A Deadly Game - Part 2: The Toy

[Baros Sal-Soren]

:Sounds good, Karja:

Baros sighed slightly as he sent the last message of this work day through to one of his assistants. His business had taken a massive hit when Corellia broke. Corellia was his heart, and his core place of business. Since then, his other stores had suffered from not having the constant influence of the Corellian fashion scene. He had found it rather interesting though, as news spread, that his sales actually spiked for a time, perhaps some sympathy purchases. Long term though, his prospects did not look good. Karja had thankfully set up a few non Corellian fashion shows, but that was a different scene all together and one that he did not know well. It was a new galaxy.

Beep Boop

"Baros here," he said tapping his commlink.

"Hey Baros..."

"Dvetleen...hey...how's it going?"

"Not to bad Bar...just been thinking about you..."

Baros smiled, the light of two moons illuminating the path to his apartment. "Yeah baby...been thinking about you too...Centaxday was amazing."

"You were amazing."

Baros could hear her smile, her shallow lusty breathing. Frell, he was to tired to deal with this, but feeling as though he was becoming more and more alert by the moment. A noise...

Baros stopped, spinning about and looking in the direction of the sound. There was no one. Just his imagination, it was rather active at the moment.

"We should get together again some time," he said, regaining his composure and slapping his palm to the palm reader by his apartment door.

"How about tonight?"

The words hung in the air as the door slid open to reveal a gruesome sight also hanging from the air. A nearly naked woman, blood dripping from multiple small gashes on her body, hung upside down from the light fixture in the middle of the room.

"Gods no..."

It was Dvetleen.

"What's wrong Barr?"

 

[Amz]

*BAM*

"FETH!" Jan grunted and shook his head, closing and re-opening his eyes as they focused, staring down at the young woman with fists up, ready to deliver another knockout. "What's eating you Teyla? You're fightin' like a Rancor today."

Teyla blinked, looking confused for a second, then stepped forward and pulled her arm back, making a fist and swinging it. "Has anything changed for you? Finding out that your ex-wife was hiding a child from you? Priorities?"

Jan's arms flew up to block his face from her fist, "Nothing," he replied with a tense breath. "Duty. Honor. Core. Those are my priorities."

Her body turned and Teyla poured her weight and all of her frustration into a swift kick that Jan anticipatingly caught, he twisted her foot and made her fall down, hitting the mat with a light *thud*.

"What's with the interrogation?"

Teyla laid there motionless, not giving anything away with her expressionless face. "My parents want me to quit, settle down and have a 'normal life'. A few months ago I lied, told them I was dating someone just to get them off my back. But now they're pressing even harder." She exhaled and rubbed her face. "I'm a fighter, a spy. I can't even process what they're asking."

"Yeah, and they'll probably keep digging at it until you give them an answer."

beeep. beeeeep.

"Tey. That's you."

Curious, Teyla thought, and rolled over, getting on her knees. Then in one fluid motion she pushed herself up off the ground, walking over to her datapad. Her brows furrowed and her expression took on a perplexed look when she didn't recognize the number. Teyla let it forward to voicemail, then left to check the message after the icon came up to alert her.

It was a voice she didn't expect to hear.

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Heavy, but rushed, breathing came across the comm. "Teyla...it's me...Baros..."

There was a pause for a time as he seemed to be gathering his thoughts.

"...I have contacted the authorities...but it has been two hours...I am outside my apartment..."

There was some rustling that could be heard.

"...I don't think anyone is coming...not surprising...things are a mess since the split..."

His voice became quieter, but it seemed like he was shouting. Perhaps he had pulled away from the comm.

"Who's there!? Show yourself!"

His voice came closer.

"There is a dead woman inside my apartment..."

...static...



[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

Teyla tried to get there as fast as possible. Baros, ironically, was just a few blocks, and a couple cab rides, away.

Armed and ready, she turned the corner. Teyla honestly didn't know what to expect. There had been a murder, Baros was once again associated with it, and all she could think of was that horrible case from a year prior.

She came to a halt and looked around for Baros, lowering her blaster a bit.

Breath. Teyla had to remind herself.

"Baros?" She called, almost mouse-like. Hopefully he was paying attention, or heard her.

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Baros was as white as a ghost. He stood, paralyzed to the spot, as if unable to move. There was a datapad clenched in his hand, knuckles whitened in his vice like grip. He did not move, even when she spoke. His eyes darted in fright towards her.

The datapad blinked.

A message appeared, but at an angle to obtuse to be discernible by Teyla from where she was.

The message began scroll across the screen as Baros slowly started to move as if held by an invisible force field.

His mouth quivered as he tried to get some words out. Nothing came but a slight breath of air.

The message continued to scroll.

...shall we play...

"I..."

He was slowly regaining some colour, and his body began to relax.

"...was drugged..."

"...he was here...I saw him..."

The datapad dropped to the ground.

"The Thistlebark Killer."

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

Teyla heard the clack of the datapad and whipped around into a defensive position, blaster at the ready.

"Baros."

She resisted the temptation to breath out a sigh of relief, knowing that there could still very well be danger around. Teyla relaxed her stance a trifle and lowered her arms, walking towards him to check if he was alright.

"The Thistlebark Killer."

The name caused both eyebrows to shoot up, and Teyla wasn't exactly sure how to react to that information. It had taken her months to work through the paranoia and fear, walking into her apartment every night blaster first, afraid that he was there, waiting for her to let her guard down. Eventually, she had come out of that spiral. Still, a small feeling of panic tried to rise and she felt her heart rate increase. Teyla beat it back down, her mind recognizing it for what it was.

She glanced around, looking for the authorities who were still missing, then back to Baros. "Is he still here?"


[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Baros walked away from the door to the apartment. "He left...from what I can tell..."

The man had been daring enough to show his face. The things he had said...Baros refused to think about it right now. A chill ran up his spine as he came to stand to Teyla's side. Her presence gave him a greater feeling of security. "Thank you for coming," he whispered.

He brought his commlink to hand and tapped the auto unlock function for his door. The door slid open to reveal that his room was completely clear. There was no body, no blood, no terrifying image to behold. "What...the..."

He paced forward, pushing in fury into the main room of his apartment. "She was here...hanging...I am not crazy Teyla...there was a woman I knew...Dvetleen Fino...she was dead...oh gods...where did she go?"

Baros paced a little, back and forward, fingers running through his hair.

Beep Boop

Baros froze, glancing down at the name on his comm. Dvetleen...he tapped the button to answer.

"Baby? You went quiet on me?"

"Who the hell is this?"

"Barr...it's me...Dvetleen! What the fark's going on?"

"Liar...you are dead...I saw you..."

"What the hell? Freak! I am deleting you..."

"I know who you really are...I am going to find you and then..."

"...do what...baby? Kill me like you dreamed about doing? You sithspawn..."

...static...

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

Teyla followed Baros up to his room, expecting to see the gruesome remains of a fresh crime scene. Instead, a strange story began to unfold, and by the end of his conversation with Fino, Teyla had lowered and reholstered her blaster.

"I don't think you're crazy..." she sighed, "But, where are the authorities you called? The body? I mean...there would be blood...something." The obvious answer pointed to stress, lack of sleep, perhaps a relapse of the trauma caused by a trigger?

If the Thisstlebark Killer was here, it would have been impossible for him to clean up a crime scene that quickly, without anyone noticing. He would have had to blunder through the halls, dragging a dead body.

Teyla didn't want to point the finger, but she didn't know what to think.

"...Unfortunately, without any evidence, there's nothing that can be done."

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Baros' eyes, blood shot and frantic, darted about looking for something to incriminate anyone other than himself. He opened doors, draws, everything that slid, swung or pulled open. Items in rattled, some sounded to have broken. There had to be something...anything.

"The datapad...it's not mine..."

He ran, shoulder brushing (almost pushing) against Teyla, outside the front door. The datapad was gone...

"Teyla...its gone...the datapad...it was here...you saw it...he is..."

Baros retreated into the room, finding shelter behind the doorway.

"...here...he is here...you saw it. I know you saw it."

Pulling off his commlink, Baros scrolled through his old calls. A call to the CSF did not show up on his log. "What...I called them...I spoke to them...I know I did..."

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

Teyla looked on as Baros frantically scrolled, her mouth pushed to one side and arms crossed. After a moment she walked forward and stood behind him, peering over his shoulder at the list of recent calls.

"There's nothin-" what?

"Maybe you thought that you did, but.." Quickly, Teyla stepped around to his right side and grabbed his arm, pulling it long and shoving back the sleeve. She stared for a long moment and shook her head. This was something! This...Teyla let go of a breath. She believed him.

"Baros, you have an injection point right here." she pointed out. "When were you drugged?"

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

"Drugged?" Baros looked at his arm, there was nothing odd that he saw, "I wasn't drugged...I saw it...I tell you...I saw it..."

His own first words to Teyla came to mind as he swore black and blue that he had not been drugged. "I was drugged...paralyzed...but that was after I saw her...I was alone, I do not take drugs..."

...anymore...

He was here. This he knew. But he also knew that there was a dead woman in his apartment, but reality said differently. "I am not staying here..."

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

"I-- hey, wait!"

Like a bolt, Baros was gone. Teyla darted after him, trying to keep up. "I'm not saying that you didn't see what you saw...I'm just saying that it's very possible that what you saw was, in fact, induced. Certain drugs can open your mind up to suggestion, and," Teyla huffed. "It makes sense."

They came to the turbo lift and the doors opened, she stepped inside with Baros and listened to the doors snap shut behind them. Teyla knew that he didn't necessarily consider her a friend, but she still had a feeling of wanting to be there to help him get through this.

But first thing, first.

"Do you have a plan? Somewhere safe that you can go?" the doors opened to the downstairs lobby, "I could go with you, just in case."

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

"Who do I talk to about this?" Baros said out loud, but really to himself. He had no one close enough to him that he could talk with. His assistants would not know what to do with this. He would not want to put their life in danger either. There was no one. His family could not handle this.

The hum of the turbolift continued.

There was a long pause as he rattled his brain for possibilities.

"To be honest...I would feel safest if I stayed with you."

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

"Don't tell anybody, it's the best way to protect your friends and family." She said gently, wondering what he must be thinking and going through as he stared off.

Teyla wasn't sure if she should try to comfort him or remain aloof, so she tried to be understanding, offering a weak attempt of a smile. "I'm sorry that this is happening," She told him, "but you can trust me to get you through it. I can keep you safe."

Truth be told, Teyla was just as afraid as Baros was. But he wasn't equipped with the training on how to deal with a situation like this, and she needed to be someone he could depend on, someone to anchor to.

"I only have a small studio, but there's a couch you can sleep on." If one thing was certain, it was that they both needed rest.

When the turbolift stopped, she allowed Baros to leave first, then also stepped out into the basement garage behind him.

For a half second she didn't move and watched him from behind, burying down her inner fears. Although un-sanctioned, Teyla was taking this on as a mission. She would do whatever it took to protect him, but wasn't sure if that resolve came because that was her duty, or because he was -well, relatively- living a normal life, one that she didn't see herself as ever having.

------------------

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

The ride to Teyla's apartment was taken up with compete silence. In his mind, Baros retraced his steps and sought answers to the nights events. Was he going crazy? There had been a lot of pressure recently, but that was nothing that general zeitgeist of Corellia was experiencing. Surely he had not 'snapped'. The man he saw was real. The things that he said, were really said. Surely.

Sal-Soren had never felt so weak and helpless in his life. He was used to working social scenes and making things happen in aristocracy. He was no fighter. No warrior. This was not his area of expertise. Why had he stuck his nose in where it did not belong? Why had this Thistlebark Killer not died on the day of the rift?

So many thoughts coursing through his mind, so many in fact that when the door to Teyla's studio slid open, the scene before him did not really sink in right away. The opposite was clearly true for Teyla as she saw and reacted the sight immediately.

Beep Boop

"What have you done to me baby?"

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

"Oh....my god." Bits of glass lay shattered on the carpet floor, surrounding the body of Fino who was face first in the carpet. There was blood everywhere, mixed with what looked to be flayed chunks of tissue. Teyla ventured further inside and tucked her foot beneath the body, rolling her onto her backside. There was no arguing whether or not she was alive, not with a hole the size of a gravity ball in the middle of her stomach. Teyla looked up, slipping the blaster from its holster, noticing a glob of viscera dripping off one of her table chairs.

"Baros. I need you to call this in. N--"

Beeoooonggg

Teyla walked to the open window, a swarm of officer vehicles lit up the first three stories and within minutes they were surrounding her, blaster rifles fixed on her as the target.

"DROP YOUR WEAPON!" One shouted, seemingly overlooking Baros entirely.

She silently obliged and put up her hands to show that she was cooperating, the metal of her blaster clicking against the floor as it dropped.

The swarm move in, quickly snatching her arms and clapping them with stun cuffs.

"Teyla Ee'everwest, you're under arrest."

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

The blur of activity had seen Baros bundled against his will into the nearest squad speeder. It was not without a little roughing up and stun baton though. He was not keen on being separated from Teyla. He cried out for her innocence, that it was a set up and something about the Thistlebark Killer. No one paid attention to him, except for the oddly well informed cameraman that snapped a picture of him being pushed into the speeder.

As the craft sped towards the precinct, Baros realized that his whole life was unraveling. That image, it would go out tot he public. They would see him as some crazed criminal. Was this the Killer's plan? Was he having fun at Baros' expense? The terror of the whole experience had somewhat overwhelmed Baros' better judgment, but as he focused on the hum of the speeder a resolve crept over him. He would not be destroyed. He would not go down with a fight. He would not be weak. Not anymore. The first step in not being weak, was to take control back, as much as he could. First, control of himself.

He tapped on his commlink. A message sent to each of his assistants. They were each given a simple task to do, something that seemed innocuous, and by itself had no seeming relevance to anything that was going on here. Except the one thing that had to be dealt with directly by him. He needed to find out who that photographer was.

------------------------​

"Thank you for your statement Master Sal-Soren...please wait here until you are released."

Surely Teyla would not be convicted. She would have no motive. No time to do it. There was something more at play, and surely everyone could see it. Baros had left the events of the night out of the discussion, and had made out as though Teyla and he were coming back from getting acquainted more intimately at his apartment. His movement would be able to be tracked via his comm...there was no point in lying about where he was. Hopefully, Teyla would work the same angle. This Thistlebark Killer has connections. This much was clear. Connections perhaps in the CSF? There were surely people in the force that would be more easily manipulated than ever given the state of their world.

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

"As I've said," Teyla insisted, pushing the hair off her forehead in exasperation. "We had left Baros' apartment and he was walking me home, I was not there during the time her murder took place. The accusations placed by your anonymous informant were just bits of falsely fed information."

Finnley Milan, an officer she'd never met before, sat adjacent to Teyla, jotting down some notes, "Mhmm...And are you aware that Miss Fino had relations with Mr. Sal-Soren?"

"No, I've told you everything." Teyla extended her arms across the table, holding her wrists upside down, "and I'm done answering questions. You have nothing to hold me on."

"I have all I need." he replied, and with eerie calmness, the detective unlocked her cuffs. "But you're free to go...For now." He grinned up at her, unnerving, cynical almost.

Teyla pulled them into her body and began to rub at her wrists where the cuffs had begun to chafe. When she had complained about them earlier, the detention officer made them even tighter, a passive aggressive attitude of punishment some of the harder officers liked to use to imply guilt.

She didn't say anything more though, and rushed out, a dark feeling in the pit of her stomach growing, making her feel eager to find Baros and leave before this turned into an even greater fiasco. She ignored the silent stares sent at her from the officers in her old precinct, likely because of their shock of her involvement.

She made her way out into the reception, and her blue eyes scanned the rows of seats, finding Baros, relieved that he'd already been released. When they were both taken into custody, Teyla had been worried for his safety, and she was relieved to see he was alright. Something clearly was amiss, but neither of them would get the answers they needed here.

"The charges were dropped, they're letting us both go. Are you ready? I am. Let's get out of here."

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

--------------------------------------​

The evening had progressed to the point that it was getting closer to sun up than it was to sun down. Baros had taken Teyla to a nearby motel and organized a room in which they could at least regroup, refresh and decompress before making some plans. He needed to stay out of the spotlight, and Teyla was probably needing to stay away from people in her old workplace. Either way, rest was needed.

The room they ended up with was less opulent than he was used too. The large open plan living area dropping two steps down into a sweeping crescent shaped settee. The settee looked out over the night sky of Coronet, the chunks of Corellia in orbit about the divided world giving the view an eerie resonance of menace. Two rooms went off to the left, with the open plan kitchen to the right. Baros quickly wandered into the bedroom, and from there into the en suite, leaving the main bathroom available to Teyla. Some thirty minutes later, Baros walked out shirtless, bare foot, and wrapped in a towel.

Teyla did not seem to be about yet, but he could hear the sonic shower still quietly humming in the bathroom. "Damn..."

He did not know if he would ever feel safe again. A constant unease rested on him as he felt that any moment could bring trauma. It was a feeling that he had spent months getting over after the last event with the Thistlebark Killer. It was something that he would approach differently this time. He would approach it head on, and end this...yet...he was definitely afraid.

Crack

Baros stopped and looked down. Without thinking he seemed to have pulled out a frying pan and cracked open an egg. Perhaps the drugs were giving him some residual short term memory issues. "Guess we're eating..."

[member="Teyla Ee'everwest"]

 

[Amz]

Teyla was so exhausted that she practically dragged herself to the bed when they got to the hotel, but even so, rest hadn't come easily. The gravity of the situation weighed heavily on her mind, and virtually the two of them had been pushed into a corner. There was corruption within, and without. Luckily, Baros had resources and connections they'd be able to use, so that was something.

Throwing her legs over the side of the bed, she tossed aside the covers and stood up, padding over to the nightstand where her blaster and comlink lay patiently waiting for her. Teyla was used to the uncertainties, the rollercoaster rides; her life was a series of ups and downs. At the moment, though, she wanted to pretend that the problems of last night just didn't exist.

Outside the door she could hear the sound of footsteps, Baros was already up apparently. Grabbing her blaster, Teyla cracked the door and slipped out, walking quietly across to the bathroom where she disappeared with a bundle of clothes tucked in her arms. Several minutes later she emerged, hair slightly tousled and dressed in a pair of shorts and an oversized button down shirt, barefoot, and pistol strapped to her upper thigh.

She followed her nose to the kitchen where Baros was, "Need any help with that?" she asked hoping to make herself useful, while also trying to see what he was cooking.

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]