"Crimson Reign #2: The Assassins" by Charles Soule

"Crimson Reign #2: The Assassins" written by Charles Soule, illustrated by Steven Cummings, Victor Olazaba, and Guru-eFX

This issue was SO good!! Again, there's a lot of narrative and explanation but I found it all incredibly fascinating and insightful, giving us a better picture into who Ochi and Deathstick really are as people. Both Ochi's targets AND Deathstick's target were hugely surprising to me!! And where everything goes from here...I can't even fathom!

We start with Ochi and Deathstick each individually getting their targets as assassins from Qi'ra. Ochi is tasked with killing all of Palpatine's Royal Guards and Deathstick is tasked with retrieving Cadeliah!!! Both of these had my jaw on the freaking floor. 

Ochi heads to Coruscant (see below) with an ASN-909 droid (recall the very similar ASN-121 that was used to deliver the Kouhuns to Padme's apartment in Attack of the Clones). He stops off on Level 2685 to buy poisons that can be as precisely timed as possible. Then we see an image through the eyes of the ASN droid of a bunch of human males in uniform sitting around an oblong table. The cover hinted at the fact that these might actually be Royal Guards, but I wasn't sure until they were in their locker room of sorts, putting on their red robes (see below!). So crazy funny to watch these men in a locker room style space. It makes them not near as spooky or mysterious. Ochi appears to succeed with his mission, but does one guard manage to unknowingly get away from the danger??

Deathstick heads to Panisia, home of the hidden Rebel outpost where Cadeliah is currently being taken care of (see below). As she's searching through her binoculars to find Cadeliah, she says, in a moment of uncharacteristic humor, "Could be worse, I guess. She could be Anzellan." Haha!! Think Babu Frik and how tiny he is! Then she does something that left me in utter shock, she calls the location of the outpost in to the Imperial Anti-Terrorism Watchline. *gasp!* Needless to say, despite Vader's saying to Valance in the "Darth Vader" comic series that he would protect the secret of the Rebel outpost's location as long as Valance did what he asked, the rest of the Empire doesn't know this...and so they show up...yikes! Thank goodness Deathstick brings in Cadeliah alive!! (See below.) *phew* But it wasn't incredibly clear whether the original intent was to assassinate her outright or not, or if the original intent was to simply bring her in as a captive. Either way, Qi'ra seems to have nefarious plans ahead for the young heir to the Unbroken Clan and Mourning Wail Syndicates (see the "Bounty Hunters" comic series). 

I also wanted to share Qi'ra's descriptions of the three types of people who kill because dang does she lay her ideas out well (see images below). 1) People who kill from a place of faith: "Some people kill in the service of a greater power--your soldiers, your idealists, your fanatics." 2) People who kill because it brings them hope: "Some people do it because they believe their life will be somehow improved by the death of another. Most who kill for money fit here, as do the avengers, revengers, and power-seekers." 3) People who kill for the joy of it: "And finally...there are those who simply...like it."

She then goes into detail about the unique situations of Ochi and Deathstick, respectively. "Ochi kills because he is afraid. Everything he kills is something that can no longer kill him. He's seen monsters, terrifying things, and knows there is no safe place for him. [...] So when I gave him a way to pass along some of the fear he feels...for once let the monster know what it felt like to be afraid, well...he couldn't say no." "Deathstick's entire lineage was wiped out during the Clone Wars, she and her mother were two of the few who escaped. Almost since birth, she has carried the weight of that knowledge...that she was once part of something larger than herself...and it was taken away. Deathstick kills because she feels completely, utterly alone--and on some level, she wants other people to feel that way too. [...] Emperor Palpatine was behind the death of her people. He gave the order. And the promise: If she helped me, she would watch him fall. She'll do anything I ask her to." I love these insights into two characters that I already find super intriguing. It fleshes them out even more!

Side note: Deathstick is a freaking Nightsister, y'all!! I don't remember if this was revealed before in the comics or not. Perhaps I just didn't remember the revelation. But I feel like I would have because when I saw the picture of Nightsisters being killed by General Grievous in conjunction with a story about Deathstick's past (see below), I nearly fell out of my chair. I combed through Wookieepedia and did find that Deathstick's original appearance was in my favorite MMORPG of all time, "Star Wars: Uprising"!!! I used to play the game religiously and after seeing this bit of information, I DO remember Deathstick being part of the game!! Too cool. Additionally, Wookieepedia indicated that most of the Nightsister information came from "Star Wars: Uprising" so perhaps I didn't forget the comics revealing that information...??

The next issue of this short-run series will be about The Archivist, the spooky as heck person who's actually telling the overarching story. It'll be really interesting to see how her job for Crimson Dawn of building up allies including remaining Jedi and the Rebels works out... I'll leave you with an image of Ochi being Ochi in response to Deathstick being Deathstick--I freaking love it!!!: