That bitch!
Shin was running as fast as she could in the cargo deck corridors, drawing onto the Force to speed herself up. She made the usual turns toward the brig's section, a dreaded feeling in her guts. Punching open the brig's door, her heart dropped as what she had feared had, in fact, happened.
Sabine's cell was wide open and empty. On the ground, electronic parts were scattered left and right around Sabine's handcuffs. Shin spotted the shell of her comlink among the pieces, gutted and disassembled. A rugged and hastily assembled device was discarded on the doorstep, with the comlink screen displaying strings of codes. The Mando girl had built a makeshift keycard bruteforcer out of her captor's comlink. It was a rather simple device as it would just send every possible frequency code to both the door and the handcuffs until they unlocked. And it had worked, for she was obviously on the loose.
Shin's heartbeat quickened, a wrenching feeling inside of her. She played me. She made a chutta fool of me! Her heart sank at the thought. It was all a deception, she thought. The cute bantering, the playfulness, the… flirting. She grimaced at the last word. After the shower trip, she had spent all night and day thinking back on that moment in her cabin.
Master Skoll had never discouraged her from feelings or carnal desires. But he always had warned her to not trust or invest in such things. He taught her to rely on her own power, to love herself first, and to use others to further her goals. And so she had done, never giving up to such feelings before.
But Sabine had been something else. Her initial disdain and hate for the girl had turned into weird fascination and… maybe desire. Yes, desire. She admitted, angrily. I better face it. She felt that and played me with it. And now, I look stupid and she's roaming the ship free.
Shin felt so mad and betrayed. She was your prisoner, dumbass. You really expected her to be flirting for real? She knew that, deep down. The moment she realized her comlink was gone, she knew.
That part hurt deeply. That instant, when Sabine had come so close to her, whispering in her ear suavely, all thankful and flirty, her clean feminine smell washing on her… Shin had been sucker-punched by the sudden assault of charm and warmth. She let herself be disturbed by what Sabine made her feel. And it was all a manipulation, thought shin darkly. She was just picking my pockets. Putting her plans into motion. And I was too dazzled to notice.
"So, here's your comlink then." Said Baylan's voice behind her, coldly.
She turned around, to find her master at the door, as calm as always. He almost looked blasé, scanning the cell with his harsh piercing eyes.
"I'm… Sorry, Master. She played me." Confessed Shin, a sheepish look on her face. She had been yet another disappointment to the actual only person who cared about her. But Baylan didn't snap at her, to her surprise. He seemed focused and calm.
"Yes, brilliantly so. But there will be time later to reflect on that. Do you notice ?" Asked Baylan.
"Notice what?" Asked Shin, bitterly.
"The silence." Said Baylan.
Shin gave him a puzzled look, her dark-circled eyes squinting. Then she understood. No alarm, she thought. The ship was built in a very straightforward way, with no alternative routes or service corridors in the habitable area. And Elsbeth's men patrolled it all the time. Sloppily, but still. They patrolled every deck, day and night. But one thought Shin. The one I ordered them to keep away from. And no alarm meant Sabine hadn't crossed paths with any of them yet.
"She's still on this level." Said Shin, thoughtfully. "Probably in the cargo parts of the deck."
"Yes." Said Baylan, nodding in agreement. "And ?"
Shin looked around. The device Sabine had made to bypass the door was still going through tens of combinations every second. At this rate, it should be capable of testing them all in under two hours. And the service droid should have served her her meal an hour ago.
"She's not far. She's been gone less than an hour." Concluded Shin.
"Good." Said Baylan, satisfied with the answer. "So ?".
Shin shrugged, not seeing what more she could make of the clues around her.
"So what, Master ?"
"So… Get a move on, and get her, Shin. Now." Said Baylan sharply, gesturing to the door.
Shin blushed and sprinted out, toward the cargo bays.
"Alive still!" Shouted Baylan after her.
Oh, don't worry. She'll be alive. And very sorry to be, thought Shin, darkly.
It had taken Shin two full hours to comb every corridor and storage bay. And she had been deadly thorough about it. Which was why she was so sure Sabine was in that last one. It was the biggest, messiest warehouse on the ship. Spare parts and various terrain equipment were crammed into a labyrinth of duraplast crates, stacked into unstable piles in the big storage space.
Searching the hold would be a pain in the ass, but fortunately, Shin wouldn't have to. There was a much more convenient way.
She closed her eyes, connecting to the Force, opening herself to the flow of it. She extended her consciousness, trying to feel things all around. Soon, she felt life all around her: insects on the ground, venturing out of the cases where they had hidden before being loaded in here. Bacteria and ships hold lichen. And somewhere in the middle of all that, radiated a human presence. Strong, powerful, feminine.
"Get. Out. Now." Said Shin, with cold rage, detaching every word. "I won't be asking twice."
Shin was met with complete silence. But she felt Sabine moving very slowly between crates, somewhere on the port side of the bay.
Yeah fucking fine, suit yourself. I'm done with that bantha crap, Fumed Shin.
She backed down to the warehouse entry and scanned the room. Cocking her head in interest at the sight of a loading SAS door, she made a slow and delicate gesture toward it. Summoning the Force again, she pushed the emergency release latch open.
The big round door shot out, torn from its hinges, and got sucked into hyperspace. Opening a breach onto open space was usually a bad idea, but doing it at lightspeed was another level of crazy.
Mayhem followed suit. A deafening alarm went off as the oxygen in the bay was sucked out in a relentless woosh. The crates nearest to the door flew out into the weird stream of hyperspace, tracing blue mesmerizing lines where the blackness of space usually was. The rest of the cargo cases started to follow, big piles of them crashing down, flying over the room, bumping into each other, and exploding against floor and walls before being dragged to the open latch.
"Oh fuck!" Cried Sabine, somewhere in the back.
Shin smiled, waiting. She didn't flinch at the chaos, anchoring herself to the ground with the Force. A loud clank echoed, as the security blast doors of the SAS triggered and started to close shut. But Shin drew even more into her rage, mustering more power, and stopped the blast doors in their tracks with a constant push, keeping the depressurization going.
Caught up by the aspiration, Sabine suddenly shot from behind a crate, dragged on the floor by the suction, crying in fear and surprise and grasping at whatever she could find. Unsuccessfully, as she got dragged closer and closer to the open hyperspace under Shin's cold eyes. Now that's what I wanted to see, she thought, mischievously.
Waiting for the last second before Sabine was sucked out, Shin released her grasp on the blast doors. They slammed shut, sealing the open SAS, and stopping the depressurization. Sabine came crashing on the doors, feet first, a few smaller crates following and crashing on her too. Shin smirked, walking up to her unhurriedly.
"Going somewhere… again?" Said Shin, innocently. Her voice was colder than space now.
Sabine coughed on the ground, gasping. The oxygen in the room was rising slowly again but was still excruciatingly rare for a non-force user capable of pacing their lungs. The Mando girl was out of breath and disoriented and sweat had turned into ice on her cheeks from the coldness of space. She seemed to have difficulties standing back up after her crash. Sprained ankle, noticed Shin, with satisfaction.
"Are you fucking mental ?" Screamed Sabine, outraged.
"No idea, I never took the tests". Shin shrugged, unbothered, towering her with a dark look.
"You have just depressurized a whole hangar just to draw me out, you lunatic !" Shouted Sabine in disbelief, stumbling as she stood back up. "You have problems!" She started backing away from Shin, in a pathetic attempt to flee. But she was cornered against a mountain of crushed crates.
"Yeah, I'm working on them." Said Shin, cold rage in her tone. "Right now I'm gonna deal with my most annoying problem". She drew on the force once again and slammed Sabine onto the pile of crates. The girl squinted in pain, falling to the ground again.
"What happened to 'no harm will come to you'?" Grunted Sabine.
"Uh, I think I saw that flying out onto the hyperspace a moment ago." Answered Shin, ironically putting a finger to her thin rosy lips. "Should've hung on to it".
"Don't you think there's like… levels, in one's response to an offense?" Argued Sabine in shock, barely standing up.
"Yes." Said Shin, with a big menacing smile. "There is. And this is level one, I'm just getting started."
Sabine shot her a truly afraid look, then suddenly spun and started to climb the small mountain of crates. The attempt went surprisingly well for someone with a sprained ankle, wincing in pain at every step.
Raising an eyebrow skeptically, Shin just stood there, watching the pathetic attempt at fleeing.
"I know the lack of oxygen didn't help the underlying lack of brain cells you got, but where exactly are you going? It's a closed bay, inside a Ship, in hyperspace. Between galaxies. Get the fuck down." Asked Shin, irritated.
"E chutta !" Replied Sabine, throwing a small crate at Shin's head from above.
Shin mindlessly deflected the crate with a push of the Force, sighing. Sabine snorted in frustration and started to throw more, obviously at a loss for a better strategy.
First the high tower in Lothal, now climbing on crates. What is it with this girl and high grounds? Is it a Jedi obsession? Thought Shin, exasperated, as she deflected the flow of projectiles.
"Enough." She declared, finally. She force-yanked Sabine into the air, out of the pile of crates, and let her crash down again on the floor. A sharp crack echoed, as Sabine's hurt feet hit the ground again violently. She howled in pain.
Shin moved to her, crouching. Sabine stayed down tears of pain in her frightened hazel eyes. Not falling for them now, thought Shin, rage burning inside of her, although a distant pinch in her guts contradicted her.
"So, you played me and fucked me over." Said Shin, matter-of-factly. Her dark eyes locked on Sabine's Gaze.
"Master Skoll will be really mad at me now. Though he insisted again that I don't kill you." Explained Shin, stroking her chin thoughtfully. Sabine didn't reply, moaning in pain at her hurt foot.
"But I can't let it go like that either. You taking advantage of me… Spitting on my kindness. Acting all naughty the moment I turn my back…" Whispered Shin, lower and lower, almost blowing her words in a cold angry breath over Sabin's face.
Shin gently put her hand on Sabine's hurt ankle, caressing it with her fingertips.
"I need to be respected you know? It comes with the job. So if you're pushing it with my patience… I gotta… push… back…" Said Shin in a calm, cold breath, as she pressed harshly, continuously on Sabine's ankle, with a Force-enhanced grasp.
The Mandalorian girl cried so loud that Shin genuinely thought, with satisfaction, that Master Skoll must have heard it all the way down to the brig. She looked right into Sabine's eyes as the girl screamed, not even blinking. She felt disconnected from the moment, her burning rage taking over her. She couldn't look away, and something inside of her was horrified at was she was doing to the pesky girl. A part of her felt it was deserved. But something deep down told her to stop.
But she didn't. She went on, pressing harder, slowly, gradually. Long enough that Sabine's voice eventually broke, and Shin looked into her eyes as the girl's gaze faded into unconsciousness. The sight made Shin jump as if waking up from a dream, disconnecting from a furious and animal version of herself. She let go of Sabine's ankle, her hand shaking.
How long did it last exactly, Shin couldn't tell. Blinded by her rage and fury, she'd made the girl suffer until she passed out. She wanted to believe it had been a short few minutes, but she noted, with a retching feeling, that her ears were literally ringing from the screaming. She felt nauseous and dizzy.
She stood over her unconscious prisoner, looking a the girl's face. Wet tears and tassels of ice shone in the blunt light of the cargo hold, on the Mandalorian cheeks. Sabine's traits, slowly relaxing, still bore the marks of her suffering.
What was left of wild and savage satisfaction inside of Shin had washed away as a cold dark feeling of guilt crept into her. She tried to shut it down, swallowing the bitter taste of unexpected remorse.
When Sabine opened her eyes, she jumped in panic, at the sight of Shin. The Mandalorian girl was back in her cell, lying on her bunk, the blond apprentice sitting at her bedside. Shin met her with a dark, velvety look. Rage was still burning a little in her cold blue eyes, albeit tempered with some sincere relief.
"Good, you're up." She said in a light tone like Sabine had just woken from a nap. She stood to get a glass of water, shoving it in Sabine's trembling hands.
The Mandalorian girl seemed barely conscious as she grabbed it in a rasp, drinking with difficulty. Shin said nothing, watching her attentively. Sabine finished her drink, her eyes less fuzzy by the minute, and discarded the glass with an angry look at Shin. Pure hate shot from the much too familiar hazel eyes.
"Get the chutta out of my cell, you homicidal maniac." Said Sabine finally, all playfulness gone from her voice.
Shin met her with an equally cold look, shaking her head in refusal.
"I did get carried away with the… punitive part." Admitted Shin. "You're fine though. I had you examined. All tests are fine. You just passed out from the pain" She explained, like some other person did that and she wasn't to blame.
Sabine tried to sit up furiously, but she immediately screamed in pain and winced, the moment her foot touched the ground. She fell back down moaning.
"It's not broken." Assured Shin. "I stopped before. It's just badly sprained. But you're not going anywhere again soon like that." She added, coldly.
Ignoring her, Sabine tried to get up on her other leg, leaning on the bunk wall. But Shin's shiny leather boot, came crashing on her chest, pushing her back on the bunk bed, pinning her down.
Shin let hetmr boot on Sabine's chest, and leaned over her, arms crossed on her raised knee. She brushed an invisible speck of dust off her sole's side, grazing Sabine's chest casually.
"I said, you're done going anywhere." She whispered with a cood smile. Anger was back in her eyes, her tone suddenly less apologetic.
Sabine coughed, the pressure of Shin's boot making it harder to breathe.
"I said fuck off. You gotta learn some boundaries, girl." Said Sabine, looking away broodily.
"Yeah, you made sure I understood that." Replied Shin, bitterly.
Sabine looked back at her, sighing in frustration, shaking her head bitterly.
"Look, I'm a prisoner here. Escape attempts are fair game for the Force's sake!" She cried. "Sorry your nice lazy smokey eyes and a pity hot shower weren't meeting my standards for the stay. I'm still knocking down stars out of your review."
Shin found herself unexpectedly vexed at the remark and snorted in disdain, gesturing angrily.
"You ungrateful brat! Had anyone spotted me sneaking you up there, I'd have earned the roast of my life!" Said Shin, slightly pushing her boot deeper into Sabine's chest. "I took risks, to be nice to you! And that's what I get?" She asked, rhetorically.
"Yeah sorry, the whole torture and passing out in pain part of your bravery distracted me for a moment." Laughed Sabine, dismissively. "But sure, kudos to you. In fact, I was actually out to get you a medal and bake you a cake for the courageous acts of resistance." Said Sabine ironically. "Caught me looking for the flour. Too bad you stopped and tortured me before I could finish..."
Shin snorted back finally putting her foot away, shaking her head.
Sabine sat back up on the bunk, defiant, brushing her breast where the boot had pressed. Both stayed silent for a moment.
"What was even the plan?" finally asked Shin, in disbelief. "As I said: closed ship. In hyperspace. Between galaxies! You mind explaining to me what the escape act was even about? Get free from the cell, hide in the cargo hold, and then what, genius girl?"
Sabine pouted, suddenly silent, eyes down. Shin shrugged in expectation, eyes wide with sincere curiosity. She'd seem to have made a point.
"Yeah, ok, fuck-off Grand Admiral High Horse, I didn't think so far down." Mumbled Sabine, embarassed. "Thought I'd hide until arrival or something, sneek off at landing to find Ezra. Or whatever. Because I'm not sure you'll let me like your Master promised."
Shin rolled her eyes, coming close again.
"I specifically told you not to think, Mando." She said condescendingly. "You hurt yourself when you do that, sweety".
"Nah, take credit for your deranged acts. You've been doing all of the hurting here, Blondie" Replied Sabine bitterly.
"All of it? Well you say that, but what about my feelings?" Said Shin, ironically.
"Doesn't seem like you have those." Said Sabine coldly, a bit more seriously than she intended.
Shin's face turned pale, her playful smile going away too. She turned away from Sabine, and looked at the opposite wall of the cell.
"Yeah, well, fuck you." She said, in a low sharp voice, a tint of vexation and sadness peering through the words. Silence fell into the small cell, neither of them speaking or looking at each other.
After a minute, Sabine's voice broke the silence, a tad sweeter.
"Hem… wanna do that last one again? All that roasting about my comebacks, and you go with 'fuck you', really? She said, jokingly.
"You got complaints, you put them in my suggestion box" Said Shin, mumbling.
"Oh, cool, where is that? I have some material…" Said Sabine, with a sour laugh.
"Up your ass, assbucket." Snapped Shin.
"Yeah that's two 'ass' in a row, Wolfcut, you can do better." Bickered Sabine.
"Don't I know it!" Screamed Shin angrily, turning to shoot her a dark hurt look.
Sabine, noting the long insistent gaze, seemed to catch Shin's meaning and gaped. She put on an outraged face.
"Oh really? Is that fake interest I caught in those big lazy puzzled eyes, yesterday?" She said, jeering.
"Fuck you!" Said Shin again, in spite, approaching again, poking Sabine's breast with her finger.
"Oh… you wish!" Jousted Sabine, grinning. "Not that you will, though…"
"I'd need laser therapy to scrub the smell!" Shot Shin with a rictus, coming closer to Sabine's face. "Not worth the effort…" She whispered word by word, in a sweet hot breath.
Sabine gasped with outraged surprise, mouth wide open in true vexation. There were no veiled meanings anymore here. Her cheeks had taken on a tint of red. She stood a little taller, closing the gap between them even more.
"Worth the… oh you bitch, you would be fucking lucky to…!" Started Sabine.
She couldn't finish her sentence, as Shin's mouth crashed on her's, in a passionate kiss. Shin felt Sabine stiffen in surprise as she almost bit the girl's lips, parting them with her tongue as she deepened her kiss. She was about to pause, stunned by her own initiative when she felt Sabine pulling her closer, arms around her neck. She kissed her back angrily at first, then ever so sweetly. She felt Sabine's tongue brushing against hers, the girl pressing harder against her lips, hungrier, wilder. Shin responded with a ballet of kissing and biting raining on Sabine's mouth. The girl was ruffling Shin's wavy blond hair with her delicate fingers, grasping on the apprentice, furiously kissing back.
She tastes… spicy and sweet at the same time, thought Shinn, lost in the deluge of wild caresses and kisses. She opened her eyes softly, locking her gaze with Sabine and they stopped, seeming to suddenly realize what they were doing.
Slowly, reluctantly breaking apart in a sweet smell of saliva and excitation, they broke their kiss. They were both panting and awestruck. Sabine's eyes were wide and shocked, a shaken look on her face. Shin stood silent too, as dumbstruck as her, disheveled and gasping.
"What the fuck was that?" Said Sabine, finally, with a quavering voice.
"Gotta go. I'll… come back later." Said Shin, closing her mouth with a panicked look. She gaped, almost saying something more, but turned around and strolled out of the cell. As she ran out, the door slammed shut behind her.
Yeah what the fuck was that? She thought too, running through the corridors.
