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As you can see by the dates of these posts, I started writing this over a year ago and never did anything with it. I might start writing this again. This story takes place around the years that the Knights of the Old Republic II game took place. The character this centers around is Auri... a generally good woman who made some bad decisions.

I've been out of writing for a bit of time so I'm looking for opinions on old things that I am planning on getting back into to see where I should update it for when I begin again.
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There were fifteen ways she could kill the man staring her down with insect-like charcoal eyes. Five of which would have been easy. The other ten would resort to luck and relying on the lack of speed of the other folks in the Senate party sitting around her. Each one looking either slow or stupid, most of them trying to intimidate her with their titles, fancy clothing, and other influences in the Republic.

Of course, she knew she wouldn't kill the man, or any of them for that matter. They had friends who could make her trade occupation very difficult to keep with if she outright harmed them. Not that she would, she really had no reason to. She just liked finding flaws in the pretentious. Especially this half whit body guard that her sister seemed to have hired. His only job here was to try to make Auri feel like she had to comply to whatever her sister was about to demand or Auri would be crushed to a pulp of yuri fruit.

The slate eyes of Auri Whitewolf fell back onto the eyes of her sister. The color Alena's eyes were as black as the web of deceit, lies, and cold heartedness Alena carried for anything tha did not fall into her world of morality. It wasn't that Auri hated her sister: she just didn't care for her either way. Alena did nothing for her. The first thing her sister did when she was able was to flee Nar Shaddaa and it's corruptness... leaving her younger sister behind to fend for herself in a world of criminals and gangsters.

Not giving away an ounce of her personal feelings, Auri stared at her sister with a face the Corellian poker king could be proud of. Everybody could think she was playing their game, but really, Auri was playing her own game. Her given emotions were hers to hold. Being humanoid already made Auri look weak to many of the species around her. Being female added to that weakness. So she would play the games how she needed to play them and would give away no cards at the table.

Captain of the ship, Redstar, Auri was known as a trader to most around these parts. To those who really knew her, she was a smuggler, paid enforcer, and a few other levels of either criminal behavior or vigilante-ism depending on who's perspective was talking. To Alena, Auri knew she was nothing but a dirty criminal from Nar Shaddaa who was known to work for Vogga the Hutt. Alena never had to say it, Auri could sense the disdain coming off of her sister's aura, something her brother taught her years ago to do.

"Are we going to sit here in silence or would you like to have a conversation with me?" Alena eventually asked. Auri had enough patience to wait her sister out. She could tell that Alena would speak first when the beads of sweat started to form around the head-dress Alena wore that looked like Burellian quail landed on her head. Some kind of fear of her sister, or maybe worry, eminated from the posture her sister carried.

Slouching back in her seat and dragging a finger around the table, Auri pointed at Alena, "You came to see me, Alena. I'd just as happily live a lifetime without talking to you."

A waitress brought two drinks over to their table and sat them in front of the silent women. One of them had the slight odor of stardust. Most of the people here probably couldn't pick it up, but Auri had been trained since she was sixteen to pick up this kind of thing. You couldn't make a living in this place being stupid. Stardust didn't kill: just made you see stars enough to drag your stupid drunk rump wherever your enemy needed you to go. Auri would be lying if she said she never used it on somebody.

Her first objective was to not look alarmed and lean up to sniff which glass it was. Truthfully, she wasn't alarmed. This wasn't the first time somebody tried to drug her, and Auri was pretty sure it wasn't going to be the last. Not moving her gaze from her sister, she said to the waitress, "Can you please bring back drinks not laced with stardust, and please don't act like you are surprised. From the wad of money in your pocket, I'm sure you were paid nicely for it."

The woman said nothing and took the drinks away. Alena looked truely shocked at what happened and fougth for some words. She turned around to her insect like bodyguard, and yelled, "What do I pay you people for? I could have drank that and been killed!"

"You wouldn't have been killed, Alena," Auri was growing bored.

"This is just great, I come here to have a conversation with my sister and somebody is trying to plot against me. Great, makes me look real credible," Alena huffed like the child she often was. A child wearing big girl robes. The child queens from Naboo had more maturity than Alena could ever hope for. Okay, so many Auri was a little biased. Alena probably wasn't that bad, but if anything, it was quite clear that Alena was putting on airs to hide something.

"Let's cut to the chase here, Auri. You're my little sister. You're the only family I have left, and I care about you and where you're heading. Life is no good for you here on Nar Shaddaa, and I should have done something about it sooner," Alena's voice turned soft and her face appeared almost sincere, but Auri already could see the falseness. It radiated off her sister. Seriously, Alena, can we cut your fodder. If I were any other person, I'd call you out right now, but no, I will wait.

"And what is it you would like to do for me, Alena? Do you plan on bringing our dead parents back to life or how about our dead brother?" Auri goaded Alena just slightly to start pushing buttons.

Alena feined saddness, "Auri, why do you always say such harsh things? I only want to bring you to Coruscant with me, help you get onto your feet, and get out of this lifestyle here. You're smart, Auri. I know that. You have a lot of skills that could be useful to the Republic."

...more to follow along with editting

"Let's all settle down here," Alena became diplomatic. Auri could then see why Alena held the position that she did and why her sister believed she could win a seat on the Senate. The woman had the voice to turn any conversation into calm and draw all eyes to her with her tone. All of which, came from their father. Adjusting her headdress, Alena then straightened her robes and sat down.

The Whitewolf family was a working class family on Nar Shaddaa. Was being the key phrase. Nar Shaddaa was one of the more crime infested places in the galaxy; however, it had to have it’s working class or those who were greedy and profitable had nobody to lean on to make those profits. Martin, the patriarch, worked on the freight docks. He was a cleancut man, as clean as one could be on Nar Shaddaa. He wanted to teach his children that even though they lived in a place of immoral people, they didn’t have to be immoral. Emmery, his wife of 25 years when they passed, was a waitress at the Meltdown Café, a known bounty hunter despot.

The Whitewolf children became far ends of the spectrum from each other. Alena was the oldest. She wanted everybody to know her name. It wasn’t necessarily to do good: Alena felt power in being greater than others. At least, that’s how Auri often saw it because she spent much of their child hood walking in the tall shadow of her sister. Graceful, delicate, but strong jawed, Alena had the charisma needed to take her far. Her eyes were the endless black of their father, and her hair, which was rarely seen under her traditional attire, matched in hue.

Three years after Alena was born, Rowan came along. He was the only boy of the Whitewolf family, and the one who, surprisingly, was taken in by the Jedi Order. At a young age Rowan showed outward signs of having Force control. Alena was visibly jealous of the ability and often shunned Rowan away from her or used him to her own gains. Auri often watched the dove skinned princess use Rowan to win petty child gambling games. Rowan seemed to will what it is he wanted… or what his sister wanted. Now, Auri knows that Rowan was just using the Force to manipulate dice rolls. She often admired Rowan. When he became old enough to know better and form his own ideals, he stood his ground to Alena and found the higher road for things. Rowan was a Jedi through and through. He was strong, principled, and everything that Martin Whitewolf wanted his children to be. And Rowan Whitewolf was everything Auri looked up to and admired.

Auri was born two years after Rowan. Doted on as an ‘angel,’ Auri had curls of black hair, glistening emerald eyes of her mother, and flawless olive skin. Her demeanor was quiet, Auri was always listening and watching people. Mostly, she felt if she stayed out of the way, Alena would leave her alone. Auri, too, became a tool for Alena to use when needed. Often times, Auri felt the stings of older sibling jealousy. Even looking back on it now, at twenty-six, she recognized her happiest times were when Rowan came back to visit from the Jedi Academy. He was her hero. He, still, is Auri’s greatest loss.

“Auri, you live the life here that our father and brother would have never wanted for you. I am giving you a chance to start over, to build yourself a life that is moral and just,” Alena waved her hands around her like they could see the vagrants and criminals outside the walls of the restaurant, “You are not like these people. I remember you being a girl who dreamt of the stars and dreamt of brighter and better things. Let me give you that chance.”

That almost got to Auri, and she knew it. Alena knew how to play with words, and they stung at Auri whether she wanted them to or not. There was one flaw in her logic, and Auri used it to push the sting away. Her tone became harsh and rough, “Rowan would not have judged the life I am living so don’t act like you know what he would have wanted of me. Despite what you think, Alena, this is what I choose to do, and I actually enjoy it. You could have stepped in ten years ago, but you decided to flee Nar Shaddaa and leave me behind. I had to fend for myself, and this is the life I learned. Don’t throw at me your holier than thou dogma. You only need me clean to serve your purposes. Don’t deny it. If you cared truly about me, you would have been here for me after they died. You would have taken me out of this place. But no, you were too busy padding your own pockets, too busy trying to build your name and your glory in the Senate. So tell me, Alena, what is it that I am in the way of?”

Alena’s face turned cold, jaw hardened, and her eyes narrowed, “You stand between me and a seat on the Senate if I choose to run… and I will. My brother, the Jedi, is a hero. My sister, the rumored smuggler and suspected murderer, isn’t exactly a gold star on my character. They are going to run you through the ringer and me for being related to you.”

Auri could see Alena lose her composure but quickly regain it. Her sister definitely was a skilled politician. She also was a skilled older sister and didn’t let Auri rebut anything. Continuing on, she said, “I am giving you a chance, Auri, to start again. You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t like a life where you aren’t looking over your shoulder.”

“Now why would a straight freight captain like me have to look over her shoulder?” Auri said sarcastically knowing that Alena had no real proof of Auri’s activities, “I mean, I’ve never been arrested or accused of these things you speak of. So how could a sister who makes a hard earned living carrying small cargo and passengers around the sector be such a blemish on you?”

Alena started to look infuriated at her sister. The vein in her temples started to visibly pulse, and her eyes narrowed. Huffing, she turned to her guard, “All of you, leave us for a few minutes.”

When they hesitated, Alena put out a quick and terse, “NOW.”

Auri slouched back and relished in how she was getting under Alena’s skin. Alena leaned over the table and pointed at Auri, “Now you listen to me for once Auri. I don’t need proof to know you were involved in the murder of Boden Flek. Who else would have enough venom for the man to kill him? In his thirty years of reign, nobody dared step on his toes. Even Vogga the Hutt couldn’t touch him… the one enemy Vogga couldn’t rid himself of.”

Auri held her inner smirk to herself and kept her same casual stance. This time she danced her fingers around a napkin that was on the table, “Boden Flek had a long list of enemies. Any one of them could have done it. When push come to shove, if you’ve been cheated for nearly 30 years like some of them… you grow a bit tired. Boden Flek was filth, and nobody but his mother misses him. Rumor has it that she’d sell his soul to the devil for a bottle of Correlian rum anyway.”

“It doesn’t matter who he was, murder is murder,” Alena said firmly.

“And some people deserve it, Alena,” Auri made firm on that, pointing her finger into the table, “When you live in a place like this long enough, sister, you see a whole line of people that make it a better place by being dead. When I see a slum lord raping his tenants of any credits they have to live in filth because they have nowhere else to go… because the Republic has done nothing to help them after the Sith tore apart their planets, I don’t feel bad when that slum lord is found dead in the street. When the law can’t protect people…”

Auri trailed off realizing she let herself get caught up in her political views. That was one topic she learned over ten years never to be vocal about: politics. She played her cards close, made sure to align only with those she believed in; however, she made no voice about it. Of course, the right price for a job she didn’t agree with was still the right price. A smuggler with morals had no room in the business, and Auri wasn’t about to start being the first.

“So, it seems you care about something, sister,” Alena seemed smug in finding a weakness in Auri: the Jedi Wars. Something tied Auri to feeling bad for the displaced civilians during the war. Maybe, just maybe, that can be used later. Auri recognized her sister picked this up and knew it could be dangerous for her. It was uncharacteristic for Auri to give even that much.

Standing up, Auri put her hand on the table and knocked on it signifying she was done with the conversation, “I’ll tell you what, Alena. You just pretend I’m dead. I’ll deny being your sister and you deny I’m yours. Hell, if you want, I’ll change my name just to help you out. I don’t want anything to do with you, your Senate, or anything. But you will not change me. This is my life, and if you had ever cared about anything but yourself, you would have stepped into my life ten years ago.”

Before Alena could say anything in return, Auri walked out of the restaurant as the waitress was bringing their trays of food. Auri grabbed one of the smoked ribs off the tray that she had ordered and walked out gnawing on the meat. In the background, she heard the waitress protesting and Alena saying something highly unkind to her in return.

Chewing on the meat, she thought about how it tasted better than anything she had in quite sometime. Her jobs hadn’t been highly paying lately and her meals only came from the Orange Lady, which wasn’t known for its cuisine. The lone occupant of the lift taking her to the hangar on the upper levels, she stared at the reflective surface around her.

Somewhere behind the rough exterior was that little girl who looked up to her big brother and wanted to be just like him. That was a dream of a little girl. To be a hero, to be a Jedi. Goddamnit, I cannot let Alena get under my skin like this. I am living the life I want to live, one under my laws, my rules. Green eyes peered out under heavy black eyelashes and glanced back and forth at the reflection. Her hair no longer had the curls of youth: it was sleek, straight and lined her face with over-grown bangs and random layers that had been cut, burned, and whatever else her job caused to happen.

Pushing her hair out of her eyes, she moved her hand delicately down to her belt and pulled her hair band off of it. She fixed the golden bank on her forehead where it pushed her hair out of her way. There was nothing worse than a skilled marksman not being able to see her mark. Her figure looked slight even at her tall stature. Most underestimated her strength until it was too late.

Throwing the remaining bone on the ground, she wiped the grease on her black pants.