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Home is where the Black is (Anansi and Sorrow.)

The woman paused at the doorway to the cargo bay, stopping to watch Xeno, that old amazement filling her. It was something of a wonder to see him working, taking what the Alliance had done and making it his own. She leaned on the wall, waiting for him to finish, it felt wrong to break his concentration.
 
He branched out. He was in a small circle in his mine, but he stretched it further..as it expanded slowly other objects rose small objects, a wrench here, a pipe there, soon the crates began to wobble before he opened his eyes. "Yes?" He asked as he tilted his head the objects setting down slowly rather than clattering to the floor as they did only a week before.
 
"Ye're getting better at that." she commented, walking forwards, reflecting that he always knew when she was near, so it was foolish to be quiet. Shrugging that off mentally, she leaned against a crate "Spoke to O'Conor. We need te retrieve a machine for him, half pay now and the rest later on. I've a odd feeling about it though, so I'd rather scout things out first." she commented, wondering if it was even worth asking him to stay behind.
 
"How bad could it be, he hires people to kill us..ooo spooky." He said as he shook his hands in mock fear while standing and toweling off his brow. Slowly stretching he leaned back till his head almost touched the floor his back in an arch then pulled himself back up again and made his way towards the door. "If anything we take in a few logs, check traffic in the area, see whos in and out." He added.
 
"Or a bunch av Alliance te haul us away." she replied sternly, not seeing this as amusing. She watched him stretch and shook her head, both envious and intrigued by the movement, walking ahead "Aye, had that in mind." she agreed, heading back to the cockpit.
 
"Once they see me throw a barrel without using my hands most will run away." He said with a nod before he walked into the hallway and slowly made way up to the cockpit. "In any case it might be helpful, I might learn one of my triggers so I don't go into a killing frenzy or something one day when I hear the wrong word."
 
Hawk listened and shook her head slightly, mouth tensing at the corners. She could feel the faint lines at the corners of her eyes tense a bit and she sighed "Ye're an optimist Xeno, even if that would be helpful." she mused, sliding into her seat and tapping the console to return to normal flight status.
 
"If I saw that happen and I couldn't do it myself hell yeah I'd run." He said with a nod as he walked. "I'd retire that very day..man throwing things at me leaving his hands free to shoot at me at the same time, thats a double whammy." He added while plopping back into a chair.
 
He was seeing things through a slanted light, maybe she was too. But being in the War and seeing strange things herself gave her the knowledge that if a person was panicked and held a weapon, they usually shot before taking off. It was a possibility at least and the frown rested on her face as she nodded shortly "It is, if used right, in the right places." she murmured, knowing she was being a bit paranoid, but it had kept her alive so far.
 
He sat back on his chair and sighed before opening his hand and sending her dancer figurine pirouetting through the air about her. "Life is a funny thing, if you don't live it, you might as well end it." He said slowly before he shrugged. "It doesn't matter where its used, its the affect it has. Most wars the best damage you can do is psychological, decades after the last shell is fired the fear it inspired is still at work." He added slowly.
 
Hawk blinked and raised a palm just under the figure, making it look as if the dancer was pirouetting in her hand. "Ye're right." she replied, tone quiet, recalling the years after the War filled with bad dreams, both sleeping and waking, the sense of smelling hot metal and burned flesh in the air when you stood in the middle of a crowded marketplace. "It still runs rampant in the Core, the Black and the outer planets, under the eyes av everyone it lingers." she muttered, tiredness weighing on her a moment "I feel it everyday." she added softly, looking out to the Black with eyes that saw ships exploding in silence, lives wiped out in a burst of fire and soundless screams.
 
He leaned back and sighed shaking his head. "I don't..feel it that is. I don't feel anything from those days. I was taught to rationalize it out." He said curtly before shrugging. "I mean look at how many people died and are we really that unified? No, not at all." He added as the danced plopped down into her hand. "It doesn't really matter who wins or loses in the end, there's still the casualties. But what does matter is whats learned in the end, when you don't learn the lesson things just get worst and worse in the future." He added with a sigh.
 
"Part av me says ye're lucky, the other just sees it as messed up as everything else down ye ye." she murmured, before a light kindled in her eyes and she put the figurine down with more force then needed "I know how damned worthless the War was, I was on the losing side. Everything we worked for those years all fell te dust!" she snapped, eyes ablaze "After it...soldiers were shells, eking out an existence in the Black, folk in the Core are under the Alliance thumb and people like ye were gorram toys." she added, voice hard. "We won't learn those lessons, humanity just keeps doing the same thing..over and over again." she added, lapsing into a brooding silence, expression mulish as they flew on.
 
"Ok, I was on the winning side..didn't feel like it." He said as he shrugged slowly. "War isn't about right or wrong, its about my ideals versus your ideals, in the end I may change my ideals or vice versa, doesn't mean what I did was wrong at the time." He said with another shrug before he stood and made his way back towards his bedroom calling out. "Its if you can live with yourself that matters, not the people you killed, not the people who tried to kill you, lifes for the living, you're alive, so live, else what you did in the past really was worthless.
 
She listened to him expression not changing, but her hands tightened on the controls and her mouth pressed into a tensed line. He was right, damn it, your actions in the past fleshed out who you were today, but those actions had to be let go. Otherwise, in time you would be stuck in the past, unable to see what mattered before your eyes. She could blame the war, the Alliance, all that had happened, but it came down to her in the end and her inability to let go of the bitterness she felt to the Alliance. So, Hawk did not answer and flew in silence as they neared their destination, brooding anger making her jaw tighten.
 
"You just don't seem to get it do you?" He said with a snicker before he stood. Gripping her hand forcefully he pressed a revolver into it and then lifted it to his temple. "You so hate what happened, then kill one more alliance dog." He whispered to her as he looked into her eyes. "I'm sure I killed at least one of your friends while doing my duty, why not live for the past, you kill me, you get the ship, my shares, you get everything, if all the alliance are what you thought they were all this time together has meant nothing to you..and you might as well just put a bullet in my skull."
 
About to reply, the woman froze, her free hand automatically putting the ship into auto-pilot. Her other hand rested on the gun and she felt a sick gorge rise in her throat, looking at his face. She recalled the distrust and unease she had felt around Xeno at first, and how that eventually had faded, a slow friendship growing between them. It was something that she cherished now, even with the dark urge to fight anything Alliance rested in the back of her mind. "I'll never trust the Alliance, never like them, and will never forget the war. But it's in the past, so is what we've both done. Ye're my crewmate, my friend, that itself won't change. Put the gorram gun away." she stated, voice rough.
 
"No..lets get this out now, I don't need you being foolish over something that happened years ago. I don't do this to get back at the alliance, I do it because I can. I do it because I chose to, we take from those who have more than enough and on occasion we give to those who don't have enough. Its a choice, its not determined by who's Alliance and who's not, Alliance soldiers have wife and kids who need to eat to." He said before he turned from her leaving the gun in her hand. "What makes your side any better? You killed just like they did, you killed boys who's mothers wanted to return home, girls who would have made their fathers proud had they been given the chance to live. Yet you love to sit on your high horse and talk about trust, and the war. Wars over, a side won, a side lost, and I'm not sure you've noticed but quite a number of Alliance people are decent folk, they're just trying to live."
 
Hawk stared at him, colour mounting in her face and a flash of dangerous fire in her eyes. "Ye really think that's how I feel Xeno?" she asked, voice hushed despite the anger that pulsed in her temples. "I do what I do te survive, and too keep out of the way of an organization that I want nothing to do with. Yes, I don't like the Alliance, but I know they are people that are trying to live their lives. I make my choices, those I killed tried to kill me." she stated, laying the gun down. "The Independents were no more flawed then the Alliance, we each fought for our own ideals, the War was a gorram waste. I'm still bitter about it, I will be for a good while. But I am not on a high horse, I don't think I'm a better person because I was on another side. Why did ye even think that?" she asked, shaking her head,
 
He sighed as he looked to her and shook his head. "You still don't get it." He said before he turned around. "More than once you shot first..I should know, I was there a few times. The first time I ever saw you was looking down the barrel of a sniper rifle. I had a huge crush on you..something about you made me feel." He said before he simply turned on his heel and walked away. "I could have killed you, but I didn't, nope nope." He said slowly as he continued to walk. He'd told her that and more when she had been laying dying but he didn't care to elaborate. "You seemed to think that, to dislike a group of people for their beliefs or affiliations rather than who they are...that takes a person on a high horse." He said as he continued before he slipped down into his cabin to get dressed.
 
(Alright, so Hawk was in the Black Squadrons, but she also did ground missions as well, which makes sense.))

Hawk frowned "I followed orders, and no, it's not an excuse. I did things in the War that I regret, it's in the past, I've learned from those mistakes." she stated, folding her arms. She watched him a vague sense of surprise in the back of her mind as she shrugged "Glad ye didnae then. And wasn't that what ye were implying? I don't like the Alliance or trust them, I'm still a Browncoat, that willnae change. But it doesn't mean that I'm going to raze any officer I see." she stated, and shook her head, disgusted at her own anger and inability to converse calmly when it came to the Alliance, turning back to the controls. A bit of time passed and she drew out a breath, the planet where the machine was coming into view, the coordinates flashing on her screen.
 
"Thats what everyone's reason is, I was just following orders. Long time ago they did an experiment about it, proved that most people just follow orders." He said as he came back up. He slowly pulled on his black coat over his deep black slightly baggy pants and boots. He needed the coat to disguise his odd heat signature without effort on his part. He could lower it but it would take a level of focus best suited to the mission. "Wars over, were all just folk now." He said as he sat down and leaned his head back looking up to the ceiling as he did so.
 
"Makes me wonder how advanced we really are." she mused, pushing aside the churning emotion for now, it was best left until later on. She nodded "That we are, the same goes for ye too, what the Alliance did..." she trailed off and shook her head "Ye're Xeno, that's all that matters." she added, the ship moving into the planet's atmosphere slowly and making it's descent. A few moments later she had landed on the planet, looking over the co-ordinates one last time before powering the ship down. Standing she headed to her room, slipping on her boots, her light brown coat and her weapons; two pistols, a rifle and a brace of knives, returning to Xeno and giving a nod "Ready?" she asked.
 
"I guess so." He said as he slipped a revolved into a holster behind him hung diagonally at his waist. He had a number of knives in the coat but he had no intent on using weapons. "So were supposed to enter through a warehouse, doors been left open, sneak past a few guards and then grab this thing before heading back. It sounds rather simple..unnervingly simple." He added as he shook his head walking towards the bay doors of the ship. "I also noticed not a single guard outside the buildings, this is likely a trap but maybe the bait is worth it."
 
Hawk nodded, walking beside him as well, tenseness appearing around her eyes. "I was thinking the same, everytime we go on a job I worry that it's a trap, that ye're being tracked." she murmured. "We'll scout the place, and see if we can get in and out swiftly, I want us te be in eyesight of each other, if possible." she added.
 
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