Ask Time is a Thief

[Leon Baudelaire]

The cramped cargo hold on the ship he’d stowed away on swayed and shook as the ship entered the atmosphere. He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be doing this. He didn’t have a lot of time… but that wasn’t new. Time had never been on their side. His heart was hammering out of his chest. Leon couldn’t believe how nervous he was for this. He’d run this conversation through his head a million times and it always ended the same way… He shook his head. It didn’t matter how it ended.

Jayna deserved to know.

Baudelaire slipped out of the hold and into the main hangar of Empress Teta’s spaceport. His eyes scanned the ships. He felt his breath catch in his throat when he saw it. Jayna’s ship. His lips pressed together anxiously as he fell into his bad habit of chewing on the inside of his lip. His thumb reached up and ran over the “x” shaped scar on his cheek. He swallowed and headed in that direction.

From his position at the edge of a Y something or other Corellian freighter Leon could see two guards standing outside the boarding ramp. They looked like local mercs, which was a little surprising. He frowned, a pang of worry shooting through him as he considered what that could mean. Maybe he had the wrong ship? He couldn’t imagine Jayna hiring locals for protection, but there they were. He took a quick glance around. The hangar was pretty empty.

Good.

Leon rolled his shoulders and adopted his famous smirk as he strode toward the ship. Baudelaire was dressed in well worn oil stained navy coveralls. A tool belt hung around his waist and he carried a datapad in his left hand. As he closed in the guard on the left, a duro, nudged his partner, a gotal, then nodded in Leon’s direction.

The gotal stepped forward, being sure to conspicuously display his weapon as Leon landed in front of them, “You got the wrong ship, bub,” bleated the conical horned mercenary. The duro backed him up with a grimace that Leon was sure would normally intimidate their usual suspects. Unfortunately for the dynamic duo, Leon wasn’t their usual suspect.

In a blase fashion, the exalted waved his hand as he imbued his words with the force, “It’s time for your lunch break.”

The gotal blinked, his head cocking to the side like a confused bird. The duro’s grimace had shifted to a slack jawed gaze. The gotal’s voice echoed Leon’s words, but then he stopped, Baudelaire repeated his words pouring the dark side into each syllable. The power of it washed over the two guards and any indecision was wiped away as Leon repeated, “It’s time for your lunch break.”

Leon watched them go, then stared up the ramp. The real challenge was just getting started… he took a breath and started up. The hiss of the main entrance announced his arrival. With hands up, because he wasn’t dumb enough to think Jayna wouldn’t be ready for an intruder, he called out, “Jayna?”

@Altaris

 

[Jayna Thorne]

The very second that Leon began to approach the Nubian Yacht, Jayna was made aware of the unannounced visitor. For months, the former Heiress had effectively lived out of her infamous ship - cobbling together what little resources were still at her immediate disposal. It was enough to keep on retainer the bodyguards to accompany her travels, and to continue her efforts throughout the Teta system. Nevertheless, it was a far-cry from the security detail that she had once enjoyed - and it left the former Heiress far-more guarded than usual.

Perhaps Leon has forgotten just how paranoid the Thorne family were raised to be. Perhaps he’d forgotten the multitude of assassination and kidnapping attempts that Jayna had managed to survive during the course of her life. Perhaps there was some other outlandish reason that he believed justified his method of arrival. It didn’t matter.

If he believed that he could simply meander onto Jayna’s yacht without detection, then the former Jedi was far less intelligent than Emryc originally asserted him to be.

In silence, Jayna watched from security surveillance as the familiar figure approach - tapping into the Force in order to dismiss the bodyguards designed to protect her. All of it was done without an attempt to contact her directly. All of it without any hint towards his intentions or where the man had been for over a year. All of it reinforced the protective measures that the former Heiress surrounded herself with.

Leon would face no resistance as he moved through the Nubian Yacht - moving towards the central lounge of the vessel. As the main entrance hissed open, he would see nothing infront of him except for the familiar furniture and layout of the vessel, unchanged despite the months that had passed.

And Jayna had no intention of allowing him to take more than a few steps past that entrance.

Tucked out of sight and against the frame of the door, Jayna waited to be completely behind Leon before leveling her own pistol onto the former Jedi - pulling back the trigger to fire three stun bolts into the man’s back at nearly point-blank range. With his hands in the air, the former Jedi would find himself hard pressed to avoid being knocked unconscious by the barrage. She heard the voice that called out to her - recognized Leon for exactly who he was - and none of it brought her to hesitation.

If Leon managed to glance back towards the source of the assault, he would find nothing but cold, silvery eyes staring back at him.

@Zay

 

[Leon Baudelaire]

No sooner were the words out his mouth when the bark of a blaster sounded. He was hit by three shots, his body caught mid turn. He never saw Jayna as his vision went black.

Leon was surrounded by an ocean of darkness. The waves lapping at the shore gave off a dull gray foam upon slate colored sand. He stood alone. A single entity before a churning nothing. The maw of the void yawned out before him. It’s siren song always calling. Always tempting. Always pleading. Leon was clothed in nothing but silvery light that filtered through the darkness like the sun through the ocean. The ripples of light and dark fought for dominance across his body. There was pain in his chest… it felt like betrayal. It felt like treachery, it felt infuriating.

A deep reverberating growl imitated from yawning nothing. The sound was akin to the crushing rumble of an avalanche. His body was blasted by a wave of searing wind. Leon curled up into a ball… it was coming. He couldn’t stop it.

Leon’s eyes snapped open. His verdant hues burned with molten fury. His eyes matched the intensity of a forest wildfire. He didn’t see Jayna, he saw a body. The power that churned through his veins made him strong. Unbearably so. Jayna would feel a small ticking in the back of her throat, and a sudden crushing pain as Leon’s uncuffed hand rose from the ground. Her body would begin to raise off the ground until she dangled in the air.

Then he blinked.

Panic filled him and the fire left as quickly as it had arrived. He released his hold and pressed himself against the wall of the ship trying to get away from her, but he was caught on the wall. He jerked at the cuff, but it just bit into his wrist. Why had he come here? Why had she attacked him? He needed to leave. He was losing control. It was too close now.

The Beast was close.

@Altaris