Star Wars: Vode An (closed for Apollo Wilde and BewareTheDream)

“So now what?”

Her voice was a bit strained, and with good reason - she was upside down. She held her handstand for a few moments, before using her arms to twist herself. Her palms pivoting smoothly against the floor, her elbows bent, and she propelled herself to her feet, the same as if she had jumped. It was quite the feat of strength, and one she executed with not so much as a grunt of strain. Back on her feet again, she was shaking out her arms. Still restless, still not happy with her training. Certainly, Raeth had developed into a worthy sparring partner, but not someone who she could go all out with for fear of seriously injuring him. And, to be fair, most of the time she was fine with that arrangement. With this new threat lingering, the urge to really go all out was becoming stronger.

Acrobatics could only get her so far.

Though, a little voice nagged her, she had been neglecting that particular aspect of her training since she started working with Raeth. There were some parts of her flexibility that were innate - being a Twi’lek, after all- and others that came with her gender, and still more that came with endless, painful, training. Then, of course, there was always the sheer practicality of such training. No one entered into an actual battlefield doing backflips and splits.

“…This man,” said for simplicity’s sake, “still wants you. And has provided you with information to buy you time. I hope,” she inhaled, let it out with a sag of her shoulders, “that he contacts us within that time frame. I hate waiting.”

_____

It was hard to get back to anything resembling a “routine.” Not that she didn’t try - lovemaking sessions with Raeth to tire him out and to make it easier for her to request time away from him. Waiting eagerly for whatever kitchen masterpiece he’d created - not like she’d gotten any better at cooking herself. Truthfully, it was one aspect of life with Raeth that she was more than happy to concede to his overwhelming expertise without a fight.

But she still needed her space. Not to any sinister or malicious reasoning, but so she could train, do something, without having him looming over her shoulder. His devotion to her was as much as hers was to him, but there were still some…cultural differences to be ironed out, and that was that her training needed to be done alone. Well, some parts of it, at least.

If she were back at home -home! Since when had she started becoming nostalgic for that mudhole?-, she would have her brothers and sisters to train with, those from neighboring tribes. And then the quarterly and annual battles to keep honing her skills and learn new ones. Stopping in the middle of a knife drill, she sighed. Saboten wasn’t one to ever really get her hands dirty - using her charm and sex appeal to keep only the bare minimum of training -, but her brothers…

She missed them.

It’d been years since she saw them proper - Saboten had been her only real contact with the family since she left-, but Saboten kept her updated. She knew she was an aunt several times over, and how her mother and father were doing. She knew about the farm, about the next battle session, and how one of her nephews would be the clear winner. Running a hand over her sweat-slicked lekku, she tried to set her face. Tried not to agonize over the very simple fact that of course she’d think of family while she was training; the two were so intertwined, it would be like trying to remove salt from the ocean.

Well. Thinking about things she couldn’t regain wouldn’t be helpful now. Taking in another deep breath, she took two bounding leaps forward, preparing herself for a jump. And jump she did. Rather than falling back into her usual shadow boxing or sparring, she lapsed into a soundless dance. Drawing on memories far older than her time with the Mandalorians and more recent ones spent with Saboten, Saudaji let herself go within the dance.

The answer to Saudaji's question was a bit delayed, because Raeth got distracted by her handstand. He loved to watch her move. In addition to that, he enjoyed seeing her perform acrobatic maneuvers without her headtails getting in the way. Although he knew otherwise, there were times when it seemed as though she could control them as well as she could control her arms or legs.

Snapping out of that momentary trance, he spoke after she flipped to her feet. "Now, we continue on our merry way to Ch'hodos and find this woman." Raeth referred to Deegi, the person identified in their mystery man's briefing. The only data they were given about her was her name and her place of work, which was enough to find her.

"For all we know, she'll have further instructions for us. If not, we still have enough to start working. We likely won't have to do any waiting at all once we get there."

Raeth didn't tell her, but he was actually a little excited. He enjoyed mysteries, and he enjoyed solving them even more. But along with this excitement came annoyance and worry, because he realized that their new buddy probably framed this mission as a mystery, knowing it would entice Raeth. The excitement he felt gradually disappeared beneath a fog of doubt.

Frowning, the agent returned to the treadmill, turned it back on, and resumed his jog. The two of them continued their workouts, silent for different reasons.

He didn't jog for much longer, however. Something about Saudaji's silence told him that she wanted to be alone. Ever since they got together - truly got together - there had been a nagging, fearful voice in the back of his mind that warned him she would someday act coldly to him again. That voice was one of the reasons why he clung to her, both figuratively and, when they were in bed, literally. It took some effort to ignore that fearful voice and remind himself that he shouldn't take her need for alone time, personally.

Besides, even though he went to the trouble of giving Saudaji her own room on the Pylat and making it as comfortable as possible, they spent nearly all of their time onboard together. He reminded himself to be happy with that.

"I'm going to do some work on the computer," he said as he stepped off the treadmill, then made it disappear beneath the floor. "We should be at Ch'hodos within 24 hours."

Before leaving the gym, he turned back to her to watch her for a few more seconds. He also wanted to tell her,

"I'm making pickled zog and salad for lunch. You've got until 1100 to request something else. But I assure you, my pickled zog is unlike any you've ever tasted."

As he walked away, he smiled, because that innuendo was, indeed, intentional.

*****

Several minutes later, Raeth was on the flight deck of the Patient Pylat, sitting at the data center with its rows of monitors. Even though thorough computer scans revealed no hint of a breach, he was still worried that the ship's security protocols needed to be upgraded. Getting that done before they arrived at Ch'hodos would be challenging, but he was up for the task.

At one point, Raeth was about to switch one of the monitors to the gym's camera feed so he could watch Saudaji work out. But right before his finger tapped the appropriate button, he stopped. He once told Saudaji that he would stop spying, and something about this felt like spying.

Raeth returned to work without watching her dance.

Dancing had always helped her clear her head. On Mandalore, it was almost considered shameful - at least in her particular clan. “If you have time to dance, you have time to fight,” her mother would always admonish her. But how could Saudaji have explained that needing to dance, for her, was the same as breathing? In more charitable moments (the kind of moments that only age and distance bestowed), she realized that her mother was simply looking out for her; she didn’t want Saudaji to end up as little more than a dancing girl, a particularly choice bauble for a marauding clan. When she was younger, though…gods, it had been insufferable. Saudaji would find any excuse that she could to sneak away to practice steps that felt like they’d been taught lifetimes ago.

With a towel around her neck, she ambled easily into the flight deck, slipping behind Raeth on silent feet. Well, “silent” for most others; she made a point, when on board, to make more noise than usual to alert him of her presence. The last thing she wanted was to end up as Twi’lek barbecue at the “hands” of Sebastian because she startled Raeth.

Leaning over, she gently kissed his cheek. It was a simple gesture, but one that spoke volumes of her appreciation. She knew, somewhere, that it was difficult for him to leave her alone. At times he was downright clingy - but that was okay, because, hell, so had she. Amazing, how even though they’d been traveling for months in tight quarters, she still wasn’t sick of him.

“About time to take a break, yeah?” She smelled of the tang of the gym, of some deep floral oil. “I can’t wait to get my hands on this shabuir.”

Raeth did not know that Saudaji still thought of the Patient Pylat as a potential death trap for her. If he did, he would have told her that he added her as an exemption to the ship's and battle droids' kill protocols months ago. They trusted each other with their lives for work, so it made sense for Raeth to trust her with his life the rest of the time, too.

Furthermore, if something were to happen to him, the Pylat and the droids were programmed to recognize her as their new owner. This was the closest thing to a will that Raeth had, and Saudaji was his sole beneficiary.

When Saudaji kissed his cheek, he was instantly reminded of why he loved her. When he got a whiff of her sweat mingling with floral oil, he remembered why he could never stop wanting her.

Smiling dreamily, it took him a moment to answer her question. "Hm? Oh! Yes, it's past lunchtime. We can't have you murder anyone on an empty stomach." After saving his progress on the new security program he was writing, Raeth practically jumped out of his seat, took Saudaji by the hand, and walked with her to the kitchen. This would be one of those meals where he did most of the cooking, rather than Sebastian.

"We've got leftovers I can heat up if it turns out you don't like pickled zog," he said as they exited the flight deck.

*****

Three meals and a good night's rest later, the two assassins landed on Ch'hodos. If Saudaji was in the mood, they even squeezed in a session or two of butt stuff some time before they made planetfall. (Raeth had been really into Saudaji's ass lately; moreso than usual.)

Ch'hodos was the most inhospitable planet they had traveled to together. The surface was covered in either mountains or barren wasteland, except for the patches of land in or around settlements that were terraformed for agriculture. Due to violent sandstorms that occurred semi-regularly, each settlement and farm needed to be encased by colossal, transparisteel domes.

The planet's vast mineral wealth was the only reason why any sentients lived on this planet at all. Even so, many of them considered themselves crazy for choosing to live and work in this hellish landscape, which was dotted by giant daggers of rock that thrust, angrily, towards an equally angry grey-yellow sky.

At least it wasn't one of those lava planets. Those sucked more than anything, yet sentients found a way to live there, too.

The Patient Pylat - under a new name and vessel registration number - was docked in a spaceport located outside of Breeka Dar Mun's protective dome. Before exiting the spaceport, Raeth and Saudaji had to check a monitor that displayed a countdown to the next sandstorm. It said they had over an hour, which was plenty of time to cross the 200 or so meters between the spaceport and the nearest dome gate. Although the sandstorm was an hour away, winds were heavy enough to make walking a little difficult.

Getting inside the dome and away from the elements was a relief. However, Raeth did not remove his heavy, leather coat, nor did he take off the breathing helmet that concealed his entire head. They were part of his disguise, after all.

He had a good look around. Breeka Dar Mun looked almost as unwelcoming as the rest of Ch'hodos. The buildings were all squat, dull-colored squares. Even the places that should have been decorated - a motel, a bar, the fast food restaurants, etc. - had only simple signs that indicated what purpose they served. The people he saw walking on the streets all had dour expressions on their faces, and most watched their feet as they went about their business.

This place obviously wasn't any fun.

Raeth turned his visored gaze towards Saudaji, and shrugged. "Let's go find Deegi." They knew that she worked as a speeder mechanic, so finding the right shop was only a matter of asking around.

As it would turn out -

Hutt delicacy or no, Saudaji was decidedly not a fan of pickled zog.

Her attempts to eat it (because she did honestly, really, and truly, try to eat it) were a true testament to her affection for Raeth. It was only when her face became a very blanched shade of green that it became all too clear that she was one bite away from vomiting.

So that was that.

Her appetite returned in fits and starts as she initially picked at the leftovers. Several glasses of ne’tra gal later, her appetite returned, and she polished off the leftovers with gusto. And, because she felt particularly indebted (and, honestly - not that she ever really needed a reason), after they ate, she eagerly took him to bed.

After all, she still thought she could taste that pickled zog on the base of her tongue.
____

“Well, isn’t this a delightful place.”

Something about sarcasm made her accent particularly sharp - cutting and mean instead of deceptively friendly. Her disguise was much more simple - modified armor. Only a particularly adroit observer could recognize the faint calling cards of Mandalore. It certainly wasn’t the T-shaped visor helmet that she’d worn when she first met him.

As he’d discovered when they started sharing a ship, Saudaji had more than a few suits of armor, and within those, they were nearly infinitely customizable. In their time together on the ship, even though she didn’t have half as much of the technological skill that Raeth had (she was more of a mechanic of sorts - knew enough to hot wire most ships and enough to make whatever repairs with whatever was available. “Close enough,” could be her off-handed mantra), she occasionally tinkered with him. The first time she’d approached him, it’d been adorable - she was as shy and as awkward as a youngling. As she grew in confidence, the shyness was slowly being replaced by a childish glee.

Though many of the sessions had dissolved into playful fucking, just as many were actually productive. She’d adopted all of his suggested modifications - and, amazingly enough, had actually asked him to help her design a new suit of armor. This one would be much more streamlined; more of a robotic suit than armor. It was something that she’d toyed with in the past - armor could always be improved, and something that was easier to get in and out of was always a bonus. What she was wearing today was a fledgling amalgam of their efforts. It was on its way to becoming a streamlined suit of armor, but her knee and elbow joints still jutted out, and there was a clear break in the forearm plate showing where her gauntlets began, and the color was…well, dull, but that was fine. For now, at least.

Over the whole thing was thrown a heavy brown cloak - so despite the plates of metal beneath it, she seemed no different from any of the other downtrodded denizens of the planet. “I bet,” and there was a laugh in her voice, “That even a Hutt could catch crotch-rot in that there brothel,” and she jerked her thumb towards a squat building. Some time, long ago, someone had thought to paint an alluring pin up girl on the side. Sandblasted by time, a much less proficient artist had “thoughtfully” scrawled a crude drawing of an Askajian female, her six breasts flopping about, and various male aliens pawing at them.

“Gah,” she spat, under her helmet, “I just wanna punch the osik outta some shebs and find the ringleader shabuir. And then go do something else. Eat till I get sleepy. Sleep till I get hungry. Whatever."

The time they spent augmenting her armor together became the most recent of his cherished memories. They had not yet been together for a year, yet Raeth had already amassed quite the collection. Previously, he had no reason to think he'd enjoy being an instructor. But Saudaji's endearing eagerness, the speed with which she picked things up, and the knowledge that what they did would help her kill things even more efficiently resulted in Raeth realizing that teaching can be quite fun.

The gleeful fucking that followed roughly half of their tinkering sessions was beyond nice, too. Knowing that Saudaji wanted him as much as he wanted her was one of the reasons why he felt more alive today than ever before. Now if they could just find and kill Mr. Mystery, Raeth could go back to thinking this was the best time of his life.

Even with the sound of his own breath being filtered through his helmet, he could sometimes hear Saudaji's current suit of armor - which he affectionately labeled the Daji Mark 3.1 - when she moved. It was the faint sound of the motors that enhance her already formidable strength. He was able to hear it because he listened for it as they walked. To her, the noise must've been maddening. Even if it wasn't a constant nuisance, it inhibited her ability for stealth.

In his head, the agent was analyzing potential solutions to the Daji Mark 3.1 noise issue, when the huntress made a sarcastic remark about their surroundings. Snapping out of his calculations, he smiled beneath his helmet.

"We've seen worse. At least this place has entertainment."

A minute or two later, they passed by the brothel, which Saudaji pointed out. "You know, I've never done it with an Askajian. How about you?" Wondering if Askajian males also had 6 breasts, Raeth used the datapad strapped to the inside of his forearm to look the answer up on the Holonet.

He smiled again when his partner expressed her desire for violence. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing that. Since we haven't tested your suit out on anything fleshy yet, I'm curious how messy it'll be when you start hitting things.

"I bet it'll be spectacular.

"However, do me a favor, please, and don't kill anyone right away. We might need these people for something. Remember, you'll need to use 'baby punches' until you get accustomed to the system." He knew that Saudaji already held herself back, at least when they sparred. But her power armor required even more restraint, unless she wanted to make someone's head explode with an uppercut.

The search for Deegi wasn't complicated. Breeka Dar Mun wasn't huge, so it only took a couple of inconspicuous questions to locate the speeder shop in which she worked. The place was called Central Speeders, probably because the three-garage building was located near the center of town. The garage doors were shut when they arrived, indicating it was closed. But when they tried the front door, it was open.

"Hello?" Raeth called out to a shop front that was cluttered with miscellaneous mechanical parts, but did not seem to be devoid of life. The lights were on, so someone must've been there.

"Paying customers here with more credits than sense. Helloooo?" No response.

Past the long counter, which had a register, some paperwork, and parts on top of it, there was an open doorway which lead to the garage. Raeth turned to Saudaji and jerked his head towards it, indicating that he was going to check it out.

The lights in the garage were on, but the area was dim compared to the shop front. There were no walls separating the three garages, so it was a wide open space. Two of the three lifts had a speeder occupying it, and the floor was partially covered in heavy equipment, hoses, and more parts.

"Hello? Hmph. Pretty careless to leave this place unattended like this," Raeth observed as he walked deeper into the garage, doing a quick inspection of the speeders as he passed by them.

On the far end of the building, a door opened up. Out came a lumbering Gamorrean who had to squeeze itself through the door that wasn't quite big enough for it. Past its bulky weight, Raeth could see a bathroom.

"Finally, some service. We're loo..."

Before Raeth could finish, the Gamorrean interrupted him with a snarl. "YOU NO BE HERE! EMPLOYEES ONLY!" Then it rushed him.

"Oh fark!" Raeth was startled, but not so much that it prevented him from ducking underneath the round, pig-faced alien's arms when it tried to grab him. "Wait! Wait! I'm looking for Deegi!" The Gamorrean made another grab at him, so he ducked underneath one of the raised speeders, trying to put the lift between him and his attacker.

"Are you Deegi?" He asked as he kept dodging the disgruntled employee. He didn't know what a female Gamorrean looked like, so for all he knew this could be the person they were looking for.

What Raeth did know was that Saudaji would intervene in a matter of moments. He hoped she didn't do anything drastic.

The servos weren’t what she’d call “rusty” – no, far too new for that- but they weren’t…as whisper quiet as she would have wanted them to be. It was an annoyance, but not something that had her teeth set on edge. Rather, it was a new sound that she had to quickly learn to become acclimated to, and not have it be a distraction. Stealth, though – well, she could manage. She’d snuck up on people wearing far noisier gear. Though she did have a sneaking suspicion that Raeth, with all of his perfectionism when it came to technical gear, was driven mad by the minor hissing.

“Never ran across a male in my line of work,” she tossed over her shoulder. “The women tend to be the more adventurous / sociable. I knew one, ages back – sweetest lady ever. Probably has kids in the double digits by now.”

She stopped, flexed her fingers in her suit. There was a stiffness there that she wasn’t entirely sure was caused by the armor or by her hand. “Dunno if constant enhanced strength is the way to go. Could make me lazy.” It was said lightly enough (as by now, she knew a bit better of how to frame her criticisms to him) to let him know that while she was still quite impressed, that there were bugs that needed to be worked out. “ ‘Baby punches.’ Got it.” The last bit was emphasized with a click of the tongue.

The ease of which they found the shop didn’t sit well with her. Saudaji was already “paranoid” by nature, but after their last adventure / mishap, the paranoia had been dialed up. Every moment they were there felt like another step closer to whatever trap this mastermind had set. What was worse was the certainty that it was something she wouldn’t be able to just punch her way out of. Whoever he was, he knew all of their weaknesses, and a new suit of armor would do little to combat that.

As Raeth headed towards the garage, she purposely lagged a few steps behind, as quiet (even with the servos hissing in the joints) as a vro-cat, one foot carefully planted in front of the other. She paused as he went into the garage, straining all of her senses for anything that could have been out of place. A soft scuffling sound – vermin on the floor. No. It was bigger. Much…bigger.

Before she could tell Raeth to stop, the Gamorrean was after him. Her approach was silent, deadly in its absolute speed. As Raeth ducked to avoid the Gamorrean, she’d closed the gap, and, deftly, latched her arms through the Gamorrean’s from behind. For a brief, shuddering moment, the Gamorrean’s feet left the ground as she appeared to lift him effortlessly. The Gamorrean squealed in surprise and anger, flailing about in her tenuous grip.

“Hold still!” she hissed, her grip tightening. “If you keep struggling, I’m going to hurt you!”

Alas, Gamorreans were hired for their strength, and not their intelligence. Still squealing and flailing, Saudaji narrowly avoided catching an elbow to the face, and tightened her grip. A sickening crack echoed within the garage. The Gamorrean’s squeals turned shrill, ragged around the edges. It fell to the ground with a sickening thud – sans arms. Blood spewed in a thick fountain across her chest, the helmet of her armor. Dropping the poor Gamorrean’s arms to the ground as if they’d burned her, she was swearing a blue streak in Mandalorian, loud enough to echo within the garage. Determined to make the best out of what was a rapidly deteriorating situation, she turned to the wailing Gamorrean, who could only look from one ragged stump to the other.

“Where is Deegi?!” Oh, she was pissed. Just at what, or why, however, was anyone’s guess. Shuddering in revulsion (visible even with the armor on), she picked up the Gamorrean’s arms, holding them to her like a child would guard a doll. “Tell us where Deegi is, and you’ll get yer arms back! Ya, you want ‘em? TELL US!”

No sir, that wasn't too drastic at all.

Raeth's heavy blaster pistol was in his hand and set to stun by the time Saudaji grappled with the Gamorrean. He was just about to tell her to shove him away so he could get a clean shot, but the power armored Twi'lek had her own idea for how to incapacitate it.

Blood not only splattered against her, the walls and the floor, some of it also hit Raeth right in the helmet. Momentarily stunned, he wiped his visor clean just in time to witness Saudaji using the Gamorrean's torn arms as a bargaining chip. The scene was as ludicrous as it was horrific, and Raeth couldn't stop himself from blurting out a laugh.

"Call it a hunch, but I don't think it's going to cooperate." He snickered as he holstered his blaster, removed a medkit from one of his many pockets, and knelt beside the armless pig-person. He didn't know whether this was Deegi or not, but he did know that it was dying. The last thing they needed was for their contact to die before they got whatever it is they needed for this mission.

From the medkit, Raeth took out two small syringes pre-loaded with a fast-acting coagulant, which he injected into each of the Gamorrean's stumps to stop the bleeding. The patient was in shock and moments away from passing out, which was a bad sign but at least made it easier to tend to. The coagulant was already working when Raeth applied two thick bacta bandages to the stumps. By applying pressure to the right spots, he caused the bandages to conform to the wounds.

The Gamorrean fell unconscious moments after it was stabilized. Raeth, his hands now covered in green-black blood, lifted his gaze to Saudaji, who still had two fat arms cradled in hers. "If we don't get it to an emergency room, fast, it'll bite it. Do me a favor, if you would, and find some plastic to wrap around those arms. If we can find a competent-enough doctor, they can probably re-attach them.
Maybe it'll be willing to talk if we show it how much trouble we went through to save it." He wanted to make fun of Saudaji for mauling their potential contact, but he stopped the joke from escaping his lips.

Raeth started to look around for a hover lift, wheelbarrow, or something they could use to carry the patient around. Before he could find something, both he and Saudaji spotted movement at the entrance to the garage. Someone was taking half-cover behind the wall and aiming a blaster carbine at them.

A blaster bolt whizzed over his head and hit the lift behind him right as Raeth leapt behind cover and whipped out his pistol again. He glanced at Saudaji, who was also behind cover. "Let's try talking this time, eh? If that doesn't work, stun, not dismemberment." Although Saudaji couldn't see her lover's face, she could hear the smile in his voice despite the noise of erratic blaster fire coming from an old-sounding carbine.

Already riled by the encounter with the Gamorrean, Saudaji’s following actions were pure instinct.

Which, of course, did not always mean that they were the smart thing to do.

Quick as a wink, she’d simply flung the Gamorrean’s arms in the direction of the blaster fire. One of the appendages exploded into a fine mist of dark blood and charred meat, while the other landed against something with a whud. The first arm was thrown with such fluidity and timing, it would take an onlooker a second look to realize that by the time the second arm was thrown, she had crossed nearly half the length of the garage. Raeth would know her well enough that she was more than capable of moving that quickly under her own power.

Her mind, electrified by battle, rattled through her options in seconds:

Shots from behind the wall. Suit’s powerful enough to punch through the wall. Not sure where person is behind wall. Heat seeking capabilities needed. Wait. Can’t punch through wall. Run risk of destroying whatever shabuir is behind it. Gotta stun.

From the full force of her run, Saudaji suddenly dropped, almost as if she’d been hit. Instead, she used the momentum of her running into her fall, sending her into a slide across the floor. Her timing was perfect; the slide itself was unexpected, and it sent her smoothly through the door.

Keep moving keep moving keep moving keep moving keep moving -

From the controlled slide, she rolled onto her hands, a handstand that quickly turned into a spinning kick, her weight supported by her arms. Flashy, yes - but also effective because a moving target is much harder to hit than a stationary one. Even though she was doing her best to “pull” her punches, the sheer momentum of how she was moving meant that there would be a fair amount of destruction. Chunks of the wall, the floor, sand - all were kicked up by her limbs, creating a fair amount of thick dust. Enough cover for her to stand still for a handful of seconds and scout the room effectively.

A flicker of movement to her left, and Saudaji was moving again, slamming her heel down into the floor. With the added power of the suit, the floor splintered. She kicked up a small wedge of it, and sent it flying across the room. Waited - and was rewarded seconds later with a yowl of pain and the blaster fire stopping.

"Now would be a good time to stop. I don't want to have to kill you." Saudaji spoke louder than she needed to - both to alert this person to her presence (and serve as a reminder, as if the brief skirmish wasn't enough, that she was indeed a threat), and to signal Raeth that things were clear.

"Fark, what's wrong with you?!" The voice was nearly plaintive. As the dust settled, a woman stepped forward. She was holding onto her left wrist, and kicked her blaster out of the way. "You come in here and trash my shop! I gotta make a living! I think my wrist is broken! You lunatic!"

Beneath her armor, Saudaji allowed herself an eyeroll. Before she'd found Raeth unconscious and naked in a shower, she might have felt a little guilty.

"I don't think you realize how lucky you are that I didn't kill you on sight," she hissed, her voice dangerous. Through the modified filters of her helmet, it carried a surprising amount of menace. "That could still change."

Saudaji stepped forward now, her hands clenched at her sides. "What do you have for us?"

Raeth's helmet peeked out from the side of the speeder he used as cover. He saw almost none of Saudaji's deadly acrobatics. However, he had watched her train enough to know how horrifically dangerous she was on her own. Plus he was so confident in his own engineering abilities that he was sure her upgraded armor basically turned her into a tank with two legs.

A sexy tank with two legs, two big, succulent breasts and an ass you could lose yourself in (Raeth knew from experience).

Before he got too caught up in imagining what it would be like to fuck a tank, Raeth heard Saudaji threatening someone on the other side of the wall. A second later, he saw her give him an "all clear" signal. He hopped to his feet, holstered his blaster whose barrel was still cold, and made his way to the front of the shop.

"Thanks for not tearing this one's arms off," he said, cheerfully, when he saw the person who tried to kill them was injured but very much alive.

He presumed this woman was Deegi. Saudaji did as well, judging by her question. Raeth reached into the pocket where he kept some high-value credit chips for bribes and such. He suspected he'd have to dish out a bribe so they could leave this garage without getting hassled by the authorities...assuming this mining town actually had authorities, and that it wasn't completely under the control of Mr. Mystery.

Deegi, cradling her rapidly swelling wrist, looked at the two of them with a mixture of horror, terror, and impotent anger. She’d seen enough to know that any sort of physical attack against the two, particularly the one in armor standing directly in front of her (and who was directly responsible for kicking chunks out of the floor) would end very, very poorly for her.

Still, she had some pride.

Stumbling to her feet, she glared at the two of them. Her glare melted as Saudaji took one ominous, half a step forward. The Twi’lek didn’t need to say a word. She tilted her chin up. Deeji visibly swallowed and paled.

“You are Deegi, correct?”

Deegi nodded, numbly.

“You’ve got something for us.” It was a question in the form of a statement.

“H..here,” and to Deegi’s credit, she barely stumbled over the words. With her good hand, she reached into a pouch on the front of her oil-stained coverall. Holding out her gloved hand, a dull silver holo-communicator was in it. “This. And one of my best speeders.”

Now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off, so had all of Deegi’s bravado. Suddenly wracked with tears, her chin wobbled. Finally registering that Saudaji’s armor was covered in some bodily fluid, she let out a choking sob.

Saudaji was impassive. “It’s…alive,” she said, flatly. “Though it won’t be for long if you don’t act quickly. Too bad about the arms - you shot one of them. Might be able to save the other.”

“…What…?” Deegi’s eyes widened as she caught Saudaji’s meaning. Her pale face washed a shade paler. “…You monster. You MONSTER!”

Saudaji didn’t so much as budge as the other woman yelled at her. All she did was hold up a single finger and wagged it back and forth. Her meaning crystal clear, Deegi quickly stumbled back, shaking.

“I’d also have that looked at. Probably broken. No permanent damage. Though, if you give us trouble, I can remedy that.” Saudaji looked over her shoulder at Raeth. Presumably, he’d have something to ease the woman’s troubles. She turned to walk away from Deegi. Took a few steps.

Then stopped, and turned.

Deegi froze - too terrified to even shake in terror.

“I’m curious - why did you take this job?” Her voice, partially filtered through the helmet, betrayed no emotion.

“…Credits…I…I was just supposed to give you something, and that was it! No one said anything about two lunatics coming in and killing everything in sight!” Ballsy, but the mind could do funny things.

Saudaji could have explained things - they had been attacked first, after all. And it was after they’d announced themselves a few times. Or she could have punched Deegi through the wall for being involved in this to begin with. Choices, choices.

In the end, however, she did neither.

“…Credits.” The word sat heavy in the air between them, a mild, dismissive disdain flavoring it. Saudaji turned to Raeth, not deigning to look back at Deegi. Her message to Raeth was clear - pay her and let’s get the hell out of here.

“Yes, Ma’am," Raeth responded to the unspoken message. He could tell that Saudaji was pissed. It was an ‘I’m an emotionless killing machine’ kind of pissed that reminded him of the cold shoulder she used to give him. He couldn’t help but mentally play back the last time she acted distant towards him, which was a memory that nearly made him shudder.

Reaching into his ‘bribe pocket’, the Imperial agent took out most of the non-traceable credit chips contained within, quickly checked them, then showed them to Deegi. “There’s 30,000 credits here. That’s enough to cover your medical bill, and to save your friend’s life.”

He glanced over his shoulder at the crime scene that he and Saudaji (let’s face it, it was all Saudaji) left. One of the Gamorrean’s arms lay on the floor, looking broken and pathetic, while the other had been reduced to little more than a few charred chunks. Damage to Deeli’s garage was kept to a minimum, but the floor of the storefront was ruined. Raeth imagined how bad the place would’ve looked if Saudaji hadn’t held back.

“It should also be enough to pay for a couple of cybernetic arms for...him? Plus a new floor. Whatever’s left over is yours to keep, so long as you don’t tell anyone about us, yeah? Tell the doctors that your friend had a workplace accident. Gamorreans are generally stupid, so no one will be surprised that one hurt himself so horribly.”

Raeth began to follow Saudaji into the garage to pick up their new ride. Before he stepped through the doorway, he had a final message for Deegi. “You really should get your friend to a doctor ASAP. And thanks for the speeder.” He flashed her a friendly thumb’s up then left her alone.

The speeder that Mr. Mystery arranged for them to use was covered in dirt, but underneath was a machine that looked like it could take a beating. This make and model did not have flight capabilities, which was fine; Ch’hodos’ sand storms could knock anything smaller than a fighter out of the air, so bulky land units like this one were a better option.

Before they rode off, Raeth used a hand-held scanner and his own eyes to check for bugs, explosives, or other nasty surprises. He even popped the hood to ensure everything there was where it was supposed to be. After a fairly quick yet thorough inspection, he slammed the hood back into place, then nodded to his partner. “It’s clean. Let’s get rolling. I’ll navigate.”

Her departure was ominously silent.

Though, with their recent closeness, he could probably sense that her silence wasn’t directed at him. Beneath all of the prickly quiet, she was thoughtful. Calculating. The suit would need tweaks, yes, but it moved with her better than any other suit she’d worn before. That in and out of itself was notable. There wasn’t any lag in its response time; moving in it was the same as moving without it.

And so on.

She was quiet until they were comfortably out of earshot, and then, surprisingly, let out a soft sigh. It was a freeing of adrenaline - calm after a battle.

“Want me to drive, then?”

"Yes, please. Unless you're worried you'll rip out the steering wheel with your monstrous, new strength." Raeth's smile wasn't visible, but Saudaji could hear it in his voice.

The vehicle that they drove away the shop, the distressed woman and one possibly dead Gamorrean was a heavy-duty landspeeder specifically designed for this planet's harsh environment. The cabin was enclosed by thick metal and a transparisteel windshield. Raeth was sure this thing could withstand some serious blaster damage, but he wasn't too keen on testing that out. On either side were retractable treads that could drop down and replace the repulsorlifts during one of Ch'hodos' frequent sandstorms, thus turning the vehicle into more of a tank than a speeder.

Shortly after they drove out of the dome that surrounded Breeka Dar Mun, the two assassins saw a sandstorm gather on the horizon. Within minutes, a colossal wall of red sand appeared in their path. It looked like a living thing, a monster, rushing forward to gobble them up. Lightning streaked within the sand wall, which gave Raeth even more reason to appreciate how thick the speeder's armor was. He flipped the switch that lowered the treads and engaged tank mode.

"It's quite beautiful, don't you think? Beautiful in a 'it'll tear you to shreds' kind of way. It's like you in that regard." Raeth had removed his helmet, so Saudaji could see him grinning at her.

"You're my killer sandstorm, Saudaji."

Moments later, they were engulfed by the storm, which managed to shake the speeder despite all of its weight. The storm was both deafening and blinding. Raeth switched on the flood lights atop the cabin, which barely improved visibility at all. Even if their tank was capable of going any faster, they would have still gone slow in order to navigate around the many tall, jagged rock formations that stabbed out of the desolate ground like giant daggers.

It was no wonder why they needed to use a landspeeder instead of simply flying the Pylat to the Sith facility. Because of the storm, they were liable to completely miss what they were looking for unless they were right on top of it.

"Scanners are borked," Raeth stated, matter-of-fact, while looking at his forearm-mounted datapad. He had to speak up in order to be heard over the storm. Talking to Saudaji like this reminded him of the last time they were at a club. "Minerals in the soil are interfering with them. GPS works, but barely. We'll have to drive to the location, wait for the storm to pass, and then search for the entrance on foot.

"I may not be able to use my spy flies outdoors. But once we're inside the facility, I should be able to give you intel on enemy positions, security, and whatnot. We can finally test how well your suit performs during sustained combat." Raeth was, of course, confident that Saudaji would destroy whatever resistance they encountered. But seeing and recording her in action provided valuable data with which they could improve her armor.

He checked his datapad again. "Continue heading southwest. We'll be driving in this direction for a long while." Raeth put his feet up on the control panel, but it was cramped, so he changed his mind.

With a long drive ahead of them, they had plenty of time to talk. Or they could just sit in what would have been silence if not for the winds that howled and buffeted the side of their armored vehicle.

“Eh, well, it wouldn’t be the only thing I ripped out today. Didja see that Gamorrean’s arms? I thought I was gonna lose my lunch.” She made a gagging motion, before a comical shudder. Assassins had all sorts of idiosyncrasies - and hers, no matter how many missions they’d been on, no matter how many people she’d dispatched without so much as a second thought, she still couldn’t handle gore. Even the smallest bit of blood was enough to turn her jade complexion a deeper shade of green. “But I think I can handle driving.” She gave her fingers an experimental flex. Okay. Driving she could do.

Unless the speeder decided to attack her.

_____

She was able to handle the bulky speeder with ease - something that was indicative of her experience of hot-wiring nearly anything she could get her hands on. The problem that she kept running into, however, wasn’t handling the speeder, but being caught up in the glory of the storm around them.

At his comment on the beauty of the storm, and then his subsequent compliment, she scoffed, looking away. Though she could tell anyone exactly how Raeth’s cock tasted, this little compliment was enough to cause a faint flush to rise to her cheeks. “Aw, you,” was all she said, elbowing him lightly in the side. Inside of the speeder, her helmet was off, though she still wore the rest of the armor.

Even though the wind was howling outside, and it was difficult to hear within the belly of the speeder, the trip was far from silent. Even with the noise, she still managed to drown it out with stories about growing up on Mandalore. They were stories full of mischief, brothers and sisters, prank wars gone out of control, hiding from a raging mother, waiting for father to get home to take her side. Surprisingly enough, Saudaji was not the baby of the family. Saboten was older than her by a few years, and out of her (very) large family, she actually was closer to the middle child. “Three more after me,” she said, demonstrating by holding up three fingers. “About 3 before me. With Bot’ika and me, 8 all together. Ma said she wanted an even number. Guess she was gonna get it one way or the other: she’s the youngest out of 7 - always wanted a baby sister or brother instead of being the baby herself. Oh, man, did I tell you about when Boy let out the strills?”

And so it went.

Raeth had more than his fair share of weird behavior, and yet he still chuckled at how Saudaji got queasy at the sight of blood. He even talked about how adorably odd it was.

"You're among the most casually violent people I know, which says a lot considering who signs our checks. And the way you ripped that dude's arms off surprised even me. But the way you handle the aftermath is so weird.

"It's endearing, too. Endearing and weird. Mostly weird."

He smiled at the side of her jade face while the sandstorm displayed its terrible power on the other side of the transparisteel windshield. Raeth adored her face. Although it was scarred, it was still pretty. Saudaji's face was emblematic of the entire woman - strong, beautiful, and just the right kind of fucked up.

"You don't mind that I can't stop staring at you, right?"

For the remainder of the heavy speeder ride, Raeth listened in uncharacteristic quiet to Saudaji's childhood tales. He genuinely wanted to know more about her. With anyone else, the only reason why he'd pay attention to what they said was because he wanted to learn their weaknesses, learn how to get them where it really hurts. But he didn't want to hurt her; not anymore. In fact, he suspected she was now capable of hurting him more than anyone else possibly could.

Deep down, he was okay with that.

A beeping from his wrist-mounted datapad snapped him out of his Saudaji-centered musings. "We're almost there. Turn fifteen degrees to the right…yeah, that's it. Now keep driving for one more click."

Another, more urgent series of beeps told them that they had arrived at their destination. From there, they would have to get out and use hand-held scanners and other equipment to locate a structure, a hatch buried underneath the sand, or some other sign of a complex hidden somewhere out there in the storm-swept wastes.

After the engine was shut off and before they got out of the vehicle, Raeth leaned towards Saudaji, wrapped his fingers around her neck, and drew her in for a deep, lusty kiss. She could have easily resisted, of course, but hopefully she hungered for a taste of his soft lips and his nimble tongue as much as he hungered for a taste of hers. Besides, once they suited up, there was no telling when they'd be able to make out again.

Once he had the pleasant Saudaji aftertaste on his tongue, Raeth pressed his forehead to hers for a few beats, then leaned back. Next, he picked his helmet up from the dashboard and lowered it over his head. The base of the helmet snapped onto his environmental suit, and a flip of a switch caused oxygen to pour inside. He turned to her, but because the front of his helmet was opaque, she couldn't see his face.

"Ready to go when you are." His digital-sounding voice came in through her earpiece.

Pushing open the door to the speeder took a great deal of effort thanks to the sandstorm. Saudaji would have a much easier time of it, though, since her already formidable strength was augmented by the latest iteration of her armor. Outside of the speeder's protection, the storm was deafening, which was why both of their helms blocked off sound from the outside.

Looking at the screen of his datapad was pointless in this environment, so Raeth instead relied on the glowing data that was displayed on the inside of his visor.

"This way," he told the Twi'lek over the comms. With their instruments telling them where to go, they began their search for trouble.

His kiss was eagerly met. She held it, her fingers tangling through the fine hair at the nape of his neck. She broke it, only to breathe, breaking away each time with a gentle kiss to his lower lip. When the kiss eased to an end, she kept her forehead pressed against his, trailing her fingers down the side of his face.

She didn’t say anything else after that.

It wasn’t for a lack of desire - that was never an issue with her. It was the opposite: it was because of fear that she didn’t say anything. Fear that if she voiced what was twisting her guts, it would become truth. To acknowledge how terrified, no, beyond that, she’d been when she saw him in the tub. She still saw him like that, in the nightmares that still shook her from the depths of her sleep.

As he suited up, she did the same, her mouth settling into a grim line. She had to admit to her fear; otherwise, it would continue to rule her. To cause her to seize up. She couldn’t afford that. Settling her lekku under her helmet, she took in a deep, steading breath. She would get through this. They would get through this. And this time, she would be sure to protect him. Even at the cost of her own life.

It took mere moments for her to follow him, then, to step in front of him. “I’ll take point,” she said. It was clear that it wasn’t open to suggestion.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Grinning behind his visor, Raeth watched Saudaji take the lead. Sure, her bulky, powered armor didn't show off her body at all, but that didn't stop him from admiring her ass. He numerous images of the Twi'lek's gorgeous, green behind archived in his mind, and he drew upon them whenever he pleased.

"Hey, Saudaji. When you take your armor off, will you let me lick the sweat from your crack before you shower?" Raeth's playfulness was coming in, loud and clear, through the comms.

Unlike Raeth's libido, the sand storm was showing signs of weakening. However, the winds were still rough enough to make walking difficult. They made Raeth stumble now and then, and he cursed each time. When his scans pointed him in the direction of the winds, he had to lean into them. When his scans pointed in the opposite direction, he had to lean back, which didn't stop the winds from occasionally forcing him into a jog.

The weather wouldn't have given Saudaji nearly as much trouble, thanks to her augmented strength.

"Cripes, this is obnoxious," he complained a little over an hour after their scanning began. They took shelter behind a large rock outcropping only a couple hundred meters away from the heavy speeder. Raeth needed to be out of the winds in order to better review the data they've collected thus far. The storm slowed them down, significantly, but at the same time it obfuscated their presence from whatever it was they were searching for, hence why they performed these scans now rather than after the storm passed.

He took a long drink of water through the straw inside of his helmet before saying, "The mineral deposits of this area are messing with the scans. I doubt that's a coincidence. Just give me a few minutes to recalibrate and filter out some of the garbage."

Raeth programmed both his and Saudaji's scanners to stop picking up certain minerals. "Ranite - useless. Exonium - useful, but not what we're looking for. Don't need that. Don't need that. Definitely don't need that." He thought out loud while his fingers tapped on his datapad.

"There. That should cut down on wasted time, considerably." Raeth looked up from his pad to his partner. "Do you see the kammris reading on your display? Let's check that out, next."

Saudaji's HUD did, indeed, indicate that a mass of kammris was located over a hundred meters away from their current position. Kammris was usually used in the construction of starships, but it wasn't out of the question to find the metal used in planetside structures, too.

The two assassins marched away from the tower-like, black rock that protected them from the winds and made their way toward the newest reading.

*****

Blaster bolts pummeled the rocks behind which Raeth and Saudaji sought cover.

"I think we're getting hotter," Raeth said over the comms, his voice dripping with mirth. Something was trying to kill them, but that didn't dampen his mood; he was just happy to be out of the storm.

Following the kammris signal brought had brought them to a cave. The entrance was small - barely big enough for them to squeeze through one at a time - but the short tunnel it lead to opened up into an enormous cavern. They had just begun to investigate the cavern when multiple turrets popped out from the ceiling and the floor ahead of them and began to blast away.

Raeth glanced at Saudaji, who appeared to him as a bluish silhouette. on his HUD. It was pitch black inside of the cavern, so he had to switch to a version of night vision that he personally developed. Everything he saw had an eerie, ghostly quality to it, as well as different colors. His environment suit and Saudaji's armor were blue, objects in the environment were gray, the turrets were yellow and red, and the bolts they were firing were bright red.

"The turrets are automated," he announced after confirming his guess with his datapad. "I'll attempt to hack 'em."

Raeth didn't sound concerned. Why should he have been? The rock that was providing them cover was nice and thick, so the turrets' bolts wouldn't get through anytime soon. Besides, he figured Saudaji would take out most of the turrets before he even had a chance to hack.

"Let's hope those things aren't armed with grenades, huh?" Okay, there was at least one reason to worry. Still, the agent laughed.

Raeth took out a little box from one of his many pockets and opened it up. One of his fly drones buzzed into the air. He took control of the diminutive drone via his pad and flew it onto one of the turrets, for he needed it to physically interface with the turrets' linked computer system.

He was in a bit of a hurry, because it was probable that Saudaji would destroy the turrets before he could do anything. He quickly discovered that shutting the turrets down would have been possible, but time intensive, so he opted to mess with their targeting systems instead.

"There," he said after sabotaging the turrets' sensors. They still detected them as threats, but now they fired wildly. "That should make things easier." He drew his heavy blaster and began to take pot shots at the closet, computer-controlled gun.

She didn’t so much as flinch at the first volley of blaster fire.

She’d gone quiet during the walk, letting Raeth do his normal chatter. It was soothing to her, the sound of his voice, his attempt to keep things light hearted. If she didn’t know him as well, it’d be easy to be fooled into thinking that he wasn’t as worried or concerned as she was. Still, she had to get her head straight. There was still that sickening, underlying fear - that this could be it, that she would lose him; she’d fire too late, not sense something in time - a myriad of things that could go wrong. She had to acknowledge the fear, and not get sucked into it. Her silence as she walked through the storm was that. If her thoughts could be read, they would be a mantra - a checking and rechecking of the weapons within her suit, the capabilities of her body should the suit fail. And so on.

Now, under the volley of fire, the serenity was still there. Though there was no break in the fire, she was skilled enough to be able to calculate, in an instant, where the fire was coming from. She’d lean around their cover, aim, shoot one, twice; one turret down. For her, shooting down automated firing systems was no different than target practice. And with the new suit and its ability to hold heavier arms, it was almost a joke.

“Here’s the problem,” her voice was even. She wasn’t even breathing hard. “If anyone got this far - if they weren’t wiped out by the storms - Ah, hold on,” she leaned over again, taking a few careful shots. Another turret down. “This would still be a cake walk - I don’t like any of this,” and then, if he was listening, there was her tell. There was a strain in her voice, a cracking through of that fear. The next breath she took, her following comment died. She fired again, knocking out another turret. It didn’t make sense to breath out her fear. That would make it tangible. Now, still buried in her gut, it was a possibility - not the reality.

By the time Raeth’s tinkering took effective, there were scant few turrets left - which she swiftly dispatched. She waited, took in a deep breath. Held it. And let it slowly slip past her lips. Standing from her crouched position, she took a tentative step from around the rock. The chamber, for all of its size, was eerily silent now, as if no shoot out had ever taken place. She could feel a cool bead of sweat start at the base of her lekku.

“It’s all clear.” Her voice was strange to her; it sounded small, dwarfed by the cave. She scowled, unseen beneath her helmet. “For now. Are you detecting anything else up ahead?” Before he could answer, she was already taking cautious steps forward.

"What's not to like?" Raeth asked while Saudaji destroyed the remaining turrets. "We're being bossed around by someone we don't know, we're investigating a secret complex in a cave for who-knows-why, there are turrets shooting at us, and there's probably a lot more danger waiting for us further inside. This is about as fun as anything else we do on a Benduday night."

Moments later, the blaster fire stopped, for Saudaji had taken out the final turret. The cavern was as quiet as a tomb once again. Raeth imagined that the air was thick with the smell of super-heated plasma thanks to all the blaster bolts that had been fired. He felt a bit of regret that his helmet prevented him from smelling it, because the smell of the air after a firefight was among his favorite things.

Raeth was already scanning for more threats when Saudaji asked about them. "It's clear up ahead." He stepped out of cover, following her.

The two assassins were both careful as they approached the line of turrets, all of which were blown to pieces by the Twi'lek's heavy-duty blaster. When he got closer, Raeth noticed that there were only a few scorch marks on the rocks behind the turrets, which indicated that most of Saudaji's shots found their marks. He admired her accuracy.

"Nice shooting." His fly drone had been destroyed as well, but that didn't matter; he had a few more tucked away in his pockets, and he could always make more.

Beyond the turrets, they found what appeared to be a dead end. Neither of them fell for it, of course. After all, why would someone install turrets to protect an empty cave? Following a scan that took several minutes, Raeth identified a door hidden behind a rock that was bigger than both of them put together. Rather than try to figure out the mechanism that moved the rock aside, he asked Saudaji to, literally, do the heavy lifting.

"Want to give your strength enhancements a try? I'm guessing that thing's about a ton. I wouldn't recommend trying to lift it over your head, but you should be able to drag it aside, easy."

Saudaji's impressive, natural strength and the boost it received from her armor did, indeed, make moving a one-ton boulder possible. She may have broken a sweat, though.

"Whoo. It's so hot when you do that." Raeth meant it. He conducted another scan, this one on her armor to see how it was holding up after the firefight and the test of strength. Everything was still in the green.

Now that the boulder was out of the way, they could see an elevator door on the other side. It was child's play for Raeth to plug his datapad into its panel and get it open.

"Ready when you are," he said, gesturing to the open elevator. "Lady's first."
The two of them then descended into the depths of the complex, not knowing what they were supposed to find. Raeth didn't tell Saudaji, but he was actually excited to find out what was there.

*****

The first thing that Raeth and Saudaji found were multiple floors, each one filled with battle-ready droids. The droids were armed with blasters, flame throwers, or electricity throwers, and a few were even armed with grenade launchers. But despite all of that firepower being used against them, the pair still made short work out of every group of synthetic guards they found.

There were a few close calls, but in the end each of the floors they checked became littered with charred droid parts.

"I'm getting a lot of valuable metrics from your performance," Raeth said over the comm after Saudaji destroyed yet another droid. The data that he had recorded over the past hour or so of combat scrolled upon the inside of his visor. "I've already got some tweaks in mind to make you a little faster, but it'll come at the cost some armor. You'll have to tell me what you prefer: more protection, or more speed."

The agent shut off the data scroll so he could look around. They had just cleared out a third floor of this mystery complex, and nothing of value had yet been found. What they saw thus far made it clear that this place was some sort of medical testing facility. But the first three floors had nothing but empty labs and computer consoles with no interesting data stored upon them. Raeth saved the data he found on a stick, anyway, so he could take his time and analyze the data back on the Patient Pylat.

One of the only useful bits of info they got off one of the computers was a floor plan to the facility. The plan didn't reveal what the facility's purpose was, or what sorts of goodies were contained where, but at least it showed them that there were 13 floors, total.

Raeth wanted to take his helmet off, since it was getting stuffy in there. But he was afraid that there could have been a toxin or some disease in the air that his suit's scanners didn't detect. So he kept the helmet on. He could tolerate it, but not for much longer. Not only was he feeling hot and impatient, but he was getting tired, too.

"Feh; this is getting boring." Raeth complained while he ejected the spent gas cartridge from his blaster pistol and slapped in a fresh one. "What do you say we just take the elevator down to the bottom level and see what's there? All the best stuff is always on the last level, right?

"By the way, how are you doing on ammo?"

“Ammo’s fine,” she said, flatly. There was no annoyance in her voice towards him; if anything, a general fatigue. Better that than fear.

The suit was performing without a hitch - not that she expected anything less from Raeth, and even after moving the boulder, she didn’t feel so much as a twinge between her shoulder blades. If anything, her unease was all of the convoluted nature. Whoever was pulling their strings was intelligent - clearly so. And even if she had questioned every single person that they’d interacted with since this fiasco started, she wouldn’t be any closer to where she was now.

The fact that this seemed to be in a medical testing facility really, really did not sit well with her. It wasn’t built the same way as a hospital. She wasn’t fond of anything resembling hospitals to begin with, but this set up was eerie. In her years of hunting down other beings, it had all been so simple. Bounty on this being’s head - catch them dead or alive. There was no political intrigue, no working behind the shadows. It just was.

She supposed, not for the first time, that perhaps she should have thought taking this particular job offer through a little more than she had initially. But, on the same hand, if she hadn’t taken this job, she would have never met Raeth. So perhaps it would all balance out in the wash.

“I don’t know how exploratory you’re feeling,” her voice seemed unnaturally loud in the stillness, “But I really don’t like this.” She didn’t have to underscore her words for him to pick up on the anxiety she was feeling. The fact that she’d repeated herself was testament alone to how out of her depth and uneasy she was. Not that she would perform any less because of the fear, but it was excruciating not to know. Not to be prepared. For all of Raeth’s intellect, that was twice so far that whoever this person was could have killed them. And though, more than anything, she wanted to believe in her own strength and abilities, the longer they went through this, the more time she had in her head. The more she began to consider what would she do, what would need to be done, to get him out of here safely, even if it meant her own death. That, she was fine with. But still, as much as she tried to banish the thoughts from her head, every time she closed her eyes, she was assailed with seeing him bound in the tub.

“Let’s get to where we’re going and get the hell out of here.”

"Okay, then!" Raeth sounded cheerful, but Saudaji likely knew him well enough to understand it was an act.

Of course he wasn't happy about any of this. Here he was - a guy who wasn't accustomed to being outsmarted, a guy who thought he had all the answers - doing the bidding of someone who outsmarted him not once, but twice. And to make matters worse, the agent had no clue who was pulling at his and Saudaji's strings. It could be someone working for the Sith, the Republic, a Core Worlds crime syndicate, or maybe some unknown empire from the far reaches of space. Hell, it might even be an unbelievably resourceful independent operator or team of operators. (If they were independent, Raeth hoped it was a team, because he couldn't bear the thought of an individual beating him so thoroughly.)

Although Raeth was infuriated and humiliated by the back-to-back defeats, the back-to-back near-death experiences, his compulsion to find out the identify of his tormentor outweighed his anger and his damaged pride. If there was one thing that Raeth could not stand, it was an unanswered question.

Hoping that at least some answers could be found in the medical facility's bottom level, he went to the elevator and took control of his fly drone. The drone crawled through the tiny gap between the elevator and the floor, popped out below the elevator, and then flew all the way down the shaft to level B13. Through the drone's hi-tech eyes, Raeth scouted for more battle droids, anyone made of flesh and bone, or any other potential threat. There were none to be found. The only things he could see were empty, bronze-colored halls, a few empty rooms - one of which looked like a monitoring station - and a sealed gate at the end of the longest hall.

"No threats," he told his partner before minimizing the drone footage on his HUD. The two assassins entered the elevator, and Raeth was about to tap the button for B13 when he suddenly realized that the button didn't exist.

"Hmph. I guess someone from a security station is supposed to send the elevator to the 13th floor. Fuck that.

"This will only take a minute." Raeth withdrew a tiny, electric screwdriver from one of his belt cases and unscrewed the elevator's panel, revealing a mess of wires and circuits. He then connected his wrist-mounted datapad to the panel's interior.

It took nearly ten minutes to get the elevator moving, not the minute that Raeth claimed, but the elevator did get them to the bottom floor. A quick sweep of the floor's few rooms confirmed what the drone had shown him - it was dead down here. Aside from the heavily-secured gate, there was nothing of interest except for a security station and a computer in another room. Raeth stored the data from the computer on a data stick.

"The data's encrypted," he mentioned while files were getting copied onto the stick. "Looks like a pretty complicated encryption, too. It'll take some time to figure out.

"I'll take care of it on the Pylat." Once the transfer was done, he snatched the data stick off the computer. "For now, let's see what's behind Door #1."

The security gate proved to be a challenge that Raeth worked on for over half an hour. During that time, he cursed in frustration more than once.

"Farking bastard! I'm this close to just blowing this farker up." Regardless of what he said, he had no real intention of doing so. The doors appeared to be made of several inches of ferroceramic, which meant that it'd take hours to blowtorch their way through, assuming a blowtorch would even work. As for explosives, they did have a few thermal detonators on them, which might have done the trick. But blasting the doors open like that could also damage or destroy whatever was stored within. Unlocking them the hard way was thus the preferable approach.

Finally, Raeth heard the affirmative beep and saw the green light on the panel that indicated the doors were unlocked. "About time! Whew!" He was sweating under his helmet and under his sealed suit, and wishing he could take a shower right about now. But more than that, he was happy to see the way ahead was opening.

The heavy-duty doors slid apart laboriously. Before they fully opened, the lights in the chamber beyond switched on automatically, which startled Raeth and made him whip out his blaster pistol. He aimed his blaster from left to right, but saw no apparent threats. Instead, what he saw was a gargantuan warehouse-like area. Within it were rows upon rows of upright tanks filled with dark orange, syrupy liquid. And floating in the liquid were humanoid shapes, one in each tank.

"This got creepy real quick. Standby." Raeth sent his spy fly into the gigantic chamber to scout it out. Like the rest of this level, there were no signs of any droids, turrets, or anything else that would try to kill them. It made sense; these tanks looked delicate, and whoever was floating within them wouldn't be able to withstand heavy blaster fire.

"All clear." Raeth waited for Saudaji to enter before he followed, still standing in a firing position in case his drone missed something.

He stopped at one of the closest tanks and noticed that this one - along with all the others he saw - had a monitor and other electronics attached to its base. The monitor was blank, so he tapped it, which caused it to come alive with information. As expected, vital signs and other physiological metrics were displayed by the screen. Whoever was inside the tank was in a state of suspended animation.

Raeth cast his gaze to the figure inside the tank. The syrup he was dunked in was opaque enough to obscure the person's facial features; he appeared as little more than a floating silhouette. The only thing Raeth could tell was that the figure was male.

"I know this sounds cliché, but I have a really bad feeling about this," Raeth said as his gaze drifted from one tank to another, then another, then another. He quickly counted well over a hundred tanks. He wasn't kidding about that bad feeling; he actually felt a little nauseous for reasons he couldn't quite identify.

"They're either clones, prisoners, or Sith VIPs. Maybe some combination of the three."

Unlike Raeth, Saudaji wasn’t looking, or even considering, a bigger picture. Her thought process was find this shai’buir, beat the ever loving crap out of him, kill him, and figure it out from there. In her life, the simplest approach had typically been the correct one. Any time that was spent lamenting over what could have been was time that was lost.

Still, it was getting harder and harder to keep up the facade. She knew that they were both doing their best to keep up a good face, him perhaps moreso than her. This had to be eating at him twice as much as her. Though perhaps it may not have been the best thing to do, as he was working on the elevator, she took off her helmet. Shook out her lekku, and gently ran a hand over them. They were sensitive to pressure and temperature change, much like any other appendage, though too much pressure on the base of them was to toy with potential brain damage. The helmet, thankfully, didn’t even come close to posing a remote threat to the delicate nerves within the lekku, but keeping them pinned down for any amount of time was trying.

But it wasn’t the only reason, or even the main reason. Though he kept his own helmet on, she leaned down and kissed the side of it, where his cheek would be. Pressing her face against the chill metal momentarily, she leaned on him enough for one, two, three breaths to fog against its reflective surface. When it seemed she would pull away, she leaned forward, pressing her chest against his back.

“Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, Rae’ika,” she whispered against his ear. From the slight hitch in her breath, it sounded like she wanted to say more - but stopped herself. It would certainly tempt whatever entity that was out there if she did. She tried again, and all that came out was a strangled sort of laugh. It felt like the right thing to do was to bookend it with an insult - to take some of the tension out of the situation. To reassure the both of them that they were going to make it out of this just fine. “Even though you’re a pompous shai’bur that steals all the covers and a sexual deviant.” She was standing up now, ending her last sentence with an amiable clap on the shoulder. Her fingers lingered, and she squeezed gently, hoping that even just a fraction of how she felt could get through to him.







The elevator ride was a quiet one. Saudaji was startled that her breathing wasn’t audible outside of the helmet. As soon as they were moving forward, she’d put it back on.

And panic that she hadn’t experienced in years rushed over her, knotting her stomach so painfully that she thought she was going to be sick within the confirms of her helmet. “Sinking” was barely beginning to describe the ice in her veins, how her feet were glued to the floor. She hadn’t experienced fear, true, life changing fear, in decades. And as Raeth continued to work on the security gate, it just bubbled, boiled, rolled in her stomach until she had to wrench her helmet off again. Her chest was heaving, and she was taking deep, gasping breaths. If Raeth tried to go to her side, she simply held up a hand, warning him away.

I have to get it together.

Then, that sudden, weak, fumbling laugh from her again. When she lifted her head to look at him, her jade skin had paled to nearly gray, sweat beading on her forehead.

“Shabla, I love you,” she said, again, and chuckled, as if the depth of the emotion was like running across 500 credits in the street.

I wouldn’t be losing it this bad if I wasn’t this scared of losing him.

“Wanna get married after this?” she added, lightly. “We can run away to Canto Bight. Do it up in style. Get super wasted and divorced the next day. What do you say? We can even get some awful tattoos, too. I’ve never been to Canto Bight - did you know that? Well, I haven’t, and they say that a relationship’s built on promises that neither party can keep, or whatever. So let’s write our ridiculous love story about how Mom and Dad, after narrowly escaping with their lives from the galaxy’s worst hospital decided to finally stop playing around and get serious and then they nearly drank themselves blind and wound up in a seedy jail under Canto Bight. D’you hear that? Not even good enough to be jailed above ground - that’s how incredible this is going to be.”

Her words were frenetic, but her tone was as light as if she wasn’t swallowing down hideous fear.

He stepped away from her, and her face grew paler. She wasn’t sure what was in those tanks; she couldn’t bring herself to look at them, not yet. Not when she still felt like there was so much left to say, but the words weren’t coming close to touching the surface of how she actually felt, and the minute she actually said them, they felt like little more than dead leaves. If he took one more step forward, she felt as if he was going to step off of a chasm, never to be seen again.

“Wait!” She suddenly grasped his arm, holding him back. Realizing what she’d done, how unprofessional it was, she gripped her helmet tighter to her side with the free hand. She needed to let him go. She had to put the helmet back on. She had to finish this mission through.

She let go, her head dropping so she could put her helmet on. Before her jade skin vanished under the helm, he could see her lips parted. The scar jumped - she was saying something. Whatever it was, it was too low to be audible. Then, fully helmeted again, she moved to stand behind him.

Her focus shifted to the figure floating in the fluid. Male, humanoid - yes, yes. All things that can be quickly observed and quantified. But there was something else, something that continued to claw at her stomach, to keep shrieking in her ears that they needed to leave. She could barely register that he was speaking about the figure in the tank.

"...We need to go," was all she could manage, past the thickness of her tongue.

Back in the elevator, Raeth giggled like a child underneath his helm when Saudaji kissed his 'cheek' and leaned into him. Not that long ago, he had come to realize that he lived for these affectionate moments with her, and he especially adored it when she showed him affection out of the blue.

He paused what he was doing to the elevator panel in order to look at her. Gods, Saudaji was gorgeous - her helmet was off, her lekku were free, and all that hi-tech armor covered her from neck down. She was a sexy, jade angel of death, and she was his. She turned him on just by standing there, and the fact that she was wearing armor that he designed turned him on even more.

"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, Daj'ika." His tongue, which was normally so nimble, still fumbled a bit over the words, for Mando'a was one of those languages that required years of practice for most people to get right, and Raeth had only been practicing for a couple of months. Still, even though his pronunciation wasn't perfect, the love in his words came through loud and clear.

Because he was distracted by all the thoughts and all the worries that were swirling around in his head, turning his mind into a maelstrom where careful consideration was not possible, it didn't occur to Raeth that Saudaji was troubled. She was the warrior, after all, and she didn't let anything get to her in the middle of a mission. So he luxuriated in her affection without wondering why she chose here, of all places, to express it.

"Sexual deviant?" A single, loud laugh burst out from his gut. "You know you love it. You also know where the spare blankets are; we can each have our own.

"Now if you would, please, put your helmet back on."

It was on the bottom level that Raeth finally recognized that something was seriously bothering her. He was approaching the imposing, sealed gate with his blaster in a two-handed grip when he noticed that she wasn't following. Turning around, he saw her standing in the middle of the gray- and copper-colored hall a couple yards away, her helmet off again and her healthy green complexion turning pale.

"What's wrong, baby?" he asked while stepping back to her.

He heard Saudaji tell him that she loved him again, which warmed his once shriveled heart while simultaneously concerning him. He heard her nervous laugh, which baffled him, for she never laughed like that, especially not in the middle of a job. And then she went on a tirade about marriage. At first, he didn't know how to respond, so he just stood there, blinking behind his visor.

"You know, I like that idea," Raeth said after only a few heartbeats. "Let's get married." It may have been difficult to here the sincerity in his voice, which was digitized by his helmet's commlink, but it was there along with his usual mirth.

"We're like a typical married couple already: we live on the same ship; you're never on your ship anymore; we kill the same people; we haven't tried to kill each other in a while; we like the same music; and we're obviously sexually compatible. All the ingredients for a successful marriage are right there.

"So yeah, let's get married." The assassin offered his hand to his partner. "But after this job, yeah?"

Minutes later, when he was hacking the gate's controls, he asked, "Do you really want kids? Can Humans and Twi'leks even have kids? We'll have to look into that." Eventually, he got the gate open, and the two of them tiptoed their way into the vast chamber filled with tanks and bodies.

Raeth was once again confused, and even startled, when Saudaji grabbed his arm and told him to wait. Instinctively leaping back and raising his blaster, he thought that she was warning him of a visible threat. But after scanning the area, he saw no obvious threat. Instead, he saw the fear and the uncertainty on her face right before she put her helm back on.

"We're almost done, okay? I just need to see what's in these vats, and then we can get out of here." Saudaji's instincts may have told her to get out, immediately, but Raeth's instincts told him to find the answers no matter how ugly those answers might be. They always did.

"This will only take a minute," Raeth assured her as he punched a few keys on the console beside the nearest tank. "Step back. This'll get messy."

A series of warning blares from the console indicated that the following action was against protocol, but Raeth didn't give a shit; he didn't even know whose protocols he was breaking. So he pressed one final button and hopped back right as the vat's glass began to retract from the bottom up, spilling its contents onto the grate-covered floor. Thick, syrupy goop splashed all over the floor and drained through the grates, and then the body slid out with a heavy splat. The scene immediately reminded Raeth of a birth, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind. Frowning behind his visor, he didn't like the thought of being born out of some machine and getting ejected onto a cold floor.

The figure on the floor still had tubes connected to its face, limbs, and crotch, for the tubes were long enough to reach out of the tank. Slender, pale, and bald, it didn't have breasts, so Raeth assumed it was male. Kneeling down, he wiped the slime off the top half of the figure's face, and then carefully removed its breathing mask. What he saw made him lurch backward and stumble onto his ass.

The slime-covered figure had the same face that Raeth saw whenever he looked in a mirror or re-watched the footage of him and Saudaji being intimate. It had the same nose, the same high cheekbones, and the same slender, boyish face. All it was missing was hair.

The Raeth-like figure's eyes and mouth opened, suddenly, and it gasped for air. It began to writhe in the pool of brown slime beneath it, and it emitted a horrible, thin whine, like a newborn animal begging for the comfort of a mother that wasn't there.

Raeth pointed his blaster at it and began to scream, which only made his double whine louder.

As the slime puddled around their feet, she jumped back, as if it would eat through the durasteel of her armor. Fighting back the overwhelming urge to flee, flee now, don't look back, she bit her lower lip until she tasted blood.

Took one step forward.

Then another.

And was nearly bowled over by Raeth in his mad scramble to get away from the figure. Her eyes followed him, and then, gods, that scream! She wrenched off her helmet; tossed it to the side. It’s clatter was distant in comparison to the loud thudding of her heart, a sound that pulsed in her ears and drowned out everything else, save for the lingering howl from Raeth.

As the creature moved in front of them, her attention was instantly brought back to it, as she lifted her blaster reflexively. Then, the horror of what was actually happening sunk in. Her jade skin, already pale, had turned an ashen gray, her pupils dilated, brows knit. Her mouth fell open, and her breathing turned into harsh panting. She was struggling now; her lungs felt full of fluid, that she couldn’t gasp hard enough to bring air into her body, to her brain. Spots flickered in front of her eyes, and she intrinsically moved in front of Raeth, hoping to protect him. Her gaze was still locked onto the whining, mewling thing in front of them.

No, it wasn’t a thing; it was a him - it took eons for her to turn her head back to Raeth, to try and comprehend what it was that she was looking at. A scream threatens to rise, like bile, from her throat, but she forced it down. Beyond the shock, beyond the disbelief, a cool flicker of logic curled at her brain. There had to be a reason behind this. Some explanation. Raeth had a past; he’d told her stories of growing up, of joining the Sith. Memories couldn’t be faked…

Could they?

When she recognized the sound of her own voice again, she realized she was speaking, no, exclaiming in Mando’a, every dark oath and swear that she knew, some so old that they felt like dust motes leaving her mouth. The whining of the creature was nearly drowned out by her furious words, made all the angrier for not being in Basic. She snapped her blaster up again, preparing to aim, just wanting to end the noise, end the madness, get some sort of silence so she could continue to chase after that tantalizing thread of logic, and god, the animal desire to just blast and run was getting stronger -

In its blind flailing, the creature turned towards them. And her finger went stiff on the trigger of her blaster.

It was Raeth in the bathtub all over again.

This mewling, pathetic creature - completely without defense, blind, confused - Gods. She couldn’t shoot. Not when the mirror image of her love was in front of her, stumbling, pathetic. Helpless.

She dropped her blaster.