Mako ran into the clinic, gasping fast, almost hyperventilating. She leaned over, holding her knees as she breathed hard, fast. Tobie frowned over at her, waving as he handed a stim to the twi'lek man he was working with, "Apply this to your thigh first thing tomorrow morning. It should clear up the fever. But ensure you avoid broths that contain munch-fungus. I know it's popular in twi'lek dishes but the fungus exasperates your allergies."
Tobie pointed Mako towards his back office. He rushed through the directions for his medical droids, so that he could join Mako. He found her pacing back and forth in the office, mumbling, "I don't understand any of this, it's crazy. Lunatic sort of crazy. Like mad bat-shit crazy."
Tobie sighed. "Circumnavigating the length of my office repeatedly isn't going to make it any more sane, I imagine."
She stopped, looking at him with wide, glazed eyes. "I just killed my sisters. Ergh, maybe. I think. Well, they looked like me. A lot like me. Like twin me's. Or maybe not. Is it likely, do you think, that I'd be one of a set of quadruplents, implanted with cutting-edge technology, and then abandoned on the streets of Nar Shaddaa?"
Tobie only stood there, staring at her with a bemused expression on his face. "Well, you're correct about one thing, at least."
"Oh, really? What?"
"It's definitely crazy."
Mako snorted. "That's not helping, Tobie. I figured if anyone could help me figure things out, it would be you."
"Really? And you couldn't wait for Kas? Blasters can prove helpful if you're going to be killing people." Mako began pacing again. Tobie settled his hip against his work table, sighing wearily as he glanced upwards, thinking. "First things first, Mako. You killed someone?"
"Two someone's. My sisters. Or at least two women who looked exactly like me. But they tried killing me first! I swear!"
"Interesting. Now. What exactly did you do with the bodies?"
"Easy. I left them in the alley behind the building where I was trying to get information about Izak."
"And who is Izak?"
"Coral – she's my sister, too – said he was an SIS agent hunting for us. Well, her, at least. Not me so much. No one seems to really know who I am, actually."
"SIS? Oh. Well, that's just brilliant. You couldn't have started by telling me that?"
Mako glared at the doctor as he reached for his commlink. "I was careful. I figured the less people I told, the less chance someone would get hurt."
He shook his head, looking at her like a disappointed daddy might look at a child who'd just admitted she had a stomach ache after eating too many sweets. "Mako. These people depend on subterfuge, deceit. They live in the shadows. A lot like those pests that scurry around only in the dark. You decided to play in their world, where they have all the power. That was stupid." She blinked furiously, refused to cry. He sighed when she chose to sulk instead. "Truly, Mako. Why didn't you wait for Kastiel? Even Gault might have been able to help, crazy as that sounds."
"Kas didn't like me poking around for answers. I mean, she didn't stop me or anything. But I know she didn't want me to, either. Is that who you called? That's great. Just great. She's going to kill me."
He shook his head as he waved her towards the doorway, yanking a pale white cloak over his jacket as they went outside the clinic. "No. Kas and Gault are still looking for that target the Mandalorians were hunting. She suspected it was a sithspawn. I refuse to distract her from such a dangerous task. But we must retrieve these remains. Many of the answers you need can be found in a pair of bodies that look so much like you, Mako."
They hurried through the dark streets of Kaas City. There weren't many people traveling along the roadways, probably because of the inevitable rain starting to fall. Even the patrols were huddled in the archways of various doorways as they passed by. The soldiers only glanced towards them before ignoring the white-cloak of a medic rushing along the way. It wasn't until they reached the square where Lord Ergast's monument loomed that Tobie slowed, waving a single hand towards one of the more shadowed alcoves.
Mako gaped as a large, lumbering shadow appeared and shuffled towards them. A black-furred Wookiee snuffled a greeting as he approached. She glanced behind him, looked at the heavy cart he was pulling in his wake. "Mako, this is Gramum. He helps me with various tasks in and around the city, mostly involving the transport of bodies. Dead and otherwise. We tend to be a common enough sight, that no one will bother us. Now, Mako. Please, show us the way."
Kastiel found Mako huddled over the table in the mess. Mako didn't look up as Kas tumbled into a chair and laid her head against its back, huffing a loud sigh of tired aggravation. They only sat there, quiet, listening to the hum of the ship's power generators, the slow, subtle buzzing of the overhead lights, and Gault, of course, who was yelling at Quinnie for … doing something, somewhere. Probably in his quarters. Kas shook her head, chuckling wearily.
Mako grumbled, then. "I'm not really human, Kas. I'm a freak."
Kastiel sighed. "And here I thought you were going to give me some really bad news."
"I'm serious! Stop making a joke about this!"
Kastiel's head snapped forward, her eyes suddenly bright, vivid and glaring. She leaned forward, almost reaching across the table, holding up one hand as she pointed a single, long finger towards the little cyborg. "Who the fuck is joking? You think I'm laughing when I say I'm not in the least concerned what the hell you are, Mako?" The hunter's voice rose steadily until she was nearly shouting. Belowstairs, Gault became quiet.
"Bad news would be admitting to me there's people looking for you who might try hurting you, people I can't see coming. Worst news would be telling me you went looking for trouble when I wasn't around to help. But don't think for a second I give a flying rat's ass you've come from a lab rather than were tossed out by some bitch of a family like so many other orphans on Nar Shaddaa! Saves me the trouble of hunting them down!" Kastiel stood up, so angry she was shaking. She screamed, then, "Damn it, Mako! The next time you go hunting for trouble without telling me what the fuck is going on, I'll put a scar on your ass that matches the one on Gault's!"
Mako stared after the bounty hunter as she stomped from the lounge down the hall towards her quarters, huffing the entire way. She thought crazily it was lucky the ship's doors didn't slam when shoved closed forcefully. As it was, she could hear Kastiel kicking the edge of the door, causing a loud bang to echo through the ship, just before she went inside the room.
Mako sat there, staring bemusedly in the direction Kas had gone for several long moments. She absently rubbed her hands along the surface of the table, thinking furiously. She was so intently thinking, in fact, that Gault's voice caught her completely by surprise.
"I say piss her off enough she shoots you. At least then I won't be the only one of us who's butt she fixed." Gault was standing at the top of the stairs, slowly rubbing one red hand along the curve of his ass. Mako shook her head.
"I'm not as stupid as you are, Gault."
"Seriously, you believe that? Sweetheart, I ask for permission before I go doing shit that might piss her off. That way it's not me she's pissed at when things go badly."
Mako sighed, looking back down at the table. She ignored the Devaronian as he retrieved a couple of glasses and a bottle. She stared down at the glass of shimmering amber liquid when Gault pushed it in front of her. He snorted at her. "Down it, girlie. Correllian whiskey should never be allowed to go to waste. It's practically a rule!"
She raised an eyebrow at him, so that the implant above her eye twinkled a silvery flash at him. He grinned, raising his glass up. They shot the alcohol towards the back of their throats. Gault hummed happily but Mako leaned forward coughing as the stuff burned its way down to her stomach. He chuckled, watching her.
"Mako, you're cute enough, she'll forgive you. The worst you'll get is a lecture about how 'you better not do it again'. Nothing to worry about!"
Mako coughed a few more times as she twirled the glass back and forth across the table. She shook her head, "I pissed her off more when I thought she'd like me less for being unnatural. The last thing Kas would ever do is look down on someone for what they are, rather than who. I should've known better."
Gault shrugged. "Don't see what makes you unnatural, personally. Have you seen how some species reproduce? The Columi abhor touch of any kind, in fact. Don't think they like anything that involves actually moving their bodies, even. They use machines to 'exchange bodily fluids' is how one fellow described it."
"Not everyone can be so enlightened as you, Gault." Mako frowned, then, hesitant to ask.
"Spit it out. The question, mind you. Not the liquor. Do not puke on me!"
"I wasn't going to puke! I just … well." Mako took a deep breath. Gault watched her trying to figure out how to pose the question. She stopped. Tried again. He thought she looked like a fish under water, bobbing her mouth open and closed again as if breathing. He grinned at the thought. Eventually, though, she blurted it out in a rush. "What about Corso? I'm not exactly a … well, I'm not … normal!"
Gault leaned forward, curious. "Is this a result, do you think, of cybernetics? Or maybe it's how cybernetics affect a female brain?"
"What?"
He shook his head, smiling at her. "Well, come on, Mako. Not like you're the first cyborg woman I've talked to recently who worries endlessly over how the fellow she loves is going to react to her cybernetic features."
"You mean Kas? But she's …"
Gault held up a hand, shaking his head. "Trust me, Mako. So are you."
"I didn't even finish what I was going to say!"
"You didn't have to." Gault shrugged. "Mako, I don't imagine he'll care one way or the other how you were made. And honestly? If he did, I'd just rip him apart. Give you the important parts. Problem solved."
"You're crazy, Gault."
"Oh, trust me, I know. Look what sort of people I've decided to spend my retirement with, sheesh!"
Mako sighed as the kiosk slid by the nearby window, the brilliant wash of colored lights flaring brightly across the walls of the hotel room. The voice of the twi'lek woman advertising one of the nearby cantinas provided a rather comforting hum as the advert slid further along its way. She stiffened when she heard the blip of the code being input on the nearby door.
"Mako! Sweet, wait until I tell you what we managed to pull off! The captain's hit the big time, woo-ee!" Corso almost bounded into the room, waving his arms excitedly. He tossed his bundle against a nearby wall before settling his rifle against the side of the bedside table.
Then, he glanced across the space towards her, frowning when he saw the serious expression on her face. Corso was not the wisest of men. He would've been purely content to live out his life as a simple herder on some backworld on the far edges of the galaxy, in fact. But the one single bit of brilliance he could claim was a real appreciation for the subtle nuances of feminine pique.
Women, he'd realized once when he was still quite young, worried over every niggling thing at an almost constant rate. Like every moment of every day. Give them hormones enough and they worried still more. They agonized, even. It was like a sport to them, to sit back and watch stuff and just plain worry about it. Worry about what it tasted like, looked like, sounded like. Mostly, they worried about what it felt like.
Corso got it, he understood it. Now, if only he could figure out a way to avoid it when their worries were focused on him, he'd be set. Unfortunately, that bit of sage brilliance escaped him. He wondered if he'd learn it before he finally died. He doubted it. He imagined men had been beating their heads against that wall long before he himself was born, and would surely continue long after his body was mere dust spread across some ground somewhere.
At the moment, he settled back, leaning against one nearby wall as he considered her. He spoke softly. "Let's just get the important stuff out of the way, first. Is Kastiel alive and in one piece?" Mako nodded. "Gault? Okay. What about the monkey-lizard?"
Mako started smiling. "You consider the monkey-lizard important?"
"To me? Not at all. I'd be perfectly content if you told me its tail caught on fire and it went out in a flaming circle of screaming death. But you? Maybe you'd be upset if that happened. So is the little beast all right?"
"Yea. He's fine."
He held up his fingers, trying to tick off anymore concerns he thought might be bothering her. "Nothing wrong with the ship, then? You finished your hunts with Kas? You weren't hurt, were you? Mako, did someone hurt you? I'll find them, dammit to hell!"
By now, Mako's smile was sugary, her eyes glittering as she regarded him. "No one's hurt me, Corso."
He sighed as he watched her, bemused at the look on her face. He chalked it up to yet another aspect of female-ness he wasn't going to really understand. Then he crossed his arms across his chest. "Well, then. You've got me at a loss. Can't imagine what could possibly be so bad you'd look at me like I was going to be upset."
Mako bit her lip, glancing away from him. She decided it was best to just say it, just spit it out. Let the chips fall where they would. The room was paid for through the end of the following day, at least. She mentally thanked Kastiel, sighing. "I found out I'm not exactly … natural. I'm a clone! A fucking clone, Corso!"
He stood there, quietly watching her. She took a breath, waiting. He blinked. "Sorry. But I'm waiting to hear something that's supposed to bother me," Corso admitted.
She looked at him wildly. "I'm not actually natural!"
He chuckled. "Well, you felt pretty damn natural to me the last time we were here. Quite a few times, too, I might add."
"I'm a freak! And there are more … well, me's. That Coral girl? She's one, too. Who knows how many there are! Hell, I don't even know if I'm the original. The … prototype. What if I'm the one that's flawed, failed somehow?" Mako was agitated enough she started pacing. Corso watched her going back and forth across the floor. He smiled as he started unbuckling his white, armored chestplate.
"Well, I suppose that could be a problem, if there are dozens of you running around. We could come up with a codeword, maybe. Something only the two of us would know, so that I'd know it was you, if I ever bumped into another one, hmm?"
She gasped, spinning around. "How do you know it's me now?"
He laughed. "Who else would've known how much I hate that monkey-lizard? Oh, and had the code to our room, to boot. Hell, the damn doorman downstairs is starting to know the both of us. Maybe we should just rent the place on a permanent basis. What do you think?"
She smiled blearily at him, finally noticing he was undressing. His armor was already lying on the floor against the side of the bed. He smiled back at her as he yanked his shirt over his head, lifting a hand to beckon her closer. She whimpered, "You still want me, Corso?"
Corso hummed as he settled himself on the edge of the bed, "Uhm hum. I can show you, too."
She smiled as her eyes became dark and hot, watching him sitting there. She stepped closer, moving to stand between his spread knees. She reached up, looping her hands around the back of his neck, before leaning over to whisper into his ear, licking against the sensitive flesh just underneath his soft lobe, there. She shivered as she felt his hands running up along the line of her spine, so that he could reach for the fastenings on her jacket. She whispered to him, "Then show me."
