Hand of Sorrow

[Lina Ovmar]

With the republic at war, it was easy enough to assume that the Head of the Finance Comittee would be on Anaxes. War's were expensive and his skill would be needed there, but that was the last place Mia wanted to see him. Let alone drop this on him. Standing across the street from the Senate building she fought against waves of nausea, fought against the part of her that wanted to flee.

What would have been worse? To leave, have word of her return come back to him without her ever being there to show him herself? Or to simply roll up and say 'hey, by the way i'm not dead'. She covered her face for a moment, uttering a stream of curses in a variety of languages before taking a deep breath and crossing the street. She'd practiced this a hundred times, told herself over and over that it would work, yet as she approached she became acutely aware that she was in spacer gear, rather than dressed smart like the other officials, moving to and fro.

She approached the security desk inside and handed over her data. "I'm a representative form Miri Farms," she told the guard behind the desk as he checked her papers. "We've tried booking an appointment with the Head of Finance but-"

"I can't let you in without an appointment."

Mia tried not to scowl. She failed miserably. "It's an urgent matter-"

"If it was urgent you'd have an appointment."

"I would appreciate it, if you would tell him I'm here, then take me up to see him."

A touch of force persuasion, not exactly what she had planned. The guard blinked. "I'll tell him you're here, then I'll take you up."

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

He met her at the top of the elevator, eyes flat and dead.

"I have no interest in the future of Miri Farms. Do what you will with her company, it's none of my affair, but you dishonor her by risking the exposure of my arrangements with her."

He gave her a once-over, and she'd see nothing sexual in his intent or his reaction. "I keep telling your people. I'm not in business anymore."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Mia found her voice caught in her throat as she stepped out of the elevator leaving the security guard to return back down. She fought against every instinct to close the gap between them, to kiss him, to feel him. She swallowed eyes dropping to the floor for a moment as she fought to contain her emotion. "I..." she looked down the corridor they were standing on unable too meet his gaze, unable to deal with the lifelessness in his eyes.

She took a breath and forced herself to meet his gaze. "I'm not here to discuss Miri Farms. I'm here on a more personal matter." She sounded so calm in comparison to what she felt. Her mouth was dry, her heart was in her throat and her hands were trembling. You are my everything. "Is there somewhere more private we can go?"

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

Rel's jaw knotted. "In here," he said, voice tight, and led her through a heavy, automated blast door. His office was Coruscanti chic, like most of the senators who'd relocated to Anaxes. Also like most, he kept various pieces of art from his homeworld. One in particular, a flatsculp of a white-clad Echani woman fighting blade-to-blade with a Mandalorian, dominated the room, at least the part that they would be able to see from where they would sit. He took a seat behind his desk.

"If she left a message for me, you people have certainly taken your time in delivering it."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Mia let out a short laugh, and put her hand over her mouth as she sank into the chair opposite him. There were tears in her eyes suddenly and she shook her head. "Come on Galeth," she said softly, using his real name without thinking, without realizing

"You know her better than that. If she ever though that far ahead..." she blinked back her tears and swallowed her emotion "...she would never have gotten into half the trouble she got into."

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

Exactly two living people had known that name, and one of them represented Eshan in the senate. His gut said blackmail, the first of the possibilities that cascaded through his head in the ensuing fractions of a second. Data points: Knowledge. Tears. Intimate knowledge of Mia. Control of Miri Farms. A friend she'd never mentioned, perhaps -- or maybe she'd become what she'd feared most.

Velok.

That opened up all kinds of disquieting potential right there. He thought of the doped Equivox in his desk, but on the off chance this was...more than a friend, imposing that kind of restriction might be a choice to make after long consideration of all the facts. "Stop beat-"

He bit his tongue. She expected him to put her purpose together.

"Tell me who you are."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

For a long moment, Mia looked at him.

"You know who I am. More than anyone else in the galaxy knows who I am."

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

Rel Connory -- born Galeth Hennst -- tapped the intercom. "Clear my schedule."

He wore a beskar ring on his right hand, on the little finger. It rapped arrhythmically against the desk; he withdrew his hands to grip the edge of the desk. Too late to stop her from seeing his hands shake.

"That's a big claim. I'm not what she was; I don't know her ways to know for sure. Memory can be transferred, copied. If you're her-"

He rose and swept the desk clean in one motion, an invitation and a challenge.

"Prove it."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Mia blinked, for a moment she didn't move, her mind appeared to be having trouble interpreting the invitation.

A smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

She was a blur of motion up an over the desk in an instance, sending the last few items skittering off the desk, coming off on his side so fast she collided with him sending them back a few steps as she found his lips with a fierce kiss.

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

Any copied memory, any drained knowledge, could have told this woman that he and Mia had been lovers, in secret. Such techniques could also have told her how to act and react, how to pretend to be Mia Monroe even in a moment like this. But there was a reason to know had its place as the classic euphemism. He escalated deliberately, precisely, sensitively, in ways that had led Mia to specific responses in the past -- the kind of emotion you could read in a body, far different from technique, maybe things she hadn't even known she'd done. Things that not even Drain Knowledge could copy.

The panoramic window fogged, obscuring Anaxes' winter sky.

"It's you," he said when he came up for air, and that was the best he could manage.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"Yes," she said breathless, fingers caressing his cheek for a moment "Its me."

She smiled, though there was a touch of sadness behind her smile. "I'm sorry I took so long to find you again."

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Mia Monroe"]

"You don't need to-" He thought of adjusting his posture and clothing, but ultimately opted to save such things for a moment when he had more energy. "You don't need to apologize for anything, Mia. Not a thing, not to me." Where she'd gotten the body was her business.

He made it to the window after a minute, cracked the latch, and allowed cold, dry air to fill the office. "I went pretty far while you were gone. Used things I had no business using to target people I had no business targeting. I made enemies." When he turned back to her, he knew his eyes were hard. "None that I regret making, though. There was blood for your sake, let's put it that way. My cover took some strain."

An elbow or a knee had left scuff-marks on the desk; rubbing it clean, he began picking up the things he'd scattered some time before. "So you have a new voice and face. What are you going to do now?"

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Mia nodded, quiet for a moment. She'd expected blood for her sake, she'd expected new enemies. "Nothing we haven't dealt with before." she said, moving to help him put his desk back in order. She had no doubt that Eqiuvox was probably on the list of things he shouldn't have used. She sighed and shook her head. She'd been so certain with what she'd wanted to do, what she came back to do.

"I don't know. Kill Ordo? Save Ordo? Find a way to destroy the One Sith? Take up the mantle again and lead the mandalorians back into war? Continue a fight that started because of Ordo and I?" She perched on the edge of the desk, eyes staring unseeing through the windows that were slowly beginning to clear. "Or stay in the shadows and wait, see what comes of this and be there to pick up the pieces after? Step forward when I need to step forward instead of being the one to lead the charge."

She looked at him. "I'm trying to look ahead, because I've suffered so much for diving in head first and worrying about the details after. I have another chance, and I intend to to things properly. I just haven't worked out what way that is yet."

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]