Private The Walker

[Talin Treicolt]

The absolute pile of bantha poodoo.

A recurrent thought since Morrow had left her high and dry on Nar Shaddaa. Having given him a good chunk of credits to slip down to that sabacc game, she had to try and make some more. Her first attempt has been to try to rig a sakresh game at the very den Morrow had been in. She asked around about him, learning about the Imperial attack - it had broken her concentration, getting her sleight of hand caught, and a shiner for consequence. Desperation and panic grew in the hours after. Finally, the bounty board had started to look real good, and there was a nice easy target for pickin’; clearly, she never learned. She had managed to catch the guy, but not before spraining her ankle and wading through a pool of sewer sludge in the chase.

The payoff had been meager enough to get Talin back to Coruscant. The X-wing waited where she left it, and their belongings sat safely in the Enclave. She collected the essentials - jacket, credits, bedroll. Instinctually, a hand kept reaching for the dog tag that was missing from around her neck. Despite the dreams, it felt weird without it.

Its departure hadn’t stopped those anyways - but they transformed, no longer pointing to distant stars, but rather rolling back to the same scene time and time again. She was certain now she knew the figure. It didn’t make a lot of sense. He had seemed baffled by her saber - and she didn’t think even a sith could put up an act that well. Shaking her head, Talin sat down on the edge of her bunk, bug bag beside her. The cloak Morrow had left back on Nar Shaddaa was still wadded up and tossed aside messily. It seemed a fat chance she’d find him, but she had to try. Maybe she’d luck out and get payback and answers.

And so she did. Only a few minutes of messin’ with the tattered cloth and a psychometric flash of some apartment building or another came swimming’ to the surface. A dingy corellian flag lay strewn across the floor. A direction, at least. Once she had arrived there, it was harder to follow him. Credits were exchanged for info, his holo was either powered off or unhackable, and every damn building looked the same. It took an entire week, but finally, she had pegged the spot.

The place was dark - an entire neighborhood shutdown by lack of power. Perhaps it just wasn’t worth the cost to repair. Its only inhabitants were rodents, by the look of the rats brave enough to scurry by her feet. Moonlight from the open door highlighted their silvery forms.

Karkin’ slime ball, shurdo….

Talin thought, shivering as another of the pests ran by. Of course, he’d pick somewhere like this. He wasn’t any better than them, by the looks of it. Squeezin’ her eyes tight, she gathered her courage, then let out a slow, controlled breath. A hand went to her holster, and she inched forward beyond the landing, into the hall. Dozens of doors lined it end to end - it was a big place, and three stories high. Yet, she had a feeling, looking at the third door on the left. One step, then another - silent, ‘till broken glass crunched under foot.

“Chit.”

She flew toward the door before he could run, throwing the thing open, then ducked toward the wall to avoid any bolts from the spook.

“I ain’t gonna hurt ya.” She called out from the hall. “But we damn sure are gonna talk.”

Morrow

 

[Morrow]

A notion of danger panged Morrow's senses, coaxing the hairs on his neck to attention. Behind his eyes played a premonition of broken glass, an open door, and a glimmer of blonde. He drew his blaster, whirling to face the door just in time to see it open. Immediately, he fired several shots from the hip through the open doorway, missing and barely catching a look at the figure that ducked behind the wall. No questions, no demands. Shooting first had often been his manner; this time was no different. A few more bolts screamed from the muzzle of his weapon, intentionally scraping the edge of the doorway to send sparks flying around the interloper's cover; a wordless display of reprisal.

“I ain’t gonna hurt ya. But we damn sure are gonna talk.”

It took Morrow no time to recognize the voice, easily identifiable by its drawl. "You," he spat with a hint of scorn. After ditching her on Nar Shaddaa, Morrow thought he was rid of her, especially after destroying their only line of communication. Now, just like COMPNOR and their unwillingness to climb down out of his ass, she, too, had tracked him halfway across civilized space. Likely leading them here, if they weren't already. Though, unlike the Imperials, she shouldn't have had any tangible motivation for pursuing him. Unless the bookies' love of credits had given her the not-so-bright idea to capitalize on the price they'd put out for him?

Typical.

"You're the one who should be worried about getting hurt," he retorted with an arrogantly confident tone. "If you've come to collect, then you might really be as dense as you sound." Blue eyes peered down the sights of his blaster as it raised from his hip, trained on the vacant space of the doorway; her only option to advance. "If you think the credits are worth your life, draw that blade of yours."

 

[Talin Treicolt]

“Well maybe I should.” She spat back in the darkness, blaster clenched to chest. “They could teach ya some manners. Stealin’, and leavin’ a lady high and dry back there?! I coulda been killed! Sold into the black suns brothels!”

She huffed indignantly, then withdrew her saber from her belt. Both it and her blaster were slid through the doorway, landing in the middle of the room - a peace offering. The blonde felt naked without ‘em, but she had to earn a bit of trust.

“Whatever, though, man. I took a beatin’ goin’ after ya and went through hell to get back to Coruscant. But from the looks of things, yer worse off than me.”

Talin nudged one of the dead swarm with her boot for emphasis, not that he could see it.

“Look, I got somethin’ important to ask ya about. I’m gonna come in. Please don’t shoot me.”

That would suck. Rising from her crouch, she peeled away from the door frame and entered through the threshold. Her arms were raised, showing empty palms. The orangey leather jacket held off the draft that came in through busted windows. Denim and boots accompanied it, similarly to their first meeting. Her hat had been displaced in the ruckus, so she had chose to wear her hair in a half braided style. That was about as far as she could go to look pretty and help her cause.

She looked around at the place. It was still a ruin, but it had been mostly cleared of garbage. A bed roll lay against a wall in the enclosed kitchen. A couple of crates were turned over for stools. Then she met Morrow’s gaze.

“You can hold on to my stuff until I leave, if it makes ya feel better.”

 

[Morrow]

“Well maybe I should. They could teach ya some manners. Stealin’, and leavin’ a lady high and dry back there?! I coulda been killed! Sold into the black suns brothels!”

"I don't care," Morrow replied coldly. "We aren't friends; it's your fault for thinking I owe you anything."

Even with Talin's weapons in the middle of the floor, Morrow didn't lower his. A sweeping kick sent both the hilt and blaster clattering across the dirty floor to settle alongside overturned crates.

“But from the looks of things, yer worse off than me.”

"Save your pity."

“Look, I got somethin’ important to ask ya about. I’m gonna come in. Please don’t shoot me.”

Morrow's weapon remained trained on the doorway. Once Talin appeared, he was immediately considering whether or not to shoot her anyway. He didn't trust that she was unarmed; sending her weapons through the doorway could have been a ruse. No words or pity for her black eye, nor the slight notion of a limp upon her approach. Itching with anticipation, his trigger finger squirmed. "That's close enough!" he ordered with five paces between them. If she even so much as blinked the wrong way, she was dead.

“You can hold on to my stuff until I leave, if it makes ya feel better.”

"Spit it out already," he snapped, disregarding her offer.

 

[Talin Treicolt]

A flash passed before her eyes; temper flared, approaching the boy and demanding civility, and a belly full of plasma as consequence. She was pinned to his barrel. A heavy sigh relayed her dissatisfaction. Then, she started thinkin’ about how to phrase what she had been thinkin’ since their flight from Denon; still hadn’t figured out how to not sound like a lunatic.

“I have these dreams sometimes… a lotta force users do.” She explained, still giving him the benefit of the doubt. “Things from the past. Future. Things that might never happen. And lately, I keep having this one… since a couple weeks before Denon.”

It played out before her again, a waking movie.

“Some place I should recognize. You’re there. The skies rainin’ fire. You want me to follow you, and I can’t say no. And at the end, you have a…”

Her eyes moved from the frenzy of recollection to his hip.

“A red saber.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And so do I.”

No saber at the belt. He hadn’t been expecting her; surely, it wouldn’t be hidden if it was in his possession. She refocused on his face, gaging a reaction.

“Don’t you lie to me. I’ll know.” An inhale broke the line as she summoned the guts to ask the question that had led her halfway ‘round the galaxy. “Are you a sith?”

 

[Morrow]

A hint of perplexity telegraphed itself in his regard from behind the blaster's sight. Had she really come all this way to talk about some recurring vision she was convinced he was a part of? Let alone bring up 'the Force' as if he were reciprocal in being some hokey, religious crank? Suspicion brought back the restlessness in his trigger finger; this had to be a trick.

Gradually, though, his mind drifted to his dreams, especially once she mentioned the past and future. Morrow was reminded of his recurring nightmare: He was someone else, in a distant time, filled with hate and ambition. On a world he doesn't recognize, he deceives would-be allies into a ritual that would destroy their enemies. Instead, it devastates that world and kills them all, ally and enemy alike; no one survives but him. Their agonized screams echo in his head, like their souls had been trapped in eternal torment. An immense sense of accomplishment and gratification washes over him. Yet, when he wakes up, those feelings are replaced with horror. Even for Morrow, as cruel and bitter as he is, it was all too much.

Suddenly, he wasn't so sure that this was a ruse anymore. But why would he be in her dreams? If she was telling the truth, that is. She was certainly nowhere to be seen in his.

“Don’t you lie to me. I’ll know.” An inhale broke the line as she summoned the guts to ask the question that had led her halfway ‘round the galaxy. “Are you a sith?”

Perplexity once again found its way across his face. Everything he knew about Sith, which was very little, came from the same historical holodramas that likewise told him all he knew about the Jedi. More mythical, religious stuff he assumed was played up and exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. Then again, he never believed a lightsaber could swat away blasterfire until he'd seen Talin do it with his own eyes.

"You weren't so good at knowing on Nar Shaddaa." Morrow was a very good liar. Slowly, he lowered his blaster to the side, but didn't dare put it away. He was confident he was a quick enough shot that he could snap a few off from the hip if she tried anything. She likely knew it too, she'd seen it. "You came all this way just to ask such a dumb question?" It was happening right in front of him, and it still sounded hard to believe. "If I were, what makes you think I'd tell you the truth? Then what? You're supposed to be some kind of Jedi? Come here to destroy me?"

 

[Talin Treicolt]

“I… yes. No?” Talin wavered.

The question invoked memory of Capris Halcyon . She hadn’t asked questions when the two accepted a bounty together, and only the padawan had only realized after the alluring aura about the woman was the dark side at work. Then Capris saved her life. They both parted their seperate ways unscathed. After all, Talin had slipped when she took her first life; was she a hypocrite if she had claimed moral superiority?

With the gun lowered, Talin grabbed at her face in stress, fingertips pulling at the edges of her eye. He was posing questions she had spent a week chewing on without answers. She hadn’t asked questions - simply been compelled to act.

“I don’t know.” The blonde admitted. “But I want the damn dreams to stop. I haven’t slept right in about a week.”

Then the empathic blast hit her like a wrecking ball. Recollections of Morrow - of a battle not his own - flashed before her eyes for a split second. With it, a wave of anger. Disgust. Confusion. There were more inviting emotions beneath the surface, beckoning a deeper dive. Talin gasped, snapping back to the makeshift quarters.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

 

[Morrow]

"You don't know? How do you not know?!" Morrow's rising volume made it clear he was losing what little patience he'd conjured in not shooting Talin immediately.

That inexplicable feeling he normally got when deception was afoot was absent. His focus had been solely on anticipating any wrong move to elicit a pull of the trigger. Maybe she truly didn't know. Perhaps this was really about a weird dream, rather than some ancient, religious blood feud. Even in the absence of sensing a motive, Morrow hesitated to let his guard down; that feeling wasn't always unerring. Even if she was telling the truth, skepticism lingered toward what those dreams were really about.

"This doesn't make any sense. I don't know you, and you especially don't know me. Whatever you're seeing at night, it's not me."

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Morrow scoffed, pointing his blaster in a brief, accusatory gesture. "You really are dumb. Shouldn't you know a Sith when you see one?" She had a Jedi's dreams, but not a Jedi's sense? There was no way to get a read on her; too many mixed signals, too many contradictions. Once again, he wondered if this was a trick. His gut wouldn't tell him anything; it was beyond frustrating.

Begrudingly, he spelled it out for her: "I'm nothing, not a Sith, not a... 'Force User,' or whatever you said earlier. I don't know anything about that chit, okay?" Using his weapon like a pointer again, he indicated the door. "There's your answer. You can get out now."

 

[Talin Treicolt]

“I ain’t done.” Talin snapped, annoyed by the assumptions he was making. She began backing away, arms up, only to find one of the crates and settle upon the surface. A bug rushed away from the noise, promptly smashed under heel. “It ain’t all that easy, you know.”

Mama had been one for the history books, ensuring they wouldn’t repeat themselves again.

“Sith can hide themselves. They’re maaaasters at deceivin’. Even invaded the senate a few times ‘round.”

Talin allowed herself to lean back, slowly, hands firmly planted on the corners of her seat. Her eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down. He did seem irritated more than anything; and though the blaster in his hand was deadly, he lacked the pure menace of the Sith she had encountered.

“I believe you, though.” She decided. “Even if you are real lucky with that blaster.”

Blue eyes widened with a strike of inspiration.

“Well, if you ain’t a sith, then, we can work together! We both got the same problem need takin’ care of.”

 

[Morrow]

Talin's refusal to leave, or rather, her insistence on staying, was bringing Morrow to the edge of a conniption. "You're starting to make me regret not blasting you."

She was even more persistent now than she'd been on the flight to Nar Shaddaa. What was it going to take to get rid of her? For all Morrow knew, she was leading COMPNOR right to them. It wasn't too late to shoot her. He was still weighing the risks. Corellia wasn't as disorderly Denon or Nar Shaddaa. That's exactly why he'd come here, hoping it'd be too much effort and too risky to track him down. The bold attack on Rimmer's Rest proved that two targets in one place made it worthwhile for them to venture some risk. Unless they had it out for Damien Dooku badly enough alone to commit mass murder in the hopes of killing him. Either way, having her here was going to kill him; he could feel it.

“I believe you, though. Even if you are real lucky with that blaster.”

Morrow's eyes narrowed; he knew what she was implying. "I've been shooting since I was a kid. Don't try to mix me up in this mystical nerf dung."

“Well, if you ain’t a sith, then, we can work together! We both got the same problem need takin’ care of.”

"No, no," Morrow spat impatiently. "That's why you have to leave. Just when they lost my trail, you come, probably leading them straight to me. You should kriff off before they show up and kill us both."

 

[Talin Treicolt]

Eyebrow ‘bout rose to meet hairline. Despite the threat, her form remained relaxed still, shaded in cockiness only youth knew. Talin’s legs crossed at the ankle, defiant.

“Look, man. I don’t reckon you know what you’re in for. I saw the bounty. It’s sponsored by someone with connections to COMPNOR.”

It had taken hours to back track that identity through the holonet - but Talin was thankful she found it. Without the protection of their Iron Sun, the group was privy to the same cyber threats as the rest of them.

“Dunno if you know what that means, but I sure do. Grew up on an old Empire world. They were the guys sent when there was something dirty needed to be kept quiet. The unspeakable. They didn’t die out with their emper- hold on, lemme get something outta my pocket.”

She was itching after the journey. Very delicately, fingers straight as a knife, she reached into her jacket’s breast pocket and withdrew a pack of smokes and lighter. She promptly lit one, took a drag, and exhaled before continuing.

“Anyways, point is they’re dangerous. And when ya been marked by them, they make it their business to sniff ya out. For crying out loud, their leader attacked my home just a couple years back, to settle some two decade old grudge with my parents.”

Talin’s voice became devoted as she explained. She had to make him see reason. This did need to be dealt with; it would be far easier if she had another body - and Jon might be game, but she wouldn’t subject Su to a place where she might be harmed again. Her sister didn’t even have what it too to do the job, anyways.

“If we can hit their command, though, cells wouldn’t be able to organize. Put ‘em in chaos and we have a better chance of being forgotten. Right now, you ain’t safe here. You ain’t safe alone. You ain’t safe until we take care of it. It’ll only be a matter of time before they catch up with ya.”

 

[Morrow]

"You don't need to tell me about old Imperial worlds." Dantooine had been a core Imperial world not so long ago. Morrow was well aware of COMPNOR; he just hadn't realized how scattered their influence was across the galaxy. He wouldn't elaborate exactly what he meant, though the implication was clear.

"I didn't ask for your life's story. And quit smoking in here, you nerf herder! It stinks!"

“If we can hit their command, though, cells wouldn’t be able to organize. Put ‘em in chaos and we have a better chance of being forgotten. Right now, you ain’t safe here. You ain’t safe alone. You ain’t safe until we take care of it. It’ll only be a matter of time before they catch up with ya.”

Morrow stared, amazed that she'd even suggest such a thing. "You're insane. We barely made it out alive last time, and that was with help." And from at least two real Jedi, not less. "Besides, I figured out how they tracked me down and took care of it. If they find me, it'll be because of you."

 

[Talin Treicolt]

Talin’s eyes narrowed at the insinuation. He really believed himself.

“Sure, man. But whaddabout the next time you’re lookin’ to get off world? They don’t care if you’re a public target, obviously. You really wanna live in this chithole forever?”

With a sigh, she snuffed the life from the cigarette, grinding its but into the ground.

“It won’t be like Denon, neither. They took us by surprise. I’m not half bad comin’ in prepared - and we do it quiet. We got the advantage this time ‘round.”

 

[Morrow]

Speaking of chitholes: Denon, Nar Shadda, and who knows where else they'd embedded themselves. "All we'd accomplish is pissing them off even more. They're everywhere. Others will come after us from elsewhere. The two of us in one place couldn't hope to make a difference. "

Morrow glowered at the cigarette stamped into his floor. It was like this schutta thought she owned the damn place. His expression tightened into a scowl, displeasure palpable.

"Why are you so insistent? We barely know each other. You have a death wish or something?"

Two porgs, one stone, was one hell of a deal as far as kill lists were concerned.

 

[Talin Treicolt]

“Don’t gotta know each other to fight together.”

It’d sure be easier, but her time in the underworld had presented opportunistic pairings that proved it could be done.

“We could tag the building - make ‘em think it was another gang from the drop. Me and my sister weren’t the only one with stakes.”

The place was legendary amongst Denon’s locals.

“Give ‘em a bigger enemy than us.”

 

[Morrow]

If nothing else, Talin seemed confident in her plan. Morrow, on the other hand, was hesitant to put even a shred of faith in it. That said, he was starting to conclude that he may not have any other choice. Any hope he had for laying low had been killed along with her arrival. They were bound to look here now.

"I'm gonna have to sell this place." It was a chithole, but it was cheap. Those bets on Denon and the sabacc games on Nar Shaddaa had accumulated into a decent sum—more than he'd ever had in his life. Now he'd be lucky to get a fraction of what he'd paid for it, and he couldn't help but blame Talin somewhat. Morrow was hardly avaricious, but the setback made him regret letting her live even further. Even worse, now it felt like he needed her, at least for now.

"If we do this," he reproachfully pointed the gun again, "you better not try to screw me over."

 

[Talin Treicolt]

"I'm gonna have to sell this place."

Sell? Talin looked around the room again at the dank walls and foggy windows. The placed mighta been karked, but it was a hefty piece of real estate. Had he earned all that through their ring and Nar Shaddaa? Seemed his luck never ended.

"If we do this,"

A roguish smile bloomed on Talin’s face as she realized she was convincing him. One hand rose, in surrender, the other forming a three fingered gesture.

“I’m honest as they come, when you’re not a patron.”

She rose slowly, then began to pull blonde tresses back into a high bun.

“Plus, I’m relyin’ on you, too. Those guys screwed me over way worse than you did. Gotta pay ‘em back for Denon - and I don’t wanna die while I do it.”