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Where He Buried Her
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Wednesday, 19 Aug 2015, 10:48 PM | Message # 16 |
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| Daneira started walking before he even motioned her to lead on. "Yes, we have a couple of hours. And not long from now, you will have a speeder, and can get far far away from here, and maybe find someone with some common sense." She snapped harshly. His words hurt her, but he was right. It was her fault, she had gotten too confident and comfortable. "I really give absolutely zero fracks about an Inquisitor."
She tromped through the plain for a while in absolute silence, still fuming, still confused, and still upset. Sure, she had felt him in pain, but what could she do about it? He wouldn't even look at her, so why would he let her touch him? There was a med kit at the house, and he could use it if he needed. What he didn't know, yet, was that he could have anything from her house that he needed.
A half hour in silence, and Dani was starting to walk between the trees of the orchard and could see the old farm house just beyond that. Xac sprinted ahead when it came into view, and she followed after, leaving Karth to catch up in his own time. She understood Xac's desire to get there quickly, and frankly she did not want him breaking down a door that they might need in the not too distant future.
By the time Karth would eventually catch up, Dani would be down on one knee, hugging the smaller feathered Nosaurian. It might have been weird and confusing, considering why they had been sent to New Plympto in the first place, but things had changed in twenty years. Dani had fought hard to live, and she built a life, and helped people despite the Imperial presence on the planet. She had a family with Dom, and friends in the locals. Dom was gone now though, and she had endangered her friends, so there was nothing left for her to do except disappear.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Friday, 21 Aug 2015, 2:10 AM | Message # 17 |
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| He hadn't heard her snap like that in twenty years, and it still bit just as deep as it always had. Where once he might have apologized, bridged the distance between them to draw her into a comforting embrace, now the gap only seemed to widen. They were both very different people, now, and he discovered that rang truer with each passing moment. The Dani he remembered would never have been so careless, would she?
You're being too hard on her, a voice cut through the din of his thoughts, but he banished it as quickly as it had come.
"Well you might want to start giving some," Karth fired back, chastising her with acid on his tongue. "Because if that display back there was any indication, we might as well be walking around with big, blinking signs that read 'We're Jedi, come kill us!'." He trudged on ahead, drawing on the Force to try and suppress the throbbing pain in his leg, managing to only slightly. In the years since the Purge began his powers had waned, to the point of being almost nonexistent. Just throwing those two stormtroopers had taken a lot out of him.
"Time's something we don't have, we should move." Karth finally said, biting back the apology that his past self begged him to say.
They had pressed forward in silence for what felt like a good half-hour, if a bit longer by Karth's reckoning. They were only about two hours removed from their initial escape, and thus far Karth hadn't heard the familiar whine of Imperial engines. He allowed himself to hope, however briefly, that they had made a clean getaway. Daneira and Xac sprinted for the house and he followed behind at a far more leisurely pace, watching as she embraced a local as though they were old friends. Was this truly her life, now?
Rather than say anything, Karth immediately made for her speeder, checking to ensure it was in running order. A lucky break, that she had proper transport. Outrunning Imperial patrols would be far easier in this than on foot.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Friday, 21 Aug 2015, 2:11 AM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Friday, 21 Aug 2015, 8:27 AM | Message # 18 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
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| Daneira went into the house once Xac and his boy left, though he had promised to contact her if he found someone willing to smuggle two Jedi off world, and she began to change into dry clothes and pack a bag. There was already a duffle full of various weapons collected over the years prepared, which they might end up needing, she thought as she pulled a dry shirt on over her head.
The actual act of packing was quick, but thoughtful. Clothes, credits (all of the credits Dom had put away for her), her Nora Morgan credentials, and her journal. As an afterthought, she threw some of Dom's old clothes into a bag for Karth. They should fit. At least they would be warm and dry, if nothing else. Her broken lightsaber went into the weapons duffle before she picked it up, along with both packs to take outside.
She he stopped in the kitchen, however, and stared at the holo photo that sat on the windowsill over the sink. It was the only photo she had allowed Dom to take; and it was of her and the old man, smiling and embracing. He had been the father she never had, and the pain of his absence still rang true, even after all that time. Without a second thought, she picked up the device and turned it off before she slipped it into her pocket.
"Tell me about him, Nora." Dom had said, sucking on a death stick, in the early evening while sitting on the porch of the farmhouse. He was in a rocking chair, and she sat on the porch step as she watched the fireflies dart between the trees in the orchard.
"His name was Karth." She had started slowly as she picked up a thin stick and began to draw aimless circles in the dirt on the ground. "He was my best friend...we met when we were six...at the temple...on Coruscant. That was when it was still called Coruscant, anyway." Dani had heard on the holo news that it was Imperial Center now. "And we fell in love, not hard and fast, but slowly and deeply. We were not supposed to, but I believe that the Force had plans for us bigger than what the Order wanted."
The he old man looked at her thoughtfully and took another drag of the rancid smoke. "And he died." He said carefully, watching her reaction sympathetically.
"He died. I wish I had died instead." She replied before she got up and wandered into the orchard for some alone time. He understood, and she did that every time they talked about the war, the Order, or Karth
Through the window, she saw Karth looking over the speeder. It was in good working order, and could get them to where they needed to be, which was far away from there. It it took her several moments before she finally decided to go out, and she dumped the duffle into the back of the speeder, followed by her bag, and the one she had packed for him. "There is plenty of food and water in the kitchen, and I will get whatever you think might be needed. And a first aid kit." Her gaze went to his leg then, briefly, before she looked back up at him. Her anger had subsided some, while she packed up a tiny part of her life, so she was no longer snapping or visibly angry. She had always been the type to anger quick, and cool off just as quickly, he would have known that.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Monday, 24 Aug 2015, 3:52 PM | Message # 19 |
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Officer
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| He always found machines to be soothing. There was a symmetry, a regularity to a machine that managed to frame the world in such a way that it seemed simpler. The speeder was no different, and Karth caught himself admiring the contours of the vehicle as Daneira packed. Anything to keep his mind off all the things they had to talk about. At least they had a leg up on their pursuers, now, with a proper vehicle.
Her voice, as melodic as it had been that day twenty years ago, rang in his ears and drew Karth into the present. For the first time since their abrupt reunion, when Daneira looked up at him, she'd find his eyes, black as onyx, staring back at her. Or maybe he was staring through her, Karth himself couldn't even tell, looking at her was like looking at a ghost.
"Hm?" Karth answered, his brain taking a moment to process her words. In response, he offered up a nod and turned his attention back to the speeder, ensuring it was fueled and prepped. "Weapons, stims, anything you can fit in a bag. You won't be able to come back here for a long while."
If ever, a voice rang in his head, and Karth shook the truth from his mind.
"We're going to need a fast ship, too, if we want to get off this rock. The Empire might not be able to lock down the planet, but they have ships that can pursue." His tone was equally cooled, while she was always quick to anger and quicker to forget, Karth never wore his emotions on his sleeve. Even at the height of their relationship, when they were closer than any two people had any business being, he rarely spoke of the conflict roiling beneath his calm facade.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Tuesday, 25 Aug 2015, 0:26 AM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Tuesday, 25 Aug 2015, 10:02 PM | Message # 20 |
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Officer
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| She stared back into his eyes, with her own ocean blue orbs, for several moments before she tore herself away. Then, with only a nod, Daneira went back into the house to gather the rest of the supplies they might need. Food, water, non-perishable items. Once off planet, it would be simple enough (in theory) to get more supplies if needed. It did not take her long before she would go back outside and drop the supplies into the back of the speeder with the weapons and the other bag.
"I can drive." She offered as she glanced to his leg again. Just let me look at it. Daneira thought in the deafening silence. There was nothing except the breeze rustling the leaves on the orchard trees, and the birds chirping without a care in the world. I could help with the pain. But she did not voice it, and would allow him to ask if he wanted her help. There was a feeling, one that she could not shake, that he would not want help, especially not from her. She couldn't help that she still loved him. She would always love him.
The sudden bark of a Nosaurian drew her attention. "Xac? What...no...you have to take your boy home." Dani said as he chirped at her, interlaced with a broken common tongue. There was another, younger Nosaurian with him, along with his son. "I am not sure that it is a good idea. If you get caught...." He interrupted her again, making his case. "Alright." She said, giving in.
"He wants to drive us." Daneira explained to Karth, unsure if he understood the language or not. "And drop us off somewhere before he takes the speeder and ditches it." She said, sighing as she did. "I think we should take him up on it."
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Friday, 28 Aug 2015, 1:34 AM | Message # 21 |
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Officer
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| They were an unexpectedly brave lot, the Nosaurians. In the waning months of the war, Karth had cursed their tenacity and resilience. And here they were, twenty years later and still resisting the Empire's grip on their homeworld. Xac's willingness to aid them, in spite of what could come of it, was what finally cracked the detached shell he had retreated within. "It's asking a lot of him," Karth said in a hushed tone, glancing over his shoulder. He kept expecting Imperial speeders to be bearing down on them at any moment. "-If he's caught, he'll be tortured and executed. Harboring a fugitive from the Empire is bad enough, but aiding Jedi?"
His shoulders sagged as he took his own satchel and tossed it into the back of the speeder, hand once again patting the lightsaber he had clipped to his belt. It felt so ancient a thing, a relic from another life that he carried around for sentiment, hardly the weapon it once was.
You can't run from it any longer.
"If he's certain, if he's truly certain, then I welcome his aid." Karth finally relented, smoothing a hand through his shaggy, raven hair. He was surprised that Daneira could recognize him at all, his handsome features weathered by age and concealed by a thick, coarse stubble. Last-known images of Karth De'Qora depicted a well-groomed and studious Jedi, a far cry from the filthy spacer he appeared to be now. It had been so long since he had even heard his real name.
Time to be a Jedi again.
"Either way," he continued, climbing into the passenger's side of the speeder. "We need to put as much distance as we can between us and Phemiss as we can. I'll have to come back for Kima when the smoke's cleared." There wasn't an ounce of doubt in his voice, Karth spoke of the droid like he would his own child. Daneira would most likely remember the astromech well, Karth's droid had seen them both through a number of trying times. In many ways, they had all but adopted it.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Saturday, 29 Aug 2015, 7:56 PM | Message # 22 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
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| When he spoke, he was close enough that she rested a hand on his forearm briefly. It was an old habit, one that twenty years had not broken. "We help each other out." She explained as she removed her hand from his arm and slid his satchel over to make room in the back seat. "And Xac is very smart. I am sure that he will not get caught." Daneira said confidently as she climbed into the back of the speeder, and Xac got into the drivers seat. Of course, Karth sitting in the front and her in the back was not conducive to a conversation. The Nosaurian clicked at her again and she nodded. "He says he will send someone to retrieve Kima." Dani relayed to Karth, half absently, though she was amazed that the droid was still around.
Xac drove fast, to put it mildly. Who better to drive than someone who knew the land better than even Daneira did. This was his home that they had invaded all those years ago, when he was young, younger than they were at the time. His parents had been killed in the war, Xac had told Dani one night while sitting on the porch at Dom's house. She had apologized profusely if it had been either her or Karth, but he told her it was blaster wounds....clones had done it. Still, it had been an enormous amount of guilt to carry.
As the Nosaurian drove, she fished the lightsaber hilt out of the bag of weapons and turned it over in her hand several times. It was so tarnished that the metal was nearly black, and obviously the inner workings were so damaged that she was not sure it could be repaired....again. It was her second, the first having been lost on Belassa after the death of Atrya. Dani had built a new one before she completed the trials, the one she now held in her hand. That was all far in the past now, she thought, as she tossed the hilt back into the bag and zipped it up.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Thursday, 10 Sep 2015, 5:26 PM | Message # 23 |
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Officer
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Messages: 54
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| (( After the conversation in Road to Nowhere. ))
He still couldn't believe they had made it.
After an arduous twenty-four hours, Kima had been smuggled back to him and they were exiting New Plympto's atmosphere, rocketing away from the planet as fast as the sublight engines on Daneria's ship could carry them. It was an older thing, she called it the Caecelia and its frame was worn from age and under-use, but it was spaceworthy and that was all Karth needed to usher them off-planet. Daneira had bid a tearful farewell to Xac, only after Karth had insisted they ditch the speeder and lay low, for a time.
Scans thus far hadn't picked up on their leaving, without a blockade the Imperials would find themselves hard-pressed to lock down the airspace around the entire planet, much less pick up sensor readings. In the interest of being safe, Karth had insisted that they jettison both of the masking transponders she kept aboard for emergencies, an earnest attempt to confuse any potential pursuers.
He allowed himself a breath, watching as she inputted a jump to the Outer Rim, his fingers white-knuckling the back of her seat. He wouldn't feel secure until they were safely away, and even then it would be some time before he'd stop looking over his shoulder. They had gotten lucky once already, something told him they wouldn't again. The stars began to streak as hyperspace coalesced around them, rocketing the ship away from New Plympto at the speed of light.
Hesitantly, Karth let out a breath, sinking back into the co-pilot's chair and rubbing at his temples. "Too close for comfort," he admitted with a grimace.Added (10 Sep 2015, 5:26 PM)
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(( End. ))
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Saturday, 05 Sep 2015, 0:15 AM |
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