Walking

[Kuzo]

Walking with a friend in the dark,​

is better than walking alone in the light.​

​

Coruscant​

My friend,
Meet me at Blackmore's on Coruscant, the far back table, this Primeday.
I never got a chance to thank you properly, and I would like to remedy that.


She didn't sign it. She was not prepared to risk it ending up in the wrong hands. She knew he had worked with [member="Samka Derith"] to free her from the Alliance Black Site, and she simply didn't know if he had maintained that connection. Despite that, she reached out, taking the risk because it was worth it. The list of people she trusted was small, and she needed to see if he was still that. Trusted. Her friend.

He'd come for her when he didn't have to. It mattered enough, even after the crucible she had been through, to see if that held true.

Irajah was not looking to turn him against the FO or the Ren. Or even Samka in particular. That wasn't what she was doing here.

In the Netherworld, she had deliberately left a part of her behind. The choice between being dragged down and rising. But something she had kept and cherished, because she believed it made her stronger rather than weaker, were these connections. This one, in particular, because he was not a Sith, and for some reason she couldn't actually explain, that was important.

The back table at Blackmore's was hidden from view on the approach. A half wall more than obscured the petite form of the dark haired woman as she leaned back, and waited for her friend.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

LOCATION: CORUSCANT, BLACKMORE'S​

EQUIPMENT: PACKING LIGHT​

CURRENT MOOD: SUSPICIOUS​

​

Coruscant was Ghorua's home.

He had lived for the past six years on Nar Shaddaa, extending his influence in the criminal underground, and using the convenient proximity to dangerous bounties to make a living. He was relieved, however, when he and Minna moved to an isolated cabin on Bakura. It was a much safer place for the Herglic to raise his Human daughter, away from prying eyes and the hustle and bustle of the galaxy.

Coruscant was his home planet, however. It was where the Herglic grew up, learned the ways of the galaxy. No matter where he went, returning to Coruscant always felt like coming back home. He felt the relief that came from returning, but something obviously troubled him.

The massive form of the Shark lingered in front of a resturaunt in the quickly-dimming Coruscanti street, wearing a fanciful white three-piece suit. His state of dress seemed to put onlookers at ease of the ten-foot colossus, content to go about their days. Ghorua stood outside Blackmore's, composing himself for whatever situation he would find himself in. His dark, smooth face gave nothing away, but his dark eyes hinted at his apprehension.

He was, for once, walking into something blind.

The message he received was cryptic, to say the least. A friend, apparently, wished to thank him for something. That could be any number of people. Kay, wishing to amend their friendship further. Darlyn, contacting to apologize. Delilah, offering him a job. He suspected the latter. Coy withholding of information seemed to be well within her MO.

With some difficulty, Ghorua maneuvered through the door of the establishment, having to duck under the low frame. After explaining his table was being saved by a friend, he was let through. Ghorua dodged his way through a lattice of tables and people, dodging past families and couples enjoying their evenings. He apologized to a man he had accidentally bumped, and shimmied past, finally coming within sight of...

Oh.

Dark hair. Hazel eyes that told a story all on their own.

Ghorua stopped in his tracks, in the very center of the restaurant, frozen. His mind blanked, then began to run at a blinding pace as he tried to make sense of what was in front of him. Slowly, his dumbfounded expression morphed into a wide grin.

"Doc." He mouthed the word, the statement barely escaping his rubbery lips.

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

She felt the confusion, the hope, a physical sensation in the air, before she saw him.

It had not occured to her, until that moment, that her friend had thought her dead in that fire.

Irajah had learned of how her death had been reported after being brought back. Poor Baroness Blackwater. Dying in the fire that had consumed the distant estate. So young, such a waste, but a reminder that people, especially those with something to lose, should not live alone so far from help when something like that happened. The holonews on Dosuun had reported it for a couple days, until far more important news eclipsed it, burying it as it was meant to be buried, after all. She had not realized that those reports had gotten far outside of First Order space.

If she had suspected for even a moment that her friend thought her dead, she would have found a way to tell him in that invitation.

She stood, the movement easy and graceful where her movements had always been a little stiff and pained before. Though she smiled, her brow furrowed in consternation- not at him, but at that realization of what he had believed.

"It's good to see you Ghorua," she said softly, when he was close enough to confirm that yes, there was no mistaking who had been waiting for him.

Where before she had always been covered from chin to toes, the scent of sickness heavy (almost overwhelming the last time they had seen each other, Gideon a hair's breadth away from taking her life if [member="Samka Derith"] hadn't when she did), that was gone. Arms bared, skin flawless, not a bruise to be seen. Every movement barely containing an almost feral essence of vitality.

For all that he had heard she was dead, the woman standing before him was more alive than he had in truth ever seen her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you had heard the..... not entirely accurate accounts of what happened at Blackwater," she said with a wry smile as he came within arms reach, holding out her hands for his.

Of course, that wasn't exactly what she got.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua swept Irajah up and into a hug as soon as she was close enough, lifting her off the ground. He squeezed her tight to him, as if making sure she was really there, and not a figment of his overactive imagination. Amid the sensation of fighting back tears and feeling mountains of stress eek away, he noticed how strong she felt.

When Ghorua had first met Irajah, the sickness that ravaged her was barely perceptible, a few bruises here, an odd smell there. When they last saw each other, her plague had intensified dramatically. Now, not a scent of her former sickness lingered on her, and he could feel the life in her bones.

Ghorua was in no hurry to end the moment, content to revel in the fact that his friend hadn't perished.

Finally, the Shark set Irajah down, studying her, the giddy feeling of relief still present on his round face. "I thought you were gone."

Ghorua constantly researched the galaxy, to keep an edge in his hunting. He had a few keywords he'd flagged that immediately pulled information from the Holonet to his person. Among them was Irajah Ven. He had been on his ship when he saw the first report.

Ghorua had a million questions on his mind, but contained himself until he walked to their table. The Shark pulled out a chair, sitting down carefully. Thankfully, the thing held his weight, although the squeaking was slightly disconcerting.

Ghorua waited for Irajah to find a seat before speaking, incredulity in his features. He remembered to stay quiet, his deep bass tone a rumbling thunder. "I knew there was something suspicious about those reports. I'd just figured it was a cover-up." His face darkened as he remembered his reaction to the news.

"But I much prefer you faking your death."

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

It took a moment, a flight of tension through her body for just a heartbeat but then she hugged him back. A small burst of laughter escaped her, his happiness a certain type of infectous, one she could appreciate. She found herself holding him tightly for a moment before her feet touched the ground again, connected, for a moment, to something she'd been afraid she'd lost.

Ever since her return, there had been a certain numbness. Something that others had assured her would pass with time. Considering what she had experienced in the Netherworld, and what she'd done in order to escape it, it wasn't a surprise they said. But this was the first thread of warmth, of something beyond the perfect evenness of life after. She had deliberately given something up, in order to return. But this she had kept, and it meant something to find it here now.

His words, however, brought her pause. She stood beside her chair for a moment, watching him with a stillness that at an earlier time would have been alien to her. Her hand rested lightly on the back of the chair, hazel eyes tracking over his face, catching the tone in his voice. Her own expression went from smiling to something far more serious.

Despite her intentions for [member="Samka Derith"] that was not why she was here. She had no intention of drawing him into her personal war.

Funny that- if anyone could be an asset in that, it was the Herglic before her. But even after what she had seen, the piece of her spirit she had cut off as tithe, there was no part of her that wanted to use him as a tool. The friendship, the affection, whatever else she had given up to be here, those she had retained.

But she also didn't want to lie to him.

She didn't answer him right away. The weight in her gaze spoke volumes, and she knew he'd see it. Slowly, she lowered herself onto the chair across from him.

"I didn't fake it, Ghorua," she said softly.

"And for my sake, I am going to ask that you keep the fact that I am alive private. I didn't invite you here to draw you into this..... I brought you here to thank you. For coming for me that day. I invited you because we.... never got that dinner we said we would after we met. Because....."

She struggled to find the words she wanted, to try to find a way to explain it all without actually explaining it-

"Because after everything that's happened, I needed a reminder. Of why I came back."

Back.

I didn't fake it, Ghorua.

She smiled, but it was sad and didn't really reach her eyes.

"I'll tell you, if you want me to. But I don't want to draw you into something you may not be able to walk away from. Not if I can avoid it."

Even with all of that, there was a certain bite. Because, ultimately, Irajah had no intention of letting her murder go unpunished.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua immediately noticed the change in Irajah's behavior.

Her stillness gave him pause, and he decided something was wrong. Ghorua's own smile faded a little, faltering as the woman before him deliberated. He didn't speak, didn't move, only waited.

Her first statement caught the Herglic completely off-guard.

"What?"

Ghorua's surprise was palpable, his features twisting in confusion. He understood Force-Users better than the average Bounty Hunter. He'd read about powerful Force-beings coming back from the dead, whether it be rumors of Jedi ghosts, or whispers of Sith clawing their way back from Hell. From his knowledge, Raj was neither.

He stayed quiet after that, frowning and thinking. The all-encompassing figure of Ghorua hunched as he rested his elbows on the table, his meaty fingers supporting his chin. He let his gaze fall to the table, noting the fine silverware and wine glasses ready to be filled. His mind was far away from dinner.

She gave him a choice. Stay with her in danger, or leave her to it.

Ghorua thought back to a certain small service elevator on Coruscant.

"Spill."

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

Despite the fact that his response didn't really surprise her, Irajah was quiet for a long time. It wasn't that she was unwilling to tell him.

It was that she didn't know where to begin.

Each time she thought she knew, it crumbled beneath the weight of what had happened. Why was it so much harder to explain here, now- when not three days ago it had been a cool and matter of fact explaination. Was it because that cathar was a stranger? He'd had no greater impact on her than a painting on the wall. Like a stone skipping off the surface of an icy lake.

But Ghorua was a boulder. The impact of his presence able to crash through to the gelid waters beneath. She was finding that it was only the people who she had cared about before that had any chance to come close to her now.

"Let me start," she said finally, her voice very quiet, "At the beginning."

The story unfolded slowly. It started with the Gideon virus, the death of her homeworld and her escape, alive, but carrying that virus inside of her, using the Force in the only way she knew how at the time to keep it in check but also to keep it from spreading. That had been the sickness he had sensed inside of her when they met, the cause of the physical frailty, the bruises. The discovery that her father had been the virus's creator. And the drive to find a cure, no matter the cost.

The Zambranos came next. The invitation to research, the doors opened that she would have never even known existed. The access to labs, to samples, to the capital necessary to possibly find the answer to Gideon. All in return for studying things for them. The slow manipulations, building and dragging her deeper. She was not gentle with herself here, but neither was she cruel. She should have seen it for what it was, if she had cared beyond finding the cure for her own virus she would have stopped for even an instant to look at the whys. She would have known that the moment she displeased them, they would destroy her. In truth, they almost did. Half the bones in her body, broken. The events requiring the amputation- she had literally paid an arm and a leg for what she had thought was opportunity. They had almost broken her utterly.

It had taken powerful allies to get out from under the Zambrano's hands. Here, she hesitated.

Because looking across at him, remembering how they met, what had been done and by whom and how much suffering it had cause, there was the turn of a screw in her gut. That she had failed him. In a way, she had. She couldn't, wouldn't, regret the things she had done to stay alive.

But she realized that telling him the truth, all of it without twisting it to cast herself in a better light, might mean losing his friendship.

"I did things," she said softly, looking away from him then, "That while I do not regret them, I am not proud of them. There are people who helped me who..... others would look on with horror, yet they have done nothing but offer me friendship. Without them, I would not be here today. I would be a thrall on Panatha... or worse. I won't pretend that I was anything resembling a good person, Ghorua. But I decided, during that time, that I wanted to live, more than I wanted anything else. And..... I'm not sorry for that."

She leaned back, brow furrowed. This wasn't a confessional. He wouldn't offer her absolution, or penance, and even if he did, she couldn't accept that. Neither was he an eater of sins. For now, she did not elaborate on the details of that time between.

"You know what happened on Bespin," she continued after a moment. "What you don't know, is that I was there with [member="Samka Derith"] not as a doctor.... but because she wanted to recruit me. To train with her, as a Force User for the First Order. I already knew that I couldn't. That I didn't want that. I still hadn't found a cure for Gideon, I was looking.... for..... someone," she paused, shaking her head. "I had kept what happened on Panatha a secret. I thought.... for the longest time.... that reporting it would mean my death.'

She chuckled, but it wasn't a particularly nice sound.

"And I was right, just not the way I thought. When the GA took me, what they wanted.... was Panatha. And I gave them everything. And they promised to inform the First Order of what a good little turn coat I was," she said, a touch of bitterness in her voice. "I gave them nothing on anything except those butchers, but it wouldn't have mattered. They killed a tenth of the crew of a ship, simply for following orders that came from the wrong place. So when you and Samka showed up..... I....."

The feeling of the knife across her throat was something she would never forget.

"For the betrayal of Panatha, she murdered me, Ghorua. For giving up the men who tortured me, for refusing to join her, Samka slit my throat. And then burned down Blackwater to hide it."

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua was unnaturally still as Irajah spoke, absorbing the information that was given to him. His eyes were unmoving in their sockets, staring at a set point on the table, as Irajah began from the very beginning.

Gideon was new information to him. He had never heard the term in his research, but it connected plenty of dots for him. Her insistence to her code. The guilt that wracked her like the disease she hid. The bruises.

When the name 'Zambrano' was mentioned, Ghorua visibly angered. His muscles under his white coat hardened, his previously-neutral face growing a snarl. His stare bored into the table, as if he were looking somewhere far beyond. Prazutis had kidnapped and tortured Kay, forced her to kill innocents, and stole her memories. The fact that they had meddled in the affairs of another of his friends was not a happy thought.

Suffice to say, he had researched deeply into the Zambranos, and he hadn't liked what he saw at all.

Ghorua didn't look up at Raj when she hesitated, but he sensed the sudden pause, the deliberation. The Shark listened to the context of her words with a growing sense of foreboding. He had always had a knack for gleaning information from reactions, and he had enough of his wits about him to deduce the unspoken truth.

Sith clawing their way back from Hell.

Ghorua suddenly felt tired.

The rest of Irajah's thoughts only weighed on him further. His face was stony, like the stark side of a mountain, his fists clenched in an unknown emotion.

He wanted to feel something. Outrage, maybe, against the cruelty of the galaxy and the First Order. Maybe he wanted to feel angry at Irajah, for her suspected dealings with the dark side, something he didn't have a good track record with. He wanted to find relief in the fact that Raj was still alive, and did what it took to stay alive, like they had on Coruscant however long ago.

It was too much for him to process.

Ghorua's hard exterior melted, the weight of the world suddenly on his shoulders. He exhaled through his blowhole, burying his face into his palms, trying not to completely break in front of the Doctor.

Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale...

"Alright." Ghorua looked up again, a new resolution behind his eyes. Rebellious. Primal. Cold.

"What's our first move?"

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

She understood the look on his face. The closed of off stone. Really, she couldn't even blame him for it. She couldn't apologize, wouldn't, for choosing darkness over death. It hadn't been a choice at all. But she could not fault him if it was simply too much. One too many stones weighed upon a scale. She had every expectation that he'd turn away from her, because she saw the knowing in his eyes in that moment before they had closed off from her. She knew that, in time, that would sting, even if she didn't have it in her now, still numb from everything that had come before. She had decided, even before sending him the invitation, that if he chose to walk away, she would respect it- even if he chose to let that friendship go, she would treat him with the respect that he had earned at every turn. Even if it hurt.

Which made what came next a kind of surprise that she rarely was afforded these days.

Hazel eyes widened slightly, and without thought, a genuine smile curved her lips.

"I still have to recover.... from what happened," she said, her tone still quiet but there was a certain hope there, replacing the grim resolve of her narrative.

"In truth, there was.... no reason I should have been able to make it through," she admitted. "I'm not a Master of the Force. I didn't even know a place like that existed until....."

She trailed off, smile fading around the edges and gaze growing distant for a moment before she shook her head, forcing her attention back to the table.

"I'd like to keep an ear to the ground," she struggled to focus again. "Just... if you hear anything.... about her? Even if it seems inconsequential.... I'd appreciate if you could pass it on."

Ghorua had contacts that moved in places and circles she had no ability to dip into. But really, she wasn't looking for him here as an ally.

She was looking for him here as a friend. If that was still possible.

"First though......" She smiled, that slightly crooked grin. "I'd still like to buy you dinner. And hear about how you are doing. If that's okay."

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua noticed her smile, the relief that he was still on her side. He didn't return it, instead studying her in the light of the new information he had learned. Connecting dots. Rumors.

The Shark simply listened as Irajah detailed her struggle. What she meant by 'such a place', he wasn't entirely sure. The experience of dying, and coming back, was difficult for Ghorua to wrap his head around as it was. He needed to think about something else. Something he was comfortable with.

Information gathering, he was comfortable with.

"I'll keep my feelers out for the girl." Ghorua hesitated, frowning. Samka was just that; a girl. A young woman, most likely ripped from her home, to become a child soldier. Brainwashed to be a servant of the Darkness.

Ghorua wanted revenge. He wanted Irajah's death set right, to see her happy.

At the same time, he wasn't sure he was willing to kill a child to that end.

He pushed the moral dilemma far from his mind, waiting to have time to dwell before tackling it.

"Dinner would be wonderful." Ghorua straightened in his chair, patting his white suit, trying to banish his troubles with the motion. "Long overdue, I think." He smiled thinly, escaping the seriousness he had almost succumbed to.

"My life has been... good. Really good." Ghorua nodded genuinely as he rested his elbows on the table, eyes ever examining. "Minna and I have recently moved into First Order space." The Shark grinned, expecting surprise from Raj. "Bakura. Barely any Order presence in my parts. It's a good place for us to hide out, escape the galaxy."

Ghorua felt himself relaxing already as he talked about Minna. Out of all the pleasantries and material objects in the universe, his daughter was the only thing that truly put him at peace. At the same time, his worry for Minna's well-being was often at the forefront of his mind. He often feared she would be taken away from him without her consent, be it from Jedi, Sith, or Knights of Ren.

Irajah had never met Minna. She didn't know his daughter was Force-Sensitive.

WIth his new revelation that she was working with Sith, perhaps was one herself, he figured it best Irajah didn't know about that.

"I just want her to be safe, and happy." Ghorua chuckled darkly. "It seems those two options don't line up very often."

A waiter walked up to their table, eyeing the two strangely. "What can I get for you two today?"

"A dinner salad, please." Ghorua smiled diplomatically at the man, waiting for Irajah to order, and for the man to leave, before continuing.

"Let's see... I've mended a relationship with Queen Kay Arenais, of Commenor." Talking about Kay had a similar effect on the Shark as when he talked about Minna. Calling their friendship 'rocky' was an understatement, but the bond they had grown together was unbreakable. He realized the Doctor didn't know much about that, either.

He came to understand, slowly, that Irajah didn't know very much about him at all. She didn't know about his young life, the origin of his Blood Frenzy, those he loved, those he hated, nothing.

Perhaps tonight, they would have to rectify that.

"We'd been friends for years. How, I have no idea. I collected on a large bounty on her head, she put a bounty on me, I owed her a life-debt, and out of the blue, forgiveness and friendship." Suddenly, Ghorua's demeanor darkened.

"Her memories had been taken from her by... a powerful Force-User." Ghorua struggled to speak, wrestling down his anger. "Braxus Zambrano. Prazutis."

Ghorua's throat felt parched. "Until recently, Kay and I didn't speak. She came to me, and we made up." The Shark sent a brief smile Irajah's way, his eyes ever dark. "And since you're alive, that means I've gotten back two friends in the span of two weeks."

He still considered Irajah his friend, despite everything.

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

It would be small consolation to Ghorua to know that Irajah had no intention of killing [member="Samka Derith"].

If everything went as it was meant to, the girl would be very, very much alive at the end.

"That's all I could ask of you," she said softly, a grateful smile on her face.

Other than ordering her own dinner (whatever tonight's special was would be fine), she listened to her friend. On the one hand, she wanted to be happy for him- and in the parts she could be, she was- but there was a growing unease and worry as he spoke. She'd also decided that the First Order was best for her..... ultimately, for her son. The main thing that kept the worry from growing into real fear for him and his daughter was in not knowing about Minna's Force Sensitivity. Though she was concerned because the Ren knew he had ties to her, she was able to set them aside because they wouldn't want either of them the way they had with her. If anyone could take care of himself and his daughter, it was Ghorua, and the peace of mind that came from ignorance in this instance was the only reason she didn't say anything. He knew what she did now, after all, and she would not tell him his decision to live there was wrong. Not without knowing what he knew, at least.

"Children deserve to be safe and happy," she agreed softly, smile more self deprecating than she realized. Her own childhood had been both of those things, after all. And even if she had been unable to give that to - no- it didn't matter. That was done. "I'm glad you found a place that can offer that."

The enjoyment flickered and died on her face, however, when he uttered that name. Braxus. It was good food hadn't arrived yet or she might have given up eating entirely. Her expression grew dark when his did.

"That man is a menace," she said, low and forceful. "I'm sorry for what happened to your friend..... but I'm glad she has someone like you in her life. It's.... hard..... crawling back out of the hell the Zambranos pull everything around them into. She'll need support."

There was no question for her whether Ghorua was her friend or not. Only if he could accept that some people never fully crawled back out of that hell.... or even wanted to. The knowledge of his friend, paired with the fact that he was still sitting across from her here, helped.

"I have...." she paused, breathing in deeply and letting it out slowly. Better to offer it here, than to throw them away- that hurt too much, tied her up in knots. "I have some things of my son's.... he was a little older than Minna, but if you think she'd like them I would love to send them to you. Books, some toys. Especially if she likes Endomon-Go," she said with a sad chuckle. "I'd rather someone I know be able to use them..."

She hadn't mentioned her son to him before. But this was her still trying, because him, this friendship, mattered to her. And it mattered that she meet him in that middle space where things, at least in some ways, could be normal. Not revenge and darkness. She couldn't bring him back. But at least she could start to heal.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua offered a small smile as Irajah agreed with him on the needs of children. Safety and happiness were in short supply in the galaxy they found themselves in, especially in the situations they found themselves in. If living on a largely-overlooked First Order world was an opportunity for that safety, the Shark would take it.

He knew the mention of Braxus would trigger something in his friend. Her previous mention of the Zambranos revealed a storied past with them, something Ghorua had also only heard whispers of. Confirmation of those whispers proved his contacts were accurate, but also that the doctor was willing to talk with him about it.

It was a good feeling, to say the least, even if the topic itself wasn't.

When Irajah began to speak about her son, Ghorua's good mood immediately died. He'd heard about the young Pantoran, but had never gone far into his spyings, in respect for his friend. But Ghorua had heard of his death.

He'd used that piece of information against Raj on Bespin.

The First Order, this shining beacon of law and order, turned this child into a killer... And would do so for hundreds of thousands of others, if given the chance.

He regretted it then, and he regretted thinking about it now.

"Thank you." Ghorua observed Irajah somberly, trying to peer into her soul. "I'm sure she'll love them."

The waiter chose the lull in the conversation to approach with food. Ghorua was gifted his salad, and Irajah was given a full plate of delectable-smelling Nerf Steak. The waiter bowed deeply, and took his leave. The Shark watched him go, his dark eyes slowly trailing to Irajah. He made a point not to look at her meal, feeling a slight discomfort at the smell of the meat.

He studied the woman before him. Her face, the way her muscles moved below it, the deep sadness in her eyes, her previous tone of voice. He tried to read the map that was Irajah Ven, tried to understand what she was going through.

And he had an idea.

Ghorua smiled softly, dipping a utensil into his salad. He took a small bite, enjoying the taste for a second, before returning his attention to his friend.

"This is really good," he said, with a bit of theatric flair, "but you don't look too hungry."

He stood, extending his hand diplomatically.

"Walk with me?"

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

The arrival of food interupted what had turned into a very somber conversation, and she was glad of the diversion. Of course, if she had realized the daily special was a steak the size of her head she might have ordered something different. Though to say that she wasn't particularly hungry would be an understatement, after all of this.

She almost missed it- it would have been easier to miss than catch. After all, not looking at something is far easier to over look than someone ogling it. She had thought he was joking when they met, with the salad. But his actual order combined with the pains being gone through to not look at the steak on her plate was interesting. Not difficult to guess the why. If he didn't offer explanation however, she wasn't going to pry. Wasn't her dinner after all.

Irajah chuckled, setting down the fork that she'd been moving the vegetables around with (instead of eating them) and nodded.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," she admitted of the meal, with a slightly self conscious smile.

Leaving a credit chit that she knew covered more than what they had ordered (for their trouble), she accepted his hand before rising from the chair.

"Of course I will."

She didn't know what he had in mind, but there was something in those dark eyes and she smiled.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

https://youtu.be/aKpYoMOzfYw​

Upper Coruscant was beautiful at night.

The skyscrapers that crawled ever slowly to the heavens were stark during the day, symbols of power and stability. They stood tall and proud, casting long shadows over Coruscant's denizens. From the gleaming Core Square to the vacation resorts, everything about Corucant in the day screamed lordship and strength.

It was nothing compared to the twilight hours.

Ghorua and Irajah found themselves seated comfortably in a tram, zipping along a track between high buildings. The dark, tall towers glimmering with inner lights flew by, shining with the fragility of a thousand diamonds. The bright blues and reds of neon signs accented the streets, basking passersby with glowing radiance. The sky was dark, not a star to be seen, a blanket of privacy in the dark. The skyline in the distance was painted with the subtle hues of purple, chasing the sun below the horizon.

That had always been Ghorua's favorite part of Coruscant. Not the streets. Not the buildings. Not even his home. It was the color that captivated him.

The Shark looked out over the view, dark eyes soaking in every detail. He shook his head, hand gripping a rail loosely. They had the car to themselves, thankfully. They were as close to alone as one could be on Coruscant.

Ghorua hadn't said much since they left Blackmore's. He chose this time to speak up.

"I'd watch the sunset every day when I lived here." He didn't look at his traveling partner, instead content to revel in the moment. "The blues and reds, purples and blacks, they always fascinated me. I could stare at it for hours, knowing that every second I did, I was looking at a different sunset." The Herglic huffed, sharing a hidden joke with himself. There was a wistfulness behind his eyes, the endless black pits filling with passing lights.

"I miss it here, sometimes. The feeling of action, the constant motion around you. The slow parts, like this. Even public transportation."

I guess you never truly appreciate something until it's gone.

Ghorua tore himself away from the view, looking to Irajah sadly.

It was a difficult subject. A very difficult subject. But he had to know.

"What happened to him?"

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah didn't look away from the view when he did.

She'd listened in silence, perfectly content to, for the moment, not be talking. Not be explaining any more. Even if it was just for a little while, enjoy a certain compatible silence first, and then be the one listening. She liked his musings about his favorite parts of Coruscant.

Which meant that she answered those first, because it was a more pleasant topic by far.

"I grew up near the shore," she said quietly. "Our sunsets were.... quieter affairs. I guess differences in the the atmospheric make ups. Ours were softer. All in purples over water that went dark before the sky did. There was a particular kind of shore fisher that only came out at dusk. There was.... a myth I guess..... that a night in silence on the shore was a mark that someone had....."

She trailed off, eyes distant. The rest of the story went unfinished. But it was clear what she'd left unsaid.

"When I was still..... embroiled with the Zambranos.... I...... I sent him away. Even before it went bad, part of me knew it wasn't safe for him with me, because they were there. So I arranged for his schooling, people to watch after him. Because I was afraid for him. At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. That I was protecting him."

She didn't explain why she hadn't simply left. It was too complicated.

"He disappeared. While I was recovering from what they did to me, I received word that he had vanished..... no one knew what happened to him. The school brushed it off as a run away. They knew.... where he'd come from. I spent months.... looking. I hired people to look. Used every string I could pull. I didn't know if..... if he'd run away.... because he thought I didn't want him..... or if he'd been- if they had....."

If the Zambranos had taken him, after she had escaped.

"I.... saw things. After Samka..... it's hard to explain, Ghorua. I don't know how it happened, where or why. If he was alone, or if someone held his hand. All I know is that I wasn't there for him. And now he's gone."

The last gone was heavier than simply missing. She meant dead, and that could not be mistaken by someone as familiar with it as Ghorua was.

Irajah had no reason to believe that what she saw in the Netherworld wasn't real, after all.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua quickly turned his gaze back to the sunset as Irajah Ven did the same. What he had asked was heavy; heavier than even he cared to bear, and he could bear quite a bit. He could forgive her for focusing on something lighter.

The Herglic pondered over his friend's thoughts and experiences with sunsets. It wasn't a topic discussed often enough, in his opinion. The usual crowds he aligned himself with couldn't care less about the stars a planet orbited around, considering the topic left to the bookworms of the galaxy. It wasn't hard to figure out the end of her story, letting the implied end linger in the air.

Then she went into it.

Ghorua stood as tall as he could, grasping a handrail lightly, gazing softly out the window. The buildings came and went, the grays and bright colors of the city slowly dimming with the sun. His mind was strangely still, as for once, he didn't try to analyze what was being said. He listened like a friend would listen, tried to understand her grief. He knew how he would feel if Minna suddenly disappeared. Worse yet, if he found out she died.

It would break him.

Ghorua didn't have any witty remarks, any perfectly-worded parables to ease the burden of a lost child, so Ghorua worked up the only response that felt right. Silence...

...A comforting hand on her shoulder.

Finally, the tram slowed to a halt, the magnetic doors sliding open slickly. Ghorua stepped out first, finally free to rise to his full height. The scenery would feel immediately familiar to Irajah, even moreso when she noticed the stark bastion that was Jeruba Complex, across a courtyard laced with flowers.

Where they had met. Where it all happened.

The Herglic stood silently, waiting for Irajah to process it.

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

She leaned slightly against his hand, but otherwise let the silence sit between them. She was done, spent for the moment and lacking any further words. And Ghorua? Well, he did the only thing he could do in that moment. And words had nothing to do with it.

The scene hadn't changed much from that day. Not the end of it, but the beginning. She stood there beside him for a long time, breathing it in.

"It feels like a lifetime ago," she finally murmured.

In a way, it had been.

For her it had been. The things that had happened since then, it made the day they met seem almost idyllic. She'd met him before Boo. Before the Zambranos. Before Matsu and Carach. Before Reverance. Before the First Order.

Before Samka.

Some of them had proven to be true friends. Allies. And others.....

She looked up at him, frowning slightly, thoughtfully.

"Why here, Ghorua?"

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua felt a similar nostalgia to Irajah. He hadn't come to visit the place since the incident. It hadn't felt right to go back without her. They'd struggled through the attack together, it was only right that they experienced it again together.

It was Ghorua's turn to be silent for a while. He simply waited, eyes lingering on Jeruba Complex.

Then, he began to lumber forward, through a courtyard of flowers and benches. Rich beings congregated, speaking in quiet, peaceful tones. Ghorua payed them no mind, stopping by a fountain, observing the building in reverence.

"Forty."

Ghorua's deep voice was soft as he spoke, almost as if he were afraid to awake the complex.

"We saved forty people that day, Doc. A good, even number."

The Shark felt the weight of lives lost on his shoulders.

Ghorua pulled out his datapad. "Carmen Ieras, a fashion designer. Lives on Level 3534 with her grandmother." He brought out a picture of a prissy woman, in her late forties.

He then brought out a picture of a father-daughter duo, the latter no older than eight. "Tommai and Gilly Pogreba. He's a poor factory worker, she's his only family." He lingered on that one a moment, before continuing.

The next picture was an old clean-shaven man. "Joal Alice. Died in his bed a few months ago, surrounded by his family."

Ghorua grew pensive again, standing tall. Then, he took a long breath in.

"Things break sometimes, Raj. They break, and they burn, and they crumble."

The Shark felt a tight frown on his face. "But things can be fixed, too, like this place. And no matter how bad something's broken, it can always be rebuilt. Always."

He lingered there, by the fountain, afraid to take another step towards the structure.

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -

 

[Kuzo]

She'd looked at him blankly when he said the number, understanding only coming in a moment later when he clarified.

In truth, Irajah hadn't checked that information. Where she had been at that time, it hadn't even occured to her to. Not because she hadn't cared- but because saving lives was what she did.

It was what she used to do.

That hadn't been the last time, by any stretch for her. The event itself had made it memorable, rather than the lives saved. She'd been trained as an E.R. doctor- that part had been easy for her. Familiar and comfortable. So while he waxed on about that, she realized with some interest that for him, perhaps, that was an anomaly. The vastly different places in life they had come from, made that aspect of it special for him. It wasn't that Irajah didn't care how many people they had saved, just that she didn't consider it particularly noteworthy because it was so normal. For her. Perhaps, however, not for him.

No, the part that she had come away from that with, because it had been a turning point in her life..... was the life that she had taken.

Sure, she had lost patients. But that was not even in the same galaxy as aiming a gun at someone with the intent to kill.

She'd long ago made her peace with it. It had been him or them, and as she had done time and time again, she had chosen her own life over anything else. She had seen him, on the Shrike Mountain, his sins written so thickly over his eyes that they were black. Killing him had not merely been the choice necessary to survive, but had been right thing to do.

Beyond the lives they had saved directly, the number of people that man would have killed if he had gone free again was impossible to know or imagine.

"We did well that day," she agreed.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as he looked up at the building. She understood that he was not speaking, at the end, purely of the edifice in front of them.

Irajah agreed with him on that as well. There was no doubt for her that she would finish patching up the cracks in herself. But the material she was using to do that was different than the parent stone, and it would leave tracks through her where the damage had been forever.

The fact that it was stronger than it was before- the repairs offering a strength and flexibility that had not been there the same before- well, she saw the benefit in that. Time would tell if the others in her life also saw it that way.

Stepping up next to him, she reached out and laid her hand lightly on his arm.

"I was there that day....." she paused, chuckling and shaking her head. "To buy lipgloss for a friends daughter of all things. Who'd have thought I'd come out of there with a friend like you instead?"

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Irajah's hand pulled him from the moment.

For a second or two there, he had fallen into memory. Of choking smoke and dust, and the crying of hundreds of voices, coming from all sides. The cracking of stone, the roaring of unquenched flame. The feeling of helplessness, the scent of blood and burnt bodies...

A mediated voice, piercing the darkness.

Ghorua blinked, returning to reality with Raj's touch. He looked down at her, finding a laugh as she did. He couldn't even remember why he was there. It had been ripped from his memory in the chaos of the moment, an effect of the trauma. A lot of it, he didn't remember.

More, he couldn't forget.

Some, he didn't want to.

The Shark put a comforting hand over the doctor's, reveling in the moment.

"Did you ever get it?" Ghorua smirked, looking down with mirthful eyes. "It seems like so much trouble to go through, and your only prize was little ol' me." A new determination set into his face, and he took a step toward the complex.

"We could complete that shopping trip now." He took another step, turning his gaze over his shoulder at the small woman. His face made it obvious he was talking about more than lip gloss.

He had come to make peace with that day. And it only felt right he went back into his old prison with the one he'd escaped with.

- [member="Irajah Ven"] -