Ask Words not Spoken

[Covax]

Covax was finally free from the Hutt Cartel and @Nor'baal Desilijic. No longer having a credit to his name, the human mercenary had to do a couple of jobs for Arla and Apex before he could finally get the cash flow to make the trip and pay his respects. Leaving the job on Taris behind, Covax took the Nomad on his maiden flight to Paqualis III. A planet he'd not visited since their time on the range. The memory of the Doc holding her own with a pistol brought a smile to his face. Then a tear to his eye.

The old Razor Crest model patrol boat soon made to the landing pad on the grounds of Chateau Vidalis. Having not yet fully restored the old ship, the rust and carbon scoring were a stark and violent contrast to the tall white walls of the palace like home of the Morata family. Covax then took a moment to get his strength. The galaxy had moved on from the loss, but Covax was just now coming to grips with it.

He left the weapons and armor on the ship, departed from the side ramp and made his way towards the garden. Seated in his arm was a pot with white and blue tulips, He was looking for something with more amber in color but for some reason when he seen them, it made him think of Doc.

@Killa Ree

 

[Silvi Velt-Morata]

What was once a resting haven for Force Users of all creeds and Rangers, amongst many other races and species... now stood seemingly empty, once more converted to a private residence. Shane would have recognized the former landing pad Aska had dropped him off on was still there, but was now the sole space bearing Ilana's old Rangemaster and a silver Nubian starship. The halls seemed empty, yet he would get the sense of being watched from within the walls, silent sentry guard droids standing watch.

He wouldn't be barred from entry. Rather... he was just a little bit late.

He would enter marble halls, now devoid of staff or medical suites. The rooms were decorated tastefully, and yet all of them screamed of empty luxury, perhaps waiting for a family to fill its' empty halls, but its' new owner didn't have any designs for such a scheme just yet.

When he would come through the halls towards the inner courtyard, he would be met by quite the sight.

A tall maple tree, crowned in brilliant red leaves, dominated the inner courtyard, surrounded by smaller flowering trees and bushes of all types, carefully maintained. Even though it had been a full year since Ilana's death, it had been carefully maintained. A stone path would lead him straight towards the tree, and beneath it...

A tall white marble plinth stood. At its' head was carved Ilana's visage, with her name plaqued beneath, as well as a smaller plinth beside, with the names of all the victim's to Darth Raze's singular slaughter. White flowers vined around and over the plinth, but standing before it would be a figure that would give him an intense feeling of deja vu.

Tall, slim, with white hair left to fall over her shoulders, the woman was dressed in a simple black suit and dark grey shirt. If he decided to approach, she would turn, and though her face was similar to Ilana's, her gaze of pale blue was enough to call the difference. Long ago, he knew her as an exuberant child, with pigtails and a wide grin. The traces of that girl were still very barely there; when she would see him, she offered him a thin, sad smile, and a nod.

"Uncle Shane..."

She stood uncertainly, twisting her hands together before finally speaking.

"Thank you for coming. I know she... cared for you, deeply. She would have loved seeing you here too." She took a hesitant step forward, then another. If he didn't seem to back off, she would approach and wrap her arms around him to give a hug, but if not, she would stand, unsure of what else to say or do.

@Taz

 

[Covax]

Walking through the chateau was a practice of slow self torture. The vulture like eyes of the guards took stock of his every move, and with those moves came a flood of memories he'd not thought about for some time.

His mind suddenly flooded with the thoughts of being near death. Arm gone, darkness closing in around. Doc's face suddenly above him. All business. Those piercing amber eyes. Those same eyes catching him unexpectedly in a theater not even a year later. The "coffee date" that followed.

Walking Doc to the ramp of that old ship afterward. In dawn on him, not for the first time, that he was only every a gentleman with her. Aska he treated like a sister from another mister. Electra was an expensive fun distraction from what he couldn't admit. But Doc was...

The thoughts trailed off for the moment and he continued down through the haunting estate. Peering down the halls echoed memories of his first experience. The coldly efficient droids working around him and others, the chaos of a working medical wing. Now the place was so quiet, he thought he could hear R6 back on the pad outside. It was a little un-nerving.

Finally he came to the inside courtyard. The massive garden he remembered from other visits and the massive tree that he he suddenly thought might have grown that much more. To shield those below from the all the galaxy above. Covax took he the full size of the the massive living monument, before coming to rest his eyes on the final resting place of person he cared for the most in the verse after the virus took his first wife and daughter.

When Silvi turned, he did see IIana at first. Amber eyes that seemed to burn through him every time. He stepped forward about to reach out. But was snapped back to reality by Silvi's words. "Hey kid." He said simply with a half smile. Continuing to walk towards the young woman before him appearing from the memory of her mother.

"She was..." He sighed, "I wish I had the words." Another tear moved it's way down his cheek and he continued toward the brat who had grown up to a beautiful woman in his absence. He could feel as much as see her hesitation, but also needed to let the emotion out. Covax took her in one arm free arm and gave her a big hug. "I miss you both Silvi, so much." He said, and if she were as gifted in the force as her mother, she would feel it. Rolling off the mercenary in waves.

@Killa Ree

 

[Silvi Velt-Morata]

Silvi never understood her mother. The way she could pull others into her orbit so easily, like a cold sun that brought in others with a chilly amber gaze. Try as she might, she could never emulate that magnetism that worked so well to Ilana's favor. She knew she had a different magnetism, but most of that she could also blame on her mother. Yet...

She wasn't blind. She knew how much he cared for her mother, how deep that affection probably went. It was more clear to her than anything else, yet she chose someone who was similar to her in temperament. Silvi was never blind to how Shane's eyes followed her; at one point in her childhood, she wondered why her mother never seemed to give him more of a chance.

But now, a little bit older... she couldn't understand that at all.

Wrapping her arms around Shane fully, her shoulders shook slightly. Though she wasn't connected to the Force like her mother was, she was still empathetic, could still feel the man's despair, his grief.

Grief came in waves. Though she and her mother never really saw eye to eye, she loved the woman the most of anyone. That, she staunchly believed. But every once in a while, a wave of grief came rolling in. She felt her throat close, and she squeezed her eyes shut, willing away the painful ache of tears that threatened to rise at seeing his own, and giving him a firm squeeze.

"I missed you too, Uncle Shane," she whispered thickly, patting him on the back. "It's been too long... you're a bit late, but I'm glad you made it." Pulling away, she gave the man a watery grin, trying to find brevity in the situation, but there was a question behind that gaze, a question that yearned for an answer for one of the few people that could possibly share in her complicated feelings.

@Taz

 

[Covax]

Covax could never put words to it. At first, after being teased by Aska, he thought it was something like Nightingale syndrome. But it didn't fit the slow burn he felt for her. He wasn't infatuated or blindly obsessed. He knew of her faults, of her own heart's desire for another.

Still, he ever slowly ever deeper. Taking every meeting with her as a gift. The coffee dates, the weekends at the range. The offer he should have taken to be her shield, to protect everything she had done, everything she had created. Her company, her family.

Covax stood embracing yet another little girl he had failed to protect. She had grown up strong and remarkable, and every bit the vision her mother was. In that moment, wresting with his own pain, he sensed it affecting Silvi, and without thinking. Kissed the top of her head the way a father might.

"If I had to choice Silvi.... I would have been here." He let her go then and left her turn to face him. Not a dry eye between them. He tried to return the smile. But he was broken by his grief. The former crime boss, hunter of men. Was broken by facing all that he had lost.

Through his tear filled eyes he could still he the question. He sighed then. Taking a seat on a bench near the stone marking IIana's resting place. He looked Silvi in the face and let it all out. "I should have been here with her," said with another sigh of regret then he continued. "She offered me a job, to lead her security for MorataCorp. But I politely turned her down. I wish I hadn't. Ever since I found out. I wish..... "

Covax was choking on the words, the pain of losing IIana, and betrayal of those who left him to rot in carbonite. The years and the people he'd lost, trying to become something he wasn't. "I could have died beside her, instead of locked away in carbonite. All for nothing."

@Killa Ree

 

[Silvi Velt-Morata]

At first, when Shane had vanished, she was furious. One of the few people who her mother seemed to actually care for, and he wasn't there. She wanted to hate him, one of the few people she regarded as her own family, especially after Corran mysteriously vanished from the galaxy without a word. And when the days turned to weeks, to months, that fury changed to a sense of betrayal. Were his feelings really so shallow, that her death didn't matter?

She didn't try to think about him, until she heard from him. Apparently, he had been absent entirely. What was yesterday for him was a year ago for her; though she could never forgive her mother the many sins she had committed, the people she'd used and the lives she'd crushed to become a galactic saint, she could forgive her monstrosities for one good thing.

She'd given her a figure more like a father than her own birth father was.

She was surprised at the forehead kiss, and yet... it only prised more tears free, tracking swiftly down her cheeks. Trying to swipe the tears away, she sat next to him, listening patiently. Seeing his grief, his pain, made her heart ache all the more. Not for her mother so much, now, but for those that would survive without her. Though perhaps Sevrin missed her in his own cold, remote Jedi way... this was visceral. This was personal.

At his words, her jaw hardened, and she reached over to rest her hand over his own cybernetic one.

"Not for nothing." Her voice was gentle, but beneath it was steel. "It wasn't your fault, Shane. It was..."

The dark figure from the holo flashed to mind, and she scowled, her voice laced with hatred, with raw anger. He would sense how her hand trembled, when she finally uttered the words.

"...It was that monster, Darth Raze. I'm sure of it." She had to take a deep breath, a calming one, before looking up at him, and giving a squeeze. "Don't blame yourself, Shane. Don't go in the same spiral I did; all the what-ifs in the world will never solve this. But I plan to; I won't let her death be in vain. But I might need your help."

She stared at him intensely, with that same sharp gaze that Ilana once gave.

"...If you're still willing to accept what she wanted you to have. The offer's still open, should you want it. It's never too late."

@Taz

 

[Covax]

In the quest for power there were sacrifices to be made. Emryc Thorne told him that. Right before he essentially blackmailed Covax and Aska to deal with Gareth Gin and take control over the syndicates and the power vacuum left by the faked death of Preef Callo.

A few short years later. Suddenly Aska has the ability to walk away, Preef isn't dead after all. And he just so happens to be working with Nor'baal Desilijic. Toss in a mad Sith lord, a Hutt's massive ego, and suddenly Covax is frozen in time. Only to wake years later missing the most important years of Dante's and Silvi's lives, as well as the death of the woman he loved.

As those moments replayed in his mind, he thought, not for the first time, that it would have been better if Preef had just shot him in the back of the head that day in the Hutt palace. Seeing the grief dredged forth on Silvi's face only added to that feeling. However, her next words gave him pause.

"Raze." He said, nearly in unison with Silvi. Even trapped in a rock for years Covax knew of the Sith Lord. He looked to the young woman, clear eyed and focused as the returned to look. Once again he saw the woman he longed for every day before and subsequently after his imprisonment. The look for total resolve in what she knew to be right. Only this time he didn't see the amber gaze, he noticed the silver sheen of blue.

"Silvi, I loved your mother. If I can help you to avenge her, I will gladly give my last breath to do so. As for helping you with the company, you should know I'm currently doing contracts for Apex."

@Killa Ree

 

[Silvi Velt-Morata]

When he assented to helping her, she released the breath she wasn't aware she was holding. Nodding at his words, she knew that it wouldn't be that easy. A man like him would always have another card in his deck; though perhaps, his position within Apex could be useful.

Perhaps... but the offer was too tempting. Who knew what Apex would do if she contracted them herself. No... she had to be smart about this. The death of a being this powerful couldn't be done simply through assassins in the night.

No... she needed more help than that. She needed the Jedi.

All this would be kept to herself, however. Taking in a slow breath, she offered him a tentative smile, nodding. "I understand," she replied, taking in a shaky breath. "I don't want to lose you; you were the one person I had closest to a father, after my dad disappeared." She looked at him levelly, her voice soft. "But... I'll take you on your offer. Would you... accept a contract from someone anonymous?"

@Taz

 

[Covax]

He watched Silvi carefully as he told her his promise to help. It really shouldn't have some as a surprise to her. However, the look on her face and the sudden exhale of her lungs told him she thought he might not. That feeling hurt a little, but what could he expect. Until now, in her eyes he had abandon her in her time of need. Just like all the rest. Even her father.

Covax also took notice of the stone faced look of determination that suddenly washed over the young woman. Just like her mother. Her face a stone without expression, but her blue eyes blazed in sudden thoughts. She was plotting. True to his word, the former crime boss would gladly give his life for her. But, he alone would not be enough to avenge IIana. Covax had faced a Sith a time or two, and even a skilled Jedi. Those force users were children compared to the power Raze could bring to bare.

The human mercenary returned the coy smile of his pseudo niece. "I'm not going anywhere." He tried to assure her. But paused as she continued, feeling her sink her verbal hooks in. Just like her mother, He admitted.

"Silvi, you don't need to pay me to help you." He plucked her from her position then and gave her another hug. "Unless of course, you want me to put it Apex." Suddenly realizing where she was going, very cleaver. "If of course you want the offer to go to them, they yes it will be completely anonymous. If you want, I'll be the only point of contact."

@Killa Ree