Just when things were going Good (Kazaar)

[Aurelias Kazaar]

What th'frack kinda question...definitely a company man. Kazaar gave a snort, "Nah, I like havin' the muscles seperated from m'ribs." He raised his left arm t'show the damage.

"Great Bantha!"

Kazaar's torso was covered in blood, 'specially from the neck and side wounds Crei's droid inflicted on 'im and it looked like his skin was literally 'hanging by a thread' by his ribcage. The former bounty hunter's right arm didn't look 'right' either, like someone'd broken then put back together. And Lanners was pretty sure Kazaar wasn't leaning up against th'wall because he was tired...looked like Kazaar was using th'wall t'keep from collapsing in pain.

What kind of bodyguard is he...?

"We...uhhh...brought a first aid kit, but frankly you should be in a hospital." Or a morgue.

Kazaar smirked, "Yeh well, I ain't exactly in th'mood t'head back to a hospital. Just patch me up 'n gimme to a bacta tank. I oughta be fine." Lanners shrugged then motioned for Kim to come forward with the first aid kit.

Kim's dark face twisted into a scowl, "You should be in a hospital, mon. No reason for you to be walking."

Another snort, "That ain't th'first time I've heard that. Just do as I say 'n gimme patched up. I'll be fine."

"Your funeral, mon."

Kazaar grimaced as Kim applied bacta bandages and attempted t'halt the flow of blood down his body. After several messy attempts, Kim shook his head and said, "That's about all I can do."

"Good 'nough f'me. let's get th'hell outta here." Kazaar took two steps then collapsed unconcious.

"Get a hold of Mr. Russard! We need an airbus!" were the last words he heard...

[Adelaide Kasperian-Kazaar]

The message was short, but sent a shock through her system, I'M STILL HERE...

Adelaide could literally feel the Albino's thin, stiff fingers curling opaquely around her spine, and squeezing. Her breath instantly became ragged and she had to hold a hand against the hallway wall to stop from pitching forward from the immediate sick nausea his message had caused.

..Kazaar must be dead. There's no way he would have let Crei escape..Somehow, the Albino had bested him..



Distraught, Adelaide forced herself to motion. She had to find Estelle, or one of the Russard men. They had to get to Aurelias. Running from room to room, turning down one unfamiliar hallway into another, Adelaide had worked herself into quite a state by the time she burst into the Old Man's study, startling Lissel and the old man both, and causing Jason to halt abruptly the brandy glass he was just bringing to his lips. Estelle stood up from where she was seated, alarmed at Adelaide's frantic state.

"He's killed him! He's killed him" she shouted, shaking the comm at each of them.

The three generations Russard stared at her, not understanding what had brought on this outburst.

"Crei just contacted me, threatening us again! We've got to find Aurelias" she was sobbing now. "Aurelias...I...he.." She was fragmenting now and it was awful to see. "How can Crei have gotten away?"

"Jason, help the girl" commanded the Old Man, prompting his son from his shocked inertia to step quickly forward. He took the comm from Adelaide's hand, passing it off to the Old Man, who read it, then crushed the communicator with a granite bust of Palpatine, grabbed from the mantle.
Jason wrapped a comforting arm around Adelaide and led her to a leather couch where he sat her and pushed his untouched brandy glass into her hand.

[Estelle Russard]

"It's alright, Adelaide" Estelle said gently. "Daddy's men are bringing Kazaar home now" Adelaide's eyes asked the question that she was terrified to speak, and Estelle was quick to allay her fears, "He's banged up bad, but he is allive. And kicking, of course" she added smiling at the Kazaar they both knew so well. "In fact, Lanners, our company man, had quite a time convincing Aurelias to come with them. Apparently, there's still a lot of pay-back still owing."

"He drove a speeder into the Mansion" Jason contributed, finding such a fact astounding. "A speeder, can you believe it? And I hired him as the driver for my daughter"

Adelaide smiled at the lunacy of the remark, even laughing a little.

"Crei wont get at you and your boy again" the elder Russard said, reassuringly. "We'll see to that"

Estelle nodded. That damn Albino, how the frell did he escape?

"Kazaar will be here soon, we'll know more then"

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Russard Estate- Service Entrance

"This man should be in a hospital not here!" The short man wearing the traditional white doctor's lab coat roared as Aurelias Kazaar was unloaded from the airbus.

"You want to tell him that yourself, Doc?" Zawatski shot back, "Here...gimme that stimulant and I'll wake him up."

The doctor rolled his eyes and took a moment to adjust his spectacles. Leave it to 'The Elder' to pull me from a conference with Delgas Medical to attend to a nut with a gun. Eduard Warren-Laramie had served as the Russard's physician since 'Old Man Russard' was in his mid-20's. The thin Lorrdian now spent most of his time teaching young doctors at Coruscant University of Medicine. It wasn't always easy, especially given Warren-Laramie's distate for those who believed droids were the only nurses needed to treat patients. Although he did have a slight affection for a certain droid, now apparently with the Rebellion, the doctor believed there was nothing wrong with humans and aliens attending to those in need. Try asking a droid to tell a patient he's dying of a heart problem. That's real caring.

"How long has he been unconcious?" Warren-Laramie took a moment to adjust his coat, as Kazaar was loaded into a medical capsule and pushed into the estate.

"I'd say about 20 minutes." Zawatski tapped his fingers against the side of the sled while he pushed, "Kim did a good job at patching him up but he's lost a lot of blood."

The doctor nodded, "Okay, I remember Jason getting his father a bacta tank several years ago, after he broke his ankle. If that's still set up, we'll put this guy in it. How old is the bacta?"

"At least two years. I don't think Mr. Russard ever used it."

Warren-Laramie paused a moment as he thought of a solution, "Okay, the bacta's not going to be as potent as it should, so we'll need to keep this guy in it for longer than I'd like. I'll get some from the hospital, but it'll take a couple hours. And with the damage done to...what's his name? Kazaar? Okay, the damage done to Kazaar, he'll be out of it for a few days, week at the most."

The two men took a moment to remove Kazaar's boots and pants, before loading him into the tank. Bacta flowed around the former bounty hunter's body and he started to float.

**************************************

"Sir?" A Zabrak secretary stated after knocking on the door to Jason The Elder's study, "Sorry to bother you but Lanners says he has a message for you."

"Mr. Russard, Lanners didn't wait for an answer, "We policed the entire house, see if we could find anything. It turns out, there's an HRD on the ground of the study. The skin's white so it could be Crei or a copy of him. I grabbed one of his vibro-gloves but the Empire just showed up and cordoned off the area. Thought you ought to know."

[Old Man Russard]

The Empire.

Each person present in the study drew their own conclusions from this news, but the women didn't stay to discuss it. Both Adelaide and Estelle hurried from the study to the Bacta chamber in order to see Aurelias.

The old man looked at his son, and the two men exchanged troubled looks.

"Could just be the Imperials protecting a high-profile resident of the 500 Republica. That fight would have made alot of noise, attracted alot of attention" Jason the Younger suggested, himself not really convinced.

"Could be" the old man replied without enthusiasm, but there was the ICPD for things like that.

"Or maybe Crei got out a call...?" Another speculation from his son.

Both possiblities were logical, though for some reason, neither man could quite believe it.

"That Kazaar fellow is quite the hire you made, Jason" Russard the Elder remarked gruffly to his son, liking less and less the conclusions he was coming to.

Jason looked at his father, but held is tongue. Instead he turned to Lanners, "I'd like to see that glove"

[Aurelias Kazaar]

"I'll have it sent to you immediately, sir." Lanners answered quickly. "And I hate to say it, but I kind of had to 'hide' it on my body. Long as I don't get nicked, should be okay." The company man grinned at his own joke, "Mister Russard, sir. You made an interesting hire with this Kazaar fellow. Man had two vibroblades sticking out of his back and acted like they weren't there at all.

"I've never seen anything like that. The man is either certifiable insane or just dedicated. Oh, one other thing..." his voice lowered. "There was an Inquisitor named 'Morewind' here too. I know they're all over the place, but I found it interesting one showed up. Just seemed odd."

[Estelle Russard]

Kazaar cracked open his eyes slowly and, even then, the sunlight filtering softly in through the sheers hanging from the window hurt a little. It was mid-morning, probably about ten o'clock. The sun had some strength to it and its warmth felt good against his face. Balm to the body, one might say. Gradually his eyes adjusted and it was then he realised he was not alone in the room. Rolling his head on the generous pillow, Kazaar was not surprised to see Estelle sitting, leaning forward and watching him closely.

"Hi" she said with a gentle smile. That was his first warning sign.

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Kazaar gave 'The Kid' a look, then looked 'round forra cigar. 'Course there wasn't one, but it was worth lookin' for. "Doctor's order, Aurelias," Estelle stated from her seat. "No smoking for now. Here." She handed him a glass of water. "Take this. Sip it though."

Her bodyguard/partner gave a miniscule *snort*, but still followed instructions. After a couple drinks, he set th'glass on a small table nearby, then scratched his left eye. Damn he hurt. Hurt a lot. 'Course th'worst part was th'damn sickly sweet taste in his mouth. Frackin' bacta...does wonders on th'body, but sucks t'get in ya mouth.

His voice was much lower than normal. "Take it they're gone."

[Estelle Russard]

Estelle's eyes moistened and the words choked her throat as they came out, as much as she tried to speak normally.

"Adelaide took him home yesterday morning. Daddy went with her to help with the arrangements"

[Adelaide Kasperian-Kazaar]

Adelaide knew it would be today. She couldn't have told you how she knew, nothing had really changed - Bren still slept most of the time with fleeting moments of lucidity when he would speak in his child's voice, asking her for a song, or to tell him one of his favorite stories. But those times were all too brief and Bren often drifted back off to sleep after hearing only a few words. Adelaide thought Bren knew it was that day, too. Something in his beautiful eyes encouraged her to be brave. Giving her a little extra of himself, of his thoughts, each time he looked at her.

She had not been able to take Bren back to Brentaal as she had first planned. He had remained too weak to be put through such a journey, and with Kazaar incapacitated and unconscious in another room in the house, Adelaide had preferred to stay put. Jason Russard had sent some company men to Brentaal, to Adelaide's home and brought some of Bren's things from his room to help make him more settled and comfortable - his jet-fighter models, some pod-racer stat cards, his pet lizard and a framed photograph of Aurelias- the only one Adelaide had kept and one Bren had set atop his dresser-drawers. Bren had never really believed his mother when she told him his dad had been a hydro-spanner salesman. He thought his dad looked more like a soldier or a pod Racer, or even maybe a shock-boxer. He sure looked too tough to be a salesman. Adelaide had wanted to make Aurelias a boring and unexciting figure to Bren, a figure her son would not miss or wonder why he'd stayed somewhere else and not with them. It hadn't worked. Bren had been fascinated by Aurelias and kept that picture, looking at it often. Despite her efforts to the contrary, Bren had loved and missed the dad she'd kept him from knowing.

He closed his eyes for the last time on Thursday afternoon. Adelaide was curled up beside Bren in his bed, holding his precious frame tightly to her body, not willing to let him go, kissing his dark hair and stroking the smoothness of his cheek as she exausted herself with tears that would not stop. The Russard family could hear her as they collected outside in the hallway, but allowed her to grieve alone. Bren's passing was an event Adelaide had been expecting for a very long time and, though concerned, they did not wish to intrude.

It was the next morning before Del folded delicate hands beneath the covers for the last time and allowed herself to be led from the room to be cleaned up, allowing the Doctor to minister to her son.

It was almost incomprehensible, such loss. There was never going to be another Bren. Adelaide would never hear his laughter or his running feet in the front door again, never have him sitting up sleepy-headed in his bed after a bad dream, or hear him cheering at the top of his lungs when his favorite ball team won. These things would all now only be replays - images, emotions and sensations recorded in her memory and in her heart. Bren had left, gone to some other place. She knew it, but it still did not feel possible. How could he not be here anymore? How could he not be expected home from the neighbour's house at any minute? How was it possible? How would she ever survive this?

There was never a time Adelaide needed Aurelias to be with her than right now. Crei had won, and denied her even that last comfort.

[Estelle Russard]

"Im sorry, Aurelias" Estelle said again. It sounded so inadequate, and Estelle felt heart-sick for her partner.

Kazaar was not an insensitive man, she knew, though he did his best to give that impression. He felt things keenly and in his own tough and abrassive way, had one of the highest senses of honor and committment a man could have. Kazaar was a man you wanted in your corner. He vehemently protected those he considered 'his'. Estelle had experienced this first-hand and she knew how destroying it must be for him to know he'd slept through his own son's passing. He'd had no choice. That would be what killed the most. Just as the Doc had taken the choice out of Kazaar's hands by doping him into a healing senslessness, Adelaide, years ago, had taken the choice out of his having a relationship with his son. And now, Crei, by inflicting such horrible injuries on him, had taken the choice out of Kazaar having the time to correct even that in some small degree. Bren was gone, and for he and Kazaar, it was simply too late.

Estelle did not know what to say that could possibly bring any comfort to Aurelias.

She handed him a letter as she got up to leave, "Adelaide left this for you."

Estelle bent forward, kissing Kazaar long on the forehead, and then stepped from the room.

[Adelaide Kasperian-Kazaar]

Aurelias,

Our boy's gone. I thought I was prepared, but it's all much, much harder than I could have imagined. I'm taking him home - he always loved Brentaal, just like you.

Remember that song we had? The one I always liked and you'd joke saying you didn't believe in that romantic rubbish, then you'd smile and kiss me like it was our last breath? Remember how we felt we would do anything for each other, go anywhere for each other? That's how I felt with Bren. I know I have so much to say sorry for. I'm beginning to see how much I denied the both of you, by trying to keep Bren safe. I think, maybe, out of everyone - I have done him the most harm. I dont know. I cant think of that now. I made my choices and this is how it played. Come and see his place, when you're better. It will do us good to say some things face to face. Thankyou for all you did for us. Someday, please forgive me.


I've loved you always,

Adelaide.

ps) Hercules belongs to you now. He was Bren's favorite.



A song for Bren:
"To make you feel my love" Garth Brooks.

When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I would offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I've known it from the moment that we met
There's no doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue
There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on a rolling sea
And down the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
But you ain't seen nothin' like me yet

There ain't nothin' that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
Make you happy make your dreams come true
To make you feel my love

[Aurelias Kazaar]

It was one of th'few times he actually felt alone. Kazaar figured he was used t'it for th'most part; ever since Del left him, he'd always tried t'keep a distance between himself and other people. 'Course he'd sworn that when Ashley died and along came Del. And when she left some others (Spenny...'Trey' as best as his droid processor could...and of course 'The Kid') wouldn't allow him t'go down that path o'destruction. Easy as it be f'him to crawl into that haven of violence, tobacco, and alcohol...there were those out there who wouldn't let him. And t'be honest...this was one of those times he didn't want to. Nice as it'd be t'grab a bottle of something and let it do its job, the former bounty hunter wasn't interested in it. Not this time.

Kazaar read over th'piece of durasheet again, his mind taking in all his ex-ex-wife had hand-written out. Th'line she'd written, "I made my choices and this is how it played," stuck with him for its truth. They'd all made choices back then, both Del and Kazaar. Even though Crei decided t'needle his way into this mess, it was between th'two of them, not him. Which made Kazaar hate the Albino even more. Th'damndest part, he thought, as he did his best t'push himself off th'bed, was how it came back t'bite ya at times.

His black eyes, dulled by his time asleep, spied th'lizard in its glass-enclosure. What th'frack was he gonna do with that? Kazaar gave a small *snort* and looked for his clothing. He'd figure that out, after he got back from Brentaal. Might as well get th'chance t'actully be close to his son.

Even if it was a memorial.

[Jason Russard]

He watched Adelaide as she made the tea.

"I will keep a few men in town for a while, close at hand, should you need anything" Jason said.

"Thankyou" Adelaide poured them each some tea, and sat. "Kazaar should be here soon" she said, "its not necessary to leave anyone here for me"

Jason sipped the steaming brew, "Its good tea" he observed, then added, "No harm to have some friends close by. The men will stay in town for a while - I have other things for them to do here, anyway"

Adelaide looked out the kitchen window, and didn't bother to argue the matter. She was too tired to expend her energy for things that didn't really matter. "Looks like rain. A gloomy day for travelling" she said after a while.

Jason nodded. A gloomy day. He would return to Imperial Center, even as Aurelias was making his way to Brentaal. It was time he left. Adelaide needed comforting, and it was not his place.

"You wont forget your promise, Jason, will you?" Jason looked up to meet Adelaide's candid stare.

He'd hoped she'd given up that idea, hoped she'd let it go. What made her think she could get to the Albino when he had eluded Kazaar, who knew him and how he operated, best? But he'd made these arguments to her before, apparently to no avail.

"I wont forget" he said, assuring her against his own better judgement. "Anything you require. All you need do is ask."

All she need to was ask. She sipped her tea slowly.

Maybe she wont ever ask, Jason thought inwardly. Be darned difficult explaining things to Kazaar, and father, if she ever should. Well, he'd deal with that when it happened, and tipped his cup once again to his lips.

It really was good tea.