Stuck In A Haze

[Itash Mecetti]

MORELLIA​

​

In a different life Renhault had been a proud soldier.

Levantines Exploration Corps.

They had brought safety and stability to these regions. It had been a.... bright spot in about five decades of slum, piracy and acts that still made his skin crawl. But back then, before the Galaxy had started to return towards civilization? Anything went. As long as you survived. By the time that the Levantines had left, Ren found himself without a cause again. It would have been easy to fall back into the old habits.

Ugly men, uglier faces, they knew him still.

Called him up a few times.

Always need a runner, Renny boy, jus' give us a call, yah? He had been tempted a number of times. But in the end it had been the wildlife conservatorium that had saved him. Made him appreciate nature.

Allowed him to put his gun down and do something good with his life.

Yeah?

Then..... then, of course, GenPals came knocking. Oh, they were all friendly faces and friendlier manners. Good for the kids with their cartoons, expos, cute and cuter! But Renhault knew better. It was unnatural. Where did they take their samples? How did they make those creatures? What did they do with the ones that didn't fit their perfect image? Renhault didn't know, but he knew it wasn't right.

Just wasn't.

The last two days were fuzzy. He had been....... a bar? Yeah. Arguing with some others about it. They hadn't seen the harm in it. Idiots. But one man had seen his wisdom. Young lad, couldn't be older than his early 30s. The whiff of nobility (that his soldier eye could see through the alcohol haze), but optimistic. Happy face, happy smile. Easy with his money too for an extra drink.

They had agreed.

On..... something.

Now he was here. Gun stuck in his pants, but that was just for show, right? Right? Yeah. He had managed to get through security easy now that he was sober again (was he? what was that haze?) Slipped right through and was now pacing back and forth her office.

He didn't know that he knew she'd be there.

But she would be.

Had to.

A sigh, biting the inside of his cheek, then- he pushed through the door without knocking. Fire for hair, ice for eyes. "Miss Paige, you are going to listen what I have to say and- DON'T YOU MOVE." The door shut behind him, gun sticking out of his holster, hands, but not aimed at her. Just for show, Ren. No need to make this crazy. Even still the moment he had entered the room he was starting to reconsider.

This was crazy, wasn't it?

[member="Cassandra Paige"]​

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Cassandra had been working late. It was not uncommon. She had called Tash just that morning, letting him know that she would have to cancel their dinner plans tonight. There was simply no way she would be able to get away. It was closing in on the week's end and in truth Cassandra was on edge and exhausted. It had taken more willpower to focus on this and everything at GenPals today than she cared to admit. Why?

They were at the low point in the cycle. The part where the hunger started to take hold again. Tomorrow, she told herself. She could wait until tomorrow.

But there was that ache that settled in the center of her forehead. The irritability. They had honed the timing down to keep her from true withdrawal, but it had been a long hard week, and putting it off another day was unpleasant. Still, part of it was to prove to herself that she could. That it didn't control her..... she controlled it.

She knew that wasn't true. But she still took it where she could. Pushed it.

Sometimes.

Sometimes she simply reveled in it. The rush of it. It was an addiction and she knew it. To the power. To the connection to the Force. And as that faded, so too did the high.

So it was a deeply irritable redhead that was greeted by the disheveled, gun wielding man bursting into her office. One hand went under her desk, the other on top of it, starting to push up, mouth opening to demand to know what he was doing here (and already planning to fire whomever had let him in without alerting her).

His words, the sight of the gun brought her still. Grey eyes sharpened, and slowly, so so slowly, she sat back down. The hand under the desk moved ever so slightly, activating the silent alarm. She couldn't go for the paddle beamer in the cybernetics of her leg without moving farther than she wanted to draw attention to at the moment, so she waited, leaning back in her chair and glaring up at the man.

"You have my attention," she said, her voice even. Her lips were thin, the only betrayal of anything going on behind that chill mask. "And you have me at a disadvantage." Did she mean the gun? Because that was obviously- "You know my name but I have no idea who you are. You were not, after all, on my calendar. Sit? We can surely discuss whatever this is like reasonable people Mister......?"

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

He was seeing her.

And wasn't.

"I am nobody, miss Paige." The barrel was shaking and to an untrained person that might have looked positive. But Itash had taught her a thing or two about conflict resolution. Shaking betrayed nervousness and the one thing you didn't want from the person holding that gun? Was anxiety or fear. They..... made the worst type of mistakes during those moments of unclarity. It was why being rigid still was so important. Anything else could potentially trigger something before you were ready.

"I know you are stalling me. Alarm? Don't bother, I disabled it before I came here."

Blink.

Had he? His army training would have prepared him for it, but... he couldn't remember doing it.

He just knew he had.

"Hands w-where I can see them. I don't want to hurt you, OK?" Ren needed her to believe it. Needed. "We are going to have a talk about what your company does. Then. Then.... we will see." Why did part of him see her lying on the floor already? Smoke rising... that wasn't what he had come here to do, right? No! It was just a precaution. That gun. Make sure she took him completely serious. That was literally it. Yeah. Exactly, there was nothing else going on here.

"Everyone thinks your company is so cute. So good, but that is just show, admit it!"

 

[Cassandra Paige]

"Come now, no one is nobody," she said, tone calm and almost friendly. As if they were having a casual chat.

Inside however she was pissed.

How in the world had security failed so deeply that a stranger with a gun (and apparently a grudge) had gotten to her office with the alarm dismantled? That wasn't like Tash's men or measures at all. So either this man was much better than his shaking hands implied or else there was a failure in Didact that Tash would be remedying with blood.

"What do your friends call you? Wife? Children perhaps? Surely you have people that care about you."

Grey eyes stayed on him. He was nervous- remind him of what he had to lose by doing something deeply stupid. She was already wondering how many years she could get him dropped in a hole however just for this. Good thing she could cry on command.

Her hands spread out above the desk, palms up. Not merely showing them where he could see but making a 'what do you want of me?' gesture.

"GenPals is ultimately a business," she said reasonably. "Yes, we offer a service and do our best to keep that service friendly, but we have never pretended to be more... or less... than what we are. I have employees to pay- their families to take care of. It is not perfect of course, but we do the best we can. Now." She paused, gaze even, weighing. "I am going to stand up- slowly- and pour a drink. One for you if you would like, but I find having a gun drawn on me to be rather nerve wracking. Then perhaps you can... air your grievances?"

She did not move right away, waiting for a reaction. Hesitation, a lowering slightly of the gun, or even no response and she would start to rise. Anything twitchy she would stay exactly where she was.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

"This Galaxy is filled with nobody's, miss Paige. We are used. Abused. Discarded. Left with nothing by specifically the kind of person you are."

The gun seemed to stop shaking suddenly.

But it rose up to her head now, when she began to move. "No alcohol, but I do want you away from the desk." Head jerked to the left, towards the couch and chairs. The place that was usually reversed for more distinct businesses meetings that didn't qualify for a whole boardroom. "All beautiful on the outside, but your eyes are dead, did you know?" He had become deadly quiet all of a sudden. At peace. Relaxed. That was another thing that Itash had taught her.

When the nervous suddenly were not?

You should become.... very.... careful.

"Do you care about anything other than your coin? Your power? Do you?"

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Oh boy.

She stepped away from the desk as indicated, but moved slowly. Did not hustle over to the couch where he was indicating. Don't go where they want, but make it look like you intend to comply. Excellent advice here.

"It may not seem it to someone who doesn't know me well, but I do," she said quietly. "I am a private person, but not heartless."

He was trying to keep her in a box of a monster. To cast her as inhuman. She had to challenge that narrative. Sure it was mostly lies, but that didn't matter to her in general anyway.

"I have a family. A fiance. My father, mother," she kept her tone even, almost wistful. "Two younger sisters. They were on Coruscant.... when it fell." Watching, gauging. She actually had no idea if both of her sisters had been there but that hardly mattered. "I worried for a week until I learned they were safe."

She stepped, one at a time, slowly. Coming around but toward him rather than away. One path to where he had indicated. The biggest strength someone with a gun had was in the ability to threaten at a distance, any distance. You could only gain an advantage by taking that way.

"I was so afraid for them."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

He eyed her like she was a viper.

Ready to strike.

It was a shame he didn't quite realize how dangerous she could be. But that was how things went with assumptions. They truly caused your downfall in the end. He let her take her pace... as long as she followed the path that he had set out.

What did it matter, right?

"A family." The man repeated. Almost with disbelief. "What are their names?" It came out quickly, swiftly. Without control. But that gun was still very much steady. Focused. It wasn't entirely clear which part of the man was truth.

Which was false.

The shakes or the steady?

It would matter in the end.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Continuing to close the distance, one slow step at a time. Her hands were up, just as he had requested, and she could not possibly be a threat to a man with a gun, yes?

That was what men with guns were so prone to believing anyway.

"My father's name is Gerald," she said, starting with the easiest. She genuinely was fond of her father. "My mother.... and grandmother..... are both Cassandra. Name passed down from first daughter to first daughter. Five generations. One day I hope to have a daughter of my own."

That was a lie. Cassandra wanted nothing to do with children. But the tone was wistful. Ernest.

"My sisters are Natalya... Nat's a hard worker. And Anastasia. She's the youngest. Very shy. But very sweet."

Cassandra had no problem using the parts of Ana she hated here, knowing that other people found it charming.

"My fiance's name is Tash," she said softly, the next step bringing her the closest to him she could get- arm's reach- before the natural path to the couch would take her away again. "I hope, someday, to have a family of my own. With him."

Could she get the gun before he could fire it? She wasn't sure. It was an enormous risk.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

Something in him froze up for the beat of a heart.

Then it unfroze.

"Oh, yes, I have heard of your fiance. Wages war in four different sectors, on behalf of a genocidal king, a mad god-priest, corrupt bureaucrats and worse." Squinting at her. "Clearly the quintessential loving family that only wishes well for the Galaxy." Mecetti was everything he hated. Using skills they both shared for the worst type of things. It was horrible. He gestured to her with his pistol (in that brief moment, the barrel left her. It was a beat of the heart. A mistake... potentially).

Maybe if he had been in his right mind?

This wouldn't have happened.

None of this.

What would he do, even if he managed to kill her? How would he ever get out alive? But that wasn't on his mind right now.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Standing just one step away, that mistake was all she needed.

Tash had been training her in hand to hand. Not the way he fought, the way someone bigger would. But ways to use her size and speed to her advantage, and a larger opponent's against them. The focus had always been to go hard enough to get away, to get help, that was the first option, because there would always been someone from Didact close.

That didn't mean he hadn't taught her what to do if that wasn't the case or something went wrong.

It was meant to be the last resort. Oh, not because killing was wrong, but because it was different.

As soon as the gun moved away from her she moved. Cybernetic leg sweeping up, metal heel dashing hard into his hand, knocking the gun out and away. It went sliding, skidding beneath the thin slice of space between the floor and the bookshelf, out of reach for the moment.

She didn't expect him to move so fast. To come crashing into her before she could get her own paddle beamer from the hidden compartment in her thigh.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

No matter if you are nervous or anxious.

Some people had a mode they could slip into.

Those that had served? Counted double for them. The moment this shifted from threat to actual aggression? Ren's eyes went dead. They didn't see Cassandra as a person anymore. As someone that he could scare into submission and make sure she fixed her mistakes. She was now a threat to him. Threats had to be dealt with. He was larger and stronger than her, so he used that. Crashing into her and pummeling her to the ground. He wasn't sure what her next move would have been.

But he wasn't about to wait for it either.

There was a moment right after the grapple.

A moment where he pulled out a knife- just enough time where Cassandra had her hands free for a bit. If she moved fast enough, she could avoid being skewered by that knife. If not? Well. This would be a short fight indeed.