Victory of the Stars

Chapter 15: An Unfulfilled Quest

Vi tried to control her face as they walked down the hall towards the elevator.
Persuasion, Xian had said.
She hoped to the stars and back that it wasn't what she was thinking of.
There were plenty of things that she didn't want the Dartranian Empire to know. Mostly her opinions about their poor choices of decor.
Making jokes, now, brain?
Stars, I'm broken.
Still, joking was a better alternative than the paralyzing fear she'd been stuck in for so long.
Xian pulled Vi down the hall in her wake as she raged towards the elevator. Vi kept stumbling, her feet unwilling to walk any more than they already had.
She was really tired.
They gained the elevator and Xian shoved her in. As Xian pressed the buttons to go down to the floor she wanted, Vi slid down the wall, curling into herself as much as she could until she was one big ball. Through a watery veil of tears that her body refused to hold back she watched as the doors slid closed.
They were alone.
Her hair was in her face, sticking to the dampness in wet strands like morning dew on grass. Xian turned, her face full of an emotion that Vi couldn't quite see through the forest blocking her view.
Xian's fists clenched and unclenched, but she made no other movement. She seemed to be fighting herself.
After what seemed like forever, she reached up and took off the mask that covered her face, tucking it into a pocket.
"Are ... are you physically injured?"
Xian reached out a hand to help Vi to her feet, but Vi flinched back.
Seeing her without the mask was strange. She looked like a completely different version of herself. Her eyes were the same, bright hazel behind large round glasses, but now that Vi could see her face she was a lot less... scary.
She looks... normal. I guess I never thought about what she really looked like before.
Xian had pink cheeks and a small, round nose that barely held her big glasses up. She looked younger than Vi had expected, maybe Liam's age or a little older.
Xian seemed to see Vi's fear. Her shoulders twitched back and she took a step back towards the other side of the elevator.
Vi squashed into a slightly tighter ball.
"I-I-I-I-I... um... je ne comprends pas. Qu'est-ce que c'est passé?"
Vi's voice was rough from crying. Xian just looked at her. She tried again.
"Non capisco. Cosa?"
Vi frowned, confused as to why Xian wouldn't be understanding her. Then she realized. "Oh! Um... I'm sorry-spiacente-desolee-dwebuchi-sorry. I-I-I-I-I tend to switch languages when I'm scared. I don't-don't understand. Wh... What's going on?"
The elevator beeped to let them know that they had arrived at their destination, but Xian pressed a button for manual exit instead of letting the doors slide open on their own.
She walked over and looked at Vi. With her boots, Xian was only a little taller than her. Vi didn't flinch.
Xian smiled. "You made me remember my home. My... my family. My life." Her eyes glistened and Vi blinked.
Wait, she's...
She's crying.
Her face twitched back to angry and Vi cured up again.
She turned away and Vi saw her shoulders shake like she was fighting herself before she turned back around with the more normal face.
"It-it-it hurts, and I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do, but I don't know what's right anymore. So I'm going to help you get your friends out of here. Follow my lead and remember, everyone else thinks I'm ... mean."She placed the mask on her face, and just like that, she was back into character. She pushed the doors open, grabbed Vi's arm, and dragged her out into the hall.
"Keep up," she barked.
"And remember that it's all an act," she whispered only to Vi.
They almost ran down the halls, Vi struggling to keep up like usual and Xian barking orders and generally being terrifying. Nobody tried to stop them.
Even the Dartranian Empire is terrified of her, Vi realized, fighting the urge to giggle.
Everyone they passed tried to look busy and visibly relaxed after they'd passed as Xian pulled her behind her towards the cell blocks. Once they were out of sight she let go of Vi's arm and exhaled quietly.
Vi let out the giggle that she'd been suppressing.
"Je n'y croix pas! I don't believe it! That worked!"
Xian removed the mask again.
"I know you don't trust me. Honestly? I don't trust myself right now! But."
Her face spasmed again and she clenched her fists tighter.
"I-I-I-I-I-I-I promise that I will get you and your friends off this ship safely."
Vi nodded, breathing heavily.
I think I can trust her. She's had plenty of time to kill me already. There's nothing keeping her
from doing it and she has everything to lose, right?
She smiled at Xian, who attempted to smile back as though it was something she'd never done before. It looked a bit strange, but nice.
"Alrighty. We should go before anyone finds us out. Come o-"
Before Xian finished her sentence they were both tackled.
Vi landed on the floor, all the wind knocked out of her and a blur of fiery copper curls and citrus overloading her senses.
"OH MY GOD! LIAM! WE FOUND HER!"
Vi pushed Kara off of her, wincing.
"Ow."
Kara looked scarier than she'd ever seen her, her wild orange curls long and fierce around her face and a gun in her hand, looking as out of place as a droid in a dress, but she visibly relaxed as soon as she realized it was only Vi.
"Oh my stars I am so glad you are all right are you all right?"
Vi smiled and wrapped her arms around Kara in a brief, tight hug.
"I'm glad you're all right too."
She turned to Liam to hug him too, and stopped.
Liam was pinning Xian to the wall, his darksaber scimitar at her throat and a look of pure rage on his face. He looked like a giant come down from the clouds next to the diminutive Xian.
Not a nice giant, either, Vi thought. He looks like the evil man-eating ones from the fairy tales I used to love so much.
His long cloak was missing, and a weapon that was something between a gun and a crossbow was hanging at his side. His blonde hair was sticking up in odd places and there was a charred furrow cut just above his ear, a line shaved almost to the skin, black with soot. On his other side, a makeshift bandage of the same beige as Kara's now-filthy pants wrapped around his forearm, mostly obscuring what looked like a bullet wound.