Sergeant Slick: Eyes

"You've got a visitor," one of the guards of the prison said, opening the door so that a cloaked person could enter. Prisoner 11234, formerly Sergeant Slick, first thought it was a jetii coming to interrogate him. The cloak was one of a Jedi. He couldn't see who it was since the hood was covering their face. He wasn't concerned, he laid back onto the cot and sneered at the figure.

"Come to try and get more info, aruetii," he said venomously. They didn't answer. They gestured for the guard to leave them.

"You sure you don't want to do this in the interrogation room," he asked halfway out the door. They nodded and guard left them alone with a shrug. The Jedi slowly turned to face him.

"You betrayed me," was all his visitor whispered. They stared at each other and as his brain recognized the voice, his heart started to sting at her words. Slick twisted in his bed so that he was sitting on the edge.

"Never," he said back.

"You betrayed us to the droids," she accused. He had nothing to say to that. Her lips trembled as she asked him why. He didn't answer. He just stared up at her.

The cloak fell away and Slick's heart followed it down. It wasn't a jetii. It was a woman.

A woman with fiery red hair that curled around her ears with deep blue eyes like the bottom of an ocean floor.  

A beautiful woman

A fiery woman

His woman

"I did it for us," he said, staring her in the eyes as he said it. She shook her head at him, her eyes showing only disgust.

"You did it for yourself," she hissed.

Slick shot up from his spot then, towering over her by a full head and shoulders. How could she say that?! She didn't know what he was thinking, she wasn't him! He did it for THEM! For their future!

His lips curled back into a snarled and he yelled," I DID IT FOR US!"

HOW COULD YOU DO IT FOR US," she screamed back," YOU PUT MY SISTERS, YOUR BROTHERS, AND ME IN DANGER! WE COULD'VE BEEN KILLED BY THE DROIDS!"

"WE WOULD'VE BEEN BETTER OF WITH THE DROIDS! WE...ARE IN...A SLAVE ARMY," he roared," I AM SICK OF THIS SHABLA REPUBLIC AND ITS DIRTY ROTTEN CORE! THEY SAY THEY FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND ALL THAT OSIK! BUT THEN THEY TURN AROUND AND CREATE US! NO FREEDOM OF OUR OWN JUST TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK WHILE THEY SIT IN THEIR OFFICES AND FEED OFF OF OUR WORK LIKE PARASITES! THIS DAR'YAMHOLE REPUBLIC  SHOULD NEVER HAVE STARTED IF THIS IS ITS BEST!"
The girl went quiet, but Slick could see her hatred and violence in her eyes as they turned them a hot, glowing orange-red.

"Then I wouldn't have been made....and neither would you," she said heatedly.

"It'd be better if we weren't," he shot back. She stiffened.

"Traycen," he said, softening considerably and reached out his hands," I would never betray you. The Republic, yes. The jetii, in a heartbeat....but never you." She glared at him and turned away, putting her head in her hands. Her hands slid back over her head and she grabbed the ends as she looked to the ceiling. Fierfek, she couldn't do this. She wanted to come and talk some sense into his head but now that she was here she couldn't get any of her thoughts straight. They just tossed around and didn't make any sense.

"Traycen," he asked and put a hand on her shoulder, but she jerked her shoulder away.

"I don't need you touching me. I don't need you looking at me. Osik! I WISH I DIDN'T LOVE YOU, YOU CHAAKARE," she screamed as she turned to him. She took a deep breath to try and soothe herself but found out it was failing miserably.

Slick was giving her a look, a look that wanted answers, then a look of recognition.

"Beat me," he said. A moment of silence and stillness passed before Slick suddenly stripped out of the top of his body suit. Traycen stared at his bare torso for a while before stepping back and shaking her head. But Slick followed her.

"Beat me....I can see it in your eyes. Your angry, too. Not at me...at the Republic and their chains around us. You can see them and your angry about them. You have no one to take it out on. You'll snap soon," he said calmly. She stared at him some more, looking at him as if he was crazy. He came closer to her so that he had her pressed up against the wall and trapped her with his hands on both sides of her head. He made her hold his gaze as he looked her dead in the eyes.

"What will happen," he whispered quietly," When your sisters have no more use to the Republic."

Traycen went dead white at the question and felt her anger immediately rise to the surface with a vengeance. He knew how to hit her buttons. How DARE he use her vod. Her knee came up without her head thinking and Slick fell to floor clutching himself. Traycen was on him immediately.

She let it all out on him then: her frustrations, her worries, her fears, her disgust. He was right. The Republic would probably kill them off when the war ended. They knew all the top secret information and once they were told, they'd always be a weak link. It was always bugging her, eating at her mind, never giving her any peace. Punch after punch landed on Slick, even when he fell back onto the floor the punches rained down on his figure though not as gentle as rain. When he recovered from her knee, Slick was up and fighting her back. He grabbed a hold of her hands when she tried to punch again and wrestled against her. Strength and speed were on his side, but Traycen wasn't far behind. Not only did they wrestle, they punched and bit and used every dirty trick that they knew, all to let off steam that had been building in them for years with nothing to take it out on. Both soon ran out of energy and collapsed onto the floor. Anger would only take you so far in the long run. Traycen lay panting on the floor allowing the cold of it to seep into her suddenly too hot skin. It felt soooo good. But, she hoisted herself up into a crouch and looked over to Slick.

He was laying against the wall of the cell: bruised, panting, and bleeding. Dark mottled spots were appearing all over his chest and face already. His upper lip was split and bleeding, while blood slithered past his eye from a nasty scrap on his forehead.  A small set of red lines pebbled with blood were just below his breast, on his ribs.

"Feel better," he gasped. Traycen gaped at what she had done and looked down to her hands. The knuckles were red and cracked and the rest of her body showed no such brutality.

He had gone easy on her.

"I'm sorry," she breathed crawling over to him and taking his face in her hands," I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."  She waved her hand over his eye and watched as the bruise disappeared. She went to his other scrapes and bruises, some taking more than just a few waves of her hand. Traycen was part of Miya's batch, and came out with a minor skill of healing just not as strong as her sister. When she was done, Slick rolled his head around and stood up. But when he took a step towards her, she shoved her hand out.

"Stay. Away," she said," I don't need you to convince me to do anything anymore di'kulta than that." Slick peered at her eyes and his lips quivered.

"You feel better though," he said, losing his battle and grinned triumphantly at her. She glared at him. He was right. She DID feel better after pounding the osik out of him. Her hand stayed outstretched to keep him away. But he stepped up and took it gently, pulling it to his face and cupped his hand against it. She jerked her arm back sharply, but he had a good grip on her.

Osik, she couldn't do it, no matter how bad she had bruised him a few minutes ago. This was SLICK

Her friend

Her cyar'ika

He always turned her into molten lava the second he touched her.

When she heard he had betrayed them, like any girl with a cyar'ika, she couldn't wrap her mind around it and defended him. Slick loved his brothers! He wouldn't do anything to get more of them killed! But then she had seen as they took him to the brig and she knew it was true. The image had been in her head for a while. From it, another image was born. One of his execution. Oh, yes. Traitors always got executed. She could see him perfectly clear when the time came. His back ramrod straight, head held high, and his hardened eyes glaring defiantly into the blasters until the end. Traycen's eyes shut and her breathing hitched when that image came.

But Slick wouldn't let her think about it.

With his eyes still staring right into hers, he shifted her hand

His mouth just brushed against her fingertips, just barley a touch of his lips. Warm breath swirled around her fingers as he breathed against her hand. Then, he kissed her palm as if he was kissing her mouth. He held her spread fingers against his cheek as kissed it. It tickled slightly but also sent jolts through her arm, making her bite her lip.

He did the same with her wrist, his tongue slowly tracing the blue veins there, making her whole arm tremble

He stepped closer, trailing his lips up her arm to her shoulder. She felt him, unable to move, breath in her scent at her neck. He was so close....she could feel his eyelashes against her skin.  The warm heat of his mouth moved to her throat, upwards to her chin, then back down to her throat just above her collar bone. She suddenly remembered that he had no shirt on. Traycen's eyes fluttered shut as she felt the warmth of his flesh. Shudders went up her spine and she gently touched the bared skin. Years of tough training had made his abs rock solid and very tight, he had scars that weren't from their fight, and his skin, tanned and beautiful, was stretched tightly over his muscles.

"My little Traycen," he murmured against her throat, making her shiver," My beautiful little Traycen."

His hand replaced his mouth.

Traycen felt herself freeze and her eyes snap open. So this was his plan....he was going to kill her. Crush her neck or squeeze until she couldn't breath. Or he'd hold her hostage so he could leave. She swallowed loudly and shut her eyes. She couldn't fight him. She couldn't kill him. Anyone else would have already been torn apart....but this was Slick. Like before and for the future (if she lived to see it), she couldn't do anything. Slick felt her swallow against his palm and knew immediately where her thoughts were.

"You think I'm going to kill you," he said. Her eyes opened and stared into his, unblinking and answering.

"Take...my hand off...your throat," he whispered. Her hand came up slowly and touched his fingers. She watched his face as she easily pried his finger off and intwine them together as she brought his hand down. Slick's free hand took hold of a stray lock.

"I could never hurt you, Traycen," he murmured," You made me see."

"See what," she asked. His eyes, as always, stared right into hers.
"You made me see the chains around my feet and the blind fold around my eyes," he answered evenly. Traycen didn't like that. If that was true, then because of her Slick was going to be....

Her eyes shut and she gulped against the tears that wanted to come, but never did.

"They're going to execute you," she said with a heavy heart.

"I know," he said, finally looking away from her and down casting his eyes. She looked away from him and clenched her jaw tight. The image came to the forefront of her mind again except this time, the deed had been done. Burn marks right in the chest and his eyes staring open skyward. Traycen's chest squeezed even harder and her stomach dropped. She couldn't bear to see that image come true. She'd die along with him. She didn't want him to go so she might never see him again...but better away and alive than for her to be staring down at his corpse.

"I can't let them," she said. Slick said nothing, but his eyebrows creased slightly and his eyes went back to her face. Traycen stepped away from him and went to the door. She looked around carefully and for a long time before picking up her cloak and flinging it around Slick, and hauling him out the door. They were lucky that almost everyone was in the mess right then. She brought him to a vent that was a little ways from her own room in the female's part of the quarters.

"We used to use it to go outside," she whispered as she removed the metal and set it down quietly to the side. Slick peered in. He couldn't see a thing in front of him. He stepped inside warily. It was a big opening, but small enough that Slick had to stoop to get in comfortably. Once Traycen was sure he'd fit and would be able to get to the outside safely, she stepped back and leaned down to take a hold of the vent to put it back into place. Slick's head whipped around to stare at her.

"She's not coming" he thought and a pressure was put on his chest," I'll never see her again..."

That would not do. She was the reason he betrayed the Republic....and she was going to be the reason why he'd walk out of this tunnel.

He quickly walked back to the entrance before she could put the vent back in place and grabbed her arm.

"Come with me," he urged. Traycen sighed. She should've known. She gave a few experimental tugs, but as she thought, he didn't let go. Slick....didn't let anything go easily and it looked like she was included.

"Slick, I can't...my sisters are...," she said now struggling to make him let go.

"I won't leave you here to be a pleasure slave," he said, spitting the last part out. His grip tightened around her arm and he tried to pull her into the tunnel, but Traycen dug her heels into the ground and held out her free hand to grab onto the opening. Slick's eyes narrowed at her. He could very well take her by force...but then she'd keep trying to run even when he got her away. His powers of persuasion had failed him once and would probably fail him again....

But he wouldn't need to find out. A glint caught his eye and drew it to something behind her.  

"I won't leave you here....as a traitor," he said calmly. Traycen looked at him sharply. He pointed to the object just past her head. She turned, not letting her guard down or her grip go. Her eyes looked around the hall trying to find what he was pointing at and when she did it took her a while to figure out what it was.

A camera

"No," she whispered. That camera would show her helping Slick....and brand her a traitor

Traycen felt her knees suddenly become weak as she stared into the camera's lenses. She couldn't go back. Not now. She couldn't go back to her sisters. They'd all know that she was a traitor. She'd be shot.

Slick shut his eyes and willed himself not to feel sick. He had wanted it to come out differently for Traycen.....not like this. Now she'd be just as hunted as he was. If that camera wasn't there and they'd left, then everyone would probably think that he'd kidnapped her and wouldn't harm her if they found them.

"But," he thought to himself, his eyes flashing open to stare at her in determination," If this is what it takes...then I'll take it."

"Come with me," Slick said again aloud," I don't want you to die in my place." She met his eyes.

They both knew they'll never be able to come back unless they wanted to be shot. He looked at her with such sad pleading eyes, she felt her heart ache. What had she to lose? Yes, she'd miss her sisters.

But....

The Republic didn't give her a life. A true life. One where she could live freely and have her own choices. It forced her to do things she didn't want to do: Lie, sleep with the most disgusting hu'tuune that other spies didn't want to, murder whole families down to the last child....

That one word brought a torrent of words. Mother, love, family, grow old....children is what she wanted the most that the Republic couldn't, wouldn't, give her. Slick's children, was more specific. Maybe with her hair and his eyes....

Another tug on her hand brought her back to looking at Slick. He had her almost fully into the tunnel now. All that she could see of his face was his honey brown eyes. His other hand was reaching out to her, but stopped when her eyes lost that glassy look. They blinked at each other for a few seconds. He pulled her again, his eyes even more intense....more pleading than ever. Filled with promises, hopes she  knew she would never have a chance at again. Traycen shut her eyes and allowed Slick to be pull her deeper into the tunnel, into the darkness....

And out into freedom.