Shin slams a datapad down on the table in front of Sabine, only barely avoiding her fingers.
Confused, she seizes the edges of it, gingerly raising it up. "What's this?"
"A datapad."
"Obviously. I meant why are you giving it to me?"
"And yet that's not at all what you said."
"Well, no but-"
"You will write down the names and locations of every member of the Empire - current and former - including Thrawn."
Sabine raises a brow. "That's quite a demand."
"Not a demand. An order." Shin gives her a once over, mouth curling at the edges. "That is if you value your life."
"Some would certainly say it's questionable." Sabine pushes the datapad away. "And I'm not going to do that."
Shin's nostrils flare. "You will do that."
"Hmmm. . . no. I don't think so."
Shin reaches for the lightsaber at her hip - which is when Baylan decides that it might be prudent to interrupt. "Need I remind you, Sabine, that you struck a deal for your life on the promise that you would give us the contents of that map."
"I know, I know, but I've had some time to think since then - you know, now that I've got a steady supply of oxygen to my brain again - and I've decided to tweak the terms of that deal just a little bit." She pinches her fingers together, barely keeping back a snort at the look of furious affront on Shin's face. She is far too easy to wind up.
Baylan, meanwhile, seems to have succumbed to a weary kind of amusement and defeat. "Tweaks?"
(Sabine thinks he might be indulging her. Just a little)
"I'll give you all the names and coordinates you want but only if you take me with you to Thrawn and let me have an audience with him. Obviously, I'll give you his location right off the bat - as a show of goodwill - but every other piece of info is staying locked inside this noggin until I get what I want."
She has absolutely no intention of following through with her half of this deal but that's a problem for Future Sabine.
"Or how about you give us all the coordinates and I don't tear your head from your body?"
"Wow." So this chick might actually be insane. Can synths go insane? Seems a bit of an unfair advantage if they can't. "Thankyou for that incredibly. . . vivid image, much obliged, will not be having nightmares for the rest of my life-" Shin's mouth twitches and Sabine swears she looks almost pleased "-but no. No, thanks. I like my bargain better."
Shin growls.
Okay, 'murder puppy' might not be that far off.
"Would you like me to give a demonstration of my bargain?"
Baylan puts a hand in front of Shin just as she takes a step forward - and Sabine does not release the breath she absolutely hasn't been holding. "I don't think that will be necessary. We have to fulfil our contract to Morgan first, anyway. Sabine is welcome to come along on that venture."
Shin turns to her master in disbelief - and no small part betrayal.
Sabine, the complete and utter picture of maturity that she is, sticks out her tongue in glorious victory.
(not a move that she's exactly proud of but, well, it's been a rough couple of days and she thinks she can be granted a little bit of grace)
Shin makes to lunge at her again only for a steadying hand on her elbow, cutesy of Baylan, to stop her. "She's winding you up." One hundred percent. "Don't let her."
Mouth tightening with what can only be described as apocalyptic rage, Shin takes a step back. (it's possible that Baylan possesses more power than any one man or synth should hold).
So, of course, Sabine can't help risking it all. "Good puppy."
Shin's one eye burns - but she doesn't move towards her again. Confirming that she is, in fact, in possession of some self-control.
Baylan sends Sabine an exasperated look but manages to resist the - no doubt strong - urge to scold her. "You're trouble."
It's something of a compliment. Coming from a maybe-Sith who is more or less holding her hostage. Sabine can and will make this process as unbearable for them as it is for her. Nobody is going to be having fun on this vacation. "Thankyou."
Shin lets out a noise of disgust and moves away. Her face is almost completely healed, except for the eye which is now covered by a silver patch that perfectly matches the rest of her attire - it makes Sabine wonder whether this is a regular occurrence. Or is walking around with an eyepatch in your pocket just the synth version of a hankie?
The question is so distracting that she almost doesn't hear Baylan when he begins to speak.
"Gredar Tane."
"What?"
"A former Imperial that defected midway through the war. I still keep in contact with him and possess the knowledge of his current location."
Sabine continues to gaze at him questioningly, though the pieces seem to be slotting into place for Shin, who turns to her. "You will tell us of his current location and we'll know whether you are lying about your. . . photographic memory."
Okay, that's actually kind of smart. And if Sabine were lying, she'd be shaking in her boots right about now. As it is, she simply allows a lazy smirk to tilt her lips. "Botany, Australia."
Shin's gaze snaps to her master. "Is she right?"
His expression is thoughtful. "The last I spoke to Gredar, he was in Sydney." Oh shit. "But he has a male lover in Botany who he regularly visits. I would say that she's telling us the truth."
Sabine takes pains to subtly release the breath she's been holding.
Meanwhile, Shin's nose wrinkles like she was hoping for another answer entirely. It's a little amusing, actually. The fact that this little gremlin of rage hates her more than she wants to achieve her mission.
Who knew I had so much power?
(and, yes, okay she knows Shin isn't actually little. There might be even the smallest, tiniest chance that she's taller than her. But she's elected to ignore that chance for the sake of her pride.
Any more questions? No? Great. Moving on)
"Are we really considering this?"
Baylan doesn't raise his gaze from the datapad on the table, having already expected this conversation since they left Sabine to her own devices in the other room twenty minutes ago. Shin has made no secret of her distaste for their new comrade in arms. At least she waited until they were away from Sabine to question the conviction of their plan. "Have you conjured an alternative? We need those coordinates and Sabine is willing to provide us with them."
Though 'willing' might be too generous a term.
"For a price." Shin's voice is sour.
"For a price."
"She's a human. We have no business aligning ourselves with her. . . or Morgan, for that matter," Shin mutters the last part, her distaste for the billionaire far from a well-kept secret.
She's discarded the eyepatch and, though everything looks completely healed, he knows it will still be some time before she's fully able to see out of that eye again, at least with her usual inhuman precision.
Something that he expects is doing little to improve her mood.
"Sometimes two different species can come together and form a symbiotic relationship that is mutually beneficial. We wouldn't have honey otherwise."
"We are not bees. And Sabine is not a flower."
"No, that would make things too easy. But we do need her. And she needs us. Together, we can meet each other's needs - so long as the two of you can resist the urge to kill each other."
Shin makes a face that truly is the closest thing to a pout a scowl can become and still be called a scowl. She then turns, glowering out the door in the general direction of where they left Sabine. "It's a strong urge."
"And are you not stronger?"
Shin's eyes snap back to him, immediately recognizing the challenge in his own.
She gives a jerky nod.
For now, it's as good as Baylan's going to get. Hopefully in time, her temper will cool and she'll come to understand the rationality of this plan. If she cedes to her anger and kills Sabine, not only will they never find Thrawn but the rest of the information they seek will remain lost forever.
That's not an acceptable outcome for either of them.
Baylan stands. "Remember why you are doing this, Shin. Don't let the likes of Sabine Wren cloud your objective and cause you to veer off course. We have been searching for so long. You have been searching. . . Sabine is inconsequential in the face of that."
She nods, slower this time. "You are right."
Baylan bends down to grasp her shoulder. "And you are troubled. What is it about her that bothers you so?"
"She's frustrating and rude."
He raises a brow, waiting patiently for the truth.
Shin works her jaw a good half minute before relenting. "She feels like them."
Baylan sobers, grip tightening on her shoulder. "You're certain she is not?"
"Yes." Her mouth twists like she's tasted something bad. "She's disappointingly human."
"They are not all bad, Shin," he says, softly. "They are not all disappointing." Unlike his apprentice, he can remember a time when they were anything but. When he could even consider them his equal.
Unlike Shin, he understands the truth.
Human, synth, alien - it doesn't matter. They are all capable of treacherous things.
They are all disappointing.
"This one will be," Shin says, her own voice soft - but also firm. Decided. "This one is."
Baylan gives her shoulder a final squeeze. "Go to your room and meditate. Clear your head. . . You will feel better for it in the aftermath."
She nods shortly and rises to her feet. It is startling sometimes, to see her so tall - when in his mind he still holds the picture of an eight-year-old girl. Crystal clear as the day he met her.
Baylan fears he will never fully be able to let go of that child. To stop seeing her ghost in every trace of the woman before him.
(if God is real and synths can sin, then he knows what his greatest one is)
What he does now, he does in service of that child. In service of Shin.
The cycle must end.
Baylan watches as she leaves the room, unable to shake the wave of uneasiness in his chest. This will not be an easy journey. For any of them.
But nothing worth doing is ever easy and things always get worse before they get better. There is no other course but the one ahead.
And maybe one day she will forgive him for the path he must take. For the promise he must break.
"Mutualism, association between organisms of two different species in which each benefits. Mutualistic arrangements are most likely to develop between organisms with widely different living requirements."
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica