A/N: This is just a little odd ball story that I did to back up a roleplay character named Miina. Enjoy!

Bar Room Brawls and Table Top Confessions

Miina sat at the table with both arms folded on top of it and her chin resting on them. She stared vacantly at the pistol lying on the table before her. Music was playing. Very bad music. But she couldn't hear it. All she could hear was the sound of guns firing and children screaming. A small boy was running before her, his feet hitting the ground with a steady pat pat pat. Then he was falling, his body hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

Miina, run!

The lighting fixture above her flickered in its old age. A steady hum was coming from it. She wasn't seeing it. She was seeing flashes from gun muzzles in the dark night. There was an orange flash and another body fell in a spurt of blood.

Run faster.

A figure walked into the tavern, wearing a heavy cloak as a shield against the raging storm outside. But Miina only saw a woman bursting out of the wreckage of a building, hair blowing wildly in the violent desert wind. She was a ball of fierce energy as she wielded a Sateden blaster in one hand and a Genii pistol in the other. Her lips were curled back in a manic grin as she let loose a wild war cry into the dark night. Uniformed men rushed forward, guns a-blazing. The first wave was cut down by a combination of red energy and dark bullets.

Remember me Miina! Remember and live!

Miina blinked back tears and took a shuddering breath. An older man came up and sat down in front of her, baring two mugs, one of them steaming. He pushed the steaming one towards her.

"You should let me get you something stronger." He muttered. She glared up at him.

"Don't drink your rot gut Xear." She mumbled for the umpteenth time. "Not even today." She took a deep swallow from the mug, enjoying the heat of it as it slid down her throat.

"It dulls the pain." He insisted.

"It dulls the mind." She insisted right back.

He snorted a laugh. "You are the only reason I keep that herbal stuff around anymore." Xear motioned to her mug. A small, tentative smile tugged at her lips.

"Yeah well, you like me." She mumbled into her mug as she took another drink.

I like you Miina, you're smart. Tough…

"Wanna tell me what's banging around in that brain pan o' yours?" Xear asked quietly. She stiffly shook her head. The older man shrugged.

"You'll be needin to get that off yer chest some day." He warned.

"And I'll know who to come to now won't I." Miina smiled at the man. He nodded at the Genii pistol on the table.

"You lose the blaster?" He asked.

"It was stolen." She admitted sadly.

"Well, at least you have her pistol."

A comfortable silence stretched out between the two old friends. She dived deeper into herself, knowing that Xear was used to her introspective tendencies. The man wasn't all that old but his hair was gray and thinning and he hadn't cared about person appearance for several years now. He was the owner of this tavern and a kind man, giving Miina shelter when she was either too injured to look after herself or she was too broke to pay for an apartment. Once he had even spent the time to search for her on another planet after she had had a particularly nasty encounter with a territorial gang.

She almost felt she owed him a peek into her past due to the trouble he had gone through to keep her alive all those times. She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.

"She was…"Miina had to stop and blink away more tears. But now she had Xears attention. "We had just found a large group of young children from part of the city that had just been destroyed. Most of them had pockets full of useless trinkets that they had stolen, hoping to sell the junk for some food."

We need to help whoever we can Miina. You never know when you might need help yourself.

"The Guard found us one and decided that our group was a nuisance to the population. They didn't even give us any warning, just started shooting. Those who were old enough to fire a gun fought back but it was…there were too many."

Don't look back! Just run!

"Freeda…" Miina closed her eyes, feeling the tears that had welled up spill down her cheeks. "Freeda gave some of us a chance to run." She had to stop. Miina opened her eyes to see Xear's kind face in front of her.

"I knew her. She was a good woman." He said softly. "That was a long time ago."

She nodded dumbly.

"Miina, you come here on the same day every year, sit at one of my tables, and bore a hole into the wall by staring at it."

"And?" She snapped. His eyes were smiling, the technique to which she never quite figured out.

"And…you're always welcome here." He seemed to want to say more but he was smart enough to leave things as they were. "To Freeda." He said, lifting his mug. She lifted her own.

"To Freeda." She mumbled. Xear pushed himself up with a comical groan.

"Thanks Xear." She said as he walked past her. He gently ruffled her hair then moved off to take care of other costumers. She watched him go with a sort of warmth seeping into her soul. It was only tainted by the memories that were still fresh in her mind. Fresh, bloody, screaming, terrorizing memories. It wasn't the first time she had wanted to break her no drinking rule. And she imagined it wouldn't be the last.

A man walked up to the bar, his long dark coat swishing back and forth with his exaggerated swagger. There was something…off about this man. He looked around the room with a fidgeting stare. His cold dark eyes reached her own solid cerulean eyes. She didn't blink, holding his gaze with a quiet composure that hinted at a fiery spirit beneath the calm. The man's eyes narrowed and he slowly walked over to her.

"You're part alien?" He said it as more of a statement. Miina could see where this was going and she averted her gaze, saying nothing. The man put one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the table in front of her then leaned in low so that his face was inches from hers. "What are you doing here half breed?" He hissed into her ear. Miina could feel her blood start to boil. But she kept her hands firmly planted on the table, not wanting to cause trouble down the line for Xear.

"This ain't a 'humans only' joint." She growled, still averting her eyes.

"Look at me, freak." The man ordered. "Let me see those pretty eyes. Those alien eyes." He drew out the word alien like it was a foreign concept. People around the tavern were starting to glance their way. The music had stopped. Miina's hands twitched.

"Get out." Xears voice cut across the room, silencing all other conversations. The man craned his neck to look at the tavern owner.

"Shut up, freak lover. Only thing worse than an alien is a half breed. There ain't nothing worse than a half breed." The man's voice was condescending…preachy. "And the only good half breed is a dead one." He turned back to Miina and grabbed the gun that was on the table, leveling it at her head. Her eyes finally flicked up to fix him with a cold glare. Her jaw muscles were quivering from her clenching her teeth together.

"Hey!" Xear shouted. "I said, get out!" The man whipped the gun around and fired. Xear dropped down with a pained groan. Miina sprang forward.

She yanked the chair up and smashed it across the mans face in a spurt of blood, the crack of bone clearly heard by those now surrounding them. She darted forward and grabbed him painfully by the throat and hulled him upright with one arm. Her lips were curled back in a snarl and she was breathing hard from the pent up emotions that now burst forth. Miina pulled out a knife and pressed it lightly to his chest, right over his heart. The man was babbling now, pleading for his life. She could barely hear him over the roar of blood in her ears.

"Miina!" A pained shout finally broke into her thought process and she turned her head sideways. Xear was holding himself upright by planting a hand on the bar. Blood seeped out of a wound in his arm. "Let him go Miina." He commanded in a strong voice. "Let him go."

"You don't always have to fight my young friend." Freeda sat cross-legged on the ground and handed Miina an ornate curved blade. "But you can always run. Sometimes it's best not to fight. Sometimes you have to run."

"Miina…" Xears voice now betrayed the pain he was in. "Don't kill him."

Miina realized she was shaking. She regarded the man in front of her. His face was pale and he was mumbling nonsense. She slowly tucked the knife back in its sheath and then relaxed her grip on his throat. Blue eyes slowly rolled over to gaze at Xear.

"I'm sorry." She muttered.

Then she bolted from the tavern. Her feet pounded against the ground.

She ran.

Fin.

Comments and reviews are always welcome