1: I wish to skip through Peragus (Missing M-A-J-O-R character interaction)
2: I wish to play through Peragus normally (Probable)
If you chose one, skip to chapter three. (But beware, you be insanely confused because a lot of things happen in this chapter to clear some things up.) If you chose two, continue to read.
:Awaken: a voice called out to me. I began to shudder as I felt consciousness return to my body. Whatever was encasing my body suddenly drained away and I felt my body land on the floor. Beeps and clicks invaded my ears and I gradually pushed myself into a sitting position.
"You've got to be kidding me. Why does all of this shit always happen to me?" I cursed, running my hand through my kolto-covered hair. What was the last thing I could remember…the Harbinger. That was it. I remembered getting a summons to come to the Harbinger and then after I got on the ship…everything went black. I couldn't remember a damn thing.
"Frack. I swear, I wasn't drunk." I protested to myself. Well, at least I thought it was to myself until I heard a soft groan from right beside me. I glanced over and instantly scrambled away from the other body lying on the floor next to me.
Her electric blue hair was more than familiar to me as was how it curled and hung around her back forever gracefully. Even covered in kolto, it was easy to see the recognizable features of Aurali Adrics face. She kept blinking her bright hazel eyes as if trying to see what was going on around her.
"What the hell? Where am I? Did I get drunk again?!" She grumbled, breathing deeply as she rested against the cool floor.
"Oh no. This is not happening. I can't believe this!" I ranted loudly as I looked at Aurali.
"Who the hell….." Aurali glanced over and almost choked on the air she was breathing when she saw who was beside her. "Tyla?"
I groaned, knowing there was no way out of this one. Damn whatever had put me here! "Yeah, yeah, it's me. Big whoop. I'm more concerned about where the hell we are Aurali." I grumbled, forcing myself to stand up. Well at least the kolto had done its job and I wasn't sore from whatever had knocked me out.
She stood up and stretched before replying. "Well we must have been attacked by someone….Or something. We need to see if there is anyone else on this ship who can tell us what happened."
"Alright then, I guess that's better than nothing. I have a really bad feeling about this though. I don't remember anything after getting on the Harbinger and I know I was on there for awhile. Where were you and what do you remember before all this?" I asked, falling back into bounty hunter mode. I was going to figure out what had happened even if it killed me. I didn't like waking up in mysterious places with no memory. That had happened one to many times for me to be comfortable.
"Well I was on the Harbinger in my room, planning my next job and there was just nothing. I don't remember anything after that."
"Wait…what? You were on the Harbinger? Why the frack didn't I see you there then?! And why were we on the same ship anyway? This makes no sense, and I swear that I'm going to murder whoever did this. I have enough memory loss issues already. Just last week I woke up in my boss's office with no memory whatsoever! I swear…" I trailed off, letting my anger vent. I was not a happy bounty hunter at all.
"I stayed in my room most of the time so that's why you didn't see me. And this isn't a coincidence because the last job I did I can't remember either. All I know was that I was paid and somehow or another my partner went missing. I don't know what's going on but I'm not liking it."
"I know, and I agree with you entirely. I can't remember anything about my last job besides the fact it didn't go the way I expected it to. Alright then, we need to get out of here first. But I haven't worked with another person in a very long time Aurali, so don't think I'm gonna drop that habit immediately. I've been working by myself for awhile now." I explained, trying to not let my hesitancy show. In all honestly, my plan was to get out of this place and get out of here as soon as possible.
"Whatever. I just want to get out of here as soon as possible so I can get back to my job. I need the money right now so the faster I can get away from this the faster I can get back to work." She stated, heading towards the door.
"You sound like me." I smirked as I walked up behind her and in front of the door. "You know, I really want to find some clothes. This place is rather cold and I really don't like running around in my underwear." I stated truthfully as I looked down at my shivering body.
"It's not that bad. But in case there are other people here we probably should find something a little less revealing so we don't draw attention to ourselves."
"Well at least I know that you did something sneaky in exile." I rolled my eyes and sliced the door open. There was nothing but a boring hallway that ended in a sparking door with two doors on the side. This didn't look promising.
"Greeeat….This doesn't look good at all." Aurali grumbled, inspecting the sparking door at the end of the hallway. "We won't be able to get through here without a plasma torch. If we can't find one we'll be stuck in here with no way out."
"That's just fabulous. Well then I guess we should look around and find one. The door over here won't open either. So let's see what's behind door number three." I sighed sarcastically, heading over to the last door and out final hope to get out of this hall.
"Knowing our luck there won't be anything in there." Aurali replied, following behind me.
"Probably. Life just likes us so much." I grumbled, slicing into the door easily and letting it slide open. All I saw was another door, some plasteel cylinders, and a console. "You take the door and the containers. I'll look at the console." I ordered, walking to the console.
"Alright." She said, walking over to the other door. I heard the door slide open and then her aggravated sigh followed after. "Really? Where am I supposed to put supplies?! They don't have hidden compartments in underwear!"
I laughed at her and told her to look again. Huh, that was odd. I hadn't laughed in what felt like forever. Anyway, I began to work on the console until I had all the cameras working and the morgue unlocked. Telling Aurali what I found, I stopped outside the now open door and waited for her to catch up.
"A morgue with dead bodies everywhere. That's never a good sign." I narrowed my gaze at her.
"There's only two bodies. I think there's a plasma torch on the far body over there. I'll get it." I stated, striding across the cold room and picking the torch off the disgusting body. Aurali was standing next to me when we turned around and saw the previously dead body standing up.
"Holy mother of Vash! She's a frackin zombie!" I gave Aurali the strangest look I could muster before I turned back to the old woman. Her brown clothing completely covered her from sight, down to a hood that concealed her eyes. Wrinkles marred her skin, but she still held an undeniable grace and power. I didn't need the Force to tell that she had been a Jedi at some point in time even if she wasn't now.
"Have you found what you're looking for amongst the dead?" She asked us. I tilted my head to the side slightly and looked at her curiously.
"Considering I thought you were dead moments before I'm not sure. Who are you?" I demanded though my voice wasn't harsh. I wasn't about to anger someone who could help us.
"Yeah. Who the frack are you? And why didn't you tell us you were alive when we walked in instead of waiting until now."
The woman looked at us curiously before speaking. I could barely just see a flash of pure white eyes. "I am Kreia, trapped on this planet just as you are, former Jedi." She answered simply. All my senses now in overdrive, I was instantly defensive.
"How do you know that?" I hissed angrily.
"Great. Why is it so obvious?!"
"You," she started, pointing at me, "carry something heavy. You are weighed down by something that forever haunts you to this very day. The scars that Jedi left upon you are obvious to anybody who looks close enough." Kreia stated, every work making me wince. "You however, radiate with a brightness that can only be spawned by Jedi." She told Aurali.
"Well that's nice to know." She grumbled, looking warily at the old hag.
"You leave our past and the Jedi out of this. We are Jedi no longer." I said forcibly.
"Yeah. I'm a smuggler. Nothing more. Got it?" I couldn't help but glance over at Aurali.
"Why am I not surprised?" I muttered before looking back at Kreia. "So what the hell do we do now that we have all the introductions over and done with?"
"We were attacked once and I fear our attackers will not give up so easily. You must find some way out of here. You may wish to also extend your search for some clothes and weapons as well." Kreia said matter-of-factly. I looked at her warily, but nodded nonetheless.
"Nah. We were just gonna stay in our underwear the whole time. Who needs clothing anyway?" Aurali muttered sarcastically.
"Just shut up Adrics and follow me." I growled, stalking past the meditating Kreia with plasma torch in hand to the door we had found earlier.
"Whatever Moore." I carved open the control panel and the door shuttered open. Before we went any further though, I turned on Aurali.
"Okay look. Here's the deal. Right now, I really don't like you." So what if I was lying to her? It's not like she knew that. "I'm thinking that you probably don't like me. I don't care." Yes you do. Shut up inner voice. "What I do care about is getting off this rock in one piece. As soon as we do, we're going to go our separate ways. Got it?" I demanded even though I wasn't looking forward to losing talking to one of my old friends again.
"Like I care if you me or not. You don't like anyone. As soon as I find a suitable ship I'm heading back to Nar Shaddaa." She growled, moving past me. I groaned at her surly behavior even though I had done nothing but invite it.
"Force, you never knew me if that is what you think." I muttered, kneeling next to a body that was on the floor. Two vibroblades were still attached to his body and I warily picked them up. I threw one to Aurali and stood up.
"Whoever this was they did not know how to clean and maintain a vibroblade." Aurali stated, examining the worn and out of shape weapon.
"Yeah, you're telling me. I would have never let my blades get this bad. I love those things more than life itself." I said to myself, trying to clean the old blade.
"That's not saying much." I shrugged at her, a cold smirk on my face. It wasn't exactly that I wanted to act like this, but it was how I had been like for the past years. It was a hard habit to drop and I wasn't sure if I would even remember how to be the old Tyla anymore.
"True. Having a death wish for the past years tends to make you a little mad at life. You just really don't stop there and say 'Man, life has been so kind to me that I just feel like dying whenever I get the chance.'" I answered, my last words laced with sarcasm.
"So enough with the verbal ping pong. How are we getting out of here?"
"Don't know yet. I supposed we'll just keep going until something happens. Knowing my luck, it'll be a bad something, but a something is still something." I replied simply. I was just going to do what I had for the past years. Keep skating through my life one day at a time until something popped out of nowhere and killed me.
"Fine by me. Easier that way anyway." I nodded at her, refusing to acknowledge how nice it really was to have her with me again. I just wasn't used to company, that was all. We turned around and opened a door only to see two droids firing at us.
I ducked the first two blasts as Aurali charged at the droid away from us. I brought my worn blade down onto the droid, but the armor on it was stronger than I had expected. I dodged its next shot and decapitated it with a strong blow to its "head." Aurali looked over to me as her opponent crumpled.
"Do…do you feel odd?" I asked carefully, trying to figure out what this feeling was that was building up in me. This couldn't be right. I thought that this felt familiar to me, but I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it. It was just a mistake.
"A little. Why?"
"Because I do too. I don't know what it is, but I don't like it." I answered, still trying to brush away the uncomfortable feeling that was begging me to embrace it. If this was what I thought it was…I didn't want this again. Never again.
"That's weird. I wonder what it could be." Aurali wondered out loud and before I could answer her with my current suspicion, something interrupted me and I cussed mentally enough to make a smuggler blush.
"Surely you remember the feeling of the Force when it used to sing within you so strongly." Kreia's voice echoed in my brain. Fuck. My. Life. Not only was I stuck with the damn voices in my head once more, I had been right!
It had been the Force reawakening within me and now I could feel it beating at the wall that had been placed there all those years ago, begging to be released again. It wanted me to use it, but not in the same way I once had. It wanted to be used for destruction, death, and most of all, revenge. It was slipping past the wall that had been built, causing small cracks to form in the wall and letting it slip between the small crevices. It was charging each and every fiber of my body with a power I hadn't felt in such a long time. Even at the height of my power in the war, nothing had compared to this. This…this was the power of hate. The power and anger, of rage, of revenge, of emotions, of darkness. This was the power of the Sith, and the power of the darkness. Snapping myself away from the torrents of power caressing my skin, I felt it recede back into the deep nothingness it belonged in. That power…although great, was never to be used.
"Are you fracking kidding me?! We've got another person in our head!" I couldn't help but glare at the blue haired woman.
"You think you had it hard? I used to have you, Rev, Bas, Malak, and …in my head at the same time." I countered, cursing myself for not being able to bring myself to say his name again even after all this time. I was such a pathetic loser. I must be an emotional masochist or something. The thought briefly flashed across my head before I tuned back in to the conversation at hand.
"That sounds fun." She replied sarcastically. Yep, she hadn't changed a bit. I couldn't help but imagine her doing the exact same thing as always when she had been exiled. Kid was lucky she hadn't had such an emotional rollercoaster. My life had been hell after that. She had probably just skated along like it was nothing though. Aurali had always been able to do that, and I wasn't sure if I admired her for it or felt sorry for her yet.
"Yeah, that's what you think. I had Revan busting down my door sometimes because she would hear thoughts that weren't meant for her." I sighed, shaking my head slightly. I still wasn't used to having my hair blonde again. I was a lot more used to it black now. I might have to change it again if I could just find my damn wristbands. They were one of my most prized possessions besides my blades and armor. They were the perfect disguise. By just putting one of those babies on, it completely changed my hair color and helped me blend into the background. A fabulous thing for a bounty hunter.
"That's interesting." She laughed. "I'm glad you're the only one in my head." Aurali stated and I shook my head yet again. Geez, had she not grasped this concept by now? I was not a good person to be around! I wanted her away from me not because I didn't want her around, but because she was better off on her own. I wasn't worth her time. She needed someone around that could help her out; not drag her down like I would. Damn the part of me that was still a good person and wanted to help her. So annoying. Oh well. Nothing I could do about it now except hope that she would let me go after we got off this forsaken rock.
"Trust me Adrics, it's not. I don't even want myself in my own head." I chuckled darkly at the irony of the situation. The one person who didn't want to be able to see what others were thinking was the one that could see and hear everything. I knew everything about people when I didn't want to even know their names sometimes. Life truly must hate me to put me in the situation I was in. I don't know what I did before to deserve it, but I hope it was worth it. I better have had a damn good time doing it.
"Alright then." She answered as if distracted by something else. Deciding to ignore her for now, I turned back to the old lady in my head. That must be bad when sentences like that sounded normal to a person. Wow, I really was going insane.
"What were you talking about?" I answered as if I hadn't figured it out. Maybe if she thought we were stupid, she would give up on us and stay away and we could dump her out the airlock next chance we got. Wow, I really was an ass. As long as I could find the switch in my head that had gotten turned on when she talked to us, I could control the bond completely. That was the nice thing about being 'gifted' with this ability. I could completely control it once I knew the source.
"It's the Force you feel." No shit, really? "It has been a long time, but I'm sure you will remember your skills." Kreia explained. I could help but curse once more –this time aloud- when I heard the words.
"That means I'll be able to use my lightning again." Aurali grinned evilly. "That'll give those stupid thugs something to laugh about if they try to mess with me." I rolled my eyes at her behavior, unable to stop myself from doing so.
"Big whoop. We got the Force back. So what? I was doing just fine without it. Sure, life may be a little easier now, but that doesn't matter." I grumbled. Living without the Force hadn't been hard. Being exiled by those who I cared about and getting kicked out of the order I had grown up in had been hard.
"So was I, but it still helps. Especially when I have a hard job."
"Whatever. Let's go."
"Fine." We walked in perfect silence after that for a good while, cutting down droids whenever we saw them. I tried to keep myself distant from Aurali no matter what it meant. I didn't want to be near her again. I wanted to be completely done with my past, and she was a part of that past I didn't want to deal with again. Whenever we got out of here, I was leaving as soon as I could. Eventually running across a lever that deactivated a forcefield, we both strode into the room only to see a man standing in one of the force cages.
"Who are you?" Aurali questioned, staring at the man in the force cage.
"The name's Atton. Atton Rand." He explained, checking out the both of us.
"Do I know you from somewhere? Because I swear you look really familiar." Aurali mumbled.
"You probably slept with him and don't remember it." I snorted. "And on that note, keep your eyes on her or nowhere at all if you want to keep some very important pieces." I threatened Atton.
"I'm sure I would remember sleeping with her if I actually did." Atton replied.
"So why are you in the force cage anyway?" Aurali questioned curiously.
"They said I violated some sort of security code." He told her.
"Why am I not surprised? Adrics, you release him if you want him out. I don't see a use for him." I stated calmly, leaning against the cool back wall.
"Well I think he can help us somehow." She replied, shutting down the cage.
"Fine then, but you're in charge of him. I don't want to deal with him." I shrugged nonchalantly. It's not like I cared. I really didn't like people in general, and something about this Atton guy just bugged me.
"I don't need a babysitter." He grumbled. "So what're your names anyway?"
"Kiana Shale." Was my instant response. I looked at Aurali and glared. Don't you dare.
"You're joking right?" Aurali and Atton questioned at the same time.
"Not at all. Let me guess. You were a smuggler, and you've heard of me." I sighed. Just my luck. I got stuck with a bunch of fracking smugglers.
"Yeah." They both stated at then glanced at each other. "I always heard the two-bit smugglers talking about you. You scared the crap outta them." Aurali laughed.
"Yeah, well that was my job. They were nothing but small and unimportant jobs, not worth my time really, but whatever kept me with food worked for me." I answered with a shrug.
"It would've been problematic if you had come after me."
"Me too." Atton agreed.
"Well you probably weren't worth anything then. My only targets were smugglers that actually made a difference, bounty hunters gone rogue, and crime lords." I shrugged again. Could they stop making this conversation about me already? It was making me nervous. I hated talking about myself.
"You wouldn't have been able to catch me anyway." She smirked and I rolled my eyes at her arrogance. She could really be incredibly stupid sometimes. In a time and situation she was worried about trying to outdo her one-time friend. Really, I thought she would have grown up a little.
"Not like I really give a shit. Smugglers were just a pain in my ass I only took down because Jadowyn told me too. I'm just a hunter that made a name for herself." I answered, my tone bored. Why had I been friends with Aurali again?
"Stupid bounty hunters. Always taking smugglers out just cuz they're breaking a few laws to survive." Aurali grumbled.
"Oh, poor baby. The nerve of those darned bounty hunters following the law. Just what are they thinking sometimes?" I snorted sarcastically, glaring at the blue-haired woman. She really had no clue what she was saying sometimes.
"Whatever. Let's just get out of here."
"I still don't know your name." Atton stated. I glanced over at Aurali and shrugged. I wasn't going to say anything she didn't want me too. She was probably going to screw me over in a couple of seconds though.
"I'm Aurali Adrics. You probably know my other name though, Leila Cross. And that's Tyla Moore." Aurali explained with a smirk in my direction. Yep, there it was. She wasn't content to just let me live my life the way I wanted it to live. It was either her way or nothing. I had forgotten just how much of a selfish bitch she could be sometimes. Couldn't the stupid valanish figure out that I didn't want to be Tyla anymore? I thought she at least had enough intelligence to figure that out with the fact that I had already introduced myself as Kiana and I wanted nothing but to go back to my life before I ended up here? But no, I couldn't even trust her with that one thing.
"Screw you. Now I'm wishing I had taken up Jadowyn's offer to go after you. Anything if it made me not have to deal with you right now." I snapped angrily, my temper getting hold. Most of the time I held it in, but I didn't care anymore. I was not happy with her.
"You're such an angry person." Aurali laughed, walking out of the room. "Why don't you help me find some clothes Atton?"
"Whatever." He sighed, following after her.
"And I think I'll go this way." I mutter to myself, going the opposite direction of that pair. I didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do when I got there, but I didn't care. I just wanted to be alone and away from Aurali.
(Aurali's P.O.V.)
"So where were you two? I thought everyone in the station was dead." Atton said, moving closer to me.
"Somehow we ended up in kolto tanks." I explained, stretching. He stared at me again and I shook my head at him. "Do you enjoy staring at me?"
"Yes. There's a nice view of your tattoo from right here." He smirked.
"You know you like it." I grinned, glancing around.
"Wait a second. So if you two were in the kolto tanks, then that means you were the Jedi everyone was talking about!"
"Except for the fact that we aren't really Jedi anymore."
"Why not?"
"I'm not telling you! So did you see where Ty went?"
"No, but we need to fix this console and see if there's any way out of here." He stated, working on the console. "Easy. All I have to do is bounce the signal back to the console and you've got access back from the…hey! I can't believe this. Somebody severed us from the main hub entirely. They wanted us trapped here. All we've got is communications back and there's no use shouting into empty space."
"That's just wonderful. Let's see if we can contact anyone down there just in case."
"Alright. Whatever you say?"
"Hey! Is anyone of importance down there?!" Several beeps responded and I thanked whatever had graced us with the droid. "Can you unlock to turbolift for us?" It beeped in response and then cut the link off.
(Tyla's P.O.V.)
I destroyed the last wave of droids and sighed contently. Fighting was a great way to work out my anger. All I had to do was imagine that the droids were Aurali and they died rather quickly. It was also a great way to make me laugh, may I mention. Jumping when I heard a noise, I was surprised to see the previously closed turbolift door open up for me.
"Well that works." I muttered to myself as I stepped inside and let it take me wherever it would go.
Opener belongs to Skip Peragus Mod (mostly). Anything familiar belongs to LucasArts/Obsidian/Bioware. Tyla Moore belongs to Shadows of the Storm. Aurali Adrics belongs to Aurali Adrics.
Choices for the Right Reasons © Shadows of the Storm/Aurali Adrics