Aw, don’t feel bad Bol. It wasn’t THE worst idea ever….just, a little stupid. She reassured him with a quick pat on the arm before her attention was drawn to the state of Nuly’s apartment. Covering her mouth and nose against the strong smell, Aria coughed out:
“Well....what’s the bet our friend over there’s Warden Nuly?”
“A pretty good one.” Sho grimaced as she glanced over at the corpse. Sho gingerly moved forward to survey the other end of the room, while Aria frowned carefully at the scoring on the walls, glancing at her companions for confirmation of her suggestion.
“Could it have been a flash grenade….?”
“With that small a blast radius?” Sho shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Not likely, baby-face.”
Yerbol returned to them with the holocomm in hand and the trio gathered round, frowning as they listened to the exchange.
“Something...tells me they decided Nuly couldn’t be trusted.” Sho muttered. As the transmission ended, Aria felt a deathly cold shiver creep down her spine, not unsimilar to that dreadful feeling Illesia had once-
You feel that, don't you? Yerbol had reached out to her in the same instant that she attempted to, the smaller Champion responding with a nod.
Yeah. I feel it. She cast around for the source of the energy shift, spotting the armoured figures gliding out of their refuges in the room. Her attention immediately went to the flying saber, which thankfully skimmed Yerbol's head as the Champion ducked out of the way and engaged its bearer, though Aria quickly had to refocus on the two assailants heading for their Mandalorian friend.
“Stay behind me, Sho.” she instructed the Mandalorian, igniting her own lightsaber and taking up a protective stance in front of her. Yerbol's shield deflected an incoming blow from one attacker, Aria's blade blocking the other.
“Hey, I saved YOUR asses a moment ago, I'm not some kind of damsel in distress okay?” Sho protested indignantly.
“You want to go toe to toe with a lightsaber duelist?” Aria retorted abruptly as her own weapon snapped to life. Predictably, Sho went quiet.
Gritting her teeth, the Champion pushed forward, her elbow connecting with the man's jaw and propelling him backwards into the desk while the Champion dashed towards his companion to aid Sho. Unable to get a clear shot in such close quarters, the Mandalorian spat a curse (or that's what it sounded like...Aria didn't understand the language used, probably a Mandalorian dialect), sidestepping to avoid the armoured man’s lightsaber impaling her shoulder, allowing Aria to deftly intercept the movement with her own blade.
“You're all under arrest.” the Champion proclaimed, prompting a derisive snort from the attacker as he lunged forward to deliver a blow to her shoulder in an attempt to disarm her. Aria parried the blow, distributing her weight back onto her back leg so as not to leave Sho unprotected by stepping backwards and putting the bounty hunter directly in the lightsaber-wielders’ path.
“Don't think they're going to come quietly…” Sho muttered, dropping her blaster back into its holster (it was far too risky to even attempt taking pot shots at such close quarters, she could risk hitting either of the Qyaari instead, or hitting some other object in the room and distracting their attention from their opponents, which wouldn't end well either) and grabbing the vibroblade she kept on hand as a “backup plan” for such situations.
“Doesn't look that way, more fun for us I suppose.” Aria answered sarcastically, flipping her wrist to the side to avoid a disarming blow. “You picked a fight with the wrong people.”
Across the room, Yerbol was exchanging blows with the first assailant while the other scrambled to right himself after knocking most of the furnishings off the desk. He charged again, only to be intercepted by Yerbol's flying lightsaber as the Champion dispatched his former opponent and turned to help Aria and Sho, who seemed to be doing a decent job of fending off the single attacker between them. The Mandalorian was doing an impressive job of holding her ground, her sword deflecting and parrying the odd blow from the man's lightsaber surprisingly well for an ordinary weapon. Snarling in frustration, the man thrust out a hand and produced a powerful blast of energy that sent the two women flying in opposite directions away from him.
Twisting in mid air, Aria managed to right herself, landing behind the second remaining assassin and knocking his feet out from underneath him with a quick sweep of her leading leg, causing him to lurch forward and allowing Yerbol to finish him off. Sho on the other hand was somewhat less graceful (and less fleet of foot, considering her bulkier frame) and had to pick herself up off the floor as the assassin charged again.
“Sho!” Aria called out in alarm, throwing her lightsaber to try and aid their friend, but missed, diving after the assailant and hoping Sho could collect herself in time to avoid being decapitated...
She had been expecting an entirely different scene, with a lot more drastic consequences, than the one that did unfold. Sho managed to get her feet underneath her again relatively quickly, flicking her blade up to block the vicious downward slash that came towards her neck from above. Sparks flew from the tempered steel as the lightsaber struck it, but didn't cut through it. Instead the vibroblade held firm while the energy blade sputtered violently and shorted out.
“HA! Forgot what a Cortosis weave does to your energy swords? Sucker!” the Mandalorian crowed triumphantly, following up with a vicious elbow blow to the man's exposed stomach that knocked him towards the approaching Champions. Raising a hand, Aria lifted the man off his feet and threw him back into the wall, keeping her hand outstretched, maintaining just enough pressure to keep him mildly uncomfortable and pinned in place but still allowing him the ability to croak out an answer to her questions.
“Who sent you, Soto? Somebody else? Where did they take her? Start talking.”
“Who do you think?” the man sneered, struggling in vain to break himself free.
“Give us a name and I might just ask Won to lock you up for a few years instead of letting you join your buddies back there.” the Champion hissed, jerking her chin back at the two lifeless corpses on the other side of the room.
“Heh...she will come and find you, when she's ready to...they were right all along, not to...believe in your...delusions of peace and balance!” he coughed out the words, grasping at his throat in a vain attempt to alleviate the pressure.
“Who are these people?”
“You will soon see...then the Qyaari will all kneel...and Force users will have their...rightful place again.”
“Straight answers only.” Aria's fingers curled slightly and the man cringed in pain. “Or you'll find breathing becomes a lot more difficult. My patience is wearing thin.”
“You don't have the guts!” he sneered. “Not like Soto...and the others.”
Aria exchanged an exasperated glance with her companions, scoffed out loud, and closed her fist. The assassin’s legs kicked once, his eyes rolling back as he went limp and slid down onto the floor.
“jeez, did you have to kill him?” Sho protested.
“I didn't.” Aria corrected the Mandalorian’s assumptions with a shake of her head. “Just knocked him out.” extinguishing her lightsaber, the Champion crouched to gather up the discarded weapons of the three assailants.
“Call Garza and let her know what we found. Get her to send someone down to pick this guy up, maybe they can get more information out of him while we try and trace that call.”
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