Only Shadows in Coruscant

[Sarah_Kerrigan]

There would be no going back; Sarah knew that before entering the Portal. The Boy at her side may not have (in fact he imprinted upon her when lost to everything else only she had forced his crossing over with a nod at that), but as an Operative she certainly understood the ramifications of her actions. Not only had she taken a hostage – a prestigious one at that – she had meant to kill him. Even without telepathy the Soldiers in the White were told by her eyes. While some considered such striking Emeralds beautiful, they hid darker secrets than their appearances suggested. She took pleasure in killing. All these facts were stone cold as the truth: disobedience now would be a death sentence. They were captive charges. And, they were both on a terribly short leash – practically chained. Primes were valuable if controlled, not so much if wild, untamed and traitors to the order which authority of any kind instills. Registration would allow them to be tracked and contained if necessary.

When the World took a consistent shape again, the Teenager still clutched at the Orbed Rainbow. Her fingers that ran along the sphere probed it – almost for comfort but with a calculated precision that searched for imperfection where none existed - while her gaze narrowed focusing on the everything that lay ahead. It was massive. The sprawling Towers eclipsed the streams of the passerby lights and shimmered with a hazed glow in the dead of night. If there were stars, they were hidden high above the tallest of them, and blocked by a never ending traffic flow. The noise at first suffocating, became the norm, and the entire cityscape looked alive. In fact, the Twilight of night could barely be seen at all. Meters to the West Taxis hovered in wait of a charge for the ‘eve. In every which direction the soft illumination lingered, an aura that would be replaced by the gleam of rays in the daylight unto every structure that stood. Distractions so abound that she barely noticed Omnilium vanishing from her grasp.

There were hotels, restaurants, long fields of grass with fountains at their center; there was beauty in the walkways and the architecture that went up and up and glimmered like glass, sparkling in refraction and spiraling into strong steel railings. Elevators and entrances which led to alleyways and sidewalks that were present as far as the eye could see. But, at every turn were Soldiers in White, Cameras in Gray and riveted slots for armaments yet to be seen (if tech remained consistent they probably concealed blaster turrets). There were patrols that went off together and Citizens far off further along hopping into hovering vehicles and walking adorn in the finest wares and garments – everything about them screamed upper-class. To resist here would be suicide. I’ll let them register us. Sarah thought.

She observed tilting her head and peering off with folded arms across her chest. To her Companion she spoke louder than the droll of activity all around, but without making sound herself: ”Stay close. She mimed, hoping he would come to understand. Thereafter, she placed a hand on his shoulder briefly and looked at him. Stay with me. Don’t let them separate us. This was also to keep him from running off and causing more issues than she could manage. The Boy may not get it yet (that they were still in grave danger), but she would continue to stimulate his mind, both with commands and pure thought itself. She needed him focused utterly on her – not on the innumerable possibilities that came with a new reality so different than the one he had been born into. She was starting to believe that it would take longer to acclimate him with his odd case of amnesia. In itself Coruscant barely phased her.

Not to say she wasn’t impressed by the breadth of this ‘Empire’, however all of this felt too familiar. It ruled with an Iron Grip that could be exploited to her advantage – that was useful. The Elite lived here (the less upstanding were barred off in a hole somewhere), and she hardly cared for the Watchers that kept their gaze on her person; each one crawled underneath her skin, boring deeper and then deeper. There was the slightest of moments where a soft smirk stretched across her face in spite of it all. Rotten from the core out. That’s just fine. As with the Confederacy while corruption grew, dissents would be put down. There would be fixed orders of business, certain etiquette to follow and quelled rebellions in an unspeakable silence of tones. Here, she would always have some purpose. Yet, the indifference stayed:

R&R – rest and reequip. Then, I’ll handle their wet-work. Soldiers enforce, and Ghosts vanish. In every sense of the word. In truth the connection she felt for her the fellow Prime existed only in the tranquil blankness of his mind. It offered a refuge from the Others whose surface thoughts were rarely useful anyways – if not disgusting and disturbed to begin with. She would have continued projecting all of these thoughts to the Boy, but a breath of ice ran down her spine disrupting the manipulation meant to distract from the awe of all the new sights and sounds.

So tired you didn’t notice the army clad in white - behind you. Surely, for a Ghost that failing is one for the record books.

“It’s a lot to take in,” the voice of Simmons interrupted her. She hadn’t even realized that he and the rest of the Company arrived so shortly after – just another testament to how much her senses had dulled, and how restless she had become. “Don’t worry – if you cause no further problems there will be little consequence to your actions.” She hadn’t and wouldn’t, so far all of this she suspected from the moment she laid eyes on Stormtroopers. Enforcers of a will that upheld the farce of Peace and Tranquility with Order. Trained well – but with any new Prime that view is always shocking. The Commander shook his head as he gestured ahead with two fingers. A blurr of White marched forward with steps that echoed like thunderous applause. Their minds at ease in the Sanctuary that Coruscant provided for them. He followed after first ensuring that his two charges went on ahead of himself. Gently he ushered them forward and they began yet another drawn out march.