Last time: Kyr and Cien met the new Lieutenant and told the Coppers the news.

Now: Sasha returns to Selina's Bar.


Chapter 5- Back to the Bar

It was like staring at a ghost or an actual nightmare. The bar that once belonged to Selina lay in utter ruin. The ceiling had completely collapsed in on itself. The walls were all blackened from the fire. And the hole Sasha and Cien had cut into the floor was now visible from outside. The whole place was cordoned off with police tape and signs that said "No trespassing. Militia Clearance Only."

Sasha stood just before the bar, staring at it as her pulse raced and her skin became clammy. She felt like she was running a fever yet she shivered as a shudder passed through her body. And she was paler than a white sheet. She stood there staring at the bar as the images of that day flashed through her mind. The scars on her shoulder stung as she remembered everything that had happened there.

Viran grabbed her hand and gave it a tight squeeze that pulled her out of her haze. "Are you okay?" He asked her as she looked to him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Sasha said, keeping her trembling voice at bay. "Let's go take a look."

"Sasha don't push yourself. If this is too much, we understand," Viran said gently.

"Yes, if your stomach can't handle this, please step aside. We don't need you contaminating the scene," J'onz spoke up as he brushed past them and into the scene.

Sasha nearly snarled at him. "I'll be okay," she grumbled.

"Don't ever speak like that to us again." Oppie growled at J'onz.

J'onz stopped and turned slowly to look at Oppie. He looked unfazed by Oppie's comment, but his eyes were saying he was amused. "My apologies. I just thought if she is unwell, she really shouldn't be here. But if you believe you are fine for this then I will not utter another word about it," he said in almost a cold tone. He turned and walked away to go sift through the rubble.

"What a jerk," Viran hissed under his breath.

Oppie glared at the man for a moment before turning to Viran and Sasha, Kait was near them looking through the rubble as well. "Did Kyr ever describe the vantage point?" He asked them.

"No, he just mentioned he could see the bar," Sasha said, shaking her head. "I was never told if it was inside or out. Either way, he wasn't able to see me and Cien survive. I suggest we look everywhere we can see the bar. In and out."

Oppie thought for a moment. "The cartel men that Cien took care of that night. Do you remember where they came from?"

Sasha turned and pointed behind them. "They must have come from around here as they were coming for the main entrance."

Viran looked around, narrowing his gaze as if to see anything out of place.

"Well, the cameras had to be outside, so that he could see the explosion." Oppie surmised, "so it could be in any of these buildings." He said, gesturing at the two and three story structures around them. The bar, or what had been the bar, rather, was in a U-shaped end cap to a row of buildings, a road on each side and then one along the third face. It would have been a good location for a bar, with so much frontage and traffic.

Sasha looked around, trying to remember anything else when suddenly something came to mind. "Wait, I remember talking with Cien one night about this," she remembered. "Cien needed to get this off her chest and she told me about what she saw when she entered Kyr's mind to save him. She remembered seeing what had happened to him at Selina's hand. Including the way the cameras were pointing." She looked up at one of the buildings that faced the bar perfectly enough that if a camera was there, it would capture the front entrance without any obstacles. "Somewhere up there." She pointed up at the building.

Kait looked over at the other three. She had a torch and was shining it down through the hole to the cellar that Cien and Sasha had cut to escape the explosion. "What was down here?" She asked, looking up at Sasha.

Sasha looked over to her. "Oh um, it was a cellar full of alcohol and Selina's office was done there," she answered. "She took us down there once before we had to make a new entrance."

"Her office?" Kait asked.

"Was there anything left in there?" Oppie asked, "or were you preoccupied with, well… This?" He gestured at the remains of the explosion.

"No, we were fairly preoccupied. Especially Cien," Sasha said with a grimace. "Plus myself and the old man were both injured and breathing in smoke. We had to get out of there as quickly as possible." She paused. "This is the first time I've been back here since."

"Do you guys want to look for the cameras, and Kait and I can go look at the office?" Oppie suggested.

"Sure," Sasha said, silently grateful to not go back in there.

"We'll call if we find anything," Viran said as he turned to head towards the building Sasha pointed out. She followed after him.

They crossed the street and came to a halt just before the building. Both of them looked up, surveying the building for anything out of the ordinary. It was only a two story building so it would be fairly easy to spot something that didn't match. They looked at window sills, ledges, fire escapes, and anything else that had a perfect view of the front door. After a few minutes of searching, something caught the sunlight just right to send a glint down into Viran's eye. He skidded to a stop, blinking rapidly, before looking back up at the spot again.

"Hey Sash, is that it?" Viran asked, gesturing up to the roof's edge where the reflection was blinding him.

Sasha looked up and noticed the same thing. She nodded. "I think so. We need to get to the roof."

"Let's go," Viran said, looking towards the front entrance to the building.

It was thankfully just some low end apartments so they were able to get to the stairwell and up to the roof without any difficulties. Once on the roof, they both ran over to the edge that overlooked the bar remains. One really could see everything up here. Kneeling down in roughly the right area, Sasha felt around for the camera. Viran grabbed her by her belt, just in case, so she wouldn't fall off the roof. After a moment, she found it and managed to pull it off its mount. Climbing back up onto the roof, Sasha sat down and looked the small camera over. It was still connected to something back where the mount was.

"Well that was easy," she commented with a smirk.

"I'll call it in," Viran said. He pulled out his commlink and turned towards the others below. "We found the camera, but it looks like it's still hooked up to something. Should we-"

"Stay right there," J'onz answered. "I'm on my way up. Don't touch or do anything until I get there. We don't know if he is watching."

Even though neither of them liked J'onz that thought made Sasha shiver slightly that she averted the lense away from her face. After a few moments, J'onz appeared from the stairwell, pulling on a set of examination gloves in the process.

"Let me see the camera," He ordered.

Sasha handed it over before scrambling to her feet and away from him and the edge. J'onz looked it over thoughtfully for a moment before looking at Sasha and Viran. He actually smirked at them.

"Nicely done," he complimented. "You may have just found an excellent clue. Are there any others?"

"There might be one more, but we haven't found it yet," Sasha informed him, surprised by his suddenly kind nature.

"Let me know when you do and I'll send a team over to help you remove it," J'onz said. "For now, I will get started on this one until they get here. We don't want to set off any alarms."

"Good call," Viran agreed, also surprised. He grabbed Sasha's arm. "Let's go find the other."

Sasha nodded and together they left the rooftop to let J'onz handle removing the camera, passing a small team of militia men on the way down who were on their way to help him.


Oppie held his hand out to help Kait down into the charred remains of what used to be the bottom of the stairs. She jumped down, using his hand to steady herself. She cast her torch beam around the space. Above there were pockmarks in the ceiling that let a scattering of sunlight through what had once been a vaulted ceiling, but it was very dark.

"Man, they fell down from that hole?" Kait asked, looking up at the cut in the ceiling. "How did they get back up?" She asked, looking at the staircase and how compromised it was. And how it must have been engulfed in flames at the time, considering the charring.

"Jumped, probably." Oppie said, looking around the space, looking for anything that might be of interest.

She glanced at him, he delivered that joke so flatley she wasn't quite sure how to react. "Did you bring a light?" She asked him as she turned to look under the stairwell..

"Just a little pen light, but…" She startled a little, hearing an odd snap-hiss sound behind her, and the room was bathed in a brilliant light blue.

"That works." She said, looking at the intense light his plasma sword threw out. He held it above his head like a lantern.

"Over here, this looks like an office." He called. She made her way over. She looked down at the ground halfway there, and noticed a scuffling in the ash, where three people had fallen through. She looked up, directing the beam of her light look at the more than two story fall. She hurried forward, as Oppie worked the door open. Inside it was surprisingly clean, the fire hadn't reached down here that much, and the office had been left fairly intact.

They both stood at the entrance, looking at the space, committing it to their memory before they distrubed it.

"The militia never investigated any of this?" Oppie asked, it seemed like it could be a major treasure trove.

"No." She said, "they ended up being busy fighting a war. J'onz would have been the one to perhaps follow up on this, but all his report said was that he visited the site and saw nothing remarkable."

"I'd say this is pretty remarkable." Oppie said, looking around the mostly intact room. "You could probably have gotten DNA evidence of any visitors, hair samples, maybe even some fingerprints if someone had followed up soon enough."

Kait looked around at the space. "I can't disagree." She said, critically.

They stepped in and looked around. The office was pretty stark, just a desk with a chair behind it. There was evidence that there were other things that had been cleared out in a hurry. He stopped and looked around, trying to find anything that had been missed. He bent down, and examined the desk.

"Over here." She said, at the trash can.

Oppie stood up and walked over, someone must have emptied it. But there was something stuck to the bottom. Kait fished a glove and a bag out of her pockets, and gingerly picked it up. "Candy?"

"Who'd have thought a psychopath like Selina would like candy?" Oppie asked, looking at it. "Do you recognize the brand? Is it local?"

She looked at the wrapper, one side over the other. "I feel like I recognize it." She said, looking at the wax paper with a simple logo imprint on it. "Cerrasses Confections." She said, looking at it. "Cerrasses is a town North of here. Way North." She said.

"Not sure it's a smoking blaster, but it feels like it's one of... Those things." Oppie said with a slight grin.

"Yeah." She said grinning, looking at the wrapper.

Suddenly, their commlinks buzzed again and Viran's voice came over them. "We found the second camera. And a few other things you guys might want to come see," he said.

"We're on our way up." Oppie said into the commlink. "Anything else down here you think?" He asked Kait.

"Not really." She said, looking around the space. "They did a good job of cleaning it out." She finished as she put the wrapper in a bag and started to put it in her pocket. She hesitated for a second and handed it to Op. "Here, you hang onto this." She said.

"Uh, sure?" He said, taking it from her and putting it into one of his pouches. They walked out of the remains of the office, and walked underneath the hole in the ceiling again. She played her light up at it again. "They jumped this, huh?" She asked him wryly.

"Yeah, probably." He said with a shrug.

She smirked a little at his sense of humor as they made their way through. "And I suppose you could, too?" She asked.

He glanced back at it. "Yeah." He said as he held his hand out to her to help her on the loose, charred stair steps.

She took his hand and hid another smirk, and gingerly made her way about halfway up the staircase with Op following along behind her. With a yelp, the next stair gave way under her foot and she almost fell through, but she felt herself pulled back as Oppie grabbed her. She stood there frozen for a second, it wasn't a bad fall but it wouldn't have been a comfortable one.

"Good reflexes, thanks." She said, looking up at him.

"You're welcome." He said. Their eyes met for a second and he still had his hand out holding her back, and he cleared his throat and let go, and she carefully stepped forward, testing the steps along the way before putting her weight on them again.

They emerged into the sunlight, and Op looked around the ruins for Sasha and Viran. He lifted his wrist and spoke into the commlink. "Where are you guys?" He asked.

"If you go out the back door, we are directly behind the bar. Third story, second window," Viran answered.

"Uhhh…" Oppie looked around the charred wreckage. "Can you describe where the back door would be?" He asked a little wryly.

"Oppie if you just came from the basement, there should be a door near you or what remains of one. Go there," Sasha advised.

"Uh, yeah. Okay." He said, seeing the remains of what might have been a door frame to his right. He stepped through it, and over the top of various timbers and debris that had piled up.

"They were really lucky to survive this." Kait observed behind him.

"Yeah." Oppie said a little absently. They stepped out into a small walled in area that looked like it might have been for receiving shipments of liquor and other products. Oppie looked up and saw Viran waving at them from the third story window, as he'd described. He walked across the street. "Need us to come up there?" Oppie called.

"Yeah, you are really going to want to see this," Viran said, nodding before moving away from the window.

Oppie shrugged and gestured for Kait. "After you." He said.

She walked over to the entrance to the building. A simple office building with a center atrium room and many, many different offices around the central core on all three levels. They climbed up the stairs, and saw Sasha at an office on the third story.

"In here," Sasha said to them, gesturing inside. "We thought we'd just find the camera, but we instead found a whole set up."

Oppie and Kait entered the room behind Sasha to find it to be an empty office with nothing in it except a singular computer station that was connected to the camera which was currently sitting on the desk next to the monitors. Meanwhile, Viran was underneath it using a small pen light to get a better look at the wiring of the system.

"I wish Tac was here." Oppie said.

"You and me both," Viran commented as he crawled out from under the desk. "This is a pretty basic setup, all things considered. But it's not powering on. Someone tampered with it."

"Can we take it back with us and examine it?" Oppie laughed slightly, "maybe we could get Tac on a commline and he could help us hack it."

"That's not a bad idea," Viran said, glancing up at the setup. "If I can get this hooked up in that conference room we've been using and make sure there is a line through to Tac, we could figure out where exactly this was transmitting to."

"Who's Tac?" Kait asked.

"Kyr's astromech." Oppie supplied. "And I was kidding." He told Viran with a slightly bewildered look.

"I know you were, but I was serious," Viran said, standing up. "Unless there is a master hacker here with the NR, do we have any other options or ideas? I mean I can rewire almost anything, but that's usually ships and droids, not computers."

"There might be somebody in the militia or in the embassy. But if you guys have someone you trust… I have this odd feeling we should play this pretty close to the chest." Kait said with a hint of nervousness to her tone.

"I'm with Kait on this," Sasha agreed. "I think it might be for the best that we contact Tac to help us. While most of the cartel has been driven out of town and the militia, we still don't know who we can fully trust."

Kait glanced at Sasha, since they'd arrived Sasha had barely said anything to her so she was a little surprised she would admit to agreeing with her. "I think I trust everyone at the embassy, if you took it back there to set up that might be better than taking it to the Militia headquarters."

"Alright then I'll start taking it apart so we can transport it back," Viran said as he turned back to the monitors.

Sasha glanced to Kait. "Should we tell Marshal J'onz about this? What about what we plan to do with this? No offense, but I don't exactly… trust him," she said.

Oppie glanced at Kait on that. Already he had the candy wrapper on him as evidence she hadn't wanted to technically be in charge of.

Kait looked around the room at the three. Not sure how to answer at all. "I have to say that we should let him know about the plan. But if you guys think you can handle it by yourself maybe we can hold off on telling him until after you see what you can get. I would hate for this to just get packed away and ignored." Like several other such pieces of evidence that she thought might be useful from various raids in the past.

Sasha nodded at that. "Alright, we'll see what he's found and then go from there." She looked back to Viran. "Do you need a hand tearing that down?"

"Nah," Viran said. "I've got it. I'll just need a hand carrying it. Wanna take the datapad? I can grab the transmitter."

"Sure." Oppie said, stepping forward and taking it from his hands. "That all we need? Should we go back to the embassy now?"

"I think so," Sasha said, glancing out the window. "We got what we came for and it looks like they are wrapping things up out there."

"I'll go bring the truck around." Kait said walking out of the room.

"Were you guys able to find anything in Selina's office?" Sasha asked Oppie as Viran finished detaching all the important components that they were taking.

"Just a candy wrapper that Kait said was from a town far north of here. We both had a feeling it was worth keeping, but I'm not sure how useful it is." Oppie answered.

"Well we can take a look at it too when we get to the embassy," Sasha said as she led them out of the room.

"What kind of candy?" Viran asked curiously as he followed her with the transmitter tucked under his arm.

"A chocolate mint of some kind." Oppie said. "It was stuck to the bottom of the trashcan in her office."

"Huh, she didn't strike me as a candy person," Viran joked.

"You never met her. How would you know?" Sasha asked over her shoulder to him as they descended down into the main atrium.

"Well was she?" Viran asked.

"I don't know and don't really care," Sasha shot back with a smirk.

"Everybody likes candy." Oppie observed with a grin behind them.

"Yeah, only crazy people don't like candy," Viran added with a chuckle.

Sasha rolled her eyes as she chuckled at them. As they approached the main entrance, Sasha stopped before exiting as the doors opened. Immediately she noticed J'onz was out there talking at Kait as she stood nearby their transport back to the embassy.

"Hide the gear," Sasha said back to them. "I've got a bad feeling."

Viran nodded and tucked the transmitter into his jacket before closing it up. Oppie did the same with the datapad. J'onz glanced up as they exited the building.

"So where is the camera?" J'onz demanded.

"It was on the third floor, second office that overlooked the bar," Sasha answered. "But it was busted. Probably from the explosion."

"Anything else?" J'onz asked.

"No nothing. Just some wires that looked like it belonged to a set up that has since been removed," Sasha lied with ease. It wasn't entirely a lie.

"Then this was a pointless venture," J'onz said, turning to Kait.

Before he could say anything, Sasha spoke up again. "Were you able to find where the first camera led to?" She asked him.

"Only a destroyed computer setup," J'onz replied, irritated. "Someone went through and tore it apart for scrap. There is nothing useful in it." He glanced at Kait. "Now as I was going to say before I was interrupted. Drop them off at the embassy and then meet me at the militia office. This all needs to be filed."

"Yes sir." She said professionally as she glanced at the trio and started moving to the driver's door for the truck.

The three of them followed in suit without another word to J'onz and climbed into the truck.


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