OOO
Chapter Twelve.
OOO
Barriss sat on the edge of the bed.
The screen of Dak's data pad was a blue ember in the darkness, casting shards of light across Aiden's scrunched face as he sat forward on the couch, elbows resting on his knees as he gripped the casing.
Since returning from Jax, he hadn't spoken a word beyond assuring her that he was fine.
She didn't need to be a Jedi to know the truth hiding behind that lie.
The whisper flickered within her, and she chewed the inside of her lip. The conflict of whether or not to tell him had been a tug-of-war within herself since morning. One side arguing for telling him, one side arguing against, and the bond itself flickering with taunting reminders of its presence.
Just one tug of the thread, and his thoughts and feelings would unfurl before her. She would know exactly what to say. How to bring it up. If she should bring it up.
She wanted to.
But such an invasion without his knowledge would be a horrendous violation. And he didn't ask for this link.
Neither did you, the old voice said.
And that was the truly insidious thing about the voice, wasn't it? Such simple fact and word. Yet within always lurked a dagger.
She exhaled quietly, and pushed the voice back down.
Aiden glanced at her. "Alright, what is it?"
She blinked. "What?"
"You've been looking at me out of the corner of your eye, sighing, and then looking away again for the last hour. What is it?"
The haggard stress-lines creasing his eyes only deepened in the glow of the screen.
No. She wasn't even ready to acknowledge this herself. How could she ask him to accept something she couldn't? She fidgeted her fingers together. "It's late, Aiden. You've been hunched over that data pad for hours. I think you should get some rest now."
It was true enough.
"Having something to focus on is helping me right now." He turned back to the data pad, tapping and swiping his finger across the display with more force than was probably necessary. "Besides, the sooner I get into this thing, the sooner I can get us out of here, and get you away from Jax."
She tilted her head. "I can handle Jax, Aiden. You don't need to worry about that."
"I know..." He sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "But you don't know him like I do. He's a creep, Barriss."
Guilt, and a protective desperation squeezed inside her, and it took a moment to realize it wasn't her own emotions prickling. She gasped, and slammed the bond closed. How had it opened while he spoke?
He looked at her oddly. "...Are you okay?"
She averted her gaze, and smoothed a non-existent wrinkle out of the front of her robes. "Yes." Aside from from her apparent total lack of control whenever it came to anything involving this street rat.
He cocked an eyebrow, and she pushed herself from the edge of the bed, grabbing the sheets and whipping them aside before climbing in. "You should get some sleep, Aiden."
"I will." He rubbed his neck, not meeting her eyes anymore. "Just... Not right now." He returned to the ember in his hands, tension in his jaw deepening the lines in his face.
The whisper rose up once more as if reaching, begging her to reconsider.
She pushed it back down amid the churning in her belly, next to the old voice, and exhaled slowly as she sunk down into the pillow. No. He wasn't ready for something like this. He already had enough to worry about with Jax. She would not add to his burden.
That is a more comforting reason to claim, isn't it?
Simple words.
And the quiet, familiar a dagger.
OOO
Barriss turned over, her purple locks falling across her face like a veil shielding her from the world, and Aiden glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
Her chest rose and fell in slow, even breaths, and a strange quietness filled the room. The hum of energy inside him since the loading dock, or maybe since before the loading dock, faded like a breath.
She was already asleep. He wasn't sure how he knew she was already asleep, he just... knew.
He glanced at the chrono on the wall. 10:42
Good. Maybe he'd actually get back before sunrise. Or what passed for it in the underworld.
He set Dak's data pad on the frayed leather beside him and stood, scrubbing his face with his palms as if he could wash away the knot twisting his stomach. How did my life turn into this? He exhaled, and took a step toward the door. Dooku's little secret-gatherer.
The thought struck him like a slap across the face, and he froze mid-step. Something winked inside him. "Your skills lie in the discovery of secrets, not assassination. It is in this way you will serve me."
Dooku could play coy all he wanted about why he was sending him to Palpatine's apartment, but there was only one reason he would send him anywhere—Somewhere in Palpatine's loft, a piece of information that Dooku needed hid behind a firewall.
A piece of information that would help Dooku take down Palpatine.
A piece of information Barriss could use to take down Palpatine...
"Everything you need to accomplish your task will be provided to you, slicer."
Dooku would be giving him a data pad tonight... One I'll have full access to. He glanced at Dak's data pad, and a quirk slowly pulled his lips. One I won't be locked out of...
Something he wouldn't dare call hope sprouted—a small spark in the looming dread weighing down on him like a heavy jacket he couldn't shake off. He grabbed the data pad off the couch, and popped out the memory chip, holding up the little, green square between his thumb and index finger.
Dooku wouldn't let him keep the data pad he would be using tonight, but if he got a big enough chunk of time... Maybe it wouldn't matter.
And when he finally cracked Dak's pad... He might have what he needed to take Palpatine down and get Barriss her life back already at his fingertips.
His stomach fluttered as he turned the green square over in his hand, and the quirk on his lip grew. Game on, you old geezer. He slipped the chip up his sleeve—pockets were for rookies who had never been frisked before—and he blew out a breath, heading for the door with a glance at Barriss' sleeping form.
Sleep well, Barriss.
He slipped out as quietly as he could, and stood in front of room eleven. He bit down on the bad taste in his mouth, and tapped his knuckles against the metal.
The door hissed at him as it slid away, and a living ghost filled the darkened portal, staring down at him with a faint smirk that didn't match the gleam in her eyes. "Princess went to bed early, huh? What, no fun and games first?"
He tensed his jaw, and met her smirk with as much steel as he could. "What can I say? I couldn't wait to see you again."
She slinked forward like velvet, but her eyes cut like razors. "Oh, darling… You wouldn't survive me. You might not even survive working with me." She leaned down until her lips were cold whispers against his ear. "Remember that."
Her voice slithered through him, and his stomach twisted.
She coiled an arm around his shoulders, and this time, her smirk did match the gleam in her eyes. "Shall we?" She pulled him along beside her and started walking, arm draped over him, hips swaying side to side as if every step was a claim of ownership.
He grit his teeth as she sashayed him through the musky crowds and flashing lights of The Chance Lounge, pulling him tight against her the whole way, and he turned his head until she was just a pale specter in the edge of his vision. Never thought I'd voluntarily blind myself with neon...
Jax stood at the head of the lounge, and their eyes locked.
Jax paused in wiping his forehead, and looked between Aiden and Sing, settling on her ivory arm squeezing him against her lithe form. A slow smile spread across his face, and his belly began jiggling as he raised his eyebrows at Aiden and shifted his gaze to Sing, raking his eyes over her body, his smile widening.
Sour bile rose in Aiden's stomach, and his throat clenched. Oh, no...
The flashing lights gave way to the fog of midnight, and Sing pulled him toward a plain airspeeder parked in the darkest corner of the night, untouched by the glow of the signs cutting the haze around them.
She pushed him into the passenger seat, and hopped behind the controls. "Better get comfortable, it's a long way to the surface and we're taking the scenic route."
He tugged at his sleeve, and avoided her gaze, locking his eyes on the green-drenched entrance of the cantina. "Yeah..."
As they lifted into the air, he couldn't shake the dread that settled in his gut as the look in Jax' eyes played in his mind. Just get this done and get back before sunrise. He could deal with anything else later.
He squeezed the cuff of his sleeve, the hard square of the memory chip digging into his palm through the fabric, and he released a steadying breath.
Nothing ventured...
OOO
The murky fog slowly gave way as they ascended through the neon maze that lit the underworld like dingy constellations, and finally the dank mist fell to the clear of an uppercity night—Real constellations flickering above a horizon of stabbing spires.
500 Republica towered over them like a living monolith, each glowing window piercing the darkness like a thousand yellow eyes staring outward. Watching.
Aiden swallowed as Sing angled them toward a small landing pad jutting from the peak of the spire.
She killed the engine, and grabbed a backpack from the rear passenger seat, shoving it into his chest. "Get moving and keep up, clock's ticking."
No kidding. He followed her out of the speeder, and cast a glance toward the Senate building in the distance.
A hologram as big as the building itself projected a larger-than-life image of Palpatine for all to see as he spoke finely-crafted words to the assembled masses, looking every bit the humble servant of the people he fronted himself to be.
Because nothing says 'humility' like a skyscraper-sized image of yourself displayed over the city while you talk. He snorted, and Sing led him to an unremarkable section of the tower's outer wall.
She crouched down and pressed her ear against the metal, and slowly ran her fingers up and down a thin gap separating two sections of the building's durasteel paneling, her eyes closed as she trailed her touch in delicate patterns over the smooth surface.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Should I leave you and the wall alone?"
Her nostrils flared, and she jammed her fingernail into the gap.
A faint, metallic chunk clanged behind the wall, and the panel swung open, revealing a hidden service-hatch glowing red in the emergency lights springing to life in the newly exposed crawl-way.
She shot a glare at him and cranked the hatch's lever, pulling it open. "Stay close, slicer. Wouldn't want anything to happen to ya while we're in there."
"Noted."
She gave him a faint smirk, and crawled through the portal. "Good, 'cause if I feel you staring at my ass the whole way, I'm throwing you off the roof after we're done."
He shook his head, and secured the pack on his shoulders, crawling after her into the blood-washed tunnel. "Don't worry, you're not my type." Had enough problems already without adding a fling with a bleached psycho to the mix.
She didn't look back as she moved in front of him. "Oh? Maybe you'd like me better if I was green?"
He huffed out a breath.
A soft, but cutting chuckle echoed through the crawl-space.
It's just bait, don't bite on it. Instead, he bit down on the retorts building inside him before they could form into words, and continued crawling behind her.
Another chuckle grated his ears, and they came to a hatch embedded in the floor of the crawl-space. "I'd love to dig into this more, but we're silent from here until we're inside Palpatine's apartment, got it?" She pulled one of her blasters from its holster, and twisted the hatch's lever.
He stared at the blaster, and the image of pearl armor scorched black flashed through his mind. "What, you gonna leave a trail of bodies behind like when you took me to Dooku that first night?"
"Not if the old man came through."
"What does that mean?"
She turned, and locked a side-long glare at him. "It means the person most likely to get shot tonight is you, if you don't shut up and do as I say. Savvy?"
He tensed his jaw. "Yeah. I got it."
She pulled the hatch open, and dropped through without another word.
Just get through this and back to Barriss before she wakes up. He exhaled through his nose and tugged his sleeve, feeling the square inside.
And maybe get her life back in the process.
He gripped the edges of the hatch and lowered himself through the opening until cramped durasteel gave way to a deserted hallway stretching from one end of the tower to the other, the midnight city flickering like stars outside the massive windows running the length of the corridor.
Sing stood down the hall in the pale glow of a luminator, and she jerked her head for him to follow before disappearing around the corner without so much as a glance back.
He hefted the backpack higher on his shoulder, and hurried to join her, glancing behind him for any uniforms as he caught up to her. Where are the guards?
A grand doorway appeared at the end of the hall, and Sing looked at him and gestured toward the panel on the doorframe before turning and aiming her blaster back down the hall, finger poised over the trigger as she stood ready.
Right... He slid the pack off his shoulder, and opened it for the first time.
A heavily-modified Zenith series data pad sat amid a pile of cables and universal connectors.
His eyebrows rose and he grabbed the pad, turning it over in his hand. Dooku might be a geezer, but he knew a good data pad.
Sing's elbow jabbed hard into his arm, and he flinched. Focus. He shook his head, and examined the door panel, pulling the correct cable from the bag and attaching the data pad, forcing a hard connection.
Slicing a door was child's play if you knew how to do it. Electronic lock systems weren't to keep slicers out, they were to keep a slicer busy long enough for a security team to get to them. Which was why seeing no uniforms made him even more paranoid.
And why the feeling of eyes on him raised the hair on the back of his neck.
With a final tap of the screen, the pad chimed and the door panel flashed.
His lip curled.
Polished metal glided away, and Sing grabbed him by the arm and dragged him inside almost before he could detach the data pad from the panel. "Whoa!"
She released him roughly, and he stumbled on lush, crimson carpets as she slapped the inside panel, the metal gliding shut behind them.
He caught his footing, and shot a glare at her. "You're just a ray of sunshine to work with, aren't you?"
She spared him no glance as she walked past him into the apartment, pulling her communicator from her belt. "I don't have time to baby you, the guards could be back any minute. So unless you want me to leave that trail of bodies you mentioned, I'd work faster if I were you."
He made a sound in his throat, and followed her out of the entrance hall into the living room. "And why couldn't you just tell me that out there?"
She pressed a button on the comm. "Video and audio receptors for tower security are on different systems. Video was taken out, audio wasn't."
"How—"
"Shut up." She pressed a final button, and the ghost of Dooku appeared in her hand. "We're in, Count."
A twitch of the mustache. "Inside the main den, you'll find a large portrait of a muun businessman that takes up most of the wall. Proceed to it."
Wasn't exactly hard to spot. A life-sized image of a long-faced alien staring at you with red eyes kinda stood out among paintings of landscapes. I didn't even know muun had red eyes... Aiden's gaze dropped from the unnerving crimson orbs that almost glowed in the dark room, and settled on the small table in front of the image.
A carved stone in the center of the table held a vicious-looking dagger in its cradle as if lifting it up to whoever would grasp it.
Good to know Palpatine's taste in art is as creepy as he is.
"Yeah, we're in front of it, Count."
"Good," he said. "Now take the dagger, and plunge it into the muun's heart."
Uh... What? Aiden's face screwed up into the strangest expression he ever gave another sentient being. "First of all, why? Second of all, wouldn't that destroy the painting and let Palpatine know we were here? And third... Why?"
"It is not a painting. Now do as I say."
Even Sing raised an eyebrow at him. But she took the dagger from its stone resting place, turned it over in her hand once, and then drove the blade straight into the muun's chest.
Rather than the sound of tearing canvas Aiden braced himself for, the metallic whisper of steel sliding against steel rang out from behind the painting.
The image flickered once, and then fizzled out like a digital fire burning the image away. Flickering pixels dissolved to reveal a console panel and multiple displays lighting up around the dagger that now stuck out from a perfectly-shaped slot in the wall, like a key in a safe's door.
Aiden's lips parted. "A hologram..." He stared at the display screens blinking to life, and shook his head. "Unbelievable." Bastard was even more paranoid than he thought.
Dooku was less impressed. "The Chancellor is an interesting man, is he not? This panel connects to a secret mainframe beneath this very tower that holds information vital to his future success. My future success."
Aiden still shook his head. "How do you know all this?"
A twitch of the lip. "You do not become the leader of an army without learning a few secrets of your own."
Apparently...
"If you're finished gawking, I believe you know what you're here to do."
Aiden blew out a breath and wired the data pad to the access point. "What am I looking for?"
"You are not looking for anything, you are collecting everything. Every file, every blueprint, every scrap of data will be copied to your data pad, and then you will hand the data pad over to Miss Sing." His holographic gaze cut into Aiden. "And you will leave no trace you were ever here. Your life depends on it."
Same as always, then. He pressed his lips together.
"Work well, slicer." With that, his image winked out, leaving Aiden and Sing alone in the darkness.
She placed the communicator back on her belt. "You heard him, slicer. Get to work."
He smothered the huff that built in his throat as he bullied through the surprisingly light encryption protecting the access panel. "Sure thing, Miss Sing."
She turned, and leveled a glare at him. "Don't call me that. Only the Count calls me Sing. My name is Aurra."
"Well, whatever your name is, I'd appreciate it if you didn't watch me while I work this time; it's distracting. I could feel your eyes on me the entire time I was working on Jax' machines yesterday and it was annoying as sith-spit."
Her brow pinched. "What are you talking about? I wasn't watching you yesterday."
Huh? He looked at her sideways, and she stared back at him just as oddly.
Muffled voices carried through the front door of the apartment: "I don't know, I guess it was a scheduling error."
His heart jumped, and Aurra whipped her head toward the door, fingers clamping around the handles of her blasters.
Not good.
"Stay here and get this done, slicer." She slid the blasters from their holsters and moved toward the door. "I'll make sure you have the privacy you need."
Ice prickled his veins and he shot a hand toward her. "No! Dooku said leave no trace we were here. I'm pretty sure bodies are a pretty big trace."
"Then I suggest you work fast and get it done before they come in. Otherwise, one of the bodies getting left behind is yours."
She disappeared out of the living room into the entrance hall, and he lowered his arm back down, shooting daggers at her retreating form. 'Get it done'...
The memory chip in his sleeve dug into his wrist, and a hint of steel tinged his glare. No problem.
He whipped back around to the data pad, and popped out the stock memory chip, placing it on the table next to the carved stone before slipping Dak's memory chip out of his sleeve and inserting it into the pad. Here goes nothing...
He tapped the display, and brought up the core directory.
[Transfer system contents to local device? Y/N]
Please work... He tapped 'Y'.
[Waiting... Waiting... Transfer initializing.]
The pad chimed, and 'Complete' flashed across the display.
His mouth split into a grin so wide, his cheeks hurt. Score another one for us, Barriss. He peeked over his shoulder for any sign of ghostly-white, and yanked the chip from the pad, slipping it back up his sleeve like an ace in a back-room poker game.
Playing fair was overrated, anyway.
He snatched the stock memory card from the table, and put it back in the pad, running the transfer again.
The muffled voices cut louder through the outside door: "Wait a minute, the panel's unlocked. The Chancellor never leaves his door unlocked while he's gone."
The prickle of ice in his veins shot to his heart. Crap! Why didn't he think to re-lock the door behind them?
Aurra ran back into the living room, eyes flashing. "Get it moving, slicer. The clock on your life is ticking."
The pad chimed complete, and he yanked it from the access panel. "Done." He snatched the dagger out of the key-slot, and the muun with the freaky eyes re-materialized in the frame, red irises staring down at him.
Why would someone want that staring at them all day?
Aurra grabbed the dagger from him and placed it back in the carved stone. "Finally." She clamped her fingers around his arm, and dragged him toward a shadowed alcove in the corner of the room flanked by two large vases standing like hulking protectors against any prying eyes.
Tingly pain lanced up his arm, and he winced against her grip. Between Barriss and this psycho, it's a wonder my arm isn't just one big bruise.
The hiss of the front door opening slithered through the apartment, and he clutched his backpack tight as Aurra pressed him against the wall with her body. "Not a sound," she whispered.
Really, I hadn't thought of that.
Two senatorial guards appeared in the threshold of the entrance, sweeping their gaze across the room.
He chewed the inside of his cheek, and glanced at Aurra. Either she was gonna do something to get them out of this, or he was gonna find out if he could outrun blaster-fire.
Ghostly features focused like a predator on the guards, and her hand raised almost imperceptibly, a motion so subtle he would have missed it if he hadn't been looking right at her.
Through an open door on the other side of the living room, in what looked like a study, a holo-reader lifted from an ancient desk and then dropped back down again—the sharp clack of the plasteel casing striking the darkwood resounding through the apartment.
What! His eyes widened, and he looked at her. The bleached psycho is a Jedi?!
The guards moved into the study with weapons at the ready. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
Aurra yanked him out of the alcove, hissing in his ear, "Come on!"
Adrenaline-fueled fire swept away the ice in his veins and the questions in his mind, and he sprinted along behind her out the front door. Please don't see us!
Nothing but the pounding of his heart filled his ears as the luminators running along the walls passed by like blurry spotlights trying to expose them to any onlookers.
She dragged him around a familiar corner, and stopped below the still-open hatch in the ceiling.
Voices down the hall. "I could have sworn I heard footsteps run out of the room."
His gut clenched. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast."
She scowled and pulled something from a utility pouch on her belt, attaching it to the barrel of her blaster before aiming through the hatch and squeezing the trigger roughly.
A suction-cup like device exploded out of the barrel and smacked into the roof of the service tunnel, sticking like glue and trailing a corded line from the cup down to the blaster. She pulled him tight against her, and pressed a button on the grip.
A high-pitched whir spun inside the device, and they shot upward through the hatch.
Whoa! His stomach dropped, and her arm clenched around him like a vice as his world blurred and blood-washed durasteel surrounded them once more. She shoved him off her as the voices grew louder: "I think I heard it this way."
His breath caught, and she pulled the access hatch shut, raising a finger to her lips as her eyes drilled into him with a clear message:
Shut. Up.
Footsteps stopped directly below them, and he froze solid, not daring to breathe. Please...
The voice spoke. "I don't see anything. Wasn't anything in the room, either. You're hearin' stuff."
"Yeah... I guess."
Armored boot-steps faded away from the hatch, back toward Palpatine's apartment, and relief drained through him, pulling the air from his lungs as he slumped against the tunnel wall.
I got it, Barriss... I got it. He tugged at his sleeve, the square inside digging into his thumb, and he couldn't help the slow smile that spread across his face as a chuckle escaped. It was worth it.
"This sort of thing is fun, isn't it?"
He blinked and looked at her.
A smirk tilted her pale lips. "Maybe there's hope for you yet, slicer." She crawled past him toward the roof-exit hatch. "Come on, Dooku's waiting."
He lifted a brow and followed behind her. "What, no taunt or threat this time?"
"Don't tempt me."
He shook his head as they spilled back onto the roof, inky black still firmly coating the night sky—not a hint of dawn anywhere among the flickering specks. I just might get back in time, after all.
As they climbed into the airspeeder and Aurra swung the nose around and shoved the accelerator forward, he bit his cheek to keep from outright smiling as the silhouette of 500 Republica sank into the ink behind them.
Things are finally going my way, for once.
OOO
Her insides twisted. Sleep well, Barriss.
A spark simmered. It's just bait. Don't bite on it.
Icy tendrils coiled her heart. Please...
Her heart lifted. Things are finally going my way, for once.
Barriss flinched awake, eyes flying open as she gasped. Swirling emotions roiled inside her, battering against each other, fighting for dominance in a hurricane of conflicting feelings. Regret. Anger. Fear. Hope.
Aiden!
She sucked in a sharp breath and slammed the bond closed. How had it opened while she slept? She shot up to a sitting position, tangled bed sheets falling away from her body, and she peered through the darkness toward the couch. "Aiden, are you okay?"
Dak's data pad teetered on the edge of the frayed leather. Aiden was nowhere to be seen.
Her brow pinched, and she glanced at the door to the fresher, pushing the bed sheets away and swinging her legs over the side of the bed, walking slowly across the room. "Aiden?"
Silence.
Wisps of fear crept up her spine, and she hesitated, tentatively peeking her head in. "Aiden, are you in there?"
The darkness of an empty fresher greeted her.
Her heart fluttered, and an unease she couldn't explain sprouted in her gut as the whisper flickered inside her. Where was he?
She hurried over to the nightstand and snatched her lightsaber, tucking it under her cloak and pulling her hood low before slapping the door-panel and slipping through the threshold as the metal hissed.
If he had left and gotten into trouble, she needed to find him.
She raced down the hall as quickly as she could without drawing attention to herself, and scanned the hustling crowds of the Chance Lounge for any sign of familiar blue eyes. Focus. Calm yourself and focus.
"Well, hello there."
Her heart jumped, and she whipped around, hand slipping under her cloak to her saber-hilt.
Jax raised his hands in mock-surrender, and a faint smirk pulled at his cheeks. "Whoa there. I like em' feisty, but there's no need to start things off at full-tilt."
His gaze swept over her body, and the diamonds on her nose wrinkled. "Jax… Have you seen Aiden?"
Something played behind his eyes as he looked at her. "Yeah, I saw him. And I wasn't the only one."
Her jaw tensed, but she stood her ground. He would not intimidate her. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, one of the most exotic pieces I've ever seen dragged him outta here a few hours ago. Practically draped herself over him right here in front of everyone."
Her lips parted, and her brow scrunched. "What?"
"I personally think it's great the two of you keep things so open." He leaned in and brushed a finger down the edge of her hood, and the tip of his finger grazed her cheek like a lover's tickle. "I admire a woman who doesn't mind a little competition."
His touch soured through her, and she smacked his hand away, instinct more than anything else angling the ridge of her hand into the nerve-cluster in his wrist.
"Agh!" His arm tensed and his eyes bulged as he jerked his hand back and cradled it into his gut, curling and uncurling his fingers.
"You don't get to touch me."
He chugged a breath and grit his teeth. "You schutta."
A few beings stopped and stared. Whispers passed.
She flicked her gaze to the crowd, to the faces watching, and then spun around, pulling her hood tight against the murmurs and marching back to the room, stomach still churning.
The bond flickered inside her, but she pushed it back down. If Aiden was currently... occupied, she didn't want to experience first hand whatever he was doing.
She shook her head as the room door sighed shut behind her, and left Jax and the whispered murmurs of the crowd to be forgotten.
OOO
Aurra landed the airspeeder outside the cantina, just outside the reach of the green glow.
Aiden laid his head back on the seat and blew out a breath, running his fingers through his hair. Glad this night is over...
A skeletal hand reached toward him. "This is the part where you hand over the data pad, slicer."
He snorted and dropped the pad into her waiting palm. "Sure thing, Miss Jedi-for-hire."
The data pad clattered onto the console between them, and the cold barrel of a blaster jammed into his throat before he saw her move, jabbing until his breath caught. "Don't call me that." Her pupils were dagger-points. "Got it?"
He swallowed against the deadly metal, and nodded as much as he dared move. "Bad memories, got it. Won't bring it up again."
Her look dried, but the metal left his neck.
And I though I had baggage... He exhaled slowly, and squeezed his wrist. "Well, as much as I enjoy your company—"
Barriss' voice echoed in his mind like an alarmed shout: 'Aiden!'
Something rolled and then slammed shut inside him, and he whipped around in his seat, expecting a familiar cloak to be billowing toward him. "Barri—"
Empty shadows greeted him, and he blinked, brows furrowing as he glanced around for any flash of diamond-inked green. Barriss?
"What?" Aurra said. "What's wrong with you now?"
Good question... "I thought..." He shook his head. "Nothing. It was nothing, I guess." Just hearing things that weren't there, apparently.
Something still hummed inside him.
She gave him a strange look, and he hopped out of the speeder, squeezing his wrist once more. "It's been almost twenty-four hours for me; I'm gonna go collapse into blessed unconsciousness—I'd appreciate it if you didn't parade me across the lounge on the way back to the rooms this time."
She smirked and held up the data pad. "Sorry to disappoint, but I have a delivery to make. Our friend doesn't like to be kept waiting."
"No rest, first?"
"I don't sleep."
He stared at her, and she stared right back, not a hint of irony in her gaze.
"Suddenly, your permanent bad mood makes sense. How are you even alive?"
She snorted a breath and tossed the data pad into the passenger seat. "We're all expendable, slicer. Remember that."
The speeder lifted away, and he watched her disappear into the murky haze, thumbing the square in his sleeve as a smirk of his own grew on his lips. I have a delivery to make, too.
He hurried under the green glow of the entrance and through the crowds of the Chance Lounge, ignoring the sight of Jax scurrying into his office cradling his hand, and he came to room twelve.
He released a steadying breath, and nodded. Don't think. Don't wake Barriss. When he finally cracked Dak's data pad, he could pin the reason for Palpatine's files already being on the memory chip as Dak having done a little slicing of his own before he died.
His cheeks pulled into a grin, and he pressed the panel on the door frame.
The door slid open, and Barriss stood under the dim glow of a luminator, face hidden by the edge of her hood as she rubbed her forehead.
He froze and sucked in a breath. Crap!
She flinched and turned, violet eyes locking with his.
Not good. "Hey, Barriss... What are you doing up?" Why, oh why did she have to be up?
She crossed her arms, and a blunt edge dulled inside him. "I could ask you the same thing."
Sith-spit. He rubbed his neck. "I was just..." Can't lie.
She raised a brow, waiting.
He looked into her violet, and something in him drained. The hum shifted.
He let his hand fall from his neck. "I was... out with someone I know. She's staying in one of the rooms here." A completely true statement.
He didn't know why it left such a bad taste in his mouth.
"I see." The edge of her hood hid her eyes from him, and she smoothed out the front of her cloak before returning her gaze to him. "And did you get what you were looking for?"
The memory chip dug into his wrist, and his stomach soured even as he knew there was only one answer he could give. Blast it, Barriss...
The skin around his eyes crinkled, and he swallowed. "Yes."
She nodded. "I see." Her voice was plain, and somehow that just made it worse. "Then I'm glad the night turned out well for you, Aiden." Dark fabric hid her eyes from him once more, and she walked over to the bed.
A knot twisted inside him, and something prompted him to speak. "Look, Barriss, I—"
"It's fine, Aiden. It's really none of my business if you want to involve yourself with someone." A breath escaped her, and she shook her head, placing her saber on the nightstand. "I don't know what else I expected from a street rat. But you put both of us in danger going out by yourself tonight. Especially without telling me. I can't believe how foolishly you acted. I can't believe how foolish I was to expect better."
He raked his fingers through his hair and dipped his head. Was there a single thing he could say?
"Goodnight, Aiden." She climbed under the sheets, and heavy silence fell.
A whisper of that horrible feeling from the shuttle cockpit passed through him, and he grit his teeth. No. There really wasn't. Dooku had made sure of that.
He let his arm fall back to his side once more, and fixed a tired gaze on Dak's data pad as it teetered on the edge of a frayed couch-cushion.
And a long, slow sigh drained out of him.
OOO
Palpatine glided through the halls of the Senate building, silk robes swishing across the crimson carpets, and a faint smile resting as the roar of countless pairs of applauding hands echoed in his mind.
Quite an enjoyable evening, indeed.
The doors to his personal office parted as if bowing to their rightful king, and as he stepped into the darkness of his sanctuary, a presence shifted behind him, and his heart quickened for the first time in many years. He pivoted toward the presence, and a lithe figure hidden under the brim of an over-large hat stepped out of the shadows.
He narrowed his eyes. "Bane..."
A rough, blue hand reached up and tugged the brim of the hat, and a nasally rasp grated. "Chancellor."
"You are either very brave, or very foolish to show yourself to me after failing to remove the slicer. You know what becomes of those who fail me."
"I don't leave jobs unfinished." He readjusted the hat. "Besides, hearin' your little speech has got me feelin' patriotic, and I feel it's my civic duty to report what I've seen. Ya see, I witnessed a crime tonight."
Palpatine's eyes narrowed further. "Then I would suggest going to the police."
"Oh, trust me..." Pale blue lips pulled back over razor-sharp teeth as he held up a miniature holo-projector, and a still image of Aiden Stari, Aurra Sing, and a ghostly hologram of Count Dooku standing inside a familiar 500 Republica apartment appeared in his hand.
"You don't want me goin' to the police with this..."
The image burned into Palpatine's rapidly-yellowing eyes, and his lip curled into a parted frown as irises of lava shifted from Aiden, and settled on the self-satisfied image of Count Dooku waving a hand toward the portrait of Darth Plagueis.
Foolish, my apprentice...
Very foolish.
END CHAPTER