Pretty Little Lies

[Itash Mecetti]

UNKNOWN LOCATION​

[member="Cassandra Paige"] | [member="Simone"]​

​

It had been an easy decision to inform Cass about the breach followed by disclosing that they had managed to snatch the slicer herself. This hadn't been his event, not in truth, it had been her brainchild and that made it personal for her. Tash didn't think she'd have forgiven him if he'd remained silent about it for the long run.

"I know you might think different, but I - and Law - are more interested in figuring out who her boss is than anything else." Oh, Tash had his suspicions. Was it truly a coincidence that Merrill walked into the building half a galaxy away from his turf?

Then this one suddenly started slicing them?

No, Itash didn't believe in coincidences, but they needed it on record. If they could implicate the leadership of the Outer Rim Coalition meddling and stealing from a domestic democratic movement?

Well, the Alliance would have to act or risk anarchy incited by CF.

"I want to try it with words first." Tash caught Cass' eye. There was a bigger lie here and just hurting some zeltron wasn't going to give it to them. Simone's room was nondescript, but very well-lit. Lights bright from every corner enough to blind her. Troopers in the room, they were unresponsive to her attempts to make conversation.

Just blind visors staring at her.

She had been doused with ionic fields before they made her disappear. The place was internally shielded too.

Couldn't be too careful with slicers.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

"If you must."

Cass was annoyed. On anyone else it might look like anger, but really, it was (mostly) irritation. If Didact hadn't caught the slicer, she would have been furious. Instead it was a mingle of disbelief and 'how very dare'. The temerity of some people!

Throw a nice party, and somehoe would come and make a mess. It was a universal law that some people just didn't know how to act.

This was why people couldn't have nice things.

As far as Cass was concerned, she didn't really care about asking politely. Sure they probably ought to turn the woman over to the police and let them sort it out, but that was infinitely less satisfying. The Paiges were old money, and accustomed to things going their way- and when they didn't?

Well.

Usually someone lived to regret it.

Cass crossed her arms over her chest, looking down her nose as they came to a stop. There was a pane of one way mirror between them and the woman, and she wrinkled her nose slightly.

"Oh it's a zeltron," she said, with a vague air of having noticed an unpleasant smell. "Can't they just stay where they belong?"

Unspoken 'in the brothels'.

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Simone"]

 

[Simone]

Simone had gotten bored of trying to talk to the guards, with their blank visors reflecting her face. She worked at the bonds instead, managed to loosen one of them just enough. "Sorry guys, I've got an itchy nose."

She slipped her hand free, and scratched it, before loosening the other one. It was a split second before they were upon her, trying to wrestle her arms down. She slipped free of one, snatching the blaster from his belt and stunning him. There was a distinct whumph as the rest of the stunned her in return, the force of the shots tipping her chair over.

It had taken her at least twenty minutes to stir from that one. Now the pain in her chest was worse and she could taste copper in her mouth again. It was quite possible she'd suffered some internal damage following that explosion, but there was no way she'd know for sure. She shook her head clear of the haze.

"Oh come on, people. Let's start this show already!"

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Cassandra Paige"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"] | [member="Simone"]

"Apparently not."

Tash retorted as he calmly watched the show happen in the room. One of the guards brought him a case, ancient wood, velvet lining inside, but the lid was currently closed for all intents and purposes. The curious glance Paige gave him was ignored for the moment. Instead he gestured for her to follow him into the room proper. The guards remained, of course, but they were ignored by Itash.

The case was put neatly onto the table at the other side of the room.

Mecetti ignored Simone in the meantime, wouldn't even acknowledge anything she said, that wasn't the point of the exercise. "If possible, I'd like to avoid any unnecessary unpleasantness, miss Simone."

That wasn't strictly true, but it was the truth that mattered in the moment.

"If you'd please share who hired you, I will release you back into the wilds, yes?" His mind didn't probe her yet. Not right now, but that didn't prevent him from staying at the edges to see any form of duplicity engaging. The case was still closed. The mystery was usually far more terrifying than the truth ever was. The implication was there though, it hid unpleasantness.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Cass followed Itash into the room, studying the woman without pretext or shame. The redhead's face was expressionless, grey eyes flat as she weighed.

And clearly found her wanting.

Her own gaze flickered to the case as it was set down. Cass didn't know what was in it either, only her curiosity just that. There was no weight of potential in it.

Arms still over her chest, Cass stood beside the mirror, watching the scene unfold.

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Simone"]

 

[Simone]

Simone didn't even look at the case, her interest was solely in the pair who'd walked in the room. She'd not expected to be interrogated by the top hounds themselves. She ignored the point Itash was making of setting the case down and instead blew Cassandra a kiss. It was a well known fact she was a xenophobic queen. Simone took it as an opportunity to cause more discomfort.

Simone laughed at Itash's opening sentence "Bullshid!" she shook her head "You wouldn't have brought that shiny case in if you didn't intend to use it, Mecetti." She met his gaze, grinning stupidly. Simone was not afraid. Oh, she absolutely should have been, in fact somewhere deep in her mind the fear was there. But it was deep and it'd need some coaxing out.

"You think I need to be hired to piss all over a xenophobic movement like Coruscant First? Aww, sunshine, you got me all wrong. I get paid to piss off criminals. People like you? I do it for free."

That, was not a lie. She hadn't been hired, per say. More like the opportunity had been waves under her nose and she jumped on it.

[member="Cassandra Paige"] [member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Simone"] | [member="Cassandra Paige"]

"You speak my name, but you clearly don't know who you are speaking to." Tash retorted calmly as he frowned slightly at her. "A Lord of Tapani keeps his word, no matter the consequences, honor demands nothing less than that."

And that was his reputation.

Itash kept his word.

To the letter.

"Clearly your sponsors didn't actually bother to tell you more about Coruscant First or you would know that it's not in any way "xenophobic"" The quotation marks could almost be tasted on his tongue. "Aliens, the poor, the rich, they are all equally welcome." Sure, Cassandra didn't agree with that, sure Tash didn't agree with it either, but that didn't mean anything.

The gala had been open to everyone by stipulation. "Again. Please confirm for me who was behind this and you are free to go with no charges leveled." He wondered if she understood that certain people might be sympathetic to her cause... she had broken the law.

The Alliance didn't look kindly on that.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Cass wrinkled her nose slightly. She leaned back against the wall beside the glass, watching the pair like someone disinterested in a sport might watch it simply because it was on and they had nothing better to do.

"They are distressingly egalitarian," she murmured, almost apologetically.

Coruscant First were not the monsters Simone thought she was looking for.

The two people in the room with her though? Well. She had been checking in the closet, but had forgotten to peek under the bed first.

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Simone"]

 

[Simone]

"Ah," Simone mused with a wry smile. "And there's you thinking that by xenophobic I mean having a hatred of species other than your own. That meaning applies to you two, not to Coruscant First. A coruscanti is born and raised on Coruscant, regardless of species, If you are no coruscanti, you are not welcome. That's what I mean by xenophobic. Pretty crappy attitude to have when your planet is the capital of the Galactic Alliance. They are egalitarian. But this whole agenda started in order to shift the Alliance elsewhere did it not?"

She shrugged. "Paint them whatever pretty colours you would like, i'd say it'd help you sleep at night but I get the feeling that you two could burn a world or three and still sleep like babies. As for you, Mecetti, I know exactly you are, but i'll tell you a little secret."

She leaned forward. "I don't give a kark." she grinned and sat back. "I was behind this. Me, myself and I, like I said before. Don't need to be paid to ruin your day. Before you open that case though," she tilted her head. "Can I have a smoke?"

[member="Cassandra Paige"] [member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"] | [member="Simone"]

Tash rolled his eyes.

He'd never understand why people like her bothered with the false platitudes. They would cry the loudest, hell, they knew they'd cry eventually and that there wasn't anything stopping that from happening. So, why did they actually bother? Part of it was because Tash and people like believed in different things. There wasn't any loyalty or anything else within him.

"I will never understand why people like you bother." Tash suddenly piped up honestly, it was a thing that brought him curiosity so it was easily surfaced. "When presented with a path where your life is yours and freedom is in reach... you just have to make things difficult."

Head tilted.

"This doesn't hurt anyone other than yourself, you know this, yes?" Because... Itash would enjoy this. This surely meant that Simone wanted him to enjoy it too, did it not? It was basically an admission of consent as far as Mecetti was concerned. The case was opened and for now most of the contents were out of view as far as the Zeltron was concerned.

A device was pulled out of it though.

It was an orb, its surface hummed softly the closer it got to Simone, Itash would put it right next to her on the spare table. "This will hurt... quite a bit, I'd say, it's not as delicate or precise as a knife, but... we will have to start somewhere."

A smile, soft and pleasant, was offered to her.

"You are sure you want to die for the likes of Jorus Merrill and his self-righteous terrorists?"

Oh, Tash didn't know, but guesses were fething obvious as far as he was concerned. He didn't need to hear it from here, he just needed... her feelings matching up to it.

 

[Simone]

"So..." She said eyes following the orb with mild curiosity. "That's a no on the smoke then?"

Still no fear, even with the threat of death in the air. Even as her threw Jorus's name into the wind she was as calm and snarky as she'd been from the moment she'd woken up. Why? Why was she so calm? Was it because she didn't fear death or retribution for her actions? Or was it because she believed that who she'd been working with would find her before death came? Perhaps a little of both, either way it would be hard to discern.

Even harder with the small dose of pheromones she released into the air.

She leaned forward again, tilted her head and smiled. "Only thing I'll be dying for today, will be your sick pleasure, Lord Mecetti."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Simone"]

A shrug followed.

This really didn't bother him as much as she might think.

His fingers curled around the sphere, then half of it twisted under his pressure, before it hummed even harder than before. It started floating of its own accord the moment he released his hold over it. For a moment it just vibrated above the table, but then it floated closer to Simone and hovered around its head. The strange feeling washing over Simone's mind came soon after.

Coaxing out the anxiety.

The fear.

The horror for pain that was surely there was a solid core behind the layers and layers upon bravado. "Oh, I think all of this is hardly necessary, miss Simone." Tash retorted without reflecting anything emotive behind it. "If you have something to prove, to yourself or otherwise, that's your business, but..." The orb began to flicker red once he trailed off a bit.

"Nobody is going to really care about some random Zeltron who decided to try and steal a few millions from a democratic organization on Coruscant." Well, it was less than a million, once insurance came in and they recovered the easy funds.

But that was beyond the question.

Tash leaned in just an inch to pet the orb on its surface. "This might hurt a bit, fair warning."

 

[Simone]

Simone's calm eyes followed the orb as it drew nearer, his words striking a note in her heart.

"I didn't try." she said not taking her eyes off the thing now hovering over her head. "I succeeded."

Did anyone care? Had anyone ever really cared? Khal had...maybe. More importantly, did it bother her? "Wonder how well that will damage Diadect's reputation? Seeing as it just had its security broken through by 'some random Zeltron.'"

No. It didn't bother her.

Pain, however, did. And for all the talking she could do to negate her fear, it was beginning to show in her eyes, in the quickening of her heartbeat. "Of course its gonna hurt, you're a sadist. I expected nothing less."

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Cassandra Paige"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Simone"] | [member="Cassandra Paige"]

"Did you?" Tash asked calmly with an apologetic smile. "Did you really? A convenient backdoor placed right where you were looking for it... really, miss Simone?"

"How long do you reckon we were tracking you, cataloging what you were doing, where, when?" A shrug followed next to her remark about Didact's reputation. In truth that was what recessed security was for, then the insurance. Oh, it wouldn't be pleasant, but cyber-security wasn't an on and off switch. Coruscant First knew this, they wouldn't have accepted Didact's assistance if they hadn't. Mostly what they could do was minimize the damage, track down the offenders, receive reimbursement.

But the backdoor was a nice touch as far as Tash was concerned.

Now that last remark made him roll his eyes. "Giving you multiple opportunities to avoid this and simply come clean about your crimes is hardly the action of a sadist." But before Simone could reply Tash ticked the orb and that was when the pain started.

"Oh." The pain would start from her toes and finger tips. Creeping nails scratching at her nerves, clean pain, pure, running through like snakes through her veins. "I should tell you-" Talking straight through her discomfort without much discomfort of his own. "If I keep this on too long it will destroy your nerves, leaving you paralyzed. Not even prosthetics will be capable to replace them without anything to attach to." This wasn't exactly how Itash wanted to do this.

It wasn't personal enough.

But it was clean and left no physical traces.

Oh well.

 

[Simone]

Simone was done talking, done playing the to and fro with him.Had this been alliance that was questioning her she would not have been harmed. Offered a deal perhaps sent to prison for a long while, but not harmed. Itash was a sadist because his go to was to hurt her in order to get her to talk, but he knew that already. No point in voicing that.

As for the 'convinient backdoor'? Funny how everyone says that after they've been sliced. A retort danced across her tongue only to be snatched away in a gasp of pain. It spread like fire though her limbs into her abdomen and chest, her instinct was to curl into a ball and the result was her straining against her bonds. Fighting against the scream that wanted to escape her lips.

She would not give him the satisfaction.

His words washed over her, distant and detached. Paralysis? That triggered a fresh wave of fear, but fear only seemed to make her mouth work harder to deflect. "Kark. You." she gritted her teeth and the pain moved into her skull, blinding her. Eyes squeezed shut, fists clenched, she bowed her head tucking her chin against her chest. Her whole body was trembling, but she focused on her breathing.

In and out.

Breath through the pain.

But even her breathing was becoming painful.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Primarily, Cass watched and listened. She didn't think the woman realized how ridiculous it was to lob 'insults' that her intended targets not only accepted but embraced. As if Coruscant belonged to the Alliance, as though they had been invited and that anyone else was entitled to it. As though her hissed sadist meant anything. The insult to Didact, which was ridiculous. The point of hiring a security firm was to end in the same place or better than one began. If nothing happened they couldn't build a reputation at all. Her little stunt meant very little in the grand scheme of things. Cass would have been amused if she hadn't been, frankly, fairly bored. Honestly she'd expected something a little more....

What?

Well, like the holodramas honestly.

Pity.

The orb was sort of interesting, but ultimately, at least from where she stood, it looked clean. Besides the fact that Cass has little interest in things related to the Force, well.

The whole thing was a bit of a snooze fest.

"Tash dear."

Cass finally spoke up.

"If you are expecting fear of physical deformation to get her to say anything you are barking up the wrong tree."

She stepped away from the wall, hips swaying, as her hands moved to the small of her back.

"She could stand that. Survive it. But a slicer is nothing without their mind...... aren't they..... Simone was it, yes?"

Cass didn't get close enough to feel whatever the effects of that orb were, pausing behind Itash and watching critically.

"I don't understand how that thing works of course," she murmured, tilting her head to the side thoughtfully. "But if it can damage nerve endings in the fingers, surely it could do the same elsewhere, no?"

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Simone"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"] | [member="Simone"]

In truth Simone confused him.

He didn't truly understand her or people like her.

Sacrificing body and soul out of... what? Spite? She had said so herself, sadist, this meant that torturing her wasn't an exercise in futility. It would be pleasing, enjoying, it would be a good time for the both of them. So, what else could it be? Loyalty to Merrill and his cause? That seemed... a silly thing to destroy your body over, as if the Alliance was going to do anything more than slap their wrist.

This probably meant that the zeltron was just stupid.

Oh, well.

"Thank you, love." Stepping back and leaning in to kiss her softly in front of Simone. "I am afraid I won't ever truly understand people like her. They are rather... simple by the looks of it."

He gestured to the orb and it suddenly moved past her arm, up the body before humming close to her temple.

It hummed deeply and even without causing any pain, those tremors still vibrated deeply against her skull. His own influence was added to that, slipping and easing all those pesky gears that made her so strangely opposed to simply coming clean. "You said it yourself, miss Simone. You are dealing with sadists." A smile, pleasant, but still that quality of apology behind it. "Destroying your body and mind will only please us."

A shrug.

"You aren't really frustrating or inconveniencing us. What will it be, heavy conscious or drooling mess for the rest of your life?"

After all... they weren't Coruscant First.

Oh, it would be pleasant if they managed to extract it and deliver it to Mant, but- head tilted. This would certainly push Cassandra further into what he wanted her to be, wouldn't it?

"Cass, would you be a darling and take out the other object in the case?"

It would be a knife.

After all, if they couldn't get the information, they might as well have some fun with this.

 

[Simone]

Ugh. Gross.

That might have been what went through Simone's head as they kissed had she been capable of thinking beyond anything except karkkarkkarkkark. A pained cry slipped from her lips, quickly stifled, but there was more than pain now. There was fear. Fear that Cassandra had hit the nail on the head with her assessment, fear at the look in Itash's eyes. The orb moved and the pain ceased, allowing her to suck in several pain free gulps of air before her skull started to vibrate.

This was no longer an interrogation. Though she was sure if it ever really was. This...this was a game to them. She was their new toy.

The vibrating was worse than the pain, made her feel sick. Her mind was her greatest asset, the idea of losing it didn't bear thinking about. But there was a price to pay for loyalty. Sargon's face flickered past her eyelids as she closed them. She'd really been looking forward to that date.

"If there's something I've learned in my travels around the galaxy." she spoke, each word causing her physical effort. "It's that what goes around, eventually comes around. You'll. Get.Yours."

[member="Cassandra Paige"] [member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Cassandra Paige]

She kissed him back, deeply and without any trace of self consciousness.

Stepping away, she watched, eyes sharp on the orb- on Tash's interactions with it- and filed away certain questions for later. Now, however, was not the time.

Moving across to the case, she opened it again, withdrawing the knife. This was a little more interesting to Cass, and she gave it a once over before bringing it back and laying it hilt first in Tash's out stretched hand.

"Hmmm, you're probably right," she murmured softly, looking over at Simone. "Which just begs the question then....."

A slow smile curled over her lips.

"Just what did you do to deserve this?"

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Simone"]