Private Mr. Crowley

[Eloise Dinn]

Nine hundred years ago, Frego was run by criminals - until a timely expose revealed the depths of corruption within their government. With the perpetrators arrested, the planet was said to be on the road to a new beginning. As if removing one crime family would somehow purify their world, rather than simply leaving behind a power vacuum for the next scumbag to fill.

Well, a lot can change in nine hundred years. The Frego of today had spent decades under the thrall of the Corporate Authorities of Denon, where it was used as a hub for the criminal organization known as Darkwire. The Denonites would later hand over control of Frego to the Galactic Alliance in exchange for a lucrative trade deal and access to certain hyperspace routes. With the recent collapse of the GA, Frego was suddenly factionless for the first time in nearly a century. Though even that seemed a temporary state, as it was located between the borders of the High Republic and the Sith Covenant. Closer to the former than the latter, luckily, but it was only a matter of time before it was gobbled up by yet another galactic state.

Anton Crowley couldn't have picked a better hiding place, Eloise thought. She had traced the Anzat to Rian, the Fregan capital. Getting the information hadn't been easy, but luckily she was able to pull a few strings. Now she was walking down the street of the mega-metropolis, dressed like a native, her lightsaber concealed. Her destination: a bar called the Blue Inferno. There she was supposed to meet with a woman named Nika, who supposedly knew exactly where the Anzat was hiding...

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

Diogo inclined his head graciously and slipped past the Blue Inferno's bouncer. He got in, lightsaber and all, using his special brand of roguish charm. Oh, and a little Force persuasion. Well, it was mostly the Force persuasion. Anzati enhanced.

Adjusting his indigo Ghorman silk tunic slashed with gold trim, he slunk unassumingly into the corner of the bar. Blending in was a mighty bit easier with the right outfit and it certainly helped that his flamboyant verdant locks had been relegated to that was in a past life status.

Golden-yellow eyes carefully scoped out the room. His concealed proboscises wiggled excitedly. He was getting closer.

For the better part of a year Diogo had tirelessly traversed the fringes of old Galactic Alliance space; he'd cashed in on old debts owed by former Foundation operatives, data brokers and the like with unfettered access to old records; he'd kept a low profile whenever possible, letting his hair and stubble grow natural, avoided the busiest ports even if it meant a sad diet of mostly Nuna jerkey, and stayed away from all his old haunts and contacts: his family, his girlfriend - ahem, ex-girlfriend - and all the rest. All this so he could track down the man - nay, the grotesque creature - to Frego and cleanse his putrid soul, whatever was left of it, from this galactic plane of existence.

Anton Crowley, the Anzat, the bocor, the hunter, was being hunted.

Diogo watched and waited for... uh, he forgot the contact's name. Kark, he didn't even know what they looked like.

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Eloise got past the bouncer with the help of a fake ID. It didn't come cheap, but she was no good at Force persuasion. Or any kind of persuasion, really. Too blunt.

Stepping into the club, she paused and frowned, detecting an unexpectedly familiar presence somewhere nearby. Looking around, she failed to recognize the man sitting at the corner of the bar. The presence faded into background noise. She hesitated, but shook her head. Now was not the time to get distracted.

She walked past the bar at a brisk, I-have-somewhere-to-be pace, a blur of purple hair and neon clothes to the people she passed by. The contact said she'd be in a private booth at the back of the club, so that was where she headed. 'Look for a woman dressed in white with a metal left arm,' the message had said. Was it her left or my left?

There. A woman in a white outfit, with a metal arm, sat with a cigarra dangling from her lips. She barely looked up as Eloise slid into the seat across from her. "Which one are you?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" Eloise asked, eyes narrowed.

"I'm meeting with two people tonight," Nika replied, exhaling smoke. "You're one or the other. So. Which are you?"

Eloise's mind began to race. "You didn't mention anyone else," she muttered, hand drifting to her lightsaber hilt under the table.

"You're not the only one looking for Crowley. He's been unusually popular as of late..."

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

Diogo spotted Eloise immediately. Her presence was unmistakable. Tall, strong, and showing a little more skin than he was used to seeing. She looked good. Real good.

But what the hell was she doing here?

He watched her pause, frown, then make a beeline towards the back of the bar, purple hair rippling backwards in waves like it was struggling to keep up with the rest of her. She moved with purpose.

Rather than stop to think - a rather daunting prospect for Diogo - he slid out from the corner and followed her at a respectable distance. His Force presence was marginally concealed, but a single ounce of scrutiny would see through it. He was, after all, pretty mediocre at anything that didn't include hacking at an opponent with a lightsaber.

Once Eloise sat he stopped, using his enhanced sensory organs to listen as she spoke to the cigarra-wielding woman. His contact, evidently. He was at a safe distance from the private booth, very inconspicuous... or so he thought. With all his focus on the meeting and the mention of Crowley, he didn't notice the man behind him until he felt the metal tip of a blaster pistol pressed against his spine.

"Eavesdropping, are we?" A grizzled voice asked.

Well, Diogo wasn't exactly a patient man, and didn't much respect a man coming up behind him like that, but given the circumstances, he made the executive decision to play along. Otherwise, he might've cleaved this nerf herder in two.

"Hey, easy man," Diogo said, hands slowly rising. "Be cool, be cool."

The man grunted and shoved Diogo towards the private booth. When they were close, the man - who by this point Diogo safely assumed was a bodyguard or something - grabbed him by the hair, shoved his head onto the table with a thud, and kept him there while he checked the boy for weapons. There was an exchange between the bodyguard and the woman in white that Diogo didn't quite catch.

He was still reeling from the sudden violence and a sharp pain reverberated in his skull, but once he got his bearings, he realized he was looking up... right at Eloise.

All at once the rest of the bar seemed to dissolve around them.

Damn, she looked even better up close. He couldn't say the same for himself. Especially not in this compromised position.

"Hey, you," he said.

He cracked his typical stupid grin. Something he hadn't done in a while.

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

"Who else?" she demanded. "I'm Eloise. Who else is looking for him?"

Before Nika could answer, Eloise's danger sense flared. Her lightsaber was in her hand, thumb on the activation switch - only for a head to be slammed down on the table in front of her. Not just any head.

"Hey, you."

"Dio?" she gasped, then blurted, "What the hell?!"

"He was eavesdropping," the bodyguard explained.

Nika raised an eyebrow, glancing from Eloise to her bodyguard. "Let him go." After the guard released Dio, she took another drag of her cigarra. "I take it you're Diogo. My other guest for tonight."

Eloise continued to stare at Diogo. Shock was the dominant emotion in her expression, but behind her wide eyes was a tangle of feelings. Anger. Hurt. Bewilderment. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

"Thanks," Diogo muttered after the bodyguard released him. "This how you treat all your guests?"

Diogo slid into the private booth with his dignity shaky but still intact. Eloise's stare felt hot and burning on him, and it hurt to look her in the eyes. Naturally there was a flurry of emotion behind them and Diogo had no trouble picking them out. Eloise had the poker face of a wet Kushiban afterall. Surprise was the most dominant, but anger he recognized well. Yeah, he'd seen her angry plenty of times before.

Part of him was angry, too. She shouldn't be here. Not after everything he'd done to try and protect her.

The look in his eyes darkened.

"Same reason you're here, El," Diogo said, a little more edge in his voice than he intended. "Anton."

He kept it brief. He had a lot more explaining to do, but this wasn't the time or place.

"Just wanna have a little chin-wag with him," he said, flicking his golden-eyed gaze to back their mysterious contact.

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

"I'm here to kill him," Eloise replied, her voice tight. She held her gaze on Dio for several seconds after he looked away from her, only turning her head when Nika started talking.

"That is all well and good, but I still require payment from both of you." She produced a small device and set it on the table in front of them. A credit chit reader. "Five thousand each, ten thousand total."

Eloise produced her chit and transmitted the money. Assuming Dio did the same, Nika smirked, stamped her cig out in an ashtray, then folded her hands in front of her.

"Mr. Crowley is hiding here on Frego. There is a chapter of the Undine crime family operating in Rian. He's under their protection in exchange for providing his services as a bocor. You'll find him at their compound. I'll transmit the address to your datapads."

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

Eloise said the quiet part loud. Golden-yellow eyes anxiously scanned Nika's face, but she didn't so much as flinch. Which was either odd, or it wasn't, and he didn't know which.

"What's in this for you?" he asked. "Just creds?"

When the question of payment arose, Diogo hesitated, tunnel visioned on the chit reader. Five thousand credits was about all he had left of the last NJO stipend payment he'd extracted many cycles ago, just prior to his disappearance. With the Galactic Alliance now winked out of existence, his primary funding vehicle was gone. But what choice he have? He swiped. At least he had a bulk supply of questionably sourced, heavily discounted Nuna jerky waiting for him on his freighter.

Still, Diogo wanted his money's worth.

"What should we know about these Undine folks, or this compound of theirs?"

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Nika regarded Diogo with amber eyes that, despite their warm and inviting color, were cold in aspect. All of her was cold. Her skin, her gaze, her heart.

"I am not an Anzat, but Mr. Crowley and I are alike in... other ways," she replied. "We both came to Frego to escape our pursuers. I built a new life here long before he arrived - and this town isn't big enough for the two of us."

Eloise's jaw clenched. The thought crossed her mind that they might all be better off if Nika was eliminated too. In fact, maybe the whole Undine family deserved to bite the dust. But more often than not, killing people in power just created a power vacuum for some other nerf herder to fill. She was learning that the hard way.

Dio's next question put an end to her musing. Nika laid out the strategy. "The property is owned by Guri Undine, the daughter of the family matriarch, Nora Undine. She uses it as her personal pleasure palace, hosting wild parties there."

"Will there be civilians around?" Eloise asked. "Or just guards and criminals?"

Nika shrugged. "I wouldn't know." Fiddling with her datapad, she turned it around to show them schematics of the compound. "You have a few different options for getting inside. The easiest one would be to pose as entertainers or guests at the party. If you prefer a more direct approach, there's a warehouse nearby with a service tunnel leading to the compound. The choice is yours, though you'll need to tell me which one you're going with. I can provide you with the resources to improve your credibility."

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

Nika was cold and calculating. Diogo hated it. He grit his teeth.

The answer to his question wasn't surprising, town wasn't big enough for the both of 'em type shit. Figured. Everyone was a small business these days, and competition was cutthroat. She knew Anton was an Anzat... now that was interesting. He wondered how she might have come across that information, and what her relationship with the Undine family actually was, but the conversation moved on.

Diogo leaned forward to inspect the compound schematics. When the two options were presented, his gaze drifted to Eloise with something of a shrug in his eyes, wondering what she thought. He favored the direct approach. The problem with posing as entertainers or guests was that Anton knew what they looked like, and Eloise didn't exactly... blend in. Not easily, anyway. Could complicate things.

He had half a mind to mislead Nika; pretend to choose one but actually do the other. His trust in her was about as thin as his chit card.

"What sort of resources can you provide?" he asked, trying to narrow things down and avoid playing his cards too soon.

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

"Fake IDs, holographic disguises, prosthetics, other costuming," Nika listed off her offerings. "Weapons and ordinance that are effective and easily hidden, including disruptors. Anything you like, really."

Eloise considered the options she had laid out for them. "Why not both?" she asked. "We take the direct route, sneak inside, and have disguises on hand to blend in once we're inside."

Nika shrugged. "If that's what you want to do.”

Believe it or not, Eloise wasn’t so sure she wanted to slaughter everyone inside. Not if she could help it, anyway.

“And you?” Nika turned to Dio. “What approach would you prefer?”

“He’s not coming,” Eloise interrupted before Diogo had a chance to respond. “I’m going in alone.”

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

Funny, that. Diogo was going to say the same. He just would've chosen a more appropriate time for what was surely destined to be an impassioned verbal spar. Hell, Eloise might even stab him. Yeah, no - that was highly probable.

"Don't be stupid," he shot back, leveling his gaze at the woman he'd sacrificed so much to protect. For her to jump in harm's way, now, after everything? The thought curdled in his gut. Nika and the rest of the bar faded into the background. "Anton wants me. This is my fight, not yours. You're not putting your life on the line for me. That's not how this works."

He clenched his jaw and spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm going alone."

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

From the moment she saw Diogo in the bar, Eloise had been slowly but surely winding up. She could keep her emotions in check for as long as they were still just talking business, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before they'd have their little confrontation.

Unfortunately, she was still hot-headed and impulsive. The words were out of her mouth before she had a chance to think about how denying Dio a chance at revenge would go over with him. Which is to say, it would not go over well at all.

"Don't be stupid."

His words cut her to the quick. Did she deserve to be called stupid by the man she used to love? The man who had taken her virginity, then abandoned her? No, she didn't think she did.

He kept running his mouth even as her eyes clapped onto him, rage burning hot. She had already snapped; he was just filling up airtime before the explosion reached her hands, now clenching into fists.

"Anton wants me. This is my fight, not yours. You're not putting your life on the line for me. That's not how this works."

"I'm going alone."

She lunged at him, shoving him roughly out of the booth. He'd fall on the floor if he didn't catch himself. She swung her legs around, stood up and grabbed hold of him like he was a sack of potatoes. Nika was forgotten about; she was heedless of the bar patrons that turned to stare as she dragged Diogo out of the Blue Inferno and tossed him out onto the street.

"Six months," she spat. "That's how long it's been since you left." It had felt like an eternity, but it had given her some perspective. "You did it to protect me from yourself, right?" she sneered. "So I didn't end up like your mother."

She punched him in the face. Not as hard as she could have, but enough that it would hurt. A lot.

"Respectfully," she spat. "I disagree with your solution."

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

Diogo didn't fight back.

Instinct may have told him otherwise - get up, raise your arms, defend yourself! - but the guilt. Oh, the guilt. The welcomed sense of punishment for which he was most deserving. For being who he was, for what he was, for doing what he did. It was oh so much stronger.

Eloise flung him around like a rag-doll. A guttural sound escaped his lips, something grotesque between a painful groan and rapturous, muted laughter. He wasn't joyous, no, not in the traditional sense. It was the ecstasy of release. Pent up emotion finally let free.

She was right about why he left. He may have said something then, but her fist rearranged his face. Pain shot through his head, bouncing around his skull, front to back to front again. He could already taste the metallic fluid leaking from his nose, staining his teeth, dribbling down his chin in a thick rivulet.

"It wasn't for you to decide," he finally said, voice nasally. His nose was almost certainly broken. He stood, still defiant in his own pathetic way. "After Necropolis... I mean, El... I almost killed you. You know, it's inevitable I'll end up like my father. But you're wrong about one thing. I know you wouldn't end up like my mother. No, you'd kill me. And is that really something you're willing to live with?"

He paused, and the hard glint in his golden-yellow eyes softened.

"And Anton. He wouldn't have given up searching for me. I had to disappear. I knew if I told you, you'd argue, or follow me, or convince me to stay... I just couldn't let that happen."

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

What was he laughing at? Was he laughing at her? She stood awkwardly over him, fists clenched at her sides but unmoving.

"It wasn't for you to decide. After Necropolis... I mean, El... I almost killed you."

"What are you talking about?!" she bellowed. "Anton almost killed me. You saved me. We've been over this before—" Right before he left, in fact. He still insisted on taking the blame for what happened. Part of her could understand, but the other part was sick of his whining.

"You know, it's inevitable I'll end up like my father. But you're wrong about one thing. I know you wouldn't end up like my mother. No, you'd kill me. And is that really something you're willing to live with?"

She remembered the vision on Wayland. How she had almost killed Diogo. Almost. His body lay broken at her feet, but she couldn't deal the final blow.

But that was then. Right now? She was so angry upon his return that she felt as if she could kill him just for leaving her the way he had. She stamped on the urge. It was born of hurt. She would have to learn how to deal with her pain in less violent and destructive ways.

"I would've given you a good death," she finally answered. "At the end of a life well-lived. That's what you could've had, Dio. What we could have had. But you spoiled it, because you'd rather play the victim."

She didn't believe Anton was as hell-bent on pursuing Diogo as he seemed to think. The elder Anzat was busy hiding from his own problems. She glanced back toward the Blue Inferno, seeing Nika watching them through the windows.

"The way I see it," she began, facing Dio once more. "Either we work together to kill Anton Crowley, or one of us has to put the other out of commission." After that first punch, she didn't much fancy beating the shit out of her ex anymore.

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

"A good death," he scoffed. "A life well-lived. Aye, I'm sure my parents were under similar delusions."

He spat a thick glob of blood on the duracrete.

It wasn't a matter of what was possible, though he still wasn't as convinced as she seemed to be. It was a matter of whether he deserved those parts of life which he craved. He decided he didn't. Anton was proof enough of what Diogo truly was. Images of those grotesque proboscises wriggling up Eloise's nose were still seared into his mind. Now, and when they last slept together, tangled bodies in sheets, her laying softly and him, with that scene plaguing him, playing over and over. And every night since. On occasions, it was his proboscises threatening to extract her brain.

Trying to explain that to this raging rancor - a very pretty raging rancor, mind you - seemed like a lesson in futility. In any case, he lost the thought when she accused him of playing the victim. How... insulting. His bloody nostrils flared.

"Acceptance," he corrected her, "isn't something you would understand. You only know brute force. To kill. To beat every problem to death with your fists."

He was teetering on the edge of throwing her parents into this, but he'd done enough damage already. So had she. To his face, specifically.

Diogo was aware of his surroundings now. Nika watching from the window, the crowd gathering round. They could fight, but lit lightsabers spread rumors. Rumors that would assuredly reach Anton and send him scurrying away like a womp rat.

Well, they had one mutual problem they could definitely beat to death with their fists. "Fine - together, then," he said reluctantly.

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Eloise's thoughts were filled with bitterness and resentment. For once, she spoke none of them aloud, keeping them to herself. Besides, she didn't want to keep arguing out here. Not when there was a mission to complete.

Well, until he insulted her again, that is. Is it possible that I ever loved this man, and he loved me? Because I sure am having a hard time remembering those days right now.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she decided she wasn't going to take the bait. "Sounds like cope to me. But whatever helps you sleep at night."

Her nose wrinkled when he spat a blood clot onto the pavement. He looked like shit. Not just because his nose was broken, either. The clothes he was wearing looked ridiculous on him, and while she wouldn't say she missed his green hair and orange sunglasses, the scruffy spacer look wasn't exactly doing him any favors. He didn't smell all that great, either.

"Get yourself cleaned up and let's go back inside, grab what we need from Nika and get a move on."

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

How things ended up here, he didn't know. He meant only to explain himself, but his emotions were a riptide and the words had fled from his mouth, slipping between his lips like escaping prisoners. They'd both gotten their licks in and were worse off for it.

The look in her eyes hurt the most. He'd anticipated it, of course, but he didn't realize just how excruciating the ache in his chest would be, a thousand little stakes piercing his vampiric heart. She'd always seen the galaxy through a bitter, resentful lens. And now he'd fallen into that same purview, like all the rest. How sad, when a castle turns to rubble.

"Everything's cope," he muttered.

Diogo cracked his nose back into place with a wet and violent sound, wiped the blood from his face, and let his Anzati regenerative healing do the rest. At least there was some upside to being a genetically-engineered evil freak.

"Let's get this over with," he said, brushing past her and stepping back inside the Blue Inferno, smell and all.

Eloise Dinn

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Nika appeared unfazed by the scene they had caused, still seated at her booth with a fresh cigarra in hand. "I assume you've come to an accord?" she asked as Eloise and Diogo approached, the latter with bloodstains on his clothes.

"Change of plans," Eloise replied. "We're going in together. Direct route. Holographic disguises just in case."

With a nod of her head, Nika smiled at them both. "Happy hunting."

---

Despite being located in a relatively affluent neighborhood, the Undine compound wasn't hard to spot. The obscenely wealthy mansion sat on a hillside with a spectacular view of the metropolis below, an ode to luxury taken to its utmost extreme.

Eloise didn't comment on the swimming pool in the fenced backyard or the lake further down the slope with a recreational boat bobbing by its private dock. She was busy using the Force to distract the guards patrolling the premises, darting from the fence to the bushes to the warehouse. Surveillance cameras had already been taken care of; a keycard provided by Nika unlocked the door, allowing Eloise and Diogo to slip inside unnoticed.

Diogo​

 

[Diogo]

Between the Blue Inferno and the compound, Diogo had freshened up. Clean-shaven, hair slicked back, and dressed appropriately for the mission - he looked, and felt, like a new man. Smelled better, too. He wasn't gonna kill Anton with sheer aura but he might as well look presentable for the Anzat's impending funeral.

The ostentatious Undine compound was perched upon a mighty hill overlooking the city. They fancied themselves little lords, he figured, and it showed.

Eloise did her thing and the pair quickly slipped inside the warehouse. So far, so good.

Golden-yellow eyes swept across the space which, to his mild surprise, was filled to the brim with metal crates of various sizes, stacked floor to ceiling, and embossed with the now defunct Galactic Alliance symbol. Diogo's eyes widened ever so slightly. A lone finger traced the familiar edges of the emblem on one of the crates. Greedy hands had plundered these, he knew.

"Sheesh," he murmured. "Makes sense. All that materiel didn't just up and dissolve along with the GA. Must be some serious hardware in here... foodstuffs, too, maybe." Aye, they must've been living like kings off the remnants of the dead. Anton's presence here was fitting.

The tunnel to the mansion proper was off to the side. According to the schematics, it led to a corridor that branched off in several directions. Kitchen, ballroom, stairs leading to offices and private quarters. They'd have their pick of how to proceed.

"How do you wanna do this?"

Eloise Dinn