The Lupine, the Empire, and the Mirror

[R. S. Esalis]

Coruscant. Imperial Center. Such a paragon of government control and order. Or so it gave airs of, at least. With the death of the Emperor and the second Death Star, the inner workings of the Empire had been thrown into such a chaos as no one was prepared for. Outwardly, a calm visage and one of collected revenge against the blow by the Rebels was shown, while inside turmoil ran rampant.

The tumult however, thankfully died down into a slight murmur, and for the moment the situation had cooled down from its' previous boil to a slow simmer. Such was life, always going on - such was time, never stopping.

Ministers of war raged against the Rebel Alliance still though, demanding the vermin to be hunted down now, exterminated with no quarter given. Others called for patience, and the need to regroup and rethink strategies. They had seen might fail, and felt that subterfuge and tricks were needed. Something new, some new way to combat those ever resourceful, ever hated Rebels.

And so arguments raged for the time being, none willing to acknowledge the input of another.



R. S. Esalis had grown tired of such bickering, intent on going forward with her own plans. She'd had the relics pulled from the archives, had them studied, and presently delivered them to the one man she knew would know how to appreciate them and afford them the value that they truly deserved. For they were the beginning of something she knew would place the Empire atop the Galactic ruling seat once more. Imperial armies would be unstoppable, and strike fear into their enemies.

She had given him the time and materials he desired; given him the tools he would need without question.

And now, she had the one tool that she knew he wanted most of all. One half of the Lupine mirror. Arya Ravenwing.



Ravenwing had been deposited into a solitary cell deep in the heart of the main building occupied by Imperial Intelligence. It was a clean, spartan room with only a cot, open fresher, and a table that sat against a transparisteel wall. A simple metal chair was tucked against the table, waiting to be pulled out. The other three walls were nothing but durracrete, cold and impersonal. The floor was durracrete as well, with no rug.

Drugged since her capture, Ravenwing was placed on the cot and left alone. No counterdrug would be given; she would wake from her slumber of her body's own volition.

Beyond the transparisteel wall, two chairs sat unoccupied. The corridor they sat in was dark and empty.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya's eyes flickered open, and then closed against the dim light of the room. A few moments later, she opened them fully, letting them adjust before trying to move. As she lay there, she became vividly aware of a few things.

For one, she was completely naked. Second, and significantly more startling, the room she was in was devoid of almost all odor. There was a forced sterility to the air which left a slightly metallic tang in her mouth. The last thing she remembered was a stun blast... Imperials. It had been a while since she'd been found smuggling, but they'd never been able to make any charges stick.

Arya slid her feet off the side of the cot, and sat up, her head pounding at the change of altitude. Her bladder explained that the room wouldn't be odorless for long, and the smuggler limped over to the open refresher to relieve herself. Her body was scraped up from the rough duracrete of the hanger where she'd been captured, but the contusions were already mostly healed. She guessed that she'd been unconscious for two days, from the look of her scratches.

After she finished with the refresher, Arya padded over to the table. A set of grey clothes were folded neatly. She didn't mind being naked, especially when the air wasn't cold, but she wasn't a savage either. And if she was going to be read her rights and questioned about her smuggling contacts, it would be better to be clothed. She stretched a bit to loosen up muscles that were still cramped from the stun blast, and pulled on the elastic waist pants. No drawstring - wouldn't want the prisoner hanging herself with it. There was a matching grey tanktop, and a loose shortsleeved shirt as well.

Arya pulled the tank on, but left the shirt. Walking around the table she pressed her face against the transparisteel and tried to peer down the darkened hall. The dim light she was bathed in did not stop her from seeing clearly - she'd discovered long ago that her vision was much better than any human's.

She'd never been in a cell like this one before. Arya rapped her knuckles on the clear wall, experimentally.

[R. S. Esalis]

Far down the corridor, a sliver of light appeared, grew wide, then closed once more to bath the hallway in darkness once more. Only this time, the distinct click of bootheels hitting durracrete could be heard coming ever closer.

A soft glow - no doubt from a datapad in use - bathed the visitor's face in a soft pale blue glow that grew more apparent the closer she got.

It was a woman, her soothing feminine features hiding the calculating mind within.

She remained intent upon her readings as the distance between her and the conscious Lupine grew smaller, and even as she slowed to a stop behind one of the chairs on her side of the transparisteel her eyes remained on the 'pad.

Finally she clicked it off, carefully tucking it and a small bundle in the crook of her arm. She lifted her icy eyes to Arya.

"You my dear," she started matter-of-factly, her voice like a silk cloth draped over steel, "are a Lupine."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya stepped back away from the transparisteel as the woman approached. Her eyes were pale blue, but they seemed to glow in the light of the smuggler's cell.

Arms folded across her chest automatically, the prisoner's face was blank. "A what?" She noticed that her air supply seemed separate from the hallway - she could smell nothing of her visitor. Which was a distinct disadvantage.

[R. S. Esalis]

"Lights."

A simple command that yielded simple yet momentarily uncomfortable results.

Even before the word had left her mouth, both the hallway and Arya's cell were bathed in an abundance of light.

[Arya Ravenwing]

She squinted her sensitive eyes, pupils dilating somewhat painfully. "Look if this is about the fight on Corellia, I learned my lesson and I'll never do it again. I just fell in with a bad crowd, you know how it is."

Arya felt the absense of her medallion acutely, and added, "What did you do with my things? And my ship?"

[R. S. Esalis]

"A bad crowd indeed."

Nothing else was said as Esalis stared at Arya. She let a silence hang between them before answering the other woman's question.

"Your ship has been brought back to Coruscant and impounded. Your belongings - those that are worth any importance that is," a slender finger tapped at the bundle she held, "... are right here."

The Director took a seat then, setting the 'pad and the bundle in her lap. "Sadly, they are really not much."

The parcel was lifted gently atop the 'pad, and Esalis pulled a journal from the cloth wrapping, holding it up for Arya to see. "Unintelligable, unfortunately.

"Would you care to shed light on this problem, Arya Ravenwing of the Lesser House Ravenwing?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

She felt like laughing, but restrained herself as it would have come off as slightly hysterical. "Lesser house what?" Arya helped herself to the chair that was on her side of the transparisteel wall. "I think you've got the wrong frelling woman."

The small leatherbound book was stamped on the front with the same bird symbol that was on her father's medallion. The silvery inlay had long since flaked away. Not real silver, of course. Arya waved her hand dismissively, "I'm insulted that all you found interesting in my ship was my mother's journal. Don't you have better things to do?"

[R. S. Esalis]

A patronizing smile.

"Oh this isn't the only thing of interest that was found."

From her jacket pocket, another cloth-covered was brought to the light. A sharp glint of her eyes was given to Arya as Esalis held it.

"It seems you had one other thing that I found just as important, though it seemed you kept this much closer to your person."

Carefully unwrapping the white linen, the Director was mindful of the Lupine's reaction. She looked at the other woman over the tops of her eyes.

The cloth was placed gently atop the journal, and Esalis held up the medallion by its' chain. It shone beautifully in the sterile light.

"We also found this."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya's lips parted as the woman held up the medallion, her eyes fixed on it. The smuggler swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. "You have no right to take it from me."

Her only link to her father, the medallion was the only jewelry she wore, and she never took it off. She had vague memories of her mother telling her stories of her father, before the woman's mind had completely broken. The journal was Lysa Ravenwing's, her mother. The script she wrote in was unlike anything else Arya had seen, but she'd learned how to read it.

Unfortunately, it was as useless as the woman across from her had said. Even when one could read it, nothing in it made any sense. Her mother had been as helpless as a child, and completely mad when she'd finally died. Arya had had to keep her chained up nearly the entire last year of her life - Lysa had been unable to control her changes and in vornskyr form her madness had translated into untamable agression.

She whispered, steel laced behind her words, "Give it back."

[R. S. Esalis]

"I'm afraid that you're in no position to make demands of any sort."

The medallion was lowered gently to her lap, and Esalis covered it with the cloth linen before folding her hands over it.

"But it seems to me that this trinket holds much more importance to you than the journal. I would have thought that both held an equal amount of significance, but I see that is not the case."

The Director sat back against the metal chair, settling herself a bit more comfortably as she watched Arya. She said nothing, only locking eyes with the other woman.

Esalis pursed her lips, then spoke once more.

"I have a very dear friend on his way to meet you. He is very excited to make your aquaintence, and I would very much like for you to be civil with him. Cooperate, and I may return this trinket back to you.

"Do you understand?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya glared, a sheen of golden light overtaking the blue of her eyes. She blinked, and they returned to their normal color. "I understand, although I still don't have a frelling clue why I am here."

[R. S. Esalis]

That same patronizing smile returned.

"You're here because you are the last of your species."

[Arya Ravenwing]

She settled back into the metal chair, and raised an eyebrow. "Like I said, what?" The back of the chair was uncomfortable and dug into her shoulder blades painfully. Arya ignored it.

"I don't know what in Corellia's nine hells you're talking about."

[R. S. Esalis]

Esalis stared at Arya - a mirthless gaze that needed no words in accompaniment.

"There was another, like you, you know. She was a Jedi, but it seems that she met her fate in the Purge. She left behind a journal, much like yours - though thankfully mostly in Basic.

"A fascinating people you are, I must admit. So swept up in conflict; in chaos and order."

[Colonel Karrnage]

"Perhaps I can help you."

From the interrogator's side of the room, a door opened, and Colonel Karrnage entered discretely, holding a briefcase with a gloved hand as he closed the door behind him.

"Miss Ravenwing, my name is Erasmus Karrnage. I'm a professor of genetic anthropology at the Coruscant academy."

Karrnage took his seat aside Esalis, and glanced around her cell, his brow seeming to furrow behind his spherical dark glasses.

"These lights, are they uncomfortable?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya shrugged. "No." Her nostrils flared slightly as she instinctually tried to catch the newcomer's scent. Lack of scent of no, there was something in Karrnage's posture that was instantly offputting.

Another like me? That sentance had piqued her curiosity, because she'd never run across another shapeshifter that was confined to only one other shape. Frankly, 'shifters were hard to find, period. "Genetic anthropology, professor? I'm afraid I don't know anything about that field of study." Her words were clipped - almost forced.

[R. S. Esalis]

Esalis went silent, allowing the Colonel to interact with the Lupine on his own, and without interruption. She herself was curious to see how Karrnage conducted himself with Arya.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"Essentially, I study those who in the past have engaged in the science of genetic manipulation."

He chuckled lightly.

"It isn't a terribly prominent field of study, so your confusion is entirely understandable.

Miss Ravenwing, may I call you Arya? Is there anything I can get you before we begin? I have a series of questions."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Some water would be nice." Her throat felt like she hadn't drank anything in two days, which was probably accurate. Her stomach was starting to protest as well, but she'd settle for water.

"I've never 'engaged in science of genetic manipulation' in the past or the present."

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage glanced sideways to Esalis, as if to say Would you mind getting that?

[R. S. Esalis]

A nod, and Esalis rose gracefully from her seat. the 'pad and the journal were set gently on her now vacated seat. The medallion though, she kept with her.

With a polite nod to Arya, the Director turned on her heel and disappeared through the same door that Karrnage had himself emerged from.

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage waited for the door to close.

"My apologies for my colleague, Arya. She means well, but she lacks empathy for what you're going through. Don't get too disheartened by her curt demeanor. The military doesn't breed much in the way of civility."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya grunted, "Yeah no kidding." She looked at him more closely, and added, "So, what, you have more empathy for me then? Like that helps."

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage pursed his lips.

"Small consolation perhaps. But I think we can both get what we want with as little discomfort and time wasted as possible.

Let us start with you, Arya. The more you can tell me about yourself and your past, the better I can understand your story."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"No."

The smuggler shook her head. "I won't tell you anything until I get my medallion back." Arya gripped the edge of the table so hard her knuckles whitened. Not that there is anything to understand of my story. Bastards.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"I will look into getting your medallion back. But first, let us discuss these minor details."

[Arya Ravenwing]

She shrugged, "Fine. What do you want to know?"

[Colonel Karrnage]

"Tell me about your job, what you do for work and leisure. Tell me about your immediate family. Tell me about your medical history."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Oh, is that all you want to know?" She was trying not to be too sarcastic, but it was hard. "I work in transport, I have no family, and if you want my medical history look it up. You'll probably find out more than I can remember."

To tell the truth, she didn't think that she had a medical history. She seemed resistant to most common viruses, and healed quickly enough that only the worst wounds had required a visit to a doctor. Not that she ever went to a hospital.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"We did look it up, Miss Ravenwing. We found a certificate of birth, and a few trade-related injuries. Not so much as an innoculation. For a woman as well-traveled as you, this is certainly anomolous.

No mention of Caridan Influenza. For a humanoid who is frequently travelled in Imperial territory, this is unheard of."

Karrnage nodded to Esalis as she returned with Arya's drink.

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Caridan Influenza.." Arya shrugged. "What can I say? I don't get sick."

The thought of him holding her birth certificate made her smirk. Her mother had figured out a way not to register Arya's birth, and had thought it to be a good idea. Arya had been born and raised on Ryloth, but the document that the Colonel was talking about labeled her as a product of Bespin. Aaron had had it made ten years ago, when he'd taken her under his wing.

The work was very good.

[R. S. Esalis]

The Director returned Karrnage's nod with one of her own as she headed towards the far corner where transparisteel met durracrete. A small sliding drawer, unused, suddenly opened itself at the press of a button, and Esalis deposted the plastic water bottle inside.

Another press of the button, and the drawer slid back. She gave no thought to Ravenwing picking up on any scent other than that of the strerile air of her cell; she didn't have to. The Lupine could try, but any trace scent leftover was quickly recycled out by the scrubbers she'd had specifically installed for just this situation.

Esalis smiled a sickenly sweet smile as she returned to her seat.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya got up and walked to the drawer, taking the bottle out carefully, barely touching it. She screwed the top off and sniffed it, before sealing it back up again and taking it back to her seat.

The woman was smiling sweetly, and the smuggler wanted to wipe the expression right off her face. She very deliberately held the bottle up and licked the outside of it where the other had been touching it. It tasted slightly of lotion and sweat. Arya allowed her lips to curl up in a very small, smug smile.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"You don't get sick because your cellular makeup has been designed to be highly aggressive to pathogenic incursion."

On cue, Karrnage brought up a hologram on Arya's side of the interrogation room. It looked like a cluster of cells under a microscope.

"Forgive the intrusion, but while you were unconcious, we obtained a discrete tissue sample through biopsy. What you are seeing now is a sample of balovirus being introduced. In a normal setting, we would see viral proliferation within hours.

Now, we will show the same sample two hours later."

Another hologram appeared, in which the smaller virii were no longer present. Some of the tissue cells were not where they had once been, and there were other objects in view.

"The purple shapes you see are macrophages, which are cells we all possess to provide an active immune response. Of course, the problem is that the amount of such macrophages has increased two thousand percent from the initial sample."

The hologram disappeared, and Carrnage removed his glasses, revealing small beads for eyes, ringed by pale skin that rarely saw daylight.

"This behavior exists in no known indigenous humanoid life form yet documented. It would seem, Miss Ravenwing, that you are quite the unique snowflake."

[Arya Ravenwing]

She raised an eyebrow at the colonel, but her only response was to unscrew the lid of the bottle and drink half of the water. When she finished, Arya capped the bottle and set it on the table in front of her.

It became obvious by the silence that the two on the other side of the transparisteel expected her to say something. Like, Oh no, you've figured me out, you smart people you. "So, I have microphases? You just said everyone has them. So what do you want with this unique snowflake."

[R. S. Esalis]

Her smile gone, Esalis leaned forward just a bit, her eyes intense as she stared at Arya.

"Tell me, how much about yourself do you really know?"

The Director had become slightly perplexed - it seemed that Arya had not the pride exhibited by the now dead Padawan; indeed, it seemed very plausible that the other woman had no knowledge of what she was. All signs of her behavior thus far pointed to that, well, somewhat irritating conclusion.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya paused, taking some time to finger comb her hair in the bit of reflection she could get off of the transparisteel. If she bluffed, she might be found out, and punished. If she told the truth, she might be of no further use, and killed.

Either way, it still meant she'd be behind this glass for quite a while. No use crying about getting a laywer, it was obvious that she wasn't exactly in the regular system. "I know that I've been kidnapped by some men posing as Imperial officers, placed in a cell, and I have no idea why. You're not interested in my cargo, you're interested in my mother."

As she spoke, her anger mounted, and the smuggler leaned forward over the table towards the glass, rising out of her seat. "So why don't you start telling me what the frell is going on here?" To punctuate her point, Arya slammed her open palm on the barrier hard enough to rattle one of the seams.

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage shied away from Arya's outburst, and continued in a soft tone.

"We insist that you are among the last living examples of a genetically engineered race known as Lupines. You of course have feined ignorance on this issue, so we appear to be at an impasse."

He looked to Esalis.

"Perhaps she's right. Perhaps we should be less interested in her and more interested in her cargo. I trust your search turned up no contraband, Director. Contraband that could potentially net severe prison sentences?"

[R. S. Esalis]

While her eyes held a small bit of confusion, it was easy to see that the cold, calculating part of her functioned quite well. Unlike Karrnage, who had shied from Arya's angry tirade, Esalis merely blinked.

At the Colonel's question she shook her head in a disapproving manner.

"My men found enough drugs on her ship to keep her under lock and key for many a year."

A blatant lie, but the Director was used to getting what she wanted. And besides, it was her word against Arya's, and who would be believed? A smuggler? Or the Director of Imperial Intelligence?

[Arya Ravenwing]

The smuggler bristled, "That's a frellin' lie and you know it. There was nothing on my ship!" Just because she'd already offloaded it all onto the dock, but that was just splitting hairs. Besides, prison would be preferable to this solitary confinement. Not that they'd ever let her out.

Furious, she threw her half-empty bottle at the transparisteel. It bounced off and skittered across the cell until it stopped underneath the cot. Arya closed her eyes, as though to calm herself, but she was too angry. When her eyes opened they were yellow, and remained that way.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"Miss Ravenwing, you're letting yourself go."

Karrnage leaned forward, his small eyes twinkling with insatiable interest. So this was the transformation? How far did it go?

He turned to Esalis, and leaned toward her ear, speaking in a whisper.

"We need more stimuli. Perhaps riot gas, electricity, or some other means."

[R. S. Esalis]

A knowing smile passed across her lips, and Esalis let herself bring in a long breath. The Colonel wanted to see this for himself - see the culmination of an unknown creator's labors.

Only a barely imperceptable nod was given to him, and the Director slowly stood. She turned to the side, stepping toward the door she had gone through to retrieve Arya's water. Lifting a hand, she rapped two knuckles against it.

Her answer came in the form of an Imperial officer, gently opening the door halfway. "Director?"

Esalis pulled Arya's medallion from the inside pocket of her uniform coat and handed it to the officer.

"Take this to the labs. Have it examined down the the very molecules of its' make-up, and - " She gave Arya a sidelong look of satisfaction, a smirk, " - take it apart."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"No!" Arya threw herself out of the chair, knocking it over as she slammed herself against the transparisteel. "Krasst you, you dren sucking whore!" Esalis handed the medallion to the officer, still smiling smugly, and the smuggler pounded on the glass with her fist.

She had no effect on the barrier, of course, and as the door started to close behind the officer Arya took two steps backwards and snatched up the chair. She bashed it into the transparent wall until the chair bent, and then doubled over, dropping the chair to the ground. She looked like she was retching.

Arya steadied herself with one hand on the transparisteel, trying to control the change. The door out in the corridor shut with finality, and she screamed with rage. Bones popped and joints rearranged themselves - the part of her mind that was Arya became small and distant. A few seconds later she was shaking out the short fur coat that now covered her body, poison-tipped tail lashing back and forth like a whip.

The vornskyr slavered and howled, hurling itself against the wall trying to get at the woman on the other side. Falling to the duracrete ground, the creature picked itself up and slammed against the barrier again. And again.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"Amazing." Karrnage whispered. "Truly Amazing."

He approached the glass barrier, too drunk with curiosity to fear the creature. He stared into the vornskr's eyes as it snapped at him, failing to reach his jugular and end his existence.

"The physiological change seems systemic. Notice the uneven metamorphosis. The musculature and integumentary systems begin the change, with skeletal reformation accelerating behind it."

He suddenly whirled back to Esalis.

"Are we getting all of this on the holorecorder?"

[R. S. Esalis]

Esalis watched the change with satisfaction at having caused such a thing.

She regarded Karrnage for a moment, then answered his question.

"Not only will you have a holorecording, but seperate audio as well. I also have sensors wired into her cell - you'll be able to study any temperature changes recorded."

Without waiting further reply, the Director turned her attention to the beast that had been once a woman. She was anxious to start a more thorough interrogation, but knew that Karrnage's curiosity and desires ruled this day.

"Now. What is it you would like to do with our project?"

[Colonel Karrnage]

"I wonder if she will maintain this state under sedation?"

He paused, realizing that he was going off in a different direction than what he wanted.

"I wonder if her metamorphosis is a voluntary mechanism, or if its a sympathetic reaction to her fight or flight response. We must isolate this trigger."

[Arya Ravenwing]

The strong claws on the vornskyr's paws dug into the transparisteel barrier as it hurled itself against it, scratching a set of grooves into the thick wall. Alternately whining and howling, the beast backed off, only to bound around the cell for momentum and then bashing against the invisible wall once more.

A cut opened up on the creature's eyebrow, blood smearing on the transparisteel as it battered itself against it again.

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage's brow furrowed, and his mood darkened.

"Director, she's going to dash her brains out if this keeps up. We need to stabilize her."

[R. S. Esalis]

A nod and another knock at the door.

The officer once again appeared, and Esalis turned her eyes from the raging vornskr to hold her hand out.

Without a word the medallion was returned to her posession, and the Director faced away from the closing door and retreating officer.

She strode evenly up to the transparisteel, crouching down. Her uniform pants seemed to fold perfectly over her bent legs - it was as if everything about her worked as it should for fear of some unknown yet terrible retribution. She held the medallion up before the beast, letting it dangle on its' chain.

"Do you want this back."

Her words weren't so much a question as they were a stern reminder of what she had said before, and of how Arya's cooperation would be the key to regaining the piece of jewelry. Such a thing was a wonderful bargaining chip, and Esalis would use it to its' fullest extent.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya skidded to a halt, paws scrabbling on the duracrete floor. She cocked her head to one side, gleaming eyes fixed on the medallion dangling just out of reach on the other side. The creature trotted over to the drawer that the water bottle had come through and pushed it through to the front again with a shove of its muscled shoulder. Inside her mind it was a battle for supremacy, as her humanity sought to reassert itself against the much stronger animal instinct.

Always it was so – a tightly controlled chaos that was unleashed with the Change. She did not know if it were possible to maintain all of her human processes within the mind of the beast that she could Become, but even if it were, she did not know how. Changing back – that was always hard. When the woman, devoid of color in the sterile environment, made no move to place the medallion in the drawer, the vornskyr grew agitated again. It leapt on top of the table and then down again to stare at the medallion, pawing at the transparisteel.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"Do you see that? Cognitive recognition!"

Karrnage stepped away from the glass, wringing his hands in front of his chest as he thought of this.

"If you want the medallion, Arya, you must bring me the water bottle first."

Of course, non-sentient beings were capable of doing such tasks under extreme training. A successful performance would not confirm his theory, but it would be a step toward it.

[Arya Ravenwing]

The vornskyr made a noise in it's throat, almost a whine, and it lurched forward. Then it put it's head between it's front legs, and shuddered. She could control the Change, but it took a lot of effort, especially when the beast inside was so angry.

To her, it felt not unlike a whole-body sneeze, but this time it was a little painful as her vornskyr nature was resisting the Change. The smuggler looked up from between her arms, and at the man with the tiny eyes on the other side of the transparisteel. Her eyes were still a golden yellow, but her body was back to that of a human female.

Arya got to her feet, walked to the cot and reached underneath it for the water bottle. Walking back, she trod on the torn remains of the grey clothes she had been given. She tapped the bottle on her side of the barrier, and when she spoke her voice was a bit rough. "I'd bring it closer..."

[R. S. Esalis]

"I'm sure you would," murmured Esalis. She had once again taken her seat, sitting with legs crossed.

A disgruntled look was given to Karrnage however. Why would he tell her she would be returned the medallion simply for bringing a water bottle across the room?

The thought was quickly discarded as she turned sharply to look at Arya once again. "Now, would you like to learn more about yourself?"

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage's eyes fixated on his prize. He mirrored her inflections, moving along the glass surface so as to almost pantomime the lupine's movements. He placed a flashlight on the glass pane and shone it at Arya's eyes, the tawny irises contracting the pupils instantly.

"Still lucid. Still sharp."

He made a furtive motion with his hand, as if to reach through the glass and clean the smeared blood from the cut on her head.

"What a beauty you are."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya wiped her blood away from her eye, not bothering to feel the cut on her hairline that was seeping. In a few moments it would begin to scab up, and in a day she might have a scar to remember it by. The colonel was unnerving her with his examination.

"I know what I am." The smuggler looked at the woman on the other side of the transparisteel, managing to ignore the white-coated man who stood mere inches away from her naked body, peering this way and that. Arya tried not to sound sullen, but she couldn't quite pull off nonchalant. "Shape-shifting aliens who are humanoid in appearance are not uncommon in the galaxy." Her eyes tracked down to the medallion which the other woman still dangled from her hand.

[R. S. Esalis]

"So very true, and yet many aren't limited to just the form of a vornskr."

Esalis ticked one eyebrow upwards, regarding Arya with a calm demeanor. "As such - when was the last time you ran in to another of your kind?"

As an afterthought, the Director added, "And that does not include your mother, mind you."

[Arya Ravenwing]

The smuggler turned her back on the window. "If you want to know more about me, I suggest you give me back the medallion."

[R. S. Esalis]

"I'm not above cutting you open to see your insides, you know," was the curt answer.

Not quite a threat, Esalis' words were more a bland statement than anything else - as if she did this sort of thing every day.

"Of course, as much as the Colonel here might not like it," she nodded to Karrnage, "I'm also not above arcane torture methods, either."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Back still turned, Arya's glare could have burnt a hole in the duracrete back wall. With effort she snapped, "'Shifters keep to themselves, or others like them. So, no, I haven't met anyone else exactly like me."

Her hands clenched into fists, held tightly at her sides.

[R. S. Esalis]

"One would think that by now, you'd have found a pocket of those like you, and stayed with them. Since, as you say, they either keep to themselves or those of their own ilk."

Esalis thought for a moment, then continued.

"I find it odd that you have not come across at least one of your species; given that you seem to travel quite a bit, and yet you are the only one of your kind that you know of - don't you find that rather odd as well

"Have you not even heard folktales and old fairytales of Lupines?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

"No." She sounded like a sulky child, but she felt like one too. Irritated, she added, "My mother's lunatic ravings were barely translatable, let alone understandable. She taught me nothing." Arya spat out the last sentance, her anger at her mother overwhelming her common sense.

Common sense, like, don't offer more information than you have to.

[R. S. Esalis]

Esalis gave Arya a patronising smile.

" 'Barely translatable'?

"What did she have to say from what you could translate?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Cursing herself, Arya was instantly back on her guard. "She said not to talk to strangers."

She put her arm up behind her back, and flipped a rude gesture to the two on the other side of the transparisteel.

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage watched the Lupine intently. The Director's questions were pointed and direct, and keeping Arya on the defensive. It left him to his own observations.

Eventually, he got the time to get a few words in.

"Perhaps we can discuss folklore of a different color, Mrs. Ravenwing. Have you ever met a Jedi Knight in your travels before?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

She snorted, "Yeah, and I killed a krayt dragon on Tatooine too." She cast a disdainful glance over her bare shoulder. "There are no more Jedi, Colonel. Your precious Empire took care of that."

[R. S. Esalis]

"And we are a safer galaxy for it," Esalis interjected.

The medallion was placed in her lap, and the Director folded her hands over it. Icy blue eyes bored into the back of Arya's head.

But, it was apparent that Karrnage was following a particular train of thought, and Esalis fell silent to allow the Colonel to pursue his questioning.

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage smiled tautly.

"Yes, I suppose not. The Jedi are more creatures of myth than beings of fact in these times. The question is, what does that make of you, Lupine?

Who created you? Chance? A god? These are all possible, if not scientifically quantifiable. To approach the question rationally, one must assume outcomes that are possibly in themselves irrational."

Karrnage's nervous smile widened carefully and he stuttered as he talked.

"I believe you to be of neither coincidence nor metaphysics, Arya. If I am correct, then you are every bit as contrived as the medallion you seek. Created with intention and purpose. Not for creation's sake, but for a task to be dealt with."

[Arya Ravenwing]

As the Colonel talked, Arya reached for the button up shirt that had fallen off of the back of the chair and was now on the floor. She shrugged into it and turned back around. The shirttails barely made her decent, and she fastened only the last two buttons.

"Even if I am a... Lupine, like you say I am..." her voice trailed off. Arya blinked blue eyes, and she brushed her hair out of her face. "I don't understand."

[R. S. Esalis]

Silent, Esalis busied herself by thumbing through the book she had brought as Karrnage spoke with Arya. It was a masterful copy of the Padawan's journal, even down to the old style binding.

Finally, at Arya's last words, the Director stood - setting the medallion in her now vacated seat - and made her way to the tray that she had previously used to give the Lupine the water bottle. She pulled the tray towards her, and as it came to a stop on her side, set the book into it. A push sent it back, and Esalis finally spoke.

"Some reading material for you."

She once more sat down, replacing the medallion in her lap once again. Eyes on Arya, she waved her hand in the direction of the tray. "It is not a trick; you may look through it without worry."

Esalis waited.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya stretched her long legs and walked to the tray to remove the small book. She flipped it open, and her expression became flat. Closing it carefully, she tapped the transparisteel with the binding. "It's not in Basic."

She tossed it on the table, keeping her face smooth, but her mind was racing. It was written in the same strange language her mother Lesa had journaled in. Where had it come from? What book was this? Another journal? She risked a sideways glance at the book, and then turned her full attention back to the woman.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"Perhaps you should look closer."

The Colonel gestured to the book she had set aside.

"Passages in the journal have been interspliced in both Basic, and a language that we have been unable to decipher. The similarities between it and an older syntax of Caridan can be noticed."

[R. S. Esalis]

Esalis noted the sidelong look Arya gave the book, but said nothing as Karrnage spoke.

When he finished, she addressed the other woman.

"Your mother's journal was written in the same language as much of that. And since it seems to me that you've already read through your mother's literary work, it would be a fresh change of pace to read this."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Yeah, I looked in her journal," Arya opened the strange book at the middle with a finger, scanned the page, and looked up again. "But I can't read it," she lied. "I mean, I can read Basic, but this other nuna-scratch means nothing.

"My mother was a raving lunatic. She wasn't sane enough to teach me how to read it."

[Colonel Karrnage]

"So, you are telling me..."

Karrnage leaned forward to the glass again.

"...what you need to do this task for us is for us to help suppress your sanity?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

"What? No." Arya felt slightly confused at his statement and replayed it in her mind again. "I said I don't know how to read it - making me crazy isn't going to change that."

[R. S. Esalis]

Esalis repeated what Arya had said herself a few minutes before, " 'My mother's lunatic ravings were barely translatable'."

The Director let the words hang in the air, then nodded to the book.

"Barely translatable, to my knowledge, means that you are able to at least understand some of it. Even if you can only give us a small bit, I'm sure the Colonel here would be able to help piece more together.

"And... if you aide him, I'm sure we can see about expediting this," she lifted the medallion up to dangle on its' chain from her fingers, "... back to your possession."

[Colonel Karrnage]

A nondescript plate in a wall adjacent to Arya hissed open suddenly, and a gleaming black sphere hovered forward, its repulsors warbling ominously. A small syringe filled with a white fluid extended forward on a manipulator arm.

"Now Arya..."

Karrnage mewled over his words with a stutter.

"...I look forward to bringing you to insanity's doorstep."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya backed up before she could stop herself, finding herself in a corner. "W-wait... please..." The interrogation droid hummed closer.

They're going to torture you anyway, Arya. The Colonel wanted to know what made her tick, and the woman had the look of a person who enjoyed taking people apart. The hard way.

Besides - who knew what affect the Empire's drugs would have on her unusual physiology? Her forehead popped out with beads of sweat, and she managed to grab the book before being herded back to the corner.

She lifted it, opened the cover to read it -

- but instead of reading the journal, Arya threw it as hard as she could at the droid. She was very strong, and the droid faltered long enough for her to grab it and slam it against the wall.

[R. S. Esalis]

With no visible reaction to Arya's actions, Esalis watched as the droid thudded to the deck. It sparked and popped, motors still trying to function as it wobbled only slightly on the floor. It finally shut itself down, and the Director looked to Karrnage.

"Now Colonel," she sounded almost rebuking in her tone, as if she was chiding a toddler who was mistreating a pet, "that is a bit excessive, don't you think?"

She stood, moving to stand in front of the clear panel.

"Arya, it is not my wish to see you completely ruined in this undertaking. As I and my colleague havesaid, you are the last of your kind. We have no other to fall back upon in the event that you are... damaged.

"Help us to unravel this mystery, and once our puzzle is finished you will be free to go."

[Colonel Karrnage]

Karrnage looked at the ruined interrogation droid with a forlorn expression. He wanted to see Arya and how she would react to a chemically-altered conciousness. It would help to peel the onion's layers, so to speak.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya huffed a bit, and said, "Well then don't damage me, bitch."

She knelt beside the ruined droid, and started pulling it apart. The power cell was intact, the contacts had merely been jostled away and had touched, causing the droid to short circuit. It would have been faster with a tool, but she didn't know what she was looking for. Yet.

The smuggler removed the prominent syringe and looked at it. "Why don't you let me out of here, and then we can talk like civilized adults." She looked over her shoulder at the other woman, squeezing a bit of serum out of the end of the needle. "Unless you're afraid of me..."

[R. S. Esalis]

"I believe 'cautious' is the word you're looking for."

Esalis crossed her arms. "If I were to accomodate you in a more... amenable setting, how can I be sure that you won't take my kindness for granted? After all, you're fringe. Hardly trustworthy."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Guess you're not much of a Sabacc player then, miss." Arya threw the syringe across the room, where it stuck momentarily into the duracrete before clattering to the ground. "Sometimes you have to gamble to win the pot." Or bluff.

Grabbing a likely scrap of metal from the droid, the smuggler got to her feet and walked to the place in the wall the droid had come out from. She could see the seam and jabbed the metal into it, pushing on it with all her might and trying to lever it open again.

[Colonel Karrnage]

Just as Arya begins to apply force to the door seam, the hatch jolts completely open suddenly, sending Arya sprawling back as a second interrogation droid exits the hatch, followed by a third.

Karrnage admired her tenacity tremendously, but now that she was meddling and delaying his plans, he was less thrilled to see her handiwork.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya fell backwards as quickly as she could, but one of the interrogation droids managed to stick its syringe into her upper arm. She tore the needle out, ripping her skin roughly, and threw the droid to the ground in one fluid motion. It sparked, and shorted out, but another droid was on her, plunging a hypodermic needle into her other shoulder.

Her physiology fought the sedative they pumped into her, and the smuggler pulled away from the second droid, blood and a clear liquid seeping from the tear on her arm. It whirred and blinked its lights, and followed her. Arya stumbled, but recovered her balance as her vision swam for a moment. The droid halted in front of her, syringe extended for a third shot should it be necessary.

Anger thudded dully though her body, but the Beast seemed to be inhibited by the sedatives. Being in vornskyr form wouldn’t help very much at this point in time anyway. Arya stuck out her hand and grabbed the extended arm of the droid in front of her, and clung to it as it tried zapping her with an electric charge. She walked to the transparisteel wall, her arm going numb as the droid upped the charge, and slammed the droid into the barrier.

Dropping the ruined droid, she looked at the Colonel and the woman, her right hand seared with electricity burns and her heartbeat pounding in her ears. "Is that all you got?"

[Colonel Karrnage]

She showed resilience in the face of sedation and shock charges. Karrnage would appreciate it more if it wasn't confounding his efforts.

"This is getting tiresome."

He looked to Arya, and then to Director Esalis.

"Director, your sidearm has a stun setting?"

Returning his attention to Arya, Karrnage adjusted his glasses on his nose. If this didn't work, he'd have to pump the chamber with gas or something equally odious.

"We've seen your bark and bite Arya. You will learn to obey Master."

[Arya Ravenwing]

She swayed alarmingly for a moment, but remained upright as she turned towards the back of the cell again. "I obey no one."

The smuggler moved towards the commode and threw up into it.

[R. S. Esalis]

"Of course you don't," Esalis said soothingly - an alarming tone for anyone to hear.

"You're an independant young woman.

"Unfortunately, you're also a Lupine. You're the last vestige of a dead people, and you're the only one who can help us to shed light on a rich and diverse culture."

Esalis paused for a moment, then went on - her next words she hoped would pull at the smuggler's more... enterprising nature, "Not to mention the wealth you would aquire.

"Think about it, Arya - think about the credits you would be paid; all for helping to bring forth the archeological riches of an extinct culture."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"If you were..." Arya wiped at her mouth and leaned wearily against the john, "...planning on paying me you wouldn't have locked me up."

She pushed up to her feet and stumbled to the cot to sit down. "And I've done the whole 'archaelogical riches' thing before. Someone always ends up on the wrong end of a blowgun."

[R. S. Esalis]

Esalis gave another of her patronizing smiles.

"Oh, I won't be paying you. There are thousands of independant researchers who would jump at the chance to speak with you, and I know that you would be compensated handsomely."

She reached a hand out, and patted Karrnage gently on his knee. "As for your current residence, the good Colonel and I simply had to take initial precations; after all, you did give a bit of resistance when you were originally brought here."

[Arya Ravenwing]

She looked at them both with dull eyes. "I don't... I don't believe you." Her eyes closed for a moment, then re-opened as she struggled to stay conscious. Her body was being overcome by the sedatives in her system, though it had taken a very large dose to do so.

Arya swayed, and then fell sideways to land with her head at the foot of the cot, out cold.

[R. S. Esalis]

With an impassive stare, the Director watched Arya fall into the arms of the drugs that had been forcefully pumped into her.

She sat for a minute, simply staring.

"Well," she stood briskly, looking down to Karrnage, "I trust you are satisfied for the time being."

Esalis turned on her heel and began striding back from where she had come at the start of this little endeaver. "I'll be in my office if you need anything else."