glow as he began searching local records and archived construction data. Floor plans, maintenance tunnels, emergency exits, security stations, potential vantage points. Everything he could find on tomorrow's location.

The silence stretched for a minute before Ace finally spoke again without looking up.

"If you tell anyone about this, I'll have to kill you."

The words were delivered with the same dry seriousness he used when discussing weather forecasts. Lily would probably recognize he wasn't actually being serious.

Lily Rhodes​