Time to pay the Piper (Spencer)

[Meric Nadun]

Teth was an interesting world. First a Hutt playground, and then cleaned up by the Republic, and then a Hutt playground again. Now it seemed more like a world somewhat suited to being a resort world than anything else. He'd never been to the planet despite having been to a great many worlds in his time. The Reaper's Edge settled down at the spaceport and Meric stood from his captain's seat before walking away without a word.

Why was he on the world? Because intel told him that a young woman named Spencer Jacobs was there. Why did that matter? Because he was a bounty hunter now and there was a bounty out on the woman. That being the case, he aimed to collect her, and then collect his reward. It was a rather lot of fun to hunt people down regardless of who they were affiliated with.

Wearing nothing but a long phrik sword on his back, he walked through the spaceport and out into the sunlight. His presence in the Force was masked as he trudged along. Being a Sylphe, he got plenty of stares, but he didn't mind. Xaphen did seem to mind, but Meric didn't care. He'd beat the poor kid around inside of his own head. Sometimes Xaphen showed through, but when he did, Meric ended up tearing the boys mind apart to get control again. Such was life.

"Now... where to begin."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Investigation was part of her job; well it was a part of her job because she thought it was a good idea to learn about the Hutts. Coming to Teth probably would end up being an ill choice of places, but she needed to find some sort of answers. Spencer moved quickly, through the streets, her mask and her necklace scrambling her force signature. It would make her difficult to track; it was a protection despite her alias now known to the entire republic. Dipping down an ally she pulled out a data pad and started to examine the information she had collected.

A hand pulled down her hood revealing the masked blonde. Her mask changed into simple metal plating that covered her eyes and nose. She noticed there was a new update on her ongoing comic. The girl quickly updated the comic and tucked away. Spencer could dance where she stood; this update was going to finally tell what choice the wayward padawan had taken! Something hit her as she glanced down at the information, her eyebrow rose as she poked her head out of the alley and back to the streets.

Something was terribly wrong.

 

[Meric Nadun]

Meric had done his homework on this girl. She hated it when innocent people got hurt. In fact, apparently she'd been involved in two Sith planetary conquests while she was still a Jedi in the Republic. That intrigued him more than anything. Why would someone do that? Of course the answer was largely obvious under the circumstances. Clearly the girl detested violence and was using a natural Force gift in order to assuage people. Suffice to say, he was pretty sure that she had some heavy mental talent.

That didn't bother him too much, really. There were defenses against such things, and he had the added bonus of inhabiting the body he was in, which meant that he could just allow it to absorb some of the assault, plus Sylphe's had naturally high psychic abilities. On top of that, this body had pheromones. They were lovely things which could help calm almost any situation if he needed them to. Oh yes, this was probably his favorite body yet.

When she sensed something wrong, it was because he walked into a store and began to fill the place with lightning. Immense lightning that racked the body's of many. A few died instantly; their frail bodies could not handle the strain. Others screamed in agony and writhed on the ground. He knew she would feel it.

"Come little one. Your calling beckons you."

Grabbing a bottle of water from the store shelf, he downed it thirstily, licking the remaining drops from his lips.

@[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer’s heart raced as she felt the lives being stolen from the Force. Something terrible had happened and now she was the one feeling the souls escaping. Sliding out from the alley, she looked around trying to see if anyone noticed she was hiding in the alley. Fingers pressed against the mask as she took in a deep breath and searched for the source of the disturbance. Continue to take several streets she finally heard screams and watched as people ran from the store on the corner street. Spencer quickly made her way over disposing off her outer robe. She made a mental note to try and avoid wearing that from now on since she usually got rid of it in the first place.

Making her way through the shattered door, her hand covered her mouth as she saw the blood from the slaughter. Body’s twisted and burnt on the ground, others crying out for help. Spencer rushed over to a man and placed her hand on his twisted and fried face. His eyes wide as he stared at her, her hand glowed as she focused on wanting to save him. It was her compassion that kept her from falling to the darkside. She started to heal the man, but when he was healed enough he raised an arm and pointed at the mirror near one of the stands of the shop. Spencer looked into it and spotted the Sylphe enjoying a nice refreshing drink.

Remaining quiet she assumed she hadn’t been sported seen…

 

[Meric Nadun]

Not seen, perhaps, but certainly felt. A smirk touched his lips as he drank the last remaining drops of water from the bottle before setting it aside. The use of the lightside was easy to feel. Someone was there, and he guessed that it was likely his target. Walking around the corner of the aisle, he looked down it at where she was knelt over a man, clearly doing what she could to heal him. Tilting his head, he frowned as he saw her. The mask hid much, but he still felt something odd tugging at him.

"I thought you would come if I did enough damage."

A smirk touched his lips as he regarded her. The Darkside welled within him, ready to be utilized at a moments notice, but he held the power back, using it mesmerize Xaphen into not trying to retake control of his body while he played games with the girl.

"Does it feel good to know that you caused this by being so difficult to find? If you weren't hiding I'd not have had to hurt anyone, you know. Probably would have, but I wouldn't have HAD to do it."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Looking down, the man smiled once at the girl and then the light of life faded from his eyes. She continued to try and heal him, hopefully bring him back. When she couldn’t, Spencer felt tears rush to her eyes. She was crying and from her own emotions. Wiping them away she turned and faced the one behind her. Her nose wrinkled in frustration. Who was this plant and why was he doing this?

“Why are you looking for me?”

It was the only thing she could think of. She did feel at fault. These people had nothing to do with her or with the plant man for that matter. How disgusting that someone could just do all of this destruction just to make someone come out of their hiding spot. Standing slowly she looked at him, she felt angry and sad. It was an odd feeling to have, she compared it to how Anaya felt when she was near her. Shaking the thoughts from her mind she looked at the man again.

“You didn’t have to do this you know, no one made you do it. This can’t be my fault! Who the feth are you?”

 

[Meric Nadun]

"That's easy. You have a bounty on your head."

He tapped his foot lightly against the ground as he watched her. A small smile touched at the corners of his lips, eyes searching over her. She wore a mask which obscured most of her face, but she seemed so familiar to him and he didn't really know why. Perhaps when he captured her, and had her imprisoned on his ship, he would strip the mask from her and see what it was that was bugging him.

Suddenly, though, he stopped tapping his foot and leaned towards her.

"Run! I have but a moment before he..."

"Silence, Xaphen. You're starting to annoy me."

The Sylphe body straightened again and he shook his head, lifting a hand to smooth back the hair-like plant growth atop his head. After doing so, he smiled at her once again and gestured with his hand.

"This is your fault. Everything is your fault. Were it not for you, I wouldn't even be here. As for who I am, I'll tell you a short little story. In ages past, no doubt this was written down somewhere and you learned of it, there was a powerful Sith named Darth Locura. That Sith left a wake of death and destruction behind him as he traveled the galaxy. He was, shall we say, a terror. I am Darth Locura. My real name is Meric Nadun, and I don't go by that Darth title anymore, but he is most certainly me. And yes, that was over a thousand years ago.

"That in mind, why don't you make this simple so I don't have to hurt you and give up? Less collateral damage that way, too."

 

[Allyson Locke]

The bounty.

The disguise wouldn’t do much for her now; the bounty was on her as well as her known alias. Removing the mask she placed it on the nearby over thrown counter. The blonde ran her hand along her brow adjusting her bangs as she did so. A stern looks stared back at the Sylphe. As his story went it meant that he was able to switch bodies and this one was no different. The voice was probably the original owner of the body and Spencer cringed to know what horrible things had happened for him to lose it.

“I’m glad to be a listener to your little story, but as much as you can try and blame me for this it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a heartless monster.”

Her hazel eyes fell towards the door, she needed to get out of here. Fighting this man here would only cause a scene and awaken any others trying to gather her bounty. It was a good thing that the bounty wanted her alive so she usually had to face her attacker. Looking back towards Meric, she smirked.

“I’m leaving now, good day to you sir”

 

[Meric Nadun]

When she removed the mask, his eyes went wide. She looked exactly like a young woman he used to know. It couldn't be her, though. She was long since dead. But she looked exactly like her. His eyes were wide as he stared at her. Was she reincarnated in this girl? Could that possibly be the case? The one person that he'd had a real weakness for. The one person he had truly cared for...

"I do have a heart, contrary to what you think..."

She said she was going to leave. He couldn't let her do that. A wall of the Force was raised in front of her, to stop her from walking away from where she was. There was still the matter of the bounty on her head, after all. He was a bounty hunter. She was his job.

"I can't let you leave. You look... like someone I knew hundreds of years ago. Plus I have to take you in. It's my job."

He stood in front of her, no longer acting all high and mighty, but quite interested in her.

"You're a lot different than her, though. Similar, but different... Still, give up. It'll be easier. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to."

 

[Allyson Locke]

The force wall got in her way and she pondered her situation with it. Reaching out she felt it and knew that he was strong with the force. Looking towards him she didn’t understand what he was going on about. She looked like someone he knew and it made her question. Of course she looked like someone; she looked like Sanctuary who was also on the bounty. Shaking her head, she was going irritated with his constant claims of him bringing her in.

“I’m not going anywhere with you. You expect me to allow you to take me after you’ve done all of this? Also you can’t hurt me; if you hurt me you lose all the money on the bounty.”

His demeanor changed and she took note of it. Stepping away from him as he stood in front of her she shook her head. Whoever this person was that he was comparing her too, she didn’t want to know anything else about the woman. From his demeanor the woman was probably a lover or something that meant a great deal to him. She wanted nothing of his probable fantasy to relive something he lost hundreds of years ago.

“I am me; do not get me confused with your dreams Meric”

 

[Meric Nadun]

"Not dreams. Memories."

He couldn't let her leave, though. Shifting, he dropped the wall and then brought up another, intending on slamming her into the nearest rack of food stuffs in the store. He couldn't kill her, she did have that right, but he could hurt her. Reasonable assumption was going to be that she put up a struggle, which meant that a hunter was going to have to harm her in some fashion. He knew how to not kill her.

"I don't desire to harm you, but I will if I must. I just have to bring you in alive."

Stepping forward, he began to approach her, hands flexed and ready because he knew they were going to have to fight. It wasn't going to be a pretty fight either, most likely. It would destroy the whole place, but so be it. He wasn't going to fail on this mission, but he wasn't going to kill her either. He didn't want her dead. In fact, he wanted to hold her. He missed that woman. If that was really her...

"Don't fight and it will be painless. Nobody else has to die here. I really don't want to hurt you."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer was thrown into the food racks and she shook her head coming out of the mild disorientation. A hand held her forehead for a moment as he walked up to her. She looked over towards him, he moved like a predator and she cursed under her breath. Her mind ran through the series of lessons she had had previous to all of this. One person came to mind as she remembered her lessons with the woman @[member="Sirella Valkner"] and her son Hylo. A grin swept across her face as she remembered that the Sylphe were plant like people.

“I want to hurt you though. Also, who was she to you?”

As she spoke her mind focused on the cellular structure of his body. Plants were the same and she focused on giving the plants what they needed. Using the force she forced his fingers to grow at a rapid rate, she aimed to tangle them to the food racks as she used plant surge. Pushing herself from the spot she was thrown she grinned at the bounty hunter.

“There’s a reason I haven’t been caught yet you know.”

 

[Meric Nadun]

"She was someone I loved..."

The plant surge was a good move, generally speaking. While his fingers did begin to grow and the like, it wasn't actually his body and he wasn't forced to dwell on what she was doing to it. He didn't actually need the body to do what he was doing, it was just his vessel, his way to move around through the galaxy. So though he began to grow, he didn't distress about it. Only Xaphen did that.

In response, he slammed the full weight of his mind and control of the Force against her head, aiming to disrupt what she was doing. If he broke into her mind, he would cause havoc, drawing her deepest and darkest fears to her minds eye. Force Insanity was the most potent form of Force Fear. He wondered if she'd ever faced anything like it before. Either way, if he got in to do it, he was going to ensure that she felt like the end was upon her.

"You have avoided capture because you haven't faced one like me before. Let's not forget: I actually found you."

 

[Allyson Locke]

The attack broke her concentration, only to allow her to shift and turn her offensive to a defensive. Her mind focused on protecting itself and as she was taught, the force drain emitted from her focusing on the attack to her mind. She couldn’t be left helpless; she couldn’t allow anyone to capture her. Focusing on the force drain, she softened the blow. It still gave her a headache and she needed to put every ounce into the drain. Once she found peace from the attack, she used the force to push him away from her.

“Stay out of there, that’s one place no one is allowed well except my brother.”

Shaking her head, she knew he was going to be something interesting. Her usual fights had been against brutes who tried to attack her face on. Meric on the other hand was going try and play with her mind. There was only so much she could do, but she needed to defeat him and get off this god forsaken planet. Remembering the girl he was speaking of, she decided to question him more about her.

“If you loved her why didn’t you say with her? Why did you allow yourself to live this long especially without her?”

 

[Meric Nadun]

He was cast away from her to slam into a wall of food stuffs. Dusting himself off, he stood again, and focused on using the Force to reverse the effects of what she'd done to Xaphen's body moments before. As he did that, she spoke about him and the previous her. She didn't have memories of that. He expected that reincarnations would have no knowledge of past lives.

"My body died and she was taken from me to love another woman."

There was hurt present in his voice, but he quickly masked it while he looked across at her once again. He could be a brute when he wanted to, but at the moment he didn't want to be a brute. He didn't want to hurt her, he just wanted to beat her.

That being the case, he immediately went back after her mind. He would beat on her mind if he had to. Force Drain wouldn't work forever. She could only eat up so much of his efforts until her mind became weakened. He accompanied the mental attack with a momentary blast of the Force aimed at thrusting her back down onto the ground, intent on distracting her just enough for him to succeed. If she had a brother, she was going to be made to feel the worst things imaginable regarding him. Meric cared not for her brother, only for her.

"I have always, and will always, love her. You look exactly like her."

 

[Allyson Locke]

The mental attack on her brother was something she could see through easily. Aston and she had a connection, a force connection unlike anyone. She could sense him and feel his pain. The attack showing her things that were horribly being done to him only fueled her own rage. She didn’t feel the pain of her sibling, but the images did disturb her. She didn’t fight this blow to her mind, she let it happen. Her connection with her brother was her saving grace in this instance.

“So she didn’t love you back, I can see why.”

The force blast came and she pushed back with her own defending against putting her in a horrible position. Looking at him and he way he spoke of this woman made her remember a dream when she was a child. Aston would ask about it since he was capable of seeing what she dreamed of. Blue eyes, they weren’t like Ashin’s, but something else. Smirking, she launched her own mental attack forcing the man to remember the woman’s face and how he could never have. Spencer probed looking for more, but more than likely like her – he knew his mental defenses.

“Maybe I’m her reincarnation – the force works in mysterious ways like this. But this incarnation much like the one you met will always leave you for another.”

 

[Meric Nadun]

"You don't know me. I'm not what you think I am."

Her attacked was rebuffed by his mental defenses, but she would most certainly see how he ached for her. Blue eyes, a familiar face. It was so plainly at the forefront of his mind that even the strongest of defenses wouldn't keep that from leaking out. She was playing on his pains which was smart of her. The only problem was, it had happened such a long time ago that the ache was dull at best. The only thing he yearned for was to have her.

"I only do what I have to."

Which was why he reached out towards her body with the Force. Instead of going after her mind again, he made her think he was going to, only to attack her insides with the Force. Squeezing them. He knew how to hurt her without killing her. Years and years of experience had given him precise control over his ability to manipulate the Force. He wouldn't allow her to die.

She might say she'd leave him, and in reality he knew she likely would, but he had to do this. She'd meant that much to him. In the past he'd been close to her. He wanted to be close to her again.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Shit…

Spencer remembered the face and the blue eyes from when she was a child. So in all actuality her existence was a new incarnation of this woman Meric had been in love with. Glorious, first she had a bounty on her head and now she was a reincarnation of a man’s lost love. Seemed to be happening a quite a bit now a days. Shaking the thought from her mind she threw up mental defenses once more focusing on beating him. Something happened though, pressure built up around her organs and she coughed losing a bit of air. Meditation was a good thing, she had done it for so long that it came as second nature. Her heart rate slowed along with the high need of oxygen. Her mind focused on the force.

Reaching out, she raised her hand and gripped tightly. Using Plant Surge once more she forced the man’s vessel to grow out of control again, but this time instead of tangling him to a rack of food, she forced the plant body to turn on its self. The vines and plant fibers that made up his body curled around his neck getting tight quickly as she continued to plant surge. The tighter he crushed her inside the tighter she worked on the plants.

“I…Know…exactly…what…you…are! Leave…me…alone!”

 

[Meric Nadun]

I am not this body. You are killing an innocent being, Spencer. Is that what you want? Xaphen is screaming in here.

"Please... stop..."

She wasn't a monster. She would never be like he was and he knew that. It didn't matter what incarnation he met, she would never be like him, and he was actually glad of that fact. She'd been one of those people that had helped turn him from his path of craziness and destruction in the past. Were it not for her, he would still be that same monster. Yes, he still had those tendencies, but he wasn't that person.

He continued to squeeze her, tightening around her organs. She was using meditation to slow her need, so he focused other than her heart and lungs. Her kidneys, appendix, and liver would work well enough. Ruptures to those would kill her and she had to know that. When she tried to focus on stopping that, he would go back to her lungs and try to drop her into unconsciousness. He needed to end this without truly hurting her. He would not hurt her in that way.

I can't leave you alone, Spencer. I can't. You are her again. You know it. I... need you. I don't want to be that monster anymore and it was only her that stopped me. It was only you.

 

[Allyson Locke]

"Stop...being...pathetic."

The plant surge stopped and Spencer focused on her force aura. He penetrator her body because of her focus being on attacking him. Closing her eyes she focused her force aura. The power that surrounded every force user... a way of protection.

Pushing it outward like a shield she worked to push his influence out of her body. He didn't belong there and it was time to get rid of his invasion. Her mind constantly focused on taking him out spoke softly to her.

Get out get out get out