"Daisy'll be back next month, make sure they all get paid." She retrieves a piece of paper from a compartment in the front of the speeder.

"...good system."

He wonders briefly if she gets lonely. Mostly, this is overpowered by the desire to see her scare some more hapless townspeople. He thinks he may be a bad person.

She looks the paper over, tucks it into a pocket, and heads for the general store.

Following!

It appears to be deserted; she heads for the grocery section. "Go find yourself a change of clothes; change, and bring me the tags."

...Oh. Right. He's still covered in blood. He kind of forgot about that.

"Yeah, that's a good plan."

He runs off to find it. When he comes back he's wearing something very similar to the dark grey tank and black pants he was in before, but without all the biomatter.

(He also has a thin silvery bangle around one wrist. He liked it and thought it fell mostly into the "clothes" category.)

She doesn't comment on it, and pockets the tags without looking at them. "How's your ship doing for provisions?" (She has several bags of dry goods sitting in a pile at the edge of the grocery section.)

"It's still pretty good. I stocked up on the last planet.

...there's a lot more instant noodles on there than there should be, though."

She nods, then winces as, on the far side of the store, a baby starts crying.

--!!

He turns that way immediately.

"...did someone not get out?"

Worse question: did they leave their kid?

"-they're hiding," she says, very quietly, "safer than trying to get away, running draws attention."

And then she straightens up again, redoubles the aura of doom, and heads for the back of the store.

He winces, shrinks back for a second when the aura gets stronger. His mind is buzzing with a fear that doesn't make sense and his whole body is starting to rebel against the idea of following her forward.

He does it anyway.

There's a knot of maybe twenty people huddled together in the corner; the baby and her parents are in the middle of the cluster.

"Give her to me," Pradnakt orders, but she doesn't wait for a response before lifting the child into the air - this time, she uses her hand to show that she's using her telekinesis - and drawing her to herself.

She takes a moment to settle the infant in the crook of her arm before striding off toward the baby section without a backward glance. (The baby's mother bursts into tears.)

--oh, what.

He's frozen in place for a second, and then he runs after her.

"What? What the hell?"

At least he's whispering.

"She was going to kill her," she whispers, running her free hand through her hair. "So I wouldn't get annoyed enough to kill all of them."

"...she was going to what?"

He doesn't bother whispering.

"It would be the right choice, with any other Sith." She finds a pacifier and pops it in the baby's mouth, letting her aura fade back to its original level as the noise stops. "Even me, not that many years ago."

He doesn't respond yet. He's just staring into the middle distance, clearly struggling with something.

                                                                      --she doesn't deserve--

       --to kill your own child, who would--

                                            --this isn't right, this isn't fair--

"Kai-" she sighs.

"...please tell me what to do."

    --take the child--

           --give the woman a chance--

                        --she should just die--

"I'm planning on giving her back," she whispers. "Once we're done. I'm not going to judge someone for the choices they make in an impossible situation. So just finish our shopping and we can go."

"...okay."

He lets the energy go. It drifts and dissipates.

He'll follow her for the rest of their time in the store, watching what she takes.

She checks the office supply section for Daisy's ink; there isn't any gold, but she picks up a jar of metallic red instead. Quick passes through the electronics and book sections don't turn up anything interesting; she pauses to re-settle the baby before adding a jug of fertilizer and some seeds from the gardening department to her pile, and then grabs a crimson sweater in her size that she spotted nearby.

"Is there anything else you'll need in the next month?"

"...I think I've got everything on my ship."

Wait. Wait.

He's almost out of toothpaste.

He walks off and comes back with some to put down carefully in the pile.

"All right. Wait here."

She heads off for the baby section again, returning with a bassinet; she settles the infant into it and floats it carefully down to sit in the middle of the floor near the entrance, where it won't be missed. Then she floats their things into the air and out to the speeder.