Daniel Ciin (miaiphonos) wrote in thegalaxy, @ 2016-05-16 21:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | !locale: coruscant, liriael d'lander, sinjir fel |
I would tell her I'm sorry
Who: Liriael and Sinjir
What: A quick trip takes an unexpected turn.
When: early morning
Where: Coruscant
Rating: PG, I guess. Still Sinjir with the swearing.
The docking bay was not the one either of their ships had used last, but still Sinjir was decidedly on edge as they entered the too-open space of the hangar. He stuffed his hands firmly in his pockets, intent upon not reaching for the comforting weight of the blaster at his side. He would call no more attention to them than their current task demanded. He kept his eyes before him, angled at the floor, occasionally darting over to check on his companion. They passed seemingly unnoticed through the small, milling crowd, and disappeared into the depths of the level beyond.
The morgue was a bit of a walk from the hangar's rearmost exit. When a block had passed and they had seen no other pedestrians or passers-by, Sinjir finally spoke. “You should tell them you're her sister,” he said. “I don't think they usually release bodies to crewmates. Unless you've got a bribe ready to go.”
Liriael shook her head, but she appeared on the outside to be much more calm than he was. At the same time, the ripples of worry and uncertainty still troubled the Force around them. “She listed me as next of kin, so I should be able to get away with a little lie,” she answered, just as quietly. “As long as she didn’t change anything right before she died.” A bit compulsively, Liri swallowed back the anxiety, remembering to let it go as she had been instructed. It helped, but only temporarily. “The trouble is, once I give my name, and it goes into the system, anyone monitoring for my arrival here will be tipped off. I’d rather get off this planet sooner, rather than later.”
Sinjir nodded. “My pilot is ready to go the second we’re back. This isn’t the first quick getaway I’ve had to make with her.” He quirked a small, hesitant smile, and somewhat awkwardly patted her shoulder. His grasp of the Force was far less nuanced than hers, but he tried to soothe her as best he could through his skill and the shattered remnants of their connection. “It’s okay, Liri. You’re in good hands, and so is Cassie.”
The grim building rose up before them, a cold and blank facade. Sinjir held the door open for her. “You’ve got this.”
For all the reassurance, Liri hesitated. Cassie’s name still had power over her, enough that Sin’s statement hung suspended in her thoughts. But it was only for a moment, and she gave him a grateful nod as they walked in. The cool air surrounded them both, closing them off from the warmer eddies from the city outside. The silence seemed as absolute. All the same, Liri wrapped calm around her like a cloak, even though she stayed closer to Sin than she had been as of late.
The clerk at the nondescript front desk slanted them a polite look, not quite a smile, as they approached. It was the mein of someone who dealt with many upset customers; the blankness extended to her eyes. After she greeted them, and Liriael provided her name and Cassie’s full one in return, the woman’s expression changed slightly; Liriael sensed the sudden flow of apprehension and she unconsciously reached out and touched Sin’s arm. “There is an….irregularity,” the clerk said, carefully. “The mortuary attendant would like to speak with you.”
Sinjir’s brow furrowed. Predictably, he had little patience in the face of such bureaucratic opacity. Liriael’s distress was already evident, and this setback to their already tight timeline only served to heap on further trouble. He moved closer to the desk. “What does that mean?” he asked. “An irregularity. And where’s the attendant, then?”
The attendant’s mouth was already curving into a clearly long-used half-smile that conveyed both sympathy and patience. “He will be here in just a moment,” she answered, not addressing what the unusual circumstances were. For once, Liriael found herself grateful for Sin’s natural urge to impatience, and confrontation, and let that affect the clerk without stepping in. At the same time, as the clerk dissembled, she prepared herself to begin more pointed questions as well, but they were all interrupted by the arrival of a tall, gaunt Ithorian, who looked down on the three of them with a surprisingly melancholic expression.
“Please, come with me,” he intoned, his Basic very accented but understandable. He was already retreating through the door into the mortuary before Sin and Liriael could respond. Liri looked to Sin, frowning a question that she did not articulate, before turning to the door.
Sinjir's discomfort was plain. His fingers itched yet again for his blaster, and this time he allowed himself a momentary touch to its grip. He cast a quick look over one shoulder, a frown twitching over his lips. Then, with a resigned shrug, he followed the Ithorian through the windowless doors.
“Listen,” Sinjir said. “Is there a reason we can’t take care of this out front? My friend doesn’t deal well with all this...” He made a vague gesture with one hand, indicating the whole of the building. “Death. I’d really hoped you could just bring the body out and let us get going without a whole lot of fuss. For Liri’s sake.”
Liri schooled her features to look more distraught, even as her senses had sharpened and her outlook calmed as they went behind the doors. She did not relish being further in the building but that had nothing to do with Cassie’s death and everything to do with her concerns about a trap. The Knights might have suspected that she’d return in time for Cassie’s body; it would be a perfect opportunity to corner Liri and anyone with her. She was momentarily grateful that she had not brought Caine, as he was known to them and she didn’t want him in further danger.
But the Ithorian only led them into a nearby office, shutting the door ponderously behind them. “I understand your concerns,” he replied, his voice slowly forming the words. It sounded patently rehearsed, but Liri could sense that the caretaker did indeed hold sympathy for those who came through those doors. “But something very unusual has happened.” He did not clear his throat, as it wasn’t an action that Ithorians used, but it gave the impression in his pause. “Miss Hack’s body is missing.”
Liriael felt suddenly weak, her hand falling away from Sin’s arm as she reeled. It seemed her footing actually gave a little, because the Ithorian was waving her into a chair immediately. “How is that possible?” she asked, shocked to the core. “Did someone take her?” By all that was holy, had the Knights stolen her body for some reason? What could they possibly do now?
Sinjir moved close, guiding her into the offered chair. He stayed standing close behind her, his hands resting loosely on the chair’s low back, as though ready to grab his friend and bolt at the first sign of danger. His mind reeled with possible reasons for a corpse’s disappearance, none of which he felt inclined to share with Liriael. The Knights of Ren were only one of many potential perpetrators, of that he felt sure.
“We are still scouring our surveillance footage, of course,” the Ithorian was saying. “And we have alerted the police. But as of now we can find no evidence that our security was compromised. As I said, this is… very unusual.”
“No shit,” Sinjir snapped. “Let us see this footage. Maybe we’ll see something you can’t. Liri deserves at least that much.”
Taking a deep breath, Liriael felt around with her senses, letting the Ithorian and Sin battle it out as she tried to find any hint as to what occurred here. There was too much grief to wade through at first; there were many people beyond the walls in various states of dealing with strong emotions, and they threatened to overwhelm. But there was a thread, very faintly...
“There’s something you aren’t telling me,” she said, almost without thinking, sharpening her gaze again on the Ithorian. She glanced at the desk; a small name placard was there. “Mr. Both,” she added, for emphasis, assuming this was his office. “What else is there?”
Both hesitated, before he tilted his massive head a little, as if lending consideration to her words. “There is nothing on any of the footage we have examined, but then, we keep so little in the cold rooms as it is. There has never been a reason to monitor the dead to such a degree. I would let you examine yourself, but there simply is not much.” He paused again, in that ponderous way. “However, the same evening that we discovered the….disappearance, we had two assistants who were assaulted outside the mortuary, by a dark-haired humanoid female. We cannot say that it is related, as this was outside the scope of our security, but it did occur on the same evening. Both are tolerably well, minor injuries from a scuffle, no more.”
Liri’s gaze went to Sin. “We need to go,” she said, quietly.
Confusion showed plain on Sinjir’s face. He cut her a look that required no explanation. He had no shortage of questions and every one of them vied for the very tip of his tongue, but they were not to be asked here.
“I’m filing a complaint with the business bureau,” Sinjir said, already headed for the door. His hand slipped under the edge of his jacket to thumb open the clasp of his holster. “You can’t just lose a corpse. This lack of security and ability to follow through is unacceptable.” He threw open the door with perhaps more vigor than was required, and gestured out into the corridor beyond. “Liri?”
If an Ithorian could look perturbed, Both certainly conveyed that, but his eyes were sympathetic. “At this time, when you are grieving a loved one, I do understand your outrage, sir. I promise that we are doing all we can to solve this very upsetting dilemma.”
Sinjir snorted, and made a distinctly impolite gesture on his way out. Liriael’s distraction was so complete that she did not register Both’s words in her conscious mind. She was already moving towards the door, slipping through as Sin held it open, not looking back at the funeral attendant. Her thoughts raced; shuffling through each possibility and hoping that another explanation fit instead of the one that had sprung to the forefront of her mind. But she could not ignore what the Force urged her to see. The clerk at the front desk watched them with open curiosity as Liriael increased her pace across the lobby and out the front door.
By some miracle Sinjir waited until the door slammed shut behind them before hissing, “What the fuck, Liri?” His hand rested on the butt of his blaster. His steps did not slow, eager to put distance between them and that place of death. “Want to tell me what that was about?”
Despite his obvious frustration, Liriael didn’t flinch at the harsh words. “They didn’t lose Cassie’s body,” she replied, very low and strident as they kept walking, hurried. “But you aren’t going to like the real answer.” She grit her teeth, willing her emotions under control. Poor, poor Cassie… “She told me once that her greatest fear was that…..that she would return after death, just as her mother had.” Liri outlined, in short, broad strokes the story of Cassie’s mother, and how her friend had hunted others that had risen the same way. By the time she reached the end of the brutal tale, they were a few blocks from the mortuary, the shadows lengthening as the sun set. “I….I felt it when I reached out, back there. It’s faint, but it’s there. Anger, obsession….revenge. It’s her.”
They had stopped halfway between morgue and hangar, caught in limbo between flight and action. Even now, after hearing the apparent truth of the situation in which they found themselves, Sinjir did not know which option was the right one. Instinct told him to seek out Liriael’s risen comrade, but reason told him to flee now was best. They had no plan, no facts, and no way of knowing how to deal with such a threat as this. He raked a hand through his hair.
“Okay,” he said, “so… what, then? We still have to get her. Only now I have no clue how to do that. If she is what you say she is, we can safely assume we know where she is, and what she’s been doing since she left that icebox.”
“I don’t know,” Liriael admitted. For all that she had explained it to Sin, the reality was incomprehensible. Cassie was on Coruscant, probably murdering First Order agents, but she wasn’t alive. She was instead, in the worst kind of hell. For a moment, Liri felt despair and grief welling up in her, a wave overtaking everything in it’s path, and she closed her eyes to feel it. Feel it, know it, let it go. Her efforts were imperfect, but they served enough. “We do have to stop her,” she answered, her voice hoarse. “I think…..I have to kill her. There’s no other way.”
Sinjir wheeled to fully face his friend. “Whoa. Are you hearing yourself?” He took a step closer to her, ducking into the elongating shadows cast by the buildings above. The chill he felt cut far deeper than he wanted, and came from something far worse than the coming night. “Look. She’s alive, right? And by all appearances she’s killing First Order operatives, more effectively than anyone on our side since the Starkiller went down. So sure, let’s stop her. But you jump right to killing her?”
“Sin, she was dead. I’m not mistaken about that.” Liri shuddered, remembering when she’d found Cassie’s body, how she had searched the Force for any spark of life. “This was her greatest fear, coming back like this. It was the last thing she ever wanted-” Blinking, Liri stared at him, suddenly angry. “Effectively killing people? She’s not a soldier, Sin, and she shouldn’t be killing anyone, First Order or not. If she’s come back as this...slasher, then she doesn’t want it.”
“So we execute her? That’s your answer?” Sinjir scoffed. “Fucking hells, Liri. If I die and come back as a First Order slayer, you damn well better leave me to work in peace and die again covered in black and red blood.” He shook his head. “What if there’s a cure? Don’t you want to at least try to find out?”
“Sure.” Her answer was hollow, her voice thick; she couldn’t articulate what she was feeling in any way he would understand, and they were right back where they were in the past. “We won’t know anything until we track her down. Talking about it won’t help.”
“Exactly,” Sinjir said. “Now let’s get a plan together, huh? We should get back to the ship and regroup. If your name did raise any red flags, we’ll need to be ready to hit hyperspace in a hurry. So what’s our next step? Do you want to go round up some cavalry on Dermos and come back here?”
Liri only nodded, her jaw tight, clamped down on any emotion. She wouldn’t look at him; it was better not to focus on anything. Get back to the ship….that was a short term goal she could accomplish quickly. Cavalry….longer term. She wouldn’t bring Caine back into this, not when he had just found Jupiter. She didn’t know who she would ask to help on something as bizarre as this. “Ship first,” she managed, already turning away and heading that direction.
“All right. That’s a start.” He fell into step beside her, walking closer than he had any right. Worry nagged at him. As wrong and unsettling as Cassie’s undeath was, Liri’s shellshocked behavior bothered him more. “We’ll get away from here and get our heads straight, okay?”
The hangar came into view, and the sanctuary of their ship beyond. The pilot’s astromech had been waiting for them; Sinjir saw it wheeling back and forth on the lowered gangplank. It whirred its way into the ship’s interior, announcing their arrival. He reached out, gingerly touching Liriael’s arm. “It’s going to be okay, Liri. Trust me. And I’m sticking with you until we see this through.”
It wouldn’t be okay. She already knew it, knew somehow that this path led to a certain end. But she wouldn’t say any of that aloud, and certainly not to Sin. Not when they were still on such shaky ground; she would have to chalk it up to the Force and while he accepted the existence of such, only battles awaited any mention of the Jedi and her training. Instead, she nodded once more, not pulling away from his touch, taking in his words on the surface. Perhaps she was wrong. She was no Master….for that matter, she wasn’t even a Jedi. Not yet, maybe not ever. It seemed a certainty, the way the string of fate unspooled in front of her, but she could yet be wrong. What she had felt inside the mortuary, the sudden clarity, it could all have been her imagination.
“Let’s get back to Naboo.” She wanted to return to Dermos and ask for guidance, but it was a few days’ further travel, and she couldn’t let Cassie, or what was once Cassie, continue on Coruscant as she was. Someone else could still hurt her, if she was aware inside that body. The thought gave Liriael a gnawing pain, deep inside her stomach, and she forcibly turned away from it and from Sin, heading up the gangplank. They had to go. The sooner she saw this through to the end, the sooner Cassie would have peace.