AN: Hey everyone! So sorry for the long delay, but work has kept Chev and I busy and we haven't been able to update for a while. Updates will be more frequent than every few months so don't worry!
We can't believe how many people are following and liking our story! Thank you all so much for your support, it means so much to us!
Disclaimer: Chev and I own Niira and Shak, Star Wars belongs to Disney
It took the duo about twenty minutes after their "touching" moment to find the enclosure they were searching for.
Niira took the lead and headed towards the building specified on her datapad. "I'll just be a moment," she muttered before she entered the small structure. She was greeted with the sight of two men beating an Evocii senseless. With a raised eyebrow, Niira tapped her foot impatiently until one of the men caught sight of her and stopped the horrible beating.
"Ah, you must be the Red Blade! Karrels said you'd be coming," the man closest to Niira said as he gave her a malicious grin.
"Yes, and here I am. As you can see I work alone, and I'd prefer to keep it that way." Since Shakiru was waiting outside, Niira was at liberty to claim she was traveling alone and the men appeared to take the hint. With one last kick for good measure, the two men swiftly left the building and Niira approached the cowering Evocii.
A sense of pity and remorse washed over Niira as she stared down at the Evocii. With hesitation, Niira knelt down and looked the Evocii in the eyes, "Do you know why I'm here?"
The Evocii nodded his head slowly and struggled to stand up. Niira grabbed one of his arms and helped support him as the two stood up. "I know the latest shipment hasn't come in yet, but it's not my fault! I tried reasoning with the Evocii camp leader, but he wants nothing to do with Nem'ro. He's cut off all communications with me and I promise it wasn't my fault that the shipments didn't arrive."
Niira let go of the man's arm and began pacing the small room. "If he's cut off all communications, does that mean that you don't know where the shipments are now?"
"I don't know for certain, but I think he may be keeping them in the camp's enclosure. I can give you the directions, just please don't kill me."
The desperation in his voice made Niira sigh quietly. It doesn't appear that it was his fault...perhaps I should just leave with the information and spare him anymore pain. He's already in enough as it is.
"Now Niira, you know we won't accept that."
Niira clenched her eyes shut as she held her head in pain.
"You know what we expect and you know what you HAVE to do. Now do it!"
In a flash, Niira's blaster was out and she had it pointed at the whimpering Evocii. What the hell? Niira thought as she struggled to put the blaster down. Great, they must have upped the setting on this damn chip.
As Niira's mind wandered from the situation, the echo of a blaster shot made her eyes go wide in shock. The Evocii stumbled to the ground with her datapad still in hand.
"Excellent. Don't forget that's what we Sith expect from our Agents."
The voice faded away from Niira's mind and she was left standing over the dead Evocii. Niira sank to the ground and buried her face in her hands. "Dammit! This is why I hate Sith," Niira whispered as she replayed the events that just happened over in her mind. Damn you! He didn't need to die! He was giving us the information!
A few minutes passed as Niira forced herself to calm down and focus on the situation at hand. The mission still needed to be completed and there was still an incompetent bounty hunter waiting for her outside. She didn't want to show any signs of weakness around the stranger and knew she had to pull herself together before he saw how distraught she was over killing an Evocii.
It shouldn't have mattered. To any other person it probably wouldn't have mattered, but Niira was faced with the struggle of fighting against the evil and corruption that tried to weave its way into her every waking thought. That struggle alone made it so difficult for her whenever she lost a battle with it. How many more times would it take before she was consumed by the hatred the Sith were trying to feed her?
Niira grabbed the datapad, stood up, and calmly walked out of the building. "I have a location," Niira said as she looked at the coordinates. "It looks like...we walked right past the shipments on our way here." Well that's unfortunate. We just wasted so much time going here and now we need to head back to the battle zone?
"So where is your target at bounty hunter?"
"Chief's hut," Shakiru grunted, pointing in the opposite direction of the shipments. He risked a quick look around, saw no guards, and motioned to Niira to follow him, trying to ignore the fact that she had just committed cold blooded murder. He may have been outside, but that didn't stop him from overhearing all that went on inside. Sure, Shakiru knew that Niira could be a downright bitch when she wanted to be, but she'd never seemed THAT merciless. Never. 'Well, she always was a bit of an enigma,' Shakiru reasoned, trying to reconcile who Niira had pretended to be with who she just revealed herself to be.
Niira merely nodded her head before she silently followed the bounty hunter's lead. She had no doubt in her mind that Shakiru heard the blaster fire inside the small hut and she briefly wondered what he was thinking. Why do I care anyway? It's not like his thoughts matter to me. They shouldn't anyway.
The two reached the hut without delay and the bounty hunter turned to Niira. "Come if you want, but don't get in my way."
He then proceeded into the hut with his weapon drawn, whereupon an Evocii stopped him. "So, Nem'ro found someone with no morals to come and destroy my village," snarled the Evocii. "Filthy murderer! Are you going to kill all the women and children as well?"
Shakiru didn't miss a beat. "Nope, only you, Huttsbane."
"There is no need to kill Huttsbane," argued another Evocii, who came out of a side room calmly and with purpose. "The Hutts slaughter us like criminals when it is they who have taken what is not theirs."
"Yes, this planet was home for the Evocii long before the Hutts came," said Huttsbane.
"You are a warrior. You must understand why we fight for our birthrights," the other Evocii practically pleaded.
Shakiru paused for a moment, for of course he understood. He knew all too well what it meant to struggle for survival when all the galaxy was against you. You have a job to do, he told himself firmly when he realized that his logic was swaying him from loyalty. Don't botch up this mission by being weak. The safest response he could generate was, "Don't bore me with your politics."
"You're wasting your breath, Spirit Leader. This is just more outsider scum!" Huttsbane said with a voice saturated by contempt.
"Now you're just being unfair," Shakiru hissed, raising his blaster threateningly. I hate it when people make assumptions!
"Oh am I?" It looked as though Huttsbane had wanted to go on, but Spirit Leader cut him off by saying, "Perhaps we could come to an agreement?"
"What kind of agreement?" Shakiru asked suspiciously.
"What if we took the heads of one of the already deceased and you gave that to Nem'ro instead?"
"You would violate the dead like that?" Asked Huttsbane, astounded and furious.
"It is not right, but it is for your protection, Huttsbane."
Huttsbane's lip twitched but he said nothing. Shakiru considered it. He hated to double-cross his clients, but he wasn't so daft as to think that Nem'ro would be able to tell the difference between Huttsbane and another Evocii. Plus, they are just fighting for what belongs to them-and for survival... He shook his head a little. What would Niira prefer for me to do? That thought shocked him. Since when did I care what she prefers? After several more minutes of silence, he made up his mind. "I hate double-crossing, but what you're saying makes sense and I have no reason to kill you," he said.
Huttsbane just nodded with-perhaps?-a hint of respect, and Spirit Leader brought out one of the heads of an already dead Evocii, which he gave to Shakiru with words of thanks.
Shakiru just shook his head at them and exited the hut. There was no way he could have left the poor Evocii at the mercy of the Hutts, just like he couldn't leave Niira at the mercy of the world all those years ago.
Niira fell into step beside Shakiru as he exited the hut and she couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. At least he has the ability to make those life-saving decisions. Or maybe it's just that he has the strength to? Niira shook those thoughts from her head and pulled out her datapad. "We need to head due east to find the stolen packages," Niira muttered.
"Right. Let's get back to the speeder, then," Shakiru replied. They met no resistance exiting the camp. Shakiru climbed onto the speeder, then helped Niira up. "Just tell me where to go, little girl."
"Will do," Niira replied as she strapped her datapad to her wrist. She made sure it was completely secured before she gave Shakiru the okay to start moving. She remained silent for the most part-the exception being her telling Shakiru where to go- and she was pleased to discover that there weren't many Evocii standing in their way.
By the time they arrived at the location of the stolen packages, more Evocii had swarmed the area and appeared alert, unlike their predecessors. Niira hopped off the speeder, pulled out her rifle, and aimed at the group nearest them. "You ready bounty hunter?"
"Always," Shakiru said, drawing his blaster and directly attacking the nearest Evocii.
The sound of blaster fire alerted the surrounding Evocii and Niira cursed under her breath. "Stay behind cover and don't get yourself killed alright?" Niira turned on her stealth field generator and prayed that it would last the duration of the fight.
While the Evocii were distracted by Shakiru, Niira snuck behind the Evocii and stabbed him in the back. As his lifeless body fell to the ground, Niira moved on to the next Evocii and continued the cycle. She managed to get three more kills before her belt switched off.
"Damn!" Niira muttered as she searched for cover amongst the Evocii soldiers that surrounded them. Many of the Evocii turned their attention from the bounty hunter who was hidden behind a tree, to the assassin that was in the middle of the land.
"Shit!-" Shakiru dove from behind the tree, blaster aimed, and shot down three Evocii before they had the opportunity to so much as think about raising their blasters. Though a fair few of the warriors still had their sights set on Niira, many of them averted their attention to Shakiru, who, jumping, leaping, and twirling in and out of different points of cover, managed to dispatch most of their adversaries. He was about to fatally wound one Evocii with a blaster aimed at Niira when he was set upon by a different foe wielding a vibro-blade. Shakiru dodged the forward cut with a cry and bashed the Evocii on the side of the head with the butt of his gun. Though blood leaked out of a deep gash in the Evocii's head, he did not relent, and instead advanced at Shakiru once more, swinging his blade with terrifying lethality. Shakiru did his best to dodge away from the blade; even so, he received a deep wound on his upper arm. He shouted cuss words, gritting his teeth through the pain. A red haze of rage clouded his vision, and he thoughtlessly attacked the Evocii, kicking and punching with only the brute strength of fury behind his blows. Eventually, he landed a blow to the foe's throat that knocked him down, fighting for breath. Taking his chance, Shakiru pointed his blaster and shot the Evocii in the throat three times for good measure. "Bloody bastard," he muttered, turning to see how Niira was getting on.
Niira took advantage of Shakiru's distraction and bolted to the nearest cover that she could find, which happened to be a fallen tree, and she wasted no time in firing her rifle at the remaining Evocii. Her focus briefly drifted to the melee fight between Shakiru and an Evocii and she watched as Shakiru succeeded in killing the Evocii. Well, he's certainly stronger than I expected, Niira thought. She turned her attention to the last two Evocii in time to see how they were closing in on her position. She swore and pulled her vibroknife out of her belt and she held it up in a defensive position. As she swiped sloppily at the Evocii, she reached into the satchel on her belt and pulled out a frag grenade. Once she activated it, she kicked out at her opponents. They fell for her ploy and jumped away to avoid her attack once more, only to find that a grenade had landed at their feet. Niira ducked behind her cover just as the grenade exploded and she peered over the tree to ensure that her foes were dead. Once she was sure, she felt a wave of relief flow through her.
Once she sheathed her knife, Niira stepped out from behind her cover and advanced on Shakiru. She reached into her pack and pulled out a few medpacs. "Hold still while I bind the wound," Niira said as she pulled out a few bandages.
The red haze around Shakiru began to fade, and he looked at Niira with something like amusement in his dark brown eyes. A part of him wanted to insist it was naught but a scratch-the proud part. But it was painfully obvious that the ugly gash in his arm was not a scratch, and further, that he had already bled a severe amount from it. Thusly, the logical option would be to let her bind him, and his pride also gave that it did not want him to be found stupid and illogical. So, he sat still, arm held out, and said, "There will come a day you get sick of patching me up when I get hurt like this on missions; this is already how many times today?" He realized his mistake after it was spoken: he realized that he had just put forth the option of the two of them becoming partners as though it were the one he'd already chosen. Hoping she didn't notice, he looked purposefully away at the carnage all about him. Where has all my common sense gone? He wondered.
Niira quirked an eyebrow at the bleeding man in front of her. It was fairly obvious how embarrassed he was upon finishing his statement, and Niira couldn't help but find it amusing. The amusement faded however, when she tried to think of the proper response to his statement. I suppose I'll just have to let that slide since he's already lost too much blood, Niira thought.
Once the wound was covered in bandages, Niira helped Shakiru to his feet and said, "Well, I suppose it'll make up for how many times you pull me out of the fire huh?" Without waiting for a response, Niira headed towards the fenced enclosure and started rifling through the different crates that were scattered around.
Shakiru stared blankly at her as she worked-he really had no idea for what she searched-and wondered at her parting statement. No doubt she didn't expect to work together again, so was she just humouring him? Making fun of him? Or maybe she does think we'll work together again and this façade of coolness is just that: a façade? He shook his head and ran a hand through his long red hair. Female intentions are so ambiguous sometimes... He thought in frustration.