AN: This chapter preview is subject to changes upon its official release.
Please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors I haven't caught yet.
Enjoy!
Crossroads: Rough Draft of Chapter 2
"No, no, no! This can't be happening!"
Invisibility is unavailable. Too low level.
Every time I tried to use the ability that notification kept popping up.
"Ahh!" I screamed out before slamming a fist against the wall. "Fuck!"
Probably shouldn't have done that. The armor on the glove helped absorb the impact but now my hand was hurting.
I heard the door to the bathroom open and saw Vette walk out. She had finished her shower and redressed back into her armor. The skin of hers that was showing was glowing after being cleaned. Whatever soap she was using I could smell from here, and damn if it didn't smell good.
"Yo chill out, Torrid. I could hear you screaming bloody murder from inside the shower. What's wrong?"
Perfect, I could test if I've lost everything.
"Punch me!" I said to her.
"Punch-"
I cut her off.
"I need you to try and punch me. Please."
Vette for her part didn't seem to need more motivation than that and came rushing at me.
She threw a right hook at me which I was able to block but just barely. I didn't have the insane reflexes I had when they had attacked me back in the tomb. That block was just me, and I was lucky to do that.
I couldn't block her second punch and received a hard hit across the face for my efforts.
I stumbled back from the hit and Vette just stood there with a look of shock across her face. She couldn't believe she managed to hit me. I could though, and it just confirmed my worst thoughts.
I was as good as a fucking level 1 character!
Granted I was a level 1 in what should amount to pretty strong armor and weapons, but I still only had the stats of a level 1 character and was without any of the training the characters start with. Plus, my "benefactors" said the gear was moddable which means for all I know there could be anything from level 1 to level 75 mods in there.
Who knew if this armor could even take a shot from a blaster right now? I'd have to take a look latter or most likely have Vette look as she would have more of an idea how good the armor plating inside this thing was.
Alright so I've lost my reflexes and presumably that Force shield that kept popping up.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-" Vette started to stammer out.
"Vette it's okay. I asked you to punch me. You're not in trouble."
Vette gulped and nodded her head but still looked worried.
"How well can you resist a Force attack?" I asked her.
She looked nervous and unsure at my question.
"I don't think I can resist a Force attack at all," she said.
"Perfect. This will make for a good test then."
Before she could ask, I tried Force pulling her towards me as hard as I could manage. I never received any notification saying I couldn't do that so that was a good sign.
What wasn't a good sign though was when all that happened was Vette stumbling forward a few steps before she caught herself and stopped.
"What was that?" she asked me.
"Nothing good, I assure you."
I needed to get out of here. Needed time to think. My plans had already been derailed seconds after they had started.
I turned and left the crew quarters, headed towards the bridge, hoping I could have the room to myself for a bit.
Vetter stuck her head out of the door.
"Where are you going?"
I didn't respond to her.
"And where did you get all that gear?!" she yelled out at me as I moved through the center of the ship towards the bridge.
Seeing that she wasn't going to receive an answer from me I heard her groan before she went back into the crew quarters.
I shut the door behind me as I entered the bridge. Would have been nice to see an empty void full of stars but we were still in the hangar bay. Serenity wanted us to explore the ship first before we left.
I sat down in the captain's chair and scrolled through the galaxy map. It was a strange feeling, having haptic feedback as your hand was pressed on a holographic projection of the galaxy map. It was cool to see this galaxy though through this lens.
It wasn't a fake galaxy anymore though. It was my galaxy now, it was real, and I was one of its inhabitants.
Breaking away from that thought though I came back to what was important right now.
Learning how to not die.
If everything is attempting to mimic the game in some capacity then that means there must be quests, and with quests come experience points, and with experience points come levels and stats.
Killing enemies should also grant experience but I doubt that will be a sustainable route to take when it comes to leveling. Once I'm past the first few levels, that experience will only be a drop in the bucket.
So, I needed to complete quests then. The main quests should give a good amount of experience points, that is if they even drop any. But if I wanted to level quicker then I was going to have do more than just the main story. I was going to have to do…
"Ugh fucking side quests," I groaned aloud.
"What does "side quests" mean?"
The voice startled me enough that I almost fell out of the chair I was lounging in.
I turned and saw Serenity standing in the doorway to the bridge, with an expectant look on her face.
"Well?" she asked me.
"What?"
"What do you mean by "side quests"?"
She obviously wasn't going to let this go and I need to tell her something that might explain what I'll be doing. I doubt she'll want to tag along for all these missions, especially when she'll have one of her own she needs to do.
"Circumstances have changed. While I want to help you, and I still will at every opportunity, I have additional mission objectives I'll need to take care of when we're visiting the planets your master sends us to. Starting with Balmorra," I said as I looked back towards the galaxy map.
"How do you know Baras is sending us to Balmorra?"
Crap! I really need to learn to just keep my mouth shut.
"I have… my ways." I stood up from the seat and tried to make a quick exit off the bridge. "We should take off and get into the atmosphere. I doubt your master appreciates us taking so long to do so."
She stuck an arm out in front of me to stop my path.
"Not so fast. I have a couple of questions. First, where did you get all that gear?"
I looked down at myself, having forgotten I was in my new armor set, with my two new lightsabers attached at my hip.
"Let's just say it was a gift from a benefactor of mine."
"And how did this mysterious benefactor of yours get this stuff to the ship so quickly. I just learned I was getting this ship not even 2 hours ago. They couldn't have moved that quickly."
"Believe me when I say they can, and they did. These… people are more dangerous than your master. More dangerous than the Emperor even. Nothing is beyond their capabilities."
"I doubt they're more powerful than the Emperor."
I gave a light scoff.
"You'd be surprised."
She crossed her arms under her chest but kept herself positioned in the doorway.
"So why are they helping you then?"
I looked away not wanting to meet her eyes.
"I can't tell you that."
"Can't or won't?"
The air was thick with tension and there wasn't a good answer I could give so I chose to stay silent.
"Any other questions I can answer for you?" I asked her after a few moments.
She stared me down for a few seconds before relenting knowing I wasn't going to answer her other question.
"Just one more. What happened between you and Vette?"
I looked at her genuinely confused as to what she meant.
"She just came to me frantic saying that she hit you in a fist fight and that you very lightly pulled her afterwards," she elaborated. "So light it mostly just felt like a light push on her back."
"Ahh that. Yes, well you see, my abilities are um sort of… gone, for lack of a better term. But only temporarily," I amended.
Her eyes took on a dark look.
"What," she growled out.
Before I could respond she took out her lightsaber and swung at me. I reacted fast enough to raise my hands. She hit a glancing blow against the armor plating on the back of my hands and wrist. Sparks flew off from the impact and I could see that the metal had melted slightly from the impact. She stopped once she saw the sparks fly off.
"Hey what the hell?" I said in shock.
"You didn't shield against that," she said in disbelief.
"Like I was saying before you went all psychopath," I said angry, "I have been temporarily depowered."
"Depowered? You can't just lose your powers. What does that even mean?" she asked as she put away her lightsaber.
"Look, my… benefactors control my powers. They've taken them away for now, while leaving me a way to get them back."
"Nobody can just stop someone's powers. They especially can't when they're not even here," she said motioning to the ship.
"When it comes to these people, forget everything you think you know about the universe. They don't play by its rules."
She met my eyes and stared me down for a few seconds.
"Fine," she eventually said. "Assuming what you've said so far is true, how do you get your powers back?"
"I need to complete missions. Every time I complete a mission, whether it's one of yours, or a third party's, I'll gain some of my power back."
It didn't work quite like that. I would only gain my power back when I leveled up, but it was close enough to the truth.
"That's the theory at least."
"Theory?"
I rubbed my hand on the back of my neck sheepishly.
"Well, I haven't gotten the chance to test it out yet so…"
"Unbelievable," she muttered shaking her head. "Fine, what's the first "mission" we could complete to test your theory?"
"Well, I think if we get into the sky and talk to Baras that'll count as mission complete."
"How does that work?" she asked.
I gave out a light sigh.
"Believe me when I say this whole thing will be easier if you don't question it."
She hmphed in annoyance.
"Fine, get us into the sky then."
She turned and started to leave.
"Wait," I called out after her. I continued when she craned her neck to look at me. "You want me to fly this thing? Cause as cool as that sounds, I maybe, sort of, potentially… don't know how to fly a ship…"
She looked at me skeptically. "You lost the ability to pilot with the rest of your abilities?"
"No, no, nothing like that. I just never learned how."
She just kept staring at me in disbelief.
I threw my hands up.
"Scouts honor."
"I don't know what that means," she muttered shaking her head, "but I'll believe you. Vette!" she called out.
Vette came over quickly.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"You're flying. Get us off this planet," she said before walking away.
Vette, for her part, was stood there bug eyed.
"You're serious? You're serious! Haha this is going to be so much fun."
She immediately ran over to the controls and took over one of the two helmsman seats all the while cackling and giggling.
She's so going to get us killed.
"Apprentice, I trust you find your starship satisfactory," came Baras voice of the holo.
Serenity bowed towards her master.
"I do, master. It's an outstanding vessel."
"And you Torrid? Is it good enough for you?" he asked insincerely.
"We don't have to pretend to like each other Baras. Just tell your apprentice what you want done and I'll be there to help her out. We can have a professional working relationship without pretending that we won't stab each other in the back when the opportunity arises."
He didn't respond to me. I like to pretend he was scowling underneath that mask of his.
He blabbered on about securing his interests, and the padawan and such. When he talked about eliminating his spies first though, and mentioned Balmorra as our first planet, I saw Serenity's eyes flicker my way before they quickly refocused back on Baras.
"… bring fury, bring death!" Baras said before cutting the call.
Serrenity immediately turned towards me.
"So did you-"
She stopped as blinding light emanated from me. I could feel the increase in power surge through me. I wasn't nowhere near where I had been on Dromund Kass but I certainly felt a lot better than I did a little bit ago.
"Honestly I expected them to go subtler with it, but it makes it easy to know when it's happened," I said aloud.
"What was that?" Vette asked as she was still rubbing her eyes.
"That was a power boost my dear Vette," I said happily.
"So how close are you to being back to where you started?" asked Serenity.
That was a good question. I needed some way to see my experience bar and see what level I was. I figure that had to have been more than a single level up considering how easy it is to level the first few levels.
Status?
Nothing popped up.
Uhh interface?
Still nothing.
Interface editor?
Suddenly a whole bunch of boxes popped up in my vision overwhelming my sight. All I could see were different colored boxes with different labels. I took my time trying to sort through what I was seeing until I could find the experience bar.
In the background I could vaguely hear Serenity and Vette trying to talk to me, but I ignored them.
I raised my hands up to the boxes in my vision like I did when I was in the character creator and found I was able to touch them just like back then.
I clicked a little check mark on the experience bar stating that I wanted it to be visible. I also did that on two boxes set to be the health bar of my allies. Looking over at them I saw the health of Serenity in one and the health of Vette in another.
I moved the boxes around until my vision was unobstructed.
Exit interface editor?
All the excess boxes disappeared, and I was left with the experience bar near the bottom of my vision and the health bars of my allies to the side.
Looking at the experience bar I noted it had a 4 next to it and the bar was halfway filled.
4 and half levels for one quest? Not bad. Then again, I had to figure I got what was essentially the amount of experience you would get for a level 16 quest at level 1. The quick levels were going to fall off but as long as I could get to a point where I could quest by myself that would be alright. I'd just have to grind for a bit when I could.
Focusing back on the world around me I noticed Vette was in my face waving a hand in front of me.
I jumped back startled.
"Sorry, what were you saying?" I asked.
"I asked you how close you were to your original power level before you disappeared on us," said Serenity.
"When did you lose your powers? How did you lose your powers? And what the hell were you doing with your hands?" asked Vette.
"Well to answer your first question is a little difficult," I said towards Serenity. "I can tell you I'm basically 1/15th of the way back to where I started but I don't know if I have 1/15th of my original power."
Having this stuff in my vision would be annoying all the time. I wonder if I could somehow set up presets to easily…
"That's it! Presets!" I exclaimed.
"How-" Serenity started to ask.
"Hold that thought. Be right back!"
I went back into the interface editor and looked around for a preset button. Finding one I saved the current interface to preset 1. There was already one saved as default.
I exited back out of the interface and tried thinking about switching to the default preset.
My vision cleared up and there was nothing in its way. Trying to think about preset 1 returned the experience and health bars.
I went back to the default and focused back in on my surroundings.
There was a very angry looking Serenity in my face when I returned. She looked poised to hit me.
"If you disappear on me one more time while I'm in the middle of speaking to you I will beat you till you are black and blue, understand me?"
"A bit touchy don't you think?"
Serenity snarled and raised her hand in a fist at me.
"But point taken to heart," I quickly added.
She lowered her fist and took a couple steps back.
"Answers, now."
"To what questions might I ask?"
"First tell Vette everything you told me, and then explain how you can be 1/15th of the way back to where you were but not have 1/15th of your powers."
So, I did. I explained to Vette that I had benefactors who provided me with the armor and weapons and how they controlled my powers and deemed it fit to take away said powers.
"The powers grow sort of exponentially," I gave as an explanation.
"Kind of like how in a game a level 30 might be able to take on like 20 level fives by themselves?" asked Vette.
Oh, you brilliant, beautiful Twi'lek.
I pointed my finger excitingly at Vette. "Yes! Yes, exactly like that! So, the quicker I can "level" up, the quicker I can get back to full strength."
"Ugh fine," Serenity said putting a hand up to her head. "All this talk is giving me a headache."
She lowered her hand back down. "Vette, set course for Balmorra. You," she said pointing at me, "are coming with me?"
Vette just nodded at her master's instructions and went for the bridge.
"Might I ask where we're going?"
"The cargo hold. I'm gonna make sure you can use those lightsabers on your belt without getting me killed."
She started walking off to the cargo hold with me following behind her.
"You're not concerned with me getting myself killed by not knowing how to use these things?"
"Honestly that's what I was hoping for but I'm gonna need use of your talents when they've returned and having you in my debt doesn't seem like a bad call, so training it is then."
I could only shrug in acceptance at that considering everything she said was fair.
So good news. The levels do help to amplify all my abilities including those involved with lightsaber combat.
Bad news, it might be some multiplier, or something based on my actual experience level fighting with lightsabers. And seeing as my starting experience with these things is none, I still suck with them.
Good news though, was that I wasn't hopeless.
"I'm not?" I asked surprised at that.
"No. You absolutely suck right now, no doubt about that."
There goes my confidence.
"But you're at least starting to take in a basic form, and you haven't cut any of your own limbs off yet so that's progress," continued Serenity.
I think that was her attempting to be nice.
"Your compliments could use some work," I said dryly.
"Do something worry of a genuine compliment and you shall receive one," she said matter-of-factly.
"Heh, I deserve that I suppose."
"That you do. Now get some rest. We'll be at Balmorra in a few hours and you're coming along."
"You want me to be with you?" I asked surprised. My combat skills were lacking. Hell at this point they were less than lacking.
"If you come along, you'll regain your power back faster, won't you?"
"Well yes but-"
"Then that's all there is to say. Get some rest, you'll find yourself regretting it later if you don't."
With that she tried to take her leave. I called out to her when she got to the doorway of the cargo hold.
"Why are you helping me? You could have told Baras I'm basically powerless at this moment. I'm sure he would have rewarded you greatly."
She stilled in the doorway for a few tense silent moments. When she turned around, I could see her eyes were glowing brightly.
"Because despite what Baras believes I am no fool. When I have finished with this Jedi, he is intent on taking down, he will have to decide if I have outlived my usefulness and I want to be prepared for that moment. Even if he doesn't try to get rid of me right then and there he will at some point. Having the person who made him speechless and was able to deflect his attack as if it were nothing as an ally seems like a smart move to me, doesn't it?"
She turned to leave but I called out once more.
"Hey…"
"What?" she snarled as she turned back around once more getting annoyed at my incessance.
"Thank you," I said genuinely.
Her eyes met mine as she tried to figure out what game I was playing. They dimmed though once she could see that I was being sincere.
"You're welcome," she said quietly and then she was gone. I heard the door to her room shut.
I took out both lightsabers and watched as the purple blade came to life out of my main hand and a crimson one out of the offhand. When I first saw this, I was almost certain the powers that be were making a joke about Revan at my expense.
I don't know if I was a huge fan of the crimson saber, but it did help to make me look like a Sith, so I'll probably just leave it. As for the purple… well purple is my favorite lightsaber color so that one is definitely staying.
I got into position and started taking practice swings. I wanted to be able to take care of myself, and the first steps to that were learning how to master dual wielding and lightsabers in general.
As I was swinging, I thought back to the training I just had with Serenity. I remember her staying somewhat longingly at my second saber. She only uses one lightsaber, but it seemed like she wanted to dual wield too but for some reason she doesn't. Maybe one day I can find out why.
I was about to practice another swing when I heard a voice call out from the doorway.
"Crimson, really? I mean at least the purple is kind of unique, but the red look is just so… cliché."
I turned my head to look at the interrupter.
"I didn't realize we should choose our color crystals based upon cliches. What color would you prefer Vette?"
She put a finger up to her lips in a thinking manner.
"Hmm how about a lovely shade of blue," she said referencing her own skin color.
I turned towards her fully.
"Tsk tsk tsk Vette," I said with a wave of my finger. "The Jedi use blue and that would be cliché."
She stomped her foot down and pouted. "Drats, you're right. How about something cool then. Oooh like a pure black!"
I chuckled at that.
"That would be cool. I think what you're referring to though is called a darksaber and they don't really exist anymore or are super rare or something."
"You're not sure?"
"Hey, it's not like I'm an encyclopedia for all this stuff alright? If you want to know more about it, I'm sure you can probably look it up on the internet."
I deactivated my lightsabers and reattached them to the belt on my armor seeing as I probably wasn't going to get any practice in while she was around.
She tilted her head and looked at me strangely.
"The internet?" she asked.
Now it was my turn to look at her confused.
"Yeah, you know the commonwealth of all knowledge?"
It took me a second before I realized why she was confused.
"Oh right, sorry. I mean the uhm…. what is it exactly you call the thing you connect to when you need to look some information up?"
"You mean the HoloNet?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
I slammed my fist into my hand.
"Yes! That's it. The HoloNet… not the internet… which I know."
There was silence between us for a few moments before Vette broke it.
"You're weird you know that?"
That gave me a good laugh.
"Haha believe me I know. And are you one to talk?"
"Hey, I'm fun weird. Besides you don't really know me, you can't say that?"
I know more about you Vette than you might think, but that would be for another time.
"Pot calling the kettle black much?"
We both laughed at that. As she was shaking with laughter, I couldn't help but notice the light reflecting of the collar around her neck.
"I couldn't help but notice you still have your shock collar on. Serenity refused to take it off or you just never asked?"
Her hand reflexively shot up and ran along the metal of the collar.
"No, I… I did ask. She refused," she said glumly to me.
"I… I'm sorry Vette. Did she tell you why?"
"She promised me that she would never shock me if she didn't have to, but she said she can't trust me not to run off or shoot her in the back without it."
As much as I hated to admit it, I couldn't find much fault in Serenity's logic. She doesn't have the luxury of knowing that this is a game and once someone joins you as a companion it's permanent. Even if some of them are traitors… but I'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
"I'll see if I can convince her to take it off of you one day. You don't deserve that."
Vette shrugged helplessly.
"She won't take it off anytime soon, but thanks. I appreciate the thought."
"I know things seem bad right now, but they will get better." I gave her an uneasy shoulder shrug. "Who knows? You may even come to like being with us one day."
"Well, this is certainly one of the better gigs I've been a part of, but I doubt that. Besides, what does the big bad Sith care about what happens to me?"
"Well Sith aren't exactly barred from caring about others, and I am definitely no Sith."
"You're trying to tell me you're a Jedi?" she asked skeptically.
"No! God no. I would never want to be a Jedi," I said vehemently. "I mean have you seen how many rules and restrictions they have? I'd go crazy within an hour."
She giggled lightly at that.
"So, what are you then?" she asked as the giggles subsided.
"That's a good question." I fell silent as I gave it some thought. "I don't really think I align with any of the factions, and I don't really have a code I follow besides my own, so I'm just… me?"
"Haha so there's the Republic, the Empire, and you?"
"Heh, I guess you could see it that way."
A comfortable silence fell between the two of us while I tried to think of what to say next. I remembered though that I needed her to check over my armor.
"Hey, could you look at my armor and tell me what kind of plating is in it? I don't care about the brand or anything. I just want to know how protective the plates actually are."
Vette was surprised at my request.
"Oh… yeah, yeah sure I can do that. Do you want to go change and then bring me the armor or?"
"There's no need for that," I said as I started stripping out of the armor right there.
Vette threw her hands in front of her eyes, but I could see she was parting them slightly and peeking through.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
I gave her a grin. "I'm saving us both time. You can turn around if it bothers you."
Once I was out of the all the armor, and down to my underwear, I folded the clothes into a pile and walked over to Vette. Gently taking her arms down and pushing them down in front of her I dropped my armor into them.
I saw Vette running her eyes up and down my body.
"My eyes are up here, Vette," I teased.
I saw a light color of blush start dusting her cheeks.
"I'm going to go get some rest before we get to Balmorra."
"Wait, aren't you going to watch me as I interact with your armor? Aren't you worried I might do something to it?" she asked.
I gave her a gentle smile. "No, I trust you Vette. You're a good person. Besides, if something happens to me Serenity might very well kill you."
I saw Vette's eyes widen in fear before I put a calming hand out.
"Woah, woah, I was just joking. Don't worry, she won't hurt you. I promise you that."
She nodded nervously in acceptance.
I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.
"Thanks for coming by and talking. It can get lonely on these ships when everyone you try to interact with wants nothing to do with you, can't it?" I asked not expecting an answer.
I saw her eyes widen in surprise at me before she gave me a passionate nod as someone who understood her.
I gave her another smile before I released my grip on her shoulder and walked over to the crew quarters to get some rest.
I awoke feeling sore but ready to go. I was as terrified as I was excited to get down to Balmorra. I mean this was going to be my first real combat experience. With that came the high possibility of death, but it also brought the promise of unlimited power. If I could get ahead while we were here, if I could grind out my levels, I could potentially snowball my power curve on the later planets.
Making it so I was overpowered on the other planets, where I didn't have to worry about death, but while still being able to level with the quests would be a comfort. Or at least gaining a few levels above where I should be would be a nice comfort zone.
I was about to step out of the crew quarters doorway when I heard Baras talking over the Holo. Not wanting to reveal my presence I hid in the doorway and listened in.
"Apprentice I have another task for your ears only. I trust Torrid isn't around?" Baras asked.
"No, my lord. He is currently resting in the crew quarters in preparation for our mission on Balmorra," responded Serenity.
There was silence for a moment, and I assume it was him turning and looking at Vette considering the next thing he said was "And will your slave be a problem?"
"Not at all. She knows the punishment for disobedience."
"Very well then. Apprentice, I need you to keep an eye on Torrid. Gain his trust, become his closest confidant, and use that closeness to find out information on him. Information that I can use. I want anything and everything that could be used as a potential weakness. His display on Dromund Kass was disconcerting. We must stop him before he becomes a problem. Am I understood?"
Serenity didn't hesitate.
"Your wish is my command. It will be done my lord."
"Good. Contact me once you've made contact with Quinn."
With that I heard the holocall disconnect. This was going to make things complicated. If Serenity was going to be spying on me then I'd have to be extra careful with what I said. Wait, if Baras wanted my weaknesses why didn't she inform him right now that I was basically powerless.
Right as I was thinking that I heard Vette speak up.
"Hold up, you're not actually going to listen to him, are you? You have to tell him that Baras wants him dead."
"I don't have to do anything of the sort Vette."
"Why not?"
"Because he already knows." She raised her voice for the next part. "Don't you Torrid?"
I stepped out from the doorway with my cover clearly having been blown. Vette looked surprised when I stepped out while Serenity merely had a grin on her face.
I noticed she had switched out of her armor and was in more casual clothes. She was in a black tank top, with a black scarf wrapping around her neck and resting over her chest. She had near shoulder length cloth gloves on that looked like gauze wrapping up around her arms before they ended in fingerless gloves on the bottom.
She was wearing what I assumed were comfortable but tight black fitting leggings on the bottom. She still had the black eyeshadow on that blended at some point to a dark reddish color that extended on slightly over the top and sides of her eyes. It was easy to assume that black was her favorite color.
I approached her skeptically, but she merely rolled her eyes at me.
"Oh, don't look at me like that," she said. "I would have thought our previous conversation would have been enough to reassure you of my intentions."
My eyes narrowed in response as I listened to her explanation.
"Intentions can always shift, especially when your master beckons you to heel. Not many pets would go against their owner's wishes, especially when their owner can bring down a strike far greater than any they could deal."
She crossed her arms and glared at me.
"I am no one's pet." Her glare softened before she let out a soft sigh. "You asked me to trust you earlier on Dromund Kass. Well now I'm asking you to trust me. Trust that I know that you are my best meal ticket to destroying Baras."
We had a stare down for a few moments.
"And do you trust me?" I asked her.
"No," she replied succinctly. "Not yet at least. So, I'm hoping that while we're out there doing Baras bidding and getting your powers back we can learn along the way to trust each other. Deal?" she asked extending her hand out.
I looked at her eyes. For some reason it was easy to tell if she was lying when I looked into her eyes. Sensing no deception, I reached out and grasped her hand with my own.
"Deal."
She let a small smile grace her face as she released my hand.
"Good, now go put some clothes on and be ready to depart with Vette when we arrive at Sobrik."
I looked down for the first time and remembered that when I went to sleep, it was in my underwear, and that Vette was the one who still had my armor which means I had just charged into the middle of this wearing almost nothing.
Serenity was smiling at me amused when I looked back up after realizing.
"Didn't realize, did you?" she asked with a grin as she started walking to her quarters.
Something was still bothering me though.
"Hey, wait, how did you know I was awake and hiding in the doorway?"
I saw her turn back to me with that smile still on her face. Her smile fell when she tried to answer me though.
"I-I don't know," she said surprised, and I could tell it was genuine. Her eyes fell to the floor as she got lost in thought. "I just sort of knew you were awake and felt you standing there."
This was going to be something to think about and potentially research, but I could save that for later.
"Alright." I turned to Vette. "You mind showing me to my armor?"
She didn't respond and I noticed she was staring at me. With a grin on my face, I put my finger under her chin and lifted her head, so our eyes met.
"You're staring again," I teased gently.
Look if you think I'm having too much fun with this let me have my moment alright? While I was never ashamed of my body before, I also never had the one that turned people's heads when they saw me at the beach, so I was going to enjoy this until it got old.
My words seemed to bring Vette back to reality as I could see her eyes dial back in.
"Wha- oh! Y-yes! I'll just go… Be right back!" she yelled before darting off into the cargo hold. A heavy blush accompanying her cheeks along the way.
I was just left there to snicker when I heard Serenity grumbling under her breath.
"He's been here all of a day and he's already stealing my slave."
I turned and looked at her, but she didn't seem embarrassed at being overheard.
"Just be ready before we get there," she said and then shut her door.
With nothing left to do here, I followed Vette over to the cargo hold and got ready to leave.
I was dressed in my armor and had my lightsabers clipped to my belt. Vette told me that the armor plating inside was fairly mediocre. It could take maybe, and she emphasized the maybe, a few direct blows before it would be useless. She was amazed though she said at how seamlessly the plating could be modified and replaced. Guess that wasn't standard around here.
It all just confirmed to me that there was low level plating in there and all my money, when I got some, would probably be going towards buying better and better plates whenever I could find them.
I had the helmet resting in my hands, the visor looking back at me.
Honestly, I wasn't as much of a fan of the helmet as I was the armor but until I was basically a god who could block anything with the Force, having a vacuum sealed helmet seemed like the smart move.
I lifted the helmet and placed it over my head. Just like the rest of the armor it fit perfectly. I heard the magnetic clamps seal shut and could hear the breathing apparatus kick in.
"Testing, testing," I said aloud.
My voice came out modulated and robotic like how a lot of the helmets sounded in the old republic. It felt weird to hear, but it did make my voice sound deeper and more menacing so it would help with intimidation.
I walked over to the airlock and found Vette and Serenity waiting there for me.
"What is Vette doing here?" I asked confused.
I saw Vette's eyes widen in surprise at the difference in my voice, but Serenity didn't seem to care.
"I'm taking the both of you with me on the mission?" she said like it was obvious.
"But you can't do that."
Now it was her turn to look confused.
"And why can't I?"
"Because the-" I stopped myself after thinking about what I was about to say. Because the game doesn't let you. I mentally smacked myself upside the head. I needed to remember that while I may be in the game world, this place doesn't play by the game's rules.
"Because?" Serenity asked with a roll of her hand after I stopped.
"Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. Of course, you can bring both of us. It'll make things easier actually."
Serenity looked at me questioningly for a second before she let it go.
"Exactly what I was thinking. I'm not poising to take an army with me every time I go somewhere if that's what you're concerned about. The more people that come the harder it is to move quickly. Plus keeping a larger group hidden is a lot more work. So don't worry, unless I'm planning an assault, I'll probably just stick to the three of us."
"Sorry, like I said I don't know what I was thinking. Let's just get moving. Lots to do. Places to siege, people to kill, the whole shebang."
Vette for her part just looked between the two of us.
"I'm sorry," she said speaking up and interrupting, "but am I the only one hearing his voice right now?"
"No, I hear it Vette. It's just an intimidation tactic widely used by the Sith. Nothing unusual," answered Serenity.
"So why don't you have a voice modulator?" asked Vette.
Serenity got a predatory look in her eye and raised a single hand until it was parallel to us, with us facing its backside. She had lightning dance between her fingertips.
"Because I'm intimidating enough as it is and don't need to rely on cheap parlor tricks for that."
Vette looked over to me.
"I think it's cool," I responded.
Vette and Serenity just rolled their eyes before they looked at each other and muttered, "Men."
Vette giggled at their synchronism. While Serenity didn't giggle, a small smile did grace her face.
"Okay, hardy har har," I said. "We've all had a good laugh at my expense. May we get to work now?"
Serenity nodded in acceptance and motioned to follow her.
As we stepped out of Sobrik's spaceport I immediately noted how much busier Sobrik looked than in the game. There were people and troops constantly hustling about what looked like a populated city.
Looking up I saw Sobrik's shields flare to life as it was constantly being bombarded by artillery strikes. Looking at towards the crowd I tried to find my target for this expedition. And after looking I found him around where I expected him to be. By the shuttle stop there was man stood around looking frantic, and I knew I had found my first quest giver.
If I remembered from the game correctly this should be a nice and quick quest. Something easy I could use to test out my combat skills and to gain a little experience and credits. This should be the one where the guy sends you over to the bar to plant fake evidence on a diplomat or something that died. I don't remember exactly but he'd tell me what I needed to know when I picked the quest up.
I turned and saw Serenity and Vette already descending the spaceports stairway towards Quinn's office. I wanted to go pick up the quest and get it taken care of right now, but I also wanted to stick with Serenity as she progressed the main story.
I was worried that I would only gain experience for quest completions on missions that I was actually with her, considering companions didn't get experience points. They just shared the level of whatever the player character was, and I considered myself to be my own player character, so I figured I needed to be there for the quest completion.
Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone? Skip out on the long boring talks and explanations for why we're here and get the other quest done.
"Serenity!" I called out.
She turned to look at me still on top of the stairway.
"I'll meet you at the Lieutenant's office, just whatever you do keep Baras on the line until I get there, okay?"
"And why can't you just come with me?" she asked.
I grew a grin on my face until I realized the mask was blocking it and she couldn't see it.
"Side quests remember! I'll be back."
And with that I sprinted off towards the quest giver.
You know it makes sense when you're playing a game but it's really weird how people are just standing around waiting for someone to come by and solve their problems for them. I mean this guy immediately came up to me, a stranger, as I walked near him going all "my lord" this and "my lord" that.
I looked dressed for the part so I'm sure that helped but I mean what if I was just one of those asshole Sith and decided to snap his neck for interrupting me. It worked out this time, but that guy was going to get himself killed.
I talked with the guy by the taxi, and he gave me some spiel about a diplomatic incident, and blaming the rebels, and blah blah blah. All I was interested in was how much experience this would give and how many credits he was offering. The answer was a thousand, which seems small compared to the game's hugely inflated economy, but this wasn't the game.
A thousand credits could probably go a lot further here then it did in the game, and I figured that wasn't a bad amount for my first ever payday.
Stepping into the bar I asked the bartender which room the diplomat was staying in. He gave me the room number without any questions. Kind of a weird dude. I wasn't going to complain about him making my life easier, but I feel like he should have been a bit more concerned for client privacy.
I entered the diplomat's room and saw his three guard droids standing around his dead body, unsure what to do. The three hadn't noticed me yet so I figured this would be a good time to test my powers again.
I put my hand out in front of me and cast Force lightning… or at least I tried to. What actually happened was that I shot out a tiny spark that impacted the first droid but didn't seem to do anything.
All three droids turned to look at me, and upon registering the threat of an intruder, went into combat mode and pulled out their blasters.
"Oh crap," I said before I dove to the side. I knocked over a table onto its side and used it for cover. Not a moment later blaster bolts begin impacting the table I was crouching behind.
"Well, this went to shit fast!" I cursed.
I peeked my head over the top of the table and quickly had to drop back down as a blaster bolt impacted the table dangerously close to my head.
I grabbed my lightsabers and ignited them. Having an idea, I quickly popped up and tried to throw one of my sabers only to be granted with this message.
Saber Throw is unavailable. Too low level.
Being too distracted by the message that just popped up, I failed to notice I was still standing and exposing half my body to the droids. One of them got a solid shot in on the upper right-hand side of my torso. The impact knocked me to the ground, thankfully back behind the table.
Looking down at my chest I noticed the bright glowing orange hole where the armor used to be. I could see the impact area already cooling, but that didn't matter seeing as how I now had a decent sized hole in my chest armor.
"Holy shit! Vette wasn't kidding. This armor plating sucks!"
The three droids were advancing on my position in triangle formation and would be there within seconds. I didn't know if they thought that shot had killed me or not. The blaster fire had stopped but when they peered over the table and saw I was still alive it would continue. Knowing I needed a distraction I peered discreetly around the corner of the table.
There, on the bar behind the droids, I saw glasses and bottles. I cast as strong of a Force push as I could manage at this point at the bottles. The bottles flew off the bar and shattered upon impacting with the wall.
All three droids turned to investigate the new disturbance they heard, and I knew it was now or never. In what could only be attributed as a complete lack of common sense and stupidity, I vaulted over my only piece of cover and used it as a jumping platform.
I sored through the air at the droid at the tip of the triangle and cut through his head on the way down. Landing I immediately swung out at the droid on my right and managed to cut it clean in two. The last droid by this point however had turned back towards the registered threat.
Having only maybe milliseconds to spare I imagined, I managed to redirect my lightsaber fast enough after the last attack and cut through the barrel of the blaster in its hands. I heard the clicking of the trigger being pulled and saw the droid lower its head towards the blaster to see what was wrong with it.
He didn't get a very long look as I quickly swung and decapitated it. Deactivating my lightsabers, I quickly put my hands on my legs and started panting.
"Oh my god. That was somehow more thrilling than I thought it would be and infinitely more terrifying," I breathed out between pants.
I put my lightsabers away and moved towards the back room. I pulled out the datacard the guy had given me. I guess these were the equivalent of flash drives or something. I plugged it in to the terminal there which was responsible for the security in the room and ergo the video camera footage of the diplomat's death.
Supposedly it would overwrite the data with footage or something that made it look like the Resistance did it. Whatever though, it wasn't my problem if this hurt the Resistance. Besides I'm sure it won't make a difference considering the Republic will free Balmorra from occupation later on. And if I needed any more reassurance that I wasn't doing something completely horrible then I just needed to remember that this was a side quest and thereby it had no relevance whatsoever to the main story.
After the terminal beeped to indicate the data transfer was done, I pulled out the datacard and made a quick escape.
Turning in the quest and receiving the credit reward was nice. Leveling up was even nicer.
That reminded me though that I should have checked how much experience I had after that fight with the droids. Would have been a good way to see if fighting was worth it or not right now.
That guy was nervous though when I came back to tell him the job was done. I mean I kind of get it considering there was a brand-new spanking hole where part of my armor used to be but like come on. At least I got the job done. That's more then most people could say.
Ugh and then leveling up in a public place like this is annoying. The bright light thing is surprisingly, a head turner. Who would've guessed? Luckily looking like and having the presence of a Sith is enough to make most people stop staring rather quickly.
Holding a thousand credits in chits was cool but the novelty wore off when I realized I would have to walk around everywhere with this. I wonder if I could get a bank account and a debit card kind of thing?
Something to take care of later. For now, though I guess I'll have to hold onto my credits myself. I can't believe there's no pockets on this thing… wait… is there pockets on this thing?
I looked down and patted around my legs but didn't find any pockets. It was then that I noticed that my belt had two small obvious pouches on either side. Flicking one open I saw it was empty inside and could be used as storage.
I can't believe I never noticed these… I'm an idiot.
I dropped the credits off into the pouch and secured the flap back over the top of it.
I rushed my way over to the Lieutenant's building where I saw him waiting outside. I took that as a good sign then that Serenity was still on call with Baras. I shoved my way past him when he tried to block my entrance stating, "Sith business."
"Oh Serenity! I'm home darling!" I called out loudly as I walked in.
"My lord I am terribly sorry. I beg your forgiveness. I tried to stop him, but he weaseled his way past me," Quinn said following in behind me.
"I don't think me just forcing you out of the way counts as weaseling."
"I see our time has come to an end my apprentice. Make sure you complete your mission," Baras said before disconnecting the call.
Quinn bowed lowly before Serenity. I noticed Vette wasn't around.
"My lord once again I humbly apologize. I will take any punishment you deem fit to bestow upon me."
"There's no punishment necessary Lieutenant. As loathe as I am to admit it, he's actually one of mine."
I mockingly scoffed.
"How dare you! You love me, admit it!"
Serenity rolled her eyes at my antics.
"As you can see, he's a handful. Do you have what I need for my assault?" she asked Quinn.
Quinn raised his head and returned to a standing position. He reached out and held a blasting charge in his hand.
"In order to destroy the mainframe, you'll need to attach this charge to the base and activate it. Then contact me and I'll be able to detonate it," he said.
She took the charge from him.
"Thank you, Lieutenant. I'll contact you from the Satellite control tower."
"Very good my Lord. Good hunting."
After he said that I could feel another surge of power course through me as a blinding light flashed out.
"What was that?" asked Quinn.
Serenity quickly turned back to try and feed the Lieutenant a lie or force him to keep quiet but whatever he was told I knew would get back to Baras, so I intervened.
"That was my fault. Sorry about that. This armor has flashbang capabilities that are controlled by internal wiring. After I got shot," I motioned to the hole in my armor, "damn things been on the fritz and has been going off randomly."
"I would see to it that you get that repaired post haste," commented Quinn. "Should it go off at the wrong time it could have dire consequences for my lord here."
Ahh Quinn. Always the ever-loyal soldier. No love for me, but if it affects Serenity then that's a big no no. I don't know why but I suddenly started thinking about Serenity going after and locking in the Quinn romance. That thought made me want to beat Quinn's face in and he hadn't even betrayed us yet… weird.
"We'll go take care of that right now, thank you Lieutenant. Dismissed," Serenity said cutting back in.
Quinn gave her a formal military salute before Serenity dragged me out of his stupid building. I don't even know what it is. Is it a barracks, or an outpost, or a house? I guess it doesn't really matter but like it has such a weird layout to it.
After she had dragged me outside, she clonked me good across the face. Luckily the helmet absorbed most of the blow, so I didn't feel much of it.
"What the hell woman?" I asked as I brought a hand up to where she impacted the helmet.
"What were you doing back there? I didn't give you free reign just so you could come back later and try to make an embarrassment out of me in front of my superior," she snarled out angrily. "I have been undermined and looked over enough times in my life. I don't need you adding to that!"
If she wasn't so angry and I wasn't angry at that punch, I would point out how funny that little em-Barras-sment pun was. And I don't know if she meant to, but she slipped up and gave me a little information about her past right there.
"Look I'm sorry if you think I set out to undermine you but that wasn't my intention. I was merely trying to give you a warning I had returned and that you didn't need to stall anymore," I said trying to keep my tone even.
"Well next time I'm in a meeting and you show up late, just shut up and sit down, or I will have you scrubbing the ship for weeks!" she ordered.
"Careful Serenity," I said dangerously. "You seem to have forgotten that I am not one of your people that you can order around. I am no slave. I am a third party who was interested in helping you along."
The next part I growled out quietly to her.
"It would be smart not to piss of the only help you would have when it comes time to take down Baras."
"If need be, I'll be able to find other help before then. Who knows, maybe I should tell Baras about your weakness right now. It could buy me some goodwill with him for later," she fired back.
"Over my dead body you will," I growled out.
I saw Serenity start inching her hand towards her lightsaber.
"That can be arranged."
"Careful what you wish for. You have no idea how much more powerful I've become in just the short time I've been gone."
It was a half bluff. I had gained strength but even I had no idea how much. And I was fairly confident that it probably wasn't enough to face down Serenity right now in a 1v1 and win. I had just hoped I could fake enough confidence that she would back down.
I inched both my hands down closer to my lightsabers, an action that had in no way gone unnoticed, as Serenity did the same.
Everything was starting to go wrong so fast. Right after we had agreed to try and learn to trust each other we're out here essentially in a Mexican stand off waiting to see if we're about to kill each other. I thought about just backing down and apologizing but Serenity was one tough cookie that I was just beginning to learn about.
If I backed down now, she would see it as a sign of weakness, and I don't know if she'd ever truly trust me then. I think the only reason she tolerates my weakness now is that she's seen what I can become.
No, the only way to get through to her was to show her you had just as deadly if not a deadlier bite than hers. She was more of an action type of girl than one swayed by words.
Our eyes locked onto each other's, even with my visor in the way. Her's were shining a brighter orangish gold then the normally were.
As we looked at each other it felt like my emotions were being propelled to the surface. My thoughts of wanting to make peace with her, of wanting to get to know her, of feeling bad for making her feel undermined. Then my thoughts of not being willing to relent, not wanting to show weakness to her, and my drive to fight her, if it came to it, shined through.
I saw Serenity relax her stance and pull her hand away from her lightsaber as her eyes dimmed until they returned to her original color.
She kept our eye lock for a bit before she sighed and looked away. I figured we were past the point where we would fight so I relaxed myself too.
"Your mental defenses are shit," were the first thing she muttered.
"Excuse me?" I asked confused.
"Your mental defenses. They're shit," she reiterated but a bit louder thinking I didn't hear her.
"No, I heard you the first time. What does that mean?" I asked.
She looked at me like I was a puzzle she couldn't figure out.
"I don't get you," she said. "You are the weirdest individual I have ever met. Barring your strange benefactors and powers, which are already weird enough, you somehow are so knowledgeable about somethings and yet completely clueless about others."
"I'm a weird and messed up individual. What's your point?"
Serenity shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.
"I don't know. I guess I don't have a point."
She sighed once more before continuing on.
"Mental defenses are exactly what they sound like. They're defenses to stop someone from getting into your head. Yours are shit. It's how I was able to read your emotions and figure out you didn't want to truly fight me. I could sense your unease and fear."
I crossed my arms over my chest. She was right, I did feel uneasy and fearful about what would happen, but I don't see how that was a clear-cut sign I didn't want to fight her.
"People can be fearful but still willing to fight. Can be uneasy about a plan but still willing to follow it. So how did you know I didn't want to fight you?"
"I don't know," she said a tad defensively. She wasn't appreciating being put on the back burner. "It felt like I could read your heart. Like I could hear your thoughts."
If everyone could hear my thoughts all the time, I would get destroyed in a battle instantly.
"That's not good. Is being able to hear thoughts normal?" I asked her.
Serenity brought her hand up to her face in a thinking gesture.
"No… it's not. This is going to require further research."
"On that we can agree."
Suddenly a third voice broke our thoughts.
"So, are you guys not going to kill each other then?" I heard Vette ask and noticed for the first time that she was standing off to the side staring at the two of us.
"Vette!" I said surprised and turned to face her. "When did you get here?"
She gave a light shrug.
"Oh, you know, sometime during your staring match."
I saw her eyes widen in surprise when she took in the hole in my armor.
"Holy Sith! What happened to your armor?"
She ran up to me and ran a hand over the plate. I even saw Serenity wince slightly at not saying anything about it before.
"Oh nothing," I said with a casual wave of the hand. "I merely took a shot to the chest while I was doing a mission."
"A single shot? Of what? A cannon? Cause that's a big hole for a single shot," Vette commented.
I shrugged not knowing what to tell her.
"You did say the plates in here were awful, maybe that has something to do with it?" I tried to offer helpfully.
She removed her hand from my chest.
"Even so, they still shouldn't have melted as much as they did from a single shot." She looked at me with what was quickly becoming the standard look from Serenity and Vette. One filled with wonder and confusion.
"How come weird stuff seems to constantly happen to you?" she asked.
I don't have confirmation, but rest assured I have a pretty good idea for who's responsible.
"I'm just a weird guy Vette. It tends to follow you around. On the bright side though," I stopped and pulled out the credits I had gotten. "Is this enough to buy me some new plates?"
Vette's eyes widened in shock when she saw how much money I was holding.
"Holy Frizz!" she exclaimed.
Uhh what? Man, Star Wars curses, or whatever that was, are weird.
She motioned to take the credits from my hand but stopped just before she did. She looked up at me asking for permission. I nodded in acceptance, and she grabbed the chits and began counting them up.
"You got paid this much for one job?! How long were you even there for?" she asked me.
"I don't know," I said with a shrug. "Couldn't have taken longer then 15 minutes I would say to get the job, complete it, and turn it in."
"15 minutes?! Next time you do a job like this I'm coming with you. If I knew it was this easy to get paid, I would have been doing this a long time ago."
"Pay like that could only come from a less then reputable source," Serenity said interjecting. "What did you do?"
"I didn't ask too many questions but don't worry it helped your precious Empire out. Some idiot killed a diplomat, so they needed me to break in and plant fake evidence that the Resistance actually did it."
"My Empire is your Empire," she responded.
"Make no mistakes, while the Empire is my ally temporarily, I hold no love for them. Just as I hold no love for the Republic or the Jedi. If they could get me what I wanted, then I would have gone to them."
It wasn't like I had much choice in the matter of who's side I joined but it is true that I would have willingly joined either side.
"And what is it exactly you want besides the return of your powers, because it seems like you'd be able to do that without the Empire?" she asked probing for information.
"Maybe one day I'll share my motives with you. But today is not that day," I stopped and looked back to Vette. "Vette, how good are you at haggling?"
Vette grew a great big grin on her face.
"Are we going shopping?" she asked excitingly.
"You know it, and hey, after we buy me new plates, if there's any money left over, I'll buy you something."
"Why didn't you say so earlier? Let's go."
Vette rushed off towards the market, seeming to forget about me as she left me behind.
I looked over towards Serenity.
"We should probably go after her before she gets into too much trouble," I said.
"Yeah," she said but made no attempt to move. I could tell she was struggling with something. Eventually she spoke up.
"Look, I'm… sorry about hitting you and not caring that you had been shot."
I could make snide comments about how that must have been her first apology or something of the like, but I was here to make friends with her, to grow close to her, not push a wedge between us.
I took my helmet off so I could look her in the eyes directly.
"Apology accepted. I'm sorry too about how I acted when I came in. Whether I meant too or not I did undermine you in front of your master. That wasn't right."
Serenity looked off to the side not wanting to meet my gaze.
"It's alright," she mumbled. "He's kind of an asshole anyways, what does his opinion matter."
I burst out laughing at that. Serenity followed suit with a cheeky smile of her own. I calmed down a bit before I grew more serious.
"I propose we start over. We've been teetering between hostility and friendship, and I know which side of the line I prefer to be on with you."
I extended my hand out as a gesture of cooperation.
"If you accept, from now on I propose we see each other as allies, partners, but most importantly friends. We be in this together all the way with an equal 50-50 split of power between us. Neither one of us having more power over the other, neither one of us being more important than the other. Deal?"
She turned and looked down at my outstretched hand followed by turning her gaze up. She looked into my eyes. This seemed to be a common thing for her to determine if I was telling the truth or not.
Now that I think about it, was this my mental defenses being awful, and she was just reading my feelings to determine the truth of my words. But if that were true, how come it feels like I can tell if she's also telling the truth by looking at her. I would assume her defenses are a lot more shored up than mine.
She grabbed my hand and gave it a tight squeeze and shake. She had a blindingly brilliant smile on her face as she said, "Deal."
Even after the handshake was done, neither of us moved to detangle our hands. I don't know how long we stood there, hands gripped in each other's, just looking at each other. Subconsciously I opened my mouth.
"This feels…" I started. "Nice," she finished.
Eventually her eyes fell down to the hole in my chest piece, and dare I say she reluctantly pulled her hand away.
"We should probably get to Vette before she gets into too much trouble," she said.
I nodded in agreement. I wouldn't be surprised if she already had whatever acts as a police force around here baring down on her.
"Lead the way," I said.
Luckily, we had arrived before Vette could get into too much trouble. We found her perusing the shops looking at differing quality levels of armor plates that were for sale. I went up to her and asked for a quick run down of how the tiers worked.
She explained that there were essentially 15 tiers of armor. The range composed of different weights, materials, and protection value. To make it simple I just mentally numbered them tier 1 through tier 15.
Vette explained that I had a version of lightweight tier 1 plates inside my armor. It's why they were only able to take one shot before basically being disintegrated.
Knowing that there was a max of 75 levels available, the armor values in game were always adjusted by around every four levels, and there was a 15-tier system in place, I wagered that these tiers were meant to increase by about every four to five levels. Which meant for Balmorra which was a level 16-20 planet, I needed tier 3 at the minimum but preferably tier 4 or even 5 if I could get my hands on it.
Vette had already gone through the market and explained that we wouldn't be able to find many high-quality goods because of the war with the resistance going on. The Empire had essentially commandeered any higher-class gear that they could use.
I knew it for what it actually was though. It was just an excuse to make sure the gear available matched up somewhat with the planet's level. I'll be interested in what the excuse is for when we get to Nar Shaddaa. That planet should theoretically have everything available on it but it most likely will only have gear somewhere in the 20-24 range.
I told Vette to take me to any shops that were selling tier 4 armor or preferably tier 5 if she had seen any. She told me she hadn't seen any tier 5's but she had seen a couple tier 4's.
She dragged me over to the few shops she had noticed selling them. I stopped at one shop with a male Twi'lek vendor. He looked a little nervous at my and Serenity's presence so I figured I might be able to press him into a discount. Plus, if he was selling to a fellow Twi'lek, I thought that might be worth something.
I let Vette know I wanted to potentially buy the plates from this man.
She went up to him and they started discussing pricing back and forth. Eventually they switched into their native tongue, and it started sounding like the conversation was beginning to get heated. I was about to step in when I felt someone place a hand on my arm.
I turned and looked and saw Serenity there, nodding her head at me not to interfere. Choosing to trust her, I backed off and let things play out. After a few heated exchanges I heard the man switch back into basic.
"Fine, you can have them for 1,000, talceku'a," he said spitting out the last word.
Vette turned after hearing that. I could see tears in her eyes.
"You can go over and make the deal now," she said sadly as she walked past me.
"Vette," I called out softly to her as she passed but she ignored me and just kept walking. I saw Serenity standing there making no move to stop her.
I wanted to go after her, but I also needed to finish up with this scum behind me. I looked at Serenity and implored her to go after and comfort Vette.
"She's a big girl. She can handle herself," she said at my look.
"Oh, for the love of- Would you just please go after her and try to be nice for once?"
She looked affronted by words.
"I have been nice to her," she responded. "Most master's would have shocked her for every comment and word out of line that she uttered. I let her speak freely when silence is not required."
"But have you ever tried to get to know her as a person?"
"She's my slave. Why would I need to get to know her?"
I wanted to smack my hand into my forehead. Sometimes I forgot how bigoted and backwards the Empire was.
"Could you please just go make sure she's alright?"
She rolled her eyes at me.
"Very well, if it will ease your conscience."
She turned and started walking off after Vette.
"And try to get to know her. You may end up being surprised!" I yelled after her.
She merely gave me the finger behind her back as she walked away. Was that a yes? I'm going to hope that was a yes.
I turned back towards the shop keep and strode towards him menacingly.
"Now I get to deal with you."
"Like I told the girl that'll be 1,000 credits for all those plates."
I slammed my hand down on his stall. The impact made him jump in his seat.
"Listen here and listen good. You've upset someone I care about and have now really pissed me off. Do you know who I am?"
"A-a S-Sith, my lord," he stuttered out.
"Good. So, then you know I'm well within my right to gut you in the middle of this square if I so desired and leave you bleeding out on the floor?"
He visibly gulped and then nodded his head.
"But that would leave such a mess and I wouldn't want to deal with a mess right now, would you?"
He nodded his head no emphatically.
"Good, good. So, then you're going to give me the plates at a discount, let's say 850 credits for the whole set. Then you're going to tell me where I can find someplace that sells either Twi'lek artifacts or just something that can be used as a gift that comes from Ryloth, agreed?"
With a crate full of armor plates in my hands I rounded a corner and saw the two of them sitting together, almost shoulder to shoulder, on the outer cropping of ledge. The ledge was only maybe 5 feet up above the ground, so their feet were just barely hanging and not scrapping along the ground.
I hid back around the corner wanting to see how they were doing and didn't want to ruin the moment.
I peered out and saw Serenity hovering her hand over Vette's shoulder, unsure what to do with it. Eventually she decided and rested her hand on her shoulder giving it a gentle squeeze.
"That merchant didn't know what he was talking about. You're a… good person? And you're very good at… shooting… things…" Serenity said awkwardly.
Wow she is really bad at this whole being nice thing, isn't she?
"Wow you are really bad at this whole being nice thing, aren't you?" Vette said parroting my thoughts.
Serenity light shoulder bumped her.
"Shut up, I'm trying here alright," she said feeling the need to defend herself.
I could see that Vette's tears were gone though and she even had a smile on her face. "Thanks, I appreciate the attempt."
I saw Serenity move her head and stare directly at me. She motioned for me to come and take over. Still don't know how she knows where I am at times, but we'll figure it out.
Vette turned my way as she heard me approaching.
"Hey Vette, how are you doing?" I asked as I got there.
"Better now, Mr. Creepy Voice," she answered.
I didn't understand what she meant until I realized I was still wearing my helmet. I sat down the crate at my feet.
Taking off the helmet I said, "Sorry about that. I forget I'm wearing it most of the time."
Vette giggled lightly at that.
"Here I got something for you."
I reached inside one of my pouches and pulled out a small wooden charm. I grabbed Vette's hand, unfurled her fingers, and gently placed the charm in her palm.
She ran her finger over the charm reading the words inscribed.
"Do ohk a si'hji Kek," she muttered aloud before looking up at me confused.
"I asked the lady at the stall to inscribe it with the words there is strength within you. I wanted you to have a reminder that you are stronger than you believe."
Halfway through my explanation she began cracking up in laughter. Thinking we were having a nice moment I asked her what was wrong.
"Oh nothing, nothing," she said quickly. "I love it." She gripped the charm tightly in her hand. "Thank you," she said sincerely to me.
"You're welcome," I said letting the laughter go. Must be something funny I said that I don't understand. I'll ask her about it some other time. "If you don't mind me asking, what did that shop keeper say to you?"
Vette's eyes drooped a bit. "He called me talceku'a. It means traitor in my people's language."
"What? I don't understand?" I said confused.
"He wanted me to go along with a plan to have you buy the plates and then he'd offer to install them free of charge in your armor. He'd switch them out for fake ones, and then you'd hopefully die in battle, and it would look like an accident. I told him I wouldn't go through with it and after I said that he started calling me a traitor to my people."
"Maybe I should go back there and revisit this merchant. I'm sure his blood would make for a nice paint along the sidewalk," I snarled out.
Serenity stood up with a fire in her eyes. "I'll come with you and help."
"No, no. Please," Vette said standing up and putting her hands out. "Just leave him alone… please."
I looked at her and just nodded my head in acceptance.
"Fine, I'll leave him alone, for you," I said.
"Thanks," she said before she sat back down.
"Why didn't you go through with it?" I asked Vette. "I would have been none the wiser. You know that."
She kicked at imaginary pebbles along the floor.
"After we talked and everything, I consider you a friend. I don't betray my friends." She looked off to the side embarrassed at her words.
"Thank you, Vette. And I consider you to be my friend too. Now," I said and bent over to pick back up my crate. "I have a load of armor plates that need to be installed and only one girl I trust to do the job right. Do you mind?" I asked looking at her.
"You want me to do it?" she asked surprised.
"I'm not sure why you're surprised. You're the only girl I trust for the job," I said giving her a smile. "Oh, and I almost forgot."
Holding the crate up with one hand I reached into my pouch and pulled out the last hundred credits I had left over. I'm sure the lady probably swindled me at the stall, but it was worth it for Vette.
"Your payment for what I'm sure will be a job well done."
I dropped the credits into her hands. I saw her beginning to tear up again.
"You don't need to-" she began to say before I cut her off.
"Nonsense. You do good work Vette, and you deserve to be paid for it. And don't worry, there will be a lot more where that came from."
She accepted the credits, pocketing them, and nodded her head happily at me.
"Now," I handed the crate of armor plates over to her. "Take these back to the ship and get ready to put these in. I'll be there in a second."
"Yes, Sei Kenk'irenur," she said happily before darting off.
"Looks like you've earned a nickname," Serenity said as she stood next to me watching Vette run off towards the spaceport.
"Looks like I have. Do you know what it means?" I asked her.
"My Ryl is a bit rusty, but I think I do."
I waited for her to elaborate and tell me, but she never did.
"You want to tell me what you think it means?" I asked her.
She put her hand up to her chin in fake thought.
"Hmm, no I don't think I will."
"Really?" I deadpanned to her.
"I'm sure you'll find out in time. You know any property of hers is technically mine. So those are technically my credits…" she trailed off.
I looked at her disapprovingly and with a disapproving tone said, "Serenity."
She rolled her eyes at me.
"Oh, please, I was merely joking."
We stood there in silence for a few moments.
"You were right you know?" she said breaking the silence.
I looked at her but didn't say anything, waiting for her to continue.
"She told me a bit about herself and her life growing up. There's more to her then I thought."
"And you've barely scratched the tip of the iceberg," I said in reply. Even after all I already knew about her I was starting to feel that way.
"I'm starting to see that. Now come on. Let's get you retrofitted as quickly as possible. In case you've forgotten with all this side business, we do still have a spy to take care of."
She walked ahead of me and started heading back towards the ship.
"That we do," I said aloud to myself before I followed after her.
AN: This was a bulky chapter coming in at just under 14,000 words.
I already know I want to rewrite the first chapter slightly by extending out some scenes like the one where Torrid meets Baras and other changes like him noticing Vette still has her shock collar on.
When I change that, it means I'll also make changes and additions to this one, so it'll be even longer for the official release.
Hope you enjoyed this preview and first insight to the budding relationship building between Torrid, Serenity, and Vette.
I already said I didn't want to post every chapter I write for this story right away, and yet I'm breaking my promise immediately. I need to take a stand, so I'm going to mark this preview story as complete and vow to myself not to post any more preview chapters unless I have just a whole boatload already written.
As such this will probably be the last preview chapter I put out, or at least it will be a long while until the next one. As much as I love this story, I need to get back to working on RotEA. When the official story is released I'm planning on having it uploaded as its own story. I thought it'd be nice to keep this one here so if anyone was ever interested they could look back and see the differences in the chapters. I always find that kind of thing fascinating.
Again, hope you guys enjoyed this preview. Let me know what you thought of it. If there's anything that you think needs to be changed or even if you just wanted to comment on something you really liked. I always do enjoy getting to read feedback, and I always send a response to every review I get.
I guess the next time I see you guys will be in RotEA or if you're not fans of that then the official release.
Magician