Our Fate is Our Own

[Jiang Winters]

It'd been a day since the spectacular failure that was the attempted abduction of Sonam Winters. The would-be kidnappers had been chased down and killed by Valena Cross, Ayda Kaede, Jiang Winters, and the Teruyoshi Twins. Despite the overwhelming response of his family and allies, the attack still struck a nerve with Sonam. His training finally kicked in and paranoia was the new name of the game.

The feline moved from the hospital to yet another of his Coruscant safehouses. It was a roomy three bedroom apartment, located in an utterly nondescript residential district lurking below a major financial sector. He wouldn't be there long - a few days at most, then he'd return to his ship, rework the registration, and move from there. He knew a friend on Naboo - he could call in a few favors and get a place to stay there until things settled down and he wasn't being pursued by a bunch of thugs with automatic weapons.

Despite Sonam's protests, Ayda had accompanied him to his safehouse. He had tried to argue with her, but finally gave up when she argued that she was just as likely to be pursued as he was and that they'd stand a better chance of surviving if they worked together. He had to admit, they'd make a hell of a team; their combined skillsets, experience, and cybernetics would make them a force to be reckoned with. Still, a part of him wished that Ayda was with Jiang, where he knew she'd be out of harm's way.

"That's got to be whatever's left of my 'Ji' side," he thought to himself, the feline leaning against the doorframe of the guest bedroom as Ayda unpacked her clothes. The shards of memories and emotions that were left behind in the suppression of his second personality had left him with deep ties to Ayda; she was indescribably dear to him, and it wasn't like the love he'd known for Val. Nothing like it at all. Val had made him feel warm and comfortable and loved. Around Ayda, he felt all that, but more importantly he felt wanted.

He pushed those thoughts from his mind as the mashi horansi woman glanced over her shoulder at him. "You can come in, you know," she quipped.

Sonam chuckled. "I've been on my butt for days now. Standing feels nice."

Ayda nodded and laughed softly. "Point taken, stripes." She paused a moment and pursed her lips, thinking. She turned to face him, both arms folding under her chest as her expression became serious. "I think we ought to sleep in shifts and set an alarm by the door and the windows. I don't want to get caught by surprise."

"Okay," he replied, "I think I have something in my toolkit. I'll see if I can jerry rig us some alarms and maybe a few gifts for any would-be trespassers."

As he turned on his heel and pushed himself off the door frame, Ayda piped up. "Hey wait a sec," she said, "Your files said you were an accountant or some such. What are you doing with a tool kit? Come to think of it, you've got a lot of military hardware and a lot of real estate for a bookie..."

Sonam kept his back turned to her and softly bit his lower lip in thought. She had a point - he did have an awful lot of military gear for an 'accountant'. Especially one making income typical of the lower middle class. He peeked back over his shoulder at her; she was expectantly drumming her fingers against her own forearms. He sighed, defeated; he knew he wasn't getting out of answering her question.

"I work for a covert ops group," he admitted. "Accountant gig is just a cover."

"Mm. That explains all that money you've come into," she quipped. "What group do you run with? Rogue Shield? The Templars? Gods, don't tell me you've thrown your lot in with the CSB. They're just a front for CARD, I'm sure of it."

The kasa horansi shook his head. "None of the above." He turned and made his way into her room. He took a seat on the edge of her bed and patted the sheets next to him, asking her to sit down. She hesitated for only a split second before lowering herself to sit beside Sonam.

"The group I work for is Republic-funded," Sonam explained. "It's called Sector 13. It's completely off the grid - no official ties. The only person they report to is the Chancellor himself. They operate totally outside the bounds of the law. Torture, rape, murder, extortion, thievery; nothing's off-limits to them. Supposedly they do the Chancellor's bidding and work to support the Republic, but the last two directors have done some... Frightening things."

Ayda quirked a brow. "Like...?"

He rubbed his brow. "Director Maelstrom tried to sic us on our own senate. She was going to tear the Republic apart in some kind of crazy-ass corruption purge. In the middle of a war, too! It's nuts! And then the new Director, Genesis... Gods, I wish I had never recommended him to the Chancellor as the new director. He put rules in place about families, I... If I'm caught with my own family, I have to kill them myself, or S13 will kill them and me. It's completely ****ed up. I understand the need for secrecy, but... Goddess of Mercy, it's too much. And then some of the missions they've run - some of the missions I've planned - have been... Very questionable. Tactically and strategically beneficial, but morally... Just, I... I don't know. S13 doesn't care how many innocent lives they ruin on either side, so long as they cover their own ass and protect the Republic - the latter of which I'm fairly sure is becoming a secondary goal to them. On one of their latest missions, they killed a crewman from the Republic Navy for no reason! They could've just waited to go after their objective; five minutes wouldn't have killed them!"

Sonam's hands tightened into fists, knuckles whitening beneath his fur. "Sometimes I think the agency's getting more and more bloodthirsty and that scares me. Think about that - I was the gorramed director, now I'm the deputy director, and my own agency scares the hell out of me."

Ayda's was shocked. She'd never heard of S13 before, let alone suspected that Sonam would even work for a group as seemingly vile as S13. The female reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze to calm him down. "Sounds like you're in bed with all the wrong people," she noted. "Maybe you should take some steps to protect yourself. You said you were the director, right?"

He nodded, and she smirked. "Then take whatever data you have on you and in your computers, make a crapload of data discs, and set up an account with several private mail carriers. Get something rigged up so that if you don't check in with the carrier every, say, two months, they send all those discs to every major and minor news network in the Republic, to every oversight committee in existence, to SOLAG and the Military, and to the Jedi and the Senate. That way you have leverage over them."

Sonam blinked in surprise. "And what if they just try to track down every data disc? Two months is a lot of time, and..."

Ayda cut him off by moving her hand from his shoulder to his muzzle. She gingerly placed two fingers on his lips, shushing him. "Four hundred discs. One hundred different carriers. Leave extra discs with people you trust. It'll become impossible to track down every single disc."

The male seemed intent on protesting. "But Ayda, I..."

She put her fingers to his lips again. "Sonam. Do you trust me?"

He nodded.

"Then believe me, it'll work. It'll be a pain in the butt, but it will work. I've been fighting CARD on my own for years, I know how entities like this work. S13 won't be able to seize every disc without drawing undue attention, and if you're careful, you can get this entire system set up without their knowledge - then, if and when you have to, you hold it over their heads to buy you just enough time to get to safety or bring them down."

Ayda moved her hand to his shoulder again. Sonam sighed in relief and shook his head. "You're crazy, Ayda. You know that, right?" he chuckled. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and smiled warmly, reaching down and patting her knee affectionately. "But you're so crazy that I think your plan'll work. Thank you."

She smiled. "You're welcome," she replied. Ayda was tempted, so sorely tempted, to lean in and nuzzle his cheek, but she held back. He still wanted that 'Val' girl. She knew it - he had a photo of her kicking around somewhere in his room, and a smaller photo in his wallet. She wanted to headslap him for chasing after the Human. Val was with someone else, and though Sonam seemed convinced that she still held feelings for him, Ayda had other thoughts in mind. From what Sonam had told her, Val's relationship with her other man was unstable at best. Ayda strongly suspected that Val only kept ties to Sonam because they were friends and because he was a safe and stable back-up plan. He was Val's contingency plan, and it made Ayda fume because Sonam just couldn't see that.

Though in Val's defense, Ayda did admit that Val probably didn't realize that Sonam was a back-up plan. It was likely a subconscious desire of some sort that drove the human to keep Sonam's interest, and nothing showed that better than her decision to show up at the hospital while pregnant - she could have just as easily given Sonam a call on his hospital phone, but instead she showed up in person and brought him one of his favorite foods to boot!

Ayda leaned forward as she thought, draping one arm across her knee. She planted her elbow atop her other knee, angled her forearm back, and rested her chin in her palm, her fingers curling around her chin in a pensive pose. Her long tail swished and curled behind her. She was lost in thought; Sonam noticed. His playful side kicked in, and without second thought, he darted after her swishing tail. The feline caught the last foot or so of tail in his maw and gently bit down with his lips.

Ayda's ears shot up and her eyes went wide. She mewled as she felt warmth, wetness, and pressure all envelop her tail at once. She looked over her shoulder and sure enough, there Sonam was; laying on his back on the bed, her tail caught in his maw and twitching. She growl-purred. "Feisty tiger," she quipped idly. He growled at her, causing her to laugh softly. "Gods, you're just a big kitten. So cuuteee!" she teased, as she reached down and rubbed him between his ears. He purred loudly and released her tail.

"Mrrr, if pretending to be a cub gets me a scratch between the ears, then I'll be a big kitten all day long," he quipped. Ayda rolled her eyes and chuckled. She was glad that he decided to lighten up the atmosphere. Her thoughts on Val had started to dour her mood, but Sonam's supply of utterly random happiness cheered her back up in short order.

She slid to her feet and stood. "Then you can be a big kitten right there. This kitten is going to go shower, and unless you want to see me in my birthday suit, you'd best stay put."

Sonam mrowled playfully. "Well what if I do want to see you in your birthday suit?" he replied teasingly.

She smirked. "Then I suggest you quit being so shy about being naked and chase my tail into the bathroom, or you use your imagination," she replied in a teasing, sultry tone. She grinned from ear to ear as Sonam's cheeks instantly turned beet red - his fur did much to hide his blush, but she could still see it. "Hehe, that's what I thought. I'll see you in an hour, Sonam. I'm going to run up your electric bill and treat myself to a hot bath."

Without further ado, Ayda slipped off to the bathroom. She didn't bother locking the door behind her. She had a feeling that Sonam wouldn't come for her. He was shy - the guy could barely even take his shirt off without blushing. She could only imagine how hot his cheeks would get if his pants came off. She laughed at the mental image her thoughts spawned and began pouring herself a bath - it'd been far too long since she'd taken some time to unwind, and with the trials and tribulations she and Sonam would be facing soon, she needed to relax!

 

[Jiang Winters]

Roughly an hour passed as Ayda enjoyed the simple luxury of her bath. Sonam spent the time toiling away on his laptop, sorting through mounds of S13-related data and organizing files loaded to the gills with the most damaging information he had. Duty rosters, mission plans, budgets, memos sent from the Chancellor - despite being a secret organization, a certain amount of paperwork was still required to ensure that S13 operated efficiently. As such, Sonam had plenty of information to draw from as he compiled a file he'd dubbed the 'Whistle Blower'.

Ayda emerged from her bath, a gold towel wrapped about body. It barely covered her, only concealing her body from halfway up her thighs to the bottom part of her chest. After carefully tucking the ends of the towel in so that it would hold itself closed she made her way to Sonam's room. She tip-toed in. He was seated on the edge of his bed, facing the window. The blinds were drawn to prevent anyone from seeing inside the apartment, but rays of afternoon light still slipped in. She sat down on the foot of the bed, her back all but touching his side.

"Never figured you for a computer guy," she quipped teasingly.

Sonam glanced over his shoulder at her and smoothly replied, "Stick around, I'm full of surprises."

She laughed. "I intend to, Sonam. I intend to." The feline leaned closer to her new ally and peeked over his shoulder. "I see you're already working on that plan I suggested."

"Yup," he said, "I'm also setting up a couple file hosting websites. I've figured out a couple ways to upload this stuff but keep it locked down. The moment I go out, an automated message is sent to the site and boom - it sends spambots out. Those bots then copy-paste the intel files all across the net. Best thing is, they're self-propagating. They copy themselves three hundred times, then those copies replicate themselves another three hundred times, and so on and so forth, until three hundred replication cycles have been completed. By the time it's done, S13's information is plastered all over the net and it'll be impossible to clamp down. And because I'm a nice guy, the spambots will delete themselves after a year of operation, leaving just their data on the galactic net. Wouldn't want to pollute the net after all."

Ayda blinked in surprise. "That's actually pretty smart. You really are a geek, huh?"

Sonam laughed. "Yeah, guess so. Anyways, I'm keying both the bots and the disc mailing systems to activate in one of three ways. First, if you or any of my brothers or me go missing or die, it all activates the moment a death certificate is published or a 'missing' notice is sent out. Both would get on the net and the programs search for them every now and then, so it's pretty reliable. The second way is if I contact the systems and give them a password. There's seventy-seven passwords that I randomly generated, but only one actually disarms it, and I don't know it. The computer created a million-character composite key. It'll be nearly impossible to replicate, not without a supercomputer to crack the code, and if they make a single mistake or botch an attempt to get in, the entire system goes berserk and sends all the info out."

"You said there were three triggers. What's the last one?"

He grinned from ear to ear and looked up at her. "That's a little secret, one I'll tell you later."

She rolled her eyes and leaned back against his shoulder while planting her hands on the mattress behind her. "You don't need to be so secretive, y'know. We're both in this together." She quirked a brow as Sonam's gray eyes ceased to focus on her face, instead traveling down. After a moment, she realized what he was staring at and cocked her arm back, gently elbowing him in the ribs. "And stop staring at my chest! Pervert..."

He laughed, cheeks flush with embarrassment. "Hey! If you don't want me to stare at your girls, then you should get dressed. Otherwise your towel pushes them up and out and makes 'em pretty much scream for attention."

"Heh," Ayda smirked. "Good to know. Now I have a weapon of mass distraction that I know will be effective against you."

"Weapons," Sonam corrected. "Two breasts, two weapons. Now can you let me get back to work? I'm blushing like crazy and I kinda need my blood in my brain if I'm going to think."

Tempted as she was to scoot into his lap and really distract him, Ayda knew that the work Sonam was doing was important. She rose to her feet and tugged her towel up an inch. "I'm going to put a pot of caf on. I'm going to guess that you want a generous amount of creamer and sugar, right?"

Sonam nodded. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

She smiled and shrugged. "Oh, just a guess." Before he could question her further, she turned and darted off into the kitchen. There was no need to tell him that he was the mirror image of his brother in more ways than one. Not yet, at any rate.

Once she was in the kitchen, the feline went about brewing a pot of caf, all while humming softly to herself. For the moment, they were safe - as far as she knew, the safehouse's location was only known to herself and to Sonam. Little did she realize that when scouting the apartment as a potential safehouse, Sonam had asked an agent -one White Knight- to help him check out potential escape routes from the structure. As such, that man, that agent 'White Knight' was the only other person in existence who knew of the safehouse's location... And as fate would have it, he, like Sonam, was on the run.

 

[Jiang Winters]

It only took Ayda a few minutes to whip up two steaming mugs of caf laden with heavy measures of creamer and sugar. She carried the black mugs into Sonam's room and sat beside him on the bed once more, offering his mug to him. "Plenty of sugar, plenty of creamer. It'll be nice and sweet, just how you like it."

He took it from her and eyed the milky brown liquid filling the mug. "You mean just how Ji likes it?" he queried, before taking a sip. He purred approvingly as he swallowed, the hot beverage warming him up from the inside as it washed down his throat.

Ayda chuckled softly. "We're cats, silly. All of us like our caf sweet. Bitter drinks just don't go down well." She paused to take a sip, then smirked and tossed in, "That and you are Jiang's twin, and nobody knows Jiang better than I do. It wasn't hard to guesstimate how to make up your caf for you."

"Mm. I see," Sonam replied. "Just how long were you two together, anyways? I mean, I have some of his memories of you and his feelings towards you, but not enough to really know what kind of context your relationship was in, if that makes sense."

She folded one leg over the other and pursed her lips in thought for a moment. "Ji and I have known each other since... Gods, I must have met him when I was three or four. I've known him since as long as I can remember. I grew up alongside him, and even though we were from different castes and our parents frowned on our friendship, I couldn't help but cling stubbornly to him. You could say that he was the only real friend I had growing up; him, Dalang, and Jinhai. They were my friends. Karuay - Jiang's other brother - was... Not a friend of mine. I think he wanted me. Not really sure in what way, though; he either wanted to bend me over or he wanted to romance me. I wasn't interested though, he wasn't like Jiang. Karuay had a warrior's heart, Jiang..."

Ayda's voice trailed off and she smiled. "His heart is a lot like yours. Big and strong, with infinite courage and wisdom beyond his years. He's kinder than anyone you'll ever meet, at least until you cross him or his family, and then he can be the meanest man you'll ever know. He's good with kids, he's loving, he's gentle, he's safe, he's respectful, he's... I could go on and on, but what's the point? You already know everything I'm talking about - you're much more like him now than you think. You really remind me of what Jiang was like when he was seventeen. Anyways."

She took a breath, then continued. "We grew up as best friends. I started to fall for him when we were fourteen. By the time we were fifteen, we were dating steadily. We kept it secret from our parents; they'd have separated us if they had found out. We kept going strong; by the time we were eighteen, we had our whole lives planned out. We were going to go to Coruscant. He was going to work as a mechanic while I went through medical school. When I got out, he was going to go to the Coruscant Technical Academy and put himself through college. But it all fell apart when CARD showed up."

The female's hand unconsciously clenched around her mug, causing it to shake e'er so slightly. "We were abducted, separated. We were experimented on, used, abused, so on and so forth... We never saw one another again. Twelve years later, and now, just now, I'm meeting him again. I... It's... Strange, Sonam. Confusing. I still don't know where I stand with him. I need to know if he's still single, or if he's even interested, or... You know? I just need to figure out where I stand with him now. But you're not interested in any of that, huh?"

Sonam opened his muzzle to reply, but she cut him off with a question. "Anyways, what about you, Sonam? Still obsessing over that Val girl of yours?"

He nodded. "Well, I wouldn't call it obsessing. I love her, that's really all there is to it, I think. When I was with Val, I was happy. Things felt good, like all was right in the world. When she left, it all came crashing down. If she can make me feel that good, and if I make her feel the same way, then I do love her and I do want to be with her. So to answer your question, yes, I am still obsessing over Valena."

Ayda's brow furrowed and she uncrossed her legs, then tucked her knees up to her chest. She took a sip of her caf and wrapped her free arm around her knees, holding her legs close. "So you love her, but she's still with that other guy. I mean I get that she still seems interested in you, but it seems a lot like you're just her contingency plan now."

"I don't follow," Sonam said. Truthfully, he knew exactly what she was saying, but he didn't like it. Not one bit.

"I think she's using you," Ayda explained. "Or maybe 'using' is a bad term. I think she's... To put it gently, I think she's stringing you along. Trying to keep you interested. Maybe she knows that her relationship with this other guy is unstable but that excites her and so she sticks it out with him, because that uncertainty is some kind of twisted thrill for her and it keeps things fresh. That would, in my mind, explain why she's willing to stick with a guy who ditched her for a year, came back, found her pregnant, and doesn't want her baby."

The Kasa Horansi shrugged in response to Ayda's nonchalantly delivered explanation. "So what you're saying is that she's keeping me on a leash because I'm stable and she expects her relationship to go 'boom', and she wants to fall back on someone who is predictable to her. Right?"

Ayda nodded. "Exactly."

"See, I don't buy that," Sonam stated. "I'm probably the least stable person in her life and she knows it. CARD chases me, I get us both in trouble, I've had dual personalities, I almost used her for my own ends, she's been in my head and knows what I'm capable of, she knows what my past is like... She knows me, and she knows that I'm not stable. She knows me well enough to know that my love for her would be stable, so if that's the kind of stability you're talking about then I guess I am a safe bet, but as far as life in general is concerned I'm a pretty chaotic guy."

It was his turn to speak, and he didn't aim to let Ayda get one single word in. Without missing a beat, he continued to speak. "Here's how I see it. Val remembers the good times we shared. The hugs, the jokes, the laughter, the smile. She remembers that stuff, and she remembers the loyalty and friendship she had with me before my personality reverted. That's what I think she wants, if nothing else. I don't think she's stringing me along or using me. What I think she's doing... I think, painful as it is, that she's just trying to adjust. She's trying to be my friend, and it's hard for her because she knows that I love her even though I can't be with her because she already has someone."

He looked to Ayda. "Much like how you've got to adjust to just being Jiang's friend now that you don't know where you stand with him. If you knew he was still single, you knew he still wanted you, and you knew everything, then you could pretty much pin him and do whatever you wanted with him. But now you're walkin' on eggshells, and that's the same situation Val is in, in my opinion."

Sonam set his laptop aside and gently prodded Ayda's shoulder with the tip of his tail. "Maybe, just maybe," he said, while rising to his feet, "You shouldn't be so quick to jump all over Val's case. She's a good woman. She'll do what's right, I know it. She's just young - like me. You've got what, eight years on her? If she had all your experience she'd handle things differently, but you gotta admit that she's doing everything she can with what she has available right now. So cut my Val some slack, huh? She's a lot like you - she's just trying to figure out where she stands."

The feline made his way for the door. "Be back in a few. Gotta use the head," he remarked simply.

He left Ayda alone in thought. Her tail coiled around herself and she frowned, her brow furrowing heavily as she softly bit her lower lip. She sighed and rested her chin atop her knees. "Goddess, he's pissed," she muttered softly. While his voice had remained perfectly level, she could tell that she had hit a nerve by picking on Val. Sonam was incredibly defensive of the human woman, and would be until she gave him a reason to let go for good.

Ayda sighed again and took a sip of her coffee - this was a lousy start to her day. At least things couldn't get worse... Or could they?

 

[Santoro]

Coruscant was a busy place, busier than anywhere else in the galaxy. The most recent official census had placed just under a trillion beings on the planetwide city- a trillion angry, tense, hurried beings, and all of them were potential threats. Any one of them could be the bounty hunter to hit him with venom, the spicehead to blast his skull. Serving as the capital of the Republic, it was doubtless one of the worst places to go- into the narglatch's den, or so the expression went. Arden did his best to rationalize- almost four fifths of those trillion were humans, and half of those were male... He knew that was no excuse. Sector 13 was above all else effective- if they wanted to find the rogue agent, it would only be a matter of time.

For the first time in his life, White Knight was on the run. For the first time, he didn't have a purpose, a direction- he had no delusions about his situation. All his 'friends' were more 'informants', all his safehouses were targets, his accounts were watched... For the first time, Gunel needed help. He decided to go the only place he knew, search out the only person he could trust wouldn't shoot him on sight- Sonam, the closest thing to an ally the middle-aged human had.

Months ago, the pair had planned for situations such as this, though Arden had never anticipated he would see the place, and especially not under these circumstances. A nice (as far as safehouses go) building stood before him- he hardly remembered getting there. Stay sharp, Gunel- there's nothing saying Sonam won't stick with the Organization. Sure as hell more profitable. The rogue agent entered the apartment building's door and reached in his jacket, drawing his reacquired compact pistol- the only one in S13. He held it low and trained on the rug as he counted the doors, padding up to the one he knew would house the Omega. He clicked the pistol's safety off as he knocked in an inconspicuous but well-planned pattern, shifting to the left of the door and leveling his firearm in a futile attempt at preemptive self defense. You only got one chance with the Omegas- Arden was nowhere near armed enough to waste his go.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Someone was knocking at the door.

Ayda shot to her feet, alarmed. Sonam hadn't told his family of their whereabouts, and she certainly hadn't told anyone. If somebody had tracked them down, that meant only one thing: Trouble.

She reached a paw under the pillow and dug out the MK17 semi-auto that Sonam kept under his pillow. She drew the slide back and gently crept it forward, silently chambering a single saboted hollow point round. Ayda padded out of the bedroom just as her ally was emerging from the bathroom. He took one look at the handgun in her hands, nodded once, then ducked back into the bathroom. He emerged a second later with his AR14 assault rifle, a round in the chamber and the safety off.

Luckily, their training in the ACE project had been fairly similar; the two thought along the same lines as they made their way to the door. Ayda, knowing full well that she was the least threatening in appearance and that she wasn't known to S13, approached the door with the pistol behind her back. Sonam crouched behind a couch in the living room. It was positioned with its front facing the door, giving him plenty of cover to hide behind. If Ayda signaled trouble, she'd be able to simply move away from the door, giving Sonam a chance to pop up and put a burst of rifle rounds into whoever was there.

Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. The last thing he wanted to do was relocate again.

"Coming!" Ayda called out as she approached the door. There was no peephole; she'd have to risk opening it. She tapped the door control pad, causing the durasteel door to slide open halfway, just enough for her to stand in between the door and the frame, placing herself in clear view. "Sorry," she said, as the door was opening, "I was in the shower."

 

[Santoro]

Arden was a cautious man, pressing his ear, the cybernetic, against the wall. Thick as it was, the prosthetic merely compensated and magnified the muffled noises- a shuffling of bodies that he couldn't place in the room. Two sets of noises. By the stars. Arden heard the lighter of the two approach and pulled his ear from the wall, readying his aim again.

Last count, Sonam's eyes would be about... Here. He began to regulate his breathing in preparation for his perfect shot. The door slid open, and a feline species answered the door, tense and feminine. Arden never forgot a face, fur covered or not. He let out his breath in a long sigh as he pointed his pistol to the cieling, finger out of the trigger. Not even connected to Sector 13- the galaxy's spinning my way tonight. He just hoped her memory was as sharp as his own.

"Ayda. I had nowhere else to go."

 

[Jiang Winters]

Ayda sighed in relief and smiled. "Arden. Nice to see a friendly face," she said. The female let her hands fall to her hips, her trigger finger resting along the frame of the gun, rather than on the trigger. She turned around and headed into the living room, at the same time gesturing for him to follow with a flick of her tail's tip.

Sonam rose to his feet as he heard the name 'Arden'. Last he'd heard when he had patched into S13's network - he had done so from a remote terminal at a public cafe several days ago, so that he wouldn't be traced - there had been some kind of 'kill on sight' order issued on White Knight. It seemed suspicious to him - Arden had always been a good agent, though Sonam had always figured him as more of an RSF man than an S13 operative. The kasa horansi lowered his weapon and leaned his hip against the couch. "I'm guessing you're here for refuge," the director-turned-deputy director said, "What with the whole death order on your head."

Ayda paused in the center of the living room and set her gun down on the coffee table, then folded her arms across her chest and turned towards Arden again. "Wait, what? There's a hit out on you?" she queried.

 

[Santoro]

Arden holstered his light pistol in his jacket, following Ayda into the apartment. Be it through his arrival or daily life, Arden felt the tension in the air, the unease that had been plaguing him since he’d received the Rogue Agent title for the second time in his Sector 13 career. Then again, there’s nothing saying that wasn’t Gunel’s own tension by seeing another ex-Sector 13 agent. Double the target, triple the risk… That’s what Teresa always said. He sighed at the thought, surveying the room, assessing the exits. Old habits die hard.

“Er… Yes, refuge might not be quite the word. Regroup and rearm may be better. I can’t stay here with you two for very long- I’ve hit two initiates since Taris. I threw their scent somewhere around Dubrillion, but that’ll only fool them for so long.” He turned to more fully focus on Ayda.

“A hit, yes, similar to the one put on Sonam. I went AWOL and wrapped up some old business, had to shoot up another Agent’s mission on the way in. When they figured out what I was up to… Well.” He shrugged, leaving the rest to the obvious. He didn’t regret hunting down his ‘old friend’- his family could be put to rest again.

“I’m sorry to intrude on you two. I know it’s a risk, and a stupid one at that. Sector 13 won’t stop until me, you, and everyone we love is dead. I know I won’t let that happen, but I can’t do it alone. I need help- weapons, information, anything you can spare. Once I can get to my funds I'll return the favor."

 

[Jiang Winters]

Ayda laughed at the cruel hand that fate had dealt them. "Sounds like we're all in a bad way," she began, "but now that we're all in the same boat in the same river, I guess we're in better shape. Three targets are harder to kill than one. If we pool resources and stick close to one another, we'll fair better."

She moved to stand alongside Arden and laid a hand on his shoulder. "So don't apologize for coming here. It's not like you painted a bullseye on our backs - we already had one," she said reassuringly. The female gave Arden's shoulder a gentle squeeze and padded off, heading back to her room to swap out her towel for proper clothing. That gave Sonam a chance to pipe up.

"Weapons, clothing, vehicles, and gear; that I can do. Information is sketchier. All I know is that the Director is up to something, so I intend to lay him low before he can do the same to me. I've been prepping data discs to distribute to the Senate, the media, government watchdog agencies, the military; anyone and everyone who'd have a bone to pick with S13. I'm the one who put the current Director where he is, and I'm the one who knows who he is. We'll put him in the grave, Arden, even if we have to get the RSF to do our dirty work for us."

He paused, a grin blossoming across his features, revealing sharp rows of predatory fangs. "Assuming you're down for getting aggressive, that is. He has more resources than we do, so trying to fight him with intelligence isn't going to work. We need to take our friend the Director down, and we need to do it now - we kill him, and S13 is a snake without its head, and then I might be able to paint him as a traitor and seize control again. We'll have to see. In the meantime..."

Sonam moved to the couch and tore the cushions off, revealing a gunsafe concealed within the underside of the couch. He pried the lid open and gestured inside. "Copies of me and Ayda's preferred weaponry and armor. Help yourself to whatever you need."

Sadly, the Kasa Horansi's assumption that his safehouse was still a secret was due to be proven wrong in short order. Blissfully unaware of the tracker that had been implanted in the scruff of his neck, the feline was now a living signal flare; a beacon that the galaxy's deadliest soldiers were now homing in on.

CARD was coming, and they were coming in force. The boots of Legionnaires equipped with LANCE armor stomped through the halls of the apartment building. It was a hunter/killer team, there with a single purpose. One way or another, they would bring Sonam home, no matter who or what stood in their way.

--==--==--

-timeskip to captivity, assuming that entire group was captured. Will edit in explanation later.-

 

[Santoro]

Prisoner 3 shuffled along, doing his best to keep his back from brushing up against the chilling feel of a rifle muzzle- the white jumpsuit did little to stave off of the cold of the durasteel sight. He apparently was walking too fast- he had hardly registered the shuffle behind him before the butt of the rifle had gone into his shoulderblades, sending the already defeated White Knight to the ground in a heap. His hands and feet had been bound behind him- the contact would leave a brutal bruise along the left side of his face, probably enough to match the one he had acquired in the shootout at the safehouse.

"Gentle now, gentle!" White Knight said as he was hauled from the floor, spitting blood as he spoke. He felt around- a bit of his tongue had been torn during the fall. Lovely.

"This way, prisoner." He was pushed again into a tiny holding cell, managing to catch himself by the shoulder against the far wall and fall on his ass this time instead. He looked back at the guard to snap another half-retort just in time to catch a boot under the jaw, sending his world spinning. He managed to catch the time on the chrono before he went and when he awoke- he'd been out for eight seconds.

Arden stirred and tried to sit against the cold durasteel, but found his muscles unwilling to comply. He'd taken a serious dose of sedative and found it hard to do anything aside from breathing and blinking- the bit of thought he could spare against the sleep-which-could-lead-to-a-coma was reserved for low groans for assistance and involuntary twitching. It was particularly low form for Gunel... It had been a long time since he'd taken such a beating, though he thought he'd be used to it by now.

How is it I end up getting my ass kicked on every mission?!

 

[Jiang Winters]

The raid on Sonam's safehouse had ended just as fast as it began. The whirlwind attack opened with a barrage of EMP pulses, fired from specialized rifles capable of disabling any electronic device in a swath in front of them. Ayda and Sonam were crippled in the blink of an eye, helpless in the face of the LANCE troopers who stormed in. Arden had put up a hell of a fight for a man so poorly equipped, but ultimately had succumbed to the overwhelming might of CARD's super soldiers.

The hapless trio was hauled back to the Noblesse Oblige as a sweeper team scrubbed the safehouse, took all that was valuable, and then wiped the rest clean of evidence. Without so much as a shred left behind to tell what had happened, it was as if White Knight and his comrades had literally disappeared from the face of the galaxy. Of course, that wasn't good enough for the shadow corporation - they had to go and strip him of his dignity as well. After a thorough search, his clothing was forcibly removed and replaced with a comfy white jumpsuit.

Being the only one of the three who wasn't prone to ripping his way out of cages with his bare hands, Arden was even given the luxury of being thrown into a cell without being shackled down or otherwise restrained... That said, he was dosed rather strongly with sedatives, per Sev Nadir's orders, and he was treated rather roughly, though that was to be expected as White Knight was caught in the company of one of CARD's most hated and feared enemies: Ayda Kaede. [Sure, Sonam ranked up there with her, but Ayda had taken ten times as many CARD lives as Sonam had.]

Once he was tucked away in his cell, all safe and sound, a Legionnaire was dispatched to visit him; one Sheila Callahan. Recently reinstated into the corporate military at Sev's insistence, the Shistavanen female once again found herself working as a Specialist within the S.O.L. and she was having a jolly time of it! While the rest of her unit - she was a part of Sev's team - was busy escorting Sonam to Ishikawa in shackles or stuffing Ayda into a cryopod before she could bite anyone's throat out, she'd been sent to talk to Arden and see what she could learn about him and his relationship to Ayda and Sonam.

The wolf-like female rapped the knuckles of her gauntlet against the bars of his cell door. "Heya White Knight," she murred - the dog equivalent of a purr - and propped her shoulder up against the door's frame. She was clad from collar to toe in her LANCE/R armor, giving her a powerful yet streamlined appearance that was befitting of a Legionnaire. "You feel up to talking, mate? I've got a couple questions about your kitty friends that I'd just love to ask."

 

[Santoro]

White Knight had managed to compose himself, choosing instead to accept and try to overcome the mind-numbing effects- due to the constraints and muscle damage, he had no belief of moving, fighting, and surely not escaping. Instead, he sat silent as a long line of guards came to torment him or check his progress. He made sure to give a bit of token sarcasm and an additional dose of threats to the guards- standard S13 protocol, at least in its heyday.

Finally, a larger and much more intimidating guard came to his cell- another hired thug by CARD who clearly meant more business than White Knight was ready to dish out. Still, Arden was nothing if not loyal, and it would take much more than a 'chat' to rat out his friends. He'd lasted through a cannibal's torture, he could surely last through allergies. Gunel wriggled his way up against the hard wall, looking at the cat that had spoken his codename. CARD was on it- that or Sonam had already sold him out.

"Call me Gunel. Arden Gunel."

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Arden Gunel," she repeated, admiring the way it rolled off the tongue. It wasn't too strong, nor too soft; it was somewhere in the middle. "It fits you," the canine said, "I like it. Shame you've been roughed up, though; you looked much more dashing in the S13 files on Sonam's computer."

She held up her hands. "Don't worry, he didn't sell you out. He's unconscious in the medical wing right now. He's in rough shape. We just unleashed an AI on his computer and let it go, that's how we got the data," she explained. Cally had been told that it was important to keep Arden's trust in Sonam as intact as possible, and so telling him exactly how she'd found out who he was and who he worked for was a good start.

"Anyways. My name's Sheila Callahan. Shelly or Cally'll do just fine, though."

The wolf-like alien pulled over a rather conveniently positioned plasteel box and lowered herself to sit on it, right in front of his cell door. "Now, Arden. Like I said, I've some questions for you about your two cat friends, starting with Sonam. This is important for his health, so please be honest, mkay? Now, as you may or may not know, Sonam's cybernetic - a lot of his body, by weight, is artificial, and he has a neural net. Normally he'd need maintenance every three years to stay running, but he hasn't had a check in ages. When the docs plugged him in, his neural net went nuts. They can't figure out what's wrong with him. That's where you come in."

She leaned forward and jabbed her thumb in Arden's direction. "I need to know if he's ever had any kind of off-the-grid work done to him. I'm talking anything - pyschological, physical, anything. If he had so much as a single techy plug him into a computer, I want to know. I can't stress to you enough how important this is - it could save his life. I'll even cut you a deal - you help me out, and I'll get you some nicer quarters to stay in until we can figure out what to do with you. Hell, might even stick you in a room with that crazy cat friend of yours, that 'Ayda' bitch."