Wrong Rescue

[Redik]

"Intel considers most hit-and-fade trails that don't get picked back up within twenty-four hours cold. The likelihood of picking it back up again in a galaxy of this size without other hard evidence is just too remote."
- Pierce Tondry, from the thread Live Fire: Hair Trigger

######

The trip to the warehouse where the thugs operated from took Redik all of twenty minutes. The speeder he'd stolen was fast enough that he made up for lost time, in spite of driving slowly and making random turns to ensure no one followed him. It seemed prudent to park a block over where the vehicle wouldn't be spotted, so he did and walked the rest of the way.

Ten minds lurked somewhere inside the two-story gray building. He could hear them, could smell them as though they were last week's bantha ribs. Some of the alien minds possessed odd textures, but they all thought in Basic Common. That made everything easy.

Another minute of sniffing and two barely-there sets of thoughts turned up. Though of course he didn't know this building from any other, the relative direction from himself would suffice to find them.

Picking up a pipe from the ground, he began to listen. The closest thing, the thing he heard the best, was Basic with heavy Aqualish.

######

"Oy, Gnedudyardred. N'yr g'larkrknk ahabd felrrglr."

"Seriously?" Jot the mechanic waved off his Aqualish counterpart. "You just had a deathstick not two minutes ago on the ride back."

"R'rsfholl fndaadr glurkrarl."

"No." Jot gestured at the door and turned on a buffing machine to work a few of the dings out of his ride. "You are not smoking in here where there's fuel. Take your nasty habit outside."

"Hakp'too!" The Aqualish said indignantly, but nonetheless headed for the small door off by the side wall. The night air was cold, but he'd put up with it because another deathstick would make him feel good.

He'd just tilted his mouth to light the deathstick when something hard and cold hit him in the back of the head.

######

Leaving the pipe sticking out the side of the Aqualish's skull, Redik rifled through his clothes for useful items. Ultimately coming up with several sets of keys and a small number of credits, he pocketed them before easing into the warehouse and closing the door.

Nine minds.

[Kazia]

note - the music for this scene is The Grand Duel (Parta Prima) by Ennio Morricone

INSIDE THE BUILDING

:: Kazia dangled by the wrists from chains that were bolted from the ceiling. Her eyes fluttered as a pair of scaled hands slid over her body, touching her in ways she would never allow if she had her wits about her. Her vision cleared slowly, and she found herself in a room with a motley bunch of humans and aliens. Lower ranked Black Sun sleaze that Sasseeri probably had no idea she was paying. It was obvious what they used this room for, and it made her skin crawl. She noted Kallum was still down, but her view was obscured as the Trandoshan moved around to face her. It hissed, trailing it's tongue over her cheek as she winced in disgust ::

[Kallum Romanoch]

"Water..."

Kallum groaned. The thugs turned to see him stir from unconsciousness, he was groggy and disorientated, his eyes strained to make sense of his surroundings. He felt tightly wound wire cutting into his ankles and wrists. One of the humans approached and kicked him in the gut, he rolled away but was held down by the sudden weight of a boot pressed against his chest. His eyes flitted briefly across the room to Kazia, the others had left her alone for the time being, their attention was now fixed on him. He parted his dry lips and muttered again.

"Water, please."

"You want water?" said the man hovering over him, his boot pressed harder against his chest, "I'll give you water!"

Kallum struggled frantically under him, he wriggled to be free of his boot but it was too late. The thug started to relieve himself. He wretched violently at the sharp stench of hot urine on his face and in his hair. There was laughter all around, gruff hearty laughter, and the moment his tormentor glanced to his approving friends, the laughter stopped.

"Nrgh!" Kallum grunted, he disloged the boot and coiled upwards. In his bound hands he held a piece of broken glass, he buried it into the thug's abdomen and twisted it with all his weight as he fell back to the floor. The man howled and stumbled backwards, his blood sloshing freely on the ground.

"Gave yeh anuder piss 'ole der, mate. 'ow d'yeh like da'?"

Kallum was silenced by an onslaught of heavy boots, they came from every direction until at last he fell unconscious once more.

[Redik]

Redik looked up from his latest work, one bloodstained hand frozen in mid-movement. His eyes glanced about as though searching for something he'd just heard.

Leaving the corpse as it lay, Redik crouched down behind a speeder and waited. Before he'd died, Jot the mechanic had offered up everything he knew, and based on the footsteps it sounded like Stitch and Bull were coming his way.

######

"Pissant prick got me in the gut, Stitch," Bull complained. "In the gut! Now I'll have a scar and it'll turn off the hookers."

Stitch rolled his eyes, pushing the door open and guiding Bull into a side room with his first aid kit. "You're an idiot Bull. Hookers like scars. They make you seem tougher."

Bull's face dimmed as he thought about the prospect, then brightened. "Really?"

Stitch nodded, then paused. He'd suddenly remembered that he needed to go wash his hands before treating someone. "Lie down on that table," he said. "I'll be right back. Going to go wash my hands real quick."

The menial task took about four minutes; the nearest bathroom lay down the hall and around the corner. Once finished, he returned to the makeshift clinic and opened the door. Bull lay on the table, his hands covering his eyes. "Hah, good to see you're finally following directions for a change. Gimme a sec to get some gloves on and I'll get to work."

Stitch opened the clasp on the first aid kid, pulling a pair of disposable gloves out of the container inside. "Bull, you been fishing through here?" he asked aloud, continuing to sift through the kit. "I don't see my scalpel."

"Bull, have you seen my scalpel?" The lack of continued reply drew Stitch's notice. "Bull, you okay buddy?"

Bull continued to lay motionless. 'Moron.' Stitch grabbed one of Bull's hands and pulled it away from his face. "Bull, I asked have you seen-"

A dry heave interrupted his reply. He dropped Bull's hand and the motion shook the hand off of the other eye, revealing a second empty eye socket next to the one he'd just uncovered. Stitch fell to his knees, hugging his stomach with both arms while trying to keep his stomach under control.

Bull was dead.

"No," a voice said. "He hasn't seen anything."

Still shaking and trembling, Stitch turned his head. A strange man stood in front of the now-closed door; how he'd missed seeing him in the room Stitch didn't know. He wore a pair of the kit's disposable gloves and in one hand held the missing scalpel.

"Wh- wh- who are y- you?" Stitch asked, feeling his usual bravado slip. The grotesque figure of his crewmate's disfigured face kept turning itself over and over in his head, laughing. Unnerved to the point of impairment, Stitch lurched and vomited on the floor, finally overcome by the violent nausea swimming in his head.

"Oh, that's no way to treat a friend," the man said. He knelt down next to Stitch and got a firm grip on the nape of Stitch's neck, forcing him upright on his knees. "You just need to relax."

Stitch hiccupped, tasting vomit again. "Not- brrrrap, not- not friend," he protested.

"So uptight," the man said. He lifted the scalpel and drew the flat of it along his Stitch's cheek. "I mean really. I haven't done anything since you walked in and look at you. Blubbering and spitting up like a baby."

With a jerk, the two men were suddenly eye to eye. Stitch saw something entirely terrifying in that gaze. "N- no. Don't-", he protested weakly.

The stranger shook his head in mock dismay. "Why so serious?" he asked.

The scalpel flashed with liquid red.

######

Four minutes later, Redik stepped out of the bathroom. He whistled as he dried his hands on a towel and threw it into a nearby trash bin. Six minds left, but most of them were clustered upstairs in the same place. It wouldn't be easy to take them all unaware.

Stretching out his senses, Redik gently probed the semi-conscious mind between his two targets. The mind definitely spoke in male and from some of the images he picked up at the edges, it seemed he'd caused a small ruckus earlier. The situation bore all the makings of an excellent diversion.

Redik's senses extended again, this time to one of the other minds nearby.

######

"'ey guys," Frusk, the Kubaz said aloud in accented Basic. "What say we drag our thirsty friend out into the alley and give him another lesson?"

[Kazia]

:: The Trandoshan remained distracted with his prize as she hung from her chains. Kazia gasped as clawed fingers crept below her waist, allowing the reptile to invade her mouth with it's tongue. Pulling her close against him, the Trandoshan forced her to engage in a vulgar kiss ::

[Kallum Romanoch]

Kallum stirred slowly as though waking from a heavy slumber. Fine gray dust clinged to his blood-crusted lips, he rolled awkwardly, kissing the floor and spluttered. A cloud of powder billowed around his face, stinging his eyes, his vision was obscured. Somewhere nearby, Kazia gasped, and he stiffened, suddenly recalling their predicament. Squinting through the dust and the blur of salty tears he saw her being abused by an alien, she looked so small and helpless.

"Kaz," he groaned, "Don' wo-"

The air rushed out of his body as a foot buried itself in his gut. He curled up, wheezing desperately, clutching at his belly. Three huge pairs of boots surrounded him, he clamped his bound hands feebily against his head and braced himself but it seemed they had other intentions. He felt large hands clasp around his ankles and in an instant he was on the move, being dragged to the back of the warehouse. He hid his fear from Kazia as he slid past.

"Every'n 'll be fine, Kaz, I promise! Kaz!" he said, his voice burdened with anger and desperation, "Kaz! I'm 'ere for yeh, Kaz! I promise! Kaz!"

A door closed with a loud clang which resonated throughout the warehouse, and Kallum's cries could be heard no more.

[Redik]

Clunk. Crash!

"The hell was that?" Knuckles asked Gr'ssk, his Trandoshan comrade.

"Five mindssss," Gr'ssk murmured, too intent on the female in front of him to pay attention to anything else.

"What?" Knuckles turned to Gr'ssk. "Th' hell's 'at mean?"

"It'ssss probably just the boy breaking thingssss," Gr'ssk's tongue trailed up the woman's cheek. "Go check it out yoursssself if you're sssso conccccerned."

"Heh!" Knuckles shrugged. "Guess I will. Leave you two lovebirds alone 'sides."

The Trandoshan didn't answer. He didn't respond to the door closing, or the muffled exclamations about a dead body from the next room, or to the sounds of a fight, or of the blaster shot and chilling silence that followed. He had the perfect woman in front of him, to do with as he pleased.

One of his hands slid inside the rim of her leather pants, then withdrew at the feeling of a tiny prick. A small black scorpion hung from his hand by its stinger. Gr'ssk shook and shook, but the scorpion would not let go. Suddenly, a swarm of scorpions emerged from the girl's body, falling on him in waves. He twisted and spun and shook, but they would not let go. He stared at the girl, whose smile just mocked his predicament. Then she turned into a scorpion and slid from her chains, and the blackness swarmed Gr'ssk under...

######

Gr'ssk stood, unmoving, and had for three minutes. His eyes stared through Kazia, seeing things she could not.

Then the door to the room opened. Redik stepped in, closing the door behind him. "Am I interrupting?" he asked with a dry smirk.

[Kazia]

:: Kazia tried to regain some dignity after spitting out the Trandoshan saliva that coated her tongue. Hanging from her bonds, she looked towards the sound of the familiar voice ::

"... Redik???"

[Redik]

The sound of his name stopped him in midstride. His eyes fixed on her, not distracted by her fine, fine body, or the shock in her thoughts, or the large green alien standing before her like a deficient mental case. "You remembered," he said, not disguising the pleasure that gave him.

With the calm footsteps of a stalking predator, he began to circle Kazia and the Trandoshan. "I told you," he said, stopping to speak behind her right ear. "That you'd never forget me."

He moved on, leaving behind only the wafting vapors of his cologne. "It was such a chance, seeing you in that restaraunt," he went on. "And then that fight where you were left vulnerable and in danger and in need of my help. Clearly a greater power than mine was guiding fate this day."

Redik's face swung to stare at the Trandoshan's frozen features with sudden rage. "And you dared to point a weapon at me? To threaten my life? To take her to be your doll, to use and break and throw away?"

He withdrew the blaster Kazia had dropped from its concealment among his clothes and gently clasped one of Kazia's chained hands around the grip, pointing it at the Trandoshan. "I know he disgusts you in ways you would never deny," he said, back to whispering into Kazia's ear. "Take from him what he would have taken from you. Kill him."

[Kazia]

:: Kazia stood awkwardly after Redik had taken her down from the ceiling, and she shivered as her old lover guided her movements ::

"Don't make me ..." she hissed defiantly. "... not like this."

[Redik]

Redik stopped, not bothering to disguise his disappointment. He tore the gun back from Kazia's hand and levelled it directly at the Trandoshan's forehead. "His fate was sealed in the restaurant," he announced. "One of us was going to kill him here. I was just offering you the pleasure."

And with that he pulled the trigger, firing a bolt into the Trandoshan's face. The other swayed on his feet slightly, then collapsed at Kazia's feet. Wisps of smoke and heat rose from the burnt hole.

He was definitely dead.

With a contemptuous snort, Redik tossed the gun aside. "Well, look at where we find ourselves," he said, gesturing at the room around him. A finger played lazily along her jaw, which he then kissed. "We should take advantage of this opportunity to get reacquainted," he murmured in her ear.

[Kazia]

:: She cursed inwardly at her arousal to his touch, but the sounds of cruelty outside drove her to resist ::

"KALLUM!!!"

[Redik]

At the other's name, Redik withdrew from Kazia's body. "Ah, the boy," he mused. "You have... concern for him."

He shrugged. "There are three of them with him now," he said, a faraway look in his eyes. "They're resting, getting ready for another round. He's fading in and out. I think they might kill him next time. He's not very useful to them. Not like you would be."

Redik began to walk around her towards the door. "I'd say you might save him," he mused. "Although, even armed three on one is a risk. And there's a chance one of them might decide to finish him before dealing with you. Even if you win, you still lose."

With one hand on the knob, he turned and looked Kazia in the eye. "Good luck," he smirked.

[Kazia]

:: Kazia snatched her pistol and aimed it at Redik's head ::

"STOP!!!" she cried. "MAKE THEM STOP!!!"

:: Her hands were shaking, and she felt light-headed. What the frell did he do to her? ::

[Redik]

"Or else what? You shoot me?" Redik scoffed.

Her lithe frame was barely trembling with a mix of fear, rage, intense stress, and the arousing drug she'd been breathing off him since the beginning. "Such ingratitude. I came here and saved you. I could have let you die. Or I could have burned everything in this building."

He began to walk back towards her. "But no, that wouldn't make sense at all would it?" he asked. "I bought you, so I'd be destroying something I own. You were mine and you knew what I offered you. The life I offered you. But no, you chose to leave it. To escape."

He slowly reached for the gun, but her aim shifted and he stopped. "I don't owe you anything, Kazia. You owe me more than you can easily repay and I have chosen not to collect from you when a lesser being would have."

"So I ask again. Make them stop, or else what?"

[Kazia]

:: Her face contorted in a pout as she looked at him. She knew what he wanted ::

"Please ... make them stop and you can have me!!!"

:: She started to cry ::

[Redik]

"I can already have you," Redik told her. "I could make you want me if I chose to. Is giving yourself to me something you really want? Or are you just doing it to save the boy's life?"

[Kazia]

:: Her cheeks turned a deeper color as she lowered her weapon ::

"DO IT!!!!" she pleaded, her eyes glancing to the alley fearfully.

[Redik]

One of his hands reached for the blaster and took it from her weak grip. The other found its way behind her head, supporting her behind the nape of her neck. His thumb brushed away a tear and his eyes bored into hers, listening intently to the turmoil inside her mind.

A smile crept onto his face and stayed put. "Both," he murmured. "You want both. It's a start. Maybe you have learned. Maybe there's hope for you yet."

His own eyes closed and he began to listen elsewhere for the three patterns of thoughts swirling with brutal frustration. They were slightly worn out and it was easy to just add to their thought patterns the notion that they had to sleep, like an editor including extra words that changed the text of a sentence. Within moments, each mind had drifted off.

"It's done," he whispered.

And then he kissed her and began to let his hands drift of their own accord.

[Kallum Romanoch]

Kallum stirred. There was disorientation, pain, and the sharp tang of blood on his tongue. His body protested at the slightest movement. He coughed, sand crusted his lips, and gasped at the sharp pain in his side. He twisted in a panic and checked for knife wounds, his hands fumbling over bruised skin. There were cuts and sore spots but no serious injuries. He was lucky.

A groan escaped him as he sat himself upright. He was in a junk yard behind the warehouse, and across from him his three attackers had fallen asleep side by side on the engine of a pod racer. Very lucky, he thought. Slowly, and quietly, he lifted himself onto his feet. He was dizzy, and slumped against the wall. Before his eyes, the trio of thugs became six, then three again. He needed to rest but there was Kazia, still trapped inside, at the mercy of these bastards. He had to do something.

It was with some difficulty he stole a blaster from its holster on one of the sleeping men, and then he was inside again, the back door closed silently behind him and he moved carefully amongst the storage crates to get a better look at Kazia and her tormentor.