Why Must We Fight?

[Jamie Pyne]

By the time Jamie turned back she noticed Aela peering this way and that inquisitively. "Still looking for the people following us?" She'd ask, leaning slightly to the side to get a better look out of the opposite window herself. "I didn't see anyone while we were inside the shop. You think maybe they simply lost interest in us after following us for the past few hours?" What other explanation was there? Did they take breaks from stalking targets? Did they somehow lose the two girsl in the crowd as they made their way towards the shoe store?

None of the explanations seemed to add up to anything that made any sense. If Aela couldn't see them, it was highly unlikely Jamie would be able to pick someone out of the crowd either. There was little she could offer in terms of help here, so she simply sat back in her seat proper. "Where to next?" Jamie wasn't sure if Aela had somewhere else on the agenda to go that afternoon or whether they would simply head back to the estate for the remainder of the afternoon.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

”I doubt they lost interest.” Not that she had an ego or or anything, but on Bastion she and Jamie were the hot new thing. It was often that something got interjected into the upper echelons of society here, especially considering that most of the families had been stagnant for several centuries. ”Maybe they’re just getting better at hiding.”

Somehow she doubted that too.

”Why don’t we head home. I think we’ve made enough of an impression on the local populace.” They had hit the tailor, restaurant, and then shoe shop. It was three points of contact, all of which had gone quite well in the scheme of things.

Now they just had to follow up that performance with one at the ball.

She frowned for a moment and glanced out the window once more, still concerned about where their watchers had gone.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She shrugged. "Alright."

It wasn't like the younger girl had any better suggestions. She was still quite new to this whole thing herself, so it hardly felt right to argue otherwise. Besides, if they left and went home, at they would be out of the direct eyes of whoever was watching them, if they were in fact watching them. As the blonde situated herself and the car began to pull away back towards the house Jamie had an epiphany.

"What if they bugged something with a recorder of some sort? The car? A piece of clothing? Something small that we might not notice."

It didn't sit entirely well with her that these people would all of a sudden get better at hiding themselves hours into their tail. It just seemed so out of place.

"If that were the case they wouldn't need to follow us anymore."

That was the only idea she could really offer that could explain what happened to the others.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela nodded, that had been her concern as well. Perhaps the shoes, though those were still in the front of the speeder with the driver and the dresses where in the trunk. She frowned for a moment and then shook her head.

”We’ll check everything once we get in the house.” The Soldiers would anyway. ”None of them got close enough to plant anything on us, I would have noticed it.”

The force was a wonderful thing when it came to that. ”The other thought is...perhaps the families with...worse agents simply don’t have the time to devote to us, those with better agents do.”

That was something to consider.

Aela didn’t claim to be the best counter-intelligence agent, and Jamie was an amateur in this field. It could very well have been the case that someone was still on their tail and the two of them had simply not noticed it. She would have to ask the soldier that was playing their driver when they got back to the estate.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

A small nod followed silence for the remainder of the ride home. Jamie took in the sights the city had to offer, its' differing architecture looming high above the tiny speeder as it zipped through traffic near the ground. She wondered how so many people lived here. It was a bit confusing to her, and even more confining. Perhaps that was the backwater girl in her, feeling out of place in such a congested place. It seemed overwhelming to think about spending every waking moment in a place like this. It made her homesick. It even made her miss Kurt. She'd have to send him a message at some point soon, likely after they got off world. There was no sure way of knowing if they could intercept a message leaving here, but she didn't want to risk blowing her and Aela's cover either.

The moment the two arrived back in the estate Jamie hastily hopped out of the car as the door was opened for her, taking the hand of the soldier as he offered it to assist her. She then waited for Aela, and for the man to gather their items and bring them to the door, opening it for them of course whilst also holding their purchases. After all, opening a gate and a door was simply out of the question!

"I simply must have a bath. The scent of the poor is clinging to me like a sickly, oppressive air."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]


Aela’s gaze shifted to their immediate surroundings as she stepped out from the speeder. They were within the gated fenced area around the estate, but something still felt oddly...off. She frowned for a moment and stepped forward, her eyes shifting towards one of the far walls.

There she could swear.

A bright flash of light erupted from the top of the wall, blinding her for a few seconds as she shifted and took half a step back. There was another flash, and then another and another as she stepped back and tried to shield her eyes. Aela squeezed her eyes shut, heard a yell, and then a loud crash from behind the wall as someone fell down onto the ground.

She opened her eyes just in time to see one of the 5th Legion soldiers running across the courtyard and jumping over the wall where the flashes had come from.

Aela blinked a few more times, confusion on her face as she looked towards the driver.

”Paparazzi ma’am.”

The Jedi Marshall looked somewhat confused for a second, and then caught herself. Her face immediately twisted into an expression of half rage, half pure intimidation. ”Get him!”

She didn’t really mean it, but...well appearances.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie had turned away from the flashes, covering her face with her hands as the flashes came one after another from over the wall. By the time she'd turned back the man was being chased down by one of the soldiers at Aela's command. The younger girl shrugged, as if she were not phased by the invasion of her privacy, in fact she even waived as the man trotted across the courtyard to evade capture. She was content appearing the girl who loved attention. "Better run faster!" She shouted towards the man as the soldier got closer to nabbing him.

The girl laughed, looking on as the camera bounced against the man's chest as his feet carried him over the lawn, leaping up onto another gate and scaling it as quickly as he possibly could. She egged him on as he climbed, the soldier hot on his tail. "He'll break your camera if he catches you!" Jamie assumed the soldier wasn't likely making a serious attempt to stop the man from snapping photos of the girls. But it was entertaining to watch all the same.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela watched only for a few more seconds until she let out a huff, walking towards Jamie and scooping her arm up under her own. She tore her ‘sister’ away from the scene and brought her inside, if only to save a little face.

Jamie had responded properly to the incident of course, they both had, but...well it had been completely unexpected.

She had known that people would be interested in them, but they had hardly expected for paparazzi to show up at the door taking pictures, much less bounding over the wall. Briefly Aela thanked the force that she had never taken part in any press conferences after the fall of Coruscant, otherwise she’d be somewhat recognizable.

As they stepped through the grand double doors of the estate Aela released Jamie. ”Tonight we’ll need to practice names and face.”

The Jedi Marshall chose not to comment on what just happened.

”We need to know everyone.” Aela went on as the doors slammed shut behind them. ”Without exception.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie offered the man one last blown kiss before Aela slammed shut the front door. When she finally let go of the girl Jamie wandered over to an empty seat in the kitchen and dropped herself down, regarding the elder girl for a moment before taking another apple from the small fruit basket and taking a small bite. "Alright." She started to say, allowing herself a moment to chew the fruit before she continued.

"How? Cue cards?"

She asked with a smirk, as if it were school all over again. Although she wasn't certain who besides the immediate family she would need to learn faces and names for, she assumed perhaps the house staff and important figures? They'd gone over the key names earlier, and Jamie was fairly confident she could put the faces of theirs to the names.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

”Datapad.” Aela said. ”Same difference really.”

She shrugged.

The technique didn’t matter all that much, but if they were going to do this properly they would need to know the names and faces of all the families, or at least the important people in those families. They were going to a ball with more than just their targets of course, and that meant they wanted to be as prepared as possible. ”It’ll be easy enough, just like studying for a test.”

Aela smiled at her padawan.

”First though, let’s shower and change. Meet me back down here in an hour.” She at the very least, wanted a bath.

Though their trip out today hadn’t been particularly straining or tiring she always felt the need to get clean after running around anywhere. It was a habit really, shower when you could, for as long as you could. One never quite knew when everything would get turned upside down.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Studying for a test... As if she hadn't done more than enough of that back home. The very word test made her cringe. Her life back home consisted of test after test. Even though she understood the necessity for learning the names and faces, it didn't make the idea of it any less appealing. "Okay." She said, keeping the thought to herself for the sake of the exercise as she took another bite of the fruit.

"Whose first?" She asked, waiting for Aela to present the laundry list of people. They had the rest of the afternoon and evening to prepare, with little else in the way of things to do before the next day, when all of that information would become vastly more important. She just hoped for the sake of the mission, and a bit of their lives, that she didn't screw up when the time came to actually put that information to use.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

The shower had been good for her, allowing her more into a relaxed state of mind. Tomorrow night would bring an excitement all its own, and Aela intended to be entirely rested and relaxed for when it finally happened. They had to be prepared, and the biggest part of that was simply knowing the names of people they would encounter.

She didn’t expect Jamie to remember everything of course, that was silly, there were hundreds of people that would be attending the ball and half of them were already completely unimportant. Better to focus on those that they would likely meet.

”First, we’ll start with the easy stuff.” She pulled up four pictures, their target, his two daughters, and of course the Son.

They were the most important people to know.

Aela half suspected that the two daughters would pose the greatest risk, Villia and Isera. They were trained, smart, and by all accounts incredibly cruel. Aela had no intention of speaking to them any more than was necessary.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie looked at the faces on the screen, and without pause named each one with confidence. She had spent quite some time studying these four earlier at Aela's request, and so these were going to be no problem for the younger sibling to recite and recognize at the ball the next day. Pointing to the eldest she named the target, "Joran." The father. The younger of the men was next, her finger shifting on the screen appropriately. "Tommus." Finally she moved her finger from one of the women to the next in a single fluid motion, "Villia, Isera."

She looked up from the datapad with a smile.

"I looked them over like you asked the other day. I won't mistake them. The others, I don't know. We'll need to spend time practicing them."

Jamie wasn't quite sure how many of the families, their heads and associates she would need to remember. She had a decent memory, but she'd hoped there wouldn't be too many to remember. The worst thing would be to screw up one name for another in the middle of a conversation. Embarrassing.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela smiled. ”Good.”

That was at least comforting. These four were the most important after all, and if they were going to do this...well at the very least Jamie would remember them. It was really all that mattered in the end, the rest could be played off by the fact that Jamie’s character wasn’t very smart, or at least according to her sister.

Aela had questioned her intelligence throughout the day after all. It hadn’t been purposeful of course, just the way that she had ende dup biting back, but it if it worked out in their favor then Aela wouldn’t complain.

”Alright.” Aela began as she pulled up another image. ”These next two…”

It went on like that for what seemed like hours.

Aela would pull up an image of people, ask Jamie if she recognize them, then gave their names if her padawan did not know. Eventually she mixed it up, throwing in images of other people that Jamie had been told of before. The studying went on until well after the sun was set, and the estate had grown quiet.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

By the time they had finished Jamie had a headache. So many names. So many faces. So many people to remember. She had confused a great deal of them at first, though over time she started to get a bit better with a number of them. Certainly many of them wouldn't waste their time associating with the two, and even if Jamie screwed up one or two, it was forgivable. Jamie would ensure that she always had a drink in hand. Appearing the ditzy lush sibling would suit her well enough.

"Phew." A big exhale when Aela powered down the datapad, resting it in her lap. "That was exhaustive."

Sleep would be welcome, and necessary. The next day would be the real test. To say she wasn't a bit nervous, that small knot in her stomach was present.

"I don't think there's much more I can do this evening. Nothing that I will retain through tomorrow anyway."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela nodded. Unlike Jamie she had had weeks to absorb and learn this stuff. This operation had been planned for over half a month now, everything put in place so that it would work out perfectly. Of course, Jamie sort of threw a wrench into that, but with how much work she was doing one could hardly be mad at her.

Also, it had been Aela’s idea to bring her along.

”I think we’re done for the night.” Better not work the girl half to death, not everyone was like her when it came to absorbing information. ”Tomorrow we’ll review before the Ball, but we’ll be leaving at 5pm.”

The ball began at six, and it would take about an hour to get there.

Everything had to be perfect.

She frowned for a moment as she felt an odd sort of wave in the force, a slight shift of something. Aela’s head shook slightly as she tried to throw the feeling away, figuring that it was likely nothing.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie let out a sigh of relief. Hearing Aela say that they were finished for the night was a great release of her nerves. Her eyes felt nearly bloodshot from the time spent looking at a datapad and reciting and learning names, faces, and brief histories. She learned more about total strangers than some people she knew back home!

Crazy!

To say she was eager to have this over and done with was an understatement. All she wanted was for things to go smoothly, and to continue on with her training in a bit less of a stressful manner. Learning as one went was fine and all, and she was hardly ungrateful for the opportunity, but there was something to be said from learning within safe walls as well. Not having to constantly worry whether or not you might be killed while being tutored was roughly at the top of that list of reasons. Still, she wouldn't complain, she was where she was because she took risks. If she stopped, who knows where she would end up.

"Okay." She said with a nod, standing up from the table. "I'll be ready for tomorrow then. Sleep sounds wonderful right now."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

”Then head to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.” Aela herself had a few things to do before she could actually rest and go to sleep, not the least of which was reporting back to headquarters about their progress.

She left Jamie and headed towards the kitchen, meeting two of the soldiers there. They had set up a small communications stations within the corner of the kitchen, something that would allow them to tap into the local networks without anyone being able to listen in. Encryption was key here after all. Aela quickly sent back a short report to SIS HQ back home, signalling what they had done so far and that progress was good.

After that she said goodnight to the two soldiers, then headed to bed herself.

The night went without any other incidents, though apparently more paparazzi attempted to sneak over the fence once or twice, not something that was really of any concern. Eventually the next day game, and bright and early Aela was on her feet. Jamie came down a little later, and the two of them went through the rigors of preparing for the Ball later that night.

Eventually they stood within the lobby of the estate, ready to head out to the party.

”This dress is tighter than I thought.” Aela said as she looked down at her slightly more...pronounced bust. ”I should have tried it on.”

It wouldn’t be an issue in the long run, more of an annoyance really.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Blue eyes peered down, noting the rather voluptuous look Aela had going for her now. "That looks uncomfortable." Jamie made a slight grimaced expression, her left cheek pulling back the corner of her mouth, neck muscles slightly flaring. "Definitely should have tried it on first. It's at least two sizes too small." If nothing else it would be eye catching and attention grabbing, something that would be rather important for the evening. The blonde brushed her hands along the waistline of her own dress, ensuring it was neat and orderly. The look was sassy and sultry, the shoes complimenting her look, hair in curls with flashy dangling earrings, vibrant bangles and rings, and a stylish gold choker.

"Well, shall we, sister?"

She smirked. Events like this were every day occurrences for her. This type of scenario was her element, and was thoroughly comfortable within the type of atmosphere that they would be stepping into that evening. The only nerve racking portion of the evening would be ensuring that she got names and faces right, and didn't give away the notion that she was Jamie Pyne from Naboo, and not Isabella.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She felt a tad nervous as they climbed into the Speeder that would take them to The Palace, if only because much of what would happen that night was still up in the air. Aela didn’t like wandering into the unknown, and even though they had prepared as much as they could, there were still parts of this job that were very much in the air.

That was cause for concern.

”Remember.” Aela began as she looked over at Jamie, knowing that the girl was probably just as worried as she was, if perhaps a little less. ”If you don’t know someone, just act like they’re unimportant. Even if they aren’t, they’ll think you’re too stupid to realize who they are.”

It was a tactic that had worked in the Shadow Syndicate, and it would work here as long as they kept things on pace. Of course, there was no telling how the people would react to them, nor was there any telling what they would encounter. She shifted slightly again, trying to make her dress a little bit more comfortable.

The hour of driving time passed quickly, and her eyes darted out the window as the Palace approached.

The building was huge, at least four times the size of the Estate they were staying in. There were grand domed buildings, huge towers, massive arching entranceways. It was the second gaudiest home that Aela had ever seen. Her lips thinned slightly as she saw the throng of people heading down the main entranceway. ”Here we go.”

Aela said as the door was opened for her.