Chapter 44: Stalking Heads

Zenna's POV

I watch, transfixed, as the holocams flicker on my terminal, offering glimpses into Vex's life, a life I'm desperate to intertwine with mine. I was able to fill his shared room with Sola and the living room with holo cams after we got back from our life day break while they were both in class.

There he is again, alone in his quarters, a portrait of solitude that stirs a strange ache within my chest. His brown hair falls messily over furrowed brows, and those striking eyes, usually so full of boredom, now just reflect a haunting emptiness. It's like peering into a void that I yearn to fill.

'Wait, he seems angrier than usual.'

"Damn it, Zenna," I whisper to myself, "you can't just rush this." Patience isn't my forte, but strategy is. "I need time, time to devise a flawless plan to reclaim him. To make him see me as more than just his sister, but as someone who can be his... everything."

A sudden movement snaps me back to the screen. Vex is on his feet, the muscles in his jaw clenching, his fists balled at his sides. He's pacing, restless energy radiating off him like heat from searing metal. My brother, the enigmatic Darth Relic, reduced to this state of silent agony.

'Why are you so mad, dear?'

"Zenna, focus," I chide myself. Emotions can't cloud my judgment. Not now, when he needs me most, even if he hasn't realized it yet.

His voice cuts through the quiet, a low growl barely picked up by the holocam's audio. "I need to vent this anger out or I'm gonna lose it." The words are laced with a rawness that makes something twist uncomfortably inside me. He's reaching his breaking point, and I can't help but wonder what, or who has driven him to such a precipice.

"..... I'll talk so fucking loud everyone will hear me, you stupid piece of shit." I hear him mutter through the holocam.

With every step he takes away from the camera's eye, his frustration seems to swell. I watch his departure, my fingers hovering over my terminal, itching to follow, to be there and calm the storm brewing within him.

I slip into the black workout clothes, the fabric clinging to my skin like a second shadow.

*****

The Sleepy Cosby looms ahead, its vintage hull a stark contrast against the sleek, modern ships docked beside it. Vex's ship, the embodiment of his fierce independence. After finding out his secret, it was super easy finding the ship docked close by. I watch him stride toward it.

"Smart," I murmur to myself as I palm the tracker, activating its adhesive with a quick press and roll between my fingers. Anticipation prickles along my spine as I watch Vex disappear into the freighter. With a flick of my wrist, the tracker arcs gracefully through the air and adheres to the underbelly of The Sleepy Cosby with a satisfying click. A silent sentinel ready to whisper its secrets to only me.

As the engines of the ancient craft roar to life, I retreat into the shadows, my heart hammering in my chest. He's close, so close to slipping away, and I can't, won't, let that happen. Not when every fiber of my being screams to be near him.

With the hum of departing thrusters fading into the distance, I dash towards the speeder bay. Each step sends adrenaline coursing through my veins, fueling my resolve. I mount a sleek speeder without hesitation, the controls familiar beneath my touch.

"Stay focused, Zenna," I remind myself as I kick the speeder into life. Sand and dust billow behind me as I zoom across the terrain, following the beacon pulsing from the tracker.

The tracker blinks. The Sleepy Cosby has landed not far from here. Too close for comfort, too close for coincidence. What draws you here, brother mine?

I kill the engine of the speeder, a cloud of sand settling around me as a cloak of invisibility. From afar, I watch, a silent guardian while the tracker's faint glow on my datapad confirms what I already know, he's here, within reach.

I hunker down behind the crest of a weather-beaten dune, my heart pounding in sync with each clash of Vex's lightsaber against the chitinous armor of the K'lor'slugs. The air is thick with the stench of scorched flesh, but it's the sight of him, clad in the dark majesty of his Darth Relic attire, that sends a warmth to my cheeks. My brother moves with lethal grace, a whirlwind of red light carving through the swarm.

"CAN YOU FUCKING HEAR ME NOW? HOW ABOUT NOW. AM I TALKING LOUD ENOUGH FOR YOU TO ANSWER IF YOU THINK I'M FUCKING SLOW, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!."

His screams mesh with the guttural death throes of the creatures, a symphony of rage and power that both thrills and terrifies me.

"Goodness, you're magnificent," I murmur, awestruck at the display of raw strength.

The silence around me fractures. A whisper of displaced sand, the subtle shift of weight. I stiffen, every muscle taut as I sense a presence near me, cloaked in the quiet of the desert. Instinctively, my hand hovers near my lightsaber, ready to draw it from the folds of my cloak.

There, several meters away, her silhouette obscured by the heat haze. The Red Mandalorian woman. Alone this time, perched on her speeder with the unmistakable outline of a slug thrower sniper aimed at Vex. A bitter taste floods my mouth. Once again, she dares to threaten what's mine.

"Persistent, aren't we?" I think to myself, a cold anger settling in my chest. She doesn't know I'm watching, that I've already thwarted her once before. And by the stars, I'll do it again.

With a surge of dark energy propelling me forward, I launch myself onto the speeder, my cloak flaring behind me like the wings of some vengeful spirit. Red's head snaps up just as I land with predatory grace, my lightsaber igniting in a hiss of crimson death. The blade comes to rest beside her throat, at that vulnerable seam where Beskar yields to the flesh.

"Drop the sniper, or I'll cut your head off," I snarl, the threat dripping from my lips with all the venom of a Sith poised to strike. My heart hammers with adrenaline, every sense alive with the thrill of the hunt and the proximity of danger.

Red stiffens beneath the deadly promise of my lightsaber, the tension in her body palpable even through the armor. Her helmeted visage turns ever so slightly towards me, and through the T-shaped visor, I can almost feel her wince. With a reluctant clatter, the sniper falls to the sand, surrendering to the inevitable.

"You again?" she mutters under her breath, a hint of resignation, or is it disdain? It's barely audible over the distant screams of Vex's battle cries.

"HOW ABOUT YOU JAEALL YOU STILL HAVING TROUBLE TOO."

"Who sent you?" I hiss the blade of my lightsaber, a hair's breadth from piercing the skin beneath Red's helmet.

There's a heavy sigh from the figure under my blade. "Last time, it was Duke Kesyk," she admits, her voice betraying a hint of fatigue in the background.

I narrow my eyes, digging for more. "And this time?"

"Private party." The resignation in her voice is almost tangible. "Wired credits and... data."

"Data?" I prod, my pulse quickening. What kind of data?

"Everything about him," Red divulges, her words cautious but forthcoming. "Including his real name, Vex Eras."

A shockwave of fury and protection surges through me. "Give it to me," I demand, my voice cutting through the arid silence, echoing only the hum of my lightsaber as it hovered dangerously close to Red's exposed jugular. My fingers twitch with a mix of anticipation and dread as she hesitantly extends the data pad toward me.

With the Force as my hostage, I snatch the device from her grip, keeping my weapon steady at her throat. My thumb glides across the screen, sifting through the information until my eyes latch onto a file marked with a seal that chills my core. Confidential for Jedi internal use only. "Kriffing Jedi," I snarl under my breath, a storm of disbelief and fury brewing within me.

The revelation ignites something primal, a protective wrath that threatens to consume me. Not even the Jedi, with their self-righteous decrees, will threaten what's mine. With a swift, fluid motion, anger guiding my hand, I yank the blade back toward myself, severing Red's head from her shoulders in one clean stroke. Her body slumped, her helmet clattering against the speeder's dashboard, and the threat extinguished.

Breathing heavily, I scan the horizon. Vex is still out there, a whirlwind of destruction against those poor slugs, his screams now a distant symphony to my seething heart. He doesn't know how close he came to being in the crosshairs of a deeper game.

I strip the red Mandalorian armor from the lifeless body, pieces of beskar heavy and cold in my hands.

A secret identity, perhaps, a new face to navigate the treacherous waters that lie ahead. This armor will be more than a disguise; it will be my declaration of war against anyone who dares come for him.

"And it helps that when we were kids, Vex told me it was his dream to meet a Mandalorian Sith. Even if our wet nurse said, it would never happen." I clench my fist, thinking about how that disgusting Twileech used to treat Vex as her plaything. "Rinka, if I ever see you again." I mutter through gritted teeth.

Stashing the armor in my speeder, I cast one last glance at Vex. The setting sun painted the sky in shades of fire.

"It looks like I'll need a Darth title of my own."