Beyond - Legends The Edge [DD-Challenge 2012] Updated 02/04

Title: The Edge
Author: Ceillean
Characters: OC (Kara Zane), Jacen Solo
Timeline: several years after the Vong War
Genre: Drama
Notes: Written for the Dear Diary Challenge 2012.

---

I should have known better.

But that?s what you get when pride gets in the way of common sense: all kinds of stupid.
I ran after a suspect without back-up. While my partner was busy cuffing one of the gang members we?d been sent out to investigate, the guy I wanted to see rotting in a cell for the rest of his life, Jak Gemini, made a run for it.

Now, the lower levels of Coruscant are definitely not a vacation resort but hell, down below you feel alive. There are no vehicle chases or droid confrontations. Down below it?s face to face, it?s brutal and it?s kriffing honest.

Hauling ass on foot, I called out to the piece of garbage making a beeline towards a red light district. I knew for a fact the moment I stepped across the barrier (a milky force shield to grant more privacy?supposedly) and they saw my uniform, all hell would break loose. There?s an unwritten rule that we cops do not venture into the red light area unless we?re called, given that our presence could and would disrupt business.

Politics. What can I say?

But at that moment I didn?t give a rats? ass. I had an armed and dangerous criminal to catch and nothing was going to get in my way.

Absolutely nothing.

The moment I crossed the barrier, I ignored the heated whispers and from the corner of my eye I saw a group of expensively clad individuals scramble away. Undoubtedly, if I?d taken the time to take a better look, I would have recognized a few VIP?s from all kinds of governmental areas enjoying whatever the district had to offer. Given their seedy little ads, it seemed they had a whole lot on their plates and a bunch of people were getting their fill.

Angling myself through the maze of beings, literally plowing through the crowd, I focused on the bastard only a few feet ahead of me. He was a tall, thick human male, rather inconspicuous at first glance but he?d been on the radar for a couple of years already, wanted for drug dealing alongside assault and battery. We couldn?t pin most of the crimes on him alone but we had hard evidence connecting Gemini to a case involving a young girl he nearly beat to death because she actually had the guts to say no.

It was enough to throw his ass into prison until he was old and grey.

Not for me, though. I wanted him to suffer for what he?d done to that poor girl. There was no way in hell I was going to let him get away.

?Hold it!? I called out over the quiet hum of music from various establishments all along the district. I doubt my words carried far so I went for my blaster, a stupid thing to do given where I was. I stopped running, held my breath, aimed at Gemini?s back and pulled the trigger.

I missed.

The stun bolt shot wide and hit an advertising column, short-circuiting the hologram emitter and a second later it fizzed out. Inwardly, I cringed. Wasn?t really the smartest thing to do, destroy city property. Then again, taking a shot in a crowded place generally wasn?t a smart thing to do.

But I was desperate. I needed to take Gemini down, no matter what.

I heard my partners? agitated voice through the earpiece I wore but I didn?t answer. He could yell at me all he wanted to, I was not going to stop chasing the son of a Sith until I had his face smashed into the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back.

While beings of all shapes, sizes and body odors scrambled out of my way, I yelled at the top of my lungs for Gemini to stop. He didn?t even slow down, which wasn?t surprising at all. In fact, he did what I expected a rotten piece of garbage like him to do. He turned around, aimed a weapon towards me and fired.

But it wasn?t a stun bolt.

I had just enough time to fall to the ground. I hit my shoulder hard, rolled back to my feet and kept going. There was a pain filled scream behind me but I couldn?t afford to care. Yet another victim to add to Gemini?s growing list.

I followed him into an abandoned sky

 

Very interesting start. I always thought the EU should have more stories like this...stories about individual struggles and not the huge galactic wars. I look forward to reading more.

 

Great start! I'm really liking the OC and looking forward to more!

 

So was that Jacen near the end or who was the mysterious man? Interesting beginning

more soon

 

Yes interesting start

 

Oooh. *shiver* I'm intrigued. And those last few paragraphs were quite eerie.

Was that Jacen? What was in the box? What did he do to Kara? Or did she just pass out from her injuries?

Quite curious to see where you're heading with this!

(and should have guessed that you'd settle for something involving Jacen! )

 

The medical droid gently probed the area where the blaster bolt had caught my shoulder. It stung as its cool hands touched my skin but I didn?t let it show. I was beyond angry, about ready to ?

?What the hell is the matter with you?? My partner, Gavin Verla, yelled at me while he paced the length of the medical room. I?d woken up on the way to the med center, safely buckled up in one of the patrol cars. Gavin had been furious with me then but now he was incensed. His blond hair looked almost white against his reddening face. A prominent vein in his throat pulsed and he balled his hands into fists at his sides.

?You weren?t there.? I said quietly, wincing as the medical droid applied pressure to the wound in my shoulder.

?Are you insane?? He whirled around and jabbed a finger towards my chest, ignoring the medical droid. ?You shot your blaster in a public area! You could have hurt someone.?

?But I didn?t.?

?That?s not the point, Kara!? He ran his hands through his hair, took a few deep breaths before he turned away from me. The medical droid bandaged the arm and gestured for me to sign the form that I refused bacta treatment. The shoulder would heal on its own.

I slid off the medical bed and awkwardly slipped one arm into my jacket. I left the other side hanging as I stood beside Gavin. ?I almost had him, Gavin. I almost had him.?

?He got away.?

?I?d have canned his ass if that guy hadn?t shown up.?

A few heartbeats passed in silence until Gavin turned my way. He?d calmed down a little, meaning the color in his face was more or less back to normal. ?What guy??

?He showed up out of nowhere. Maybe he was working with Gemini because he handed something over. A little box.?

?Kara ??

?He had the oddest voice. Soft yet dominant and controlled. It was the strangest thing.?
?Kara, what are you talking about??

I glanced at him, frowning. ?The guy ??

?There was no one else there. Only you and Jak Gemini.?

I frowned at him, noting how the vein in his throat had stopped throbbing. But his brow was furrowed, making his eyes change from a vibrant light blue to something much darker.

?What?? I shook my head. ?No. There was a guy. A human. He was right beside me ??

?Kara, the com line was open. All I heard was you yelling for Gemini to stop. You shot your blaster. He got away. There was no one else there.?

I refused to believe what he was telling me. I wasn?t imagining things. I knew for a fact that someone had been there with us. And that someone had commanded Gemini to hand something over and he?d done just that.

?I know what I saw.?

?Listen, Kara. You?re taking this Gemini case too personally. Maybe you ??

?I know what I fracking saw!? My voice cracked as it always did when Gavin started bringing up the countless why?s for me to drop the case. I wasn?t even going to let him go there. I could handle Jak Gemini, I could handle what he?d done. What I couldn?t handle was the knowledge that he was still out there. ?What about surveillance?? I asked, calming myself. ?Even abandoned buildings still have active security systems here and there, right? Check them.?

I could see by the look Gavin gave me that he was having trouble believing me. ?Just check the damned vids, Gavin!?

?Fine.? He held up his hands and then ran them through his short blond hair again, a habit he?d picked up early in his career. ?The Captain wants to see you after you?re done here.?
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. In my opinion, all I had done was my job. I went after a criminal intent on throwing him in a holding cell until the day he took his last breath. Trouble was, along the way I?d broken a few laws, ignored regulations and the Captain, I knew, was going to hand me my ass because of it.

I grabbed my gear from a chair standing in the corner. ?Let?s go then.? I said.

?Kara.? Gavin?s voice was soft, so unlike what I was used to. ?Fair warning. This doesn?t look good for you.?

Like I didn?t already know that.

 

Excellent update! I'm looking forward to seeing what the Captain has to say. And I assume Jacen will be returning at some point?

 

Excellent set up Cei. I'll try to pop in on occasion nand keep up with the story.

 

How come I think those vids are going to have a glitch in them making them worthless...or else you have a flow walker that can't be picked up on a video camera. Nice update.

 

Ceil: I knew it was Lexi's doing getting Jacen in the story-plot (Her Jacen was rockin' fine, indeed, felt humble, honest, and human again )

I like Kara a lot and the cops angle is fresh

Now with her claiming there was someone else there but no physical evidence - her bosses have only 2 most likely conclusions: she's making it up or she's crazy Oops!

I'll be following this one avidly.

 

love the banter between them and it's not looking goodto see the captain

 

Ooh- what has Jacen dragged this poor girl into?

Now I see that this is set post-YV war, but what stance does it have on LotF? Set between DN and LotF? Is it entirely AU? For that matter, I guess it could be POST-LotF and you could be doing crazy things with Jacen's character...

Looking forward to more- quite the mystery, at least in terms of whatever is going on with Jacen.

 

Back when I was a little girl, back when my parents were still around, my Dad would take me to the zoo whenever he needed a time out from life. We?d walk side by side, sometimes I would grab his hand or the lapel of his coat and tug him to whatever pathetic life form I wanted to stare at and other days Dad would let me sit on his shoulders and I could pretend I was a Queen.

So the zoo became something of a hideout, I guess. Whenever something pissed me off, that?s the place I?d go.

It was just never the same without my Dad.

I sat on a bench underneath a tall, shady tree. It was losing a few of its leave, gently falling from the branches and quietly floating through the air until they touched down on the ground.

I sighed while I listened to the crowd, families with their kids and their pets, happy faces and gurgling laughter. This entire place couldn?t be more artificial.

Illusions and holograms, warmth created by technology to mimic the sun, a soft sweet smelling breeze conjured up by little ventilation fans set throughout the zoo. And the happy faces and the gurgling laughter would be forgotten the moment these people stepped back into their ordinary lives.

At least it was enough to put me at ease for a while. Enough for me to lie to myself.

Everything?s going to be alright, Kara. Everything?s going to be fine.

I snorted and leaned back.

The talk with the Captain, a fierce Zabrak female you sure as frack didn?t want to mess with, had lasted about five minutes. I gave her my badge, I gave her my blaster and that was that.

Suspended.

For how long?

Until I could prove to her that I was fit for duty, which meant getting my head examined, seeing a shrink.

Great.

Thing is, this whole Gemini case was doing a number on me. When the files first landed on my desk, I didn?t think twice about heading out and catching the guy. Just like any other criminal and up until now, I?d always done a good job. But then the Gemini case got bigger and bigger and realizing what he?d done to that poor girl ?

? reminded me of my teenage years when I was forced to go through a similar predicament.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

The Captain hadn?t even listened to my explanation. And I could see in her golden eyes that she didn?t believe me about that stranger showing up either, just like Gavin.

I knew I was on my own with this one and one way or the other I was going to have to prove to them that I was not losing my mind.

I heard someone approaching from behind me, heavy footfalls on loose sandy dirt. Next I smelled his cologne, a spicy earthy fragrance that I associated with the wide and vast openness of freedom. But his voice always made me feel a little edgy. ?How?d it go?? Gavin asked.

I didn?t turn around. He already knew the answer so I said nothing at all.

With a sigh, my partner of five years sat down beside me. He placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. He didn?t look at me, not once, so I knew what he had to say would not lighten my mood.

?Why do you always come here when something?s bothering you?? He asked.

?Good memories.? I said, forcing myself to remember my Dad and knowing that he would keep his calm, that he wouldn?t let this mess break him. He?d be strong. Just like I had to be.

Just like I always am.

Gavin took another breath. I heard him rummaging through his pockets but I still didn?t turn to look at him. I knew I?d see pity in his eyes.

?I checked the surveillance recordings.? He said quietly and going by how he lowered his voice, I already knew what he had to say.

My last shred of hope dissipated right in front of my eyes, disappeared as if it hadn?t even been there at all.

?I?m not making this up, Gavin.? I said quietly.

?I didn?t say you were.?

Up ahead I watched a Twi?lek family near the Felinx habitat, one of the kids pointing and squealing as the animals walked up to the glass screen. Did they realize the animal was most likely only be a hologram? Did these children know they were laughing at a lie?
?Kara. There?s absolutely nothing on the surv

 

now going to discover what's up?

Nice update with being in the zoo

 

I like the background of the zoo in this, and Kara's memories of her father.

Interesting development with the video. I'm glad Gavin is helping her.

Great update!

 

But then the Gemini case got bigger and bigger and realizing what he?d done to that poor girl ?

? reminded me of my teenage years when I was forced to go through a similar predicament.

...oh? Does Kara have some skeletons in the closet, as it were?
And now I'm curious about her father. Perhaps it's not relevant in the slightest, but is he dead?

So the vids are screwy- which doesn't exactly prove her story, but certainly shows that something fishy is going on. Well if there's anyone who's skilled at tampering with surveillance cams, it's a Jedi- will her secret investigation perhaps lead her that direction?

So many questions!

Oh, and I like Gavin- he seems like a fine specimen of law-enforcement...

 

I watched the vid over and over again. I paused it at certain frames, zoomed in, zoomed out, played it out in slow motion. I hoped to find something, just a miniscule shred of evidence that Gemini had been working with an accomplice but there was nothing.

At least nothing I could see with the naked eye.

I sat back on my rickety desk chair and ran my hands through my hair. Gavin had asked me to take it easy, to stay out of this entire investigation but how could I possibly step back? Even knowing what the Captain would do to me if I meddled in between, I couldn?t let this be.

Someone had tampered with the surveillance system. Someone had somehow erased fifteen minutes which was impossible. According to Gavin the surveillance system itself had been untouched for several years so how the hell could fifteen minutes simply be missing?

Turning away from my desk, I glanced up at the wall where a picture frame had been collecting dust for the past ten years. That?s how long I?ve lived in this crappy little one bedroom apartment. I come here to sleep, that?s it. No decorations, no drapes covering the windows. One small sofa, a table and my desk. I?ve barely ever used the kitchenette and the small bedroom still has unpacked plasteel boxes lined along the wall opposite my one-person bed.

It?s not a home. But it suffices.

I got to my feet and walked up to the picture frame. Dust had collected in the corners. I ran my finger along the thin glass and grimaced as the tip came away frosted with more dust. Beneath it I saw the smiling face of my father.

?Are you disappointed?? I whispered quietly, wiping the surface with the palm of my hand. ?I shot my blaster in public. Could have hurt someone.? I realized that a single tear ran along my cheek and I quickly wiped it away with my dusty hand. ?You?d be disappointed. I?m sorry, Dad.?

I imagined I could hear his calm, deep voice saying that everything was going to turn out okay. But I knew it wouldn?t be the words he?d choose. Throughout my life he taught me to face the consequences of my actions with my head held high and my back straight. No matter what, you never give in, you never give up and you never, ever, show weakness.

I took a deep, steadying breath and set the frame aside on my desk.

The vid was still on pause on my computer monitor. There was not even the slightest chance of finding anything on the footage with what I had at my disposal. What I needed was the tech lab. If something was hidden in the surveillance vid, the techies would find it.

Only, I wasn?t allowed in the tech lab, not after the Captain suspended me.

But I still had a few strings I could pull.

I sat back down at my desk and activated the com console. After punching in the frequency, Clay Ocala kept me waiting for almost ten minutes. When his round, chubby face finally appeared on screen, he grimaced. ?Zane. What do you want??

I smiled. ?Calling to say hello.?

?Of course you are.? Clay Ocala, a native of the planet Corellia as he?s so often told me in case I forget, is one of the junior techs in the department. He?s good at what he does but not good enough to rise through the ranks, according to him. ?What do you want??

I bit the inside of my cheek. Clay owed me a favor and I hoped he?d honor it by helping me now. ?I need you to take a look at something for me.?

Bushy brown eyebrows narrowed over green eyes. ?Will it get me in trouble??

I shrugged. ?Not if you don?t get caught.?

Several seconds passed. He didn?t say a word and neither did I. It felt like a staring contest, both of us waiting until the other flinched.

?Fine.? He breathed. ?I can?t ever say no to you.?

?It?s off the record, though.?

Clay nodded. ?Yeah. I heard about what happened.?

Word travelled fast.

?I?m sending you the file now.? I said while letting my fingers fly across the control board. A quiet blip let me know that the file transfer was complete. ?Fifteen minutes of this footage are missing. There was a guy there with me, Clay. See if you kind find anything.? I cleared my throat. ?Please.? And fo

 

that's a way to introduce him WOW

Great update showing where she lives and about her father

 

?Will it get me in trouble??

I shrugged. ?Not if you don?t get caught.?

That's the spirit.

?I?m Jacen Solo.? He said. ?I?m the guy you?ve been looking for on the security vids.?

I had my blaster pointing at his face in a second.

Go Kara. This should be a FASCINATING confrontation to follow. Do I sense some Jacen/Kara teamwork possibilities coming along...? That could be fun...

 

I thought I replied to this a long time ago. Apparently not - sorry about that!

I really liked the description of the apartment and Kara's father. It really fleshes out the character.

Love this line: ?Not if you don?t get caught.?

And Jacen! I'm glad he finally made his appearance.

Looking forward to more!