Ask Death and All Her Friends

[Karina Safin]

THEME​

As she marched down the sterile and drowsily lit corridor, Karina checked her body one last time.

Lyra sat on her lower hip, cold against her skin. She’d been with her since Karina was eight years old, when she had nothing to her name except for a sack of clothes and a trash chute for a home. Aleksander was lodged somewhere in her boot, clinging to her ankle like a child. They had met each other in a dingy cantina on Nal Hutta, when a Mandalorian had driven him into Karina’s right shoulder and left him there to rot for two whole days. Then there was Genya, hidden under her sleeve, sharp to the touch. Karina's favorite.

Of course, these were not people. They were the names of some of her many knives, gifted to her through the years.

They were Karina’s closest friends.

Perhaps she was delusional, or it was a habit born out of childhood trauma, but the Syndicate assassin didn’t care. The knives had kept her safe and alive for more than a decade. Without them, she would still be on Nar Shaddaa, molding in some sewage pipe. Instead, they had become her salvation, and right now, as she strode through the laboratories of MorataCorp, they would serve as the key to her freedom.

Karina wore the armor of an Independent Systems specialist, but not her own. That was too risky, and if she was caught on surveillance footage, it would immediately destroy her cover in the Consortium military. She had to play this smart. She only had one shot at this mission, and to succeed, she would need every ounce of her wit, intelligence, and most of all, her skill with a blade. Her contractor, the man who’d taken her brother Dima, had given her a single job:

Steal fifty doses of the AMS vaccine, and kill Dr. Ilana Morata.

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

There were many things for the Doctor to occupy her time with. The announcement from Preef Callo about the vaccine and its' distribution; didn't anyone know that once she produced the formula for it, it was out of her hands? She had no more say to its' distribution than any other medical corporation, especially now. That was out of her hands, and in the hands of the GHO.

It was a late night. She had to get home to Silvi, message Sevrin. Though there was always the risk of someone wanting her dead, and after Preef's announcement there was no shortage of that, she had to continue her life the way she always had. There was solace in the known. There was joy in the everyday.

She leaned back in her chair, rubbing the bridge of her nose between a thumb and forefinger. It promised to be a long night already... still.

She shrugged on her old lab coat, and began to brew a cup of caf in anticipation for the long hours of research ahead. Just a few more things to wrap up.

@Feng Mian

 

[Karina Safin]

Karina took great care to dodge what cameras were posted around the halls, and whenever she passed a guard, she did everything to appear as if she belonged. Due to the Consortium’s close relationship to MorataCorp and the GHO, it made sense for one or two ISC soldiers to be lurking around Ilana’s company—or so Karina believed. She was only following off what intel she’d been provided, and her contacts in the Syndicate had never been known to be a hundred percent accurate.

But Karina's aim with a knife? Now, that was a different story. None of her targets had survived long enough to argue otherwise.

As she neared the Ilana’s private office, Karina flashed the stolen keycard in her breast pocket. She’d managed to lift it from one of the laboratory’s top specialists, and if she was lucky, it would be able to bypass the locks scattered around the facility. But should worse come to worst, then she supposed there was always the option to blow the door off its hinges. It would cost her an easy escape, but Karina always enjoyed a challenge.

Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary. With the swipe of the keycard, the office door unlocked, and Karina slipped effortlessly inside. It didn’t take long to spot Ilana, brewing a mug by the nearest counter. She locked eyes with her, not quite sure what to make of the woman. White hair, amber eyes, and skin paler than the moon.

She was lovely to look at, but a target was a target.

“Dr. Morata,” she said through the rough voice scrambler in her helmet, disguising her as a man. “We’ve received word of a potential intruder in the labs. I’ve been tasked to see you to a safe location.”

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

She glanced towards the voice with a frown. Not only did she not recognize the voice, but there was something off about them. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but their emotions were... off. There was anticipation there, seeping from them like black oil over water. She tilted her head slightly to the stranger, eyeing the uniform once before replying.

"A potential intruder? Funny, I haven't received a notification." Her voice was cool, light, as she reached for the cup, then glanced back at the stranger with curiosity. She glanced once at her datapad, then hummed quietly. "At what level is the breach? Perhaps it can be circumvented," she replied, then regarded them again. "Make sure to evacuate staff if that's the case. I won't have my people harmed if there's someone dangerous."

With that, she began to turn away, as though to reach for her datapad.

@Feng Mian

 

[Karina Safin]

“Hard to say, ma’am.” Karina cursed quietly to herself. She had not studied the complex’s security protocols enough to give Ilana a proper answer, but she hoped staying vague would satisfy. “We’ve reason to believe the intruder has embedded themselves into your personal staff. I have men vetting through them as we speak, but in order not to cause alarm—and potentially force the intruder’s hand—we’re trying to catch them by surprise.”

She was playing a dangerous game of lies, but Karina was a professional. She’d cheated, manipulated, and murdered her way to a successful mission about a hundred times, and she could do it again. But the last thing she needed right now was for Dr. Morata to get her hands on that datapad. The possibility she might alert her real security was a risk the assassin wasn’t willing to take.

So, Karina did the unthinkable.

She reached around and stepped in Ilana’s path, blocking her from the desk and any chance of reaching her datapad. Through the tinted visor of her helmet, Karina coldly stared her down, but her voice was one of genuine panic and concern. “Please, Dr. Morata, we don’t have time. You must be taken to a secure location immediately. The intruder may have already set charges throughout the facility, and there’s no telling when they might activate them.”

The knives hidden on her body were practically screaming to be used. But Karina had to practice patience, to get Ilana to lower her guard and turn her back—that was when she’d make her move. That was when she would cut out her heart.

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

At the body stepping in front of her datapad, she stiffened. Her features froze into a cold mask, but amber eyes blazed within the white features with indignation and scrutiny. Leaning back on her heels, she reached one hand into her pocket, another on her hip.

"...Lead the way, then."

Her voice was frigid, her eyes more so. She took a slow step back, then jerked her head towards the door.

"But... forgive me. I do not recognize your voice. Which of my guard are you, again?"

@Feng Mian

 

[Karina Safin]

“Of course, ma’am.”

Shit. There went her plan of stabbing the doctor in the back, but if Karina was one thing, it was flexible. She had improvised missions innumerable times, and Ilana would not be the first target to try and derail the assassin. In the end, the result was the same: a knife in the heart. She didn’t mind playing along. Even if the doctor knew what was coming, she really didn’t—Karina had plenty of tricks up her sleeve. Literally.

Without question, she moved toward the office door. “I’m surprised you don’t remember me, Dr. Morata. But please, if I may, allow me again to properly introduce myself.”

Instead of reaching for the doorknob, Karina whirled and threw one of her knives directly toward the Arkanian’s center mass, right above her heart. It was not a fatal strike, let alone a clean one, but that wasn’t the point. Ilana was already high on her guard, and whatever move Karina made, she’d likely expect. What the assassin needed was a distraction, a ploy.

Whether or not Ilana dodged the knife, Karina moved at lightning speed toward her position, fueled by a new rush of adrenaline. She lunged, another knife ready and waiting in her other hand, and slashed at the woman's throat. If the blow to her chest didn’t kill her, surely this would. Karina prayed it did. And yet, she had a distinct feeling that wouldn’t be the case. It never was.

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

If it weren't for that spike of anxiety, followed by focus, Amariel could not have survived such an assault.

As it was, experience, combined with caution, made for a powerful reaction. When the assassin reached for their first blade, the Force curled in her limbs, augmenting her speed and strength as she ducked to one side, avoiding the first thrown blade, which embedded itself into the wall. When the assassin moved forward as though to slash at her throat, she lifted up her cybernetic arm in defense, it taking the brunt of the slash with a grunt.

She wasn't focused on sparing her own life on her behalf; for a split moment, she thought about those who would miss her. Sevrin's face, the look he had on Thustra when he confessed to fearing for her. Her daughter's face, with a twinge of anxiety every time her mother left her, not confident enough to promise she'd be home but still trying to be there for her. The grief, the pain that she felt in that moment far exceeded the nick to her throat, and through the Bond, her emotions surged towards the one person she could reach in time, the one who held her heart. A silent cry across the Force, compounded with the emotions of grief and fear for what he would possibly have to suffer.

Sevrin! I love you!(@Sreeya)

Blood trickled where the very edge of the blade had nicked her, but she wouldn't wait to quake in fear. In retaliation, the assassin would feel it wrap around their thoughts, around their unprotected mind in a sudden, searing, almost crippling flash; the same grief, pain, and sense of loss that would wrap around their thoughts and echo, making them feel as though they had lost in the most grievous, crippling way, her other wrist lashing forward to administer the sedative dart. In this close proximity. Her safest bet would be the least-protected inner thigh, and she aimed for there. She had to survive, not for herself, but her loved ones, and she would not make it easy for her attacker.

Swiftly, with a grace and agility borne from years of practice, she began to suddenly backtrack out of melee range, keeping distance between herself and the assassin if the sedative dart wasn't effective, nor the psychic assault, preparing to fight or flee if they persisted.

@Feng Mian

 

[Karina Safin]

Karina’s blade slashed through the air, aimed to cut open Ilana’s throat. It was a killing blow. A fatal, and surely final, strike. Instead of slicing through cartilage, however, her dagger screamed against metal. Surprise ran through Karina’s gut. The cybernetic arm was one thing, but she was shocked by how quickly the doctor had reacted and responded to her attack. Ines was supposed to be the fastest blade in the Five Syndicates. No ordinary civilian could have deflected her knife.

But Dr. Morata was no ordinary doctor, either. Karina realized this too late as her mind was assaulted on all sides, a psychic attack that rang through her skull. She winced. Grief and pain and fear cut through her like a sword. She’d been trained for situations like these. Her employer had drilled her mind almost to the point of breaking in order to prevent her from being controlled or ambushed by Force users. She had a strong will, a shielded mind, and yet somehow, Ilana had gotten through.

Karina had underestimated her. The Arkanian was stronger than she looked. Faster. By the time the assassin could recover from the attack, her bloodstream was already pumping with an unknown sedative. Still, she fought against it. Karina slashed her knife a second time, a third, then a fourth. Vainly she tried to score a hit on Dr. Morata, struggling to stay awake as long as possible. She shouldn’t have been able to, but she had built up a sedative tolerance over her years of service.

She couldn’t lose now. She wouldn’t.

“I’ll kill you,” she hissed. Then, as anyone else might expect, Karina fell into an unconscious, unceremonious heap on the ground.

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

Her eyes narrowed at the figure as they collapsed to the ground. Her neck burned where they had cut her, and she pressed her fingers against the wound, wincing. Using her other hand, she pulled up her comm, clicking off the recording with a sigh. "You had a chance to introduce yourself... and this is what you tell me?" An absent scowl touched her lips, and she pressed something else on her comm, keeping an eye on the crumpled assassin on the floor.

"Bring the Jedi and three guards. Yes. Check for traps and others."

Clicking it off, she stared down at the body, then tapped on something else on her comm. The feed from her office. Her finger hovered over the 'delete' button, but... she stared down at the figure on the floor. Her lips twitched once, in annoyance, as her hands began to tremble, as her heart began to race. No, she would not begin to panic now, she couldn't, she had to stay focused.

Instead, she cut the feed for now and began to copy it over to a protected file, to mull over later.

I'll kill you.

Not the first time she heard those words. But she slipped the comm into a pocket, taking a slow, deep breath in. She had to keep her calm. It wasn't her own death that had filled her with grief; it was the thought that she would perhaps do the very thing Kai did to her. She refused to die without saying what was important, but now that she had... what to happen next?

However, she wouldn't let this assassin get killed this time. Not on her watch.

@Sreeya @Feng Mian