Quin was sitting on a grassy hill under a tree. A cool breeze was blowing and autumn leaves were drifting around her and out through the lovely untouched valley of rolling, pristine forest. Even though it was autumn the entire environment had sort of a green tint to it. That must have been from the kolto she guessed. She knew full well that she was in the tank. She had woken up once or twice but the pain and sickness she felt made her opt to stay. Now she was just buying time alone in a place that was not a broken down ship packed to bursting with morons. Seriously wounded, dying, possibly dead morons...

It was too quiet in here. But in here she didn't have to face reality and her memories were lost and muddled in the back of her mind, unable to fully come forth while she was dreaming, lucid or not. She didn't want to see them. She didn't want to hear the screaming.

"CORTOSIS GAUNTLETS!"

Or that yelling. That stupid, grating, maddening, yelling. It made her ears want to bleed. Where was it coming from? Quin snapped up off her back as the distant voice scared a small flock of birds with colorful streaming feathers from her tree.

"AMAZING... PUNCH ROBOTS IN THE FACE... BUCKET LIST!!"

Quin put her elbows on her knees and her hands over her ears. The tall, thin, beautiful horned creature that had been grazing quietly near the tree line looked at her in horror and bolted. She groaned. The dream was collapsing with every stupid word out of his stupid mouth. A small burst of bubbles came from her mouth piece in the tank and her brows furrowed. The kolto tank began to make quiet beeping noises.

"NAKED REPTILE MAN! MAKE IT SO!"

Quin's fists clenched hard as her forest and grasses and hills and animal friends started to burn and tear away from existence through her tightly gripping fingers. The bubbles turned into a violent stream of air and her eyes snapped open. The kolto tank immediately drained itself upon sensing her activity. As soon as the level was low enough she ripped the breathing tubes and monitoring equipment off and came coughing and sputtering, but never stumbling out in to the med bay.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" she screamed at them all, "CAN FUCKING NOBODY GET ANY FUCKING SLEEP ON THIS FUCKING SHIP!? JEEZE!"

The glass cycling door opened as Quin was free to exit, Nyrette smiled as her friend came out of her slumber. "Morning, sunshine. Good to see your jolly self has remained intact. Would have missed you otherwise."

"Uh," Quin cleared her throat, "G-- Good to see you too. You're okay? Everyone's okay? I saw..." she trailed off and became vacant.

She clasped a hand on Quin's shoulder and pecked her cheek. "Of course, Pik're-" she said to Zen's chuckle."We're all fine...for better or worse." She said as she gestured towards Zen, whom was gently tapping his fists together in anticipation of the cortosis gauntlets. "Oh, and here. So you won't question yourself." She reached out and pinched the skin in the middle of Quin's chest. "See, not dreaming."

Quin blushed and touched her cheek a moment before smiling at Nyrette. Then proceeded to go full beast mode on Zen. Her hand instinctively shot out to grab his and twisted it the wrong way around, forcing his elbow out at an awkward angle and his torso to bend if he didn't want several things dislocated.

"Oooh, playing dirty." He laughed as he turned himself around, ignoring the earing pain and pushed his fingers into Quin's nose and pulled, trying to get her to release his arm."

"OW!" she yelped and stooped downward only wrenching his arm further and thus her face down more.

"Don't make me scratch your tiny tiny brain, woman. I can you know. I can also make you bark like a dog, but only if you present me with three coins. Now release my Iisska tickling arm!" He pulled her up a bit, bringing his fingers together slightly to scratch her nose from the inside.

Quin immediately reeled back and loosened up on his hand only to hold it out at a distance with a disgusted, "EW!" She dropped it and wiped her own hand on his sleeve. For a second she frowned at Zen then seemed to space out. In silence she walked over to one of the beds and sat down with her elbows on her legs.

"I can't believe that happened," she said first, "How did we get back...? I'm so sorry... I guess it doesn't matter. Guess what's more important is where we go now. I think I heard something about HK droids and supplies?"

"YES!" Zen yelled. "We're going to-" Cheshik stood then and grabbed a blaster from the cabinet. "the HK facility to PAWNC-" His words were cut off as Cheshik shoved the blaster into Zen's mouth. "Even I have limits that which are my own, Zenithar. Please, tighten lips until sealed quiet." Zen tried to speak again. "But I" Cheshik withdrew the pistol and shot it at Zen's feet. He danced frantically and ran down the hall as Cheshik kept firing, much to Marquis and Nyrette's laughter.

Quin turned her gaze on Cheshik and lifted one of her eyebrows. However a deep frown was still carved into her face.

"Thank you," she said with a crisp staccato, "But I don't appreciate being left out of the loop. Information is sort of my profession and I like to be ready. I need to be ready. So loose lips aside, what in exact detail, do I get to find out from you and what am I going to find out on my own, whether you like it or not, over the next day or two?"

"No, do not take wrong way, was going to tell, Zenithar simply...stabs with knife? I think is saying. He pisses me off, to put it rudely." He explained to her, proceeding to tell her of what the coming plan is...with some help from Nyrette's speechcraft skills.

"I think my brain may hemorrage, but that does clear things up... Sort of," Quin rubbed her chin, "Do you think you could get me a few toys from this friend of yours? Nothing too fancy or too seriously illegal. Just a couple of items that --"

"ooh yeah!" Nyrette said. "I have a few ide-Oh...I mean...I'll just..." She patted Quin's head. "I have you covered, Pik're." She smiled ear to ear.

Quin paused and looked confused, "You have a crate of N-20 Baradium thermal detonators, a crate of V-6 Haywire grenades and an RD-4 launcher?"

Cheshik cocked his head and shook it slowly. "I barely know basic and even I knew what she meant." Nyrette however just frowned before getting up to leave.

Quin reached out to her but stopped as the woman walked away, "I-- Wait, what did I do? I was just-- Oh... OH... Oh I--"

She simply sank to the floor and curled in a ball to hide the fact that her face had turned a brilliant shade of red and that she now wanted to vomit from embarassment.


[hr]


Iisska held the little object that had been taunting him for the past two months in one hand. He lay against a softly snoring Kobel on the floor and held the thing out at an arm's length in front of the light while looking through it with one eye closed. As if that would somehow help him unlock any more of its secrets. The silvery Durindfire crystal was still partially caked in Tattooine sandstone and far too big to fit into a lightsaber hilt. Iisska sneered at it and groaned. "Meditate," was all the instruction he had been given.

[i]Meditate on what? I've been doing that. Nothing's happened.[/i]

Iisska sat up straight and crossed his legs with the crystal in his palms. After taking a breath it floated several inches into the air. He stared down at it.

"What do you want from me?" he asked it.

There was several moments of silence that seemed to grow thicker as they passed. Kobel rolled up onto his haunches and grumbled at his master. Iisska didn't budge. The crystal was now suspended between his two tense and curling hands and vibrated in bursts.

"I was nearly killed for you. I killed for you. You were bathed in blood when I pulled you out of that void-scape you shitty little rock," he seethed.

Kobel nudged his back and growled but it was oddly like trying to move a boulder. Iisska did not even notice.

"I could shatter you into dust right here, right now. If you won't help me cut down the monsters like that fishy bastard then maybe I don't need you."

The vibrating and tension that shook the stone grew in intensity.

"That hssiss never stood a chance. If nobody tries that frequency shit to neutralize me, they won't stand a chance either."

A dark, fiery heat began to seep forth from inside the stone. A small trickle of blood streamed from Iisska's nostrils. Kobel whined and growled and circled the room.

"I'm only getting better at this. They have no idea what they're dealing with."

A single hairline crack splintered across the face of the crystal. The hulking beast snapped and tackled his master his huge beak-like maw and teeth clamped down on Iisska's arm and the stone. Kobel ignored the enraged protests and shook it free before readjusting it and clamping it tightly in his mouth where it could never be pried free. His master fell back against the workbench clutching his arm.

"KOBEL, NO! PUT IT DOWN!" Iisska yelled at him.

The akk dog's spines went up making him look even bigger and he snarled in his master's face. The wide pupils turned to no more than slits. His own wild and untamed presence pressed down on the pair of them. After several seconds Kobel raced out of the room, slid into the opposite wall with a heavy [i]THUD[/i] and continued to run off with the crystal in hand and Iisska hot on his trail.

As Iisska ran around the corner, he froze to see Zen standing with Kobel, holding out his hand to retrieve the crystal. The beast bent to Zen's command over the force and handed it over. He held it up and looked it over. "I see you've been busy with Marquis' little 'gift'," Zen obviously wasn't happy with Marquis over Iisska's acquisition of a crystal. Long tradition held that the master was suppose to lead his apprentice to the crystal, not some robot assassin. "I see you've put a little too much anger in it. I can see that you're angry that you haven't been able to refine it yet. Here." He held up a small red pouch and threw it at Iisska. "Those are quartz and other useless gems. Too impure for a lightsaber, but a perfect way to practice...smashing things into dust. Temper those with your mind then see what you can do to your 'gift'."

"Might help if I understood what 'temper with your mind' means," Iisska scoffed, "What do you expect me to do?"

"Shatter a few into dust, then each time, do a little less than that until you shatter them into what you want."

"That doesn't make sense. What am I trying to get? I don't know what I want."

Zen reached for his belt and grabbed his lightsaber. He opened a port on the bottom and reached a finger in, fishing out a small crystal, a lightsaber crystal. "This is what you want. See it's size? It's perfect edges and shape? Replicate it."

"Perfect. Right. Perfect isn't going to happen."

"Then you don't get Kobel back until you learn it. Come along Kobel." He snapped his fingers and the force dominated Iisska's pet, forcing him to following Zen, away from his master."

"Hey! You can't do that! Kobel! Get back here!" he trotted behind them until he got beside Zen, "He does not belong to you. Let go."

Zen turned towards his apprentice with a blank stare, though it was but a mask to the slowly rising anger underneath. "Until you get this lesson through your hard head, he belongs to me. Once you refine a crystal, he's yours again. Not until then." To accenuate that fact, Zen snapped his fingers again and Kobel responded as the force worked through him, making him growl at Iisska defiantly.

Though he took a step back, he didn't back down, "There is no lesson here. You're just thinking up more ways to piss me off. Maybe it's your fault I'm angry at this stupid thing."

"If I wanted to piss you off, I would have taken your blaster again. Not that hard. What you're failing to grasp is a lesson that every force wielder must come to bear: Patience, control. If I wanted to, I could crush you with a thought, but I don't. I am patient and I know you will learn eventually. I maintain the control over my anger and control my hand into not backhanding you. Instead of blaming others for your own faults, focus your anger into something useful and get it out of your system. Try Calligraphy...or shattering stones."

The apprentice squared his shoulders, although bristling, and grumbled as he walked away with the bag in hand, "I'll shatter [i]your[/i] stones."

Zen responded by placing both hands on his hips and thrusting them forward. "Try me!"
Iisska was too busy nearly rolling his eyes out of his skull to see Quin come around the corner. The pair barely missed slamming into each other.

"Watch where you're going!" Quin snapped at him, "You think you could at least-- Uhg what happened to your face? I-- No wait-- I know... I'm sorry."

Iisska gave her a look that twisted the multitude of lacerations, many of which would soon be scars, that webbed his face. He balled up a fist, raised it and started bearing teeth, ready to strike. He had never wanted to beat someone to a pulp more than his master, but here it was. He was going to shut her up once and for all. Then he looked over his shoulder with a cold glance at Zen.

"It's fine," he sighed and visibly relaxed, "Whatever, you're sorry, sure. But seriously, what's wrong with [i]your[/i] face. Humans aren't supposed to be that color, I think. Did you get sunburned?"

Quin merely cleared her throat and slipped beside him before continuing on her way to Nyrette's room without another word.


[hr]


It was several standard cycles before the crew found themselves deep into Hutt space. The Harpoon floated just outside of scanning range of one of the busier hyperspace trade routes while it docked with another ship. An Ithorian, well dressed but heavily laden with random trinkets, satchels, electronic devices and decorations was welcomed aboard. And he did not come empty handed. Cheshik's dear republic friend delivered several crates of weapons, medical supplies, ship and system parts, and other goodies to the cargo bay for a small fee of course.

Quin who seemed to have an over abundant amount of positivity for a no longer so mysterious reason seemed almost too happy over the crates of explosives she opened up and hoisted up a beastly looking under-slung grenade launcher. She laughed almost maniacally. When she saw the looks she was getting she regained her composure and set the ordinance down gently before sealing it up.

"Don't worry, I much prefer the more quiet and covert method of doing things. It's always better to be light years away when your targets go up in violent flame... But it's always good to have a powerful back up plan when you really need to pack a punch."

Speaking of punch, two pairs of cortosis gauntlets, normally in a set with some very expensive tactical armor lay in another unassuming crate nearby. Their Ithorian contact had not let them down.

After a mostly quiet evening of touching bases and sharing drinks and stories, the two ships went their separate ways and the Harpoon was on a fast course for Nal Hutta.