Sorry it took so long. I got a new PC, and it took forever to get Microsoft Word up. Please R + R!
Aminta frowned slightly as she studied the slip of a twi'lek standing before her. Mission was a very pretty girl with soft feminine features and the smallest hint of lip gloss and eyeliner. So, she was just old enough to be using make-up, not yet experienced enough to try anything but the basics.
"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Mission asked as she slid into the booth without invitation. Aminta just glared.
Carth took the initiative and extended a hand. "I'm Carth, and the woman with the scowl is Aminta. We're pleased to meet you." Aminta kicked his shin in warning and Carth winced. "Well, at least I'm pleased to meet you," he muttered as he glared at Aminta. The woman smirked and took a sip of her caffa.
Mission grinned and shook Carth's extended hand, surprising him with the strength of her grip. "I'm glad to meet ya too," she responded in turn, and glanced towards Aminta, who glowered at her.
Attempting to cover for the woman's rudeness, Carth gave Mission a smile. "So, how did you come to hang around with a Wookie?"
Mission just grinned. "A couple of Vulkars were getting a bit too pushy with me. Big Z's quite chivalrous you know. He can't seem to stand watching a girl get picked on. Long story short, he got rid of the thugs and it's been just the two of us ever since."
Carth frowned. "Just the two of you? Don't you have any family to look out for you?"
Mission's previously good mood dropped quickly, and she glared at him. Note to self: fill pockets with chocolate when in a five mile radius of the female species. "Look, I don't talk about my past, or my family, okay?"
Carth coughed, and out of nowhere, Aminta laughed. Mission and Carth turned to stare at her, and she grinned. "Got trust issues, huh?" she asked Mission with a sideways look towards Carth.
Mission bristled and she went to stand up, but Aminta grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down. "Join the club," she exclaimed, and Carth let out a slight chuckle. Mission stared at the pair, wide eyed.
"Well, for formality's sake," Aminta extended a hand, "I'm pleased to meet you too, Mission."
Mission stared at Aminta, then at a grinning Carth, then at the woman again. They're nuts.
As though he could read her thoughts, Carth mouthed "mood swings" with a roll of his eyes. Mission nodded, and then smiled again.
Aminta noted the exchange, but chose to ignore it. She'd yell at Carth later, away from the teenager. The last thing the girl needed was another bad influence on her life. The Lower City was practically crawling with low lives, and Mission was probably associated with half of them. Frowning at the thought, Aminta looked towards Mission. "Do you know a lot of people down here?"
Mission glanced sideways at the older woman. "More than some, less than others. Why do you wanna know?"
"Carth and I were separated from a… friend… when we arrived, and she's most likely in the Lower City. Would you know where we could find her?"
"By friend you mean a republic soldier, don't you?" Mission asked slowly.
Aminta sat in silence, and Carth coughed. "What makes you think that?" he asked warily.
Mission rolled her eyes. "Please," the girl muttered sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. Aminta smiled slightly. She and Mission were cut from the same cloth.
"Let's just say that she's with the republic." Aminta replied vaguely, not yet sure how the natives felt about Jedi.
Mission nodded slowly, accepting the fact that Aminta was hiding something from her. The girl was more intuitive than she'd been given credit for. "There's a swoop race coming up soon, and the Vulkars are giving a Jedi up as a prize. I'm guessing that she's the one you're looking for."
Carth glanced at Aminta warily, who just smiled. "I like you Mission, and that means a lot coming from me. You can read between the lines."
Mission looked startled for a minute, unused to compliments, but then her face broke out in a grin. "I like you too. You're pretty smart yourself."
Carth rolled his eyes. Females. They choose the strangest times to bond. "How would we be able to get to our friend?" he asked, attempting to steer them back to their previous conversation.
Mission glanced over at him with a look of resignation. "You can't."
"What?" Aminta and Carth demanded in unison.
"Look, nobody knows where Brejik's keeping her, so there's no way that you could get to her before the race. And as for entering… you'd have to be in a gang to get on the track."
Carth groaned, and Aminta rubbed her temple. "Look, Mission. There's always a loop hole. It's just the matter of finding one…" she paused suddenly, and looked back up at Mission. "Who's Brejik?"
"The leader of the Black Vulkars; bastards, the lot of them." She muttered as her lekku curled protectively around her shoulders.
Carth's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to remark on the teen's language. Aminta threw him a silencing look, and spoke before he could. "I gather you don't particularly like this gang," she remarked with a smile.
Mission shook her head. "Not in the slightest," she confirmed. "They're no better than the Gammorean slavers that live in the sewers."
Carth grimaced at the implied smell, and looked back to Mission. "So… about that loop hole that Ami mentioned?"
Mission grinned at leaned back in the booth. "Lucky for you, the Hidden Beks owe me a rather large favor."
Carth raised an eyebrow and stared at the girl. "Exactly how old are you?"
Mission bristled under his stare. "Hey, I'm no kid, and before we get any farther into this conversation, you'd better get your mind wrapped around that!"
Aminta cleared her throat to get the pair's attention. "Sometimes you grow up faster than you age," she commented with a smile. "Especially when you're looking out for yourself."
Carth bristled, but softened when he saw the grateful smile that Mission sent Aminta. "Maybe," he conceded with a slight smile. That was enough of an apology for Mission.
"So, about the favor the Hidden Beks owe you…" Aminta prompted, and Mission nodded brusquely.
"Just go to the base and tell them that Mission sent you. That should be enough to get you in. When you talk to Gadon -the leader- tell him your story, and then say that Mission's calling in the Big one. He'll know what it means."
A loud growl sounded from the other side of the Cantina, and Aminta smothered a chuckle at what the Wookie had said. It meant something along the lines of 'Get your scrawny blue butt over here before I rip your lekku out.' Mission grimaced, and stood hastily. "The fur ball is hollering," she explained with a shrug.
Carth extended a hand. "Thanks Mission. We owe you one."
Mission smirked as she took his hand. "Doesn't everyone?" With that she turned and sauntered away, leaving Carth to shake his head in amusement.
"She really doesn't act her age, does she?"
Aminta grinned. "She acts the same way I did when I was her age," she chuckled.
Carth shook his head. "At least I don't have to live with her. I don't want to imagine what it would be like to live with two of you!"
"Watch it flyboy. I know where you sleep," Aminta muttered, and Carth held his hands up in mock surrender.
"You ready to leave yet?" he asked, changing the subject from the twi'lek girl.
Aminta looked down at her chrono and winced at the time. "If we expect to get inside the base before the gang members crash, I guess we probably should leave now."
"Good," Carth breathed as he hurried out of the booth.
Aminta rolled her eyes and she stepped out of the cantina ahead of him. "You really don't like these places, do you?"
"You honestly have to ask?"
—————————————-
"Look, I'm telling you, I don't mean your man any harm!" She exclaimed for the thousandth time, stamping her foot in frustration. Her eyes shone defiant and determined as she stared down the Hidden Bek member.
Carth would have been amused at her antics had it been at any other time, but they were so close to finding Bastila, and yet held at bay by a know-it-all, stubborn, gang member, that he couldn't afford to laugh.
The guard sighed wearily. "Look, I've told you several times now, no one gets in without the password," she said, her face impassive besides the flush of anger blooming on her cheeks.
Aminta felt the heat rise up her own neck as well as she concentrated on keeping this conversation as civil as possible. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and when that didn't work, she delved back into the conversation anyway. "Mission didn't say anything about needing a password!" She exclaimed hotly.
The woman at the door raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"All she said was to tell you guys that 'Mission sent me.' She also said that you guys owe her a few favors, and I don't think Zalbaar would be very happy if he found out you kept his buddy's friends from talking to Gadon." Aminta couldn't help to add the threat. Nothing else had worked thus far.
The guard's face showed her anger. "Look, my job is to protect everyone in the base alright! How do I know you're not a Vulkar spy? And how do I prove you're not if you won't tell me anything?"
"How do I know that you aren't in league with the Sith, and will turn us in the moment that we turn around?" Aminta countered.
"If you trusted Mission enough to tell her enough of what is going on with you two, why can't you tell me so that I can give you clearance?" The woman demanded, beginning to sound as angry and agitated as Aminta was.
"Mission's just a kid, and she approached us, not the other way around. Spies don't do that. Besides, I didn't sense any danger from her."
The woman groaned. "Look, kids like Mission are used every day by the Vulkars to get the information that the gang needs. And What are you, a Jedi to be sensing people?"
"No. I just happen to have good instincts, that's all. I've learned to trust them. Now please, let me talk to Gadon. You can escort me for all I care, but I really, really need to see him!"
The guard crossed her arms over her chest. "No. I cannot allow you in there. Now make both our lives a whole lot easier and step aside!" the woman growled.
Aminta ran a small hand over her hair, suddenly wishing that whatever came out of her mouth would persuade the woman to let her through. "I'm not leaving. You are going to let me in. Mission sent me." Aminta said the words calmly, thinking about how wonderful it would be if the woman would just believe what she said and let them through.
The guard's eyes glazed over, and she glanced at Aminta with a drugged calm, as though she hadn't been arguing with her for over an hour. "Yes. Mission's a good kid. If she sent you…I'm going to let you in now." Without another word, the woman typed the pass code into the console by the door, and stepped aside so that Carth and Aminta could enter.
Aminta walked in, feeling dazed. "That was rather… strange," she commented, and glanced over at Carth, who had been relatively silent for most of the argument.
Carth stared at her warily. "You sure you haven't been taking lessons from the Jedi? That seemed a lot like one of the tricks that they have up their robes"
Aminta frowned, and shook her head. "I make it a point not to be around Jedi. Still, that was strange," she said softly, continuing down the corridor. But not too strange, it seemed…almost familiar, as though I could always influence someone as I just did. She didn't say anything to Carth, but angrily noted that she felt confused. And she hated being confused and out of control even more than she hated the Sith.
——————————————
"So, were you expecting a warm reception?" Carth asked, leaning down to whisper in Amanita's ear. Hidden Beks filled the inner chamber of the base, standing still and eyeing Carth and Aminta with suspicion.
"Yeah. And I expected them to give us their weapons too," she muttered as she glanced up at Carth, cursing their height difference.
Carth shook his head. "Always the sarcasm."
"Always the paranoia," Aminta countered, noting how he assessed the strengths of each gang member that they passed.
Carth was just opening his mouth to say something when a purple twi'lek stood, and stared at them with cold, steely eyes. "What is your business here?" She demanded angrily, her hand moving to her blaster belt, resting on her hip. "Are you spies? Spies sent from Brejik? How did you get in here?" The woman was nearly at the point of raving like a lunatic.
"And I thought you had issues. You should give her your sister's card," Aminta murmured under her breath, and Carth smothered his laughter.
"Zaedra! Calm down!" the old man she was standing beside exclaimed. The motioned with his hand for the pair to approach them. "They do not seem to be spies to me." he told her. Zaedra looked like she was about to protest. Gadon glared at her with his unseeing eyes, and then turned his attention towards Aminta. "Come closer, child" he said in a gentle voice, albeit with a tone that told her she didn't dare to refuse.
Aminta stepped forward obediently. "My friend and I are looking for someone. Someone rather important I'm afraid." When the man didn't reply, Aminta licked her lips and continued. "Mission told me that the Vulkars have our friend, and the only way that we can get to her is by winning the swoop race. She also told me to tell you that she's calling in on the Big One. She said you'd know what it meant." Aminta's chin lifted with the last sentence, daring him to deny her request.
Carth saw the old man's face brighten when Aminta mentioned the Vulkars. The man rubbed his chin with his hand as he stood in thought. After a minute or so, Aminta tapped her foot on the floor and glanced at her chrono. Carth nudged her, and Zaedra glared daggers. "I will help you," he said at last, placing both hands palms down on the table.
Zaedra gasped beside him, the blaster that she had been fingering momentarily forgotten. "Gadon, you can't be serious!" she exclaimed, her dark eyes wide with surprise and disapproval.
Gadon held up a hand to silence the woman. "Don't bother arguing. I've made up my mind!" he exclaimed, his voice strongly discouraging further argument. Zaedra's mouth hung open, but she backed a step away. When she glanced back to the pair standing before her, her eyes were smoldering.
Aminta gave her a fully satisfied smirk, and Carth ran a hand over his face. Why couldn't the woman ever once behave?
"…But, I need your help in return."
Aminta groaned. "Can't anybody give anything without expecting to get something back?"
Carth rolled his eyes, and Zaedra's nostril's flared with fury. Gadon, however, laughed. "You've got spunk kid, I'll give you that."
Carth stepped in before Aminta could say anything else that might challenge Gadon's goodwill. "What do you need done?" he asked in a clipped, business-like tone.
Your request suits my needs, which is why I've agreed to help you. I will let you race in the tournament. If you win, you get your friend. If you lose…Well, that's your problem. Are we good so far?" At Carth's curt yes, he continued. "But, you need to retrieve something for me before I let you race. The black Vulkars infiltrated the base, and managed to get our prototype swoop engine. It's our only chance at winning. If you retrieve it for me from their base, you get all the help you need. Do we have a deal?" Gadon stuck out his hand, and Aminta went to grasp it.
Carth quickly grabbed Aminta's forearm, still covered with his jacket. "Wait a second. Do you hear what this guy is saying? To enter a base uninvited is suicide!" he exclaimed harshly.
Aminta grinned. "Hey! The past six years of life has involved breaking and entering. I'm a pro." she told him proudly, raising her chin a notch higher than necessary.
Carth shook his head. "That is not something to be proud of," he informed her, treating her as though it was his responsibility to teach her right from wrong.
Aminta ignored his paternal tone. "It sure comes in handy though!" she exclaimed, turning back to Gadon. "You've got yourself a deal," she told the old man as she shook his hand. She could hear Carth groan in frustration behind her, but she ignored him. "So, how exactly do we get in?" She asked Gadon.
Gadon turned to look at Zaedra. "Mission could…"
"Mission's just a kid!" Zaedra exclaimed, as though she were offended by Gadon's proposition, and it was her own daughter that would be going to the Vulkar's base.
"Maybe, but she's the best we've got, that we can afford to…" Aminta had a strong suspicion that Gadon was going to finish off the sentence by saying lose, but the man stopped when he could feel the glares of three people boring into him. "Anyway, she's the best qualified. She's been there before, and that's more than anyone else could say," he amended.
Zaedra looked like she was going to argue more, but Aminta butted in before the twi'lek could say anything. "We just left Mission at the cantina, but Zalbaar looked like he was just about finished with his meal. Anywhere that she would go besides the cantina? For recreation, maybe?"
Gadon smiled. "Mission's idea of recreation is going into stealth mode and sneaking up on people," he chuckled. "I've been her victim several times myself, though she doesn't really need to be invisible to sneak up on me," he said in reference to his failed eyesight. "But you'd be most likely to find her in the under city sewers. She likes to hang out down there.
Aminta laughed when she saw the Carth's nose had screwed up in distaste. "What, the sewers don't appeal to pretty flyboys?" she teased, laughing harder when Carth turned red.
"I had to wade through waste in a sewer during a battle I fought. I still have nightmares about the smell," he complained.
"You get used to it after a while. Just pretend that it's a joy-girl's perfume. That should make you forget the stench for a few minutes," she said the last bit in a whisper, but from the barking laugh coming from behind the desk, it was obvious that Gadon had heard the statement.
"The under city?" Carth said, in an attempt to salvage what little dignity he had left. "Isn't that kind of a dangerous place for a kid to stay? I mean, with slave traders and sith, isn't it likely that she'd get into trouble?"
Gadon laughed. "That kid gets in and out of trouble more easily and more times than I could ever count. Down here, trouble is synonymous with Mission's name."
Carth grimaced. "She's definitely just like you," Carth whispered to Aminta, who simply glared at him. He quickly turned his attention back towards Gadon. "So, is the elevator to the under city guarded by Sith too?" he asked.
Gadon nodded. "How, may I ask, did you get down here in the first place," he inquired, his face lighting with curiosity.
"We had some sith uniforms," Aminta responded quickly. "It's a long story as to how we got them, and I really don't want to get into it," she told the man before he could ask anything further.
"Fair enough," Gadon acknowledged. "But uniforms aren't going to be much help to you. You're going to need some identification papers. It just so happens that I have some here, but what I really need are some uniforms, so if we could trade…"
Aminta quickly pulled the uniforms from the bag that she had slung about her shoulders, and handed them to Zaedra. Zaedra grudgingly accepted them, and Carth noted that she had gone back to fingering her blaster again. My sister would have a field day with her, he thought and watched as Gadon handed two stacks of papers to Aminta.
Aminta unceremoniously dumped them into her bag, and Carth winced. "Don't worry, we'll be back," she said with a smirk and a haughty glance at Zaedra before she sauntered towards the exit. Carth muttered a colorful oath and followed.
——————————————
Aminta flicked on the light to the apartment, and groaned when she saw that the bulb gave off nothing but an inconsistent flicker. Carth stepped in behind her and turned off the light. "It doesn't matter, we'll only be staying here for one night." He smothered a yawn.
"And there's always the fact that the rest of the abandoned apartments will be in pretty bad shape too," Aminta observed as she stepped into the semi-darkness. There was just enough light coming from the hallway so that the pair wouldn't trip or stumble as they made their way over to the bedroom.
Carth opened the door, and paused slightly when he looked inside. "There's… there's only one bed," he managed before turning to look at her.
Aminta rolled her eyes and strode past him into the room. "We aren't teenagers Carth. I think we can handle it," she smirked. Cautiously, she flipped down the covers to check for bugs, and sighed with relief when she found none.
"We aren't teenagers anymore Carth," Carth mimicked under his breath, and raised his eyebrows when Aminta turned to look at him. He was almost certain he could hear her mutter 'immature' under her breath, but he didn't really care. Instead of replying in turn, he yanked off his boots and threw the covers on top of him.
Aminta watched Carth through narrow eyes before letting out a breath of frustration. Immature, annoying, stupid, paranoid… she mentally listed all of the things that she hated about him as she got undressed. She glared in the sleeping man's direction before climbing into her side of the bed, careful to stay as close to the edge as possible.
The room was dark, so dark that when she lifted her hand so that it was several inches before her face, she still couldn't see it. She was afraid, terrified probably being the most accurate word. Suddenly, the sound of rustling cloth greeted her ears. "Hello?" she asked, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. There was no answer, but the sound of footsteps heading towards her echoed throughout the cavern. "Hello?" she asked again, trying to control the shudders that ran over the length of her body. Still, there was no response, but the sounds of cloth rustling and footsteps approaching were joined by ragged breathing. "Hello?" this time, the word that she spoke was said in a choking whisper, as she attempted to speak beyond the lump that had formed in her throat.
Finally, a voice answered her. The voice was raspy, dark and sinister, a twisted, mutilated version of her own voice. "You do not know me?" it asked, the words sending shivers down the length of her spine. The presence of the person behind the voice was now before her, and though she could not see the figure, she could feel waves of anger, hatred, and corruption emanating from it.
"No," she choked out, cursing the fear that clogged her voice. The presence laughed, but not a laugh that she could recognize. It was wheezy, filled with bitterness and contempt, even while expressing mirth. It was every bit as twisted as the voice that it had spoken in earlier.
"You are weaker than I thought," it said again, and the cruelty in the voice caused her to grow stiff.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice grown soft.
"You do not know me, yet you are me. Why should I tell you who I am if you yourself so not know who you are?" the voice asked, its voice grown deadly quiet so that she had to strain to hear it.
"I do not understand." She shivered, and wrapped her arms around herself. "Please, tell me. Explain yourself to me, for how am I to know what I have not yet learned?"
The voice cackled with laughter. "You learn quickly, answering my riddles with ones of your own. That will serve you well, for it has served us well once before."
"You must tell me who you are. You speak of us as though we are intertwined, yet I do not know you. Must I know who I am twined with to learn of myself?"
The voice cackled again, and a bright red glow illuminated half of the figure. It was dressed in black robes, long and concealing so that she could not decipher the gender of the figure before her. She looked through the shadows to peer at its face, but a mask hid its features from sight. She turned her attention back to the source of light, and saw in the figure's hand…a light saber. "Who are you?" she exclaimed, and a sense of dread crept over her.
The figure snarled. "You wish to know who I am, and so you shall!" With these words, the figure lifted the mask to reveal a face that was once pretty, but ravaged by dark, pulsing veins. The eyes were yellow and cloudy, the full lips pale and curled back into a sneer. The face was at once hideous and familiar, for it was her face in the shadows, her face that had been ravaged by darkness.
She stumbled backwards, and tried to scream, but the figure lifted its hand, and she could feel her air be cut off. She clawed at her neck to try and remove the hands that were strangling her, but there was nothing there. Her fingers came away with blood as she continued to struggle. Her warped double came closer to her as it spoke, and she could barely see through the black that had begun to cloud her vision. "You and I are one. I am you, and so you are me." It gripped her shoulders, and she could feel the fingers dripping with searing heat.
She screamed as her double burned her, searing through cloth and flesh. The scream that issued forth from her mouth was not her own scream, however, but a twisted, demented version. It was the scream of her image that came from her soul, tearing away the light laughter and gentle smile that had come to be her own. The figure gripped her tighter, and she began to struggle as it seeped more of herself away, and added to her inner darkness. She screamed harder, for herself, for the figure, and for those that had been hurt by both of them. The figure was unrelenting, and now it was shaking her, shaking all of the sense from her head…
"Aminta!" Carth shouted, struggling to keep the young woman in his grasp. She continued to thrash, and worse, to scream. He had never heard a scream like this before, from anyone. It sounded like she was waking from the dead, or falling into hell, pulling all the souls in the galaxy down with her. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead, and blood dripped from her neck where she had been clawing at herself before he had managed to pull her hands away. She was scaring him. "Aminta!" he shouted again, and began to shake her. Her screaming grew louder, her thrashing more intense. He yanked her by her shoulders. "Aminta! Wake up!"
Carth let out a deep sigh of relief when her eyes snapped open, and she finally stopped screaming. Her breathing was haggard, and her eyes were wide and clouded, darting back and forth around the room. "Where is it?" she whispered, her voice filled with fear. She began trembling. "Where is it?" she asked again, and looked like she was about to begin screaming again.
He drew her against his chest and gently stroked her hair, now damp with sweat. "Shh, its okay. It was only a nightmare. No one's here but me," he murmured, gently rocking her.
"It was killing me… It's going to kill me Carth! It's coming for me… It's coming…" She was panicking, Carth could tell, and he pressed her closer to him. "You're alright. Nothing's going to kill you, okay? Nothing. You'll be fine. I'm here; I'll make sure that nothing will ever hurt you," he whispered into her hair, and gently brushed his fingers over her pale forehead.
Aminta began to sob against his chest, and Carth started with surprise. He had begun to think that she was incapable of crying, and now here she was - broken in his arms. "Shh, it's alright, it's alright," he murmured in comforting tones as he had to Dustil when his son was a small child. "It was only a dream," he said softly into her hair as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. But he knew otherwise. She had inflicted injury to herself, and he was sure that something worse that a bloody neck would have happened if her screams hadn't had woken him up.
She began to shudder, though her sobs remained slient. Carth gently stroked her back with a large calloused hand, speaking words of comfort to her as though she were a small child. After what seemed like an eternity, her sobbing ceased, and she fell asleep against his chest.
———————————————
Morning dawned slowly, and the gentle rays stretched through the blinds of the dingy apartment onto the pair sleeping on a small cot. Aminta was the first to awaken, and frowned when she felt a coarse shirt against her bare shoulder blades, large arms twined about her waist, and heard the slumber of a man. "Kael?" she asked through her fog of slumber, and pressed closer against the man's chest. It had been so long since Kael had been…She realized with a start that this was not Kael at all, but Carth who she was pressed against.
Heat flooded her face with shame when she remembered what had happened the night before. She pried Carth's hands apart from around her waist, and gently laid them down, determined not to wake him. It was the least she could do after how kind he had been to her when she had woken up. She grimaced at how she had been thinking of him before she had fallen asleep. Apparently, he had his good points too.
Aminta stood and stretched, refusing to allow her mind to dwell on the nightmare that she had last night. The briefest thought of it caused the hair on her neck to stand on end. She shook her head, and walked to the refresher, giving a quick glance towards the mirror as she went to go through the door. Something in the reflection stopped her. Dried blood ran down the column of her throat, and she lifted her fingers to trace the trail that the red drops had left. She shivered, and hurried to the sonic shower, determined to put the whole experience from her mind.
————————————-
When Carth woke, he first realized that his arms were empty. He sat up in bed, and looked around the room before realizing that Aminta was showering. He rubbed a hand over his face. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night, and was probably more tired now than he had been when he had thrown himself on the cot the night before. He yawned and groaned as he stood up, acutely aware of his age as he stretched his sore joints.
"We can stay here another few hours if you want to get some more sleep." Aminta's voice was unexpected, and Carth jumped. Aminta chuckled softly. "You should be used to me by now," she teased him as she bent down to dig through her canvas bag.
Carth frowned, his sight still clouded from sleep. When his eyes were finally able to focus, the first thing that he saw was Aminta's bent body. His gaze traveled of its own volition from the crown of her head, covered in wet, tangled hair, down the curve of her back, and settled on her well formed backside. Aminta stood up and turned around suddenly, and shook her head when she realized what Carth had been looking at. "You're drooling," she said dryly. Carth flushed, and quickly averted his gaze.
Carth cleared his throat in mortification as he turned his head. "No, I'm good to go. I don't want to stay down here any longer than we have to."
"Suit yourself," Aminta muttered with a shrug of her shoulders as she bent down to her canvas bag again. Carth made a point to look in the opposite direction.
"So, what do we plan on doing today?"
Aminta stood up, a brush in her hand. "First, we're going to head to the Cantina to get breakfast and look for Mission. If she's not there, we go to the under city. Anything you had planned that's not included?" she asked as she began running the brush that she had retrieved from her bag through her unruly mane, wincing when it pulled at the tangles.
She's certainly making a point to be nice to me this morning. "No. My only mission is to find Bastila, and as you seem to already have that covered…" Carth stopped speaking when she let out a gasp of pain as she ran into a particularly nasty tangle. "Why do you have such long hair anyway?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.
Aminta shrugged as she continued to push the brush through her hair. "It's one of my only vanities, and links to my past. I haven't cut it since I was thirteen, besides the occasional trim. Deralia tradition you know," she told him with a slight, forced smile.
Carth nodded, showing that he recognized the tradition. When a girl of Deralia reached the years that childbearing was possible, her locks were no longer cut. It was an age old custom, and many of the women had cast it off along with the large and cumbersome traditional Kyrieah garb. Only the women of the elite upper class had maintained it, as they were the select few that could afford to have their hair styled, and to whom it was an asset rather than a burden. "So, you were wealthy?"
Aminta froze, but then continued to push the brush through her hair. "I was when I lived there," she told him with an indifferent shrug.
"Why'd you leave?" Carth couldn't help but to pry.
"What was on Telos that was so important to you?" Aminta countered, eager to have the topic of conversation shifted away from her.
Carth stared at her for a few seconds, debating whether or not her information was worth giving away some of his. After a moment of indecision, he decided that it was. "Admiral Saul Karath."
Aminta's mouth dropped, and she nearly dropped her brush. He didn't strike her as the type… sure his pants were a little tight, but she had found that to be a turn-on. "What?" she croaked.
Carth eyed her strangely, wondering at what she had taken that to mean. "He was a good man; my mentor. Everything that I had wanted to be.," he started, and then stopped. "He joined Revan and Malak, giving them everything they needed to know about Telos' defenses."
Aminta gently set her brushed down, and lightly rested her hand on Carth's arm. "You sound guilty," she observed, and bit her lip when Carth's anguished gaze turned to her.
"I could have stopped it," he murmured softly, and Aminta frowned. "When he joined the Sith, he came to me… told me to join with him. He told me that I was one of his brightest students, that the Republic was the one causing the problems, that the Sith needed me to make the galaxy right. I refused, but I didn't tell anyone what had happened. A week later, Telos was destroyed." Carth met Aminta's eyes again. "I should have said something; maybe then Telos would still be here… Maybe then I wouldn't have failed them," he finished the last bit in a whisper.
Aminta bit her lip, and stood on tip toe so that she could cup his face with her hands. "It isn't your fault Carth," she told him softly, but with deep conviction. "Nothing could have reversed what happened; Ultimately, it was Revan and Malak's decision that destroyed your home, and Revan already got what was coming to him. Malak will get his punishment soon too."
Carth stepped away from her, and cleared his throat. "Why'd you leave Deralia?" Carth asked again.
Aminta sighed in resignation. It appeared she had no choice but to answer. "I…did something that made my father hate me. He sold me when I was seven. Last I heard, he told everyone that I'd fallen into the sea. Apparently, they searched for weeks, but obviously, they never found my body. I haven't been home since the day I left."
Carth stared at her. "I'm sorry," he managed, but the words seemed inadequate.
Aminta shrugged with nonchalance. "Don't be," she replied easily as she started to run the brush through her hair again, nearly crying out in frustration when she hit another tangle. "I swear, I'm going to cut this mop off one day!" she exclaimed vehemently.
Carth chuckled, glad for the distraction. "Here, let me help," he yanked the brush from her hand and went to work on her hair, despite the colorful curses that she threw his way.
"This is ridiculous. Having this much hair is absolutely impossible," she muttered as Carth patiently worked his way through the knot. It angered Aminta to admit it, but he was better at brushing her hair than she was.
Carth grinned. "Maybe, but it does give a woman a certain advantage in the bedroom," Carth replied with a slight shrug.
Aminta rolled her eyes and elbowed Carth in the gut. "You are so utterly male," she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll be glad when we finally find Mission."
"What, so you can complain about your men folk?" he teased.
"Mission's too young to be complaining about men. She's got at least two or three years left to go," she paused for a moment and looked at Carth slyly, "though I guess I wouldn't mind prejudicing her against pretty flyboys." Aminta abruptly stood up, and took her hairbrush from Carth's hand. "And it wouldn't be hard to do if she got one look at you. Comb your hair and brush your teeth, oh, and please straighten your clothing just a tad. A trip to the refresher wouldn't do you any harm either."
"Aren't we authoritative this morning?"
"Move."
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Yay! Thank you Rainwood, and every body else who have been so supportive. Sorry it's so short. I am suffering from writer's block. Sue me. :) Comments are appreciated. Thanks so much for reading!
