Private The Wellspring of Life

[Dagon Kaze]

A week later and a few levels beneath the Senate District, Dagon found himself in familiar territory. He'd spent his teenage years fighting crime as a Jedi across Coruscant, and mostly its seedy underbelly along with the rest of his generation of New Jedi. Some old routes had been changed, shortcuts removed by new infrastructure projects or mega buildings in construction. A painful reminder that years had passed since he was a mere fourteen-year-old prancing across construction walkways, abandoned sewers, and dirty rooftops. The lay of the land had changed.

Megabuilding 75 was the last place he imagined a Marshal of the Alliance would be living in. The plethora of cops he'd worked with over his life as an investigator always chewed out the feds as a privileged class, all suit and tie, all flexing muscle but doing nothing except taking the credit for the hardworking cop's job. Some Marshals truly did fit that categorization but nothing of that seemed to be true when it came to Supervisory Deputy Alliance Marshal Susanna Sorrows.

Then again he knew no other Marshal plagued by the poison of the dark side, too.

The floor where her apartment was situated remained largely scarce, surprisingly even for the never-sleeping city world of Coruscant. A few neighbors at the other end of the floor were bickering over something, while others were just leaving for their night shifts -- probably at the power plant a klick away from here.

Dagon softly knocked on the Marshal's door, hoping she wouldn't have forgotten they had a long, long journey to undertake.

Susanna Sorrows​

 

[Susanna Sorrows]

A rap on the door signalled to Susanna that it was time to leave. She rose from the faded leather recliner on which she’d been perched for the last half hour and slung her bag over her shoulder, casting one lingering look around the darkened space.

Susanna opened the door a crack, offering a weary half smile when she recognised Dagon's figure outside. She opened the door fully and stepped into the doorway, blocking the view into her apartment to prevent the man from seeing anymore of the room's pathetic furnishings, or the bottles piled up in the trash by the door.

She was dressed in plain clothing, a loose dark shirt over a pair of practical pants, and an oversized jacket that held her gun. The ensemble was accented by a lit cigarra, which Susanna unceremoniously snuffed out on the doorframe.

“Thanks for coming. I’d convinced myself you’d forget.” Susanna said, stepping into the hall and locking the door behind her. She pulled her jacket closer around herself. Her complex’s heating had broken a few months ago.

“So where are we going, somewhere fun? I haven’t been off Coruscant since I was discharged.”

That was true. Her work could have taken her off-world many times, but something about the allure of her childhood home kept her here, especially once she started getting sick. Instead she lead investigations here at home, eventually gaining enough prestige to be given jurisdiction over the highest profile cases on Coruscant. A great honour, but one that didn’t count for much now that her time was running out.

Susanna’s condition had deteriorated further since she’d last seen Dagon. Lines of corrupted flesh ran up her arms and neck, just poking up above her collar. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and the circles under her eyes were deep and dark enough to look like a strange mask. She felt worse inside though, somehow hollowed out, all her substance drained away.

“What are the chances what we’re doing actually works, honestly?”

Dagon Kaze ​

 

[Dagon Kaze]

He subtly sized her up as she closed the door behind her, snuffing a cigarra on the doorframe. Susanna most certainly defied the 'myth' cops painted about the Marshalls. She donned an outfit that'd you'd see only a hard case, gritty detective working cold cases in the under levels with. The Marshal Dagon had last worked with lived safely up in the high rises. You know, high ceilings, wide spaces, and probably a whole atrium inside.

"Thanks for coming. I'd convinced myself you'd forget." her wry remark was met with a sheepish smile before she continued, "So where are we going, somewhere fun? I haven't been off Coruscant since I was discharged."

"Uh, you... probably haven't heard of it -- Elphrona; deep out in the Outer Rim." Dagon replied as they ventured toward the nearby, local port, "Edge of the Unknown Regions but probably far enough from the Maw." that wasn't as certain as he wanted it to be, "There's an old Jedi there, Master Beruss, who has been safekeeping a lot of ancient Jedi texts and artifacts. In his prime, he used to be a Jedi consular who deeply studied the Force and its applications."

He threw a glance at her, noticing the corruption's rapid expansion since their last meeting. Her face had become a pallid mask, slowly eroding the lively, pretty features the Marshal had once worn. Life seeped away from her with each tick of the clock.

"What are the chances what we're doing actually works, honestly?"

"Honestly?" Dagon looked back at her, meeting her eyes surrounded by obsidian circles, "I don't know." he admitted, "But we'll try everything we can."

"I'm sorry you didn't find the help you needed at the Temple." the Knight added, recalling their last meeting.​

Susanna Sorrows

 

[Susanna Sorrows]

"Uh, you... probably haven't heard of it -- Elphrona; deep out in the Outer Rim."

“Elphrona. I haven’t heard of it.” Susanna agreed. She wondered what it would be like travelling off world again. It hadn’t gone so well last time, but Susanna figured they would be going far from the war. She reckoned she could face the Galaxy’s more pedestrian threats, so long as the Sith and their ilk stayed distant. Then again, in her current condition she’d likely have trouble with even common criminals

"Honestly? I don't know. But we'll try everything we can."

“I’ll take whatever chance I can get.” Susanna remarked. Then, with an optimism she did not really feel, continued. “I’m due for some good luck. So maybe it’ll work out.”

"I'm sorry you didn't find the help you needed at the Temple."

“It’s fine. Really. I’m not a priority. Not with things the way they are with the Maw and everything. Other people to save.” She glanced at Dagon. “Why did you decide to help me? I’m sure there’s plenty of people who need you out there.”

Nearing the spaceport, the pair passed a dilapidated shopfront with a faded red awning. Tendrils of steam rose from within, accompanied by the pleasant smells of baked and fried foods of all kinds.

“Mind if we stop in here?” Susanna was already turning, muttering a few words in Huttese to the man at the counter. A moment later she returned, two steaming cups of caf in hand. She passed one of them to Dagon and took a long sip. The drink was watery and slightly metallic in flavour, but it filled her with a pleasant warmth.

“Not far now.” said Susanna, mostly to herself. They were almost at the spaceport. For years she had been listless, resigned to Coruscant as she withered. Now that she had somewhere to be and an opportunity to fix things, she couldn’t wait to be away.

Dagon Kaze ​

 

[Dagon Kaze]

“Why did you decide to help me? I’m sure there’s plenty of people who need you out there.”

"It's what Jedi do -- Thanks a lot." he replied as he took the offered cup of caf from Susanna, then corrected himself, "...or rather -- it's what anyone with their heart in the right place would do." kindness and compassion were virtues not solely reserved to the Jedi Order. And yet, her investigative ears could pick up the hidden notes in his tone. To aid her in getting rid of the dark side's corruption was personal to the raven-haired Knight. His twin brother's irrecoverable fall to the dark side was an open wound that would never close. One half of him that would never heal and never find peace.

They curved through a few turns, left and right, right and left, before they reached the pier where the freighter he had acquired from the Order for this mission was docked. Tapping the panel on the side, the ramp hissed and slid open for the two to enter.

"Mind if I ask where you served?" he shrugged, a lopsided grin curving his lips, "We might've been war buddies, you never know."

Susanna Sorrows ​

 

[Susanna Sorrows]

Dagon Kaze ​

"Mind if I ask where you served?"

Susanna brushed over Dagon’s response to her. It was clear that he had some sort of stake in the game, be it something to do with her or his past, but she figured it was better to just let it go. The man seemed like he had good intentions anyway. She had put a lot of faith in him, going off on her own to traipse across the Galaxy. Susanna hoped she wouldn’t be disappointed.

They reached the ship, a plain-looking freighter very much resembling the kind Susanna’s undercover contemporaries would use for off-world assignments.

“I’m no war hero if that’s what you’re wondering.” Susanna replied. “I did a tour with prisoner transport during the Stygian Campaign, then when I got wounded I was transferred to logistics for a year, when I was discharged. Injury wasn’t healing.”

“I was stationed all over the place, actually, but I didn’t see much real fighting except for the day we were caught out and boarded. Saw my fair share of suffering on the POW detail though.” Susanna grimaced and shook her head.

“I knew about you from early on actually. I had a bunkmate who always kept up to date on the Order and the Jedi and all that. I personally never really paid them, you, much mind until I needed to.” Susanna’s voice was level, but her tone carried with it a sense of dismissiveness, perhaps disapproval.

“Should we get going then?”