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dathomirs | for all the ghosts that are never gonna catch me
The directive was a simple one. Routine even. For the Inquisitorious' most loyal hound, it was a test of his extensive conditioning. He wasn't a normal Inquisitor - where there was some level of free will with them, with this one, most, if not all of it had been snuffed out He had one order, and one order only: obey.
Often, obey meant kill. Destroy. Terminate a target, eliminate a base or a threat by wiping it off the map and vanishing as if he'd never been there. No evidence. Typically, he was sent alone, where an Inquisitor would have an entire squadron of troopers to lead. There wasn't much else. He was a blank slate, a sum of what they made him into, a ghost. He didn't think of himself as anything because his thoughts were all programmed by someone else.
As was his training.
Whoever he'd once been had been washed away under months of torture and conditioning until he truly was nothing but a weapon of the Empire.
(It wasn't foolproof - on more than one occasion a hint of something would slip through his shields, causing him to question... but they'd take him back and start fresh, wipe the slate all over again).
The pilot did not let up once they landed on the nearly empty ruins of the planet Dathomir. A nightsister, his target, there had been a knowing smile on Grand's face but he did not know what it meant nor did he care enough to ask as he gathered his gear and boarded the ship. The chip in his hand revealed a woman, zabrak by the look of it - according to the information, one of the last of her kind. He said nothing, or felt nothing as he stared at the holographic image for a moment longer than normal, before stashing it once again. Adjusting his helmet, he drew his saber and stepped lightly over the rust red terrain to where he believed he would find her.
When he found the woman in question, he engaged, red blade flashing as he ducked, dodged, and struck against her. She was powerful; the report had said as much - not to underestimate her and do not come back until the job was complete. For a while it seemed like they were both on even ground and fairly matched well. Neither had the upper hand.
Not until she slipped past his defenses once, for only a second. The strike was strong enough to throw him back off his feel, the blank mask flying off his face as he hit the ground.
Get. Up. Do not fail. Or else.
Head still bowed, he climbed awkwardly back to his feet before meeting his opponents eyes, wiping blood from his mouth. Green eyes stared back from a face that might be all too familiar, if not slightly different - pale and thinner, but unmistakably the face of someone long since dead and gone stares back, eyes full of hate and rage, pain screaming into the force.
Often, obey meant kill. Destroy. Terminate a target, eliminate a base or a threat by wiping it off the map and vanishing as if he'd never been there. No evidence. Typically, he was sent alone, where an Inquisitor would have an entire squadron of troopers to lead. There wasn't much else. He was a blank slate, a sum of what they made him into, a ghost. He didn't think of himself as anything because his thoughts were all programmed by someone else.
As was his training.
Whoever he'd once been had been washed away under months of torture and conditioning until he truly was nothing but a weapon of the Empire.
(It wasn't foolproof - on more than one occasion a hint of something would slip through his shields, causing him to question... but they'd take him back and start fresh, wipe the slate all over again).
The pilot did not let up once they landed on the nearly empty ruins of the planet Dathomir. A nightsister, his target, there had been a knowing smile on Grand's face but he did not know what it meant nor did he care enough to ask as he gathered his gear and boarded the ship. The chip in his hand revealed a woman, zabrak by the look of it - according to the information, one of the last of her kind. He said nothing, or felt nothing as he stared at the holographic image for a moment longer than normal, before stashing it once again. Adjusting his helmet, he drew his saber and stepped lightly over the rust red terrain to where he believed he would find her.
When he found the woman in question, he engaged, red blade flashing as he ducked, dodged, and struck against her. She was powerful; the report had said as much - not to underestimate her and do not come back until the job was complete. For a while it seemed like they were both on even ground and fairly matched well. Neither had the upper hand.
Not until she slipped past his defenses once, for only a second. The strike was strong enough to throw him back off his feel, the blank mask flying off his face as he hit the ground.
Get. Up. Do not fail. Or else.
Head still bowed, he climbed awkwardly back to his feet before meeting his opponents eyes, wiping blood from his mouth. Green eyes stared back from a face that might be all too familiar, if not slightly different - pale and thinner, but unmistakably the face of someone long since dead and gone stares back, eyes full of hate and rage, pain screaming into the force.
no subject
Still sopping wet, he wraps it around his shoulders instead of toweling off completely. He's more comfortable putting on his old clothing than touching his old saber, echoes don't reflect as strongly in clothing as they do in objects.
"Thanks."
He'd left the helmet back where they fought, but he stared at the pieces for a long moment before replying.
"Yeah. We could do that - wouldn't be completely unbelievable for me to have been I don't know, taken by surprise by some of the wildlife here. It won't fool them forever, but it can give us a good enough head start."
no subject
"Bring it, then. We'll drop it on our way off the planet; I know just the barely-accessible spot for an Inquisitor to have disappeared with little trace."
Barely accessible to anyone without both the Force or an innate knowledge of Dathomir's flora and fauna, at least. It will slow their pursuers down; give them time to get somewhere unworthy of their notice. Tanalorr is an endgame she doesn't want to bring into the discussion yet, given the fraught circumstances under which she'd finally gone there.
With that much decided, she looks Cal over again with concern that's more muted now that he seems... okay. Better than she'd hoped, at any rate.
"How are you feeling? That fall you took can't have been pleasant. Nothing's broken, I assume, or else your tolerance for pain is worrisomely improved."
The hot springs have some analgesic qualities, can help speed up the healing of minor bruises, that sort of thing. Her arm throbs dully rather than feeling as badly singed as it was. She expects Cal's fine to walk back to her makeshift home, but she doesn't want to be surprised.
no subject
The memories threatened to drag him down. Just keep moving. Don't think of it. He forced himself to keep moving, dimly aware that Merrin had asked him a question.
"I've had worse." He says with a shrug. "No, I feel pretty good - the springs really did wonders." His tolerance for pain has improved a quite deal, it had to in order to survive his training and conditioning without breaking, but -- it was in the past, it was at least something useful that had come out of the whole thing.
no subject
Still, she worries. It's a short walk back to the place she's been staying, and she leads him through the door with a nod to an unoccupied space in a corner.
"You can drop it over there for now. I will find you some fresh clothes and we'll see what we can find for dinner. It's not going to be Greez's cooking, but I suspect I can do better than whatever the Empire feeds you."
She disappears into the back room where a makeshift bed is surrounded by a few trunks with clothing and other things she's collected while here. She remembers exactly where she'd put Cal's old clothes, and one thing in particular stands out as being perfect both for the weather here and, perhaps, for helping Cal find an uncomplicated memory in all of this.
She returns a moment later holding a spare pair of pants that had been Cal's, and one of the more muted ponchos he'd been so attached to -- she unfortunately drew the line at the horrid pink one, but this one had, on occasion, warded off her own chill in the cold nights here.
"Here you are. You can change in my room if you like. You're welcome to take the bed tonight, as well."
Another time they'd have shared, but she wants to give him space. She doesn't imagine either of them will be getting the best sleep of their lives, but Cal at least deserves a comfortable space to shake off some of the shadows of the past two years.
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As if to make itself known, his stomach growls at the mere mention of food and his face reddens slightly which luckily pulls him from getting too dark in his thoughts.
"I could honestly eat a bantha. Maybe two." He's used to rations, small portions, nothing has ever come close to Greez's cooking; now that he remembers what that was like.
With a nod he takes the poncho and clothing and moves to her room to change, running his hand over the thick fabric and letting the emotions attached to it in. There's his own: grateful for it's warmth on Illum and snuggling underneath it after he'd been ill. There's Merrin's; basking in the warmth and feeling close to him underneath it.
He dresses himself quickly, the pants fit a little loose on him now but they work fine enough. Cal for the first time in years, feels like himself again. A person, not a thing.
His legs move backward until he hits the edge of a bed. He crumples down onto it.