Last time: Sasha and Oppie found themselves on the planet Myrkr without the Force and to be hunted.

Now: Kitsu and Illara go to investigate Nivon V.

Chapter 4- Crime Scene

"I feel like we need to just put subdermal transponders on everyone in the family, at this point." Illara groused to Kitsu as they walked down the road together. They were in a full combat load, and they were approaching the New Republic medical center that Sasha and Oppie had been helping with. As soon as Kyr had called them they had changed course to come here, and were a good day closer than the rest of the family at Haven.

"That's not a bad idea at all." Kitsu said grumpily. As they walked up to the medical center. There was some hubub and activity down the road a way at an alley. They looked between each other and didn't need to speak as they both agreed that was probably where they needed to go. They passed the medical center and approached the alley.

"You'll need to check your weapons -" The peace officer said.

"Mandos." Kitsu growled at him and ignored him as she and Illara brushed past him. He apparently took that as all the clearance they needed and decided not to press the point. There was a local officer with more adornments on her uniform, so she looked like she might be in charge of the investigation that was going on.

"What happened?" Kitsu asked, her voice belying a sour mood.

"Who are you?" The woman asked as she looked between them, not as impressed by their armor as the more junior officer had been.

"I'm Kitsu, this is Illara." Kitsu said, gesturing between the two of them with an abrupt cut of her thumb. Illara gave a slight wave, taking their trigger finger off their carbine as they surveyed the scene, using their buy'ce to already start their own investigation.

"And why are Mandos involved in this? There aren't any bounties out. Yet." The officer replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Is this where Sasha and Oppie went missing?" Illara cut in.

The officer looked towards them with a narrowed gaze. "Yes."

"We're their cousins, we came here to help out and to start the search for them." Kitsu answered, also looking around the scene with her buy'ce to look for clues.

"Wait, they're Mandalorians?" The officer asked a little incredulously, looking between them.

"Yeah." Kitsu stated in reply. "Who are you?" Kitsu said with a raised eyebrow of her own.

"Captain Messan." The woman replied as she used her thumb to push a stray lock of dark brown hair back up on her forehead. "Doctor Kelscov called us several hours ago after they went missing. We've been investigating this site, we presume it was where they may have been abducted from. Miss Monroe was apparently called away to communicate with an unknown party about helping setup some other Medical center in the Outer Rim. Dre- Mister Xiv," at that slight slip Kitsu's eyebrow shot up but didn't say anything, "came into the medical center several minutes later and was looking for Miss Monroe in a somewhat panicked state. He ran out the door. That was the last anyone saw of either of them. This alley was the site of a shoot out of some kind, and signs of a scuffle of some sort."

Kitsu nodded and surveyed the scene. "Any evidence you guys have found?"

"We're still investigating." Captain Messan said with a quirked eyebrow.

"Look." Kitsu said, taking off her helmet so she could stare the Captain down. "They're our family. We've had to deal with some pretty bad characters over the years, and if they're missing we need to track them down because they may be in some real, and very bad danger. The two of us find people for a living, and the rest of the family is getting their gear together and are probably already on their way to deliver a world of hurt to whoever it was who took them. We're not here to argue over whose investigation it is. We're here to find our family." Kitsu said, glowering at the woman.

The Captain returned her look for a second before nodding. "Fine, come with me." She said, stepping back into the crime scene. Kitsu moved to follow, before stopping and taking a sniff of the air.

"What?" Illara asked, from her shoulder.

"You smell that?" Kitsu asked.

"Uhh…" Illara said, "no, I just smell the inside of my bucket."

Kitsu rolled her eyes and glanced back at Illara with a wry look as her partner took their own buy'ce off and took a strong sniff of the air.

"Cheroot?" Illara said, after a second, slightly quizzically.

"Yeah, we found a stubbed out one over here." The Captain said, coming over to them with a plastic bag that held the burnt out remains of a cheroot. She handed it over, and Illara took it in hand, looking at it through the bag. The branding was still evident, it was a cheap, nasty brand that smelled particularly foul.

"This rings a bell but I can't quite place it." Illara said, handing it to Kitsu.

Kitsu also examined it, "same." She said, looking at it with annoyance. "Get any sort of DNA scan off of this?" She asked, looking up at the Captain.

"Nothing definitive, it didn't match to anyone in the databanks, ours or the Republic's." The Captain continued the tour, "there are some blaster shots here. Interestingly one of the people was using a stun blast."

"So this wasn't a mugging or a robbery or something." Illara said, looking around. They looked down at the ground. "This is Op's boot tread." They said, kneeling down to inspect a print that was left in the coating of dirt and dust in the alleyway.

Kitsu knelt down and looked at the faint footprints, putting her buy'ce back on so the visor could help her distinguish them. She was able to mentally step through the struggle. She started pacing it out. "And these are Sasha's prints." Kitsu observed, looking at the more faint impressions. She looked at the site with a furrowed brow. "They both froze like they were startled in exactly the same place." She said, looking around. "Not taken by surprise, more like they stopped and did a double take from the way they shuffled this step here." She said, pointing.

"There's evidence of a speeder here." The Captain said.

"Yeah, and they were both loaded into it, unconscious." Illara added, looking at where the door would have been, and the two unconscious Jedi would have been loaded in and the evidence thereof.

"Kistu, Illara," Kelce's voice spoke up from the entrance to the alley.

Both turned their heads to see the tall doctor coming to the alley. "Hi Kelce." Kitsu said, standing up from her kneeling position.

"'Sup doc." Illara said with a grin.

"I'm glad to see you guys here," Kelce said as he entered the alley. He then looked between the three of them. "Did you find anything?"

"Sasha and Oppie's bootprints, a nasty cheroot stub." Kitsu said with an annoyed scowl.

Messan looked between them, "you guys know each other?"

"Yes, we worked together during the war against the Empire," Kelce explained to Messan, who just shrugged slightly and went off to look at another section of the scene.

"There's something about the cheroot that's bugging me." Illara said with an annoyed look.

"That whoever has smoked it is ruining their health?" Kelce joked before apologizing. "Sorry."

Kitsu snorted. "Well, you're not far off." Thinking dark thoughts of whoever it was took her cousins.

"There was a protocol droid here?" Illara suddenly asked, looking at the collection of prints.

"Wait." Kitsu said suddenly, coming over. "Cheroots and a protocol droid?"

"You don't think…" Illara said as they looked over at Kitsu as they both made eye contact with each other.

"A chrome protocol droid was who led Sasha away if that helps," Kelce said with a slight frown.

"Chrome?" Kitsu asked, looking at him, then back to Illara. "Does the Medical center have any camera footage of the droid?"

"They gave us a copy of it." Messan replied, who had been quietly listening to their conversation. She pulled a datapad out and showed them the footage.

"What was his name?" Kitsu said, trying to remember.

"Von. Von Signet, or something…" Illara said, trying to remember.

"Von Signa." Kitsu said, looking up at them.

"Who's Von Signa?" Kelce asked, looking between the two of them.

"A bounty hunter." Kitsu said.

"Retired though, he mostly just sublets jobs out." Illara filled in, "we did a job for him a couple of years ago, it was kind of iffy so we decided not to work with him much after it."

"You think he was the one that took them?" Kelce asked, worriedly. "Why?"

"I dunno." Kitsu said with a growl. "Maybe we should go ask him."

Review!