Chapter Text
It’s absolute madness, what she’s doing.
Not going out into the remains of the riot: if she hopes to get off the planet in one piece, she’d have to do that. Continuing to involve Karn in all of it, however, makes her question how hard that rock had hit her skull. To her knowledge, he doesn’t even have a weapon. Protect me. Laughable.
Or it would be, had he not already done exactly that.
The thought of it fills her mouth with poisonous regret. Of being rescued. Of being saved. And of course, it had to be him that did it. Him that witnessed her in such a state of shameful disarray. It all seems planned in a way she can’t wrap her head around; in a way she’s not entirely sure isn’t rooted in paranoia rather than logic, and yet. Still. It had to be him. She’s never invested in frivolous concepts like destiny or fate, but if there really were mysterious forces crafting the paths of everyone in the galaxy, she imagines they’d be snickering at her right now.
Karn approaches and stands beside her at the still-shut door. In such tight proximity, the lack of separation between them is a shackle around her wrist. Even his warmth is invasive. The puffy clouds of his breath form a thick, jangling chain that tie her to the man she’d once interrogated. She has the frightening sense of knowing that her universe has rearranged itself without knowing quite how. That one version of her died in the Ferrix dirt, and another died in this claustrophobic closet, and that it’ll take weeks for her to look in a mirror and recognize the woman on the other side.
Karn stares at her, his eyes blue, and focused, and completely forthright. She has no concept of how he’ll make it back to Coruscant if they make it to the hotel. Should something go wrong, this might be the last she’ll see of him. It wouldn’t take much. A misfired blaster, a loss of balance and a kick to the head, the wrong person to recognize him from his own Ferrix incident. Perhaps that would be for the best. Perhaps it would behoove her to eliminate him, now that he's seen her at her weakest. But her blaster charge is low, and she might need him, depending on the state of Rix Road. Nonetheless, she can’t be bothered concerning herself with his fate. Not when history has already shown that he has a habit of turning up in her life when he’s least expected.
Her skin burns where he’d touched her. A shiver slinks up her spine. She feels him around her, beside her, and in her body. An infection. An affliction. A terminal disease.
It’s now, or nothing. I won’t delay any longer.
“Right, then,” she tells him, her hand on the panel to open the door. “Follow my lead. And don’t fall behind.”
“I won’t.”
Then she presses the button, and together, she and Syril walk out into the unknown.