Starships

[Cedric Grayson]

"Always," he huffed a quiet laugh. The touch was welcomed, craved even, but the sudden chaos was unexpected. He could indeed grasp some of the base emotions warring within her; confusion, remorse, something else. Oddly enough, it worried him. He wouldn't expect to care so much about a stranger's feelings.

But then Kinsey wasn't a stranger anymore, was she?

His lips parted to inquire about the senior Starchaser. He could come up with a myriad of reasons as to why they were no longer in contact, the chief of which being rivaling allegiances. The smarter part of him chose not to bring that up. No reason to drive a wedge between the two of them now.

"You okay?" He asked, a bit more concern than he would have liked to show lacing his words. This bond was still new, and he didn't want to seem like he was abusing it. Still, he felt the need to ask.

It was then that the Houk stepped in.

"You're not much, are you?" The alien sneered. He was surprisingly intelligent given his race. "I sense power, but...impure. Untapped. You're no more than an apprentice." The Houk tilted his scaly head to the side.

His beady black eyes drifted past Kinsey to Darius.

" 'N you've got a Jedi boy to, eh? Not in chains either." A finger settled on the activation switch of his lightsaber staff.

The weapon hissed its twin-red blades came to life. A woman screamed. Most of the folks in the establishment held their breathe. Some trickled on outside. The Houk didn't seem to care about them much.

"I'll be taking him. I have jurisdiction over this city - you'd be wise to listen to your elders little girl."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

Twin pools of blue narrowed at the reptilian sentient. "Aren't the most loyal pets those that require no leash at all?" Sorry, Darius. She tugged on their bond, hoping he'd get the meaning: play along. If he didn't get it? They'd be in deep bantha poodoo.

But she also wasn't as little as the Houk thought. Size rarely mattered in the form of mental manipulation and she was taught by one of the best masters in mind frakkery. (Which should have made her question things a little more with Sage but that was neither here nor there at the moment). When the sith took over a group of rebel dissidents, Sage had taught and made Kins use mental manipulation to cause the rebels to flee their base. She hated doing it. Every time it felt like plunging into a sticky swamp.

But she didn't hesitate to do it now.

She plunged into the edges of the knight's mind to make it seem as if Darius was cowering beyond her shoulder. She even added painted details of a bruised jaw and bloodied, swollen lip. "This one is mine. A gift for my Lord. If you touch that gift, not only will you experience my wrath but my Lord's as well."

Her next words were laced with authority. "Now leave."

Darius might squirm and not like her words. He might never trust her again. But he would feel the same Kinsey he just met through the bond, even if he didn't see her now.

 

[Cedric Grayson]

The Houk was not pleased. He was an experienced Knight - a decorated warrior among the One Sith ranks. To be defied by a mere apprentice was unacceptable. Still, her words had some merit, albeit he was still suspicious of the Jedi she kept in tow. A loyal pet, eh? The Houk narrowed the black pits that served as his eyes and sneered.

"Is he now?" The warrior hissed, suspicion raising the tone of his voice, "I s'pose that works out then, doesn't it?" The Houk frowned. The illusion had successfully fooled him - he hadn't expected much from Kinsey. His underestimation of her would be his downfall.

Shrugging, the Sith turned and left the diner, his lightsaber dousing as he walked out the door. He'd seemed convinced, but one could not so easily pull wool over the eyes of a trained warrior. He made his way down one of the adjacent valleys and waited, eyes locked on the bar for the moment the duo would leave.

Meanwhile, Darius watched with displeasure. His stomach turned when she spoke of him as a pawn; a slave. He knew her words were untrue - the bond told him that much, but the thought was not a pleasant one. When the Houk left, he pushed up from his seat, dropped a credit chip on the table, and walked over to Kinsey.

"That was fancy," he mused, "Nice trick. Maybe we should get out of here?" He lofted a brow. The padawan was eager to get out of the public scene now, but he would not dare to leave Kinsey's side. That Houk had been far too suspicious, and he did not wish for any harm to come to the woman. His own safety was an afterthought.

"Sith aren't the friendliest, are they?" A hand fell to take hers in his own. Before she could offer some form of response, he was dragging her outside toward...well, wherever they could lay low for the evening. "Why do you stick around? You're not like them."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

Thank the stars that worked!!! Heart still raced. Adrenaline still coursed through her system in anticipation of a fight. She could sense Darius' discomfort...disapproval?

It didn't matter. He was alive. She was alive.

It took her a moment, but she quickly took charge as they walked outside, trying to show that she was tugging Darius along and not the other way around. Had to keep up appearances. Blue eyes spotted a bed and breakfast at the corner and feet led them there. Seemed run down and super sketchy but it didn't matter at this point. Darius' instincts were right. They needed to stay low.

"Sith are....grumpy sometimes," she tried to pass it off. But she bristled at his next comment as they strode into the dilapidated inn reception area. "And Jedi can be just as bad. It's...complicated."

That statement came from her uncle and not just Sage Bane. Things seemed more rosy colored around Sage. The more time she spent away from him, the more she was beginning to doubt things. And being around Darius was fueling that doubt. She didn't like it, though. It was fruitless. Even if she did question it, Sage was a very powerful man. She couldn't simply get away, even if she wanted to. She wasn't sure if she even wanted to. Why was she even thinking about it???

Feelings of guilt filled her already emotionally charged self.

"We only got one room left," a clone looked lazily up from the desk. "Check out is at 8:00 AM. You take the room as-is. No refunds."

 

[Cedric Grayson]

Darius did not exactly mirror her emotionally. She was dealing with loyalty issues - he didn't want to die. Not here. Not on this world. Not at the hands of some over confident Houk who let his lightsaber do the talking for him.

Still, despire his worries, he managed to listen to Kinsey as best he could. He understood her trepidations about Jedi, but there was something most Sith seemed not to understand. Something the acolytes and apprentices almost never seemed to grasp. "Some Jedi are grumps, yes, but most want to be left alone. They don't want to fight a war, they want to help people."

Then he was done. He wasn't going to start preaching to her about morals, or the One Sith's lack of them. He doubted it would do anything more than drive a wedge between them, something he could not afford right. She was doing him a service helping him along here, after all.

"Got it," Darius slid a credit chip across the counter, "This covers the both of us."

The clone just waved a hand and scooped up the chip.

Goodbye money.

The inn wasn't exactly pretty on the outside. Things weren't much better on the inside. The room they were given overlooked the bustling city below. It had a single bed, and a single sofa. the holovision pinned to the wall was cracked, though it seemed functional. At the very least, the room didn't stink.

"The Houk is going to come back, you know." The padawan frowned. "When he does, I'll lead him off. He's after me, not you, and you've done enough for me already." He paused and took a look around the room. He'd felt her displeasure through the bond - something was making her feel sour.

"What's wrong, Kinsey?"

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

"I know," she spoke quietly and plopped on the creaky bed. "And no. I can handle him. I live and work with monsters and wolves."

Sage was definitely a wolf. Or a spider. And she knew she was the fly. "We should give it a few hours and then try to steal a shuttle." She grinned. It was reckless. But that was Kinsey. No auto-pilot for this Starchaser. She took life one hectic dip, swerve, and dive at a time.

"And Darius," blue eyes panned to him. "I know it hasn't been long, but since that bond was formed and the more time I'm away from Sage Bane...I dunno. Things just don't look the same."

Voice lowered to barely a whisper as if scared by what she was about to say. "You can't just leave the sith. I mean...if I wanted to. You can't just leave."

That's why she would get him out. She had to. And why did he have to be so hot?

 

[Cedric Grayson]

Darius never really settled for absolutes. He'd always been the curious sort, albeit nowhere nearly as inquisitive as his twin brother. What was his name again? No, not the time to think about him. That would do nothing more than bring about a headache and get his mind off the issue at hand.

"I've seen people do it," he lied. Darius had never actually seen people defect firsthand, but he had met plenty of folks who had started their journeys as Sith apprentices. Some of them went on to become the galaxy's most prominent Jedi. Not that he was going to try and convince Kinsey to pursue that path - being a Jedi was demanding. It wasn't meant for everyone.

Steal a ship?

He fell silent as he considered. Together, it was quite possible, but where would they go? What would they do? We'll just figure it out when we get there.

There was always the possibility Kinsey was playing the long con; tricking him into lowering his guard so that she might deliver him to her lord, this Sage Bane fellow. Darius had never heard of him - of course he barely knew of any prominent Sith Lords. Tended to happen when you were a hermit.

"Maybe he was doing something to your mind?" Darius lofted a brow. He moved to sit alongside her on the aging bed, pondering what little he knew about mentalism. "I've heard tales of Sith manipulating people's minds. Turning them into pawns - not to imply that you are one! Just...well, Kinsey, I've been trained to become a Jedi since I was ten years old. Our connection might be disrupting his sway."

Boundaries Darius. Remember them.

" - eh...that's your master right? This Sage guy?"

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

She turned to him. "He would never. He..." voice trailed off as her pools of blue stared determinedly into his own. Maybe he would?

She immediately felt guilty for thinking that. But then felt angry. But not at Darius. Lust and anger were constants around Sage Bane and for the first time she wondered why anger? Was her subconscious aware of something her conscious wasn't?

She had inched closer to Darius without realizing it, her outer thigh and knee now flush against his, her shoulder nudging against his own. "Yes," she spoke quietly. She couldn't tell him everything because now she was doubting it. She and Sage were also lovers but now she wondered...

"He would find me," blue-eyes narrowed. "He'd never let me walk away. And if I saw him again, I don't think I'd be strong enough to walk away." She really didn't see any way out. She couldn't see any way out. "And that's why we're stealing a ship." As if she sensed his doubts about her loyalty.

"You're getting out Darius."

But why was she loyal? Perhaps the bond....perhaps because the magic of Sage Bane was slowly beginning to fade away.

 

[Cedric Grayson]

So he was.

Part of him wanted to leave. Kinsey's closeness was scaring him, to put it simply. He knew what she was doing; understood the implications that would come with it. From that first smile she'd given him aboard the shuttle, the Padawan had understood. The Jedi Order was fragmented because of this sort of thing - because people allowed their passions to rule them. He had always been one of the more reserved apprentices; always disciplined, never allowing himself to be controlled by his feelings.

And Kinsey Starchaser was the apprentice to a prominent Sith Lord.

"If he wouldn't let you walk away, then is he worth following?" Darius asked quietly. A brow was lofted. He let the question hang there for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. The Houk was still out there, and they needed to find a ship. He -

An arm laced around the Starchaser's waist as he leaned toward her. Blue eyes squeezed shut, rationality was thrown aside in favor of emotionally driven action. Darius pressed his lips against hers and stayed there, closing out the rest of the world for but a moment. The Houk, Khomm, the overbearing Sith presence were lost to him for the moment.

Kark.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

She never noticed how blue his eyes were. Being this close, it was hard to miss. Brow crinkled in worry at his question. It still implied she had a choice. Sage was a powerful man. She wouldn't be able to break his mental or physical hold on her own.

But Darius was there. His arm around her waist. And his lips.

Hands came up to pull him closer, fingers playing along the fabric of his shirt along his chest. Lips worked too. Somehow. There was a raw hunger in her kisses. Breathing didn't seem important anymore and for the first time, she forgot the delicacy of Sage Bane's touch.

Breathing hard, she finally eased back but didn't pull away.

"We should go...," her actions didn't match the suggestion because she was already leaning in again. They could steal a shuttle after one more kiss, right? Just one more. Or a few. A few- a lot more.

 

[Cedric Grayson]

We should go.

The words pulled Darius from his hormonal stupor. The teenager blinked at Kinsey until the words registered. There was a Sith hunting them. If they remained, then he would quite likely find them, and then things would...not go well. Darius would be imprisoned and likely killed, or worse; placed in a Sith Academy. Kinsey would be returned to her master's side. He could only imagine what would happen then.

Yet he was intoxicated.

She was already leaning in. He'd never been particularly good at picking up body language, but Darius knew his affections were returned. The bond assured him of that. Fingers trailed across her cheek as he cut her off with his lips. She was so very soft, fragile even -

The Padawan broke the kiss.

"We can, uh..." Was he breathing this hard a moment ago? "Get back to this later -" Darius paused for a moment longer than was necessary, "...if you want, I mean."

They needed to get on that shuttle. Partly to reach safety, and partly to buy Darius time to figure out how he felt about this. Well, knew how he felt now, but Kinsey was a Sith - albeit a doubtful one, and he had only met her recently. Then there was the bond, and the comfort that came with it; the intimacy.

Not now.

His cheeks flushed. Blue eyes fell to the floor. "Okay?"

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

She grinned and took his hand. "You're blushing, Darius." Impish-face turned serious as she pulled him off the bed. "Let's get you off this planet." She didn't say we. Her first priority was him.

"C'mon."

Before they left, she convinced the owner to give them some credits through a little mind-persuasion. What? She was a rebellious party-girl Starchaser, not a monk. Gripping his hand tightly in hers, she made a beeline from the spaceport, too-blue eyes alert for the Houk. At least it would still look like she was in charge. Her story still held up on the surface.

Now if only she could stop thinking about Darius' lips.

 

[Cedric Grayson]

Darius might had said something about the credit swindling had he been in his right mind. Unfortunately he was still fighting with himself. He'd initiated the kiss - that was his decision, but was it right? Maybe. It was something he was going to have to ask himself later, when the possiblity of death was not looming over his shoulder. He let Kinsey take his hand, partly to sell the deception, and partly because he enjoyed it.

"No I'm not,' he grumbled as his face reddened further, "I'm just warm. It's hot."

Whatever.

They arrived at the starport not long after. The guards didn't pay them much heed - Kinsey was a Sith after all. They could come and go wherever they pleased. Darius gave the occasional nod, flashed a smile here and there, and followed her lead.

"There's a few. I'll let you pick," he pointed out as they came into the main hanger. A number of shuttles were scattered across the hanger, just asking to be taken.

Darius stopped.

"You should come with me." He locked eyes with the Starchaser, lips pursed as he fought to find his words, "It's...safer that way."

Something shifted not far behind them. The sudden change in the force caught Darius off-guard; something monstrous was coming their way, and it would arrive very soon. They only had a moment or so before that damned Houk would be upon them.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

There was one thing she did inherit from her uncle - his talent for flying anything with a pair of wings and some sort of weird talent with navigation through the force. Probably one of her few trump cards. She still had trouble force manipulating a cup of water across the room but she could fly the bleep out of a dog fight or black hole.

Go figure.

So, when Darius said choose, she immediately knew which shuttle would work, which shuttle had the most speed, and which shuttle wouldn't break down on them if they got into a little dogfight. It was the closest one. She froze when he looked at her. Blue eyes so similar to her own shade.

"I...," voice trailed off. It would be safer, for him. She could get them through checkpoints. "Until we get out of sith space. Deal?"

After that....well, she'd have to think about it if they got that far.

Brown-haired head whipped to the side as the Houk made his presence known. "Get inside and start us up, Darius." Muscles tensed, blue eyes locked onto the angry and possibly hangry sentient.

 

[Cedric Grayson]

She'd agreed. That lifted a heavy burden from his shoulders. He'd grown to care for Kinsey in the short time he'd known her - perhaps it was infatuation. That didn't matter much not however, the bond was ever-present after all. He couldn't just leave her even if he wanted to; which he did not. He would not let that Sith Lord get his hands on her again.

Perhaps he was being a bit over-protective.

"Deal," he leaned in and pecked her on the lips. They had assumed...something. A mutual affection, at the very least, and he was going to capitalize on it. It would keep Kinsey around, and more importantly, he enjoyed it. She wanted to deal with the Houk, and he would allow her that much. Gods knew he would only get in the way right now anyway.

His hand lingered on her own for a moment before he turned away. His shattergun found its place back on his hip. The teenager sprinted toward the ship she'd indicated, and went to work on the lock. When that didn't work, he blew the thing open with his shattergun. The ray shields would have to hold. The sound of the ship's engines spooling up filled the hanger.

Then there was the Houk. The massive warrior sneered as he marched toward Kinsey, his crimson lightsaber humming with power. He offered no words, instead opting to swing his blade in a horizontal slice the moment he was close enough to do so. From thereon he would attack Kinsey with full intent to kill. The beast of a creature was not happy.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

Lips longed for more but he was already gone. She snapped out of her distraction and pulled out the hilt of the light saber given to her by Sage Bane. The color of bloody-magma erupted to life to meet the Houk's incoming slash. She still lost some ground by his sheer size.

"How dare you challenge me!" Voice echoed through the expanse of the hangar as her twin pools of blue narrowed at the aggressor. Flecks of yellow spread across the blue. An unnatural breeze began to emulate from Kindey, swirling her hair and picking at the loose fabric of her clothes.

Gathering the darkside around her, she released the channeled energy into a wind blast right into the creature's face. Feet shuffled back, getting closer to the opened shuttle. Always closer.

C'mon Darius. Get her started up.

Anger and passion fueled her emotions and she was a little scared about how much of it would leak over to the Jedi padawan. She was worried but she couldn't let it distract her. They couldn't afford distractions right now.

 

[Cedric Grayson]

The ship was not agreeing with him. Darius was no Starchaser, and his experience with these kinds of things was not particularly good. He was lucky to fly shuttles back with Master Sedaire. Since then his skill set had expanded exponentially, but getting a ship to start that simply did not want to was quite difficult. He grumbled a string of curses as he fumbled with buttons and switches, only stopping to watch the confrontation between Kinsey and the Houk.

The alien was forced back quite a way by the acolyte's attack. He had been blinded by his arrogance; expecting the girl to fall with a single strike it seemed that would not be the case. Sneering, he prepared to fire a bolt of force lightning at the whelp.

That was, of course, until the freighter began to fire a stream of bolts from its defensive cannons at him. Darius leveled out the ship low enough for Kinsey, and the door hissed open.

That was when he felt it. The seductive pull of the dark side; something he could have avoided entirely on his own. His bond with Kinsey opened him to such things, and while he did manage to resist the sweet promise of its power, it stirred something within him. He tried to find his sense of calm, and he managed for a moment.

But then he felt Kinsey, and that calm was lost.

Shivering in his seat, the padawan leveled the ship out, and waited for Kinsey to step aboard before speeding off toward the stars.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

The ion canons burst past her. She could feel their heat. And more importantly, she could feel the shuttle lined up behind her. And Darius. With a push of a button, the molten-red of her saber was swallowed up. The teen took the few short running steps to jump into the open doors. Shoulder took a jarring hit against the back wall as she miscalculated the landing space.

"Gorram it," staggering, she punched the doors to close and stumbled her way up to Darius, sliding into the co-pilot's seat. "That was some ballsy shooting," she huffed and pulled up the nav charts. "Where do you wanna go? We gotta jump soon. That Houk is probably already calling this in."

Grumpy sith.

 

[Cedric Grayson]

That was a very good question. There were a thousand worlds they could flee to. Which one was the most suitable? She had promised to stay with him until he left Sith space - could he...? No, that was wrong. He would do everything in his power to get them as far out of harm's reach as possible, and then they would decide on their next course of action. Then Kinsey would leave.

He would try to keep in contact so long as she allowed. They had a bond, one not so easily broken, and he was growing rather used to it.Fortunately the rumble of the ship's engines drew him from his reverie. His gaze shifted over to Kinsey.

The Dark Side was a poisonous thing, and it was finding a way into his heart. She'd planted something within him; something he would need to ignore until she was off the ship. It scared him.

"Just, uh..."

They began to break through atmosphere. The ship shook, but it did not stop. Sith fighters were already beginning to divert to their location, but they would be too late. The Houk had been too intent on capturing the duo for himself. He'd lacked the foresight to warn nearby ships beforehand.

The moment they broke from the planet's gravity, Darius engaged the hyperdrive. One moment they were in real-space, and stars were flying past them the next.

"We're en route to Endor. It's...well, home. They won't follow us there," he sighed, wheeling his chair around to look at her, "You took a risk for me. I don't know how to repay you, but...thanks." He cracked a thin smile. He was truly thankful for her efforts, but other thoughts pervaded his mind. Just looking at her made them worse.

Shab.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Darius"]

She didn't relax until the tell-tale signs of hyperspace filled the viewport. Exhale left her lips as she turned to face her new found friend. No, he was more than a friend but she wasn't sure about....a lot of things. Things like her future. Things like if she could walk away from [member="Sage Bane"]. And what if she went back? Could she be strong enough to do what she really wanted to do: to confront the Sith Lord?

She was worried that he'd always have some control over her even if she never went back. She was worried that she'd want that control. His control. Like an addict, she was worried about surviving the withdraw.

Knee brushed against Darius' as her chair swiveled in the small space. Pools of blue finally panned away from the blackness of space to look at Darius. "Endor. Never been there. You saved my skin too. We would've been a smashed piece of mound on the surface with all those shuttle peeps if it hadn't been for what you....we did....together. You've given me a lot to think about."

Kins gnawed on her lower lip in thought, not sure what else to say, her future an unknown.

She caught the intensity of his gaze, finally and grinned. "Darius. Darius. Why are you staring at me like that?" She laughed. It was easier to laugh than think about the future.