A crash.
An electronic screech.
The music stopped.
Down the short hallway, previously muted by the loud music- the sounds of a struggle.
*****
Del was smiling. Head bopping back and forth. Long dark curls were pulled up and out of the way as she danced through the apartment, seeing to this detail and that.
It was a good idea, going away for a bit. Ever since finding the ship, sunken beneath the waves, they had been sticking close to home. The small apartment on Velusia was a small oasis, away from the rest of the galaxy. But there was no keeping the galaxy out, not truly. They'd spent several months laying low, discussing, planning, but never really making any headway in the plans to get out from under the hanging thread of Sonny and Nuna. As time had gone on, and everything had remained quiet, well. Life was good, they were good. As week after week, then month after month passed with no sign of their goons, it started to lose some of its teeth. They were safe on Velusia, almost no one knew they were there, and it was easy to let some of the pressure of that slowly slip away and become complacent in that comfort. But it had meant they were tethered to this place. It had been good at first, hell, it was still good. Walk had a way of making even the day to day dreariness something enjoyable. Neither of them, however, were much prone to pack it all in and simply settle into a quiet life, defined by who was picking up the groceries on the way home and who was putting dinner together. They'd fallen into routines, habits, and while that was by no means a bad thing, better to shake it up now, before it started to chafe.
"Found the belt you were looking for!" Del called out loudly over the music, not sure if he could hear her.
She was on her hands and knees, peering under the couch. With a small grunt, she went down lower, reaching under it, her head tilted. Feeling around, she finally brushed across it with her fingertips, getting just the barest grip on it to pull it out-
She didn't hear the door open behind her. It had been locked, and they had been safe for so long. It is impossible to keep that level of vigilance that they had at the beginning and stay sane. The pair of strangers slipped in, closed the door, and key in hand, locked it again behind them. The volume of the music was perfect. They couldn't have planned it better. These are not random thugs- these were killers. They hated each other, on the most basic of levels- the Trandoshan and the Wookiee. In other circumstances they never would have worked together. But when Sonny and Nuna had agreed to pool their resources to find these two, well. It was enough.
It was the way their foot falls- too heavy- vibrated the hand hewn floor boards that alerted her. If they had sent smaller sentients, things might have gone differently. Instead they opted to rely on muscle, brute strength. On brutality.
The other mistake Sonny and Nuna made was the order to bring them in alive. There was too much pride wrapped up in the prolonged hunt, how they had managed to slip through their fingers again and again. No, they wanted these two to suffer, and to watch the other suffer.
If they had come with a blaster to the back of the head, Delilah would have been dead on the living room floor before Walker Ducarte even knew anything was wrong.
Up against the couch, just grabbing the belt from beneath it, Del's eyes widened just a fraction. Hand curling instinctively around the leather, she rolled the opposite direction just before a heavily booted foot slammed into the couch right where her head had been. She didn't think, just acted, using the belt to whip the Trandoshan in the face- the metal buckle connected, slicing across his cheek and bringing a snarl. She didn't have time for anything else- the air knocked out of her as he dropped a knee into her stomach and a large hand wrapped around her throat. With a jerk of his head, blood dripped on the pale wood of the floor, and the Wookiee nodded, starting to search the apartment for Walk. It was a small apartment. It wouldn't take long.
Wasn't any good to shout. He never would have heard her anyway. Besides, she was too busy fighting for consciousness as the much larger being started to squeeze. She struggled, but he bore down harder with his knee. He wasn't trying to kill her, but she'd pass out long before she died. It wasn't a contest. Del was strong but not like this. One hand still gripping the belt, her other inched across the floor, toward the table. He was too focused on the fact that she was gasping for breath she couldn't take- didn't think there was anything there that would change anything-
Her fingers closed around the leg of the side table and she yanked.
Crash.
In a heartbeat the music player fell to the floor- with darkness eating at the corner of her vision she couldn't have hefted the table with enough force to hit him with, but the player? Hand curled around it and she slammed it into the side of his head.
Sparks flew, the Trandoshan flinched, and the unit
screeched.
It was all she needed. A second time smashing it into the side of his head loosened his grip and killed the played.
The music stopped.
Without hesitation, she took his momentary unbalance and moved. Using the belt to wrap around his knee and yank to off of her, rolling away only to slam into the couch. It hurt to breath, her throat was on fire, but there was no time. Flicking the belt back to her by the end, she launched herself onto his back even as he started to stand, and with one smooth motion cinched the belt around his throat.
That was when it got loud.
[member="Walker Ducarte"]
