Aimless

[Morene Fellon]

A terrible dryness filled Morene's mouth, the first thing she had noticed before opening her sleep-covered eyes from slumber in the Omniverse once more. Shakily and slowly, Morene felt the hard ground beneath her, immediately identifying it as cold pavement. She gulped, struggling due to her now sore throat.

Her vision slowly coming back to her, Morene sleepily rolled her head to the side, hearing it pop more than a few times. Putting a hand to her head, Morene couldn't help but groan realizing what had just happened.

"Confound portals..." Morene whined, before immediately bolting upwards remembering how she even got in this little predicament. As fast as she could, the huntress reached at the wall behind her, pulling herself up. Only then did she realize, upon feeling the wet, damp concrete's cold sting steep through her protective gloves, that she knew she was far away from where she wanted to be.

Her vision still hazy, Morene looked around to find nobody but her in the small, tight alleyway she found herself in. Her stomach knotted up, and her heart sank, Morene only thought to herself one thing.

Where was Yuuko? Had she already lost the one friend she seemed to have made in this strange realm only moments ago? Or, maybe this was a dream after all? As soon as that last thought popped up in her head, the huntress shook it off realizing how silly it was to deny the facts here; waking up was really painful after meeting that Omni fellow.

Her slightly clothed full-body armor helped to keep her comfortable, but Morene still felt off. Only for a few seconds did her knees shake under the sudden pressure of standing up again, but eventually Morene kept herself going to the end of the alleyway, fingers running along the brick walls she was leaning on. Finding herself a few meters away from a rather barren street, bits of debris flew in the wind, and in the distance, the ringing in her ears were replaced with the sounds of bustling city life.

Though, as soon as Morene tried to look around, not a lot of people were there. A few strange-looking individuals crossed the streets a couple of blocks away every once in a while for the half-minute she stood there, regaining her bearings. Despite moments ago being in a bit of stress, Morene couldn't help but widen her eyes at the view of the urban dusk sky.

Even if it was a bit cloudy, Morene doubted that a place such as this would allow for stargazing anyways. Even then, the thought pleased her just enough to motivate walking into the rather empty and dirty sidewalks. Reaching into her coat hiding her silvery alloy armors, Morene felt her wide-brimmed hat puff outwards into shape, smoothly adjusting it onto her head.

A burning worry filled Morene's gut as she began to walk, the thought of Yuuko hitting her conscious with the force to make mountains move. It shouldn't have concerned her so much, especially considering she'd only met the girl for an hour and a half at most, but Morene kept finding herself almost straying onto the open road and swiping into a few buildings so lost in thought, even if it was only for a few minutes. Eventually however, Morene began mumbling to herself after a series of deep breaths.

"I won't get anything accomplished at this rate," Morene scratched at her chin, tugging at her cloak in the meantime as she thought further. Sighing, the huntress eventually came to terms with the fact that she'd have to wander a bit to find Yuuko, if she was even there. Morene had to have been the slightest bit grateful, if it weren't for Yuuko right now, Morene had to admit to herself she'd not have the slightest clue where to begin in a place such as this, so far from home. Either way, the huntress felt like she had all the time in the world, and even though in the back of her head she knew that wasn't true, it was calming in such a situation.

Besides, Morene thought, how bad could this place really be in comparison? She couldn't help but think out loud after asking herself such a foolish question, knowing in slight regret that she'd more than likely find out soon enough.

"Oh, silly me..."

[Morene Fellon]

A few hours of wandering around the much more populated city streets of the lower tiers of Coruscant had Morene in a bit of a confused mess. Not entirely due to the various amounts of sentient alien citizens roaming around, that wasn't too strange to take in considering life back on her  Terra was rather diverse, anyways. Rather, Morene had no idea where she was going whatsoever.

Every single time she looked up, Morene saw broken signs that led to closed convenience stores without fail. Every time she looked down, Morene could see litter and glass spread across every tile of cement making up the sides of the road. Though the rather damp alleyway she woke up in wasn't the most comfortable, Morene thought she'd much rather been there than out in the open.

Even if the night sky was rather calming to look at every once and a while, that did not distract the huntress from the noise in the city streets below. Though she hadn't seen or heard anything of too much concern as of yet, Morene knew the distant yelling and swearing usually meant wherever she was at the moment wasn't a pleasant place to be.

Only a few minutes later on did she end up realizing why this Coruscant city was so busted up; Morene had been accidentally moving down the "tiers" whilst searching for something as a lead to where Yuuko might've been, or some place to rest. It didn't take the huntress too long to figure out her own folly, considering it was quite easy to eavesdrop on passing citizens, even if quite a few of them had their eyes set on the obvious Prime wandering the streets. Had she known why everybody was giving her such strange looks, Morene might've been shocked to hear that her choice of attire wasn't exactly the norm in a place like Coruscant.

Sighing, Morene looked to her side, watching both ways before starting a jog down across the street. She watched as a few floating vehicles passed, one of the drivers visibly annoyed with Morene's sudden act of jaywalking. The huntress almost felt bad, but she knew this particular part of town wouldn't have paid much mind to such petty things in comparison to most cities she had been in. With all that out of the way, Morene stepped up to the curb, looking up at a deathly dark abandoned building, windows cracked, the door chained and locked up tight enough that no street thief could get inside and salvage whatever was left behind in the seemingly unprotected dump.

Thankfully enough for Morene however, she was no street thief. Running her fingers along the worn-down walls, the armor-clad woman wished she had it in her to just climb the building to get away from the noise and rest up for the night, but Morene assured herself that today was definitely going to have to be a lazy day if she wanted to get anything done whatsoever. That, and simply put, the huntress already had enough eyes on her to make her feel uncomfortable, and scaling a building wouldn't exactly help.

Creeping up to the alley in-between the two presumably abandoned buildings, Morene easily found a back door that wasn't as heavily held closed. Swiping a newspaper off of her boot, Morene raised herself up and put her ear to the door, focusing intently on what may be inside. A few seconds passed, the huntress straining her head to listen through the rampant yelling on the streets.

"Alright..." Morene mumbled to herself, carefully placing her hands on the knob, inspecting it carefully. Knowing it was locked, she tilted her head, inspecting the door ever so carefully.

Then, with enough force to make the almost middle aged woman jump in surprise, the door knob completely snapped off by a mere movement of her wrist.

"O-oh."

Breathing in after that little scare, Morene looked down at the handle in her hands, slowly putting it back on the door, pushing it open. Letting the handle go once more, the hunk of metal crashed down onto the floor, Morene's face showing nothing but embarrassment at the moment.

Thankfully however, looking around in the barren building, all Morene could see was dust particles flying in the almost completely dark room, minus the tinted and broken windows letting a small amount of city lights in. 'Closing' the door behind her, Morene walked in to the surprisingly quiet building, sighing in relief. Sneezing soon after entering the room, Morene found the dirty building quite comfortable to be in due to the sudden warmth. At that moment in time, all the world's problems seemed to be ever so slowly fading in Morene's head.

Yuuko going missing, being so suddenly shoved into a different realm of existence entirely, her physical health, and whatever problems this strange new world had to offer to her. She had to apologize in her head to the metaphorical manifestation of those problems existing, for they would have to wait until tomorrow morning
to be dealt with.

Slumping over, Morene looked to the floors beneath her, a sly smile on her face as she saw a few sets of blankets and pillows off to the far corner of the other room she had walked into. Picking a single set up, her tired eyes could barely see how dirty and abandoned they looked. She couldn't bring herself to care, the huntress simply looking over to find a nice, quiet place to place herself in. Her head ached as she moved it to the right, seeing a distinctive wide set of stairs, leading to the building's second floor she only now realized it had.

Striding up the single set of stairs, the dusty old ground beneath Morene's feet creaked as she quickly hopped up each step. Getting to the top, Morene took a left, immediately facing another large, rather plain looking door. The door itself, to Morene's gratefulness, was already opened, likely due to lack of care on the previous owner's fault. Though she didn't have the energy to figure anything out at the moment, the huntress knew quickly that this place had a little story behind it, one that she'd unfortunately have to sleep through. Going into the surprisingly empty room in comparison to the floor below, Morene gazed over the dimly moonlit clusters of litter on the floor. She then threw the slightly mucky set of covers and pillows previously tucked into her arms right onto the middle of the room, before looking up a moment.

A little groan escaped Morene's mouth as she realized she'd have to 'secure' the room she resided in first and foremost. Lazily walking over to a few dirty sets of books, Morene slowly walked over to the slightly open door, balancing the rather heavy set of text on the frame, conveniently placing it so anybody to open it further than it was at the moment would either have books crashing down on them, or the floor beneath their feet, a loud enough sound for the huntress to hear while resting.

Breathing deeply, Morene looked out through the single window lighting the room with it's simple nightly blue hues, mumbling to herself in the meantime as she almost instinctively crouched down to wrap herself in the dirty blankets she set before her.

"4 hours, that's all..."

She wanted to say more, but before she knew it, Morene found herself slumped over, her head placed down gently onto the torn and ragged pillow fast asleep.

[Morene Fellon]

A slimy, yet dry and bitter taste filled Morene's mouth while she slept, her eyes lazily staying closed as the rest of her body woke up. Her right arm she was previously sleeping on was already asleep, the tingling feeling further discouraging her from moving a single muscle, yet she knew what she'd have to do sooner or later.

Sniffling, Morene pushed herself off the old, uncomfortable hardwood floor she bared to sleep through. At one point, Morene finally opened her eyes to look down at how much dust and dirt had gotten on her rather expensive clothing due to the way she slept, wiping off whatever muck she found on herself. In the meantime however, she couldn't help but groan at her incompetence at the realization she had slept in almost full body armor.

The huntress wanted to make a witty self depreciating remark, but found no words, and no energy to make them up. Looking around, Morene's eyes quickly adjusted to the new light bouncing in from the windows and right onto her face.

Looking around a bit, Morene quickly found her glasses lying on the floor, almost gasping at the possibility of them breaking... Putting them on however, the woman was quickly pleased to find that everything was alright.

Well, except the fact that she was still in an old, broken down warehouse in the middle of a unsanitary ghetto.

Breathing in, the huntress once again stopped herself with a sneeze, shaking her head afterwards in slight annoyance. No breakfast to be consumed, no caffeinated drinks to be found anywhere, and Morene didn't even have a flask with her.

Throwing the blankets aside, Morene got up, her legs still aching ever so slightly. Groaning even louder this time, Morene straightened herself, forced to listen to all the little bones in her body pop as they all moved. Stretching a bit, the little popping sounds only got slightly more painful, but the woman felt much better afterwards.

Walking over to the door that led Morene down to the first floor, she stopped herself before she even touched the handle. Slowly, Morene looked up to find that huge book still dangling over the door frame, almost ready to come crashing down right onto Morene's head. The huntress smiled for the first time that day, averting the crisis of getting a major headache and possible bruise by reaching up, and gently placing the large heap of text onto the floor.

Getting that out of the way, Morene walked down the creaking flight of stairs, expecting to feel another nice warmth in the air, only to be greeted by a cold breeze, and a bright light coming from the door that happened to be wide open. The huntress winced, looking at the broken doorknob still rolling around on the floor, finding another reason to leave this little place as immediately as possible.

Just like that, Morene felt wide awake, thankfully enough in her case. Slowly walking out of the abandoned warehouse, the woman peeked her head out ever so slightly to observe both of her flanks, finding an ample opportunity to hop out without looking like the average street rat whilst doing so. Taking her time, Morene took her first real breath into the polluted airs of Coruscant that day.

. . .

In the few hours Morene walked in what she now learned was tier 5 of the city-planet, the huntress saw nothing but boredom and contempt pasted across every face of every citizen she passed by. As varied as they all were, whether it was skin color, attire, faces, or entire bodily structure, Morene knew that nobody was quite happy to be here, at least for any considerable amount of time. In a strange way, Morene felt motivated, a temptation to perhaps help these downtrodden people from their seemingly miserable lives, just like she used to.

But, that would come later, Morene concluded in all it's unfortunate nature. The huntress knew well that in comparison to how she was standing only a few 'days' ago, Morene felt weak at the moment, at least physically. A tired, fatigued feeling that seemed to be fading away slower than usual. It was almost as if that Omni figure put a curse on the woman, something that she wasn't quite used to.

Perhaps it was the general atmosphere of walking in these populated and morose sidewalks sprawling with even more depressed life doing their own thing, or the aches in her back were more simply explained by her getting old, but... no, she knew that wasn't the case, as she was still an augmented transhuman that was only in her early thirties.

Either way, Morene was pleased to break away from all the noise and crowded space upon finding a nice little bench to sit on in the middle of her walk, a seemingly untouched piece of furniture that glistened in the midst of the mucky and dirty city streets.

Sighing in relief, Morene once again pulled her nifty wide-brimmed hat from under her elegant armored coat, sliding it onto her head as she immediately sat herself down.

She chuckled to herself as she laid back into the metal seat of the bench. Soon, Morene would make a name for herself again, or at least she thought as she leaned back to calmly observe the strangely beautiful city life before her.

But for now, she would wait.

[Morene Fellon]

Honestly, it's been much too long since Morene has gotten some time to herself, the more she thought about it. Working the job she did, if she could even call it a job at this point, didn't really give her much time to relax. Admittedly however, Morene knew she couldn't stay here forever. Twiddling her thumbs, the huntress whined to herself, throwing her head back to look up at the heavily polluted skies--

"Hey."

Morene blinked. Almost tempted to look back down, she dismissed the eerily close words as somebody walking past. She closed her eyes--

"Hey, weird lady, talkin' to you."

Whoever was talking, it was most definitely to Morene. Must've been the clothes she was wearing, but how dare they nonetheless! Morene thought to herself, she wasn't weird, and she'd give whoever this person was a piece of her mind.

Looking down however, Morene quickly saw the glistening white armor that she immediately identified as one of those guardsmen at the gates of the Nexus. Her mouth gaped open for a slight second, looking for the right words to say. Was she in trouble? Well, she DID admittedly break into some private property to go to sleep, but...

Instinctively, she replied anyways, keeping her back straight as she addressed this man clad in white armor, contrasting his very unprofessional and slouched posture.

"Yes? Is there something you need, sir?" Morene's words came out slower than she wanted them to. Perhaps in confusion, but hopefully she'd be enlightened as to why she was roused soon enough.

"Yeah, I'll make this quick," the Stormtrooper answered as he folded his arms across his chest, "I've been following you for a bit now, after that whole encounter back at the Gates--"

"Wait, what?" Morene couldn't help but interrupt. Followed, now? As in, deliberately stalked? Apparently so, and surprisingly enough to the huntress, Morene didn't much care.

"Don't mind that," the Empire soldier continued as quickly as he could, "I was about to give up askin' you about this as soon as I saw you literally sleep in a dump-- But anyways... Since you're a Prime and all that, I wanted to sneak in a bit of help from ya."

Morene blinked. This presumably young man wasn't very good at persuasion. Then again, Morene was the type of girl who could be persuaded into doing about anything if you put the word 'help' somewhere in the same sentence, she hated to admit. The woman couldn't help but wonder...

"Me? A 'Prime?' Never have I heard such a thing, might you enlighten me?" Morene asked in genuine curiosity, and with a slight tinge of concern. Should she also have asked if she should be worried she didn't know what a Prime was? She couldn't swear to it, but Morene could almost remember what she assumed to be the captain of this Stormtrooper's squadron to have referred to her and Yuuko as such.

"Yep, you're definitely new," the Stormtrooper mumbled to himself. He continued however, a bit more politely, though Morene wasn't going to mind either way, simply wanting answers.

"A Prime is some person or thing that was summoned directly by Omni and spawned at the Fountain back at the Nexus. You're one of 'em; the more you know."

"Ohh... Why is that so important?" Morene came right back to ask, and she could faintly hear the Stormtrooper groaning.

"Omni explained it to you or somethin', didn't he? You've got Omnilium, can basically do anything with it. And yeah, I know that's pretty vague, but he meant it. Like, cheap-out basically any problem you may or may not have had back in your... 'home territory,' I'll just call it that for now. Yeah."

"Do you need any money? You could have just asked..." Morene looked down ever so innocently, almost about to reach for her pockets before the Stormtrooper chimed in once again.

"No, no, I know the Empire might not look like they can do basically anything without half-assing it, but I've got food on my table! I-- Alright, I'll cut this short, come with me and help us complete this mission the big boys gave me and my team, and I'll make it worth your while... somehow."

Morene's eyebrow raised. They were guarding the Gates, were they not? She couldn't help but ask, hoping the Stormtrooper in front of her wouldn't get tired of answering them.

"Your higher-ups just now gave you something else to do?"

"Yep," the armor-totting soldier replied, clasping his hands together, "there's some sort of special schedule that comes into guarding those Gates, since apparently they're reaaally important to the Empire for whatever reason. But, about that thing I mentioned, yeah, to skim it down, we're looking for some sort of ancient... magical... artifact thing. What exactly it is, I'm not sure, and where it is, I'm not sure, and why it's important, again, I'm not sure, but it's important."

A moment of silence.

"Alright, I'll help," Morene said ever so suddenly. The Stormtrooper stared at the mysterious Prime in seeming confusion, though Morene couldn't see.

"That easy, huh--" the Empire soldier began, before Morene interrupted with a single motion, raising her hand upwards.

"On one condition! What is your name?"

"Uhh... Well, what I'm supposed to say is LX-6585, but here's the part where I beg of you not to tell anybody that I like being called Lex on the day job."

She wanted to ask about the werid codename, but Morene already knew the answer. Some organization with the name like the 'Galactic Empire' doesn't seem like they'd care too much about namesakes when it's obvious they've got countless troops to sort through. Morene also wanted to ask the consequences of being known as 'Lex' by his closer peers, but the man was taking it lightly enough, so Morene shrugged it off.

"Very well, Lex," Morene stood up, turning to the trooper as she continued, "where shall we start?"

"That weird library place nearby, that's where. I imagine they're not gonna let a member of the Galactic Empire just waltz right in, so that's where you come in, miss...?"

'Library place?' Morene pondered to herself. She enjoyed a little reading every now and again, but this seemed special. The woman had to guess there was some useful information they might scrounge up there, of course. But, wouldn't the uppermost tiers have more credible sources to base a lead on? Unless of course this library Lex spoke of was unique after all.

Wait... Was she forgetting something?

Oh, how impolite of her, not even mentioning her name after asking for his. Morene smiled, finally introducing herself proper.

"Morene Fellon, or just Morene. Now, where to?"

"Follow me, I gotta feeling you don't even know what I'm talkin' about with this library thing. The... Archives of something, it's called. I forgot, it's been a while."

Morene sighed. This Lex fellow was pretty good at reading people, that's for certain. Stretching her arms outward, Morene took to the Stormtrooper's advice, following him into the busy streets of Coruscant in hopes he truly knew where he was going. Though, if he didn't, it's not like Morene of all people could blame him.

Either way, it was something to do, and Morene would take it. Hopefully enough however, the huntress thought to herself, she wouldn't regret it.