Star Wars: Eclipse (TheCorsair and Xana)

[TheCorsair]

Lazlo - Quentin - pulled the modified speeder into the warehouse right on time. "We're here, Mister Drezzix," he said over the intercom. The back of the limo was a separate compartment from the driver's seat.

"Good," the response came. "Kill the engine. We don't want anyone thinking we're in a hurry to get in and out."

Quentin powered the speeder down, letting it settle on its skids. Taking a deep breath to settle jangled nerves - he was always nervous at the start of an operation - he glanced upwards at where he knew Kaydia would be lurking, and nodded once. Then he opened the door. First to emerge was Oongol Furukt, long pistol in one hand, slitted eyes scanning the interior of the building. Mythosha Phun was next, moving with a feline grace as she seemed to focus on everything at once. "Now?" she purred, a question Quentin wasn't prepared for.

"Yes," Tuzza agreed, still sitting within the passenger compartment.

Quentin felt the surge of adrenaline in the Cathar's blood and felt her aggression suddenly directed at him. He had a fraction of a second for his nerves to scream we've been made! before Kaydia's blaster bolts hammered into Oongol in rapid succession, putting him down before he could raise his pistol. Mythosha's attention flicked to the dead Trandoshan for that same fraction of a second, and Quentin acted. Faster than the Cathar could believe possible a small vibro-knife dropped from his sleeve into his hand, and the humming weapon slammed into her throat and severed her spine before she realized fully what happened. She hit the ground, living just long enough to disbelieve his speed.

"Shit!" Quentin called out as he tore open the limo door. "He's on to us!" And then he slammed the door shut as he saw the disruptor in Tuzza's hand, spinning and dropping before he could fire. The action saved his life, but also saved the Vigo's as Kaydia's blaster bolts deflected from the armored body of the speeder. Hand pressed against the metal, he could feel the vibrations of Tuzza as he called urgently for backup.

Faster than it should have taken - assuming the jammer had worked - a second skimmer arrived. He had time enough to see Kaydia coming from one direction, and the doors open from the other, and then something clattered and bumped across the fusionformed floor of the warehouse. Reflexively he covered his eyes with his arm, just managing to block the worst of the glare as the flashbang detonated. Three of the reinforcements cursed loudly, staggering blind from the grenade, and Kaydia gunned one of them down with a triple-burst from her blaster.

"Take him alive!" Tuzza screamed. "Both of them! I want to make an example of them!" In response, the guards that could see drew shockstaves and nervesticks, moving to encircle the lone knifeman their boss wanted. Quentin watched them come, and tossed his vibroknife aside.

"Surrendering?" one of the guards laughed. "It won't..."

"Nope," Quentin answered, his words almost drowned out by the snap-hiss and hum of his igniting lightsaber. "Just evening the odds." He grinned. "But you boys can walk away now, if you want."

 

[Xanaphia]

They might have just been doing their jobs, and might not have aimed to kill her outright, but Kaydia had no intention of sparing any of these men. She had killed dozens on Tuzza’s word, what were a few more dead bodies to her name? So she stalked from the shadows as the men surrounded Quentin, snickering at the show of his lightsaber.

For a Zabrak with a shockstaff, it was his last act, as Kaydia hit him in the face with the heel of her palm, driving with enough force to push his nose into his brain. She tore the shock staff from his dying hands and stood with her back brushing against Quentin’s. She struck at the nervestick that darted out to strike her, knocking it out of his hands. A follow up roundhouse kick had him on the floor.

Tapping into the force, Kaydia connected with Quentin mentally, sensing his movements and adjusting her own to move complementary to his own. The two of them moved with a fluid grace, as if they had practiced together for years, instead of having met a little over a week ago. Between the two of them, they are were offense and defense, creating opening for the other’s strikes. Despite being the odds being against them, they laid waste to their remaining foes.

Tuzza moved behind the cover she had set up, pinning them down as he moved towards the skimmer parked outside. “We need to split up,” Kaydia suggested, moving along one side of the warehouse, as Quentin made for the other side. With his lightsaber acting as a beacon, he drew Tuzza’s fire, but he did fine, ducking and dodging behind cover to avoid blasts. She was within striking distance now; one last sprint would have him in her clutches. Quentin came from the other side, wielding his lightsaber. Tuzza got off a couple shots, and Quentin had nowhere to hide this time. If he were a Jedi, he could have deflected the bolts away from himself, but a normal human couldn’t move that fast. With a desperate cry Kaydia force pushed him, slamming him against the wall just in time to avoid the blasts to his chest.

Tuzza turned just in time to see Kaydia’s foot hook behind his ear. He drew a vibro-knife as he went down, stabbing wildly as Kaydia followed up her attack. She disarmed him, and, using his knife, wielded by his own assassin, she opened his throat, green blood spilling out in quick spurts. He lived just long enough to recognize her.

“Are you okay?” Kaydia called as she rushed over to Quentin.

 

[TheCorsair]

Kaydia joined him, seemingly out of nowhere, acquiring a shockstaff as she did. And then Quentin was too busy to think of anything but the fight. Two humans moved in at him in a wolfpack move, each serving as feint and attack simultaneously. He moved, feeling Kaydia as if they were extensions of the same being, and let her backstroke block the strike of the man to his left as he sidestepped the blow of a nervestick and slashed. The man screamed, hands falling to the floor, and then the scream silenced as he thrust upwards and impaled the man's skull on his blade. It offered no resistance as he tore the blade free and and stabbed behind him, catching a Rodian in the gut as Kaydia blocked high with her staff. The Rodian shrieked, and then she silenced him.

The Force, he realized in a distant corner of his mind. It could only be the Force. He'd read about something like this, a variation of Battle Meditation that allowed two Jedi to fight in flawless unison. But... was she a Jedi? But, whether she was or not, this connection had little in common with what he knew of the Battle Meditation. It was closer, more intimate. Something, he realized, that only two people with a deep emotional connection could manage. And what, he wondered, did that imply?

The thought distracted him, and he had to drag his attention back to the present as he felled the last of the guards that were his responsibility. “We need to split up,” Kaydia said, and he shook his head and tried to gauge where Tuzza might be. The answer came quickly, in the form of a volley of blaster bolts from the Vigo's pistol. Two went wild, and the third he deflected while managing to make it look like an accident. And then, as Tuzza fired again, something hit him. The impact sent him spinning, slamming into the wall of the warehouse hard enough to knock the wind from his lungs. He bounced away and fell, collapsing to the ground and gasping for breath.

The Force. It had been the Force. And he'd consider that more, once he satisfied his body's demands for oxygen.

"Are you okay?" Kaydia called, raising her voice over the echoing clatter of her running footsteps.

"Uuuh..." Quentin gasped. For an instant his heart was in his thrat as he saw the blood on her clothes, before he realized that it was green. "Haaaah...." he managed, drawing a deep breath. "Yuh... yeah." Time to play dumb for the moment, he decided. "What... what hit me?"

He looked around, taking in the two speeders and the scattered corpses. "And, more importantly, who the fuck set us up?"

 

[Xanaphia]

It took a moment, but she began to realize that killing Tuzza did nothing. No relief from the years of shame and pain he inflicted upon her. Killing him didn’t bring back Master Ki-Adi, or return her life to its original trajectory. It was…empty. Revenge couldn’t give her peace in this life, but there was something else. Someone else, she thought, as she rushed to Quentin’s side.

She let out a sigh of relief as Quentin began breathing normally again. She couldn’t remember the last time she used a force push without intending to hurt her target, and it was possible that in trying to save him, she injured him.

"What... what hit me?"

Kaydia opened her mouth but nothing came out. She still wasn’t sure if she should open up to him, if she was ready to share that part of her life with someone else. And yet, at the same time, she wanted someone to confide in, and Quentin felt like he could be that person. Even more now, after everything that happened, and after they fight together as one. She hadn’t even managed that level of connection with Master Ki-Ad, even after training with her for years.

“I’ll tell, you, but not right now. Let’s get out of here, get a hold of our situation.”

"And, more importantly, who the fuck set us up?"

The words stunned her. Objectively he was right; the timing of reinforcements was too perfect. Yet, the list of people who could have set them up was slim. Linora knew they were going to hit Tuzza, but that was because she had hired them. Hiring them to kill a man, only to betray them seemed a roundabout way to kill them. It didn’t make much sense. Besides…

I know what they did to you, Scarlet. I want to help you.

No, Linora wouldn’t betray her. Linora was her only ally, well, until Quentin came along.

“Let’s get out of here, back to my place,” Kaydia offered, helping him to his feet, unable to resist taking his hand in her own.

 

[TheCorsair]

Quentin took Kaydia's hand gratefully as she helped him up. "Are you sure that's a good idea? We were set up, after all. Someone could be watching your place right now." He gestured around the warehouse. "I mean, sure. Yhey probably didn't expect us to survive this. But still..."

He realized as he spoke that he was still holding her hand. Or was it that she was still holding his? Either way, it felt nice. The realization made him frown, just a little. Not because he disliked the realization, but because it was distracting him from the healthy sort of paranoia he felt they needed right now.

"We could head for my place, instead," he suggested. Well, my ship actually. I did rent a small place when I arrived, but that's likely to be watched. But... I don't think the Scrapper would be." He grinned. "I rarely visit it, so it shouldn't have attracted attention."

Still holding Kaydia's hand, he headed for the back of the warehouse and her skimmer. "Regardless of where we go, we should get out of here. Lie low for a day or two and work out who set us up and why. And then do something about it."

 

[Xanaphia]

The plan to head to his ship made sense, she had to admit. So she followed him to her skimmer, letting him drive as she sat next to him in the passenger seat. She took a few moments to go through the breathing exercises and meditations. She found she wasn’t as wound up with emotions as she often was after her jobs, just the foreboding sense of betray and fear of not knowing how could have set them up.
“Quentin I…I am the one who hit you, back in the warehouse. When you were running for Tuzza. I didn’t think you’d be able to dodge the blasts from the blaster pistol, so I pushed you.” A pause and a sigh, “Through the force.”

“I’m…I’m force sensitive,” She started, still trying to hide her background from him before sighing loudly. “No, it’s more than that. Before I came here, to Mustafar, I was a padawan in the Jedi Order.” Saying the words out loud was petrifying, and yet, relieving, finally unloading the burden she had carried for over a decade. She watched his face for reaction, before continuing.

“I probably shouldn’t have told you that, but you make me stupid sometimes. Stupid in a way no one else has, ever. Besides, if someone is gunning for us, I might have to rely on those skills I learned then, to keep us safe. And things like that require an explanation.” She was quiet for a while, before deciding just to let it all out now. She didn’t want secrets between them, now.

“When I was seventeen, near the end of my training, my master and I were investigating a drug smuggler who may have had ties to the Jedi Order. We were captured by the Black Sun, and…” She stopped for a moment as the memories came on like a torrent. “They experimented on us, injecting us with drugs until the physical addiction overwhelmed our senses. Well, my senses. I became hooked on Inertia and they used my chemical dependence and previous Jedi training to turn me into an assassin for the Cartel.

“Eventually I broke away and got clean, and since then I have been trying to get my revenge on those who did this to me. Including Tuzza, who oversaw my conditioning, and commanded my hits. But…killing him didn’t fix everything like I hoped it would. It didn’t fix anything, or make me feel better. And I don’t suspect that killing those who set us up -whoever they are- will help us out much anyways.

“So…You have a ship? Well, let’s just get off-world, and far away. I have some money saved up; it will get us by for a while, and then we can just pick up jobs to make up the difference. I don’t care where we go, as long I as go there with you.”

 

[TheCorsair]

"Yes," Quentin said, voice soft. "I have a ship. And I'd love to leave Mustafar with you. But.. well, it's complicated. I... I need to tell you a few things. Once we get there."

He remained silent for the rest of the trip, lost in his thoughts. When they arrived at the starport he led her through a warren of passages, avoiding the few concourses where passengers gathered to await transport. Finally, through windows that overlooked the exterior of the dome, a squat little ship could be seen. "The Scrapper," he declared.

It was a shabby, patchwork thing if I determinant origin. Roughly shaped like a flattened cone, with a bulbous cockpit at the tip and turrets on the dorsal and ventral sides, it looked rather more comical than impressive.

The interior, though, belied that impression. It was a gleaming white, clean and well-maintained. The living and crew areas were compact and well-organized. "Here," he said, gesturing to a small bench that circled a table just big enough for two people to eat at. Two friendly people, that was.

"I haven't told you everything about me either, Kaydia ". Quentin hesitated, then drew his lightsaber and laid it on the table. This, for instance, is the casing of an AdascaTech weapon. But I gutted it the day I bought it, and rebuilt it." He rolled the machined aluminum hilt on the table. "I'm a Jedi, Kaydia. Believe it or not. And I can't leave. Not yet. I'm... Here on business."

He sighed. "See, when I was nineteen, I went with my Master on my last mission before my trials. We were looking for a Jedi Master who'd gone missing in the Outer Rim. A Master, and her apprentice." He looked at her. "Master Ki-Adi, and her apprentice. I didn't quite recall her name, but she was a young woman - maybe a year or two younger than me - with the prettiest red hair I'd ever seen."

He sighed and looked away. "Every trail we followed went cold. We gutted the Black Sun, the Hutts, and the Krystinari organizations across three sectors and found no trace of them - Master or apprentice. We'd have kept going, only we couldn't track them any farther."

Forcing himself to turn back, he took her hands. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "We failed you. I failed you."

His voice choked, and it took a minute to find it again. "I want to leave with you. Right now. Go... anywhere, as long as it's with you. But I've got a mission to finish."

He looked deep into her green eyes, hoping to see understanding. "Because I'm after the most dangerous agent the Black Sun has, Kaydia. A fallen Jedi, named Linora Sunfell."

 

[Xanaphia]

Kaydia sat across from Quentin in his ship, stunned by his admissions. It was a lot of information to take in, and she wasn’t even sure where to start.

“You’re a Jedi?” She asked finally. It made sense, why her subconscious was trying to tell her that she knew him, from somewhere. She must have seen him, at the temple while they were both there. Still, as much as It might have made sense, there were things about his confession that didn’t.

“But, we…we had sex. Really passionate sex,” Kaydia reminded him, feeling warm as she remembered it. Incredible, mind-blowing sex that made her think there might be something more between them. “I remember learning that ‘There is no passion, only serenity. ‘ Have things changed that dramatically since I left the order?”

As she spoke the words, it hit her. There was no future between them. He couldn’t be with her, as long as he was a Jedi. Pain gripped he heart. Maybe he never had any intention of being with her. “Did you just use me to get to Linora? Was all of this just an elaborate ploy to stay undercover?”

“So what , you get Linora and then what? Go back to the Order as if there was nothing between us? I thought…I thought we had…I don’t know... something.” Her eyes were wet with tears that threaten to flood her face. “Was I just fool?”

 

[TheCorsair]

"No!" Quentin cried out, pulling her into an embrace. Then he chuckled ruefully. "I mean, I had looked for an angle to get close to Black Sun on Mustafar. And working as your back-up did let me do that. But..."

He kissed her forehead. "I wasn't using you. Hell, I didn't know you worked for Linora when I met you. And..." This time, he kissed her lips gently. "That night? After the hit? When we talked and laughed and danced and fucked? None of that was a lie. I wanted to be with you Kaydia, then and now. And tomorrow, and after that."

Chuckling, he pressed a finger to her lips as she started to speak. "And yes, I know the Code. It's artificial, Kaydia. A hedge, to keep young Jedi from straying too close to the Dark Side. Odan Ur penned it in the years before the Great Hyperspace War as a poetic description of being in harmony with the Force - it didn't become 'the Code' until after the Jedi reorganized in the wake of the Jedi Civil Wars."

He laughed. "And there I go, spouting trivia when it's not what I should be saying. Because what I should be saying is that, if I have to choose between you and the Code... I choose you."

 

[Xanaphia]

She knew she probably should have asked more questions. Should have tried to have a seriously conversation about the information he reveal to her. Should have been more concerned about what it all meant, in the long and short term. But, she couldn’t care. She couldn’t care about anything, not after those three last words.

I choose you.

They may as well have I love you for all she heard in them. Her arms went around his neck as she pulled him into her, her mouth capturing his in a kiss. A kiss that was not approved by the Jedi Council, but what she care? What did he care? He didn’t he didn’t care about that. He choose her. After nearly a decade of fearing that she killed the last person to give a damn about her, it felt good to know that she mattered to someone.

That knowledge filled her with a need, a need to feel him inside her. She was ripping off her own shirt as they kissed madly, the weight of their confessions and near death coming off with each article of clothing. She sought out the feel of his skin, soft finger roughly groping at his muscles.

“Fuck me,” She gasped as she came up for air and pulled off his shirt. Her hands worked at his belt as their mouths came back together. “I need you inside me,” She implored, resting her head against chest as she caught her breath.

 

[TheCorsair]

His senses were full of her as she moved against him, devouring his lips and tearing at her shirt as she did. The feel of her heat against him, her tongue in her mouth and his hands on her skin as he helped her get his own shirt off was intoxicating. And there was more to it, more than he might have imagined. He could feel the roll of his muscles through her hands. Feel the way his teeth grazed and nipped at her flesh through her throat. Feel the need and the desire building in her mind, echoing and encouraging and feeding his own. “Fuck me,” she gasped, her hands worked at his belt as their mouths came back together. “I need you inside me.”

He groaned, moaning at the surge of her arousal in his mind as her hand wrapped around his shaft. He leaned into her, his tongue fucking her mouth as she stroked and squeezed him. His hands roamed her back, tugging and tearing at the hooks of her bra before tossing it aside to push her back. His lips closed on her nipple, tugging and sucking, and he felt his own harden in sympathy as he experienced his lips on her breast through her mind. "Fuck..." he breathed, the air hot on her damp flesh.

With a sudden motion he rose, his hands slipping under her ass. He lifted her up, kissing her again with a desperate need as he let her drop on the edge of the small table. He tore at her belt and fumbled with her zipper, hungrily biting at her throat and shoulders. "I need you," he groaned, tugging her pants down. "I need you now..." The pants hung up on her boots. He swore, then gave up. More than enough room for what he needed, now.

Quentin's fingers hooked in her panties, tugging them to one side. "i wanted you slowly," he groaned, cock throbbing as he felt her clenching from his nails grazing her slit. "I wanted to make love to you for hours..." With a single thrust he buried himself to the hilt in her sex. "Later," he gasped, hips rocking as he began pounding himself into her. "Now... I just... need you..!" He pulled her mouth to his, letting her taste his desperate desire for her. He could feel himself stretching her around his cock through her nerves, taste him fucking her through her mind. "Do..." he moaned, angling his thrusts in response to her wordless cries, "do... you... you feel... it... too..?"

 

[Xanaphia]

It wasn’t the first time Kaydia had connected mentally with the person she was having sex with. As a matter of fact, she often used this technique with less skilled partners, to ensure she got some enjoyment out of the act. Still those times before paled in comparison to this one, as a subconscious longing to feel him manifested as an emphatic link. So, as her finger gripped his manhood, she gasped with sudden bliss, feeling the soft hands gripping the throbbing organ, pulsating in demand to plunge into moist supple flesh. The dual sensations, both feeling with her hands and feeling his ache in her mind, were confusing and amazing and she moved without thinking. Just feeling.

And she groaned as he pushed her back, missing her hand wrapped his length both physically, in and in his mind. But then he replaced it with his mouth suck and biting at her nipple and she began to realize that their joy was shared between them, perfectly. Now, pleasuring each other was an act of pleasing oneself, and there was almost an aggression between them, to discover how each act felt to the other, to experience the bliss the other felt.

The ecstasy was maddening, to the point she began to believe sanity was overrated. She found she would rather lose her mind to the lust that overcame them, just surrender to the nirvana of being filled by him, and feeling her body clench him in fluid friction.

"do... you... you feel... it... too..?"

“Yes…” She moaned and admitted, bouncing against his cock fucking him as he fucked her, and feeling him fuck her as she felt herself get fucked. “I… feel... it,” She gasped, head thrown back in joyful abandon, “I feel… you. Everything…I feel… everything” She wrapped her arms around him, sighing against how soft her breasts felt pressed into his chest. Kissing him, wanting to complete the entirety of their connection, tongues slipping and filling each other’s mouths, his cock parting her walls, her slit gripping his girth their bodies against each other, soft and hard and sweaty and perfect.

“Cum…cum in me,” She implored him, forehead resting against his, “I want to…feel it… as you do,” the words with laced with indulgent cries and breathy rasps. “I’m so… so close….”

 

[TheCorsair]

"Perfect..." he gasped as she wrapped her arms around him. "You feel... perfect... on me..." Her tongue filled his mouth, and he subtly altered his thrusts as he felt her need for a different angle. "Perfect... around... me. Perfect... in... me..." He could feel both their orgasms building, his own as a rising tension in his cock and balls and hers as a growing pressure that began in the pit of his stomach and radiated outwards. He could feel his cock straining against the silken walls of her slit and taste the salt sweat of her skin and the musk of their mutual lust in the air.

“Cum…cum in me,” She implored him, forehead resting against his, “I want to…feel it… as you do,” the words with laced with indulgent cries and breathy rasps. “I’m so… so close….”

"Close..." he echoed, the word a low moan. "I want... want you... to... to feel... me..." His fingers dug into the meat of her ass as he plowed into her, desperate to bring them both to release. "Feel my... my... cum... filling you..." It was getting harder and harder to speak, harder to think of anything but her body gripping him and the feel of his meat filling her, and her hands and her lips needy on his skin. "Kaydia!" he gasped. "Fuck! Kaydia! I'm... I'm close! Kaydia! I'm... I'm..."

"KAYDIA!" His orgasm exploded like a brick against the back of his head, and he roared out his name as the first pulse of his pleasure pumped into her waiting womb. His mouth found hers, drinking in her own moans and cries and letting her take his from his lips, and then he screamed in release again as her orgasm amplified his own, causing the whole world to dissolve into ecstasy and flesh.

 

[Xanaphia]

It was hard to tell if his orgasm caused hers, or if hers caused his. Perhaps it happened simultaneously, and escalated from there, with each pulse of his semen and every tightening of her core. The eruption into her hungry womb, the milking of his cock, it seemed to last forever. All Kaydia could do was hold Quentin tight against her, feeling the sweet sting of her nails biting into his skin.

Even once it had subsided, she rested against him for several minutes, craving his heat and skin against her, craving her own body against his. She didn’t want to disentangle arms or legs or fingers or mouths, she just wanted closeness, that feeling of completion and connection.

“That was… mind-blowing. It’s never been so…intense for me before.,” She tried explaining, rubbing her cheek against his. “Perfect.” She repeated what he had said earlier, while he filled her with bliss. “It was perfect.” There was something more, something deeper, something she wanted to give words to. But, were they her feelings, or his? She couldn’t be sure in the moment what she was feeling, or if she was even feeling it, so she let it rest in her chest.

Once the fog of need and desire passed through them, Kaydia was able to think a little more clearly. A moment of clarity after the adrenaline of fighting for their lives, confessing their secrets, and fucking madly. With all the tension of everything they had gone through today slipping away, it was easier to think, and plan their next move. Still, the only thing Kaydia wanted was to get away from Mustafar. There was nothing here for her but anguish and rage, a life she was more than eager to leave far behind her. Then she remembered his words, from just a short while ago.

I'm after the most dangerous agent the Black Sun has, Kaydia. A fallen Jedi, named Linora Sunfell.

Tension she was sure had already melt away from their passion came back, twisting and turning in her gut. Conflicted over her loyalties to the person who had given her purpose, and the person who had given her life meaning. Quentin said he chose her over the Jedi Code, without hesitation, and she felt guilty that she couldn’t do the same for him, now. She couldn’t betray Linora for him, as much as she wanted him, wanted to be with him.

“What do we do now?” She asked, looking into his eyes once more, hoping she was able to conceal the struggle raging within her.

 

[TheCorsair]

Quentin's whole body trembled in the aftermath of their shared orgasm, muscles twitching as he clung to Kaydia and gasped for breath. She clung to him as he braced himself on the tabletop, both of them gasping for breath. For a seeming eternity he remained like that, absorbing her warmth and the sensations of her body against and around him, feeling the deep-seated emotions she refused to name and that echoed his own. He sighed gently, one hand caressing her hip and back in an effort to maintain the feeling of mutual togetherness.

“That was… mind-blowing," she whispered in his ear, her cheek sliding against his. "It’s never been so…intense for me before.”

He nodded mute agreement.

“Perfect.” She repeated what he had said earlier, while he filled her with bliss. “It was perfect.”

"Perfect," he repeated as well, then kissed her gently. "You're perfect." It wasn't quite what he wanted to say, but he wasn't sure if he could say it. Not yet. But he regretted it immediately, as he felt tension and anxiety twist in her gut.

“What do we do now?” She asked

Quentin forced a smile. "Your thoughts betray you," he said, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "And... I don't know. For the first time since... well, since she betrayed me, I don't know." He left who she was unsaid, but the meaning was clear. "I mean, I know what I want to do. And I know what I should do. What duty demands of me." He pulled her close, nestling her against his chest. "And... I don't want to ask you to make the decision you're faced with."

He fell silent, his own thought roiling with the conflict between duty and desire. "I'm a Jedi," he repeated, as if reminding himself. "And I know her better than any of the other Shadows. But..." Damn it, man! he swore at himself. Just say it! He opened his mouth, swallowed hard, and tried again. "We could... leave. For a while. Figure things out. Decide what we're going to do. Because... because..."

Quentin leaned in, his lips meeting hers gently. "I love you, Kaydia." And he held his breath, heart pounding in his chest, as he waited for her response.

 

[Xanaphia]

"Your thoughts betray you."

Kaydia felt the embarrassment wash over her. While there were some obvious benefits to being with a fellow force user, benefits she was still reeling from, there were downsides too. Like the loss of privacy over her own thoughts. Suddenly she was a self-conscious teenager again, always monitoring her own mind for fear of Master’s Ki-Adi’s quiet judgment. Quentin might have said it playfully, but it was still a reminder of the ways she had failed to live up to being a Jedi.

"And... I don't know. For the first time since... well, since she betrayed me, I don't know."

“So Linora was the pretty brunette who broke your heart?” Kaydia pieced together. She watched as he also struggled with his duty versus what he wanted. Duty, loyalties, they just got in the way. Even more now, she just wanted to leave it all behind.

“I don't want to ask you to make the decision you're faced with."

“Yeah, It’s bad form to ask your new girlfriend to help you kill your old girlfriend.” Kaydia teased, trying to lighten the mood. “Or I guess capture in this case? Do you really have to do this?”

"I'm a Jedi. And I know her better than any of the other Shadows. But... We could... leave. For a while. Figure things out. Decide what we're going to do. Because... because..."

It was a compromise. A decent one too, and it was all Kaydia needed. Once they got away, and Quentin realized how good things were, when it was just him and her, he wouldn’t want to come back. She kissed him before he could finish his thought, lingering for a bit before he pulled away.

"I love you, Kaydia."

She felt her heart surge at the words, the words they were both feeling and unable to speak, until this moment. A euphoria, that she had once only with the sweet release of inertia, flooded her veins, overjoyed to have found a far better source. She could sense the anxiety rising in him, as he waited for her response, and she couldn’t help but laugh fondly. “I know.” A deep kiss fuel by exhilaration, before continuing, “I feel it, and I know you feel it too. I love you too, Quentin.”

“Now, do you have a shower on board? Or some kind of fresher? Not that I mind smelling of you, but I am still covered in blood, and would rather not be.”

 

[TheCorsair]

Quentin's heart surged at her response, leaving him feeling giddy and euphoric. He'd known - well, strongly suspected - from her thoughts, but to actually hear the words..? It was better than he would have believed. He hugged her then, laughing and grinning.

Even the prosaic reality she brought up didn't dampen his mood.

"I do, actually." He gestured at a door behind him. "It's a dual-function model, even. Regular shower when I'm hooked up to an external supply and flip a switch, and fresher when I'n not." A light chuckle. "It's a bit of a splurge, but worth it."

He stumbled a little as he moved away, only now remembering that his pants were still around his ankles. After a moment of waffling he kicked his boots across the room and stepped out of the trousers. Clad only in his socks, he pulled open a small closet.

"Here," he said, tossing her a towel, "and I can toss your clothes in the cleaner. Should get the blood stains out." He hesitated, lost in the sight of her lovely, mostly nude firm in his table. "Do you need anything, before we lift?"

 

[Xanaphia]

“Do I need anything? No, not at all. Now, do I want anything…? Well, there is quite a bit I want,” She remarked, taking in the sight of his exquisite body and sighing longingly, “but all that can wait. We, umm, have plenty of time, right?” She pulled her leg up against her body, so she could reach the straps of her boots to remove them. Her pants came off easily enough now, and she took a moment to pick up her discarded clothing, piling them neatly after having shed them so wildly before they fucked.

She didn’t waste any time getting in the fresher, letting the ultrasonics cleanse her. The shower on board was too small for the two of them to share, which was unfortunate, but they could share a shower on the next planet they arrived on. Take a little vacation, check into a nice hotel suite for a weekend. After a weekend of fucking in every position imaginable, Linora would be far from Quentin’s head.

God, getting away from Mustafar already felt so good. Like freedom. She dressed in her now cleaned clothes and joined Quentin in the cockpit, greeting him with a kiss on the cheek. “Given any thought to where we are heading?”

 

[TheCorsair]

After indulging in a moment's temptation to follow her into the fresher, Quentin scooped up her clothes and tossed them in the autovalet along with his own. The idea was nice, incredibly so, but the compact unit was a tight fit for him by himself. The two of them together would rapidly go from sexy to stuck. So he settled for pulling on new clothes - black slacks and a white button-down shirt, with his normal gunbelt - then headed for the cockpit. It was a cramped affair, far more reminiscent of a fighter cockpit than anything else, but he liked it that way. It made handling the smallish freighter easier.

"Scrapper to Mustafar Control," he announced, flicking on the ships com. "Requesting launch clearance and a flight window. We'll be leaving planetary orbit."

"Roger that, Scrapper," a crisp droid voice replied. "You will be cleared for launch along vector 22j17, in ten minutes."

"Copy," Quentin answered, flicking more controls. The ship began to vibrate, just a little, as he brought the reactors fully online and began to warm the engines. Lost in his work, he almost didn't notice Kaydia joining him - not until she kissed him on the cheek and asked where they were going.

"Not really, no," he confessed. "Away from Mustafar for the moment." He shot her a grin and leaned over to kiss her back, before turning his attention back to the controls. "Someplace out of the way and relaxing, for a few days at least. So we can get a chance to decide what we're going to do next. Manaan, maybe. It's certainly out of the way." A chuckle. "Or are you in the mood for something a little more civilized? We could head into the Colonies and the Tapani Sector."

The vibrations of the engine stopped as he cut in the gravatics and retracted the landing claws. Slowly the Scrapper began to lift from its docking cradle, following the launch vector he'd been given. "Hell, I don't care. What sounds good to you?"

---

Linora moaned a little, two gunmetal fingers stroking deep into her core as she watched the blue-tinged hologram before her. It showed Quinn Hall, naked on a couch as Scarlet knelt before him and swallowed his cock. "Close..." the image of the mercenary groaned, "Such a goid mouth, Kaydia. Ah! So... close..."

She stared at the holographic assassin's face, lost in passion as she fucked the mercenary's cock with her mouth, and her metallic fingers worked faster within her drenched folds. Another moan escaped her lips as she felt a burning pressure building within her and imagined it was Kaydia's tongue instead of her fingers. "So... will I have... to punish... you?" Quinn gasped out. Quentin gasped out.

She'd recognized him in the skimmer, of course. He'd changed some, since their last encounter. The one that had cost her a hand and nearly her life. But not so much that she didn't recognize her first lover. She'd even considered killing him then, but hesitated. He was fast, and skilled, and she wasn't sure she could have taken him even with surprise.

But, right now? She'd be willing to take him. Take both of them. Memories of stolen trysts in the Temple mingled with the surveillance footage she was watching, making her imagine Quentin driving into her from behind while Kaydia's cunning tongue... oh, yes... her tongue... "Aah!"

She bit her lip, arching her hips into her hand as Quentin's back arched and he drove his meat into Kayida's throat. "KAYDIA!" They both screamed the name, her voice breaking on her orgasm as the holographic Jedi sprayed his cum deep into the assassin's throat. Finally, exhausted, Linora slumped back in her chair.

"Quentin Hall," she whispered, reaching out to run her glistening metal fingers through the hologram. "And Kaydia. My, but this is getting better and better..."

 

[Xanaphia]

“Manaan?” Kaydia repeated, trying to remember. It had been years since she left Mustafar, when she traveled the galaxy with her master. “The ocean planet? I had hoped for somewhere with a beach.”

”In the mood for something a little more civilized? We could head into the Colonies and the Tapani Sector."

“Sounds good to me. As long as we are together,” She admitted, settling down in the cockpit as Quentin took off. She spent some time alone with her thoughts as Quentin piloted the ship towards their destination. Now, her thoughts returned to what he said right after the job went sour.

Who the fuck set us up?

Who did set them up? Three people knew about the job, and two people almost died completing it. Logic dictated that the third was involved, but the thought soured her. Did Linora really betray her? Quentin said she betrayed him, when he thought they were in love, so why should Kaydia be any different? If Linora had betrayed her, it was another reason to leave Mustafar far behind them.

That line of thinking made her dejected, and she reminded herself she had quite a bit to be happy about. Especially the man who sat off to the side of her, piloting the ship. Figures it would a Jedi to help her break the last rule of the Jedi code. She was pretty sure that was ironic.

“So tell me more about the Jedi thing. I don’t think I was ever cut out to be one. I always had a hard time with that ‘No emotions, only peace’ thing." Kaydia remarked, amused that they had this huge thing in common, and curious if his experiences as a Jedi were similar to hers.

“It’s almost funny, really. The order might have sent you after me, if not for the fact they think I am dead. That really would have put a damper on our budding relationship,” Kaydia teased, reaching to run her fingers down his shoulder. She couldn’t help the way thoughts turned back towards sex, in particular, the phenomenal sex they just had, when he was inside her mind and body at the same time. And even before that, when they fought as one in the warehouse. They were attuned to one another in a way that was exhilarating, and terrifying. In a way that reminded her, suddenly, of the ways she hadn’t completely honest.

“Got any food on bored? Between fighting for my life and having my brains fucked out, I am famished.”

 

[TheCorsair]

Quentin had made several launches after jibs gone bad, but none like this. They were generally far more frantic, piloting with one hand and working the guns with the other. Not simply gently lifting under gravatics along an approved vector. It almost felt wrong.

"The 'Jedi thing'?" he echoed, amused at the description. "Hard to say, since I havent been the typical Jedi for... hmmm... a decade, now." He chuckled. "See, I'm dead. If you check my records in the Archive, you learn that I was killed by Lorin Shaal, former Jedi Master, when I uncovered his role in a drug running and blackmail scheme."

He adjusted course slightly as the Scrapper plowed through Musrafar's exosphere. "And now I'm a Shadow, lurking on the edges of the Order and constanrly watching for threats from the darkness. Whether within or without the Order." Another chuckle. "Siunds romantic, doesn't it? In practice, it means I get to clean up messes the Council would prefer never get made public." He flashed her a grin. "So I can tell you a lot about the Force, and the light and the darkness, and about the ]soul of a Jedi. But the lifestyle?" He shook his head.

Her comment that he might have been sent after her made him frown, although it was clear it came from his descriptions if his life. The idea of hunting her, in any but a playful way, was unpleasant. "It might have," he agreed, choosing to concentrate on the feel of her fingers on his chest, and the teasing flavor of her emotions. "But... well, I'm a free agent. If I'm sent after someone, I'm expected to determine if they're a threat and then neutralize that threat." He grinned. "But how is utterly at my discretion. I've managed to set four fallen Force sensitives on a path of redemption, and there are two renegade Jedi on Dantooine that I decided to utterly ignore - because starting a farm and raising a family hardly constitute a threat."

His expression hardened a little. "Hell, I'd even bring Linora back to the Jedi path if she'd come. And she's tried to kill me three times."

Suddenly laughing, he caught her fingers and pulled her into a kiss. His fingers combed through her red hair as his tongue parted her lips, and he lost himself in tasting and exploring her. "So thecway I see it," he grinned, "you can hardly be a threat if I keep you exhausted from mind-blowing sex, right?"

Still chuckling, he checked the console. They were nearly half a million kilometers from Mustafar, and the navicomp was signaling ready. He keyed in a last few commands, and engaged the hyperdrive. Stars seemed to leap towards them and then vanish, replaced by the chaotic, swirling tunnel of hyperspace. "And of course I have food on board," he declared, answering her final question. "Mostly prepack, I'm afraid, since it stores better. But I've got a small supply of fresh foods as well, in case I feel like cooking." He rose and took her hand. "Come on. I'll show you."

 

[Xanaphia]

‘Oh, you’re dead too? Yet another thing we have in common!” Kaydia teased as he explained about his life as a Jedi Shadow. “It’s almost funny, really. The order might have sent you after me, if not for the fact they think I am dead. That really would have put a damper on our budding relationship,”

"It might have," he agreed, "But... well, I'm a free agent. If I'm sent after someone, I'm expected to determine if they're a threat and then neutralize that threat. But how is utterly at my discretion. "

“Oh, and how would you neutralize a threat like me?” she asked as he pulled her into his lap, indulging in playful kisses.

“So the way I see it," he grinned, "you can hardly be a threat if I keep you exhausted from mind-blowing sex, right?"

“So, what you’re saying is that the path of my salvation starts at the tip of your dick? Oh Quentin, save my soul. Save it all night long!” She teased, giggling as he reached around her to set the hyperdrive controls. Joking and flirting and kissing like this was enough to push down the darkness that creeped at the edge of her mind, but it wasn’t enough to push down the hunger that growled in her gut.

“Got any food on board? Between fighting for my life and having my brains fucked out, I am famished.”

“Mostly prepack, I'm afraid, since it stores better. But I've got a small supply of fresh foods as well, in case I feel like cooking." He rose and took her hand. "Come on. I'll show you."

She followed him into the kitchen, fingers intertwined, even as it became awkward to navigate the narrow corridors. The thought of relinquishing one another’s hands was unthinkable, and Kaydia felt it in herself as much as she felt it form him. And now they were back in the kitchen, just feet away from the table they had just fucked on less than an hour ago. Their eyes met again, as they both came to the same realization. But hunger really was the pressing concern now. They had all the time in the world to bang, now.

---

After a meal where they could hardly keep hands off each other the ship was coming out of lightspeed. They would arrive in the colonies shortly. Just enough time to get in another quickie, maybe. Once more Kaydia sat on Quentin’s lap as the couple kissed and hands roamed each other’s bodies. She was under his shirt as a sudden jolt to the ship and a general sense of foreboding interrupted their foreplay.

“What was that?”

 

[TheCorsair]

Quentin felt the subtle shudder in the ship's engines as it dropped out of hyperspace. Spooning up the last of his stew - reconstituted gundark broth, with flavored protein cubes and reconstututed vegetables - he shoved the bowl aside. "I should head up to the cockpit," he remarked, eyes lingering on Kaydia. "We need to check..."

Kaydia's eyes net his, and she gave him a thoughtful, inviting smile. Then, wordless, she climbed into his lap and kissed him. As her tongue slipoed between his lios her hands explored his chest, playfully working at the buttons of his shirt. He responded by tugging at the hem of her blouse, pulling it up so his fingertips could explore the smooth skin of her back. "Well," he grinned, "maybe it can wait..."

Things progressed at a deliberate pace, each wanting to linger over the other as they kissed and touched and explored. Soon his shirt was open to the waist and hers was half off as he nipped at her throat and worked at the clasp of her bra with eager haste. Concentrating on her throaty sounds of encouragment, he almost didn't notice the jolt.

Almost.

"What was that?" Kaydia asked, pushing away and looking around.

"I... don't know," he responded, looking around as well. "Maybe the thrust regulators? Or the inertial compensators? I..."

The ship lurched again, followed by a metallic clang as something struck the hull. Moments later, scraping could be heard. "Shit!" Quentin declared, looking around frantically as he moved Kaydia from his lap. "Something grabbed us!"

As he rose, the sounds of cutters working at the lock could be heard. "I don't remember - did we bring your gun? If not, there's an arms locker over there." He pointedcat a wide door near the fresher. "We're going to be boarded."

 

[Xanaphia]

Kaydia bent over to scoop up her discard shirt as Quentin pointed out the arms’ locker. Her bra could wait, too much work to put on while they were under attack. Slipping her tank top back on as she made her way to the weapons, taking a moment to pick the best weapon for the situation. She decided on a bo staff and a small blaster, strapping it to her waist.

Dizziness washed over her as she made her way to the spot where boarding harpoon had connected with the hull. She recognized this, from the first time she was captured, with Master Ki-Adi. “We need…gas masks…” Kaydia gasped out, remembering how easily she and her master went down to their opponents last time. She focused her force powers to cleanse the coma gas from her lungs, but it was difficult to keep up the process, as each breath threatened to knock her out.

The cutters tore a hole in the ship, and poured in through the opening. A green skinned twi’lek lead the raid, followed by a handful of humans and near humans, each wearing a mask over his mouth and nose. Kaydia hit one of the raiders in the shoulder, but found it increasing difficult to focus on detoxifying the poison form her lungs while also aiming and firing the blaster. She took one more deep breath, holding it so she could keep her attention on their attackers.

Her next shot killed her target, but not before several more could close the distance, wielding stun sticks. She dropped her pistol and brought out her staff, just blocking the first strike, before the second hit her in the side. She gasped, letting out the air she was holding in, and forcing her to take a second breath of the poisoned air. She struck a weak blow to one attacker, who retaliated with a blow of his own, from his stun stick. She couldn’t keep this up, holding her breath, fighting off multiple intruders and cleansing the poison from her system. Another blow knocked her into the wall, head swimming form the impact. One more prolonged prod from the stun stick was all she needed to pass out.

---

When she awoke, her hands were bound before her, and connected to a chain in the ceiling. She was given enough slack that she could move about the cell, a 3 meter by 3 meter square. Across the hallway from her, she could see Quentin similarly restrained, still passed out.

For the second time in her life, Kaydia was a prisoner to slavers. When it happened last time, She and Master Ki Adi were sold to the Black sun for experimentation, who had a bounty in place for Jedi specifically. In her padawan robes, and wielding a light saber, Kaydia was determined to be a prime candidate for the bounty. She wondered who the slavers intended to sell the two of them to, this time around. Atleast this time her force abilities weren’t out in the open. This time she might find an opening to escape, and even rescue Quentin.

 

[TheCorsair]

"Gas masks?" Quentin repeated, momentarily confused. Then the first wave of dizziness hit him, and he sagged against the bulkhead for support. Calling on the Force, he set his lungs to the difficult task of absorbing only oxygen into his bloodstream and his kidneys and liver to filtering the toxins he'd already absorbed. As Kaydia made her way past, heading for the lock, he exhaled a greenish white plume of waste gasses and coma gas. Then, refusing to inhale, he turned to one of the emergency panels.

What came next was painful. Even with his blood richly oxygenated, his empty lungs ached to draw breath. Worse, he could still feel the gas working on him, slowing his actions and fuddling his thoughts. Clearly, it had both contact and inhalation vectors. As he heard the first shots exchanged and heard the first cries of pain and anger, he got the panel open and settled a breather on his face. Fresh oxygen flooded his lungs, letting him temporarily shake the effects of the gas.

He heard Kaydia cry out, felt the stun sticks impacting her as consciousness fled. His heart lept into his throat, and he mentaly repeated the Litany as he ignited his lightsaber, struggling for calm. It wasn't easy. Even unconscious her dread and terror burned in his mind, and he shook with adrenaline and rage as the first of the pirates entered the Scrapper's "lounge"

That pirate died as he called on the Force to slam him into the bulkhead with a bone-shattering impact. "Shit!" shouted a mask-distorted voice. "Jedi!"

Another wave of dizziness hit Quentin - the gas, seeping in through his pores. If he didn'tend this quickly, or at least get out of the gas, he'd go down. So he charged the hallway, deflecting stun charges with his lightsaber. The closest pirate tried desperatly to parry with a stunstuck, and the luminous silver blade sheared through weapon and torso without slowing. As the corpse fell he struck out with the Force, hurling three more pirates backwards.

A stun bolt struck his shoulder, causing his lightsaber to drop from nerveless fingers. As he called it back to his left hand, two more bolts struck his chest. One sent numbness across his torso and the other fused his breather. An involuntary deep breath, caused by the stinging pain of the stunner, filled his lungs with the gas. He went down, numb arm failing him as he tried to catch himself on hands and knees.

He barely felt the torrent of stun beams that struck him.

---

The chains drew taught, jerking Kaydia's arms into the air. The door swung open, and a man entered. He was tall, with long blonde hair pulled into a tail, and a sharp chin and hawk nose and piercing blue eyes. He wore a grey military greatcoat with the insignia stripped off, and a loose silk shirt tucked into black slacks. A vibrosword with an ornate guard hung on one hip, and a long-barreled blaster on the other, and Quentin's lightsaber was tucked into his belt. He smiked, cruelly, and sketched a mocking bow.

"Welcome aboard, m'lady," he laughed. "And I must thank you - your friend is quite a prize. Quentin Hall, rogue Jedi. The Jedi Council offered a hundred thousand dactaries for information leading to his capture. A tidy profit."

His eyes played over her figure. "You're not bad either - I might get as much as three hundred from Black Sun for you." He stepped forward, fingers hooking in the collar of her tank top. Muscles bulged as he jerked, and the fabric tore away. His hand was rough as he fondled her bared breasts. "Maybe more, once me and my crew finish training you."