Just A Sucker For Pain

[Connor Harrison]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEbG1yCBGWg

Unknown Coordinates
Axxila, D'Astan Sector​

The slimy Hutt had at least given her something. A name of some renowned Sorceress who could level cities with the blink of an eye, break governments with words and command legions with a flick of her hand. This woman was all about doing things in a just, fair and ruthless way. No mercy; no second chance.

Standing at the base of a building that looked like some steam-punk chapel, dwarfed by a taller building to the left and a hovertrain track circling it, the place was looking wonderfully haunting and deceptive - it was probably larger inside than it looked and led to some other underground cavern or suburbia.

Matsu Xiangu, Sith Sorceress. That's all she had, well, that and this location that had taken her 3 hours to find. Crossing the bridge as specks of snow fell around the unknown city on Axxila, Xana Lau had her white and black jacket zipped up tight. Her katana fixed by her side cutting through the flakes of snow that drifted over it, and her ivory mask was a good barrier from the chilly wind.

Looking at the building, it was quiet. Eerily quiet. Xana span a slow 360 to get her bearings, catching sight of an orange glow in the sky; engines lifting some cargo cruiser up and away into the night sky. Apart form the faint roar, only her boots and the whistling wind could be heard. Eventually she came to the street and didn't need to look for speeders as she crossed; it literally felt like this was a ghost city and she were the only visitor. Maybe even this Xiangu was a myth, and the Hutt had decided to bring Xana Lau to an execution instead. Typical Hutt.

As steam rose from grids in the street, Xana walked casually up the large stone stairs to the huge, gothic doors, one of which was snapped off the hinge. As if some Sorceress would be hiding out here. Craning her neck to see the massive building touch the sky, she shrugged and sidled through the broken doors into the large hall.

She didn't call out - no point letting whoever was waiting know she was here. Two floors initially that led into the depths of the building; pipes, pillars and small tables were all that she could see. How strange. Steam rose again inside, and drops could be heard from the rafters above.

Her hand clenched around the hilt of her katana as she glared all around, looking for something; anything.

She'd be dammed if that Hutt was going to get the last laugh today.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Hutts were a rather disgusting people and she was sad to have to interact with them during her time on Axxila, but they had been a necessary evil. With the Triumvirate dead and true freedom restored to the Atrisian Sith lady, it was time to begin building something entirely her own. That required contacting less savory individuals for her man in Coruscant’s underworld, Hades Michae. She did - after all - have certain skills he didn’t possess, a persuasion that would get her much farther, much faster.

But it seemed they’d already given away her position. She’d thought she’d made her threats clear when she’d warned that if they were to betray her in even the smallest way they would regret it. Part of her wanted to sigh at the retribution she would now have to waste her time meteing out.

But she would not suffer anyone who did not respect her, and they would have to be punished.

However, she held the sigh as the intruder in question made the whisper of a sound. She was exceptionally quiet. Had Matsu not been possessed of the ability to feel the signature she gave off the stranger may have passed entirely unnoticed. However the new woman’s thoughts were much, much louder than her footsteps.

Matsu wasn’t sure what the place she’d claimed as her lair had once been. It was some strange gathering of pipes, old machinery, rooms filled with dated furniture, and dark hallways that hadn’t seen light in years. It was filled with preternatural quiet that soothed Matsu and thus she’d taken to it over the more lush accommodations more expected of her. She walked from the dark under the lip of a balcony extending over a hallway, eyes now permanently ringed by amber ticking along in to follow the newcomer. Like the spider she likened herself too she watched, waited for prey to move so far in to her web that they could not outrun her to escape. Only when the girl was stuck did Matsu unfold from the shadows.

“I hate cliches, but this seems like a strange place for a girl to be wandering,” she murmured in to the stranger’s mind, her hands folded together in front of her as she slowly walked forward. There was no threat implied. Not yet.

[member="Xana Lau"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

At that moment, Xana's skin went ice cold and her heart jumped out of her chest. A slight gasp escape her parted lips. Her muscles went weak for a split-second. She had experienced fear and shock.

The girl turned at the sound of the voice...but it wasn't a voice, was it? It was inside her head. But she knew where to look. To her right slightly, emerging from the shadows, came Matsu Xiangu. The Sorceress was just how Xana expected in appearance and posture, except there was something about her. Something that stank like...death. And Xana tried her best not to stare at the horrific mangle of flesh and muscle where he mouth should be. How she wanted to look, and see all the detail like the rips and tears of tissue and broken bone. However, she restrained herself and adjusted her stance to be a little more on the defensive, hand never leaving her katana.

"Forgive me, Miss Xiangu, but this too seems like a strange place for a Sorceress to be in hiding."

She didn't try to offer a small smile, like this was all sweet and well. She didn't know anything about this woman except she had power and contacts, and Xana may find a place with her. But doing what, she had no idea from this initial meeting.

"My name is Xana Lau and I come here seeking your employment."

Xana didn't waste time, and didn't submit to theatricals.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

No one really knew her anymore. There were two other beings in the entire galaxy and beyond that could read her, sense her bones. But it was said that all great women kept two or three of their secrets and Matsu was no exception. It was lonely sometimes. But she liked lonely. Being sassed was also rare and though she didn’t sense sarcasm so much as a truthful observation of irony.

Matsu laughed, a sound that might ring off the inside of the other woman’s skull.

She appreciated the straight-forward approach, rolling what was left of her tongue along what was left of the inside of her cheek. Employment - now that was a funny way of putting it. She wasn’t sure what the stranger had heard nor what exactly she intended on doing in Matsu’s service, but she’d at least been able to do the legwork required to find the Sith Lady. Bodies always had a use, alive or dead, and therefore Matsu had no reason to immediately turn her away. But neither did she intend to let her survive if she was useless. She already had a job she needed help with but she would find no help in the weak.

So she reached out one hand, curling delicate fingers in towards her metal palm as she pulled men from the ground. They were illusions of course, but in the tradition of Sith Sorcery they were no smoke and mirrors - hit them and one would feel the imperviousness of flesh, the danger of something as corporeal as the fist with with they struck. There was a sense of a test, that they were conjured for more than a simple extermination. If this Xana was going to be straightforward so would Matsu, setting five of her creatures armed with knives and swords to see exactly what this stranger was made of.

​

[member="Xana Lau"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Xana was glad when the ground started to open in pockets around her, releasing 5 armed un-dead warriors. Glad because she had been given a test to prove herself and not simply cut to ribbons of had her head popped off by the Sorceress after talking back. That meant there was hope.

Semi-circle formation. Good. Xana stayed still and unsheathed her katana and held it in her right hand; left always kept free for defensive manoeuvres, mobility assistance or delivering g two handed blow when required. Without her thinking, her grey eyes seemed to bleed into a ghostly black, as if an etheral spirit had taken over her.

The first warrior to her right would be the quickest kill – as the horde sized up their victim, Xana wasted no time in swinging back and outwards with the blade in a well-aimed cut across the neck which led to a head rolling forward onto the floor followed by the clanging of a sword and a thump of dead flesh.

An attack came from the front, and Xana deflected and used the momentum of the warrior hitting the ground to bring down her katana and cleave the head straight off. Two down.

Rolling across the falling warrior’s back to get some space away from the lurching dead, Xana snarled and gripped the hilt with two hands for combat. A large knife came at her, and deflected with a sharp spark, before ducking a sword hitting a wooden section of wall behind her.

Breaking from the attacking two, she ran and seemed to go one way but span on her heel and crouched with a violent strike upwards into the belly of the third warrior, slicing his torso diagonally in two as if she had cut warm butter.

A pipe was thrown and hit her square in the back, knocking her forward with a gasp and she wasted no time picking herself up to face the final two warriors, knife and sword dirty with grime and dried blood. The knife-man came first, and as his hand hit the floor from being severed, the sword-man came forward and grabbed Xana’s arm, twisting it so the katana was pointing down.

Gritting her teeth, she kicked off against knife-man and span upwards, twisting both their arms forcing him to let go and wrapped her legs around his disfigured head and leant backwards with a cry, bringing them both to the ground in a move that would have snapped his neck were he not already dead.

In the resulting crash, Xana took the knife from the ground and impaled it deep into the bubbling mass of the warriors head, pinning him to the floor and letting the brain mucus flow out.

One left.

The un-armed – and handed – warrior stomped towards her, but with a forward roll to scoop up her katana, she executed another roll towards him and raised the blade upwards as his stumped arm came down. The blade pierced his chin, passing through the brain stem and back out through his soft skull like a horrific skewer. He gargled on the blade, and Xana held it there, remaining in control, and turned her head at an awkward angle to look at the Sorceress as she allowed herself to now catch her breath. The Sith was probably unmoved by the show that had taken less than a minute to begin and end in a bloody mess across her hall.

Her black eyes faded back to grey.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Matsu had survived more than her fair share of wars. She’d tangled one-on-one with Jedi Grandmasters, other Sith Lords, and force-users of every dilution in between. And yet she would never be a warrior in the traditional sense - not in the graceful way displayed by Xana. However Matsu was surrounded by physical fighters. The two people she’d chosen to spend the rest of her life loyal to were some of the most brutal warriors in the galaxy. She’d fought next to the armies of the One Sith in their glory, trained with legends like Ashin Varanin in her days with the Fringe. And her own son was turning in to something of a bull on the battlefield. She knew when she was looking at potential.

And yet she wasn’t the first, nor would she be the last, to come to Matsu offering herself and her services. Experience proved that most comers were desperately weak, even those that showed promise. They all ended up disappointing her in the end.

Still, Xana obviously had talent - and it would be wasteful to turn her away. She might at least be useful once or twice.

“I’m not sure what you think my employment entails,” she began, not sparing even a glance for her illusions as they dissolved back to ether. “But I can find a use for you.” She stopped, metal hands clasped lightly behind her back, a gaze predatory and amber ticking over Xana’s features and trying to piece together what she might look like behind the mask.

“But first, you will tell me who gave you my location.”
And then we will kill them.

[member="Xana Lau"]​