Maple grinned at Matsu's answer and headed out of the hidden chamber, retracing the path they had taken through the abandoned, ruined sublevel. She felt the weight of dead Jedi saturating the cracks in the walls. So much she had left behind. So much of her old aspirations...changed.
She had tried not to pay attention to the feeling of history, the ruins of it, as she walked through that history's literal subconscious. Her head seemed mercifully silent as she processed how easily she interacted with Matsu. What was it about this Jedi that lowered her defenses? Maple generally just went with the flow these days, but she had always had an apprehension towards most Jedi ever since Mimban. She didn't approach normally of her own accord but the situation had seen them work together. Along the path, out of the enclave, the bounty hunter decided to take care of her own business at the same time, to avoid return trips. She was making excellent time as it was so she could be thrifty. The green of Dantooines woods gave her some momentary peace as she traced her way to the bunker. The kinrath that had been surrounding the general area had dispersed, retreating underground to recover, perhaps. Perhaps since most of the poachers and thieves were dead and Maple and Matsu were really just passing through...the animals decided to split.
Clearing away the bunker's overgrowth of vines, she swiped the grime off the panel and powered the small door lock up. She had had the doors and system reinforced to survive inactivity long ago.
The ancient doors creeked and slid open and Maple strode inside, feeling the weight of her own past in here, all the disillusionment. And the light smatterings of the Jedi Master's aura in dark, lightless halls. Her rainy day supply. Matsu had added to it.
Maple pulled open some magnetic doors within the claustrophobic structure by pressing the switch on the door grips. This opened to a simple onyx colored chamber, where she kept her rainy day supply.
Her old robes were not here...they had been destroyed on Mimban, literally clawing the eyes out of her final target. Inside were backups. Spares she had never used.
All except one.
Maple placed her handprint on the scanner guarding a stone box. After the laser on the glass panel read her print, the partition on the undecorated box slid open, revealing her old weapon.
It looked unremarkable, save for light engravings near the hidden emitters. On at the bottom of the cane shaft and another hidden on a handle that gently tapered at one end. She grabbed it, feeling its familiar weight.
"Tell me," cooed a pleasant, slightly husky tone, that made her wheel around behind her.
The woman was slightly taller than Maple, with very black hair that ended in a messy, short bob. Her eyes glinted purple, her fair skin having an unpleasant palor in the near darkness. Her curvy figure was clad in a leather body-glove of an off-white color that remined her of an aged padded cell in an insane asylum. Her eyes were a nearly iridescent purple that was breathtaking to her, because it was so familiar and she did not understand why. Her smile on a face that the deadly perfection of a femme fatale. Maple knew that look. It was a look that had made her want to stop being a Jedi.
"...how does it feel, holding it again?" The woman, asked, a sultry, husky voice that for some reason repelled Maple. The woman's beauty was...repellant. And Maple could not feel anything from the woman.
"It feels...like it never left my hands..." Maple admitted, staring at the woman and backing away slightly. The woman continued smiling knowingly. Maple stared back.
"You're on private property,"
"This dead stone box?" The woman snorted her smile, though unchanging, somehow growing less pleasant by the second.
"Its my box."
"Of course it is. A woman has to keep her little black dresses somewear." The woman was standing in the doorway of the chamber.
"You...you have some business with me? With Matsu?"
The woman kept her smile, taking a step forward. Maple took a step back, though kept her cane inactive. It registered in the back of her mind. Black hair. She had black hair.
The woman leaned forward smile melting away into nothing frighteningly fast. Maple forgot to breath, grip on her old weapon gone knuckle white.
She breathed three simple words, a hint of a smile making the corners of her mouth curve upward.
"Welcome back, Uri."
Maple swung her saber cane but the woman leaned out of the way effortlessly, before kicking her in the stomach against the wall chamber and forcing Maple's own cane to her throat. There was a savage sneer as she pressed the cane harder against her throat to prevent her from screaming.
"Ah, so you got my gift." The Woman hissed as Maple was on the verge of blacking out. "So lovely in person...I was afraid you wouldn't be lucid enough to do this. But your madness progressess excellently.
Maple tried to thrash out of a terrifyingly strong grip. The Woman began smiling again at her struggle.
"I knew leaving a few corpses would draw you out. Just as I knew you'd come here to Dantooine. But you are not ready. I could end it right now. Your flesh burning under my lightning. Me breathing in the sweet scent of you as you cook...and then...and then..." the Woman trailed before ending in a grin and dropping Maple with a left hook. Maple hit the floor, disoriented. "So much we must put you through. I can hardly decide which method of breaking you would empower us both the most. I shall delight in letting you unveil it."
"Get spaced." Maple uttered in a whisper, choking., pulling out her tranq pistol and pulling the trigger.
The Woman smiled as it came up empty.
She ripped the pistol out of Maple's hands, examining it, sliding it knowingly down her stomach while staring at the bounty hunter, who was getting up, or trying to. Getting air in was hard.
The Woman tossed Maple the pistol.
"Rookie mistake. I thought you were a marksman. Don't worry. I'll think of a way to get you up to speed Maple, I swear." The Woman said playfully but there was an undercurrent of cruelty that seethed like lava.
"You have such pretty green eyes." The Woman said under her breath before walking out of the chamber. Maple had finally got out her rifle to bear and rushed out of the chamber back into the woods.
"MIND-BINDER!" Maple shouted as hard as possible. "You think you can HIDE? I WAS THEIR BEST!"
She looked through her scope, keeping track of her periphery. There was no sign of the woman.
"I 'was' their best." Maple said tiredly after twenty minutes of searching. Nothing. Not even tracks.
After getting control of her adrenaline, she headed back into the armory. She packed the spare armors, including a Va Stone, and a Ghostfire, along with a few other things that had not been there before and stuffed it onto an old repulsor cart, knowing that whether it had been real or not, the purple eyed woman was not returning. In short time, she made it back to her ship and flew it back to the enclave, unable to stop shaking for five minutes before she could even grip the controls and activate the vessel.
She didn't leave the cockpit once she landed, taking a few minutes to compose herself before going to meet [member="Matsu Ike"].
OOC: We should wrap it up with your next post. I might make one more post, depending on your reply ic.