Days. Weeks. Months
Honestly, Layla had no idea how long she had been searching for the woman who brought her into this mess. The only thing she knew was that it had already been too long. Far too long.She had swerved from outpost to outpost, trying to get as much information on the woman as possible. At first info was scarce, but over time, as she made her way to more bounty hunter-infested regions, it became much easier to learn things here and there. The name seemed to check out, [member="Amelia Sorenn-Syrush"] . The more daring and seemingly well-equipped bounty hunters seemed to be talking all about her- and the bounty on her head. Even though they mostly spoke in private, she did catch a few things here and there. Apparently the woman seemed to be the head of a certain house, or family, something like that anyway. More importantly, she had relations with something called the CSA. What this CSA was, Layla didn’t exactly know. She had heard of them before, but not much, just that it was a growing faction at the time. She also heard the woman was apparently ‘gifted’ in a way and truly dangerous. If bounty hunters thought the woman to be dangerous, she probably really was, Layla figured. Not that it mattered too much, however, for the only things Layla would need of her is a conversation and a small request. When she would have what she needed, she would be on her way again. She could not care for the bounty on Amelia’s head, for it seemed insignificant compared to her true goal.
Her true goal, yes, it was much more important, for it was about her own health, her own life. The start of this journey had started for a reason created by the woman, albeit indirectly. Omega, the criminal gang she had been a part of for hundreds of years, had doubted no second to try and stab her in the back the moment a universal bounty had been placed on everyone of this House Sorenn-Syrush, and when the gang had ‘accidently’ entered their forbidden vault in which they found records of Layla’s youth- and her last name.
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Even now, just thinking about Omega’s betrayal filled her with such anger that she had to stop herself from hitting the crate she was hiding behind as a way to release some of her anger. Deep but mostly silent breaths kept her relatively calm and hidden.
Layla sat aboard a cargo ship, hidden in the back of the cargo bay. The vessel itself had been stolen not so long ago by a bounty hunter, who just happened to be have been claiming he was ‘going to take this worthless ------ down himself’. Naturally Layla took advantage of the naïve and overconfident man by slipping inside of the ship he had just stolen.
So now here she was, sitting in the back, enjoying a free ride to the place she had been searching for for so long. In the day, while the man seemed to be busy with various things in the ship, Layla hid. During the night, when the man slept in his- or at least he made it his- room, Layla would wander around, taking whatever she needed and curiously looking at everything she could see. Most of the things the terminals and such displayed didn’t make much sense to her, but she looked at it all nonetheless.
Eventually, after a good few days of travelling, the ship seemed to drastically change its course. It was early evening, and just as Layla was about to roam around again, she saw the man was still up, busy in what she had figured to be the main cockpit. “Stealth-drive…on, yes, okay. Good.”
Stealth drive? Maybe this ship wasn’t such an ordinary cargo ship as Layla had thought. “Won’t see me now”, the man chuckled to himself.
They had arrived.
The bounty hunter still seemed to be in the same spirit he had been a days ago, ranting to himself how he was going to show all those amateurs how you collect a bounty. It had become dark, so he planned to enter under the cover of night, that he had going for him. Furthermore however, he didn’t seem to think highly of the way others had spoken about the family. Carrying not much more than a heavy blaster and possibly some explosives in his bag, he stormed to the ship’s exit.
Not that it really mattered. The man had served his purpose and now he would pose a considerable threat to Layla alive. Layla silently followed him out of the ship where the man stood still for a moment, inhaling the relatively fresh air and admiring the world around him. It was beautiful, yes, but Layla wouldn’t be distracted by such things. Being distracted can cost you your life. As Layla was about to teach the bounty hunter.
The woman crept up on the hunter and ripped the security, which was locking his mask in place, from his outfit. Before the confused man could turn around she just managed to take his helmet off. The man turned around and immediately gave Layla a punch in her stomach while doing so. As the woman stumbled back a bit, the man reached for his blaster which wasn’t there anymore. Layla had just been able to jerk it off of his armour and onto the ground.
“And who are you, huh?”, the man snarled at her, clearly not thinking the woman was much of a threat. Layla just stared at him in response before she actually replied with words, or a word, “Nobody”. That was all she said as she slowly removed the clothing hiding her teeth. “Oh don’t play that game with me-“, the man became silent as he saw her fangs. “Ah, you’re with them.”
The woman scoffed in response. “I am with nobody but myself”
“Let’s make a deal, eh? I won’t harm you, and you won’t-“, he stopped as he saw the woman walk towards him. He desperately grabbed a knife hidden in his backpack, but it was too late. The woman took hold of his hand, rendering the knife useless. The last thing the courageous- or naïve- bounty hunter saw were the woman teeth planting themselves in his skin. As he flinched in pain he let go of the knife, after which Layla easily planted it in his neck, giving him a relatively quick death.
When she was done, Layla dragged the now dead man’s body back inside the ship and placed it behind some boxes. As she walked out again, she noticed his mask still lying on the ground. She picked it up, staring at it for a little while. Then she turned around half-heartedly before she threw the mask in the direction of the ship.
It was only now that she truly started to look at her surroundings. Odd..they appeared to have landed in a big city of some sort. Yet, the landing platform she was standing on really wasn't a landing platform at all. Now she looked properly, she found herself standing in some kind of huge storage garage with an open roof. Were these really the kind of platforms people landed on here?
As she walked to what seemed to be the only door to exit the building, apart from the open roof of course, she noticed a table next to it with a little note. It was a map with an address which didn't really mean anything to Layla. The map however, she could follow. It had a route lined out on it, which seemed to lead from the garage she was in right now to some kind of office labeled 'target'. Considering the man who brought her here was after Amelia, Layla assumed that 'target' would be where she'd find Amelia. Because of this she decided to exit the garage and follow the route. After all, she had no idea where to go otherwise.
it took her quite some time to maneuver herself through the city, but eventually she seemed to be at her destination.
Now, now all that remained was for her to set the last steps. Just a few more and she’d be out of this mess. This Amelia would make sure of that. The only thing Layla had to do was get her attention, talk to her. Then she would ask if the woman could tell the outside world she and her weren’t actually related. And then, just like that, the bounty would disappear. Or so she hoped.
She made her way to what seemed to be the office in which the woman was supposed to be. It was the only building which was actually looking like the one on the map.
Even though Layla had followed the bounty hunter's map so far she wasn’t going to enter the same way the bounty hunter planned, no, Layla came here to ask Amelia for a favour, so she couldn’t just break and enter. She figured it’d be best to just walk in what seemed to be the most common entrance and see from there. After all, there was no doubt in the fact that she was going to be surrounded by guards and searched thoroughly with the whole bounty business.
On top of that, wouldn't it be a bit weird to just walk in like that? Well, Layla did it anyway.
Just when she entered the building, she realised she didn't really know how the woman looked. At all. Sure, she had seen a few portraits or posters with Amelia's face here and there, but they hadn't exactly been very clear images.
Oh well, she'd probably be greeted by security anyway. There was bound to be someone who could help her. Or at least, that was what Layla figured, and she really had no experience with this kind of business or city stuff at all.