A/N: Chapter 4, and delving into the depths of Taris. Oh, and 'adult themes' warning, rated M for a reason.
Chapter Four
The elevator seemed to fall forever, and Alexa was wondering if there was a fault when they finally slowed, and the doors slid open. Stretching out before them were makeshift shacks and shelters, a few people walking around in handmade clothing.
As the pair stepped forwards into the village, they garnered many stares, most of whom looked away when they met them. Feeling slightly conspicuous amidst the stares and murmurs of 'Up-worlders,' Alexa pushed ahead for open gates that lead beyond the small compound. A man who was obviously the guard didn't notice them, and was beckoning beyond the gate.
"Come on, I have to close the gate," he yelled out to someone. As Alexa and Carth stepped into the open gateway, a man rushed by them into the compound, immediately resting his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths.
"My wife…just behind me," he gasped out. Indeed, Alexa could see a woman clad in the same makeshift garb these people wore running towards them, followed by two strange white creatures. They were vaguely humanoid, with very pale skin, strangely shaped muscles and capable of a loping run on all-fours.
"I'm sorry," the guard said, and started turning a wheel that lowered the gate, "I can't allow rakhghouls the chance of getting in here." He sounded genuinely sorry, but the gasping man immediately grasped his chest.
"You can't! They'll kill her!" he cried desperately into the guard's chest. Alexa gave one look over to the woman being chased, making a split-second decision. Her feet carried her swiftly underneath the falling gate, drawing her weapons as she went. She vaguely registered a shout from behind her, but her focus was upon the trio of shapes she was running towards. She whistled past the desperate looking blonde woman, and faced the dashing creatures.
Alexa swiftly flipped her rapier to backhand, and plunged the vibrating blade into the top of the first creature's head before it even knew what was coming. She used her momentum to push herself over the beast, rolling off its slimy back to the other side, pulling her rapier out of its head as she went. The next beast had already seen her, but twin blaster bolts to its arm and head distracted it long enough for Alexa to swiftly behead it, the grotesque head rolling to a stop close by. She looked behind her to find Carth, his blasters still raised. The blonde was standing at the gate in the welcome arms of her husband, staring back at Alexa and Carth.
Alexa sheathed her weapons, and strode back towards the trio of under-city dwellers. Before heading off, she'd like some information.
"Thankyou up-worlder, I'd be dead if you hadn't saved me," the blonde said gratefully as they approached.
"Not a problem, but I don't suppose you could answer some questions?" Alexa inquired.
"Of course, what is it you'd like to know?"
"Well, firstly, what were those things?" All three people scowled at that.
"They're you if you get bitten," replied the guard grimly. "Rakhghoul venom infects the bitten, turns them into those things."
"So those are rakhghouls…" Alexa murmured; it wasn't the first time she'd heard the name. "We'll make sure to stay away from the teeth then. One other question: I don't suppose you've seen someone called Mission Vao?"
"The twi'lek girl? Not since yesterday, she passes through here all the time, probably headed for the sewers," the guard replied.
"And which way are those?"
"There are entrances all over, closest is just north of here. But they're a maze, you'd get lost instantly."
"That's why we need Mission. Thankyou, I think we'll be on our way now."
"One more thing up-worlder: watch out for patrols, armoured men have been searching down here, and they're not particularly friendly," the husband piped up with the advice. Alexa nodded gratefully at him, and stepped beyond the gate as it slowly descended behind her.
"So, we need to find some twi'lek girl, let her lead us through the sewers to a gang base, all the while avoiding creatures that can turn you into one of them with one bite." Carth sounded not a little bit wary.
"You make it sound so easy," Alexa replied shortly, it wasn't like they had much choice. "They said the nearest entrance was to the north, we're more likely to find her around there. Just watch around for rakhghouls." She stepped forward at a decent pace, forcing Carth to keep up with her.
"But how are we going to find her in this place?" Alexa was about to round on him with a scathing comment when her words caught in her mouth as a young, female, blue-skinned twi'lek ran out from behind a piece of fallen sheet-metal. She was wearing a black, short sleeved top not dissimilar to Alexa's own, and a grey sleeveless jacket loosely above that. A pair of tight white leggings descended beneath her brown boots that came up above her knees. Wrapped around her blue lekku were a few strips of cloth, connected to a headdress on her forehead. A vibroblade and a pistol hung from a tight belt around her hips, though her lithe young body was more akin to a dancer than a fighter.
"Please, you look like warriors, you have to help me. I really need your help, they've taken my friend and I can't get to him, please, please," she chattered quickly in basic, youthful energy lending speed to her words.
"Slow down, take a breath," Alexa said to the twi'lek carefully, she looked to still be in her teens.
"No, I really need your help. No-one's around to help me, and the Beks are too busy and they're going to send him away." She was nearly desperate by the sound of her voice.
"Hang on, the Beks? That would make you Mission Vao, right?" Alexa placed a hand on the twi'lek's shoulders, hoping to calm her down.
"Yeah, that's me alright, how d'you know my name?"
"Gadon sent us, apparently you can guide us through the sewers to the Vulkar base; we're here to get the Beks their swoop engine back."
"Look, I promise to help you get to their base, but I need your help getting Zaalbar back first." Alexa frowned, her multitude of known languages included Shyriiwook, and that sounded like a name from the wookie language.
"That's a wookie name," Alexa looked at the twi'lek oddly; wookies were rarely found outside their home planet of Kashyyyk.
"Yeah, he's my friend, and they're going to give him to the Vulkar if we don't get to him." Alexa looked over at Carth, who didn't look particularly pleased with the situation, but Alexa wasn't one to leave a girl in trouble like this, especially as they needed her to take them through the sewers.
"Do you know where he's being held?"
"Yeah, they're in the north part of section six in the sewers," Mission replied, oblivious to the fact neither she nor Carth knew where section six was.
"Well then, you got yourself two warriors."
"Hey, are you sure about this?" Carth butted in from behind her.
"What, we can ask for her help, but she can't ask for ours? Besides, I'm not one to leave someone who asks for my help."
"Fine," Carth replied somewhat irritably, honestly, the Republic were supposed to be the ' good guys' of this war, Alexa couldn't work out what had got him so ruffled up. "You stay here at the village kid; we'll go get this wookie of yours." Whatever Carth could have said, that was the wrong choice.
"Hell no, I'm not a kid, and I'm coming with you," Mission apparently did not like being talked down to; a girl after her own heart.
"Look, kid, we're probably walking into another fight to get your friend back, you should stick back in the village where it's safe."
"Carth," Alexa started warningly; getting on her own nerves was one thing, but he didn't need to take out his 'issues' on someone they'd barely met, and needed to accomplish their mission. She didn't get a chance to say the rest of her warning as Mission laid into him.
"Look, I'm not afraid to be in a fight, and you sure as hell ain't my father. You don't have any right to order me around, or tell me what I should and shouldn't do. So, you can keep your lectures, I'm coming with you."
Alexa couldn't resist chuckling at seeing the middle-aged Republic commander talked down-to by a teenager. "She's right Carth; she has every right to come if she wants. Besides, do you know the way to the north side of section six?"
The soldier in question held up his hands in surrender before the pair, and walked off ahead of them somewhat grumpily. Alexa swore she could hear him mutter something about women being difficult under his breath. Since Carth had decided to take the lead, and Alexa had no wish to go up front and deal with his doubtless bad mood, she walked in step with the blue skinned twi'lek, studying her. Young she may have been, but this girl was no 'kid' as Carth put it, she's seen and survived a few things in her life.
"You didn't have to stand up for me back there," Mission said quietly to Alexa.
"Don't know what you mean." Alexa replied, smiling. She liked the young twi'lek.
"Yeah you do, just not everyone treats me like someone who can make their own decisions. So, thankyou, yeah." The girl was shy all of a sudden, unused to laying any truth out most likely.
"Mission, I've seen plenty of things in my life, done most of them too. I know the difference between a kid and a young adult, and you aren't a kid. I mean, what are you, seventeen?" Mission smiled proudly at Alexa's words.
"Fifteen actually," she admitted.
"Well, age is just a number, and not something I define anyone by. Besides, growing up in a place like this? Sort of thing that matures you quickly."
"How do you know I grew up here?"
"A few things: the way you carry yourself here, you're confident in where you are, but not relaxed, ready for anything, that means you've both learnt to know and respect this place for the danger it holds, that takes time, sort of thing you see on a war veteran; your familiarity goes hand in hand with Gadon's recommendation of you because you've been running through sewer tunnels for years, learning the ins and outs of a maze of pipes, again, takes time and reason to do so; and that leads onto again the fact that it takes time, and would usually be somewhere to escape to, implying you don't have anywhere else to go, combined with the fact you went to us, the first warriors you found for help, implies no family, which runs with the clear fact you can fend for yourself in your appearance, and likely learnt to do so over several years. You're a girl emerging into womanhood, who learnt the hard way how to survive in a rough place."
"That's…" Mission paused; maybe Alexa had laid her analysis a bit too far into personal experiences for Mission. "That's quite some observational skills you got there."
"Sorry, old habits, being able to guess someone's character can save your life at the right moment."
"I can guess it would."
"Guess can you?" Alexa smiled and took a chance to try and lighten Mission's mood, "well, what can you guess about me then?" Mission's lips twitched up slightly, and the twi'lek's electric blue eyes began studying Alexa's form.
"Well, you're a fighter. Been one all your life, not a stranger to having a weapon in hand, and you've worked hard with them to get a few muscles, and you got skills to use 'em if you can wield two full length swords at once. You don't carry yourself in a military way like Fleet-boy up ahead, and the way you've acted so far screams warrior from a people of warriors, trained in honour and tradition, and with the tribal face-markings I'd say some tribe out on the outer rim." Alexa's attempt at lightening the mood was certainly working as Mission went into her analysis. "Also, way you said 'this kind of place' implies you've seen plenty of them, combined with 'professional warrior' kind of look, and from what I can see scars on your exposed skin, you've been through plenty of things, and one of them…." Mission trailed off as she gazed into Alexa's grey eyes.
"One of them what?" Alexa asked quietly to the seemingly frozen twi'lek.
"I don't know, something's weighing down on you. And you look, like, not so much lost as searching, looking for some solidarity, or maybe who you are…" Mission trailed off again as she gazed at her, but Alexa was mostly surprised at the intuitive way that Mission had deciphered the very thing that had plagued her dreams and waking hours.
"Alright, got to admit I'm impressed," was all Alexa said, trying not to let show how far Mission had got to her. Mission smiled at the compliment, kindness probably wasn't something found on Taris very often. She looked like she was about to say something when Carth piped up from in front.
"I think we're here," he said gruffly. Though Alexa and Mission hadn't been paying attention to where they were walking, they now stood at a large, rusty door. Mission pressed a button on an ancient control-pad, and the entryway slowly opened up.
"Right, you two are gonna need to follow my lead," Mission said, smile gone from her face and replaced by seriousness. "Keep your weapons out, if we're unlucky we may run into a few rakhghouls." Alexa followed Mission's words and drew her blades from their twin sheathes, even as the other two drew their pistols.
Mission slowly led the way through seemingly endless twists and turns of rusty and dripping tubing, down several ladders, and into the path of a pair of rakhghouls at one point that Alexa quickly dispatched before the other two could even open fire. No-one spoke, and the atmosphere was tense between them all. Eventually Alexa's keen ears picked up a shuffling noise ahead, and Mission slowed them at an upcoming junction with paths forward and to the side. She placed a finger on her lips, and beckoned Alexa to her position against the wall just before the corner. Alexa slipped back-first up against the cold metal, and slipped her head around the corner, and froze at what she saw.
It wasn't the three gamorreans on guard with vague approximations of Black Vulkar uniforms that made Alexa's blood boil. It wasn't the sets of bars over six entrances to create makeshift cells. It wasn't even the wookie held within one, or the dead rodian slumped against the wall in another. No, it was something else, something much more familiar to her. Collars. Around both the wookie and the rodian's neck, and a set of three hanging from one of the guard's belt, the black metal bands she instinctively knew so well. Designed to be both a symbol of servitude, of slavery, but also with a needle dug into the skin at the back of the neck ready to deliver an electric shock straight to the nervous system should the wearer disobey. Alexa could feel the phantom tingles delivered via the bump at the back of her own neck, could feel the heat of the brand burning through her top. Her anger boiled to the very depth of her system, and she stepped out before the three pig-faced beings.
The next thing she knew, she stood above three dead bodies, each brutally mutilated, blood flowing from lacerations in their slowly cooling green skin. Deep breaths pulled through her lungs, and her heartbeat pounded in her skull, a war-beat of death and destruction. She was vaguely aware of three pairs of eyes on her as she regarded the prone forms. Unleashing some of the vast reserves of fury, she brought her boot down three times, once upon each of the collars that hung from one of the guard's belt, smashing the electric mechanism. The destruction done, she turned her gaze upon the wookie within a close-by cell. She didn't bother retrieving any key from the guard; she simply brought her sword down upon the lock with all her not-insubstantial strength, the old metal easily giving way to reveal the shaggy being before her. As she entered the cage he moved back slightly away from her fearsome visage.
"Hold still," she said loudly in perfect growling Shyriiwook, much to the surprise of the cell's occupant. However he did comply as Alexa reached up to hook her sword underneath the black metal of his collar. With a cry she pulled back, snapping the metal band which landed on the floor. Alexa put away her blades, and picked it up, then walked back out of the cell to where Mission and Carth were gathered. She studied the ruined circle of black, before pocketing it; there would be words about this later. Her attention was taken however by Mission rubbing the back of her neck as she stared down at the gamorreans' bodies. Alexa reached forward, and slightly roughly snatched Mission's arm.
"Hey," Mission briefly protested, before Alexa pushed up her right sleeve, exposing the tattoo beneath. Though out here on Taris, the method of application was different, the black ink was all too familiar. The symbol of the Black Vulkar rested above the number '2084,' imprinted into Mission's youthful blue skin. Alexa was all but ready to fly into a rage, but the worried expression on Mission's face stopped her. Her rational mind reasserted itself, and she let go of Mission's arm, finally realising how hard she had been grasping it.
"Sorry," she said softly to the young twi'lek.
"'S'okay," Mission mumbled, sliding her sleeve back down to cover the mark.
"I'm not a fan of slavery," she said, looking around at the bloody bodies and their mutilation. Had she made those attacks before or after they were dead? The last thing she could remember was stepping out from the corner.
"I guessed as much," Mission replied, with a half-hearted smirk. The memory of her own mark was likely all too fresh to her.
"And I would bear one of those collars now if it weren't for you," growled the deep voice behind Alexa. She slowly turned to face the towering wookie, looking up into his face, and she wasn't exactly a short person. "You have saved me from enslavement, for this I owe you a life-debt." The wookie, Zaalbar she remembered, got down on one knee before her, bowing his head. "If you will accept me, your enemies are mine, your causes are mine, and I will fight for you until death releases me from my debt."
"I think I mentioned I hate slavery?" Alexa growled out, looking upon his shaggy mane. "Get up; I would not free you from one type of slavery to put you into another."
"Ancient tradition states I owe you my life, owe you a debt," he replied, looking up at her face.
"If you wish to fulfil a debt, then feel free to help us," Alexa proffered a hand down to him, "but do it of your own free will." Zaalbar stared up at her for a long moment, then took her hand and pulled himself up.
"What is your name?"
"Alexa," she replied simply. Zaalbar roared a deep bellow from his huge lungs, the noise echoing down the old sewer pipes.
"Then I will fight by your side, Alexa," he stated. Alexa smiled, and nodded in respect of his vow. The vow, by wookie standards, taken, Zaalbar turned to Mission and pulled the girl up in a great hug, eliciting a gasp from her.
"Careful Big Z, I'm fond of breathing you know." Alexa chuckled at that, watching the wookie put her down and run the rough pad of a hand over her head, using his height to an advantage. Mission smiled up at her large companion, the bond obvious between the pair.
"Well, since Z feels like he wants to follow you, guess you're stuck with us," Mission smirked as said wookie stepped into an empty cage and withdrew a long bandolier from a pile of crates. He slipped it around his great shoulder, a heavy vibro-sword rested on his hip, and a bowcaster upon his back. Various pouches of supplies lined the bandolier, and that appeared to be the only thing he wanted to retrieve, walking back out with an air of satisfaction to stand by Mission.
"Ah, you say stuck with you, I say gained a pair of fighters to help us on our way. Perspective is always important."
"Ok, if you're done chatting, we have a job to do," Carth stepped in, breaking his silence for the first time since entering the sewers.
"Alright captain grumpy," Mission replied, stopping short of sticking her tongue out at him.
"That's commander Onasi, kid," Carth replied curtly.
"Hey, I thought we went over this, I'm not a kid," she replied, scowling, punctuated by Zaalbar roaring behind her.
"Slip of the tongue," was all Carth said in his defence. Mission looked to be about to lay into him once more, before Alexa felt she should intervene, honestly feeling like a mother overseeing squabbling children.
"Hey, let's have enough of this, we're about to storm some gang's base, and we're sooner to tear each other apart than them if we keep on going like this, Now, Mission, would you kindly lead the way to the Vulkar base. Carth, would you kindly shut up."
"W-what?" he spluttered.
"If I can't trust you say something nice, or at least constructive, then don't say anything at all."
"I'm your commanding officer; you can't talk to me like that."
"Not down here you're not fleet-boy, this is front line battlefield, and is thereby my jurisdiction." She turned and followed a practically glowing Mission as Carth tried to think up what to say behind her. "Ori'buyce, kih'kovid," (all helmet, no head) she muttered the Mandalorian insult about those with over-developed senses of authority as they set off once more into the sewer tunnels, trusting in Mission's unerring sense of direction as she led them on a confusing path of twists and turns, up and down the cistern.
Eventually Mission stopped by a blue force-field, set up from projectors around the tunnel it led off into. A computer stood next to the crackling energy field.
"This is one of two ways toward their base; they both should lead into an open drainage area which has an entrance into their storeroom. Just gotta slice this damn thing…" Mission set about doing just that after explaining, hacking into the computer systems.
"If this is the entrance to their base, wouldn't they have tight security on that thing," Carth inquired, watching doubtfully as Mission tapped commands into the system.
"Have some faith Carth," Alexa said quietly, also watching as Mission's facial expressions change briefly at parts of the system resisting her, or at it letting her through. After several minutes of furious typing, and spiking into the computer's innards, Mission stood up with a triumphant grin, tapped a button, and the energy field frazzled out. Alexa gave Carth a pointed look.
"Yeah, yeah. Nice job I guess," he relented at her glare.
"Thankyou very much, now I believe it's time to give the Vulkar a kick up the ass?" Mission replied in her light voice. Alexa laughed, sidling up to look down the dark corridor.
"I hadn't figured you for a slicer," she commented as the twi'lek joined her walking down the tunnel.
"Eh, I've been messing around with tech for years, used to repair droids to make some extra cash for my brother. Computers, explosives, droids, you name it, I can work with it."
"Your brother?" Mission's face fell slightly, and Alexa realised slightly too late she'd hit on a hard patch for the girl.
"Yeah, he's not around here anymore. His girlfriend persuaded him to head off for Tatooine when I was twelve, haven't seen him since."
"He left you here at twelve years old?" Didn't sound like much of a brotherly thing to do to her.
"His skank of a girlfriend persuaded him, she was someone who dated a lot of richer people than Griff. She wanted more than he could offer her, so he kept running up debts and gambling with schemes to get rich."
"So he left for another planet without you?"
"He promised to come back once they had the money, so I've been surviving since then. Except, well, 'bout a year ago the Vulkar caught up with me, deciding to settle Griff's debt by taking me to be a…" Mission suddenly seemed to realise how much she'd blurted out, and slowed, rubbing the top of her right arm.
"They wanted me to…" her voice was quiet, subdued from her normal perky self.
"You don't have to say it, I can guess what they wanted," Alexa knew all too well, and unwelcome memories of the Sith she'd dealt with the night before flashed before her eyes. Fourteen was no age at which anyone should go through that, hell, they never should.
"Yeah, well they spent three weeks trying to force me. I refused to do anything, 'course that made them give me plenty of shocks through the collar. I wasn't in the best state when they threw a wookie in the cell with me." Mission turned to smile slightly back at Zaalbar, who had been lowly growling some wookie curses while Mission was talking. "For the rest of that week Z held me at night, kept me strong. When a bunch of the Beks attacked the Vulkar, we took the opportunity to get out of there. We've been running together ever since."
If anything, the admission had only strengthened Alexa's respect for the twi'lek; she survived on her own for three years in a place like this, faced four weeks of essentially torture, and still was strong on the other side. Her heart was not exactly stony, but neither was Alexa the most open person; however her heart was going out to the strong girl beside her.
"Hey, you'll get to repay them in full when we get up there," Alexa said to Mission, who grinned and was likely about to say something before being cut off by a rumbling growl drifting down what was left of the corridor before them. All four of their heads turned to the dark space ahead, Alexa taking point to look around the corner. Beyond was a large room, with drainage running down the side as Mission had predicted. However what she had most certainly not predicted was the fully grown rancor standing on its hind legs, looking towards the tunnel entrance they were situated at.
"Right," Alexa whispered, "that complicates things."
"Why are you whispering?" Mission replied in an equally quiet voice.
"No reason. Mission, since you mentioned you're good with explosives, got any on you?" Said girl reached into a pocket of her jacket and wordlessly pulled out a spherical thermal detonator. Oh did she love Mission right now as she gratefully took the high explosive, stuffing it into the left pocket of her long coat. She drew her twin swords and took a deep breath, then dashed from hiding towards the monolith of leathery flesh, which roared and stumbled towards its new possible meal.
A huge clawed hand smashed downwards towards Alexa, which she dodged to the right, then leapt back at it as it hit the floor. She implanted her sword into the creature's skin, using it to pull herself up with her strong arms, repeating the move with her rapier as far up as she could reach. The beast roared in pain at each slice into its skin as she used her swords to essentially climb up the mountain of skin, again and again up its arm. Avoiding a clumsy blow from its other arm, she left her sword implanted in the beast's ear, and swung herself up onto its knobbly head, using her rapier into its skull to anchor herself. Moving quickly, she grabbed the thermal detonator from her pocket, and with it in hand, smashed it down into the rancor's angry black eye. The beast bellowed in pain and ferocity as she pushed as far in as she could to the watery flesh, before pressing the button on the sphere. Moving as swiftly as she was able, she flipped backwards, leaving her rapier behind, to land gracefully on the cistern floor as it scrabbled at its head.
She straightened to watch as with a 'whumpf' noise muffled by its skull, the claws stopped moving, and the rancor fell with a mighty crash to the side. Calmly Alexa climbed the dead beast to retrieve her swords from where they were stuck in its skull, pulling them out of the bone. When she jumped down to face her companions, both Mission and Carth were standing open mouthed, while Zaalbar just towered stoically over the two, examining the kill.
"What are you lot gaping around for, we have a base to raid remember?" Alexa enjoyed the twin snaps of Mission and Carth's mouths shutting.
"That's a rancor," Carth stated, somewhat obviously.
"'Was' would be a more accurate term," Alexa replied as she examined the door behind where the rancor had been guarding, this was more modern than the rest of this area, and at a press of a button, revealed an elevator. "Not even locked," Alexa murmured.
"I don't think they expected anyone to get past the energy field, let alone their pet rancor," Mission said, stepping into the pod with Alexa.
When everyone had stepped inside, Zaalbar pressed the prominent button, and the pod swished quickly upwards, on far more modern systems than those of the sewer's construction.
When the doors opened, Alexa straight up growled at the scene before them. The elevator emerged into a store-room, packed with crates and supplies, but in front of them was a pair of Vulkars, trousers down, 'using' an emaciated green skinned twi'lek girl who couldn't be much older than seventeen.
She drew her twin blades as darkness began to again cloud her vision.
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Walking up to Gadon, Beks around the four were cheering them, even as Zaalbar lugged the gurney with the prototype engine on it behind him. Alexa had eyes for only Gadon as the man slowly clapped from behind his desk.
"Well done, I half didn't expect you to come back at all," he commented. Alexa didn't reply as she drew the broken collar she had taken off Zaalbar, and slammed it down on Gadon's desk. Vaguely she registered Zaerdra cocking a blaster at her, but she didn't turn to face the twi'lek.
"You didn't mention the Vulkar were slavers," she said through gritted teeth, still remembering the dozens of their gang members she had cut through minutes beforehand.
"It's one of the more unpleasant sides of their business, yes. And another reason the Beks disagree with them."
"You want to give me one good reason I shouldn't get you to give me the location of their main base, kill everyone there and rescue my friend that way?"
"I'll give you two: Your friend isn't there anymore, I told you, she's in a vault with the other teams' stakes in the race; and, you made a deal, on your 'blood and honour' I believe you said." His words rang true, she grudgingly admitted to herself, drawing back from her stance, much to the relief of those around her. "There are some bunks next door, go get some rest, you're gonna be racing tomorrow."
"Racing?"
"Yeah, I like you, and you retrieved the damn engine from the middle of the Vulkar base. Gives you the right to be the one racing in the morning in my book." Alexa considered the old man, for a gang member he wasn't a bad kind of person. She nodded acceptingly, and made for the door he'd referenced and the grateful realm of sleep offered by the bunks in there.
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The air was cold on Alexa's barely covered limbs as she was forced ahead of a guard. Rough slave garments and her collar were all that guarded her fourteen-year old body against the winter chills. Pushed into entering the great hall of him, her owner, sitting in his throne in the armour he was not worthy of wearing. He was faced by a Zygerrian, one of the natives of the planet, who was eyeing her appreciatively, sizing her up.
"This is her?" the feline man said in a rough tone, as if buying a cut of meat.
"Aye, she's strong as you can see. Trained by my quarter-master as a Mandalorian," the voice was garbled out of his helmet, the T-shaped visor keeping her from seeing his eyes. The Zygerrian approached her, and roughly manhandled her, examining her muscles. "Being my daughter she also inherited my battle-skill, there are few who can face a Fett in-"
"You are not my father!" she bellowed, cutting him off. She grimaced, but refused to cry out as electric pain flared up her spine for her insubordination. "Dar'buir," (parent disowned by child) she growled out through gritted teeth.
"Unfortunately, as you can see, she is stubborn," the man continued on as if she had said nothing.
"I'm sure that can be beaten out of her."
"She can take a lot of punishment without saying a word."
"Well," the Zygerrian smiled down at her with what could only be described as malevolence. "We'll see how long she lasts when she's used by my garrison for a night every time she disobeys." Alexa kept a straight face on the outside, but inside, her stomach turned sour with fear at the threat. The Zygerrian flicked a credit chit over to where the Mandalorian sat, who caught it deftly. The feline's two guards came forward to snatch her arms, and begin dragging her from the room towards the exit doors.
"Aruetii! Hu'tuun! Dar'manda!" (traitor, coward, un-Mandalorian) she shouted at the man in his throne as she was dragged from the room, trying to ignore the increase of pain at her neck from each cry.
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Alexa stood unmoving before the sour faced Zygerrian woman, who was looking over the sixteen-year old with mild distaste.
"Your time as a menial slave is done, you are old enough to assume your duties as the body slave you were bought to be," the woman's voice was scratchy, dangerous. Alexa said nothing as she stood stock-still, refusing to acknowledge her. "You will be trained in what you have left to learn. You must know true obedience as you have refused these past two years. You will soon serve the master as his body slave so must adhere to your new duties: Organise his household, oversee his schedule, protect him, fight for him, and warm his bed at night."
"Never," she replied clearly. Immediately Alexa was on the floor, writhing as the highest setting of pain on the collar was applied.
"That is your place, slave," the woman spat harshly. Alexa simply stayed on the floor, taking the electric agony in silence, not a single cry leaving her lips. Her last bastion of defiance.
A/N: And maybe now you see why there's an M rating. Don't start thinking I'm going to start doing any graphical depiction of sex scenes, that's unlikely as I don't want to risk having the story deleted for going against FF's rules. Anything other than that however is fair game, and I see this as a part of the character I'm creating in Alexa, hardened by harsh experience of life.