A Killer's Whisper Part 3
"The expression on your face shows just how little you actually know." Jona drawled. "Oh yes, she is your blood, and the most interesting part is that neither of you were the wiser."
Wasea remained silent. As volatile as she knew she was, she would not give this woman the satisfaction of a response. Unfortunately, that only made Jona laugh again; her eyes sparking with glee.
"Oh, isn't this delicious..." She continued to draw out her words. "For all of your power and skill, you hang onto my every word."
Rage that had burned white-hot a few short moments ago made a sudden downward turn. All of that heat that had been coursing through her withdrew back to her chest cavity. She had felt this way only once before, and the results had been disasterous.
"The name, Jona." Her voice, while still bearing scars from earlier, receded to a somewhat feral growl.
"Why so calm?" The toying nature would have normally sparked and revived that anger, but not now.
"The name." Wasea repeated.
"They contacted me late one night, detailing the situation, and I didn't give a damn." Jona started off as if she were narrating a story. "It was more or less a late-night drama, and I was a captive audience."
Wasea continued to remain silent. Privately, she thought that the last thing anyone could use to describe Jona, while she was free, was "captive". In fact, if the entire story were to be believed, Jona could have simply ended the communication and not given a damn, as she claimed. No, there was more to this. There had to be.
"I don't believe you." The heat in her chest gave a single pulse that shook her visibly. Wasea stepped back and regained a respectable distance before continuing. "Stop wasting my time. The name, now."
"Wasting your time..." Jona almost looked to be at a loss for words, but her expression changed, as well as her tone. "You act as though yours was the only one wasted, but was it?" It went from disbelieving to accusatory. "You have been out here, decimating my organization, and you think it was your time wasted?"
"I've spent the last few centuries working my way up through your abysmal organization, seeking answers that weren't just going to appear, and chasing ghosts." Wasea countered. "You have sat in a cell, whining, complaining, and making foolish public appearances. May I remind you that it was your insanity that put you here?" Emphasizing the last question, Wasea crossed her arms. "Do not attempt to earn sympathy points with me, Jona. It will not happen."
"Who cares about sympathy?" The accusatory tone reverted to her naturally taunting one. "Sympathy is what led you to me in the first place. I am simply reminding you that you are not the only one with unfinished business." She stepped forward then. "If you want the name so badly, then I will accommodate you."
"Finally."
"My one question is: What will you do once you have it?"
"It really shouldn't matter." Wasea kept her arms crossed but tilted her head to the side slightly. "What I choose to do with it will be out of your control."
"You're right." Jona agreed with a strangely genuine smile. She let her posture drop to one more casual. "I really shouldn't be concerned about such trivial matters. The name you are so desperately searching for is Arlyna. She will be a matriarch by now."
"I know well who she is-"
"But what you don't know is this:" Jona paused for effect. When she had waited a maximum of three seconds, she finished with: "She is the brat's mother."
The heat still left in her chest drastically changed to an icy mass. The anger and frustration that she expected dissipated and left a void where it had once been. Visibly, Wasea looked as though she were about to be physically ill before she regained some control of herself. Blinking and swallowing hard, she pushed back the mass that had formed in her throat only to see Jona admiring her handiwork.
"Her own mother..."
"Oh yes." Jona looked as though she had thrown a winning spread down on a table and had bluffed players in a card game. "She wanted you dead, and she didn't seem to care if her daughter died in the process. Quite the show to watch." She added airily. "A pity it didn't have the desired ending."
"Why-" Wasea fumbled with the words as she worked her way through a barrage of thoughts bombarding her at once. "You were there..." That was the least of her concerns, but it had somehow slipped out. "How could she..." She remembered being there on that walkway, looking out at distant buildings, and discussing a bright future for the young asari standing beside her. She heard the carefree laugh that had both haunted her dreams and waking hours. She could see the young face that had spurred her onward when she questioned her motives...
"Why are you telling me this?"
A deadly calm had taken over, and her voice now reflected it. She was standing there, looking at Jona Sederis, but she wasn't really seeing her. The cold that had gripped her so suddenly acted as a buffer against the emotions that were threatening to spill over.
She had only felt this way one other time.
The result had been catastrophic.
"Information is power," Jona took a few more steps forward; her voice growing quiet. "And you won't have the chance to use it."
The shot that followed was just audible as the extended pistol barrel pressed up against her chest. The impact initially felt like a hard punch, but as the rounds pierced the armor she wore, a warm purple mist sprayed upward and into her face.
She was falling backward; the upper levels of the docking bay were visible past the silver glint of Widow's sun against steel. Her heart pulsed violently as blood that was never meant to leave the body escaped through a burn hole in her armor.
"I did say that you weren't the only one with unfinished business." Jona's voice came and went while the pulsing in Wasea's ears grew louder with each passing second. "I called for the deaths of ALL of Eclipse' enemies upon my release..." She then came into view and pressed her boot lightly against the chest wound she had inflicted; subsequently dropping the pistol near the fallen asari's dominant hand. This made a grunt of pain escape Wasea's lips, but Jona just nodded in satisfaction.
"And I am starting with you."
In attempt to get some form of speech out, Wasea clenched her jaw and tried to swallow down the pain. The medigel dispensors in her armor were working, but they were painfully slow.
"It is a waste of time to hope that medigel will save you." Jona added as she wiped the toe of her boot against something. "It won't matter." She knelt down and activated her omni tool to display an image of a modded round. When Wasea's eyes fell on it, Jona continued. "Amazing what these things can do, isn't it?" She closed the holo display and carefully put a hand under Wasea's head to lift it so that she could make eye contact. "Poisonous rounds. By the time that medigel gets to the wound, the poison will have stopped it from doing what it's supposed to."
Jona let Wasea's head fall again and stood up. As she stepped away, a call came over her omni tool, which she answered promptly.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Issue came up in securing the shuttle. Looks like Aria didn't have as big a pull as she thought." A turian male's voice came over clearly. "Inbound."
"Good. I've got a lot of catching up to do."