Chapter 24.
Latest edit; March 3rd, 2015. Last round of editing. After the next 6 chapters you're getting BRAND NEW STUFF! Are you excited?
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Cheers and Enjoy.
The first thing she became aware of was that her fingers were cold as they swayed from side to side and that it was hard to breath. Next came why? Raidre opened her eyes and her buy'ce lit up in response to her eye movements. She could see that she was on the back of one of the Talz that had ambushed her and Gault.
Speaking of that red-skinned good for nothing sniper- where was he?
She looked up and around, but she was the only captive.
What had they done to Gault?
She tried to wiggle off the shoulder of the Talz that carried her, but her suit must have been malfunctioning. The response time was awful, the Talz had plenty of time to tighten his grip on her, making it almost impossible to breath. She focused all her efforts on each and every breath as they carried her further in what looked like an underground facility. They kept carrying her deeper and deeper inside. The less air she could take in, the more her head hurt. Raidre had begun to see dark spots in her vision when she was unceremoniously dumped on the ground.
"You have brought me the wrong person."
The voice was deep. The strings of his vocal cords fresh and fluid like a brand new harp. Pleasant and powerful. And young. Raidre looked up, but her head was heavy and would not respond to her commands. She cursed the weight of her helmet while being aware that she would be dead without it a thousand times over. Her captors spoke as she struggled to gain awareness. Raidre wasn't too familiar with the language of the Talz, it being mostly constructed of inhaling and deep sounds, but she understood enough to know that the creature that had carried her was arguing for his wage for having brought her here alive.
Raidre looked up once she could breathe again. Every breath burned, but was sweet nonetheless. It allowed her to see who she was dealing with. He was taller than average, but not by much. Brown hair and eyes made him a rather non-descript human male. But he was distinctively Jedi. Raidre stared at him for a long time as she tried to recall his face, in vain.
She had never seen this guy before.
Was this a case of mistaken identities? The Talz moved forward and yanked hard on her buy'ce. Before Raidre had the opportunity to fight back, her face was revealed. She in haled crisp and cold air. The skin that was now exposed felt as if it was burning. It took her a moment to quell and old fear as she reminded herself that this was an impression and not the real thing. Her tied hands formed fists as the panic that had taken hold of her was released just as suddenly. Her logic prevailed upon her panic. At the same time, the cold air helped clear her muddled mind.
She may not have recognized who this guy was, but he recognized her. It was in the way the muscles of his jaw tightened and began to dance beneath his skin, the way his whole face hardened as he looked at her.
Ah, shab… She'd killed someone close to him.
"You are correct. I was mistaken, this is the Champion of the Great Hunt whom murdered Master Kellian Jarro. "
Kellian Jarro, why was that name familiar?
Realization dawned on Raidre as her lips came together to form on 'o' shape. Yea, not one of her better moments. In fact, she probably looked as sharp as a bantha right about now. She wasn't usually this slow, where was Gault when you needed a quick come-back?! The young man came towards Raidre and she tried to stand but immediately felt dizzy and fell to one knee.
"Wow, you guys must have knocked me good."
Raidre held her head dramatically as she activated some subtle precautions. Jedi liked to get up close and personal. If this guy tried to get touchy-feely with her, she would make sure she had a sweet little rocket punch ready for him. The Jedi paused and gave her look of suspicion which gave Raidre pause. The Talz was about to step forward, but the Jedi put a hand to stop him.
"She wants us to approach her."
Ah, what?
The Talz pulled out a riffle instead and aimed it straight at Raidre's head. She sighed, she must have been concussed to feel so disoriented and slow. She had only fought Jedi once or twice before. They were a special sort of people and what made them different also made them hard to predict. The 'Force' didn't have the courtesy of being consistent. No two Jedi or Sith had the same set of abilities. Every encounter with their type was a nightmare because you couldn't plan for it, you never knew what you were going to get! It was enough to make a girl want to curl up to a good vid and eat all the chocolates she could find in her Mantis' cupboards!
Too bad that wasn't an option today.
Nope, she got to play mind games with this young guy instead.
It had to be mind games, she hadn't moved a muscle to activate her rocket punch apparatus, it was all done with eye movements within her buy'ce thanks to her new and awesome HUD. But even though she did not move to alert him, he just knew not to get close.
Ah yea, Raidre smelt the unpleasant gym-sock smell of Jedi mind tricks all over this damn situation.
Shab, shab SHAB! Why did she have to get a mind reader!?
Okay, stalling mode activate!
"Am I gonna get a name?" she asked.
That gave him pause. "A name?"
"If you're gonna kill me, might as well tell me who you are?"
The Jedi quirked a brow at her, as if unsure if he found her amusing or insulting for not knowing who he was.
"Who do I look like to you?"
He rose his voice as if outraged, which echoed off the walls causing her head to beat with pain. Oh yea, she had banged her head hard. She sighed as she resigned herself to the migraine she was going to suffer from later. That is, if she made it to 'later'. Raidre did her best to stay kneeling on one knee, though she knew she was swaying. She rubbed her temple both to steady herself and to relieve some of the ache.
"Do I look like the type to peruse the Jedi temple, or even Coruscant?"
That made him pause again. Raidre seized her opportunity. Sometimes all you had to save you was the gift of gab, and damn was she ever going to make use of it while she could.
"Listen, what's this about, can we talk without the laser pointer on my forehead? Making me nervous."
That must have been the wrong thing to say, because the guy's back stiffened at her question.
"I wonder if you offered any mercy to Master Kyllian Jarro."
Raidre did her best to remember even though she had no time. But for the life of her she could not be sure. One thing was sure; she had let someone live to tell the tale. She looked back at the young Jedi.
"I may not have shown the master any mercy, but I sure gave the padawan a generous serving."
That got her a glare from the Jedi. Good, that meant she was on the right track. Jedi and Padawan, when had she ever faced such a pair? It was in the back of her mind, but it hurt to look.
"You're guessing, you don't even remember."
Raidre did her best not to growl. Sure, it was all fun and games for him to use his force tricks and call all her bluffs-wait! Hold on a second!
"Oh, you mean the Mandalorian killer, right? The guy who had killed over 500 of my friends and family in the last war? Do you mean that Kyllian Jarro, cause I remember him and his Mirialan padawan just fine!"
Hah!
The kid's, yes he was definitely a kid, face was beet red. Oh yea, right on that money.
Raidre chuckled to herself and sighed.
The Aurora mission came jumping back into her mind, piece by piece.
The best part had been finishing off Tarro Blood.
She had taken no joy in killing the Jedi Master, she had even let the padawan go. Guess this was the reward she could reap for her mercy. Righteous anger began to seize her, it gave her the strength to stand even though at the thought of moving the world around her spun. She took her time to stand and planted her feet a bit farther apart than she was used to. All about that extra support to her centre of gravity. At least that way she was less likely to fall face first back in the snow. Her extra care was also to herself from getting shot but her captors whom she had successfully lulled into thinking she was harmless.
"Is that what this is about?" she asked once vertical.
Resolution was clear in the hard set of the young man's face. "Yes."
Raidre recalled the party. Well, no. There had been a party planned but she never got to enjoy it because the entire room had been shot up before she arrived. Mako and she arrived, all dolled up and ready for some drunken foolishness but had been greeted by tragedy instead. Raidre had kind of grown fond of her fellow hunters, it was fun to have someone to swap scar stories with, Mako always just cringed when she got into the details. Bloodworthy was always ready to laugh at her antics, while Jewl'a liked to compete with her. She found them dead when they had arrived. That had sucked all the joy out of her for well over a weak. Even the Defenestrator had been taken out. She owed her life to his self-destruct programing, it had bought her the time she had needed to take out another Jedi.
The Jedi, the more she danced with them, the less she cared for them as her dance partner. They were sticklers for details when it came to wrongs done to them however they liked to forget the wrongs they committed. Two faced, self-righteous, pompous shabuirs. But vengeance was something she understood.
"Never knew Jedi were allowed revenge."
He had been about to take a step towards her and his hands had been in mid-motion to sit at the small of his back. Her words stopped him in his tracks. He looked her in the eyes, the lines of his face softened and his resolution seamed to waver. How young was he exactly? She gave him a closer look, her head still hurt, her world still spun, but she did her best to look at him clearly. Hair was freshly cut, he hadn't been on Hoth for long, which was for sure. His eyes were clear, no sign of stress or age really, not even blood-shot. Did this kid still have a bed time or something? But it was his body, his lanky build and lean muscles that gave him away.
"Wow, you're either a padawan yourself or fresh out of the Temple, aren't you?"
He took a step back. Raidre crossed her arms and leaned back on her left heel. Now the trick was to get him to submit rather than anger him; she would have to tread carefully. She knew what she looked like. The look was crafted especially for people just like him: misguided and emotion driven folk who hadn't really made up their minds yet. Her burnt and tattooed face was a final warning. Go home or commit. Most people like this guy went back the way they had come. It was one thing to imagine a rough life, another thing to live one.
Raidre had lived, enjoyed and thrived in the rough life. But she had had an uncle to prepare her for it. What little she knew of the Jedi, she knew that they didn't prepare their kids all that well. How could they? When the masters were so out of touch with reality themselves. This Jarro guy had asked her, asked her to just give up. He didn't seem to understand that for one; 500 Mandalorians were a lot of people, all of these people had friends, family, and kids. That's a lot of people who would be crying and missing loved ones. You don't just forgive something like that. Raidre had been lucky, her uncle had come and gone long before that. She didn't have anything against the Jedi personally. But it had not sit well with her that this master would expect her to submit to his type of justice while he remained free from the Mandalorians' justice for the lives they had lost. Sure, it was war, people died. But if these Jedi expect people to submit to justice, they would have to expect that same justice to be sent back their way for their own atrocities. Just 'cause you had the 'force' with you, doesn't make it more legitimate for a Jedi to kill someone than for a Hunter. If the Jedi Masters wanted the population to be accountable, they too would have to be accountable rather than just conveniently sweeping murder under a rug.
War had its crimes, but the Jedi insisted that they were above it all. This padawan was proof that no one was above their natural instincts. The Jedi used the 'Force', much like Socialites and Aristocrats used civility. As if they had more of it than everyone else, as if that entitled them to more power and more weight to their judgement. And those people were usually the least qualified bunch to be doing any sort of decision making or passing any form of judgement.
She was convinced of her path, she held onto that feeling. She needed the confidence and assurance of her convictions with this one. Since, he could, you know, read her mind or something close to it. She would need it to make her look a lot stronger than she currently felt. Because damn her world just kept spinning, and it was getting real hard to keep from swaying due to nausea.
"So what'll it be? My head blown or your name?"
Realistically speaking, she was lucky if she kept this up much longer. She was no Jedi with force abilities, having her face exposed to the elements was... unpleasant. She was lucky her eyes hadn't begun to tear from the cold, but she also feared if she began to tear, they would freeze. She could no longer feel most of her face anymore. Frostbite was going to take more bits and pieces of her face. She sighed to herself, as if she hadn't lost enough of her face already. Reality was- she was running out of time: but he wasn't. She needed to coerce him into making a choice, preferably one that got her back to her ship, whole, rather than missing her noggin. But then again, a shot to the face beat freezing to death.
"I think I prefer to blow your head off. It's what Thendys wants as well."
Raidre chuckled. "Ah, so this all for your girlfriend?"
The young man frowned. "It's nothing like that."
The Talz aimed and prepared his rifle, Raidre could hear the blaster cell loading in and charging the chamber.
She snorted. "I'm not your master, I don't give a damn about your attachments, so you don't have to lie to me. Sad though."
He frowned. "What is?"
"I pegged her as smart."
"She is."
Raidre shook her head from side to side. "Not if she thinks to send you to do her work for her."
"You-!"
The Talz was about to shoot. The Jedi had pulled out his light saber and was ready to charge her with anger, Raidre was about to fall her head hurt so badly. But the scene abruptly changed as a rocket exploded between them. Ice and snow exploded all around her as she was thrown by the force released from the rocket. Everything around her melted from the sudden blast of heat, but before the water could do much more, it froze again; its movements petrified and immortalized.
She awoke to unusual ice crystals all around her. The movement of water solidified for all to see. She didn't know when and where she was anymore. Her head hurt and her world spun. She tried to get up, because it was never good to be flat on the ground, but her arms were weak. Nausea threatened to destroy her last shred of dignity.
Her breath came out in puffs of thick white smoke. Her face burned for an instant as something hot ran a bit, but then it burned in another way and she could feel no more. Raidre touched her face and her ears. They kept ringing and ringing, that was bad. Her hands came away with what looked like red sludge...
Was that what blood looked like when it froze?
Some of it was still liquid and yellowish, while other parts were like dark little speckles. Raidre looked around. Something had exploded. Shab, she needed to move now. She needed to a place to hide. She tried to push herself up, but she slipped and ended up face first in the snow. She couldn't feel it. She couldn't feel the blood running and drying as it pooled from her ruptured ear drums (that was the ringing), or the ice and snow she was now kissing. It was bad that she could not feel the cold because it meant that she might have sustained nerve damage. Or a second and stronger concussion.
Blast it! What did it take to give a girl a break? Couldn't folks let a girl sleep it off before throwing her around again?
She felt hands on her as they lifted her and pulled her on her feet. That was good because she needed to leave. She looked up and saw someone dressed head to toe in armour. That was smart, it was bloody cold! Ciryc, as her uncle would have told her.
That took her back…
"It's far too ciryc(1) out there for ya, Raidre'ika. Come in where it's warm you dini'la(2)!"
She looked at the person helping her closer. Was this her uncle? No, couldn't be. He died five years ago. She'd cried a lot at his funeral. They had made her give a speech for him and it had been the worse! Uncle Iro's suit was all in orange and golds (they meant life and vengeance respectively, he had told her) and this person wore all blue. What had Iro wanted vengeance for? Had he ever told her? It felt like that was important. This guy's armour was blue, didn't that stand for reliability? He picked her up, and although she could not see his mouth or that it was moving, instincts told her that he had to be talking to her because his helmet kept facing her. Was his projector broken or was it her ears? Wait, wait. Ruptured ear drums. It was definitely her ears. He slapped something onto her and pushed her away from the direction of the action. She stumbled and was about to fall, but before she landed back in the snow. Everything went dark again.
He hoped that she could still hear, there was the tell-tale sludge trickling out of her ears, trickling and freezing before it got too far. It was shab'la ciryc(3)! She was a mess, he had really botched this up. But it was a grenade or a rocket and the rocket had seemed the lesser of two evils. It didn't shoot extra debris around as grenades tended to and he had picked a really low charge one too. But she never moved out of the way.
Why hadn't she move?!
Torian got his answer when he got to her. She was concussed. Must have been bad when he found them talking. Jedi... He remembered what had happened on Quesh, this must have been about that. She was in bad shape, her face was cut everywhere and freezing in the cold. He tried to help her stand.
"We gotta bang out!"
She looked at him. Her big, beautiful, blue eyes just blinking. Did she not hear him or was it that she did not recognize him? He didn't know which felt worse, that his misplaced rocket had burst her ear drums or that in her concussed state she didn't know who she was looking at. Why did it matter? It was time to gout of here.
"Where's your buy'ce, Raidre?"
She just kept blinking. He wondered if she could feel her face. She was so pale, all the blood vasoconstricted from her face and extremities to keep her vital organs alive and running. The body knew what to do to survive even if the person didn't. Torian looked around and spotted her helmet close to where the Talz had been standing. They had seconds before the Jedi Knight came to consciousness, and Torian didn't know how well he would fare against him with Raidre so out of it. He needed to decide now. Make a run for it or leave it behind?
He ran for the helmet as fast as his legs and hydro-joints would take him and then back to Raidre. He pulled her up by her waist. Again.
"Come, we gotta go."
Still she just blinked, but slower now. She was going to faint soon. How hard had she been banged on the head? She shouldn't have been this bad from the rocket alone. He pulled her close and was doing his best to rush her away, but she kept slipping. He held onto her and pulled her helmet on her head. His timing was good, because just as soon as he had she fainted. He barely caught her, and even then, with all the ice and her weight, he almost fell flat himself. He slung her over his shoulder and banged out of there as fast as he could, doing his best to make it back to the cruiser.
1 . Cold.
2 . Crazy, lunatic.
3 . Fucking cold.