Private Nephilim's Edge

[Karlie Lynn Destat]

"...stop it you two..." She teasingly struck Rom.
I've been taking my beatings seriously." Yes, pertaining to the puppy dog eyes.
ok ok, admittedly Karlie did try the puppy dog eye trick. But she weren't up to par with Rom's reflexes and Karlie's fractional moment of hesitation, at a pivotal moment of distraction caused that momentary opening to lapse in a blink of an eye. Hey, what would one expect, going up against an android...any android. Just that the one the blonde was pitting her new found skill happened to be the best of the best.

"Huh huh...Ok, later..." she barely peeped a reply upon Magnus' exit. it weren't that she didn't care for Magnus. Magnus had become as good a sister/friend as West. it were just that she had received a good flogging by Rom and...and well... it was kind of like make up time.
To TALK!
Yes...talk.

Hmm... Rom.

Rom Rom Rom
Alone again with Rom...hmm.

Yes, Karlie had the notion that she were in complete control of her disposition. Rom was- ...Rom had to be her friend. It were the only way it would work. Besides, Karlie were monogamous by nature...or by design. maybe more so by design if one factored in Darth Rigor's 'one mate per cycle' nature. Karlie was, on a genetic level, Karla reborn. Perhaps the only true vessel upon by which Darth Rigor's tormented life could secure a second chance at real life...life without pain.

As it went, after Magnus left, Rom professed what Karlie meant to her as a whole...her entirety.

It took Karlie back a minute.
"How could weakness be a desired trait?" Karlie were thinking. But it were exactly that which the greatest warrior Karlie had ever witnesses were seeking to learn from her. And she had seen her fight on Heretic Station...to the very last inch of her existance in protecting her.

Karlie had never kidded herself; she were more bark than bite when it came to fighting. But that were ...before. Before her bad-ass training in the castle.

Ok, so in all seriousness she were absolutely no match for Rom at all. Her bruises, aches and pains attested to that. And that Rom had not really been fighting her. It were all mock exercises. All of her training here with Rom, Magnus lady LiVes and the Morpheus Knights. Although she were able to whoop some ass with those knights as of late...hmm...
Still... mock fighting. Not real life and death.

"Heh..." She looked away a moment. The question was, what made her the way she were?
"... If I knew that, I'd know the answers to life and creation itself.." Karlie replied before meeting Rom's orbs again.
Who really knew themselves really? One perception of one self never mirrors how other see you.
But-
Yes, there was a nagging but that existed from the beginning by which had ultimately shaped and influenced Karlie from her very beginning.

Karlie's eyes were on Rom's, but they became distant...retracting to forgotten memories...maybe her first ever memories when she were still suckling on her mother's breast.
An incoherent melody...her mother singing to her as she fed?
Then as a toddler, walking for the first time into her mother's waiting arms...
Later still cuddling safe and warm next to her mother as Karla helped her to read...Karlie could have been two...three?
Kindness... not just memories, but true feelings of kindness from her mother.
And that included Empathy..
Love.
Love always. Karlie could not remember any thing other than love and kindness from her mother.
No discipline, no loud words...no anger or disappointment from her mother...ever.
Her mother had nurtured her with love, kindness and understand in all her stages and steps. It were what shaped Karlie.
"Gasp!" Karlie suddenly pulled away ..pulled away from her memories and from Rom, immediately standing up.

"No.
No...those can't be true." She spoke to herself, as she looked around her room. Magnus had left, not a minute earlier. There were no one but Rom, her and her heartbreaking discovery. It were as to the 'why' she had found it so difficult to accept the facts, the recordings, the events, history and the present onslaught of her mother's doings. Karlie had never experienced anything but love from her mother...until she became of age...then the hauntings, the ghost of her once beloved mother tormenting her to reel her in. It were as to why Karlie had to sever that connection. Sever that ghost. But now that ghost had come to life and it were not as kind, loving as her mother had once been...as she remembered and felt once.

"Rom, you asked me what makes or what made me, me." Karlie seemed off balanced, unsure...disbelieving as to the revelation she just had.
"My mother." She finally blurted out those painful words.
Speaking those words made them more real...made them true. And as her memory served, it were true.

But how could her mother love her as such to ..to only want her gone?

"I were raised to be the way I am by my parents. by my father..mother..by Rigor...by Darth Rigor..." There was no denying as to whom shaped her. Even after her mother suddenly were taken from her; her father Tarssin saw to it that his daughter were continued to be brought up as a descent human being.
But of course, Karlie were very young when her mother had been found by Tarssin to be none other than the ominous Darth Rigor that had stained Castagne throughout most of it's history.

"I don't know why.
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, in light of all that Rigor has brought up all of us...even her alignment with that witch, the Amalgam.. " Karlie were trying to figure it out as a mathematical equation. It all didn't add up, not to mention align with all of what Rigot had set up decades ago and brought down upon Castagne, her and House LiVes..aligning herself with that horrid Amalgam.
Karlie could not deny these truths. They existed both in Castagne's history and she had experienced them herself...at great costs to life.

"Seems then..." She finally were coming to some kind of conclusion. "...it's a choice I'd made a long time ago with the support of my father. I know it was a choice, a path, to remain who I had come to be...Karlie.
And no one can take that away from me, including Darth Rigor. " She said, falling silent for a moment. before a smile started to form.
"Berkana, I swear I will be Darth Rigor's worst disappointment." Karlie chuckled, before feeling the soreness of her ribs.

"Damn you hit hard." She said, lightly pressing on her sore ribs, trying not to laugh again.
The bacta and ice treatments were working, but she were not so quick to regenerate as Rom was...not by a long shot.
"But I did that. I saw myself opening up before I even completed what I was trying to do. You let me know my mistake.
Heh, I guess if I were a goon, I'd be laying on the floor cut in two, huh?" She said, making light of the fact that her ass had been handed to her by possibly the deadliest weapon this side of the galaxy.

 

[Westenra Mina]

Westenra was still waiting when she saw Ian Sade pull up.

Her heart beat a little faster, bit her lip a little bit. She wanted to rush him but then remembered his psyche profile. He'd likely be freaked she had come back from the dead...technically.

She still felt so horrible about having out Ian in danger. Just because she wanted to be normal. Dark rage built in her towards those who had ruined the moment. She vowed to track them down and feed on them.

She played it cool, keeping a steady pace as she walked towards him. Her pheremone systems were shut off as usual out of respect.

"I'm relieved you are alive." she said in a friendly way though she stopped at a respectful distance to let him psychologically process the fact she was alive as well. "Its good you survived. At least our dance was not a complete and total disaster."

She felt she had to make it clear she hadn't actually been dead.

"I wasn't 'actually' dead, just to clarify. I was just so badly damaged during my attempt to buy time for you that it would have been extremely difficult and slow for me to regenerate entirely on my own. I would have gone with you but I was starting to suspect it was me they were after. With the amount of hardware they poured in there, you would have been at a severe tactical disadvantage. I calculated it was better to give you more time to get away by taking down as many as I could, as no doubt you had your own people on the way."

She hoped it wasn't long winded, the explanation. Gods he had been sexy breaking that man, the lustful part of her thought, to her more civilized self inwardly recoiled in shame. What the hell was wrong with her?

Still, Nineties Heart Throb looks.

Westenra began to wonder if he would recoil. She feared that possibility. She easily saw how she could be mistook for demonic. She sometimes feared she was.

"I was thinking we could track down the ones who sent the creeps who barged into that place. I mean, if you don't mind us teaming up...again..."

 

[Ian Sade]

No amount of planning, mind set or predisposition had prepared him for how he were hit, upon seeing her. Ian slowed his approach, as his eyes took her entirety. If he had prepared his self in what to say, what to do..be they on index cards or recited over in his head a thousand fold...it all went out the window. he were unprepared on so many levels.

Ian stood there a moment taking West in before him. She had covered him, putting his life before her own. There were so many things processing through his head.
Droids...
Battle droids were designed to do that. Only Nine's creations were no battle droids. They were more than that...way more.
But no one had programed West to act in such a manner. It were not West's hard programing, nor protocol. Nine had explained that to Ian of her creations, of her daughters, from the start.
No, West had chosen to do what she did on her own accord. Same with her sister models, especially the Vera unit. Tarssin's daughter Karlie had been protected in the same manner. He knew that.

"You've-
Aherm...." he never thought words could ever choke him up like so.
"... you cleaned up very well." He finally broke in after her attempt at making light as to her regeneration.
Yes. Yes she did clean up well. Not a hair out of place...except for maybe a few strands framing her face.. It were as she had never been in that firefight whatsoever.
Ian on the other hand still had scuffs and scratches on his features. They had been treated, but still needed time to fully heal. Bacta certainly sped up superficial cuts and bruises, but it still took days before full skin/tissue would heal.
Here was West now before him, looking like she had just bathed, showered and spruced up for a formal dinner at the capitol building.

"My apologies-"
No. No that was not the word that had much true meaning behind it.

"Sorry..." that was more like it. "....for not coming over sooner." Ok, it were more than just a few hours past...Dawn were currently breaking.
Yes, Ian realized his reluctantly had not been one of curtesy, nor taking into account the fact that West was by all measured scientific standards, intelligent. Intelligence at the level of real consciousness... the ability to feel, both physically and emotionally.

"I've no justifiable reason or excuse other than my own failings to have realized you are more than what I or anyone had presumed you to be." Ian knew he had to speak his thoughts out loud, for they had remained reclusive for too long.
Karlie had seen Nine's daughters as real entities for some time now, and in almost the same manner or bizarre circumstances, had experienced them in the same manner he did... in a trial by fire.

"I had found myself to have been failing, Westenra Mina." He spoke her full name. It put everything on a concrete plane. "What I struggled with, were my own demons. " and he had plenty of them. Only at this moment, they were all repressed, heeling-..no no, cowering like bad dogs before their angry master.
"I didn't realize that I had surrendered too much of myself to them." Ian were Ian. perhaps the first time detached from his former self than he could remember.

"At this moment... I don't see how you would think about partnering up with the likes of someone like me. I'm no model of man. ...but someone who has failed around many turns of even being human." He were meaning his roller-coaster ride of emotions toward her.

Then...
It were not something he thought of, or planned on doing. On the contrary, all that which he had previously struggled with and come to conclude with initial conviction had been thrown out the window the minute he came upon her coming towards him. Her entirety had suddenly embraced him with a kind of revelation. It were not a Godly Revelation, nor one of spiritual, but of man opening his eyes to woman. Perhaps for the very first time...for Ian that is.
It were when his own humanity or the realization in the lack of it which came to him.
Without thought or anything more than his own desire to touch her, Ian reached out and parted a stray of her long bank, tucking it behind her ear.
Such beautiful features...so soft her skin were to his touch...his fingers contacting her cheekbone.
At that moment, he wished for none other than to be a better man, than what his own father had created.

 

[Westenra Mina]

Ian Sade was positively adorable as he tried to explain himself. But there was no need to explain. Not to her. She couldn't change how Ian would react. But the fact he was almost stammering made her heart pound.

"I've never been human at all. And I've failed at trying to be human a good number of times just as you have. We're both alike in that sense.

She envied his ability to feel pain. She memorized the injuries she could spot so she could do worse to whoever attacked him.

Especially when he reached over and brushed her hair back on one side. She was unable to stop herself from biting her lower lip, the faint purple glint at the center of her eyes.

Her hand caught his gently as his fingers touched her cheekbones. Her fingers glided over his. She was amazed at just how far out of his comfort zone he was going...she had hardly ever seen him act that warm in the open. Even with Karlie, who seemed to be among the few beings Ian 'did' demonstrably have regard for. Granted, she was the Viceroy's daughter, but still...

She let her hand drop away so Ian could pull his own hand back.

"I really don't mind it, Ian, teaming up. We both want to be...more. More than what we are currently...why shouldn't we team up and kick ass while becoming better?"

West had never felt like this over anyone other than Ian. He had such sharp edges and angles to him.

She got a little closer to him. Her own hand reached out, touching his cheek.

"You really are a remarkable man..." she said softly. "You've had my attention ever since you shot me, and reminded me I could die...it was a great gift you gave me when we first met: the knowledge of mortality...I see your scratches and bruises, and crave your ability to feel them. I envy the fact that you will retain them. Marks of wisdom. Knowledge...experience..."

She leaned forward and whispered in his ear four little words:

"It makes you hotter."

West leaned back, "I'm going to put out feelers for whoever did this. If I find something before you, you'll be the first to hear about it..." she added with a flirtatious smile at him.

 

[Ian Sade]

He could say that he never met anyone like her before... at least in the way she seemed to be on his mind as such. It were the most conflicting feelings he had ever experienced.
Shoot, feelings altogether.

Ian knew it weren't the drug...the pheromones she emitted. West had not enticed him in that manner since Alzteri. It were West herself, his own attraction to her that he seemed to be struggling with.

Ian had never knew love, just duty. His own father whom Ian had point blank shot him dead affirmed his loyalty to duty and system. Ian had been raised, elevated by his own father's ambition for him to the level he were currently at. It were as if Ian's destiny had been laid out for him in his earliest childhood. A mother Ian never knew, for she died during his birth.

Ian had known many women. To many to recall, for they had little to no meaning in his life. A few worth of any importance were of assassination assignments... they had been enemy of the state. Seduction had often been his game, never the other way around.

But West-
Westenra affected him. She hurt him bad...real bad.

Still, through thick fog of his deepest desires, Ian still managed to tread the deep, he could still rationalize and remain afloat despite that sinking feeling of surrendering it all.
Oh how he had wanted too so many times already. Even now.
But what then?

What then?...

She spoke of wanting to be more. He too had begun questioning his life, his father's actions and motives that had lead him to this very moment. he too had lately desired to be much more than that which he had become.

"Heh...
Seems you and I are of a kind, in that aspect." he sighed, knowing they both could be wishing, reaching something unattainable....like reaching for that pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Still, her very presence there before him told his spirit otherwise. Was the impossible, really possible?.... he took to ask himself.
West weren't excreting any pheromones, yet he were point focused on her, as if she had flooded the entire subterranean wing.
But West hadn't. hadn't for his sake in quite some time...not even to dumb-nub the mercenaries whom had decimated her to pieces not the night before...

West, despite Ian's rationality as to whom and what she were, was as real to him at this moment as any . West was all flesh and blood to him, even if she truly weren't.
It had taken, he realized. He was hooked.

He could only look into those orbs after she whispered in his ear.
No, it weren't pheromones that had him at the moment. It were his own desire for her.

He nodded.
"We can do that.." he then said, meaning teaming up as West had proposed. "...we can forge a team....you and I." This of course hadn't come as an order or even a suggestion from either of the houses they served. What it was, was solely initialized by their own will, or attraction to one another.
This, as Ian knew it were a pact between them both...it were an understanding...a spoken one at that.

So this was it then...
Two assassins, deadly by their own right... were making a pact.
Of course there were many synonyms attributed to the concept of what a 'pact', an agreement between two entities could mean.

But 'pact' at this particular time was as satisfactory a term to them for a start, as any other underlying meaning it also had.

 

[Karlie Lynn Destat]

A few more painful weeks later...

Karlie had begun to enjoy the cold baths following her daily grind at the dojo...or so she called it. Nine certainly were her grand Master, with Vera leading the main spars now, since Karlie had taken to engage her as Nine had expected. This of course left her sensei Nine to test/gauge the blonde and adjust/fine tune the ensuing follow up sessions to Vera. Of course Vera would be in Rom Jin configuration, being that Vera configuration were not designed to be a full on combatant. Although she were by all standards the most lethal of assassins elite.
But what Karlie needed were not clandestine killer elite skills, but rather weapon skills. As it turned out, the blonde were found to be more proficient on defense than offense. The girl just couldn't come to define a death blow to her opponents if you beat her to the edge of unconsciousness. And pain? Karlie hadn't done well with pain before her training and didn't fare any better after either. But aside from not being able to buffer her pain, she nevertheless never would surrender...not till she lost consciousness.
It were certainly a strange and quite difficult a condition to break. All in all, the blonde's fighting skill had indeed improved ten fold...just that in all mock battles, she hadn't yet scored a virtual kill. Rom, along with Magnus had at times purposely faux an open window for her to deal them a death blow. Of course both (Rom and Magnus) had the capability to regenerate and recover, but Karlie never dealt it. Instead, she came to recognize these faux attempts for her to do so. It would then infuriate Karlie to the point of throwing down her weapon and walking out on the sessions...sometimes mad at her opponent for hours on end.

This of course had been one of those attempts and the blonde were chilling in what was an ice bath...literally ice cubes and water bath.
yes, this proved to be more therapeutic than a cold shower as it greatly reduced the day's welts and bruises enabling her for a much faster recovery. Then again, she were furious that Rom had opened herself up for her to strike her down and Karlie were mad about it. Since she weren't talking to Rom, Karlie couldn't receive her bacta rubs. As thus she resorted into taking an ice bath.
of course, this also cooled her hot temper off too. reason she would only remain mad for hours and not days.
Besides, her sensei would not allow her to avoid Rom, nor Magnus for more than that day's passing as it would result in missing more training classes. And so it went.

It were mind over matter. The ice cold bath was freakin freeeeeezing!
But Karlie had realized as her sensei had explained to her some time ago, that a small session in the ice did her body wonders. Painful and discomfort for sure, it certainly constricted capillary veins keeping and preventing her wounds from swelling. In short, it was painful, but it greatly reduced her recovery time. And damn it, it made her famished too soon afterwards as the ice baths actually caused her to burn more calories. It were her body's reaction to the bath, in accelerating her metabolism to compensate for the cold bath.

There was a knock on her door.
Karlie remained silent for a moment, having whomever it were knock several times. But Karlie had been in ice for a good while and she couldn't stay in it for much longer. This was no time to test who had more staying power...the knocker or the blonde shivering to the point of her teeth chattering. Of course upon realizing that, she piped shut and tried to bare the bath a little longer.
But no. The Blonde could not bare it any longer. Besides, she had cooled off literally, and at this point couldn't remain mad, even if it were Rom at the door.

"H..ho ho hold on...." She shuddered, getting herself slowly out of the bath. It weren't intentional, the slowness. Her body was actually too numb to move any faster than she were.

knock knock knock...

"In a minute...be rye d...dere." Karlie replied as she made it to the shower. Cold water. Cold water believe it or not felt so....so good and warm.
It worked. It stopped her from shivering and actually helped her recover lost body temp.
"Oh...Oh Berkana..." She thanked her maker for the warmth of cold water.

She then grabbed her warm soft kimono and wrapped it around herself as she made it to the door.

Her eyes met those dark familiar orbs, staring into them a moment. Karlie's former rage had long subsided.
She didn't need to welcome her quest in, as she merely stepped aside as the invite to let her guest in.