Do you believe in magic

[Undyne]

Ghost barely slowed the speeder when crossing the gate to the Endless Dunes - no point. There never was anyone or anything blocking the gate from either side. And with time visibly being of the essence now they could not afford taking it safe. They briefly slowed the Speeder to toss a sand-colored blanket over the passenger’s head and body to ward off the scorching sun. Someone as pale as her and with that much exposed skin would get redder from sunburn than a lobster. They avoided covering her face up though, to keep her from suffocating. The last someone as sick as her could use now was panic or breathing difficulty.

Luckily Carrefore wasn’t far away from the gate, especially not with a Speeder, and Ghost knew the town well enough to not need to stop and ask the imperial Stormtroopers for directions or look at a map. Instead they sped towards Doctor Parnelle’s office by driving along one of the central trade routes where the speed limits were highest and dialed her office’s front desk number. They knew that that light headpiece to wear on the ear with an inbuilt microphone for the helmet had been a good purchase.

“This is Dr. med. Parnell’s office, front-desk, you’re spea-”

“I got an emergency here, Graham. I have a patient with me who’s potentially unstable and needs treatment asap. A female in her mid-twenties, symptoms are high fever and possibly hallucinating from it. ETA is three minutes. Is Parnelle around?”

“... is that you, Ghost?”

“Yes.”

A sigh came from the other end of the line. “I’ll tell the doctor to get ready. Are you coming around the back?”

“There’s no need. She has no external injuries, I doubt she was attacked by anyone who wants to finish the job.”

“Alright. Until soon.” He hung up and Ghost turned a corner, swiftly dodging a pair of figures that were crossing the street and nearly jumped out of their skin when Ghost sped past them. Shortly after they stopped the Speeder, dismounted, picked Jaina up and heaved her over their back. Graham was already there to open the doors through the reception area and the main corridor, and once they arrived in the office he had them lay Jaina down on the examination table in there. Doctor Parnelle rushed into the room seconds later, slipping a pair of sanitary gloves over her hands, and eyed Ghost before leaning over the patient. “Tell me everything you know”, she asked.

“Found her at the Nexus, near the fountain”, Ghost replied. “Laying there, I imagine hallucinating in her fever dreams. She said something when I came close. I administered an adrenaline dosis to stabilize her and had her drink some water before putting her on the speeder. She mumbled something while I drove here, but nothing I could make sense of. No idea if she’s a Prime or not.”

“She looks like a mage of Camelot. Not the best person to bring to an imperial-controlled city”, she remarked while checking the pulse and breathing. “The adrenaline dose may have been a bit excessive but it’s good that you brought her to get medical aid. Leave her to me, but try asking around at Camelot if they’re missing anyone that matches her description.”

“If they do, wouldn’t you kill her? A mage from an enemy faction?”

“There’s something called the Hippocratic Oath, Ghost. I’ll treat any patient no matter what side they’re on. Now leave me alone, and keep your Communicator on. I’ll be in touch.”

“Understood. Thanks, Doc.” As they walked through the door they were already dialing the number of a certain acquaintance from the vicinity of Minas Tirith.

[2B]

Carrefore. 

A town, likes of which Jaina had seen more than once during her time in Azeroth. A town not flourishing with the beauty of a capital city, yet not withering away without signs of civilization and inhabitation. Of course, the magus barely even knew what was whirling past her eyes as the pair sped through the settlement on speederback, and her eyes lolled. Where was he...she? Her fever addled brain opted with he for now. Where was he taking her? Maybe he’d made a call, she thought as the distant past of three minutes ago spun within her head. 

Soon enough, the magus was fairly certain she was being carried, given the weird distribution of her body weight, how she partly felt like she was flying… Just how high was she, the girl pondered within the small haven of clarity that still remained within the whirlpool of delusion. Distant sounds echoed around her, lost in the sea of delusion as Jaina felt herself being dumped upon a table.

The maelstrom of delusion raged, devouring all who dared to try and cross the churning seas, laying claim upon most of the sounds from the outside world. Yet a few stragglers, survivors, somehow made it through to the haven of clarity, coughing the saltwater from their lungs and slowly fading after delivering their message.

“..........the IV…..”

Jaina, as the daughter of the once great Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, she felt such anger that sea of all things, was claiming her freedom. She knew. She knew there was no other option, as the sorceress raised her hands and pushed them forth toward the sea. An opening torn into the beautiful treeline of the beach. One by one, the trees were torn from the ground, stripped of excess branches, leaves and material, fusing together. The Princess of Kul Tiras refused to simply watch as she was toyed with, least of all by the sea. It was time, that she herself would enter the game.

“....blood…...wrong.”

Another survivor coughed their lungs out upon the sands, before fading away into naught. Chanting, the furious magus called upon the arts of the arcane sorceries, tearing apart the fabric of reality, to pull forth the most magnificent of sails. Flown to the mast, her sorcery tied it down with naught but the flick of a wrist, bearing the magnificent emblem of Kul Tiras. It was time that she, like her father before her, laid claim upon the name Proudmoore, and set to the seas.

“..prepare…..operate.”

Stood upon the helm of her ensorcerelled ship, the magus tore an opening into the whirling waters. The years of studying sorcery and the arcane arts pushed to their limits as she took hold over the spirits in the depths and quelled their rage to her will. The knowledge that should she falter for the slightest of moments, her small ship would be torn to shreds within the vast fury of the sea fueling her determination. In the distance, Jaina saw another ship shatter like glass, before it was pulled beneath the waves, naught left to signify of its existence.

This water, the spirits, they’re... different.. In some way, arcane.. laced with..? No, no… The magus thought as her hands motioned circularly in the air, shaping the spirits around her and granting a safe passage for herself. ...It’s too potent to be water laced or infused with magic.. The ship swung as it was crashed by a torrent of water, teetering upon the edge of capsizing. Snapping back into reality, the magus shaped the waters once more. Too close. Jaina remarked, as she realized she was completely drenched from the event. Licking her lips to clean the dripping liquid, her eyes widened in realization. It’s arcane energy. My arcane energy. But what in the world has happened to it? To me?!

It was at such times, that mages oft ought to remember, that even the most renowned of magi were prone to errors. As the ship began to tear apart from its seams, the reality claimed her. This isn’t good! was her first thought, as a wave swept her into the sea, and darkness encased her. 

[2B]

Surfacing from the depths, the magus regained awareness as she gasped for air, jerking upwards in an attempt to avoid the watery grave that awaited below. Of course, it was only then that Jaina realized the bright lights that shattered her vision, that she was actually awake and…………

“Relax, relax.” ushered a voice from beside her, pushing Jaina downward by her shoulders. In a manner that was firm enough to hold her down, yet in a weird way comforting, clarifying that it was for her own good. Even then, the magus couldn’t help but to ponder the brilliance of the human mind. How one could understand so much, from so little.

“You’ve only just awoken, easy now. You’re safe.” Doctor Parnelle called out, whilst still not removing her hands from upon the magus. With years and years of medical experience, she knew better than to frontload a patient that had just woken up, with pointless blabber and information. Calming them down was of utmost importance.

“Where..? Wait, who..?” were the first coherent questions that Jaina managed to filter all the way from her brains to her lips, without the signal disappearing somewhere along the way.

“Carrefore, in my clinic’s recovery room. I am Doctor Evelynn Parnell, the medical superintendent of this clinic.” Once more, the doctor simply delivered facts. She knew very well what the girl would ask next, yet there was no point delivering the information to her before she decided to ask it herself. Once more, the safety and calmness of the patient came beforehand. Of course, normally Evelynn didn’t sit in the waiting room, waiting for the patients to come to, but this case was intriguing to say the least, and she did have a mutual agreement with Ghost, as inconvenient as it was at times.

“Why..? And where is Carrefore..?” God it hurt, it hurt everywhere. Like someone had torn body apart, put it together using rough stitching before shredding it once more. Even speaking seemed to jolt pain from locations Jaina had never even knew that existed. “What happened to me?” was the next question flowing from her lips, before the apparent doctor had the chance to answer.

“You were brought here by someone, you were in a catatonic state of disarray. They found you by the Nexus fountain. As for Carrefore.. It’s a town in the Endless Dunes.” the doctor listed, her voice calming as ever. Of course, by now she was fairly certain that Ghost’s assumption would be proven correct; the girl was a new prime. Even from someone of Evelynn’s caliber, it’d take some courteous maneuvering to drop such a bomb. Next to the two, the heart rate monitor still drew a normal curve.

Beep…Beep...Beep…

Had raising her eyebrow not hurt so much, Jaina would’ve probably done so, instead of resorting to a look, her eyes filled to the brim with a sea of confusion. “There… I don’t think there is a Nexus in Azeroth, not that I know of?” Just why did her brains have to speak in such longrun sentences, when her jaw muscles screamed for mercy and her throat sang for help. She wasn’t a clever girl, for all her wit and intellect. “N-nor do I bel….No dunes either. Or Carrefore.” Jaina halted her sentence midway through, constructing it in her head in a much more abrupt, albeit frustrating way to say aloud, avoiding further torture.

Taking a glance at the heart rate monitor that now beeped with a slightly elevated tone, Evelynn sat in silence for a while. Whilst she knew that answering the question wasn’t ideal, and she’d have rather waited answering, she knew that leaving it unanswered would only push for further panic. Further stress. “Please, try and remain calm, Miss. This may...no, it will shock you.” she prepared her patient, giving the blonde a moment to steel herself in preparation of the news to come. “The Nexus, Endless Dunes and Carrefore are not in Azeroth. And neither are you, Miss. You’ve arrived in the Omniverse.” pausing for a moment, she glanced at the heart rate monitor which climbed with an alarming rate.

Beep..Beep Beep BeepBeepBeepBeep…….

Of course, Parnelle had known this would happen. It always did, and she’d seen it a few times before. As such, she’d already prepared for it, calmly pushing down the plunger of the syringe she held her hand that contained the sedative. The blonde sleep for a small while, the rest, even if artificial would be beneficial to her healing. It wasn’t necessarily the only option to calming the patient down, but it was the safest for both the patient, as well as the doctor. As the heart rate monitor descended, Jaina felt a wave of wooziness wash over her, before drifting away into the medical slumber.

As she stood up, the doctor removed the syringe from the tubing it was connected to and discarded it into the bin, as she left the room for now, and made it to the front desk. “Graham, please inform Ghost, that the patient has been stabilized, and is in no immediate danger. However, let them know, that I’m keeping her here for at least a few more days.”

Graham acknowledged, his fingers already dialing Ghost and.....Well, that’s another story, for another day.

Author’s note: The author is fully aware of the Nexus situated in Northrend, but given Jaina’s point of abduction, I chose to not have her know of it.

[Undyne]

Ghost was just parking the Speeder into their Antigrav field for regular maintenance when a ringing caught their attention. Might be someone calling the wrong number, of course - there was no way of checking without the display, which they didn't have at hand. So they just activated the earpiece, checking that the voice modifier was on, and started the call.

"Jaden Green speaking?" they asked. A fake name, obviously. The imperial records had a dozen Jaden Greens, though most lived in Coruscant. Coupling the ambiguous name with the voice modifier and a little fake static added by the phone, nobody who accidentally dialed a wrong number would be any wiser. In this case though, the precaution proved unnecessary.

"Ghost, this is Graham speaking."

"I'm sorry, who are you asking for? Ghost?"

The person on the other end could be heard grunting. "You know, you didn't say your password when you called us recently."

"I'm sorry Sir, I don't know what you're talking about. I think you have dialed the wrong number... I don't know anything about phone passwords."

"Fine, fine! The password's F-GI Ninety-five... Is that really necessary?"

Ghost turned the static generator off, clearing the line though the voice modifier stayed on. "I prefer it to be this way. How can I help you?"

"The patient you brought in, that woman... Doctor Parnelle wishes to inform you that she's stabilized. She's out of immediate danger but we'll be keeping her in for a few more days at least."

"Has Parnelle figured out what her issue is?"

"Not yet, but she's working on it."

"Did she have any pointers of her affiliation on her?"

"We only went through her belongings superficially to ensure that she has no dangerous substances on her, but in the process I caught a few symbols and emblems that may be related to factions. I have digital copies, but I don't recognize any of them. At least, they're not from any known faction here in the Omniverse."

"Send them to me regardless, please. I'll do a cross-check myself."

"Not trusting anyone, eh? They're on the way."

"Like I said before..."

"... yes, yes, I know. 'In my line of profession you don't trust people, only yourself.' What do you think will you find?"

"I've called a few contacts in Camelot. There's a number of young mages missing but no adults. It may have been swept under the rug though."

"Oh?"

"She may have been poisoned. Minas Tirith is a den of intrigue and deception, it's possible that someone tried to remove a strong competitor from the picture and left her to die at the Nexus. It's a good place to make people disappear, and Minas Tirith is more likely to suffocate rumors than to publicly announce that they lost someone from among their ranks. But things like these leave traces."

"Will you be going to Camelot for investigations, then?"

"No. I have contacts there who'll discretely ask around. Besides, I have another job lined up."

"More work for us in the near future?"

Ghost placed the wrench and began to loosen a screw on the Speeder. "Maybe. You'll get the update in a few days."

"Okay. We'll keep you informed on the patient. Long live the Emperor."

"Long live the Emperor." Ghost hung up and deactivated the earpiece, then removed the Speeder's cover and got to work. Nothing major, luckily. The Speeder was going to be needed for work tomorrow. If it jammed at an inopportune moment the inconvenience caused would be substantial... and the bounty placed on those poachers was no small amount either.

Wanted only alive, of course, so that the clients could obtain information about the larger organization that exported the animals to Coruscant. Two specific individuals to catch red-handed, bring them back alive, and a bonus if captured without raising an alert among the organization. To most bounty-hunters it was a job whose bounty wasn't high enough to compensate for the requirement stealth requirement. To Ghost it was a standard gig.

A ghost was never seen and heard even if they were right behind you, after all.

[Undyne]

Ghost tugged the brown hood of their camo suit to shield their eyes from the blazing sun above and adjusted the binoculars's focus. Through the low-tech but reliable tool they saw the targets... no doubt about it, those were the ones. Ghost's sharp eyes recognized the characteristic scar on the bald woman's hand, and the tattoo on the young man's face, as they had been described by the bounty-giver. They must be unaware that they were being hunted, to display themselves so openly. And even though they occasionally checked their surroundings they never displayed any signs of suspicion. Of awareness that they were being watched.

Ghost lowered the binoculars and slid towards the edge of the small plateau that they used as a vantage point. From this angle their quarry would not notice the Speeder hidden behind the stone pillar, and even if they did the camo cover that Ghost had tossed over it disguised it as another brown rock, just like the dozens of others around it. At the top of that pillar Ghost also was in a good position to observe the unsuspecting pair of desert iguanas that were their targets’s quarry that day. A rich individual, someone from Coruscant, had recently expressed their desire for one of these iguanas, likely to keep as an exotic animal. Or maybe to eat it. The case was, as Ghost knew from their little wiretapping, that someone of the trafficants had to go and poach one and bring it back, and whoever was in charge had assigned those two to that task for that day. Of course, they would not be back.

The bounty hunter deployed the bipod of their sniper and steadied their breath while adjusting the scope. Deviation would be... 8,2° to the left, judging by the wind’s force, and at a distance of 300m the bullet drop would need to be compensated for by aiming six lines above. The best time to take the shot would be when they had caught the iguana so as to obtain videographic proof first. Ghost put a darkened lens over the scope to obtain a similar effect to sunglasses and hide the treacherous scope glare, and turned on two of their mask-mounted cameras. Optic cameras, they called them, because they were mounted onto the same goggles that let Ghost see their surroundings. In fact, if they needed to they were able to turn the camera on so as to provide a live feed of what they saw to Ghost's eyes, while blocking the goggles to prevent individuals from scanning Ghost's eyes through them - extreme safety measures, one may say. But now the necessity was to record the ongoing events from two different angles: once through the rifle scope, providing a zoomed-in view, and once without the scope for a wider area coverage but of the same thing.

"Bountyhunt #32, Log Entry #4. Time of day, 10:47AM... location, Endless Dunes verse, the rough coordinates are... longitude 17,6 degrees, latitude 10,8 degrees. Date... is attached to the recording. Presently tracking the two individuals... described by Bounty #2725 on the Imperial Bounty Board, after identifying them as targets.They appear to be attempting to catch a desert iguana. Waiting for decisive visual evidence of poaching before engaging targets at sniping distance." And silence. Now to lie in wait while remaining observant. The two poachers moved as predicted, with planned movements to corner and catch the larger of the two iguanas. Ghost left the cameras on all along. There was more than enough juice in the battery and disk space on the hard drives to record all day... and every detail was important.

Eventually they moved in with the man wielding a large net and the woman holding something that Ghost presumed to be a sedative to use at close range. They had no high-power guns on them... perhaps to avoid raising suspicion at the Coruscant gate. Ghost once more steadied their breathing, adjusted the rifle's position and tracked them until they finally cornered and trapped the iguana with a net. "Evidence obtained. Log pause." The video feed was cut and Ghost felt a little burst of adrenaline through their veins, readying them for what was going to happen. "Ghost protocols initiated."

The sound of the sniper being fired tore through the quiet Dunes, but before the two poachers could even reflexively react, let alone consciously, the sedative dart hit the man square in the neck. The fine needle penetrated his skin and reached a vein with surgical precision before injecting its payload which sent him off to dreamland, all in less than half a second. Ghost needed not to check that their shot had landed, nor pull the sniper back to reload a dart and chamber it with the bolt-action lever, their hands moved on their own. The woman, initially shocked and paralyzed from the supposed death of her companion, did nothing to prevent the iguana from tearing through the net and escaping as rapidly as its legs would carry it. Then she dove to the ground, searching for cover from the unknown assailant and scampering for her Communicator. She never reached it. She hadn’t realized that Ghost was in an elevated position and that the little rocks she sook cover behind did nothing for her at that angle. While she was reaching into her pocket, Ghost’s second shot hit her square in the nape of her neck.

"Holding still makes you a better target", Ghost murmured before packing up. The sniper was swiftly tucked away but kept ready in case that the sleep darts did not work as intended for any reason. Luckily, they did, as became evident when Ghost arrived on their speeder and found the two sound asleep. The camera came on again, only one this time. "Update to Bountyhunt #32, Log Entry #4... successfully subdued the two HVTs with sedative AG-190 'Grim's Touch', administered subcutaneously at around 11:03AM." They would not wake up no matter what without the antidote... and if left untreated, after 24 hours their heart would cease to beat as the effects became too strong. As such it was important to note the time of the hit and to hurry. Ghost put both of them on the back of the speeder, held by belts so they would not fall off, and collected the net as well as pulled out the darts. Then they set off to Carrefore again. While driving they called the office.

"This is Dr. med. Parnelle’s office, front-desk, you’re speaking with Graham, how can I help you?"

"Good day, Graham. Ghost here. I'm about to cash in a bounty... two people, the troopers should be visiting you in some three hours.”

“Got it. Thanks for the heads up.”

“Anytime. Long live the Emperor.”

“Long live the Emperor.”

The bounty turn-in point was manned by Stormtroopers, but Ghost ignored them. They drove the speeder onto one of the parking spaces and locked it, then went inside leaving the two sleeping beauties on the Speeder but taking the sniper rifle along. There had been attempts of stealing their weapons off the Speeder during previous turn-ins, to reverse-engineer the custom sedatives that Ghost was using, so they did not trust this time, or any in the future, to be different.

"I'm here to turn in Bounty 2725", they declared as soon as a Stormtrooper had led them to the back. "The targets are on my vehicle."

"That bounty is only live targets. Are these two alive?" the Stormtrooper asked.

"Affirmative. They are merely sedated. I have also obtained proof in the shape of videos of their attempted poaching."

"Good. You know the drill, upload the data at our terminal while we collect them." While the Stormtrooper left the room Ghost pulled a small USB stick from their drive, holding a copy of the two video files, and plugged it in rather than hooking the hard drive up directly. More precautions... Coruscant accepted freelance bountyhunters as a 'necessary evil' but if they could keep tabs on them, such as with computer viruses on their hardware, they would try that. Conversely some computer-savvy bountyhunters tried to upload their own viruses to the network when passing data, for various reasons. Ghost preferred to avoid all that. They took the stick back out and tossed it into a trashcan then waited for the Stormtroopers to return.

"And the antidote for those two?" asked the Stormtrooper after it was established that they were alive.

"Substract the costs for two doses from my payout as usual", replied Ghost. "AG-190 was used, you have about 21 hours left before their death, so that's 16 hours to administer the antidote. The usual contact has them for you." Their “usual contact” was of course Doctor Parnelle. She got a decent payout each time that Ghost cashed in a bounty, by selling them the antidotes that Ghost gave to her in exchange for two favors.

One, by providing a failsafe like this the Empire had to pay Ghost rather than pulling in the prisoners but refusing to pay for it, or forcing them to give up the antidote at gunpoint. Ghost had none on them at any time, the only one who did was the doc, and the Stormtroopers knew that whatever the antidote was, it took 3 days to produce - too long to save the sedated hostages if they forced Ghost to recreate it. Parnelle herself knew nothing of the antidote’s secret composition and only released however many doses Ghost named when informing her that the Stormtroopers would come around. No sample to reverse-engineer it. The Empire may not like the extra hassle, but they wouldn’t burn that bridge by forcing anything.

And two, Doctor Parnelle had promised to help Ghost if ever they got injured, on the job or off of it, and off the record - no document trail for snoopers to backtrace. She was one of the very few people who had seen what was beneath Ghost’s suit, and the only one still alive. This business agreement was mutually beneficial for them, and surprisingly stable.

Soon the Stormtroopers informed the front desk that everything was in order, and Ghost collected the payment, minus the fee for two doses of antidote. They were gone before the courier sent to retrieve the doses from the doctor was back. No point staying in that place any longer.