Only Shadows in Coruscant

[Dark Link]

Tier Six...the city of lost hopes and dreams.

Once a normal residential area, a combination of increased crime and decreased Imperial presence had allowed anarchy to set in and fester. Though nominally under the Empire's control, it was immediately apparent even to a casual observer that the authorities had long given up on maintaining any semblance of order in that part of the city. Beyond the well-guarded, well-fortified walls of the Community Center, crime lords and street gangs vied for control over the decaying settlement. Most of those seeking a better life had long since given up on any prospect of the situation improving and fled elsewhere; aside from the criminals, only the proud, the mad and the desperate remained.

The Primes emerged from the other side of the alleyway and appeared in another street, albeit one that was devoid of people hanging around outside. Fragments of glass and concrete crackled under their feet as they made their way along the thoroughfare, avoiding the trash and debris that littered the ground. On both sides of the road, apartment blocks were lined up adjacent to one another, some having survived years of chaos and poor makeshift maintenance better than others. Nearly all the doors and windows were either boarded or reinforced. Combined with the nearly non-existent lightning, the neighbourhood seemed more like a ghost town than a populated area.

While Sarah focused on leading them to their destination, her dark companion kept looking around, taking in the various sights. Though it was very aesthetically displeasing compared to the wonders he had witnessed before, he was no less fascinated to see objects that were entirely new to him. However, he was even more fascinated by the piece of technological wizardry that was now strapped to his arm. In the brief time that he had to examine it, he was amazed by all the images and sounds it could produce and all the functions it seemed to possess.

But as tempted as he was to further explore the mysteries of the technological gauntlet, he refrained from doing so...and not solely because "her" told him not to. He too could sense it....or, rather, he could sense them. Even though it was not apparent at a glance, they were being watched. From the various windows, cracks and crevices, the eyes of the local inhabitants followed their every movement. However, none dared to come outside to see who the newcomers were, preferring whatever meager safety their homes provided. So in spite of the suspicions they aroused, the duo was able to proceed unhindered.

After turning around a corner, they finally saw their destination in the distance, bright neon lights illuminating the way. The district was a stark contrast to the streets they had witnessed before. It was full of people, although most of them either kept to themselves or stuck close to their group in order to avoid getting mugged. Various merchants either had stalls set up or just sat on the ground, peddling a variety of wears. Diverse types of establishments could be found at every street corner: casinos, brothels, strip clubs, massage parlors, boutiques, beauty saloons and more. All of it was watched over by stern-looking mercenaries and bodyguards, making certain that business went on as usual.

It didn't take them long to find the place they were looking for. The Merciful Knight stood out among the buildings for a variety of reasons, not least of which was the fact that it was one of the largest and most well-maintained, a testament to Sir Gawain's power and influence within the ruined city. The large entrance was somewhat anachronistic, the orange light of the large overhead neon sign reflecting off of medieval armour that served as decoration. A queue of people stood in front of the building, impatiently awaiting to gain entry as they were examined one at a time. The procedure was done by a pair of bouncers in tuxedos, machine guns slung over their shoulders and vests bulging from underneath their clothing. Though their weaponry was antiquated, they were still far more heavily armed than the street thugs the Primes encountered before.

Entirely focused on the mission, Kerrigan examined the area for potential targets and entry points. Meanwhile, her partner in crime continued to look around in child-like wonder. Like back at Tier One, his inexperienced mind could not perceive the sin and decadence that the walls around him hid; all he could see were the pretty lights and the many unknown objects and individuals surrounding them. But there was one person in particular that caught his attention.

Standing in line was a young woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Though it was hardly luxurious wear, her blue set of hotpants and sleeveless shirt seemed cleaner and tidier than the rags some of the people outside the district wore. The cheap jewelry that adorned her ears and neck also appeared like items that were out of reach for many that lived there. She also looked much less malnourished and pale, even sporting a light tan.

Having grown tired of the wait, the lass started to dance to the music, which was loud enough to be heard even outside. She raised her arms and swung her hips to the beat of the music, briefly losing herself in the rhythmic trance. She abruptly paused when she noticed that the swordsman was looking at her: "What are you staring at?!...I guess it's only natural if you find me pretty....But if you're here, you gotta get in line!"

However, that was not the reason why the teen was glaring at the young woman. As he observed her, a sense of familiarity overcame him. Though he could not even begin to fathom why, he felt as though he had seen someone who looked like her before. Not exactly the same, but similar. Someone who had that kind of golden hair, someone who had those deep blue eyes....

But before he could arrive to any conclusions, the Ghost once again grabbed the boy by the arm and dragged him off elsewhere. Though Kerrigan entertained the thought of doing what the gang leader they encountered inadvertently suggested and gain entry by offering the swordsman as a "tribute", her ultimate conclusion was that such an approach would still have been too risky and would have drawn too much attention to them. Without knowing for certain where their target was, it was just too much of a gamble. Plus, she doubted that Gawain was foolish enough not to have countermeasures in place against Primes, whoƒ didn't need to bother with smuggling weapons and could summon them instead.

The secret operative decided to try and find an alternate access route. As looking around the minor complex on the ground would raise too much suspicion among the guards, she instead opted to find a vantage point from which she would have an overhead view of the buildings and its surrounding area. With that in mind, the two entered and navigated through the labyrinth of alleyways that was hidden among the buildings. Fortunately for them, after a short journey, they discovered a steel ladder that lead to one of the rooftops. Making sure that they weren't being followed or watched, Sarah grabbed one of the rungs and began her ascent. Although she didn't think she needed to explain something so rudimentary, her movements were slow and deliberate so that her companion would clearly see what she was doing and imitate her. Sure enough, after a few uncertain attempts, the warrior was able to catch on the idea and follow her rather quickly.

After a few awkward clangs up the ladder, the Empire's agents reached the top. On one side, they had a view of the busy streets as well as the Merciful Knight; however, the angle from which they could see the building was somewhat low and didn't offer as good of a look of the discotheque and its surrounding area as the Ghost had hoped. On the other, there was an even taller structure with a platform on the side directly opposite of the rooftop they were standing from; attached to a wall was a ladder which lead even higher to the top of an enclosed water tower.

Not liking what she had to work with, Sarah immediately examined the platform and the gap between the buildings to see if there was some way they could reach it from where they were. Much to her chagrin, however, that didn't appear to be the case. At least from where they were standing, the only way to access the platform was a door, which lead to a staircase inside the structure. Meanwhile, the alleyway separating the two apartment blocks was several meters wide. The Ghost was fairly athletic, but even with a running start, she knew she could not jump across such a distance. Sighing, she left the obstacle ahead of them be for the moment and walked to the other side to see what she could discover from their current position.

However, her dark friend did not follow her, his crimson eyes continuing to examine the obstruction before him. Once more, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of déjà vu. For whatever inexplicable reason, he thought he had encountered a situation reminiscent to the one he was now facing. The sensation triggered something he hadn't experienced since the day before....a vision.

Directly opposite of him, across a wide and seemingly bottomless pit, was a stone platform. Standing on it right next to the wall was a statue of a shield-bearing warrior. The boy raised his left arm, his hookshot firmly in his hand. After carefully judging the angle and aiming, he fired the hook, a long chain attached to the projectile. Fortunately, he was on the mark as the hook managed to fall into the opening behind the shield. After pulling the chain back just enough to firmly lodge the hook, he made a running jump. Activating the item's mechanism, he was rapidly pulled to the other side and landed safely on the platform. After retrieving the hook and reeling back the chain, he attached the hookshot back to his belt and resumed his quest.

The vision left the swordsman puzzled and confused; he was unable to recall ever doing anything of the sort. However, the image of the object he held remained crystal clear in his mind. It looked so real that it was almost like he was grasping it that very moment. He felt himself becoming distant from his surroundings, his senses going numb. The sounds of the busy streets nearby became mute, as though they weren't even there. All the warrior could see, all he could focus on was the object that he held in his hand...

After doing some surveillance with her goggles, Kerrigan gave up on the prospect of gleaming anything useful from their current position. Much as she tried, the location was simply too low and there were too many obstructions in her field of vision. However, there was no telling how long it would take them to reach a new position if they descended back to street level and looked for a new entrance. Instead, she opted for a simpler solution. Since her newly discovered power enabled her to summon any material object, she could simply conjure a bridge or simply a ladder to cross the alleyway that separated them from the building next to the one they were on. It would require a fair degree of time and Omnilium, but it would spare them from a much longer trip.

Sarah went to rejoin her companion, ready to put her plan into action. She had barely reached his side when he suddenly raised his left arm. That is when she noticed that he was holding something...some sort of contraption. It had a blue body, a steel handle and an arrow-like hook in front. The boy himself was looking at the ladder on the other side. His expression was stern and focused, not unlike the times he had faced danger.

For the first time since they had met, it was the red-haired girl who was befuddled. While the nature of the device was more or less self-evident, the fact that the swordsman had it to begin with and even thought of using it surprised her. "Where did you-?" she attempted to ask, but was interrupted by the young man firing the projectile, which pulled a chain along its trajectory. The steel object crossed the gap and slammed into the wall upon which the ladder was mounted, recoiling into one of the rungs before coming to a hanging halt. Slowly pulling the chain back, the warrior managed to firmly attach the hook to the stave. Still holding the device, he turned to his female counterpart and reached out to her with his spare hand....before remembering that he wasn't allowed to touch her. Upon encountering this conundrum, all of the boy's concentration vanished; uncertain as to how to resolve the issue, he became flummoxed once more.

Reading his mind, Sarah was able to tell what was confusing him so much. Uttering an exasperated sigh, she put him out of his misery by grabbing his right arm and wrapping it around her waist while throwing her own arm around his shoulders. This helped the male teen understand that, at least in situations when he wanted to aid someone, he could touch that person. With this newly found knowledge, he was able to turn his attention to the task at hand. In preparation for the jump, he shuffled his feet into a starting position. Kerrigan mimicked his actions, doing her best to remain in sync with him. In truth, she felt a bit nervous about attempting this, since she wasn't entirely confident her companion knew what he was doing and that the ladder or the hook were solid enough to withstand the pressure. However, she quickly pushed those thoughts aside, focusing once again on the objective.

The swordsman broke into a sprint, his partner reacting in kind. He pressed the triggers and activated the device's retrieval function just before they reached the edge and simultaneously leaped into the air. Through immaculate timing, the force of the pull aided the momentum of their movement instead of bringing it to a halt. In spite of their combined weight, they managed to fly clear across the alleyway and reach the other side without issue. Their feet hit hard upon the concrete roof and the girl, being unused to such acrobatic stunts, lost her grasp and nearly fell forward. But her companion fared a bit better; almost falling to his knees, he still managed to quickly get up and maintain a firm hold on the girl, allowing her to grab his arm and regain her footing on time. Once they had safely come to a halt, the warrior let go of Sarah and retrieved the hook. Reeling back the chain until the projectile snapped back into its proper place, he clasped the device to its belt, as though it had always been there. The way he behaved, it was like he had done this countless times before.

After the excitement and the pain in her ankles subsided, the Ghost commented: "Right.....I forgot that you can summon too." This was more directed at herself than it was at her companion. Sure enough, the boy's only meaningful response to this was a return to his usual behaviour, blinking and staring as he attempted to decipher the words that were incomprehensible to him. Gazing right back at him with her emerald eyes, the trick he just pulled made Kerrigan ponder regarding the nature of his condition.

His consciousness was essentially void of any knowledge, that much was certain. Yet, he had displayed proficiency in fighting as well as shaping and molding of omnilium...abilities that should have been far beyond his comprehension. But what was truly odd was everything regarding the item he conjured. He not only knew of it and what purpose it served, he was even intimately familiar with how to operate it. The object must have been a relic from whatever place he originated from; she was fairly certain he could not have seen — let alone mastered — such a contraption during the time he had accompanied her. But if so, did that mean that there were things that his mind did contain? Was there knowledge hidden in the depths of his subconsciousness?

Having more pressing matters to attend to, the girl decided to leave the mysteries surrounding her companion for another time. Without delay, she proceeded to the ladder and began her ascent to the top of the structure, her obedient "pet" following closely behind her. After another short climb, they found themselves standing on the wooden roof surrounding the uppermost section of the water tower. Now that they were at a fairly high altitude, they had a good view of the entire district, including the Merciful Knight and its surroundings. Positioning herself near the edge in a kneeling position, Sarah lowered her spectacles and began to scan the area, zooming in and scanning whatever points of interest.

Several minutes passed in near silence, the bustle of the streets below seemingly distant. As the boy busied himself with examining the water tower and admiring the panorama surrounding them, Kerrigan combed every nook and cranny of the discotheque with her goggles. Yet, even though guards patrolled around the entire building, there didn't seem to be any entrance other than the one at the front. This puzzled her; such establishments almost always had a second entrance that was reserved for employees and shipment deliveries. She took into account the fact that this was a city in disarray and that it was most likely advantageous to restrict the amount of access points a structure had. Still, with such a large amount of security in place, the omission of a back entrance seemed odd. She thought to herself whether there was some sort of trick at play, such as a hidden entrance. But unable to ascertain such a possibility at that moment, she raised her spectacles in frustration and took a break.

She turned to see what her lapdog was doing.. Indeed, much like man's best friend, he patiently stood close to her after the environment surrounding them ceased to interest him. As she continued to observe him, Sarah felt her curiosity regarding his hidden knowledge resurfacing. She thought about whether he knew a certain detail about himself, something that was central to almost any sentient individual. Just to see how he would react, the red-haired girl bluntly asked: "Do you have a name?"

As expected, her companion reacted with surprise and confusion at the sudden question....yet, there was also another effect. It was that word again..."name". Much like back at the Colonel's office, the boy felt a familiar tug at the back of his head. He still didn't know why, but the word rang a bell...there was something he knew about it.

Since she was carefully following his thought process, this did not escape the Ghost's notice. Standing up and facing him, she placed a hand on her chest: "My name is Sarah..." She then gestured towards him: "...What is your name?" The sensation grew stronger, prompting to swordsman to hold his head. He tried to concentrate....What about "name" did he know? What was it? He wished to find out...but didn't know how.

"Name..." the girl repeated telepathically as her eyes remained locked with his. She hoped that, by mentally stimulating his brain, she could help coax the information from the depths of his mind. The male teen closed his eyes, all his efforts focused on the strange sensation he felt in his head. Abruptly, something did surface in his conscious thoughts....gibberish, a garbled mess of sounds. Yet, amidst all the chaos and mental noise, there was something clearly distinguishable...letters. Sarah followed these intently, trying to make out a pattern. Finally, there was one coherent sequence of alphabetic characters:

.....L.....I.....N.....K.....

Kerrigan repeated the letters to herself and, upon realising what it meant, became slightly annoyed: "No. Not word, name. What is your name?" She figured that "link" must have been a word he had heard somewhere in this universe; it was a fairly common phrase, after all. Worried that they would lose the trail as a result of this misunderstanding, she conveyed to him more firmly with her mind: "Name." For his part, the swordsman continued to concentrate on the unclear audible mess in his head. He did not know what "word" meant, but it was not a "name". So what was "name"? That was when another sensible sequence appeared:

.....K.....I.....L.....N.....

The operative once more repeated what was conveyed. Kiln? It didn't sound like anything she had ever heard. But it at least vaguely sounded like a name and not just a string of random alphabetic characters. However, that was all she was able to determine. The sounds disappeared and the boy lost his focus, rubbing his head as a result of the immense headache he felt. Sarah sighed. Though she wasn't certain that it was the name they were looking for, at least it was a name. She would have had to have figured something to call him sooner or later...might as well be something that he discovered for himself.

"My name is Sarah. Your name is Kiln," she stated, repeating the hand motion she did before. She also did it in reverse, gesturing towards him and then towards herself: "Kiln.....Sarah....." Intently observing this, the boy unwittingly repeated the last motion, bringing his hand close to his female counterpart without touching her. Sarah....."her" name was Sarah. As a final confirmation, the girl gave him a slow, but firm nod.

Figuring that this was about everything they would be able to achieve, the Ghost left the warrior to his thoughts while she returned to the task they had climbed up there to complete in the first place. She had barely put the goggles back on when she noticed an interesting occurrence. A line of large, primitive vehicles had appeared from one of the more desolate streets, the convoy coming to a halt at a road near the back of the vast structure. A man in a brown jacket, most likely a lackey, exited the frontmost transport and approached the building. Suddenly, a wide section of the concrete ground began to retract, revealing a wide hidden entrance. Emerging from its shadows was another person, which became illuminated by the many headlights. It was this individual that caused a grin to form on the assassin's face. Though the computer confirmed the positive ID, she didn't really need it. That dark complexion, that well-mannered expression, those luxurious garments....there was absolutely no doubt about it. It was none other than their target, Sir Gawain.

The middle-aged gentleman did not stay in that location long. After exchanging a few words with what appeared to be the leader of the convoy, he retreated back from whence he came, while his lackey began to coordinate the traffic. Though she preferred to eliminate or at least incapacitate her prey from a distance, Kerrigan was still satisfied...they had found what they were looking for.

Quickly standing up and removing the goggles from her eyes, she turned to her partner in crime: "Come on, Kiln! Let's go!" The boy, who was still wrapping his head around the concept, was nevertheless beginning to comprehend the meaning of "name". So name was something beings called each other...and each being had its own name. And his...was Kiln. Did that sound right? He didn't know.....he couldn't quite say. But he had a name of his own now.

The swordsman was so lost in thought that he barely noticed when the girl rapidly proceeded down the ladder and he rushed to follow suit. Armed with the information they had discovered, Sarah and the newly-christened Kiln were ready to infiltrate the Merciful Knight.