Private Troubleman

[Colette]

Erich Loom, wanted for: burglary, theft, murder.
Caution: force user.

Colette ran her thumb over the screen one more time with a thoughtful frown. The perp was a pale blonde man with short but thick and wavy hair. He had no real distinguishing features as far as Colette could see other than the sheer blueness of his eyes. It would seem that all in all this man, no older than Colette herself, was as unremarkable as it could get. Which was perhaps why the crimes listed under his profile were all the more peculiar to her.

She looked up from the screen and towards a nearby door down a dark alleyway. From what she had gathered he was hidden somewhere in there. Ten floors of apartments and he could be in any of them, either by himself or with company but most likely paranoid as can be nonetheless.

Confident that her search was at an end, Colette pocketed the device and began to walk towards the back entrance of the building. It had all seemed a bit too good to be true, and perhaps what she saw on the approach was just the force seeing how hard it could prod her with worry.

Another presence in the force stepped through the backdoor and into the building. This one was a woman, or so Colette assumed. Dark hair, pale skin. Her presence wasn’t necessarily dark as much as it spoke of someone with an intense drive. There was no mistaking that she was another force user — which given this moment, right here and now — was no mere coincidence. The force didn’t work like that.

Colette jogged up to the entrance and then up the first set of stairs to catch up with this new presence.

“Hey.” She hissed in a whisper. “Pst. Hey!”

“Slow down. We should talk.”

Kito

 

[Kito]

//: Colette //:

The reports had drawn Kito to this city. A man marked with Sith runes, steeped in ritual — another tally for her penance if true. The taste of home was in the air as she moved through the entrance of the building.

She could smell it, the acrid scent of alchemy. She pulled down the aurodium oni mask over her face as she continued to move. The mask allowed her to filter the stench, letting her breathe clean air, but still let her follow the trail.

A hand rested on the hilt of the blade at her side as she started to climb the flight of stairs. She hated how much she enjoyed it — the stalking, the closeness before the strike.

It disgusted her how much she enjoyed it.

A voice whispered to her, but Kito initially ignored it. Whoever it was, it seemed like they were mistaking her for someone they knew. Kito kept moving, and at the top of the stairs, the whispering person seemed to have caught up to her. The smouldering ochre of her eyes burned into the face that stood in her way through the eye slits of the mask.

The girl who spoke only got Kito's attention because she wasn't a Sith.

"Talk?" Kito responded, her voice flat, yet bubbling with a hint of annoyance.

"What is there to talk about?" Kito stepped and pushed past Colette, "We don't have time to stand and talk — if you have something to say, do it as we move."

She did pause for a moment and looked back towards her.

"Stay out of my way. That's the only warning you'll get."

 

[Colette]

Kito

Well, so much for her hopes of a peaceful little talk. Colette sighed and shook her head in frustration when the other hunter seemingly ignored her. It didn't get much clearer than "stay out of my way" when it came to these things. Colette doubted the other woman was about to simply apprehend the man given the fire behind the eyes she hid behind her mask.

"Locals won't see justice if you kill him." Colette said as she trailed behind the other hunter. "A lot of questions left unanswered too."

As the duo came to a stop they stood outside a door with unmistakingly Sith-like runes etched into it. Colette extended her arm to bar her competitor's entry.

"I'm serious. Don't."

 

[Kito]

//: Colette //:

Kito sighed when the girl stepped in, just as she had warned her not to. Because of this, the Ronin was forced to listen. But none of it mattered to Kito. Those issues weren't her problem. Still, she didn't push through and waited.

"I don't care." Kito's voice was uncaring, "The locals are your problem, Jedi." It was clear enough where the girl's allegiance lay. While Kito stood on the same side, it was evident that they were two different versions of the same thing.

Her eyes flickered from the girl and focused on the runes. She had forced herself to learn what the runes meant. She wouldn't announce it, but she shifted her feet, her hand still resting on her blade's hilt.

Almost annoyed, Kito tilted her head and pushed up her golden mask — revealing her face.

"So what do you suggest we do?" The annoyance was bleeding into her words. The Jedi seemed keen on keeping her from the kill. So the next best thing was to play along.

"What's your plan? Talk him down? Ask him to stop his Sith rituals and hope he listens?"

 

[Colette]

Kito

They were at an impasse. On one end the headstrong Jedi and on the other the murderous non-Jedi. Colette's stare turned into a dissatisfied glare. She could feel her jaw tense up for a moment and the sarcastic remark didn't do much to help.

"Yeah, actually." she snapped back with a scowl. "That was the—"

A red blade pierced through the door and nearly nicked Colette by the eyebrow. She threw herself back and away from the door to build up some space before the unknown blade cut its way through the rest of the runes on the door with a violent hiss.

Out of the apartment one Erich Loom emerged. He looked paler than in the photos, sickly almost. His dirty, greasy hair had been slicked back into a greasy swoop. The unmistakable stench of corpse rot flooded the hallways. Colette retched for a moment — the morning's breakfast sought to resurface.

Erich meanwhile was deep in it. His lightsaber swung for Kito with an unkempt rage. His teeth gritted and his throat rumbled with the growl of a sick animal.

"Weak!" he screamed. "All of you!"

 

[Kito]

//: Colette //:

She nearly scoffed at the seriousness in Colette's words. The Jedi outside of her Master's small enclave were soft, as he had stated. No wonder the dark side ran rampant through the galaxy. There was no one stepping up, no one standing in their way — not anymore.

Kito wasn't able to retort; it seemed their intended target decided to act first. Thankfully, he had done so in a language the girl knew how to speak.

Colette stepped back, startled by the attack. Kito held her ground as the blade punched through the door, only stopping inches from her face. She didn't flinch; her only movement was to reach for a blade that was no longer at her side. Her hand flexed in the empty space, remembering the Sangnir who had stolen her saber.

But luck favored her — the door slowed the strike just long enough. In a fluid motion, she drew the long odachi from its scabbard. The two-handed blade gleamed in the hall's light, with runes etched along its surface, and tally marks carved to remember the fallen.

With an almost inhuman speed, the Force fueled the small ronin. The odachi caught the strike and twisted, its hilt slamming into the Sith's throat. He choked, blood flecking his lips as he collapsed against the ornate aurodium pommel.

Kito tilted her head toward the other Jedi. "Still want to talk to him?" she asked, her voice flat.

"Or can we do this my way?"

 

[Colette]

Kito

Quick to violence and with a blade no less. Colette looked at the other woman with a mixture of contempt and disappointment. A lightsaber at least cauterized a wound. A blade would run the risk of bleeding them to death. There would be pain either way but at least the lightsaber had its small mercies.

The Sith hurried back on his feet, clearly worse for wear from the strike against his throat.

"Yeah." Colette said and ignited her saber. "We do it my way."

She charged back into the fray. Her blade raised as she in an arc over her head in an effort to make the man expose his lower body. Inexperience betrayed his otherwise tough exterior as he proceeded to do just that. Colette swept for the leg and he landed flat on his stomach.

"Not a fighter." Colette grunted and looked over to Kito. "Probably just a lost man."

A morbid sense of curiosity befell the young Knight. She motioned her open hand towards Kito as if to hand her the reins.

"Are you going to kill a man for being lost?"

 

[Kito]

//: Colette //:

Kito watched. The other Jedi was trained; she knew how to use a blade, but there was a bit of hesitation. From what the Shaper noticed, the woman didn't want to harm. There was no intent behind her swings and strikes. Still, it was impressive enough for Kito to pause and take a look.

The man landed on his stomach. He quivered and shook, knowing that he had been defeated. She watched him, her head tilted with curiosity.

Colette's voice drew her from her thoughts as she let her eyes flicker towards her; the fire behind the Shaper's eyes already gave Colette the answers she didn't want.

"Lost?" Kito echoed as her eyes turned back to the sniveling man. He was weak, but not willing to seem repentant.

"He's no fighter, but what he does is still an abomination to the light." Kito stepped forward, and the gleam of the blessed blade reflected the dim lights of the room.

"So yes." She hovered over him, then stepped to the side, her blade raised high, the odachi supported by both of her hands, its arc high curving over her.

"May you be welcomed and reborn in Ashla's light." As she finished, the blade would come down with a quiet fury. It cut through the man's neck, finishing what she had come here to do.

A foot caught the separation of him and his life, and Kito threw salt over his body, then burned it.

Looking to Colette, she nodded.

"The lost require a shepherd to lead them to salvation. So, to answer your question again. Yes, I would kill a man for being lost… especially if he was considered a Sith."

Kito moved to leave the room as the flames dissipated on the man's ashes.

"Anything else?"

 

[Colette]

Kito

She should have seen that one coming. Colette's eyes closed for a moment. A tired sigh blew from her nose and she slowly reached out to lean against the nearby wall. Her finger and thumb rubbed at her eyebrows.

Abomination to the light was a strong weight to put on someone. The dying flicker of his candlelight was extinguished with a single strike. Colette felt her heart skip in the same moment that it had happened. There was no life beyond the grasp of mercy, no ember too small to reignite. Clenching her fist, she gently slammed it into the wall to steady herself.

This woman was full of herself. She took on a role of moral arbiter in matters that was beyond her. Eyes opened to observe the way that she walked and how she talked. The woman's mannerisms and voice drew Colette's eye. Whoever she was, she wore her confidence like armor — pious and smug, as if she stood above judgment.

"You call yourself a shepherd after killing part of your flock." Colette grunted in disgust. Her eyes wandered to the ash pile on the floor. "Tell me what his crime was. Fear? Curiosity?"

"Or is that all it takes for you? Someone doesn't believe exactly what you do, and they deserve to die?" She asked and raised her brow. "Does that make it right for you to kill him?"

Colette scoffed, she figured she knew the answer that was coming. For a moment there was silence between them. Colette shook her head as the woman began to speak.

"No. It doesn't."