Why Must We Fight?

[Jamie Pyne]

A telling yawn and a nod of the head and Jamie slowly got to her feet from the floor. "Okay."

There was no reason to argue that. Some sleep would do her well now more than ever. There were a few bedrooms in the suite that would accommodate their group, though Jamie hardly cared at that moment in time which she took. The closest one was more than fine with her. Reaching the room she used her foot to push the door closed behind her, taking a few more steps to the bed before allowing herself to fall on her back atop the plush mattress, the momentary sting of pain from the fall completely forgotten by the comfort of the bed.

"Yessssssssssssss." She said quietly to herself, as if a great weight had been lifted off of her by the simple act of laying down.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

A few hours passed by with no incident at all, in fact, Aela found herself rather bored in the middle of all of it. She sat in the living room, legs crossed, eyes either closed or quietly watching Joran. She found herself quietly wondering whether the man knew what would be waiting for him back on Sullust.

No doubt he expected luxurious accommodations, but...well he wouldn’t get that.

Joran would find the exact same prison cell that would be offered to anyone else. It was the way of the Alliance. Criminals did not get special treatment, no matter who they were or what they did. There were ways to alleviate time spent in prison of course, but when they were in jail things were always the same.

That’s how it was.

There was a reason for it, and mostly it was political.

Eventually the Soldiers returned, heading through the doors and quietly sealing them in place after himself.

”Got a line on a ship, freighter, old but still working. Should be big enough for all of us and shouldn’t have anyone asking questions.”

Finally they had found a bit of good news. Aela stood and nodded, wandering over towards the bedroom so that she could wake Jamie up. If they could get the ship today, then they would be off Bastion before the sun set. ”Jamie. We have a ship.”

 

[Jamie Pyne]

For a moment she considered tossing one of the pillows at Aela's face and going back to sleep, but thought better of it before she went through with the plan.

However long she'd been asleep thus far felt nothing like a sufficient amount of time. Had it been hours or minutes? Her eyes were heavy and still quite groggy. That may have been the pain medication and her exhausted body trying desperately to repair itself that kept her from feeling rested. Either way, she felt like she could sleep for a week and still want more.

Instead there was a mild groan in response. From beneath a pile of blankets a muffled voice would answer Aela.

"Are we leaving now?" Maybe there was still a chance to squeeze out another five minutes.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She perked an eyebrow, staying in bed was nice, yes, but for Aela there was no such thing as ‘an extra five minutes’. Once she was up, she was up. There was work to be done after all.

”Soon.” Aela said with a small frown. ”You need to clean up a bit, shower, get on different clothes.”

Aela was beginning to sound like her mother, but it was true. Jamie hadn’t been able to clean herself up since before the incident with Villia, and if they were going to go anywhere...well they couldn’t be smelly when they went. Aela had already showered a few hours ago and the others had made sure to keep themselves pristine.

Jamie with her injury had been unable to do so.

”Come no.” The Jedi Marshall beckoned as she pulled out a small communicator. She sent off a quick message to her parents financial manager, ripping off the blanket from Jamie’s bed as she turned and walked back into the living room.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Hey, hey, hey!" She shouted, trying to grab the blanket before Aela tore it from her grasp and dropped it onto the floor. "That's not very nice you know!"

The blonde proceeded to mumble some kind of curse under her breath as she shivered and got out of the bed.

RUDE.

Even back home her mother dared not do such a thing, lest she suffer the wrath of a very angry Jamie. Luckily for Aela Jamie wasn't in the arguing mood, so the best she could do was be grumpy about it. Seriously, who just takes someone's blanket right off of them and walks away!? What a monster.

Jamie quickly pulled free some clean clothes and sauntered over to the washroom to take, oh yes! A BATH. If Aela wanted her up, she'd be up. And she wanted her to 'clean up a bit' so that was what she'd do, by relaxing in the bath for the next thirty minutes. Locking the door behind her she stripped of her clothes, filled the tub with steamy hot water, rolled up a towel into a small pillow, and got extra comfy.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela meanwhile began to inspect the ship that Zven had picked out at one of the smaller drive yards here on Bastion. The vessel wasn’t anything special really, just an old freighter made by Kuat half a century ago during the plague. The ship had several cargo holds, a few barracks like rooms, and a mess hall. It wasn’t anything great, but it would do.

”How soon can we get it?” Aela asked, looking up from the holo-photos and towards Zven who was eating a small bit of fruit while standing in the kitchen. She frowned at him, knowing that the fruit had come from the mini-bar and would likely cost half a fortune.

“Today. We just have to pay in cash.”

She nodded.

”Won’t be a problem.” They would have to visit a bank, but as long as she was no longer using her alias she could withdraw the funds with no issue. ”Tell the man he’ll have his money. The rest of you get everything ready to move.”

The faster they were off this world the better, every second they lingered was another second that Villia’s sister and her guards drew closer, and while they had no authority to arrest them, Aela didn’t want to get killed today.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Several times the girl nodded off, surrounded by the intense hot water and relaxing effect of the steam around her. She was in her own version of paradise then. She let her mind wander to back home on Naboo, where she'd left with Kurt following a really nasty confrontation and revelation. For a minute she wondered what had become of the situation she'd left her parents with. Her father's affair with another woman left her with a half sister that Jamie barely knew anything of, save for her name. As much as she wanted to return home to meet this girl and learn more about her she needed to be away from Naboo for a while.

Opening her eyes she returned to reality, the pain in her stomach reminding her she was still on Bastion. She cringed, shifting positions to try and alleviate the pain a bit. Bending her knees she let her head fall beneath the water so that she could wash away the grime from her hair and face. The snarls and knots were incredibly unpleasant to free, and took a bit longer than expected. Eventually she was satisfied with herself, and the water was beginning to lose its' intense heat.

"Guess I'd better get out before she comes knocking." With a sigh she stood up, reached for a towel and began to dry off.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

It was probably a good thing that Jamie decided to get out of the bath on her own, as Aela was just about ready to break down the door and drag her out. They were on a timed schedule now, one that had to be followed closely if they had any hope of actually making it off Bastion in one piece. The money had been readied at a nearby bank, the Soldiers had already smuggled Joran out towards the ship in a hooded cloak along with some equipment, and now only she, Jamie, and Bjorn remained.

The old combat surgeon would stay with the two girls so that they weren’t as suspicious, and also because Aela wasn’t entirely sure that Jamie could make it very far without being carried by someone. Bjorn was large enough that if they ran into any problems he could scoop up the padawan and they could run.

”There you are.” Aela said as Jamie stepped into the living room, looking somewhat better than she had the evening before. ”We’re head to go. The others already took Joran and the equipment to the ship, the owner is just waiting for us to show up with the money.”

This had to work fluidly.

There was a chance it would all fall through of course, but Aela was trying to look on the brighter side of things. They had nothing but bad luck since they hit Bastion, and in all honesty she was just about ready to start screaming if one more thing went wrong.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie assumed it might be playing with fire if she took the time to dry and groom her hair anything fancier than a quick brush, so instead she just left it as is before returning to the living room to meet with what looked like only Aela and Bjorn. The others had all left.

"Here I am." She said with a smirk, as if she'd exacted a small bit of petty vengeance on Aela for tearing the blankets away from her earlier. A hand ran through her hair, shaking free the naturally curly locks of blonde that draped over her face. "I think I'm ready. So long as you're not planning on running there I don't think walking will be too tiresome." It also likely depended on how far this place was from the hotel that they'd be going to, to pickup the starship.

"I'll feel better once we're actually on board and taking off. I'm still concerned why we never saw her other sister, and I hope it was nothing more than coincidence."

The last thing they needed was an unwelcome guest the moment they were getting ready to leave this wretched planet.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She nodded her head.

They were in agreement on that particular notion. Aela wasn’t going to relax until they were out of Crusader Space and half-way to the Galactic Alliance. As long as they were here on Bastion there was no telling what could happen, something that she didn’t at all like. With a swift click of her heels she wandered towards the exit of the suite.

”Let’s go.” She said as she threw on a jacket. ”This time we’re blending into the crowd, just an old man out for a stroll with his two daughters, nothing significant to look at.”

She smiled at Bjorn who offered her a very deep frown. ”Middle aged man?”

The old medic shook his head and wandered out of the door, zipping up his jacket along the way. Aela waited for Jamie to follow along with him, closing the door behind the two of them and heading towards the turbo-lifts at the end of the hall. The trip to the bank wouldn’t take long, and from there they’d head towards the space port.

Easy, in theory.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The moment of laughter was cut short by the pain still in her side. Carefully the blonde tugged at the zipper on the coat, sealing away any hint of the injury she was carrying with her before stepping into the dimly lit hallway towards the turbolift to take them back down to the lobby and exit. Fortunately the three were able to make it to the ground floor and through the doors without interruption. In fact, they hadn't even passed a single other guest during their journey back to the streets.

"How far is this place once we reach the bank?"

Jamie wasn't quite as nervous about her body handling the walk as she was worried about being spotted by the sisters or their guard. She was in no kind of condition for a confrontation, and even less so to try and run from said people. The last thing she needed was to open the wound again. All the same, she kept her lightsaber tucked inside the jacket she had on, just in case.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

”We’ll take a speeder from the bank, the trip won’t take more than fifteen minutes.” There was no way she was running around the streets of Bastion with the amount of money she was taking out of the bank, especially considering that they were still being looked for by the two sisters.

She motioned them out of the elevator and into the lobby of the building.

The bank wasn’t too far away, and like Jamie Aela was still very much looking all around herself to make sure that they weren’t going to be spotted. The day was bright and warm at least, meaning there were plenty of people on the street that they could hide within. She tried to keep a smile on her face, eyes flicking towards Jamie every now and again to make sure she was still standing.

”It’s just up ahead.” She said as they shuffled through the crowd. ”That big glass building, my Fathers Advisor said the funds should be ready, I just have to ask.

And prove who she was, though that wasn’t an issue.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

While walking still wasn't the most pleasant of exercises, she did her best to appear unaffected by the strain, and instead busied herself with gazing around the city as they drew nearer to the bank. A warm smile painted her face the whole time, as if she'd been enjoying the early walk and her surroundings. The warmth of the sun rays reflecting off the tall structures down onto the street below gave off an admittedly beautiful radiance that, as one walked through, the heat of the daylight provided a pleasant embrace nearly as inviting as the bed she'd been torn from not too long ago.

"I see it." She said with a nod.

The three quickened their pace up just slightly, eager to be off of Bastion as soon as possible.

The SIS will be thrilled to see this report she thought to herself. Aela was withdrawing personal funds for this leg of the trip, and that was likely for good reason...Nothing on this mission had gone to plan in the slightest. She hadn't planned on bringing a new face along, they hadn't planned on the ball going so wrong, they hadn't planned for Jamie getting injured, and that was putting it lightly. And they hadn't planned on needing to rent a ship to escape with a man that they ended up needing to help rather than capture.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Half of her wanted to break out into a sprint.

It wasn’t like they were being chased, in fact, she doubted that Villia and her sister were even looking for them in a place like this, but there was something about the situation that made her incredibly anxious. They headed across the street, speeders slowing as the lights changed and allowed them to pass.

An attendant opened the door to the bank, ushering them inside to reveal a lavish, almost excessive central lobby. This was clearly not the bank of regular folk, rather it was a high class institution that likely saw dozens of billionaires a day. She frowned for a moment, but did not stop heading towards the center of the lobby. A woman stood there, dressed in fine clothing and greeting them with a warm smile.

”Miss Talith.”

She cringed slightly. Did everyone on this planet know who she was?

”We are aware of your situation, and the funds have been transferred from your father’s account.”

The woman shifted slightly and waved a hand to a nearby door, it fell open to reveal a rather fancy office. Aela looked at it for a moment, then to the woman, then smiled. ”Thank you. Would you be able to call us a speeder as well?”

The woman nodded once again, then departed as Aela headed into the office to grab the small briefcase on the table.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Aela was certainly a recognizable face it seemed. At least, that was all Jamie hoped. It would be plausible that the woman would know who she was simply because of the name that was attached to the account. This didn't seem like a likely place to be set up, though one couldn't be too certain either way. After all, nothing else had gone to plan throughout the course of this trip thus far anyway, so one more thing out of the ordinary wouldn't be too far fetched in Jamie's eyes.

Still, Jamie remained outside of the room while Aela checked the contents of the case and verified the credits were available, whilst keeping an eye on the woman who was to make a call for a transport speeder for the three of them. The last thing they needed was the sisters receiving a tip off that Aela and Jamie were there, waiting for a ride to safety. Unfortunately the woman's voice was too quiet for Jamie to quite hear, but to her it sounded and looked as though that was precisely what was being done.

Once Aela returned and the woman finished her conversation she returned with a pleasant smile on her face.

"A speeder will be here shortly. You're welcome to wait in our lobby if you wish Miss Talith.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Part of her wondered how she had been recognized here, but she figured that her fathers financial manager had likely sent a photograph of her just to ensure that they knew who to look for. It made sense in a way, though like Jamie she still found herself more than a lottle tense about the situation as a whole.

Everything on Bastiom had gone all wrong.

"No worries." She said as she came up besides Jamie, clutching the briefcase tightly and letting her eyes slowly glide over the lobby of the building. "We'll be off this world soon."

There was something here that made her ill at ease. The bank was more than secure, but so much had gone wrong on Bastion that she just felt like something else would too. It was silly of course, superstitious, but the white knuckled grip on the suitcase was telling of just how Aela currently felt.

Eventually however the Speeder came around, nd before anyone could see them Aela rushed Jamie and the old soldier into it.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Situating herself in her seat the speeder began to slowly pull away from the bank. Jamie looked to Aela who still had quite the death grip on the briefcase, her eyes shifting from her hands to the woman's eyes, and back and forth once more. There was a slight twitch of her nose, as if she was considering how to phrase her question. "You okay?" Simple and to the point. "You look a bit more on edge than earlier."

It wasn't like she didn't know why, but she wasn't sure if there was something that gave Aela more pause than when they had left the hotel, or if it were just nerves tugging at her conscious. She did have a considerable amount of credits on her person while traveling a foreign world with a rather disgruntled group of nobles still looking for them, so perhaps that was just it. Then again, Jamie knew she had a much stronger connection to the Force, so perhaps she had felt something that Jamie hadn't.

"We're almost there..."

There. Reassurance never hurt, right?

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

It was rather strange, both Padawan and Master were trying to assure one another that everything was going to be okay. Aela knew that it shouldn’t have been that way, that she should have been stalwart, stoic, and entirely sure of herself, but doubt had slipped into her mind. Her inability to protect Jamie the night before, how all of this had gone wrong, it made her feel incredibly uneasy.

”There.” She pointed ahead of them.

A small spaceport sat nestled between several high rise buildings, a dozen or so ships sitting on one end of a large runway that was likely used for testing experimental craft. There was a terminal at one end, though from what Aela could tell it hadn’t been in operation for several years. Faintly she could see the outline of several men standing near one of the vessels at the far end of the runway.

”That must be them.” The Jedi Marshall looked around for anything suspicious. ”Get on board as soon as you can, I’ll pay the owner and then we’ll head out.”

She was determined to get this done as fast as they possibly could.

Lest the Harpies arrive.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie caught sight of what Aela was pointing towards and gave a quick nod. Still, something about this felt rather too easy. They hadn't had this kind of luck at all during this mission, so the idea that Aela would simply pay for the rental, they would get aboard and take off without a hitch seemed hard to believe. Perhaps the idea of anything whatsoever going as planned at this point was just too unbelievable to the Padawan. Of course, she would hardly complain if that was exactly what happened, but she had that same knot in her chest as she had before. Perhaps that was what was keeping Aela on edge as well.

"Okay." She finally said as the speeder came to a halt, allowing the three to exit. "I'll meet you on board."

She was hoping Aela would be swift. Leaving immediately was preferable. The girl exited the speeder and gave one more nod to Aela before paying the driver and gathering her bag of belongings.

Slowly she headed out towards the awaiting ship.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Jamie would quickly be greeted by Zven, who beckoned her on board the small freighter.

Aela nodded to the old soldier, breaking off from her padawan and heading directly towards the others. There was a younger gentleman standing besides them, looking to be just about as old as Aela was. Jamie likely would have described him as ‘cute’ though he didn’t have the same sort of rugged features as the boy in the store had. Aela of course, didn’t notice.

”Here.” She stuck out the briefcase.

”The money you requested.” She figured that it was once again easier to simply be direct. ”Plus a little more on your agreement of silence about all of this.”

The boy stared at her for a moment, completely flabbergasted. Apparently he had not quite expected her to be so...forward. Eventually however he simply nodded his head, probably deciding that it was better not to argue about any of it.

”Much obliged.”

He said it with an...odd sort of smile on his face, though Aela decided not to pay it any attention. She lingered for a moment more, then gave the boy another nod before signalling to the others to head towards the ship.

She wanted off this world