To The Heart

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The recent foray into Coruscant's underbelly had left Cedric sickened. For all the glory Coruscant supposedly espoused, her beauty was decrepit beneath the surface. It was akin to a slab of dirty obsidian plated in gold, pretty to look at, but utterly blackened within.

The Sons of Ession and other military groups scoured much of the undercity now in their attempts to instill law and order into the masses. The campaign was a slow and expensive one, and Cedric had little desire to see it drag on much longer.

A particular crime lord, a Rodian by the name of Kir-fek, seemed to be the kingpin behind much of the resistance posed by the crime families. If Kir-fek could be located and made to stand trial, perhaps the wars brewing beneath the planet's surface would come to a close.

Thus it was that Cedric had taken off alone to a small cantina just beneath the upper sectors. It was a dingy little place, the air choked with smoke, the denizens unruly at best. The Jedi Master sat alone in a corner of the tavern, his cowl drawn over his face.

This tracker that was planned to meet with him was supposedly of great repute. Time would tell whether or not her reputation matched her skills.

[member="Larisa Young"]

 

[Rosa]

Larisa was not at all happy to be back here, hell if the offer hadn’t been so good, she would have turned the job away. She tugged a little at the hood of her poncho, casting more shadow over her face, as she ducked through back alley’s and trusted quiet paths to the cantina’s entrance. A glance over her shoulder to check for a tail and she ducked inside.

It was rowdy as ever, the low light and noise made it perfect to pass unnoticed. She slipped through the crowd and slid onto the bench of an occupied booth, not looking at its occupant, keeping her eyes on the crowd for a moment longer before she relaxed slightly.

“Let’s make this quick, it won’t be long before someone realises I’m here.”

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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"Brevity is my bread and butter." It most certainly was not.

He leaned over the table slightly, his voice just low enough that the tracker might hear, but others would not. "There's a big di'kut running this section of the undercity by the name of Kir-fek. Ugly brown Rodean, one eye. Officials need him found." He would have produced a hologram were it not for their surroundings.

"Payment can be negotiated. The new regime wants him put on trial for his crimes. Man's up to some nasty business. Help them, and you've got the government's favor." He relayed, keen to maintain an air of detachment from the Imperium. Better to get a measure of her before he let his identity slip.

[member="Larisa Young"]

 

[Rosa]

Larisa snorted. “Government can keep its favour. I’m doing this for the credits nothing more. Government means very little to the likes of me and mine.” Kir’fek...she ran the name through her mind, recalling a one-eyed Rodian in her old masters home. “I think I’ve met him before, a long time ago. Different life. Makes things a little easier. If he’s a boss, that makes it even easier.”

She swept her gaze over the crowds once more, noting the recent arrival of two gamorreans. Larisa clicked her tongue in annoyance and looked back at the Jedi. “Any recent locations? Or just a name? I can work with both.” Another glance to the gamorreans, who were working their way slowly along the booths on the far wall.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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The empyrean shifted in the room.

It was a subtle thing; a minor twisting of the strands and little more. It could mean nothing, or it could mean everything. Cedric sat up a bit straighter, though his gaze never left the tracker. "Just credits is fine with me," he gave her a light shrug. "Not sure where he is right now. Last place he was seen in public was down near the works, a few klicks below the old Jedi Temple site."

His brow furrowed as he recalled the nuisance's rather public display. "He was calling his fellow marauders together in hopes of rallying them against the new ruler's forces. Government troops broke up the rally, arrested some of them, but Kir'fek got away. He's been laying low since, though his followers have been pretty loud. Lot of bombings, more than a few skirmishes with the authorities. Might be a good place to start."

[member="Larisa Young"]

 

[Rosa]

“Perfect. Lets go. Wait a moment after me before you leave.” Then she was gone. Larisa made sure there was a person between her and the gamorreans line of sight as she approached them, taking advantage of the bustle she slip in close, passing them within an inch and then towards the door as they turned their backs towards it.

Outside, she slipped into nearby ally across the street and watched the door for the Jedi to follow. She’d always known it wouldn’t take long before her arrival would be noted. She wondered which street urchin she’d passed that had recognised her.

Larisa would whistle as the Jedi appeared outside, beckoning him to follow her into the shadows.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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"Aye aye cap'n," he leaned back into the booth, making a show of checking the datapad bound to his wrist before slowly rising to his feet. Where Larisa relied on stealth, Cedric simply influenced the inebriated minds of those around him. To them, he appeared as another faceless urchin among the masses. There was no mind paid to the Jedi as he strode out of the cavern, eager to taste the (relatively) fresh air of the outside. He meandered for a few moments, playing the part of the drunken stooge until he heard the faint whistle.

Without a word, the cloaked man bent forward and hastily made his way into the alley. His manipulations done, Cedric centered himself in the Force once again, his voice low as he spoke. "I sensed something odd in there." He mused, "Old friends of yours?" A brow was lofted beneath the cowl.

Seemed everyone had unpleasant ties to this accursed place.

[member="Larisa Young"]

 

[Rosa]

“You could say that.” she replied, leading the way through the narrow alley, twisting them through a maze of back entrances, garbage cans and pipes oozing something foul smelling. “I grew up here. People who grow up here don’t generally get out. I did and earned myself a pretty little bounty.”

She paused as the path came to an abrupt end, with a high wall ahead of them. Larisa looked up and smiled before leaping upwards, bouncing from between the walls to the next till she reached the top and landed lightly on a flat roof. She couldn’t see the Works from here, the lower sectors didn’t grant such a forgiving view of Coruscant’s skies, but she knew the way well enough.

“This is my first time back in a few years. I’d like that bounty to stay unclaimed, hence the need for speed and well,” she gestured at the roof they were walking along. “Less walked paths.”

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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"That generally how it goes? Get out, and your old friends throw a bounty on your back for the 'betrayal'?" He asked, nose scrunching up in displeasure as he caught the scent of rotting garbage and other underworld niceties. If there was one thing that bothered the Jedi, it was particularly bad smells.

He glanced up at they came to a dead end. He looked to her, curious as to what she intended, and simply blinked as she bounced from wall to wall to the apex. A quiet sigh escaped Cedric's lips as he tried to eyeball the distance between himself and the roof of the building.

"Someone's feeling showy," he mumbled to himself as he drew the empyrean's energies into his limbs. With an exerted effort, he imitated her motions, pushing himself from wall to wall until he stumbled his way up to the roof.

"Been awhile since I did any urban exploration," he snickered, drawing back his cowl to let the cool night (was it ever not night here?) air touch his face. If Larisa had caught any of the broadcasts from the past few weeks, she might recognize him as the supposed 'Lord-Imperator' of Coruscant. Given her sudden arrival, he doubted that she had.

"Welcome home then," he said as he took his place at her side. "I take it things haven't gotten better in your absence?"

[member="Larisa Young"],

 

[Rosa]

"There's no such thing as friends in the Underworld. Just people who are less likely to kill you than others. My departure came after my master was murdered by a rival gang, makes it easier to pin the blame on someone who doesn't stick around."


She tugged the hood of her poncho free and stopped at the roofs edge. The breeze rustling through her braided hair. "This isn't home." She said quietly "just the place i was made." She took two steps back than ran and lept to the next roof. Pausing to watch her employer follow.


"Coruscant never changes. They change the flag they fly above and most people on the lower levels never look up. Everything stays the same. Truth be told, your government is wasting its time. There is, and always will be, another head to replace whatever one you cut off."

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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Her summary of the place seemed rather grim. Cedric couldn't find a proper means to disagree with it either. From what he'd seen of the cities beneath the surface of the galactic center, suffering was the natural state. It was something most rulers of Coruscant had gone out of their way to ignore. So long as the credits continued to float up toward the top, no one had really cared all that much about what was going on at the bottom. It was about time for that to change.

He followed after her, crossing the gap from one rooftop to the next with relative ease.

"You're right on that," he mused, "We probably are wasting our time." He eyed down at the city below. Throngs of people wandered through congested streets that were already covered in detritus. The scent of sulfur and other offending odors choked the air, and there seemed to be an overwhelming feeling of shared suffering across the masses.

"Still, we have to try." He added, "The Imperium is planning on putting a lot of resources down here. More than are strategically required, and far more than any of the recent governing bodies in the past century. No rest until all of Coruscant is truly free, not just the surface, or so they say." He continued, waving his hands about as he about fell off the side of the roof. He righted himself a second or so later, a rather annoying fall avoided, at least for now.

[member="Larisa Young"]

 

[Rosa]

Larisa pondered his words for a long moment, leading them across a few more roof tops before dropping into a narrow alley. Resources in the lower levels? a free Coruscant? Many would argue that Coruscant was as free as it could possible get considering the done wars to try and claim it. She pulled her hood back up as they reached the end of the alley, sliding back into the light, the Works looming above them.

"I can't decide if any of what you just said makes me happy or not. On the one hand, if the...Imperium, you said? If they succeed, then a great many children will avoid the life that I lived. On the other hand...there are a huge number of bosses down here. You push them to hard and seek control they're likely to unite and fight back. In which case, a lot of children will die. They are not above using street urchins as canon fodder."

As she spoke a small group of them ran between the pair, giggling as they went. They're hands were fast, but Larisa's was faster, she snatched the smallest ones wrist as it snaked for her belt, seeking purses, jewels, blasters, whatever she could sell. The child screamed, and the rest scattered. Larisa pulled the girl close and bent to her ear. "Pick better targets." she slapped a couple of credits in the kids hand and let him go.

She turned to her companion. "Alright Jedi, show me where this rally was held and I'll find your rodian."

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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Nothing like a bit of light parkour to start your day off right.

Cedric kept up with the huntress easily enough. Years of training and conflict had molded his physical abilities to be top form. He doubted any of the other Jedi within the Imperium could have kept up - something he would have to rectify in the coming months. He drew his cowl over his face just as she did, keen on following the woman's lead. She knew the underworld far more intimately than he did.

"I understand your trepidation." He said as he ran his fingers over the walls of one of the buildings nearby. He could feel the empyrean flowing through it, as if Coruscant itself were a living being rather than a world of cold steel and lifeless automata. It was comforting to know that the Ashla reached even these dark places. "And that is why we're on this hunt. Outright military assault won't accomplish much without civilian casualties. I have no illusion that there will be instances where it will no longer be within our control, and they very well may happen, but we are doing everything in our power to avoid it. If we can remove the individual crime bosses efficiently, with small teams, we can avoid an all out war in the underworld. The one we're hunting is just the first of many."

The Jedi simply watched as Larisa handled the children. He was taking his measure of her, curious as to what she might do. To his surprise, she offered one of the kids a bit of generosity, something he had certainly not been expecting.

The gesture warmed him to her. Perhaps she wasn't just another opportunist. "Just ahead," he gestured toward an open square a few meters away. It was coated in random patches of carbon scoring, the makeshift stage the crime lord had once spoken from half collapsed from the assault that had followed. No beings walked through here - as if the ground was still cursed from the recent battle. Cedric wasted little time in heading straight toward it.

[member="Larisa Young"]

 

[Rosa]

Larisa shook her head but chose to remain silent. He did not understand. How could he? How could anyone who hadn’t spent a lifetime in the thick of it all? There was only one way they would gain control and that was by working with the bosses. Or, at the very least, their right hand man. There wasn’t a right hand man in existence that didn’t want to sit in the bosses chair at some point. Exterminate the resistance, control the replacements and there would be some level of decorum, but not to the extent this Imperium seemed to dream.

Still, she thought as they moved into the open, at least they were trying, and whether it worked or not, there was good money to be had here. Surviving was all about the money. Larisa brought her focus away from her doubts and concerns, scanning the mess in front of them. This was not something she needed to imagine, rallys were not uncommon and almost always ended in a fight. She sighed heavily, moving to the stage itself, running her hands over it.

“Keep your eyes open, Jedi, we’re being watched. And make sure no one shoots me.” She knelt on the collapsed stage, pressing her hands against the surface and let herself fall into the ebb and flow of the force, shutting the world she hated so much out and focusing on the echoes that flickered in her mind. A crowd cheering, a crowd angry, a crowd scared. She spun the perspective in her mind and found what she was looking for. Kir-fek stood proud, sneering at doubters, encouraging supporters.

Larisa absorbed every detail she could, blacking out the rest of the memory to focus on only him, his face, his emotions and most importantly his aura. That would be what she’d use to follow him.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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"I'll at least accomplish one of those two things." Cedric quipped as he did as was bidden. A hand lingered over his lightsaber, but he did not draw. There was no reason to draw in anymore unwanted attention before their hunters had arrived. He could feel it too, though; the presence of something malignant nipping at their heels. Their pursuers were not far behind, though he was uncertain if they knew exactly where to look.

"He killed a lot of people here when the riot broke out," the Jedi sighed as they walked across a few old stained blood splatters. More than a dozen people were murdered over the course of the chaos, almost all by the hands of the 'revolutionaries'. Cedric couldn't wait to have them tried for their crimes.

A shot rang out. It was a singular noise - the bark of a high powered rifle being fired from quite a distance. Cedric felt the bolt before he saw it, observing the core of caged plasma almost in slow motion as it flew directly toward the tracker's back.

There was a snap-hiss as Cedric's cyan blade came to life, batting the bolt safely into the ground. None more followed, but the Jedi remained on guard. "Musta thought he had a lucky shot."

[member="Larisa Young"]

 

[Rosa]

Larisa’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the lightsaber and she rose slowly to her feet turning with a small smile on her face. “Clearly.” she replied making a point of stepping out of reach of the lightsabers defence, glaring in the shooters direction. “They won’t make the same mistake twice.”

Whoever it was did not make a second shot, perhaps the idea of her being in cohorts with a Jedi made them feel a little insecure about their abilities. “Kir-fek is in the undercity. A place called the Pit. It’s a nightclub, trading hub and fighting pit all rolled into one.” she swept away from the collapsed stage towards another shadowed alley. “You’ll love it, “ she added with dripping sarcasm.

“I’ll get you to it, but getting in is going to have to be all you. They so much as smell me on the premises and I will be tossed in as feed for whatever monster they’ve got chained in there.” She wasn’t a coward, she just was not prepared to die for a cause she absolutely did not believe in. Besides, she had a strong feeling she had matters beyond the Pit to deal with. Like a sniper.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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Cedric stared up in the direction the shot had come from, as if he could will the shooter to try again. Nothing came, and he found himself almost disappointed. Snipers were always so interesting to deal with. "You never know. Galaxy's got more than a few folks missing a couple brain cells."

She spoke of a place called the pit. The name stirred several distant memories from the depths of Cedric's mind, none of them particularly pleasant. He scrunched his mouth up, brow furrowed. "The Pit. I've been to a couple places called 'The Pit', and they've always made for lovely stories afterword."

"Definitely my sorta place." Definitely not any sarcasm there.

He gave her a simple nod. "I shouldn't have too much trouble finding my way around. Hope Kir-Fek didn't have any important plans tonight."

[member="Larisa Young"]