Dawning Destinies

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Raine Strife	Dawning Destinies	Lead	[-]
Posts: 692 (08/26/08 01:08:59) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None It was dark when Raine woke, roused from a world of nightmares and memories by... what? A feeling. An odd prickling in her hair. A vague suggestion that something wasn't quite right. The darkness, in itself, was nothing new; the old inter-system cargo scow she'd bartered passage on was old, perhaps twice her age, and most of the non-essential systems had failed long ago. As a result, Raine'd spent most of the journey - which had been long and wretchedly uncomfortable anyway - in near darkness. But that was fine with her; darkness meant she couldn't catch a glimpse of her reflection as she paid the crew their dues. It meant she wouldn't be forced to look upon the features of a woman - hah, who was she kidding; she was still in the final years of her teens, barely more than a girl - who'd given up on everything and everyone in the year that had passed since she'd buried her parents, her only family though she'd never treated them as such, and left Dellalt. But now... the darkness felt different now. Before, it had been full of energy, as though the thrumming of the engines was granting it life. But now it was silent and heavy, stifling and oppressive. As she lay there, half-naked on her bunk, Raine could feel it pressing down on her. Choking her. Something was wrong. The ship was just too quiet. In fact, it was completely silent, and that meant... The engines! Cursing herself for not noticing it previously - how could she have missed it? The not-so-gentle vibrations of the engine had been a constant in her life for the last month, and the distant thrumming of the drive core had been so utterly all-pervasive that she had at first thought it would surely drive her mad. But apparently she'd grown used to it, started to take it for granted. A fool's mistake; she'd thought she'd learnt that on Dellalt, or at least on one of the half-dozen planets that had followed. But apparently not. Swearing, offering up curses and oaths that would have brought a blush to the cheeks of the coarsest pirate, the young Dellaltian swung herself off her bunk and onto the cold, hard metal of the deck before starting toward the door, hesitating, and ducking back to rummage beneath her pillow. Seconds later she stepped toward the door again, heedless of her state of near undress as she carefully palmed the vibroknife she'd secreted beneath her pillow for a different emergency altogether. It was time to find out what was going on. Somehow, she wasn't looking forward to finding the answer. 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#1	[-]
Posts: 699 (08/28/08 01:08:09) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Dull, flickering lum strips provided the only light in the corridor beyond Raine's quarters, but their pale, sickly glow was enough to allow the Dellaltian to venture warily along the narrow passage. She paused repeatedly, ears cocked as distant noises filtered through the eerily silent ship, only to shake her head - 'banishing the demons' as her father had put it - and grip her knife all the tighter as she continued on. Once, as she reached the hatch that marked the divide between the crew compartments and the cargo holds, a shriek cut through the air only to be abruptly silenced a heartbeat later, causing Raine to blanch and reconsider the wisdom of her chosen course. But, then again, what other choices did she have? Return to her quarters and hide? And what then? Even if whatever it was that had caused the scream missed her and left, she'd be left alone, stranded on a drifting hulk of a ship in the depths of deepspace for Force only knew how long. 'No way,' the young hellion vowed to herself, her knuckles rapidly turning white as she tightened her grip on the vibrokinfe, 'I'm not goin' out yet.' With that silent promise, Raine forced herself on, though now her pace was slower still. Cautiously, she slipped through the separating hatch and crept down the corridor beyond. Her dark eyes flickered about almost manically, darting from shadow to shadow and hatchway to hatchway almost as though she expected a monster born of her nightmares to leap from each of them the moment she looked away. And, in truth, that wasn't entirely far from the truth. However, even as the young Dellaltian's fears continued to mount, her roving eyes fell upon a patch of dark fluid that had pooled upon the dirty decking. Slowly, with dread mounting in her heart, Raine advanced upon it, dropping into a crouch as she drew close and tentatively extending one hand toward the puddle. But she didn't touch it; she didn't need to. The smell of blood was all too familiar to her. Drip Ripples spread across the surface of the bloody pool as the droplet hit it, but the Dellaltian barely noticed for her eyes were already being drawn upward, toward the high ceiling of the passage, toward the flayed corpse that had been nailed to the ceiling. "Oh Force," she groaned, stumbling backward as she tried to draw away, "Oh Force above." Her breath was coming in short gasps now, and her heart was pounding like a Gamorrean war drum. She knew she was hyperventilating - how could she not be after seeing that - but couldn't find a bastion of serenity to calm her. It was just too much. I shouldn't have left my cabin. I should go back. Wait for - Crunch. A footstep. It broke through Raine's terrified thoughts like a bolt of lightning, making her previous fears seem like a child's terror of the dark. hastily, she tried to scramble backward, hoping that the shadows would provide her with some small measure of safety, only to find that her back was already pressed against the cold metal of the hull. She was trapped. 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#2	[-]
Posts: 713 (08/29/08 00:46:39) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	As the Dellaltian pressed back against the cold, unyielding metal of the scow's hull, hoping vainly that it might open up and swallow her whole, a door partway down the corridor hissed open. The crunching footfalls, a sound that sent shivers down Raine's spine and caused her to press back still harder, grew louder as the door opened, and soon there was little doubt as to whether they were growing closer. Within seconds, a shadow blocked out the sickly light of the lum strips. There, for a moment that felt like an eternity, it hesitated, before advancing into the corridor. Toward Raine. Faint light played across the figure as it grew closer, revealing bloodstained armour and a long, wide-muzzled rifle of a sort that the young Dellaltian had never seen before. Slowly, inexorably, the armoured figure advanced down the corridor, its heavy, thudding footfalls leaving tiny amounts of charred, blackened material, the source of which Raine didn't dare wonder about, on the decking with each step. Eventually, after what felt like both a heartbeat and a millenium, the murdererous warrior drew close to the bloodstain and paused, its visor lowering slightly as it studied the puddle of gore. 'It's not looking at the blood,' Raine realised with a start, 'It's looking past it. It's... oh, Force.' It was true; the armoured warrior wasn't looking at the patch of blood, but slightly beyond it, to where Raine herself had crouched. And its gaze was fixed on something that gleamed in the light of the lum strips. Her knife. "I know that wasn't there when I killed this man," the bloodstained invader announced, its voice gravelly and masculine, "And I know I've killed all of the crew. So, who are you? Be quick and you might survive." He didn't turn to look at Raine as he spoke, but he didn't need to; there was nowhere for her to hide. So she did the only thing she could, and hoped he'd be true to his word. "My name is Raine," she answered, surprising herself by managing to speak the words in a steady voice. She'd half-expected to find the words refused to come out at all, "I'm just... I was trying to get to Coruscant. I was working my way there on this ship." Now the armoured man turned, seeming to study her from beneath the impeneterable mask of his helm. "On a smuggling ship?" he enquired bluntly, his tone as inscrutable as the helm he wore. Raine gasped at the revelation; not once had she considered that the scow might be anything other than what its captain claimed. Hells, she'd never even said the ship's cargo, and she was quick to say as much to the man who held her life in his hands. "Never even seen the cargo, hmm?" he answered, "What did you do, then? Actually, no, don't answer. I believe I can guess." He didn't, though, and lapsed into silence for a long moment in which his Dellaltian captive found her gaze drawn to the barrel of his weapon by morbid curiousity. As she looked down, however, the warrior nodded; "Your words ring true, I suppose, and there's no trace of the glit on you. So, I suppose the question is... what do I do with you now?" 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#3	[-]
Posts: 743 (12/14/08 11:25:59) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Her gaze still fixed on the barrel of the blaster - the draw of black, abyssal muzzle was inescapable, seeming to draw her gaze in like a black hole - Raine found she couldn't answer; her heart was in her throat, and her tongue seemed to have slunk back to join it. But answers raced through her head; desperate pleas, hopeless bargains and pointless promises colliding in an ungodly mess. Words would not come, though, and she merely stood, frozen in place like a wild womprat caught in a speeder's lights. "No suggestions?" the armoured invader seemed amused. Even with his helm - an ugly, brutish thing that would have been horrific even without the blood splattered across it - distorting the man's voice, Raine would have been able to tell. But she was used to amusement, to people laughing at her. In the months since she'd fled Dellalt, countless people had made light of her plight. She'd hated it at the time, but now... now she was grateful, unimaginably so, for the man's amusement was a familiar thing, something she could use to anchor herself as the tides of terror tore at her mind. But the anchor came with a companion; anger. Anger at the man for laughing. For inflicting such terror upon her. And anger at the galaxy, too, for there could scarcely have been more wretched an existence than that which the cruel fates had inflicted upon her in the preceding months. "What's it matter if I say anythin' or not?" she snapped, the rage bubbling through her veins momentarily overpowering her fear, "You'll just kill me anyway." The words were born of anger, not rational thought, and a heartbeat later she shrank back against the cold metal of the hull, aghast at herself for being so foolish as to rage at a man who quite literally held a gun to her head. "I mean... I... please, just let me go." For a long moment, the armoured brute was silent, immobile as a statue. Then he began to shake, to tremble within the confines of his armour. He was, Raine realised, laughing. "Well, it seems you aren't quite as tame as I had imagined," the man chuckled, the barrel of his blaster wavering and then dropping. Not by much - an inch or two at very most - but Raine took it as a good sign. Force above, in her eyes, a single milimeter would have been a good sign at that point. But if she allowed her hopes to begin to rise, they were soon to be cruelly dashed as the invader shook his head slightly and continued, "But I cannot simply allow you to leave. Even if you don't mention me to the Imperials, it would only be a matter of time before your... former companions' associates track you down, and you would tell them." His voice was grim, and the sure certainity behind it sent a tremor through the young Dellaltian as she pressed herself back against the metal, mentally willing it to open up and consume her. But still the invader was not done; "No, there are only two options; either I kill you, or... you come with me." Two options. Hardly. "I'll come with you," Raine answered, her voice barely more than a whisper. 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#4	[-]
Posts: 749 (12/16/08 18:31:51) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The brute nodded, unsurprised. He'd known, just as Raine herself had, that he wasn't really giving her a choice; no sane sentient would choose death over survival. "Of course you will," came the rumble from the within the helm. It was edged with amusement, even through the distortion of the vox that much was evident. But Raine didn't care; the mockery mattered even less than usual now. All she cared about that she was going to survive, at least for a while. She wasn't going to end up lying in a pool of her own blood on the cold, unyielding floor of the dying freighter like the poor son of a Murglak that lay, still cooling and oozing ichor, between her and his blood-soaked murderer. "You know the way to the boarding hatch?" He phrased it as a question, but it wasn't one, not really. Anyone who came aboard would have to know where the hatch was. Still, she nodded with an almost indecent haste, having decided that her survival hinged upon her ability to avoid irritating the armoured beast. "Good. Lead the way." Such a simple command, but it made Raine's blood run cold. Her eyes flickered away from the barrel of the man's gun just briefly, darting across to the yawning void beyond the man before flickering back. The hatch was down that corridor, and to get to it she would have to pass both victim and murderer. It was hard to say which was worse. And yet... she didn't really have an option, did she? No, not unless she decided that death was suddenly a more appealing prospect, and that was hardly likely to happen; she worked too hard, done too many things she didn't dare think about just to make sure she survived in the long months after her family's murder and she wasn't about to give up now. Not for something so pathetic, so infinitely childish, as a little squeamishness. And so she forced herself away from the wall, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves - a mistake, as it happened, for it resulted in little other than the sickly scent of death assailing her and bringing a fresh wave of bile into her throat. Fighting down the urge to vomit, she drove herself onward, forcing herself to take first one painful step and then another. It wasn't as easy as it sounded - her feet felt like they'd turned to lead - but Raine wasn't willing to give up, not when so much was at stake, and so she pressed on. Five steps later, after what felt like a lifetime, she was beside the corpse. The smell of it, of the blood soaking into the metal, was almost overpowering. "Don't look down," she found herself whispering. Then again, and again, until she was repeating it like some childish mantra. But it was pointless; though ever fibre of her being was screaming at her not to look down, Raine couldn't help it. She glanced down. Seen from afar, the corpse had been horrific. From close up... from close up it was oddly sad. Terrifying, yes, but also somehow melancholy, as though the dashed hopes and dreams of the corpse were leaking out from the gaping wounds and infusing the air around it. And what made it worse still was that the face, ravaged and splattered with blood as it was, was one which Raine recognised as belonging to a young mechanic. He'd been a decent sort, she remembered, if a little shy and nervous. Why him? she wondered, tearing her gaze away before her warring emotions could decided if they wanted her to cry or be sick, Why did it have to be him? A fair question, perhaps, but life was rarely fair. Raine knew that, or she thought she had. But it was only then, as she once again forced herself onward, that the lesson truly sunk in. She was still considering that fact, using it to distract herself from the horrors of reality, when the murder fired his blaster, sending a bolt of crackling cyan energy coruscating across her body as darkness rushed in to greet her like an old friend. 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#5	[-]
Posts: 756 (01/10/09 13:12:50) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Pain. It was the last thing Raine felt as the darkness rushed in, and the first thing she felt as it faded away. Her entire body ached, a dull, throbbing pain that lingered just below the limits of her tolerance. Stirring, she opened her eyes, only to quickly close them again as the brillaint white light above her threatened to blind her. Too slow; even as the cool darkness rushed in, spots danced before her stinging eyes. She tried to move, to shift her position just slightly so that the light wouldn't be immediately above her. It was a mistake; the motion, gentle as it was, drove lances of pain along her spine and into her skull. And so she screamed, giving voice to her agony and her anguish, her fear and her sorrow. She screamed until her throat was raw, until her voice gave out. And then she cried, sobbing silently to herself as the pain began to dim and fade. Until the light, too, began to dim. "Enough of that," a male voice commanded. It was harsh in tone, but not unkind. Authorative, perhaps, and yet also a little unsure. As though the speaker didn't quite know how to handle the situation. That was a feeling Raine could sympathise with. "Come now," it continued, and now that Raine concentrated upon it she sensed a... a familiarity. She knew the voice, but it had been different when last she'd heard it. Distorted, somehow. As though... Oh. Instinctively, she flinched away, pressing herself back against the bed. Pain again speared through her, but she didn't scream; her voice had failed her. "There's no need for that," the disembodied voice continued, an edge that could have been either irritation or faint amusement granting it a surety it had previously lacked, "I'm not going to hurt you." Bit late for that, Raine found herself reflecting bitterly, but she relaxed slightly anyway. She couldn't help it; pressing herself back against the bunk was just too painful. But the speaker, the murderer, couldn't know that, and when he spoke again he sounded pleased, "Good girl. I'm glad to see you're not holding my actions against me. Now open your eyes; I need to check them." Raine obeyed slowly, hesitantly, ready to snap her eyes shut again at the first sign of that blinding white light. But the light was gone, blocked from view by the man standing over her, his features shrouded in shadow. He was a big man, the sort she'd often seen working in spaceports or playing gravball, and the aching girl found herself reflecting that he must have been ridiculously cramped in his armour. But he didn't move like a big man; his movements were whip-quick and snakelike. The sort of movements Raine would have expected from one of the dashing Imperial pilots in one of the ridiculous holodrams that COMPNOR was constantly churning out. And he knew what he was doing, too; that much was obvious from how he checked her eyes and vitals without a moment of hesitation before eventually leaning back and pronouncing her fit and healthy. That was just a little too far. "Fit and healthy?" Raine spat, angrily swinging herself up off the bunk, oblivious to the pain that drove into her skull and set spots dancing before her eyes once again, "No thanks to you, you slimey son of a kornak beetle! You shot me!" "I stunned you," the man corrected, taking a step back and raising a hand. It wasn't, Raine was quick to note, a defensive gesture. No, it was the sort of gesture a teacher might make when explaining a vital point to an unruly pupil. Unsurprisingly, the gesture, and the occompanying facial expression, was well known to Raine, who had always fallen into that category when she had even bothered attend the undeniably expensive lessons her parents had scheduled for her. "It was necessary. You were near hysterical, and getting to my ship would have proved too much for you. You could've been hurt. Badly." Amazingly, the man was able to say it with a straight face. More than that; he delivered the words with a sincerity that would have put the greatest Jedi, or the finest actor, to shame. And so Raine sank back onto the bunk, her anger quelled momentarily and exhaustion already rushing in to take its place. "Now... Raine, wasn't it?" her captor murmured after a second or so, "Tell me again what you were doing aboard that ship. The full story." 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#6	[-]
Posts: 768 (01/14/09 04:07:24) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	As it turned out, the full story took quite a while to deliver. More than once they were interrupted, usually by the beeping of some equipment that had finished its tasks. Even then, Raine kept talking. She told him everything, how her early life had been, how much pain she'd caused those around her, right the way up to how she'd been making her way across the galaxy, fleeing the selfsame story she was pouring out to him. He, for his part, listened intently. He didn't speak, didn't question. Even when the machines demanded his attention, he motioned for Raine to continue as he attended his own tasks. Most importantly, he didn't judge, but maybe that made sense. He was a killer; what right had he to judge anyone? And, more importantly, why did she care? She hadn't cared what anyone on Dellalt had thought of her, so why did she care what some murderous bastard she'd just met thought? Right then, caught up in the situation, she couldn't figure it out. Only later, after a whole lot of dwelling on the issue, would she figure it out; she was tired of not caring what people thought, of acting like what they said didn't matter. It just wasn't who she was. She just wanted someone to not judge her for her past, and it didn't matter overmuch who that person was. By the time she'd finished her sorry tale, most of the machines in the medlab had fallen silent. A glance at the chronometer suggested over an hour had passed, but still the man, the murderer, sat before her, his expression as alert and attentive as it had been when she had begun. "An interesting tale," he murmured reflectively after waiting a moment to ensure she was done, "But I do have a question. Your parents... why did they choose to emigrate to Dellalt?" "They didn't like the Empire," Raine answered, echoing a memory of her father that danced before her eyes, "The way they were crushin' out all the freedoms and stuff. They figured it'd be safer to raise their family a long way from Coruscant." "Safer?" the man repeated, raising a grey-specked eyebrow just a fraction of an inch, "An odd choice of words. Why safer? Were they trying to hide something?" Frowning, not quite understanding, Raine shook her head. "They weren't rebels, if that's what you're sayin'." "Oh, no," the man answered, rising from his chair and shaking his head as he strode across to a nearby terminal, "I'm not suggesting they were rebels. I'm suggesting something much more interesting. You see, I ran a bloodwork on you, just to make sure none of your friends had left any unwelcome presents - they hadn't, you'll be pleased to hear - and I found something remarkable." As he spoke, the man thumbed a switch and the terminal display burst into life. "I did find something else, however," he continued after a moment, causing Raine's heart to jump into her throat. "Tell me, what do you know about midichlorians?" 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#7	[-]
Posts: 778 (01/15/09 03:02:59) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Although the man - Raine realised she hadn't even caught his name - spoke the word as though it were of the utmost importance, the young Dellaltian woman had little alternative but to shrug; her knowledge of midichlorians was about as good as a bantha's knowledge of sub-spacial physics. Her captor didn't seem particularly surprised by that. In fact, he nodded to himself, an odd, self-satisfied gesture, as he perched on the edge of a bunk. "Midichlorians are intelligent microscopic life forms that live symbiotically inside the cells of all living things," he explained, before adding, as he caught a glimpse of the incredulous expression upon her features, "Yes, even within you and I. However, while most people have a low midichlorian count - about two and a half thousand per bloodcell - there are those who have higher counts. I've heard tales of people with counts in the tens of thousands, though there is, of course, no proof of such people ever having existed." "All real interestin'," Raine remarked, her brow crinkling in frustrated confusion, "But why're you tellin' me all this?" Her fear was fading now that it seemed apparent her captor wasn't planning to kill her, and frustration was welling in its place. She wanted answers, explanations, not a lecture on some weird little bugs that lived in blood. In her blood. Emperor's black heart, it was enough to give anyone the creeps. "Ah, and here we have the crux of the matter," the man answered, chuckling slightly at her impatience, "You see, I belong to the former category. My count is somewhere in the region of two thousand. But you... you're different. Your count is much higher." Again he paused, and Raine felt his eyes on her. If he was waiting for a reaction, he was disappointed, for Raine merely regarded him blankly. So what if she had a high midiwhatever count. It didn't mean anythin'. "Oh," he added after a moment, a faint smile twisting his cadeverous features, "I almost forgot what they called that latter group in the Old Republic. It was... Jedi." 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#8	[-]
Posts: 798 (01/17/09 07:30:51) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Jedi. Raine doubted there was a single person in the Core and Colonies combined who hadn't heard of the Jedi. They were part of every famous story, every well-spun myth. The Empire had destroyed them, but their legend... oh, their legend had lived on, carried in the hearts and minds of all those they had touched. All those who hadn't believed the tales of assassination and rebellion that had filtered out through the senate. "Are you..." she began, then paused, shaking her head. It was just too ridiculous. "Are you sayin' I'm a Jedi?" Said out loud, it sounded even more ludicrous. But the man, her captopr, didn't laugh. No, his expression was as serious as ever even as he shook his head. "Not quite," he answered, his tone thoughtful and contemplative. Once again Raine was reminded of her tutors on Dellalt; many of them had worn similar expressions and spoken with just such a tone when they had been delivering a lesson they felt it important she learn. "People were not born as Jedi. They were trained, if the masters found they had enough potential. That is what I'm saying you have." He paused a moment, but spoke again as he caught the expression that lingered upon the young Dellaltian's features; "No, not the potential to be a Jedi. They're gone, buried by the Emperor. But you've got the potential to do what they did. To touch the Force and change the world." "Change the world?" Raine echoed. It was an incredible thought, yet she couldn't help but think there would be a catch. Life wasn't kind enough to offer up such a wondrous opportunity without saving itself an opportunity to kick her in the teeth and stamp on her fingers. Oh, one downside was obvious enough; if she did have the.. the midithings, and the Empire found out, that'd be it. The end. But she wasn't stupid enough to go shouting it from the rooftops, and how else would they find out? No, there had to be something else. Something subtler, something that'd hurt a whole lot more. But maybe it wasn't connected to the discovery. Maybe it was... "Why're you tellin' me this?" Hearing the suspicion in her voice, Raine's captor chuckled to himself. "Still don't trust me? Well, I suppose I can't blame you. But you want to know why I'm telling you? I warn you, it's a long story." It was a cliche'd thing to say, and Raine met his gaze evenly for a moment before pointedly glancing at the only doorway in the room, a doorway which was quite obviously locked. "Don't look like I'm goin' anywhere," she remarked bluntly, "So let's hear it." 'Vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.' - Juvenal
Raine Strife		#9	[-]
Posts: 833 (01/31/09 03:56:58) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Still chuckling, her captor nodded. "Let's begin with the basics, then," he remarked, leaning back against the wall, "My name is Ethar Wynn, and I was born on Coruscant forty-two years ago. And that, kiddo, means I was alive when the Jedi were still around. Never met one, not to my knowledge anyway, but it was pretty damn near impossible to live anywhere in the Core without hearing about them day in and day out. We all thought of them as big heroes back then; they'd saved us during the Hyperspace Conflict and we were all damn sure they'd save us the next time something went wrong. Turned out we were wrong, of course; it was them who needed our help, and in the end we didn't give it." His mirth had faded as he spoke, and now he sighed almost ruefully at the memory. "But I guess that's not important; you want to hear my story, right?" Raine nodded. It'd probably been a rhetorical question, but a little reinforcement never hurt. Besides, she wanted him to move on, to talk about something other than the way the people of the galaxy betrayed the Jedi. "Alright then," he continued, "Let me think... yeah, the important bits happened when I was sixteen, back in the first year of the Galactic Empire. I'd enlisted young. Lied about my age, little patriot that I was. I figure the recruiters knew - I know my superiors did - but they didn't care; even with the Clones running around, the Republic was desperate for people. But when Palpatine declared himself Emperor, a lot of people weren't happy. The guy commanding the ship I was stationed on - Adar Tallon - was one of them. He was a good man, and a better speaker. Persuaded damn near the whole crew to declare they wouldn't swear allegiance to someone like Palpatine. It was a stupid thing to do, and a lot of people died when Palpatine set the Clones on us. But we were young. Idealistic. We figured Palpatine's reaction meant he was scared of us, so we decided to keep trying. He hesitated a moment, feeling Raine's eye boring into his skull, then sighed. "Most of us died that first year. Others vanished. We figured they were dead at the time, but I've found a few since. Some defected, others just gave up the fight. Didn't really matter; we killed them all regardless. We made a pact, see? Swore on our lives we'd fight till the end. And that is where you come into it." "Me?" Raine gasped, raising her hands in protestation and shaking her head, "You gotta be kidding me! I wasn't even alive back then!" "No," Wynn agreed, an enigmatic and frankly somewhat disturbing sense of satisfaction creeping into his voice, "But your father was. Wasn't he? And he was from Coruscant, wasn't he? Oh, don't bother deny it; I've run the tests, checked the official records. I know I'm right. I know you're the daughter of a man I figured to have died two decades back." "So, what?" Raine retorted, fear briefly giving way to anger as her already frayed patience finally tore, "You want to speak t' him? Better be findin' yourself a real Jedi then, cause he's deader than Palpatine now." "I know," answered her captor, "I saw the holonet reports. But now I've found you. And I'm making you the very same offer I would've made your father; Come back to us, continue the work, and we'll forget he ever left." "And if I refuse?" "You won't," answered Wynn, his voice cold and victorious, "Because there's something else I haven't told you; I know who killed your parents, and I know where you can find them."
Raine Strife		#10	[-]
Posts: 837 (02/04/09 01:49:35) Daughter of Chaos Justice's Mistress Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The moment Wynn spoke those fateful words, Raine's blood ran cold as the void and all colour faded from her already barely more than monocolour world. Her voice, when next she spoke, was dull. Leaden. "My parents...?" "As I said," Wynn answered, "I knew your father well. It was he and I together that first decided we should target scum other than the Empire. So when I heard about his death, I did some digging. And I found... well, I found your father hadn't entirely been able to give up the life he'd signed up for. He was still poking around in things that some people didn't want disturbed." He paused, letting the tension build for a moment. Raine wanted to throttle him for that, but her body was numb and unresponsive. "Things that got him killed." "What things?" the Delaltian lass demanded, hands curling into fists and her fingernails pressing so tightly into her palms that fine lines of blood appeared. "I can't tell you yet," replied Wynn, "Not until I have your word you'll join us. Otherwise you'll just go after them on your own, get in our way and get yourself killed." She wanted to argue, to claim she wouldn't get in the way and wouldn't get killed, but what was the point? Wynn had obviously already made up his mind and, besides, it was true. She'd had no combat training, no practice with weapons. Hells, even looking at a body had made her want to vent her lunch. "What if I agree?" she asked, her voice small, almost as though she didn't wish to be heard, "What'll I have to do?" "You saw what I did today," came the response, exactly as she'd been dreading, "Those people were criminals, slavers and spice smugglers. They deserved to die, so I gave them their richly deserved fate. And that's what you'd have to do. You'd have to be judge, jury and executioner for all the scum in the galaxy. Are you up to that?" 'No!' screamed a voice deep inside Raine's heart. She didn't want to be a killer, a murderer. And yet... if she didn't, who would avenge her parents? Who would avenge the life she had lost? No-one. "I.. I'll do it."

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