A rebellion Reborn

Chapter 2 Darkness of the past, light of the future

"Since when are we so selfless and good-natured, to try and break out a couple of rebels, from an imperial prison in the middle of Nar Shadaa?" Aleena asked a tad sarcastically as she sat down across the holo table and scrutinized him as she waited for him to answer.

Dev Morgan, as she knew him, was always an enigma to her, an enigma she chose not to solve until now. He respected her enough not to ask about her past and she did the same in return. Yet, now it all seemed that the temptation was too much to ignore.

He looked tired, not physically, despite the beating he went through earlier that day. He was always like that, at first glance he was lazy, uncaring, always joking, never taking anything seriously but the truth couldn't farther from the truth, he cared too much. But now he was drained, watching the depowered holo table with a look that told her he was somewhere far, far away right now.

They sent the girl, Mia to one of the unused rooms to sleep, since it was obvious she was barely staying awake after they gave her a little food which she quickly ate with the ferocity of a starving child. HK was sent to run a diagnostic of the ship since whatever the outcome of the little plan will be that her partner thought up, it was obvious they will have to bail out of Nar Shaddaa and the whole sector as fast as possible.

She wasn't sure what she thought of Mia and her almost impossible to believe powers, other than shock. Sure, she heard many tales about the Jedi and their command of the world around them but she always dismissed those tales, yet there they were in her face. She supposed she was mostly curious to see what would that mean in a galaxy where every remnant of the old republic, a republic she never knew was hunted down and silenced.

"Do you remember Perugia IV?" he asked quietly, prompting her to look at him. She frowned, remembering the disaster that work was, and simply nodded, silently telling him to get on with it. "I'm calling in that favor now. I owe a lot to Rex and I don't tend to leave a debt unpaid. At least to people I like." he added with a weak smile at the end but he didn't manage to reassure her a bit.

Whenever a riskier work or something personal came up that they needed help from the other but couldn't or wouldn't explain the reasons, they gave each other a favor to use in a similar situation. They were partners, call in the favor, get the job done, no questions asked. It was not the perfect solution but it worked for them and strangely it gave birth to a sense of trust between them.

"Never thought you were the sentimental type." she commented, though in hindsight it made sense. He acted like nothing but himself was his priority but they ran into enough trouble because of his random acts of kindness to knew he had a soft spot for street kids in particular. That was just like Dev, he would act the part of the cutthroat, careless thug with ease then go and free a couple of slaves, forcing them to bail out of the middle of a shoot out."You were a rebel?" she asked curiously, deciding to cut into the matter at hand.

She didn't have anything against the rebels, she even agreed with their agenda somewhat and silently cheered them on. But she was too attached to her life to join and risk it in a near hopeless endeavor. She couldn't see Dev as someone who would choose to join them.

"A long time ago. When I was a different man." he said, unconsciously lifting his hand, touching the faint scars just below his left eye. Aleena always wondered how he got them, it was too even and smooth to get it from an ordinary knife.

He looked to the side, watching something that only he could see. He stayed silent for a long moment before he gave out a small, humorless laugh.

"Back then I thought one man can make the difference. That I had a path to follow. In the end, I had to learn that nothing I did, mattered in the long run."