OOO
Chapter Eleven.
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A strange, rushing sound cut through the sleepy grog smothering Aiden's mind, drawing him from the muddled darkness like hushed voices calling to him.
Something tickled against his throat.
He cracked his eyes, and the dim luminators embedded in an all-too-familiar ceiling filtered through the morning blur, carrying the memories of yesterday with them.
So it begins... Something between a sigh and a groan passed through his lips, and he dug his elbows into rough leather, pushing himself up. Something warm and soft slid down his torso.
Barriss' cloak lay crumpled in his lap, and a chill swept across his chest as cool air struck freshly exposed skin.
A bandage wrapped around the gash in his arm.
He blinked. Had he really been that tired, or was Barriss really that sneaky?
A metallic squeak pierced from the bathroom, and the rushing sound cut off.
He ran a hand down his face and set her cloak aside, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch. His body ached for a hot shower of his own, but he'd probably end up paying for it if he indulged before heading out. The longer he waited, the more time Jax had to think of more things to add to their agreement.
Bastard's list is probably already longer than the line of people waiting to kill me.
He brushed his fingers through his hair and glanced around for his shirt, spotting it lying on the non-slept-in side of the bed, next to a mass of tangled sheets leftover from a restless night of tossing and turning.
His stomach twinged, and he grabbed the blood-stained shirt and shrugged it on.
The bathroom door opened, and Barriss emerged from the wisps of steam spilling out of the threshold, misty tendrils dancing around her as they evaporated away. Without the hood of her cloak covering her head, locks of purple so dark, they could pass for black fell across her face, wet strands sticking to damp skin.
Her violet eyes locked with his, and she tucked the strands behind her ear, raising a brow at him.
He blinked and tore his gaze from her hair, settling on Dak's data pad on the coffee table. He cleared his throat and gestured to it. "I'll work on unlocking it after I see Jax. I shouldn't keep him waiting too long, you know?"
She nodded, but didn't say anything.
He drummed his fingers against his thigh. "All right, then... See you." He dipped his chin, and walked out the door, the metal sighing behind him. Or maybe at him.
I'm just a natural-born conversationalist, aren't I? He shook his head and started for Jax' office. Just find out what the pig wants, get it done quick, and then get to work on cracking that pad.
He steeled himself with an exhale, and pushed his way through the neon maze of the Chance Lounge, unaware of the eyes that followed him the whole way.
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Cool air brushed Barriss' damp skin like icy fingers as Aiden walked out the door.
'I'm just a natural-born conversationalist, aren't I?' She heard it as clearly as if he had whispered it in her ear.
A tingly knot sprouted in her gut. This was not right. She had detected thoughts and emotions in others before, to be sure, but not like this. Not with such clarity. She could not even hear Master Unduli with such clarity. And yet, not even one month after meeting him, Aiden might as well be speaking his thoughts out loud to her?
Echoes of her bond with Luminara passed through her like a lost memory, and the twinge of pain their bond now held squeezed her heart once more.
Her eyes involuntarily flicked to the tangled sheets entwining the mattress before she forced them closed, blowing out a breath as if expelling the thoughts of her master—and the emotions they brought with them. It had taken the entire shower to clear her mind. She would not fall back into despair so quickly.
She released the breath fully, shoulders sinking back down, and she opened her eyes again, looking from the bed to the couch. The midnight fabric of her cloak draped over the backrest like rippling onyx.
It wasn't like this with him before. What changed? In the Temple, she could discern his honesty well enough, and again when they spoke on the prisoner transport, but she couldn't hear him think. And nothing that had happened between the Temple and now could explain that.
Something flickered inside her. The whisper in her belly swirled, and spoke. You didn't meet him in the Temple.
She stopped. And that night passed through her mind like a vision:
The crack of a blaster shot.
Her hair falling loose from her hood, spilling across her face as she knelt over the dying street-urchin, smoke rising from his chest and stinging her widened eyes as she raced to preserve the flicker of life within him.
A silent breath inside her. A whisper of a whisper. And then it was gone.
And then it happened.
The flicker, the whisper of energy swirling inside her since that night pulsed like a flash through her. And her time with him engulfed her vision like a storm of images:
Sirens wailing through the blood-washed transport, screams adding their cry to the shriek of the engines. A burst of azure. Clutching him tight against her, enveloping him, bearing the glass for him. Her thoughts doubling like blurred sight.
And she knew his honesty.
A hunt through the shadows, concealing him within herself. "No sign of him."
An assassin in the night, taking the fire for him. "Aiden, run!"
And his emotions echoed within her.
Glowing blades illuminating the platform, her master's eyes on her. A choice to be made.
She chose him.
'I'll make it worth it, Barriss. Somehow.'
Her lips parted, and the flicker in her belly surged. The breath, the whisper swirled.
…The whisper that now quietly matched the pain filtering through her bond with Luminara.
It can't be. The Chronicles of the Healers were clear. He wasn't a Jedi. Fixing one blaster-wound in that musty alley couldn't have possibly created a healing-bond. Not so quickly. Not with a… Street rat.
She pinched the flesh of her cheek between her molars. But if a bond had somehow formed... She had done everything that could possibly be done to strengthen it.
Tentatively, she searched herself for something that should not be there. Must not be there...
His voice filled her mind. 'Well, I didn't think it was possible, Jax, but you're even more obnoxious than I remember.' His frustration and disgust crashed through her like a tidal wave, almost knocking her back with its potency.
She flinched and slammed the whisper shut, her heart pounding against her sternum as she drew in a sharp breath.
This couldn't be real. It wasn't right. She needed to think. No, she needed to not think. She needed...
The polished silver of her saber-hilt caught a shard of light from the luminator above, and glinted on her belt.
She needed to move. To do something. She grasped her lightsaber, fingers clamping around the cool metal like a life-line, and she slid into the opening stance of the fourth kata.
The blade burst and bled its light, and the shadows twitched against the walls as she locked her eyes on the glow until everything faded away.
And she didn't think anymore.
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The blaring machines. The flashing lights. The constant alcohol-fueled murmur singing backup for them. It was tolerable for a short time.
That time had ended two hours ago.
Aiden consciously un-grit his teeth for the fourth time as another sweaty cantina-rat bumped past him, some of whatever sludge the man was drinking splashing onto his shoes. He pressed his lips together, and reattached the back panel of the gambling game, the machine lighting up and chiming its ear-splitting sound.
That's it. I'm done for today. I don't care what Jax thinks about it.
He ran his sleeve across his forehead, and made a bee-line for Jax' office, jostling through the heat of the crowds that burned his nose like rotten spice. At least I don't feel like I'm being watched, anymore. He peeked his head in Jax' door and coughed, and Jax looked up from his desk.
"I'm done for now, I gotta get somethin' to eat."
Jax glanced at his chrono and cocked an eye at him, but nodded, turning back to the ledgers scattered across the desk. "Alright, same time tomorrow."
Aiden bit back what he wanted to say, and simply returned the nod before pivoting and marching back toward the rooms. Just keep your head down and crack that blasted data pad. The sooner he got into Dak's pad, the sooner this lousy cesspit would go back to being nothing but a bad memory again.
The droning murmur of the lounge faded into the background as he made it into the door-lined hallway, and he set his sights on room twelve, picking up his pace as he passed by room eleven's open door. Never thought I'd be relieved to—
A ghostly-white hand shot out, and skeletal fingers clamped around the collar of his shirt, balling up the fabric in a clenched fist and yanking him into the shadows, slamming him against the wall.
His head smacked against dark metal. Black dots exploded in his vision with a grunt as he grabbed the bony wrists. What the!
"You thought you could slip away from me that easily?" Sing leaned in, hot breath slithering across his face. "You're a dead man."
He dug his finger nails into her wrists. "Sing?! What the blazes are you doing?"
She pulled him back and slammed him into the wall again, copper pain piercing his skull. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't follow you? That you could just run away with your little Jedi princess and—"
A communicator on her belt chirped.
Her eyes flicked to it, and her lip curled into a sneer. She leveled her glare back on him and took the device in one hand, still gripping his collar with the other. "Don't move..."
He shot daggers at her.
The pale image of Dooku cast in her palm. Eerie blue. "Sing." He stopped, and looked between them, and raised a brow at her fist clenched around his collar. "I see you are already with our young friend."
"Just explaining to the waste how this arrangement works."
A twitch of a mustache. "Indeed. The time has come to take our first step against the Chancellor, and we take it now." He folded his hands. "Our dear Chancellor will be addressing the Senate late into the night this evening, leaving his personal suite quite empty. We will not let such an invitation pass us by."
Aiden's blood chilled, and a sense of unease he had come to dread creeped up through his gut. "You want me to break into the Chancellor's apartment tonight?"
Dooku's image stood below him in Sing's hand, but seemed to look down at him. "Is that such a daunting task? It's not as if you'll be alone. Miss Sing here will accompany you."
Her eyes had not left his the entire conversation, drilling into him silently.
"Somehow, I'm not comforted by that," he deadpanned. "More importantly, I don't have a functioning data pad with the mods I would need to slice into his system."
"Everything you need to accomplish your task will be provided to you, slicer."
Great... His jaw tensed. "And what exactly is my task going to be?"
"Revealed to you in the proper time." Dooku inclined his head. "Play nice, children." The hologram winked out, plunging them into darkness.
An ashen gaze bore down on him, veins in her hand ridging as she clenched the fistful of his shirt.
He pressed his molars together, and forced himself to meet her gaze head-on even as his heart pounded against his chest. "I think you can let go now."
Her eyes narrowed to slits and her nostrils flared, but her fist slowly unclenched. "If you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll kill you."
She released him with a rough shove, and he stumbled back, palm smacking into the wall and squeaking against the metal as he dug in to keep from falling over.
He shot her glare right back at her, and pulled himself up, grabbing the wrinkled fabric of his collar and pulling it straight with a tight snap. "Yeah. Funny thing I've learned these last few days. You can only be threatened with death so many times before it starts to lose some of its effect."
He brushed past her out the door, not daring to look back.
He stopped in front of room twelve's threshold, and closed his eyes as a long, shaky breath escaped him. Focus. Get through this. Don't think. Don't let Barriss see you like this. Take the Bastard down. Make it worth it.
He breathed out one final breath, and nodded to himself, slapping the panel on the doorframe.
The metal hissed open, and an azure streak whipped around Barriss' figure faster than he could track, blurring into a solid beam of light as it sliced a burning trail straight at him.
He stopped in his tracks, lips parting.
Wide, violet eyes locked with his, and she froze mid-swing, the blade slamming to a halt inches from his face, heat pouring from the glow like a roiling, blue flame.
Her chest rose with heavy breaths, and purple locks matted her cheeks as beads of sweat carved lines along her jaw, dripping off her chin before meeting their demise on the blade humming in her hands below, tiny puffs of smoke sizzling upward with each droplet.
His lips parted further, and something prompted him to speak, "...Are you okay?"
She pulled back, and the blade vanished into the silver hilt like a flame blown out.
She straightened herself and averted her gaze. "Yes. I'm fine." She swept her purple locks back behind her ears, and then returned her gaze to him, glancing down at his shaking hands. "...Are you okay?"
He swallowed, and rubbed his palms against his pantlegs. "Yeah. I'm fine."
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and he dug his palms hard into the seams of his pants, pressing them tight until the trembling faded away.
It did nothing to untangle the sour knot sitting heavy in his gut.
END CHAPTER