Corellian Sector

Kent runs over to the hulking droid. She tries to help her get on her feet, for a second before realizing that wasn't going to work. Ok you big hulk! Get up and get it into gear. We are out of time. GET UP! Kent yells with all she has.

Security begins to spill out of the wrecked casino, they begin to set up a large black box and tri-pod Oh Sith Spit! EVERYBODY OUT NOW!!!!!
The terror gripping her kicking in her Force powers right before the E-web comes to life. She reaches a hand out to the collapsed and rebooting droid and with a bust of energy hurls Leigh into the bar. A split second Kent is behind her as the big automated weapon tears into the place she had just been.
Security had been given orders to end this, and their bosses didn't rightly care who was in the right and who was in the wrong. The E web tears through the scene indiscriminately. Diving Kent makes it to the relative safety of the bar as the searing bolts hit right behind. Close enough to melt her shoes. Well frack!

Before Leigh could even react, the kid she’d clapped on the shoulder picked her up through the Force and threw her into the bar. Leigh flew past Na’an in a blur as she dropped into the alley, letting out an electronic squawk as she slammed into a table and crushing it under her weight.
For a brief second she was dumbfounded, reminded of how little she really grasped the whole concept of the Force--how strong was this little girl, to lift something of her weight so fast?

Then that emotion was eclipsed by annoyance. “Throwing your allies headfirst without knowledge or consent,” she said as she stood, dusting her chassis off and grabbing for Kent’s shoulder. “Are you certain you’re a genius?”

Before Kent could respond, a thundercrack sounded inside the bar. A bolt of purple electricity screamed over the human’s head, to explode into a wooden beam.

“GET DOWN!” Leigh yelled, grabbing the small human’s head and pushing it down and behind her. Electricity would only fry her systems temporarily, which Na’an could with help repair, but bolts of that size would kill an organic being. As her external sensors lit up, detecting more electric charge in the atmosphere, she scanned the bar, looking for its source.

What she saw would have, had she had a heart, stopped it.

Eliana Shan was on the floor, a puddle of blood pooling under where her face rested. Her 'mother’s' face was pierced at least three times by shards of orange glass, with one protruding dangerously close to her left orbital. Above her, Caoimhin Shan stood wide-stanced, shooting bolts of lightning to fry anything that moved, organic or otherwise. The brawlers were wild, dodging the bolts and only fighting each other harder, but the other drinkers were scattering, screaming about wives and children and various other reasons they didn’t want to die.

“Get behind me!” Leigh bellowed to them, flipping a table to one side to make more cover.
The ones that could make it scuttled over to the makeshift shelter, which the droid braced with her body to keep still. If they couldn't be seen, maybe they wouldn't be targeted, and would be safe until Na'an showed up or she thought of a plan.

“What’s going on?!” the Twi’lek from earlier screamed, rushing to hide behind her. “What the hell are those people?”



In response, the droid turned her dome to regard Caoimhin Shan again, laughing as he threw more electricity. “The Shans,” she said, and her electronic voice held in it a mixture of wonder, terror...and something like hate.

The pain was first. Kent had no experience with anyone who could project themselves in the Force much less someone skilled or cursed with it, she was unprepared and unprotected. She hit the ground in agony when the shards entered Elly's face. Kent felt them all, and she clawed at her face to make it stop, but there was nothing there AHHHHHHHH! SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!!!!! She cries it in anguish. It was made all the worse as her mind couldn't put together what was happening to her. She was about to tear into her own face doing real harm when the pain was replaced with darkness. What.... What is happening. Hate, anger, vengeance filled her head. She knew it wasn't her own but it filled her head non the less.

She was torn. Most of her wanted to curl up in a ball and wait for it to go away, but something stopped her. A part of her that seamed to glow in the presence of the darkness. The Darker it got, deep inside her the brighter the point got. Before she knew what she was doing she began to fill the room with a peaceful presence, one focused with blinding and beating back the dark.[/span]

"You are free to do that."

Na'an barely moved, and her voice did not alter. Her eyes, one flesh and one bright steel, bored into Vilus, the silver in her blood all but visible to those who would feel such things.
She could feel the presences inside him, begging and pushing at her to take them away from the hell their presence had wrought. Elly's agony was a dim stabbing behind her eyes, Cao a faint pressure that barely registered under Vilus' dominance. She bore down on the place in Vilus where lightning was born, fire against fire, smothering what would feed another bolt of fury before it could be unleashed.

"But if you want out alive then you will do what I say."

Her hand rose, palm up and slightly cupped.

"You will give me the lightsaber. And we will leave. And Caoimhin will be in control before you board any ship of mine."

“Agreed.”

Na’an’s hand closed around the lightsaber without hesitation. She angled her head to indicate a thick wooden door behind the bar. “That way leads to a back alley. Break down the door and we’ll be clear.”
She watched levelly as Vilus nodded, then stepped aside to let him pass, his attention directed fully towards their escape. Whatever he had felt between them had been enough to keep him compliant; now it was a matter of making sure the situation lasted. She turned to cross the few meters to where Leigh had made her barricade. Upon seeing that the crisis had passed, she stood to her full height, sending the patrons who had sheltered themselves under her skittering to another corner as far as possible. Somewhere deep in her systems, some of her emotional subroutines dialed down to the background, and when she spoke it was with the low, level voice Na’an had always known.

“Good call with the table,” she said, angling her shoulder to indicate the body draped over it.

Leigh took the body, cradling Ms. Bastiel against her chest as easily as a child and checking to ensure her grip on the crystal. “So you had to use it after all,” she said dryly, checking the Healer’s vitals and finding nothing more alarming than an elevated heart rate. The droid’s holographic face flickered to life at Na’an’s wry shrug, showing the barest semblance of amusement. She paused, the small ping of an incoming message drowned out by the sound of Vilus pummeling the door’s lock into powder. When she activated her vocal circuits again, she was careful to not let any indication of stress filter into them. “What is your duration?”

Na’an took a second to consider, looking at her hands; the Force thrummed momentarily around her, singing like a muscle stretched tight under the skin. “About three minutes,” she said. “If I don’t exert myself I can drag it out a little further before I drop.”

Leigh’s projected face wavered with concern. “And if we don’t make it to the shipyard before then?”

In response, Na’an only looked at Kent. “Rabbits have strong legs.”

“...I see.” Leigh supposed there was nothing for it. The girl was impulsive, and seemed convinced she was more capable than she’d shown, but they had destroyed her dwelling, and she did need a place to go. Taking her offworld with them had the smallest probability of backfiring, and she was by a wide margin of error the most harmless acquaintance they had made all night. And Na’an seemed to think she had potential…
She made a satisfied-sounding whirr, adjusting Adelle’s body over her oversized shoulder, and turned for the back door. “Then let’s get going. I have a call to make. Kent, I will explain outside--”

Na’an watched the droid usher the child out the door, half-following until their entire party was behind the bar. Passing the shelves of half-shattered bottles and dusty glasses, she paused, placing her hand on the polished surface and ducking down to peer underneath. “I’m sorry, Pavin,” she said gently.

The portly lady had crouched under the bar, her hands over her head. As Na’an crouched to peer at her, she scowled at the woman, more annoyed than afraid. “That friend of yours is going on your tab,” she said to Na’an, pointing a dirty finger in her face. “I’d just paid off those new tables.”

Na’an snorted. “Fine.” Reaching inside her jacket, Na’an drew a small datachip from an inner pocket. Kneeling down to the shaking bartender, she folded it inside Pavin’s fingers with surprising gentleness. “This should help,” she said. “We’ll send more when we get paid.”

She stood brusquely, looking around at the rest of the bar. Amidst the shattered tables, the scorchmarks and shattered candles and slightly smoking curtains, the other patrons of the bar had stopped their fighting entirely. The less violent members were peeking out of corners, from under makeshift barricades, all staring at the little woman who had stopped a living storm without lifting a finger.
The Force painted them in light, pinpricks of color lacing their blood in colors of fear and confusion, the last stabbing remnants of the Shan’s influence, the familiar lacing of awe that the weak had for the strong--
Na’an ignored them. Instead, she reached for the only thing left standing on the bar--the bottle of tihaar she had ordered before the fight had started. She then turned on her heel and left through the now-open door, leaving only silence in her wake.

Na’an didn’t turn back, or re-enter the bar. But she did respond, the unheard tone of her thoughts resting deep in the back of Kent’s skull.

Then come on, rabbit. I’ll need you.

***

It took four and a half minutes to cross the back streets of the Corellian sector and reach the spaceports. Na’an led the way at first, pushing with her rapidly escalating senses to find the routes clear of security, but the convergence of several privately-owned, heavily armed security groups had made the quickest path impossible to use. More than once she’d had to pull up short, reaching briefly for Kent’s scattered memories for a clue before seeing a back alley or abandoned restaurant that would serve.
At three minutes, however, the timer she had set for Babylon had expired, and as its effects ebbed it was harder and harder to ignore that she was pushing it more than she’d promised. By the time they reached Halcyon Ports she was leaning on Kent physically rather than mentally, resting as little as she could manage on the girl’s frail shoulder and squinting through a rapidly approaching migraine for their ride.

The borrowed ship was an old pre-war Hawk series freighter, just large enough for passengers now that the scrap cargo had been unloaded. Leigh paid the proprietor of the port, who keyed in the hatch code with a wary look at the suddenly-tripled crew.

“Didn’ realize you was picking up people,” he drawled, both him and Leigh watching Kent all but drop her partner onto the ramp.

Leigh’s voice was cold, even for a droid. “You did not ask.”

The proprietor decided to not ask any more questions.

***

After that, their departure was clear. Na’an and Leigh stayed on the ground until all the others had vanished into the cargo hatch: Leigh to keep watch in case of pursuit, Na’an because she was too busy catching her breath. When the passengers were clear-- Kent all but dragging Adelle towards the designated medical door, and Cao carrying Eliana as if she were no heavier than an empty sack--Leigh gestured with her cannon to send Na’an inside.

“I’ll start the ignition process and help secure Ms. Bastiel,” The droid said, scanning her partner’s vitals. Na’an had stated that the current duration of Babylon had expired about ninety seconds ago, and the effects—sudden changes in blood pressure, accelerated respiration, sluggishness of movement—were expected to get worse before they got better. “Are you stable enough to secure the others?”

Na’an hesitated before responding, sucking in a huge breath wiping at her now-sallow face with her free hand. “Yeah. Give me a second...I’ll deal with them,” she said, in what Leigh calculated to be an attempt at confidence. “I can do that much. Then I’ll be up.”

Leigh ran the odds, glancing for a cursory second at the them in question. Caoimhin Shan had not even bothered looking for adequate quarters upon boarding the Hawk, but was still kneeling with his sister’s body in the main cargo bay. Gauging from his expression, he had chosen to keep calling out to her through the Force, rather than allowing others to hear him speak any louder than a whisper. “…I will be listening.”

The look Na’an shot Leigh said enough. “Yeah.”

Leigh nodded, a smile twitching across her projected face before she turned into the hatch. As she crossed the Shans, aiming for the Hawk’s cockpit, she turned her attention inwards rather than address them.

She had a call to answer.
::State your business, 04. And don’t waste my time asking for my whereabouts::

***

The ship was not large--the Hawk-series frighters were not known for their excessive size. Fortunately, this meant that there was not much distance between the cockpit, the cargo loading area, and the entry hatch. Once she was back on her feet Na’an was able to get back inside with fairly little trouble, squinting with her good eye and avoiding the lights until the ship was properly sealed against the air.
In the passing minutes, Cao had not moved, mantling himself over the body he had carried in. He had kept his word, however, and the air no longer held the blunt, cruel charge of the Sith he had released minutes before. There was a small shard of glass at his feet, smeared with a thin coating of blood, and the sound of the engine drowned out whatever he was attempting to say to his unconscious, bleeding sister.

“We’re taking off,” she said coolly, holding on to the Hawk’s storage rail with one hand. Her other hand rested lightly on Cao's saber, strapped to her hip. “Step away from Eliana, and go secure yourself in the secondary quarters.” She stutter-stepped as the Hawk left ground, hiding the fact that even now, her knees were shaking a little. “She’ll be attended to, but don’t expect to be allowed near her again until we reach Felucia.”