Somnambulance [Retconned]

[Toaster]

Weeks had passed since Kreuzberg. Upon purchasing a new - or rather old and refurbished - ship from the Junkers, Olivia had quickly made her way south, out of Rheinland. After what had happened on the salvagers' station, she had not wanted to stick around New Berlin, and a run-in with overzealous law enforcers had convinced her that a prolonged stay in the freshly reunified house was not for her.

And so, Olivia found herself in a part of Sirius she had hoped she would never need to revisit. The Omegas. A region of space the mere thought of which brought up a whirlpool of unpleasant and long-repressed memories. But there had been nowhere else to go.

The mercenary still had contacts in the area. She knew that the former leader of the Colors, Blue, still lived in Omega-3, though he no longer roamed the local freeport's bars and had instead joined his former colleague and best friend, Red, resettling to Sprague. Olivia had considered reaching out to them, thinking that seeing a friendly, familiar face might help her get through her current troubles, but had thought better of it. She didn't want to risk hurting anyone, especially not people she knew well, if another murderous fit overcame her.

So, she had spent the past weeks in self-imposed isolation, either locked up in her cheap quarters on Freeport One, or sitting in the cockpit of her ship, traversing the system in solitude.

The Sichel, or Sickle, as Olivia called it, having given up trying to properly pronounce the craft's Rheinic name, lazily weaved through one of the systems numerous asteroid fields, its green engine glow illuminating the frozen rocks as they tumbled past. Olivia herself let the autopilot handle the mundane maneuvers, staring down instead at the communications panel to her left. She was considering reaching out to her family and friends in Liberty, as she had been doing for weeks. She wanted to let them know that she was still alive and well - relatively speaking. But she was afraid that there was no point.

She was still as clueless about her circumstances as she had been when she fled Liberty. More so, even, since what had happened on Kreuzberg. She was still searching for answers to questions she could barely formulate, still stumbling blindly in the dark.

The mercenary eyed her list of contacts. It was short, few people convincing her to share her details with them. She sighed.

They will forget you, an uninvited thought sprang into her mind. You should forget them.

Shut up, she thought to herself in response and shook her head, as if to clear it of the intruder. It had become a more and more frequent occurrence, negative thoughts haunting her, nagging at her, preying on her loneliness and frustration. At first, she had ignored them, hoping that they were just a manifestation of the stress she was enduring, but the disregard seemed to have only encouraged them. Now, it felt as though a part of her was actively acting against her, hiding in the back of her mind, cowering in the shadows of her thoughts, lashing out at her in moments of weakness.

Olivia clenched her hands into fists. She needed someone to talk to, she realized. If only to take her mind off of her solitude.

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Olivia Sable