Investigating...

[Keshani]

She sat there huddled up.

"How about we play question for question. For each question you ask me I get to ask you one too...."

[Trax]

Trax looked at the girl, his expression a mix of curiousness and uncertainty.  What was she looking to get out of him?

"That can be a very dangerous game.  Assuming everyone stays honest and doesn't dance around the answer you might learn things you don't like.  You need to ask yourself is that something you're willing to risk.  If you are, we'll play, but there will be a limit to the number of questions."

[Keshani]

She thought about that for a minute. Obviously there were things that he didn't think would be...appropriate...for a teenage girl to know. But. She'd rather know now than find out later..

She thought back to the Station,  how he shot the Stormies at point blank range after they were already unconscious. She shivered slightly but still nodded.

"Okay." She said. "I want to know."

[Trax]

Trax looked at the girl as if he was studying her carefully.

"Two questions.  You ask, then I ask.  And none of this what's your life story kind of stuff.

Go ahead."

[Keshani]

Kesh fought hard not to squirm as Trax studied her.

What is he looking for?, she thought to herself.

Finally he spoke. Two questions. She made a face. That wasn't very many. But she bit her tongue and didn't complain. Two was better than none.

And then it was her turn to study him as she thought. She knew what she WANTED to ask. At least for the first question. But she had a feeling it would cause a reaction in him that she wasn't so sure she would know how to handle.

But at the same time she had to know. If he would actually tell her.

She chewed on her lip for a second trying to decide.

"Why does Mariah mean so much to you?" she asked. Her voice was soft, gentle and filled with curiosity. She wasn't trying to cause him pain or to hurt him. But it was equally evident that this was something she really needed to understand.

[Trax]

Trax let out a heavy sigh and a small, sad smile as he looked down at the ground by his feet.

"A bounty hunter's life isn't exactly rainbows and sunshine.  Your targets are usually lowlifes, the ones who put out the contracts aren't usually much better, your contacts would sell you out if someone paid them enough, and you often have to wade through the scum of the galaxy to find who you're looking for.  You don't exactly spend your life around the nicest of people."

Trax shrugged.

"And even before then, I basically grew up on the streets, trying not to starve, getting mugged or beaten, doing the mugging or the beating."  There was a fairly long pause.

"Then I met Mariah.  First time I saw her, her hair was a mess and she was covered head to toe in dust, grease and oil from working on everything and anything she could get her hands on, and the biggest smile on her face.  For the first time I can remember there was someone truly good, I mean truly good, and full of life and energy and..."  He sighed again.

"For the first time," he repeated again, "there was someone who actually made the galaxy a better place.  It felt nice to be a part of her world, sometimes catch a glimpse of how she saw things.  Made a guy feel...good."

Trax finally looked at Keshani, the look on his face asking her if the answer would suffice.  Well, maybe more telling her that's the answer, ready for your question.

[Keshani]

She blinked for a few seconds after he had finished. She really hadn't expected him to give her an honest answer. He'd sidestepped the question so many times before. The fact that he actually took this seriously and gave her a real answer actually meant a lot to her.

She scooted across the floor a little closer to him and nodded.

"I didn't know you grew up on the streets too." She said softly. "I wish I could have known her too."

[Trax]

"Well, basically grew up on the streets.  There was a roof over my head if I wanted to risk it."

Trax half chuckled.  "Yeah, the two of you together...that would have been dangerous.  I've seen you turn a droid power core into a grenade in under a minute and I've seen her overload the power generator on an Imperial asteroid base.  That was a hell of a bang."  The man took a deep breath.

"Okay, your turn.

You said there are really only two things in the whole galaxy you want.  What are they?"

[Keshani]

She shrugged uncomfortably, feeling like her answer would sound silly and childish next to his.

"Some place safe to call a "home" and someone who actually cares if I come back to that home day in and day out."

It was her turn to look down at the floor, playing idly with a piece of thread hanging out from some random piece of clothing that had been pulled out of Trax's bag.

"I know that answer probably sounds really shallow and selfish. I don't want to be treated like a child. I don't want to feel like I'm in prison with someone 'older and wiser' having to approve my every move. But somewhere warm and safe where I can sleep at night without - " she stopped and took a breath. Honesty. He told the truth. It was her turn.

"Without fear and without the nightmares....without the nightmares would be....a relief."

She blew out a breath, stray strands of hair flying away from her face as she did before continuing.

"Growing up on the streets you're just another body. Another street urchin out muddying the image of the town you live in. Some people might have some sympathy, but mostly they just assume that you did something to cause it yourself and that you don't deserve help. Those who DO feel sympathy don't even want to look at you because they're too afraid it could happen to them. Like if they are caught looking at you then they will be contaminated. Like you are diseased and contagious.

I want to be....special....to someone. To matter and be important. Like Mariah was to you."

Her face flushed a bit red and she was still playing with the piece of thread on the floor, but she sneaked a look up at Trax out of the corner of her eye to see if her response was boring him.

[Trax]

Trax's eyes hadn't left the girl since he asked his question.  He was listening intently.  He saw her shrug, her pulling at the thread of one of his shirts, her hair move when she blew out a big breath, and he saw the slight flush of her face when she tried to sneak a peak at him.

Her comments on the fear and nightmares bothered him quite a bit.  What had she been put through to have to deal with that?

"Doesn't sound shallow or selfish.  Sounds like you want what most people in the galaxy take for granted.  It's only when they lose it that they realize how important it was to them and how badly they want it...how badly they need it."

He had a few of his own names for the people back home that bothered not to look at someone out on the street.  Idiots, easy targets, dead man, or woman, walking.  If you decided not to see the people around you, even the guy lying in the street that looked half dead, then you definitely wouldn't see they weren't quite so half dead when they got up and shoved a knife or pistol in your back...not that he'd share those thoughts with the girl sitting on the floor beside him.

"Kesh, what Mariah and I were...it didn't happen over night.  And I can't tell you what she did, and I sure as hell can't tell you what I did, ninety percent of the rebels on Karvis probably thought I was an ass.  Why she decided to give me the time of day is a total mystery to me.

Relationships, they take time.  Do some people gravitate to each other, absolutely.  But it takes time to get know each other.

Give it time, you'll find what you're looking for."  Trax paused for a few seconds.

"One question down, one to go.  You're up."

[Keshani]

Her eyes were shining slightly with the beginnings of tears at Trax's words but she blinked them away, not letting them fall. Not tears of sadness, but tears of....relief? That he wasn't just tossing her needs off as trite or unimportant...

He couldn't know, probably couldn't understand, just how desperate her need for acceptance and safety were. She had been treated better in her time since meeting the group on the Station than she had in pretty much her entire life as it was. They would never understand how grateful she was.

When he reminded her that she had one question left she took a few seconds before responding. She knew what question she wanted to ask - had to ask based on what had happened on the Station. But it was the question that at the same time she was afraid to hear the answer to. Did she still want to ask?

Assuming everyone stays honest and doesn't dance around the answer you might learn things you don't like.  You need to ask yourself is that something you're willing to risk.

Had he known then what she was going to ask already? Should she have taken his warning? Should she ask the question now?

But she still needed to know.

"Okay. Honesty set to on. Please." She looked at him with a bit of pleading in her eyes. She needed him to tell her the truth. Whatever that truth was.

"The Stormies on the station that you shot....they were Imps. I totally get a hatred for Imps. But they were still defenseless at the time. You're a Bounty Hunter by trade. If someone hired you to kill an unarmed, non-dangerous and unsuspecting target, would you do it? If they had no reason other than that the hire-ee wanted the target dead for his or her own personal entertainment?"

She took a slow breath as she waited for his answer, her stomach clenching a bit into an anticipatory knot.

[Trax]

Trax looked at the girl in silence for a few seconds.  When he finally spoke his voice was calm and even had a softer tone to it.

"Is that what you think I might be?  A cold blooded killer."

Trax actually found the question quite interesting.  Based on what had happened, he could understand, at least in part.

"Alright, let's cover off two quick points first.

Number one, my honesty is always set to on.  Well, almost always.  There are times where you need to pull a fast one on someone to get what you need.  But other than that, whatever I say is the truth."  And he didn't believe in the whole lie by omission thing, but that was better left unsaid.

"Number two, I don't need to justify my actions to anyone."  Trax's tone wasn't dangerous or threatening, it was still soft and calm.  He was stating, to him at least, a simple fact.

"That doesn't mean that what I do won't appear as if I am in fact a cold blooded killer or whatever else, but frankly I don't care how it appears to anyone.  If I had to figure out how every action I did would be perceived by others I'd never end up doing anything.  Were those troopers a danger to us, no, but what happens when they get healed up and are back in action.  They may not be a threat to me, but that doesn't mean they won't be a threat to someone.

So on to the real question.  Setting aside that I can pick and choose what contracts I accept, no, I would never kill for someone else's personal entertainment."

Had he killed an unarmed person before, probably, non-dangerous looking...just because a target didn't look dangerous doesn't mean they weren't.  And unsuspecting, on multiple occasions.

Would he kill for his own entertainment?  Did pleasure count as entertainment?

He looked at Keshani, his expression asking if the answer was sufficient.

[Keshani]

She winced a bit at his question about being a cold blooded killer. She really didn't mean any offense by the question. It was just something she needed to know. But he had said that she would know if he was mad at her, so she assumed that the question was okay...

"I...didn't mean that I was questioning your actions on the Station," she spoke up softly, tentatively. "I was just using that as an example of what prompted the question."

She shifted her position a bit, clearly debating something.

After what felt like forever she finally seemed to come to a decision.

"I....tried to kill someone once before. I mean, before all this..."

'All This' was spoken more like a title than anything else. Meant clearly to refer to everything that had gone on in the Station.

"I hated him. I felt for good reason. I tried to kill him with his back to me, not knowing I was there. I couldn't do it, though."

It sounded more like a confession than anything else. She wasn't even sure why she had said it. She hadn't ever told anyone else that. Ever. She had no idea why she was telling Trax now. But in a way it felt kind of like a relief to tell someone. She wasn't sure what she was looking for by telling him though....

Still, she pretended to be playing with the same loose strand from the tshirt, which now had come loose and she was weaving around her fingers. In reality she was really watching him to see what his reaction would be. Would he see her as weak and unworthy of his time?

[Trax]

"It's a big, potentially life altering decision to take someone's life.  It's not exactly something one can undo if they have regrets about it after.  There's nothing wrong with not being able to do it.  In fact, it's probably something a lot fewer people in the galaxy should be willing to do."  Himself excluded of course.

"That does raise a very interesting question or two, but it'll have to wait for another time.

On the station, you commented to the guard about turning kids into slaves for stealing stuff.  When I asked you what you stole you danced around the question.  No dancing now girl.  What did you steal?"

[Keshani]

She sighed, her face flushing very obviously red.

"I'll tell you if you really wanna know but you'll be disappointed. It was something really stupid that got me arrested."

Trax just kept watching her, waiting.

"So I lied about stealing something. I've stolen lots before but not this time.

"There was this boy". (It seemed like so many adolescent female issues started off with that phrase..)

"I really liked him. And he liked me. Until he found out I lived on the streets and had been arrested multiple times in the past. His family was rich and owned a plantation and had Servants, I'm sure, that he considered to be more 'upstanding citizens' than me after he found out what I was."

She took a deep breath, clearly this particular wound was not quite healed..

"He ditched me without a second thought and I got really mad. So I decided I was gonna go mess with his house to get back at him. Stupid, right? "

She shrugged. "Seemed worth it at the time so I hacked the security systems and broke in, but the idiot's brother was on leave from the Imperial Service. I didn't know that. He showed up, had a much bigger blaster than me, and that's what began the series of drek that ended up with me on that frakking slave world. Stupid. I told you. "