Eleven Minus Ten (Jared Ovmar)

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Annaj was the kind of place Ahani got lost in, too many cities looked like the cities here and for the longest tme the Echani immortal walked the streets tapping at signs and shoving people into speeder traffic, before realizing that speeders were up high and she was being little more than a bully.

So off she went to find a place for a drink. Or shoes. She could use a pair of shoes for nice. The spaceport where Ahani had docked her yacht the Isdihar had a private bar, which she'd slid into with the persuasiveness of a smile and a wave of her hand. Members Only was for chumps, she was a member of her own special club. Swilling a glass of exceedingly good whiskey, she rubbed the back of her neck and peered around the pristine club. Two days till Erryn was ready to go, and she was back in CIS space.

"More whiskey. And a sandwich. The special or whatnot. Meat, vegetables, bread. Sandwich."

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Ahani Najwa"]

Last thing I was about to do was go and look for Ahani. That ain’t my style, Manu had told me she might be able to help me on my quest. I trusted Manu for some reason, takes something out of me to admit that, but I do. So when I heard she was in town, my agents were sent for her.

Oh I knew she was mentally unstable, so it was just one guy with a simple message.

“The High Lord of Homeland Security would like to request a meeting, Manu is a good friend.”

I ain’t in the business of being overly subtle, I needed her in my office. Dropping the name of her son might make it easier.

Let’s see if it works.

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

She could smell it, the delicate vegetables swarming fresh meat. The bun, oh it was no mere bun! It was a pretzel bun with a hard crunchy crust and the insides of legend. The best sandwich she would ever have, and as Ahani went to take her first bite, [member="Jared Ovmar"]'s buddy infringed on her privacy. "Shoo fly."

She waved her hand and sent the man careening into a group of businessmen waiting for their yacht to be ready for interstellar travel. "Mmmhhmhmhm!!" The sandwich! THE SANDWICH! Ahani shoved it down with all the polite etiquette of a smuggler in a mercy tent and drained it down with a gulp of whiskey. Then. . . the miraculous happened... there was another half of sandwich! Ahani picked it up and walked over to the broken man. "Sure, where's he at? Hey. You. Wake up. I didn't . . aw, did you get impaled by a pencil? Get up you hoser, it's only a pencil! Be a man! Or if you can't handle that, you'll never make woman."

Ahani picked the guy up and shoved him out the door, following his whimpering form as he mourned his collapsed lung. Once she got to Jared's office, she bit into her sandwich half and waved, splashing her body down in the nearest comfy chair. "Ahani Najwa, Master Obsidian blah. blah, Mother of important kids. Who're you, funny face?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Ahani Najwa"]

Cold blue eyes met her, ain’t no amusement in them or my funny face. She really wasn’t the smartest bunch, but I couldn’t do much about that now. I needed that ass to work with me, so you gotta be at least a tad pleasant.

Good thing I at that point, didn’t know she karked up one of my men, might have gotten all mindfark on her and extracted all the info I needed manually.

“Jared Ovmar. Your son… is a known acquaintance. He told me you could help me with a little something I have.”

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

"Probably can." Ahani chewed and swallowed, kicking one foot then the other over the arm of the chair. "Wait, my son mentioned me to you?" A tear stroked at Ahani's eye, a tear of parental glee which disappeared as quickly as it had come. "My Manu's not embarrassed by his karked-up-insane mother? My faith in that boy has been redeemed. Redeemed I tell you!!"

If the great [member="Jared Ovmar"] could mind warp Ahani Najwa more than she'd already lived through he might just make her sane. She might be better off, her mind was a bag of dragons eating Nexu and she was allergic to Nexu. "So you're either trying to take over a planet with limited resources, have a ground invasion to plan, or you need some form of information... weapons expert information? Maybe not. Soemthing Manu couldn't tell you that I can. So! What do you want to know about Isley Fecking Verd?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Ahani Najwa"]

I think my head shifted slightly as she dropped Isley’s name as if it was a damn candy during trick or treat. Think I might even have blinked at least one, she was a quick one I could give her at least that.

Might be that was the whole point of being batpoodoo crazy, your mind worked differently than normal people. Maybe, I wouldn’t have an easy time of frecking up her mind after all. What’s with her current mental state already. Oh well, let’s put that in a ‘maybe later’-box for now and see where this goes.

“Your son told me you have been in Verd’s castle multiple times. I need.. hmm.. incentive to.. visit the place for myself. A precise list to be exact of what it has in store for prospective... acquisitioners.”

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Giggles burst from Ahani's lips as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. His face! His face was too priceless, she'd chop it off and hang it on her wall if it didn't degrade over time. Wall-art was so hard to keep fresh since she woke up. Her sandwich finished, Ahani dusted off her hands and backflipped off the chair.

"You want Verd's Castle? Gonna kill his hippo of a wife 'cause if that's a yes I am in for the 'Goddess of the Deep' or whatever that Shi'ido Ch'nthi calls herself now." Colour her jilted, colour her insane but the whips and wails of her presence within the Force was a scatterwauled open hologram of considerable fragmentation and passion. If the Echani Master ever got her head together - just how dangerous would she become?

"There's a clutch of Nexu, I hate them but they belonged to his baby sister until she ran away. Sad business. The Nexu are trained. Little [member="Ginnie Ordo"] did a fine job for the time she was there. She's an Ordo now, not a Verd. Smart kid, for a deaf thing." As she talked she moved, pacing through Jared's office. "There's some holocrons, ah... hold on. Do you like Annaj? Fun place? I'm resurrecting my daughter-in-law and need a place to go for lunch after... Holocron of Lord XoXaan, Tascollan Holocron, a bunch of scrolls on the Aura of Uneasiness, Knotters of Entrails - a personal favourite, Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut, Samuro's works, King Adas' Datacron, Force Drain, Droch Connection, umm he's got a fully stocked and loaded Sith Alchemical Forge, some of the materials are priceless and the equipment's awesome. He made me my sword Anandi in there. Made a couple other things, too. Like a Tomahawk, suits of armour, lightsabers with advanced features, there's crystal supplies and raw materials, his clone meat daughters who deserve to die for being born - yeah I'm a hypocrite, I know..."

Skipping over to his desk, Ahani rubbed her hair. "Disciples of Twilight, stuff on the Fallanassi, Chu'unthor, Galactic Lore - remembered that one 'cause they rhyme. Language is so fickle a mistress. Jel Shay business, Advanced Lightsaber Construction Datacron, Lightsaber forms and combat, which according to me he needed to practice a lot more. Dark side commentary, Light side capabilities - that one makes me queasy, but Manu would love it, powers of the Force, Compendium of Galactic History, ah, a bunch more. There's a lot there. Course the place is also built upon a failed Sith Temple turned mass grave so there're spirits, ghouls and freaky-deaky side trails that go off into nothing in the lower parts where he keeps his stuff. . . I can draw up a map of the castle from memory if you like. Would that work for you? What're you going to do with my son? Manu needs friends and it's about time he gave up this Light business. Killing his father didn't work, oh I didn't do that his step-father did. . . Come to think the man was a douche. Like Isley! So! When do we burn his stuff?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Ahani Najwa"]

This time my head definitely tilted itself into an almost unnoticeable angle, this woman was.. something else. I mean, I ain’t the most stable guy around, but people never notice that. Because I keep that poodoo locked under all kinds of fortresses and walls, you ain’t wanna have people snoop around in my mind. Would probably put fekking Matsu to shame.

But I digress.

This was -everything- that I needed, and more.

Salem had given me a lot of details and intel, but this… yes. This woman had been inside of the castle, she might be crazy but she wasn’t stupid.

“That map.. might come in handy. Anything else I need to know? Defenses, armies of destruction and tempest hiding around? Droids? Passwords? Magical traps?”

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

"Sure, but what do I get other than the satisfaction of taking down the great mind warped Isley Verd? Oh, you'll need to know: Isley's not alone in his head. He's got thousands of souls locked in there for some reason. . . what was it? Oh yeah! He wanted to take on some big Sith Monster guy, so his dominant personality is actually Darth Metus. Metus is deadly and unforgiving. Metus is a force you don't want to see. Trust me, the guy's the reason I know the castle so well. Useful! As it turns out."

Ahani grabbed a stylus and tapped at Jared's holoprojector for a free mapping tool. Her fingers worked fast and her stylus launched in the air, marking lines, entrance and exit points, guard posts, a tactician's blueprint telekinetically rendered by the pen. The woman kept walking around the room, peering at objects and empty spaces as if there should have been objects there. Her eyes watered, she grabbed her temple and fought back a surge of chuckles at mental images which projected outward - none too nice. "I'd been an officer, once" she said, her voice a strangled quiet. Lilting, from a dream. "The Krystallsøvn eats my mind. A bit more each day... Ne'tra is heavily fortified with Sith magics, and battle droids. There are soldier contingents housed here, here and here in the town surrounding it. Make sure Verd himself, or his wife isn't there unless you want a dirty fight. If the kids are there, kill them. No mercy, no conversation no chances. Just make them die, or their parents will stop at nothing. You're going to be hacking through hundreds of droids, and the tunnels and halls themselves look deceptively similar. You can get turned around faster than Phoebe turns her backside to her husband so keep a compass and location tracker. If his ships are in dock, take them out to avoid his chasing you down. The Knights Obsidian - some are nearby. Some aren't. Things are tricky there lately. Feena Mason made sure of that, which is a pity I wanted to watch her bleed out for being an idiot. Take Manu with you. He'll know how to get through the magic, or find Ginnie Ordo. She'll do it for her Nexu, or just to get the rest of her stuff. The kid's twelve, but she's a true Mandalorian. She's faster at slitting a throat than I am, but that's cause I like to have fun once in a while."

The map continued to form itself, Ahani peered at it and squinted. She needed another angle, so she walked up the wall and sat on the ceiling, her hand calling the stylus back. "I'm missing something..... the ruins. Hold on. Bird's eye view works wonders for the brain."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Ahani Najwa"]

I looked on as the woman continued to draw the map and give more information on the stronghold. She was useful, smart and very fekking dangerous. But her insanity was a problem, ain’t an useful tool if you gotta be on the lookout for collapsed lungs and all that.

For a while I considered what I was about to offer. I wondered if she was one of those few who actually knew about their own.. affliction, or if I was gonna open a a bag of rotten goods.

Decided to go with it anyway, can’t blame a guy for trying.

“You helped me a lot. Want me to fix your head for you? Least I can do.”

Never said I was subtle. I could be when I wanted to, but I didn’t want to be right now.

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Ahani walked down the wall and put her feet back on the floor, stylus in hand. She stared at [member="Jared Ovmar"] blankly, the book which had ben opened to no pages within. Could he? From what she'd gleaned from her son Jared was a master mentalist and he was no Jedi. The Sith poisoning her brain had cut it to ribbons. The glitterstim and deathsticks didn't help, her mind was a cacophony of patch-jobs in a woman who should have become one with the Force hundreds of years ago.

"My mind is an old one, Jared Ovmar. I've existed for hundreds of years, most of them in a vice of torturous loved ones and salvation moments. You can fix that? Give me my mind back, the mind that conquered planets and caused uncountable destruction in its place. . . you would give a killer back its claws, the General its troops and the Sith their Darth Gyaumchem. . . yes I want my mind back. I mourn for it! I stare at my face and know it's not my face it's been taken from me OF COURSE I WANT IT BACK!" She yelled, the words reverberating around the room and striking at objects in a wickedly hallowed reverberance. "Can it be done? Then do it."