{{ urbania's void - chapter 27
...reverberations (day negative seven hundred and six / -706)
Kaidin hated when Tessick got like this.
"It's so beautiful here..." Brushing crimson hair from his eyes, Tessick Ladreen crouched at the shore of the lake, running his fingers over the everchanging surface of the water.
They were on Hapes, hired for an assassination. The Queen Mother to be exact. They had attempted and failed, giving up after Kaidin whined about killing 'a beautiful woman that could be used for better things' --- Tessick never knew why Kaidin had such a lust for the Queen Mother of Hapes. Kaidin always passed it off as 'a challenge' ...he always challenged himself with inane and sick things, and Tessick knew this had to be just another one of his goals.
Their ship, the Corruption, was in the woods near the lake. They called it the 'Corr' for short. They were waiting out the daylight so they could escape, hopefully unseen, in the cover of the moonlit night.
So here they were, stalling around Karina Lake, minutes away from the Fountain Palace. Kaidin was seated against a huge, gnarled tree on the edge of the woods, his legs spread apart, pulled towards him. His arms rested on his knees, straight out in front of him. He held both of his hands out in front, over the space between his knees and framed Tessick's back in his fingers.
Now. Now. He had to do it now.
A few nights earlier, Kaidin had been contacted by an unknown source. A source that offered him insane amounts of money, power and wealth. Offered it to him for the body of Tessick Ladreen. The source didn't say why he had this bounty out on Tessick's head, but the source promised that it would pay up.
Normally, Kaidin would never believe such a silly proposition and he would pass it off as a useless job, tossing the thoughts aside. But his mind hadn't been in its normal state for the past few months.
Because of his binge drinking and drug-taking habits, Kaidin Serasai was slowly going insane.
Growling loudly, he pushed himself off of the ground and stumbled towards Tessick at a blinding speed, barreling into his back and knocking him into the water. Tessick turned around, but he didn't have time to speak before Kaidin buried his feet in the shore's mud and dropped to his knees in the water, seating himself on Tessick's stomach.
They were on the slight slope downwards, into the clear waters of the lake. Tessick stuck in the mud on his back, his feet the only thing sticking out of the shallow water. Kaidin shifted quickly on top of him, his hands holding Tessick's wrists down by his sides. Ladreen tried to lift his head above the water, but Kaidin shifted a bit again and grinned maliciously.
His left shin was across Tessick's thighs and his other leg was crooked, at an odd angle, the heel of his right foot pushed up onto the underside of Tessick's chin. It was holding his head back, and down, in the water, his crimson hair grinding into the mud. The flaps on his jacket floated above him, as well as strands of his hair and the ties on his pants. Kaidin pulled Tessick's wrists towards himself, out of the water and pushed the opposite direction of his chin, watching his neck as it seemed to stretch. He could see bubbles, along with streams of blood trickling from Tessick's lips, upwards to the surface, to the air.
Releasing a grunt, Kaidin splashed off of Tessick's body and treaded out of the lake, drawing in deep, ragged breaths. Water dripped from his pants and the bottom hem of his tight shirt, while he pulled his damp gloves off, leaving his arms and his hands bare.
And then mechanically, like a broken droid, Kaidin reached down and clasped his hands around Tessick's ankles. He began to drag him out of the lake, out of the mud, towards where the ship was hidden.
He opened the Corr and dropped Tessick in the middle of the hold, against a bulkhead. Kaidin dripped a trail of water on the metallic floor of the ship as he stalked to the cockpit, an indifferent expression pasted on his face. It was like something was possessing him.
It was like that, but that wasn't how it was.
He sat himself down in the pilot's seat and waited. Waited for nightfall.
Waited to collect his bounty.
"Guys! I thought you'd be halfway to Hapes right now! What are you doing here?!"
Khee Verelen walks into the Exa Sendra, with a cowering Rez Nyena at his side. Darix Norin watches them from his place behind the bar and yells out to them, over the heads of oblivious people.
"Where was he sitting, Rezzy?" Khee whispers to the girl.
Clothed in a long, baggy jacket, she points to a seat a ways down the bar. Khee looks to Darix. Rez looks to Darix. He has a confused expression upon his tan face.
"Who was sitting there, Rix?" Khee speaks in a monotone voice, trying to keep a calm demeanor about himself.
"Uhm... I'm trying to remember..." Darix crosses his arms over his muscular chest and bites his lip. His eyes lock with Khee's. "Why?"
The lanky blonde scrambles up onto the barstool in front of him, slams his left palm atop the bartop and uses his right to grab Darix's collar. He pulls him forward, hissing.
"Because whoever it was raped Rez last night."
"What?!"
Khee lets go of the man and crawls off of the stool, but continues to lean forward on the bar. "You heard me."
Rez is looking around nervously. Khee notices and grabs her, pulling her in front of him, against the bar. She faces Darix and looks at him across the bar, while Khee wraps his arms around her waist and rests his head on her shoulder, both of them staring at Darix.
Darix's thoughts become more urgent as he stares at the place the man was sitting, trying to jog his memory. "What did he look like?"
She speaks quietly, so quietly that Darix leans forward to hear her. "He had black hair, to his shoulders, with a green streak. He was tall, gray eyes. Medium build."
The green streak sets off Darix's mental sirens. "That's Kaidin Serasai. He's a bounty hunter. Partner named Tessick Lah--- La... Ladreen! That's it. They come in here a lot. I don't know why Tessick wasn't here with him last night. Maybe he was off setting up for a job or somethin'..."
Khee and Rez watch him as if he is going to continue speaking. He does.
"He offered to get rid of some slimy Hutt who was giving me trouble once. He dropped me his number and said if I ever needed someone taken care of, to give him a call. Pretty expensive though, that one. I think he's a lil' greedy."
Khee's green eyes narrow. "Do you still have his number?"
Darix retreats to the back room.
"You think it'll really work, Khee?" Rez squirmed nervously on the couch, an A280 blaster in her hand. She was visibly shaking.
From his spot in the chair beside the wall of windows, Khee drew in a deep breath through his nose. His nostrils flared as the smell of sweat and fear crept into his system, choking him up. "To tell you the truth, dear, I have no idea."
Rez knew that they probably wouldn't survive. Tessick Ladreen and Kaidin Serasai would come blazing through the door, blasters blaring, vibroblades slashing. She had to admit that Khee did come up with a pretty clever plan though. All he wanted was one shot at Kaidin, one shot. She knew where he would plant that one shot too. Her eyes trailed to him. He was staring intently at the front door of the apartment, absently trailing the outside edge of the blaster's muzzle along his lips.
Khee had contacted Kaidin through the number Darix had found the day they went to see him, after that horrible night. He told Kaidin that he was placing a huge bounty on Tessick Ladreen's head, bigger than even Kaidin could imagine, and Khee swore he would pay it.
For Tessick Ladreen's dead body.
Kaidin agreed.
Khee told Rez that since Tessick and Kaidin were best friends and partners, as Darix informed them, they would scoff the bounty off and both show up at the apartment, ready to kill the being that set the bounty and then collect the rewards themselves.
They could have never been more wrong.
A knock sounded on the door. Khee quickly stood from his seat and walked by Rez, who sat on the couch. On his way, he leaned down and gently kissed her forehead, strands of blonde hair falling from behind his ears to softly tickle her cheeks.
It was like a goodbye kiss.
From her best friend, her brother. The man who saved her.
And as his lips left her skin, he flipped the blaster's safety off and sauntered towards the door. Hitting the manual switch on the front door and opening it a crack, Khee stared into a bloodshot gray eye. Strands of sweaty hair hung in front of this tired eye, black and green.
"I got him." The man with the eye hissed.
Khee clasped his right hand around the edge of the door and hid his left hand, which contained the blaster, behind the door. The light from the hallway spilled into the dark apartment and Khee let a tad more flood in as he pulled the door open some more, enough to let Kaidin slide in.
Khee expected Kaidin to slide in with Tessick entering right behind him, both with blasters ready.
Kaidin came in, hands full. But not with blasters or vibroblades.
A wet thud disrupted the silence as Kaidin dropped his cargo to the floor. A body, wrapped in a crude sheet. As it fell to the floor, the tattered linen shifted, leaving the man's face uncovered. Fit the description of Tessick Ladreen perfectly.
It was Tessick Ladreen.
Rez squeaked in horror from her place on the sofa and that's when Kaidin noticed her, sitting in the dark of the living area, her body clothed in a comforting shade of off-white.
"You..." Kaidin scowled. That's when he realized it was a trap. His hands snapped to the blasters at his sides and they were out, safeties off in a heartbeat. One pointed to Khee, one to Rez.
The two had their blasters on him too.
To Rez and Khee, what Kaidin had done to her was serious. It would affect her forever. She would never feel the same again; she was uncomfortable with her body, uncomfortable with her mind. She shunned things she normally enjoyed. She hadn't eaten much since that night...
To Kaidin... Rez was just another piece of trash. Another few arousing minutes of his life. Used. Thrown away. Forgotten.
The bounty hunter knew the blonde would be more of a threat, so Kaidin shot a blast off towards him before ducking behind the dining area table. Khee dodged the bolt, threw his blaster to Rez and then lunged towards Kaidin, kicking one of the weapons out of his hands. He fell into a flurry of Hapan kickboxing moves. Kaidin was stronger and quicker than Khee expected, swishing away from each move and keeping an offensive edge the whole time.
Rez, as the fighting ensued, scrambled to Tessick's body, tossing blue hair out of her face. She studied his face, which was the only piece of his body exposed from under the sheet. His cheeks were a bit bloated and there was...
Seaweed?
There was seaweed in his hair. Seaweed.
Kaidin drowned Tessick... he really killed his best friend...
Rez glanced up to the rumble going on in the other part of the room and scowled. Kaidin had punched Khee, who was now backed up near the wall, holding his mouth. She could see blood in his blonde hair and blood trickling down his neck.
The universe slowed itself.
And Rez watched as Kaidin fired a blaster bolt right into Khee's chest. She watched his body physically react, getting shoved back into the wall, the momentum throwing his hair in front of his face.
The silence after that was deafening, disrupted only by Khee's ragged breathing.
Gray eyes turned to Rez and narrowed, as Kaidin brushed a free, bloody hand back through his hair.
"Your turn, sister." Kaidin quickly retrieved his other blaster and aimed them both at Rez, firing off a round. She was staring at Khee as the bolts smacked her square in the chest. A gasp from her and then she turned her gaze to Kaidin.
"Don't you know..." Her breathing was coming to a halt. "Don't you know it's... ladies first?"
Aiming her and Khee's blasters, Rez shot them both off. And her aim was dead on.
Dropping his own A280-K's, Kaidin's hands quickly moved to his crotch as he fell to his knees, clutching at himself. His eyes teared up in seconds and he rocked back and forth, on the floor, in a fetal position.
"How... how does it feel?" Rez had stumbled over to him, the blaster holes clearly showing on her nightgown. She was swaying wildly and Khee was backed up against the wall laughing hoarsely.
"That was a nice one, Nyena..." He pushed himself off of the wall and grabbed her wrist, wrapping her up in his arms. "We're going to Hapes... we're going... I promised... we'll be there soon..."
And then silence fell over the room as Khee and Rez collapsed beside Tessick's dead body, both now in the same state as Ladreen.
Kaidin couldn't stand it. He could survive this. But he would be disabled for life. Skittering his fingers across the floor, he grabbed one of his blasters and closed his lips around the muzzle.
He had killed his best friend in a fit of greed. He just lost the ability to do something he always craved. Biting down on the cold metal, he pulled the trigger.
Tessick Ladreen, under the cold blanket of death, brown eyes closed, seaweed tangled into his crimson hair. Surprise still paled his face.
Khee Verelen, clutching at his best friend, his sister. His legs entwined with hers, his blood seeping onto her nightgown. The blaster hole in his own chest pressed in between the singed blaster marks on hers.
Rez Nyena, her arms wrapped around Khee's waist, up under his shirt, tears in her lifeless eyes. Her head tucked under his chin, blue hair splayed around her head like a discolored halo.
Kaidin Serasai, his life draining, his eyes shutting. His head fell onto Rez's ankle. Blood from them all seeped into a puddle in the middle of the floor. The floor where Lowbacca, Zekk Arkenna and Gadell Vessau slept roughly seven hundred and thirty-four days later.
And the galaxy continued it's endless motion.
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