First Reply What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong

[Ziso Kus]

The unforeseen, the unknown, was the greatest threat to an Assassin. Everything had to be categorized, sorted, and filed away to ensure that there would be no room for the unknown to crop up, but that was at best a deterrent than an actual barrier. This was one of those days that showed how useless of a deterrent preparation could be. Ziso ran, sprinting through back alleys as she kept the shadows as best as she could. She'd been found out, marked as an assassin during her hunt. How long had her target known? How did they know? Her skills had always been about being overlooked and going unseen. Had her abilities not worked, and she was lead along to believe they did? Was she betrayed?

Was her information wrong?

Too many things to sort out, but only when she wasn't currently being shot at. A robotic hiss echoed from her mask as a bolt burned past her, hitting the wall. Shouts echoed behind. She'd been found again. They were relentless in their pursuit, but she couldn't stop her mad dash. Any delay would mean more to follow. Metal ripped from a nearby staircase as she threw the mangled handrail behind, a deterrent to keep them from hounding her directly. Long enough for her to rip open a sewer grate and drop below. The maps of the sewer's she'd downloaded were going to help greatly.

All she needed to do was get to her primary fallback point without other issues, then devise a plan. Her target wasn't going to survive this.

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Rounds of blaster bolts ricocheted past Juniper as she pushed herself forward, using the Force to enhance her speed and close the distance between herself and the would-be assassin. The sorceress had struck a deal with a Hutt, temporary, transactional, and already wearing thin. If she acted as an enforcer and stopped an assassination attempt, they would hand over the informant tied to a bounty she had been hunting for far too long. The reasoning behind the hit didn't matter to her. Plenty of beings wanted Hutts dead for plenty of reasons. That wasn't her concern, her job was to stop it.

The Hutts had known about the attempt for some time, waiting for the right moment to spring their trap and make an example out of whoever was bold enough to try. What they hadn't expected was competence. The intruder had gotten close- too close. Close enough to rattle the Hutt. Close enough that now this wasn't just about survival, it was about making a statement. As the assailant fled, Juniper caught glimpses of her between the chaos. Robes snapping through tight spaces, movement too precise, too efficient. There was something unnatural beneath the fabric. A cyborg, maybe? The blaster fire behind them had become little more than noise now, bolts missing their mark entirely as both hunter and prey moved too quickly to be pinned down.

Juniper kept pace for a time, the Force burning through her muscles as she forced herself to keep up, but the unfamiliarity of the planet worked against her. Every turn the assassin made seemed deliberate, every path chosen with knowledge Juniper didn't have. That slight disadvantage was all it took. When the cyborg tore loose a length of metal and hurled it back, Juniper reacted on instinct, pivoting and flipping cleanly over the debris. She didn't stick the landing. Her boots hit hard, momentum slipping as she rolled into a nearby pillar, the impact slowing her just enough for her target to vanish from sight.

She stood still for a moment, drawing in a slow breath as she centered herself. The chaos of the city pressed in around her, but she pushed it aside, reaching out with the Force and letting it stretch beyond her, searching for anything that didn't belong. For a second there was nothing, just noise and movement and life layered over life. Then she heard it, a hollow metallic sound in the distance. A sewer grate. It wasn't much, but it was all she had to go off of.

Juniper didn't hesitate. The Dark Jedi moved quickly, finding the nearest access point and tearing the heavy lid free with the Force before dropping down into the darkness below. She landed with a solid thud against the metal railing, boots catching just above the slow-moving sewage beneath. The smell hit almost immediately, and she grimaced, already deciding she would avoid stepping into that for as long as possible.

Pathbreaker snapped into her hand at her call, the weapon extending with a familiar weight as she held it ready, her stance tightening. She reached out again with the Force, more focused now, searching for the faint signature she had brushed against during the chase. It was still there, somewhere ahead of her, slipping through the tunnels. She could feel Ziso Kus on the run.

Juniper tilted her head slightly, a faint smirk pulling at her lips.

Nowhere left to run.

 

[Ziso Kus]

The primary retreat had worked well. The chaos of gunfire and the brief rip of metal had to be enough to let her slip away in the sewers. Even if one of the mercs of the Hutt thought she was in there, they wouldn't follow. The smell alone was a deterrent she didn't have to deal with. The boon of cybernetics at times. At least until she heard a splash only a few seconds behind her. Her own sprinting was much too loud in the tunnels. Above they wouldn't hear it, but within?

Her run slowed to a pitter patter of sludge. Ziso remained hunched under her cloak, leaving her size difficult to tell but she didn't turn just yet. Electrical currents and a presence. One that was reaching out towards her. Was that how the Hutt knew she was targeting him? Someone was able to feel her presence?

"Velo doesn't pay his mercenaries enough for you to jump into a sewer. You are why everything fell apart. An outsider." Her metallic voice rang out, echoing more by the tunnel around them.

"How much longer until reinforcements arrive?"

Juniper Le Fey

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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The clang of metal slamming against the sewer floor confirmed Juniper's suspicions, she was on the right track. Using the Force, the sorceress lifted into the air, guiding her landing so she didn't create a splash. Both for tactical reasons and sanitary ones; she just had to wear a leather jumpsuit for the drama of it, didn't she?

The clanging stopped, and shortly after came a voice, metallic and crass, calling out to taunt Juniper as she followed deeper and deeper into the sewer. She chose not to call back just yet, not wanting to give away her position. Instead, she let her prey talk, letting the sound guide her. Paired with the Force stretching outward, surveying the space, she worked to lock onto Ziso Kus 's position.

If the woman wanted to believe Juniper wouldn't follow her into the muck and mire, she would let her believe that. The assassin was correct about one thing, she was different, and she was the reason the plan had fallen apart. But she was wrong about the rest. So very wrong. As Ziso finished speaking, Juniper was closer than the other woman would have liked, still not quite able to visually track her in the darkness that clung to the tunnels.

"You are mistaken." Her voice echoed through the sewers, backed by the Force, carrying like a whisper and a scream all at once. "I am the reinforcements." The sound pushed past Ziso, bleeding deeper into the darkness beyond, distorting the sense of where she truly stood. Juniper could feel the cyborg's presence now- closer, just out of reach.

"I will find you. Darkness can't hide you forever." Juniper focused, tightening her grip on Pathbreaker, holding it ready. She steadied herself, prepared to knock back any strike that came her way, or to seize the moment and unleash her energy the second her target revealed herself.

 

[Ziso Kus]

Ziso shifted from the water. The sloshing changed, shifting to echoing clangs of metal. Her clawed feet were now having her walk along the walls, the ceiling. The sound was distorted though, echoing around unnaturally, yet getting louder with each step. This hunter was the reinforcements? By the echo of the voice, they weren't bluffing. The Force was filled with an unknown danger. Everything about this had been unknown and unexpected.

She dropped from above, metal claws releasing as quietly as they could to keep the drop silent. At least, that was the intention. Eyes narrowed as a loud splash erupted. Distortion. The mark she thought was there hadn't been, instead using the same trickery to keep Ziso from recognizing where she truly was. A metallic hiss echoed out as she kicked up the murky water all around, trying to hide where she was amidst the foul liquids.

"Find me if you must, but you will not stand in the way of my task."

Surprise was no longer on her side, but the burning hiss of a red saber sprang to life from within her cloak. She remained crouched, to keep her true size hidden below the cloak. Anything she could keep secret was going to be valuable.

Juniper Le Fey

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Juniper stilled her mind and her body in the time Ziso had been moving, the echoes of her own voice still slamming off the walls. It made it harder for the sorceress to pinpoint the assassin's exact location, harder, but not impossible. She reached out through the Force, searching for any tendrils of the Dark Side that might be bleeding from whoever was responsible.

Then Juniper felt it ripple through the sewer. They exposed themselves, the sound of the drop was quiet to the ear, but to someone focused on the disturbances in the Force, it didn't go unnoticed. Juniper's eyes snapped open, and for a brief moment, even in the darkness, she could see. A flicker of Force sight. She wasn't practiced enough to hold it, but it was enough to make out the faint shape of her target.

She wasn't sure if Ziso Kus would still be there by the time she closed the distance, so she stalked forward carefully, doing her best to stay silent despite the filth beneath her boots. Pathbreaker extended in her hands, this time in response to the unmistakable hiss of a lightsaber igniting. It was hard to hide something like that in such tight quarters, but Juniper knew better than to assume that was all her opponent had. If the assassin had tricks, so did she.

Juniper reacted to the sudden stirring of the muck, an attempt to mask movement, or escape. Instinct took over, and she pushed outward with the Force, a sharp burst meant to disrupt and catch her prey off guard as the water churned around them, buying herself even the smallest advantage before the next clash.

"And you will not stop me from completing my bounty," Juniper replied between breaths. Her staff started glowing faintly in the darkness as pink lightning danced around its grip.

 

[Ziso Kus]

A screech of metal sounded, muffled mostly by water and sloshing, but unmistakable as the cyborg kept herself from being thrown away by her claws in the metal flooring of the pipe. No mistaking it now, they were a Force User. No wonder their subtle deceptions were found out. The red glow of her saber illuminated her cloaked form as the water fell still, and a pair of golden eyes shouded by shadows peered out through the darkness. They focused on the purple glow, the crackling energy.

"There you are."

Both clawed hands gripped her lightsaber as she leveled it, eyes narrowing in the unnatural shadows her cloak seemed to provide. Something born of the Force, by how it felt.

"What is the bounty, by chance?"

Juniper Le Fey

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Juniper gritted her teeth at the sharp sound of metal scraping through the confined space. It was harsh on her ears, grating in a way she wouldn't forget. She pushed it aside, forcing her focus back into the moment as her grip tightened on the staff. She angled the lighter side upward, setting herself to drive the heavier end forward if she needed to strike without warning.

The Force danced around Juniper, at times snapping into arcs of lightning, at others breaking into faint sparks that drifted from her body. The truth sat somewhere in between. She hadn't mastered her Dathomiri magick yet, and when she reached for it, it bled out in unstable ways, flickers, surges, things she didn't always fully control. Her eyes narrowed on Ziso Kus , watching, measuring as her magick settled.

"The bounty is what I will collect after I make sure you're no longer a threat to Velo," she said, her voice steady despite the energy building around her. "Then he gives me my informant." She knew she'd said more than she should have, but it didn't matter. Not down here, not like this.

She rolled the staff through her hands, building momentum, grounding herself in the motion as the crackle of energy around her grew louder, bouncing off the walls the same way the metal screech had before.

"Are you going to keep asking questions…" she continued, her tone sharpening, "…or are we going to do this?"