Mouth of the Beast (Alicia Dray)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

Ms. Drey-

Let me introduce myself: my name is Mara Merrill. Rave was my aunt. I inherited her files, and it's taken me some time to go through them. Your name came up several times, and I felt like I should reach out. Between the Gromas incident and the meeting at Tera Lush, your history with my aunt hasn't always been positive.

I'd like to meet with you. Frankly, given who I'm related to, I wouldn't be surprised if you declined, or if you thought I might carry on my aunt's feud. Merrills tend to be tenacious, but we also respect tenacity. I'd like to set your mind at ease about my intentions, and I'd like to get a sense of you. Your nature, your intentions, your inclinations, and whether I'll have to watch my back as Rave Merrill's heir.

Name a time and a place, and I'll be there. My schedule is flexible.

Mara D'Lessio Merrill

 

[Alicia Drey]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

//To Mara D'Lessio Merrill

I've been expecting a message like this for a long time. Truth me told, I've tried to find out what happened to your Aunt, but I couldn't find out. It's like she just disappeared. But I knew she would leave something behind, in case something happened to her. And it looks like you found it.

We can meet. Putting to bed- the things that happened between me and Rave- would make me feel a lot better. But I have a lot of questions. Things that your Aunt knew, that I want to know. I'm on Obradaan right now. You can come to me, or I can leave here, and come to you. But let's set some perimeters. We come alone.

Drey.\\

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

Obredaan sounds ideal. I'll hitch a ride with a corporate connection of mine. They're visiting the planet for an unrelated investment matter -- cortosis prospecting, I believe. For our meeting, I'll come alone.

As you might have guessed from my use of the past tense, my aunt is dead. She died saving a settlement on Dromund Kaas from eradication.Everything in her diaries and files indicates that she was well aware of certain techniques for eluding death, but would never have used them. Her early history and the choices of her later life both precluded return by those means.

I'm sure you understand if I won't bring direct access to to my aunt's files. That said, I'll pay close attention to her files, especially the notes involving you and your former associates. Hopefully, I'll be able to answer your questions.

Mara


The corporate connection was an Iron Crown Enterprises prospecting mission. Piecemeal Mandalorian expeditions sourced their cortosis from Obredaan on occasion, but the only permanent mining operation was Ri'ess-Emeritus -- and didn't Rave's files have a host of data on them. Clear on the other side of the planet, ICE was prospecting a cluster of half a dozen locations, three of which would receive prefab buildings and serious excavation rigs. Mara hitched a ride by virtue of being a shareholder. Usually a silent partner, to be sure, but still.

 

[Alicia Drey]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Alicia knew Ri'ess-Emeritus Industries as well. Intricately so, going back to the days that it had been Subach and the debacles that it had been involved in. It was now owned by an idiot- and that was putting it lightly- in the form of a weak, decadent man who seemed hell bent to go down with the Republic and drag with him all that Circe Savan had managed to build, or to put it better, save from the enemies she had created in dodgy business dealings, crude practices and several bad decisions.

Bad decisions. That was a proper and reasonable assessment to summarize the events that had transpired between Alicia Drey and Rave Merrill. All born out of an ancient ritual known as Kaggath, done in the halls of the Lords of the Fringe, when they had been at the pinnacle of strength and power along the Outer Rim Territories through the Mid Rim worlds. Revenge was a fickle thing, delivering unprecedented satisfaction to some and unbearable agony to others, entirely dependent on whether or not the avenger really had their heart in. In the case of Darth Pandeima, her heart had been in it, but the results hadn't gone her way. She had lost everything to Valok's prodigy the first time and had exposed her deepest, most darkest secrets on the second; and it was upon the second that Alicia had been dragged into her mess.

There wasn't many places for either of them to meet on Obredaan. Mostly covered by swamps, save for the few barracks that had been erected to house off world miners and the occasional Jin'ha, who learned to prefer the comfort of a reasonably warm bed in comparison to the hut or cave that they would normally inhabit, the world was most famous for it's Cortosis mines. It just so happened that Alicia owned one of those mines, after pulling out of Ri'ess-Emeritus for a large fee and a few trinkets. Spoils of a seminal life, one where she had lived under weakling.

So, Alicia stood outside of her mine- colloquially known as Drey's Mine- waiting for Mara's arrival.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

On one level, Mara was about to meet your average businessperson at a sleepy mine in a backwater swamp.

On another, thanks to Rave's files, she knew she was about to meet a genuine Sith Lord. The woman who'd faced Rave as an equal twice, and nearly destroyed her frigate 'Lethewalker' from the inside out. A Master who favored Force Repulse shockwaves, disruptor pistols, and powerful, effective sabre combat. And the woman who had fought Mara and the Brat Pack simultaneously, years ago.

For her part, Mara's precautions were fairly minimal. Her parents, Kaili Talith, and General Beyyr - her family - knew where she'd gone and who she was meeting. She wore her long coat, and kept her sabre at her belt. Anything more would be a provocation.

The ICE shuttle dropped her off just outside the mine's perimeter fence. She slogged the rest of the way on foot.

 

[Alicia Drey]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Alicia had forgotten about McYodas and the food fight that had essentially ended her participation in the Telti invasion. She didn't know that she was meeting with a woman who had embarrassed her alongside a new generation of Jedi, descendant of a woman that was, for all pretense and purposes, her greatest enemy. But she knew Rave Merrill, was aware- to a certain extent- that her potential new adversary could step into Rave's boots and continue a feud that had once resulted in the detonation of a nuclear warhead. Suffice to say, the lightsaber that hung on Alicia's hip was a comfortable weight. The lines were blurred now. Lives had crossed together. Different identities now converged to deal with the same foe. But how would she deal with this? Would she try and destroy Mara as Darth Ayra could or would she put to use the acumen, collected over two decades of dealings, negotiations and extortion, as Alicia Drey?

She hadn't seen a picture of Mara before, and although the blue haired woman seemed familiar (due to the aforementioned McYodas incident), Alicia didn't need to be Force-sensitive to know that this was Mara D'Lessio Merrill, who had reached out and contacted her to talk. But if she was anything like Rave, as Alicia knew and understood her, then it wasn't beyond this young woman to have deceived her into a false pretense so as to eliminate a potential foe before they got too dangerous.

Alicia crossed the remaining expanse that separated both women, not content to merely stand still and wait. She had patience- more patience than you could ever know or expect in a Lord of the Sith- but there was a time to wait and another to go on instinct. This wasn't just your average meeting. She had met your average Joe crime lord, businessman, Admirals, even a Commodore one time above Crina, but this was an enemy- a confrontation- and Alicia- no, Darth Ayra- was ready to put to bed Circe Savan's greatest mistake: letting the Merrill's continue their existence in a Galaxy that wasn't big enough for either side.

Robes dangling off her slender, yet muscular frame, Alicia came to a stop and entered the stand off. Her hood lowered, she kept her hands at either side, breathing through her nose and maintaining the facade of calm, as she said: "You're smaller than I expected."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

"If I had a wupiupi for every time someone's said that to a Merrill..." Mara smiled with cool humour. Her father was stocky but short, her aunt had been downright petite, and Mara herself wasn't large. Whereas the woman across from her, though trim and lean, certainly outmassed and outreached her by a serious margin. No giant, but still. More than most fights, a potential duel against Darth Ayra would require Mara to play to her strengths: mobility and instinct, the astrogator's knack that put her exactly where and when she needed to go. That, and her lightfoil, could stand her in good stead if she kept to firm ground like this.

"So, cards on the table." Mara drew to a halt, beskarweave trenchcoat swirling around her legs. Warm gear for an Obredaan swamp, but tougher than just about anything, the coat had cost more than the ship that flew her here. She took a deep breath and smelled the efflux of a cortosis mine, like the Iron Crown construction sites she'd just left. "We're alone. Feel free to call me Mara. What do you prefer to be called? And what do you want to know?"

 

[Alicia Drey]

| [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] |

It was a peculiar question. She hadn't been asked that before. Best to maintain the facade, however. "Alicia is fine. Let's start with the basics. Who are you? How do you know who I am? Why did you get in contact with me? And why are you here?"

Alicia fell silent. She had covered a wide spectrum.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

She tasted cortosis mining on the wind, maybe from Alicia's mine, maybe from the new Iron Crown setup several kilometres away. "Mara Merrill. I'm a shareholder with Iron Crown, Silk, Akure, and Arakyd. I sit on the Foundation Trust, and there's a super-hyperlane named after me. I'm trained in the Force, though likely not to your level. I know who you are because my aunt died unexpectedly, and I inherited her personal records. She had a fondness for other people's secrets -- you wouldn't believe what she had on the last Republic Chancellor -- and your file was pretty thick. Gromas Sixteen, Tera Lush, student of Circe Savan, who spilled your secret identity to my aunt. Possibly while trying to get her into bed." Mara smiled faintly. "Something of a habit for your old Master.

"I got in contact with you because I'd imagine you carry a serious grudge where my aunt is concerned, and you probably have good reason. Family or not, my aunt spent years as a murderer. She killed more people than I've met, and made plenty of enemies. I'm not my aunt and I don't hold her grudges, or feel like having more of a target on my back than I already do. I've read the files. I have no rational reason to come after you or let your secrets be released. I wanted to make that clear."

 

[Alicia Drey]

| [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] |

Alicia processed what Mara had said. She analyzed what was said, thought over what came from it, came to conclusions. "We first clashed over an artifact I procured from a derelict ship. It was salvaged and taken by a man called Romeo Sin. He called it the Bogan's Beauty, but I don't know what happened to it. Several others boarded the ship and looted several other artifacts. I can make an educated guess and say that the Bogan's Beauty was probably some kind of vault ship, that was hiding some pretty rare and powerful artifacts."

"I wanted to trace the other artifacts that was on that ship. I planned to find the other people that found the Bogan's Beauty and the artifact that they took. That's what led me to your Aunt. She threatened to kill me from the beginning, if I didn't give her the amulet that I procured." Alicia didn't bother continuing her explanation after that. She knew that Mara already had an understanding of what happened after that.

"Savan made me under go an operation after that encounter. I had all my skin removed and replaced. It was agonizing. She guessed that your Aunt had used a technique that made it possible for me to be tracked with the Force. I don't know if that's true. Savan was a sick woman. She enjoyed her experiments..." Trailing off, Alicia changed subjects.

"How many others know about me?"

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

"Well, as I'm sure you've guessed, that was my aunt's vault ship. When it was taken, with her entire archive and collection aboard, she was furious and humiliated. I can imagine her threatening anyone who had anything from that ship. Romeo Sin held onto the ship, and then, if I'm reading the records right, my aunt lost track of where it went. Never stopped looking, though -- for the ship or what was lost. I think her files said you had a Sith abattar from there, and there was a damaged note from afterward. I don't know if you still have that, or if she took it back at Gromas, but I have no interest in a Sith abattar.

"Savan flayed you?" Mara cursed viciously. "Well, that's one way to get rid of a blood trail whose location you don't know. I've generally found that microdermabrasion works just as well, assuming I've shaved my head. Not that either one would help if my aunt blood trailed your guts or lungs, or got her blood inside your veins. But she's dead and gone, so even if you've been blood trailed all this time, it wouldn't do anyone any good. I don't think it's possible to co-opt someone else's blood trail. From what I know, the ritual is very personal, the one that lets you use that technique.

"As for who knows about you...it's a short list. Friends of my aunt, and a couple of people who know where I've gone." Jorus, Alna, General Beyyr, probably Dissero, probably Ovmar or whatever he called himself these days. Kaili Talith, too, Mara's closest friend. She had a very good idea of the security of her own thoughts, but even so, she didn't focus on those names. She'd considered the question before, and knew the answer. "I don't foresee your secret identity coming to light anytime soon. None of them have an incentive to out you, but it wouldn't hurt to start cultivating another one, just in case, if you haven't already. That's not a threat, just an observation. The safer you feel, the less likely I am to have a target on my back."

Everything Mara had said was the truth, and no tricky half-truths or careful omissions, either. She had no reason to fear for the safety of her thoughts, but she knew that others might be as good at reading people as she was. Alicia might be one of them, might be able to tell she was being truthful.

 

[Alicia Drey]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Alicia turned her back to Mara. She had too. That unadulterated rage- her biggest strength and weakness- threatened to bubble itself up and over the edge. Secrecy. It was the one thing that kept her in the game. The One Sith didn't have a clue. Neither did the Black Tie Syndicate. Or GOMM, Red Ravens, Hutt Cartel and the various corporations that she had met and done business with, all in an effort to accumulate enough wealth to find rare artifacts, weapons and an intelligence network that would allow her to undermine the Jedi, Sith and all the others that were in the way in her insatiable thirst for power.

"These people. These individuals who know who I am. How can I trust that they won't reveal who I am?" Alicia spoke, tongue rolling across her front teeth in a practiced coping mechanism to maintain calm and in control of not only herself, but the situation that was unfolding.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

"First off, you've given them no reason to leak it," said Mara to the older woman's back. "Like, say, preventing me from leaving Obredaan when we're done here. But it's also worth noting that if they leak it, they risk you finding out where that leak came from, and then they would have you for an enemy. These are people who like to choose their own enemies, Alicia. They're adults. They're not anxious to add to the list without a good reason."

After a long moment, she shrugged, trying to relax somewhat. Her Zeltron empathy and Lorrdian upbringing made the older woman's anger fairly obvious to her. Clearly this woman valued her alternate identity as much as Mara valued anything. The risk likely had her on edge.

"All most of them have is two names and a picture. Hundreds of people call themselves Darth, and most of them aren't worth clart. If it helps put your mind at ease, I doubt most of my aunt's friends know what they have. Still." She turned up the collar of her beskarweave trenchcoat against a sudden chill, and turned away to leave. "Act as your judgment recommends, Darth Ayra. Stay out of my backyard and I'll stay out of yours."

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Mara"] D'Lessio Merill

When her name was spoken- so rare, was the ushering of the noun- did Darth Ayra turn her head around, looking over her shoulder to look upon the younger woman who had spoken it. Eyes ablaze with the dark side, the Sith Lord felt her fingers tingle. The beast within roared, raising it's snout to taste blood once more, and flashing across her synapses came the familiar need to be absolved by the blood of another, so as to cleanse herself from their impurity and weakness.

But she was acutely aware of the subtle tells that Mara had revealed, despite the constant furling chaos that waged it's war within Darth Ayra's mind. Those individuals- these damned people- would reveal who and what she was, if she did draw her lightsaber and kill Mara. Obviously, the girl hadn't entered Obradaan without making precautions. Darth Ayra knew she couldn't kill Mara, but she longed too. By the Force, she wanted to drive her lightsaber through her. No- even better- she wanted to wrap her hands around her throat and squeeze. Rarely did she experience the exhilaration of feeling bones popping and lives expiring with her hands. To literally feel the life leaving her enemy.

"We're not finished, Merrill. Your Aunt cost me. I was flayed because of her. I suffered radiation sickness. And I had to kill a subordinate that she convinced to betray me." Darth Ayra was under the pretense that Daemon 'Northstar' had died. "You owe me a debt. You inherited what your Aunt did to me. And I know the way that you can solve that debt."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

Mara took a slow breath and turned to face [member="Darth Ayra"] again.

"I've inherited my aunt's legitimate debts along with her assets," she said neutrally. "But I'll need more information on what you propose. I like my skin as it is." She managed a cold smile. "Nor am I interested in spending time with Circe Savan as repayment. My aunt's files list a dozen separate occasions when Circe sexually harassed her, and that's not an experience that appeals to me.

"It's worth noting that my aunt suffered radiation sickness as well -- and that you brought that on yourself by using a Fringe attack ship as a sledgehammer. But as for the subordinate, like I said, I'll need more information. Remind me what you're talking about, and we'll see what we can work out."

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"Savan's dead," Ayra snarled, infuriated by the jibe and the smile that followed. "Damien Northstar Daemon. He betrayed me to your Aunt. Told her everything. Who I was, who I am, what I am, who is affiliated. You get the idea. He was useful to me. But obviously a snake. I'd thank her but you know, seeing how shes dead..."

Walking forwards, Ayra begun to eat up the distance between her and Mara. It was a slow, methodical walk. Who knew what would happen if she closed the gap? As she approached, she said: "Your Aunt couldn't have amassed that collection- you know, the one she lost?- without help. I'm going to take an educated guess and say that some of those individuals that I haven't karked off helped her amass those artifacts."

"I'm looking for knowledge. I've been looking for those artifacts for awhile, too. You said your Aunt was still looking for them- and the Bogan's Beauty- by the time she died? Let's find them. You and me. We have mutual interests. We don't want to be in each others way. We don't want those items to be in the wrong hands. You and I could even become allies, if you do this with me."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darth Ayra"]

Mara's instincts warred. On one level, pure brain-stem fight-or-flight tactics, she wanted to back away. But her gut said that showing weakness in front of an apex predator was a very bad idea. So she stayed right there.

"Savan died more than once. I'll believe it when I see a soul in a jar. As for Daemon, I'll have to take another look at the files. I remember the name, but not how he ended up. I think my aunt once alchemized his desk and took shelter under it while she called down a capital ship airstrike on his office. But I don't remember where that fell in the timeline."

She raised her chin, holding Ayra's gaze as the Sith Lord approached; she even took a few steps forward herself. "I didn't pay much attention to the provenance of the collection she lost. You might be right; I'd have to check. Now, the rest of your proposal...I've picked up a lead or two on some of the scattered artifacts. I'd wager you have too. It's a bit early to be talking alliance, but I'll admit you have a point."

She could handle herself at close range. She'd trained under blademasters, could read her enemies expertly, and always knew which way to move. That didn't mean she was anxious to fight Ayra. Unlike most Jedi her age, Mara didn't enjoy combat.

But what the moment might demand had nothing to do with her preferences.

"How would you suggest we take next steps, if we were to do this?"

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Darth Ayra had brief, momentary flashbacks of a Nightsister showing the same resolve and it infuriated her more so. She bowed her chin, eyes piercing the Jedi stood across from her, as she continued her slow pace. Her robes trailed softly across the dirt, the hem brushing the muddy floor as she walked, whilst she said: "At the beginning. Where it all began. The Bogan's Beauty. It had an artificial intelligence, if I remember correctly? We can review the logs of the ship, see who boarded the ship that day. When we know their identities, we'll have something new to follow."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darth Ayra"]

"Artificial intelligences can be memory-wiped, but that seems plausible enough." Mara squinted. "I seem to recall that my aunt's stolen vault ship dropped you off in the Gromas system. I don't think my aunt ever learned who owned it at the time. When you were aboard, who was in command? Where was the ship bound? Have you located it, or do you know who owns it now?"

That slow walk's tactical implications didn't escape her. Some kind of dominance exercise was in her immediate future, at a guess. Maybe a forcible blood trail, if Ayra had poetic justice in mind. Maybe just a nonlethal expression of the boundless frustration Mara sensed in Ayra. A Force grip, lightning, something along those lines. Or perhaps Ayra just liked causing fear. And truth be told, Mara would rather have been back at the new cortosis mine than risking her neck out here. Gritty air and harsh noise were one thing. A Sith Lord was something else entirely.

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"Romeo Sin. He dropped me off at Gromas. There was a point when we were on the vault ship and we got cornered by the droids your Aunt had on board to protect her cargo. We worked together so we wouldn't die. See? I'm not beyond seeing the mutual interests."

Changing direction and pace, Darth Ayra begun to walk to the left. Now she was encircling Mara. "It wouldn't be difficult. Sin is on the edge of the Galaxy. He tried to start his own Empire, could you believe? He even made his own dynasty. But Primeval came in, did some damage and took over that quadrant. Heard rumors he was starting up again. We can follow those rumors."