Ask Nar Shaddaa The Hardest Part

[Nashyr Ris]

"Max! What happened?"

She listened over the comms… but heard no answer. He couldn't be dead already. She felt rooted in place, however. That sound... holovids from history in particular replayed in her mind. A signature hum that was once the hope of the galaxy... Or the bane of it.

She gritted her teeth and tried to will her feet to move. Her hands shook as she held the blaster... But then she took a deep, cleansing breath, and began to move forward. It wouldn't be long until they figured out systems were down; she had to move fast, and get to her partner. She had to make sure he was alright... but equally, she was sorely tempted to gun down the gangsters that lurked here.

She sucked in another breath, crouching as she stalked forward. As the door hissed open, she glanced left, then right down the narrow hall. Nobody yet... but that luck was gonna change real soon. She started stepping forward, when down the hall she heard voices in another room.

Voices rising in a panic.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max didn't want to be in this situation again.

As a Jedi, Max was told to experience his emotions but to not let them control him or guide him. He was taught to experience without lingering so as to reduce the chance that he could begin to foster hatred in his heart. As someone who was a dedicated Jedi Knight, he hadn't actually done much in the way of harboring hatred.

The closet he had ever come to hating anything since becoming a Jedi was the smell.

The smell of flesh flash-seared by a lightsaber blade cutting through it as easily as a hot knife through butter. It was sweet and acrid and wrong on such a visceral level that he wished he never had to smell it ever again but here he was, carving his way through the three remaining guards with the grace of a dancer. Bobbing and ducking through their attacks, his blade was a blur as it blocked blaster bolts and swung with purpose to cut limbs cleanly from their owners.

One of them was down, passing out from the pain shortly after, in a matter of seconds and Max was already moving onto his ally. Because as much as Max disliked everything that came with what he was doing right now, it was no excuse for sloppy work. With the lightsaber there was the need for precision that meant that any additional suffering was down to the wielder so Max had no excuse for not working hard to be almost medically precise as he sliced his enemies down.

It took him only a few seconds and all three of the remaining guards were down.

And the smell wormed its way into his head and it was suddenly all Max could do to shakily extinguish his lightsaber and try to hold onto the contents of his stomach.

"... the situation is contained." he answered his com as he clutched his extinguished lightsaber tightly in his hand, "I... I was not kind."

He swallowed thickly, against the bile in his throat, and made for the front entrance.

Spoiler: Dice

Attack

 

[Nashyr Ris]

It was baffling to Nash to even hear him comment. She almost even said it aloud, but barely swallowed her reply back in time.

The galaxy is never kind.

That was why they were here... weren't they? Or was he just along because it was something to do? Somehow she doubted it... he seemed like a decent guy. But hearing his thick voice over the comms, she began to wonder if his particular brand of justice was something beyond the vein of ex-cop.

Something more, of a stricter code. There were rumors, of course, but... there was no time to question just who her partner really was. She pressed herself against the wall, crouching low, just when a trio of gangsters stumbled out. She flipped the safety off...

And fired.

The first one stumbled then wheeled back as he was shot in the back, the other two stumbling from their companion. The second clawed back as he tried to avoid his companion's dead weight, but she fired and he fell from a shot to the chest, falling in on the doorway.

The third... attempted to flee.

The last shot fired shut off that opportunity.

She heard scrambling from within, and a voice. The voice of the man she had kept in custody. She smiled grimly, moving forward. They'd have to move their companion's body if they wanted to shut the door...

She began to move to close that distance, abandoning her crouched post. She was almost out of time now.

@Nefieslab

Spoiler: Nash Dice

Surprise!

 

[Maxims Tionson]

He was already thoroughly done with all of this violence but he knew that some more was expected of him but he couldn't help but think that there might be another way. He could see that Nashyr had downed three of the five villains they had followed and that was all well and good but he could see that there were two of them remaining.

Unlike Nashyr however, Max didn't go into the warehouse with the intention of being stealthy. Instead he marched in through the front door as bold a brass.

"Surrender!" he demanded of the remaining two, "Don't make this any harder on you than it already is - surrender now and you will not have to suffer further pain!"

A stun bolt was painless after all.

His answer came in the form of blaster bolts and Max cursed as he was forced, once again, to activate his lightsaber to bat the blaster bolts away from himself. He wasn't able to go any further forwards, stuck blocking their panicked fire and unable to simply move quickly enough to avoid the fire completely due to his prior injuries.

And Nashyr would know.

There were a few logical excuses for just simply possessing a lightsaber but there were far fewer explanations for using one with the speed and precision of a Jedi. Max gritted his teeth because this? This revelation? It could have the young cat woman turn against him for all he knew.

Spoiler: Dice

Intimidation Failure

 

[Nashyr Ris]

She barely had time to process what he was doing when he suddenly was batting back blaster bolts. And the saberstaff was... blue. Not red. Not even yellow. A color similar to her own blaster's bolts... and she gritted her teeth. Flicked her thumb for stun.

More anger rose to the fore, but she bit it back. And turned it towards their opponents.

But as she moved forward, one stray bolt pierced on her chest, and she yelped out a snarl of pain as the burn bit through her armor, scalding the flesh beneath. But she was already moving, too angry to focus, and fired, fired until they both fell, until they both fell still from the stun bolts. She was not a monster... but she felt like she was losing control. She barely knew the man... but she felt furious nonetheless.

She twisted around, pointing the blaster at Max. Her chest was heaving, bright spots swam in her eyes and she suddenly staggered back. She had the brief, mad thought to shoot him... but she couldn't. She really couldn't. But, also...

She couldn't. Breathe.

Each breath made the blaster burn flare with acute pain, causing her arm to shake. She lowered the blaster... then slumped onto the nearest surface she could. Numbly, she realized it was a chair, and she gripped onto the edge with her other arm, tail flicking.

"You're hurt."

She managed to get upright... but limped instead, feeling the anger die down, leaving only trembling adrenaline in its' wake. She turned away, face set to an unreadable expression.

"Explain to me later. Right now... what should we do with these two?" She was trying to focus on something else. Trying to get her thoughts back together, or at least have some cohesion of coordination. But she felt like she was about to fall apart at any moment, and she wasn't in the mood to be merciful.

Perhaps it was his way, but it wasn't the way of Nar Shaddaa. She gripped the blaster in her one good hand, thumb idly playing with the switch. It could go from stun to shoot so easily... but she almost wanted Max to talk her out of it.

Such softness would probably be the death of her.

@Nefieslab

Spoiler: Dice

Attack

 

[Maxims Tionson]

He was hurt.

It wasn't something that was going to be an issue for now though so he ignored it. Making sure his lightsaber was extinguished, Max hid it back within the folds of his armored robes. Sure, Nashyr knew about the lightsaber now but there was no reason to show it to everyone else on their way back to her club.

Or wherever he ended up if she decided he wasn't welcome at her club anymore.

"We take all of them, all of the ones who live, and we imprison them for now." he told her quietly, eyes on her rather than their captives, "We let the people most effected by their plans, by their evils, judge them and decide their fate."

He took a step closer.

"Nashyr their fates are not ours to decide. Justice isn't about killing those who have wronged you, it's about securing justice for those who have been harmed by them and helping those left behind to live with what has occurred." he reached out with one hand, "Lower your blaster, please. Let the people decide what becomes of them."

Max hoped that they would not be executed but it was not his decision. He disliked the very notion of killing these men, corrupted and vile as they were, because it would not be justice. It would be revenge.

@Killa Ree

 

[Nashyr Ris]

For a few more seconds, she held the blaster at one of their victims, eyes never leaving Max's. She wanted to. All she had to do was pull the trigger, and justice would be served to those deserving of it.

But...

She gritted her teeth, letting out a low snarl of frustration... and flipped the safety on, holstering it back with a wince. "You're right. Damn it," she hissed, then sighed, flinching as the movement brought on another flare of hurt. It hurt to not take out all her anger, all her pain and all her guilt out on the two prone bodies, but she just couldn't.

But just for a moment, her face flickered to one emotion... pain.

And just like that, she shut it off. She could deal with it later.

"I'm calling backup to retrieve them," she grunted, giving him a defeated look.

"But after that... I want you to explain to me why the hells you're helping me out here. It's not just goody-guy stuff." She retrieved her comm, and gave a terse message before signing off. "And explain to me what the hells you are. I have a feeling the story needs a drink, and I feel like splitting a bottle."

She tried giving a weak smile, but it faltered, and she rubbed her brow.

It was a long day already, and it wasn't even over yet.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Well they would live another day he supposed.

He didn't want them to think that this had anything to do with their connections to any other gang members but it wasn't like he could tell them that now that they were currently unconscious. Running a hand gingerly across the damage he had sustained to his armored chest, he winced slightly at the tenderness there. The burns were not life threatening but they were painful in the extreme and they would linger without treatment.

Max watched, without any intention of interfering, as Nashyr agonized over what she was going to do. In the end however, she made the decision he would have done in her position and they were going to be picked up alive. His answering smile was just as weak as hers had been.

"Make it rum and it's a deal." he joked without any real passion behind it before faltering slightly, "It won't be a very long conversation if you don't like the answers."

He settled in to wait for the pick up.

He'd had enough of this place and the bottle called to him.

@Killa Ree