Korr was inside his bivouac, using a basin of cold water and harsh soap to wash the stubborn camouflage paint from his face. The patrol had been out for over a planetary day and a half, and he was sorely in need of a shower… and a good night's sleep.

Unlike the rest of the professional government soldiers who were able to hit the showers almost right away upon their return to the main base. Korr didn't have corpsmen to clean and maintain his gear and weapons as they did. Mercenaries had to care for their own equipment.

Not that he would have trusted a low-ranking serviceman to care for this personal gear anyway… and it certainly was something he would never consider asking that girl to take care of. She didn't need to be exposed to the ugly implements of his trade more than she already was. He frowned at the seemingly soft thought he was having. And then tried to convince himself that it was really more the fact that she would probably frell something up trying to care for his weapons, rather than it was that he wanted to shield her from the bald truth about what he did for a living at the moment.

He had no reason to care about her sensitivities in the slightest, or what she thought about him… she was just a pest of a child that he paid to clean his quarters, and that was all!

And sometimes he wondered if that slight convenience was worth the aggravation she caused?

Still, the girl and her brother needed the extra credits he paid her. There was no point in going back on his agreement just because the child became annoying from time-to-time.

He had put up and dealt with far worse for lesser reasons he told himself. He could manage a working relationship with a teenage girl who was in essence just a maid.

If only she did not behave like she was a drill instructor sometimes… or Scarran slave master… or what he imagined an overbearing mother would be like.

… Or like a bond-mate.

That last thought snuck in under his defenses, and his grimace deepened… only because deep down he knew it to be the truest of the assessments he had been idly making.

Goddess! She wasn't even present yet, and that damned girl was already driving him as mad as the ghost of the control collar was anyway!

He shook his head, and pushed the thoughts from his mind. He had equipment to care for and get ready for his next patrol, or in case of a surprise attack on the firebase.

That was the more important and pressing matter at the moment.

The first thing that Korr had always did upon reaching his quarters, before even seeing to his own needs – even something as simple as wiping his war paint off, was to spend the next arn or more breaking his weapons down and giving them a through cleaning. Pulse weapons and their magazines could easily clog in humid or jungle like environments if not stringently cared for.

His bladed weapons had seen heavy use this tour, much more than usual. And he had wondered as he wiped them down with an oiled cloth until he got a chance to spend more time properly re-sharpening them, if he had wielded them more this time to get closer to the enemy… to give them a better chance at killing him?

He shook the thought away in the next moment. He had already decided it was nearly time to move on and see to the real mission in his life – bringing down the Black Syndicate! To avenge himself on the Syndicate House that had made him what he was. To pay them back in their own blood for what they stole from him.

Another Nebari face flashed before his inner eye, and he thrust it away back into the darkness. That part of his life was dead to him.

It was something that was never meant for him to be reaching for.

It was only just another tab that demanded to have paid put to it.

He had no reason to be seeking his own death on this backwater world… or in this meaningless war. He had more important matters awaiting him.

He had only been using blades to keep his pulse weapons and their ammo in reserve for if he needed them in a tight position. It was a tactical decision, nothing more.

It wasn't his fault that the enemy soldiers were too easy to get close to. And war by nature, was a game you only lost at once.

If you couldn't afford the wager… you shouldn't be playing.

That thought froze him for an instant. It applied to him also as well. If he had a more important game waiting for him and his wager… why was he still playing this one?

He needed to go as soon as possible… no more patrols, no more excuses.

He reached for a towel from a stack of clean laundry that waited for him at his return, and just as he wiped his face dry with it; Jaleecee abruptly entered his tent without announcing herself.

"You're back," she said as she came to a halt at his side.

"Obviously," Korr grunted. He tossed the used towel to the ground when he finished with it, vaguely giving a thought to if the girl was going to chide him for doing so, instead of placing it in the bag she designated was for dirty laundry like she always did.

Oddly the girl didn't say anything or didn't notice the transgression of her rules. Instead, she seemed abnormally preoccupied. She twisted her hands before her for a few microts and then asked, "May I ask you a question?"

Tessen sighed, and began unfastening the clasps to his combat vest.

"Make in fast, girl… I want to take a shower," he told her.

The girl harrumphed at his rudeness and then straightened her face to smooth her features again.

"While you were… away," she began, trying to muster as much of her dignity as she could into the question. "Did that one young man, Corporal Haze… ask you anything about me?"

Korr dumped his vest unto his rack and then began to undo his shirt. He paused only long enough to give the girl a minutely puzzled look. He remembered the younger man in question from the ambush, but couldn't fathom why the girl was asking about him, or why the Corporal would be asking him about her?

"I know of him," Korr admitted as he continued to divest himself of more combat gear and clothing. "I can honestly say that neither him or I exchanged words about anything, let alone you. Why do you ask?" the last question he asked out of idle curiosity.

Jaleecee stopped fidgeting for the moment and drew herself straighter.

"Because just moments ago… he approached me inside the mess tent and asked me if I would like to take a walk," she told him.

"A walk to where?" Korr asked distractedly, while gathering up a few of the bigger towels and his shaving kit in preparation for his trip to the nearest shower unit.

"He didn't say. But by his manner, I believe it was a formal prelude to developing a social rapport… with intensions of a possible romantic relationship later on."

"I believe the term you're looking for is date," the scout put in bluntly. "Why do you have to use such long-winded terminology to say something that is so simple, girl?"

"There is no need to be so crude about the intricacies of courtship," the girl said with a sour expression on her young pretty face for the man. "On my world, they were handled delicately between a gentleman and a lady of good breeding and standing."

"We are not on your world," Tessen reminded her. "But good for you anyway. Now if that is all… I would like to go get clean so I don't offend the delicacies of any lady or gentlemen of good-breeding that may be wandering around the base."

He moved to leave, but Jaleecee clenched her fists at her sides, and stamped one of her feet on the rough planks that made up the makeshift flooring of the bivouac.

"You do not have to be so tactless!" she intoned. "I thought you might like to know about the overtone Corporal Haze has tended. He inquired as to what you might think about his request."

Korr stopped at the opening of the tent, and used his free hand to rub at his forehead in exasperation.

"Girl, why would you or he care about what I thought?" he asked.

"Because for one reason, you are my patron," the serving girl explained. "Giving that I have no elder family members for the Corporal to petition… it is permissible to inquire of a young lady's employer. If that employer is a person of reputable means… in this case, you will have to do."

Korr ignored the obvious shot at him in the last part of her statement. He only gazed at her with a growing look of annoyance in his strange eyes.

"The Corporal was being very respectful in my view," Jaleecee added firmly.

"How good for him," the scout replied snidely. "Let him go ask your brother then."

"My brother is not even twenty cycles old. He cannot even hold land yet were we back home. I would seek his counsel only as a formality if I were thinking of Bonding with some man, and only because he is my only living relative. He is not old enough nor does he have enough life experience to advise me on whom I chose to court, or in picking a potential mate."

"So you are coming to me on this?" the scout asked in dismay.

"As I said, you are my patron. Thus I seek your guidance."

"Girl, I am not your patron. You clean my quarters and wash my clothing, and then I pay you for the work – nothing more! If you need my blessing or what have you, then you have it…as long as I don't have to be bothered anymore with it. Enjoy your walk."

He turned to duck out the low opening; Jaleecee wrung her hands and stepped forward.

"I thought that you might have a reason to deny his petition!" Jaleecee called to him, not sounding as decorous or noble as she had just a moment ago.

Korr froze and bowed his head for a moment.

"Gods!" he cursed lowly. He knew he should just keep walking, but he looked back at the girl anyway.

"No, Girl, I don't have any reason," he told her firmly. He definitely didn't want to have this discussion with the stubborn half-Nebari again.

She stared at him a moment, searching his features for something, anything at all that would give her a hope.

"Then you don't care?" she finally asked. "You would see me with another? You wouldn't care if another man took me to Bond when you know of my feelings for you?"

"No, Girl… I wouldn't care," he answered firmly, but with no real emotion on his features. He was as cold as metal that made up his guns.

Jaleecee stared blankly at him for a moment, then her thin lips drew into a tight line, and her eyes turned hard.

"So be it then," she said tightly. She stiffened her back and marched toward the opening, nearly pushing him out of the way as she made for the tent's doorway.

She stopped even with him for a few microts, looking straight ahead, her features now a blank wall.

"I formally submit, that our agreement for care of your quarters is over," she told him in an even voice. "I will arrange to pick up any salary due me at a later time."

"That's fine, girl," Korr replied just as expressionlessly.

Jaleecee paused for just a few microts longer, as if waiting for him to say something more. The scout was silent, so she forced herself to give a firm nod to acknowledge the ending of their pact, and then strode forward away from him. Not looking back at all.

Tessen Korr watched the girl go with a sense of mixed feelings, feelings that he didn't enjoy or want to consider in dept.

He was planning on leaving shortly, and he would have had to say good-bye to the girl at any rate. Perhaps this ending was better, and now with the young Corporal's interest in her… maybe the girl would find something more obtainable in the young man, something that had been denied to him.

Happiness.

And hopefully she would forget about her foolish infatuation with him.

He stilled planned on leaving the girl enough credits to take care of herself and her brother for a while at least. He calculated that he had enough funds stashed about the Wraith from his career fighting in the pits alone to hold him for a while as well. He also already had a good portion of his pay as a mercenary converted into Sheyang Trade Script – which was negotiable almost everywhere in the Territories, thanks to the scavenger race's wide spread business dealings.

Twice he had added his mercenary pay to the credits from pit fighting stashed aboard his ship during leaves from fighting this war.

What he had with him now and what was still owed to him could partly go to the boy and girl. If Jaleecee made a go of it with the Corporal, then the three of them should fair moderately well after he had departed.

Perhaps the young soldier would smarten up once he was involved with the girl, and resign his position with the military before he was killed. Then all three could leave and start a life somewhere else.

He could do nothing more for them.

For himself, he had been considering his current financial situation for the last few days. He had enough credits to last him more than half a cycle if he traveled wisely and conserved fuel aboard the Wraith.

It was however, not enough to take on the Syndicate like he originally intended. It was only recently that he was allowing himself to consider the infeasibility of his first plan to acquire funding covertly.

So he would have to get more by other direct and not so convert means.

He had already familiarized himself with numerous Syndicate branch operations. There were several well within the range of the Wraith's current load of fuel. Three were connected to lower Houses that would not draw much attention if someone were to take them down. But only one was productive enough to possibly supply him with what he needed in one swoop.

There wasn't much more to think about other than to put his new plan into motion.

He turned from his quarters and made his way to the nearest of the shower units.

Korr wasn't surprised to find the small shed that contained the unit's cleansing facilities nearly deserted. Most of the returning patrols had already made use of them while he and the other mercenaries took care of their own gear.

And he had discovered that most of the regulars preferred to be somewhere else wherever he showed up if possible, and that included the showers. He was more than aware that he made most of them nervous – but he really didn't care much about that either.

People wanting to get familiar asked too many casual questions. And he just as soon not have that risk if he could avoid it.

Just as he reached the utility's doorway, he glimpsed that Private with the pinched face watching him from a depot of storage crates. The man leaned against the huge boxes, casually examining the scout and obviously not caring if Korr noticed him doing so.

Tessen had just about enough unpleasant distractions for one day, so he paused to return the man's gaze. He noticed the soldier still wore a bandage where the sapper in the ambush had struck him at the base of his neck, at a place his helmet didn't protect. The fact that the scout had saved his life didn't seem to count much with the man, as his eyes turned suspicious while he regarded Korr. Tessen wasn't surprised, he was well aware that the Private disliked him more than most for some reason, and that the man had been spreading idle talk among the rest of the company about Korr for some time.

The scout hadn't paid it much mind, the firebase was a minefield of rumors at any given moment… and actually not all of them centered on himself.

Korr casually wondered about what the Private might do if he knew the actual truth about him, the hearsay he was circulating did not even come close to touching what Tessen Korr really was. He suddenly felt one side of his lip draw upwards in a sneer. The ghost in his head particularly liked that notion, and had reared its ugly little head. It suggested that Korr give Private Satuur an up-close education.

The Private seen the sneer, and had taken it as a form of insolence on the mercenary's part. He spat on the ground in contempt, and drew himself up to his full lanky height. He glared hard one last time at the scout, and then strode off down the pathway to disappear in the activity of the camp.

The scout pushed back the specter in his mind, and absently reached into his pocket for a dried Pa'Looua leaf. He popped it into his mouth and chewed. Within a few microts he felt the mild rush along his senses and, the voice grew somewhat dimmer.

He would have to take a bigger dose of the herb's root to totally silence the collar's ruminate, but that could wait until after he took his long awaited turn in the shower.

Gratefully, he entered the facility and fulfilled his momentary desire to just be clean without further interruption.

The scout emerged from the cleansing utility, feeling much better and perhaps not so much in a foul mood now that he had washed the grime of the field from himself. He had left his dirty clothing in the mass laundry carts, seeing the girl would no longer being taking care of it.

Like the regular soldiers, his uniform clothing was marked and would be returned to him after it was cleaned. At least the mercenaries had that convenience allowed to them for their service.

He decided he was hungry and that sleep could easily wait another arn, and so made for the mess tent to see to that need.

As he approached, he caught a glimpse of Jaleecee and Corporal Haze exiting by a side entrance. The pair was heading away from him, walking side-by-side, the girl with her hands folded in front of her in a prime and proper manner, the young man with his clasped behind his back as if he were ready to fall into parade rest position at any moment. The two occasionally tilting their heads toward the other as they took turns speaking. It was the perfect picture of a respectful and innocent walk taken by a young couple getting to know each other.

Nebari were notably sensitive to their surroundings, and Jaleecee being half Nebari must have sensed his gaze, for she abruptly glanced back over her shoulder to notice him.

Until then, Korr himself had not been aware that he had paused on the path at seeing the young couple.

Something of the picture they presented struck a chord within his memory he'd rather have repressed… if not completely forgotten.

The girl just as abruptly turned back, and in a moment of what must have been sheer scandal for the strangely proper young woman, she slid her arm through the Corporal's to link them at the elbow.

Haze actually missed a step at the unexpected gesture, but he recovered quickly. He suddenly seemed to stand taller, and his back actually drew into a straighter line if that were at all possible. The young man almost visibly swaggered as he escorted the lovely girl through the camp for all to see.

Berret felt the world tilt beneath his feet, as he recalled a time when he was walking arm-in-arm with a Nebari girl. Chiana held onto his arm because at the time she had been blind, and needed his guidance and support. But he still remembered the odd thrill he had, of having her walking next to him. The point where their arms linked was the center of the universe as far as he was concerned. And it didn't matter that clothing and armor separated their flesh, he had never felt more connected to another living being than at those times.

He knew outwardly he wouldn't have shown it… and he doubted he wouldn't have been capable of it given what he was. But had he been able, he thought he might have just looked the same way that Corporal Haze did at that very moment.

It was the closest to any sort of happiness Berret had ever come to.

It was the closet he would ever get.

Korr suddenly shook his head, and the world shifted once again until he was back in a camp full of soldiers in the midst of a nearly primitive war.

He had been thinking of himself as that other person, and silently cursed the gaffe. That person was dead, and perhaps had never really existed at all. Never again would he wear that name, let it be forgotten, or wore by someone more worthy than he of that gray waif's gift.

For the moment, he was Tessen Korr.

Mercenary.

Scout.

Paid killer… and that was all.

Tomorrow, he might be someone else… for a while.

In the end, no matter how many times he remade himself in his undertaking, he will only be Shrike 457 of High House Arckatius – Rogue Enforcer.

Some religions he'd read about had a concept of a vengeance spirit… an Avenging Angel!

He could never be something so pure of strength and fortitude. No, he could never be an avenging angel.

He was more like a fallen one… one that would return home one final time to extract his vengeance.

The specter in his mind like the concept, and for the second time that he could remember, Korr was in complete agreement with the mad spirit inside him.

Let him die there. Let it all be finally finished and done with. So long as he could lie down and rest, and stop fighting this madness left inside his skull, as long as he took that bastard Arckatius and his entire Syndicate House with him, it would be the best of trades in the end.

He could never be the sort of person that Jaleecee wished him to be.

He was never meant to be Chiana's Berret either.

If he ever had one real regret… it would be that he failed at that the most.

He spared Haze and Jaleecee one last look. Girl… you have no concept about how much better off you are at this moment, he thought silently to himself.

Tessen Korr suddenly turned his back on the strolling young couple before they could be lost to sight, and entered the mess tent.