Private Welcome back to the fire Pt.2

[Arq*]

"She also wouldn't want to vanish into a f—ing black van with her heel left in the street."

The silence pulsed. Heavy. True.

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael's jaw clenched. "She'll be pissed."

 

[Arq*]

Arq locked eyes with him. "She'll be alive."

 

[Sommer Dai]

"Procedure: Reclamation"
Location: Unknown Facility – Classified Level, Nar Shaddaa Underground​

She woke to a hum.


Faint. Mechanical. Steady like a heartbeat in reverse.


Her eyes fluttered open — and a cold blue light seared her vision. The ceiling was too bright. Too clean. The room too white. It smelled of metal, antiseptic, and something wrong.


She tried to move. Couldn't.


Straps — one across each wrist, each ankle, and a thick band locked across her sternum. She was wearing a medical gown. Thin, sleeveless. Her arms were bare. Her back ached. Her mouth—


Taped.


Thick synthtape sealed her lips, muting her first scream into a strangled sound in her throat.


Panic bloomed like acid.

Where am I? What the kriff is this?

A red-lit medical droid hovered nearby, arms clicking gently, fingers twitching with precision tools. Its flat voice buzzed through the sterile room.

"Subject 01-A: Dai, Sommer. Species: Human. Female. Age: 28 Standard Years. Mid-grade liver scarring. Healed rib fracture, left side. Nanite saturation: 8.9%. Mid-range cognitive resistance. High tolerance for pain. Note: suspect former substance abuse history."

Its lens turned toward her.

"Initiating body preparation protocols. Conscious state verified. Sedation... postponed. Instruction pending."

She writhed under the straps, muscles screaming. Her breath grew ragged behind the tape.


And then—

The door hissed open.

Footsteps. Heels.


And a voice — smooth, elegant, familiar. Too familiar.

"You always did look good in white."

Sommer froze.


A tall woman entered. Dark hair coiled into an elegant twist. Silver earrings. Slim eyes with painted lashes. A face carved from old memories and bad decisions.

"Elizabeth?" Sommer tried to say — but it came out mangled under the tape.

The woman smiled, almost sweetly.


Elizabeth Condon.


Former Black Spire street-runner. Once her closest friend. Once the only one who pulled Sommer out of her worst benders and cleaned blood off her knuckles. They hadn't seen each other in seven years.

She disappeared.

Now here she was, wearing a tailored black jumpsuit with a crimson sleeve patch — the sigil of the Galean Sovereign Initiative.


Zori Galea's personal agency.


"Shh," Elizabeth said, moving beside her. She tapped the droid once. "Disengage commentary protocol."


The machine clicked and went still.


Elizabeth leaned down close to Sommer's face. Her perfume was subtle — jasmine and nerve gas.


"You're awake earlier than expected," she said softly. "But that's okay. You always did overperform."


Sommer's eyes blazed.


"You're wondering where you are. What we want. Why it's you." She traced a finger down Sommer's restrained forearm. "And the truth is… Zori's always had an eye for elegance. But elegance isn't enough anymore."


Elizabeth circled the table slowly, like a curator admiring a priceless sculpture.

"We're transferring someone. Someone important. Someone greater. Your body is the vessel. Your mind… not so much."

Sommer thrashed in her bonds.


Elizabeth smiled wider.


"It'll be painless," she lied. "And quick, once the upload begins."


Sommer screamed into the tape.


Elizabeth leaned in again.


"Don't worry. I'll take care of your club. Your cousin. Even your little tech boy, if he ever wakes up enough to find you."


Sommer went still.


Her eyes were locked on Elizabeth's — and something inside her snapped.


This wasn't about elegance.


This was possession.


This was war.


And they thought they could erase her?

Not without a fight.

 

[Arq*]

"Elizabeth. Frakking. Condon.

Arq's fingers flew across the data-slicer pad, strings of encrypted code unraveling as the two men sat hunched in a shadowed corner of a stolen cantina booth.

 

[Kaelon Virex]

"Is that name supposed to mean something?" Kael asked, eyes scanning the perimeter.

 

[Arq*]

"It did," Arq said, breath tight. "Before she was declared dead in a Sovereign raid on a spice cell in Eriadu sector four years ago."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael leaned in. "And now she's back from the dead, kidnapping my cousin and working with Zori Galea? That can't be coincidence."

 

[Arq*]

"It's not. Elizabeth was once flagged as deep cover — infiltrator class. Skilled with pressure interrogation, social inversion, psychological triggers."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael gave a low whistle. "Of course Sommer was friends with her. Perfect karking match."

 

[Arq*]

Arq slid the datapad over. "Look at this."

The screen blinked: a dossier marked CLASSIFIED with a Sovereign sigil.
Elizabeth Condon.
Former freelance spy.
Declared missing. Assumed compromised.

"Codename 'Mirrothorn.'" Arq tapped the alias. "She worked for several powers before disappearing entirely. I guarantee you she's working for Zori now."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael stared at the screen, a muscle ticking in his jaw. "And you think she's prepping Sommer for what — information extraction?"

 

[Arq*]

"No," Arq said darkly. "I think they're going to take her body."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael's stomach dropped.

He shot to his feet. "We need to move."

 

[Arq*]

"Already ahead of you." Arq stood too, linking the datapad to his wrist. "Elizabeth made one mistake. She used an old secure comm relay near sector 9-Gamma. That relay was decommissioned — except someone's reactivated it in the last twenty-four hours."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

"Facility?"

 

[Arq*]

"Likely. Private. Off-grid. Not registered to any system maps. Could be underground."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael nodded once. "We head there."

 

[Arq*]

They moved fast through the lower levels — streets dripping with steam, signs written in six languages. Arq and Kael barely noticed the crowds. Kael was already building his plan in his head.


Find the facility. Break Sommer out. Burn the place down.


But before he hit the lift access to the lower industrial core, Arq stopped.


"What about Andrew?" Arq asked. "If what I think is happening… if Zori's involved—"

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael turned to him, voice flat and steel-hollow.

"No."