The next day, Ahsoka brought up the subject with Rya, Leslie, and Jackson as soon as she got to work. She made sure to get there early so they could talk before they had to open up shop and man the lobby. She wanted to see if anyone knew information about this gang.
Jackson, although he was very interested, was not much help. "Did they say where they got the armor from?"
"What? No, I didn't ask. I was a little more concerned about Tallie."
"Who is Tallie?"
"The girl, remember? That's how I found this gang."
Rya rummaged a cabinet for disinfectant wipes for the counter. "Which level was it again? 10..."
"10-4," Leslie finished. "Honestly, I don't know why you care so much. Gangs are all over the Lower Levels, Tano."
Ahsoka resisted rolling her eyes. "I know. I've fought a couple of them. They seem to like picking on people, which is why I'm curious about this one. They didn't seem to fit the mold."
"Life is a lot easier if you just steer clear of all of them," Leslie insisted. "Why are you always picking fights with people?"
"I don't start them!"
Leslie wasn't convinced. "Sure you didn't."
The Togruta looked to Rya and Jackson for help, but they only shrugged their shoulders. Thanks, guys, Ahsoka thought. "Was I just supposed to let the thugs beat her up, then?"
"I'm just saying, you could have called the feds. Let them deal with it."
Ahsoka snorted. "Tallie would have been dead by then."
Leslie decided it wasn't worth it to argue with that particular point, and remained silent. Ahsoka hoped she hadn't brushed a nerve with her, but Leslie tended to not like violence in general, so she had no idea. Rya, who was wiping down chairs now, decided to change the subject. "Did they have a symbol or something? Like on their armor, or whatnot?"
Nodding, Ahsoka tore off a piece of receipt paper and grabbed a pen. She did her best to recreate the mark on Tawnya's shoulder pad, although it didn't quite do it justice. She held it up so the others could see.
The other three squinted at the sketch, but no recognition crossed their faces. "Yeah," Jackson admitted, "I've never seen that before. I don't go down to 10-4."
Walking back to the workshop in defeat, Ahsoka stared at her own drawing and tried to find a hidden meaning in the pen strokes. Maybe the design had a message or a clue woven into the markings. If it did, though, Ahsoka couldn't tell. It wasn't anything like the Jedi or Sith runes she had become so familiar with.
Nox was the only one in the shop when she arrived. This no longer surprised Ahsoka; he liked to come in during 'ungodly hours,' whatever that meant, to work. He was always here before anyone else and left before lunch every day. No one knew where he went or what he did, only that he didn't talk about it.
It wasn't hard to tell that he didn't feel comfortable in social settings. The few times Ahsoka had spoken to him one-on-one, their conversation had been friendly and pleasant, but no other words had been exchanged. This didn't seem to bother anyone else, but it piqued Ahsoka's interest.
He was working on a speeder when she walked past. As he looked up at her, she folded the paper and stuffed it in her pocket. "Morning," she greeted him, and he waved the monkey wrench in his hand at her.
"Hi," he responded, turning back to his work. "You don't come...come this early."
"Not normally, no." She walked behind him and watched him repair the fuel tank. "How long have you been working on this?"
Nox didn't respond right away, but when he did, it was with a shrug. "Twenty minutes, I think it's twenty minutes. Not that long, I think."
Ahsoka nodded. "Not long at all." She watched him for a little bit, then decided it couldn't hurt to ask him her burning question as well. "Do you happen to know anything about a gang on Level 10-4?"
He dropped the wrench and stared up at her. Ahsoka had not anticipated that it would startle him so much. "How...do you know? How do you know about that?"
She lowered her voice, not because she had anything to hide, but because she didn't want to accidentally shock him again. "I met some people last night who said that they were a part of their gang." She pulled out the sketch again and handed it to him. "Do you know them?"
"Yeah," Nox replied, but his eyes did not leave the paper. A calloused finger traced over the ink, following the design.
After a minute or so, Ahsoka broke the silence again. "I met a woman named Tawnya. Her hair was died blue, and this symbol was on her shoulder pad."
Nox shook his head. "No, this is wrong." He held the paper up to her and pointed at a curved mark near the bottom of the symbol. "This is longer. It goes on longer. This isn't the symbol."
He knows this group well, Ahsoka realized. Well enough to know their mark from memory.
"Tawnya talked about you," Nox went on. "Tawnya said someone saved Tallie. Someone named Tano."
"Can you take me to them later today?" Ahsoka asked, and Nox nodded. "I normally get off work at 5:30, maybe a little bit later."
"I'll come back and take you," he promised. "Bring a gun."
Nox disappeared by the time lunch rolled around, again. Ahsoka had been left to wonder what she was about to walk into. She was thinking about it when Luce began talking through a mouthful of grapes.
"Anybody got ideas for what we should do this weekend?" He asked. "I'm bored."
Jake squinted at him. "You do realize it's Tuesday, right?"
"Yeah, and?"
"The weekend isn't for another couple of days. Why are you planning now?"
"'Cause I can."
Jackson nudged Ahsoka. "Maybe you can bring us up to the surface, show us around. Introduce us to a few people, meet some Jedi..."
Ahsoka laughed. "That's not how it works. Jedi don't just 'meet people'. Neither do politicians, and I barely know anyone else."
Scoffing, Wheeler pulled something out of the fridge and sat back down. "I'd have passed anyways. No point in going up to the surface unless you have to."
"Everything is so much nicer up there, though," Leslie objected. "You can't say that you've ever not wanted to go to a surface casino or something."
"Nicer is debatable, but it's definitely more expensive," Wheeler assured her. "I'd much rather stay down here and pay less for a much more exciting evening."
Thyla rested her hand on the table. "I wish someone had a birthday soon. It would be a good excuse to go out."
Ahsoka looked over at her. "What do you mean?"
"We always go out for people's birthdays as a group," Journey explained. "It's our little tradition."
"Okay, but why?"
Rya smirked. "To celebrate. Come on, Tano. You can't tell us you've never been to a birthday party before."
Ahsoka shook her head. Everyone else in the room stared at her.
"Get outta here," Luce murmured. "Never? Seriously?"
"Typical," Granger snarled. Ahsoka almost didn't want to know what he was going to say next. "Leave it to the Jedi to not celebrate birthdays."
He walked out, and everyone else ignored him. Jake instead asked, "When even is your birthday? Do you even know?"
"I found out earlier this month. It was yesterday."
Luce banged his head on the table. Wheeler groaned. "And you didn't say ANYTHING? Come on, Tano."
"I didn't realize it was important!" She insisted. "No one told me about celebrating birthdays. How is that my fault?"
"That's it," Thyla declared. "Everyone clear your schedule after work tomorrow. We're going out, all of us, no exceptions."
Ahsoka glanced back at the door. "I'm not sure that..."
"Granger can kiss my-"
"Thyla!" Journey smacked her. She glarde at him but didn't finish her sentence.
"Forget about Granger," Jake decided. "If he doesn't want to come, that's not our problem."
Ahsoka cleaned up the garbage from her meal. "Do I need to bring anything special?"
Rya shook her head. "You don't. Just get ready to have fun after work. It's about time you had a proper birthday."
Hours later, well after the shop was closed, Ahsoka was following Nox to the elevators. He was wearing the same armor as the others she had met last night. As they walked, Ahsoka's mind wandered off. She was still a little shocked by the conversation at lunch, but she decided to drop it until after she got back from 10-4.
Nox didn't feel obligated to speak on the way down, so Ahsoka didn't try to make him. She was used to silence. A lot of other people get awkward or uncomfortable when it got too quiet, but she didn't have that problem. Silence meant rest, silence meant focus.
When they stepped off the elevators, though, the silence felt more eerie than comforting. Normally, people were swarming around the entrances to the elevators, but absolutely no one else was in the area for a few hundred meters. The lamps were dim and grimy, and stray food containers, beer bottles, and blaster parts were strewn all around.
Despite the dangerous aesthetic, Nox didn't seem hesitant to continue forward into the streets. He's probably used to this by now, Ahsoka reasoned and followed him. She kept a hand close to her blaster, though, just in case.
Nox walked confidentially down twists and turns, choosing to disregard the possible threats that could have been lurking in hiding. Ahsoka senses more than a few presences watching her as they went, but none of them fired on her or tried to attack, so she kept her gaze forward and her feet moving. She did try to stay close to Nox, though. His armor was her lifeline, at the moment.
In the distance, probably near the center of the sector, a tall building was buzzing with life. Oddly enough, it seemed to be the only one to be doing so for kilometers. Clusters of people were grouped around it, eating, talking, or just enjoying each other's company. All of them were wearing the black suit and white armor that Nox was donning, and they adorned the orange mark on their left shoulder. Ahsoka also saw it spray-painted on a few walls. A few of them glanced oddly at Ahsoka, but they must have seen Nox and come to the conclusion that she had some sort of business among them. How often did these people get visitors?
Nox led her straight to the building, which was seeming more and more like a headquarters as time went by. He bypassed two guards who hardly batted an eye at him but seemed mildly interested in his guest. They both wielded blasters, but they weren't the same. I wonder why they aren't equipped with the same gear, Ahsoka wondered. As a matter of fact, no two people here seemed to have the same weapon.
It took a minute for it to dawn on Ahsoka: Well of course they don't have similar weapons, it's not like they have an assembly line on standby. They probably scavenged the blasters, along with food and whatever else they need. You take what you can get. She made a mental note to not comment on the matter. She didn't want to offend them, and she had no idea how they would take her questioning their practices.
Inside the headquarters, Nox turned and started scaling a spiral staircase. She followed close behind, curious as to where he was taking her, or who she was about to see. If this was an official gang, then there was probably a captain or some kind of leadership in place. Ahsoka remembered Tawnya from last night and wondered if she held any power here.
They reached the top floor and approached a room, which looked dimly lit from the outside. Nox knocked, and a call came from inside. "Please wait," a man called from within, and a minute later, the door slid open. Instead of going in, Nox stepped aside and let Ahsoka go first. Her guard raised, she walked forward and took in the occupants.
About twelve adults were standing and sitting in a circle around a table projector in the center of the room. Tawnya was indeed among them, as well as Obi-Wan not-Kenobi. A man whom Ahsoka had never seen addressed Nox. "Thanks, Nox. We'll see you soon."
Nox nodded and left, leaving Ahsoka on her own. The door shut behind her, and someone else in the group smiled at her.
"Welcome, Tano. We were wondering if we would be seeing you soon."