Survival, Dark Times 3

[Revan Jast]

Kurt nodded. "Kurt Jervada. I won't shoot you if you don't shoot me."

He started jogging for the stronghold, then stopped and turned around. "Whatever the fuck you're doing out here, good luck with it. If I ever see you on some backwater world, I'll buy you a drink."

He started off, but paused one last time. "Make sure your friend knows not to put a bullet in my back." He smiled. "If you're wondering how I knew you were being shady, it was your tone. That mask only helps so much."

[RobbyL9]

"Oh, really? Didn't intend that. I just wear this thing because the girls love it." Blades remarked, jogging alongside and turning his voice feminine "'Oh Blades, your mask is so thick and steely. Can I please touch it, oh can I?' Just drives them absolutely wild."

Not surprised to see that this 'Kurt' was unimpressed with his jokes, Blades went on "So then. Kurt. You don't happen to know a guy named Cravis Opal?" Blades asked, recalling the name of the agent who hired him "Old guy, pinstriped suit, short balding hair? We're old college buds."

[hk47fan]

Sora

I frowned at what was now a corpse, feeling my heart drop a bit. I just killed a prisoner...even if she was a spy, did she deserve that? On the other hand, if she had just told the truth, then this wouldn't have happened.

Perhaps she brought this on herself.

Nonetheless, I never wanted this to happen.

However, it had, and I couldn't let guilt distract me from my duty.

Shoving my contradicting thoughts aside, I looked at Rhynna. "Get a medic in here," I commanded, rubbing my temples.

She nodded, and turned away while she contacted the local medics we had at HQ, whenever prisoners needed treatment after interrogations. This was something new, though. Never had a prisoner died under the NR while being interrogated.

I crossed my arms, staring at the dead body. For a moment, I wondered if she was innocent, but...no. The tip was clear that she was the one, and I would have been foolish to just let her go.

I can't let it get to me like this. She didn't tell me the truth, and so this happened. That is the fact of the matter. Or maybe....maybe I killed her.

I froze.

Maybe I'm becoming like Mona.

Marlena

I stood on a platform on Cloud City, looking on at the clouds before me. A light breeze blew, and I felt my hair flow with the wind. I remained silent and still, thinking about all that had happened. Sora had gone mad, Declan was gone, my children were gone. I was trying to feel alright, but it felt so grim.

"Why must this keep happening?" I muttered aloud, hearing my voice crack. I tried to hold the tears inside. "Why do things like this keep happening to me and everyone around me?"

"Marlena...don't think like that." a voice called.

I whirled around in shock, to see the spirit of my husband, Declan, standing before me. He looked like he always did: Strong, in more ways than one.

"Declan, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I've come to see you one last time, Marlena, to give you one last piece of wisdom. I've come to help you move on," my husband explained, approaching me.

He walked up to me, and I could feel the tears running down my cheeks. He took my hands into his, and smiled at me. "Marlena, you must move past this," he told me.

"How? My husband just got killed, I'm a widow again, how can I just move past that?" I asked him in shock.

"Find your strength, Marlena. The strength I know you have...the strength you had when you defeated Mona. The strength you had when you found out she was alive. The strength you had when Stephen died. The strength you had when you had to leave Sora behind. The strength you have right now."

"Strangely, I don't think I have it right now," I said with a half-smile.

"You do. I know you do. You just have to dig deep, and ignore the pain. Ignore the pain, and shove it aside. You must be strong, because many trials lie ahead for you and everyone you know. I did not die in vain, Marlena, I did not die for you to be depressed. I died so you could live on and fight. Don't be like Sora," Declan said to me.

"I just...I just don't understand why this has to keep happening. Why must all the tragedies continue?" I wondered outloud.

"We cannot spend time speculating why tragedies occur. Our job is to move past them, show the universe that they will not bring us down. You don't need my guidance, my dear, you never have. You can do anything that you set your mind to," Declan explained. "And I know you can do this."

"I'm going to miss you," I simply said.

"And I will miss you, but know this: I will always be with you. You may not see me, you may not hear me, but I will be there. I will be at your side the whole way, for whatever comes in the future. When you need help, I will be there...but you won't."

"I wish the dark times would just end. Just for a while, if nothing else," I told him with a shrug.

Declan shook his head, smiling at me. "Marlena, if there is one thing I want you to have learned from me, it is this: Dark times are only what you make them. They don't have to be dark times, they truly don't...you can make light times anytime you desire. It just has to be you that does it. No one can do it for you."

He kissed my forehead, before vanishing.

With that, I suddenly snapped back into reality, and glanced back at the city before me.

"Dark times are only what you make them," I repeated softly.

[Revan Jast]

Kurt let a small smile slip. "No, I can't say I know that name. Let me guess: the old man hired you to fuck shit up. People like us, we're pretty good at that."

He kept walking, the twigs snapping under his boots. He seemed to not be paying much attention to his environment, but that was far from the truth. Each of his senses was on alert; he was watching and listening for anything that might screw them up.

Without warning, he put his arm out and stopped Blades. "Hear that?" he asked.

It was a low humming sound. Narrowing his eyes, Kurt searched the ground in front of them for any possible trap, but there was nothing. Raising his eyes, he searched the trees. "Aha," he said, pointing. "Sonic pylons. Walk through them and you'll get a nasty earful of not-so-happy sounds. Maybe a cranial implosion to boot."

[RobbyL9]

Blades stopped dead and looked at where Kurt was pointing. "Damn." he said, shaking his head "And here I thought these guys were incompetent jerk weeds. Thanks for the assist."

He observed the pylons both closely. "Okay, here's the deal. We need to find our way around these things, but I'd rather they were disabled in case we need to double back." he reached into his breast holster and pulled out his pistol "Can these things simply be shot?"

[Revan Jast]

"Well, they sure as hell look weak. I think they just might be incompetent... what'd you call em? Jerk weeds? They use useful equipment... except the shit they use is some 20 plus years old. Kill em."

Blades took them out swiftly, and the two of them kept moving. "Back to this Cravis. He hire you?"

The stronghold wasn't far off, maybe another 10 minutes by foot. Kurt put his hand on his pistol, ready to shoot any possible patrol unit. He un-holstered the weapon and screwed on a silencer.

[RobbyL9]

The rainfall began thinning and Blades flipped his mask up, no longer needing to partially shut his eyes without it.

He turned back to Kurt and nodded "Yeah, what the hell? It's no secret I'm not from this planet cause I ain't no pirate and I'm here to shoot them. Blades the Mercenary, at your service." he flashed a grin "Cravis paid me some serious currency to come here and further worsen my issues with pyromania. But he was working as an agent. Did he pay you too?"

[Rain]

Winter

When I got back to my personal residence I got to work on the Xandyr case. I looked through who I could contact. There was no-one on Coruscant, but then again I didn't expect there to be. I began to look at other options, and as I scanned through a list of names in my head one seemed to catch my attention.

Alsia Fel.

She was Han Solo's second in command at CoruSec, and a valuable asset to the NR. If anyone could get the job done, it was her! I searched my database for her frequency, then entered it into my comlink.

"Uh hello?"

"Hello." I replied, "Alsia, is that you? It's Winter..."

[hk47fan]

Alsia

I blinked. I remembered Winter well from my time at CoruSec; she was probably one of the better officers there. I also knew that she didn't support Sora's decisions, but had stayed behind to remain on the inside.

So why would she be contacting me?

"Uh, hi, Winter, its been awhile," I said, still confused. "Do you need something?"

Sora

I stumbled back slightly in shock. Was I becoming like Mona? Was I turning into my crazed, murdering daughter?

No, no, I didn't mean for this to happen, and she probably even wasn't an innocent person. Not like some of the people that Mona killed. I'm not Mona. I never have been, and I never will be. I am far better than that.

A medic entered, and wrapped the woman's body up, before putting her on a stretcher and starting to wheel her out. Both Rhynna and I watched in disappointment.

The medic looked at me. "Don't worry, Supreme Admiral, its not your fault."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?" I asked.

"This incident. I know you, because you are such a great and upstanding man, are not at fault for this. It was a simple accident, and thats all. If anyone is responsible, it is this woman herself. How could she not give up the information that the NR needed? People like her disgust me," he explained. "Don't feel any guilt for this."

"How did you know all of that?" I asked, staring at the man. Suddenly, something hit me. "And don't I know you from somewhere?"

The man looked confused. "Why, no, Supreme Admiral Trok. I am just a simple medic named Diment who hears things through the grapevine, and obviously I was told what happened here."

"Diment? Weren't you that cater-" I began.

"Admiral Trok, with all due respect intended, I think we have more pressing issues to worry about," Rhynna interrupted.

I nodded. She was right. We had to deal with this, and this medic was probably nothing. My nerves were just getting to me right now.

"See you around, Admiral." Diment said, before he wheeled the body out.

[Rain]

Winter

"Actually I was wondering if I could ask you a favour." I replied, "I have a case that I promised I would take on, but I can't let Sora or the rest of CoruSec know about it. It concerns a former Jedi, Xandyr Foxx. I believed you worked with him on a mission to Corellia a while ago."

[hk47fan]

Alsia

I thought back, and it had been a long time, but I vaguely remembered Xandyrr. "Yeah, the Jedi and that other friend of his, Janet or something. They were some of the few that weren't captured by Xizor all that time ago," I told Winter. "We had to cooperate with each other to get back to Coruscant."

I can't believe that fiasco was what started this mess that everyone's in now. I never would have guessed, but would anyone?

"Anyways, yeah, I know who you're talking about. What do you need?" I asked curiously.

Sora

Both Rhynna and I walked out into the hall, and continued to watch Diment take the body of the prisoner off. I watched, still in deep thought, even after what the strange man had told me. Perhaps I shouldn't blame myself, but I just didn't know.

I have many things to do. I can't dwell on this. It...it happens.

"Well, I, uh, need to file a report on this," Rhynna said. She had kept her composure, but I could tell that she was slightly shaken, as well.

"Solon and I will have to try to explain this to the public, when it gets out," I muttered, my mind still drifting back to immediate objectives.

What can we do? Cover it up? Will we have to? Though, they will likely know that she was a suspected Imperial. Would that soften the blow?

I shook my head, unsure what to think of this. Perhaps I just needed to focus on handling the aftermath of what just took place, and forget everything else.

However, it seemed difficult. No matter how hard I tried, there was so much darkness for everyone around me, and myself. It was like a dark tunnel. And I could see no light at the end of this tunnel.

Marlena

I continued to gaze at the clouds, thinking about Declan and what he had just told me. It was difficult, especially now. It felt like everyone in my life was gone, once again. I did have some good friends here, but so many other people I was close to were all gone.

And there was so much chaos, so much disarray in everyone's lives right now. How were we to handle all of this?

It was like a dark tunnel. A long, dark tunnel.

However, I had to remember what Declan told me. And I had to tell myself that it would be alright, that it wasn't so bad, despite all the circumstances, and I could get through it. I had to know that. I had to convince myself of that.

I smiled. Far off, in the distance, I could finally see light at the end of the tunnel.

[Rain]

Winter

"Well it seems someone is hunting him." I explained to Alsia. "Someone who calls himself the Dark Warrior. I haven't been able to gather any intel on him, so he must be a real pro. I figured that with your familiarity with stealth tactics, combined with teh fact that you were a high ranking CoruSec officer and that you know Xandyr, that you were perfect for the job. I could organise a ship to collect you and bring you Coruscant undetected, and you could bring up to two other people with you."

I paused, giving Alsia a chance to take it all in.

"What do you say?"

[hk47fan]

Alsia

"Wow," I said, not sure what to think. It was a risky move to go back to Coruscant with all that was going on. I was probably labeled a criminal by now, or I would be once they deduced that I was with all the other fugitives.

However, someone needed my help. And, on a more selfish note, it would give me a chance to say goodbye to Takk.

To get closure. I have to move on with my life.

"You know what? I'll do it," I finally answered. "I'm ready whenever you are."

[Rain]

Winter

I smiled/

"I'll inform Xandyr and get back to you."

Memah

"Ooh..." I said, somewhat nosily. I was a bartender - it was in my nature. "What was all that about?"

[hk47fan]

Alsia

After shutting off my comlink, I smiled at Memah, standing up and getting out of bed in the process. "Its actually very ironic," I explained. "I will get a chance to go back to Coruscant and get closure, after all. Winter just contacted me and asked for my help with a case that she really can't handle right now."

Before I left, though, I needed to make a decision: Winter said I could bring two people, and we weren't sure what we were going to be up against, so I had to bring two people that were skilled, and would actually be able to help me.

Not sure if I'd want to bring anyone like Han or Miss H back to Coruscant. Or any of Sora's close friends and family.

I needed specialists. People who would be assets to the mission, but could be clever and not let personal issues with Sora somehow get in the way.

"Wait a minute," I started, an idea springing to mind. I looked at Memah again. "Hey, Memah, do you know where Dawn and Dusk are?"

Sora

Every minute that went by, the buzz around HQ was growing. Obviously, this was a shock to many, and some would not be pleased. However, there was still work to do, and for now my personal feelings couldn't get in the way.

I knew that this would get out to the media and to the public, and we'd have to do damage control. I'd handle that soon enough, but right now I needed to see Winter.

I knocked on her office door, and proceeded to open the door.

"Winter, I need you to see what you can find about that woman that we captured a few days ago," I instructed, cutting right to the chase before she could say anything. "Its more vital now than ever. She...she just died in an interrogation session with Head-of-Security Volt and myself."