Showdown at Junction

[Ben Merasska]

Ben took stock of his situation for a moment.

"What's it gonna take for you to let us off this rock?" Ben asked. "If it's something I can give..."

He glanced at Shuvin, and back at Cerie and Loki. He looked haggard and drawn. His face sported the massive bruise; he was dirty, with streaks on his face where sweat and his hands had done more injury than help; but more than anything else he looked tired, and beaten. It was a look years in the making, and it was one he wore when he caved to the odds he was always running from.

"...I'll give it. Names, information. It's yours. Just leave me and mine alone."

[Abarai Loki]

It was not until the Selonian was revealed in full, by the lights, that Loki put to bed the notion that they were about to be attacked by a wild beast. The shadow receded, and yet, it did not. She spoke of the will of the Force, and, under any other circumstances, that would've been enough to make him roll his eyes, but, this time, his gaze was fixed. When she rose, it became clear that Shuvin's pale hologram had done her a grave injustice. The metal of the toolbox was hard against his coiling fingers.

The snare closed with the heavy clanking of walkers. There was now only one way off this world, and the way was guarded. To hear her use the captain's name was one thing, but to hear Shuvin's name uttered so casually, it put him on edge. There was power in a name; there was ownership. Even if they were to escape the Empire, today, the names of Ben Merasska and Shuvin Undhi were no longer their own.

Captain Ben was talking. He did not sound scared - that was a good sign. And Loki did not see the look he gave, for he had eyes only for the so-called Imperial Knight. However, his insides, set hard, like duracrete, turned to slush the moment he heard the captain's offer. His words were a knife wound, robbing him of his breath. Before the Selonian could respond, he advanced a step, to close the distance between himself and Captain Ben - close enough to speak, with some discretion.

"Captain Merasska," he said, in a firm undertone, "No demands have been made. What are you doing?"

[Cerie Moreau]

And right behind Loki, Cerie stepped forward with desperate frustration in her mismatched eyes even as they remained locked on the Selonian. Her head angled so that her lips came close to Ben's ear.

"Kid's right, Ben. You can't just fold like a wet wash towel cause that overgrown carpet shark knows how t'stand on two feet."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

"You and yours will be my guests, Captain." Vissica replied sharply, cutting off the emerging debate as she slowly approached. "Until I determine the circumstances that have placed you here."

She canted her head momentarily to the human male pup, then returned her attention to the Captain.

"There is no negotiation, Captain. This is a declaration. You have no other..."

The fourth figure made herself plain as she stepped through the threshold. As she whispered something unheard in Captain Merasska's ear, the timbre of Vissica's words fell soft."

"...alternative."

It was her. The feeling that had weighed upon Vissica ever since she'd arrived on the planet now made sense. It was now so clear. For a few seconds, the Selonian stood eerily silent, her black doll eyes fixated on her nemesis. When she spoke, it was almost a whisper.

"Captain s'Ilancy."

[Shuvin Undhi]

Ben didn't look at or to Loki or Cerie as they spoke; he cast his eyes to the side and listened, but didn't otherwise move, like he'd been paralyzed by the eyes of the creature before them.

Shuvin glanced uncertainly at Ben, but didn't otherwise say anything. She trusted him to get them through this, like he'd managed, if barely, to get them through all the troubles they'd gone through before. But there was a vulnerability to him now that she'd not seen before, a fear that stopped him cold instead of galvanized him to run. Maybe it was that he was on his own two feet, staring at it, rather than in Alderaan, safe at the flight controls.

The creature spoke.

"Now there's a problem with that," Ben replied, noticing the Knight's sudden interest in someone behind him. "In that it's until you're satisfied about what we're doin' here we won't be leaving. It's awfully vague. I'm guessin' that if you don't end up satisfied we'll be facing the Empress's justice at the end of that white lightsaber of yours. But I don't know what'll satisfy you, if anything. I could pour my heart out, and at the end of it you'll just up and say that it isn't enough. No incentive for me to cooperate if I'm dyin' either way. Might as well just tell you to kriff off and get it done. But that don't give you what you want, and it'll save you a lot of effort in torturin' and other bad things if you give us somethin' to work with here. You'll get what you want either way, but in one circumstance you have us all dead, and on the other, you'll have some folks who'll spread the word about cooperatin' with an Imperial Knight."

Shuvin blinked, looking in undisguised shock at Ben and his seeming courage, belied by his shaking hands and the slight tremor in his words. He was trying to find an angle, some way to get some sort of distance and safety in the face of this Selonian's danger.

"And that'll be that we can take you at your word."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

Vissica barely heard Ben's protestations. She took another careful step forward.

"Captain Merasska, step away from this woman."

[Ben Merasska]

"I have a good idea why you're sayin' that," Ben answered, his hand drifting to his pistol. "And I'm telling you you've got it wrong. She isn't who you think she is."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

Vissica took another step, drawing a hand up as if to push aside an invisible curtain. Ben, Shuvin, and Loki each left their feet, tumbling to their right along the duracrete. A brusque removal, but one that only harmed whatever pride the Captain had left.

With the interlopers removed, Vissica took the last two steps. For a moment, she said nothing. Her breath rose and fell slowly, pressing her chest against her cuirass.

"At last."

[Cerie Moreau]

There was a moment that she was frozen in shock, and Cerie felt her heart skip a beat. Her head had snapped in the direction that Ben and the others had been thrown, and she'd found herself at a particularly large loss at what to do next. It was a moment that seemed to go on longer than she wanted, and the blonde forced herself back into movement. Narrowed eyes tracked back to the hulking form that now stood before her, and craning her neck she looked up to meet the inkwell eyes of the Selonian.

Already white knuckles gripped her blasters even tighter, but she made no move to lift them.

Finally, she let out a long breath as resolute determination cast a sheen over one blue eye.

"I've got some bad news for you," she ground out.

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

The Knight took another step forward. This one quicker and more decisive, in time with a sharp inhalation of breath. Impatience simmered in Vissica's opaque expression as she bared her teeth down at her foe.

"I am uninterested in another pithy exchange of words with you, Captain. No more talk. No more resistance. You will surrender to Imperial custody now, or your companions will pay for your refusal."

[Ben Merasska]

"Uh, excuse me," Ben called out, staggering to his feet. "But the only Captain here is me — whoa!"

Another gesture of the Selonian's hand sent him sprawling again.

[Cerie Moreau]

She stood her ground, doggedly unwilling to give the Selonian any sort of satisfaction that her show of height was putting a waver in her spine. It was, but in the heat of the moment there was a strange, newborn sense of duty to Ben and Shuvin. They had accepted her into their small family, and she wasn't about to let their trust go unfounded. Sure, she was a cheat. She stole her way through the galaxy. But she was also in her own way an honest person when it really mattered.

And now it mattered, and she was being her most honest.

"You got the wrong gal."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

s'Ilancy was mocking her with such a bald-faced lie. Vissica drew in another breath, letting it out sharply.

"You are Loklorien s'Ilancy, Captain of the Alliance and Jedi Master! Don't debase yourself with a lie! Face your accuser with dignity!"

The Selonian closed both of her forepaws over Cerie's head, nearly lifting her off her feet as she pulled the woman close.

"SPEAK THE TRUTH!"

[Cerie Moreau]

The force of both hands, pulling her nearly beyond the height that her toes could give her, was enough to startle her, and with wide eyes Cerie couldn't help but let herself be pulled upwards. Hot, rancid breath washed over her, and the blonde let out a sharp cry of shock even as the gravelly words coated what the encroaching halitosis had missed. Each syllable pulled at her muscles, as though they were trying to strip them from bone.

There was a moment of struggle, even as her voice croaked out an answer.

"I... I ain't... her... "

But there, in the whirlwind of forced obedience, was a spark. It bucked against the order demanded of it, and in desperation Cerie lifted her arms. One looped over a corded forearm to try and grant herself some sort of relief. She still held her blasters, and in a moment of frantic clarity, she shoved the barrel of one of them up under the edge of the Selonian's cuirass where it met the shoulder guard.

The massive hands engulfing her head seemed to draw tighter, and in that instant she pulled the trigger.

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

There was pain. Some of it physical, but something else that cut deeper. As Vissica dropped Cerie free with a pained yip, she slinked backward into a low stance. The Knight ripped her greatsaber from it's scabbard with her uninjured arm, firing the growling white blade to life as she severed the pretender's weapon clean through the trigger guard.

A wild and unsure look fixed in Vissica's eyes. I ain't her. Despite everything her eyes told her to be true, the Selonian knew that Cerie had finally told her the truth. It wasn't simply that Cerie had lied. Everything about her was a lie. This ruse, this masquerade. Everything about this pretender was blasphemy.

Fire wicked through the nerves of her left arm. Cerie's shot had punched into flesh, and every movement brought sobering pain. Vissica dominated the sensation, raising her paw to meet it's counterpart to complete a two-handed grip at her blade.

"Lies!"

Vissica shouted, her voice echoing off the hangar walls. The white of her greatsaber dipped, it's tapered point burning into the duracrete as she dragged it across the ground. Cerie barked a pair of shots at the advancing Selonian, which were swatted away a moment before her remaining blaster was wrenched from her hand, nearly pulling her off her feet in the process.

"Deceptions!"

A bruising force suddenly collapsed around Cerie's throat, drawing her up and clearing her feet from the ground.

"You are a pretender! An impostor!"

Vissica's breath had quickened into a feverish snarl. Her torso heaved with barely contained rage.

"Where is she?"

The strangling hold on Cerie relented only a fraction. This was her last chance to make right the dishonor of her treachery.

"WHERE IS SHE??!!!"

Even now, Vissica could feel the presence close by. She had to be close. She had to!

[Abarai Loki]

There was a low rumble, like an unbridled wind rushing to meet the shore. It punctuated a disturbance in the Force, that rolled towards the Selonian at speed, and swept her up in its invisible tide.

Loki rose from his dusty knee, and brought a hand to his chest. A simple chain was unearthed from the fabric of his shirt, and between his fingers, light danced over the surface of something small, and precious. The crystal came free with a snap. At his feet, the toppled toolbox unlatched itself, and belched several weathered chunks of metal into the air, where they neatly aligned themselves with his outstretched fist. When he opened his hand, the components came together in unison, turning and locking into place around the floating crystal. The newly-formed lightsaber was then plucked out of the air.

"Captain Merasska, get to your ship."

The blade sprung forth with a hiss. It was the release of a breath held too long. In the end, the question of taking action had not been a question, at all, but merely a matter of time. As an unassuming traveller, the lives of Shuvin, Cerie, and Ben were not his to gamble, and that had left him in a position of uncertainty. Until now. The so-called Imperial Knight had made her threats without hesitation, or ambiguity, and he would respond in kind. And, in that decision, there was liberation. He advanced patiently across the hangar, the cool blue light of his weapon following him, like a winter's frost.

His voice was raised to address the Selonian.

"Tell me, dog, on what authority do you act?"

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

The surprise was complete and total. Vissica caught the brunt of the force impact as it lifted her off her feet. She tumbled head over hindpaws, only arresting her movement by driving the shining white blade of her lightsaber into the duracrete floor. As the blade sank into a scar of orange slag, the Selonian braced behind it with hindpaws and tail, coming to a halt just a few strides in front of Alderaan's closed ingress hatch. The Knight panted, both hands gripped at the pommel of her weapon. Her dark eyes were nearly round with surprise.

The pup. It was him! It hadn't been Captain s'Ilancy she'd been sensing. The wickedness of the deception was total!

Even as the pup spoke to him as if he were an equal, Vissica divided her attentions between the prodigal force user and Captain s'Ilancy's doppelganger. The disappointment was crushing. With a rumble, Vissica stood upright. She wrenched her blade out of the ground.

"I serve the Imperial throne, boy. You would do well to respect that authority and surrender. If you refuse, you and your friends may not survive."

[Cerie Moreau]

The sudden relief was a godsend, and Cerie had fallen to the ground in a near-heap. On both knees, the blonde sucked in lungfulls of air as her free hand came up to massage her throat. The aching muscles cried a whimpering sound to her inner ear, and with a hacking cough, she finally lifted her head. The kid - Loki - he'd spoken angrily, advancing on the Selonian with...

... with a lightsaber in hand.

Another draw of air into her strained lungs, and with her chest heaving, she lurched up to her feet like a drunken shockboxer. Fresh anger flashed in narrowing eyes, and her gaze tracked from Loki to the hunched form of the Selonian, but she did nothing other than sway slightly on her feet as fingers did their best to banish the feeling of those phantom fingers from her neck.

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin sat up, her eyes wide and mouth open. Things just kept getting more and more crazy, and she was starting to have a hard time dealing with it all.

"Shuvin."

She jumped, and glanced up at Ben, who was looking at Loki and Vissica with a grim look on his face.

"Uh, Ben," she whispered. "Loki's got a..."

"Uh huh."

"And that Selonian's got a..."

"Yep."

"Does that mean Loki's an Imperial Knight too?"

Ben blinked, and glanced at Shuvin incredulously. She smiled and laughed a bit self-consciously.

"Dumb question, huh?"

"Not so much when you think about it," Ben grunted. "Shuvin, I need you to get us into the ship."

"Uh, Ben, if you hadn't noticed, it's crowded over there. And what about you?"

Ben shot Shuvin a grin.

"I trust you'll find a way. I'm gonna get Cerie and then we're gettin' off this rock before something else rears its ugly head."

Shuvin nodded, feeling more at ease and centered in the face of Ben's own cool.

"What about Loki?"

Ben paused. "Looks like he can take care of himself for the moment. We'll see about him when I get our little family out of the way of that Imperial Knight."

He crouched, his blaster pistol in his hand, and made a bee line for Cerie, who was standing and wheezing visibly. Shuvin watched him for a second, and then looked over at Loki and Selonian, wondering just how in the hells she was going to open the entry ramp without catching attention onto herself.

[Abarai Loki]

"I serve the Imperial throne, boy. You would do well to respect that authority and surrender. If you refuse, you and your friends may not survive."

"There is no negotiation. This is a declaration," he began, coolly, repeating her words, "We are leaving this world, and there is nothing you can do to stop us."

Already, there was movement, stirrings on the periphery of his vision where the captain and Shuvin were making plans. Cerie was now free of the beast's hold, which made him the focus of her attention. Good. Let her come. In his mind's eye, the battle was underway, painted in broad and powerful strokes. Yes, she was strong, and her reach was long, but it was her aggression that kept him vigilant. There had been a taste of it, when she spoke to Cerie, an explosion of ferocious anger. That was where the danger lay. Still. Let her come.

He squeezed the lightsaber in his hand. There was reassurance in its familiar weight, and the blade song resonated, like a second heartbeat inside his chest. The smile was drowned before it could reach the surface. Instead, as the distance closed between them, he considered his towering enemy with fitting disregard.

"Your authority evaporated the moment you drew that charlatan's blade in front of me."