Rothos awoke with a start, he rolled off of his bed just as the object hit the space where his neck once lay. The glass of his window broken in slightly, Rothos crouched down softly behind his bed to avoid any more incoming projectiles, he attempted to peek his head out to take a look at his assailant. His head snapped back as the dart impacted the wooden frame of his bed narrowly missing his head. Rothos pulled the blaster out from under his skewered pillow, his hand moved quickly to avoid yet another dart. Now with his blaster he used the reflection of the metal object to look out the broken Window, A blurry figure sat atop the roof of the next door house, a long black blow gun in his hand. Rothos carefully aimed his blaster towards the window in an attempt to try to hit the target, a blast fired out from his blaster raced towards the man. It missed the man by the skin of its teeth, but this was just enough to scare off the man and make him scramble to his feet to run away. Rothos grinne and stood up from his prone crouched, HK-81 burst through the door blaster in hand prepared to fight, his attitude dropped clearly once he realised that the fighting was over.
"query: what happened? Where is the fighting?" the droid demanded, Luna came in not long after with her blaster clearly more shaken than the droid.
"What happened?" she asked
"Someone started shooting blow darts at me" Rothos replied, HK-81 walked over to the rustled bed and snatched one of the embedded darts, he looked it over for a few seconds before Turning to Rothos.
"statement: these things are quite high quality, very expensive. Whoever that was wanted you badly." the droid explained, Rothos hummed thoughtfully and sat back down on the bed.
"Who do you think it was?" Luna asked.
"could be anyone, haren lock? Probably not, I'll find out if they try anything again." he responded. The mechanic sighed and travelled back down the corridor Into the kitchen, Rothos looked at the dart for a few seconds getting himself dressed.
The door swished behind him, he looked around at the other people sitting around the room. Somewhere hunched over coughing into their hands, some held bags of ice against their heads and some held their hands on blooded bandages. The sounds of machinery moving about could be heard from behind the curtain in front of him. Rothos sat down on one of the plastic chairs in the makeshift "hospital" after a few minutes the sounds stopped and the curtain was ripped back. A young man was wheeled back out some newly fresh badges wrapped around his midsection, a hairy besalisk pushed him along slightly.
"don't push ya self to hard ay, don't wanna rip open those stitches" the "doctor" said
"thank you doctor Dystra" the young man said shakily. The boy wheeled himself out the door Rothos had just stepped through. The besalisk brushed his hands on his bloody gown and stopped once he looked over at Rothos.
"Rothos! Got to see ya fella. How ya bin?" the doctor asked cheerily
"hello koda, I'm never better. But I'm here on official binsuss, I need a favour." Rothos said his tone turning serious quickly. Koda's face faulted slightly before he nodded and moved back into the "operating room" Rothos barely managed to hold back the gag at the disgusting sight in front of him. The place was covered in buckets of blood, trays holding little bloody scraps of metal. But despite all that he could tell that the room was pretty clean by mockspital standards.
"so, what is it ya need?" Koda asked.
"I need you to take a look at this," he said holding up the dart, the doctor took the dart from him and went over to a work bench beside them, once it had been pulled apart via a pair of pliers a small green vial inside could be found. Koda dropped a dollop of the liquid onto a Petri dish and placed it under a microscope. He hummed for a few seconds before spinning on his stool to face Rothos.
"Don't know what it is,but It's not lethal. Meant to incapacitate not kill, must be mighty expensive. What doya need this for by the way? '' he said.
"Nothing, nothing," he said, concerned.
Luna and HK-81 had clearly gone out based on the fact they were gone and her bag was missing also. Yet the house felt off somehow, Rothos looked about his house for whatever it was that had changed. To most people it would appear as though the house was exactly the same as it was, but to someone who had lived there 18 years it wasn't right. Rothos stalked around before reaching up and unscrewing the bulb, inside was a small microphone and a camera. 'I knew it, someone had been in here' he thought. After this Rothos began ripping through his house looking for any more hidden microphones and cameras. He found 6 cameras and 9 microphones. 'These guys are persistent. I'll give them that.' He dumped all the electronics on the street in front of his house and lit them on fire.
"hey!" some random bystander yelled clearly upset at the large fire forming on the road.
"put it out" Rothos said with a shrug, once he had gotten himself back inside he began to rack his brain for just who these guys may be. His comlink beeped to life on his belt.
"Rothos here" he responded.
"er hey Rothos." The voice of luna came from the small metal cylinder.
"A creepy guy in a lot of dark clothes has been following me and HK for a while now." she whispered quietly.
"so? Just have HK rip them a new one" he said unbothered.
"That's the thing, this guy's clothes look a lot like the guy from the factory the other night, the one who attacked us and haren lock." she said, that stopped Rothos in his track to his room. It all makes sense, they must be the ones after him, but that still doesn't explain why. Was it about what had happened, what he had done. He still wasn't sure what he had quite done that night.
He knew that there was someone tailing him, they tried to hide their footsteps in his own unsuccessfully. He couldn't get a good look at them through the crowded street, they had been following him for about an hour now. Suddenly he submerged in that 'water' he had felt yesterday, he stumbled about the street, his eyes clenched shut and his hands grasping at his hair. He fell to his knees in a muddy puddle, civilians about the street gave him confused looks but he didn't notice. He clawed and scrapped at his head in futile attempts at halting the noise that assaulted him.
'Dam I won't be paying rent in time' one voice said.
'Why won't he notice me' another
'Where's my mom'
'dammit that whore for kicking me out'
'he hasn't paid me back yet, I'll just take his kids'
More voices over and over in his head, he screamed and groaned at the unending noise, he stumbled into an alleyway and fell flat onto the ground, He ground his head into the ground, his attention was brought to the darkness in front of him by the sound of leather scraping along the gravel. A rugged dirty man stepped towards him.
'I wonder how much this guy's got.' the voice said to him.
'w-was this who w-was following me? N-no t-there was someone e-else
"l-leave, f-fuck off." Rothos said through ragged and pulled himself up onto his feet with the help of the wall. The man grinned wickedly and brandished an old rusty knife knife, after a few bated breaths the homeless man lunged at him. Rothos swiftly moved past the blade's trajectory and grabbed his dirty face, instantly his mind was filled with dozens of images, ranging all the way from a small boy to a grown man. The last image was the point of view of a man holding a knife rushing towards… towards him. The homeless man dropped to the floor, his eyes had rolled to the back of his head, his mouth frothing with white foam. Rothos panted heavily with his hands on his knees, he threw up the remnants of last night's dinner onto the ground. The memories of an entire life rushing through his head, the voices have stopped but his mind was no less claimer. Rothos knowed not what had been happening but he figured it was something today with the 'water' he had left the day before. The same connection he had felt that night could be felt now, the vomiting had turned to dry heaving as there was nothing left to vomit, Rothos wiped the gunks of food from his mouth and spat what was left. His mind had cleared now but he was by no means ok, Rothos turned to the prone man and inspected the body. After some searching a pulse was fortunately discovered, but the man continued to lay still on the muddy gravel. Rothos took in a long deep breath and attempted to center himself, the same feeling of connection was present in his mind but now it was less uncoordinated. Instead of randomly grabbing the thoughts of others it granted him a shallow understanding of those around him. Anger, sadness, joy, disappointment, every emotion imagined was swirling around him like a giant melding pot of life, if he pushed hard enough he could enter the thoughts of those around him. Yet among the thousands of people around him one stood out more than others, a few dozen feet behind him was a sticking feeling. It could only be described as pure negative emotion, even the saddest of people have some simple joys in life, not this guy. It was the same feeling he had felt in the cloaked figure from last night at the green skin base, with a light push he entered the mind of the target. He could only grasp it for a second before he was pushed out, all he knew was that whoever these people were had most definitely taken an interest in him. The man's feelings soon turned to him and most importantly turned hostile, Rothos felt himself grow cold as the figure came out of the shadows in front of him. They were clearly humanoid and clad in a black cloak that obscured their whole body. The cloaked figure said nothing but merely stared at him for a few seconds before brandishing a steel sword from inside his cloak.
"What is it you want with me? I don't have the faintest clue who you are." Rothos said, the figure still said nothing but instead began to try and circle Rothos. Rothos moved with him, never letting him out of his sight, he tried entering the cloaked man's mind again but was met with the same fate. This proved to be a mistake as the figure charged forward with a thrust, Rothos narrowly avoided the blow only for the man to twist suddenly and smashed the hilt of his blade into his chest, staggered back the assailant took the opportunity and swung a slash towards him. Rothos tried to step back but tripped on the unconscious man from earlier, a short trail of blood trickled down his chest from the shallow cut he had just gained. Rothos's mind traveled back to the night before, he stuck his hand out in an attempt to push the man back as he had done before, unfortunately all that resulted was the amusement of the attacker. Rothos rolled back from the ground stab poised to impale him, the steel blade scrapped the ground with a flash of sparks. He focused more on his mind in an attempt at finding out how he had done it the night before, but unfortunately he proved unsuccessful. Rothos began to get annoyed with the man before him, each scrap and cut only proving to make him angrier. The man was tired he could tell, with a thrust the man rushed towards him but this time Rothos stepped beside the blade and grappled the man by his throat, the 'water' around him coming closer to his body and clinging tightly to his body. Suddenly he lifted the man with strength he didn't know he had, he looked the man straight in what little of his eyes he could see through the man's vail.
"leave. Me. Alone" Rothos said sternly before he slammed the man into the ground with enough force that he felt a bone give way. The man lay on the ground for a few seconds before he passed out, Rothos knew this as the man's emotions stopped suddenly, Rothos cooled himself for a few seconds before dusting off his clothes. As quickly as the strength had come to him it left, rothos looked at the steel blade laying below him, his hand gripped the wooden handle, He twirled the blade in his hands for a few seconds before shoving it in his belt. With a sigh he turned to move toward the end of the corridor but before he got one foot off the ground two cloaked figures dropped down around him.
'I didn't sense them!' and even now he didn't, all he had time to do was narrowly dodge the blows, taking a scratch on the back of calf in the process. He ran through the streets blocking the pain in the back of his left leg, he could hear the two people chasing him through the streets, no matter how many twists and turns he made they still followed him. After a few minutes of running he bumped into luna and HK-81 who seemed to be in a situation to them, luna was sporting a fresh wound on her shoulder, HK-81 had to help her along with his arm while sending blaster shots at the two individuals behind them.
"HK-81! Luna! Follow me!" he yelled at the two of them, they followed behind him down a alley way, when the four cloaked figures came into the end of the alleyway Rothos pulled a thermal detonator off his belt and threw it towards them. The blast knocked them back and threw chunks of concrete at them. Rothos could hear the panicked yells of bystanders who happend to be around when it happend, Rothos was brought out of his musing by the pained groan from luna beside him.
"HK, you have that medical programing don't you? Can you patch her up?" he asked.
"commentary: does this look like an operating theatre?" the droid asked sarcasticly. 'operating theatre.' Rothos thought to himself, an idea entered his mind and he motioned for the two of them to follow him.
Rothos ripped the curtain out of their way. HK-81, who was now carring luna, flowed behind him. Koda span on his stool startled before taking in the gravity of the situation. He came over to luna, who was now laying on a metal bed, and began to inspect the wound. After about half an hour he finally patched her up.
"she should be fine, but no running about or it will open the wound." he said washing his hands of the blood. He saw that Rothos was injured as well and raised his protest.
"your Injured, let me take a look at It" the doctor said. Rothos tried to protest but it fell on deafs ears, once he was bandaged up koda when into a back office to do some paperwork as he had said.
"do you think they will find us?" Rothos said to HK-81. Assasin droid turned to look at him.
"statement: it is a possibility but for now we should stay low. Do you have an idea why they would be chasing you?" the droid said.
"I think it's probably to do with what I did that night, lifting luna and throwing lock , I did it again earlier. Used whatever weird power that was." Rothos said with a look of contenplation on his face.
"the force" the droid said suddenly.
"what?"
"statement: it is called the force" the droid said nonchalantly. Rothos looked at him in shock.
"huh, what do you mean the force? How do you know this?" Rothos demanded.
"statement: my droid model was specifically designed to hunt practitioners of the force. As for what it is the jedi and sith believed that it was some meta physical energy that flowed through all meatbags connecting them. Certain ones like you could manipulate the force in various ways. Several sects where formed around this idea." the droid said matter of factually. Rothos collapsed down into the Bench behind him, all this information was too much to for him to handle. Thus he didn't notice the two figures pulling back the curtain, and when he did HK-81 had already been hit with a stun round taking him out. Rothos tried to rush for luna but two blaster pistols where already pointed at him. Koda came from his office with a third figure behind him.
"fuck's sake koda" Rothos said bitterly.
"sorry Rothos, but it's just you or me ya know." the doctor said sincerely.
"No, it's just you." one of the men said before he shot koda in his chest killing him alsmot instantly.
"No!" Rothos yelled and lunged at the culprit, unfortunately him be felt the blow of a metal blaster bash against his head and darkness took his mind.
Thank you for reading this chapter, slightly shorter than usual. I'll try to update soon.
