The Hands of Fate

[Lief]

The Undercity​

Coruscant​

​

Why did it always come back to this?

Once again the stench of the Undercity graced her senses, and it was all she could do not to scrunch up her nose in disgust. Most only saw the glistening surface, where the Senate and the Jedi Temple had once stood. Had they ever been rebuilt? Were they once again in use? Jyn had not checked out those plazas. She was not here to see the tourist trap, no...

Her footsteps took her through the winding alleyways filled with smog and grime, the deeper she got the worse the slums became. Last time she had attempted this, it had led to the flames. It had brought Ar'ekk to her. Now she was alone, and far more in control of her actions, of her emotions.

She could see it in the distance now, the little burned out hovel she had once hidden within. The One Sith had been terrifying, their grip on this world unflinching... But their soldiers had been nothing compared to the juggernaut who had sought her out.

Darth Vornskr.

Even thinking about him made her shiver, and her skin began to turn ashen. A short exhale of breath, to calm her mind, ended that before it took root. She would not succumb to the flames, not here. Not now.

Her approach was quiet, just the gentle pitter-patter of footsteps, and before she knew it she stood before the blockaded door. What was she hoping to accomplish by coming here? Were more shadows of the past really going to help her? Was it worth it? Likely not. Yet there remained so many questions... So many uncertainties.

She began to push away some of the debris, hefting with as much strength as she could muster. The Force would have come in handy, but she wasn't one to utilize it so unnecessarily. She may have been on better terms with it than she had been in her youth, but that didn't mean it could replace every day actions.

 

[Myltan Digger]

Hygiene almost seemed illegal, in the Undercity. A pestilent lack of cleanliness that was spread everywhere. Even the place Myltan always frequented for food. He was face down on a diner's table, on the edge of unconsciousness, after a night without any sleep. Least he was sober. Sober enough to notice the lack of taste in the grub he had ordered.

But that probably wasn't a good thing.

He heard the familiar chimes of the diner's door opening. Thinking nothing of it at first, it was just another repetitive sound. Though it quickly gained some semblance of meaning as the boy felt a hand on his shoulder. One that shook him in an attempt to wake him up. With him not being quite asleep yet he shot up immediately. His eyes locked to the person, squinting for a fraction of a second before his eyes widened.

He knew the man. Somebody he had borrowed money from a few months back. A man who had kept to pestering him after. Always reminding him of his debt, Myltan recalled that the last time he'd been asked for his money he was told next time would be the last time.

His nervous smile gave him away eventually, he didn't have the money. Not one lick of it, In fact, his last few credits had gone into today's dinner. The one he was indebted to first sighed calmly, giving the boy a glimmer of hope. One that was pretty much shattered as he watched the man reach for a knife.

It was a possibility Myltan had considered, he thought about what would likely happen when he next saw the man. Even tried to prepare for it, he knew he could never overpower him. He had tried to make amends. But seeing that cold, metal blade, held in the hand of his would-be murderer. Well, it brought a new reality to the situation. One he was not prepared for, fear overtook him, he didn't want to die.

A scream tore from him, his eyes closed tightly and the first thing he felt was his seat being knocked out from under him. And at the same time he heard the sound of glass breaking, people yelling, the hand of his assailant had left him. In the next second he fell to the ground and his eyes opened to see what had happened.

It was chaos. Tables, chairs, everything had been knocked over. All the windows of the diner had been broken. And he saw many people laying on the ground, some started to stand up, some remained laying down. He could see his assailant was one of the latter people.

And so was Myltan, he laid there, his eyes practically ready to jump out of his head, his mouth gaped open. As he struggled to figure out what exactly had happened.

 

[Lief]

An opening had begun to form in the blockade, almost enough for her to squeeze through if she really tried, when the very foundations of the alleyway seemed to shake, the building in front of her kicking loose a few bricks, and raining dust down toward her. She winced, physically recoiling away from the structure, as a few loose screams rained through the air.

Usually she would not follow such a sound, she was no Guardian after all, but something felt different when compared to the usual sounds of violence which graced the Undercity. The way the ground had trembled... Unless a bomb had just exploded, which from the sights and smell of things she doubted it had, then there was something else entirely at work here.

Hurrying through the street, she saw a couple of people stumbling from a diner, and against all better judgement she pushed the door open and stepped into the establishment. Tables, chairs, bodies, strewn everywhere. Flimsiplast menus clung to the floors, glasses had been shattered leaving splinters against the ground. She frowned for a moment, before following the signs back to its epicenter.

In the center of what seemed to be a circle of destruction, a boy lay. She stepped over a chair and made her way toward him, eyes scanning the rest of the room. Several unmoving bodies lay there... She caught the eye of a woman who was about to flee. "Go find help" she said, "There should be a Patrol due at the next block."

Reaching out toward the boy, she offered him a hand. "What happened here?" she asked, sensing that he was just as surprised and in shock as the rest of them. It would probably make sense to get him out of here, the Force was at work here and many would react violently to such an untrained 'attack'. She let out a small sigh... Their people did not need more cause for persecution.

"Can you stand? Come..."

[member="Myltan Digger"]

 

[Myltan Digger]

The boy remained dull for the next few minutes after his outburst. His mind constantly hashed out blanks as he tried to make some sense of what had happened. His thoughts all reached a dead end and before he could even continue the speculation he saw a hand.

Just at the corner of his vision at first. Until his gaze drifted upwards in correction, witnessing the woman. Her words came to him clearly but he had no answers. He didn't know what had happened.

Eventually, he spoke, after he gripped the offered hand. "Yes. I can." It was an answer he did not back up by himself. As he only pulled himself up with the woman's help. His hand dropped away from hers immediately after, while his eyes drifted about the room as they had multiple times before. He kept himself from regressing back into questioning, forcing his gaze onto the woman. He reasoned that she must have known something at best, or was at least just looking to help. So he ended up simply asking.

"Where are we going?"

[member="Jyn Sol"]

 

[Lief]

For a moment she was uncertain if he had heard her at all, if he was going to take the offered hand. She knew that they were pressed for time, the woman could return with some of the patrollers any time now, and there was little she could do to help him after that point. There was too much Jyn had worked toward, to risk dying for some strangers cause.

Finally though he did speak, and he hefted himself up to his feet with her assistance. Good, that was good. Her gaze darted around the room, so many witnesses. It looked as though her trip down memory lane would have to wait.

He had dropped her hand the moment he was on his feet, but she didn't want to risk losing him so she took him lightly by the wrist and began to walk to the back of the room. Every diner had another entrance, and Jyn knew that this one led into a smaller alleyway with multiple exists.

"Don't worry about where we're going," she said, mostly because she had yet to make up her own mind. She picked up her pace once they stepped outside, her heart sank for all those inside who needed medical attention, but Jyn was no healer. If only Asha was here, but then again the girl only knew the basics to keep herself alive. No, she had done the right thing by sending someone to find a person of authority.

"We need to get out of here, I'm sorry if that means leaving anything or anyone behind. You can return when all of this blows over. Our kind have faced enough witch hunts to last a millennium."

[member="Myltan Digger"]

 

[Myltan Digger]

His independence from her was a short-lived thing. As he found his wrist in her grasp shortly, his eyes lowered in rapid blinks as a response. He didn't put up much of a struggle to being ushered along, even as his mind had healed enough that the thought occurred to him.

Outside he had to move his feet swifter to keep up with the woman, his head turned around, behind him while he listened to her dully. Trying his best to recall if there was anything he was missing. Something he needed to bring with him. But all of the thoughts just came to blanks. He knew he didn't quite care about anything in the Undercity. So his gaze drifted back to the woman, a brow raised.

Uncertain as to what she meant, he asked the natural question. "What do you mean, 'our kind'?"

[member="Jyn Sol"]

 

[Lief]

He provided little in the way of resistance, and that was good, the sooner they got away from the diner the better. After a few twists and turns, down various alleyways while avoiding the main streets, she slowed her pace and let out the smallest of sighs. Perhaps she was not supposed to return to the safe house of her youth, every time she attempted to something got in the way.

Or maybe it was simply that she needed to assist.

The Force worked in mysterious ways, and all of that. Words she refused to believe in until just a few years ago herself. Her struggle had been worth it in the end, but she knew that for many such was not the case. Loss of sanity, death, those were the very real possibilities which lay in store for individuals who pushed their luck as she had. She wouldn't wish it on anyone.

His question caught her off guard, before she remembered her first assessment of the situation: he was likely untrained, which meant he probably didn't know.

"Yes, our kind. Those who are sensitive to the Force. What happened back there, you caused. Not intentionally, I'm sure, but it still needs to be addressed, so that it doesn't happen again. Do you understand?"

[member="Myltan Digger"]