(( This is a little side-project between my boyfriend and I for our characters on the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums. It's a collaborative effort, though I'm doing all the leg work. Finger work, I guess.
Re-uploaded since somehow the file I originally uploaded was corrupt and only had 600 words in it. Ugh! ))
Chapter One.
The lone wail of a siren rent the night air, jolting her from the uneasy rest she'd fallen into. A single bar of off-yellow lay stretched across the concrete of her floor, the only light in the dark room.
The single siren was joined by another, further rousing her from her slumber. Rubbing the haze from her eyes, she got to her feet, padding to the thick, unmoving door. The cold of the smooth metal bit at her palms as she craned her neck first one way, then another, unable to see more than a sliver of the hall beyond through the tiny window.
Damn whatever backwater technician decided to use metal doors instead of force walls, she thought irritatedly. There'd be no seeing anything, only hearing the echoing sound of boots, the distant yelling, and the unmistakable, muffled rumble of an explosion.
Riot? At this time of night? Unlikely. Breakout?
She cooly assessed the possibility of the chaos spreading far enough to allow her to escape, but then brushed it aside. From what she could discern, whatever was happening was doing so in the next complex over - not the building that she was currently imprisoned in.
Ignoring the bitter bite of disappointment, she returned to her bunk, lay down, and folded her hands on her stomach.
Keep it together, Evelynn. Six months to go. Six months until the hearing, until a chance of at least being free again-
"Be hushed hush, but be hurry."
Evelynn was on her feet even before the door to her cell finished hissing open. There, framed in the pale glow from the dim hall lights, was a girl, barely in her teens. She wore rags that had once been a prison guard's uniform but were now torn, burned, and bloodied nearly beyond recognition, her pale hair hanging in her face. Even in the dim light, there was no mistaking that violet-gaze, staring right through her.
Ignoring the girl's distaste for physical contact, Evelynn threw an arm around her and hugged her. To her surprise, the thin girl leaned into her embrace momentarily, then stepped back. "You shouldn't have done this, Mercy."
Amusement tweaked across the girl's face, a lopsided, near-sadistic glint to it. "The mercy shouldn't have done this, that, OR those. We hush hurry now, scurry off into the darkness before they're bored of my presents."
Evelynn pulled her flat, thin shoes on, deliberately not asking what 'presents' Mercy had left for them. "Lead the way."
Silent as a flitting shadow, the girl disappeared from the doorway. Evelynn followed out into the hall, keeping her eyes trained on the blonde's frame. She didn't bother looking out for guards; she knew better than to waste that energy with the girl in front of her leading the way. Instead, she simply focused on keeping up and keeping out of sight of as many cameras as she could.
Mercy held one hand up and Evelynn stopped, pressing her back flat against a wall. The blonde peeked around the corner, then melted out of sight, a slip of a shadow in the semi-dark halls.
Three heartbeats later and Evelynn heard a series of thuds and grunts, followed by the sound of several bodies hitting the floor. A stun baton clattered and rolled to a stop near Evelynn's foot and she grabbed it, surging around the corner to help. She needn't have bothered; Mercy was already picking through the fallen guards' pockets, pulling out a small plastic card. Stepping over and around the five or so fallen men, she was relieved to see that her companion had neutralized them all without killing a single one.
Mercy deftly swiped the card along the door's sensor, waiting patiently while the door beeped obediently then hissed open. Evelynn stepped up behind her, relieving one of the guards of both his stun baton and his jacket. Shrugging it on over the flimsy, thin prison uniform she wore, she nodded once to the blonde girl to indicate she was ready.
The next series of halls was long and empty, only the gross yellow glow of the overhead tubing casting any light at all. As they passed, some of the prisoners who'd been awoken by the same commotion that had awoken Evelynn banged on their doors and pleaded for release; Evelynn ignored them. Most of them were murderers, traitors, and thieves; they belonged here.
Either Mercy knew her well or herself could feel their maliciousness; she didn't even mention their anger-tinged pleas.
The blonde flattened herself back against a wall, her head hanging so her bangs obscured her face. Evelynn recognized that stance and gripped her stun baton in readiness. Sure enough, only a few seconds later she could make out the thud of several heavy boots coming down the hall towards them.
The contingent rounded the corner – the first of them right into Mercy's sweeping roundhouse. She continued the momentum into a full flip past the next two, tearing their stun batons from their holsters and slamming them full force into the foreheads of the two at the very back of the column as she landed. Evelynn surged around the corner, taking advantage of the nearest guards' shock and surprise to jam the stun baton into his neck, slamming her foot into the gut of the man next to him. He doubled over even as the other guard crumpled to the ground and Evelynn shoved the stun baton against the back of his head. With a protesting groan, he went down as well, out cold.
Evelynn looked up to find the other guards already neutralized; Mercy was standing in the middle of a pile of four bodies, hands hanging at her sides, head down. The woman stepped up next to her companion, waiting quietly until the blonde girl raised her head again.
"This way," she said confidently and set off down the left-handed hall.
Evelynn moved quickly to keep up with the young woman, looking down at her scrutinizingly. "As soon as we get out of here, I want to know how you got out. You're supposed to be in a psych ward, drugged into a coma." It wouldn't be the first time Mercy had shrugged drugs off, but Command would have accounted for that. She was pretty sure she'd heard 'maximum security' used in conjunction with the facility, too.
"The mercy hates Sleep, so I woke up," she replied in that infuriatingly vague, matter-of-fact way of speaking. Then she tilted her head, violet eyes making contact with Evelynn's in one of her rare displays of almost-normal behavior. She smiled. "I missed Evvy."
Evelynn couldn't suppress her own smile, reaching out and ruffling Mercy's hair lightly. "I missed you, too, Mercy."
The girl's response was a smile so bright it lightened something inside of Evelynn. She'd forgotten how infectious the young woman's simple happiness could be. The smile faded away, replaced by a look of pure business, and in the shadow left by it Evelynn realized just how much she had missed the girl, how much she missed her ship, her crew, her life.
She gripped the baton in her hand so tightly it hurt; those who had taken it all from her would rue the day they'd left her alive to feel its loss.
Mercy, sensing her distraction, clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, vivid violet eyes staring at Evelynn intently. The woman forced those thoughts down, focusing her energy on the task at hand. They had come to a halt in front of a set of double doors, not even a sliver of light visible underneath. Evelynn recognized the solid metal that stood between the prisoner area and the guards' area. "Sorry. What's next?"
"Big room. Lots. Not ready for us." Mercy tilted her head the other way, her eyes taking on a distinctly distant look. "Four left. One sitting. One sleeping. Two standing, two strides from the door. Neutralize the smallest one first, he's dangerous. Ten on the right." She raised her head, those purple eyes of hers nearly glowing in the dark. "The mercy's."
"One former captain-turned-convict and an escaped Republic experiment gone rogue against fourteen of the prison's finest." Evelynn rolled her shoulder, readying the stun baton in her hand. "Sounds fair to me." She nodded her readiness, stepping up into the shadow of the double doors. Mercy sank down into a ready position, a coiled snake still and silent but only seconds away from movement and violence.
She swiped the card along the door and it beeped open.
Mercy was the first through, a pale streak across the floor faster than was humanly possible. She launched into the air, her knees meeting the throats of the two stunned guards closest to her. They hit the ground, girl on top, with a sick crunch. She was moving even before the bodies had stopped bouncing, flipping into the middle of the next group.
Evelynn turned her attention from the carnage the young woman was wreaking to her own task at hand. She was no expert fighter, being much handier with a pistol and then not nearly as good a shot as many of the men and women who'd served under her. But what she lacked in physical prowess she made up with the ferocity of a woman fighting for her freedom and the willing use of the several long seconds of shocked silence that followed Mercy's explosion of movement.
Heeding her companion's words, she wasted no time in jamming the stun baton into the cheek of the smaller of the two men. With a roll of his eyes, he crumpled. Evelynn slammed the handle into the jaw of the other, shoving him back so she could slam her heel into the groin of the man who'd risen from a sitting position. He went over, but not for nearly as long as she'd expected, and suddenly there was a fist flying at Evelynn's jaw.
Stars rocketed through the woman's sight and it took her several seconds to realize that it was the floor pressed against her cheek. Even as that registered, a hand closed around the back of the jacket she wore, lifting her from the ground. She flailed, her hands clawing at her neck, and somehow her fingers found the clasps holding her in.
Released from the jacket, her knees once again found the floor, but this time as her eyes swept up they landed on the wonderful sight of a blaster handle sticking out from underneath the jacket of the fallen man in front of her. She scrambled forward, seized it, and rolled onto her back, firing semi-blind.
The first indication of her success was the man's grunt of pain; the second, the dull thud he made as he hit the ground. She ignored the pang inside of her at taking the life of a man who'd done nothing wrong, simply his job, forcing herself onto her feet and towards the final man who stood between her and freedom. He went for his pistol; she shot him twice in the shoulder, drew her gun back, then slammed the hilt into his temple.
Panting hard, with the world still spinning around her, she sagged back against the bunk, her eyes going across the room to where Mercy was. A trail of bodies lined in the semi-circle of a path she'd taken around the outside of the room. She was bleeding from two fresh wounds, both along her upper chest, looking to be from a knife someone had pulled on her, but her movements were as blurringly swift as ever.
Evelynn simply watched as the girl flipped over the bunk between her and the last two of the still-concious guards, dropping into a swift duck underneath the right hook one threw at her. Surging up, she kicked up over her head, the flat of her foot slamming hard into his face. He crumpled and Mercy stepped over him, batting the other guard's punch to one side with an effortless ease that made him jerk back in surprise. Mercy used the momentary opportunity to bring her elbow across and into the crook of his neck with her pinpoint precision.
The former captain watched as her former ward stepped over his still form and strode towards her. How terrifying this young girl had been, that first time she'd met her - how terrifying, and how very small and pathetic as she beat her fists against the force field that had finally caught her. Evelynn still found herself struck by how very young and burdened the girl was, but there seemed now to be the beginnings of a self-assurance that hadn't been there before.
Evelynn recognized the spark of it - purpose. How ironic. Mercy had found her purpose in the very events that had taken Evelynn's from her.
"Ship?" chirped the girl, her head canted to one side and those bright eyes looking up at her intently. Evelynn blinked and the girl nodded towards one of the doors on the other side of the room. "Ship! Want a big one? I want a big one. Not as big as the Vigiliant, the mercy hates getting lost..."
"I doubt any of the ships here are as big as that one," Evelynn replied, following Mercy as the young woman swiped the card again. "In fact, we'd better get-"
"Hands up, now!"
Mercy held her hands up, turning them back and forth as if waiting for them to turn a different color because of the man's commands. Evelynn's heart sank. There were four of them, heavily armed, and Mercy had apparently not sensed them at all. They were all bunkered down in the hallway between the escapees and the open space of the hangar beyond. The blonde woman fought back bitter anger even as she slowly raised her hands, looking to her companion as for an explanation of why the young girl hadn't even mentioned their prescence.
The commanding officer adjusted his grip on the blaster rifle in his hands, lifting his wrist to speak directly into his comlink. "Sir, we have the prisoners here. They are armed but under control. Over."
He lowered his wrist slightly, glancing at the other three men. Each of them shared a quick nod. Evelynn's brow furrowed at the odd behavior but just as the first trickle of confusion ran through her brain, her companion was moving. Mercy raced forward and... cartwheeled right through the middle of the hunkered down men, laughing as she did so.
"The prisoners are attacking, repeat, we're under attack!" the commanding officer barked, standing up and firing wildly at Evelynn. She threw her hands up over her head... but the shots went completely wild, hitting the wall behind and above Evelynn. A shower of sparks cascaded around her as the cameras exploded from the energy. The other officers were standing as well, firing wildly at Mercy as she cartwheeled and flipped around the hangar.
Evelynn just stood there in shock and confusion as each shot went completely amiss, taking out sensors and cameras but not even putting the young girl even close to being in danger.
"Augh!" one of the men yelled, flailing as if he'd been hit and falling to the ground. The former captain stared at him; Mercy hadn't even been close to him. Another of the men let out a yell and fell over as well as Mercy hopped past him, skipping towards the final of the guards.
"She's too fast, we can't get a clear shot!" the man yelled as she approached him, taking several lazy shots in the general direction of the approaching young woman. She planted her hands on the bunker he was standing behind and leapfrogged over it, then out the back. He made a gurgling noise and crumpled.
"Command, she's nuetralized my men! I can't hold them back!" The commanding officer stood, firing one handed in a fake path after Mercy even as she hopped over another set of boxes, merrily as if she was playing hide and seek. "Somehow they knew about the dampener field! They've disengaged it!"
He turned and fired at several panels across the hangar. Sparks flew as there was a blue shimmer and a hum, and suddenly the hangar was noticeably quieter. Finally understanding what was going on, Evelynn strode forward, firing with her pistol to take out the last of the cameras that she could see along the hangar walls. She knew that face; she knew that voice.
"Lt. Akron," she said in a low voice. The man in front of her snapped into a clean salute that she recognized well from his days as security officer aboard the Vigiliant, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"It's Lt. Cmdr. Akron now, sir. If you don't mind me saying, you and the little one best be off now - before some less easy pickings come along." He winked and Evelynn felt the slightest of grins tug at the corner of her mouth.
"Of course." She went to leave, but then paused, looking at him. "Thank you, Lt. Cmdr."
Akron cocked another grin. "Sir, for as many times as you saved our lives, I owed you one. Now, don't you think I'd look particularly distinguished with a nice black eye?" He tapped his right cheek and Evelynn nodded.
"Certainly. And... my apologies."
Akron braced himself. "Just make it a good one, sir."
Evelynn drew back and then snapped her fist forward, hitting the Lt. Cmdr. square in his right eye. He pitched backwards and she grabbed the front of his uniform, lowering him the rest of the way to the ground. "You're a good man," she said quietly to him, then got to her feet. Akron was right; more security would be along the way and if she wished to avoid any more innocent bloodshed, she and Mercy had to make themselves scarce.
"Which one?" Mercy asked from her perch on top of the wing of a Starfighter.
"Too small," Evelynn replied, casting about until her eyes fell on a ship near the back of the hangar. An older model gunship, meant for short scouting trips. Enough turrets to pack a serious punch though more meant for firepower than speed; something that Evelynn could fix easily enough, given her past contacts. "That one," she said with a nod.
Behind them, the door to the hangar screeched open only a fraction. She glanced over her shoulder, then reached for Mercy. "Let's go, little one. Time to make ourselves scarce."
A few stray blaster bolts arched past them as they raced across the floor to the gunship Evelynn had seen. Boarding quickly, Evelynn slid into the pilot's seat, her fingers racing along the controls furiously. Mercy perched in the copilot's seat, craning her head to see across the hangar towards the door. "They're in," she mentioned calmly. Several shocks hissed across the deflector as Evelynn got it up in the nick of time, the ship shuddering as engines kicked into life.
"Ooh, what's this?"
"Don't-" Evelynn began as Mercy reached out and pushed the biggest, reddest button she could find. The ship rocked as a torpedo screamed past and slammed into a small frigate right in front of them. "-touch..." Evelynn finished with a sigh as flames lit up the viewscreen. "Why is it you can't ever leave a button un-pushed?"
"Sorry," Mercy replied contritely. Blaster fire, having ceased at the explosion of the ship, began again as the troops recovered and moved around the flaming wreckage. Evelynn felt a sliver of satisfaction as the big ship lifted from the ground, twisting in a slow circle towards the large hangar entrance.
"Don't 'sorry' me. Don't touch! Do you remember when you pushed that one button on Dignitary Vho's ship and accidentally released his prize winning pet albino nerf? It took us two hours to herd it back into its stall."
Evelynn jerked the controls to one side and the ship twisted through the sliver of space between the two gunships in the front, bursting through the doorway and out into the freedom beyond.
Mercy grinned. "Mr. Antur was so mad at me."
"You got him head-butted by a nerf. Of course he was mad at you. Now, sit back and don't touch."
The young woman folded her arms in a sulk. Evelynn looked at her for a moment, then turned her vision to the viewscreen again as the last of the atmosphere burned away and the cool darkness of space stretched out infront of them.
Evelynn inhaled, her head spinning with the glory of it. Freedom, she thought. I'm finally free.
There was no question what to do next, however, and she tapped the coordinates for an old acquaintance into the navi-computer. Another glance to her side revealed the young woman staring out the window, for once still and quiet. She was probably relieved to be putting distance between her and the planet's surface. She was always more coherent, more real, when they were out in the quiet of space.
"Where are we scurrying?" Mercy asked.
Evelynn gripped the steering controls tightly. "We're going to see an old friend of mine, Mercy. We're going to get some alterations done on this ship, and then..." Light blue eyes met violet ones. "Then we're going to find the people who did this to us and repay them in kind."