soft epilogue
BASTION // IMPERIAL CAPITAL COMPLEX // OUTER PALACE
ENEMIES//TSE: Allyson Locke
ALLIES//GA: [DISTANCED: RYYK + RAIDER SQUADRON Maynard Treicolt // Ryv // Kir Dantos ]
J U D A S
ENEMIES//TSE: Allyson Locke
ALLIES//GA: [DISTANCED: RYYK + RAIDER SQUADRON Maynard Treicolt // Ryv // Kir Dantos ]
J U D A S
There was a tremble to Loske’s expression when Allyson explained her stance. Everything about the woman across from her hardened, calcified in a knowing resolve. The only uncertainty left was the end. A coin flip on the odds of survival. Never tell a Corellian the odds. That’s why she didn’t know.
The incessant, nagging accusation of lonesomeness felt like sandpaper in her mind. Why was Allyson so intent on operating solo? She had a swathe of companions on the Galactic Alliance. Why did her objective depend on their abandonment?
Where she’d been picking up crosscurrents of doubt before, remorse, regret, abandonment, there was now calcified, crippling purpose and Loske realized the conversation was almost over.
She’d pleaded for Allyson not to give her a reason to abandon her. Begged the Corellian to return to their friendship, concealed in the sanctuary of warmth and welcome. They could make it work, they could get her help.
“Please don’t give me any reason to give up on you,
And I won’t.”
If there were ever a reason significant enough, that one reason would be Maynard. Every time. As much as he was her strength, he was so obviously her weakness.
"The moment you enter this world, enter my world. Your world is over. Stop chasing me. You're putting Maynard in trouble.
If something happened to him, would you be able to live with yourself? If something happens its all your fault. That's why I do what I do, why I cut all of you off. I won't have your blood on my hands."
Allyson’s suggestion wouldn’t be the first time that partnership was nefariously exploited. Loske grit her teeth at the insinuation, her molars grinding tightly. The unease in her gut thickened.
"You are why he is weak."
They promised together, always. Following Allyson was not an option for Loske. No matter how much she loved her friend, who she’d been and all the potential within the Corellian for purveying goodness, the hierarchy of her heart was indisputable. Putting him in any situation where he’d be jeopardized, again, she couldn’t do it. She’d learned that lesson so painfully on Harnaidan and was still, constantly, trying to remedy her atrocious hubris from that day.
It was a tragedy, the way he loved her. If she said yes to chasing Allyson down, she’d commit her relationship with the wayward Mandalorian to the greatest failure.
"Still...even with everything else going on you were there with me. I don't know if I'm that same person, that I was over Dubrillion, without you. Something about...even just knowing you're there with me, feeling you...its...its reassuring. I know because, Harnaidan it was all...off. All the pain, amplified, all the tears visceral. Because I- I didn't know what happened to you in the end. With you there, right with me..."
In the numbing grip of despair, with the hollowest of voids devouring her heart, the moment became bleak and livid. That was it. She’d trusted Allyson before with her life the way she trusted her heart to beat. It was more than instinct. It was automatic. To do anything else would have been strange. Allyson had pulled her from Muunilist and stayed with her while she was on death’s door. She’d promised to love and cherish Loske’s brother. She operated in an X-Wing under Maynard’s command. And now she was pushing her away. Far away. Threatening her.
From now on, the trust Loske had handed out so freely would be refined –– maybe for a long time, maybe forever –– she’d have to wonder about things she hadn’t before. Wonder about betrayal. She was resentful, even angry, that her faith had been shaken.
Words were trapped in her throat, clawing at her larynx. They manifested only as a surprised gasp when Allyson disappeared from sight. Only the muted, blinking whisper of their ethereal link gave any indication that the turncoat hadn’t departed from proximity entirely.
Hazel eyes saturated in emerald flecks, appeared at Loske’s level. They flashed with an absolution Loske hadn’t seen in the Corellian before.
"It's better if you think of me as the enemy; it makes it easier."
"I'm sorry, my friend."
Time to parse the information was not afforded, and as corporeal as Allyson was before her, so too was the falcon punch to Loske’s gut. The hilt of the saber met purchase in the girl’s abdomen. A part of her body that had been shot, stabbed, seared so many times that the tissues impacted by the strength screamed out in agony. Her breath pushed from her stomach through her throat and dared not to return, leaving dizziness in her head and numbness in her hands that operated now out of instinct. If Allyson ignited that saber, the kyber infused blade would tear asunder her stomach with no armour.
While the pain bloomed, the kiffar’s hands flew to wrap around Allyson’s wrists, yanking her forward and down and planted the side of her foot against Allyson’s to ground in the twist and give herself more strength to the downward juke of her former ally. She snapped backward on her feet in the opposite direction, jostling from the position and flashing her saber back to her grip. To keep the momentum, it came around in another chopper-like arc above her head before finding its way downward to where Allyson’s trajectory would lead her, a strike that would cut from shoulder to waist.
At the top of the stairwell, someone shouted something, repeating an order. Loske’s ears were still partly ringing from the earlier explosion. The roar of gunfire sounded louder, deeper, like something else. More animal.
Around them, chaos erupted. New Imperial soldiers turned on their companions, slaughtering them in the streets. Panic clutched Loske’s chest, tightening its grip as she looked around. Force users were dying.