Kurayami Bloodborn
Drunken Savant
The atmosphere was tinged with a strange electricity as silence settled over those gathered. Kurayami's eyes moved slowly from Erich to Dietrich, keeping Amara always in his periphery. Meanwhile his mind was racing over why the three words had been chosen along with this situation... Sabotage! Betrayal! Traitor! Something that had to do with the three gathered here perhaps one of the words described a feeling harbored by each former squadmate? Possible. To figure that out though would mean that the other two would have to speak as well or have Amara speak for them. He nodded and settled his gaze on Dietrich first. "So, Dietrich, anything you want to add to the conversation? You were never known to be this quiet in life, you always had something to add or a comment on the situation. I'm listening." His old wingman looked up from the whiskey in his hand and chuckled shaking his head, finally turning to face the only living one in the room. Standing he approached Kurayami and leaned over until he was inches from his former leaders face. "Yea, I got something to say to ya. The day Amara died you should have kept her ship grounded. You knew hers was more damaged than anyone elses, and yet you cleared her to fly. Why? Or did you sabotage her fighter yourself while claiming to love her you sick fuck?"
The words stung for sure, and stunned him. Outwardly there was no reaction to the tirade, his speech remained even as he shifted his gaze to Erich. The man who had passed on the mantle of Aquila 13 and leadership of the squadron to him so many years before. "Well, you're up Erich. Anything you got, I'm ready for it. Hit me with your worst, sir." Erich rose and took a chair, swinging it around and facing it's back towards Kurayami before straddling it and resting his arms on top of it. "You know Bloodborn, you always had an aura of unassailable confidence. That is why you made such a good pilot, and why I passed on command to you. But you are a traitor to the ideals that we held dear now, we didn't kill if we could help it. I have watched you destroy many enemies who could easily have been granted amnesty, whether on the ground or in the air. You lost your focus and for that I pity you. Now you have heard from all three of us, unless Amara has something more she wants to say. Anythin 4?
Amara moved from where she had stood by the bar, sliding to sit in the booth on Kurayami's right. "Indeed I do have more to say, sir. you betrayed me not only when I was alive, but also when I had passed on. You promised that you would not lead others for money and then you went and formed Jester Squadron, another merc squad. Sure your contracts all happen to be with the Commonwealth, but that is all incidental I am sure. Or could it be that you are so close to higher ups that you can easily get good jobs? Disappointing to say the least. I suppose we should give you a chance to at least explain yourself though, shouldn't we?"
Kurayami's grip tightened around his lightsaber hilt, as he took a long draught from the flask before capping it and placing it back where he took it from on his utility belt. Shifting to better face the group he started with Dietrich. "Alright, so you got one thing right in your entire unhinged rant there. I should have grounded her fighter that day. I did not however, know about the level of damage as I didn't have a chance to do more than a basic visual check on hers and mine before the scramble that day. I could not have known that the vector controls were utilizing an algorithm that overstressed the control systems. The fact that she managed to keep it within the envelope until hit is amazing. I did, and still do love her.
Erich, you are right. I have always been extremely confident, and back then I didn't know it was due to latent Force sensitivity, but now that I have been trained and studied the mysteries of the Force for many decades, longer than a lifetime for many, it makes sense as to where I got it from I guess. You accuse me of killing when I didn't have to. Maybe you are right, but I will counter with the point that we were mostly working for lightsided or neutral organizations. As of right now, I do not have that liberty. I follow orders as we did then. Fault me as you wish, but I promise you any collateral I can avoid I always have and always will.
Amara, 'min tejha larel' I never tried to replace you. Not with Jenni, nor any woman I have met since. There are also things that have blurred in your mind with time. You wore the ring all through out your life, I only got it after you had passed. Even then it was not some somber ceremony. I was presented with your tags and the ring in a small wooden box by Dietrich. Tensions were high so it was basically 'Sorry about Amara here's her shit. We debrief in 5 minutes.' After that he left and I only found out about the issues weeks later when they managed to find the wreckage. If I wante'd to erase your memory, your ring would not be on a chain around my neck, every day, next to one I had made that is its mirror, in all ways but the engraving. I still remember being on Naboo,in the Lake Country on leave. You and I were stargazing and I pointed out where Corellia was roughly in the nightsky, the first words you spoke were 'Olys Turhaya' before laughing. There was this sly grin you gave me as if you were referring to me instead of the planet, calling me 'Old Brightstar' that is the inscription on mine. Would someone trying to erase the other do such a thing? Sure I may have formed another squadron, but the contracts are with the Commonwealth because we are mostly a training/reserve squadron. Yes, we do undertake missions others will not, but overall we are not needed.
Silence once more fell over the room, but this time it was a more relaxed one as evidenced when Amara rested her head on Kurayami's shoulder. Perhaps the Netherworld had used this as a means to bring out more secrets from him, if so he was not worried about the repercussions because at least for the moment he was happy.
