Briana bought two sets of credentials.
The first got her aboard a transport cleared to cross the Blackwall, under a name she'd rehearsed until she could answer to it without a flicker of doubt or hesitation. It'd carried her far. But, when it came to the final inspection, she'd stood with her palms slick with sweat and her presence in the Force drawn tight as a fist, her senses humming with caution while a customs officer held her identification portfolio beside her face. When the man frowned at his handheld display and looked back up at her, Briana felt her heart leap violently into her throat.
"Wait here," he'd said, something on that screen having made his mouth flatten into a hard, suspicious line.
She remembered consciously unclenching her fingers, forcing them to hang loose and natural at her sides, while frantically cycling through her cover story in her mind. But the worst of it was the temptation buzzing to prod into his thoughts, to reach just a fraction of an inch into his head to see whether he actually suspected her, or if his terminal was simply lagging. It'd taken everything in her to lock that impulse away, knowing that one reckless poke of telepathic probing could give her away as a Force user if they were even remotely sensitive, and she didn't want to think about what would come afterwards, if they figured that out.
When he finally returned from the station console, the officer handed the chip back without a word, stepping aside to let her pass and board with everyone else. She'd carried the tight, icy knot of that near-miss all the way across the system, never truly exhaling until the ship dropped out of hyperspace above Susevi. Now, Briana crouched at the lip of a manufactured basin, wind dragging dust across the plains. She checked the ridgeline, glancing back at her rented speeder that was parked a ways back, still ticking as it cooled. Nothing else around here seemed to move. She reached up to find her pocket, pressing until she felt the hard edge of the second identichip, making sure it hadn't gotten lost in the shuffle of everything else.
Lossa's.
Her fingers lingered over the second chip before she let her hand fall, her mind briefly drifting to Vizion and wondering if he was still at the Temple or if he'd already made it back home, where he'd find the note she'd left for him on the counter earlier in the day. He knew she'd kept an ear to the ground for Lossa ever since Jakku, where Romi and Bastila came face to face with what her cousin had become. Even when they were apart those long months, she kept him apprised of the situation, half hoping his knack for tracking might turn up what she couldn't. And with Brandyn still missing with Gianna, and the aftermath and worry of all that'd become... When word came of a possible sighting on Susevi of Lossa, she'd left without a second thought on the matter.
I've got a lead on Lossa on Susevi, and I need to see where it goes. I know I only just got back, but I promise I'm coming home, Viz. I'll try to be there before dinner. I love you. — Bri.
So many times since she'd begun this journey, she'd pictured him at the stove when she got back, could almost feel the warmth of him beneath her palm as she came up beside him to tell him about her day. At every checkpoint, she'd thought about going home, but... she'd wanted Lossa there, too. Another place that she could set at the table.
She let out a slow, shaky breath and looked down at the base again. The weather had worn its edges blunt, rust streaked the walls beneath the windows, and the finish peeled away in pale patches. She used to think it looked like a bunker someone forgot to bury, and the years hadn't done it any favors. But if Lossa was really here, perhaps that meant something. Perhaps she still remembered what this place once was to her, or remembered all the time the two of them once spent inside these walls together.
Maybe it meant she wasn't as far gone as Romi and Bastila thought, and that there was still something she could reach.
Finally, Briana pushed herself up, scrubbing the grit from her palm against her thigh, and started into the basin, loose dirt and rocks skittering ahead of her boots. Halfway to the base, she began to lower the shield she'd kept around herself since crossing the Blackwall, her presence spilling out into the Force like a candle left burning in a window. If Lossa was anywhere near, she'd know exactly who was coming.
At the door, her eyes snagged on the gouge in the frame, remembering how Lossa had made it hauling a speeder coupling inside to try and save it from a dust storm. She'd sworn every season that she'd sand it down, but never had. Her hand lifted out of habit before pausing. Would it still recognize her biometrics, or did Lossa remove her access? For a moment, she wanted to try it out, let herself in and call up the stairs as she used to. Her fingers curled back into her palm, instead, and pressed the chime. A camera whirred out of its housing beside the door and swiveled to find her, Briana glanced down at her own reflection in the dark, dust-streaked glass.
"Lossa?"
Wind hissed across the basin at her back, flicking sand against her legs. Her lips pressed together, and her brow gently furrowed at the camera lens.
"It's Bri. I'm not here to fight." The speech she'd rehearsed the whole way here felt suddenly inadequate, so she opted for what felt most honest instead.
"I just…" She swallowed.
"I came to bring you home."
