The Clone Who Wasn't There [Tenzing]

[Tenzing]

Coruscant.

Some beings thought the Outer Rim was full of the worst hives of scum and villainy the galaxy had to offer. None of them were a patch on the grandmomma of 'em all. The Corest of Core Worlds. The rotten apple at the centre of everything.

Coruscant.

Why was I even here? Thrill of the chase? An honest to goodness goddamn CASE, after all these years? With my name on it. Did I have something to prove?

Coruscant.

The rain fell from clouds that had probably formed from the condensed sweat of the unknown billions crammed onto the surface. Teeming. Like ants. Not for the first time I was wondering if I should take up smoking. A cop who didn't smoke. It was like a kaff without a doughnut. Somehow incomplete.

Coruscant.

Six months of tracking down the faintest leads. Only to end up here. Mallory warned me. She was right more often than not. Check Righty, check Lefty. Ready as I'd ever be. A moment's vision of a past life. Blasters blasting, droids sparking, jetpack burning. My head shakes the image away. This is different. Not the past, and maybe not the future. Just, now.

I walk towards the door... Am I getting too old for this?

[Meiyokashi]

An unassuming door on a mostly abandoned floor, the only one not taped off in the derelict space. Metal stained with rust, substance, it coats the halls in a mixture that would be easily mistaken for a mural. Nothing else on this floor seemed worthwhile, or used, and was just filled with unknowable dangers like sharp glass or old sheets of metal.

A knock was the only way forward, so I knock it had to be.

Unless he kicked the door down, went in blasting like the old days. That wasn't a good way to start things that might keep this peaceful. So, a knock it eventually was.

One minute.

Two.

Opening the door with a metal swoosh, just an inch or two, enough for a woman to look out with one eye the other concealed behind. Hand in the space between door and wall, green. A young Mirialan woman, comely in her experience if a little disheveled and with days old makeup worn. It wasn't the woman he was looking for, not by a long-shot.

"Who're you?" she asks, the concern heavy in her voice.

[Tenzing]

The past.

"No one you'd know. But I've come a long way. Mind if I come in?"

I step back a pace, no sudden moves. Hands where she can see 'em. Who is she? Daughter? Sister? Or am I too late? Was it a false lead?

Not the end of the world. There's a story here regardless. So I wait. I'm going in. The easy way. Or the other.

[Meiyokashi]

With a hand to the side she closes the door between them. Thirty seconds it opens once more and the woman is standing several feet back waiting for him to come inside. Behind her he can see a few rooms, women mostly but men as well and each appear to be in states similar to her own.

Soon as he steps in the door he feels the cool metal of a blaster pistol rest against his temple, "Now I am asking," the woman's voice was a little harsh, but young. What he might recognize is the Rylothian accent which is thick in her speech. "Who are you? Who sent you? Why are you here?" the blaster whirrs to remind him it's set to deal damage and not merely stun.

"I better like your answers."

[Tenzing]

It's not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Besides, at this range even a stun bolt can kill you. I close my eyes. Easier to feel the vibrations.

"Hows about I tell you the truth, and we leave the value judgements out of it?"

Voice calm, tone even. Just doing my job here lady.

"I'm Tenzing, or NG-1010 depending on who's asking. Came all the way from Bellionas, which either tells you everything, or nothing. I'm looking for Vida. Is she here?"

Was this how Saph's place had started out?

[Meiyokashi]

"Speaking-" she says, a hiss in her voice, she's a harsher woman than he might have expected but the pieces to the puzzle were there. Certainly not a scared girl on the run from her actions anymore, from the people she slighted. Without looking away from him he can feel the ease in how she holds the blaster steady while watching him for any wrong move.

"Take his blasters," she says, and the Mirialan woman who answered the door walks over with a sheepish look to her. Dipping her head as she approaches and searches him for his weapons.

"I like the truth. Good place to start," she says, that passive harshness in her tone fading out as something to be wary of as it settles in as just her voice.

[Tenzing]

The younger woman doesn't know what she's doing. A perfunctory pat down isn't much use against concealed holsters, she misses the pistols. She looks confused, shakes her head.

"Yeah, the truth. It's a good start, let's see where it goes." I nod. "Two DC-17's. I'm gonna take 'em out real slow and hand 'em to you. Got it?"

I wait for the sign from Vida before I draw them slowly. Lefty and Righty, my old friends. Pass them over holding the barrels. All non threatening like. It was kinda like that time on Malastare...

"Careful with those." Attention returns to Vida. "So, you got any kaff on the go? It's been a long trip."

[Meiyokashi]

Vida looks to the woman, before giving a sharp nod to which the woman retreats with Tens' blasters, easing her own. With that he's free to look to her, a woman now probably in her late 20's but a Twi'lek with blue skin and tattooed lekku. There was a comeliness to her that was marred only by the serious attitude, depending on one's perception. Relaxing her blaster hand, shifting the thing into her own holster strapped to a bare leg through the slit in her dress. Shifting her weight onto the other leg the dress comes around and covers the blaster from immediate view.

"No kaff here," she says, giving him a sharp nod, "but we got comfy seats and whatever else we could steal for this place. Find yourself one and then start talking, real slow," she says as she steps back a few and enters the space of the room proper. Focusing on him with that careful attention to the details. She was good at this- way better than she probably should have been.

[Tenzing]

I could see why Saph liked her, had liked her. The attitude, sure, but there's something about her bearing that speaks volumes.

"Comfy seats? Sure thing." I find one that lets me see what's going on. No-one sneaks up on an ARC Trooper. Straight to it then.

"I got hired to track you down. Took a while, but I'm good at what I do." What exactly is that again? Used to be simple. I let those thoughts melt away. "So here I am."

In a comfy chair. On the worst planet in the galaxy.

[Meiyokashi]

Watching as he moves through the room Vida takes up a spot, standing in front of him as one of the boys walk to her side. Whispering something in her ear she turns to him and whispers something back. Leaving from her side he walks into the back and heards a few of the others who were onlooking into one of the back rooms.

"So.. one of those clones," she looks to the Mirialan who approaches her. Handing over the blasters Vida takes each into one hand and whispers something to the girl, a brief and almost certainly rare smile. Parting away as well. Vida's attention returns as she walks to a nearby seat, setting the blasters down beside herself.

"So.. here you are. Know why you're here even? Why Saph wants me found?" she asks, quirking a brow cautiously.

[Tenzing]

I've seen a lot of things. You can learn all sorts from just watching people. Sometimes it'll save you.

"I know Saph's version of the story of her life. About you and the place she used to run. I know finding you is personal for her." My practiced eyes try to read the target. "I figure your version's different. They always are. And the truth? Well maybe the truth is somewhere in between."

Cards on the table.

"So why am I here?" A slight smile. My best 'reassuring cop'. "Saph's a hard read, but I've got my suspicions. Why do you think I'm here?"

[Meiyokashi]

"Very personal," she says, leaning forward in her seat her elbow found a rest on her knee, one leg crossed over the other. Bringing her palm up she rests her chin there and looks across at Tenzing with a passive appraisal of him. "Did she tell you how she got that scar? Won't keep you in suspense," she smirks, "it was me. When we tried to force our way out, to take over, I gave that to her before her security overwhelmed us and we had to run."

"Lost some people that day," she says, glancing down with that moment of sorrow crossing her features. "They trusted me. I let them down. Now.." she sighs, leaning back in her chair, "she sent you, without much word on why she wants me dead, to kill me. Maybe not yourself but... if you go back to her? Tell her what you found? It's only a matter of time."

[Tenzing]

I'm not surprised. The scar I mean, it had to be Vida. Hadn't heard about the deaths though, that had been kept quiet.

"No, she didn't tell me. Didn't need to. The obsession kinda gave it away." I don't have scars. Well, not that kind anyway. "Not so much the scar, but what it represents."

I sit back in my seat. Vida's smart, clearly, but she's also wrong. I shake my head.

"If Saph wanted you dead she'd have sent an assassin, not an ex-cop turned PI. No knock on the door, no guns handed over. No nice little conversation. And we both know she could afford it." I let out a breath I've been holding a little too long. "You know Saph. It's always about power with her."

[Meiyokashi]

Reaching out she takes a hold of one of his blasters, pulling it into her lap. Looking at it, examining it, and toying with it in a careful enough manner. A woman who's seen a few blasters in her life before, "Power.. yes. But if you think your reporting back to her is going to do anything good for me? For the girls and boys I've got here?" she shakes her head, tk tk tk, a clicking sound with her tongue.

"I'll either be dead or pulled through the streets back to her to make an example," she shakes her head. "Woman won't let that go. Eventually.. me or her, and I've got them to think about," she gives a nod toward the doors the others had moved through as their conversation began.

[Tenzing]

She's right of course. Even then, there are still choices. Options. I look at her more closely.

"If I don't go back, she'll know I found you. More will come, but they won't be reasonable like me. So. Let's talk. Tell me about them. What you're doing here, of all the places, on all the worlds."

Coruscant. Some sort of purgatory.

[Meiyokashi]

"I'll tell you all you need to know," she says, thumbing the trigger a little with the blaster pointed off to the side. Looking up over the blaster she locks eyes with Tenzing, a woman in her prime who was already shaping up to the woman she would probably always be from here on out. There's a fire of determination in those eyes, a woman with a cause.

"And you'll learn why when it comes between me and Saph? You should pick me, because without me-" she gives a glance toward the back room, "all the people I've pulled out of their kriffed situations won't have anyone watching over them anymore."

"So.. where do I begin?" she says, tilting her head.

[/scene on yours maybe? Unless you have more to cover!]

[Tenzing]

There she was. The fire. Finally. I flash Vida the old Tens smile.

"Well. If it might be my last. Why don't you start at the beginning?"

I've always had thing for lost causes.

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