Savior Self
Taris part seven.
Rated PG13
Disclaimer: Hahahaha. I accidentally typed in, "rated PG23."
Savior Self
Cortessa stalked out of there fifteen credits short, with Carth very close on her tail. She wanted to slap him. He seemed to sense this and slowed down to keep his distance.
Maybe he wasn't so dumb, after all.
"This better work," Cortessa snarled, fingering the papers in her hands. "If it doesn't…"
"Zaerdra will rend your head from your shoulders, that's what will happen," Carth reminded her. "Calm down. I've never seen you this angry." That was a lie – in fact, that very day he had seen her angry.
Cortessa twitched. "I'm not angry," she replied harshly, stopping fifty feet from the guard to poke Carth in the chest. He stepped back. "I'm frustrated. You don't want to be on my bad side when I'm angry." She shook her head and approached the guard.
"Hold on there –" the guard began, but she shoved the papers in his face.
"I've got the gods-damn paper, so let me through," she told him.
The guard swiped the papers away. "Let me see that," he growled, and began reading, muttering under his breath. Cortessa snarled at him.
"So?"
"Uh… yeah. Yeah. These seem to be in order," the guard said, handing her the papers. She peered into his helmet but couldn't see his face. She didn't like that. The guard rolled his shoulders and she bit back a scream of frustration. Why did everyone have that obnoxious habit?
As she turned to leave, the guard grabbed her shoulder. "Listen," he said. "The Undercity is crawling with mutants – rakghouls, they call 'em. If you see anything moving down there, shoot first and ask questions later."
She blinked. Concern from a Sith? She shrugged her arm away. "I'll bear that in mind," she hissed, and he got back in his place.
Carth nudged her as they stepped into the elevator. "You're testy."
She nudged him back as the door shut, but said nothing in reply.
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They stepped through to the Undercity, and Carth instantly felt his head begin to real at the stench. The whole place reeked of decay and mold and sickness… and death… People with pale skin, sunken eyes, and tear-filled expressions wandered about aimlessly, some with small children walking behind them and hanging onto their tattered, soiled robes. Small fires dimly lit the Undercity, so that the shadows danced and leered. There was no sky, only the dripping streets acting as a dreary ceiling. The skinny, starving children that sat about paid no attention to the sewage that dripped onto their heads.
Carth felt his heart stutter. This place was awful. He rested a hand on Cortessa's shoulder. She wasn't breathing. She shook her head and took a deep breath before she sighed.
"You there! Up-worlder! Anyone using this elevator has to pay the toll!" cried a voice.
Carth and Cortessa looked around. Two angry men stood there, identical in appearance, with their hair pulled back with similar worn thongs.
"Yeah!" shouted the second one. "This is our elevator! You use it, you've got to give us something!"
Carth was galled. He couldn't believe it! They were hitting them up for credits, just like that! He gaped. "I don't believe this planet! Even the beggars are trying to shake us down!"
The Outcast brothers motioned their hands. "Five credits! That's what it costs to use our elevator! Five credits!"
Cortessa bit her lip. "But this is a public elevator," she said.
The second brother burst into tears, sinking to his knees and grasping Cortessa's hand. She gasped, recoiling.
"Please have pity on us!" he blubbered. "We have nothing! All we ask is a few credits to make our lives easier!"
Cortessa wiped her hands on her pants, but her expression softened. "Okay, fine. Here's five credits. Be well."
The brothers grinned and held each other. The first giggled gleefully.
"Credits, my brother!" cried the second. "We have credits! Now we can buy food and medicine!"
The first's eyes widened and he tucked the credits in his brother's robes. "Hush, or the others will hear us! They'll want our credits! We have to hide them!"
"But where -?"
A woman… a young woman, just at the first stages of adulthood… rushed forward, brandishing an old, bent, rusted tube of metal. "Go on, you two! Get out of here!" she shouted.
The men squealed and ran, hunched over to protect the credits in their shirts.
The woman slowed to a stop, shaking her head sadly, and turned to Carth and Cortessa. She dropped the tube of metal and spoke to them. "I'm sorry about that. Those two beggars give everyone in the village a bad name. We aren't all like that, you know. Most of us are good people."
Carth glanced at Cortessa, who was eying the girl with dislike. He put on a warm, friendly air. It was a trained soldier's instinct to treat woman with respect, even if they stank like the Undercity. "I'm sure you are, miss," he said, and Cortessa shot him a look, raising an eyebrow. He ignored her. "It's just too bad your little welcoming committee is there to give people a bad first impression." Not like the smell and rot wouldn't do that anyway.
Cortessa cut in, pushing Carth aside. The woman standing before them blinked, her eyes growing wide.
"I'm Cortessa Blatt," Cortessa offered. "Who are you?"
The woman tucked her hair away, pursing her lips for a moment. "My name is Shaleena… you're from the up-world, aren't you? I've… I've never seen it. I was born here in the Undercity. Is it as nice as they say up there?" She sounded so sad and beaten.
Carth gave Cortessa a look. Don't make it worse.
Cortessa sighed, looking down at her feet. "It's nothing special," she muttered.
Shaleena seemed to like to find the negative in everything, for instantly she said, "Not to you, I suppose. But you're probably used to its beauty by now." Carth frowned. Shaleena took a deep breath and repeated herself. "I've never been to the surface." She shook her head. "But sometimes I think I can see it in my dreams. The sun… the sky… the stars… it all sounds so… so… so wonderful… Gendar, the leader of our village, tells me I should spend more time trying to improve things down here and less time dreaming about something I can never have." She bit her lip, her brows frowning. "Maybe he's right." She laughed bitterly. "You probably think I'm a fool… having dreams of a place I've never even seen…. But when I was little, Rukil used to tell me stories of what it was like up there."
Cortessa tilted her head to one side. "Rukil? Who's that?"
Shaleena smiled. "Rukil's the oldest man in the village. The kids call him Rukil Wrinkle-Skin, but he's a kind man. He used to tell me the greatest stories when I was a little girl. I still like to listen to his tales about the Promised Land, even though I know they're just legends. But it helps to make the Undercity seem less… less dark, somehow."
Carth was shocked when Cortessa whispered in his ear, "Sounds like someone needs some anti-depressants."
"Be nice," he hissed, nudging her harshly.
She rolled her eyes. "Where can I find Rukil, do you know?" she asked Shaleena.
Shaleena rolled her shoulders. Cortessa seemed to twitch. "He's wandering around somewhere on the south side of the village. He doesn't move too far… it's hard on his bones. He's over 100 years old!" Being that old wasn't unusual nowadays, with medicine being as strong and effective as it is now, but for someone living here, in this place that reeked of death… it was probably something of a miracle. Shaleena smiled wistfully. "The children laugh at him and people think he's crazy because of his stories about the Promised Land, but he's really just a kind old man."
Cortessa sighed. "I want to as you some questions."
Shaleena flushed. "I don't know much. You'd probably get more information from Gendar, the village leader. Or maybe Rukil. But I'll tell you whatever I can…"
"Were can I find Gendar?"
Shaleena nodded unhappily. "He'll be somewhere in the village. I couldn't say where for sure. He's always busy, doing whatever he can to make the lives of the other villagers easier."
Cortessa looked at Carth, who smiled approvingly. She looked back to Shaleena. "I'll be going now."
Shaleena looked from Carth to Cortessa and back again. Carth had gotten used to the speculations of others, however, and dismissed the glances. "Oh… o-okay. Well, if you ever need anything, or if just feel like talking, come back and see me. I hardly ever get a chance to speak to someone from the up-world."
Carth nodded and Cortessa dragged him off. "Don't get too attached, doll," she told him, but the nickname seemed dried up and not so affectionate. "I can't have you stinking like the Undercity when we save Bastila."
Carth smirked. "Are you sure that's what's setting you off?"
She turned around on her heel and glared at him. "I'm positive," she growled.
He looked her over. She was pale and her eyes were glazed over, and there were dark rings underneath them. He frowned. "You had another nightmare, didn't you?"
"I'd rather not get into it," she grumbled.
"Hey, you wouldn't let me get away with that, and I'm not –"
"After I talk with Gendar we'll go back to the apartments and discuss it," she snapped. "Not right now."
He nodded and followed her around the village until they came across a weathered, brown-skinned man with a warm smile.
"Greetings, up-worlder," he said in a friendly way. "We rarely see your kind here in the Undercity. I find it strange that so many of you have come down from the surface recently."
Carth winced as a drop of something black and stinky landed on his shoulder. He didn't dare touch it. "No offense, but I can see why people normally avoid this place," he mumbled.
Gendar's eyes grew cold. "Why have you come into this dark and sunless place, then? Is there something you need of me or my village?"
Cortessa smiled unthreateningly. Gendar seemed to respond to her better (people always did), and didn't look twice at Carth when she asked for some information.
"Ask your questions, up-worlder. I will answer to the best of my knowledge, though I know little beyond the borders of the Undercity."
Cortessa played with one of the strands of her hair that had fallen in her face. "You said something about up-worlders who came by here recently?"
Gendar rolled his shoulders. Carth bit back a chuckle when he saw Cortessa's eyes grow wide with a sudden, abrupt lust for blood. Apparently the local habits drove her nuts. She quickly calmed herself, however, when Gendar spoke. "Our village has seen many visitors from the surface recently: armored troops, swoop gang members, mercenaries. They come to search our sunless world. They are even searching the sewers."
"Who are your people? Why do you live here in the Undercity?" She ducked to avoid something wet and slimy that had fallen from the ceiling.
Gendar sighed. "We are the Outcasts – shunned from the surface for our crimes and banished here to the Undercity. We banded together to form this village that we might survive in this hostile environment. I am Gendar, the leader of this village; as my father was, and as was his father before him. Many of us have been here for generations, our ancestors cast down long ago."
"That's not very fair," Carth said. Gendar glanced at him.
"Yes, there is no return to the surface for us, or our descendants. But somehow we manage to survive amidst the filth and roaming bands of deadly rakghouls."
Cortessa was interested. "Tell me about the rakghouls that live down here."
Carth groaned. Oh great. Another threat. First the Sith, then the bounty hunters, then the drunks, then the horny men hiring bounty hunters, then the gangs, and now flesh-eating mutants.
Gendar spoke with passion, his voice sad and angry. "The rakghouls are monsters, hideous mutations who feast about the flesh of our villagers. Their diseased jaws can infect those they attack, transforming the victim into one of those abominations."
Cortessa made a noise. Did she feel sorry for them? "Isn't there a cure?" she asked.
Gendar sighed unhappily. "We know of no cure of the disease, and for the good of the village we must banish any who become infected, lest they transform and turn on us."
Cortessa frowned. "I'm sorry."
Gendar rolled his shoulders.
Carth snorted into his first and looked away.
"I'm looking for a Twi'lek named Mission Vao," Cortessa said. "Do you know anyone by that name?"
Gender thought for a moment. "Blue? Kind of skinny? Big Wookiee?" he asked.
"That's right."
"Yes, I have seen this Twi'lek many times," Gendar said. "But I have never spoken to her. She and her Wookiee companion often pass through our village on their way to explore the sewers."
Cortessa cocked her head. "How can I get to the sewers?"
Gendar pointed. "There are two entrances into the sewers from the Undercity: one to the north-eat of our village, the other to the south-east. But the sewers are dangerous, Up-Worlder. If you dare to travel into those dark tunnels you would be wise to go heavily armed, unless you wish to become a meal for the rakghouls and other foul creatures."
Cortessa bit her lip. "I think I'll be going now."
Gendar bowed. "As you wish, up-worlder. Should you have need of anything else, come speak to me. I represent the entire village and I will do my best to help you however I can."
Carth was amazed. He liked this man. Even though his village had almost nothing, he was still offering to give up whatever he had to help an up-worlder. While Cortessa made her way to inspect the gates before she left, he craftily slipped a ten-mark credit into Gendar's lap.
Gendar smiled at him. "You will do well, someday, up-worlder," he said softly, and turned to check his supplies.
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Author's Notes: Hmm. I think I liked this chapter a bit. Taris is nearing the middle marker! Yaaay! Soon Mission Vao will make an appearance! Do the dance!
SilverSentinal21 -I never said Carth /would/ get one. Cortessa merely thought that he /should/. And she didn't get one. An old bunkmate did. Just as well, I'm glad you had the courage to get after me for something like that. I really appreciate that you pay attention.
Amme Moto - Oh, yes. I remember that. I figured it was a board game, since I read a fanfiction once where they mentioned peices moving... oh well.
