Chapter 3: Archaic

[Pandora 77]

Tyrena, Corellia

Deign Argos wouldn't have admitted it, even to himself, but the eventful dinner with Layla and his parnts had him on edge. He sat at his desk, slumped back in his chair and pounding the knuckles of his right hand on his large desk, brooding over what that infuriating woman had said and, more importantly, what she hadn't said. He'd gotten nowhere but backwards in his search for information on Sena. Not only had he gotten nothing out of her but she knew what he was looking for now.

And then there was the case of her screamed accusations from the grass. She really believes it's all my fault. Maybe I am to blame....

He caught himself about to fall into her Zeltron lead and forced the thoughts from his mind, shoving his chair away from the desk and continuing to rap his knuckles along the perimeter until he reached the other side of it and began to pace the length of the room. The most important thing to figure out was how to get the best info out of Layla, and she wasn't going to cooperate out of the goodness of her heart. "Oh just damn it all!" he said aloud to the empty room. Great! Now she had him talking to himself! Again! How had he held on to his sanity when they were lovers?

Ah, yes, she wasn't blaming me for all the clouds in the sky back then.

"Fine, if that's the way she wants to play it..." He came back around to seat himself once again at his desk and opened up another message to Cale:

Mr. Sano, I have changed my mind about our meeting. I want you to draft an extremely detailed report of the strike against the New Republic base, complete with coordinates, hyperspace routes, and descriptions of the surrounding area and star systems. You will personally deliver me this report in no less than twenty-four hours. This is going to the Diktat, Sano. I expect nothing short of perfection.

He sent off the message and reclined back in his chair, hands behind his head and elbows outstretched. A smile crossed his lips that was more than a little sinister. "Oh Layla. You who love so fully will have to make the most impossible choice of your life."

He sat there for several minutes, merely basking in his own pride. When he finally decided that he couldn't stand it anymore he rose and made his way to the brig, stopping at a lounge first for a bag of ice.

When he arrived at Layla's cell, he tapped the bars with his boots, signaling his arrival.

[Rogue 4]

Layla had been laying down on the bed with her eyes closed, thinking to herself. She was somewhere between the waking world and the dreamworld, thinking about Takeshi, Sena, Ayana...and farther back, to when she was an adventurous teenager and Deign had been an adventure. A mystery even. He was always getting into trouble back then, but somehow they always found a way out of it together.

She kept her eyes shut, hoping that whomever had knocked would think her asleep and go away. The truth was, she felt fragile now. Vulnerable despite the strong front she kept putting up. She was trying to get control, but she felt like she was gaining no ground.

[Pandora 77]

Deign knocked again. "Layla. I know you aren't really asleep. You don't breathe that fast when you're asleep."

He nodded to the guard on duty, who unlocked the door. Deign stepped inside and the door locked behind him. He held out the bag of ice. "Here. Your cheek is starting to swell."

[Rogue 4]

With a sigh she sat up. She was stuck in that blue party dress still, her other clothes having been left in Deign's refresher earlier. She looked up to the icepack, and then to him. "Someone must feel guilty."

The words were a test, a means of seeing just what was going through his mind. As she had been laying there she had been filling the cell with her pheromones, and she hoped that they might give her the leverage she needed to get the upper hand in this chat.

[Pandora 77]

"Not really. But as you can see, I'm no Darth Vader." He sniffed the air and nodded. "Love what you've done with the place."

Deign seated himself next to Layla and when she didn't take the icepack, he held it up to her cheek.

[Rogue 4]

Layla, surprisingly, didn't make an effort to move away. "I was never...the universe to you, was I?" She asked after a long moment, looking over to him beneath long lashes. "Not the way that you used to be. That's why it was so easy for you to throw me away like so much trash."

Edited June 16, 2008 by Rogue

[Pandora 77]

Deign paused for a long time before he answered. He couldn't make eye contact with her, instead he stared at the icepack he held to her cheek. "You'd know if I lied, wouldn't you? Yes, Layla. You did mean the universe to me. And you have no idea how much it killed me to make the choice I made. Life is full of trade-offs, you know this. Priorities get confused sometimes."

[Rogue 4]

Her granite eyes, a compilation of grays, and browns, and a slight tinge of blue, bore into his violet pools. "Are you trying to tell me that if you could go back, Deign, you'd change it? That you'd choose me over the Empire?"

[Pandora 77]

Deign shook his head, forcing himself to be aware of the pheremones in the room. "I don't know. That probably would have depended on a few things." He paused, not sure he would be able to continue. Mentally he took a deep breath and plunged into the question. "What happened to the baby?"

[Rogue 4]

She blinked, her mouth opening just slightly in surprise at that question. She hadn't expected him to care enough to remember that she was pregnant, being so caught up in his little world, and his Imperial powertrip. Instead of giving him an answer she replied as slowly and remorsefully as she had been speaking. "What does it matter, Deign? She would have been half Zeltron anyway."

[Pandora 77]

He waved off the half-Zeltron comment and lowered his hand. "Besides that. What do you mean.... would have been?"

[Rogue 4]

She knew that what was about to come out of her mouth next was a blatant lie. She would just have to hope that it would come out believeable, to the person who had taught her everything she knew about stealth and subtlety. "You didn't really think...that with all that smoke inhalation..." She would leave the rest to his imagination.

[Pandora 77]

Deign wasn't sure how he felt about the death of his child. Maybe under different circumstances... no. Won't think of that now. He looked down at the floor, not really sad, certainly not gleeful, but unwilling to meet Layla's gaze just yet. "I suppose not."

[Rogue 4]

Layla looked away as well, playing the part. She wouldn't meet his gaze either. She was glad that he had bought the lie she had sold to him. Now Ayana would be safe on Zeltros. "I had been hoping...for a little girl at the time. With my pink skin, and you bea...you're eyes."

She had gotten what she wanted, but found that it was too hard sometimes for her to look into those big exotic eyes that were the same as her father. "In one night...you took everything from me..."

[Pandora 77]

Deign quickly reminded himself of why she'd drawn his wrath in the first place, and why he couldn't afford a half-breed child. Suddenly he was angry again. He dropped the ice pack into Layla's hand and stood, paced the length of the room, then turned back to face her, his expression even. "No, Layla. I'm not going to let you trick me into this. I'm not going to follow your little Zeltron leads. You know I have my reasons for what I do and they aren't all as bad as you think. Yes, I'm driven by money, but it's not the power I'm after; the two just tend to come together."

[Rogue 4]

"Some things are worth more than the credits Deign." Layla said, keeping her voice even and calm. "Some things are worth the sacrifice you make for them."

She picked the icepack off of her lap and held it to her swollen cheek. "And I wasn't running Leads, Deign. Not intentionally anyway. For a moment there I thought you and I might be getting along."

[Pandora 77]

Deign let that sinister smile from his office creep back to his lips. "Speaking of sacrafices, my dear, you will be making one in a day or so. Start prioritizing the things you value most in your life, Layla."

With that he turned and walked out the door.

[Rogue 4]

She rose, running to the door in her bare feet just as it locked behind him. "What are you talking about? What's that supposed to mean, Deign?!" She yelled, trying to get his attention, her pink fingers holding onto the bars on the door for dear life.

[Pandora 77]

He barely acknowledged her reaction as he reached into a storage bin to the left of the door and pulled out a plain jumpsuit and thrust it through the bars. "Get comfortable. You're going to be here a while."

He turned away again and retired to his quarters.

[Winters 0]

Cale Sano walked into his sparse room. He had some holograms of Nasha and others of friends for his Secondary School Theatre gruop. I miss the old days... I was much happier back then. He checked his mail just before he went to sleep, which gave him the message that he'd kill not to see. "Blast it all to hell!" He kicked the wall then decided to work.

He pulled up his console and started it up. What I do for this man... I do too much and he delivers too little... this is getting too far. The wallpaper of him and Nasha came up and the rest of the icons came up as well. "You owe me big Deign... you owe me big..." and he started to work on what was demanded of him.

[Mara 29]

Kaden let a couple of Szen's shots splash against his forward shields as he checked to make sure the position of the SD hadn't moved. Satisfied, he returned fire at the front of her X-wing, sending the nose of his fighter straight for hers. At the last second he peeled off to port at a 90-degree angle and fired at her starboard S-foils before climbing up and away out of range. He spun around and came straight for her again, this time targeting the back of her ship with his lasers.

[Andy 60]

"Meh," Aston grumbled. "Bored now."

He flicked the button on his datapad to send the hostile Death Star in, and then exited the sim.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen's X-wing shook as the shield took a few hits. Seeing Kaden move, she thought quick and took a hard turn towards the Star Destroyer. She made her way past the nose of the larger ship and kept going to avoid too much fire. Once she felt a safe distance from the Destroyer, she made a quick S loop to watch for Kaden.

[Mara 29]

Kaden set his teeth and followed after the other X-wing full throttle as it took off towards the SD. Luckily, it didn't seem to be firing with all that much accuracy, so he mostly ignored the larger ship as he passed by. He didn't slow his speed at all and quadded his lasers, firing at Szen once he was in range.

Artie broke his silence and screamed when something that was awfully similar to a Death Star popped up on the fringes of the sensors.

"I'm busy now, Artie..."

He pelted her ship a few more times with concentrated fire before blowing past just a meter from touching S-foils. Kaden made a quick loop to come up behind her for another pass.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen saw the new ship appear on the sensors as Kaden fired on her. "Who the frak is messing with the program?" Szen took off towards the destroyer and this time flew near the shield generators. She made another hard turn towards the newly arrived Death Star to see what would come next.