Or Swallowed In The Sea [Kail]

[Matsu Xiangu]

​

[SIZE=12pt]Rodia[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]The Streets[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Early Evening[/SIZE]​

She had a lot of memories from that day.

Funny, really, how in hindsight she had no idea what to call it. The day she lost her arm? The day she lost her mind? The day she lost someone she misread so terribly it almost cost her her life? Thursday? She had no answers and even as the weeks dragged on and she learned to use her new replacement arm with a precision she had never expected to acquire, she continued to find herself at a loss for a way to name what had happened to her.

So she just called it That Day.

And while there were the memories that tore her from sleep with a scream, the nightmarish recurring imagining of a burning sensation tearing up the limbs she still had and threatening to make her more machine than woman…there were also other things she remembered. She would have sworn that it had all been some feverish hallucination if it weren’t for the fact that she was alive and breathing right at that very moment to ponder it – the very fact that she lived was proof she hadn’t imagined things.

Someone had saved her.


[SIZE=12pt]She woke with a start, disoriented and enraged as if the moment (how long have I been out?) with Krius had only just finished and she was about to continue her duel to the death with him. And that’s what it would be – there were hundreds of bolts and screws left on that ship and she would pin him to that scavenger he hated so much and open him up longways—[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]But she was no longer out in the snow and her arm…she narrowed her eyes, looking over, scared to see that horror of mangled flesh hanging haphazardly off the side of the bed she found herself in but instead…it was gone, all gone. Somehow that was worse, a strange hollowness where there should have been weight, her upper arm wrapped up in an untidy bundle.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She let herself think of something else, anything else. (I’ll kill Krius. I’ll fix my arm. Where am I? How did I get here? Wait…) The last question jogged something: the sensation of floating, the thud of someone else’s movement sending shooting pain up her arm and through her body, opening her eyes on the lower half of an unfamiliar face mostly shrouded in cold-weather gear, closing them again in unconsciousness, opening them again to catch a glimpse of the same man with the gear pulled down, gesturing to her little, broken body and trying to explain to the locals what he’d found. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]He’d saved her.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She sprang out of her bed (much to the protests of the woman in the corner who’d apparently been left to watch her and keep her still), stumbling weakly through the building she found herself in until she found a doorway, pushing it open only to be nearly blinded by the late afternoon sun. In a transport only a little ways off she saw the man who’d saved her life climbing in to leave. She had spent all her energy sprinting around trying to find her way out and get her bearings and she leaned up against the doorjamb, even paler than usual.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Hey, wait!” she called, trying twice before her voice cooperated and crossed the distance to him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She saw his head turn, caught his eyes for a minute.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Thank you,” she managed, her face crumpling in pain as her injuries caught up with her again.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She watched him hesitate, raise his hand in a half-wave with a small nod, and then ride off to leave her behind, gone as quick as he came.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]And then she fainted.[/SIZE]

Matsu had not woken up again until the next morning. The locals had been good to her, cleaning her wounds as best they could, and she’d been able to call Jared and explain what had happened. He’d nicely saved the lecture until after she’d had her surgery – as if she needed to hear that she’d made a mistake. A mistake that she would one day erase from the Galaxy…but that was the future.

Now, she strode through Rodia’s convoluted street system in search of the man who had given her a second chance at life. In her world – the one that existed solely in that strange little head – it was important to make restitution. There was no greater thing he could have done than save her life and she owed something to him. And really she wanted to know why. He could have left her for dead out there in the snow but he hadn’t. Why, why, why?

She’d had very little to go on when she’d woken up the second time on Skye. The locals had never seen the stranger before and had not gotten a name – but they knew where the transport was headed and as soon as she had healed from her surgery Matsu had revisited Skye and found the driver, gotten as much as he knew, and then started tracking everyone who had dealt with the man from there on out. She was known as the Huntress for a reason and now, weeks later, she thought she had his name – Kail Ragnar. She had followed him all the way to Rodia, a planet she’d visited once before for entirely less important reasons. She’d even scouted out in the hanger bays asking if anyone had seen a man fitting the description of the stranger as she remembered him and others had described him – and found luck. (Or perhaps, as she had learned, it was just the Force. The Galaxy was too large a place for her to have just luck finding the one person who could point her in the right direction, Huntress or no.)

The stranger had said something to the man she’d cornered in the hanger bay about contacting him later, but otherwise was staying on Rodia for an undisclosed period of time to apparently drown his week. Worked for her – Matsu spent the next hour weeding through cantinas in the city until…until…she walked to the front door of one and knew before the doors slid open in front of her.

She didn’t go inside, preferring not to deal with the usual untoward behavior she found par for the course in such places that day, instead turning and finding a place to perch herself in sight of the entrance. She had her hair down as usual, straight and long, spilling over her shoulders. The open pullover she wore over a black bodysuit was light, silken and brightly iridescent, reminiscent of the eyes of the planet’s native creatures, weaved along with black in tribal patterns. The hand on her replacement arm was easily visible, its sharpened fingers glinting in the early evening sunset as she curled her hands around her knees.

She had all the time in the world to wait.
Because he’d gifted it to her.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Kail didn't even know what city he was in. He was a mess. Not a self-destructive mess, but just...a mess, if that made sense? It didn't to him either.

He knew he was on Rodia, he had arrived there days ago, but had finished one of those jobs where it just made him want to forget. As was the way with a mercenary, the job was just that; a job. He took it, carried it out, and then left.

Sometimes he needed that aid to help him forget, and the gambling and entertainment district he was in provided plenty of distraction. He had already been in at least 3 cantinas, one of which he had left...nay, been THROWN out...without even starting a drink. Taking a transport away from Encheeko where the job had brought him, he was either in Equator City and Iskaayuma. It didn't matter. He would find a way out of the comfortable surroundings of the domed city and head back to Tatooine, his home, and back to his cell.

He was sat alone in the cantina as various patrons busied themselves in and out of the establishment, natural light occasionally drifting in from the frosted decorative windows and large doors to the front of the hovel. He kept himself to himself and rested his head on the wall he sat by, looking at his strange thick green drink and trying to work out why he was in such a downward spiral.

Kail enjoyed his job. His job. Shouldn't he have thought about loving his life first? Which was more important to him, his job or his life? Or were the two interlocked - being a mercenary WAS his life. He had taken the life of a few beings in his time, some he enjoyed, others he regretted, but only for the fact that begged and pleaded for his mercy, and even though he could have turned a blind eye, he followed through with the kill.

Blood hit the sand, the snow or even the sea whenever he fired a blaster or stuck a blade to the enemy, and that blood left a little stain on Kail's mind as a reminder of the brutal path he walked. He drummed his fingers on the table and shook his head.

Stop wallowing in self-pity, you idiot. Get out there and be somebody!

Taking the drink and finishing it one hit, the drink was cool and minty as it hit his throat, and he pushed himself up, dropping one of the few remaining credits he had on the smooth table. With a licensed rifle slung across his back, Kail grabbed his backpack full of the tools he used and slung it over the rifle and made his way to the exit. It wasn't the most easiest of things to do after a few drinks, using his hands for balance against the wall, and occasional Rodian, in his way.

Walking out into the temperature controlled city, he stretched his body and cracked a few stiff bones and got his bearings. His sandy brown and tan armour was dirty with soil and smoke, and droplets of blood were smeared across his heavy duty vest. Rubbing his hand through his short brown hair, Kail looked out ahead as he steadily moved forward to look at a large hologram of local information a few yards away in the square.

A small smile crossed his lips; it was Equator City, so the blaring text told him on the hologram.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

For Matsu, nothing was as it seemed from the outside. She had one foot in reality and the other somewhere in the world within her head, every situation pulled somewhere fantastic.

The same could be said of what it had been like to drift away. The sudden slack of Krius letting her go in the snow had been an unmooring, a dizzying journey downwards filled with snatches of thought and memory as she sank – to that patch of ocean that no one flew over, no civilization built in. She would be hard-pressed to describe, she always mused, what it was to be so utterly alone. There was a thick hum of sound, dark and weightless, time without beginning or end – and she without beginning or end. It was her, the wealth of power that ate itself in waves right beneath her skin, dark and cold but somehow welcoming.

the SEA swallows ME swallows YOU
but I coNTRol where all ELse suFFer

As if on cue she came out of her dreams just as he stepped from inside the cantina, the slight list of drunkenness in his posture. She didn’t move one inch except for the slight tilt of her head, a reptilian arch of observation as her pupils dilated and her fingers drummed once against her knees, watching him like prey. She remembered the color of his hair and he seemed no less dirt-stained than she recalled, but other than that his features were hazy in a memory pocked by weakness and injury. She knew it was him, but it was strange to really see him. And even stranger to her was the total absence of the Force in him. It didn’t mean much at first glance – perhaps he had only a tenuous connection and therefore she couldn’t feel it, or he was a master of some kind and was dampening his signature.

She found she didn’t really care.
Nothing was as it seemed from the outside.

Matsu watched him for a moment or two more before he seemed to pick a direction and walk off, sliding herself from the low wall she’d perched on to follow him. She spent a few minutes, quiet and off to the side, the tree-tops big cat marking his progress and waiting to strike. She was, if she were admitting it to herself, cautious of him in general. He reminded her of Krius, of those awful and final moments, and yet…

She slipped forward, taking a moment in which he slowed to draw up at his side, falling in to step with him. She would be surprised if he recognized her – she hardly looked like the half-dead throwaway he’d found all those weeks ago. And there was the sheer length of those weeks to consider too. The arm might be a giveaway but it wasn’t immediately visible.

Again, she found she didn’t really care.
Messing with him for a few minutes would probably be amusing.

She turned her head to look up at him, her dark eyes seeming to try and peek in and take everything. “So, what’s the occasion?” she asked in a low, rusty voice in reference to his clearly inebriated state, speaking as if they were old friends.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Before his eyes, the visuals on the hologram turned neon white, to blue and yellow, to green then red...a whirlwind of visual displays highlighting everything from local pod-racing tournaments, to live musical performances and the latest law enforcement propaganda. Below all that, thankfully, was the 3D map of the square.

Kail squinted and traced the map with his finger, following the blurry route where he was and following the turns in the maze-like city to the Western Spaceport, the nearest one to him.

Turning his head, he scanned the square looking for the streets to follow, flicking his eyes down briefly to see the dark haired girl looking at him. He spotted where he needed to go and- why was someone looking at him? Nothing else moved except his eyes, flicking down again to the girl as she spoke.

Why is she staring....? What occasion?

"Occasion? It's ALWAYS an occasion...I don't know. Hm. Sorry who are you?"

Smooth. He held his posture and draped his hand onto the strap of his backpack, right hand by his side and fingering the pockets on his thigh. She was pretty; plain and looked rather exotic. That pang he often felt across various worlds struck him as he felt, for only one moment, he recognised her, but then how many exotic girls had he stumbled across or killed over the past few weeks, months, years?

Now either he swayed backwards of the planet tipped gently backwards, rocking him on his boots. Kail blinked.

"Watch it lady, the streets...they move!"

He chuckled and smiled a world weary smile as he often did in times of uncertainty.

"Not really. Just me, had one two three too many. Sorry, what did you want again?"


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Drunkenness was not something that bothered her. If it was how one chose to drown their sorrows or celebrate their success, then more power to them. But much had changed about her since Skye, and the girl who would no longer so brazenly board a ship with a total stranger was also more wary of the man in front of her. She knew that sometimes a person changed entirely when they drank – who was to say this wasn’t a friendlier version of the stranger? Or one that would turn violent at the drop of a hat?

She didn’t want to kill him, but she’d turn him inside out.

Sorry, who are you?

Her suspicions were confirmed. It was of no bother to her (though admittedly her nearly insufferable vanity was slightly piqued by his distraction, really now Matsu the man is drunk and possibly unable to focus his eyes, relax).

She didn’t want to give her name so easily despite knowing for sure this was the man that had for some reason picked her up out of the snow and given her a second chance, but she was about to give him some answer when she caught the beginning of his light rock backwards. Part of her wanted to watch him fall on his ass, but the other part reached out on instinct with the arm closest to him. There was a low whirr of machinery as the durasteel in her replacement arm shifted with her movement, lifting the monstrously clawed hand to pinch the top of his vest between thumb and forefinger, steadying him. The light touch was all she needed, the cybernetic arm far stronger than the original. In truth, she’d come to love the thing as only she could. It was lithe, beautifully made, and looked positively lethal. Perfect really.

She let go almost immediately, letting her eyes shift to two Rodians running after each other and screaming in some drunken game of chase before finding him again. Her movements were slow, even the draw of her gaze like some languid beast. “I wanted to thank you for saving my life and get more than an awkward hand wave in return,” she answered.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

He was surprised to have the girl steady him with her arm, and it caught his eye as it glinted in the sun - that wasn't human flesh, it was robotic. There was nothing he hadn't seen in the galaxy that surprised him or phased him, and cybernetic limbs and other medical treatments, illegal or otherwise, granted people a second chance when they needed it. Kail steadied himself as she moved again, and the cogs whirred in his mind.

It wasn't enough that he thought he recognised her initially but now this arm...there was something about her.

Why was she here?

The drink soon started to water down as he became slightly un-nerved as to the presence of such a...different lady than he'd seen around these parts. As she spoke her soft, silky words, Kail didn't show any recognition to what she was implying, even though he was sure this was the mutilated girl from Skye he had left weeks ago...but she couldn't have survived that, could she?

He shook his head slightly. "I don't think...that YOU have the right man - but don't worry about it. And I like your arm, it's well crafted. Look after yourself."

Pulling down on his strap with his hand, he started past the girl and offered a small shrug, and another awkward wave.

"Need to go get my head out the sand, lot of work to do. See you around."

Kail was regretting those drinks. He was losing himself in his own mind and didn't know what was real or intoxication.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Had she been less exasperated she might have laughed. He wasn’t what she had expected and his easy dismissal of her didn’t coincide with the man who must have gone out of his way to pick her up out of the snow and carry her to safety. He was drunk, sure. But if she wasn’t wrong she thought she saw the faintest hint of consternation in his features, as lined by dirt as they were.

Why did it even matter?

She had found him – after dogged, determined hunting – to offer repayment. What that meant she hadn’t necessarily thought through but she assumed it would become obvious when she found him. But there he was, turning his back and giving her that same little awkward wave and she almost wondered if she wasn’t still laying on that mattress back on Skye and all the ensuing weeks between had been a dream. But no – he was disappearing rapidly down the street lined by Rodian architecture and all the sudden her fists were balling up. Get his head out of the sand indeed!

Seriously, why did it matter?

If she wasn’t so hooked on the fact that he had saved her life she would have turned away right there and forgotten about him. But it meant more to her than she could explain. Really she should have done just that – turned on her heel, content with having given him the chance to collect. If he didn’t want repayment she could say she tried and never think of him again.

But instead she gave him a good push from behind with the Force.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Keeping his head down, he focused on walking coherently past the ornate fountain and tall emerald buildings by him towards the spaceport. The fresh air was doing him good, and he held the strap tight in his hand, his heavy boots kicking up some loose pebbles under -

- it SLAMMED into him.

His shoulders lurched forward first, sending his arms outwards and then kicking his legs into a stumble to catch himself up as someone barged into his back.

"What the feth..." Kail mumbled to himself and span around with a fist clenched.

Nothing. A Rodian was sat on the fountain, as he was when Kail passed him a moment ago. There was no-one there. His eyes darted around, a snarl on his face, and he looked at the Rodian who offered nothing but a shrug.

No-one else was really bothering by the stumbling drunk, but that girl was still at the hologram watching him. He looked at her, and found that vicious little trick something a spoilt little brat like her would do. A Forcey. No way, not this time. Kail kept hold of his bag with his left hand as he started back towards her, a quick pace in his steps and a bemused, if annoyed, look on his face. She wanted to toy with him? Fine, let her. This wasn't the best day to do it, and he wasn't in the mood to be made to look stupid.

He came before her, and threw his bag down, the metallic contents clunking on the ground as he did.

"Think you're funny?"

Kail lurched quickly and pushed her right shoulder back with a blunt shove, sending her back a step.

"Think you're funny??"

He pushed her again, another step back.

"You're a bloody fool. A damn fool. Don't use that Force crap with me love, I don't need it, and I don't WANT it."

Kail didn't know what the last part meant, he was still floating with the spiced drink he'd necked moments before leaving, but his state of mind was dominating the alcohol at this girl's attitude. He'd been pushed around too often of recently; half of it was his fault, but the other half...well, it wasn't.

He stared at the girl, and he felt like he could just snap her in half. After all, he'd done worse to others of her frame.

"Get the hell out of my system. You don't know me - you never did. I don't know you so get lost, alright? Idiot."

Kail stepped back and scooped up his bag, the rifle slung over his back still and gave the girl a nice dirty look.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She wasn’t really sure what she had been expecting. It had been almost without thought – imagine if he’d been some Sith Lord and turned around and pulled her limb for limb for her daring to push him? Or maybe he just would have done nothing, waving her off from over his shoulder and disappearing in to the city.

But instead he turned around.

She stood her ground as he cut his way back to her and though she was completely still there was something inside of her licking its way up and out from her ribcage, making her feel as if she might curl over backwards and become something new. He was not necessarily imposing at first – there was something almost charming about him, or at least it seemed to her – but now, moving towards her with something deeper than annoyance but not quite rage on his face…someone different.

Maybe he will…
Her eyes slid down to the backpack he let fall to the ground, the metallic clunking of its contents echoing in her ears.
…hurt me.

She smiled, white fangs from red lips.
And then he pushed her.

By then she was laughing, without even realizing he’d asked if she found herself funny. (If you only knew – there’s nothing funny about this, I want you to rip me open.) He had quite a pair to be shoving a girl who had the Force when he confirmed he did not – and she liked that. When he shoved her again she actually stumbled backwards far enough to have to catch herself on the railing of the low wall ringing the hologram, laughing right up until the point he said she didn’t know him.

“I’m not in your system yet,” she said, letting the Force out of her and latching on to his mind right in the middle of that dirty look swung her way. What she was attempting was artful, but he was angry and at least mildly drunk – both distractions that would let her slip in to his mind even if he had the Force.


[SIZE=12pt]She gave him everything. She showed him every memory from that day from behind her eyes, every sensation relived. She let him feel what it was to burn, to feel the sheer terror of knowing the fire crawling up her arm was going to consume her if she didn’t do something, to open her eyes to reality and see the horrible thing she’d done to herself and the madness of knowing that it had been someone she’d trusted and loved that had orchestrated it. It was agony, destruction, chaos, a symphony of unrelenting sensation that suddenly she took away.

But not to stop her hold – no, then she let him have what it was lay there in the cold, in utter and absolute silence, and know that death was coming. Abandonment, fear, helplessness. The last of those had been the worst, the crushing knowledge that she was losing blood so fast that even if she got up she’d make it fifty steps before collapsing in a heap.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She let him have that last cry of despair she’d let out.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]And then confusion. Floating, being carried. Relief. She let him understand what he’d given her by taking her for help when he certainly did not have to.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]And then the image she’d carried since she started hunting him, the way he turned in his seat in the transport to nod and wave and accept a thanks he seemed entirely uncomfortable receiving.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]I do not know you.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]But I know something about you.[/SIZE]​

She let him go.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

She looked more like a twisted animal with those fangs of hers coming from behind her moist kissable lips - she was a beautiful girl but also one who was full of some twisted amusement for winding up worn out mercenaries like Kail Ragnar. That was simply bewildering to him.

He hadn't hit a woman, not one who didn't deserve it anyway and never out of line with his work, so he made sure the pushes were hard enough to stun her, which they were. And whatever she spoke, he half ignored as he thought about being on his way and hopefully never seeing the girl again.

But at once the world stopped and the drink took over - damn, this was too much...

In a swirling, blurred vision of some burning planet that reminds me of Mustafar, I can see her; an innocent girl being burnt alive - the fire rises up my arm and I can't stop it but I can control it...

...taking a shard of metal is the best way - to hack, slice and butcher the arm before it consumes me. Burning flesh and boiling blood congeal on the snow and the pain is immense, but no sound leaves my voice - darkness eats away from HIM...

...colder than Hoth and hotter than Tatooine - the coldness of the snow numbs my body and it stings! Oh it's like a thousand needles piercing my body, but the heat is still roasting my head, the sweat dripping from me as the blood drains my body of life...please stop...STOP THIS.....

...and then, it's calmer and more comfortable. No pain. No heat. No cold. Just comfort. A strong hand, and firm touch and a face....my face....looking at myself, saving my own soul from eternal darkness and giving her a second chance....

...she was looking at him from beneath those white eyes, void of compassion as she just stood there. Speeders passed overhead. Rodia was still there and in full swing, and Kail was stood, mouth open in agony, hand pressed to his temple as his eyes snapped open.

Of all the deceptive tricks and manipulation to use, she had pulled the dirtiest of all. He rubbed the beads of sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, and dropped to rub his jaw in contemplation of the horrid vision he had been subject to. He exhaled and looked right back at her, as she didn't show any sign of remorse or contempt.

"What the bloody hell was that?" He stepped forward, hand raised to his face still. "Why did you just do that?"

Kail had encountered those embodied with the Force before and it had taught him never to underestimate them, but also to never trust or give them an inch. His hand moved to finger the rifle on his back.

"Who are you? And any more tricks I'll blow your damn head off."

That was the sound of confidence in his voice. Confidence, uncertainty... and fear.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

There was a time – and certainly not that long ago – that Matsu might have felt his fear and actively pulled at it. She might have drawn on him for power, energy, because she could. Of course she still felt it acutely; fear was one of those things that dark side could not help but gravitate to in its hunger. But she’d changed.

It wasn’t a metamorphosis she noticed while it happened but she felt the difference once it was complete. Where once she might have split him open and devoured his fear (lifted to her mouth, prey clutched in both hands, squeezing between deceivingly strong fingers, blood in rivulets down the pale curves of her chin, him empty her full), now she sipped. It wasn’t that violence had lost its appeal. But now she just did not do just to do; gluttony for its own sake held no appeal in the Matsu that stood there on the streets in Rodia. That wasn’t to say she’d changed entirely – it would be dangerously wrong to say that, to assume that the damage that had been done to her had made her any less an animal.

It had just made her a quieter one. A more thoughtful predator.

She watched his face as the vision faded, the way he seemed to be checking himself as his fingers rubbed at his jaw. “I would have you know what happened to me when you found me, and why it’s important that you hear my offer.”

She knew his name and absolutely nothing else, but even that was a feat in a Galaxy of 180 million star systems. That she’d found him afterwards was just proof to her that it was right to pay her debts. Just more proof that despite her choice to open herself to the dark side (open herself, open herself, never let it control) she was far from orthodox in regard to the typical practitioner. Sith care only for themselves. They were words she’d heard from more than one Master. But Matsu was too obsessed with the idea of other people. And she would settle her scores, both in thanks and revenge.

“My name is Matsu Xiangu, and you are Kail Ragnar. I’d like to repay my debt to you,” she answered.

Go ahead, blow my head off. What an image - pop, spray, pieces.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Drink? What drink? Any effect of the sweet beverages he'd had minutes before had near enough been sucked away by this girl and her Force-induced visions. He had enough run ins with those equipped with the Force as a power and he had found out that life experience can be a painful thing to gain.

Never again. No thanks.

Never again.

Standing a little more upright, he would be damned if a pretty girl would get the upper-hand over him. He kept his hand on the strap of his KX-60 in case he had to swing it around and leave a hole in her face. She spoke softly and without a hint of menace, only lulling him in more and pricking his interest.

The fact she had tracked him down was un-nerving. Regardless of the fact he had stupidly saved her life out of some rare act of compassion...he could lie all he wanted, the compassion was always going to be there, it was in his nature...what he DIDN'T need was someone latching onto him. He'd said his goodbye however long ago it was and left it at that.

Letting out a sigh, he couldn't help be tempted by the fact she wanted to repay him in someway. Thinking with a clear head, it was more than likely she wasn't out to kill him, as he had come across her by accident on Skye. Did he really have that much to lose...really? She looked like she could be quite an adventure on her back anyway.

He chewed his bottom lip for a second, weighing up his options, careful not to overtly submit to her. Then again...what perverse intrusion of his mind was she carrying out with her power right this very second? What if everything he was thinking and feeling was as clear as a book before her eyes?

"Ok. Humour me."

He walked forward, grabbing her thin arm with his hand and effectively pulled her along out of public view from gawping Rodians and protocol droids. Kail led Matsu to a large fabric overhang above what looked like a retail unit, but the durasteel shutters were down so it was vacant. He pushed her back to a low lying wall, similar to the one she had been perched on waiting for him to appear from in the courtyard, as they acted as makeshift benches around the city for shoppers and tourists to stop and catch your breath on.

"Now I don't want payment for doing what I did, I happened to be in a good mood that day. But who are you, really, are why track me down. What are you after?"

He sat opposite her, fingers now laced before him leaning forward on his knees.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

As far as Matsu was concerned she would repay her debt and never see Ragnar again. She had no need for friends or attachments in general. They had been dangerous in the past – every time – and they would no doubt cause her nothing but grief in the future. Handsome face or not, she would forget him the moment she felt she’d repaid his strange kindness.

She could tell he was debating her offer, watching him chew on his lip and the slight list of his eyes as he kept a firm grip on the strap of one of his weapons. And then all the sudden his hand was around her arm, pulling her along to Force knew where. She could have rolled her eyes – really, what was wrong with asking her to move somewhere a bit more private? True, she hadn’t exactly been kind by waltzing in to his mind and subjecting him to a view of the kind of torture few could comprehend. But it was really pointless anyways – she was pushed towards a low wall before she could have really told him off, and besides, she didn’t want to. He was amusing.

Matsu perched herself on the wall with a primness that seemed suited to the oil-slick way she moved, watching him with a detached expression she reserved for beings who’s usefulness she hadn’t determined. Crossing her legs, she leaned forward as if in imitation, but she rested the metal arm bent over her knee and the other hand beneath her chin, watching him as he asked who she was.

She did not answer him right away.
She tilted her head, blinking once. Twice. Considered him.

When she spoke again, it was not the same smooth tones she’d used with him before. There was menace there all of the sudden – a promise. It was not directed at him, not necessarily, but it was thick in the rasp of her voice. “I told you who I am. But why did I track you down? When you found me, I was broken. One day I will find the man who did this to me and make him wish he had never offered to take me off Utapau.”

She paused, letting the moment pass over her, her dark eyes losing the ring of gold that had started to burn as she thought of Krius.

“You must have some concept of honor despite the whims of your 'good moods'. You took me off Skye when you didn’t have to. You've given me a chance to take revenge and deny this man the legacy he craves. Is it so hard to believe that I might want to thank you for it? I’m capable of things you couldn’t imagine. You look like a man who comes up against it sometimes. I’m willing you help you – I am offering. Just say no, and you’ll never see me again.”

She twirled a lock of her hair between her good fingers, rubbing her knuckle against the smooth turn of hair. If he didn’t answer her one way or the other soon, she was contemplating creative ways to kill him.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

As he sat under the shade, trying to be subtle, he broke his hand away to gently massage his right kneecap, the one still aching and reeling from the Sith blaster bolt that tore through it a month ago on Kashyyyk. Never under-estimate one who dabbles in the Force - which this girl clearly did. Maybe it was his brain's way of shouting out a warning to him to be careful, but he didn't need the warning.

Kail was intrigued by this dark-haired beauty, despite her almost predatory feminine look and the metal arm. It gave her a sense of attractive danger and one out for adventure. A cybernetic arm and a wounded knee weren't exactly the making of galactic heroes, but it was a start.

He didn't take his eyes off her as he waited for a reply from his fair question. Was she reading him? Was she trying to hypnotise him? Hell, he didn't even know WHO she was, never mind what her motives were! As he rubbed the knee slowly, he was fascinated by the way she suddenly become serious, more like a woman and just a girl. Her voice had an edge to it, an anchor to it that hooked him. His eyes darted left for a second as two Rodian's ran past them making a noise, left hand ready to spring into action - however they were just children playing some game of chase. A mercenary could never really relax.

And Krius - the man who had left her mutilated on Skye. So it seemed it WASN'T an accident as Kail assumed. Whatever their relationship and reasoning, it would take an animal to leave someone with the wound she had in the snow just to die. He didn't move as she went quiet, he let her have this moment. He understood partly how it felt to be humiliated, wounded and discarded like a piece of meat.

Matsu Xiangu finished talking and then again, behind those icy words came that playful, child-like twirling of hair. If she was trying to get him on side...it was working. He was but a man with morals after all like she identified. A large cruiser rumbled the unit around them as it swept low over the yard where they were, taking off for a destination out amongst the stars above. The sound of it was loud enough to jolt Kail back to the here and now. Besides, without her "proposal", he doubt he'd regret casting her away and forgetting they had ever met.

But something inside him was too intrigued to say no, and she probably could be more use to Kail then anything else he had on him if she really was capable of - well, there was a LOT he could imagine.

"I can imagine a lot."

Feth! That WAS the drink still knocking around relaxed body talking.

"Listen, er...ok. Ok, I accept your reasons. I'm not without "morals" - whatever they may be to an individual, but you didn't deserve to just...rot away out there like that, no way."

He linked his fingers again before his chin.

"I don't know what I can do for you, maybe help you find this creep Krius, but I can't say I've heard the name. I don't trust you, you know that, right? But maybe we should go somewhere and...talk. I need to know a bit about just WHAT you are capable of, and what I can offer you without you sticking a knife in my back the minute you're done with me, because this debt can be repaid quickly and after that...what then?"

Remember Kail, she's a Force user. Don't give yourself too easily...

The mercenary stood up and took a step forward, leaning over to her, extending his hand.

"Let's try again. Kail Ragnar, half-baked mercenary, at your service."


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

For the first time in a very, very long time…she laughed.

It was a sound at odds with her voice: warm, light, inviting where when she spoke it was low, husky, cold. She could not help herself when he revealed the extent of his imagination. It was a slip she merely answered with a vampiric smile, hearing the way he immediately latched on to his next sentence as if to erase the first.

She listened to him without stopping him, her face back to something eerily expressionless. (Like the dead – the beast Krius almost tamed back full force, but underneath a shell so cold it was a wonder she didn’t freeze in place.) But when he finished that wolfish smile was back, tilting her head and running her tongue over one canine. He didn’t trust her, and she certainly didn’t trust him. Despite the fact that she possessed a gift he didn’t, he was dangerous in his own right. If she let her guard down – allowed herself to be pushed by his strangely charming way – she was lost. She would be repeating her mistakes and then it would no one’s fault but her own when he too left her for dead.

Better to repay him, then leave. Never think of him again.

“I’m not asking for your help. When Krius and I meet again, it will be just the two of us and only one will leave. The Force will see to it that we cross paths,” she said, placing her faith in that which allowed her to hunt as well as she did. “I don’t know what you do for a living, but judging by the amount of dirt on you – I’m not saying anything, it’s a good look – and the steel, it’s something you could use someone like me to help you with. Make it a bit easier. You don’t have to trust me…but believe me, if I wanted you dead you would be. And not because of a knife in your back.”

She narrowed her eyes again when he stood up, giving him another of her insectile looks as he extended his hand. He was quite novel, she thought. What the hell…she slid herself off the low wall, standing a full foot shorter than him but looking up in to his face without reservation as she wrapped her hand in his, obliging the reintroduction. “Matsu Xiangu, fully-baked Sith, for the time being at your service,” she said, the title flowing like serpents from between her tongue and teeth before she could think. Strange.

When she let him go she turned, crooking her fingers to beckon him, the flash of red claws on her good hand bright in the sun. “Come, we’ll…talk.”

It didn’t take her long to find a building in that part of the city suited to her needs. Rodia was, for all intents and purposes, a wealthy city inhabited by a species that had made a name for itself in the galaxy. But it still had its less used quadrants, those filled with local cantinas like the one Kail had found himself in, and buildings that saw little use. It was one of the latter that Matsu chose, sensing for life within but finding nothing that felt ominous to her. She led Kail inside – that was, if he hadn’t decided he didn’t want the woman’s help when she led him off in to back alleys – and swept her eyes over the room. There wasn’t much to speak of, a few crates, old beams from construction half-finished, lots of dirt. She paced around it slowly as she turned her head to watch Kail. “You say you want to know what I’m capable of. What have you seen of the Force?”

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

There was something fascinatingly mysterious about Matsu that Kail just wanted to explore. As she talked about her own private vendetta, which was clear was a two-way operation with no room for one as un-important as a world-weary mercenary – her loss – she was almost non-human.

She wasn’t fixed on anything except her words, and so his eyes scanned her features quickly because she reminded him of one of those alluring wild beasts out there. One who could entice you in with seduction, naivety and weakness before taking over your body in a heartbeat as you give yourself to someone who you believe weak, only to die moments later. Her creepy, filed down fangs were certainly a feature on her plain face. Combined with her monstrous cybernetic arm…of claw…she was the embodiment of duality; life and death, peace and war.

She rose to meet him, and they clasped hands; his dry and course, hers smooth and soft. Could there BE any further distance between the two in this shaky alliance? As she turned to lead the way, that crooked finger enticing the victim to her lair away from prying eyes, Kail knew where his weapons were without looking and he was ready. Always ready. Especially now she had just mentioned she was a Sith.

Great!

That told him one thing; danger. Sith were just the same as the Jedi in his eyes but far more aggressive, deadlier and darker in their actions. That and also dirty, deceptive liars. He looked around as Matsu led them into a more secluded area and, unnervingly, an empty building which appeared to be an un-finished renovation. Instinctively he began to make small circles with the index finger and thumb on his right hand, a hypnotic and looping movement born from his feeling of uncertainty, keeping his brain busy so not to overthink things.

Amongst the crates and discarded metal and dirt, Matsu began to walk slowly around the room, now surrounded in silence bar the odd vibration of passing cruisers up above. Kail decided to stand in the doorway, leaning against it, crossing his right leg over the left and resting his boot facing down to appear care-free and flippant. She could probably sense how he was feeling, but right now he didn’t feel un-easy…what was the term…nervously thrilled? He didn’t know either as she asked the question that was easy to answer.

“What have I seen of the Force. Hm.” He snorted a little at where to begin.

“Well about a month ago I encountered a Sith on Kashyyyk. Long story short it ended up with me having my knee shot out-“ his hand brushed across his right thigh, patting it gently, “- and this ‘Force’ catapulting me through the air like I was a speck of dirt while he just stood there, not even breaking a sweat.”

Kail felt his frustration burning away, an anger that lay deep inside him rarely wakened and always silenced by his morals.

“I’ve never felt pain like it, and I went in there blind and as a result nearly lost my life over my own ego.”

The discussion of his pain unlocked something inside him that he hadn’t felt before; it was being unlocked by talking about it, being enticed to just speak his feelings and let it out.

“I’m going to kill him one day, and one day I’ll be wiser and stronger than this and no man or woman, Force user or not, will be able to treat me like that again. Not even you.”

He probably would have scared himself looking on at how he was talking, but it was just the two of them, and right now he felt an aura around her that seemed to empower him.

Watch your mouth Kail, calm down you big lug-head.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Though she was not purposely trying, Matsu could feel not fear or apprehension but…some kind of hesitant excitement coming from the man leaning on the doorframe. That was interesting, unexpected. All signs had pointed to his turning his back and refusing her help, an inclination she would not have blamed him for.

She was kind of unsettling.

She paced the room slowly, her hands clasped lightly behind her back, her posture straight and fluid. It was a skill she had acquired to work well in higher circles where her quiet seemed a late-blooming talent, an advantage that she’d only just learned to use. She played a graceful game, heard things others didn’t, kept her true power hidden up her sleeve – she was a shade, one that gave the impression that should you touch you might reach right through to the other side, wrap fingers around something that would take them. And though her greatest weapon was as quiet as the seeming emptiness of her face, it was no coward’s choice.

This is not poison in your cup.
This is not a knife, snuck in between your shoulder blades.
This is watching yourself open up, seeing reality curl away.
She wanted you to fight. You can try.

She was quiet as he explained though as he spoke she felt an anger mounting in him that set her off, her fingers clenching behind her back. She stopped in her pacing and angled herself to face him, her face impassive despite the frenzied plucking of thoughts in her mind as she watched his face. (Magnificent creature. Tell me now Krius, that those without the Force should not exist.) Her power felt strangely amplified, transformed in the face of this near-stranger’s emotion. She took a few steps forward, closing the short distance between them slightly.

“The Force is many things to many people. It’s only limit is the user. If I can withstand it, I can use it to do anything I want. There are those that lose control, that ravage planets, that toss people through the air simply because they can. But that all seems rather…unimaginative, doesn’t it? Amusing, I’ll grant you that. But what I can do is limited only by the capacity of my mind to imagine it. And I…like you…can imagine a lot.”

She glanced down to the knee some Sith had injured. With the mouth on him she’d already heard in the span of a quarter of an hour in Kail’s presence she could only imagine what he might had said to earn such punishment. But it was possible he did nothing – stupid, she thought, to toss someone through the air merely because it was within your power. Oh yes – very menacing indeed. And all the sudden she was angry. She wanted to find that Sith and break his knees in return for what he’d done to the man standing in the doorway there with his dirt-leaned features twisted in the loosing of the tale. Her expression was responding in kind, no longer impassive but slightly twisted in irritation, her eyes slightly tinted by amber flaming towards her pupils.

But when he mentioned her, she smiled again. He spoke with abandon and were she someone else perhaps he would have the other knee broken. Luckily for him, she found him fascinating.

“I was born with a gift you do not possess. However, any one with the Force would be foolish to believe it lends them invincibility from those without it. Though you will need to be wiser and stronger. There is a reason so many with the Force are fond of such hubris – dangerous prey. I hope when you kill him he begs,” she said, a smirk dripping with approval.

She did not respond to the end of his speech – he did not scare her. He made her power feel…new.
(The storm unfolding over the sea, waves crashing, salt bright with lightning.)

She would repay this debt and she would forget him.

She tracked back to her slow pacing, tilting her head slightly to watch him even as she moved. “I can ravage planets. I can use violence for its own sake. I have. I am capable. But that is not what I do,” she offered, still wearing that ghost of a smirk. “Would you like to see?”

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Matsu was weaving some sort of spell with her silky words, wrapping around him and pulling his soul closer and closer for her to devour and inspect and pick apart. Kail wasn’t sure if it was his own weakness letting her in, or if she was up to some trickery – either way, he was fascinated with the way she was giving herself to him and opening up the secrets of what this Force power could do.

One thing he was sure about was her power, and he knew it would be greater than he expected. She sure was pretty, and he was attracted to her, but was this due to the fact no woman had paid him attention like this for a long, long time, or was it due to the fact she was tapping into the core of what made his heart beat faster when he faced a life and death choice as a mercenary, a gun-for-hire, a man who thought acted first without thinking of the wider consequences.

He labelled some of these traits as faults, but maybe she was seeing them as strengths? Either way, this “debt” was up in the air, as there would be nothing she could offer to him to repay what he did. She didn’t need to waste time with one such as he, and the words spoken about how flippant one could be with the Force started to annoy him.

Kail didn’t ask for this lecture, nor to be lured away to a backstreet to see how much power one could control with a mere flick of the dainty wrist or bat of a sultry eye, which was something he would never have. He had made a mistake and paid the price, and he didn’t need to hear what else could have happened to him if he hadn’t of been so lucky.

However, the way so almost pushed him forward to take the life of Shaw, the Sith Lord in question, empowered him slightly. He would never be able to, but the fact she shared in that vengeful lust he swore to extract on him one day made him feel, just for that split second as his fingers danced over the strap of his KX-60, that together they could be an unstoppable team to take down those abusing the Force and wrecking lives for the hell of it. Shaw…Krius…who next?

He swung the rifle around in a fluid sweep, gripping the butt with his right hand and the barrel with his left, aiming it at Matsu as he slowly stepped into the room.

”What I neglected to inform you was it was I who made the first aggressive move against the Sith. I thought I could use what tools you see before you to take him down, so he only gave me what I deserve you see.”

Her head followed his as he stalked around her, stepping up and over a beam below his boots.

”You see, you didn’t anticipate this did you? What’s stopping me from pulling the trigger and emptying these bolts into your pretty little body and finishing you off, finishing the job your old pal Krius couldn’t? Hm?”

Kails voice didn’t get louder, but he noticed the amber claws dancing across Matu’s eyes and it un-nerved him. He swung back the rifle and stepped down before her and grabbed her natural wrist, and held her hand to his armoured vest. He was heading into his defensive, careless and self-destructive side.

”You can ravage plants and bring down starships. But can you say you’ve truly experienced the thrill of killing someone as you twist a blade between their ribcage and look into their eyes as life drains from them, or silenced a plea for mercy as you pull the trigger that takes their head clean off? You can do so much damage with the Force, but what you can’t do is truly FEEL it.”

His hand was shaking. His thumb gently stroked her wrist for a second.

”CAN YOU?!”


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She could see annoyance in his face and wondered, briefly, at what was going on in his head. It was strange to try and understand him. It didn’t strike her until then how little true contact she’d had with those without access to the Force, especially in the most recent years of her life. Her parents were really the only ones she’d ever known who could not wield the gift she’d been given, and she’d understood them only because she grew up watching them. But now, so deeply involved with the Fringe…she tried to understand.

Why she didn’t just reach in and rip an understanding from his mind…she wasn’t sure.

But when she encouraged the death of the nameless Sith Lord, she noticed a subtle change in his face. It never occurred to her that he was incapable of seeing the Sith dead. Immense power did not protect one from being an imbecile. Perhaps the man who’d damaged Kail’s knee was an idiot, or too confident in his safety. All things die after all, and she believed with the right planning and luck even those without the Force could accomplish wonders given the right circumstances. This was the difference that had torn her from Krius’ side, the belief that she held fast to – where Krius would look at Kail and see an abomination, she saw promise.

And how could she not as he stepped in to the room, rifle lifted, the cold dark passage of its inner workings staring her in the face. She stopped in her pacing as he seemed to pick it up, an exchange of energy that seemed to elevate her further. Her face was dead save for the amber clawing around her irises – there was no fear. She’d guessed at his brashness in attacking first against the Lord who’d hurt him, but he was right – she hadn’t anticipated his weapon raised against her suddenly. But no…no fear. She didn’t answer because it seemed obvious. Nothing was there to stop him – but if he pulled the trigger she had more than one way of deflecting the bolt and ending his life.

Up until that moment Matsu had been calm, quiet, or at least in the sense where anger was concerned. Of course Kail had ignited something in her akin to excitement, bloodlust, a thirst she truly hadn’t known still existed in the forms she remembered. But not anger. That was something she’d learned to control, to channel in to something constructive and build with as she’d never been able to before, when she’d wielded it as one explosive force.

But when he touched her, his fingers wrapping around her delicate wrist, she flared. Her pupils dilated, the amber in her irises taking over completely and making her look even less human than she already had accomplished. Even the structure of her face seemed to change, everything sharper and more pronounced as his thumb stroked along her wrist.

No one had touched her this way since Krius.

There used to be a little girl who would have killed him right then, that would have given no thought to rending him in two with a motion of her fingers. It would be so easy, to end the barb of suffering in her memory, wouldn’t it? He meant nothing. Nothing! He was almost begging for it anyway, so careless. She didn't WANT to remember what it had been like to feel something from the touch of another, something besides agony or merely function. It was painful and pointless.

But that little girl died, cold and alone in the snow.
And in her place stood a woman who held her power in the palm of her hand.

It is easy to destroy, Matsu.
To avoid being consumed is hard.
But control will…set…you…free.

She licked her lips as she felt the shaking of his hand, the tension sparking between them mirrored in the shifting colors of her eyes as he spoke of moments she’d never had. She had killed – in the hundreds, perhaps the thousands by now. But so many of them faceless, obstacles in the path of the Fringe. Not one had been so personal as this man described, so heady.

“Let me see,” she whispered.

She slid her hand up through his grip, his hand wrapped around the middle of her forearm as she pressed her fingers to his temple.

“Let me see?” she said again, a little louder and this time a question.

And again…why ask when she could take?
Infuriating. She might kill him yet.

[member="Kail Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

The second Matsu's eyes turned into a sickly yellow, Kail was taken aback and his spine tingled with fear at how close he was standing before someone obvisouly riddled with a darkness; a Sith power that seemed to turn her into an animal. Her sharp teeth, the cybernetic arm, the yellow eyes - she was a creature of dark power and a force to be reckoned with.

He was rooted to the ground with slight fear and also anticipation of what was to come - would he be enveloped by some overwhelming force and be killed where he stood in a heartbeat, or was this a moment he would become something more than just a man by some strange, enforcing power she would pass to him?

Kail had no idea.

Watching her tongue tease her own lips, the features of her face difficult to read as either friendnly or hostile, Kail felt helpless as she snaked her arm up through his grip, he himself not fighting her. His own words were starting to bounce around in his head, losing himself in his own thoughts of darker, brutal moments as his time as a mercenary. He small, warm fingers gently splayed on his temple, and for a moment he felt safe.

Her touch was the first in many a year, and his hand lightly gripped her forearm as she spoke twice, the second louder as he didn't react when prompted.

All he could muster was a small nod. "Save me from myself."

He opeened his mind up to Matsu; he started to give in to her promise of helping him. Without it, he would probably soon be dead either by his own doing, or someone else with a finer, more attuned head on their shoulders. He closed his eyes and held his fascinating girl in his grip, and prepared himself for whatever was to follow.

Raised on Tatooine and growing up as a mercenary....
...falling before a Sith Lord on Kashyyyk...
...hurting from a Wampa attack on Hoth...
....clawing at Matsu's arm and shouting in pain...
...taking a life without blinking an eye...
...drinking and abusing his own body outside a cantina on Corellia....
...riding a swoop over the Dune Sea...
...exploring tombs on long forgotten worlds..
....a burning sensation of toxins inhaled down his throat...
...an animalistic mercenrary mask...
....gripping a bloodied knee with his dirty hands to stem the flow...

A nightmarish blend of surreal memory and distorted visions began to bubble in Kail's mind as a sharp gasp escaped his mouth.



[member="Matsu Xiangu"]