Prey for Life

[James Prent]

Walk to the store. Walk back to the hotel. Don't use the comm. Don't access your accounts, use the cash chit we authorized before we left Cloud City. Don't act nervous, in small towns they can sense when outsiders are anxious. Don't forget to smile.

Smile.

James Prent forced her shoulders to relax as she walked out of the grocery store, cloth bags weighing her down unevenly on either side. She limped down the sidewalk as wheeled vehicles rolled by on the paved street. Copperline was a blip on the astronavigational map of the galaxy, a small time agricultural planet that was still working on harnessing the energy of all its natural resources.

It was near to Bespin, but not too near. And they'd been there for almost two weeks and there hadn't been a peep of any Imperials sniffing around for them.

Them. Her and Byl. Byl. James' cheeks heated a little at the thought of him, her stomach feeling that familiar flutter. When everything was going wrong around her, he was the only thing that seemed to be right. And at the same time, he was like a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time before he regained his old memories and left her. She was ashamed, but she'd prayed that he never remembered.

This time of the evening there weren't a lot of people out and about, most inside with their families eating dinner. She tried to lengthen her strides, but at five feet tall she wasn't going to be getting anyplace real quick. Soon enough she came up to the hotel, and hauled her groceries up the stairs to their second floor room.

Their room. She flushed again, and fumbled with the keycard at the door. Byl didn't open it for her when he heard her there, which was unusual. She finally got it open, wedged the heavy door with her foot, and deposited the grocery bags on the floor by the door. "Wow, that was -"

Byl put a finger to his lips and she let the door close, instantly on guard and worried from the look on his face. After a few silent moments there was a knock at the door from outside.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl pulled James along into the adjacent room, careful to not make a sound. Already his blaster was drawn from his waistband and at his side. When he was confident he was out of earshot of the door, he whispered in James' ear, careful to be both clear as well as quiet.

"Check at the peephole. Two women. One brunette, one red-head. Nod once if it's them."

Carefully, he approached the door with James again, pressing himself gently flush against one wall as he stood out of sight, watching her face. While James was gone, it seemed their room had been the object of curiosity. He was surprised he'd even noticed them, and that's what was troubling. If it was the two women, they knew well enough to be extremely subtle.

He could see the tension on her expression. Knowing eyes watched her as he mouthed a silent It'll be okay.

He wasn't going to let the Empire catch up to them.

[Jane Starborn]

Jane waited a bit impatiently outside the door to a cheap motel that looked like it might have been made out of plasterboard and wooden nails. Her blaster was tucked into the back of her pants and hidden with her jacket, but ready to be pulled out should anything... interesting happen.

Eluna looked at her, and then knocked again.

The tension built, much like during the extraction mission Jane had been a part of three years previously. Her fifth mission as a junior Operative, Jane had scouted the building, relayed the layout, and then none of it had mattered because the Imperials 'guarding' the mark had put a blaster bolt through his head before they could get to him.

And her thirty-eighth mission, an Operative this time, at a hotel similar to this one instead of surprising the target he surprised them by bursting out and shooting Tage Walsin in the chest and nicking Sanik Polk in the arm. Tage had looked surprised when she'd seen him lying there, dead. Polk hadn't stopped swearing until they'd gotten in the shuttle, and she'd shot the target. Center mass, and then in the head.

They'd had to leave Tage there with the mark. Jane had to go through his pockets to double check that there hadn't been any identification left behind. Of course there hadn't been anything except for a receipt for a toothbrush he'd bought the night before. Green, extra soft. It had cost two credits.

Jane looked at Eluna. Was Ms. Prent going to answer the door? In a few moments they were going to have to kick the door down and go in after her.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna had already prepared for the contingency that violence was a distinct possibility. She stood nearby, looking entirely casual as they waited.

"I suggest letting me take point. If she's irrational enough to answer the door with a blaster, I can take that better than you can."

[James Prent]

James took a deep breath and opened the door. She only opened it part way, and noted the two women, one red haired, the other brown. Her mouth went dry and she nodded. "C-can I help you?"

"James Prent? I'm Captain Thals and this is Agent Starborn of the Alliance. May we come in and talk to you for a few minutes?"

Alliance? Now that was unexpected. But perhaps it was a ploy to get her to reveal something. "Um, do y' have any identification?" James peered at the ident that the brunette flipped open for her, still keeping the door only half open. "Its not really clean in here," she said lamely, trying to keep the women out of the hotel for as long as possible.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl shook his head, which he hoped James could see in her peripheral vision. The two at the door weren't giving her any information they couldn't easily conjur into a lie. She was right to ask for identification. Still, he had some concern, even if they were Alliance. He still had no idea about his own narrative. Even if James was familiar with the Alliance, could he guarantee that it would be in their best interests to meet.

Considering his options, he didn't know if there was an alternative. He waited to hear more.

[Jane Starborn]

"That's okay," Jane said, seeing the girl's suspicion and accepting it. "We don't have to come in. But we would like to ask you about Byl Laprovik. I know that you spent quite a bit of time with Captain Laprovik while you were with the Fourth Fleet. Has he been in contact with you recently?"

The girl's eyes widened just a bit and she looked down while talking. "Uh, no. I haven't seen him in weeks. I mean, months." She looked up, "Is he in some sort of trouble?"

The door still didn't budge an inch, and Jane didn't want to traumatize James any more than they had to. There would be no forced entry today.

[Eluna Thals]

She was lying

Eluna was no slouch on reading body language. Her eyes betrayed her, at least somewhat. She was convinced Prent was caught in a lie, the question was the size of the lie, and the context. If it was Eluna, she'd already be through the door, and Prent could speak clearly enough with a boot holding her to the floor. It wasn't her say, so for now, she backed Starborn's play. Still, she began to suspect that Byl was close.

"There's no trouble, no need to worry. We're colleagues of his from Alliance Intel. We've been trying to make contact with him for some time now."

[James Prent]

James did not look in Byl's direction. She took a deep breath, working at what little Lok had taught her about Jedi meditation to keep her face as close to a sabacc face as possible. With his amnesia no wonder no one can get in touch with him.

But she'd never seen these women, and could not rule out the possibility that they were Imperial agents. Any moment now they might shove their way in and have her in stun cuffs, no matter what she told them.

"I wish I could help you, really." James shrugged apologetically. She really was sorry. If they were Alliance, then this nightmare could be over. They would have protection, could go to the fleet and not have to worry about stormtroopers kicking in the door at night. "I... I met him on Cloud City a few weeks ago. But he didn't stay long. Just a few nights."

Her cheeks colored lightly, and she added, "I dunno where he went. An' then things got heavy an' I had to leave."

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl felt the color drain from his face as she confirmed his presence on Bespin. That wasn't going to let them off their scent. It was chumming the water. Dead silent, he strained to listen to the women on the other side of the partition, only diverting his eyes back to James when she mentioned their...

...whatever it was.

For the briefest moment, Byl's thoughts clicked off of fight or flight, and he lost himself in thinking about James. What would they do? Could they even run at this point?

Byl turned, pressing his blaster against the wall in the "best guess" trajectory to hit one of the disembodied voices. From this range, he had a decent shot at it. The only thing keeping him from pulling the trigger was the sight of James, exposed and vulnerable. Was it worth the risk?

[Jane Starborn]

Jane saw a shift in James' eyes, and recognized the concentration of an adept. Eluna's stance changed just slightly, her head shaking almost imperceptibly. Prent was making herself harder to read, managing to mask whether she was telling the truth, or not.

Not for the first time Jane wished for an IR scanner, but she wasn't equipped and the Force knew if Eluna could do such a thing, or if she had already tried. "You've seen him." Frustration nearly made her forget all her training, but she held herself together. "Look, I know you don't trust us, but I think he's in trouble and we need to bring him in. General Dan has made some serious accusations against him, and if anyone else finds him first... they won't be polite."

[Eluna Thals]

The bantha in the room was the fact that they were on Copperline in the first place. Eluna calmly asked the question they'd danced around.

"What brings you to Copperline, Miss Prent? It's hardly on the beaten path, unless you're into animal husbandry."

She stepped towards the door, looking deceptively vulnerable as she met the human's eyes.

"It is, however, an excellent place to avoid Imperial entanglements. If I needed such a place, I would choose it too.

You bought two tickets here. Who used the second ticket?"

[James Prent]

She felt like a nuna in the headlights of a speeder. "Ah... my brother Sanis. Only he didn't use the ticket. Frellin' bastard bailed on me." Some actual emotion tinged the words, a little heartache from how things between them had ended up.

James hunched up a bit, as though trying to appear smaller than her five foot height. "Imperial entanglements are exactly what I'm tryin' t' avoid. I'd go someplace else but..." her voice trailed off a bit helplessly. "I don't have anywhere else t' go. An' he might still show up here."

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl kept his eyes on James, exhaling as silently as he could as he eased the barrel of his blaster away from the wall. She certainly sold the lie, at least. Maybe it was a lie made halfway of truth, and maybe she had a brother named Sanis. Either way, it seemed to come out credible. Whether the two women accepted it was something else.

He gave James a reassuring nod. Whatever she was doing, she was doing it well. As well as they could expect, given the hand they were dealt.

[Jane Starborn]

"Sanis Prent." Well, he certainly had a reason to have stood her up - he was with the Wheel now, the convoy of mismatched ships the Jedi and Alliance had put together to protect the beginnings of a new Jedi Order. Something Eluna was not cleared to know anything about.

"He is rather notorious for being unreliable," she said. "I've read much about him and his dealings with the Alliance. And of course, how he brought you to us in the first place." Jane looked at the shorter girl sympathetically. Burnt at the stake. No wonder she was terrified at everything that came knocking at her door.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna raised an eyebrow at Jane's words, not expecting her to give James' excuse much weight. The human must have some reason to accept the story, the droid concluded, so she remained silent.

Her analysis of James' expression and inflections certainly didn't give anything away to indicate a lie there. Maybe the implausible was the most likely option then.

[James Prent]

James' lips twisted into an approximation of a smile, though it was closer to a wince. "Agent Starborn, is there some way I can reach you, if I need to?"

"I was just about to suggest that," the dark haired woman said. She reached into a pocket, pulled a small dataslip out and handed it slowly to James. "If you hear from Byl. Or need any assistance at all." Her expression was warm, not unlike the other woman, but there was something about the red haired captain that James didn't quite trust. She couldn't put her finger on it, but the woman seemed... wrong somehow.

James tentatively took the slip, putting it into a pocket in her pants. "I will." She paused, "I promise."

Captain Thals stared at her a bit longer, but the two women walked away, James shut the door, and no stormtroopers or Inquisitors had burst in from windows or back entrances. She slid the deadbolt into place and then found herself sitting on the floor, her legs suddenly turned into jelly.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl dropped to the floor, sliding along the door frame until he rested beside her with his legs bent in front of him. Gun-hand resting on his knee, he reached his other hand around James' shoulders, pulling her towards him as he whispered in her ear.

"It's alright James. You did it. You were perfect."

Looking beyond, Byl had to wonder how they made it. By any accounts, they were dead to rights. Her lie, it seemed, carried something in it that pushed them off the trail.

"Brother?"

[Jane Starborn]

They didn't talk until they were down on the ground floor. Standing in the parking lot looking up at the unit Jane said, "We should follow up on the rumor out of the Dauntless. If Byl was on Cloud City a few weeks ago, he could have been picked up by someone reporting to Dan."

Still, she stared up at the hotel room, as though she was expecting two silhouettes to appear in the closed curtains. Jane shook her head slightly. Intuition was game she never played.

[Eluna Thals]

"More importantly, was Sanis Prent?"

Eluna's problems with Jane's judgment were now at liberty to be revealed.

"We have nothing to suggest he was there, although admittedly, nothing to deny it. We did, however, trace Byl to Bespin, and we have records showing James left Bespin for immediate transit here. She knows Byl, so this isn't simply some coincidence."

She looked to her counterpart.

"If James Prent leaves Copperline, it may be difficult for us to ask her a second time."

[James Prent]

His arm was warm and comforting, and she stared at the gun in his hand as he murmured into her ear. It was so black. Like it was swallowing up the light in the room.

"Brother?"

She nodded slowly, her hair smushed against his shoulder as she remained comfortably leaning on him. "Sanis Prent. He's a... he's a smuggler. I didn't know I had a brother until months after we met. Turned out our father frequented prostitutes on Nar Shaddaa. Like m' mom was. An' his. Anyway, he's my half brother, an' he was the one who dropped me off... after...

"Krasst," James wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. Was she frellin' cryin' now? "Anyways... He's flyin' with th' Alliance now, last I heard." She wiped at her cheeks again, stubbornly. "Y-yeah, my brother." She pushed away from Byl, crawling to the forgotten grocery bags on the floor nearby and dug through them for the fresh pack of stims she'd bought earlier.

Her hands shook as she tried to get the plastic wrap off.

[Byl Laprovik]

Immediately sorry for bringing it up, Byl followed her along the floor, helping her with her stims, putting a hand over hers as he eased the plastic band free.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to -"

He looked down, not sure of what to say. He didn't want to pry, and here he was, tearing into what looked like old wounds. It wasn't fair to her.

Kissing her forehead, he rose to his feet, scooping up two of the grocery sacks.

"I'll tend to this, okay?"

[Jane Starborn]

"If she leaves, that dataslip is embedded with a dormant tracking bug. Once I activate it it will ping me with its location once every hour until it is neutralized."

Jane turned to the Human Replica Droid and added, "Mr. Prent was not on Bespin, though her story of him making plans with her could be true. We will follow up on that as soon as we can. His current mission for the Alliance is classified, however, and digging into his location will be difficult, at best. Disastrous at worst."

She began walking back towards the street where their rented wheeled contrivance was waiting for them. "Any more questions?" It wasn't meant to cut off Thals, it was an honest query.

[Eluna Thals]

"I would like access to Sanis Prent's classified mission profile."

It never hurt to ask. If it was classified beyond her clearance, that was one thing, but Eluna wasn't going to stop simply because it was inconvenient.

[James Prent]

James nodded, not trusting her voice. She got her stim lit with difficulty, and drew in a long pull. Smoke drifted out of her mouth and nose after a moment, and she exhaled slowly. "I'm... I'm sorry. You don't need t' be sorry."

She still sat cross legged on the floor, watching him put the groceries away in the small coldbox and cupboards. "I shipped out from Nar Shaddaa with Sanis a few years ago. I worked with him on his freighter... it was fun. But on one planet..." Her voice cracked, and she took another pull from her stim before continuing.

"I got separated from th' others. I used th' Force - didn't know I was an, you know, an adept. But on this backwater shithole the locals grabbed me." She smoked the stim like it was giving her life, the smoke punctuating her words. "Said I was a witch. They... they tied me up and burned me alive."

James looked over at Byl, who'd stopped moving and was just listening. "Sanis swooped in an' saved my ass. Th' next thing I knew I was with th' Alliance fleet. An' I met you."

She stubbed out the used up stim, eyes bright with tears again. Byl had never asked her about her scars, just as she'd never asked him about his. But he had a right to know, especially with the Alliance and Imperials breathing down their necks.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl paused in the midst of his unpacking of groceries, setting a few jars in his hands on the counter. He again returned to his spot next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"You've had a lot to deal with James. It isn't fair, but I'm starting to think that fair's got nothing to do with it, as far as the way the galaxy works."

His icy blues looked over her sad features.

"You're all I've got, James. Maybe I had something else before. I only have half the answers. I'd rather have you than to give a damn about the other half."

He pulled her toward him, wrapping his arms around her.

[Jane Starborn]

"When we get back to the fleet you can log a request with Director Van-Derveld." Jane offered Eluna a half smile. "The parts you'd be interested in are classified beyond Top Secret. You'll have to trust me on this.

"We need to rendezvous with Fourth Fleet and the Dauntless, as soon as possible." Jane tossed the HRD the keys to the anachronistic vehicle, and popped the passenger side door open. She gave James Prent's second story room another look, still seeing nothing out of the ordinary about the curtained window.

[Eluna Thals]

"I agree."

Her quest for answers regarding Prent was blunted in the short term. She would have to accept an alternate course of action, which would coincide with Starborn's suggestion.

"If we have nothing further here, Copperline is dead weight. At least we can keep track of James Prent."

[James Prent]

She sank into his embrace, burying her face against his shirt. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

It was the gods honest truth. What would she do without him? If those Rebels had come in, and seen him... or triggered his memories... would he just leave?

Yeah, he said he'd rather have her than those memories, but once they came back would he want her to stick around? James clung to him a little tighter, her fears slowly drying up and being replaced by something quite a bit warmer. But...

"What if they need you? Maybe you were on some important mission... or... the fate of the galaxy rests on your shoulders?" She sat up a bit, but didn't let go, causing their position to wobble a bit. "I mean... I want to be selfish but..." She felt like she was going to start crying again.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl didn't want to think about what she said. He resisted it outright.

"Whoever they say I am, what I did or didn't do, it'll still feel like I'm wearing second-hand clothes. I don't know how to feel about that, James. I don't know if I want to even open the box and look. What if I see something I don't like?"

A restless leg bobbed a bit as he sighed, looking down. He was battling with his feelings, shrouded in ignorance as they may be, against a cause that may very well be as just as she suggested.

"Maybe it's naive to think I can keep running. I want to hope that if I stop, I can do it on my terms."

He looked up at her again.

"Our terms."

[Jane Starborn]

Jane nodded, closing the door to the vehicle and fastening the seat restraint. "Well, lets get to the space port then. Make sure that slimy looking Toydarian didn't tow my ship and break it down for parts while we were gone."

Copperline is dead weight. Maybe. No, the HRD was right. There was nothing else for them here. She rolled down the window and let the wind blow in her face as Eluna drove them back towards the port.

[James Prent]

Our terms. She liked the sound of that.

The warm feeling inside began to spread, her body realizing how she was pressed up against him and responding accordingly. "We can't run forever," she said, still a little sad despite the hormonal reactions taking place.

James squirmed a little, her arms moving from around his body to his shoulders. "But we might be hunted forever." She leaned in again and tilted her head up, her lips almost touching his.

[Byl Laprovik]

"Let's think about that some other time."

It was all that Byl could say. He knew they'd have to come to terms with this, but for now, they were alone. They could pretend they both controlled their destiny for another day.

He pressed against her lips with his, feeling the cool of the stim chems on her lips against his own as they embraced, the weight of their latest drama again falling from their minds.

Byl imagined with his mind's eye a future with James. Every time, and no matter how idyllic, he was always looking over his shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop. One day, he wanted to stop looking at all.