Dominoes: One to the Chin

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Silver Station: They'll leave the lights on for you--way too bright. Though, it was probably the condition of her eyes and not the output from the lighting cells. It had been only two weeks since her surgery, and while vision was slightly improving each day, her eyes were still in the early stages of recovery from such a heavy operation. They were so sensitive right now.

A couple of more-or-less anonymous Rebel escorts with standard-issue SXB-1's trailed behind their blindfolded leader as she progressed through the deep space outpost, scouting out the premises to make sure there would be no intrusive vagrants--or assorted varieties of outlaws--floating around. A couple smuggler vessels were docked on the far side, but as long as they stayed there, they were fine. This should be a quick exchange by business standards.

Lasedri still had an uneasy feeling about this whole deal. She had hated the idea from Day One, but she thought she had enough checks in place to prevent anything bad from happening. Besides, her man Mitczik would probably sound the alarm if he noticed anything off. To her knowledge, there had been no such alarms.

'Seeing' everything was clear ahead of herself through the Force, the Benefactor motioned for her soldiers to stay behind. Better they not know what had happened over the course of this month.

Shortly after, she arrived in the central atrium of the old space station--possibly the location of several mission briefings from a Rebellion long past. But if there was anything to be sentimental about, Geneviève felt none of it. This was her cause; no one else's. Hopefully that illusionist crazy had kept in line. Now that she thought about it, it was perhaps for the best that she could not use her physical eyes, lest she be fooled by any of the woman's optical tricks.

"You there?" she murmured, allowing the acoustics of the room to carry her voice for her.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

"Indeed." The voice of Circe Savan rang out down the hallway, but as it reached Gen, it seemed to echo from all around. Soon, the image of the Sith lady herself would appear in front of the Rebel Alliance leader, smoke swirling around her lower half. "I am a genie... You have rubbed the magic spot, and now I must grant you three wishes." The dramaticism then ended as she smirked. "You're a lot more than meets the eye, I must say."

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Oh, that was cute. Geneviève knew there was no physical entity before her, her current reliance on Force sight making that as plain as daylight. Illusions would not work on her. However, it was quite impossible to tell where the real Circe was. Normally, one might be able to follow their ears, but the bouncing sound in the large room made that impossible.

Instincts screaming that this might be a trap, Lasedri gripped the pistol in her coat pocket tightly as she turned about in circles, hoping to catch some outline of a body. A horrible pun about her eye was spoken. "That's a funny one," Gen responded sarcastically. "Come up with that joke on your own?"

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

No bodily outlines were visible as of yet, the illusory image of Circe smiling. "Don't worry, I'm here. I merely wanted to check up with you on something first..." She smiled. "See, while I was busy making sure that your medical procedure didn't once impair anything relating to your business's current track of work, I found some interesting things on your drives. Things I'm pretty sure you don't want most people to know..."

She was wondering whether or not spilling the beans was the best option right now, or not - she decided to wait.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Every tendon; every sinew in Geneviève's body tautened as the realization of what the woman was implying hit her. But could it be possible? She had taken all the precautions; had all the checks and security elements in place to keep prying eyes out of her most crucially private documents. She was bluffing, right? Either way, the only option Gen had was to feign ignorance. "There's a lot I don't want people to know. Insider trading is rampant these days."

Lasedri grit her teeth and continued to do her best at detecting another entity. She strained her mind, scouring the nearby hallways with the Force that she was only beginning to understand. Where? Where?! Her breath became heavy, and she nearly ripped off her blindfold just to make sure she had not overlooked anything and Circe was standing right next to her. But she knew she had not made a mistake--except the bonehead decision to allow this woman any access to her company whatsoever. How often had the alarms resounded inside her head, and she had fatefully silenced them?

"You think I'm an infant? You'll find you know less than you think." That was the best Gen had. She prayed.

This could be very bad.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

"Oh, do you really mean that, Gen? I know about your clandestine allegiances to 'subversive organizations.' I know where your personal money comes from. I know that you don't hate Sith as much as you say you do. And I know that you have a, to say the least, radical political ideology. That likely explains why you support such insurgent groups." The illusion smiled, motioning for the woman to travel deeper.

"On another note, is that eye of yours healed?"

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Geneviève balled her fists in anger as a torrent of information was unloaded on her--information on her own life. How could this be possible?! She had taken all the precautions, short of completely erasing such documentation. The truth was, while it damaged little beyond her pride, Gen knew war had just been declared on her. This Circe had her privacy in a chokehold, and the only way to guarantee that it would not stay their little secret was to silence the other woman permanently.

Seething, Lasedri responded viciously to the eye comment as she rushed out of the atrium and back to where she had left her two escorts. "Cheeky." Indeed, her eye was making decent progress, but that was beside the point in this case. "Yeah, I'm just wearing a blindfold for fun."

To her men: "There's someone in the area. I don't care what the heck they look like, set for stun and shoot them a hundred times if you have to." She directed the soldiers to head off in one direction down the encircling hallway and went the opposite direction, her right hand now removed from her coat's pocket and clutching the heavy blaster pistol menacingly. I'm coming for you, banshee.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

"Now Gen... Is such really necessary?" The spectral form of Circe materialized next to Genevieve, a smile on her face. "I have no intention of releasing any information regarding yourself anytime soon. Don't worry about that. But I would still very much like to conduct further business with Echo Esprit. It'll definitely keep my mind off doing such for the forseesable future, after all."

Truth indeed... Though whether she would want more from Gen was questionable.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

"Well, frak. I don't know what could possibly be wrong with this picture if you're not going to face me," she spat, still pushing down the hallways with murderous intent, feeling far and frantically throughout the station as best as she could, trying to find a hint of a sign of a ghost of a person who happened to be blackmailing her.

"What the heck do you want with my company?" This was not open for debate as far as Geneviève was concerned, but the reasoning had never truly made sense from the beginning. This woman was no doubt sitting on piles of credits with Subach-Innes and who-knows-what else she controlled. Why ECHO Esprit? Illusions, illusions... She likes those illusions. There had to be something she was missing.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

"Follow me and my spectre here, and I'll gladly talk with you in person." The ghostly form slowly began to hover away, a smile on its face as it moved a finger, motioning with it to get her to come closer. "See... you're someone after my own heart. You enjoy chaos and the damage it can cause to people who you dislike. I happen to like the same thing, and as such want to bring you on as a... a partner of sorts. For that, I needed your assistance."

She paused for a moment. "Tell me... aside from possessing this data, have I done anything to cause you or your company a negative effect? I ordered your eye healed, and your company is currently looking into business with RRDI - something one of your underlings found encouraging."

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

So she wanted to keep the magical fairy thing up. Adorable. "You're wrong," she scoffed at the woman's explanation. "I'm not after anyone's heart. And, so you know, I'm no one's plaything." She could not truthfully deny, however, the conclusion Circe had arrive upon. Gen did enjoy damaging; judging those she disliked--like the Subach-Innes owner herself.

ECHO Esprit's owner pressed onwards, following the banshee's little apparition but maintaining a ready aim with her pistol. RRDI? Why are we talking about them now? Who had encouraged such a decision? "When I find you, you have five seconds to tell me what your point is," she threatened, trenchcoat flapping violently in her wake.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

"When did I call you a plaything?" She raised an eyebrow. "You must be hearing things." Ironic, of course, considering that she was currently speaking through the illusory form that the Echo Esprit CEO followed through the station. "Up here, and to the right. I'll be waiting for you." And with that, the image disappeared. It was up to Gen to see if she would go into the room and speak with Circe herself.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Lasedri did not bother explaining the 'plaything' comment. Now was not the time for civility with her. Not that Gen was particularly civil on a usual basis. "Coming," she muttered, breezing up to the corner of the corridor.

There, she paused, pressing her back to the wall with her gun ready as ever. She had had enough traps for the month. She was not going to just walk around the corner into the next hallway without checking the area. Her Force sensing brought nothing to light, but just in case, she slipped her blindfold above her left eye just enough to peek around the bend. Satisfied that no one appeared to be dead ahead, Geneviève dashed down the right corridor for its length until arriving at a doorway. She noted to try to conjure up a map of Silver Station sometime in the near future.

Her final thoughts before stepping into the room were: If she shows up dressed like me again, she's going to burn in the sun.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

And so Circe stood there in the room, looking completely normal. While the White Current would obscure her Force presence, she was physically there, her voice thrown to sound as though it resonated from all around. Currently, she was standing near the light switch. "Well... Come and get me. I am right here, after all... Now, I want to work with you and do more business with you. Are you going to really toss such aside?"

Her plans were all properly situated - when the blindfolded woman chose to use her real eyes again, which would easily spot Circe in the dark considering how they had adjusted, she had a surprise planned.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

She was not there. Gen cursed profusely as she arrived inside the designated room, unable to detect anyone. "Frakkin' banshee, damn you!" How could she fall for her trick this time? Of course Circe would have scrammed, likely gone to sell whatever information she could to the organization that had issued a bounty for information on her company. And if this woman was not bluffing, she might even have enough dirt on her to cash in on the personal bounty placed on the head of the elusive Alliance leader. She knew what she looked like, and had made it quite apparent that she had the ability to impersonate Lasedri.

But there was something off in her sensing that caused Gen to pause. It was not that something stuck out in her 'vision', but it was more like something was not there. A spot devoid of all contact with the Force. Gen pointed her gun in that direction and ripped off her blindfold to be sure.

She was there.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

And so was the light. The moment that Gen moved to raise her blindfold, the light in the room was turned on to full brightness for a split second before the switch was turned off by the Sith lady once again. She lept to the side and sent a wave of force energy flying roughly towards where Gen had been standing.

The word "roughly" was used because Circe's own eyes had somewhat adjusted to the darkness as well. Hence why she was blinded too. Whether this floored Gen or not, all that mattered was who managed to recover first.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Gen had been prepared. But, apparently, not prepared enough. The light strobed and stabbed at her impaired eyes, killing her optical sensory for a few seconds. She pulled the trigger, dead on target for where Circe was--or had been. The banshee was quick.

So was Gen when she was hurtling through the air. The raven-haired woman was propelled backwards by a blast of energy, all too familiar from the time she had faced down the Sith Lord aboard a slaving vessel. Her back made full contact with the wall, stunning her for a moment, though her concealed armor piece was able to lessen the impact marginally. Slumped against the wall, Geneviève fired random blasts from her gun as she attempted to recover, hoping to at least ward off her adversary. It had been an impetuous, imprudent choice, sending her soldiers off in the opposite direction.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

Dodging to the side in order to avoid the blaster bolts, Circe stumbled back to her feet before leaping at Gen, trying to knock the blaster out of her hand. "You don't want to do this, Gen... I can do so much to assist you and your company... as well as your own personal plans. All you have to do is work with me. It's that simple."

She paused, watching Gen's finger. If she so much as tried to pull the trigger, Circe would have to get a bit rougher.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Gen wasted no breath in conversation. The woman had crashed into her, knocking her firing arm aside and reaching for the gun. Lasedri dropped the pistol and did her best to kick it far away, electing instead to grasp for Circe's wrist and attempt to twist it inward and cause enough pain to bring Miss Subach into submission. She knew she stood no chance from a distance, having only acquired the more subtle, mental tricks of the Force and nothing telekinetic--an area of the Force that seemed to be well-known by her adversary.

Who did she think she was fooling? Yes, Gen did want this--not whatever her deal was. Lasedri's identity was the stakes. "I've heard enough crap from you," she finally hissed.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

The twist elicited a cry of pain from Circe - it was likely that once this was said and done, she would need to get that bactaed. The Sith Lady's response was to force herself forward, bringing her boot towards an area likely not covered by a cup or protective plate. Regardless of whether or not that elicited any sort of reaction, she forced her head forward, intending to see whose head was harder - if it was hers, maybe she could get Gen on the ground and give herself the upper hand.