Quenched and Tempered - 10.045/47

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She kept to the shadows as much as she could, each half breath a painful reminder of her broken ribs, sneaking around the outskirts of the spaceport. The ship she barely remembered flying in on was gone, most likely impounded if the breach at the palace (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?55383-Abandonment-10-045) had been traced back to it. Lilaena stumbled over an unseen rock, her ankle giving way. She twisted to catch herself with her good arm, the broken one flopping weirdly despite her makeshift sling, and landed in a heap in the dirt. She lay there for a moment, gasping, and then struggled back upright, the Force damping down her pain receptors so she could keep moving. It still hurt, it just didn't hurt as much as it should have.

Lilaena stepped onto the duracrete of the enormous landing pad, the ships arrayed on it in various stages of loading or unloading. A freighter took off in the distance, repulsors appearing to ripple the air beneath them in the harsh lights of the 'port. Her bare feet left bloody prints behind her as she staggered toward the nearest ship, a Kazellis light freighter that was rumbling as it's engines warmed up. The doors to the cargo bay were closing up in preparation for takeoff, and she staggered toward it, her ankle bones grinding together audibly. She slipped inside with a gasp, the heavy doors sliding closed and leaving her in relative darkness.

She felt about, finding shipping crates fastened to the deck, and slowly worked her way toward the bulkhead, between it and another crate. She lay down flat on her back, breathing shallowly. She just needed to gain some strength before looking for a med kit. Just a short rest... Her eyes closed and she fell into dreamless sleep.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

She woke up sometime later to find herself lying in a small, springy cot. She had bacta braces on her broken limbs, plus one around her chest. If De'Ville looked at herself a mirror, she would've been a perfect model for the "before" part of those ads by Xucphra. (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Xucphra_Corporation) At some point the treatment would make her look like the "after" part. At some point.

De'Ville took a look at her surroundings. Pretty spartan. No decorations. Two doors in front of her, one looked like it led to a small refresher.

The second door was blocked by a sloppy-looking vagabond. His black hair was a mess, sticking out in all different directions like he'd just rolled out of bed. His brown/black eyes were bloodshot and partially obstructed by the steady stream of smoke coming from the cigar in his mouth. What De'Ville could see of his face was nicked by scars which bacta hadn't quite healed. He wore a dark shirt, open at the collar, which looked like it needed a wash. She couldn't see the man's hands because they were crossed on his chest. His black cloth pants had a stain of some kind on the left leg, just below a sewed-up rip. The boots came up to just below the knee and needed a shine. The belt had two dangling holsters and had definitely seen better days. But the two silver, pearl-handled Bryar blaster pistols (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bryar_Blaster_Pistol) looked almost pristine.

"Ya been out f'two days," Aurelias Kazaar's voice was gravely, almost hoarse. "Wanna tell me what th'frack ya doin' in my ship?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She recognized him by the smell of the cigar before she saw him, and awkwardly sat up. Her head swam but she powered through it, her eyes flicking back and forth like a caged animal. He was standing in front of the only viable exit. "Didn't know it was your ship," Lilaena whispered after two tries, her throat too dry to vocalize normally. She swallowed painfully, her scant saliva doing little to soothe her throat.

She considered tossing him to the side with the Force and making a run for it, but the wraps on her ankle and shoulder/arm made her speed questionable. He'd taken the time to start patching her up. He wasn't going to kill her. Lilaena took a deep breath and winced, her ribs protesting under the brace. "You look like hell, Kazaar."

[Aurelias Kazaar]

He looked genuinely surprised. For a moment paranoia flashed in his brain and Kazaar almost put two blaster bolts into De'Ville's head. She could have been sent to kill him, but that didn't seem right. Why break almost half the bones in your body just to kill someone? Plus he knew her from somewhere. Just wasn't sure where.

Kazaar's eyes narrowed, bringing out the wrinkles around them. To him, Sestooine (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?21507-Sestooine-Rage) was almost a lifetime ago. It was sure a punch to the face and a broken arm of a Bothan Rebellion Council member ago.

"Ya got me atta disadvantage." Kazaar admitted, pulling the cigar from his mouth. De'Ville could see his scarred hands. "How th'frack we know each other."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She turned her arm over, noting the mottled bruises on her forearm, and then pushed herself off the cot, balancing mostly on her good leg. Good being a relative term, of course. "I met you... a year and a half ago? Sestooine."

He frowned, and she rasped, "Rebellion. We worked together once." Lilaena attempted a step, and teetered before giving up and leaning back against the cot. "I just... I ..." She faltered, not sure how to go on.

How the fuck had she ended up on Kazaar's ship, of all things.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

An ugly look hit Kazaar's face. The Rebels. Even after he'd taken a sniper's bolt to the chest for Mon Razien, they still didn't go all out on the Empire. Something about "we're better than they are" or some idiotic, naive spice dream line. That was before the starkiller missiles and the "Cold War." By the time those got introduced to the galaxy, both he and the Rebellion had had enough of each other. Not that he really gave a flying frack by then. Kazaar had been lucky to only got tossed out, not given to the spice mines of Kessel. Or handed over to Gorgja. Seemed like 'The Kid' gave him one last gift before pulling her own disappearing act.

"Right. Sestooine." He nodded, halfway remembering. Kazaar still hadn't moved from the doorway. "Ya had shit forra blaster. Did a helluva job blowin' up that compound though."

Kazaar scratched behind his right ear, then took a puff from his cigar. "Still ain't answered why ya here. How ya got into my ship. And why ya looked like ya been tossed offa cliff."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"That's a funny story," she croaked, looking for a cup she could fill with water. "Blind chance, I suppose. Needed a ride away from Hapes, crawled into the nearest ship. Passed out I guess." Lilaena pushed herself back up onto the cot with her good arm.

If she remembered correctly Kazaar had a bit of a "damsels need rescuing" complex. It's probably why he'd started treating her injuries instead of just opening up the cargo bay in space and being done with her.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar finally moved and reached behind his back. He held out a cylindrical object, small in his hand but big enough for De'Ville's.

"This lightsaber fall under chance s'well?" His voice had an edge. "Sure don't remember ya using this on Sestooine.

"If ya were a Force user I'd remember that."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I was a Jedi padawan... I am a... Jedi? She kept still, kept her eyes on the lightsaber, and considered her words. But not too long. "I am a trained Force user. I did not have any interest in rejoining the Jedi, so I kept my abilities quiet when I joined the Alliance." She tried to shrug, and winced.

"You smell like you've been marinating in whiskey and cigar smoke."

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar gave an ugly smirk. The expression scrunched the right side of his face and made it appear slightly monstrous. Truth was, no one gave a crap how Kazaar looked (or smelled) and he didn't care either. It wasn't like he was expected to be all gussied up like some fracking display piece. He could dress how he wanted and smell like he wanted.

"Whatta ya m'fracking auntie now?" He still couldn't remember De'Ville's name. Layla...Leia...Lolly...something like that.

He was about to ask her another few questions when a *trilling* stopped him and a squat R7-series astromech droid pushed its way into the room. 'Trey,' as Kazaar called it, had a tray on top of its domed head. It had a gelatinous substance, which looked rather bland, vegetables of some kind, and a glass of water.

"So ya had someone kick ya skinny ass and had t'get the frack outta Hapes. Why didn't ya use ya 'trained Force user' senses t'get ya outta that shitstorm without lookin' like ya went 12 rounds with o'wampa and a kell dragon? They fail ya that bad?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"I cannot say anything that will convince you, and if I tell you what happened to me you certainly will not believe me." She sighed. "Maybe I'm terrible at it. Just give me my clothes back and drop me off somewhere."

Lilaena snagged the water from the droid and sipped it before setting it back down. She peeled up the edge of the bacta bandage around her ribs, revealing purple bruises that covered most of her torso. "I did get thrown of a cliff though, so points for figuring that out."

[Aurelias Kazaar]

This time Kazaar's smirk wasn't as ugly as the last one. "It was either o'mountain or one o'those Force-damned palaces they got. Only things that're high 'nough to cause that much frackin' damage. You're o'lucky dame ya know that? Knew one son of o'bitch who broke 'is neck falling off a cliff.

"Guy deserved it though." Kazaar gave a smoke-filled grin as if he may have been the one who caused the broken neck. "Frackin' asshole."

He threw a thumb over his shoulder. "Ya can try t'get ya clothes, but might be hard...even forra Force User like yaself. Damn thing was ripped t'shreds so I spaced it. Wasn't even worth savin'. Was o'piece of crap."

Kazaar nodded to a part of the small room's wall which had a hinge on it. "There're a few clothes in the closet, but might be o'bit big. Ain't like I been havin' that many guests."

He backed out of the doorway, headed up the hall to somewhere. Kazaar still had her lightsaber. "We're landin' on Taanab in 'bout an hour. Eat up, change an' get up to the cockpit. I'll give ya a ride to the nearest spaceport so ya can get out.

"Don't get lost...and ya welcome."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Vor entye," she murmured as he turned to leave. Kazaar paused, shoulders hunched under his sweat stained shirt, but then he just walked out. The droid jostled the tray on it's head, and she concentrated - lifting it with the Force until the food sat beside her on the cot. The droid whistled at the display, and she shooed it out of the room. "Let me eat in peace, little one."

She wasn't sure she could eat, but the gelatin was almost completely tasteless except for a hint of sweet, and the vegetables were surprisingly good. Lilaena ate as quickly as she could, figuring she'd need extra time to get clothes on over the brace keeping her collarbone and arm in place.

Turned out it was a good thing the shirts were big - she could just button it up over the top of her bandages. The pants were ridiculously large, but there was a pair of women's boots tucked against the back of the closet on the floor. They were the right size, so she pulled on one and laced it up, tucking the cuffs of a her borrowed pants into it. Her mending ankle and the subsequent brace on it would have to do on her other foot for the time being.

Lilaena walked slowly out, her ankle tender but manageable. Trey was in the passage, and she shrugged. "I'm just glad there aren't any mirrors in here." From the looks of Kazaar, he hadn't been bothered by a mirror in quite some time. She hobbled up to the cockpit, leaning against the bulkhead and watching Kazaar as he smoked and prepared for their exit from hyperspace.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Vor entye.

The words rattled around Kazaar's brain for a while. He hadn't heard Mando'a in a while and certainly hadn't spoken it on a regular basis since he was a kid. His mom and dad would occasionally speak it on Brentaal, but that was only when they wanted to make sure Kazaar didn't know what they were saying. To them, it beat whispering in front of their son. Of course, Kazaar did start to understand it as he got into his early teens. It was hard to live in a place called "Mandytown" and not pick things up. The old grocer sure didn't speak a lick of Basic and it was hard to ask for an uj cake (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Uj%27alayi) and shig (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shig) if you didn't know what it meant.

He sat quiet in the pilot's seat, his arm outstretched to the glass of bourbon above the freighter's controls. Kazaar brought the harsh liquor to his mouth and gulped it down. Tasted good, even if it burned. But it helped get his mind working around just what the frack his passenger's name was. Kazaar still couldn't remember. It wasn't any of the names he'd thought before and it was starting to bug him. It started with an 'L' that he knew. Everything else was mush. 'Trey' probably knew but hadn't piped up. The droid tended to have an attitude at times. Which was why Kazaar kept it around.

De'Ville finally showed up, looking less like the dead and more like a hospital patient. Kazaar pointed to a small fridge where she saw more water and a few more containers of alcohol.

"Aw right...spill it." He turned to the control panel, ashed his cigar, and started to bring the ship out of hyperspace. "What's ya name...don't gimme that frackin' look, we only worked once an' I've slept since then. I ain't gonna be sittin' 'round here calling ya 'dame' for the next couple hours. Or 'dame who likes bein' tossed off cliffs.' That'd take too frackin' long."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She grinned, newly healed flesh on her formerly split lips stretching. "Lilaena De'Ville." She helped herself to the co-pilot's seat as he reached for the hyperspace controls, not wanting to stumble down the passage during the reversion to real space if she could help it.

Lilaena reached for a water bottle as the swirls settled into starlines and then those faded into the pinpricks of far away suns. She'd used the words for sincerest thanks in Mando'a, remembering his own background with the Mandalorians of the galaxy. And of course, her own, with the sequestered and slightly more old fashioned Mando'ade from Onderon, descendants of those stranded on the moon Dxun during the Sith wars.

I accept a debt, it meant literally. For the first time in a long while no unbidden thoughts bubbled up about the wisdom of her decisions or actions. Lilaena realized that such doubts must have been A'na, perhaps even since Terephon (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?21826-Out-of-the-Shadows-8-326) when she and Salem had confronted her in the dream. Their actions, designed to bring her peace, had only given the dead Knight a foothold into the real world. Into her.

She owed Aurelias Kazaar her life, it seemed, and it was the will of the Force that it was so. Lilaena did not question it, though she was sure that the crusty former spy would not try to collect such a debt. Crusty... she wrinkled her nose slightly as she cracked open the bottle and the freighter swung down, bringing the bright orb of Tanaab into view.

Very crusty.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar angled his ship down into the calm atmosphere, watching as the planet's green meadows and deep blue seas got closer and closer. The best part about Taanab was how alone it was. It wasn't just backwater, it was beyond backwater. No Rebels. No Imperials. Just nothing but fields and quiet. He smirked to himself as he passed over the capital of Pandath. Beyond backwater.

"We ain't stopping here. I gotta drop m'crap off at home an' check o'couple things." A puff from his cigar as the ship's flight straightened. "Get'cha a transport inna bit."

The only issue Kazaar had run into was a pirate gang which raided farms from time to time. They hadn't killed anyone, but did extort creds from the local population as a tribute. No one knew where they were based, but Kazaar had a sneaky suspicion it was somewhere on planet. The part he couldn't figure out is why the big ag companies didn't try to hire mercs to keep the pirates away. It was possible the pirates were so under the radar no one at the capital had noticed them yet. It wasn't like the group of idiots was about to start Battle of Taabab (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Taanab) II, but at some point someone was going to do something about them.

It took the two about a half-hour to reach Kazaar's home, although De'Ville saw it more as a ranch. It had a one-story house with a small, rectenna dish on top. Flat roof, with a lip which looked like it could be a sniper's perch in a pinch. There was a fence signaling the end of the property line, a dirt road, a storage shed, and a landing pad where Kazaar's ship would go. Behind the house was a smaller grassy field, sparse trees, then a short cliff drop to a river.
The fields in front of the home had a few crops and, to De'Ville's surprise, two nerfs grazing in a grassy field. The animals seemed oblivious to the ship landing, although they didn't go near the pad at all.

Kazaar shut down the ship and stood up. He grabbed an Imperial repeater rifle and a wide-brimmed black hat from their perches in the cockpit. "Keep an eye on things 'Trey.'" Then he strode out of the ship and into the clean, cool air of his ranch.

"There's o'bacta tank inside." He pushed the front door open and led De'Ville into the house. The room was almost empty except for a table, a viewscreen and couch, a battered chair, and a fireplace with a mantle for weapons. This was where the Imperial repeater went, although De'Ville spied a T-28 sniper rifle (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/T-28_repeating_sniper_rifle). The walls were mostly bare expect for a blue banner with the yellow dagger skull of the True Mandalorians, (http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080221060423/starwars/images/d/d9/MandoDaggerSkull.svg) a holo picture of a young boy, who had Kazaar's eyes and hair, and the banner of the
SC Votrad Spacers.

Kazaar pointed to another doorway. "Tank's in there. If ya wanna dunk, head on in."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena limped after Kazaar, the door closing behind her. It was sparsely decorated, unless you counted the wall of weapons, but she withheld comment. She was not one for external frippery and would not judge anyone else who also chose to live minimalistically. "I think I will." She turned toward the door, and then paused. "Thank you again."

He grunted, and she located the bacta tank, an interesting thing to find in a civilian home. Closing the door, Lilaena carefully unbuttoned the borrowed shirt and peeled it off, draping it carefully on the control console for the tank. Belt, pants, boot, everything was folded and placed to the side except for her underwear. She clambered up to the top of the tank and sat on the edge while she started removing the braces Kazaar had placed on her broken bones. Bacta was a miracle substance, with various ways to apply it to an injury or illness, but bones were still something that required a little more time to heal. He had done a good job setting the breaks, and taking off the braces left her feeling weak and vulnerable. She sealed the oxygen mask to her nose and mouth, and slipped silently into the pinkish goop.

She concentrated, the Force swirling around her in the tank and outside the tank and inside her body. The broken bones were obvious signs of trauma that a youngling would have been able to detect. Lilaena dug deep, thinking about how it had felt to excise A'na from her psyche, her strength growing at the memory. She held onto her emotions, channelling the Force like a whirlwind into her damaged parts, the broken ends of bone reaching for each other, painfully knitting together...

Lilaena bobbed to the top of the tank, gingerly pulling herself out. Her collarbone and arm felt weak, but sound enough to put her weight on. She wriggled onto the grate, excess bacta dripping off and back into the tank as she pulled off the mask. Descending to the ground, she rinsed off in the warm water shower next to the tank, stripping off her soaked underclothes and wringing them out before using the Force to complete the removal of water from the fabric.

She dressed as quickly as she could, lacing up the boots tightly over her weaker ankle for extra support, and made her way back into the sparse living room. She had no idea how long she'd been in the tank, but from the look of the sun outside it had been less than an hour. "Kazaar?" she called, looking closer at the weapon racks.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

There was a *whirring* sound from somewhere and the viewscreen near the fireplace suddenly turned on. De'Ville turned and saw it was showing a holo-feed of the land outside the home. It took her a minute to realize it had to be the R7 droid 'Trey' who put it on from his station in the freighter. She supposed that was what Kazaar meant by "keep an eye on things." Monitor security, show possible threats when needed.

Kazaar was standing out beyond the porch, his hands at his sides. He had a cigar in his mouth and his brimmed hat was low on his head. Kazaar had also put on a jacket which went down to his mid-thigh. Mostly covered 'The Twins' in their holsters.

He wasn't alone. Two humans and green-skinned Verpine, which appeared to be missing one antennae, stood in front of him. There was a fourth person in a speeder up the dirt road. The mangled body of an old man was at Kazaar's feet and De'Ville could see smoke coming from a broken section of fence near the crops. Looked like a speeder bike of some kind had smashed into the fence and blown up. The old man must have been thrown from the impact.

"Ya wanna tell me," Kazaar's voice had a harsh edge, "What th'frack ya bishwags were doin'!" It wasn't a question.

One of the humans, a fat man with a bandolier across his chest and a blaster at his side, spoke up. "Sowwy man. We didn't think no one was home."

Kazaar shifted his right foot back a step. "Really? Ya assholes didn't see th'Force-damned freighter parked here? Th'frack is ya damn problem an' what th'hell this guy," he pointed at the broken body, "do to you?"

The Verpine answered this time, "Why do you care?"

"M'fracking neighbor f'one." Kazaar's right hand strayed down to his belt in an almost natural way. "Helped m'build this place too an' didn't ask a buncha dumb questions."

The three others stared at each other and the fat man spoke. "Sowwy. But not your business."

That earned a sneer. "Ya outta ya Force-damned frackin' mind? Guy was headed my way an' ya blow his damn bike up so he ends up on my land. Ya think it ain't my fracking business? My land. My frackin' rules."

The three others just shrugged. "He wouldn't pay," the Verpine offered, hoisting his blaster rifle. "Chose to run. Owed us food and 'protection.' Creds you might have."

"Might have creds. Might not." Kazaar's tone had strangely gone matter-of-fact. "Why'd I hafta give it to you chuff suckin' chakaars? What if I ain't interested?"

The trio laughed. "We convince well." The fat one's cheeks were still bobbing up and down.

Kazaar shot him first through the neck. The fat one gasped and fell. Another blaster bolt left the Verpine with a smoking hole in its chest. The third one was able to get his blaster out but hit the ground with most of his head missing.

Three shots. Five seconds. He hadn't even dropped his cigar.

The speeder the three thugs had ridden in was already headed to the gate and down the road. Kazaar kept his blaster out just in case but the men he shot were now corpses.

He smirked. He'd stepped in it now...

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena stepped out to the edge of the porch and shaded her eyes against the sun. "Friends of yours?" she called out to Kazaar where he stood with the three bodies. She started walking out toward him.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

"Hell no." Kazaar went to the bodies and started going through their pockets. "Knew 'bout 'em. Never seen 'em."

They didn't have much equipment. Cheap, crap blasters and a few creds. A couple of vibroblades too. No real identifications or orders. Except for a map of the surrounding farms. "Some pirates been doin' raids around. Frackers started on one side o'the planet an' finally made it out here. Ain't been hittin' major cities, just smaller farms here'n there." He held up the hand-drawn map. "Looks like these sons of bitches were goin' up to every ranch an' farm out there t'try to get some sorta tribute. Make 'em look like a bigger group than they actually are. Kinda smart in o'shitty way. Lotta folks here still remember those pirates that Calrissian dealt with b'fore Endor. Frackers preyed on that fear t'build up their rep."

De'Ville had joined him at the bodies. Kazaar pulled a bloodied jacket off the fat man, strode to the old man's mangled body and rolled him on his back. It was an ugly. De'Ville could see just part of a skinless face before Kazaar dropped the jacket on him. "These assholes ain't gonna wait 'round forra response. Don't matter how words gets out. They're comin' back...prob'ly t'try to make some kinda frackin' statement o'power. Bad 'nough they had t'kill a guy, they lost some o'their own. Gotta hit back or folks might start thinkin' 'bout standing up for themselves.

"I can have 'Trey' take ya to Pandath." He smirked and started sauntering back to the house. "I'm gonna wait f'them to come 'ere and skin every last one o'those sons of bitches alive."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"I can stay and help," she offered to his already retreating back. "I owe you."

Lilaena looked at the bodies for a moment, and then turned and followed him back to the house. "That was some pretty good shooting, and I'm not saying you can't take care of yourself because I know you can." He turned on the porch and looked at her, his face scrunched in that perma-scowl, cigar clenched between his teeth. She put her hands on her hips, pants bunched ridiculously around her small waist with the belt. "You still need someone to watch your back."

[Aurelias Kazaar]

"Whatta ya m'frackin' conscience now?" Kazaar's words were harsh. "Been doin' all right by m'self. They come here. I kill 'em or they kill me."

Then he remembered her words...Vor entye...she was gonna take a debt regardless whether he wanted her to or not. Dammit all...

"Fine...fine..." He raised his arms almost in surrender. It was the closest to an apology De'Ville was going to get. "Ya wanna help...I got some gear ya can use. You're a pretty frackin' tough broad, walking 'round with no brace. Bacta's a helluva drug eh?"

Kazaar didn't wait for her, but went back inside the home. "Here." He tossed De'Ville her lightsaber and grabbed his repeater rifle from the wall. "Gear part one. Figger ya gonna want that." He smirked. "Something else too."

He slid a chair at the table over just slightly to where De'Ville could see an indention in the floor. That indention turned out to be a cover over a hole. "C'mon...stuff's down here." Kazaar's voice called as he climbed down a ladder. The climb was longer than De'Ville expected, but she quickly realized why. Kazaar had led her down into an almost fallout shelter beneath his house. The large room was fully lit with almost every wall covered in weapons, except for three doors to somewhere else. It was pretty obvious, while Kazaar kept his primary weapons in the house, the more powerful (and illegal ones) were downstairs.

"Ya might be o'Force User but bet ya know how t'use this." He pointed at two display cases in a corner. "Older than what most o'folks use these days, but figure they still work. Ain't like Mandalorian armor's changed that frackin' much. 'Cept maybe th'helmets."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Newer than what I'm used to," she said, her eyes flicking over the well lit wall of weapons. "Is that a disruptor rifle?" Lilaena smiled crookedly as Kazaar grunted and popped the cases displaying the suits. She walked over, running her hand over the smaller set. "At least I know this one fits."

Lilaena pulled Kazaar's oversized shirt off over her head and let the pants drop, and she heard his feet move as he turned around to look the other way. After all she'd been through recently, it was refreshing to have a regular person with regular person problems. She slipped into the bodyglove, the special fabric internally reinforced with mesh at key points to help protect what the armor plates wouldn't cover. "How many pirates are you expecting?"

[Aurelias Kazaar]

"Hell if I know," He admitted. "Outfit ain't been that active so no more'n...15? Anymore'd stir up a ton o'shit."

Kazaar removed his jacket, then his black shirt and grabbed the top of the bigger armor set. He put it on, then put the jacket back on. For someone who smelled all boozy, the armor wasn't tight. Doing farm work had its advantages.

He pointed towards one of the doors. "Out there is o'tunnel that'll lead ya to o'treeline near m'property line. Figger we can hit those frackers on two sides before they get their asses outta their heads. That saber o'yours still work?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena thumbed it on, and the purple blade emerged with a snap-hiss. She deactivated it. "Still works." She clipped it by it's D-ring to the utility belt on her suit, and finished fastening on the armor pieces over the bodyglove. Everything in place, she headed toward the door, pausing to pull a DL-44 heavy off one of the walls with the Force. She looked back at Kazaar, stained pants and rumpled jacket, and smiled tightly. "See you up top."

The Dark Jedi walked through the tunnel, using the helmet's infared function to see where she was going, and extended herself outward through the Force. Above her she sensed two larger life forms - the nerfs - but nothing else bigger than a rodent. After a few minutes the tunnel ended, and she climbed a ladder up, pushing the trapdoor outward with the Force as she did so. Newly healed muscles protested as she hauled herself out and headed for the treeline.

How long would they have to wait? She checked her chrono and then clicked on the commlink built into the helmet. "I'm in place. Nothing going on out here."

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar was staring over his weapons options as De'Ville reported in. The repeater rifle and sniper rifle might be good enough, but ex-bounty hunter was all about over preparation and plenty of firepower. Which kinda pissed him off on De'Ville's choice to use the DL-44 heavy blaster. It wasn't a bad weapon, but there were better choices out there. Kazaar shook his head...Dames and their goofy choices. He grabbed a rail detonator off the wall, made sure his personal shielding unit was fully charged and climbed back up the ladder into the house. He'd set the house layout together so it would give him plenty of cover and a good viewpoint of the field in front of him. The only problem was he needed to be higher to have a clear view of the property line. That meant being outside and uncovered if the pirates had an attack shuttle of some kind.

He exited the house, went around the back, climbed up one more ladder to the roof, and lay prostrate next to a pair of weathered macrobinoculars. The sensor dish tossed an odd shadow which would serve to make him harder to see by the ground. At least until the blaster bolts started flying. Kazaar took off his hat and stared through the macrobinoculars. "In position. Got nothin'...hang on...see the speeder?"

There were six people inside the speeder: a Verpine, a three humans, and two Geonosians. All heavily armed, wearing patched together armor. Two swoop bikes followed bringing three more humans into the fray. Kazaar grabbed his T-28 sniper rifle and put his sights on the driver of the speeder. He was a human with a ring on his nose and a bad beard. Didn't look like the leader of the bunch. The man sitting next to him, wearing what looked to be a heavily modified Imperial uniform, did. He had shaggy grey hair and wore a rank insignia around his neck as a necklace. Kazaar figured he wasn't an actual Imperial, but used the garb to show how much of a bad ass he was. That actually made sense.

"'Trey,' get ready t'give us some coverin' fire. Time t'take the frackers out."

Kazaar aimed back on the driver and pulled the trigger.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The speeder went past on the road, and then a swoop bike. Lilaena waited for the second swoop and leapt out of the treeline at it, the Force sending her much further than normally possible. She slammed into it, wrapping up the rider in a bear hug, her lightsaber hilt jammed into his ribs. She braced herself as the bike swerved wildly, the rider desperately trying to get it back under control, and thumbed the activation plate on her lightsaber. The rider jerked, and then went limp, and she jumped free of the swoop, the bike spinning out and crashing into a tree trunk.

Lilaena landed running, tearing after the first swoop that was starting to turn back toward her as Kazaar's ship opened fire on the speeder.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar's sniper shot hit the driver in the face, blood and brain matter splashing on the riders behind them. 'Trey' followed up with a few bursts from the freighter's small blaster cannon (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ax-108_%22Ground_Buzzer%22_surface-defense_blaster_cannon) which splashed across the hull of the speeder. The pirates were already bailing out of the speeder when it slowed to a halt in Kazaar's crop field, its left engine smoking. Several pirates dove behind it, in hopes of using for cover. Several others ran for the fence Kazaar's nerfs had just jumped over. The Geonosians hovered in the air before another second sniper shot sent one to the ground with a hole in its wing. The second flew for the treeline and just avoided a third blaster bolt from Kazaar.

Kazaar had press down against the roof as the pirates made their counterattack. They sent blaster rifle fire in his general direction, unsure where he actual location. None of the bolts came close to hitting him, although several chewed up the edge he was hiding behind and forced him to roll to his right underneath the sensor dish. 'Trey' sent several more blasts at their speeder, mostly to give Kazaar time to catch his bearings.

His black eyes caught movement from the right fence. Three pirates looked like they were sneaking down the other side, probably hoping they could make the storage shed near the landing pad. Kazaar grabbed his rail detonator. He'd have to get to one knee to fire, but the pirates seemed focused on the freighter at the moment. He aimed where he last saw a human head and fired. The explosion ripped apart some of the wooded fence, but Kazaar couldn't see if it killed anyone. He fired a second rail and this time saw a body fall. That gave him a small smirk before he hid behind the dish as the main pirate group started focusing on him again.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The second swoop slewed around, it's back end dragging because of the extra weight it was carrying. One of the riders jumped off, leveling his blaster at Lilaena's running form while the other person gunned the engine and headed straight for her.

She deflected the incoming bolts, the first two going wide and the third straight back at the shooter. The swoop rider didn't even know his partner was dead as he tried to run her over. De'Ville stepped to the side and planted her feet, dragging her saber into the bike as it went by. It destroyed the engine, severed the rider's leg at the knee, and caused the bike to spin out behind her in a cloud of smoke and screams.

A Geonosian flew toward the trees and she thrust out her hand, accelerating it into a tree trunk. It hit with a wet crunch and fell to the ground, still.

She jogged down the road toward the house, the speeder off to the side in the field, apparently abandoned. An explosion on her left drew her attention, but didn't seem to take out any of the pirates who quickly returned fire, aiming at the roof of the house.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar ducked out of cover for a second and fired another rail, this time at the smoking speeder. It missed, but the explosion seemed to cause some of the blaster fire to die down.

He turned back to the group of pirates which tried to flank them and grabbed his repeater rifle. Two bursts and one of the pirates went down. His world went green a moment as several bolts danced off his personal shielding unit and Kazaar aimed again and fired. This time another pirate went down with two holes in his arm. He'd live.

Kazaar switched towards the pirates huddled by the speeder, briefly glimpsing a purple blade bobbing as it came towards him. De'Ville. She was alive, proving her worth in a fight again.

Something else caught his attention. An object flying in fast on the homestead. It had two glowing engines extending out of its hull. He couldn't see the pilot beneath the canopy plating where the cockpit and pilot should be. He'd seen an image or two in the Alliance database. It was a Nemesis (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nemesis-class_gunship) gunship. Whoever the pirates were, they'd been able to find one on the open market somewhere, because those things were expensive and rare. Kazaar wanted one, if only to see how its Hellcaster cannon (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hellcaster_cannon) worked.

The problem was, this particular Hellcaster cannon was aimed right at his home and streaming death towards it. Kazaar leaped off the roof for better cover as the ammunition chewed into the wood and stone of the walls. He rolled away, hoping to get enough time to dash for his freighter.

Then the house exploded as a concussion missile slammed into it. It sent debris flying, with some of it crashing down on Kazaar's back.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville threw up her hands as debris from the house flew toward her, stopping the wood and stone fragments in their path. She could sense the still living pirates running, back toward their speeder in the field as the Nemesis swung around for another pass at the house.

What was left of the house, anyway. She felt Kazaar, still alive, somewhere in the wreckage of the building. Lilaena turned her attention to the gunship bearing down on them again. She didn't feel any fear. A'na had made her memorize schematics and weaknesses of nearly all the Imperial war machines. Nemesis was bloody difficult to take down, but not impossible. And this pilot was not an Imperial. His eagerness to blow his load, as it were, was evidence enough of that. She turned to face the oncoming ship as it loosed another concussion missile, this one aimed for the freighter just behind her.

De'Ville shoved with the Force, knocking the missile off it's course up into the sky where it looped around and then returned to it's original path. Except the gunship had continued to fly forward and was now in the path of the missile, skimming over top of Kazaar's freighter. The concussion missile slammed into the Nemesis, sending it crashing in a ball of fire half a click past the parked freighter. Lilaena sagged with exhaustion in the middle of the road, lightsaber disengaged.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar pushed. And pushed. And pushed. He saw the darkness start to be pierced by streams of light as he got the debris off of him. His face hurt and it felt like something was stabbed through his left cheek. His whole body hurt. But he kept pushing. The wood and stone was heavy but he got rid of the debris and stood up.

The pirates were gone, but he could see the trail of smoke from where their speeder was going. He looked for the Nemesis but didn't see it. Kazaar stared in the air and spotted another large smoke trail. He followed it with his eyes and saw flaming wreckage by the river. Damn.

Kazaar limped towards where De'Ville sagged on her knees. He couldn't see her face, but had a feeling she was tired. Kazaar tried to wipe the left side of his face. "FRACK! FRACK!" There was something sticking out of his cheek. He gripped it and pulled it out. It was a long shard of wood, which probably left plenty of splinters in his face. More scars to join the rest.

His freighter's engines were revving up. 'Trey' was probably going to pursue the pirates to make sure they didn't get far. Kazaar tried to smirk, but gritted his teeth.

"Ya alive?" He called to De'Ville. His feet were heavy but he kept going towards her.

"Ya fight like o'damn devil." Kazaar figured out a way to smirk without pain being too bad. "W'nna go kill th'rest or let th'droid do it?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Let your droid take care of it," she agreed wearily. "There isn't much fight left in those." Kazaar nodded, and his freighter lit up the field with the blaster cannon. The speeder's engine exploded somewhere behind her as Lilaena pushed herself up to her feet. "That looks like it hurts."

He raised an eyebrow, and she gestured. "Your face. Think your tank survived the house? You could use it."

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar smirked again. First on the left side, which hurt like hell, then on the right side. "C'm'n." He didn't think he had a broken jaw, but the way he was talking, it was always possible. He wouldn't know, but part of his skin was actually hanging off of his face. Kazaar went back towards the smoking wreckage of his house. One wall somehow survived, but everything else had been flattened and turned to smoking cinders. Kazaar would go through the rubble later to see if anything important had survived.

Instead, he kicked debris near where the table had been. He uncovered the hole down into the fallout shelter and started crawling down. De'Ville followed him. Kazaar went towards one of the doors in the compound which apparently wasn't a tunnel. It slid open, revealing two beds, another door (which probably led to a tunnel), a tiny refresher...and the Bacta tank. It had somehow been moved from the house to the shelter. De'Ville saw two durasteel support arms connected to the wall. The support arms went up into the ceiling and probably all the way up planet's surface.

"Been b'ild'ng this s'nce b'fore I join'd th'Rebs. F'gured Crei or s'me oth'r assh'le w'uld try t'get me. Or 'mp're m'ght bomb th'plan't. Cost f'cking f'rtune. Par'no'a's fun." Kazaar grabbed a bottle of liquor from one of the beds, opened it, and took a swig. He then stripped off his armor'd shirt and his boots.

"H'w good 're you at s'wing?" He pointed at his cheek. "G'tta 'least fix th'cuts. Ain't int'rest'd in 'xtra holes on m'face."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Impressive," she said, but she didn't really care what he'd been doing in his spare time. She had to admit this was very useful, but spending the time to fortify your house so it wouldn't blow up might have been credits well spent. A shield generator, for instance.

De'Ville studied his face and shook her head. "Sew? We have modern medicine where I come from. Don't you have any synflesh?" All you had to do was put the flap of skin back in place and press the synflesh over the top to hold it still. Combine that with a bacta dip and he'd barely have a scar. Obviously, from looking at the state of his face and body, he had been doing his own version of battlefield medicine for far too long.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

"Synthfl'sh don' h'ndle th'ins'de." Kazaar stuck his tongue out of one of the wounds. It hurt like hell, but he was trying to send a message. He honestly wasn't sure if synthflesh didn't handle the inside, but it was how he handled repairs. Sew it up. Bacta it up. Then synthflesh if needed. "'S'des. D'mes dig sc'rs.

He found a needle, threaded it, then poked it into his cheek. It hurt. Poked it out and it hurt more. "Ya g'nna help m'or not?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Give me that," she snapped, carefully taking the needle from him. "And stop talking." De'Ville pulled a latex glove on her hand from his medical supplies and stuck some fingers in his mouth, holding everything in place while she stitched. One stitch, knot, cut thread, start over. They sat in silence while she worked, and when she was done she stripped off the glove and threw it in the garbage.

"That should hold you together." Her stomach growled, and she got up to look for something to eat. It had been a very long day, and she'd expended far more energy than usual. Lilaena found a ration bar and opened it up, biting off a big piece. "We expecting more company after this?"

[Aurelias Kazaar]

"Doubt it. Think we got 'em all." Kazaar could talk a bit better. Jaw still hurt like hell. "Gotta mini-kitchen an' some food there. Other side o'bunker. Nerf steak." He put some synthskin over the flesh which had peeled away. At least that could be solved without the bacta dip. "Premade meals too."

He stripped off his boots and pants and started climbing into the tank. "Make yaself at home. 'Trey' oughta be down 'ere soon if ya need anythin'. Just don' break th'place."

Kazaar dipped himself into the tank, secured the rebreather and gave a salute in thanks.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville made her way into the kitchen, and rummaged until she found a can of nerf stew. She cracked it open, poured it in a bowl, and warmed it in the microwave until it steamed. She made her way back to the cots, and sat cross legged on one, spooning food into her mouth. She sat facing the wall, giving Kazaar his privacy in the bacta tank which gave the whole room a pinkish glow, and felt her bones ache from their overly quick healing. She reached for the Force to shut the pain from her mind, and then stopped. Embraced the pain.

She'd earned it. She had defeated A'na - her influence was over. Perhaps her teachings would always be in her head, but Lilaena no longer felt compelled to obey them. She had been through the fire and emerged...new. Stronger, even.

Independent.

Lilaena mulled the word over in her mind as she sat on the cot, leaning slightly on the wall. After a few more minutes she was asleep, sitting up still, soup spoon in her hand.