Last time: An imperial remnant attacked the family, but lost.

Now: Kitsu and Illara discover a shocking fact.

Chapter 11- One Million Credits

Oppie watched the sun rise over the trees on their second day, with a grimace. Sasha had traded off with him at midnight and he had kept watch through the night. During the early hours of the dark morning, he had sat there, trying to think what he should have done differently. It was his fault they were here. He had come along on this trip so that Sasha would have someone to watch her back, and when that was actually needed he had failed, miserably. He had always tried to be her protector, and they were in this mess because he hadn't been able to stop a simple kidnapping by one guy.

He sighed, looking at the rising sun and his wrist chrono, and decided it was time for them to get moving. He moved across their small camp to Sasha, and shook her gently.

"Sash." He said, gently.

Sasha groaned and stirred awake. She looked up at him from where she laid on her side as she woke up.

"Hm, what time is it?" She asked, groggily as rubbed her eyes.

"Too early." Oppie admitted with a slight grin.

"Ugh, great," she groaned as she sat up and stretched.

"Sorry." Oppie said as he started gathering their stuff.

"It's fine. I can sleep in when we get-" Sasha said as she started doing the same thing when suddenly the sound of a ship flew right overhead of them, cutting off her sentence. Oppie froze as he looked up at the ship.

"Let's say we go that way today?" He said after a moment, pointing in the opposite direction that the ship had been going.

"Yeah," Sasha said, now more awake as she stared up at the sky. "Could that be the bounty hunters?" She asked, a small edge of fear in her voice.

"I admit, I'm pessimistic enough to not want to find out." Oppie said guardedly.

"Agreed," Sasha said as she shouldered her pack and got to her feet. She looked at him. "Ready whenever you are."

"Maybe today's the day they'll show up to rescue us." Oppie said hopefully.

"I hope that's the case," Sasha said in agreement.

"Maybe our brother will make celebratory chili." Oppie said excitedly.

Sasha chuckled at that. "I'd rather deal with his chili killing my stomach than being here in this situation," she said as they started walking the opposite way of where the ship went.

They entered into the seedy bar that was a bit on the small side. The place smelled heavily of liquor and smoke of various different smoking types of products. It was a good thing they were wearing their buckets. It was also filled with about twenty or so ruffians, thugs, and other bounty hunters of various species that all looked to be on the meaner side than most. Behind the bar was a tall and rather muscular woman with short red hair that was cleaning glass wear while chewing on a toothpick. She glared at Kitsu and Illara.

Kitsu and her partner walked up to the bar. "Von here?" She asked.

"Nope," The bartender said. "He won't be back for a while."

"Know where he went?" Illara asked in a friendly manner, leaning on the bar top.

"He doesn't tell me anything," the bartender said, setting the cup down and folding her arms across her chest. "But he left days ago."

"Huh." Illara said with a shrug. "Well that's not very neighborly of him. We were hoping to speak with him, could we go leave a note for him in his office?"

"You can leave the note with me," The bartender said with a narrowed gaze. "No one but myself or his droid goes back there."

"Ah okay." Kitsu said, "know if he had any big bounties lately?"

"Von hasn't taken a bounty in years," the bartender said. She then looked around the bar and leaned forward. "But I could tell ya what I do know for uh…" She trailed off as she rubbed her fingers together.

Kitsu pulled out a five hundred credit slip and handed it over.

The bartender took the credit slip and tucked it into her pocket. "Von got a call from a mysterious client. They were apparently planning to pay big money for someone," she said. "That's all he told me regarding the bounty. He left a few days ago with his droid. Haven't heard from him since."

"Ah, sounds like a sweet deal." Kitsu said, nodding. "But no idea where he is? We have some urgent business with him." She said, in a very friendly manner.

"Nope," the bartender said as she shook her head. "He told me it was need to know only and apparently I didn't need to know. Now what business do you have with him? Like I said, I can pass the message along for ya."

Kitsu and Illara looked at each other for a split second, before Illara responded. "You can tell him not to serve bounties on the family of a fellow bounty hunter." They said, pleasantly.

The bartender blinked at that and dropped her tough act for a moment. "Wait, what?"

"So are you going to let us into his office so we can figure out where he took our family, or will we need to let ourselves in?" Kitsu said in a pleasant tone, as both of their hands disappeared behind the edge of the counter.

The bartender looked at them then at the rest of the bar. She leaned forward with a snarl. "This might get me fired," she whispered to them in a more pleasant tone than what her face was letting on. "But what I don't see, I don't know. Third door on the left." She then leaned back and barked out. "Now get lost." She said before turning away to restock her shelves of liquor.

"Jeeze, fine." Illara said with a snort. They both stepped away, heading for the back corner of the bar, as if they were going to settle into a booth, but they stopped at the door. They glanced at each other and Illara shrugged. And Kitsu just tried the door handle.

The door opened with ease to reveal a narrow hallway that had a few doors and was clear of any watching eyes. They kept moving, cautiously, their hands went to their holsters as they moved down the hall, to the third door on the left. They stacked up, their pistols out, with Kitsu in the front, and they tried this door handle, it was locked as they might have expected. Illara pulled out a bit of breaching tape and stuck it on the door handle, then they stepped back to Kitsu with a nod. Kitsu hit a button on her gauntlet, and it exploded, quietly, in a brilliant flash of light, burning out the locking mechanism and the door handle.

The door fell open to reveal a dark office that had walls covered in various prizes, items, trophies, and random objects that were taken from many bounties over the years. In the middle of the room was a desk with a computer on it and a large chair behind it. The place was a pig sty. And the entire room smelled of cheroots.

They stepped barely into the room and closed the door behind them. They took a few moments just to look around.

"Ewww." Kitsu stated after a moment.

"Yeah, got that right." Illara agreed. "How are we supposed to find anything in this mess?"

"I have no idea." Kitsu groused in reply. "You want to get started on the terminal?"

"Yeah." Illara said, moving around the desk and ignoring the chair that was, probably, too gross to want to sit in, even if it did look plush and comfortable. Kitsu just stayed put, looking around, swapping through various vision modes. She almost threw up when she switched to UV and quickly went back to standard vision. One thing she noticed was that there was a deep layer of dust coating most things in the office. Except for a few spots. The desk in front of the terminal, the path from the door to the desk, and a big spot on the desk that looked like it had been cleared haphazardly. She stepped over to that spot, looking at it.

"Anything yet?" Kitsu asked, looking at the spot on the desk.

"Oh yeah." Illara said with a smirk. "Too much actually." They said with a sound that evoked a sense of trying not to throw up in their buy'ce. "Kit, there's files here on Sasha."

"Sasha?" Kitsu said, looking up. "Why her?"

"No idea." Illana said with a worried frown. "Notes here on how to take down Jedi, and-" They gasped and did a double take that made Kitsu look up at them.

"What?" Kitsu asked.

"A million credit payment here." Illara said with a tone of voice that sounded like their jaw had dropped.

"A million credits?" Kitsu squeaked.

"Yeah. Jeeze." Illara said.

"Who the hell would put out a million credit bounty on Sasha?" Kitsu asked, flabbergasted.

"I have no idea." Illara said.

"Jeeze." Kitsu said, almost hyperventilating. She put her hands on the cleared spot on the desk, and looked down at the desk top. She held that position for a second before she noticed something odd. This spot was relatively clear, but there were a few… scales here? Like some reptile had been shedding? She picked a couple of them up, looking at them in her palm. "You got the scanner?"

"Yeah." Illara said, looking up. "What did you find?" They asked, handing Kistu the scanner from their belt pouch.

"Not sure." She scrolled through the options, and found a general ID scan. Then put the samples in the little hopper and waited a few moments for the result while Illara copied the files over. There was a slight dinging sound and she looked at the results and frowned. "What's a Ysl… Yalsal… Ylsa…" Kitsu said. "This lizard thing?" She said, pointing at the picture the scanner was displaying as part of the catalog entry for the… thing.

"No idea." Illara said with a frown of their own.

"Says here they are native to Myrkr. And one was here recently." Kitsu said with a frown. She had no idea what that meant. "Is there anything about Myrkr in his notes?" She said, looking up.

Illara typed a little and waited a few seconds. "No."

"Try looking for a... uh... R" Kitsu said, spelling it.

Illara typed it in. "There's something here in the notes. General discussion about fauna, some guy here saying they can." They stopped for a second, "that they can stop Force user's from being able to use the Force." Illara said, looking up at Kitsu.

They both locked eyes for a second.

"That sounds like what we're looking for." Kitsu said.

"Hell yeah it does." Illara said. "I'm done copying his files."

"Let's get out of here and call the fam. And let's get on our way to Myrkr."

"What should we do with this place?" Illara asked, looking around.

Kitsu thought for a second. "As much as I wouldn't mind leaving a present for him next time he comes, let's just go. We can always come visit him later if we don't find him there."

"Okay." Illara said, disappointed.

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