Korvin parked Ruby down the street from the hangout, following his routine of not making himself too easy to follow whenever he was checking in at resistance HQ. He felt like he was getting better at sensing when he was being watched or followed, and tailing the athletic Pantoran was a trick even on a clear day, but he wasn't letting his guard down. He would do a double-back here, freerun a wall there, and then take one more pause to feel extra confident he was safe.

A short time later, he stepped into the hangout not unlike he had that first day that the call was out for recruits. Petra and the others -- anyone who knew him -- had been surprised when he showed up then. He was a much more known quantity now. No one gave him a second -- sometimes even a first -- look as he sought out Petra.

Inside the front of the store Mylar was hard at work shaping up the front of the establishment. What was some time ago just a run-down old ruin was starting to in some places just look like a place in disrepair. Other works were going down, but Mylar in the time following the events with the others has found it relaxing to fix this place up as best he can and spends most of his time here. Granting a perfunctory wave to Korvin as he passes through on his way to Petra before delving back into his work.

Once in the back-room he found Petra dressed as if she were ready to leave, a dirty tank top, vest, pants, light scarf about the neck, the usual. However, her hair was dyed to a brown temporarily, something it hadn't been the last time he saw her and as she had heard him approaching was already halfway to putting on a hat over that head of hair. Grabbing some coolish looking shades and putting those on after flicking them out with her wrist. "Hey," she says, patting herself down to make sure she had everything.

"Coming with?" she says, and then starts walking toward the back of the hide-out by the garage exit. Notably, where Mylar wouldn't see them leave. As it was a bit of a climb instead of a walk Korvin could be reasonably certain that was the main reason she was choosing that direction.

"Heeey," Korvin says, the word drawn out with hesitation. He stands still in the middle of the room. "What, uh, are you up to?" His eyes narrow a little, although he resists crossing his arms like he feels a reflex to do.

Stopping in her tracks when she looks back and sees Korvin standing there she glances back to where she was going and back. Looking back to him her brow furrows, "Just-" she purses her lips. Pushing her hands into her pockets she strides back over to Korvin. Looking down as she digs her shoe into the ground a little.

"Just.. trust me, alright? I need to do something, and- and I could really use the backup, okay? Nothing.. risky, well- not too risky. Not the bad kinda risky," she says, looking up to him. Looking him in the eye to give that sincerity, "Please?"

Korvin gives a long exhale. "You want me to agree to do something that calls for backup without you telling me what it is?" The Pantoran's voice is incredulous. He fights back a terrifying sensation that somehow he's one of the responsible ones here.

"How about you tell me what we're talking about, huh?" His attempt to make that idea sound positive probably hit Petra as well as it would have hit Korvin if the roles were reversed.

Petra rolls her eyes, arms coming up and crossing over her chest as she looks away. Tapping her foot on the ground with that impatience while she thinks, reconsiders. A few seconds, she looks back, "I- don't want you to talk me out of it. Or worse, harp on me about it. It'll take like twenty minutes, half an hour maybe? So, please? Just trust me. I just need someone there who I can trust to watch my back and.. keep an eye out, alright? So, yea, I'm askin' for that. Please."

Another long exhale comes from the Pantoran, and he half-consciously touches the blaster pistol at his hip.

"Whatever errand you need run, just let me do it, ok? Pick up a thing, deliver a message -- I can do it, and nobody has to worry. And I won't... critique it, ok? Just..." He stops himself from using a reference he doesn't want to.

"I'm just a friend that's gonna do you a favor, right?" That sounded more convincing, coming in that softer tone that Korvin the negotiator used.

"More like a friend who thinks helping me means putting me in a box and hoping the rest of the kriffin' world forgets about me," she snaps back, "Like everyone else," she sighs, but pauses. Regarding him for a moment, she glances away. Inhale, exhale, she settles herself. Signing she looks back to Korvin. "Okay, doing it this way. I'll be honest, if you don't come with me now I'll just sneak out later to do it by myself I just.. I could really use the support, alright? Right now I'm.." another breath, working herself through it, "I'm trusting you, okay? Otherwise I would have just gone myself before you showed up."

Korvin closes his eyes and groans. His hands plant on top of his head as he takes a deep breath.

"Are you sure..." He shakes his head even before finishing the thought. How do you negotiate with someone like this, he complained internally.

"What if this goes badly, huh?" He replies, frowning as he verbalizes his thoughts. "How would I tell Mylar? And Mara, and--" he closes his eyes and shakes a fist, catching himself just before he said her name out loud.

"I want," he says, teeth gritted but relaxing as he moves away from the topic he was avoiding. "For you to trust me. I have," he chuckles wryly, "nothing more important in my life right now than protecting you. So can we please stay on the same team here?"

Groaning she rolls her eyes, walking away from Korvin for a few steps. Stopping as she looks out in the opposite direction, another breath. On her heel she turns around, "That's what I'm asking for," she says, pointing to herself, with both hands. "All this kriff about protecting me? Does that sound like we're both on the same team or I'm some kinda goal you gotta protect? Cause- kriff, you're kinda starting to sound like Mylar and Mara who are a bit too worried about me going outside and not enough about how being stuck inside is killing me."

"I need someone who remembers I'm a person, and I can take care of myself," she says, crossing her arms again. Sighing she looks away, but then back to him, regarding him for the moment.

Stepping back toward him she extends a hand, "So? Partners?"

Korvin glares at the hand and exhales long and slow.

"If we're partners," he says, low and slow, "that means that when I say we gotta go, we're going. Alright? Because if you decide not to listen to me out there, assuming we live, this place is gonna start looking a lot more like a jail..." Korvin isn't trying to sound menacing, but his eyes say he's very serious.

"Only if you talk," she says with a brief smirk but immediately brings up her hands in mock-surrender. Smirk shifting into a smile she nods her head, "You say you see trouble, we're out," she says, and nods. Taking a couple steps away with the energy from it, a little excitement in the bounce.

"Okay," she turns around, looking to Korvin. "How about.. you walk out the front? Tell Mylar I was sleeping if he asks, and then just grab your bike?" she gives a nod toward the back exit. "I'll be waiting for you 'round back, hop on, and then tell you where we're goin'? Sounds good, yea?" she says, that passive smile resting.

The look on Korvin's face makes clear that this definitely doesn't sound good to him. But, not seeing any way around this, he nods.

"Give me a head start. Four minutes. I don't park Ruby too close, just in case. And I better not see you just standing in the open, like you're waiting for a damn taxi..." The last words are said over his shoulder as he's already heading out.

Walking with purpose past anyone along his path out of the hideout, he raises a hand in acknowledgment if someone speaks but stays focused on getting to Ruby as fast as possible. I should have told her to wait eight minutes, he realizes. No way Petra's actually waiting as long as I ask to make her escape.

Even with the anxiety of Petra's pending escape, Korvin doesn't beeline for Ruby. Determination all over his face, he refuses to get sloppy just on her account. He does shorten his route, only pause for one moment to sense for others nearby, and then reach Ruby twice as tired for going half as far as he usually would.

"I really wonder who you think I am," she groans, but nods and then makes her way toward the back while he heads toward the front. Mylar inside, giving a wave in passing, continues to work on his project and likely will for some time. Air outside is warm, just too-warm for comfort, but he gets back to Ruby eventually. Getting her going and off toward the side of the building he wouldn't see her there at first. A fence blocked off with a whole assortment of junk but one second, maybe two, and he can hear the rattling of metal as Petra clambers up over the top of the fence. Holding to the top to give her some extra distance toward the ground and then drops landing before falling back on her ass.

Laying back on the ground for a moment, realizing how dumb that looked. With a twist, onto the knees, and then up she walks to the speeder and climbs on behind Korvin with one hand on his shoulder as she does. Searching around for some type of helmet she throws that on, both hands going down on his shoulders. Leaning in she gives him the directions- and they're off.

Leading into the seedier parts of town they eventually make their way to an alleyway where she directs him to pull just inside to keep Ruby off the road.

Korvin was relieved that Petra follows some directions, and he politely stifled a laugh at her unintended version of a three point landing. Having her on the bike was unremarkable, though he started concentrating harder on sensing around him when they entered a rougher part of town. Parking in the alley distracted him momentarily, not because there was any challenge to it -- he even made a point of having Ruby facing back out of the alley in case they had to rush out -- but because a distant memory, of a different alley under very different circumstances, tugged at his heart. He slid off the bike with a ragged huff of breath, pushing old feelings away while he tried to center himself and prepare for danger.

Finally steady he takes a slow breath and mutters, "You couldn't have just wanted to go shopping, huh?" His hands unconsciously tap his holsters, the one hitting his chest reminding him he didn't put on the half-vest today. Just don't get shot he hears in his mind. Just don't get shot. He hears two other words, with a similar message, but with an angry exhale he pushes past them.

Stepping away from the bike first, she looks around a bit before Korvin's question comes. When it does she looks over her shoulder and turns with the motion, her brow furrowing, hands to her hips, and a glare in the eyes. "Yea, Korvin. Let's go hush hush past Mylar to the mall and try on some cute clothes so when the Empire finds me I at least look good," she says, her tone dead-pan. A groan she gives a nod back over her shoulder and a wave, "Come on, this way," she says, and begins to lead him down the alley. Leading him toward a rather unsuspecting door with a black mark on the wall beside it, over a trashcan.

"Just let me handle the talking, alright? I've.." she looks back over her shoulder, "already kinda left a few times to set this up. Just.." she shakes her head, puts her hand on the door. "Okay, going in?" she says, but more just means to ask if he's ready.

Her reaction to his snide comment earns an eye roll and shake of his head. This, he thinks instantly, this is why I don't visit you more often...

At mention that she's snuck out before, he groans quietly. He'd expected it, given how specific and out of the way this was. Plus, it'd been a long time since--no, don't say it. Korvin shakes his head with a huff.

They'd been trying to keep her cooped up more than long enough for a fire spirit like Petra to have escaped many times. Maybe it was a small victory that she even kept coming back.

At her final question, Korvin makes sure his jacket is unzipped and the flap on his hip holster is tucked away. He hates that he can't sense any clearer what they're walking into, but he's sure going to have as quick of access to his weapons as possible.

Hand on the door, she looks to Korvin for something like five, maybe ten seconds before she inhales deeply. With the exhale she pushes in through the door to some backdoor-shop here in the middle city. Behind the counter is a Twi'lek with an eyepatch and clearly some many years to his name sitting behind a caged counter. All around the front there's a host of unloaded armaments on display as well as a few other illegal toys of the very same nature. Petra walks in, hands thrust into her pockets and leans up on the counter. The man behind the counter eyeing the both of them suspiciously as she meanders around one counter and then goes directly to hom.

Hands out onto the edge of the counter she leans in, "Petra," she gives her name. A flash of recognition in the Twi'leks one eye he glances over to Korvin and sneers a little. Back to Petra, he nods, and then digs down beneath the counter. A blaster pistol is placed down on the counter pushed forward, and then pulled back as Petra's focus is on the blaster and not the protocol. Tilting his head at her he taps the counter exactly once. Sheepishly, she nods, and then digs into her back pocket for a fair many credits she sets down and pushes across to him. With a nod, he pushes the blaster across and then raises his hand, shooing her off.

Taking the weapon into both of her hands she looks at it like the thing has the weight of the world. Almost forgetting herself she's brought back by a cough from the Twi'lek. Startled, she looks back up and nods. Turning to find Korvin wherever he took up position and rushing back toward him- grabbing his hand and pulling him along outside. There wasn't a sense of asking if she could or should before she just did it and they would be right back outside in the alleyway, but now Petra was.. different, in a sense.

Korvin had kept his cool -- silent, glaring like a typical teen boy in a place he doesn't want to be -- through the whole episode in the "store." Petra grabbing his hand was actually a pleasant surprise -- maybe they were closer to friends than he thought. Once they were safely out, with the shop door closed all the way, his thoughts started coming out.

"This isn't good, Petra," the Pantoran says, his voice edged with worry and a bit of anger. He stops himself saying more there, though, as his head swivels around, wary of danger until they're on Ruby and cruising away. Instead of heading straight back to the hideout, Korvin takes her to Garden Park to talk. It's public, but he hopes the heat will keep everyone away. Still sensing all the time, and feeling a little fatigue from it, he purposefully leads her to the shaded spot where he'd talked with Lassa once. Sitting in the grass, he gives her a stern but tired look.

With what he did say, Petra only grimaces. Looking away, thinking of other things, but she followed. Getting onto Ruby there was a latent tension in the moment. By the time they get to the garden she'd of course had the blaster stowed away among her things, at a hip. When he sits, looks at her, she doesn't and just crosses her arms with the way he's looking at her.

"What?" she says, the annoyance in her tone not one that she tended to conceal.