All That Remains: The Answer

[Byl Laprovik]

Dac


The beep of the comm broke the dead silence of night. Byl woke with a start, a quick breath of air as his eyes snapped open. He glanced to the window. There was no tell-tale pitter-patter of rainfall blowing against the side of their apartment tonight. It was dead quiet for once. Even the din of spacecraft coming and going was nowhere to be heard. Careful not to wake James, he slid out of bed. Bare feet padded across the apartment to the window he faced, and the desk below it. Across the sea, he could see the black of night turning deep purple. Still some time before dawn.

Only now did he look down. The received message light on his comm was blinking. Starborn. Another mission.

Byl sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he looked back to the window. This new life. This half of a life. With Alliance Intel. With James. Hoping. But that feeling over his shoulder. The not knowing that kept him from full sleep, even now when he should feel like finally moving on. Whatever Starborn had for him next was exactly that - next. There was no catharsis. He did the work, because he knew how. He returned to James, and to the unfair position he'd put her in. She waited with him on the precipice, hoping that this was for real. Hoping for better than she'd had. It was criminal. Every night coming back to her. To her arms and her lips. Waiting. And he was never entirely there.

Enough reverie

The blinking light continued unabated. There wasn't any point in delaying it. Byl pressed the button to queue the message, ready for an expectant hologram to appear, to send him to the next task. Except the hologram didn't come at all. The message had transmitted, in text.

If you want answers, you'll find them on Hoth_ (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?23246-Deception-Stealing-from-Poseidon)

Byl again blinked the sleep from his eyes. The text didn't change.

"James."

[James Prent]

She sat up and had her legs swinging out of bed almost before she was awake. "What, what is it?" James peered through the darkness toward the window, finding Byl silhouetted by the moonlight. His face was illuminated by something in his hand.

James yawned, and pulled her feet back under the covers, sitting cross legged while she waited for Byl to talk.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl's hand cradled around the comm, fingers tightening around its contours as he held it close.

"I don't know."

He looked back at her, his figure silhouetted against the pale lights of the floating city far beyond. It was so cryptic. And yet...

She looked at Byl expectantly, and for lack of an answer he could put a finger on, he returned to bed and passed her the comm to see for herself.

[James Prent]

The adrenaline that had pumped through her at the sound of her name, waking her from the dead of sleep, was receding quickly and she scooted back into bed, snuggling against Byl as he joined her. He handed the comm unit over, and she rubbed the remaining sleep from her eyes, focusing on the bright letters.

If you want answers, you'll find them on Hoth_
(http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?23246-Deception-Stealing-from-Poseidon)
She sat up, her heart pounding again. "Who sent this? Is it..." Her voice trailed off, and she looked up at Byl, her eyes wide.

[Byl Laprovik]

"There's no return frequency."

Sitting next to James, Byl felt her heat radiate against him, a constant reminder of all the time they'd spent running together. Thin or flush, up or down. They'd endured it all. And now?

"I have to go."

[James Prent]

"I'll pack," she said, flinging off the covers and padding barefoot over to her dresser.

[Byl Laprovik]

He wanted to stop her, to pull her by the shoulder and put her back in bed. It's too dangerous was the always-handy excuse. And it very well might be. Whatever had robbed him of his memory was tied up in the fate of a Jedi Master who had fallen to the Dark Side, and to the secret Sith Lord now poised to pull the strings of the Alliance.

Too dangerous? Almost certainly.

But she knew that too. Her eyes were open, same as his. She'd seen all of the same things he'd seen when they were running. She had her own demons to settle too. What if he was able to help her? What if unlocking these stolen memories could make him a better person for her? She needed him. Needed him enough to follow without a second thought to Hoth.

Even the name of the planet pulled at something in him. Some memory that wasn't there. Something deep.

Hoth.

Wordlessly, Byl rose from the bed to follow James, and they both packed their kit together.

[James Prent]

She pulled on a pair of pants, sitting on the edge of the bed because she still got wobbly sometimes if she stood on one leg. The damage done to her legs had healed years ago, but the scars remained, and the fact was that she would never be a strong or as steady as she had been before. Still, despite the betrayal of her body, she felt strong. James fastened her boots and stood up, slinging her bag across her body. Everything she owned no longer fit into one bag, but the things she left behind here in their tiny apartment were just that. Things.

There wasn't that much anyway. A couple dresses and some flimsy shoes, and some knicknacks she had picked up at the market to try to make the place feel more permanent.

"I'm ready," she said simply, turning away from the apartment to face Byl. "I don' really have any cold weather gear, though."

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl nodded.

"I'll put a word out to Starborn. To requisition some things. She'll..."

He thought of their time on Bothawui, and what words they'd shared. He wasn't ready to trust Starborn fully, but they had common goals.

"She'll understand."

Stepping close, Byl put an arm around James' shoulder, standing at her back.

"We're not running, James. Not anymore."

[James Prent]

She leaned her head back against his shoulder, and smiled wryly. "We are runnin', only this time we're runnin' right at 'em."

James twisted around in his embrace, and kissed him on the mouth, reaching up and pulling his face down toward hers. Her breath caught in her chest, the unbidden thought rising that this is it. One way or another, things would never be the same again.

They parted, gathering their kits and leaving behind the apartment behind them as they walked out into the silent night.