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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2178460" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 197: Never LostThe palace had gone crazy upon their return. Honestly, Akan couldn’t blame them. He knew little in general, but the idea of a Mrrakesh on the planet even worried him at this point, so he could at least imagine how they all felt. Immediately, the unconscious Mrrakesh had been taken to a holding room, with four guards in the room and another six outside. Considering how fast and strong the creature was, again, Akan wasn’t surprised.    They had just finished a long talk with the Empress. Or rather, Shadow had, and Akan had stood around as they spoke in Alraxian and tried to learn what he could through the link. But that wasn’t even working all that well. Shadow was blocking him out. It was easy to tell. So instead, he’d just stood there trying to look like he wasn’t as bored, or annoyed at being left out, as he really felt.    Now, walking down the corridors of the gigantic palace, Akan noticed something else. It was in Shadow’s walk. Stiff. Formal. Like...like she’d acted before. Before that whole incident on the facility when she’d been freed. Her face was that emotionless blank again, and it was, to say the least, annoying.    After stepping into their room, Shadow walked over and removed a few clothes from the wardrobe before stepping into the small washroom to change. Standing around, still comfortable in his clothes, Akan finally asked, “So what’s going on?”    “I will interrogate the Mrrakesh,” Shadow’s voice echoed back into the main room, flat and straight to the point.    “Somehow, I doubt he’s going to be cooperative,” Akan commented, idly tugging at the high collar of the jumper he wore. Why all the clothes had such high collars that itched so much he’d never understand...    “You are correct,” her voice echoed in a second time, “But I will not speak with him.”    Akan caught onto that one, at least, “Well, I guess the Force is one way to interrogate a prisoner.”    “It is the only way with a Mrrakesh,” Shadow said as she stepped out of the washroom, now wearing a formal looking, jet black and gold piped tunic, “He will not reveal his contact, otherwise.”    Akan nodded at that, noting that Shadow was putting a belt on that had the small dagger attached to it. He half grinned upon noticing that, but instead asked, “How could he possibly have a contact among the Alraxians? I mean, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know the intricacies of the system here, but that just seems...impossible.”    Shadow’s eyes locked with his, just as emotionless as before but a very unique, Shadow-esque stength behind the colour of them, “It should be. However, it is obviously possible, as there is no other way for him to have found this planet.”    “Could it be Ket?” he asked as she started to leave the room and Akan fell into step with her.    But Shadow shook her head, “No. No, Ket is still out near the border. He is not here on Alraxia, and the Mrrakesh was waiting for a contact here.”    “Ah...” Akan’s voice was mostly drowned out by the soft noise of the door closing behind him.    They walked in relative silence down the hallways, passing frantic Alraxians here and there. Through the Force, Akan could feel the panic. It was hard to keep his own mood calm, but with a little help from the Force, he was able to. Alright, so that was a lie he was telling himself. The real reason was that he was too busy being bugged by Shadow being back to her old self to even think about any of the important ramifications of what else was going on.    And then she stopped. It surprised him, and he nearly walked into her(which would have meant walked over her), as he knew the room wasn’t anywhere near from the lack of guards within the cream coloured hallway. Raising an eyebrow, he looked to Shadow, “What is it?”    Slowly, she turned to face him, looking up with the same calm nothing in her eyes. Slowly, Shadow said, “If you are not prepared for what is about to happen in that room, do not come in. It will not be pleasant for anyone, and could very well be dangerous.”    Akan bit his lip and nodded. But she didn’t start walking again. Why...? Ah, he could sense it. She knew he wanted to say something. Though Shadow was blocking him through the link, he wasn’t doing the same to her and she had fairly free access to his thoughts.    Upon realizing she’d silently asked ‘what is it?’, Akan shuffled his feet and finally spit it out, “What’s wrong with you, Shady?”    She blinked, and looked genuinely confused, “Nothing is...wrong.”    “Yes, there is!” he suddenly snapped, loud enough that at least one Alraxian down at the opposite end had stopped to watch. Lowering his voice and trying to calm himself, he said quietly, almost grinding the words out, “Listen...it took me long enough to get you to the point where you’d at least pretend to smile. I...I don’t think I can pull it off again and I...I just...” he trailed off pathetically, before finally mumbling in the general direction of the floor, “...I can’t lose you to that again...”    For the longest moment, there was nothing. She simply stood there, blankly watching him again. And then, in an instant, the ice melted and Shadow smiled again. Carefully, she reached up and rested a hand on his face, looking into his eyes, with the smile as bright in her eyes as it was on her face, and said softly, “You always look past what’s right in front of you and try to see the worst. You’ve never lost me, Akan,” she paused, and slowly the smile changed into a slightly more worried expression, “Its going to get nasty in there and I...I know I can handle it. But I...I don’t want you to have to see me like I’m going to be in there. I won’t stop you if you want to come in, but I...I don’t want you to.”    Another silence. A silence in which Akan became keenly aware that the one Alraxian who had been watching had become about five. Pushing that away, he managed to nod, “Alright. I understand. Just don’t do anything stupid.”    That got a grin on Shadow’s face as she turned to continue onward towards the interrogation room, “Come now, that’s why I’m the one mother asked to interrogate him and not you.”    Akan tried just rolling his eyes, but he couldn’t fight back laughing after only a few more steps.</blockquote>

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