Chaos Theory

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

There was no time to question this turn of events now. It would only lead to delays and put them both at risk. Besides, her master would be more aware of what this meant. She was Tek's hand, not his head. What mattered was gaining hos favour, working out the game.

Then she could play herself.

She moved slowly. Her weight was almost always on her back foot, front one coming down toe to heel before she shifted forwards. It was an odd, broken gait but she kept going. Until she heard something that didn't care about the noise it made. Masassi.

She turned into a side room. She slipped in and pressed herself against the wall. Out of the corner of her eye she caught the mass of deep scarlet passing by.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

Vrak was a little less subtle.

He knew that Lord Gelder kept most of his most valued possessions in a single place; his study. Why the man was so foolish Vrak didn't actually understand. Perhaps it was confidence, perhaps it was hubris, he didn't really know nor care. What mattered was that it was easily taken advantage of. The Pureblood stepped through the estate, his fingers slowly latching around the lightsaber on his hip. A form wandered towards him, shaped about the same size as him but half a blur in infrared.

The Pureblood turned the corner, the guard coming face to face with him.

The man opened his mouth to say something, but the half a second he had wasn't long enough. Vrak struck first, grasping the human and pulling him into him, turning him and taking his throat. A muted snap rang out as Vrak dispatched the man, letting his body fall to the floor.

"Sorry." Just who he was apologizing to was difficult to tell.

Vrak stepped over the corpse and continued down the hall, clearly no longer caring about the aspect of 'stealth'.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

Numbers floated by as she counted down an appropriate time. The massassi had a long gait, but had been in no particular rush. Satisfied she slipped back out of the room, taking the time to turn her ears down both directions.

The next corridor was well lit. No point hiding in the folds of her cloaks. She pulled back the hood and shook her hair back. The wayward mass had escaped the ties already. Now at least she had better peripheral vision.

Gelder's chambers were obvious. A solid wood door that seemed out of place in the bare stone corridors. Two guards. One a nervous, fidgiting human, the other a hulking massassi. She could handle massassi, Tek had her train with his own when there was time. But by the time she passed those two with brute force the alarm would be up. His window would be alarmed too, but that she could deal with as long as there was time. Time she would not have as soon as Vrak's handiwork was found.

Neesa took the unoccupied room two down and eased herself out onto the ledge. Her cloaks were once again pulled tight as she blended her form into the wall to ease towards the targets chambers.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

He left the guards body behind, not thinking of it anymore.

There were other things that he now had to consider. He was sure that Neesa would accomplish her task, and with any luck no one would look any further than a random assassination. People would surely notice that the deeds to Lord Gelders mines were gone, but that hardly mattered considering he didn't intend on keeping them himself.

There were a few loyal servants that they would be entrusted to, and through them Vrak would 'own' the property that Lord Gelder had managed to acquire. It was a game of politics, as these things so often were. It was something that Vrak didn't like very much, he would have preferred to simply fight the other Pureblood, but such things were...unwieldy within their society. Better to use subterfuge and a blade in the back than anything else.

"There you are." He said quietly to himself as he approached the door to the study.

A small smile painted on his lips.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

The window was well protected. Even with the Force - and several devices to deal with the electronic wide side of things - it took several minutes to work through the locks. Gelder was visible in the next room so she had to work silently.

Just as she slid the window open the door to the chambers was thrown open. The hulking massassi with a compact repeater stepped inside. Neesa froze. She was barely off his line of sight.

"My Lord! Nikrant, he's dead in the halls!"

She heard Gelder walking on from his study. If she stayed here she'd be in full sight, if she moved the Massassi would likely turn. Her hand moved just a fraction as she formed a plan.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

The Study was unsecured, typical. Lord Gelder likely believed that his possessions were untouchable behind all the guards surrounding the estate. It was foolish really, but not wholly unexpected. Though Purebloods played at games of politics and murder few ever dared venture into another families home. This was mostly because being caught here was instant death.

No matter the excuse, no matter the purpose.

If you entered someone else's home here on Athiss then you had to be prepared to die. There was no excuse that you could make, no Council intervention could save you. It was a death sentence as surely as if you walked up and set off a bomb in the middle of a public place. There was one exception of course, but it was an ancient and old law that had not been enacted in centuries. Vrak didn't intend to use it here...but soon he knew he would have to.

He smiled and stepped into the study.

"Like a common criminal." Vrak spat in disgust with himself.

There was no choice however, and thus he quickly began to rifle through papers in the room.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

It was a simple application of the Force, but not an easy one for Neesa. A crack echoed down the hallway and reached the room. The massassi immediately turned back out of the door.

"Stay here," it grunted.

The moment those yellow eyes turned away Neesa dropped one foot to the floor. In three graceful steps she accelerated across the floor and intercepted Lord Gelder as he emerged. He saw a glint of a slender blade.

He stumbled away, in shock. One hand came up to his face and touched it, coming away with just a droplet of blood. Such a shallow cut to the side of his cheek. Neesa saw the wheels turning. He got as far as turning to face the door and opening his mouth when the lights simply went out.

She caught his robes and slowed his fall, then rearranged his body on the floor. Not that it mattered. If the other one had killed a guard assassination would be clear. Feth, if only she'd had time it could have been made into an accident. Clearly that wasn't on her master's agenda. Maybe this was a statement of intent.

She slipped out of the window and closed it gently, putting the locks all back into place before she climbed down. The other one had changed the plans. He could find his own way back to the meeting spot.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

Vrak found what he was looking for. It was a small booklet, bound in terentatek leather and sealed with nothing but a small piece of string. The Sith slowly shook his head in disbelief, this was foolishness of a sort that he could hardly stand. "Overconfident fool."

It was a sad fact that most Sith on Athiss were exactly like Lord Gelder.

By now the man would likely be dead. Neesa did her job well, he had been assured of such, and as he tucked the little book into his robes he could already hear the sound of boots outside. They had found the body in the hallway. He smiled slightly and resealed his mask onto his face, shifting for half a second and closing the door that he had come through. The Sith turned and headed towards a window at the other end of the room. He fiddled with the lock for a moment and popped open the latch.

"Fool." He repeated the word as he slowly slipped out the window. "Now you've paid the price for it."

He practically reeked of smugness as he dropped down onto the ground below.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

Once more she was pressed to the ground at the lip of the cliff edge. Up here there was now a chill wind and her cloaks were pulled tight as much to keep it off her slender form as it was to keep her pale skin hidden. Now it was done she allowed herself to feel. As a child she hadn't been given the luxury of hiding from her fears. When she was afraid, that emotion turned her veins to ice, brought an unparalleled level of clarity. But there was always a cost.

The compound was a hive of activity now. Additional massassi had arrived and taken up positions along the walls. In the distance she heard the sound of an aircraft approaching. Her hands shook even in the warmth of her gloves. Her heart hammered away inside her chest. Nothing to do but to ride out the wave until everything settled back down once more.

She would have to leave soon. Her senses were on high alert, eyes scanning for the other infiltrator. The plan had been to meet back at the balcony, but then the plan had also not included splitting up. Neesa hadn't been about to remain inside those walls once the alarm was up.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

"I see you didn't wait on the balcony." Vrak said with a slight smile as he approached behind Neesa.

In truth he hadn't expected her to wait there, if only because of what he'd done, but it did ruin his plan somewhat. Framing her for the crimes, killing both Lord Gelder and stealing the documents would have been the icing on a beautiful cake, but apparently it was not to be. She was better, or perhaps just more intelligence than he had given her credit for. There was something to be said about that.

"I suppose I can't fault you." The robotic voice said through the mask. "Since I didn't stick tot he plan either."

Yet he had what he was after.

Lord Gelder was dead and now Vrak owned his mines.

Things would now go faster. Gelder would no longer stand in his way, and once he managed to gain control over the manufacturing sector he would be able to begin construction on his ships.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

Again that sense that the game was much larger than she could see from her perspective. Had he returned to the balcony even when the guards had been alerted to their presence? That seemed unlikely. The balcony was almost visible from up here. He could have been watching? Or had someone else watching it. His helmet could easily have concealed a comm link. From within her hood she appraised him carefully. She took in his height, his body shape. The way he walked, stood and spoke.

Peace is a lie.
There is only passion.
Through passion I gain strength.
Through strength I gain power.
Through power I gain victory.
Through victory my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.​

The mantra held particular value for Neesa. She had been nothing, the lowest of the low. It was strength and power that had elevated her from that place. Soaring over the rooftops of Levien Magnus she had been free. Perhaps she needed to start gaining influence on her own. The Sith were proud people and strictly hierarchical. She had a sense that they might underestimate the amount of information that could slip through the lower echelons of their society. Lord Sitas wouldn't need to know about it. And there was always the chance that he tired of her service and she would need eyes and ears of her own.

"You alerted the guards," she said. No accusation, no annoyance. Just a statement.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

He smiled again, this time slowly reaching up to remove the mask that covered his face. "I did."

It was a simple answer.

There was no need to wear it now, not really anyway. None of the guards would look out here for infiltrators, and he very much doubted that Neesa would inform her Lord about exactly what had transpired. The Old Master would simply assume that it had been Vrak's doing, which of course it had been. Both of them had their goals achieved, though Vrak had gotten a little bit more out of the deal than Neesa's Master. The Pureblood smiled down at the Nagai.

"It was necessary." He wouldn't explain why.

Perhaps Neesa would figure that out on her own.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

This time that determined glare faltered. Her eyes flicked to the side and back. Confusion. She covered it quickly enough.

"The only person who saw me - briefly - was Gelder," she replied. Try and she might there was no fully covering the street accent she still had. At least her pronunciation was acceptable now. Sitas' swordsman had declared upon their first meeting that unless she spoke correctly he would pretend she could not speak at all. For a long time she had been unable to phrase her questions in a manner he would answer. That had led to a great deal of painful welts when her understanding of what she was being taught had come up short.

At least now she wasn't forced to climb his back wall and enter a window to learn. Back then he had left either one of his servants or some musty old tomes for her to study. In truth at first she had come for the warm room and comfortable bedding as much as she had for the lessons. Until she realised what it was that the Force could bring her.

The whine of an airspeeder grew. It passed overhead and descended towards the mansion. "Time to go," she murmured, keeping one eye on Vrak. "Is there anything my master needs to know?"

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

"No." He said simply.

Again, he expected her to figure it all out for herself.

"The mission was accomplished was it not?" He asked her. "Gelder is dead."

That was what they had wanted, her Master and Vrak both. Anything else? Well that was just a byproduct. This would always have seemed like an assassination. No Pureblood just suddenly died, the guards being alerted...well that just ensured that a fuss would be made, something that Vrak needed to happen if his plan would be continued properly. He smiled at the little Assassin, slowly turning away from her to head back down the ridge.

"Worry not. You've done as you were told." There would be no punishment for her.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

"But of course."

She stayed where she was for a while, watching him go. When he was out of sight she stretched out her senses, feeling out for any other dangers. Then she picked a careful and indirect route back to Lord Sitas' abode.