Private Noble Pursuits

[Makko Vyres]

Makko spat some deeply unpleasant words. He could taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth. Instead of planting his foot to break the grapple, he lashed out.

His boot connected with the side of the knee of the man who Cora had distracted. It made an unpleasant crunching sound and he dropped the taser and collapsed, howling in pain.

He was still caught in a grapple with a larger man and had now given up his footing. Blows were exchanged, but there wasn't enough room to do any real damage. Makko was driven towards the seats.

Foregoing defence - leading to a painful punch to his ear - Makko grabbed a rail. He pulled himself up and then balled both fists together and brought them down on the back of a head.

Groaning, he rolled to one side. There was noise from the kidnappers too, all of them injured in the melee. Makko was to his feet first.

"Come on Cora, please be able to walk," he hissed as he grabbed her shoulder. He didn't know if she had been momentarily stunned or was down and out. He wasn't going to escape the men through the crowd if he had to carry her.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora hadn't passed out, but she did find herself unable to move or put together any coherent thoughts. Limbs twitched painfully while her vision wavered, struggling to make sense of the smoke drifting through the cabin and the sounds of scuffling around her.

By the time Makko had tried to rouse her, Cora managed to prop herself up onto her palms. She winced as a tingling ache screamed through her arms, squinting at Makko and the urgency in his voice. Something was wrong, and they needed to leave. Familiar anxiety welled in the pit of her stomach, sending a grateful surge of adrenaline though her exhausted body.

"I'm up, I'm up." Cora grumbled drowsily. Still sluggish and grasping onto him for support, they managed to hobble to the emergency exit and slip out onto the streets below.

Once there, she looked around haplessly. Her brain was still jumbled.

"Uh…what now?"

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

Corazona von Ascania

Makko did his best to take some of Cora's weight as they stumbled through the crowd. Unfortunately his world was still spinning, so they barely followed a straight line.

He had been beaten before several times. Punishment had come in many forms, and rarely left scars like the ones between his fingers. Makko knew that they would be easy to spot like this and tried to straighten up.

"Keep going, don't run, lose the jacket," he hissed.

"Why would they be after you?"

He could think about which direction to follow after getting into a scrap, but couldn't see the obvious.

Makko didn't know these streets. They were attracting some attention as they went. He could hear the sound of air ambulances coming. People in the crowd tried to ask if they needed help, but Makko pushed on.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Even still partially stunned, Cora managed to balk.

"Do you have any idea how expensive this coat is?"

Of course he didn't. He didn't care, either. Something in Makko's demeanor was grave, and Cora reluctantly acquiesced. While struggling awkwardly out of the jacket, she answered him.

"I have no idea." There was a note of rising fear in her voice, and she swallowed down the urge to run. She'd worked the cost free enough to let it fall to the ground as they fled, giving one last longing look at the garment.

Everything was too much. Too many people, too many sounds, too much pressure. She stumbled to a halt when they managed to slip into a narrow alley, hand pressed against the wall for stability while she panted heavily.

"I don't know." She repeated, shaking her head with vigor. "We-we should get back to the upper levels as quickly as we can." Panic gripped her tone, and her hand bunched the fabric of her shirt at her chest.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Get you breath, we need to get moving," he said.

There was enough light, even down here, to see that he was bleeding in several places. He wiped away what he could with his sleeve, but the split over one eyebrows wasn't going to stop bleeding quickly.

"They attacked a fucking train to get at you," he said in disbelief. "If they'd grabbed you before you called the Force..."

Makko took a deep breath. His hands had curled into fists at his sides. His body was still pumping all the right chemicals through his blood to ready him for more running and fighting.

He laughed. A short sharp sound. He shook his head.

"You were worried about your coat. Come on, we are going to keep moving and go to ground. We keep out of the open and off transport."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora's brow crinkled when he laughed. Why was that his response?

Peering up at him now, she could see that he'd been wounded. An unexpected thread of concern cut through her rising panic.

"But—you're injured." She insisted with some measure of force. "We should get you to a hospital. Or clinic."

Without much thought, she wiped the blood from the gash above his eye with her sleeve. Then she pulled away grimaced at the blood on her favorite cashmere sweater.

Cora supposed that mentioning a dry cleaner would earn her another glare.

"Al-alright," She agreed, albeit hesitantly. While normally more insistent, she was sorely out of her depth and very scared. If Makko hadn't been there, she'd probably be unconscious in the trunk of a speeder by now. "But where will we go?"

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"I don't know," he admitted. "But I'll work something out."

He gingerly explored his own face with fingertips. Then he rolled his shoulders and felt his side. They hadn't broken any ribs.

"Got nothin' that needs a doc right now," he said with a shake of his head. She had tried to clean him up. That mostly made up for how upset she looked at him bleeding on her clothes.

"I don't know exactly, but I'll figure something out," he said firmly. Makko was reminded of the thunderstorm. He had been kind then, and he tried to be now.

"But if you got any comms or datapads or anything registered to you, turn them off. Could be tracking that. We'll take back streets and keep changing directions."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora looked troubled, absently rolling down her bloodied sleeve. As the reality of what was happening started to skink in, she couldn't upset about her soiled clothes, or even her lost coat. Those items could be replaced.

Makko being here made her realize how small and helpless she felt. Even though they weren't sure of their next move, he seemed to know what to do. He'd acted when she'd been paralyzed. Cora was begrudgingly grateful for him, but a small part of her was bitter at how the situation had turned out.

Shaking fingers fumbled with the datapad in her bag while she initiated a shut down. While the device powered off, her thoughts raced. Where would they go? Would they get back to the temple before nightfall? He'd said to stay away from public transport. Where would they sleep? What would they eat? Cora shuddered. The one and only time she'd been to the underbelly of Coruscant, it had ended in a firefight resulting in her taking a blaster bolt to the shoulder.

And who were the men who'd come after her? She didn't get a good look at them, but nothing about them was familiar. A thought sparked in her mind, a memory of one of her father's many warnings.

"Someone wanted to hold me for ransom." She stated, alarmed at the sudden realization. "At least, that's…my best guess as to why a group of armed men would be after me."

Slipping the datapad back into her bag, she nodded to him, arms wrapped around her own torso for comfort.

"You're…right. We should go."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"The further away we get, the bigger net they need to cast," he said. "They'll be well paid if it's a ransom."

He wished that he had the time to clean up properly. His appearance was going to draw a small amount of attention.

As he walked back up the alley he checked his pockets. Makko liked to keep hard credits on his person over digital currency. A few chits gently jingled in his pocket.

He turned them into a road of shops and pedestrians. They couldn't entirely avoid being in public.

"I used to slice for a gang," he said quietly. He didn't need to speak, but under the layer of anger and pain he was frightened too. Talking helped.

"Transport stations always have cameras and you can run a programme that pings as soon as a face is seen. Comm-units and datapads can always tell you were someone is."

He turned them off a side street and down stairs, pausing to look back. This was a three dimensional maze.

"Can't see anyone following us. If we get some distance I might have enough to check into a motel so we can get cleaned up. How...how are you doing?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

As it turned out, Cora found it difficult to act natural when she was stuck in unfamiliar territory with a target on her back. Makko's words were somewhat depressing, but the conversation was distraction enough.

She nodded along dully, surprised to learn he'd worked as a slicer, unsurprised to learn that it had been for a gang. It made sense given that he'd all but alluded to his role in the underworld of Denon, the planet itself being underworld almost in its entirety.

How are you doing?

The question had caught her off guard, and it took Cora few long moments to respond. Even mention of sharing a motel with him and been lost on her. "I'm...okay." She answered awkwardly, rubbing down the length of her arm from shoulder to wrist. "The shock from earlier seems to have worn off, but it still stings." With the way her muscles ached, it probably would for a while. Almost immediately, she felt bad for complaining when his injuries looked so much more...visceral.

"Are you sure you're okay? It looked like you were hit in the head pretty hard a few times." She winced in recollection. So much had taken place within the span of a few short minutes.

Following along, she finally started to take in their surroundings. Most people paid them no mind, spare for a few glances aimed at Makko's wounds and perhaps their general disheveled state. A long stretch of duracrete buildings line the street, mostly small shops and eateries.

Cora attempted to smooth down her hair, tucking blonde strands behind her ears. "You...you didn't have to come after me." It came out more accusatory than was intended, and she recognized that. "What I mean is...well, I'm grateful that you did. I suppose." As much as he grated on her nerves, Cora wouldn't deny that he'd been instrumental in her getaway. Now they'd just need to stay hidden.

She flashed him a grateful look, all the same.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Are you sure you're okay? It looked like you were hit in the head pretty hard a few times." She winced in recollection. So much had taken place within the span of a few short minutes.

Makko grinned at her. It was a disturbing expression when he still had blood in his mouth. It etched little lines of crimson inbetween his white teeth.

"You...you didn't have to come after me." It came out more accusatory than was intended, and she recognized that. "What I mean is...well, I'm grateful that you did. I suppose."

Makko looked far less comfortable being thanked - in a roundabout way - than he did being told that he'd taken a few hits to the head.

"I didn't, no. Would have been pretty karked up to just watch you get taken and -"

Makko stopped talking suddenly. He frowned. He wasn't trained to understand what the Force was trying to tell him. Turning his head just a fraction, he heard raised voices behind them.

He grabbed her hand and steered her off the street into a cafe. There were terminals on the tables and caf being served.

"Sit behind one of those out of sight," he muttered. Makko walked calmly to the desk and handed over a credit chit for data access and two cups of caf. He watched the street carefully.

Three men went running past. He recognised one of them.

The droid on the desk took the credits and made no comment on his appearance. He sat down beside Cora and put both cups on their table. He switched on the holonet terminal.

"We need to stay off the streets."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora hobbled along, falling to step behind Makko as he guided them into a cafe just as her gut had been twisting.

Even though she'd made up her mind to forego her usual stubbornness and go along with whatever Makko decided, her own helplessness ate at her. Cora chewed the inside of her cheek from behind the monitor, glancing to the corner of the window in her field of view as a few men sprinted past the front.

When Makko returned to the table, she reached for one of the cups of caf and wrapped her hands around it. The warm sensation was a brief comfort in all of this mess, and as her gaze flickered to Makko beside her, she couldn't help but wonder how he was keeping his cool.

"I suppose that the next step would be finding a place to stay." Her nails tapped nervously against the cup, and she stared down into the opaque surface of the dark liquid. With her stomach turning, it probably wasn't a good idea to drink just yet. "It wouldn't be wise to use my credit chip, would it?" She sighed, figuring that it would be another means to track her. Accommodations would have come easier then.

Waiting was the worst, and it only fed into her rising anxiety. At a loss for anything useful to do, she pulled a napkin from the holder at the table and reached to dab at a smear of blood on Makko's cheek. At the very least, she could help him to look a little more presentable.

"I'm lucky that we were pit together in lightsaber combat and not a fist fight." She mumbled. The memory of how aggressive she'd come at him caused her to grimace in shame.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"It wouldn't be wise to use my credit chip, would it?"

"Yeah, hard credits only. Which means I have to pay for things," he said. He almost managed a smile at that, as ludicrous as it was.

He browsed to an innocuous holonet site, but within a few clicks a wall of text gave him a terminal into some private servers. Even though he was supposedly putting his criminal past behind him, he still kept some old habits. He ran a number of ghost servers, ready to put to use.

Makko reached out through them to old contacts, trying to get some information on the situation.

He looked at her cloth in surprise, but his expression softened when he realised what she was doing.

"I'm lucky that we were pit together in lightsaber combat and not a fist fight."

"If it had been a fist fight I wouldn't have acted like such a child on front of everyone," he replied. Here, with their backs to the wall, it was much easier to admit. Makko hadn't come close to approaching her and admitting his shame over the incident in the halls of the academy.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"I'll have to reimburse you for the credits spent, then." She sighed, not at the idea of repayment, but at once again being unable to do much in the face of her own crisis.

Hands still resting around the cup of caf, she watched Makko with no small amount of curiosity as he clicked through lines of code and text. She had no idea what he was doing.

Pulling the napkin away, she twisted one of the unsoiled corners idly between pinched nails.

"If it had been a fist fight, you would've beaten me soundly." She managed a small, sad smile somehow. Her nerves were far from soothed, but they'd calmed enough for her stomach to settle a bit. Raising the cup to her lips, she took a cursory sip of caf. It was far from the more premium blends she was used to, but the familiar taste made her feel a little more human.

"I should've treated you with more fairness." Cora admitted carefully. Her nails rapped anxiously against the side of the cup. "You were far less experienced than I. I should've taken things slowly and not been so aggressive." She paused. "At lightsaber combat."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"At lightsaber combat?" he asked. "At lightsaber combat," he confirmed immediately.

Not a question he needed to ask.

"Sometimes you gotta be fair and...sometimes you need to get some pent up outta your system. I should have been grown up and spoken to you after that."

A new paragraph appeared on the screen. Someone had details on the black market price someone had put up for her capture.

"I should have spoken to you before..."

His eyes went wide. Makko tapped the screen. It was a number. A very large number.

"Is that 'my family are so rich it's a ransom' money or is that 'someone is really pissed off with my dad' money?" Makko asked.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora hadn't expected Makko to show this level of understanding—more than she would have, at any rate.

"I should have been a grown up and spoken to you after that." She echoed, not eager to let him take the blame for their situation. Not all of it, at least. They both hadn't acted well.

He trailed off, and Cora's gaze followed the finger that tapped against the screen. She squinted her eyes, reading the line carefully. Then the number, three times over.

"Oh…" Her hand unwrapped itself from the mug and rested against lips parted in surprise.

"That...could be either, honestly. My father has a number of political enemies back home." It was enough to cause her anxiety to rise, prickling the back of her neck. "I'm not all that confident he'd pay such an...ambitious sum, either." The Viscount had eight children for a reason.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

Makko's world had felt big. Even one district of Denon held millions of people and a huge web of gang and corporate politics. He had been unaware of the wider galaxy, naive to how the Alliance worked and completely ignorant of even the existence of the Jedi Order. It felt as if his world had been very small.

The amount of money in front of him was astounding. What was even more shocking was that her father might have that amount of capital, but wouldn't pay it for his daughter. If that was the case, could she even be used to influence the politics of her world?

"He sounds great," Makko said. He didn't think that despite his attitude, she was probably very loyal to her family and wouldn't appreciate the sarcastic observation. His gaze lingered on her, thinking of much space there had been between them since the survival trip.

"Oh, one of my old contacts...asks if I can get you to a spaceport..."

Makko's expression darkened.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora's glare came easily, but half-hearted. Anxiety dulled the sharp corners of her expression when she stared at the number again.

That was...a lot. Father would pay it, right? After all of the time he'd invested in grooming her to be his heir, surely he wouldn't want to discard her—that, or he'd cut his losses and refocus his efforts on one of her remaining siblings. Privately, she was confident that there was a measure of fatherly affection behind the Viscount's cold exterior. She just...hadn't seen it.

"Wh-" Shock hit Cora like a lightning bolt and she straightened, shoulders back and eyes wide. "They know you're with me? D-do they know where we are?"

Her hands tightened around the mug, pulling it to her chest as she looked back at Makko nervously, studying his expression. True, visceral fear played out across her face.

"You...you're not considering this, right?"

Cora's mind whirred into overdrive, wondering just what would happen to her if the ransom went unpaid.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

Makko had hoped that she wouldn't have put two and two together quite so quickly. She had, he supposed, actually studied maths at school. Had actually attended a school.

If she had thought they were trying to help get her off world to safety, it would have given him enough time to think of an explanation.

"They don't know where we are," he said firmly.

She was nervous. Probably not even because she thought he could catch her, but because someone she had begrudgingly trusted could turn on her.

Makko grinned. It might have been more disarming if he hadn't been punched so much.

"Afraid my dirty criminal mind is weighing up turning you on for credits?" he asked.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Makko's assurance that his friends didn't know where they were did nothing to ease Cora's concerns. Instead, she she stared back at his blood stained smile with wide eyes.

Even if he'd only been teasing—and she wasn't sure that he was—she started to feel foolish for trusting him. What if this had been a ruse? What if he was in on it? He surely wouldn't tell her that one of his contacts wanted him to get her to a spaceport, unless that was part of it. Unless he was so confident that—

Cora took a deep breath to keep from spinning out. She thought to place the mug back down, but decided to cling to it in case she needed something to throw. Her eyes darted to the door, then back to Makko.

"Don't you dare!" She threatened in a harsh whisper, putting on her best brave face and glaring daggers at him. "I'll...I'll scream!"

Makko Vyres