Post by Talau the Ever-Lurking on Feb 25, 2010 22:41:27 GMT -5
((Finally complete...))
The figure of Aunna appeared, sitting on what seemed to be a bed legs folded under her and looking as if she’d just gone though something extremely stressful.
So, I suppose if you’re watching this, it means I’ve somehow gotten this to where it needs to go. Thank goodness for small mercies…but, considering my current status and paranoia…you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t address you personally.
I…a lot has happened…a lot that I haven’t told anyone. Even now I’m not sure I should say anything, but…if I don’t tell the full truth now, I doubt anything will ever get done.
She sighed and ran a hand over her face, before looking up for a moment, pausing as if she heard something, then returned her eyes to the recording device, and thus, the people watching now.
I’m going to give you as short a version of what’s happened as possible. Hopefully it can be put into better clarity with my personal logs from the base before and after it was destroyed.
Another pause.
I first met Vex Praetor on Coruscant. I was on my way to a joint staff meeting for the Republic Military. I had the first night off and so I decided it was high time I got some decent food. Unfortunately for me, my need for food has been my downfall with this man it seems…I happened upon the one cantina that he decided to be in that night. I still don’t know why he was there, but I’ve never had the reason to care enough to ask either.
I didn’t notice him. I can only imagine that he was using one of his mind tricks, but either way, I settled myself in –alone- and placed my order. Over the course of the evening, I found myself in the company of several others, one of them being another military slave such as myself, but found that I had the feeling someone was watching me.
It turned out to be Vex.
As he left, presumably he didn’t like my finally noticing that he was watching me, he made it quite clear that he’d been creeping about in my mind and made a promise to me that we would be meeting again. I was stupid and took it only as a threat.
He did find me again.
This time it was on Selonia. As you may, or may not, know…my duty was to help find and bring to justice Dark Jedi...I think, now, I understand the irony of it and so, finally, know why it was he was laughing his head off when my men found him.
A rueful little chuckle escaped her as she shook her head at the notion.
Since my dealings with him on Coruscant, I found the need to test my men for mental strength and fortitude, and had requested the jedi test them against such attacks. It was likely a good thing that I did since I can’t imagine they were easy for him to dissuade from firing upon him and trying to subdue him. Either way, he got the point across that if I were going to continue searching for the dark jedi that I had ACTUALLY been sent there for, I would have to rid the area of him first.
I had the most experience and capability of fighting a dark jedi out of all of my men, and so, as he slunk away into a warehouse, I ordered my men to form a perimeter and I went in after him. Again I was stupid, and went in alone, but…I simply didn’t want any more of my men injured or killed because of him. It stood to reason that he didn’t want me dead, so if I went in alone, I had the best chance of coming out alive again.
………He seemed…interested in finding out more about me, as I went in to find him, and I was unsettled by the way he did so. I don’t think I can ever fully describe the feeling of his mental powers, what his presence is like in the force, but he did indeed probe my mind in a most uncomfortable and almost intimate way. I believe it was strictly to see what he could learn about me and set me on edge…which, if so, his tactic worked wonderfully. I was very much on edge.
I did was what typical, requesting he come quietly, that he was under arrest for killing military personnel and interfering with our search…we both knew he wasn’t about to do that, however. We fought there and, luckily for me, he simply broke my leg instead of outright killing me. The three dark jedi that we supposedly subdued? That was his doing…not ours.
Manaan…
We were sent to Manaan after that…to ‘guard’ the Republic kolto interests. I’d been there before…twice. Both times had…disturbing…effects on me that have only now come back to my mind, and…well, I’ll tell you at the end.
Anyway, as I said before, my need for food seems to be a bane for me when it comes to Vex. He was waiting for me in a local dive bar, a place most of our men go to eat while on Manaan. It was late, I hadn’t eaten for some time and so I’d headed out…even with the warning feelings I was getting to stay away from the place, I was just too stubborn and, well, hungry, to care much. I went anyway.
He was waiting there, in one of the booths, and as I entered the people within the bar began to shift around in an odd fashion. I was wary and suspicious as a tunnel through them opened up and…lo and behold…there was Vex Praetor.
She smirked a bit and shook her head, obviously finding some amusement in the memory.
I learned a lot about him that day. More than I would care to admit to him. He is, despite his best attempts not to be, a good person beneath it all….very DEEP beneath it all, but it’s still there. I can’t say I enjoyed speaking to him over much, he isn’t exactly the type of person you’d want to hold a dinner conversation with, but we talked for a little while. Well…talked…it was more an argument than anything. He’d been injured, it seemed, on a mission while he was a jedi. He told me that he’d requested to search the archives to find if there was a way to heal himself fully. I didn’t understand at the time…hell…I still don’t, not really I think…but…
She trailed off, seemingly lost in thought as she mulled over her own words. Finally she came back to herself.
Either way, according to him, the Council stopped his searching and denied him access to whatever part of the archives he’d wanted to search through. From what I can tell that’s what he was, and still is, after…information to try to ‘heal’ himself. Because of this, he wanted to use my rank and the contacts I might have because of it. I was…more than a bit miffed at our conversation and left. That was when the force user…the sith soldier…entered. I believe he was after Vex, but he recognized me as well and there was a surprisingly short confrontation. I killed the man, but not before his lightsaber had cut into my side.
I’m still not fully clear on what happened…there was too much pain…but Vex…suddenly I remember him being there. Whatever happened…whatever he did…it saved my life…of this I’m sure. He warned me there would be pain, that he wasn’t going to let me die…and he didn’t…obviously. By the time the medical team got there, he was leaving. Three days later, the day I was slated to be released for duty, he came to my medical room. I still don’t know why. He didn’t ask anything of me…teased me about the fact that the military seemed insistent on killing me with paperwork…asked me to ‘refrain from further actions’ such as fighting someone with a lightsaber and that he ‘wasn’t entirely helpless’ in such things.
She chuckled slightly and shook her head, seemingly both puzzled and amused at the same time by the memory.
When I asked why he was there, and expressed my disbelief that he was simply visiting because he ‘cared,’ he, of course, informed me that he did care because if I died he’d have lost the time, finances, and effort put into coercing help ((assistance --stupid word filter!--)). As one can imagine, I wasn’t entirely pleased with his reply…though…afterward I wondered if perhaps it wasn’t more than that. I’m afraid I was rather cold in my reply and, knowing Vex, he was likely poking around in my mind at the time…what ever the case, he told me that I shouldn’t be so offended by his statement…that he’d been honest with me about his intentions, and that if he hadn’t wanted…“desired” was his term…to see me remain alive I wouldn’t have been. There was…more to it, about his healing, but…in essence I am alive now because he sincerely wanted me to stay alive.
I admit that I allowed him to go without raising an alarm. We both knew that his destruction of the security camera in my room had guards on their way and that he couldn’t stay…and…in being honest with you…I didn’t wish to see him caught…for his sake, and my sake, and for the sake of the guards and others in the medical facility. Even when he left and the guards came I didn’t mention him. The fault in that is my own, and no one else.
There is, contained in this chit, a conversation I had with Colonel Vinay of the Republic Army, and one that took place shortly after my release from the medical facility. It is attached to the conversation I had with my brother, though they happened at two very different times. The conversation was unpleasant to say the least, and you can make of it what you will. ((Link))
She paused then, lacing her fingers and resting her elbows on her knees as she sat cross legged on the bed. Aunna was silent a moment, seemingly looking for how to continue, the curtain of her hair falling about her shoulders and partially hiding her face before she looked up again.
Two weeks went by without a word from Vex. It was odd, and it made me anxious…I couldn’t help but wonder what mischief he was causing about Ahto City. Just because I didn’t hear FROM him, didn’t mean that I didn’t hear OF him, however. There had been a number of curious happenings around the city…all tell tale signs of Vex and his powers…people with their minds picked clean…sith, republic, fringe…no one was discriminated against. When one of our couriers was intercepted and his package ‘missing’ when he arrived…I was given direct orders to discover the cause.
I didn’t need to discover the cause, I knew it already…I just needed to FIND it…him.
Vex wasn’t one for people, this much I knew…and I didn’t have much hope in tracking him down…I did, however, have one thought…if I couldn’t find him, he would just have to come find me. He seemed to prefer it that way anyway.
He did find me, and not a moment too late. I’d been surrounded by a rather nasty bunch of Sith officers full of the smell of alcohol and looking for someone to pick on. It happened to be me. Needless to say I was pleased enough to see Vex, but in the end I wound up unconscious due to his…method of dispatching the problem. When I woke up it was in an unfamiliar place that, apparently, Vex had made livable enough for himself. I woke, unfortunately, to the sound and feel of the base exploding.
He had somehow learned of the bombing, and that day had discovered the time it would take place. That, he said, had been the reason for treating the courier the way he had…though I never discovered what happened to his package. Either way, he had used the courier to lure me out of the base and saved my life once again.
There was, of course, more to her story than that…the way she’d blamed him for it, the way he’d denied it, the…emotions…she’d felt, and ignored.
He said he would find me again…he did.
As I searched for who might have bombed the base, someone targeting myself, I decided it was best to not stay with the remainder of my men. I didn’t want to risk any more lives. The day Vex found me again, I was staying in a secure hangar in one of our transports. He was there before myself, which, in retrospect, should have put me on edge. I was, at the time, too tired to really notice his presence and immediately sat down to work. Only then did he make himself known to me. In the course of the conversation that followed he asked if I had discovered the person who had bombed the base since he wished to “speak with them in private.” Unfortunately for both of us, I hadn’t…not until I looked back to the screen I had up…the list of my potential enemies.
Vorlax…Samael Vorlax…he had arrived on Manaan the day I had, and hadn’t left.
My father knows about the man and his threats to me, and it seemed he intended to make good on them as he appeared that very day outside of the transport. It was lucky for me that Vex was there, but…as I’m finding out more and more these days, luck seems to want to have very little to do with my life, and the Force seems to have a rather cruel sense of humor. I started the security cameras for the area to capture the happenings and keep Vorlax behind bars…permanently. I stated as much in my trial, but the copy of the recording I gave to Manaan security seemed to have vanished mysteriously. Thankfully, I was forward thinking enough to make more than one copy of the footage, and one of those copies is included here, as well as his file. ((link))
Vorlax was taken into custody. I’m not sure why they would say he wasn’t, but he WAS taken in…
Again, I take responsibility for not informing the MPs that Vex was within the transport, and again it was for selfish, as well as logical reasonings. I didn’t want him caught, and I didn’t want them dead. After they left, Vex and I had another little talk. I was honest with him in the fact that I wished he wouldn’t simply help me because he wished to protect his interests…since that seemed to be all I was to him…I knew he was manipulating me, I knew he never told me everything, but I didn’t like it one bit that he was treating me like something worthless, a mere tool to be used and tossed away carelessly. I told him this and more…I told him that I had seen good in him…how he could be if he chose…and for once, I admitted that I cared about if he lost the full use of his heart and soul as a person. I cared if he allowed himself to become so entrapped in his search for healing that he lost himself completely.
Something I said must have gotten through to him because, for once, he didn’t have much to say in return…and what he did say…only now have I come to realize that it was more than a warning, even it he only meant it as one….it still haunts me, what he said “Sometimes one is lost before they can realize it or hope to find a path back, Aunna. Follow, and you run the risk of getting lost yourself.” Sometimes I wonder if I’ve already started down that path, or if I’m only just now finding myself.
She shook her head again and sighed heavily.
He left, then, and I would assume that it was that time that he left Manaan since things were decidedly more quiet in Ahto City from that point until I spoke to Jade. The only transmission I have from Jade after he turned to the Sith is on here, unlike what they accuse me of… ((link))
It was the next day that I was kidnapped. It didn’t take long for it to happen. I was on my way back from the base grounds to the place the rest of the personnel were staying when she came. There was a short scuffle in the ally where they found her fur, she cut it herself, and then I was taken to Nar Shaddaa.
Most of what was said about Nar Shaddaa was true.
I was taken there by the cathar, who WANTED to be found. When we arrived…I could tell Vex had been waiting…he’d sensed me and I tried to warn him away…something hadn’t been right about the situation from the beginning, but, as Vex has a tendency to do…he dismissed the warning and came anyway. The cathar unbound me and stated she’d be sure the ones that needed to find me would if I stayed near by. I would have, if it hadn’t been for that bald devil of a dark jedi that had shown up.
You know the details from there for the most part…at least from the Republic stand point. Jade and his men were there, etcetera…I, however, was on the other side of a building from them. Vex had passed me and, in the whole of things, ended up calling out the one man I would have preferred he wouldn’t have bothered. That demon attempted, several times, to harm me…threatening my life once, and mentally torturing me another. Vex, for whatever reason, continued to put himself between the dark jedi and myself…going so far, at one point, as to use his persuasion to try to get me to leave him and save myself.
She paused again, blinking and hanging her head for a moment.
Perhaps I should have, but I didn’t…I couldn’t…I knew that if I left Vex would die. I don’t know how I knew…at least, at that point I didn’t know…but I knew and I couldn’t let him die for me…I didn’t want that…he’d risked everything to come and save me, and in the end he would have died if I left, where we might both live if I stayed. I found out, today in fact, that he had seen his death coming…had seen that he would die trying protect me…yet he told me, when we spoke about it this morning, that to try and change it, or avoid it, would have been unacceptable to him…that his death was “more agreeable than the alternatives.”
In light of this, I’m even more unwavering in my stance that my decision to save his life was the correct one. The sniper shot was nearly fatal, but he still had a chance to live and I knew it. I took my opportunity to leave the area I had been trapped in, between the battling Sith and Republic factions and the battling dark jedi…no…battling force users, as I can’t say I still see Vex as a fully fledged dark jedi…I had been stuck in my indecision too long and I wasn’t willing to allow it to continue further and cause my protector’s death.
Knowing what the consequences would be should I be seen aiding him, I gave Jade my badge with the information on it that you currently have a copy of. He didn’t know, at the time, that I gave it to him as he and Sergeant Meesha had gotten into some kind of fist fight…I still don’t know why it came to that…and Jade had been dazed. After that I had taken Sgt. Meesha’s discarded combat knife and went to help Vex.
I never harmed any of the Republic soldiers…
…In fact…the only one I ever harmed was that bald demon…the one I still don’t know the name of. I’d waited for as long as I could as he…
The blue hologram figure of Aunna looked down swiftly, hiding her face below her hair. If they could have been in the same room as the woman at the time, no doubt they would have been able to feel the pain and anger boiling up in her as she remembered those horrible moments of waiting behind that broken pile of wall and rubble. Slowly she lifted her head again, having composed herself slightly.
I know now that it was the force and my own will keeping me there until the proper time, waiting to strike. When I did…it wasn’t a simple matter for me. I’ve been honest thus far, and so I’ll continue to be honest…I wanted that man dead…I wanted him dead, and I wanted it badly. That bald dark jedi was a very real threat and he was about to kill the single person who’d saved my life more times than any other of my own men. I didn’t care about myself or what would happen to me…I wanted…needed…to protect Vex. He had come to my rescue time and again, showing (even if he denied it, or played it off at the time) that there was more good in him, that he CARED more, than he let on…or perhaps he didn’t even realize it himself.
I remember, clearly, thinking about the consequences of my actions and what they might be…but I wouldn’t…I couldn’t…allow this man to die, Republic be damned.
Like all members of security and military personnel of the Galactic Republic, I took an oath to serve and to protect…I have, at all times, done everything within my power to do both to the best of my ability and done so with little regret. At times I’ve been blinded or bound by orders that I found unjust, but I followed them through so long as I didn’t see it as an immediate threat to the lives of my men. On Nar Shaddaa…I harmed none save the one who tried to harm me, and then tried to kill the one person that had come to save my life time and again.
With no men to protect from harm, I did the one thing that my heart told me was right. I was not seeking the destruction of the Republic through saving Vex…I was not condoning his actions toward our citizens…I was not intending any harm or betrayal of any kind…it isn’t in me to do so…I’ve worked my entire life to protect our people, and I wouldn’t throw it away so lightly…but there are times, and situations, where you have to take a stand for what you believe in.
That was mine.
I believed in Vex at that moment, on that day, and I stood up for him when no one else would.
As a soldier, and as a human, it was my duty to protect those that were worthy of protection. If at no other time…on THAT day, I found Vex Praetor worthy of protection against a far darker foe…an enemy to both of us, and a far more deadly enemy of the Republic. When I struck, Vex struck, and between the both of us we managed to drive off that bald demon.
It branded me a traitor, but at least Vex got away alive…I couldn’t ask for more.
Yes, I’d hoped that I could get away with my actions without being discovered, but I knew the likelihood of that happening was slim, so, when Sgt Meesha found me and arrested me…it didn’t come as a complete surprise.
The nearly tangible combination of frustration, pain, and the almost urgent need to get her perspective across to them…to anyone…that had colored her words seemed to melt away from her form as she slumped slightly, her muscles (having tensed over the course of this section of her dialog) relaxing slightly as she took a fortifying breath and ran a hand through her hair.
This brings us to my less than pleasant time in prison. Since it was fairly uneventful, I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that it WAS unpleasant. Solitary confinement is certainly nothing I would wish upon anyone but the worst of criminals. My only solace, really, was Robbens’ notes…short as they were…and a visit from, oddly enough, the togruta jedi that interrogated me upon my first week in the compound.
The trial, if you can call it that, was a joke above all else. Witnesses that didn’t ‘witness’ anything, falsified evidence, MISSING evidence…truth serum?! No, it would have been easier and far more cost and time effective for them to have simply condemned me. However, I’m glad they didn’t take that route. Vex, it seems, has deemed himself my official protector. Logically…and oh how he likes to work logically…it doesn’t make a lick of sense for him to have come for me, to save me from my fate, and…truth be told…he would have likely been better off if he hadn’t. Even I know that I’m of little worth to his ‘cause’…his personal agendas…as a traitor. Logically he should have left me to die so that he wouldn’t have to worry about another loose end to clean up. I don’t believe he was…IS…acting logically.
He arrived in the guise of a jedi, under a name that was once his, and posed as my escort to the firing squad. I was…well, surprised would be a mild term and it wouldn’t cover the spectrum of emotions properly, but for now it will suffice I suppose. Even as we were near a way to escape he gave his all to try and get me away, and once again, I refused to leave him there for dead. I’m sure there isn’t much that the HNN hasn’t covered on that topic, so I won’t beat a dead horse.
The next day we split up, Vex and I, in the lower city. He went to lead the Republic troops away while I went to pay a visit to Cliff. I’m sure my father remembers Cliff, the son of the antiques collector that he, my brother, and I went to go see. Anyway, I knew that Cliff owned a cantina on Coruscant, and so that’s where I went to get into contact with the people I trusted to get us both off the planet.
Unfortunately, a shadow from my past met me there with his dark jedi pet.
Andrew…
Another heavy sigh escaped her and she almost seemed to not want to speak the name.
Forgive me if I’m brief on this, but I don’t wish to remember the topic. Andrew threatened to do things that no woman would care to have happen to her, then sell me to the hutts because of my voice. He, apparently, had Republic forces outside waiting for me and he made sure to inform me of it. I attempted to contact Vex with what small connection I had to the force, but that pet zabrak of his cut me off before I could. It wasn’t my ideal situation, being pinned to a wall, cut off, and forced to…of all things…sing for the man who’d stabbed me in the shoulder while trying to kill me not five years before, but that’s exactly the position I found myself in.
Somehow Vex found me through that song…and he found me more swiftly than I’d imagined…and not a moment too soon. The zabrak and Andrew, both, were dealt with by Vex though…I’m still fuzzy on the details. I was…rather near blacking out at the time and was more concerned with breathing than whatever Vex was doing to my tormentor….I was just happy that he was there. I wasn’t quite so happy when I saw exactly what had happened outside, but….I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with Vex about it either.
She didn’t mention that she’d been in his arms at the time and half conscious because of it. She didn’t mention how she’d felt safe with him like that. She didn’t mention that she’d fallen asleep in his arms like that.
Not long after, we had our encounter with you, and from there you know about as much as I can tell you.
There was a long pause as she gazed at her hands pensively, the sound of footsteps in the distance causing her to look up for a moment before sighing and returning her eyes to their previous focus.
I don’t expect any of this to clear my name…that isn’t my intent. I’m very well aware of my current standing with the Republic and the fact that my branding is very likely VERY permanent…no, my intent is simply to bring some of the truth of my situation, and how I got here, to the public eye. I was tried unfairly, not given a chance to defend myself properly, or even to tell my side of the story, convicting or not. I’m not asking for a miracle…I’m just asking that somehow, some of this truth that was so well buried gets to someone…anyone…everyone for all I care.
I, hopefully, have someone that I can contact to keep an ear out in the military branches…my former secretary…do enough digging and you’ll find her if you wish. Maybe I can find the person who was the driving force behind this so called trial and help bring them a little bit of the Republic’s justice…but for now all I ask is that you believe me in everything I’ve said here.
As I was told before, when I last saw you, I have a great many reasons to lie about things…but won’t. It doesn’t benefit me, and, since I expect to remain a traitor to the Republic, I really have nothing left to lose. If I’m caught my life is forfeit anyway, they’ve taken everything else from me… they cannot, however, take the truth from me…not now.
I can’t say how appreciative I am that you’re even taking the time to listen to this much of my story…even considering that if MIGHT be truth. Of all the people in the Republic, you’re one of the very few that I actually still trust…and I’m trusting you to do what you think is right with this information, whatever that may be…just please…whatever you do…whatever you think of me or of Vex…please, do not bury what little I have to show of my side of this mess.
I earned, in my time as a pilot for Corellia, my second class Bloodstripes…I pray that one day, I’ll be able to wear them again proudly and without repercussion. Until that time, however, I ask one more thing of you…please do not allow them to be taken from my parents unless it is by me. I understand that may be asking a lot considering their meaning, but…
She allowed her words to trail off, saying everything she couldn’t…
It would tear her heart apart to know they had been stripped from her, taken back because she had done something that she had felt was right. The only bit of pride she still had to show outwardly, as was customary to the Corellian people. Hopefully, Rook, of all people, would understand just how much she cared about her heritage and her culture…if he did, he would understand just how much that one symbol meant to her, and how effected she would be by its loss.
Thank you, once more….for everything…hopefully we’ll be able to meet face to face again some day and I can thank you properly and with all the flourish and frills that might entail…because we all know how much you love flourish and frills.
It was a mild attempt at humor, some small show of what had once been a far more carefree young woman. Aunna, hologram or no, was attempting to be some small semblance of herself after all the weight that had come before then. She’d stood up then, getting ready to shut down the recording device when she seemed to remember something.
Oh yes…I mentioned earlier that there had been several strange incidents for me on Manaan prior to meeting Vex…I nearly forgot to explain that. Ten years ago I was sent to bring back a shipment of kolto to Corellia…the first day there I had, what I’ve come to learn, was a vision…broken down in pieces.
I saw, and heard, Vex that day…in the exact places where I would meet him later…the dive bar, the hangar where Vorlax attacked me, the alleyway where he saved me from the sith soldiers…I saw glimpses of them all…
Five years later…similar occurrences happened…this time with a jedi present…one Rhissai. I smelled the fire from the base and felt the death there in what would come to be my office, heard Colonel Vinay shouting at me, and later…again in the hangar, inside Rhissai’s ship…I felt Vex’s breath on my neck and heard his rebreather over my shoulder like I did the day Vorlax attacked me.
I know it sounds unbelievable…hell, even I don’t believe it completely and I know it sounds insane, but it’s true enough. I doubt I would have even remembered those things again if it weren’t for the strange things that have been happening. Since I met Andrew again, my powers in the force have grown it seems…manifesting in odd ways….
….Like song.
Believe this last part as you will, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, but I said I’d tell you at the end, so there it is.
Goodbye for now.
She had allowed 13 to watch the message she’d given to her father…effectively her confession to what had happened these past months. It was, after all, the most expedient way to catch the droid up on what had happened from one of the people it had happened too. It would also (hopefully) minimize the number of questions she had to answer as far as recap was concerned. Besides, she didn't completely trust the REA either and so she'd kept 13 in her sight at almost all times. This was a way for Aunna to get some time to herself while being able to keep an eye on the little thing. As she'd scripted out the flowing lyrics of the song on her flimsy, she gazed almost sightlessly at the (almost unusual) old corellian language and writing. Certainly there were quite a few similarities to current Basic in the writing, but to one who wasn't used to reading it...it might seem as if she'd just made up a few letters and tossed them in at various places for fun or style, not to mention the fact that it was in a different language (more or less). That wasn't what she was currently thinking about, however.
After all they had been through together, all of the pain she’d been through because of him, because of her own choices, because of…everything…the thought of them being 'lovers' just seemed…strange. Foreign. She hadn’t considered anyone anything close to a lover, or even a prospective lover, since Andrew and…well…that obviously hadn’t turned out so well. She’d basically sworn any form of relationships off because of that and now, to find herself willingly involved with a man so similar, and so dissimilar, to that man…it wasn’t exactly a comfortable thought, and she didn’t know quite what to do about it. Or if she DID want to do anything about it. When they'd gone to pick up 13 she'd nearly spoken without thinking...nearly called him something (an endearment) in the very same language she had just been writing...and had only just barely caught herself in time.
Now that she was thinking about it, however, Aunna wasn't entirely certain if she minded calling Vex such a thing. Of course, there was the initial trepidation that went with calling anyone something other than their name...and it didn't help that Vex took that apprehension to a whole other level. She was getting settled in and more comfortable around the man, yes, (obviously, considering their time together) but even so, the man still had the ability to frighten her if he wanted, and she knew he was more than capable of doing a great deal of damage to her if he wished it, but he didn't wish to. By now that much was obvious...though it was, perhaps, still a bit strange to think about. The fact was, though, that he cared about her more than he said, and she certainly cared about him (if it wasn't obvious by now, he'd have to be blind)...so, why not attempt it? He certainly didn't seem to have any qualms in calling her by such endearments as 'little one' or 'pet'. Chuckling slightly, she shook her head...she really DID over think things at points, or kept herself blind to things she should have seen quite clearly.
Ah, old habits died hard after all...especially when it came to relationships it seemed.
Settling in on her bed a bit more she continued writing...singing as she went, her eyes closing every once in a while as she allowed the song to form more accurately in her mind. Aunna hadn’t been worried about Vex, seeing as the last time she’d seen him he’d been intent on being alone for a while. That was fine with her…it meant she could leave her cabin door open and keep an ear out for anything abnormal, allow 13 to come or go as she pleased (not that she cared to really go anywhere outside the watchful view of her companion’s blue eyes), and it was generally just pleasant to have it open...she wasn't quite sure why.
The little droid, curled up as she was beside her companion, had caught odd scans through her visor as she had watched the holo-message silently. Though they were little more than odd distortions, 13 couldn't help but be wary of the strange readouts. What did they mean? As Aunna sang, those scans became more...peculiar. There was just something...odd...about her when she sang. After those moments of processing the log and checking, double checking, and triple checking the scans...then her own systems...the little draconic droid flickered her wings (now a slightly annoyed yellow-orange) before shutting the holo-projectors off and shifting around so she could better study her companion through those unblinking optics.
This may seem an odd question to you but...why? Despite everything you said in that recording, I fail to see the logic behind your actions as far as Mr. Praetor is concerned. Certainly I expect a certain amount of "nobility" and "honor" in your actions considering your pedigree and background, but don't you believe that what you did was a bit...extreme? He went out of his way on Nar Shaddaa to see to your safety, yet you chose to put that at risk by aiding him and then being captured by the Republic soldiers sent there to retrieve you...why?
The figure of Aunna appeared, sitting on what seemed to be a bed legs folded under her and looking as if she’d just gone though something extremely stressful.
So, I suppose if you’re watching this, it means I’ve somehow gotten this to where it needs to go. Thank goodness for small mercies…but, considering my current status and paranoia…you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t address you personally.
I…a lot has happened…a lot that I haven’t told anyone. Even now I’m not sure I should say anything, but…if I don’t tell the full truth now, I doubt anything will ever get done.
She sighed and ran a hand over her face, before looking up for a moment, pausing as if she heard something, then returned her eyes to the recording device, and thus, the people watching now.
I’m going to give you as short a version of what’s happened as possible. Hopefully it can be put into better clarity with my personal logs from the base before and after it was destroyed.
Another pause.
I first met Vex Praetor on Coruscant. I was on my way to a joint staff meeting for the Republic Military. I had the first night off and so I decided it was high time I got some decent food. Unfortunately for me, my need for food has been my downfall with this man it seems…I happened upon the one cantina that he decided to be in that night. I still don’t know why he was there, but I’ve never had the reason to care enough to ask either.
I didn’t notice him. I can only imagine that he was using one of his mind tricks, but either way, I settled myself in –alone- and placed my order. Over the course of the evening, I found myself in the company of several others, one of them being another military slave such as myself, but found that I had the feeling someone was watching me.
It turned out to be Vex.
As he left, presumably he didn’t like my finally noticing that he was watching me, he made it quite clear that he’d been creeping about in my mind and made a promise to me that we would be meeting again. I was stupid and took it only as a threat.
He did find me again.
This time it was on Selonia. As you may, or may not, know…my duty was to help find and bring to justice Dark Jedi...I think, now, I understand the irony of it and so, finally, know why it was he was laughing his head off when my men found him.
A rueful little chuckle escaped her as she shook her head at the notion.
Since my dealings with him on Coruscant, I found the need to test my men for mental strength and fortitude, and had requested the jedi test them against such attacks. It was likely a good thing that I did since I can’t imagine they were easy for him to dissuade from firing upon him and trying to subdue him. Either way, he got the point across that if I were going to continue searching for the dark jedi that I had ACTUALLY been sent there for, I would have to rid the area of him first.
I had the most experience and capability of fighting a dark jedi out of all of my men, and so, as he slunk away into a warehouse, I ordered my men to form a perimeter and I went in after him. Again I was stupid, and went in alone, but…I simply didn’t want any more of my men injured or killed because of him. It stood to reason that he didn’t want me dead, so if I went in alone, I had the best chance of coming out alive again.
………He seemed…interested in finding out more about me, as I went in to find him, and I was unsettled by the way he did so. I don’t think I can ever fully describe the feeling of his mental powers, what his presence is like in the force, but he did indeed probe my mind in a most uncomfortable and almost intimate way. I believe it was strictly to see what he could learn about me and set me on edge…which, if so, his tactic worked wonderfully. I was very much on edge.
I did was what typical, requesting he come quietly, that he was under arrest for killing military personnel and interfering with our search…we both knew he wasn’t about to do that, however. We fought there and, luckily for me, he simply broke my leg instead of outright killing me. The three dark jedi that we supposedly subdued? That was his doing…not ours.
Manaan…
We were sent to Manaan after that…to ‘guard’ the Republic kolto interests. I’d been there before…twice. Both times had…disturbing…effects on me that have only now come back to my mind, and…well, I’ll tell you at the end.
Anyway, as I said before, my need for food seems to be a bane for me when it comes to Vex. He was waiting for me in a local dive bar, a place most of our men go to eat while on Manaan. It was late, I hadn’t eaten for some time and so I’d headed out…even with the warning feelings I was getting to stay away from the place, I was just too stubborn and, well, hungry, to care much. I went anyway.
He was waiting there, in one of the booths, and as I entered the people within the bar began to shift around in an odd fashion. I was wary and suspicious as a tunnel through them opened up and…lo and behold…there was Vex Praetor.
She smirked a bit and shook her head, obviously finding some amusement in the memory.
I learned a lot about him that day. More than I would care to admit to him. He is, despite his best attempts not to be, a good person beneath it all….very DEEP beneath it all, but it’s still there. I can’t say I enjoyed speaking to him over much, he isn’t exactly the type of person you’d want to hold a dinner conversation with, but we talked for a little while. Well…talked…it was more an argument than anything. He’d been injured, it seemed, on a mission while he was a jedi. He told me that he’d requested to search the archives to find if there was a way to heal himself fully. I didn’t understand at the time…hell…I still don’t, not really I think…but…
She trailed off, seemingly lost in thought as she mulled over her own words. Finally she came back to herself.
Either way, according to him, the Council stopped his searching and denied him access to whatever part of the archives he’d wanted to search through. From what I can tell that’s what he was, and still is, after…information to try to ‘heal’ himself. Because of this, he wanted to use my rank and the contacts I might have because of it. I was…more than a bit miffed at our conversation and left. That was when the force user…the sith soldier…entered. I believe he was after Vex, but he recognized me as well and there was a surprisingly short confrontation. I killed the man, but not before his lightsaber had cut into my side.
I’m still not fully clear on what happened…there was too much pain…but Vex…suddenly I remember him being there. Whatever happened…whatever he did…it saved my life…of this I’m sure. He warned me there would be pain, that he wasn’t going to let me die…and he didn’t…obviously. By the time the medical team got there, he was leaving. Three days later, the day I was slated to be released for duty, he came to my medical room. I still don’t know why. He didn’t ask anything of me…teased me about the fact that the military seemed insistent on killing me with paperwork…asked me to ‘refrain from further actions’ such as fighting someone with a lightsaber and that he ‘wasn’t entirely helpless’ in such things.
She chuckled slightly and shook her head, seemingly both puzzled and amused at the same time by the memory.
When I asked why he was there, and expressed my disbelief that he was simply visiting because he ‘cared,’ he, of course, informed me that he did care because if I died he’d have lost the time, finances, and effort put into coercing help ((assistance --stupid word filter!--)). As one can imagine, I wasn’t entirely pleased with his reply…though…afterward I wondered if perhaps it wasn’t more than that. I’m afraid I was rather cold in my reply and, knowing Vex, he was likely poking around in my mind at the time…what ever the case, he told me that I shouldn’t be so offended by his statement…that he’d been honest with me about his intentions, and that if he hadn’t wanted…“desired” was his term…to see me remain alive I wouldn’t have been. There was…more to it, about his healing, but…in essence I am alive now because he sincerely wanted me to stay alive.
I admit that I allowed him to go without raising an alarm. We both knew that his destruction of the security camera in my room had guards on their way and that he couldn’t stay…and…in being honest with you…I didn’t wish to see him caught…for his sake, and my sake, and for the sake of the guards and others in the medical facility. Even when he left and the guards came I didn’t mention him. The fault in that is my own, and no one else.
There is, contained in this chit, a conversation I had with Colonel Vinay of the Republic Army, and one that took place shortly after my release from the medical facility. It is attached to the conversation I had with my brother, though they happened at two very different times. The conversation was unpleasant to say the least, and you can make of it what you will. ((Link))
She paused then, lacing her fingers and resting her elbows on her knees as she sat cross legged on the bed. Aunna was silent a moment, seemingly looking for how to continue, the curtain of her hair falling about her shoulders and partially hiding her face before she looked up again.
Two weeks went by without a word from Vex. It was odd, and it made me anxious…I couldn’t help but wonder what mischief he was causing about Ahto City. Just because I didn’t hear FROM him, didn’t mean that I didn’t hear OF him, however. There had been a number of curious happenings around the city…all tell tale signs of Vex and his powers…people with their minds picked clean…sith, republic, fringe…no one was discriminated against. When one of our couriers was intercepted and his package ‘missing’ when he arrived…I was given direct orders to discover the cause.
I didn’t need to discover the cause, I knew it already…I just needed to FIND it…him.
Vex wasn’t one for people, this much I knew…and I didn’t have much hope in tracking him down…I did, however, have one thought…if I couldn’t find him, he would just have to come find me. He seemed to prefer it that way anyway.
He did find me, and not a moment too late. I’d been surrounded by a rather nasty bunch of Sith officers full of the smell of alcohol and looking for someone to pick on. It happened to be me. Needless to say I was pleased enough to see Vex, but in the end I wound up unconscious due to his…method of dispatching the problem. When I woke up it was in an unfamiliar place that, apparently, Vex had made livable enough for himself. I woke, unfortunately, to the sound and feel of the base exploding.
He had somehow learned of the bombing, and that day had discovered the time it would take place. That, he said, had been the reason for treating the courier the way he had…though I never discovered what happened to his package. Either way, he had used the courier to lure me out of the base and saved my life once again.
There was, of course, more to her story than that…the way she’d blamed him for it, the way he’d denied it, the…emotions…she’d felt, and ignored.
He said he would find me again…he did.
As I searched for who might have bombed the base, someone targeting myself, I decided it was best to not stay with the remainder of my men. I didn’t want to risk any more lives. The day Vex found me again, I was staying in a secure hangar in one of our transports. He was there before myself, which, in retrospect, should have put me on edge. I was, at the time, too tired to really notice his presence and immediately sat down to work. Only then did he make himself known to me. In the course of the conversation that followed he asked if I had discovered the person who had bombed the base since he wished to “speak with them in private.” Unfortunately for both of us, I hadn’t…not until I looked back to the screen I had up…the list of my potential enemies.
Vorlax…Samael Vorlax…he had arrived on Manaan the day I had, and hadn’t left.
My father knows about the man and his threats to me, and it seemed he intended to make good on them as he appeared that very day outside of the transport. It was lucky for me that Vex was there, but…as I’m finding out more and more these days, luck seems to want to have very little to do with my life, and the Force seems to have a rather cruel sense of humor. I started the security cameras for the area to capture the happenings and keep Vorlax behind bars…permanently. I stated as much in my trial, but the copy of the recording I gave to Manaan security seemed to have vanished mysteriously. Thankfully, I was forward thinking enough to make more than one copy of the footage, and one of those copies is included here, as well as his file. ((link))
Vorlax was taken into custody. I’m not sure why they would say he wasn’t, but he WAS taken in…
Again, I take responsibility for not informing the MPs that Vex was within the transport, and again it was for selfish, as well as logical reasonings. I didn’t want him caught, and I didn’t want them dead. After they left, Vex and I had another little talk. I was honest with him in the fact that I wished he wouldn’t simply help me because he wished to protect his interests…since that seemed to be all I was to him…I knew he was manipulating me, I knew he never told me everything, but I didn’t like it one bit that he was treating me like something worthless, a mere tool to be used and tossed away carelessly. I told him this and more…I told him that I had seen good in him…how he could be if he chose…and for once, I admitted that I cared about if he lost the full use of his heart and soul as a person. I cared if he allowed himself to become so entrapped in his search for healing that he lost himself completely.
Something I said must have gotten through to him because, for once, he didn’t have much to say in return…and what he did say…only now have I come to realize that it was more than a warning, even it he only meant it as one….it still haunts me, what he said “Sometimes one is lost before they can realize it or hope to find a path back, Aunna. Follow, and you run the risk of getting lost yourself.” Sometimes I wonder if I’ve already started down that path, or if I’m only just now finding myself.
She shook her head again and sighed heavily.
He left, then, and I would assume that it was that time that he left Manaan since things were decidedly more quiet in Ahto City from that point until I spoke to Jade. The only transmission I have from Jade after he turned to the Sith is on here, unlike what they accuse me of… ((link))
It was the next day that I was kidnapped. It didn’t take long for it to happen. I was on my way back from the base grounds to the place the rest of the personnel were staying when she came. There was a short scuffle in the ally where they found her fur, she cut it herself, and then I was taken to Nar Shaddaa.
Most of what was said about Nar Shaddaa was true.
I was taken there by the cathar, who WANTED to be found. When we arrived…I could tell Vex had been waiting…he’d sensed me and I tried to warn him away…something hadn’t been right about the situation from the beginning, but, as Vex has a tendency to do…he dismissed the warning and came anyway. The cathar unbound me and stated she’d be sure the ones that needed to find me would if I stayed near by. I would have, if it hadn’t been for that bald devil of a dark jedi that had shown up.
You know the details from there for the most part…at least from the Republic stand point. Jade and his men were there, etcetera…I, however, was on the other side of a building from them. Vex had passed me and, in the whole of things, ended up calling out the one man I would have preferred he wouldn’t have bothered. That demon attempted, several times, to harm me…threatening my life once, and mentally torturing me another. Vex, for whatever reason, continued to put himself between the dark jedi and myself…going so far, at one point, as to use his persuasion to try to get me to leave him and save myself.
She paused again, blinking and hanging her head for a moment.
Perhaps I should have, but I didn’t…I couldn’t…I knew that if I left Vex would die. I don’t know how I knew…at least, at that point I didn’t know…but I knew and I couldn’t let him die for me…I didn’t want that…he’d risked everything to come and save me, and in the end he would have died if I left, where we might both live if I stayed. I found out, today in fact, that he had seen his death coming…had seen that he would die trying protect me…yet he told me, when we spoke about it this morning, that to try and change it, or avoid it, would have been unacceptable to him…that his death was “more agreeable than the alternatives.”
In light of this, I’m even more unwavering in my stance that my decision to save his life was the correct one. The sniper shot was nearly fatal, but he still had a chance to live and I knew it. I took my opportunity to leave the area I had been trapped in, between the battling Sith and Republic factions and the battling dark jedi…no…battling force users, as I can’t say I still see Vex as a fully fledged dark jedi…I had been stuck in my indecision too long and I wasn’t willing to allow it to continue further and cause my protector’s death.
Knowing what the consequences would be should I be seen aiding him, I gave Jade my badge with the information on it that you currently have a copy of. He didn’t know, at the time, that I gave it to him as he and Sergeant Meesha had gotten into some kind of fist fight…I still don’t know why it came to that…and Jade had been dazed. After that I had taken Sgt. Meesha’s discarded combat knife and went to help Vex.
I never harmed any of the Republic soldiers…
…In fact…the only one I ever harmed was that bald demon…the one I still don’t know the name of. I’d waited for as long as I could as he…
The blue hologram figure of Aunna looked down swiftly, hiding her face below her hair. If they could have been in the same room as the woman at the time, no doubt they would have been able to feel the pain and anger boiling up in her as she remembered those horrible moments of waiting behind that broken pile of wall and rubble. Slowly she lifted her head again, having composed herself slightly.
I know now that it was the force and my own will keeping me there until the proper time, waiting to strike. When I did…it wasn’t a simple matter for me. I’ve been honest thus far, and so I’ll continue to be honest…I wanted that man dead…I wanted him dead, and I wanted it badly. That bald dark jedi was a very real threat and he was about to kill the single person who’d saved my life more times than any other of my own men. I didn’t care about myself or what would happen to me…I wanted…needed…to protect Vex. He had come to my rescue time and again, showing (even if he denied it, or played it off at the time) that there was more good in him, that he CARED more, than he let on…or perhaps he didn’t even realize it himself.
I remember, clearly, thinking about the consequences of my actions and what they might be…but I wouldn’t…I couldn’t…allow this man to die, Republic be damned.
Like all members of security and military personnel of the Galactic Republic, I took an oath to serve and to protect…I have, at all times, done everything within my power to do both to the best of my ability and done so with little regret. At times I’ve been blinded or bound by orders that I found unjust, but I followed them through so long as I didn’t see it as an immediate threat to the lives of my men. On Nar Shaddaa…I harmed none save the one who tried to harm me, and then tried to kill the one person that had come to save my life time and again.
With no men to protect from harm, I did the one thing that my heart told me was right. I was not seeking the destruction of the Republic through saving Vex…I was not condoning his actions toward our citizens…I was not intending any harm or betrayal of any kind…it isn’t in me to do so…I’ve worked my entire life to protect our people, and I wouldn’t throw it away so lightly…but there are times, and situations, where you have to take a stand for what you believe in.
That was mine.
I believed in Vex at that moment, on that day, and I stood up for him when no one else would.
As a soldier, and as a human, it was my duty to protect those that were worthy of protection. If at no other time…on THAT day, I found Vex Praetor worthy of protection against a far darker foe…an enemy to both of us, and a far more deadly enemy of the Republic. When I struck, Vex struck, and between the both of us we managed to drive off that bald demon.
It branded me a traitor, but at least Vex got away alive…I couldn’t ask for more.
Yes, I’d hoped that I could get away with my actions without being discovered, but I knew the likelihood of that happening was slim, so, when Sgt Meesha found me and arrested me…it didn’t come as a complete surprise.
The nearly tangible combination of frustration, pain, and the almost urgent need to get her perspective across to them…to anyone…that had colored her words seemed to melt away from her form as she slumped slightly, her muscles (having tensed over the course of this section of her dialog) relaxing slightly as she took a fortifying breath and ran a hand through her hair.
This brings us to my less than pleasant time in prison. Since it was fairly uneventful, I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that it WAS unpleasant. Solitary confinement is certainly nothing I would wish upon anyone but the worst of criminals. My only solace, really, was Robbens’ notes…short as they were…and a visit from, oddly enough, the togruta jedi that interrogated me upon my first week in the compound.
The trial, if you can call it that, was a joke above all else. Witnesses that didn’t ‘witness’ anything, falsified evidence, MISSING evidence…truth serum?! No, it would have been easier and far more cost and time effective for them to have simply condemned me. However, I’m glad they didn’t take that route. Vex, it seems, has deemed himself my official protector. Logically…and oh how he likes to work logically…it doesn’t make a lick of sense for him to have come for me, to save me from my fate, and…truth be told…he would have likely been better off if he hadn’t. Even I know that I’m of little worth to his ‘cause’…his personal agendas…as a traitor. Logically he should have left me to die so that he wouldn’t have to worry about another loose end to clean up. I don’t believe he was…IS…acting logically.
He arrived in the guise of a jedi, under a name that was once his, and posed as my escort to the firing squad. I was…well, surprised would be a mild term and it wouldn’t cover the spectrum of emotions properly, but for now it will suffice I suppose. Even as we were near a way to escape he gave his all to try and get me away, and once again, I refused to leave him there for dead. I’m sure there isn’t much that the HNN hasn’t covered on that topic, so I won’t beat a dead horse.
The next day we split up, Vex and I, in the lower city. He went to lead the Republic troops away while I went to pay a visit to Cliff. I’m sure my father remembers Cliff, the son of the antiques collector that he, my brother, and I went to go see. Anyway, I knew that Cliff owned a cantina on Coruscant, and so that’s where I went to get into contact with the people I trusted to get us both off the planet.
Unfortunately, a shadow from my past met me there with his dark jedi pet.
Andrew…
Another heavy sigh escaped her and she almost seemed to not want to speak the name.
Forgive me if I’m brief on this, but I don’t wish to remember the topic. Andrew threatened to do things that no woman would care to have happen to her, then sell me to the hutts because of my voice. He, apparently, had Republic forces outside waiting for me and he made sure to inform me of it. I attempted to contact Vex with what small connection I had to the force, but that pet zabrak of his cut me off before I could. It wasn’t my ideal situation, being pinned to a wall, cut off, and forced to…of all things…sing for the man who’d stabbed me in the shoulder while trying to kill me not five years before, but that’s exactly the position I found myself in.
Somehow Vex found me through that song…and he found me more swiftly than I’d imagined…and not a moment too soon. The zabrak and Andrew, both, were dealt with by Vex though…I’m still fuzzy on the details. I was…rather near blacking out at the time and was more concerned with breathing than whatever Vex was doing to my tormentor….I was just happy that he was there. I wasn’t quite so happy when I saw exactly what had happened outside, but….I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with Vex about it either.
She didn’t mention that she’d been in his arms at the time and half conscious because of it. She didn’t mention how she’d felt safe with him like that. She didn’t mention that she’d fallen asleep in his arms like that.
Not long after, we had our encounter with you, and from there you know about as much as I can tell you.
There was a long pause as she gazed at her hands pensively, the sound of footsteps in the distance causing her to look up for a moment before sighing and returning her eyes to their previous focus.
I don’t expect any of this to clear my name…that isn’t my intent. I’m very well aware of my current standing with the Republic and the fact that my branding is very likely VERY permanent…no, my intent is simply to bring some of the truth of my situation, and how I got here, to the public eye. I was tried unfairly, not given a chance to defend myself properly, or even to tell my side of the story, convicting or not. I’m not asking for a miracle…I’m just asking that somehow, some of this truth that was so well buried gets to someone…anyone…everyone for all I care.
I, hopefully, have someone that I can contact to keep an ear out in the military branches…my former secretary…do enough digging and you’ll find her if you wish. Maybe I can find the person who was the driving force behind this so called trial and help bring them a little bit of the Republic’s justice…but for now all I ask is that you believe me in everything I’ve said here.
As I was told before, when I last saw you, I have a great many reasons to lie about things…but won’t. It doesn’t benefit me, and, since I expect to remain a traitor to the Republic, I really have nothing left to lose. If I’m caught my life is forfeit anyway, they’ve taken everything else from me… they cannot, however, take the truth from me…not now.
I can’t say how appreciative I am that you’re even taking the time to listen to this much of my story…even considering that if MIGHT be truth. Of all the people in the Republic, you’re one of the very few that I actually still trust…and I’m trusting you to do what you think is right with this information, whatever that may be…just please…whatever you do…whatever you think of me or of Vex…please, do not bury what little I have to show of my side of this mess.
I earned, in my time as a pilot for Corellia, my second class Bloodstripes…I pray that one day, I’ll be able to wear them again proudly and without repercussion. Until that time, however, I ask one more thing of you…please do not allow them to be taken from my parents unless it is by me. I understand that may be asking a lot considering their meaning, but…
She allowed her words to trail off, saying everything she couldn’t…
It would tear her heart apart to know they had been stripped from her, taken back because she had done something that she had felt was right. The only bit of pride she still had to show outwardly, as was customary to the Corellian people. Hopefully, Rook, of all people, would understand just how much she cared about her heritage and her culture…if he did, he would understand just how much that one symbol meant to her, and how effected she would be by its loss.
Thank you, once more….for everything…hopefully we’ll be able to meet face to face again some day and I can thank you properly and with all the flourish and frills that might entail…because we all know how much you love flourish and frills.
It was a mild attempt at humor, some small show of what had once been a far more carefree young woman. Aunna, hologram or no, was attempting to be some small semblance of herself after all the weight that had come before then. She’d stood up then, getting ready to shut down the recording device when she seemed to remember something.
Oh yes…I mentioned earlier that there had been several strange incidents for me on Manaan prior to meeting Vex…I nearly forgot to explain that. Ten years ago I was sent to bring back a shipment of kolto to Corellia…the first day there I had, what I’ve come to learn, was a vision…broken down in pieces.
I saw, and heard, Vex that day…in the exact places where I would meet him later…the dive bar, the hangar where Vorlax attacked me, the alleyway where he saved me from the sith soldiers…I saw glimpses of them all…
Five years later…similar occurrences happened…this time with a jedi present…one Rhissai. I smelled the fire from the base and felt the death there in what would come to be my office, heard Colonel Vinay shouting at me, and later…again in the hangar, inside Rhissai’s ship…I felt Vex’s breath on my neck and heard his rebreather over my shoulder like I did the day Vorlax attacked me.
I know it sounds unbelievable…hell, even I don’t believe it completely and I know it sounds insane, but it’s true enough. I doubt I would have even remembered those things again if it weren’t for the strange things that have been happening. Since I met Andrew again, my powers in the force have grown it seems…manifesting in odd ways….
….Like song.
Believe this last part as you will, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, but I said I’d tell you at the end, so there it is.
Goodbye for now.
She had allowed 13 to watch the message she’d given to her father…effectively her confession to what had happened these past months. It was, after all, the most expedient way to catch the droid up on what had happened from one of the people it had happened too. It would also (hopefully) minimize the number of questions she had to answer as far as recap was concerned. Besides, she didn't completely trust the REA either and so she'd kept 13 in her sight at almost all times. This was a way for Aunna to get some time to herself while being able to keep an eye on the little thing. As she'd scripted out the flowing lyrics of the song on her flimsy, she gazed almost sightlessly at the (almost unusual) old corellian language and writing. Certainly there were quite a few similarities to current Basic in the writing, but to one who wasn't used to reading it...it might seem as if she'd just made up a few letters and tossed them in at various places for fun or style, not to mention the fact that it was in a different language (more or less). That wasn't what she was currently thinking about, however.
After all they had been through together, all of the pain she’d been through because of him, because of her own choices, because of…everything…the thought of them being 'lovers' just seemed…strange. Foreign. She hadn’t considered anyone anything close to a lover, or even a prospective lover, since Andrew and…well…that obviously hadn’t turned out so well. She’d basically sworn any form of relationships off because of that and now, to find herself willingly involved with a man so similar, and so dissimilar, to that man…it wasn’t exactly a comfortable thought, and she didn’t know quite what to do about it. Or if she DID want to do anything about it. When they'd gone to pick up 13 she'd nearly spoken without thinking...nearly called him something (an endearment) in the very same language she had just been writing...and had only just barely caught herself in time.
Now that she was thinking about it, however, Aunna wasn't entirely certain if she minded calling Vex such a thing. Of course, there was the initial trepidation that went with calling anyone something other than their name...and it didn't help that Vex took that apprehension to a whole other level. She was getting settled in and more comfortable around the man, yes, (obviously, considering their time together) but even so, the man still had the ability to frighten her if he wanted, and she knew he was more than capable of doing a great deal of damage to her if he wished it, but he didn't wish to. By now that much was obvious...though it was, perhaps, still a bit strange to think about. The fact was, though, that he cared about her more than he said, and she certainly cared about him (if it wasn't obvious by now, he'd have to be blind)...so, why not attempt it? He certainly didn't seem to have any qualms in calling her by such endearments as 'little one' or 'pet'. Chuckling slightly, she shook her head...she really DID over think things at points, or kept herself blind to things she should have seen quite clearly.
Ah, old habits died hard after all...especially when it came to relationships it seemed.
Settling in on her bed a bit more she continued writing...singing as she went, her eyes closing every once in a while as she allowed the song to form more accurately in her mind. Aunna hadn’t been worried about Vex, seeing as the last time she’d seen him he’d been intent on being alone for a while. That was fine with her…it meant she could leave her cabin door open and keep an ear out for anything abnormal, allow 13 to come or go as she pleased (not that she cared to really go anywhere outside the watchful view of her companion’s blue eyes), and it was generally just pleasant to have it open...she wasn't quite sure why.
The little droid, curled up as she was beside her companion, had caught odd scans through her visor as she had watched the holo-message silently. Though they were little more than odd distortions, 13 couldn't help but be wary of the strange readouts. What did they mean? As Aunna sang, those scans became more...peculiar. There was just something...odd...about her when she sang. After those moments of processing the log and checking, double checking, and triple checking the scans...then her own systems...the little draconic droid flickered her wings (now a slightly annoyed yellow-orange) before shutting the holo-projectors off and shifting around so she could better study her companion through those unblinking optics.
This may seem an odd question to you but...why? Despite everything you said in that recording, I fail to see the logic behind your actions as far as Mr. Praetor is concerned. Certainly I expect a certain amount of "nobility" and "honor" in your actions considering your pedigree and background, but don't you believe that what you did was a bit...extreme? He went out of his way on Nar Shaddaa to see to your safety, yet you chose to put that at risk by aiding him and then being captured by the Republic soldiers sent there to retrieve you...why?
