Chapter 9
Inner Demons
Garfield and Richard walked out of the secret meeting, the latter tailing slightly with his hand on his blaster encase the raging beast before him unleashed itself on a rampage. The guards working for Lex immediately bolted for cover when they passed, the two carried on without noticing them though it was hard to not notice them swan diving for cover.
"I need to run an errand. You be a good dog and go back to the ship." Garfield happily chirruped, his cold grin sent a shudder of terror running down Richard's spine. They stood outside the gates of Club Vertica, just short of the taxi service leading out of the area. Richard tried to argue, but Gideon glared at him coldly, daring him to utter a word.
Richard took the first taxi out of the area, he decided to get Commander Dayton's advice on the matter before trying to tackle Garfield in the middle of Nar Shaddaa's richest sector. He didn't doubt he could hold his own against him, but something about this cold fiend of a smuggler told him that, unless he was aiming to kill, he wasn't going to win.
"You shouldn't be so harsh on him." A voice startled Garfield from his musings of which pirate group to hit first, standing just behind a corner off from the main path was Rachel, she wore a beautifully decorated dark purple satin cloak that concealed her identity. Walking out from the shadows, she stood before the bristling beast the commander had warned her about. "Come on, we are going shopping."
"I'm going no where with you." Garfield hissed, he was elated to see her, to know that she hadn't ran off, but his other side was wary of her. It knew that she could calm him down, that it could silence his bloodthirst if she got close.
Rachel didn't utter a word as she strode forward without fear, staring directly into Garfield's eyes. Her demeanour and eyes suddenly changed, turning ice cold instantly as she glared down Garfield. This was her other side, her monster. A cold heartless monster that only sought to end a life with the simplest yet effective move with the least amount of effort, Garfield tried to growl at her, but something leashed his other side down from her stare alone.
"It seems we aren't too different after all." Rachel disarmingly stated as she got close enough to grasp Gideon's arm, holding him in place as the two of them felt their rage dissipate and their ice thawing. The two stood there quietly for a moment, wondering if their inner monsters were cancelling each other out, or if their will to become normal people demanded to be in control, either way they didn't care as they let out a shuddering breath and released the darkness coating their minds.
"Sorry, I…" Garfield tried to say as his mind was in turmoil, he clasped Rachel's arm around his and held it against him like one would if they were walking side by side without directly holding hands. Rachel shook her head and lead him to the taxi, taking one to the main promenade, she had some things she needed to buy for her new room onboard the Titan, and Garfield needed the walk.
The two quietly perused through the shops, Rachel picked out clothes and shoes, even curtains for the window viewing out into space in her room. They stopped by woodworking shops to buy some shelves and a wooden bedframe, it was something she has always wanted, and since the bed in her room wasn't bolted down or fused to the bulkhead, she wanted to change it.
Garfield made sure the vendor added in magnet clamps to the bed frame and shelves encase either the gravity plate ceased functioning or if they fell over. He had one such case when the items in his room got tossed around harshly and nearly gave him a concussion, though on lighter note, it didn't look much different from before.
Finishing their shopping and having instructed all the vendors to send the items to the Titan, Garfield led Rachel to a secret shop off the main grid, it was a private store that only a few people knew about. It was owned by a Jawa, one that strayed from Tatooine to sell his wares abroad. The shop owned a vast collection of devices and mechanical parts from speeders to blasters. If it exists, Igor will get his paws on it eventually.
The shop was a hole in the wall behind several corridors deep in the promenade, it blended in perfectly with its surroundings and only those that knew of the place could find it. Knocking a special code taught to him, Garfield waited for the hatch to open and reveal the cantankerous Jawa.
"Igor, good to see you again." Garfield called out to the irate Jawa the moment the hatch opened and revealed a brown cloaked Jawa, Igor wasn't friendly to anyone unless they were high rollers that actually paid him well, and Garfield was one of the few that ever made it to that short list.
"Garfield, who knew you were in town." Igor jabbered in his native tongue, Garfield couldn't speak it but he had his data pad set up to translate it directly into his earpiece. His data pad came in handy for these types of situations, it was updated with the latest version of the language database so he could be able to speak with anyone he met. "What do you want?"
"I'm here to see… the special items." Gideon asked pointedly, Igor's brutish words were his attempt at nicety, something the Jawa found annoying as he'd rather yell at person until they went away. Igor nodded before disappearing into his shop, the room behind him was littered with parts and junk stored in a mishap manner.
"Why are we here?" Rachel curiously asked, she followed him as he said he wanted to get her a gift, though he neglected to say why or what it was. Garfield merely smiled at her and waited for the irate Jawa to return with a medium sized metal locked box, placing it on the outcropping that was his shop window, he opened it and shoved it forward to Garfield who stepped out of the way for Rachel to see inside. "Lightsaber parts?"
"Yep, pick whatever parts you want." Garfield grinned broadly, Rachel looked at him weirdly before a small smile appeared on her face. She looked over the parts, finding ones that fit her style or personal choice. "Hey, Igor, you wouldn't happen to have that part I was asking for last time I was here?"
"Yep, just got one in." Igor disappeared into his shop as Rachel was looking through the lightsaber parts, there were so many to choose from that she couldn't make her mind up. She had wondered about the force users that had lost their lightsabers or died on the battlefield to have this many in one box, though with the number of conflicts between Sith and Jedi, she wasn't exactly surprised.
Igor reappeared with a small data chip, one that was designed like a tiny glass stick. Paying Igor the credits for it, he picked up the data chip and tapped a button on his data pad, opening up a slot for him to insert the chip. Tapping a few more buttons on his data pad, he grinned as the chip installed itself. The item allowed him to increase his range of remotely hacking into nearby computers or devices rather than having to press his hand to it, he had been looking for this upgrade for a long time now, and paying the hundred thousand credits for it was well worth the price.
"Getting the parts to a lightsaber is a bit pointless without a kyber crystal." Rachel had chosen a set of black metal pieces with a slim handle and a sleek design, it was short without compromising on the size of the blade, something she was looking for as it would suit her style.
"Don't worry, I have that covered." Garfield grinned, he was going to wait until they got back to the ship first before revealing the rest of his gift for her. Rachel looked at him strangely for a second before shrugging, the smuggler has been highly resourceful, so she had no reason to doubt him. Igor took the box back and checked the pieces she chose.
"Nine, fifty." Igor grunted indignantly, Garfield balked at the price but tried not to show any emotion. He didn't expect it to go this highly, but from the look of the Jawa, he was willing to haggle for it.
"Eight." Garfield countered, he knew he was going to spend a large sum on the lightsaber parts, but going for this high broke his estimate by over double. Though, Rachel was going to be part of his crew, he would rather she had a lightsaber she liked rather than one that she kept for necessity, however his true motive was to repay her for saving him earlier from his other side.
"Eight, fifty. Final offer." Igor retorted, Garfield was one of his regulars as well as a high paying one, he didn't want to lose his business, but he wasn't going to skimp out on these lightsaber parts as they were difficult to get his hands on.
"Deal." Garfield grumbled, though he was happy to get away with a hundred thousand credit discount that would cover the data chip. Rachel had watched the interaction with mild interest, she didn't understand the numbers they were using to price the parts, though as she watched him transfer eight hundred and fifty thousand credits to Igor she balked and tried to take back her choice. "Come on, we should get back before that attendant gets mad at me."
"Hold up." Rachel called out as she grabbed the parts and darted after Garfield, happy she got herself a new lightsaber she liked, but the sum of credits he spent was far beyond anything she thought those parts went for. "Why? There is no way I can repay a million credits."
"Rachel, it's a gift." Garfield smiled, he used the money from his personal account, one that had been accumulating for a while now. He never had a purpose for it other than using it as a secondary spare fund for the ship if his maintenance fund was running low.
"Thanks." Rachel whispered as they made their way back to the ship, she wasn't used to gifts like these, ones that were given without any ulterior motive. She suspected that if Garfield wanted to arm her then he would have gotten some cheap lightsaber from a backwater shop, but he purposefully brought her to the shop to pick out her own pieces and didn't even try to get her to change her mind on them when it came up for such a high price.
That and there were all the items they had sent back to the Titan that Garfield had given her the money for, that same money he knew he never would have gotten back if she had ran. The items had to go through port security before being delivered to the ship which meant it would arrive before they left the planet.
The two made it back around the time Red X was standing on the ramp with the cargo from Lex in front of him, the grunts had already arrived and took the girl, but they had to wait until Garfield returned so they could load it per his rules. Rachel put her hood fully up and kept a step back from Garfield, she didn't want Lex's goons identifying her after she managed to get Garfield to open up about the meeting.
"Stand down Red, I'll get the cargo pulsed before we load it." Garfield called out to Red X as he approached, he skipped up into the cargo bay to grab a device from a compartment in the wall. Stalking back over to the large black cargo pods with a symbol of white sword emblazoned on it, he placed the dark grey circular device with a large handle on it onto the top of the first pod. "This will only take a few minutes."
The device produced a high pitch screech before a massive shockwave pulsed through the cargo pod, it was an electromagnetic pulse generator that disables any electrical device inside. It was his standard procedure for any transport mission, all his client know of this condition as well as the failure to comply clause he adds into his contracts. If a client tries to sneak a crate in that is resistant to the pulse loses their entire shipment to Garfield as reimbursement.
Detaching the EMP device from the cargo pod, he moved to the second one as Rachel stood beside Red X on the ramp, both of them watching the grunts nervously stare at the ground in front of them as Garfield moved through the pods. It took another ten minutes before all ten pods had been pulsed, Garfield motioned for Red X to move the cargo into the ship while he signed the contract Lex had sent him.
Rereading through it for a fourth time, he signed the data pad and handed it back to the large grunt that towered over him after downloading a copy for himself, the large man flinched when Garfield thrusted the pad out to him and gingerly took it before retreating with his group in tow. Red X took over most of the loading until Lex's guards left the hanger bay, Garfield and Rachel aided with the last few.
"That's everything, we need to wait for some deliveries before we can depart." Garfield stated as he locked down the cargo pods, he needed to depressurise and thermal pulse the cargo bay before they depart encase any living organism was stored inside the pods. "Head back inside and alert the others that the cargo bay is off limits for the next hour."
Garfield headed to the bridge to set up the protocols, Rachel tagged alone and sat in her new favourite seat to work on her lightsaber. Depressurising the cargo bay wasn't exactly ideal planet side, but he didn't want any sort of virus or contamination to affect his ship when he was off world as getting the cargo bay deep cleaned in space was next to impossible.
Rachel was shifting in her seat uncomfortably as Gideon worked, she wanted to ask after the kyber crystal though she didn't want to disturb him, nor did she want to sound greedy. It took a while before Gideon finally noticed as he finished the protocols, a dull thrum settled through the ship as the cargo bay was stripped of air as well as powerful heatwave shocked through it burning anything living inside.
"Here." Gideon reached into his high neck shirt and grabbed his necklace, he looked through the various green, blue and red kyber crystals. He found his prize possession, a purple kyber crystal that he got off his first ever force user he defeated, a Sith that was far too cocky for his own good, though he did put up one hell of a fight before he earned this crystal. "This is the first of my collection, my most prized item. Please take care of it."
Gingerly taking the crystal from his hand, she didn't know if she should be happy or unnerved. There had to be at least thirteen crystals on that necklace with both Sith and Jedi colours, she knew he had the skill to challenge a force user, but she never actually seen proof. Holding the purple crystal in her hand, she wondered why he would give her his cherished piece. A part of her didn't know if she could accept the gem, not this particular one anyway.
"This stupid necklace is a road map of my victories, sometimes I wonder why I keep it only to remember that it's the first time I wasn't punished just for breathing." Garfield sighed, he looked at the shoddily made metal string with the kyber crystals soldered on. Rachel had told him the deal she struck with Commander Dayton as well as the fact that the commander told her about his past, she had been uncomfortable with keeping the secret and blurted it out by accident.
She had been shocked when Garfield didn't seem offended or surprised, rather he just sighed and berated himself for not expecting Steve to guess his nature. Though he was surprised that Commander Dayton actually relented to her demands. Garfield had thanked Rachel, if she hadn't come to his aid, there was no telling the damage to his psyche after his bloodlust was satiated.
"This necklace represents my past, reminding me what I fight for every day." Garfield held the necklace tightly in his hands, marvelling over every crystal as different memories appeared in his mind from each victory. "That purple crystal was the first one I ever earned, the first step towards my difficult road to freedom, and now it's yours."
"My first step?" Rachel mumbled aloud, she gazed at the crystal in wonder. She wasn't much of a religious person, nor did she believe in fate or destiny, but after making her deal with both Commander Dayton and Garfield, it was technically her first step to a new life away from the Sith Order, one that wasn't running from shadow to shadow. Clasping her hand around it, she decided to take her first step with pride, much like Garfield had.
Rachel got to work building her lightsaber, letting Garfield monitor the progress of the cargo bay. Though he would have to do something similar for the deliveries, it would only take a few minutes. Deliveries always came through the ports cleaning service, but he would always pulse them with the EMP just to be sure.
Most bacteria are killed by the ports own cleaning system, anything else would have been killed by the pulse secondary feature which blasts the air inside the crate with a high heat instantly. Though this method couldn't be done with the books they wouldn't be an issue as they were being sent by the Doom Patrol, they would have ensured the items were thoroughly cleaned before transporting them.
As for the current procedure, the cargo bay has as a thermal pulse generator that slowly ramps the intensity of the heat until it equates close to plasma. It only flashes the heat temporarily before allowing it to cool before the next pulse, that way nothing melts or burns inside the cargo bay. It was made to ensure nothing nasty survived the air being sucked out, sending it to be burned in the ship's engines. He created this procedure as most of his clients have the means to create bioweapons that could bypass normal inspections.
The thermal pulse only last thirty minutes, then it takes another thirty minutes to cool the cargo bay slowly so as to not disrupt or break any devices inside by the sudden temperature change. Garfield silently worked on monitoring its progress while detailing the cargo pods with the internal senses, setting up a program to monitor them for any changes. He wouldn't put it past Lex to try something in transit.
After the hour passed, Rachel had managed to form her lightsaber though she couldn't test it inside the bridge per Garfield's request. They walked through the luke warm cargo bay to open the ramp and take the deliveries as they had arrived not a few minutes before the cargo bay finished its cooling process.
They signed for them before running them through the standard process, Rachel took a moment to use her new lightsaber inside the hanger bay, igniting the purple blade and marvelling it for a second. She swung it through a series of moves before stowing it away on her belt, revelling in the feeling of having a lightsaber at her side once again, though this time it felt far better than before as it was her own rather than a hand-me-down.
Rachel took her new purchases to her room to settle in, getting help from Victor who passed by the cargo bay after hearing about the thermal treatment. Garfield sought out the attendant to inform them of their departure, paying the man a few extra credits for staying nine hours rather than the six to seven he had previously stated.
With everything onboard, Garfield piloted the Titan out of Nar Shaddaa, avoiding other ships and following the standard flight path out of the moon. Once free of the area, Garfield charged up the hyper drive in the general direction of the delivery destination and jumping to hyperspace, he shifted his focus to navigation, charting a course through Helga's territory .
The only way to meet the deadline of the mission was to pass through Helga's territory, the pirate captain of the Ravagers wasn't exactly known for her kindness or forgiveness. Anyone that was dumb enough to wander into her territory learned the hard way how quickly she is to anger, losing their ships and, most often, their lives. However, Helga only ever made one mistake in her life, and that was challenging the Titan to a dog fight, she lost three of her largest ships to the silver behemoth before it escaped.
Helga's personality is tricky to define, she is quick to anger and easily enraged, but she takes to demonstrations of power and skill, she will welcome anyone with open arms if they can prove their worth. She has always valued strength over wealth, bolstering her forces and becoming one of the strongest pirate groups around, even the Hutts are wary of her.
After his run in with her, Garfield became an honorary member of the Ravagers, he would run the occasional job for her when he was in the area. However, if he wanted to pass through the heart of her territory, he would have to barter with her, something he wanted to avoid since she always tried to get him to marry her daughter.
The screen before him immediately pinged with an incoming call from the Doom Patrol, Garfield sighed as he forgot that he was supposed to call in the moment he left the moon. Securing the encryption on his end, he reluctantly answered the call.
"The package has been delivered, and I have a navigation course to plot through Helga's territory, so can we make this quick." Garfield grunted, he wasn't particularly happy with Commander Dayton after ordering him on a kill mission. He understood the severity of the mission and how many people would have been killed if he had failed, but that didn't mean he wasn't about to forgive Doom Patrol for a long time.
"We have the package on sensors, once we have the lab, we'll organise a breach team to take it out and secure the captives." Commander Dayton spoke with the standard voice modulation, he could understand Garfield's coldness towards him, though he was glad that Rachel had held up her end of the deal. "We'll wait the standard period before commencing the assault. Afterwards, the Doom Patrol is going dark per Protocol Zulu."
"Understood." Garfield curtly responded before the call was dropped, he didn't have anything else to say on the matter and he had to plot a diverted course around to a merchant's station. Helga never trades for credits or precious materials, rather she always asks for building materials for both stations and starships, though the one thing she values most are power cores.
Her main base was located close to a large plasma storm, it was easily defendable as no one could pass through the storm so they could bottle neck any incoming force and tear them apart. However, it also meant they burned through power cores nearly ten times faster than anyone else.
Garfield got up from his chair and stretched, he snatched his jacket from the hook on the wall and threw it into his room. Changing into his lounge wear of a simple green shirt and shorts, he sauntered through his ship to the Rec room in search of something to eat. He checked the internal sensors in the cargo bay as he passed it, double checking that everything was in working order and no issue or irregularity had been noted.
Entering the Rec room, he found Rachel and Victor on the couch surfing through the holonet for anything interesting to watch. Rachel wore her new lounge wear she had bought, it was a large purple t-shirt with a pair of long black trousers, around her waist was a black and red belt with her new lightsaber attached to it.
Richard sat at the table, a hot mug of coffee in one hand and a data pad in the other, he had changed out of the Red X armour and back into the Doom Patrol standard white uniform that had been stored in the cupboard. He was reviewing the contract that Garfield had signed, pouring over every word ensuring nothing was hidden in the details.
Walking over to the kitchen, Garfield found Kori cooking… something. He was too afraid to ask, especially as it were a version of pink he didn't think existed on the colour spectrum. Garfield made himself his usual fruit salad and joined the two on the sofa, eating away as Victor found some action movie about a Republic commando separated from his unit and has to fight through an Empire army singlehandedly.
These types of films were propaganda from either side to showcase their people in the best light while tarnishing the other side, they weren't exactly worth watching unless there was literally nothing else interesting on.
"Garfield, is this number, right?" Richard called out after rereading the Titan's cut of the deal, he had to take a second to let his mind wrap around the sum before he spoke. Looking up from his bowl, Garfield ran the numbers through his head, trying to estimate how much twenty percent was of the overall profit of the mission when Richard blurted the number out loud. "Twenty-three million?"
The others in the room bolted upright in shock, word had gotten to all of them that a mission like this should have been around five million or so, though they weren't expecting this. Garfield sat there with his face scrunched up, he had guessed it to be around eighteen or maybe nineteen million, but not twenty-three million.
"There should be a receipt somewhere on there." Garfield muttered aloud as he flipped over the seat and walked over to Richard, he was confused by Lex bumping up the price until he got a hold of the data pad and scanned through it. "Ha! Seems Lexy no longer wants my business. Dismissal fee of an extra five percent, he really doesn't want to see me again."
"That bad?" Richard asked, the receipt didn't really break down the costs, rather it was a long list of items with a percentage beside it. At the bottom of the list was an item labelled 'Goodbye', Richard couldn't help but laugh when he read it. "He really doesn't like you anymore."
"Meh, not like I wanted to do business with that greedy fiend again, just lucky that I got out of this without having to haggle over the price." Garfield shrugged, he didn't really care losing Lex's business, though his jobs usually went for triple Garfield's standard rate, they were few and far between to actually matter. That, and for triple his standard rate also brought triple the danger, something he was glad to be rid of.
"Wait, that's more than a million apiece!" Rachel cried out, shocked after running the calculations through her mind. The others looked at her for a second, wondering what she meant by her words.
"I figured since I never use the credits beyond maintenance and client meetings, that I would split the remaining percentage five ways." Garfield shrugged when the stares turned his way, he had been meaning to get around to telling them eventually. "Titan's maintenance costs and the auxiliary fund usually takes up about seventy-five percent of the earnings, so its five percent between the five of us."
"One million, one hundred and fifty thousand credits…" Victor muttered aloud, no amount of work could he ever do would come close to earning that much, nor even in one go, and all he was doing was playing with his new toy and a hanger bay full of parts.
"Are you sure?" Rachel asked as she left the sofa and walked over to him, though Garfield had offered this deal in private, she wasn't expecting him to actually go through with it. She didn't want to think bad of her new captain, but she held a reserve encase he decided to alter the deal at the last second.
"The credits I have in my account rarely ever get touched, the last three purchases I made with that account was at the promenade earlier, Drumond Kaas five months ago, and Alderaan a year ago…" Garfield shrugged, though as he got to his trip to Alderaan a year ago, he paused. "Actually, ignore that last one. That's the last time I ever entertain a prince of House Doom, those hot heads never learn to keep their mouths shut."
"Never knew smugglers entertained princes before." Rachel smirked as she teased him, Garfield winced in response to her words. She didn't know why she was enjoyed torturing him, but she wasn't ever going to stop any time soon.
"Technically, it was bodyguarding. House Doom's third prince wanted to go clubbing in the Empire sector and personally requested me as his bodyguard." Garfield sighed, he was planet side on Alderaan looking for clients when Doom Patrol called, the third prince had personally requested him after learning about him from the Head of House Doom. "The spoiled brat made me pay for everything, and then had the gall to mouth off against a squad of Empire Elite Marksmen. That was one hell of a firefight, luckily the prince only lost part of his ear."
"Bet he wasn't happy about that?" Richard chuckled, he had his fair share of run ins with rich spoiled brats, even after saving their lives they still aren't happy.
"Nope, whined the entire way back and demanded House Doom punish me excessively." Garfield grunted, the urge to smack the brat nearly overwhelmed him as he stood before the Head of House Doom and listened to the brat try to pin the entire thing on him. Though, the Head of House Doom didn't believe him for a second as she received a missive demanding reimbursement for the damage done to their elite squadron after her son provoked them, the message never once mentioned him or the mass of broken bones Garfield had given the Marksmen.
"So what's the mission?" Victor called from the sofa, he listened in to the conversations, though he was more interested in what he could do with a million credits. He had ideas of upgrading the computer system on the Titan, he wanted to decrypt the data drive though the current system had an issue of trying to the fly the ship through hyperspace and doing literally anything else.
"Transport, ten cargo crates need to be delivered to a designated point within a month." Garfield grunted automatically, he got use to repeating this line back to himself often to ensure he remembered and understood the mission. "Unfortunately, it means going through Helga's territory, and meeting with an Empire cruiser commanded by a Sith Lord at the rendezvous point."
"Helga… as in the Queen of the Ravagers?" Victor pointedly asked incredulously, he only knew of her by reputation alone, and the stories were too gruesome to mention. The others could only look at them curiously, Victor and Garfield knew the outer rim far better than any of them and judging from the fearful look Victor was giving Garfield, they could only guess how bad this was going to be. "Are you insane? Helga kills without mercy or waiting."
"That depends… does anyone know where I can get a white Akk Dog with pink polka dots and steel tusks?"
"Are you alright?"
Author's Note: Thought I'd make a reference to my other story, though hopefully its still funny either way.
