Picking Up the Pieces...

"Damnit, Brixen, they're still in there!"

Aittera was sitting up in the bed in her quarters on the Devious Hope, her breaths coming in rapid succession as her vision cleared and the nightmare faded away. The protocol droid was standing in the doorway, and it took her a moment to realize she must have shouted in her sleep about the same time she realized her head was throbbing. With a groan, she winced and fell back against the pillow, squeezing her eyes shut.

"What?" she snapped at the droid, a little more irritated than she meant it.

"Master Selus instructed me to administer this," the droid patiently explained. "It is a hangover remedy." She lifted one eyelid very, very carefully until she could see the steaming cup in C2-X4's hand.

"I'm fine," she responded, waving him away. "Just get me something for a headache." The droid didn't move.

"Master Selus instructed me to tell you that if you refuse, I am to contact him to return immediately to - forgive me, Master - force it down your throat." The tremor in the droid's metallic voice would have made her laugh under other circumstances.

"Fine!" She sat up again and held her hand out toward it, and the droid crossed the room to place the cup in her hand. "What'd I tell you about calling me master, you annoying piece of tin?"

"My apologies, Captain Badass."

"When is Selus expected back?" Even with a hangover, the droid's answer struck her as satisfyingly funny.

"Some time this evening, Captain Badass."

"Good. Now, go away." She brought the rim of the cup to her lips and took a tentative sip as X4 left her room and the door slid shut behind it. The concoction was surprisingly sweet in spite of its foul odor, and she nursed it for a few more minutes.

Gingerly, she pulled the covers back and swung her feet over the side of the bed, but the 'remedy' was already doing its work as the expected wave of nausea didn't come. She took another drink from the cup before setting it down on the side table and slipped off of the bed to her knees, turning to bend down and look beneath it. She reached for a floor panel a little further under the bed and pressed it down on one side until the opposite side rose enough to slip a finger beneath and remove it.

The strongbox waiting within lifted out easily, and she drew back to sit cross-legged on the floor with it in her lap, tapping in the security code and pressing her thumb to the identification screen. Once it popped open, she reached in to withdraw a small rectangular wallet and set it aside on the table next to the cup.

Once the strongbox was returned to its hiding place, she stood and walked over to the retractable sink to splash some water on her face, fending off the last remnants of sleep and the dream that came with it. The memories of her fiancee's last moments of life hung in the air around her like a thick fog, and she indulged just a few moments of reflection.

She'd managed to banish the nightmare of those final few minutes before, but the dreams had returned more vividly than ever.

It was Selus's fault, she told herself. He'd shown up in a little out of the way cantina she'd been resting (...hiding...) in. In the brief firefight with two bounty hunters that had tracked her to the cantina, she and Selus had acted in perfect synchronization as though they were merely extensions of each other. They were so connected in that moment, no longer individuals, and...

She let the thought die there. That was the moment she'd committed the ultimate sin - she'd forgotten that Davin Vael had ever existed. The dreams were her punishment. She'd promised to love him forever, and for that one careless moment, she'd forgotten her fiancee had ever existed.

With a heavy sigh, she pushed the sink back into its retracted position and walked over to the bedside table to pick up the wallet. At least one loose end from her subsequent drinking binge could be dealt with. The last thing she needed hanging over her was a Sith Lord's interest, whatever that interest turned out to be.

At the desk, she opened the wallet and withdrew an identification chip that she inserted into the computer. In minutes, she was finished with her message to Rasos, detailing everything that she knew about Jheryth Chrystopher. It really wasn't much. That was the whole point, of course. If she'd been able to do this on her own, she'd have never sought out Universal Investigations in the first place.

She was glad she had, though. Between keeping her busy with work and giving her new acquaintances and allies, she felt almost like a normal person living a reasonably normal life. The proverbial spy that came in from the cold. How cliche.