When Worlds Collide

[Nate Phantoms]

He glanced around the room, taking everything and anything in. A few Merc's in the back gave him looks, and he supposed they couldn't see his 'wolf stare' through his mask so he took it off. After he gave people the look; you may think you're bad, but I'm much worse he stopped receiving stares. He saw two open stools at the front counter and made his way up to it. Once he sat down he again made a quick survey of the room before looking at the serving girl in front of him.

"Hi! What would you like sir?"

Her soft voice cleared his thoughts and brought him back to the present. He looked into her bright blue-gray eyes as he smiled and answered.

"The special please."

At his smile she blushed and wrote his order down on the pad in her hand.

"Coming right up hun."

She skipped off to the back and came back after about two minutes and handed him his drink. She gave a wink and went back to doing her job. He unintentionally slipped back into his thoughts, blocking all but his surroundings out.

 

[Evangeline Cross]

'Ah, hello there--don't I know you?'

Evangeline Cross looked up from her perch on a barstool, where she had passed the better half of an hour staring into the contents of her mug as if it contained the meaning of life instead of room temperature water. Her eyes, large and violet brown, seemed to suddenly return to the bustling pub as if from a long trip elsewhere; they instantly tapered like that of a small feline as she took in the unsavory swine of a man who had taken it upon himself to occupy the seat to her right. The lower levels of Coruscant were charming.

"No," she replied slowly, thickly arched brows furrowing across her smooth forehead. "You don't."

The man barely skipped a beat, beady little eyes glistening like hungry beetles in the pub's dim lighting. 'Do you want to know me?' He oozed, extending a meaty index finger to caress the lower tier of her rosebud lips before trailing the finger downward.

He barely made it past the juncture where her sharp cheekbones and jawline met her slender neck before he suddenly found himself ensnared--in one fluid movement of pallid robes and brown curls, Evangeline had risen like Venus from the sea and snatched his hand in her own, applying enough pressure to warn the man but not enough to cause serious harm.

"No," She repeated, her cultured accents--typically soft--hardening as they grated past her lips. "I don't."

'S-sorry, lady . . . I was just askin' . . .' The piggish man stammered, wringing his offending hand and scuttling away, presumably to accost another unsuspecting young female.

Evangeline glanced around, suddenly abashed at the inquiring looks of the other patrons as she resumed her seat, a blush rising in her fair cheeks. This was unlike her--not only her strong reaction to the man, but also her presence in a pub. She was, after all, a soft-spoken young woman, gently raised and more cerebral and intuitive than physical. Her Master would have been ashamed.

There it was, though. That was the stinger. Her Master wasn't there, was he? He was dead, and had been dead for months. Evangeline was alone, for the time being, and it hurt. It hurt badly enough to make her want to hand lock the next man who tried to speak to her, or worse.

 

[Nate Phantoms]

He saw the young woman grab the little mans hand and reply to his words, and then sit back down with a blush as some in the bar looked at her questionably. He smiled and took another sip of his drink.

"Drunk, cheeky fools."

He then cleared his mind and instantly felt a Force sensitive being close by. He self-consciously patted his waist where his light-saber was and scanned the room. He then opened his mind to the Force, and let all the emotions in the room flood to him. The One emotion that stood out the most was anguish. His head throbbed from the vast amount of anguish that he was sensing, and he shut out all other feelings and thought to himself; who here is in that much pain?
He then finally turned an glanced at the woman that just sat back down and proceeded to stare into her cup.
Her?
As he again thought to himself, he focused on the woman, and the jumbled mess of emotion nearly knocked him out his chair.

"Oh yeah, Definitely you."

He took another sip of his drink and walked over to the woman and sat down next to her.

"...Don't plan on breaking my hand if I talk to you do you?"

[member="Evangeline Cross"]

 

[Evangeline Cross]

' . . . Don't plan on breaking my hand if I talk to you do you?'

Evangeline, without so much as looking up this time, squeezed her eyes shut and wrinkled her small nose. "Sir," She breathed, mistaking the newcomer for round two of the piggish drunkard. "Forgive me, but I don't want to have to hurt you agai--oh . . . "

Her voice trailed off as she lifted her thick eyelashes from where they had fervently kissed the tops of her cheekbones, eyes widening to take the shape of almonds in her surprise at finding the newcomer--and mercifully not the piggish drunkard--at her side.

Evangeline willed the resurgence of her blush away. It was a silly trait.

"I'm sorry for my behavior," She replied quietly, the cultured intonation of her voice slowly regaining its habitual softness. "It was unlike me. This--" And it was here that she paused, sweeping her big brown eyes over the seedy hustle and bustle of the pub around them. "--this is not like me."

Her gaze returned to his face. It was gentle, but pained. "I'm not here to talk. I was actually just leaving."

Evangeline made to rise once more, this time for good. This was no place for the likes of her. But something stopped her in her tracks--the unmistakable pull of energy that ran so deeply in her veins as to be apart of her, the very power that had fueled every moment of her life since she was a child. It was the Force, and in this moment it was deafeningly strong--running freely like a current between her and this strange man.

 

[Nate Phantoms]

He set his drink down along with a few credits and stood up.

"Well, would it bother you if I tagged along?"

He looked at her and noticed that she was quite beautiful, and had strong. almost violet eyes. He watched her go to leave and stop amidst her steps.

[member="Evangeline Cross"]

 

[Evangeline Cross]

Evangeline squared her shoulders and suddenly regarded the man as if she were seven feet tall, as opposed to a scant two inches past five.

"Who are you?"

Her voice, though soft, cut through the energy flowing between her and the man like a blade, almost accusatory in its tone, as she visually searched him for any small detail that would give away his identity. He was sensitive to the Force, that much was clear, but Evangeline sensed no traces of the Order on him. She took a step backward, large dark eyes never leaving his.

"What do you want from me?"

 

[Nate Phantoms]

His smiled faded slightly and he picked up his mask and walked over to [member="Evangeline Cross"].
He held up his hands as he neared her.

"Well, It depends on who you are, and I only wish to speak with you, preferably somewhere with less curious eyes."

He opened the door and glanced back at her as he pulled up the hood of his cloak.

"Coming?"

 

[Evangeline Cross]

Evangeline held her ground for a moment, wary eyes studying the man as she reached out into their connective energy to search him for any trace of darkness or furtive agenda. Finding none, she slowly reached up and and pulled the ivory folds of her hood over the darkness of her curls, sharp gaze softening fractionally but never leaving his own. What did she have to lose?

"Lead the way."

 

[Nate Phantoms]

He held the door open for her and steeped out into the bustling street.

"This way,"

He turned down a nearby alley and past a few thugs who gave them both hungry looks, like a wolf looking at a fawn. He returned the stare and gently placed his hand at his waist, where his small vibro-knife stayed at the ready. As he passed a open door, with loud cries of anger echoing out of it, he stopped at the front of a tall building. He waved his hand over the door, and it swung open, revealing his large hanger for his star-ship, The Vixen.

"Welcome to My Humble abode. Now we can talk... what is it you want to know, ask away."

He leaned up against the wall and looked at the galactic Republic flag that swayed with the wind from his ceiling.

 

[Evangeline Cross]

"What is it that I want to know?" Evangeline repeated, thick brows furrowing as she swept her dusky gaze over the hangar, noting the Republic flag, before returning her eyes to him. "I want to know who you are."

Evangeline lingered at the mouth of the hangar and dropped down her hood. The Coruscanti breeze, propelled by the constant wake of bustling ships and speeders, rippled through the crowning glory of her exposed curls. She was silent for a moment, watching him as he watched her. "And I want to know why you brought me here--why do you want to talk to me?"

For the moment, she wouldn't come any closer--not yet, anyway. Young women didn't have an excellent track record for following strange men back to their hangars. Evangeline, of course, was not like other young women; the energy field that coursed through her body, and the lightsaber that hung concealed at her waist, ensured that much.

[member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

He smiled as her thoughts reverberated in his skull like church bells. He smiled as he answered.

"I'm just a fellow Jedi, without a companion, and I just noticed that you are connected to the force, and the overwhelming amounts of sadness pouring off of you nearly threw me out of my chair, and you seem... weary for what life might throw at you,"

His gaze became sorrowful and he looked at his hands.

"Trust me, Life can throw you a curve-ball, and you'll never be prepared; no matter how hard you try."
He returned his gaze to her, and watched her curls flow with the winds, and the sun slowly setting over the horizon behind her, making her seem to glow.

"...my real concern is why are you so distraught, sadness can lead you down a very, very dark path... and that's from past experience."

He stood an removed his cloak, hanging it up on a rack made out scrapped X-wing fighter parts, without his, cloak, his Vibro-sword and double bladed light-saber where out in the open, along with his favorite violet t-top, which revealed his tattoo of his mother famous quote, along with some scars that ran up his toned arms, from working at that scrapyard.

 

[Evangeline Cross]

Evangeline visibly softened. For all her hardness toward him, and no matter how persistently her sense of logic and practicality rang inside her head, the girl was ultimately driven by her heart. Evangeline was empathetic to the core, perhaps to her detriment.

Those dark eyes, narrowed like a feline's until this moment, gently widened as she took a hesitant step forward.

"I knew you were Force Sensitive--a Jedi, like me," She said, the ghost of a knowing smile touching the corners of her rosebud lips. "I could feel it in the cantina. Are you with the Order?"

It was here that she paused, absorbing the full weight of his questioning, remembering why she was in the cantina in the first place. The smile disappeared, and her lashes lowered to study the ground. She needed to slow down--the man knew too much about her already.

"My troubles are my own," She murmured, taking one step back, raising her gaze to lock with his. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm in no danger."

Not yet, anyway.

[member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

He saw her gaze soften, then her tentative step forward. Then her question; "Are you with the Order?"
Then her gaze flashed to the ground and she retreated her step.

"Yes and no, I was with the order, and technically still am.... but my master..." He paused, for all of the memories of his family came rushing back to him, from his first training session to his last, all the high-speed flights through Coruscant, and the swims he was forced to complete in the Marshes of Naboo.

"I 'left' after he was killed and the council sent a message, that I was welcome to return anytime... that I was still technically a Padawan... Because I left the day he died, which was my Knighting Ceremony."

[member="Evangeline Cross"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

He crossed his arms and let the Coruscant breeze flow over him, as if it was blowing his past away from him. With his eyes closed , he weaved through the Force, feeling others emotions; their Joy, and their Sorrow. He stood like a statue as the Force swelled around him, drawing everything in. With a sigh, he opened his eyes, turning to look at the woman that was standing a few feet from him, and he sensed that she was still weary about him.

"Well, there's my story, nothing special... but what about you?"

He watched her, the breeze rippling through her crown of dark curls, he wasn't normally one to be interested in others, but he felt drawn to this woman; the Force was flowing like a electric current between them, and he was intrigued as to why.

[member="Evangeline Cross"]