Kar'taylir Darasuum adol Kyr'am (Love through Death) Ch. 6
Italics is a nightmare
Duke and the rest of his squad move through Coruscant quickly and effectively as they look for their commander and sister. They check restaurants, alleyways, cantinas, bars, anywhere really. They go deeper and deeper into the underbelly. Eventually, Duke spots Marissa standing outside of a cantina with another mandalorian. The group makes their way over and Marissa abruptly ends the conversation with Kal because she sensed Duke approach. Marissa turns around, "What are you guys doing here?"
Duke fires back, "I could ask you the same question." Marissa sighs, "Fair enough. It is good to see you boys." They all clasp forearms except for Duke and Marissa. Duke puts an arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him then kisses her. Marissa kisses back. They pull apart at someone clearing their throat. Kal looks like he wants to kill Duke. Marissa quickly explains, "Its fine Kal. He's my husband." Kal looks shocked before nodding in approval. They go inside the cantina to get some food and drink. The rest of the group get along great with Kal's boys as they laugh and have friendly competitions. As they have fun, Kal and Marissa head upstairs to interrogate the prisoner. Marissa circles the man as Kal asks questions.
The man spits in Kal's face, "I won't give you anything." Marissa laughs, "You will. Eventually." Kal begins to beat him up and he does break. "OK! OK! I'LL TALK! I'll talk. Their base is a warehouse down in the lowest section of Coruscant. They have guards and everything with strong defenses. They have illegal goods there as well as prisoners. If you do plan on going in there, your going to need a guards clearance, mine is in my pouch." Kal nods, "Thank you." He shoots him and Marissa just looks at him, "Do not ask me to clean this up." Kal laughs, "Of course not. The thought never crossed my mind. I'll get the clearance card and clean it up."
Marissa nods and looks at the stairs as the boys came up. No one batted an eye at the dead man. Marissa yawns, "I'm going to bed." Duke immediately follows her. Marissa takes off her armor and puts on sleepwear. Duke puts her lightsaber next to the armor and her wedding ring. Marissa smiles and gestures for him to join her. They lay down and Duke spoons her, causing Marissa to smile as she nods off.
Marissa stands before the senator of a planet whose name she did not know. He looks her up and down before turning to Mace Windu who is her current master, "She will be fine." Mace bows and leaves. Marissa bows to the senator, "How can I assist you, Senator?" The senator stands and walks over to her, "My planet has had separatist droids on it for far too long. I'd like you and your battalion to help me get rid of the separatist occupation on my planet." "Of course. Is Grievous or Ventress there?" "No. Wat Tambor is." Marissa flinches but nods, "I can understand why you want him off your planet. He plunders the riches and doesn't care about people." "Exactly. My people are furious with him and want him gone as well as the droids." "Then we will drive them off for you and your people." The senator smiles kindly, "Then let us leave immediately." The board her ship and once they are on the surface with the entire battalion everything went downhill. Marissa was grabbed by the senator and chained to a wall. "What are you doing?" Marissa struggles. "I'm switching sides Jedi. I've never liked your kind or the Republic or your clones. And I've been supplying the separatist with information about your Republic, clones, and Jedi" Marissa watches with horror as her men are slaughtered like animals. She struggles harder, "STOP! PLEASE STOP!" The senator does nothing to stop the massacre, only smiling wickedly. Marissa turns back to her men, her personal squad that she takes on missions are the only ones left but are failing. Her husband and Sly are working with their batch mates to survive. Marissa screams and cries out as they fall one by one. Soon it's only Duke and Sly left and she breaks the chains holding her and holds her lightsaber to the senators throat and growls, "Order them to stop!" The senator gulps and calls out, "Hold your fire!" The shooting stops and Duke and Sly look up. The senator hisses, "Leave and never come back." Marissa leaves a burn mark on his throat before jumping down and running to a gunship. They hop on and report to Mace Windu about what happened and gives them leave till they can get another battalion together.
Marissa jerks awake screaming. Duke holds her as she screams and cries. Tears come down like rivers on Marissa's face. Duke lets out some tears as her strokes her hair and holds her close. "Ssshhh. You're safe. I'm here. I'm here. Sly is here too. Ssshhh ssshhh love sh its ok. We're here." Marissa slowly calms down but keeps her head on Duke's chest, "I failed them." "We all did." They stay there like that till they both fall asleep.
Sly and the others heard. They started to move forward to their room but Sly and the rest of the boys from the 51st stop them, "That's not a good idea." "Why?" "She's unpredictable when she's like that." "What made her like this?"
Sly sighs, "Have you guys heard of the 51st massacre?" Everyone nods. "That was when Marissa was new to the commander position. She was assigned to a senator and they were to take back his planet, but he turned out to be a separatist spy and lead them into a trap. The attack he launched started when she was chained up. The senator had droids surrounding us and the fired and wouldn't stop. She was screaming, crying, and pleading for him to stop, but he only stopped the attack when she held her saber to his throat after she broke the chains. She has flashbacks and nightmares. They're really bad. And Duke and I are the only ones who can calm her down after she haves them. If someone else tries to do it they will end up hurt in some way. Its because she thinks she's still in a nightmare or flashback. Only reason Duke and I can is because we were there and we understand. We all have those episodes but her's last longer and have a more drastic effect on her. Sometimes she doesn't have them sometimes she does. Its unpredictable." Everyone looks down and just looks sadly at the door.
In the warehouse the man spoke of, a young woman with red tipped hair stands on a balcony facing the rough direction the cantina where Marissa and the rest are staying. She looks a lot like Marissa but more aggressive features and shorter hair. Her clothes are red with black accents and a black lightsaber on her belt. She growls as she felt the man she sent after Marissa die. "They are coming put the whole place on alert. No one comes in and no one goes out if they get in here." A man bows as he comes out of the shadows, "Of course mistress." He runs and she bares her teeth, "And so it begins. Come and get me Mars if you are up for the challenge."
Sorry for the delayed update guys. Had severe writer's block but I finally did it! It's about to get very interesting in the next few chapters. ;)